Author's Note:
This entry is under construction, and should be ignored until furthur notice. When complete, it should consist of eight different entries, being Walt Disney World Resort - A Guide, Walt Disney World Resort - Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort - Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort - MGM Studios, Walt Disney World Resort - Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort - Downtown Disney, Walt Disney World Resort - Water Parks, Walt Disney World Resort - Resorts*, and Walt Disney World Resort - Everything Else. It is being written to fill what I consider to be a surprising hole in the guide.

Walt Disney World Resort; although Walt Disney died before the gates to his dream opened to the public, Walt Disney World Resort remains to be one of the most popular amusement parks in the world. Since the opening of the original Walt Disney Land in California in 1955, four new Disney resorts* have opened around the world. This artical and the articals which branch off it should provide a simple and effective guide to enjoying your Walt Disney World Resort vacation in Orlando, Florida*.

Planning Your Trip

As any sensible person will tell you, a Disney World trip should be fully planned and mulled over before going. The best reason for this being Disney World is big. Huge. It's so large, it consists of four parks: Magical Kingdom, Epcot Center, MGM Studios and Animal Kindom. Each park offers its own unique theme of attractions, and your groups interests should be taken into consideration before going.

Firstly, consider ordering a free information DVD and booklet from Disney*. The DVD will show you various attractions from around the parks, things that are new, and dispense helpful tips on planning, booking, ect. It also contains a special CD-ROM that will help you plan your vacation. Once you've watched the video over with your group, take into consideration what you'd like to do and see, and make an intinerary. Although it may seem a bit uptight to have a plan on your vacation, it'll help you squeeze in everything you want to see and do.

The best way to experience Disney World Resort is to stay at a resort on the premises, which is actually much cheeper than you might think (See: Walt Disney World Resort - Resorts). When picking your hotel*, be sure to book the new Disney's Magical Express Service. This new complimentary service, which is available to Disney Resort Guests during the Happiest Celebration on Earth* could save you a lot of money. Disney will send you special luggage tags-check your bags at your airport, and the moment you arrive in Orland, your vacation starts. Disney will pick up your bags and deliver them to your room, and pick you up and bring you to your hotel. Since the service is complementary, you'll be saving money on gas, car rental, tolls, and more, which can add up to quite the pretty penny.

Now that you've arrived at your resort, you'll probably be wondering how you get to the parks without a rental car. No worries-transportation by bus will take resort guests to the front gates for free-no finding your way around, finding a parking spot, or treking through the parking lot. Check your resort's map for bus stop locations nearest your room. Buses will run back and foruth from the time the park opens to the time the park closes.

Enjoying Your Day

Seeing as you've got such convienient transportation, don't spend all day wearing yourself out at the park. Around lunchtime, try coming back to the hotel and relaxing poolside, grabbing a bite at your resort's food court. Here's a tip: most resorts sell special mugs with which you can refill as many times as you'd like at your resort's soda fountain. Also, they will have no qualms about you bringing the mugs back for future visits. The foodcourt is probably your best bet for cheap dining alternatives during your stay-there should be a variety of kinds of food at reasonable prices. Of course, many of the themed restaraunts inside the parks are too good to miss, so take which ones you'd like to visit into consideration, which reminds me:

Restaraunts - Priority Seating

Disney has a large variety of incredible restaraunts in their parks, and you will probably want to visit a couple during your stay. However, they are usually packed, and your chances of getting in on a whim are rather slim. This is where the miracle of priority seating comes in. Priority seating is the term that Walt Disney World's cast members* use for table service restaurant reservations. Simply put, you can't get traditional reservations for most restaurants at WDW. Instead, you are given a priority seating time which is different than conventional reservations. Having a priority seating time at a WDW restaurant does not guarantee that an empty table will waiting for you when you arrive. Instead, it means that you will be given the first available table of the type you've requested after your arrival (as long as you get to the restaurant at least five minutes before your scheduled priority seating time). However, if several other folks with priority seating have arrived ahead of you (even if they have a later priority seating time), you'll stand in line. The reason for this odd arrangement is that many people over the years were making reservations and skipping them. The restaurants were forced to honor those reservations, but often ended up holding tables for people that didn't show up (we're talking up to 40-60% no shows here). That being the case, Disney cooked up this priority seating concept. It works, as long as you know what your priority seating really means.

To place a priority seating arrangement, call (407) WDW-DINE. It is probably a good idea to make the arrangement quite a while in advance. You can not make priority seating arrangements for any restaurants in the parks prior to 60 days before the date of the meal. Also, you can not make priority seating arrangements for any restaurants in the resorts prior to 120 days before the date of the meal.

Experiencing Disney World with Children

Although Disney World is fun for all ages, children can often receive the most enjoyment out of the experience, even though most of them would probably be just as happy playing in a cardboard box. It is probably a good idea to bring your children at an age where traveling is of more ease, particuarly when they are seven and up. When traveling with children, taking a break back at the hotel is especially adviseable, allowing them a chance to rest so that they'll be up for more fun later in the day and coming week.

Of course, where there are children, there are tons of souveniere shops. Most of the large attractions have a gift shop of some sort at the end, and chances are your child will want something. It is probably a good idea to have your children pay for their own souvenieres out of their allowance. Contrary to popular thought, it is not a good idea to make purchases at the end of the day. Everyone seems to think this, which usually causes the gift shops to be packed at the end of the day.

Of course, there are cheap souvenieres available. A big industry at WDW is pin trading. Pins are widley available in various shops (including a Downtown Disney shop devoted to them) and are relativly inexpensive, although they varry in price. Your resort may give you a lanyard and pins free to start you out as part of a resort rewards program if you so choose. If you plan on obtaining pins, I find this to be a good reward choice, as I am about to tell you a tip that not many guests know: most WDW cast members (employees) wear lanyards decorated with various pins. If you spy a pin on a employee's lanyard that you fancy, you can trade it for one of yours. No questions asked, they cannot refuse to trade. Through this system, you can potentially get some more valuable or elaborate pins for cheaper ones.

Sometimes, parks hold pin swap meets for children. Check scheduals and inquire at shops for more information.

Trivia - Impress your Friends and Family While on Vacation

To finish up this artical, I'll leave you with some trivia tidbits that you can use to impress your friends and family while visiting Walt Disney World Resort.

• In the castle at the center of the Magic Kingdom, there is an elevator that leads up to an aparment which Walt Disney was to stay in while he and his family were visiting the park. Unfortuanly, Walt died before he had the oppertunity to use it, and it is now used as an office.
• The world's largest hidden Mickey is located at MGM Studios at the large wizard's hat. The color in the cement makes up his face, and the small lake nearby makes up his ear.
• Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Originally, employees were to live and work there, but the idea was scrapped when it was decided it would be a much too noisy place to live.
• The original name of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority was WED People Mover.
• Stitch's Great Escape! was originally called Alien Encounter, which was decidingly less cute and fuzzy.

Other Articals

For more details on specific parks and locations, read: