Our Top 20 Disney World Tips For Rookies

5. Purchase Memory Maker

For an additional price, adding Memory Maker to your vacation is the best way to capture the memories you and your family will want to remember for a lifetime. Memory Maker allows you to access unlimited photos from rides, such as Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean, and allows you full access to downloadable content. Whether you’re getting pictures with every character, screaming on Splash Mountain, or getting the perfect shot in front of Cinderella’s Castle, purchasing Memory Maker is the best priced solution to having so many additional prints of your favorite memories.

6. Stay in A Walt Disney World Resort Hotel

Not only will you have complimentary transportation to all of Walt Disney World parks, but you’ll also get the added benefit of experiencing Disney’s Extra Magic Hours. These extra hours occur at a different park each night and offer an early morning or late night experience exclusive to those staying on Disney property. This allows you to experience the park before or after it closes, getting to spend extra time on your favorite rides with shortened wait times. It’s just one of the many perks staying in a Walt Disney World resort has to offer.

7. Make Dinner Reservations Ahead of Time

If you purchased both your park and hotel tickets ahead of time, you can also make dinner reservations up to 180 days in advance through the My Disney Experience app and website. While it may seem difficult to figure out where to eat so many months before your trip, booking a meal at one of the popular dining experiences like Be Our Guest Restaurant in Magic Kingdom or The Hollywood Brown Derby in Hollywood Studios is recommended. I have my honeymoon in Walt Disney World in a few short months and booked my dining reservations at Victoria and Albert’s at the Grand Floridian and Olivia’s Cafe and Breakfast at Old Key West resort because they make, hands down, the best biscuits and gravy you’ll ever eat. I love knowing that I’ll have a guaranteed seat for a new dining experience.

8. Get FastPass for Exclusive Rides

In the past, I’ve gotten a FastPass for Pirates of the Caribbean, which is one of my favorite classic rides in Magic Kingdom. While there are times the wait time for this swashbuckling adventure is long, on average I’ve found the wait time to be no more than 40-minutes. My recommendation would be to make sure you’re getting a FastPass for the extremely popular rides in each park that are going to have more than a 2 hour wait at any given time. These exclusive rides are Avatar Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom, Slinky Dog Dash at the newly opened Toy Story Land in Hollywood Studios, and surprisingly, Peter Pan’s Flight in the Magic Kingdom.