Tips for going to Disney

After spending 8 days at Disney, I have some tips that would make your time more productive and enjoyable. The first thing is that you need to start planning your trip way before going. We decided to stay in one of the resorts instead of getting a hotel outside of Disney. It was definitely the right move for us and there are a lot of benefits of staying in a Disney resort. The parks have extended hours for those that stay in the Disney resorts which means that on certain days one of the parks is open later but only for those people in the resorts, less crowds and more fun. This is one of the reasons to plan early. You can find out the extended hours schedule and plan your days to coordinate with the parks that have extended hours.
Another benefit of staying in the resorts are the shuttle buses that will take you anywhere in Disney. You may have to wait for a bus but you do not have to deal with the parking. We stayed in the All-Star Music resort and it was great for our kids. There are so many different resorts to choose from that it would not be hard to find one that suits your style. What was nice for us was that our resort had family suites which had 2 rooms with 2 bathrooms and a little kitchen with a microwave and refridgerator. If you stay in a Disney resort, you can buy the meal plan. I would definitely suggest this because it will save you hundreds of dollars. The meal plan gives you 1 sit down meal, 1 counter service meal and a snack. To handle the other meal we brought some basic food items like cereal, granola bars, milk, juice and used that for breakfast. The resorts also have a food court so you could buy something there.
Another tip is to do some research: buy or take out books on traveling to Disney because they will give you advice on what times of the year are the best times to go and information on the different rides. We went in the beginning of December and it was great. A little cool at times but most days we had short sleeve shirts and once or twice we wore shorts. The important thing was that it was not crowded!

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