Disney World, what's it like?

[fancypost bgcolor=transparent; borderwidth=0px; width: 500px; padding: 5px; font-family: georgia; color: mistyrose;][align=center][justify][size=8]okay so i've been to wdw seven times and i can definitely answer all your questions!

first off, are you going to be staying at a hotel? if so, is it IN disney? the cheapest ones are at about 1,000+ dollars, and if you don't pick a preferred suite (or if there aren't any), you're going to be put in one of the far away rooms, so pick wisely. that being said, cheaper hotels are always the last ones in the lines to get to the bus. i recommend staying at pop century or any of the all-star hotels, as they're the cheapest ones but also those closest to the bus lines. if you stay at one of the all-star hotels, you can get on the bus line for a different all star hotel and then walk to your real all star hotel - they're right next to each other, and there are three.

if you haven't chosen a vacation package, my mom bought one of the stand-alone passes and they're around 90 dollars. food is VERY expensive, and they're covered in some of disney's rarer vacation packages, so you should check and see if there's any packages with the dining plan.

i'm not sure about the cooler thing, i know you can bring water but i've never seen anyone bring snacks. i don't recommend it as lines are long during the summer and you'll have to put your food down everytime you go get on a ride. however, you can bring snacks and there's usually a mc donalds or two near the parks. eat early for lunch and dinner, especially in the summer. also, bring water bottles! some restaurants give you free water refills.

everything is high priced in disney, but one thing i think you should definitely get ahead of time are fastpasses. fastpasses are basically these 'vip' reservations, where you can enter a ride before anyone else for a certain amount of time. this is very important in the summer, and you can buy them in-park but since they go quick there (soarin' and test track were sold out by 11:00 am IN OCTOBER, one of the lowest-business months), either go to the park early in the morning or buy them online. i recommend downloading the disney app, so you can buy them here.

this isn't something that should be taken seriously, but you should go to the four main parks in this order - epcot, animal kingdom, hollywood studios and magic kingdom. it's much more fun that way, but maybe it's just bias since MK is my favorite park.

souvenirs are so. expensive. honestly, just buy something in walmart and take it to the park. on that note, if you do go to a disney hotel, buy stuff from the gift shop IN the hotel; it's much cheaper than the stuff in the actual parks. another thing about the disney hotels is that they all have buses that take you just about anywhere, including downtown disney, the water parks, other hotels, the airport, etc., so you don't need a car if you're staying in one.

sometimes you'll notice people with camaras around, wearing disney crew gear. these are photopass photographers; you'll often see them taking pictures of families near the MK castle, the AK tree, the epcot ball or the sorcerer's hat in HS, or any famous place. these are free photos which you can take home instead of asking for a ride's picture because those are very expensive. you can register photopass photos online and buy them individually; they'll give you a photopass card to save your photo in, and you can use the same card with other photopass photographers.

use the single rider line! it's a faster way to get on a ride, even though you might not be riding with your family members. if you want to be first for shows or fireworks or even parades, grab a park schedule (you'll find them at the disney hotels or at the main gates for every park) and check the times. my personal favorite is the pirate show in front of pirates of the caribbean.