When I returned from my first trip to Disney World back in 2016, I thought I’d share a few of my top Disney World tips that I came up with. None of these are specific to any particular park, so they could be described as Disney World tips or Disneyland tips or even just plain only Disney tips. Most of these are not my own inventions but I compiled the list and this is what worked for us as we tried to keep to a little bit of a Disney budget.
If you’re looking for even more of a hacking Disney World guide – you’ll want this e-book with 50 pages of proven Disney World tips
1. Bring a stroller (even if your kids aren’t little)
Disney World Tips #1: When we first went, my youngest child was 3 and nearly 4 and is a big girl (just ask her!) – we haven’t regularly used a stroller for her probably in the past 2 years. Still, there are so many reasons you’ll want a stroller. First of all, even though your little kid thinks he’s a big kid, after 3-4 hours of walking, he won’t be a big kid. Of course, even though it was on the packing list…. we forgot our stroller at home 🙂
(SEE ALSO: 6 packing mistakes people make – don’t let this happen to you!)
Strollers at Disney World rent for $15 / day! We had a bit more latitude since we were driving to Orlando (instead of flying), but when we realized we forgot the stroller – we stopped at Walmart and BOUGHT a stroller. It cost us $30 and then we sold it on Craigslist for $15 after we got back! Still cheaper than renting a stroller for a few days!
The other nice thing about a stroller is that you can put all your stuff in it (food, souvenirs, anything else you want to carry) and that way you don’t have to carry it!
2. Bring your own Disney glow sticks
If you’re planning on being in the parks at night for the fireworks shows or anything else, you’ll see tons of Disney glow sticks for sale.
Instead of shelling out $10 or $15 a kid for one of those light up toys, we just bought a 4 pack of glow sticks from the dollar store before we left. Yes, they’re not nearly as “cool” looking, but my kids at least had just as much fun with them at 5% of the cost!
Plus you know your kids are going to totally break / lose their $15 Disney glow sticks within 2 seconds, right? And besides, Disney glow sticks are one of those things like huge stuffed animals that look totally cool when you’re IN the park, but make you look like a loser the second you get out into the parking lot 😛
3. Do a little food planning
Disney World tips #3 – budget your food. I get it – nobody really wants to spend their Disney vacation eating PB&Js all day long. But we all know that Disney food can be super expensive, especially for those of us with large families.
So decide what’s most important for you. Again we drove down, so we had it a bit easier in terms of bringing food with us, but you can decide what makes sense for your family and where you’re staying. Look – I’m not saying you have to eat PB&J 3 meals a day, but plan what’s most important to you. If food is your thing, and / or character dining is what is most important to you, then by all means spend the money to do that! But if it’s not that important to you, and / or you’d rather spend your time / money elsewhere, a well thought out plan BEFOREHAND can help make that happen
(SEE ALSO: The complete beginner’s guide to cooking in a hotel room)
(SEE ALSO: 4 rice cooker recipes for hotel room cooking)
4. Buy some Disney pins for trading
Disney pin trading is a big deal at the parks, so the 4th of my Disney tips and tricks is to buy some pins beforehand. I bought a set of 80 pins off of eBay and it cost me around $25-$30. I also bought lanyards for about $2 each at an office supply store before I left (hello 5x Chase Ink!), and we passed the pins out to the kids on the drive down.
In the park, we found many of the Disney cast members with pin lanyards. Another Disney tip is that if you’re having trouble locating cast members with pins to trade, look inside the shops – most of the cast members inside there will be happy to trade with you
I thought this was a great way for the kids to get a little extra fun while in Disney. Note that some people take Disney pin trading VERY SERIOUSLY and there do exist “fake” or “knockoff” pins on eBay or anywhere. So if that’s something that’s important to you, watch out. Personally, I could care less about “official” Disney pins and my kids had a blast with the pins we got off of eBay
5. Give your kids a souvenir budget (and their own money!)
Our kids are not big into souvenirs (or maybe they’re just too used to mean old Dad saying no to everything!), but rather than having kids start asking for every little thing, we gave them a souvenir / snack budget for our time there. For our family, I set it at $20 and told each of the kids that they could use that for a toy or souvenir, or if they wanted extra snacks (other than the food / meals we were doing as a family). Most of them got 1 souvenir, and one of my daughters also spent money on a giant lollipop, and one of my sons decided he’d rather keep the money and use it towards something he’s been saving for at home.
Depending on the age of your kids, I think this works even better if you actually GIVE them the money themselves (if your kids are younger and the concept of money is a little abstract) – of course then you can’t get the credit card points when they buy something!!! 🙂
If you’re looking for even more of a hacking Disney World guide – you’ll want this e-book with 50 pages of proven Disney World tips
Got any other good Disney tips and tricks? Leave them in the comments!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
We’re big fans of free ice water at counter service restaurants. Our kids are all old enough to have jobs. We told them to take their own water bottle each day and get free refills. If they wanted a soda, they had to pay for it themselves.
Great tip on the trading pins. The pins inside the park are expensive if you are buying lots of them.
Also, so many people make the mistake of renting strollers at Disney. I love bringing my own as it is much more comfortable and already paid for!
Also, you can get the Chase Disney Debit card (not Credit Card) for additional discounts in the park. There is no fee for the Disney Debit card.
Great tips!
I got the debit card but didn’t take advantage of really anything
Except, the pins that you get for that cheap off of eBay are counterfeit. Which is then very disappointing for someone that trades a genuine for one of the counterfeits.
How can you tell real pins vs. counterfeit ones?
https://disneypincollecting.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/how-to-tell-a-fake-from-the-real-thing/
It’s not always the easiest, apparently, but misspellings on the back, bad pressing of the design on the back, washed out colors, burrs on the edges, are some signs. If you’re not paying over $1/pin, it’s a scrapper. It’s unfortunate, because cast members “have” to trade with you, so the fakes get into the “economy” pretty easily.
I was able to find a highly reputable Facebook group where I was able to buy random sets of pins for about $1.50 per + about $4 shipping.
I keep a virtual account for my kids on Google Sheets. Any money they earn through extra chores or allowance is credited, any money spent is debited. I started the account back in the RedBird days when I watched them spending cash at Target when I could get 5xs rewards plus 5% REDcard discount! I can just pull up their “account” on my phone to tell them how much they have, use my card of choice, and debit their account. That way, too, there’s no crying over a dropped dollar or lost money purse.
That’s what we do too (more or less). Still, for the younger kids, I think that it’s a bit hard to understand the concept of money
I didn’t even know pin trading was a thing so I’m glad I know now.
My daughter who works at Disney says to make sure any pins you buy are authentic Disney products. Otherwise the cast members cannot trade with you.
Yes I have heard that as well – good point!
Pressed pennies are great too! Disney sells a book to save/organize them for about $12. It is also adventurous and super cheap.
Completely agree on bringing your own light, compact stroller. Rentals at Disney are $15/day for a single. If you rent from an outside company it costs about $45 for 3 days. Definitely avoidable. I have a site that is all about going to Disney on a budget http://www.PlanningTheMagic.net
Great article!
Setting expectations around souvenirs is very important no matter how many kids you have or what your budget. no one want to say no all day long…or say yes all day long. When my daughter was too small to really understand money I think we set a limit of 2 items and told her that what she chose had to be useful when she got back home — pencils or a headband or something she could wear. No figurines, snow globes, stuffed animals, glow sticks, etc.
Great tips and Seriously it’s an Awesome guide for me.Many things I have learnt from here.
Love this blog 🙂 keep sharing
The best tip is to get the Disney chase card, if you have a partner have them get the card too…. not only do you get 6 months of 0 APR to pay the trip off, but after you spend 500 you get 200 statement credit … also when u book a Disney trip you get 2% cash back in the form of Disney dollars…. so you and your partner could split the cost of a trip and get a 400 dollar discount and you can do this every two years ….. and every year Chase offers 4-5% cast back for using ur Disney card to pay for utilizes and other various categories…. which translates to me accumulating over 300 dollars worth of Disney dollars, which was enough to completely enjoy the food and wine festival at Epcot this year
I disagree on the Disney Chase card – the signup bonus is $200 but that’s about all it has going for it – I’d rather get Disney GCs at an office supply store with a 5x card
Or at Best Buy with the 10x Chase Pay for Freedom and Sapphire cards!
I earned quite a few Disney Rewards dollars this summer when I had the “earn 4% on utilities” promotion on my Disney cc account, but it was only for a limited time. Are you saying that you get this 4% all the time?
The dollar store has water bottles with fans attached to help stay cool. Also disposable rain ponchos. They cost a fortune inside the park.