Prepare for your Disney World Visit

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

As we draw closer to the schools summer holidays, Orlando will inevitably be a dream holiday destination for many. You wouldn't be able to comprehend the number of visitors I have spoke to that have visited WDW during the high season, whether that be summer, Easter or Christmas and really weren't prepared for the crowds. This usually leads to those folks having a disappointing trip. Here's some advice.

Back in the day, you had quiet times at Walt Disney World. You could guarantee that if you turned up in March the parks would be quiet. To a lesser extent this is still true, and I would still recommend avoiding all school and public holidays if at all possible. What Disney World and the other theme parks in the area now regularly doing is holding special events at the parks to draw in the visitors even during quieter times. For example Star Wars Weekends and Super Soap Weekends are huge crowd pullers. So, I'd say prepare for Disney World to be busy. If they're not then great, but if they are you'll already have the upper hand.

So what planning trips should you take on board?

The Disney World maps are freely downloadable online with information about each attraction. So find out what attractions your party want to ride before you go and visit these rides as a priority, fitting in the other attractions when you can.

I still find it unbelievable that people visit the Disney parks and don't make full use of http://www.orlandovisiting.com/wdw/disneys-fastpass-information">Fastpass, Disney's virtual queuing system that gives you a time to return to the attraction and ride with a minimum wait. Make sure you use this. If you're unfortunate enough to not be able to get a Fastpass some attraction do have single rider lines, so if you are not bothered about who you sit with take advantage of this.

Above all, make sure you get to the park before the official scheduled opening time. Sometimes the parks open prior to this time so you can get a headstart on the other visitors. Beyond that, remember any plan isn't set in stone, so be flexible and have fun.