Planning a trip to Walt Disney World if you’ve never been before or it’s been many years since your last visit, can feel daunting and overwhelming. I shared recently on my Instagram story that my husband and I are taking a short trip to check out the newest updates at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios because we were able to do so on a low budget… which had most of you flooding my DMs with “HOW???!!!”

I promised that I would share some of my personal Disney World tips for planning your trip and enjoying the parks! HOWEVER… if you’ve never been to Disney World before or it’s been ages since your last trip, this is not the blog post for you. Please, please, please do yourself a favor and head over to WDW Prep School and read the All The Basics blog post and then go from there. Read as much as you possibly can on Shannon’s wonderfully helpful website and absorb everything that you can.

Once you’re filled with all of the magical Disney knowledge and understanding, come back here for some of my favorite personal budget planning and fun park tips!

Doing Disney On A Budget

You can get a great deal if you’re willing to travel mid-week. From flights to resorts to park tickets, everything is surge priced and more expensive on weekends. We like to travel on weekdays when we can in order to save a lot of money. For example, this time, Kyle and I are visiting Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because our flights were $102 TOTAL round trip with Frontier (yes, for both of us), All Star Music was only $78/night and park tickets were $20 less than on the following Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It’s Disney World… you’re not going to spend an abundance of time in your hotel room and even if you do, the value resorts are lovely because again… it’s Disney World. Everything is lovely.
Always stay on-site at Disney resorts. If you search, “how to save money at Disney World” a lot of blogs will tell you to stay off site. However, you can find very reasonable hotel deals at on-property resorts! While some off-site resorts may occasionally come up cheaper, again… time = money. When you’re staying on-site you have access to the free airport shuttle to and from Orlando International, Disney’s Magical Express. You also are able to book dining and Fastpass+ reservations earlier, have free daily transportation to anywhere on property via bus, monorail, Skyliner or boat and you have dozens of other perks. The free transportation alone will save you so much vs. renting a car and paying for parking. If you have kids, lugging them to and from the car in the massive parking lots only to then have to drive back to your hotel at the end of the day just sounds miserable.
A lot of east coast and gulf coast airports fly into Orlando several times each day. If you don’t have children or you’re able to hit the ground running, choose an early morning flight to be in Florida before lunch and have a half day at the pool or Disney Springs. Basically, use your time very wisely! Time = Money.
Check this refurbishments list before you book! If there’s something you absolutely must see or ride, you’ll want to know if it’s open.
Look for promotions involving the Disney Dining Plan. Sometimes Disney runs promotions which allows guests of on-site Disney resorts to get the dining plan for free. Otherwise, we always skip the dining plan. Do your research and see if it fits your lifestyle and eating habits.
Be smart with your dining choices! We often only have one table service meal per visit as a treat (I love O’hana and Boma for those) and do a mix of quick service and snacks for everything else. Even the quick service meal portions are very large so it’s not abnormal for us to share one of those and then share snacks throughout the day. I mean, I’d much rather share 10 Mickey Shaped snacks than have only 1 to myself.
Staying on the food theme here… food at Disney is insanely expensive. You are able to bring in snacks (try packing some protein bars or easy kid snacks) and water is free at any quick service food location!
You can view most menus online in the My Disney Experience app before you get in line somewhere and you can also mobile order quick service food to save time. Both of these are helpful if you have littles or food allergies.
Skip the park hopper ticket option. Dedicate yourself to doing one park each day and save the $60+ per day.
Skip the extra expense of Memory Maker and take your own photos in and outside of the parks.
Buy your ponchos ahead of time. Grab a few off of Amazon to take with you instead of having to cough up a ton of cash in the park when it rains.
Give yourself a souvenir budget and give your children one too! I recently read a blog post where the parents had their kids earn “Disney Money” by doing extra chores and good deeds and that was their children’s spending limit for toys and goodies. Before you buy something… think… am I going to actually use and love this once I get home? If I’m going to buy anything in Disney, I usually go for a t-shirt - budget friendly and I’ll definitely wear it!
You do not need a special printed and themed Magic Band. They’re cute but the free ones are absolutely fine!

Park Tips

Book your Fastpass+ reservations for early in the morning. Try to get through those before lunch if you can. WHY? Well, you can make 3 reservations ahead of time but once you’ve used those, you can continue to make more, 1 at a time. You can add your 4th+ Fastpasses in the My Disney Experience App or at an in-park kiosk. See the map of kiosk locations HERE.
Consider getting up early and doing Rope Drop at the parks! It’s one of the most fun ways to be the first in the park and see the early morning magic but also beat some of the crowds.
Take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours (and Extra Extra Magic Hours, EEMH) when they’re available. It’s best to plan which park you’ll visit on each day based on which one is offering EMH.
Use the My Disney Experience app to track wait times but also, swing by your favorite rides to see those lines in person - the app isn’t always up to date. Sometimes wait times are shorter 3-4 hours after opening than they are right when the ride starts running for the morning.
Familiarize yourself with a map so that you can move easily around the park and quickly jump from ride to ride with the shorter wait lines. The parks are large but they’re not too terribly bad to walk back and forth across several times in a day if you know the fastest ways to go. Knowing the parks like the back of my hand is incredibly helpful because we save time moving from place to place.
If your goal is riding rides, the final hours in the park can be magical. A lot of families leave around dinnertime shortening the lines for some of the major rides. To really make the most of your investment into a park ticket, plan to stay all day. There are plenty of places to sit, rest and people-watch.
If you need to rest and just need a few minutes to recharge… the Enchanted Tiki Room at Magic Kingdom is a great place for a breather (it’s fairly famous for being the nap spot) for ~10 minutes. It’s dark, cool and just an animatronic show with parrots. Another good thing to do to recharge at Magic Kingdom is to ride the train.
The best time to ride Splash Mountain is when it’s already raining.
The best time to experience Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom is the hour that the park is open. If you’re booking a FastPass+, try to reserve one of the first few time slots of the day. Because most of the animals are fed in the morning, you’re more likely to see more animals at that time than you are in the mid-afternoon.
Somehow, a lot of people don’t know this… but inside the Mexico pavilion at Epcot, there is a cute little boat ride, the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros and the most amazing table service restaurant, La Hacienda de San Angel. Head inside of the Mayan pyramid to retreat from the crowds and sun. It’s Epcot’s hidden gem!
Some of the best restaurants are actually at resorts and not inside the parks!
The best cinnamon rolls are at Gaston’s Tavern in Magic Kingdom (Fantasyland area).