Park Tips for the First-Timer

Are you planning your first time vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort? If so, it's quite likely you are going to experience a sense of being overwhelmed. It is a very large place indeed, and it seems the one common theme is the disparity in how folks disembark the transport options and access the parks. Veterans either board the monorails at a specific door that they know will spit them out right at the exit ramp from the station or speed-walk to the turnstiles. Or, they wander along behind the sea of humanity knowing that hurrying up to stand in line is the same as slowing down. Does the tortoise and the hare come to mind here?

New arrivals seem to be drawn along in the tide and then arrive at the entrance plaza in a daze of confusion. If you already have your passes you can bypass the first set of glass windows which are for day-ticket sales. You can go directly to the security check where all bags will be examined. If you have no bags, look for the no-bags option and go directly to the turnstiles. Hint: Look to the left and right of the long line. There is usually a CM frantically waving at the line to come over to their vacant turnstile but nobody is leaving the line because it's an unwritten guest rule that you have to stand in line for everything. You will see this same behavior exhibited in the fast food establishments inside the parks. 20 people in line for a hot dog and four available CMs trying, and failing, to get someone to come and order food from them.

So, you're approaching the turnstiles, now what do you do? The first thing you do is get your passes out now. Do not wait until you are right at the turnstiles and then start fishing for the passes that you left on your hotel night-stand. If you have your passes ready, just give each guest their pass and insert the pass and walk through the barrier which will give way for one rotation. If you have a party of little ones, just give all the passes to the CM and he/she will process the group through the turnstile at a faster pace than you ever can. It also leaves you free to concentrate on marshalling your brood on either side of the turnstiles.

Once you are through, please don't stop directly behind the turnstiles and start reading your maps or snapping pictures. Walk away from the entrance area, you are far less likely to be run over by a Dad with a camcorder stuck to his face.

You are IN! What's next?

First Timer Inside the Parks

OK, so you made it into your hotel, onto Disney transportation and through the entrance plaza. You've got it made, right? Mmmm, maybe not. A lot of folks come to the Walt Disney World Resort with a plan. For some it's a strictly timed and controlled para-military operation that a marine would baulk at. For others it's a more laid-back schedule that "would be nice to get done" but nobody's going home crying if we can't do "it's a small world" today. Others are like fugitives from an old B movie where the zombies are aimlessly wandering around in a daze.

There are some easy rules for new visitors that will get you in the swing of things quite quickly:

Get a park map as soon as you walk in the gate. You will become quickly disoriented and will end up circling past the same attractions. Each land in the Magic Kingdom is distinctly themed. They also all radiate from the central hub which, for all intents and purposes, is Cinderella's Castle.

Try to eat "off sequence". By missing the 11:30 to 1:30 squeeze, you are going to be able to eat in comfort. Have some kind of strategy for what you want to visit so that you are not "all over the map".

Try to methodically work through each "land" by-passing those rides with substantial lines. By eating "off sequence" those rides will be less busy during lunchtime hours and you may be able to take advantage of shorter lines.

Restrooms are key. Because Florida is hot, your group will be consuming more liquids than normal -- which is a very good thing. That also will require far more pit-stops than normal. Disney has copious numbers of impeccably-maintained bathrooms but, being that Disney has a sense of humor, they blend them into the theming so that they don't stick out like an eyesore. Check your map for the restroom icon (blue). Now you know what symbol you are looking for on your map. Now figure out where you are on the map and locate the nearest restroom. You can also usually locate restrooms by taking note of various groups of single parents hanging around a place with no apparent purpose. One by one their other half appears, takes control of the stroller and then the second parent disappears. That would be the location of a restroom.

A really good thing to mention to new visitors is that you cannot do everything in one day. You also cannot relentlessly pound on through the day without incurring casualties. The little ones are going to be excited to start out, gradually get warm and eventually move into "snooze mode". It's an excellent idea to leave the park (get hand-stamps), go back to your hotel and either nap in your room or around the pool. You can then go back later in the day when the young ones will have re-charged their batteries, and hopefully you will have too...

First Timer Eating in the Parks

As mentioned before, the best advice is to eat off-cycle. Avoid the conventional lunch-time and dinner-time windows. You can have a pleasant meal just by moving your eating habits forward an hour or so.

What to eat? Well the vast majority of families with young ones are going to be eating fast food. That would be burgers, hot dogs, chicken strips and french fries; a.k.a. the main four food groups. The quality of Disney's fast food has improved substantially in the last 10 years; it has improved both in taste and health.

Here's a hint. Assuming you have 3 or 4 children, try to have them share 2 meals. You would not believe how many kids throw away more than half their meals because they're too excited to eat all their food and want to get back to the attractions. Try it. The worst that happens is that little Johnny is still hungry and you buy another meal. What usually happens is that the birds end up eating a lot of fries.

Look out also for off-the-beaten track eating places. At the top of Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, take a right turn before you reach the central hub. You will find the Plaza Pavilion which is one of the largest counter-service eateries but which somehow gets bypassed by folks.

In the parks there are sit-down restaurants which should really be researched in advance of your arrival at the park. Check out the Dining information in this site so that you can make an educated choice.

First Timer Visiting the Attractions

OK, so now we get to the heart of the matter. This is what you came for. You are in the park, you know when and where you're going to eat, you have a good idea where the restrooms are and you need something to do in between those other activities. How about visiting some of the attractions?

Firstly we need to establish what time of the year you are visiting. Saturday, July 22nd? It's going to be a zoo. Wednesday, December 15th? You can walk on any ride you choose. The number of people in the park is inversely proportionate to the amount you can get done in a day. The more visitors, the less you can do. The Magic Kingdom is the park which suffers most from that equation.

On a quiet day in the Magic Kingdom, walk around the entrances of the rides and you will see lots of little 3" brass discs embedded in the asphalt that seem to be lined up for some reason. What you are seeing are the plugs for the holes that support the posts and ropes that make up the outside queue area for the ride. Disney also has "obvious" queue areas that you can see from outside the ride. It also has "queue rooms", inside the ride building, where the room can be expanded, by judicious rope moving, as the number of riders increases. That way the ride can handle more people yet the line does not, from the outside, take on gargantuan proportions. Check the signs that say "XX minutes from this point".

There are different types of attractions. There are "RIDES" such as Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and there are "rides" such as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Liberty Belle Riverboat and Walt Disney World Railroad. The first group will attract folks all day, every day and will be almost unapproachable in the busiest times. The second is simply a cool spot on a warm day to relax. You can wander onto those pretty much anytime.

There are also "inanimate attractions" which you visit but what you are doing is viewing something. Cinderella's Castle is the most obvious example, Tom Sawyer Island and Swiss Family Treehouse are others.

One thing that is important to figure out when you are trying to determine whether you want to stand in line is what kind of "loader" the ride is. Dumbo, for example, is a very slow one. It's an "everyone gets out, everyone gets in, everyone rides" attraction. That makes it an extremely slow-cycling ride. It cannot be made to go any faster and you can't add ride vehicles making Dumbo a real log-jam. Pirates of the Caribbean as an opposite example can add queue areas and boats as well as a second, entirely separate access line and loading line with its own boats which effectively doubles the ride's capacity. You are only limited by the speed that everyone can embark and disembark.

So, read up on the rides. Do the research. If you're committed to going in the busier times, being prepared will save you time, effort and heartache.

First Timer in the Parks Smart Tips & Hints:

It's your first time at WDW and you want the low-down, the skinny, the "what to do and not to do" tips. Here are some that, although not a definitive or exclusive list, will hopefully make your trip smoother:

• Before you go, do lots of research. Plan as many activities in advance as you can especially in the busier seasons.
• Make sure everyone has worn-in, comfy footwear. There is serious walking involved here and "being fashionable" is the last thing you want when it's your feet we are talking about.
• Be careful of exposure to sun (especially the little ones) and drink plenty of non-alcoholic fluids.
• Be aware of the length of day that you could be exposed to. In the height of summer, you could theoretically spend 16 hours in the parks.
• Don't get in every line you see. Bypass some rides and come back later in the day. Use FastPass if available at the ride. Take careful note of the wait time in line "from this point". That will help you assess whether or not you want to wait in line or move on and come back later.
• Eat off-cycle. Eat before 11:30 a.m. or after 1:30 p.m. and before 4:30 p.m. or after 8:00 p.m. You can use the above times to get on rides that were earlier plagued by long lines.
• Don't try to cram too much activity into a day. Build in rest-gaps, snooze-gaps, "my feet hurt" gaps....
• Parade watching can be a lot more fun if you can actually see the parade. Look for less-crowded areas to watch the parade. In the Magic Kingdom, most folks congregate on Main Street so they can exit the park immediately after the parade ends. Frontierland and Liberty Square remain fairly uncrowded.
• Fireworks at Magic Kingdom can be watched from most places in the park. If you don't need the castle in your view, excellent viewing spots are available in Tomorrowland.
• Avoid the main rushes to and from the parks. Prime rush-hour to the parks is usually around 10:00 a.m. Rush-hours out of the parks are: After an afternoon parade, after an evening parade, after a fireworks display and after a late parade. Slowly meander out through the stores and the congestion will have mostly dissipated.

Leaving the Parks at the End of the Day

Magic Kingdom, try to leave at least 1/2 hour before or after the fireworks display. If you don't, and the transport options have long lines, consider getting on the Resorts Monorail. It goes via the Contemporary to the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC).

Epcot does not have the bottle-neck of the lagoon and exiting the park can be decent. The monorail will however be busy for at least the first hour after Illuminations. TIP: Illuminations at Epcot. Pay close attention to wind direction (look at the large torches around the lagoon) when you pick your spot to watch the display. If you are downwind, you're going to be inhaling smoke and cordite residue which is not pleasant and you can't see anything.

Disney's Hollywood Studios can be a bear to leave after Fantasmic -- the car park empties out to a traffic light on a busy Disney thoroughfare. The launches to the Epcot resort area are never enough in capacity or frequency. If you are staying at an Epcot resort, consider walking along the pathway on the far side of the lagoon from the boat loading area. It's well-lit.

Disney's Animal Kingdom doesn't really have any departure issues. It tends to gradually thin out as the day progresses.

If you still have questions (and you will), stop by our Discussion Forums and post a question on the Planning Forums.

Last Updated: May 11, 2009