We checked Walt Disney World off our parenting checklist last week and it exceeded all expectations! There are many people out there who are Disney EXPERTS, whom you can hire to plan your trips down to a T without ever lifting a finger and at no additional cost to you. If you are staying at a Disney resort, I highly recommend doing this!

I, however, am not one of them. The perspective I can give is from someone who used military tickets and learned to navigate the app and the parks while staying off-resort.

Military Tickets

We were able to purchase six 4-day park hopper passes on base before my husband retired from the Air Force in the fall of 2024, which saved us a crazy amount of money versus buying the tickets outright. If you are a military family, I highly recommend doing this!

Make sure you claim your tickets and follow the directions given when you receive the tickets. You cannot just show up with what they give you on base. These tickets will need to be confirmed at will-call on your first day at the park and your military member will need to show their ID. You will then receive cards you will use to enter the park each day. You can link these tickets/cards to magic bands if you choose to purchase those. They are not necessary, but I can see how they make the experience much easier!

Also make sure you schedule your days at the park ahead of time. We chose the following order of parks on President’s Day weekend and it worked out really well for us!

Friday – Magic Kingdom

Saturday – Epcot

Sunday – Hollywood Studios

Monday – Animal Kingdom

My Disney Experience App

The first thing you should do when planning your trip is to download the My Disney Experience app. This is where you can download your tickets, link your magic bands, buy/schedule your lightning lane passes, save where you parked your car, schedule your day, view wait times, access to each park’s map at your fingertips and so much more. It was also super helpful in stores that allowed self-checkout. This was very helpful at Magic Kingdom when we were purchasing a last minute item right before the fireworks show. We didn’t have to wait in line, checked out and ran back to our group right as the fireworks were starting! #momwin

Lightning Lane Passes

In my opinion, these ended up being a must with kids! They made our experience in the parks much more enjoyable. Having military tickets, we were able to schedule passes three days before each scheduled park day, which was later than most other ticket holders, so some rides were not available for lighting lane I’m assuming because they were already taken, but we made the most of it and still benefitted greatly!

If you buy a multi-pass you can schedule up to three rides at a time. As soon as you get in line for your first ride, open the app back up and you will be able to book your next pass. This is how we navigated the park. Our goal was not to get on every ride (is that actually possible??). We wanted to wait the least amount of time as possible while getting the girls on as many rides as we could. That meant bouncing around the park a bit, but our lightning lane passes got us past hour-long wait times, allowing us to get straight on the ride with no wait! Then in-between passes, we met characters, snacked, and waited in line for other rides.

Make sure you keep checking on what is available throughout the day because sometimes rides that were not available earlier in the day, popped in as we were booking something later and we were able to snag passes for some pretty highly sought after rides!

Virtual Queue

Each park has one or two rides that are virtual queue only, which you do through the app. The two times you need to know for this feature are 7am and 1pm. You will want to be in the app a few minutes before those times and as soon as the clock strikes, click on the queue. We were successful at the 1pm queue to get on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride (what used to be Splash Mountain) at Magic Kingdom, but were unsuccessful for my husband to get on the Guardian’s of the Galaxy ride at Epcot. If you get in the queue, it will give you a line number and you have to wait until that number is ready to “board”. Then you will have an hour from the time your number is ready to get in line for the ride.

The pictures they take on the rides are available in the app in the photo gallery at no charge. Any pictures they take during character meet & greets go in the photo pass that you will need to buy a package in order to receive.

Dining

We made a decision when we first planned this trip that we were not going to spend money on dining reservations at the parks. We wanted to do one character meal and one dinner at Rainforest Cafe. The rest of our meals came from food we brought into the park, “cooked” at our Airbnb and snacks we bought at stands or cafes throughout the day. We brought a smaller soft cooler and two ice packs and we packed that up each morning and fed out of there most of the day! This helped keep us moving through the park and the girls from getting hangry. IYKYK.

POPCORN BUCKET! This is the best advice I was given. Buy a popcorn bucket on day one at one of the popcorn stands and use that bucket the rest of your time, any day or park to get refills. They were all around $2 to refill and gave us all the perfect snack while exploring the park!

There are water bottle refilling stations throughout the parks that we used. We also brought our own sealed bottled water to keep refilling our water bottles throughout the day. It saved us money and really helped keep us moving throughout the park!

The character meal we chose to book was ‘Ohana at the Polynesian Village Resort. Our girls live off of waffles and they are obsessed with Stitch so this was an easy decision! All food is brought to the table, including any coffee, juice or water you would like. The meal included eggs, sausage, ham, potatoes, Mickey & Stitch waffles, pineapple/coconut bread (YUM!), fresh fruit, and biscuits. It was delicious. This was right next door to Magic Kingdom and very close to Epcot so I would recommend pairing it with one of those parks if you go for it!

When we did need a meal from staying late at a park or the Uncrustables weren’t enough for us adults, we could use the app once again to do a mobile order ahead of time from a variety of cafe’s and go pick it up! The app is your best friend!

Our Favorite Rides

We overall had the best experience and enjoyed so many rides, but these were our top picks!

Magic Kingdom

• Tomorrowland Speedway – minimal wait times and so fun for kids to drive a car
• Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – my mom and my husband got picked to be characters
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – we couldn’t get lightning lane passes for this one, but stood in the 75 minute wait, which ended up being closer to 60 and SO worth it!
• Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure – Virtual Queue only!
• Pirates of the Carribbean
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – while waiting for this ride or right after, cool down with some Dole Whip at Aloha Isle right beside it!
• Happily Ever After Fireworks – I cried watching these with my girls. It felt like a dream come true to be taking them on this trip, knowing they’ll never be this old again.

We did several others but these are the ones my kids would absolutely love to do again and again!

Epcot

• Turtle Talk with Crush – (so cute) and the Aquarium
• Soarin’ Around the World – this was one of my kids top rides from the entire trip – please don’t miss this!
• Journey Into Imagination With Figment
• Mickey & Friends – meeting Mickey, Goofy & Minnie was a highlight!
• Encanto Show was playing right next door to Mickey & Friends and they loved it!
• Meet Anna & Elsa at Royal Sommerhus – this went much faster than the wait time said.
• Frozen Ever After – this was one of MY favorites all weekend! Lightning lane is a must – the wait is forever!

We did not get to do the Remy ride as we could not get a lightning lane pass and the line was too long to reasonably wait with our aged kids, but I’ve heard it’s great if you can get on it or wait that long!

Hollywood Studios

I’m going to be honest, this was our least favorite park and if we ever go back, I would skip this one. It was crowded in every corner because it is small, the wait times were outrageous and any of the rides our kids wanted to do we couldn’t get lightning lane passes for. We made the most of the day and got to do a few fun things, but we called this day early.

• Alien Swirling Saucers
• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
• Disney Jr. Play & Dance – cute and there were lots of opportunities for character pictures beforehand
• Beauty & the Beast – Live on Stage: We had this scheduled and it got canceled all day, but I’ve heard it’s great so keep on your list!
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – WE LOVED THIS ONE!!!
• Meeting Olaf at Vacation Fun

We would have loved to do the Slinky Dog Dash & Toy Story Mania but weren’t willing to wait 2.5 hours.

One attraction I would not recommend that we thought we’d love was the For the First Time In Forever Sing Along. Personally, we thought it was SO bad. The narrators were over the top/annoying and the whole show was listening to them narrate the first Frozen movie until the last minute where Anna and Elsa came out to sing. There is a surprise at the end that saved it, so I won’t spoil it if you choose to go, but I wish I could get that 30-45 minutes of my life back. #sorrynotsorry

Animal Kingdom

I’m surprised how high this park ranked for all of us! We loved this day, the rides, and the animals.

• Kilimanjaro Safaris – snagging a lightning lane for this safari ride is KEY!! This always had a long wait and we were able to get right on with our passes. So many animals to see and a great break from all the walking!
• Expedition Everest – my husband took my 8 year old on this one and it was her first bigger rollercoaster. She LOVED it!
• Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond! – Highly recommend all shows at this park! They were all phenomenal!
• Festival of the Lion King – SIMPLY AMAZING!
• Na’vi River Journey – This was a ride that I could not get earlier in the day and as we made more bookings, it popped up and I snagged it as our last ride of the day! The Na’vi Shaman is considered one of the most advanced animatronics ever created by Disney and it was very cool to see up close! Highly recommend!!

This was our fourth and final day. We could have done more trails and one or two more attractions, but called it a day to do one final swim and finish packing. I would love to go back to this park and explore more and redo all the shows!

Disney Shopping Guide

Below are my favorite purchases with links to things that I used every day and were a lifesaver for this very busy trip!

• Inflatable Booster Seat – I have one for each of the girls and they are perfect for traveling. They roll up flat and only take a few breaths to inflate when you arrive at destination. I love these.
• Minnie Backpacks – Lots of color options and much more affordable than the Loungefly brand, which are also adorable.
• Scrunchies – My girls wore these several days and they were more comfortable than wearing headbands every day!
• Wet Bag
• Minnie Crocs – These were perfect for the days you were getting wet!
• International Plug – I bring this every time we travel, even within the US because of all the USB/USB-C ports it has!
• LMNT – I didn’t use this on Day 1 and seriously paid for it. I felt much better the days I used one of these in my water. I don’t travel without them!
• Autograph Books – My girls LOVE the characters and we were able to get many autographs! These were perfect!
• Collagen – Threw one of these in my coffee every morning for a little extra protein to power me through the day! I have this every morning so I love that they have packets I can travel with!

How to Begin?

Disney can be overwhelming with all of the options, where to stay and how to keep it financially affordable, however, if you learn the app and have a flexible mindset it can actually be a total dream! Whether you use a travel agent, a Disney expert or you DIY this trip, just start the process! We chose to wait until our girls were able to handle longer days and would remember the experience and it was the perfect time for us.

What park is your favorite? What ride is a MUST for any future goers?

And don’t forget, when all else fails, listen to Peter Pan and “think happy thoughts!”

Thanks for stopping in! Let’s stay connected and see the world together!