Part three of the three part series - Part one and two can be found here and here. I have heard so many people say how overwhelmed they have gotten by Disneyland or Disney World. Before you even get to a park you have to make a whole ton of decisions; what dates are you going to go, Disney hotel or non Disney hotel, how many days do you want to be in the parks, which parks do you want to go to, do you want a dining plan, which rides do you want to go on, do you want a park hopper ticket, when can I make my dining reservations, when can I make my fast pass reservations, what is the dining plan, what is fast pass, why do we need to make all these reservations so far in advance? And just when you think you understand it all, Disney decides to add something or change something on you. Then you wonder, is this all worth it? I think it is! And I think it can be easily navigated and understood with a few tips and tricks!
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Saving Energy at a Disney Park
A vacation at a Disney park can be an exhausting experience if you aren't careful! You can easily walk three or more miles a day while pushing strollers, carrying bags, and dealing with overstimulated children and adults. Some people need a vacation after taking a Disney vacation. By following these tips you can save enough energy to allow your trip to be enjoyable and keep everyone in your group from getting too overstimulated.
- Take a break - Don't try to be a park commando, this is a vacation after all! Get to the parks early in the morning for park opening and then right after lunch leave and go back to the hotel for a break. Take some naps, swim in the hotel pool and do what ever you need to do to relax. This is also usually the hottest part of the day and the busiest part of the day at the parks, so it helps the overstimulation factor to be at the hotel at this time of the day. Then head back into the parks for dinner and some rides and fun after dinner. The people that stay all day at the parks will usually have dinner and then leave, so those last few hours of the park being open tends to be less busy. I also recommend if you are going to be at Disney for a week or more to have an off day. A day that you aren't going into the parks, but instead spend the day relaxing by the pool, shopping at Downtown Disney, checking out some other Disney hotels, or venturing out of the Disney bubble and checking out the beaches around Florida and California.
- Have a plan - I know I talked about this in part two of saving time but this is also important for saving energy. You can't do it all, you really can't. You need to sit down with the people in your family/party before your trip and decide what is most important to everyone. Does your five year old want to see a certain character? What rides are a must do for your eleven year old? What does Mom and Dad want to do? You may need to make a list and then depending on the size of the list you might need to cut it down to the absolute most important, but trying to do it all will just leave you exhausted and frustrated. Give yourself a break! I promise you, you will have a great time only doing 50% of what the parks offer and the kids won't even miss the other parts. For example, my kids have been to Disney three times now and have never seen a parade or a full fireworks show. I don't like standing around with hundreds of my closest friends watching a parade walk by and by the time the firework shows happened we were just so tired I don't want to push it. My kids never cared and still don't care. They still have no desire to see a parade.
- Be ok with splitting up - Like we talked about above, everyone has something that they want to do and sometimes it is easier if the group splits up to get those things done. This is especially true if you have a large group of friends or extended family. In fact with a large group the easiest thing to do is just agree to meet for certain meals and activities and other than those things everyone is on their own. It is still a vacation where the family can bond during those activities but everyone also gets time to do the things they want to do. That way you aren't dragging the eleven year old to the Disney Jr. Show kicking and screaming. Instead Mom can take the five year old to the Disney Jr. Show while Dad takes the eleven year old on the Hollywood Tower of Terror ride. Disney truly has something everyone can enjoy, but sometimes you have to be OK with splitting up the group for everyone to be happy. I think everyone being happy on a vacation is a good thing!
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I hope that this three part series was informative and made Disney a little less confusing to you! As you can see some of these tips are contradictory. Every family vacations differently, has different priorities on vacation, and expects different things on vacation. Luckily Disney has lots of options for families to vacation the way that works best for their family. If you don't want to take on this planning yourself or have more questions a travel agent is a great resource; one that specializes in Disney travel would be best if you are planning a Disney vacation. Look for more Disney planning articles as we prepare for our trip to Disneyland in a few months!
