Miscellaneous Walt Disney World Tips & Tricks Part 1-General Tips

This is the first part of a multiple part series of tips and tricks for your Walt Disney World Resort visit.

-All Walt Disney World Resorts now offer free Wi-Fi access and at least a beverage cooler (kind of like a mini-fridge but with no freezer compartment and not quite as cold).

-Want to stay connected but don’t want to lug your laptop on your WDW vacation?  Bring your iPad or other tablet instead.  Since all WDW Resorts now have free Wi-Fi, you can stay connected without all the extra stuff to bring.  Plus, your tablet will fit in the free in-room wall safe with room to spare for other valuables you may have brought.

-Are you flying in to WDW?  Getting from the airport to your WDW Resort and back again is a snap when you use Disney’s Magical Express service.  They’ll even take care of getting your luggage to your room for you (even if your room isn’t ready when you arrive).  The best part?  The service is complimentary so there’s no extra strain on your vacation budget!

-Don’t feel like lugging all those souvenirs you’ve purchased around the parks or while you check out Downtown Disney?  Just have them all sent back to your resort and you can pick them up at your resort’s gift shop or front desk.  Not staying on property?  No problem- park purchases can be sent to a package pickup point at the front of the park, then on your way out for the day you can just pick them up.  The cost for this service?  Nothing-another helpful freebie Disney provides.  Don’t think you’ll have space to take everything on your trip home?  No problem-you can arrange to have your packages shipped home instead, however there will be a fee for the shipping.

-Not interested in parades or fireworks?  Use that time to get in a lot of ride time.  With so many people watching the parades (especially the Main Street Electrical Parade) and fireworks shows, the lines for the rides during those times are much shorter.

-Have you ever parked your car at one of the WDW theme parks, then at the end of the night forgot the lot name and row number?  After you park, take a picture of the lot name/row number with your phone or digital camera (if your camera has a picture viewing screen) and you can just check it at the end of the day.

-WDW Resort Guests have the perk of Extra Magic Hours where they can either get into one of the parks earlier than guests staying off-property or staying at one of the parks later.  Once you find out which parks have those Extra Magic Hours, plan your days around that.  If you stay off-property you’ll want to avoid the Extra Magic Hours park(s) since they are normally the busiest park(s) of the day.  If you are staying on-property, you may want to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours until an hour or so after the park opens, then hop over to a different park (if your tickets are park hoppers) for the rest of the day.  For evening Extra Magic Hours, take advantage of one of the other parks during the day, then you can hop over to enjoy the extra hours after the off-site guests have left.  I’ve found that taking advantage of the morning Extra Magic Hours is usually more productive than the evening ones.

-Want to relax for more than just one trip around Tomorrowland on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (the Peoplemover)?  If there is not a huge line of guests waiting to board when you get back to the station, ask the cast member at the exit station if you can remain on... but DO NOT get out of the car until you ask. Once you exit the car, you’ll have to exit the attraction and then go thru the entrance again to get back on.  Usually if it’s not too busy, when you ask they’ll shut the door of your car and you can go back around again.

Stay tuned for the next installment...

WDW Extra Magic Hours-is it really worth it?

One of the perks that Disney heavily advertises about staying at an on-property hotel is Extra Magic Hours (EMH) in the parks.  Basically, if you stay at a Disney-owned hotel, Shades of Green, the Swan or Dolphin, or even the Downtown Disney Hilton you’ll have either one hour in the morning or three hours at night where one of the parks is open extra just for those resort guests each day.  Which parks open early or stay open late will vary.  All four parks take turns with a morning Extra Magic Hour; all but Animal Kingdom take turns with the evening Extra Magic Hours.  

In order to enter a park that has the morning EMH, you must show your resort ID card (your Key to the World card-your room key) to get in.  For evening EMH, once the park officially closes to off-property guests you will have to show your resort ID card to ride any rides or shop in the stores.  Theoretically if you are staying off property you could stay in the park during evening EMH but you would just be able to wander around and buy food...though if a parade or fireworks show was going on you could see those as well.

From my personal experience, I will tell you that the morning EMH is probably the best time to be in the parks.  Since you have to show your resort ID to even get through the gates, that automatically cuts down on the number of people able to get in.  Also, I’ve noticed that in general, crowds tend to start really showing up from 10am on so that by lunchtime everything is in full swing...so even if lots of guests are eligible to attend morning EMH, a lot of them don’t seem to take advantage of it.  BUT, I’ve also noticed that whatever park has EMH, whether it is in the morning or evening (and regardless of which park it is), will normally be the busiest park that day...so when we are at WDW, we’ll usually head to the park that has morning EMH, then park hop to a less crowded park for the rest of the day.  You can get a lot done during that first hour when it’s just 

resort guests, especially if you also take advantage of the FastPass system which will already be up and running for morning EMH.

Evening EMH...well that’s a whole other animal.  They are three hours long...and I guess it’s a lot easier for people to stay up later than to get up earlier so evening EMH tends to be a lot more attractive to Disney resort guests.  I’ve found that whatever park has evening EMH winds up being super busy all day long, especially after about 11am.  This is probably also due to those resort guests who do not get the park hoppers so if they are taking advantage of the evening EMH, they’ll be at that park the entire day since they can’t hop to another park without using up another day on their ticket.  And so more and more guests fill the EMH park throughout the day in anticipation of getting those extra hours at the end of the night without the off-property guests taking up space in the ride lines.  I’ve found that evening EMH are not really worth it unless you can stay until the very end-especially if those EMH go into the wee hours of the morning (like during peak times of the year when the Magic Kingdom’s regular closing time is 11pm or midnight so EMH means it is open until 2 or 3am).  Guests with young children or toddlers tend to leave without taking full advantage of those evening EMH since said kiddies just can’t seem to stay awake that long...so during the last hour or so of evening EMH the parks are much easier to navigate and lines are a lot shorter-again even more so when those EMH keep the park open past midnight.

So my opinion?  If you are staying on property at a resort that has the EMH benefit, definitely use the morning EMH.  Yes, you may be getting up at the crack of dawn (or even before *gasp*), but you can really experience a lot of rides during those early morning times, then either hop over to another park that is not as busy for the rest of the day or if you don’t have a hopper pass or annual pass, you can return to your hotel during the busier (and hotter) part of the day to relax, enjoy the pool or take advantage of the many other activities Disney has available outside of the theme parks.  Evening EMH...I normally avoid these unless I know I can stay up until the very end.  The older I get, the harder that gets.  I’d rather spend my time at a non-evening EMH park, ride the attractions with shorter lines and have a less stressful day.

Do you take advantage of Extra Magic Hours?  Do you think they are worth it?