Favourite Top Tips in Florida?

[GWRW1964]

We always just use Google maps.

Tap the menu, select Offline Maps and locate and download central Florida in the map view.

That's it. Keep your phone on airplane mode (GPS data still sent and received in airplane mode) and use Google maps for navigation as you normally would. 100% free.

The only down side is that real-time data isn't used (roadworks, accidents, closures, diversions, traffic etc) but this has never caused us a problem.

Be sure to pack a car mount for your phone.

[Dom and Sarah]

Hi All,

We are off to Florida in 50 days, ready to visit after a 10 year break. Can’t wait tbh...

Just thought I drop a new post to collate everyone’s best holiday hacks. I see loads of these popping up, and some of you have got great ideas that are well worth sharing. This can include things like taking food bags with you to keep our ‘little monkeys’ half eaten food, freezing Capri Suns for cold drinks round the park and booking your next FP whilst in the queue for your first. Can’t wait to see what tips you all have, and it’s always great to share the knowledge. Sharing is caring after all...

[Helen & LittleD]

My tip would be schedule your fast passes to start from about an hour after park opening and get there for park opening. That way you will have an hour of hopefully very little queuing and then your fast passes can start. When you scan in for your final one get choosing a 4th.
Also at 3pm each day pop into the fast pass area of the app and see if you can bag yourself one of the newly released rides. There have been endless mentions about this working 😀
My final top tip would be get an ice cream or snack and go and sit in the grass (fake grass hehe) in the hub at MK sit, relax, watch the people go by, take your shoes off and just take half an hour to sit and take it all in. This was one of my favourite things we did 😍
Have a magical trip x

[tink111]

Following this thread to see what advice everyone will have😊 Mine would be to take breaks when needed! Don’t try and power through the heat as it’ll make you worse!
Hope you have the best time 😁

[Heihei]

Following along too! No tips yet though sorry! 😊

[Dom and Sarah]

Originally Posted by Helen & LittleD

My tip would be schedule your fast passes to start from about an hour after park opening and get there for park opening. That way you will have an hour of hopefully very little queuing and then your fast passes can start. When you scan in for your final one get choosing a 4th.
Also at 3pm each day pop into the fast pass area of the app and see if you can bag yourself one of the newly released rides. There have been endless mentions about this working 😀
My final top tip would be get an ice cream or snack and go and sit in the grass (fake grass hehe) in the hub at MK sit, relax, watch the people go by, take your shoes off and just take half an hour to sit and take it all in. This was one of my favourite things we did 😍
Have a magical trip x

See more...

Thanks for that start, sitting back and relaxing in MK sounds bangin’. We did this at DLP last year. Great tips on the FP too...

[BucksBugsy]

This is meant to be a helpful thread!

In the olden days you could spot a British family on holiday in WDW by at least one of the following signs.

1) At least the Dad would be wearing a "Cotton Traders" T-Shirt

2) There would be a lot of arguing going on and

3) At least one of the parents would be saying to their grumpy teen "we have paid a lot of money to come here you will enjoy yourself."

So I thought it maybe helpful to share tips on how to survive 2 weeks in Florida without divorcing your husband/wife and or the kids. The trouble with any holiday to WDW is it does involve an element of planning due to crowds and fast passes but in my opinion it's important - where possible - that those plans are flexible. IMHO this is especially true in the summer when the heat and humidity are at their highest and daily storms are almost a fact of life.

So here are a few of my suggestions:

1) Remember that people will deal with jet lag (outbound and back in) at different rates. As parents you may be up early on the first full day due to jet lag but if you have teenagers they may see life differently! It could be argued that to stay in bed until mid day is a waste of a trip to Florida when they could do that at home.

2) Remember down time - this is after all a holiday. Down time can take many forms - such as Hotel,villa, eating, shopping etc.

3) If others in your party want to do something away from the main parks trying and be accomodating. In our party my son loved the shopping (which my wife isn't a fan of) but he also loved the water parks which was a great nuetral ground.

4) Give each other space...in most cases you will be spending more time together as a family than any other time of the year. Recognise things may get a bit tense (especially in the summer months) and give each other a bit of "away" time.

5) Remember above all - this is not just an experience but it's a holiday. Use the time wisely!

There are no right and wrong answers on how to deal with a holiday to WDW but your opinions and experiences may help others.

So join in!

[Gbnomore]

Bizarrely, we found our holiday to Florida last year the most relaxed holiday we’d ever had despite being in the parks every day. This was down to

- lots and lots of research and planning
- knowing we couldn’t do everything but agreeing before hand our ‘must-do’s’
- building in chill time
- having flexibility in plans so we could change things around without buggering up our fast passes and must dos.

And specifically for me, using packing cubes which helped keep clothes organised for different parts of the trip and helped keep our room tidy!

[Goldia]

I find there are far less arguments if everyone just does what I tell them and follows my plan

Ok seriously, allowing everyone some downtime each day is essential, whether that's a later start, a mid afternoon break or an evening off. We have downtime every day as we all need some time just to ourselves.

The other thing I do is have a couple of days towards the end of the holiday which are a free choice. We decide near the end of the trip what to do. But usually the kids pick what parks to go to and what FP they want. Sometimes it's doing a park or ride again that has been done already but is a favourite and sometimes it's doing something we feel we haven't done this trip.

I do also feel it's important to understand each other, be sensitive and know when one of your group needs a bit of time away. It's not always possible to plan for everything but we do try to spot when one of us is not in the mood and then just leave the park. There's always tomorrow and if one of us is tired or grumpy we're not going to enjoy it if we force everyone to stay.

[Brave5]

- you don't HAVE to be together ALL the time. We found some of our kids favorite times were the ones where they had 1:1 with one parent - we found this out quite early on in our last holiday so quickly restructured into half day family time and half day of 1:1 or 2:1 as a mix of teens and adults (even times when just me and DH!)

- Screen time! All the boys carried their phones with them everywhere but it was agreed that 'screentime' was only to be used when relaxing in the room and not in parks/at meal ect.

Those are my main two tips that made for a happy mum and happy teens!