20 Things You Never Knew Disney Would Do for You

staying at disney world can get you a lot of perks even if some of the best of them are on hold at the moment but there are a whole lot of things that people are totally unaware of that might help you have a better vacation [Music] hey everybody it's aj for disney food blog now you're spending a substantial amount of money if you're going to disney world so you want to make sure you're getting the most out of it disney offers a lot of extras and amenities that typically fly completely under the radar for most guests some of these you may need to be staying at a disney hotel to cash in on and some may cost a little bit extra but i bet you didn't know about everything that disney can do for you don't miss out on any of these extras head to disney foodblog.com do for you to get a copy of this list sent right to your inbox you don't have to worry about taking notes and we'll also sign you up for our totally free newsletter that we send out nearly every day to keep you up to date on all the latest disney news and info leading up to your next trip that's disney foodblog.com do for you to get this list all right number one is mail your souvenirs home don't feel like carrying around all of your souvenirs or don't want to worry about fitting it all in your suitcase or paying for an overnight bag you can ship home anything you buy in disney world from the store you bought it at you'll just fill out a form with your contact info and pay shipping and a cast member will take care of the rest if you'd prefer you can also usually send a whole bunch of items at one time back at your hotel if you plan in advance you can ship pre-packed and pre-labeled packages at the front desk or concierge desk at most of the disney world resorts some resorts have on-site business centers and any resort with a convention center like disney's contemporary resort will be able to ship packages without a pre-printed label these locations typically have some packing materials on hand as well shipping costs start at around 10 but can go up depending on the size and weight of your package now this is something i figured out a couple of trips ago if you have a bunch of stuff you want to ship at the end of your trip and all of it has a disney sku number that's that little scannable code that they scan when you're checking out if it's all from disney location they can actually go ahead and mail all of that for you as well you just have to pay shipping the same way it would happen if you shipped it as soon as you bought it i had purchased i think 11 souvenirs that i needed to send to a friend of mine and i realized at the very end of the trip they weren't gonna fit in my suitcase and so i just went down to the gift shop and i had purchased everything there in disney world and so she was able to go ahead and send it all for me to my friend's house no problem so that is a great great tip especially if you get to the end of your trip and you're like oh i bought too much stuff and this is not all gonna fit in my suitcase then you can go ahead and mail that stuff home at the end of your trip if you didn't do it right there when you bought it now disney can also help you out if you forgot your toothbrush and lots of other stuff too the front desk at your resort will usually have items like band-aids toothpaste deodorant extra shampoo disposable razors and more so if you realize you forgot something in your luggage call down to the front desk to see if they have what you forgot on hand before you go buy something in the hotel gift shop at a huge markup if the gift shop is closed but you really need to buy a toothbrush or something else you forgot and the front desk doesn't have any they may be able to still sell you one from the front desk after hours and also don't forget if worse comes to absolute worst go ahead and instacart yourself something or something like that but yeah definitely try your hotel first something else your disney hotel can do for you get you to and from the airport for free well for now this can be a big money saver and you should definitely take advantage of that magical express while it's still running since disney's ending the free transportation option at the end of 2021 now a ride share or taxi can cost fifty dollars plus each way and you may have trouble fitting all your luggage and your whole family into one of those cars you know where you won't have trouble fitting all that luggage on a coach bus magical express will pick you and your luggage up at the airport and drop you off at your resort now when you're making your reservation you can plug in your flight info so they know when to expect your arrival since covet they won't grab your bags for you so you'll need to collect them from baggage claim yourself but they can help you store those bags or get them to your room once you arrive at your hotel speaking of luggage if you have some time before you need to head to the airport or your room isn't ready yet you can leave your bags at bell's services at your hotel and head straight to the park your bags will be held in the ac while you start or finish up your vacation without having to worry about what you're gonna do with all your suitcases by the way if you do have something that needs to be refrigerated like for example if you need to use insulin you can let the bell services desk know that and they will refrigerate that particular item for you and after holding your luggage of bell services they can bring your bag straight to your room once your room is ready you can call bell services from your room phone and they'll bring your bags right up this is also helpful on checkout day they can grab your bags and store them until you're ready to leave and just remember to tip a few dollars per bag to the cast member who lugs your stuff around by the way this is a huge tip if you're staying at a hotel without elevators like caribbean beach resort or that's huge and has a long walk to get to your room after you check in like caribbean beach resort now if you're doing a split stay at disney they will send your luggage onto your next hotel for those of you don't know what a split stay is that means you're staying at two different hotels on either side of your vacation so maybe you stay at pop century for sunday through wednesday and then you go stay at wilderness lodge wednesday through saturday what will happen is when you got to switch over from pop century to wilderness lodge you can just let bell services know that your bags need to go to wilderness lodge give them your confirmation number for your stay and they will get them there for you this usually even works if you're staying at the swan and dolphin resorts too just swing by bell services let them know you're transferring to another disney hotel they'll tag your bags and have them sent on their way so you can meet up with them later it can take a few hours for your stuff to arrive so be sure to have anything you need for the day in hand before you pass off your luggage but this is a great way to basically not lose an entire day in the middle of your trip by having to deal with your luggage now your disney hotel can also receive your mail for you you can send yourself packages ahead of your trip or order stuff from amazon and have it received by the front desk they charge a six dollar fee per package so try to consolidate your items into one box so you don't arrive to a surprisingly large package bill when you check in this can be super helpful if you're traveling with little kiddos you don't want to waste space in your luggage with a billion diapers and other items you could easily send ahead of your arrival so make sure not to send the stuff too soon though they'll typically hold packages for about a week and if you need some supplies that won't fare well in the mail you can order groceries to be delivered to your hotel and disney will store them in the fridge or freezer until you arrive to pick them up they'll charge a flat six dollar fee to bring your groceries to your room all of them not each box or bag and that's nice if you don't want to have to haul a bunch of bags back to your room yourself otherwise you can pick up your groceries from bell services yourself or meet your delivery driver in the lobby now back in the day certain disney resorts offered on-site child care facilities those have mostly gone away but you still have some options captain hook's pirate crew at disney's beach club resort is 55 and you can drop your potty trained 4 to 12 year old off from 5 to 8 30 p.m nightly for a themed dinner and fun activities just enough time for an only dinner reservation at the well disney world swan and dolphin resort camp dolphin runs from 5 to 12 nightly and costs 12 dollars per hour per child another option is a child care provider from the independent company kids night out who comes to your resort and watches your kids the one-on-one babysitting service is available for kids ages 6 months to 12 years old and starts at 20 dollars per hour prices increase depending on the number of kids and for hours after 9 pm this is the only child care service currently running as disney's offerings are not available at this time now when it comes to child care in disney world i want to let you know i hired a lot of different babysitters when my kid was little little and we didn't love any of them i'm not gonna lie i didn't love any of the services that like the kids night out kind of services so if you are going to disney world if you are going to use a child care service like that please please please do your research see if you can call and talk to the babysitter before you arrive now we actually ended up finding a really really great babysitter in disneyland through a child care service so it is possible that you could you know win the lottery there but please be careful do your due diligence and make sure that you interview and check resources another thing disney can do for you accommodate a room request during check-in or when you book you can request certain buildings floors or areas of the resort do a little research if you're looking for a quiet room to see which buildings will be best for you you can also often request near the lobby or near the pool if you know you'll be hitting the pool a lot this can make your hotel room a bit more convenient but remember pool rooms can be loud if you have a more specific request then call your hotel a week in advance to let them know remember these are requests and while disney typically does what they can to honor those requests if they don't have a room available that fits your needs or what you're asking for is something that triggers an upcharge they may not be able to accommodate your request but most of the time they're going to really try to help you out if you let them know what you need now we actually have a whole video all about room requests and which rooms are the best in which hotels so definitely go check that one out next all right you can also always skip the check-in desk these days there's no need to wait in those long tedious lines at the front desk to get checked in anymore you can use the my disney experience app to take advantage of the virtual check-in option you'll be sent a notification when your room is ready and you can skip the lobby entirely just take your magic band or your phone up to your room and go right in you may never even need to stop by the front desk at all during your trip because you can check out without stopping by the lobby too then if you do need to ask a question you can wait until things calm down a bit rather than visiting during the check-in rush or you can just call now this is especially helpful again if you're staying at those big spread out moderate resorts or value resorts where the lobby is sometimes a good 15 to 20 minute walk away from your room something else your disney hotel can do for you is book your dinner reservation concierge is available to all guests though club level does have a private concierge the lobby concierge though can help you book advanced dining reservations assist with disney transportation buy tickets and give you loads of vacation suggestions they have access to the same stuff you do but they can make recommendations as well and book meals and experiences for you if you need help with your plans at all during your trip this is where you want to go and your hotel can also give you free souvenirs the word free is not often heard in disney world but you can get a celebration button without spending a dime buttons say happy birthday happily ever after and i'm celebrating so you can display whatever it is you're looking to celebrate buttons can be found at the front desk at your hotel or guest relations in the park and your hotel can also text you when your laundry is done this is a super super special one that a lot of people don't know about there's no need to sit around in the laundry room waiting for your clothes to dry anymore while on vacation there's an app called laundry view that's now connected to disney world resorts and tracks the status of each washer and dryer laundry view will let you know how many machines are available and you can ask the app to notify you when your clothes are ready and if you need to dress fancy in disney world they've got you covered with dry cleaning services too to schedule a pickup call housekeeping in your in-room phone full price lists are located in your room closet along with a laundry bag spoiler alert it's real real expensive guests at select resorts can drop off their laundry with bell services before 9am as well and your disney hotel can also host free events pool parties campfires and movies under the stars disney hotels have a lot of free activities that you might miss if you're a park commando we've seen the impromptu pool parties include trivia celebration crafts dance parties and even retrieving rubber duckies they usually have a little activities list that you can pick up at the front desk that'll tell you kind of what's going on at the pool that day and movies are shown nearly every night on inflatable screens a lot of the hotels as well sometimes there are craft events like tie-dye workshops available for a small fee and several resorts even offer free tours like the legend of konk flats at old key west where you can learn a bit more about your hotel so check that schedule of activities and see what's available during your stay if you don't want to pay for a park ticket you just want to really enjoy the hotel you chose there's a lot of stuff you're going to be able to do i promise something else your hotel can do for you is exchange your money if you're traveling from another country you can exchange your money right at disney world it's always helpful to have a little cash on hand if a kiosk's credit card system goes down or you're buying something that might be cash only you can exchange money at guest relations or at your hotel and of course you can have mickey mouse give you a wake-up call in the morning hit the wake-up call button on your room phone and follow the prompts to set the time you'd like to receive a call unlike other boring hotels you will actually have a disney character call and wake you up other characters are available and you'll be able to pick who you want to call you in the morning when you set your time this is much nicer than an alarm clock when you're on vacation and when you're ready to go to bed switch on your resort television you can tune into a bedtime story given by mickey and duffy the disney bear each evening your hotel room tv also has several channels with information about the parks including hours and entertainment schedules along with the weather instead of flipping to your normal shows before bed check out some of the stuff you can only get at disney world and finally your disney hotel can absolutely help you relax disney vacations can be non-stop walking never-ending rides and lines and your kids are driving you crazy but if you're in need of some relaxation on your trip to disney they've got you covered you'll find disney owned spas at the grand floridian and saratoga springs the census spa might not be the most luxurious spas you've ever been to but if you're staying at one of those resorts you can't beat the convenience there are also spas at the swan and dolphin in four seasons nearby ritz carlton if you want to compare your options and you don't need to be staying at a hotel in order to book a massage and enjoy the spa by the way even if you're not staying anywhere near disney world you can pop in for the day and get a massage it may not be free but it also might not be something you'd expect to find right outside magic kingdom so there are 20 things you never knew disney world would do for you and remember to go to disney foodblog.com do for you to get the full copy of this list completely free all these little tips and extras can really help boost your vacation from good to great have you taken advantage of some of these free activities at disney world hotels or some of the amenities that maybe you never knew were there do you always get a celebration button when you're in the parks let us know in the comments your favorite things disney has done for you thanks for listening thanks for watching everyone as always this is aj for disney food blog and we'll see you real soon you

Channel: DFBGuide

Views: 185,768

Keywords: disneyfood, disney, disney world, disneyland, disneyvideo, disneyvacation, food, disney parks, disney travel, disney tips, disney guides, disney planning, disney trip, disney how to, disney vlog, disney vlogger

Id: g8lLLIeu7GY

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021