Don't Make These Common Mistakes When You Go To Disney World For The First Time

As Disnerds who have had the pure joy of experiencing Walt Disney World across four decades, there's little we love more than seeing someone else enter the mouse house for the first time. Compared to even the largest theme park in the Midwest, Disney Parks are in a class of their own, thanks to the completely immersive level of detail and care that goes into creating the Disney experience. 

From gorgeous eats to perfectly executed parades, there's an outstanding experience in every corner, and we're here for the praiseworthy social media posts. We're also happy to share what we've learned in our Disney adventures, especially if it saves you a few bucks or the hassle. Whether you're booking a room at the Grand Floridian Resort or staying offsite at a vacation rental, poking around in the corners of Reddit for Disney veteran advice can save you the trouble of making rookie mistakes that take away from the fun. It also frees you up to focus on the important things, like which famous Epcot cocktails to try first.

It's easy to assume the only thing you need to know about Orlando's weather is to pack a suitcase full of summery clothing. But there are a few nuances to Orange County's climate that are helpful to understand before you go. First, the city's weather can be annoyingly unpredictable. Orlando experiences frequent rainfall, often without much warning, particularly during summer.

In the subreddit r/WaltDisneyWorld, a Redditor asked: "How far out do you trust the weather forecast?" A user replied, "Ten minutes ahead of time," and another chimed in, "I live here. This is accurate. I have also had it raining in my front yard but not in my backyard." The good news is these conditions are tolerable since the rain doesn't last all day, cools the atmosphere, and helps thin out the crowds.

The other thing to understand about Florida weather is that humidity can make it feel hotter, and if you're not from a hot, humid climate, the adjustment can be downright dangerous. Make an extra effort to stay hydrated, and consider investing in a neck cooler or battery-powered fan for park days. Additionally, pack clothes suitable for Florida's erratic weather and avoid the packing mistake most Disney World-goers make.

When we traveled to Disney World with three little kids in tow, using the right stroller made all the difference. We actually brought two: a bigger daily stroller and a smaller folding umbrella stroller for jetting around the airport. The two-seater Joovy jogging stroller with a bonus seat in the back was a godsend as we navigated the parks with a tired crew of littles. It was also handy for loading Halloween candy during Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

Most importantly, it could be folded with a quick one-handed motion — a necessity when boarding Disney transportation. Before boarding a Disney bus, you'll be required to collapse your stroller, which means you'll need one that you can easily handle, preferably with one hand, since there's a good chance you'll have to at some point. The same is true for parking lot trams.

Disney Parks have rules governing the types of strollers allowed into the park. Stroller wagons are a no-go, and all strollers need to be smaller than 52 inches long and 31 inches wide — which means most double strollers are also out. If you can manage one, a small umbrella stroller will save you a world of struggle. If you can't get around using a bigger one, we can't recommend a slimmed-down jogging stroller enough.

No matter the crowd size during your Walt Disney World visit, there's a fair likelihood your stroller will, at some point, nestle cozily amongst a sea of its brethren. When you're exiting "It's a Small World" with a dirty diaper on deck, the last thing you need is to play "Where's Waldo" for your kiddo's cruiser before you navigate to the nearest changing station. 

To throw a wrench into the chaos, Disney rules explicitly state that cast members can shift strollers parked outside while you're inside an attraction. For this reason, personalizing strollers and mobility chairs with quirky add-ons that make them easy to spot is a vacation necessity for seasoned Disney families. And aside from the practicality, decorating your wheels is another fun way to make your trip memorable.

Take a deep dive into web boards like Disboards, and you can find loads of ideas for sprucing up your wheels. Custom stroller signs are a popular and easy choice and can easily be printed on your home computer and then laminated for durability. You can get crafty and DIY a cutesy bunting or even add a few glow necklaces or a string of battery-powered flashing lights when you're out and about after dark. If nothing else, consider picking up a balloon on Main Street.

These days, a mobile phone is an endlessly useful tool to have at Walt Disney World. Travelers of yesteryear had to lug around a 35 mm camera or a camcorder, not to mention the bags full of film and batteries needed to make them work, only to wait days to show them off. But today, an iPhone or Android lets Disney guests capture thousands of crisp, high-res pics to instantly share with folks back home. And when you're not snapping your hundredth castle pic, phones can be used to help navigate the parks or connect with the rest of your party.

Even when you're using your phone conservatively, batteries tend to drain faster than expected at Disney parks. And the last thing you want is to find yourself with a drained phone and nary an outlet in sight. To save yourself a headache, invest in a large-capacity power bank (or a few, depending on the size of your party) along with a handful of decent cables. As one Redditor advised in the r/WaltDisneyWorld, "My phone died before I left the parks every day on my last trip, this time I was prepared and brought a massive 10,000mAh battery." To help maximize your phone charge, keep your phone on battery saver or airplane mode when you're going through rides or attractions. You can also take screenshots of Lightning Lane passes and any other reservations to cut down on energy spent logging onto the Disney app.

We're those Disney geeks who live for the planning phase. Every time we're orchestrating the next vacation, we pick up a shiny new three-ring binder where we meticulously record every imagined detail of our trip. One thing we've learned in 11 marathon trips from Tulsa to Disney World is that some of the most magical Disney moments are the spontaneous ones that arise when the plans we made on paper fall through unexpectedly.

With four parks and loads of can't-miss Disney food and attractions, it's far too easy to turn your dream vacation into a grueling endurance test. However, the truth is that you'll have a better time relaxing and going with the flow. As one Redditor advised in r/WaltDisneyWorld, "My family used to be this way. Now we pick two or three rides per park that we really want to see and go from there. It's a much better experience when you're not rushing around like a madman."

A Disney Vacation Club member who visits the parks annually agreed in the subreddit, emphasizing, "No need to rush to every ride." Instead of overplanning, their crew picks out a few of their can't-miss rides before settling on their overall goals for their trip. "In our last trip my goal was to try foods I've never had after going to WDW for over 10 years," they wrote.

Food costs can quickly get out of hand at Walt Disney World, and underestimating just how much you'll have to spend each day on meals is a rookie mistake. A few years ago, our team member's relative gifted them with a complete Disney trip — hotel accommodations, airfare, tickets, and a meal a day. And even though they'd budgeted generously for a couple of meals a day for their family of five, they still spent hundreds above what they'd originally planned. 

Depending on where you're eating, a family of four can easily spend $200 daily dining out at Walt Disney World. And that's on the low end. The good news is that it's possible to cut those costs dramatically by keeping easy meals and snacks in your hotel room and carefully choosing how you spend your dining dollars while you're in the parks. Disney World allows guests to bring outside food and drink that doesn't require refrigeration or reheating, so don't be afraid to load up on purse snacks before hitting the parks for the day.

The My Disney Experience App is a fantastic resource for guests of Walt Disney World and its California counterpart, Disneyland. The app features a map of each park — even Disney's worst-rated park, Hollywood Studios. There is chat support for guests who need help with things like understanding the recent changes to Disney's Disability Access Service or finding out how to send souvenirs to your hotel room. The app also features attraction show times and wait times, including a virtual queue for three of Disney's hottest rides: Tiana's Bayou Adventure, TRON Lightcycle/Run, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

When guests take advantage of the virtual queue, they reserve their spot at an attraction without being physically present in line. As one Redditor explained in r/WaltDisneyWorld, "If you want to ride Tron, sign on to the app at 6:59am and start clicking refresh to get in the virtual queue." All Disney park guests who have downloaded the app are eligible to join the virtual queue. But you only get one shot per day at it, so choose wisely. There's no guarantee that you'll be selected. Those who are picked will be assigned a boarding group. Once your group is called, you'll have one hour to get in line.

Another clever thing you can do with your phone is to order your food virtually. And we're not just talking sit-down restaurants. With the My Disney Experience app, guests can save time and order their food at a wide range of Disney counter service spots. Simply order and prepay when your hangry crew is disembarking Pirates of the Caribbean. You'll select a designated arrival time when you order your food, then click in the app to alert the cast members when you've arrived so they can put together your order. They'll even notify you via mobile app once your food is ready, so you don't have to worry about standing around and watching for your number to come up.

Surprisingly, a lot of guests either still don't know about the app or opt not to use it, which can leave those who do order online feeling like VIPs when they're strolling past extra long lines like they own the place with little more than a two-minute wait in some cases. Raving about the online ordering option, a Redditor wrote in r/Disneyland, "I'm amazed at the [number] of times I've seen people not using this great service. Between the kids wanting ice cream, my wife wanting a sourdough bowl and me wanting a beer, mobile order has worked wonders even with spontaneity."

The flip side of a flexible itinerary is taking time out to relax. If you've ever felt like you needed rest after your vacation, you understand the paradoxical reality of vacation burnout, which can be amplified in a resort as massive as the Disney parks in Florida. Even the most ardent Disney adults will generally admit that while Walt Disney World is amazing, it can also be a sensory overload, even when pacing yourself. One of the biggest rookie mistakes is overexertion, which can suck all the fun out of your trip before it's over if you're not careful. That's exactly how we spent one beautiful sunny afternoon binge-watching "Beverly Hills 90210" in our Pop Century hotel room.

Taking time out is easier said than done if you're working with a tight schedule. But if you're planning to spend more than a couple of days in Florida, do yourself a favor and allot a day for rest and relaxation by the poolside. Spend an afternoon resort-hopping, take the monorail loop around the Seven Seas Lagoon, or cruise to an under-the-radar Florida beach to enjoy the state's natural splendor. Or take Disney World's free transportation to Disney Springs, the resort's shopping district, for a little good, old-fashioned retail therapy. And if you're staying at a Walt Disney World property, check out your resort's daily activities programming.

If you've got a small child or someone unable or unwilling to board an intense ride for any reason, Disney's Rider Switch service lets you enjoy the ride while they're supervised by an adult in your party. Let's say you and your spouse want to ride Space Mountain, but you've got an eight-month-old cutie pie in your baby sling, and famously, babies hate roller coasters and tend to miss the height requirement. Rather than hang back while your significant other waits alone in a long line, the three of you can be together until they reach the front. You can hang with the baby while your partner rides the coaster, then switch places once they're done — no need to go through the queue again!

All of the Walt Disney World Parks offer the Rider Switch, and it's available on most of the intense or "scary" rides — everything from Epcot's Test Track and Soarin' to Magic Kingdom's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ride. How the ride swap is set up can vary depending on whether the ride has a Lightning Lane. For those with a Lightning Lane entrance, one swapper is usually given a Lightning Lane pass to use after their partner gets through riding.

It's way too easy to underestimate exactly how much water you should be drinking while at Walt Disney World, especially if you're visiting in the summer and unaccustomed to that kind of heat. Forgetting to stay hydrated is a common regret amongst Disney park guests. It can also lead to a very real medical emergency due to dehydration or even heat stroke.

Reporting on r/WaltDisneyWorld, one local Florida firefighter paramedic and self-proclaimed Disgeek warned guests to take their water consumption seriously in the summer heat, particularly making sure their kids get enough to drink. "Every shift for the past few weeks we're getting calls for tourists experiencing heat related injuries," they wrote, "and more often than not they're minors. I feel like people underestimate how humid and hot it is until it's too late."

Disney allows guests to bring their own refillable cups and water bottles, so be sure to bring one with you even if it doesn't seem that hot when you set out for the day. Water refill stations can be found around the various theme parks, and cast members at restaurants will not deny guests a water refill. As one user in the subreddit put it, "It's free and cast members would rather supply you with as much water as you want than to see you hauled away by EMTs."

Trying Disney World's most demanding drink is considered a rite of passage among many Disney guests. Sponsored by Coca-Cola and tucked away inside Epcot's World Celebration, there's a place called Club Cool where guests from even the most utterly landlocked U.S. flyover states get a chance to taste sodas from around the world for free. There's the Moldovan refresher Viva Raspberry, the Phillippines' Royal Wattamelon, and the popular Madagascar drink Bon Bon Anglais, which fans say tastes a bit like cream soda. Then, the Dominican Republic's drink, Country Club Merengue, which tastes like a bubblegum-infused orange soda.

If those don't whet your whistle, you can try Korea's Minute Maid Joy Apple Lychee or China's Suan Mei Tang (Sour Plum Tea), which one Redditor in r/WaltDisneyWorld likened to "... watered down BBQ sauce." Then there's the Russian delight Cucumber Sprite. Nestled unthreateningly at the very end of the soda fountain is Italy's Beverly, a bitter aperitif that may or may not be at Disney World simply to troll guests since the drink isn't even made commercially anymore and hasn't been for the past 15 years. Allegedly, the nefarious refreshment has an intensely bitter grapefruit rind profile because who doesn't love that? As one Redditor so poetically observed in r/ask, "It's pretty vile. It's what I imagine gasoline tastes like."