A week at a Disney resort is a week away from the ordinary, even if it is ‘part of the job.’ In this three-part series, blogger Tony Mayer, a travel counselor for AAA Washington, shares the knowledge gained after a familiarization trip to Disney World in Florida.

Florida’s Walt Disney World is massive – 43 square miles (twice as large as Manhattan), four theme parks, three championship golf courses, two water parks, 22 company-owned resorts (plus nine on-property resorts run by other companies), all totaling hundreds of dining, shopping and entertainment options. Planning can be a daunting task … once you remember you can’t see it all in one visit, you’re golden!

My flight touched down in Orlando on a Monday morning at 9am, not exactly peak arrival hours. After walking across the entire airport (including a tram ride), I reached the large indoor waiting area for Disney’s Magical Express downstairs. A fleet of sleek, shiny motorcoaches decked out in yellow with pinstripes sat idling outside.

Maybe my nerves were a bit raw from an overnight flight, but the 25 minute wait for a bus felt like 2 hours … despite being first to arrive at the queue, my bus was the fifth to load – the loading process seemed random and disorganized. By the time I reached my room, it had been 2 ½ hours since my plane touched down (and this was during a non-peak season). Ouch!

The luggage service (“we’ll deliver your luggage directly to your room within 3 hours of check-in”) is not for everyone – it is truly geared for families that want to get out and go as soon as they reach the resort. First-timers shouldn’t use this service unless they are particularly savvy travelers. If you’re accustomed to carrying your own luggage to the room after you check in, you’ll save a lot of hassle lugging it yourself. (If you do, you should dispose of the yellow luggage tags DME sends you prior to your trip.)

My accommodations at the Deluxe-class Yacht Club Resort were swank – nautically-themed décor on the interior combined with the best hotel bed I’ve ever had left me tickled. The bathroom vanity had two sinks with granite countertops, and the view out the verandah overlooked the resort’s mini water park as well as across to the Boardwalk area. The Yacht Club mirrors other Deluxe resorts in their close proximity to the theme parks (in this case, Epcot was a 10-minute walk or a 15-minute boat ride).

One thing I was pleasantly surprised about was the way Disney handles millions of guests every year (27,000 hotel rooms in their on-property hotels alone). They take a standard design for a room type, replicate it thousands of times, then they present a myriad of themes just by changing the décor. The rooms at the moderate Caribbean Beach Resort are the exact same size and layout as the one as Port Orleans and at Coronado Springs – only the furnishings are different.

First up on the theme park menu … Epcot. Under Walt Disney’s original vision, this park was originally slated to be an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow – a town built for 20,000 as a petri dish for city planning. After Walt’s death in 1966, his brother Roy shifted the park’s focus to become an exposition of scientific achievement (Future World) and international cultures (World Showcase). Epcot’s iconic monorail connects it with the Magic Kingdom.

This is the most adult-oriented of the four theme parks, with a greater density of table-service restaurants as well as several stands that sell beer. Epcot also hosts two seasonal celebrations for grownups – the Flower and Garden Festival in the spring (nothing is more jarring than Captain Hook in topiary form) and the Food and Wine Festival in the fall.

Most of the rides in Future World are geared away from small kids – lots of high minimum-height rides. Test Track and Soarin’ (over the same California as at California Adventure) were my favorites, and I would’ve liked to see Mission Space and Spaceship Earth, the iconic metallic sphere at the park entrance.

Among the kid-friendly adventures is a Nemo and Friends submarine ride for the tykes and a sleuthing excursion with Kim Possible for inquisitive grade-schoolers. Epcot will also be the new home of the AAA Vacations-exclusive Story Time inside the Norway Pavilion beginning in mid-April. Geared towards the youngest Disneyphiles, Story Time features a character reading a new story based on a classic Disney movie. Our group got to see Snow White reading on the day we visited.

Disney excels at bringing bigger, better experiences to its guests, and this isn’t more evident than in their fireworks shows. WDW has three separate displays that boggle the minds of kids young and old – Illuminations at Epcot, Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (grander scale than at Disneyland), and Wishes at the Magic Kingdom. I was lucky enough to see Illuminations on consecutive nights – once outdoors during a dessert reception next to the UK Pavilion (I’ve never seen so many pastries in miniature before!), and once beside the window at the Nine Dragons Restaurant inside the China Pavilion, on the opposite side of the lagoon.

The World Showcase Pavilions (Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Morocco, France, UK and Canada) are unique because they’re all staffed by cast members native to each country. Several conduct sidewalk performances on a rotating schedule. Each building has striking, authentic architectural nuances that are emblematic of Disney’s commitment to detail and Epcot’s layered approach to entertainment. 

Also in this series: 
Disney World's Animal Kingdom   
Disney's Hollywood Studios, Value Resorts and Nightlife

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