My Disney World Tips + What I Wore

Am I a Disney influencer? Hardly! If you’re looking for someone who’s an adult wearing Mickey ears to one of the theme parks, you’ve come to the wrong place.

I’m just a fashion stylist, a mom, and a regular person who wanted to make the most of making memories with my family, while looking stylish of course.

I booked this so last minute, but felt prepared because I read this book, did a lot of research and made a lot of notes (I may or may not be Type A), polled a lot of my friends and my Instagram followers …and now I’m writing the post I wish I saw before spending countless hours planning this trip!

DISNEY WORLD TIPS + WHAT I  WORE:

• Hire a planner
  

  It’s *free* for you but just know they get kickback from the resorts, so you may get upsold. We booked through a planner I found on a local mom group, Kristin DeLeo at @CTtoDisneyandBeyond — she was very responsive and helpful, as we were newbies.

  She also booked us so last minute (I reached out in maybe July / August and we went in September), so I’m grateful she got it all together for us. I think planning last minute is totally fine, but note that you need to book your dining reservations a month before and any Lightening Passes a week before. Also note that there is no slow time at Disney. It’s always packed. We went in September and the pilot of our plane told us that there were 56 kids on our flight, which goes to show that there’s not really a peak time anymore.

• Get the Lightning Passes

  If you’re staying for a limited time and only doing 1 park a day, these passes were worth the splurge to guarantee a spot at all of the rides we wanted to make sure we went on. It’s super annoying that you are given times (including one for us that was at 6:30pm!), but you can always switch things around while you’re there… as long as the rides aren’t booked.

  We got a few for Hollywood Studios, but mostly waited in the lines, which weren’t too bad. We got a lot of them for Magic Kingdom, as there was a lot of rides we wanted to make sure we go on, and the waits were much longer for the popular rides, but like 5-35 minutes for the less popular ones.

  We ended up getting the Premier Pass (one pass to every ride once at the park through the day) and it was helpful to not be on a strict schedule in such a massive park, but we didn’t feel like we needed to do that. There are also tiers of rides and too many tier 1 rides that sell out right away from Epcot, so we did find this helpful, otherwise the waits would have been 55-90 minutes! I personally don’t think it’s worth the money to splurge on a “Plaid” (aka tour guide who basically does that for you) unless you split it with another family or two.

  As my husband said, we’re doing this once so let’s just do it right. Though now he says we should totally go back!!!!

• You can do it all in less than a week (5 days total for us: 2 for travel, 3 for parks for us)
  We felt like we did everything we set out to do and didn’t feel like we could handle more time than that. If you want to make it a relaxing vacation, book some down time in between park days to enjoy the pools and various things happening. For us, we were on a mission to give our kids the best experience…and get out of there. While we were so ready to get home, we did love it at our resort. We skipped Animal Kingdom, as most of the rides seemed a bit too scary for my little ones, I was underwhelmed by it when I was 10, and we live near The Bronx Zoo, so I’d rather just do that. We did Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom and Epcot and wouldn’t change a thing.
  

• Stay on the Disney properties if you can afford to
  

  I never understood this hype, but it was 100% worth the splurge to get the most our of our time there. We loved Grand Floridian but it was $$ and I would also personally consider The Polynesian (also $$ but possibly slightly less).

  The benefit of splurging is that you get more out of the days, which means less time spent at Disney. We walked to Magic Kingdom and took a boat home (about 10-15 each way), took a quick Monorail ride to Epcot and a 15-20 minute bus ride to Hollywood from where we were located. They have a deal, where if you stay more, you save more, but for us we felt like we saved by only booking 4 nights and getting out of there!

  Another benefit is that my kids are still too young that they probably wouldn’t have made it to/from the fireworks at Magic Kingdom (it’s between 8 – 10pm, depending on the time of year), so we got them ready for bed and then we ran downstairs to watch the fireworks in their pjs from right behind our hotel room!

   

  

  
  The biggest benefit is that you have early access to the park later (which didn’t apply to us) and about 30-60 minutes before the public does so we got to get on the most coveted rides right away. If you can do that, I’d recommend starting with the following at “rope drop” as the pros seem to call it:
  
  Hollywood Studios – Slinky Dog Dash first (my 5 year old daughter did the “babyish” rides nearby with her dad while I took my 8 year old on with me). We ended up using the Lightening Pass later on too because my son loved it. He ended up going on Tower of Terror and the Rock n Rollercoaster twice and we didn’t have lightening passes to those. If you prioritize one, make it Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — that may have been my favorite right of the entire trip!
  
  Magic Kingdom – Space Mountain and then Tron (my 5 year old daughter did about 6 “babyish” rides in that time, including Dumbo and was thrilled).

  Epcot – We started with Frozen and Ratatouille, which my 5 year old loved and apparently the lines get pretty long for those which I would have been bummed to wait in line for them. My daughter and husband went to a Beauty and The Beast sing-a-long (sorry Josh) while my son and I went to the Guardians of The Galaxy roller coaster, which is hands down the best roller coaster in our opinion — my son went twice so 3 of us were in agreement! I’d probably skip Mission Space in the future — I think I had a panic attack when the ride didn’t start right away, and I was strapped in with a harness enclosed in a tiny capsule with no exit and a screen in front of my face. I guess I’ll admire space from afar and if you’re claustrophobic, you may want to as well.

• Plan, but plan to go with the flow
  

  While our planner advised on what rides to book passes on, I was over on ChatGPT mapping out our days to the hour (Type A much?). DO NOT DO THIS. The best advice our planner said was to not plan our rides out, as we will drive ourselves crazy and also not enjoy Disney. She was right! We had a loose plan of action, but when my daughter had an impromptu nap stroller, or we all melted by the end of the day, we were able to switch gears and see things we may not have seen. It was also nice on some of our days to leave the parks earlier, go back to the pools, grab dinner and go to bed a little later.

• You don’t need to do sit down meals… BUT make reservations just in case
  

  My kids were wrecked by 4pm daily, so it was ambitious to make dinner reservations after 5pm, which are apparently pretty coveted. Our planner made suggestions and booked our meals, but we ended up canceling a couple, switching some around and even showed up before our reservation and they were able to fit us in! I was grateful to have a reservation just in case and you can cancel 2 hours before your meal, so it’s worth it.

  Hollywood Studios:
  We did a character dinner at Hollywood & Vine — it was $$$ for what it was but that’s what I hear about all the character meals. It was worth getting one character meal in and we were only there for 3 days and wanted to make the most of our days, so we didn’t do a big breakfast, but if I was staying longer, that would have been the meal to do it.

  Magic Kingdom:
  We were so tired because there’s a lot to do there, so we just did a casual and quick meal at our hotel at Gasparilla’s. We did our breakfasts there (overnight oats with nuts and berries plus cold brew daily for me and I was happy), and for lunch we grabbed a bite at Peco Bills (underwhelming, but did the job).

  Epcot:
  Everyone had different advice here, but you can easily eat and drink your way through it. I personally was underwhelmed by the options being I’m spoiled with NYC food AND borderline vegan, mostly pescatarian. The Coral Reef Restaurant was the perfect way to cap our trip and was beyond what I expected! Many seemed underwhelmed when I brought it up, but dining next to an aquarium filled with sharks and various sea creatures was a core memory for me when I was 4 years old, so I wanted to share that with my kids. The prices were reasonable for sustainable and delicious fish (is it strange to eat fish next to fish swimming to you?), the kids loved it and it was better than any of the mostly fried and unhealthy food around the World Showcase. I sustained on 3 dumplings in China for lunch and it was decent, but not better than going to Chinatown for me.

  Honestly,  as foodies (and health-conscious people, plus we didn’t drink once while there), we were not impressed by the Disney eats, but that’s not why were were there personally! Our cousins that live in Orlando go on date nights to Epcot with their annual passes, and that sounds lovely.

  The highlights for us were the Kona coffee we picked up at Magic Kingdom that is the best fuel to keep going, and our kids loved the famous Dole Whip, as well as the mango sorbet gelato in Italy at Epcot’s World Showcase was totally worth it.

• Bring a stroller or rent one!
  

  My 8 year old was too proud to go in one, so we were perfectly happy bringing our travel stroller that folds down small enough to carry on a plane. We did between 17k – 27k steps a day, so you will need it! Most park-goers seem to rent double strollers, which I would have considered if my kids were younger.

  There are so many strollers around and the employees (or cast members) tend to move around where you park your stroller, so put something on it so you can find it in the sea of strollers! We put a ribbon on ours (apparently we were not alone in this idea). Our cousin picked us up from the airport and greeted us with a balloon, which was a great marker for the stroller as well. I don’t recommend buying Mylar balloons, as they’re horrible for the environment and wildlife, but a marker on your stroller would be one of my essentials!

• Leave the nice clothes at home and dress for comfort, heat and walking!

  I had these big plans of changing for dinner and dressing slightly nicer. That never happened and I was still one of the best dressed there! You’ll see a lot of theme and custom tees and shorts around, as well as a lot of bad fashion.

WHAT I  WORE:

Shop this look I wore to Hollywood Studios on my ShopMy

Hollywood Studios:
I wore a moisture wicking tank and Bermuda shorts, both via Rhone (LIZ20 for 20% off) for my first day and was incredibly comfortable and definitely appropriate for the park. I may have been overdressed wearing a belt, but my motto is always, “they’re wrong. I’m dressed well.”

I also wore sandals that day, which with 17k steps was totally fine in the ones I had, but almost every park guest had sneakers on, so they were fine for this park but would recommend sneakers for the others.

I don’t have regrets with my outfit for Hollywood Studios (below), as it worked well for a smaller and more low key park. My only regret was that I tried to straighten my hair and the Florida humidity wasn’t having it.

WEAR A HAT! That Florida sun is strong and you’ll be outside for most of the day, so protect your skin! I got stopped by a stranger asking where my hat (LIZ15 for 15% off) was from, so you can find a cute one too!

Shop this look I wore to Magic Kingdom on my ShopMy

Magic Kingdom:

Many women wore tennis dresses and skirts, which I think was the best move. With 90 degree days and high humidity, it was perfect for dripping in sweat all day. When my family complained they got wet from Tiana’s Adventure (formerly Splash Mountain), I dried right away!

You will likely sweat a lot too in Orlando, (unless you go in December – January — bring a parka! I wore a winter coat when I was there then as a kid). I opted for a cute tennis skirt with built-in shorts (LIZ20 for 20% off) instead of a dress just for the ease of going to the bathroom, but I did see a lot of women in simple tennis dresses (bonus this one has UPF 50+ and also 20% of with my code LIZ20) that looked perfectly dressed for the occasion.

This may have been the perfect bag for Disney! It held my water bottle, SPF, snacks, and even had a pocket for my iPhone on the side to make it easy to grab to navigate around the park. It also held up to my sweat, getting wet, and was easy to stash by my feet on rides. As much as I saw belt bags, I’d avoid them, not only because I’m not a fan, but they don’t hold much and are annoying to take on and off, unlike a small backpack.

Shop this look I wore to Epcot on my ShopMy

Epcot:

I know, you’re probably shocked to see a jacket on me, but hear me out. THE A/C IS BRUTAL. There are a lot of buildings in Epcot where you’re in for a while and I was going from dripping sweat to shivering in a flash. My husband and I even joked that the Coral Reef Restaurant where we ate for dinner was prepping us for getting back to NY weather. I tied this breezy anorak (LIZ20 for 20% off) around my waist or stowed it in my bag/under the stroller for much of the day, but I was so glad to have it.

Shop this look I wore to travel on my ShopMy

This suitcase was essential for me because I packed a ton of snacks, SPF and other necessities for our trip in it and made this our one checked bag, and carried on this classic tote bag (which of course had more snacks).

I layered up in my comfy Splendid pieces (on sale right now!) for the travel there and back as well and they were perfect to keep me warm on the chilly plane, but also cool enough for my arrival into Orlando.

While I wore sneakers at the parks for on average 20k steps daily, I switched to another comfy pair for travel just to give my feet a break. Mine are sold out, but these sneakers are from the same brand and love them as well!

WHAT ADD-ON’S TO AVOID:

• MAGIC BANDS – Totally a waste of money if you’re not a regular at Disney. You’ll spend $30-40 a pop and use it once. My kids were perfectly happy using the *free* Disney cards to get into the park and on the rides.
• BIPPITY BOPPITY BOUTIQUE – Avoid making a pricy reservation / mistake of getting your kids’ hair done, which will inevitably get destroyed within one ride. Instead, go across the “street” to Sir Mickey’s for a *free* dusting of pixie dust, along with a wish. My daughter said it was her favorite thing that day!
• SCHEDULING A DRIVER – Disney partners with Lyft so this is the cheapest and easy option (I wish I knew this before we scheduled Ubers!
• BUYING SPECIAL PINS / GEAR – Ask for a *free* button pin when you check in and they’ll write on it whether it’s your first time or if you’re celebrating something.
• RENTING A STROLLER – I was encouraged by many to do this, but I was perfectly happy with my travel stroller (ask other moms if they have one to borrow! I loaned mine to a friend for her Disney trip prior to ours!). I’d only rent one if you need a double stroller, but my 8 year old was a bit too proud to go in one and didn’t complain as a result!
• BUYING WATER – What a racket it is at Disney to waste money on bottled water. Every restaurant will give you a *free* cup of filtered water and we often dumped it into our refillable bottles or used a bottle refilling station.
• BUYING ANYTHING AT DISNEY – if you must get anything like Minnie ears, get them for $10 on Amazon prior, instead of $40 when you’re there!

WHAT TO MAKE SURE TO PACK:

• stroller (plus something to mark it)
• reusable water bottles
• snacks (we did a lot of bars, fruit leather, and easy things to eat and walk)
• hand sanitizer
• wet wipes
• portable backup phone chargers
• SPF (I brought this sunscreen spray so my family didn’t give me too much of a hard time when we stopped to apply)
• ponchos/raincoats (we didn’t need, but packed our raincoats just in case)
• baseball caps (my husband and I wore, but the kids didn’t want to)
• air tags and bracelets (my kid wore these the whole time) or ID bracelets
• portable fans (my husband gave me a hard time, but it kept the kids happy)
• comfy sneakers

Let me know if there’s anything I may have forgotten or you want to know (send me a DM) and I’ll add to this list too.

Happy travels and stay stylish!

xLiz