Today’s 11 Things post comes from my friend Mary, who lives near Chicago and loves taking her family to Disney.  She’s done her research, and has been there enough times to collect some terrific tips, which she’s been kind enough to share here.  One thing’s for sure–if our family ever takes a Disney vacation, Mary’s the one I’m going to enlist in helping plan it.

Walt Disney World is my favorite vacation spot for our family of six. It is definitely the happiest place on earth, we have had so many amazing memories there. Here is my list of the top 11 Disney World Tips but I could easily make a list of 100 !

1. Best time of year to go- FALL ! Specifically the month of September. Don’t let the hurricanes scare you and taking the kids out of school for a vacation during the start of the school year is worth it for the family memories! The crowd levels are the lowest in September, so along with that comes the cheapest hotel rates as well as short wait times for the rides and shows.
2. Best character meal- O’hana’s Character Breakfast at the Polynesian Resort ! This is the one meal I recommend to everyone I know- and everyone always come back raving about it. The food is to die for- huge hawaiian breakfast sausages, the most amazing juice I have ever tasted and the tastiest sweet bread ever! It is served family style with eggs, mickey waffles, potato casserole and it’s all you care to eat. The Polynesian resort itself is just gorgeous and the view of the Magic Kingdom while you are eating, makes it extra special. Add to that the fun and non-rushed character interaction of Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch and it makes for the perfect character meal. Extra tip- make your seating nice and early and you can hop on the monorail from the hotel and be at the Magic Kingdom within minutes!
3. Best Experience for your Princess-in-Training- Bibbidi Boppidi Boutique ! I was so thankful when my daughter was born just so we could do this! They have two locations, Cinderella’s Castle and Downtown Disney. As magical as Cinderella’s Castle is, I prefer the downtown disney location because it’s less crowded. They offer three different makeover packages that start at $60 for hair/makeup and go up to $200 for hair/makeup/deluxe costume and photo shoot! We saved some money by doing the smaller package and bringing our Belle costume that we bought at the Disney Store at home. This is well worth the money, as the girls get a special sash to wear and everywhere we went, every castmember (what they call the disney workers) went out of their way to say “Hello Princess”, my daughter was absolutely beaming and it still brings tears to my eyes remembering it.
   
4. Best Overlooked Attraction- Kim Possible Missions at Epcot ! Luckily I had read about this because my kids had a blast with this mission! You go to special location at Epcot near the countries- they give you a Kimmunicator (a cell phone) and send you on a mission to save the world. This involved going to one of the countries and finding different interactive displays- once you followed the clues and clicked a picture with your “communicator” different things would happen. I don’t want to spoil it by giving away too much, so you will have to see for yourself! So much fun for the kids and adults. There are 7 different missions and each mission will take about a half hour to complete. We only did one, but if we had more time we would have done more, a definite must do for the elmentary/middle school set!
5. Best Themed Restaurant – Sci-Fi Dine-In at the Disney Hollywood Studios. Imagine transporting yourself into a time machine and having dinner at a 1950′s drive in. This restaurant is full of “cars” that you sit in to eat under the stars, with a huge movie screen that shows old clips of sci fi movies from the 50′s and 60′s. Super fun and a great place to cool off and a have a cherry coke or a delicious vanilla shake !
6. Best Way to Cool Off with Family (i.e. get soaked!)- Kali River Rapids at the Animal Kingdom. You will get soaked, I repeat, you will get soaked but you will have a blast doing it. My whole family was cracking up during this entire ride and really isn’t that what a family vacation is all about?
7. Best Character Interaction- Tinkerbell and the Fairies at the Magic Kingdom. This is the only place in all of Disney World that you can get some one on one time with Tink herself and the line is as long as can be, but so worth it. They only let about 4 families in a special room at a time to see the fairies and within minutes they knew all my children’s names and were chatting with them like old friends.
8. Best Use of 4D Technology- Toy Story Mania at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This ride incorporates all of your favorites from the Toy Story series, 4D technology and video games- let’s just say my boys were in heaven here. Warning- people ride this over and over again to get better scores, so hit this ride early in the day and get a fastpass too while you are at it!
   
9. Best Waterpark Attraction- The Tidal Wave Pool at Typhoon Lagoon! Besides the sausages at O’hana’s, this is the other main reason I keep getting my husband to agree to more Disney vacations. He absolutely loves this attraction. Keep little one’s closeby though, the wave that comes through every ten minutes or so is really strong. If you are like me and think, I am not going all the way to Florida just to go to another waterpark, think again- no one does waterparks like Disney!
10. Best Money-Saving Tip- Bring snacks and water bottles into the parks with you. Disney security will search every bag that you bring into the park but will not take away your snacks and drinks. The food prices at disney are outrageous and just throwing some granola bars and fruit snacks in your backpack will save you a ton of money!
11. Best Overall Tip- Take a Mid-afternoon Break. When I was taking my oldest son to disney this was one of the first tips I ever received and it is right on the money. Go to the parks when they open, ride the rides while crowds are low in the morning hours at lunch time go back to your room and relax for a few hours. This could be naptime if you have little kids, some much needed pooltime to cool off or just some tv time in an airconditioned room. You will all feel refreshed and be ready to head back to the parks for some more touring time in the late afternoon. Best tip I have ever gotten!

One last extra tip- Best Freebie- Customized Maps and Planning Videos from disney.com. You can go to disney.com and have your kids pick out all their must do attractions and disney will send you a hardcopy of these maps for free. Nice for those of us who like to plan ahead and my kids all loved looking at them as we were counting down the days til our trips!

Thanks, Mary, for giving us these Disney tips.

The “11 Things” series is designed to give tips for traveling families to destinations well-known or off the beaten path.  Learn how to share 11 Things about your favorite destination, or read other 11 Things posts.

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