The Costco Connection - May/June 2010

summerrecreation

Keeping the magic

Insider tips for
travelling to Disney
theme parks

CORBIS/JUPI TER IMAGES

By Wendy Helfenbaum

Visit the official Disney Web site at www.
disney.go.com before leaving home and pick
the attractions you want to see. Crowd condi-
tions depend on a ride’s popularity and carry-
ing capacity. If you don’t want to wander
aimlessly, follow the step-by-step itineraries at
Sehlinger’s Web site, TouringPlans.com. He
and his team developed them by analyzing
traffic flow at Disney and creating a mathe-
matical model to calculate the best order in
which to see the attractions.

IDEALLY, FAMILIES should be able to go to a Disney theme park when crowds are thin and prices are rock bottom. Unfortunately, most people’s vacations fall over the summer or during spring break, exactly the times when Disney parks are at peak capacity.

Saving time and money is critical when your kids are desperate to ride Space Mountain or eat breakfast with Mickey, and several unofficial Disney gurus have found surefire strategies to help travellers enjoy the best vacation possible.

Costco member Mary Waring turned a
passion for finding Disney deals into a new
business. The founder of MouseSavers.com
found discounts posted on dozens of discus-
sion boards, so she compiled them on her
private Web site. When her brother for-
warded the site to co-workers, she got more
than 23,000 hits in six weeks. Today, her
site—which is jam-packed with insider dis-
count codes and coupons—gets several mil-
lion hits each month. If there’s a way to save
money, she knows about it.

Ready, set, ride!

“Become your own advocate and do
some research,” says Waring. “Frequently,
you’ll save money by buying your tickets sep-
arately from your hotel.”
When it comes to experiencing Disney,
Bob Sehlinger believes you need either a good
plan or a frontal lobotomy. Sehlinger has
made 400 visits to Disney parks over the past
20 years, and the author of The Unofficial
Guide to Walt Disney World ( Wiley, 2009) and
his team have figured out how to save up to
four hours of waiting time per day by visiting
attractions in a specific order.

Whether you visit Disneyland or Disney
World, Sehlinger advises arriving at least 45
minutes before the park opens. “The only
way to beat the crowds is to be one of the first
ones through the turnstile. Know what the
bottleneck attractions are and hit them first,
no matter where they’re located in the park.
In other words, go to Tomorrowland and ride
Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear and
then go all the way over to the other side of
the park to ride Splash Mountain. Then come
back to Fantasyland and ride Peter Pan. All
four of those, even a half hour later, are going
to be mobbed.”
Waring also suggests bringing along a
suitcase of cereal, snacks, juice and water. If
your hotel room has a fridge, stock it with
sandwich supplies and have a picnic lunch
instead of lining up for expensive meals. If
you eat on-site, consider sharing meals; por-
tions are huge at Disney parks.

Disney provides plenty of what Waring
calls “shopportunities.” Most rides end up in a
gift shop, but Gruman notes, “You don’t have
to lose your shirt. We gave our children $10
per day to spend on souvenirs; it taught them
about budgeting.”
Sehlinger wrote the book following a
disastrous family trip to Disney World in the
early 1980s. “We didn’t have a plan, we paid a
bucketful of money and we stood in lines all
day. I was horrified,” he recalls.

Gruman strongly recommends bringing or renting a stroller for kids up to age 6.

“The last thing you want is a tired, hot, cranky child who says, ‘I’m not walking anymore; carry me,’ ” says the Costco member.

Take a breather

Montrealer Patti Gruman learned this the hard way after her family’s first trip to Disney World. “We were winging it, and realized very quickly that you need a strategy,” she recalls.

Tips from the money-saving maven
Planning ahead

In terms of the worst time to go, says
Sehlinger, “You absolutely don’t want to be
down there over a Fourth of July weekend.”
Instead, head to Disney right after school fin-
ishes, or the week before school starts up
again. “Sometimes the hotel rates are less
expensive at those times.”
Although trying to tear your children
away from Fantasyland may seem daunting,
Sehlinger and Waring advise leaving the
parks after lunch to escape the hottest, most
crowded time of the day. “Splash around the
hotel pool, take a nap and go back in the
late afternoon,” suggests Waring. “You can
literally stand at the exit at 4 o’clock and
watch children who didn’t have a rest com-
ing out in full meltdown mode. It’s just
screaming mayhem.”
Above all, says Sehlinger, “Don’t get
hung up on how many rides you fit in. Stop
from time to time and ask, ‘What would
make us happiest right now?’ and just follow
that instinct.” C The Costco Connection