Around here, we talk a lot about planning the perfect Walt Disney World vacation. Make those dining reservations, learn how Lightning Lane works, arrive early, know which attractions you want to prioritize, and have some sort of plan before you walk through the park gates. But sometimes the best thing you can do for your Disney vacation is throw the plan out the window for a little while.
Disney World can be a lot. It’s hot, it’s crowded, and you’ve probably walked more miles than you intended. Somebody’s hungry, somebody else needs a bathroom, the attraction you’ve been waiting for just went down, and the child who desperately wanted a Mickey-shaped snack has suddenly decided that Mickey-shaped snack is completely unacceptable. And let’s not pretend this only happens to kids. I’ve seen plenty of adults reach their breaking point at Walt Disney World, too.
When you can feel your family’s Disney day beginning to unravel, continuing to push through usually doesn’t make things better. Sometimes everybody just needs a reset before a rough 20 minutes turns into a miserable afternoon. Here are a few ways to make that happen.
1. Stop and Take a Few Deep Breaths
It sounds almost too simple, but sometimes you really do need to stop moving. Find somewhere out of the flow of foot traffic, sit down if you can, and take a few slow breaths. Kids can do it with you by breathing in slowly, holding it for a moment, and breathing back out.
More importantly, give yourself a minute before deciding what comes next. You don’t have to immediately solve whatever has gone wrong or pull out your phone and start rearranging the rest of the day. Your Lightning Lane isn’t going anywhere in the next 60 seconds. Probably.
2. Get Out of the Crowd
This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned at Disney World: you don’t have to stay in the middle of everything. If Main Street, U.S.A. is packed, don’t stand there getting progressively more irritated or anxious by the number of people touching your elbows. Duck into a shop, find a bench, or wander toward a quieter corner of the park.
Sometimes even moving a short distance away from a major attraction or parade route can completely change the atmosphere. And if somebody in your family is particularly sensitive to noise or crowds, recognizing that they’re becoming overwhelmed before they hit their limit can save everybody a lot of misery.
3. Sit Down, Drink Something, and Eat
Before declaring that the entire Disney vacation is ruined, I highly recommend asking three questions: Are we hot? Are we thirsty? Are we hungry? It’s remarkable how many Disney World crises can be traced back to one of those three things.
Grab some water, find some air conditioning, split a snack, and sit down for 20 minutes without looking at the My Disney Experience app and calculating how many attractions you’re currently “losing.” Give everyone a chance to cool down and regroup before you decide what comes next. You may discover that nobody actually hated EPCOT. Everybody just needed lunch.
4. Let the Kids Move
This one sounds counterintuitive when you’ve already walked approximately 47,000 steps, but walking from attraction to attraction isn’t necessarily the same thing as letting a kid burn off energy. If you’ve got younger children who have spent a lot of time sitting in a stroller, waiting in queues, or being told to stay close, give them an opportunity to move around when you find an appropriate spot.
And adults aren’t exempt from this one either. Sometimes taking a leisurely walk with absolutely no destination feels considerably better than power-walking across the park because your carefully constructed itinerary says you need to be somewhere in seven minutes. Not every walk through Disney World needs to be a mission.
5. Find Something That Makes Everybody Laugh
Disney vacations can get weirdly serious. We spend so much money getting there and put so much effort into planning that it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking WE ARE GOING TO HAVE FUN NOW BECAUSE I SCHEDULED IT. That’s usually about the time nobody is having fun.
Go do something silly instead. Watch a character interaction, find some live entertainment, ride the attraction that always makes your family laugh, or let your kids tell terrible jokes while you’re waiting in line. Whatever works for your family, the point is to break whatever grumpy little spell everyone has fallen under.
You don’t have to salvage the schedule. Salvage the mood.
6. Pay Attention to the Background Music
Background music is one of my favorite things about Disney parks, and it’s incredibly easy to miss when you’re racing around trying to accomplish everything. Disney uses music everywhere, and sometimes simply slowing down enough to actually hear what’s playing can pull you back into the reason you’re there in the first place.
Listen to the music as you walk through Adventureland. Sit somewhere in World Showcase and take in the atmosphere for a while. Sing along if the mood strikes you, even if your children are embarrassed. Especially if your children are embarrassed.
7. Leave the Park
I promise they will let you back in. One of the hardest things to do on an expensive Disney vacation is to voluntarily walk away from the theme park in the middle of the day because it can feel like you’re wasting precious park time. You’re not.
If everyone is exhausted, go back to the resort. Swim, take a nap, or sit in your room with the curtains closed and enjoy the glorious sound of absolutely nobody asking what attraction you’re doing next. You can always return later feeling like functioning human beings again.
And sometimes you don’t return at all, and that’s okay, too. A relaxing dinner at the resort and an early bedtime might do far more for tomorrow’s park day than squeezing another four attractions out of tonight. Disney World will still be there in the morning.
8. Give Everyone Permission to Change the Plan
This might be the most important one. A Disney itinerary should serve your family. Your family should not serve the itinerary. If you’ve planned three more attractions but everyone is having a fantastic time sitting on a bench eating popcorn, maybe stay on the bench.
If your teenager would rather wander through the shops than ride something for the fourth time, split up for a while if that’s practical for your family. If your little one is completely done for the day, believe them. There will always be another attraction, another snack, and another thing you could squeeze in. The goal isn’t to leave Walt Disney World having accomplished the maximum possible number of activities. The goal is to leave with people who still like each other.
And that might be the biggest Disney World planning tip of all.
Some days you’ll rope drop, follow the plan beautifully, knock out every attraction on your list, and wonder why anyone thinks Disney World is stressful. Other days, somebody will spill a drink before 9:30 a.m., your first attraction will temporarily close, the Florida sky will open up, and your carefully planned day will begin circling the drain before lunch. That’s when it’s time to stop trying to save the itinerary and start saving the day.
Take the break, buy the snack, find the air-conditioning, or go back to the resort. Laugh about whatever just happened if you possibly can and give everyone a little room to reset. Years from now, nobody in your family is going to remember that you missed one Lightning Lane reservation, but they will remember whether you had fun together.
