Disney theme parks have a way of creating a magical experience for kids and parents alike, but planning for your family’s trip and figuring out how to best navigate where to stay, what parks to visit, what rides to ride first, where to eat, what to bring, and how to best avoid meltdowns from overstimulated kids can leave parents feeling less of the magic and take away from the joy of the entire experience.
But I don’t want that for you or your kiddos! So today, I’m sharing 5 simple essentials to help your Disney experience feel 100% magical.
1. Use a Disney planner
I cannot stress this enough. Disney planners cost you NOTHING and offer you EVERYTHING in return! They have all the inside scoop on absolutely everything you need to know about doing Disney WELL. But you need to make sure you use someone who really knows Disney and makes your family’s vacation their own personal priority.
Our planner, Stephanie, is FANTASTIC. She made the planning of our trip so easy and was available during our trip to answer questions and make last-minute changes for us. Having someone else to handle the logistics of our stay was such a game changer and allowed us to simply enjoy the time making memories with our kids.
If you know that you’d like to plan a trip to Disney but aren’t sure of the timing, reach out to Stephanie today and let her guide you in the right direction based on the ages of your kids, your budget, and your timeline for travel. The absolute best part is that booking with Stephanie only requires a $200 deposit that can be fully refunded up to 30 days before your travel date, which really takes the pressure off of the initial decision to book your vacation.
And do you want to know the other best part? Anyone who books and mentions Making Home Here will get $100 off their Disney vacation! Package must be a minimum of 3 nights with at least 3 days of park tickets. This offer is valid for travel through Dec 31, 2019 and applies to both Disneyland and Disney World!
Disney also just released their new summer promotions which include 25% off resorts PLUS a free dining deal for travel completed by August 21, 2019, so if you want to plan your trip for this summer, you can save even more!
You can contact Stephanie through her Instagram page, Facebook page, or email her here. She will help you pick a resort that works best for your family and your budget, book dining reservations up to 180 days out, book your fast passes for rides up to 60 days out, plan a personalized itinerary based around your family and kids’ ages, and will give all of her favorite recommendations, including park tips and tricks. Plus she offers assistance during your vacation as well in case you have any last-minute questions or need to make some last-minute changes to your day. Plain and simple, SHE IS THE BEST!
2. Pack food
While there are plenty of options for dining within the park, taking the time to sit down at a restaurant may not be the best use of your time or money. This of course depends on the ages of yours kids and whether a dining experience would create a built-in rest time during the day. For us, traveling with our kiddos ages 4 and under, the stroller was the rest time, and packing food allowed us to be more efficient with our time and saved us money.
Both Disneyland and Disney World allow you to bring food into the parks, so we stopped by a grocery store the day before our first park day and bought what we needed to pack lunches and snacks (and two large water bottles that we refilled at the water fountains throughout the day), and then we ate at one quick-service restaurant (using mobile ordering on the Disney app to make the wait time even faster) for dinner.
3. Bring a portable phone charger
Stephanie clued us in to this tip and it was SO smart and helpful! Because you’ll be using the Disney app to navigate your way around the park, set up additional fast passes, set up mobile orders for food, and manage the photos that are taken for you throughout the day by the Disney cast members, the chances of your phone battery dying are very high.
We purchased this portable phone charger off of Amazon and loved it. It charged our phones so quickly and was really compact. Absolutely worth the $30 cost to not have a phone die on you during the day!
Pack the following items in a backpack:
Leave your purse and make sure to include the following items in a backpack:
- Hand sanitizer and Wet Ones wet wipes
- Sunscreen
- Sunglasses
- A baggy with bandaids and Neosporin
- Any medication you need for the day
- A gallon size ziplock bag with a change of clothes for each child in case you go on water rides or one has an accident. Old clothes go in the baggy for easy, clean storage.
- Extra diapers/pullups and wipes. You may consider putting your newly potty-trained kiddos in pullups for the day to avoid constantly waiting in line for a bathroom (they will be drinking a lot of water and will likely need to go more often). Yes, this may create a set back, but vacations in general create temporary setbacks for all the things, so let it go and remind yourself that your can reset once you’re home.
- Autograph books and sharpies- Our kids are 4, 3, and 1 and ALL of them loved getting autographs from the characters! I bought these little notebooks for $.27 with our Walmart Pickup order and they were perfect. You can certainly spend more and get something nicer, but for our kids’ ages, the fun part was actually getting the signature, not necessarily having a fancy book that they could treasure forever.
5. Set expectations
Your days spent in Disney will be some of the sweetest memories for your family that you will honestly cherish forever. However, it’s so important to remind yourself going in that the days are long and require a lot of walking. I would strongly recommend having a stroller for your kids who are 6 and under. Stephanie can help you with renting a stroller during your stay that will be ready for you at the hotel- so convenient! Strollers are also great for holding whatever food or necessities you bring with you for the day.
Going into the day, prep yourself for what you want your takeaways to be. There will likely be moments where one of your kiddos becomes overtired or hot or hangry 😉 but don’t let those moments take away from the entire day. Be ready to give grace and help your kids pull out of those times as quickly as possible. Matt and I like to talk to the kids before we go in and let them know what’s ahead. We remind them that they are going to experience so many fun things and that we all want to have thankful hearts for what we’re about to experience. If things start to turn south at any point, we remind them about the conversation at the beginning of the day and determine what’s causing the sour moment. It could be that water, food, or a little rest in a stroller is all they need to pull out of their temporary funk. If you don’t have a stroller with you, planning to take the train ride through the park mid-day or eating a longer meal may create some good built-in rest time before tackling the second half of the day.
The last thing I’ll say about expectations is that I think it’s really helpful for you and for your kids to have a plan on the front end about what you’ll do regarding souvenirs and treats. Matt and I usually say that the experience of the day and the memories we make is our take-away and don’t typically buy souvenirs, but on our Disney day, we decided to let the kids all agree on one souvenir that they could all enjoy and would continue to use once we were home.
I’m actually really glad we did this because it required them to work together on what they all wanted, and they ended up choosing really well! Yes, the $25 bubble blower seemed a little steep (hah!), but they have loved using it all week since we’ve been home and it was a great little lesson in working together and thinking about each other and being thankful for getting to choose a toy.
As far as treats, we let the kids know that we’ll end our day with a special treat that they get to choose, so throughout the day, when they’re spotting ALL the things, we say, “That looks like a great option! Keep that in mind for later!” Usually they see 5+ different things they want throughout the day, and then at the end of the day they have the chance to choose what looked best out of everything they saw.
Also, on this note, I try really hard to not be overly controlling about what they choose here. Our kids generally don’t eat a lot of sugar, so I let it go for this moment and let them pick whatever they want: massive lollipop, cotton candy, ice cream cone dipped in chocolate and sprinkles… it’s their choice. And interestingly enough, each time we have done this, our kids have stopped eating before their treats were finished because their tummies were full (i.e. not used to so much sugar in one sitting!). But even if your kids down the whole ice cream cone or bag of cotton candy at one time, they’re going to be just fine and will probably remember that moment as one of their favorite memories from the day. 🙂
So that’s it! Try your absolute best to soak in all the magic while you’re on your vacation and let all the other things go. It really is such a sweet time with your kids that you will treasure forever!
