I’m finally coming down from my Disney high a couple months later and am able to accurately reflect on the whole experience. Like anything in life, if you want something to turn out amazing, you’ve got to put the leg work in and this was no different. I will say my type A planning did pay off in this case.

There were 13 of us so we had to be pretty on top of coordinating logistics but here are a few lessons I plan to pass on to several friends planning Disney trips of their own…

Lesson 1: Take that 180 day out dining deadline seriously, especially if you want the highly sought after character meals.

Lesson 2: Take the 60 day out fast pass deadline seriously as well if you want the most popular rides.

Lesson 3: If you have a dining plan, make sure to use all your meals, quick service meals and snacks or it’s just money down the drain.

Of course, this all depends on whether you have the dining plan, what your budget constraints are or how long you plan to stay.

But speaking of your stay, if you’re overwhelmed on where to stay, I’d suggest watching this video on YouTube. I follow an awesome account called The Bucket List Family on Instagram and at one point in their travels they were asked to complete a challenge called 30 stays in 30 days in Disney World that gives you a great idea of all the different properties they do have. Fortunately, you can customize it however you’d like and however works best for you and your family so take all of the above with a grain of salt because there really are 1,000 different ways to slice it.

Depending on how hard you want to go, I found it very similar to childbirth in that it is definitely painful at times but when you look back, you have nothing but the fondest memories for it all.

But my all around takeaway was it was an amazing trip (notice I did not call it a vacation) and look forward to the challenge of trying some new things when we return and all members of our family meet height restrictions. 🙂