Exactly one week ago today we checked out of our Disney World resort after a wonderful three days exploring the various parks. I had a lot of apprehensions going into this trip and honestly wasn’t sure if it was going to be very enjoyable for me, but I had the BEST time with my family and can’t wait to go back! 

I’d been to Disney once as a kid and then again as a young adult, but this was the first time visiting since having my own kids and it’s a totally different experience that you really do need to plan for. I learned so much on our trip last week and figured I’d share my thoughts here in case they’re helpful to anyone else planning a trip. I know how overwhelming it can be!

Where We Stayed

We chose to stay at one of Disney’s “moderate” resorts, Port Orleans French Quarter. There are a TON of Disney resort options and this decision alone can make your head spin. I did some initial research and was pretty quickly sold on Port Orleans French Quarter for a few reasons: 

1) It’s very small compared to most of the other resorts, meaning you’ll never be walking far to get to transportation, food, etc. Knowing how much walking we’d be doing in the parks, I wanted everything at the resort to be super convenient. 

2) It has a chill, quaint vibe that isn’t over-the-top Disney. I found the resort to be very charming and relaxed. It sits along the Sassagoula river and feels like a vacation retreat that you can enjoy even if you’re not going to Disney World or are not super into the Disney theme. I really loved the atmosphere. 

3) There’s a free boat to get to Disney Springs. I really liked this option when initially booking the resort and figured that we’d take the boat on our check-in day since we’d be arriving too late to hit up a park, but we didn’t wind up using it. The weather was unusually warm for February, so we decided to stay at the resort and enjoy the fun pools and splash pad (which are very cool by the way!). But this is definitely a nice option to have on non-park days, especially in cooler months.

The only real downside I can think of for Port Orleans French Quarter, or feature that it’s lacking compared to some of the other Disney resorts, is varied transportation to the parks. You can only get to the theme parks by bus – there’s no skyliner, monorail, or other transportation option. However, given its small footprint, there’s only one pickup and dropoff for this resort. You get on the bus and it goes straight to the designated park and same thing on your return trip. For the larger resorts, there are multiple pick ups and drop offs, which I would find annoying. I found the bus transportation at Port Orleans French Quarter to be extremely efficient. 

All in all, I really enjoyed this resort and would stay there again in a heartbeat!

What We Did

We had three park days and did not purchase the park hopper passes, so we could only do one park per day. I figured for our first trip we wouldn’t have time to hit up more than one park a day and I’m glad I made that call because that proved to be true. I should note that my kids are 8 and 6 and I felt like this was really a sweet spot for Disney. There was only one ride that Emmy couldn’t go on due to height restrictions (TRON) and we got to experience everything else together as a family. I’m glad we waited until they were a little older to visit given the expense. They had such a good time and we were able to do so much more than I anticipated! Here’s a rundown of what we did each day:

Sunday: Magic Kingdom

Arrived around 7:30 AM for early entry (more on that below). Left around 6 PM.

Rides/Attractions We Did:

• Peter Pan’s Flight
• “it’s a small world”
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin 
• Swiss Family Treehouse
• Jungle Cruise
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Space Mountain 
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 
• Princess Fairytale Hall (met Cinderella & Belle)
• Haunted Mansion
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
• Tomorrowland speedway (me + Emmy)
• Carousel  (me + Emmy)
• TRON Lightcylce (David + Jackson)
• Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid
• Carousel of Progress
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure a second time 
• Railroad

Kid Favorites: Space Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, TRON (Jackson), Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – basically anything fast! Keep in mind that my kids are total thrill seekers. I was nervous on Space Mountain that Emmy would come off in tears but she loved it and wanted to go on again. I don’t think I was that daring at that age.

Tuesday: Epcot

Arrived around 8:30 AM for early entry. Left around 7:30 PM.

Rides/Attractions We Did:

• Soarin’ Around the World
• Living with the Land
• Mission: SPACE Mars (this is very intense and almost gave me a panic attack! I would not go on it again, although the kids seemed to enjoy it)
• Mission SPACE Earth 
• The Seas With Nemo & Friends
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Spaceship Earth
• Soarin’ Around the World a second time
• Moana Meet & Greet
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Journey Into Imagination With Figment
• Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival

Kid Favorites: Guardians of the Galaxy, Remy’s, Soarin’ 

Note: Guardians of the Galaxy is an amazing ride – possibly the most fun I’ve ever been on! We all absolutely loved it! We actually tried to go on it a second time since I was able to get into the virtual queue but right before we were about to get let in, the ride broke down. It was a major bummer! This ride is very intense, but so, so fun, and somehow not nearly as jerky as some of the other roller coasters. Soarin’ was also a big hit for all of us. 

Wednesday: Animal Kingdom

Arrived around 7:30 AM for early entry. Left around 5 PM (this parked closed at 6 that day).

Rides/Attractions We Did:

• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Avatar Flight of Passage
• It’s Tough to be a Bug!
• DINOSAUR
• Expedition Everest
• Expedition Everest a second time
• Festival of the Lion King 
• Avatar Flight of Passage
• Na’vi River Journey
• Expedition Everest a third time

Kid Favorites: Expedition Everest was by far their #1 (are you seeing a theme with the rollercoasters here?) and Avatar Flight of Passage was also high on the list. For me, it was definitely Avatar Flight of Passage. This is such a cool ride and unlike anything I’ve ever been on. You really feel like you’re flying on the back of a banshee. 

Top Tips for an Enjoyable Disney World Vacation

1) Stay on property

Staying at a Disney resort provides a few benefits that I personally found to be invaluable. For one, transportation to the parks is provided so you don’t have to worry about driving or parking. You’re also afforded early entry, which allows you to enter any of the parks 30 minutes before they open to the general public. A half hour may not sound like a lot of time, but we found it to be so, so helpful to get onto popular rides that we didn’t have lightning lanes booked for yet before the huge crowds hit. At Magic Kingdom, we were able to hit 4 rides with this strategy before our first reserved lightning lane, and get a bunch of pictures before the park filled up. Another huge advantage to staying on property is being able to book lightning lane passes (and dining if that’s important to you) before those staying offsite. Lightning lane and dining reservations definitely book up fast, so being able to reserve them before offsite guests makes a big difference. 

2) Buy Lightning Lane 

Speaking of Lightning Lane passes, I am SO glad I bought them for our trip and would not do Disney World without them. I can’t think of a more miserable experience than spending hours all day long waiting in line for rides, especially if it’s hot. I purchased the Lightning Lane Multipass for all three park days, plus Single Lighting Lane passes for rides that aren’t available via Multipass. I know it’s a tough pill to swallow to pay even more money for these passes on top of already very expensive park tickets, but I think they are worth every single penny. With Lighting Lane passes, we didn’t have to wait more than 5 minutes for any ride where we used them. There were some rides that had short enough wait times that we didn’t really need Lightning Lane, but having the ability to skip the line on rides with longer waits more than made up for it. I can’t fathom waiting in line for 60 minutes or more for any ride, and especially for something like the Jungle Cruise. We did do some rides via the standby line if the lines were reasonable and we didn’t book Lightening Lane passes for them, but I don’t think we waited for more than 30 minutes for anything – and most of the time the wait was shorter. If you can only buy Lightning Lane passes for one park, I’d say prioritize Magic Kingdom. 

3) When in doubt, bring the stroller

At 8 and 6, my kids are way outside the stroller phase, so I hadn’t even thought about using a stroller at Disney until I started reading up on it. Most people with kids of similar ages said the same thing though: bring a stroller! I actually decided to rent one in Orlando since there are companies that serve Disney resort guests, and it worked out great. For a very reasonable fee I was able to rent a high quality double stroller for three days. The company hand delivered it to me at the resort (along with a free cooler bag) and picked it back up three days later. It could not have been easier! I will say that we got our money’s worth and more out of that stroller. The kids sat in it a ton, not to mention how useful it was to store stuff in while going on rides. We would not have lasted a fraction of the time in the parks that we did without a stroller. 

4) Skip (or minimize) reservation dining

This is really a personal preference and depends on what your priorities are, but for us, the reservation dining just wasn’t worth the time or expense. At Disney, pretty much any restaurant that’s not quick service requires a reservation. You have to book it far in advance and it’s hard to know what time your family is going to want to sit down and eat on any given day. I didn’t like the idea of being tied to a specific dining time and chose to prioritize rides and experiences over food. I find the restaurant prices to be excessive, especially given the quality of the food, so this was an easy area for us to skip and save some money. My kids are also incredibly picky eaters, so spending so much on meals I knew they wouldn’t eat didn’t make much sense to me. I do think it could be worth it to book a restaurant if there’s a specific character your kid loves and would get to meet during the meal, but this wasn’t enough of an incentive for us. 

5) Order necessities to your resort

Something I learned preparing for this trip is that you can have groceries and other items from local stores delivered to your Disney resort. How awesome is that? I used Instacart and Amazon Fresh to order bottled water, snacks, and sunscreen without ever leaving the resort and it arrived within hours of checking into our room. We used the items all week long and they saved us time and money. I highly recommend doing this if there are things you couldn’t pack in your luggage that you need on your trip, since pricing in the parks and resorts is sky high. 

6) Consider Disney PhotoPass (aka Memory Maker)

With PhotoPass, you pay a fee to have unlimited park photos taken of you and your family during your stay. At first I thought this sounded like a racquet but I decided to purchase it in the end because I’m a sucker for photos and I’m so happy I did. If I hadn’t had PhotoPass, I’m pretty sure we would have come home with a single family photo from our trip, if that. PhotoPass allows you to have pictures taken by professional Disney staff throughout each of the parks (they’re recognizable by their green shirts) and in front of all of the priority photo areas, like the castle at Magic Kingdom. Any ride photos that are captured are also included in this package. I have some great ones with priceless expressions of my kids. I probably wouldn’t spring for this on every Disney visit, but I think it was well worth it for our first trip.

If you’ve read this far, I’m impressed! I didn’t realize just how much I had to say but I better cap it here. If you’re in the process of planning a family trip to Disney World now or in the future, I hope you find some of this information helpful!