Zipadee Doo Dah Disney
Zipadee Doo Dah Disney
Mastering Your Disney World Adventure: Insider Tips for Planning the Perfect Vacation
Planning a magical Disney World vacation in December 2025 involves careful consideration of timing, accommodations, and park passes to enhance the experience and minimize stress. We share valuable insights about choosing the best dates, staying on property, and navigating Disney's services to make the most of your visit.
• Tips for determining the best times to visit Disney World
• The importance of traveling during non-peak school seasons
• Highlighting the festive events in December
• Discussing the advantages of staying on Disney property
• Overview of hotel options and benefits of location
• Explaining Disney's transportation systems
• Detailed insight into purchasing park passes economically
• Understanding the Disney Memory Maker for capturing memories
• Recap of strategies and upcoming tips for dining around the world
Welcome, welcome. Welcome to Zippity-Doo-Dah Disney, the podcast where I give you my favorite tips and recommendations to help you make the most of your Disney World vacation. So sit tight, thanks for listening and let's go on that ride. Welcome, welcome. Welcome to episode 31 of Zippity-Doo-Dah Disney. I'm your host, Eric Frenchman, and this episode is titled Going Back and Forth to the World in the Year 2025. That's right.
Eric:We just got back from a super fabulous trip to Disney World First week of December 2024. We had a blast. I got a ton of content. Yeah, maybe I'm not going to be putting out podcasts every other week, but there's nothing wrong with a five episode podcast miniseries when we have something to talk about. So here we go. So this episode will just be an overall strategy about when to decide you're going to Disney World, where you could stay, how to get to and from the parks, because there's still a lot of people confused on that and then we're going to do an episode on food, which is always one of my favorites, and then it's going to be three more episodes. We'll do one episode of navigating the Magic Kingdom, one episode navigating Disney's Hollywood studios, and then one episode for Epcot and Animal Kingdom. So that's how this five episode miniseries is going to flow.
Eric:Thanks for listening, thanks for stopping by. Welcome back, and let's go on that ride. All right, back, and let's go on that ride, all right. So let's jump right in in the most important part of planning your Disney World vacation. It's to decide when you're gonna go. And let me tell you something there's no such thing as a slow period anymore. Maybe there's. It's a freaking madhouse wall-to-wall body period, and then there's periods of time where it's not so crowded.
Eric:We decided to go in the first week of December because we were sick and tired of fighting the crowds. The week between Christmas and, say, january 4th those are the most crowded times of the year for Disney World. January 4th, those are the most crowded times of the year for Disney World. So, but even when we went in the beginning of December, you still needed to make Lightning Lane reservations. You still had to book your dining reservations in advance. If you wanted to wake up early and bang out a bunch of rides, you had the ability to do that. But if you wanted to sleep in and maybe get there an hour after park opening, you still have to worry about lines.
Eric:So what is my biggest tip for you about when to go to Disney World. If you got kids, take them out of school. Don't try and do it around vacations. Don't try and do it on like major holidays, because you know why Everybody else is going to be there. Plus, you have the Florida annual pass holders. They'll show up those weekends if they're you know if they're not blacked out.
Eric:So the most important tip is to take your kids out of school. We used to go the first week in November. That was Jersey week, because the Jersey schools were closed on Thursday and Friday due to teacher's convention. So what we would do is we'd fly out on Tuesday, usually election day stay for about a week. Kids would miss a couple days of school, maybe half a day on Tuesday, wednesday and then Monday and Tuesday following week. You're taking them out for four days. It's infinitely better to do that.
Eric:The other reason why you need to do that is because Disney does a fabulous job of packing events during the year. So, for example, you have the Flower Festival in the spring and then you have food and wine in the fall. Then you have the holiday season in the month of December. You have the Halloween parades and parties around October and the beginning part of November there are literally every month. Disney has something going on. You go too late in the spring. You're running into cheerleader competition. There's always, you know. You got to worry also about when Disney's running. Some run Disney like marathon, half marathon events. Those are a blast, but they do drive people to the parks. So again, there is no slow time anymore at Disney. Your best bet is to just take the kids out of school. Pick a good time of year. You want to go in the spring? Go to the flower festival. You want to go in the fall? Do food and wine. You want to go in the spring? Go to the flower festival. You want to go in the fall? Do food and wine. Pick a nice day. Try a nice week. Try and do it around when it's not a major holiday where people are taking off.
Eric:And one other thing to keep in mind when you're going to Disney World and you're going there between, say, june and September or even October, it's really hot during the day. I remember when the kids were little we got a free Disney dining plan for all of us. I think we were there for seven days and as part of that back in the old days you'd get one snack or two snacks per day, a sit-down meal worth one point and a quick service meal, which is like you know, they're fast food-ish kind of um lunches or breakfast. For seven days we had those points. I drank my entire seven day snack allowance in the first day. That's how hot it was. Lisa and I went a couple of years ago in November Wasn't supposed to be hot. Do you know what rides we would go on? We would. We would go on rides, even if it was for little kids or like the carousel of progress. You know why? Because it had air conditioning and it was cold. You could sit in the air and at least take a break. Believe me, it gets hot in disney world. So again, keep that in mind.
Eric:But if you want my best tips, you go into the spring, you go in the fall, you do one of the festivals. If you're going to go in december, you go in the first week of December. Maybe go the first week afternoon, thanksgiving or something like that. Take the kids out of school. You won't regret it. You'll have a better time that way. All right, you've decided when you want to go.
Eric:Now you need to know where you're going to stay. Let me tell you something you only stay on property. I don't care if you're staying at a deluxe, moderate or a value resort. You stay on property. Don't go off. I don't care how good the deal is elsewhere, it's not worth it. Listen to me.
Eric:A couple years ago, lisa and I decided we wanted to go to Hollywood Studios oh, not Hollywood Studios, duh, disney Springs a day early. So we made a reservation at one of my favorite restaurants, wine Bar George, and we stayed at a hotel near Disney Springs. It was fine, but you know what? It's old. You know what else? It's kind of like they just threw up some Disney names and pictures and stuff. Not a Disney hotel. Stay near Disney. And you know what? When you want to go to one of the parks, you got to get in one of their little buses. Screw that Right at Disney buses anyway, stay on property. Let me tell you why. First of all, yeah, blah, blah, blah.
Eric:You get all the Disney customer service. Everybody greets you, the rooms are clean. You have a problem? They got housekeeping. They'll take care of it for you. Let me tell you what else you get. You get to get into the parks 30 minutes earlier than everybody else. You want to do a rope drop? That's what you do. The park opens at 9. 30 minutes, 8.30 am, for people staying on property. That's definitely worth it.
Eric:What else you get, let's see. Oh, you stay at a deluxe hotel, every park, pretty much every night. You got to look on the Disney calendar or the my Disney Experience app. You get an extra hour in the parks after everybody else leaves. That's pretty awesome.
Eric:You know what else you get? You get Disney transportation. You get to ride the monorail. You get to ride the buses, you get to ride the boats. You might even be able to walk to the parks. You get the Skyliners. Yeah, anybody can ride those things once you're at the world. But you walk out of your hotel room and it's right there. Or you're like us, you're staying at somewhere near the Magic Kingdom. You can walk, walk to the Magic Kingdom. Oh, get on some other bus with a bunch of other people. Get it driven. Listen, stay at the parks. You'll also get parking, if that's what you want. If you drove down Now, you can get deals for Disney hotels stays.
Eric:They're usually bundled with park passes. There's nothing wrong with that. Look for those deals. Let me tell you something deals? Let me tell you something. Let me tell you a little secret. You need two rooms Because you don't want to sleep With your son or daughter anymore. You want your own room, or you need two rooms. Your kids are too old. You're all not climbing into a king size bed, four of you Sleeping with a head in your I mean sleeping with a foot or a hand in your head or on your face. You could rent Disney Vacation Club rooms from owners. You could go to Dave's DVC Rental. Put in what type of room you need when you want to stay, and they have Disney Vacation Club owners like me that rent their points out. It's a good deal for you, it's a good deal for them. Let me tell you why it's a good deal for you.
Eric:Let me tell you about the room we just had. It's at Bay Lake Towers, which is the closest you could get to the Magic Kingdom. It's closer to contemporary but it's attached to the contemporary. We had a master suite king-size bed, tv, hot tub, I guess, jacuzzi that's it, jacuzzi, you know. Bathroom, full shower. And then we had another full bedroom, think it had another king-sized bed, another full bath.
Eric:Then there's a full bath out in the main living space including a kitchen, full kitchen with dishes, plates, pans. Full kitchen with dishes, plates, pans, refrigerator. Did I have a toaster? Yeah, toaster coffee maker, microwave. Then, like a table, there you go, sit on another big TV, big pull-out couch which, believe it or not, is very comfortable to sleep in. Disney kind of solved one of the great mysteries of the world how to make a pull-out couch without a bar jamming in your back so you get no sleep. My mother slept on that bed. She didn't have a problem. There's a pull-out bed too. So you know what. You need a room like that because your family's too big. You don't want to rent two rooms. What are you out of your mind? Go try and see if you could rent DVC rooms. What are you out of your mind? Go try and see if you could rent DVC rooms. Go to Dave's DVC rental. That's where I'd recommend. All right. So you've picked the type of room. You got one of my little secrets about trying to rent DVC rooms Picking your hotel location is key.
Eric:Let me explain to you. First of all, you got the Magic Kingdom resorts Resorts Bay Lake, contemporary, grand Floridian, polynesian. Those guys are on the monorail and that's excellent access to the Magic Kingdom. You can even walk to the Magic Kingdom. Plus, those monorails connect to Ticketing Transportation Center, where you get buses anywhere, but screw that. You can then transfer to a monorail to Epcot so you can go from your hotel to Epcot. That's really, really, really cool.
Eric:There's one other well, actually there's two other hotels, woo, one's the Wilderness Lodge and one's the Wilderness Campgrounds. Yeah, campgrounds, just what it sounds like. Wilderness Lodge is awesome. We used to stay there all the time when the kids were little. It's a beautiful hotel. The one knock against the Wilderness Lodge. Same thing I would say about the campgrounds is that your access to the Magic Kingdom is via the boat. It's not a problem. Boat runs nicely and it's pretty cool. And then, if you want, you can take the boat to Contemporary, get off, walk to the Magic Kingdom. That's what you want to do. I'm not sure it's faster, but then you're also on the buses to everywhere else. But Wilderness Lodge, wilderness Campgrounds, nothing wrong with staying there. Then you got your Epcot Hollywood Studios hotels. Yep, they were linked together.
Eric:You got the Yachtsman, you got the Beachman, you got the Yacht. The Yacht Club. The Beach Club, boardwalk Swan and Dolphin. The Beach Club Boardwalk, swan and Dolphin, caribbean Beach, the Riviera you know what makes those all cool Boat and you can't walk from the Riviera to the Caribbean Beach. But Yacht Club, the Beach, club Boardwalk, you could walk. I've done it many times. Not Club Boardwalk, you could walk. I've done it many times, not a big deal, 10-minute walk. You could also walk to Hollywood Studios. That's about a 20-minute walk. Both scenarios. You got boat ride access to both of them. It's worth it.
Eric:And you could get access to the Skyliner for the Riviera, caribbean Beach, pop Century and Art Animation. Those are the well. The Caribbean Beach, I believe, is a moderate hotel. Riviera's Deluxe is also a DBC hotel and the Art Animation and Pop century are their standard hotels. Again, nothing wrong with them. They're just going to be a little more crowded. You're not going to have the fancier restaurants, but they are connected to the Skyliner. Skyliner gets you to Epcot. Skyliner also gets you to all the other hotels, plus Skyliner goes to Hollywood Studios.
Eric:Say, you want to stay at Disney Springs? Well, you got two to three hotels, believe it or not. Actually it's four if I count them right. No, you got Saratoga Springs, port Orleans, old Key West. They have boat access. You also can walk there, but it's a very long walk. We do like taking the boat and when it's just lisa and I, we're going to spend a lot of time at disney springs. Highly, highly recommend saratoga springs. It's our little home away from home.
Eric:Then, of course, you got the animal kingdom lodge, which is beautiful same architect, designer as the wilderness lodge. You get, basically you got. You don't have access, but you do get the animal kingdom. Animals roaming there's sort of like their own little park where you can see them from your room. Really, really cool. You're out on the savannah. We love the african theme, the restaurants and there are very good. So there you go. That's the rundown, but there's not nothing really close to the animal kingdom. Yeah, it's the animal kingdom lodge, but you're still taking a bus to it, so it's not really that close. I mean, you're on the bus, you're not on the bus that long, but there you have it.
Eric:Decide where you want to stay, pick your hotel. Plenty of options. Again, figure out if you're going to stay in the Magic Kingdom. You pretty much. If you could afford it, because they're expensive, you want to stay at the Magic Kingdom hotels. Your kid's a little older. You like Epcot and Hollywood Studios. You got a lot more to choose from, especially with the Skyliner in play. Oh, one more thing I want to keep in mind is I'm telling you, find a location, figure out where you want to stay.
Eric:One very important thing it's very difficult to go hotel to hotel. Yes, the hotel you want to go to, you're staying at, is on the monorail. Going to the monorail hotels are easy. Or if you're staying at, say, the Contemporary and you want to go to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review which is over in the campgrounds, take a boat. So you do have hotel to hotel access, as long as they're on the same transportation system.
Eric:But if you're like us and you love eating at boma and you're staying at bay lake, you can't go hotel to hotel with disney transportation. You can, of course, order a lift to mirrors, uber, or what you do is you go to a park and you take the bus or the transportation system for that hotel. So in our case, we want to go to the animal kingdom. We walk to the magic kingdom and then we took a bus from the magic kingdom to the animal kingdom lodge. That's how you do it. Keep that in mind. It will cut down once you figure out, kind of, where you think you're going to stay and where you want to target the most.
Eric:Pick your hotel. Keep in mind, unless the hotels you're trying to go to are on the same transportation circuit, it's very difficult to go hotel to hotel, especially for dinner. So yeah, I just pretty much told you you should spend more money to stay at one of the more not more expensive, but a more expensive hotel, disney style, rather than staying off property. But before you do that, you need to look at deals. There are ways to get discounts. I don't think these discounts are huge, but you could usually find a way to shave 5% or 10% off some of your costs with Disney. You could join Disney's fan club D23. You do get some discounts. You can get a Disney Visa card and they give you promotions. You can also look online when disney's running some promotions again, when they do that they're bundling a room, usually with a park pass, and you can get a good discount on that. But then again you sort of run into the problem. If you need more than one room. They do offer military discounts and then even like saw this and you need to check it, but like, the Disney Visa card will get a 5% discount on purchasing the Disney dining plan. So there are some ways to figure out how to save money when going to Disney World. So check that out, and the promotions always change.
Eric:Once you've settled on your hotel, you know when you go, in what time of year you're going and your hotel. The next thing you need to know is you need to buy park passes, and this can get really expensive. Not that the hotels can't get really expensive the cat is you go crazy. But the park passes for me are the most expensive. When you go online, disney sort of prices up based on day of the of the week or or time of year, so they do have different pricing. They usually start at around I don't know somewhere around like 120 a day per park and that's kind of expensive. But I will tell you, the more days you save, the more days you go and the more days you buy a park pass, you get a discounted rate per day. So check out Disney, check out the park passes. I'll give you a couple of tips.
Eric:The first thing I would tell you is that decide whether you need a park hopper. It tacks on about $90. You can't. You can add park hopper to your park passes after you already get to Disney World. But it's not worth it because they charge you for the entire length of your stay. So if you're staying seven days, it's like $90 to add the park hopper. If you start off on, like you're there on day one and day two and then day three decide you want to add the park hopper, it's $90. So decide on whether you're going to.
Eric:We don't use the park hopper anymore. When the kids were little we'd start off in, like the Magic Kingdom and then go to Epcot for dinner. You know what we do. We go to the park. We spend as long as we can at the park, the specific park. We go back to our hotel room. Maybe we change. We go out to dinner and we go someplace else for dinner. We're at a different hotel. Go to Disney Springs. Rarely do we go to a different park. If you want to go, do park hopping, go for it. But I'm trying to tell you that's one of my tips now. We don't do the park hopper. We spend the one day in the park. We go back, we go to the hotel, we get changed, we go to the pool, we relax. Then we go back out. You would have to go back out to the same park that you visited that day or go to Disney Springs. It's a good way to save money. Or go to Disney Springs. It's a good way to save money.
Eric:The other thing you got to decide is are you going to get a park pass for every single day? And usually you go, yeah, all right, if you're there for four days. You got four parks. You're going to want a park pass for every single day If you're there six or seven days. Do you want to go back to the Magic Kingdom for a third day? You want to go back to the Magic Kingdom for a third day. Do you want to go back to Epcot? The past trip, just Lisa, kayla and I went back out to the park. Yeah, we just went to Epcot for the morning.
Eric:Two other party members, luke and Megan. They stayed at the hotel and had fun on Bay Lake, so they didn't need a park pass the last day. So figure out, maybe you're staying six or seven days, maybe day seven You're not going to go to the park, you're going to hang out the pool. Maybe go to Disney Springs. You know that'll save you some money. And then the final thing, as I do recommend that you get the money.
Eric:The Disney memory maker it's $185. Sounds the Disney memory maker? It's $185. Sounds like a lot. It's for your entire stay. It's for every member in your party and what it does is it gets you pictures. You get the. You get all the pictures from all the rides. You get you know you can. You could go with the Disney photo path. Photographers are inside the parks. You get all the pictures you want you have to take. It's $185. Sounds a little expensive. I think it's worth it. Yeah, you're taking pictures along the way, but I like the pictures on the rides. I like the pictures in the park. They take good pictures, so I don't mind shelling out for $185.
Eric:So, in summary, for the park passes, decide how many days you're going to go. Keep in mind the longer you stay, the cheaper it is per day. I don't recommend Park Hopper. I just think it's not going to be worth it and you're probably tired and you might as well go back and enjoy the pool, especially if it's hot. You're going to want to be at the pool, not at another park. That'll save you some money.
Eric:Oh, one other thing I forgot. You can add the water parks for $70 per person. I wouldn't do that. If you decide to go to the water parks, buy your water park ticket that day when you're there. But anyway, get the Memory Maker and decide again do you need a park pass for every single day you're there? And that's it from episode 31. I'm back. You got a good review on when to plan your Disney World trip. Hotels Even talked about discounting, how to get some yep, some all-important discounts at Disney, because it's so freaking expensive these days, and it also gave me some tips on purchasing your passes for your trip. I think I'll come back in about two weeks or so with episode 32, which will be a review on eating around the world. So thanks for listening, thanks for stopping by and thanks for going on that ride with me.