For many families, visiting Walt Disney World® Resort is the trip of a lifetime, from the rides, to the shows, and the fun of meeting your favorite characters... it's an incredible experience! It also takes a lot of planning to ensure you make the most of your visit.
Our family recently returned from our very first trip to Walt Disney World Resort and it was even more magical than we imagined! Both of our kids discovered a love of thrill rides and our 8-year-old had his very first... and second... and third... rollercoaster rides! They loved every show we saw and had a blast meeting their favorite characters, and they loved the food too. And thanks to the Walt Disney World Theme Park website and the My Disney Experience app, we were able to easily navigate the parks to experience as many thrill rides and shows as possible, as well as carefully plan our allergy-friendly dining.
Here are five things we learned while capturing the magic of Walt Disney World Theme Park with our tweens.
The author was hosted by Walt Disney World Resort to facilitate writing this article. All thoughts and opinions expressed are her own.
1. Plan Rides Before You Go
Tweens and teens are all about the thrill rides. We read about the rides at each park and watched videos while we were planning our trip so we knew which ones were our priorities. My daughter recommends Avatar Flight of Passage (she rode that one twice!), Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain®, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
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2. Watch Wait Times in the App
The My Disney Experience App has so much great information for you to know during your visit. Our favorite feature was the ride wait times so we could strategize our way through the parks to get on the most rides and see the most shows each day. Watching the wait times also helps you make selections for Lightning Lane entry either by purchasing the Disney Genie+ service or individual Lightning Lane entrances.
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3. Stay at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel
Getting back and forth between the parks is so easy (and maximizes your time at the parks!) when you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel. We especially enjoyed being able to take the boats to and from the park because it felt more like a park ride than taking the shuttles. But no matter which method of transportation you take to and from a resort, it's all included. We also loved being able to unlock our room door with the app!
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4. Get the Memory Maker
There are amazing photo opportunities all over the parks. We loved the capture cameras on the rides, but also stopped for photo ops with characters and the photographers around the parks. And don't tell her friends, but even our "big kid" loved meeting her favorite characters.
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5. Enjoy Allergy Friendly Dining
It is SO easy to avoid allergens at Walt Disney World Resort Hotels and Theme Parks! I'd heard there were gluten free options to be found, but we were completely amazed that every menu had allergy-friendly options for multiple allergies. From gluten to dairy, egg, and even sesame, you could pull up the restaurant's menu in the My Disney Experience app or on the Walt Disney World Theme Park website and view the options they had that avoided your ingredient of concern. We let them know we were ordering for a food allergy and they prepared the allergy-friendly meals separately from everything else. Our favorite was the French Bistro Burger at Connections Eatery in EPCOT®.
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Bonus Tip: Medical Care
No one plans to be unwell on vacation, but should you find yourselves in the same position we were in, where a member of our family needed medical care while we were at Walt Disney World Theme Park, there is a link in the My Disney Experience app to help you get the care you need. We called one number to make an appointment to have our daughter's ear checked out and book a shuttle to the clinic. Afterwards the shuttle took us to fill the prescription for antibiotic ear drops and then dropped us off at the Theme Park to meet up with the rest of our family. Walt Disney World Resort made it easy to get care for our daughter's ear pain so we could get back to the magic.
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Giveaway ends midnight EDT, July 31, 2023. Must be at least 18 at time of entry. Complete rules here.
If you're ready to start planning your family's Walt Disney World Theme Park vacation, check out the My Disney Experience app and Walt Disney World Theme Park website. Your tweens and teens will love helping to plan out exciting, magical days for your family.
