For almost 7 years, I lived within about 15 minutes of Walt Disney World in Florida. In that time, I went there hundreds of times. I have no idea how many people have been to Disney World hundreds of times (other than employees, of course) but I suspect that we are a rather small part of the world's population.
I’ll try to describe some of my impressions and thoughts about it and to address some of the more common questions that I've been asked. For those who are willing to read through all this, I hope my comments and suggestions are helpful. I don’t provide a lot of the more common information because you can easily get that elsewhere. My intent is to try to provide a little bit of insight into some of the things that aren’t necessarily obvious or easy to learn until you’ve spent some time there. Perhaps much of this isn’t of interest to a lot of tourists, though.
Keep in mind that my free advice is worth exactly what you are paying for it! I have no idea what you should do on your trip. All I know is what I saw happen to other people and the kinds of experiences I had there. It’s hardly impossible that someone else could have looked at exactly the same things I saw and gotten very different impressions.
Tourists' Biggest Mistake
The biggest mistake that I saw tourists make was going there with children that are too young. The stress this causes to the kids and parents can become a real barrier to a nice vacation. I’ve seen this more times than I can count.
How young is too young? Well, obviously, that depends on the kids and the parents but I do have a general rule of thumb for you to consider. If you need, think you might need, or even let the thought enter your head for a split second that you could need a stroller, your kids may be too young. If they were old enough, the thought of a stroller wouldn’t even enter you head. I know this might seem like a strange yardstick but I've seen it enough times to consider this a good rule of thumb. Sure, there are families that have a nice time there with kids in strollers but I’m convinced they’d all have a better time if the kids were a little older.
I’ve seen on many occasions parents getting stressed. The kid is tired and cranky. The parents are mad at each other. They can’t put the kid “down” because they are in a theme park. It would take 20 minutes to get to the exit gate and then another 20 minutes to get back to the hotel-- maybe longer. When they finally get there, they aren’t home where they can put the kid in a familiar setting. Not only that but they spent a lot of money for this vacation and they aren’t about to let a cranky kid spoil it.
Many times the kid is hopelessly tired and falls asleep. Although a sleeping kid is a lot quieter, this doesn’t make it a lot easier for the parents to enjoy their time at Disney because now they have to deal with the sleeping kid. Sometimes, one of the parents decides to take the kid back to the hotel while the other parent, perhaps with older kids, continues with the pursuit of happiness at Walt Disney World.
Probably, Disney would be unlikely to discourage people with small children but I want you to think about this: in the ads and promotional material Disney uses to try to convince people to go there, have you ever seen them show a family with a very small child? I never have. All I’ve ever seen them show are happy and smiling families with kids that are old enough that they don’t need a stroller.
If you’re already an edgy parent, don’t expect being at Disney with a too-young kid to make you any calmer.
Really, if you need a stroller, consider putting off the trip to Disney World until you won’t need one.
Pay Attention to What You’re Doing!
One thing that people do there is to stop paying attention to what they are doing, even while driving. It’s remarkable. Trust me about this: your life will be better, and perhaps longer, if you watch what you are doing-- even while on vacation at Disney. I know this probably sounds ridiculous to you now but I’ve seen this kind of thing so many times it’s just not funny to me anymore.
One time at EPCOT I saw a woman who was wearing a short, lose-fitting skirt walking along with her family when a bit of a breeze came up. It raised her skirt completely. The view was 100% since she wasn't wearing anything under it. Perhaps when she got dressed she felt that it would be a bit nicer for her since it was warm day? She continued walking along as if nothing had happened. Always make an effort to take your brain with you.
Is your pass (ticket) valid? Quite a few times I saw people trying to get into one of the theme parks with an expired ticket. I don't know how many of them just weren't paying attention or how many were trying to pull a fast one. Don't kid yourself: they won't let you in with an expired ticket no matter how clever you think your excuse is or just because you think they should do it for good public relations.
Also, your pass is YOURS! Not your kid's. Not your spouse's. Your finger print is keyed to the pass after the first use so each person has to use the correct one after that. I've seen people clog an entrance line because they didn't think it mattered and the whole family had to try to figure-out whose ticket was whose while everybody in line behind them had to stand there and wait for them to figure-out this.
Where Are Your Kids?
Keep in mind is that your kids should know your cell phone number including the area code! One time at EPCOT, I was approached by a boy maybe 8 years old. He asked me if I worked there (I got that frequently since I didn’t look like a tourist but didn’t quite look like an employee, either). I told him no. He just stood there looking at me so I asked him what was wrong. He said he couldn’t find his mom. I offered my cell phone to him. He knew her number but not the area code. They found each other after a few minutes but it would have been easier on everyone if he’d known not just the 7-digit number but also the area code.
If you’re traveling from another country with kids, you might want to consider getting local mobile phones for you and your offspring. The additional cost is something to consider, of course. If you have a foreign mobile that will work in the US that you are bringing, make sure your kids know how to make an international call from a USA phone and that they have a USA calling card-- and know how to use it!-- or enough US change to make the call from a pay phone (pay phones are nearly extinct but they are still around in Disney World). The process is this: 011 to get international access, then the country code, then the phone number. For some countries, dropping a leading digit is necessary for some reason. For example, suppose you are from London UK and your mobile number is 06789 234567. To call that number from a USA phone, you’d enter 011 44 6789 234567. Note the dropped leading “0” in the number sequence. You’d have to punch in a lot more digits to use a calling card but this should help you with the general idea.
Another time I was at the World of Disney store at Downtown Disney and a little girl thought I was her father. I was walking through one of the aisles looking at something, I don’t remember what, when I felt a little hand touch mine. I looked down and saw a little girl about 4 years old standing there with her arm outstretched. I didn’t give it any thought and continued to walk along. A moment, later, she was trying to place her hand into mine as she walked as fast as she could to keep up with me. I stopped walking and looked at her. She finally looked up and saw that I wasn’t her father. She had a rather shocked looked on her face. Her mother was a few aisles over and saw this happening and called to her daughter, “No! That’s the wrong person!” Her mother wasn't paying attention completely (see above about Pay Attention to What You’re Doing!) and the little girl wandered away. I’ve often wondered how close I came to being accused of trying to kidnap that child.
Sadly, I saw a rise in the number of parents who had their kids on leashes. I have to say that this gets back to paying attention to what's going on. If you're so distracted (impaired?) that you have to tie yourself to your kid to keep track of him or her, well...
What Is This Place?
If you don’t know it, Disney World is huge. Really huge. It covers about 48 square miles (124 square kilometers), which is about the size of San Francisco, although not all of the land is developed. It employs about 55,000 people the last I heard.
Not surprisingly, it has its own fire department with more than one station.
Although they don’t have their own police department in an official sense, they do have a rather large security department. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has jurisdiction there. There are usually deputies stationed at the entrances to the theme parks and at Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island and wherever else they think is appropriate. The Disney security people are everywhere... and not all of them are in uniforms. There are also video cameras everywhere including inside the dark rides; they can see you better than you can see yourself.
Are you safe there? I don't know what the statistics are but I never felt unsafe there regardless of the time of day or night even though I was often there by myself. Of course, crimes can occur anywhere in the world. When there's a serious crime against a tourist, it gets a LOT of attention from the authorities because there's no way the government wants potential tourists to be afraid to come; tourism is extraordinarily important to the region's economy.
* Walt Disney World has 4 theme parks which are the main (for many the only) attraction. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about what’s in each one of them because there’s already a lot information about that from countless sources. Here’s some general information and my thoughts.
- The Magic Kingdom is very similar to Disneyland in California. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, you can learn about it from lots of other sources.
The Magic Kingdom’s “Buzz Lightyear” and “Tomorrowland Transit Authority” are my favorites there. On the other hand, “Stitch's Great Escape” is so bad that I wouldn’t wait in line for 30 seconds to see it. What were they thinking when they came up with that?? If you’ve seen the extraterrestrial attraction that used to be in that building, the new one about Stitch is very similar and just as bad. Use that time to go on “Buzz Lightyear” again.
Despite what a lot people believe, you do not go down an elevator when you are in the Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in California does that but the one at Disney World in Florida does not. It's done that way in California because there wasn't room for the ride, which isn't really in that fancy-looking mansion, in the main part of the park so people are brought down and through a hallway-- sort of a tunnel-- under the railroad tracks and into the building that actually houses the ride. There was plenty of room in the Florida location so that kind of trick wasn't necessary.
The fireworks at the Magic Kingdom are spectacular. Many people get a spot right in front of the castle well in advance of the start of the fireworks. When the fireworks start, there's a large collective groan as those people discover that they can't see the fireworks from there! The castle is too high and blocks virtually the entire show. Farther down Main Street the view is better but right in front of the castle is one of the worst places. The 2 best places are on the bridge that connects Main Street to Tomorrowland-- the one that's farther from the castle-- and in front of the Crystal Palace but STAY AWAY FROM TREES! Trees are not your friends when comes to viewing the fireworks.
Part of Fantasyland is blocked just before and during the fireworks. It seems that water is sprayed onto the roofs of the buildings to reduce the chances of a fire in case something goes wrong (this is a guess on my part). If you walk through there after the fireworks, you'll see that water is coming off the buildings and that the ground is wet.
- EPCOT is kind of like a big Tomorrowland and a bunch of vignettes of other countries. It’s been often called a permanent world’s fair but I don’t think that description is very good (I’ve only been to 1 world’s fair, though).
At EPCOT, the “Soarin” ride is absolutely not to be missed. Everybody gets off that ride with a BIG smile. If I ever hit a big lottery jackpot, I’m going to have my own private “Soarin’” ride as part of my mansion! There are a lot of other nice things there, too, but that's my favorite. It's a very popular ride so the line is long. The line isn't just long in the wait sense but it's also long in the physical sense. The entrance to Soarin' is in the Land pavilion. You walk and walk and walk to finally get to the Soarin' ride. The reason is that the ride really isn't in Land, that's just where the entrance is. The ride is actually in a big building that's sort of behind Canada.
The fireworks at EPCOT are fantastic. The people I've talked to think they are better than the ones at the Magic Kingdom and I agree. The island is not really the best viewing area. It's not terrible but I think it's too far away from the main displays. (The island is between United Kingdom and France.) There are a number of good spots to view the EPCOT fireworks. One of my favorites is at the water's edge by Italy (where the gondola boarding would be if there were gondolas for you to ride). Sometimes this area is closed, though. Another good spot is at the water near Canada. As with the Magic Kingdom, STAY AWAY FROM TREES!
The fireworks are brought onto the lake on barges at about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. There's a drawbridge near China that is raised to allow them to pass. This drawbridge is the normal walkway for people so you can't get by during that time.
- Disney-MGM Studio has been renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios. It’s a rose-colored glasses view of the old Hollywood.
The stunt shows are my favorites there along with the quasi-improvisations that occur along Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. I also like the Star Tours ride. I haven’t actually counted but my impression is that Hollywood Studios has the fewest attractions. The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Christmastime is not to be missed. It used to be on the Residential Street but that was demolished to make space for the Extreme Stunt Show. Those lights are now on the Streets of America. Although still spectacular, I think it was nicer before.
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a very unique kind of zoo. Some people don’t go there because they can see a zoo at home. They are kidding themselves. I have never seen or heard of any zoo that even remotely approaches Animal Kingdom.
At Animal Kingdom, “Kilimanjaro Safari” and the treks/walks are the best.
All 4 of the theme parks are very nice and I highly recommend them.
There is also Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island which are a collection of shops, theaters, restaurants, and clubs. It’s free, including parking, to go there to wonder around. (Obviously, you have to pay to buy something at the shops, etc.) Friday and Saturday nights are the busiest there. A lot of locals go there then.
There are 2 water parks, a car race track, golf courses, etc.
The resorts at Disney World can be interesting to wander around in. There are various activities at the resorts such a boating, parasailing, horseback riding, etc. that might be of interest. The Caribbean Beach is my favorite. It’s a huge place. Sometimes I’d go there just to go for walk around the waterway. The Contemporary Resort has a monorail station inside the lobby. The Animal Kingdom Lodge is also kind of neat.
None of these places are reasons to travel to Disney World but if you’re there and want to kill some time in a quieter way, exploring them can be nice.
You might notice that on the top of every building, roof, or other structure there are what look like countless antennas several feet apart. Those are lightning rods.
Getting Around: Monorails, Buses, Ferry Boats, and Walking
There are 3 monorail lines, free to ride, at Disney World. They are for transportation rather than just rides to go on. Two of the monorail lines are parallel. They go from the Transportation and Ticket Center to the Magic Kingdom. One of them is express and the other stops at the Contemporary, Grand Floridian, and Polynesian resorts. The third monorail line goes from the Transportation and Ticket Center to EPCOT. To get to any other places, you can take a Disney bus. The buses are free. There are ferry boats, also free, that run from the Transportation and Ticket Center to the Magic Kingdom, from EPCOT to Hollywood Studios, to some of the resorts, etc. You could drive to get to these places but why?
To get back and forth from the Magic Kingdom parking lot to the Magic Kingdom is probably the most awkward (if you are staying at one of the Disney resorts, you aren’t likely to ever get into this parking lot). You park in the Magic Kingdom lot, probably take a tram to the Transportation and Ticket Center, then take either the monorail or ferry to the Magic Kingdom. You have to go through this whole process in reverse when you leave.
I would often hear Disney employees say that it was about the same time whether you take the monorail or the ferry to get back and forth between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center. HA! The monorail is ALWAYS faster. This is especially true after the fireworks when there is a huge exodus from the place. When you exit the Magic Kingdom after the fireworks, you might be discouraged by the length of the line to get on the monorail and decide that it would be faster to take the ferry. It isn’t like that. The monorail moves people WAY faster. Also, the number of monorail trains and the number of ferries that are running depends on the size of the crowds.
It might sound a little odd but the front half of the next-to-last monorail car is faster for getting from the Transportation and Ticket Center to the Magic Kingdom than the other monorail cars. The reason is because of the way the platform is designed at the Magic Kingdom. If you’re in that car, you step out of it very close to the ramp down to the Magic Kingdom entrance. From the other cars, especially as you get closer to the front of the monorail, when you exit the car you get caught in the crowd of people, many with strollers and many who aren’t sure where to go, as you try to make your way to that ramp down. (This is the express line not the resort line. The resort line is run in the other direction.)
It would be nice if there were monorail lines that went to the other places. The original Walt Disney World consisted of only the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT and those are the only places you can get the monorail. It's too bad.
You can walk from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary Resort. You can walk from EPCOT to Hollywood Studios and to some of the resorts. The walk from EPCOT to Hollywood Studios is maybe a little over mile. I could walk it faster than taking the ferry or bus. I’m a fast walker, though, and used to long walks. If you’re with kids and your legs and feet are killing you, the ferry or bus would certainly be easier on you. There are a few other walkways here and there but mostly Disney World isn’t as pedestrian friendly as I would like. Don't get the wrong idea about that criticism, though. I went for walks there a lot, often for miles at a time. It's a truly great place to go for walks. It's just that I'd like to see walkways connecting everything.
If you’re staying at a hotel that isn’t on Disney property, you may be able to take a free shuttle from your hotel to Disney World.
I Went There Hundreds of Times??
Didn’t I get tired of going there time after time? Well, yes and no. After a while, I rarely went on rides. I had a few favorites that I’d go on if the line wasn’t too long. Since I didn’t have a schedule, I could always come back another day to see if the line was shorter-- a luxury the typical tourist doesn’t have.
I very often went there just to go for a walk and get out of the house or especially to take pictures.
I went to EPCOT and MGM/Hollywood Studios the most. I like the landscaping and variety at EPCOT and the style/architecture of MGM/Hollywood Studios.
Most of the time, I found that EPCOT had the smallest crowds. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom had the large crowds. If it was crowded at EPCOT, I knew it would be really crowded at Magic Kingdom. Also, the number of people entering the theme parks really starts to climb at about noon.
I don't know how many employees recognized me as a regular at Disney but a few of them did say something to me. I expect that most of them wouldn't mention it even if they did notice. At MGM I was surprised when one of the men who works there commented that I just go there to take pictures! There was a lot of truth to that. Although I wasn't really surprised that he'd noticed me there, I was kind of surprised that he'd noticed that about me.
I went there alone very often. Sometimes people will ask me if I felt weird about being there alone. The answer is definitely no. Although most people are not there alone, you do occasionally see someone alone. Perhaps most of those people are simply going off to do something while their cotravellers went somewhere else.
The Weather!
Ah, yes, Florida the sunshine state! Oh yeah? To the dismay of a lot of tourists, summer in Florida is the rainy season. It may rain everyday or nearly everyday. Don’t believe the nonsense that the storm will pass in 10 minutes. It might but it’s more likely to last an hour or maybe more. The hurricane season officially goes from June to November. Although hurricanes don’t usually get to that part of Florida, the fringes of a hurricane that’s headed for somewhere else can dump a lot of water on the area. Also, storms that don’t make it to official hurricane status can bring wind and rain. Ordinary thunderstorms can cause fantastic downpours and be accompanied by a lot of wind.
Despite rain storms, many of the tourists carry on with what they were doing. They only have a limited time and want to make the most of it even if means going out in the rain. Often, they will take cover from the rain and hope it stops after a few minutes. When that doesn’t happen, they decide to go out into the rain, perhaps with a poncho or an umbrella. Some just go ahead and get soaked.
Note that standing under a tree is just about useless in a rain storm. They make poor umbrellas.
It can get cold there! The winter late nights can often be in the 30s (in single digits in Celsius). Yes, I know. You’ve seen the weather reports and it was 75 (24C) in Orlando in midwinter so what am I talking about? Yes, it can be that warm in midwinter-- for a second in the mid-afternoon! The rest of the day, especially the evening, was probably a lot colder.
It was not at all unusual for me to be in my warm jacket and see tourists shivering in their tee shirts and shorts. Some of them would buy a jacket or sweatshirt to stay a little warmer. Most of the people I saw freezing fall into 2 categories: teenage girls and men in their 30s and 40s. The men were toughing it out because they are macho. The girls, I expect, were not about to consider a jacket while in Florida-- how ridiculous to wear a jacket in Florida!
The severity of the winters, like anyplace, varies from year to year. Some aren't that cold but sometimes they can get very cold if you don't have a nice jacket. Bring something warm if you're going in the winter.
A very common belief is that the humidity in Florida makes the heat feel worse than the dry heat of a desert area. Although there is a lot of truth to this there is also a problem with it. In the drier climates, the heat is very often accompanied by a clear sky. That means, obviously, that the sun is beating down on you. The humid heat in Florida often occurs with clouds in the sky which keep the sun from beating on you. I found that moderated the effect of the humidity to the point that it wasn't as bad as the desert heat. If all you're doing is laying in the shade, the dry desert heat will probably feel better to you but when you're out and about, those clouds that often go with the humidity can make a big difference.
Photography
As an avid photographer, much of my exploration of Walt Disney World was to take pictures. There's so much variety there to photograph that even after years and years and countless thousands of photos, I didn't finish! Of course, the typical tourist isn't there for a photographic outing and doesn't have the time or perhaps not the inclination to look for a lot of photo opportunities. It wasn't too unusual for me to make a special trip over there to try for a photo of something at a certain time of day or with certain sky conditions. When I'd get a new lens or filter or something, I'd head over there to give it a try. Photo subjects vary from countless plants and birds (depending on the time of year) and animals in Animal Kingdom to so many different styles of architecture that it almost seems endless. There's also the varying light of different times of the day, different times of the year, and different weather conditions. Although I'm not much for photographing people, there are obviously a lot of different people there. Because it's the major tourist destination, you don't have to worry about seeming out-of-place with your camera.
There is much at Disney World that is nice to photograph but here are my favorite places to photograph:
- Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Blvd, and Echo Lake at MGM
- France and Morocco at EPCOT
- Along the walkway between EPCOT and MGM, especially near the Swan & Dolphin resorts
- Main Street and the castle at Magic Kingdom
- Gorillas and tigers at Animal Kingdom
If you like photography and wonder about using a tripod there, I don't know of any rules about them. I've seen people using them from time to time and I never saw anyone ask them to stop. I did ask about this one time and the main thrust of the response that I got was to ask what had happened that made me ask the question. So, if you want to use a tripod, I don't think you'll have any trouble as long as you aren't causing a problem for others or creating a hazard.
Occasionally, someone interested in photography will wonder if it's better to bring a small, light P&S camera to Disney World or to go to the trouble of a bigger, heaver, but more capable SLR perhaps with extra lenses. The answer is that you have to decide that for yourself. The SLR will provide better pictures, especially in dim light, but the P&S is obviously a lot easier to carry around. Which I brought depended on my mood at the time and what I was going to photograph and why I was going to photograph it. I can't tell you what to carry around with you. If it matters to you, most of the tourists use P&S cameras-- which you could probably guess without any help from me. I realize this isn't a very satisfactory answer and maybe even a little cranky but there it is! Do keep in mind that regardless of your camera type you should have a case or bag or something for it in case you get caught in the rain.
Reflecting on WDW
Do I miss Disney? Yes. It's a remarkable place. Being there is like being in a gigantic living work of art. I don't know of any other place that is like that on such a huge scale. The architecture, the landscaping, the shows, the rides, and the shopping (I did a lot of birthday and Christmas shopping there over the years) have no peers. Even for those who don't care for rides, it can be a truly astounding place if they will give it a chance. It's not just all kid stuff.
Occasionally, if I felt bored, I'd go to the Magic Kingdom and watch the fireworks. Now that I'm away from there, I don't have that kind of spectacular option if I get bored. As I mentioned, I would very often go there just to go for a walk. Now, the places for me to go for a walk aren't even remotely as nice or as varied. Life is often boring (if it isn't, why do people spend so much time in front of the TV?). It was really great to have a place like that to go.
