I haven’t been to Disney hundreds of times (yet. Give me a couple years), but I’ve been my fair share.

I’ve done it with crazy intensity, and in a casual jaunt.

I’ve done Disneyland (finally), and Disney World.

I’ve picked up a few tips along the way.  And while there re blogs across the web, I wanted to hand out my own Disney advice I’ve learned along the way, and tips I’ll be learning as I begin to go more frequently.

My first tip is – Don’t Overschedule.

There is a LOT to do at Disney. So much, you could go every day of the year and not get it all done.

Once more for the people in the back…

You cannot get everything done at Disney in one trip.

Seriously.

My BEST trips have been when we didn’t have a ton of stuff planned. We had vague ideas of what we wanted to see, key points we wanted to hit…but there wasn’t “THE LIST” or reservations or anything like that.

Do your research, sure.

Make A reservation (maybe 2) of places you really want to eat.  Don’t scatter your trip with reservations every day that you have to make it to by a certain time because there are so many variables like wait times and travel time and crowd levels and potty breaks. Though there’s flexibility in your arrival times…it’s still undue pressure you don’t need.

There are so many places at Disney that are counter service and don’t require a reservation and many of them are GOOD (and many also now offer mobile pickup, which we’ll cover another time because YAY).  They’re scattered along your route in the park and easy to drop in, grab and get back on the route.

This is MOST key, I think, if this is your first ever trip – ESPECIALLY on your first ever trip with your kids.

Be flexible. Be open.  On your research, take note of the restaurants in the areas you plan to be in so you don’t get a bad one (we did our first trip. We still joke about the awfulness…yes, it does happen).

OR…don’t plan.

AT.ALL.

Our first trip with the kids I had vague notes of things I really wanted us to hit, but otherwise it was a free-for-all.  The good (and bad) parts of the trip are still ALL good memories. We joke about the bad food, we joke about the painful seats on Molly’s first roller coaster (in an area we had NO designs on going in originally).  Nothing we did on that trip was planned.  It was amazeballs (and not just because of the Genie pass).

Year 2 was still great…but much more stressful because we had PLANS.  We spent 7 months researching and planning and making meal reservations (only 1 of which was worth it…and it wasn’t a character dining…and they were all $$$)…and I was so stressed about “having” to be here or there that I didn’t have as much…FUN.

I experienced the same thing when we went last year with actual passes. The first time we went, hubby and I were able to just take things casual. We spent a lot of time at our resort pool. When the power went out, we headed to the boardwalk for ice cream.  Our days in the park were cool and casual, very little ‘planned’ along the way.  Unfortunately, later that same year when I took the girls my son decided he had to schedule us fast passes for everything under the sun which led to a lot of flurry of activity that was stressful, especially in the high crowds of Christmas week.

I don’t make this tip lightly, I promise.  I come from a long line of planners. My dad loves to plan out vacations to the minute.  I was super excited for that second Disney year because Denver and I had planned so much…but the planning robs the spontaneity and fun out of Disney.

Definitely, do your research. Think hard about how long you’re going and the crowd predictions and think about your “must-do’s”. Make some general plans…what park(s) what day…what key things to hit. Make a reservation or two (I’ve got some suggestions in later posts)…sketch out days lightly, don’t set them in stone with Sharpie’s…

Because at Disney – the fun is in the spontaneous and unpredictable.

Let yourself get pulled off course – that is where the fun is.