Top 10 Grown-Up Walt Disney World “Musts!”

Top 10 Grown-Up Walt Disney World “Musts!” | Genpink

This guest post was written by Cailin Szczesiul, a Runner, Baker, Cook, Foodie, Dog Lover, Reader, Painter, Writer, Blogger & World Traveler. I had the pleasure of connecting with Cailin through Grace Boyle. Cailin is new to the blogging world and already doing a fabulous job on her blog, you should check her out!

I know this might sound weird, but I am 27 years old and just got back from the best trip ever at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. A couple months ago my husband and I were trying to decide where to go on our next vacation. Being twenty-somethings with no kids, WDW was not the first destination on our list and I’m not going to lie it took some convincing for my husband to even warm up to the idea. But in the end it was one of the most memorable, exciting & fun-filled vacations we ever had. The rides, the restaurants and not to mention the unique way WDW can make anyone feel like a kid again had us planning our next trip back before we even got home.

Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida consists of four park attractions and two water parks. Not to mention a bar & nightlife district, racecar track, horseback riding & luxurious spas, Disney has it all. The parks are The Magic Kingdom, The Animal Kingdom, Epcot & Hollywood Studios.

Top 10 Grown-Up Walt Disney World “Musts!” | Genpink

To make the best out of your “Grown-up” Walt Disney World experience, here is my Top 10 Walt Disney World “Musts!”:

(1) Try and stay in the park if you can. Although this option may not be feasible for everyone I highly suggest staying in the park. Disney has great offers for accommodations not to mention a tiered hotel system that will fit different budgets. {There’s frequent deals online: find hotel deals at Expedia!}

Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village

(2) The dining plan is worth it. We ended up going with the dining plan to save money and we felt it lived up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong WDW can be expensive so the dining plan does help out with saving money for your meals.

(3) Buy the park hopper pass. Rather than buying a ticket for each individual park you will get more bang for your buck with the park hopper. This ticket allows you to jump from park to park on any given day. For example the last day of the trip we only wanted to ride our favorites from each park again. So we went to Magic Kingdom, to Epcot to Hollywood Studio in one day!

(4) Make use of the WDW transportation system. Whether it is a bus, boat or monorail the Disney transit system is one of a kind. In a matter of minutes you can travel from one park to another with this world-class system.

(5) Visit the best restaurants in Walt Disney World by park:

  • Animal Kingdom – Yak &Yeti Restaurant. A unique twist on traditional South Asian cuisine.
  • Magic Kingdom – Tony’sT own Square Restaurant. Italian food at its best!
  • Epcot- Biergarten Restaurant– European style buffet, complete with shared tables & a polka band!
  • Hollywood Studios – Sci-FiDine-In Theatre Restaurant. Fine American cuisine in the most theatric setting

(6) Make use of the fabulous Fast Pass system. Available at most of the major rides in all four parks, the fast pass system allows you to reserve a spot in line by getting a pass for a specific time. You can then go on other rides and when it’s the time on your fast pass simply by-pass the regular line and go on the ride. How great is that!

(7) Downtown Disney is a must for all grown-ups! Situated within the WDW grounds but available to non-guests Downtown Disney offers a welcome departure from the cranky children and long lines for rides. Boasting world-class restaurants, bars, clubs and even a movie theatre, Downtown Disney is a must see!

(8) Try and plan out your trip beforehand. We determined what parks we would visit by day so we could call and making dining reservations beforehand. I strongly recommend this. Many of the restaurants fill up quite quickly so to be sure you have a car at the sci-fi diner make reservations before you visit the park that day.

(9) The maps are your best friends. Well, other than the person you are traveling with of course! But seriously, the maps will allow you to plan out how you will tackle the park and what rides you really want to go on. Each park is really big and the best way to handle the crowds is to plan ahead.

(10) Most important: HAVE FUN! Walt Disney is quoted as saying :
I think what I want Disneyland to be most of all is a happy place–a place where adults and children can experience together some of the wonders of life, of adventure, and feel better because of it.”

    So get out there and enjoy it!!

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8 thoughts on “Top 10 Grown-Up Walt Disney World “Musts!”

  1. To add to your list ( ; For people who LIVE in FL my #11 – you MUST get the “FL discount yearly pass”; you can go as many times as you like over the year and it’s a great way to celebrate any / all occasions. GREAT date place.

    Another addition; if you can, don’t “lock” yourself into only Disney owned parks ( ; even though DIsney is the “best” and “oldest”, Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios is the best for the “rides” part and you can typically buy the ‘passes’ spoken of above for BOTH Disney and the Universal / Seaworld way.

  2. Living in Orlando, I’m going to add to this:

    -Go during Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival. The festival is included with normal admission (unlike other special events). Food costs extra, but it’s worth it.
    -Downtown Disney has one bar, and doesn’t have clubs anymore (Pleasure Island was closed down a while ago). Go during the day to explore the shops; at night, it’s dead (unless you’re going or House of Blues or La Nouba).
    -Late afternoon, all lines are shorter

    Okay, that’s it :)

  3. I think your spellcheck fixed some restaurant names or something. Begetters and sacrificing theater restaurant?

  4. brandacedawn  thanks for catching those. So, weird actually. I just updated the graphic on this post this week (to make it more Pinterest friendly). As far I know WordPress doesn’t have a spell check option, but I checked the previous save and both Sci-FiDine-In Theatre Restaurant and Epcot- Biergarten were spelled correctly 4 days ago. Technology is odd!

  5. Finally! A post about WDW for grown ups! :) My husband and I are planning a trip to Disney for this fall and I’m so glad to find a post that has more suggestions than how to keep your kids occupied while waiting in line! :) Thanks!

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