Ten Tips for Enjoying Disney World

1 - If at all possible, leave your children at home. If you have no children, go now, quickly, before you grow any.

2 - If you HAVE to bring your children along, bring them before they turn three. Because children under three are free.

3 - Plan your trip for mid September. The lines are shorter. Think ten to fifteen minutes per ride.

4 - Purchase the right ticket for you. The "Magic Your Way" ticket allows one park entry per day - a 1 day ticket allows you one park, and a 4 day ticket lets you get into all four theme parks. OR, you can purchase a "Park Hopper" ticket which will let you go into any of the theme parks for 1 day with a one day ticket, or for 2 days with a 2 day ticket, etc. Of course, if you are doing that you might want to add access to other things with the "Water Parks and More" option. The price per day goes down as the number of days on your ticket increases. Children 3 - 10 are less expensive, but Park Hopper Tickets are more expensive and the final price is determined by rolling the dice and multiplying by the date of your birth. We avoided all this by having tickets given to us as a gift. Hooray!

5 - Choose the parks you want to visit. When I was a kid there was only the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. But now there is Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom. There are also two water parks at Disney World, Blizzard Beach and the Other One I Can't Remember. There is also an area with shops called "Downtown Disney" which includes an indoor amusement park, and there are also two mini-golf courses. Disney World is 47 square miles. There's still room for a lot more.

6 - Get to the park early in the morning, when it opens! Lines are shorter (we walked right onto Peter Pan, Small World, and even Soarin), and a special show to open the park.

7 - Just because your 4 year old is tall enough to go on Tower Of Terror does not mean you should bring him on Tower Of Terror.

8 - Plan your meals three months in advance. That way you can get at least one good meal a day. I strongly recommend Tucker House at the Animal Kingdom, or Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. (Boma was better, but out of the park.) Also, kids under three eat free at buffets. Their loss, because Nate is a big eater. If you choose to stay at the resort, I recommend selecting Disney Dining. That way you have more choices on where to eat if you get stuck like we did.

9 - Choose where you stay wisely. We chose a Deluxe Resort, the Animal Kingdom Lodge, as we were gifted the park tickets. I shall describe the resort in detail in a later post, and mention it here only to say it was $$$. If you're watching your pocketbook, consider staying at the Ramada nearby. You could end up saving money even if you took a cab to the parks both ways.

10 -SO. MUCH. FUN.

Tomorrow: the best and the worst of the rides and attractions.