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Get a calendar and count down the days.
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Spend time getting the kids ready for the
trip.
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Let them know that they will have to spend
some time waiting in line for anything they do. |
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Explain to them how easily someone can get
lost |
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Since we were taking a plane to Florida, we
played "airplane" several times so the kids would
know what to expect
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Stay in one of the Disney Resorts
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Every day a different park opens early for
Disney Resort Guests. This allows you to grab at least
two or three of your favorite rides before the rest of the
world shows up at the parks. |
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Disney runs buses from the resorts to all the
parks about every 20 minutes. |
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Resort guests can also take advantage of
E-ticket nights at the Magic Kingdom. For $10 a person,
you can stay in the park from when the park closes to
midnight. This is another opportunity to ride your
favorite rides without waiting in line.
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Go early. Take a nap. Stay late.
When we visited the parks, they seemed busiest right around
noon. Things also slowed down a little bit after sunset--but
not as much. If you have small children, you may want to
take them back to the hotel for a nap during the middle of the
day.
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Use the Fast-Pass
The "Fast Pass" lets you come back and cut to the head
of the line -- at a certain time. The only drawback is that
you can only have one outstanding "Fast Pass" at a time.
(You can get another one after about two hours, but most of the
wait times we saw were much less than that.) This does allow you
to be sure and ride the one thing you want to really be sure that
you do.
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Watch the warnings!
Some of the rides have warnings because they might be frightening
to small children. In our experience, if there was a
warning, we had some problems with the kids being
frightened. If you want to go ahead and give it a try, get
one of the Disney "Cast Members" to tell you about the
ride, so you can mentally prepare your kids for them.
Some examples: |
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The Great Movie Ride
(The Alien section scared me--the kids came unglued...) |
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Snow White's Scary Adventures |
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The Haunted Mansion
(The ghosts popping up from behind the tombstones were
frightening until my wife said, "Look, they're just
playing peek-a-boo.") |
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Pirates of the Caribbean
The talking skeletons are pretty creepy |
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"Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!"
At one point a million mice stream into the audience and it's
really frightening.
A huge snake also sticks its head out of the screen.
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Take an autograph book for when you meet the
characters in the park.
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Be extra nice to the characters. They have a hard job to
do. They can't speak to you and they can't see well. |
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Be sure and hand them the pen so they don't have to turn it around
to sign the book.
(I think this means the point should be
pointing at you when you hand it to them.)
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Be sure and protect yourself from the sun.
Take hats, sunglasses and plenty of sunscreen. If you get
sunburned the first day, you'll be miserable for the rest of your
trip.
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Have Fun!
Remember, that no matter what happens, your experience will not be
perfect--neither will your kids. Teach your kids (by
example) to look for the best parts of the day and overlook the
things that went wrong |
