1. Take the train to get around the perimeter of the park. You can get from one part of the park to another in 5-10 minutes this way. Remember that walking just from the entrance to the beginning of Fantasy Land behind the Castle takes almost 15 minutes. Main Street / Toon-Town in far flung Fantasy Land and Frontier Land are the 3 stops. Can park baby strollers at the stations.
2. Stay at a park resort. Has special morning openings for resort guests and some late nights. Use monorail to get to the park from the Grand Floridian and use the boat to get back. You avoid an hour of lines this way especially at night when everyone wants to get on the monorail. Am told you can park in the Polynesian Hotel parking lot and pretend you are staying at the hotel. The Grand Floridian is the best of the 3 resorts (the Contemporary has aged) but if you don’t like walking, stay in the main building.
3. Go to the park 90 minutes before closing. We rode the 3 rollercoasters (Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain) which are in 3 of the 4 corners of the park and saw the fireworks and the Main Street parade in this amount of time although my younger brother ran out of breath running around with me! Better to spend the day at the pool when you can do all this in 2 hours and stay cool while you’re at it. Also look at rainstorms as an opportunity to get things done while everyone runs for cover. Otherwise, it’s amazing how a family can spend the whole day in the park doing nothing and spend upward of $500 for the privilege of doing so.
4. If you like music you hear at Main Street or elsewhere in the park, you can create your own CD of sampled music at the M Store in Downtown Disney. That’s the only place you can do this. Downtown Disney is designed very well for little children and they enjoyed parts of it such as LegoLand even more than the Magic Kingdom.
5. Fast-Pass must be used strategically since it is of limited value. It is only good for about 8-10 rides and only one fast-pass can be used in a 2-3 hour period. The best bets here are to either come early or late and not depend on Fast Pass. In our case, you just had a family of 12 people standing around for an hour waiting for the Fast Pass to allow you to get to the head of the line at a particular ride.
6. A character breakfast is a fun thing to do. [You can order kosher meals if you do so a day in advance although my whole family wound up eating fruit off the salad bar instead of the stuff under the plastic.] Various Disney characters come around to the tables and pose with your family for pictures. They are very professional at what they do. Interaction with Disney Characters have become an essential part of the Disney experience; Winnie the Pooh gets down on all 4’s and cuddles up to the babies. It’s soooo cute. If you want breakfast with Cinderella in the castle, reserve several months in advance although for little kids, a breakfast with Mary Poppins at the hotel is quite fine and you get others such as Pinnochio who drop by as well.
7. Walt Disney obviously didn’t believe in a balanced diet because eating at the park has always been awful. For tuna sandwich or a hummus and cole slaw sandwich (very good), go to the restaurant in Liberty Square. I forgot its name but the Square area is a small area.
8. Rent a little go-cart to drive around the park if any of your party is elderly or handicapped in any way. It is worth the $35 to be able to drive around all this.
9. Become a travel agent. You get 50% off at Disney Resorts and either free tickets to the theme parks or significant discounts. Make sure to arrange this in advance because different parks have different rules. At DisneyLand in California, you just show your ID at the gate for the discount; in Florida, you must arrange it in advance with the Travel Agent’s Desk but you can get free passes. The hotel discount was significant; deluxe rooms at the Grand Floridian are $500 a night and we paid $250 and it is almost impossible to get these rooms via any third parties.
