Generally in the UK the most popular option is to buy 14 day passes which cover all the parks for the duration of your stay. Shorter tickets are available but mostly not in the UK so you’ll need to access the US site (perhaps with a VPN) to buy these. However they generally aren’t great value by comparison with the 14 day tickets. If you visit more regularly an annual pass may be a good option and there are various levels you can go for depending on when you plan to generally visit.

Disney often has special ticketed events where you can access the park for just a few hours instead of buying full day/week passes. We’ve included details of these in our park guides, but these often occur around Halloween and Christmas, as well as more regular after-hours events, or Moonlight Magic events for DVC members.

Besides being a lot fun, they’re a good way to access the parks if you don’t have full passes. For example we attended a Halloween party when we stayed for just a weekend before a cruise and full passes were just too expensive.

Walt Disney World’s fastpass system is now called Lightning Lane. This is a paid system with three options: Lightning Lane Single Passes, Lightning Lane Premier Pass and Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Multi Pass allow you to select up to three attractions and arrival windows in advance, while Single Pass allow you to choose one attraction and an arrival window. The Multi Pass system is similar to the old system pre-pandemic that we were massive fans of, except now you have to pay for it. Either way if you go for this, obviously make sure to focus on the headline attractions to reduce your queueing time! We’ve included our recommendations for this in our park guides.

Rope drop - the term referring to being at the park for opening or ‘rope drop’ is the best way to do some of the popular rides before they get busy. It’s your best chance during the day of just getting stuff done and we’re big fans of rope dropping. It works particularly well if you’re travelling from the UK and still jet lagged and waking up early. It’s also a great opportunity to get some empty park photos!

The parks generally start getting busier towards lunch time and throughout the afternoon so this is the time to take in those large capacity shows, or to head back to the resort for some pool time.

Walt Disney World is renowned for its evening entertainment. Each park offers something different and we’ve covered these in our park guides. With so much on offer it’s difficult to take everything in - lots of late nights plus rope dropping doesn’t combine well for relaxing break. Therefore you’ll likely need to pick and choose and plan your itinerary carefully. We tend to plan a late night followed by a lazy morning to get some rest but it takes some planning and prioritising.

Pin trading is a Disney tradition and something we’ve always enjoyed. Our kids love taking their lanyards around and trading with cast members throughout the day.

If you’re new to pin trading you can buy starter kits from the shops, as well as hoards of unique pins throughout Walt Disney World to add to your collection. You can then trade with any cast member wearing a lanyard. Another alternative is to buy a job-lot of pins on Ebay before you visit to give you something to trade. Please just make sure these are official pins though and not fakes.

If you are staying in any of the resorts, regardless of whether it is a value, moderate or deluxe, you are able to make use of the Early Theme Park Entry perk. This gives you access to any of the parks 30 minutes before any off-site guests can enter, this gives you a great little headstart onto the most popular rides, but make sure you get there at least an hour before main opening to ensure you get in with enough time.

There are also regular Extended Evening Hours for deluxe resorts guests, check the hours for which parks this includes throughout your stay.

Firstly, get your dining reservations in early as the popular restaurants, and in particular character meals, book up early. This can be done on the app.

Secondly, make sure you allocate enough time in your day for these meals. A character meal for example can often take up to 2 hours by the time you and the kids have all eaten, met all the characters etc. They’re a great way to rejuvenate out of the sun for a few hours, but can be time intensive. So allow for this in your plans.

If you love characters you’ll want to check these out. These are informal character meets that randomly occur in some of parks every so often, and involve up to a dozen different characters that you can meet. These are usually characters ‘in-training’ and give you a great opportunity to meet some more niche characters that don’t always pop up elsewhere in the parks.

There are whole websites that go into detail on these and the latest sightings but in the past we’ve seen them at various points in Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Note these are fairly random, so can’t really be planned in - just keep you eye out.

For most of the year there are festivals taking place at EPCOT, with different food booths to sample, entertainment and much more! These are Festival of the Arts, Flower & Garden Festival, Food & Wine Festival and Festival of the Holidays. These can make the park very busy, so if you wanted a quieter visit then you can avoid these dates!

Transportation to the parks is amazing from all of the results, with the buses, monorail, skyliner and boats to choose from. If you have a particular park you will be visiting a lot, you may want to choose a resort in that area with extra transportation to make your journey times less, for example Caribbean Beach has the skyliner to get to Hollywood Studios and EPCOT easier. Explore the resorts and what they offer here.

Opening times can vary greatly between the parks, with Animal Kingdom closing a lot earlier, but also opening earlier. World Showcase in EPCOT doesn’t open until 11am (apart from the rides located there which open at park opening) but stays open a lot later! The WDW app has all of the up to date opening hours to look at when planning your trip, which is super helpful. If you are staying at a Deluxe resort there are also sporadic extra evening hours for those guests, again check the app for the days and parks that this applies to when planning.