I've been visiting Walt Disney World Resort for over a decade with my family and I've done just about everything there is to do at the most magical place on Earth. While I love the hustle and bustle of Walt Disney World's theme parks, I've learned some of the most memorable Disney experiences take place outside the parks at Disney World's resort hotels. Case in point, Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, a dinner show where guests play washboards and chow down on ribs and strawberry shortcake, all while being entertained by lively performers.

As a food and travel writer who spends lots of time in theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, I’m always on the lookout for a good small bag to carry my belongings on long park days. It never occurred to me to combine my choice of crossbody bag with my love of meeting and interacting with theme park characters until I spotted a person on a recent Disney trip who was carrying a white, faux leather mini backpack and a handful of permanent markers, having characters like Mickey Mouse and Princess Tiana sign their bag.

Before I even left the park, I hopped onto Amazon, hunting for faux leather bags that were the perfect material for character autographs.

On a recent trip to Disney World, my family and I decided we'd try a new restaurant — Shula's Steak House.

The small chain was named one of the 10 best high-end steak-house chains in America by the Daily Meal, and has seven locations in Florida, Chicago, Houston, and Richmond, Virginia.

The steak house, which is owned by Shula's Restaurant Group, is named after former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula. The chain aims to carry on Shula's legacy, so each location has a loose football theme.

When my husband and I relocated our family to Florida from Maryland in 2016, we immediately signed up for annual passes and started visiting its parks almost every weekend. My kids were 6 and 8 at the time, and we made lots of great family memories at Disney.

It's been over seven years since my husband and I chose to relocate our family from Maryland to Florida. It's a decision I've never regretted once, but living in the Sunshine State is very different from life in the Northeast.

As an annual passholder and a journalist who covers theme parks, I spend a lot of time at Disney World.

My whole family used to have annual passes as well, but as my two teens have gotten older, they're not as excited about long days in theme parks.

Still, my husband and I love going together. I recently paid over $1,000 for us to spend a full day (from park-open to park-close) at Disney World.

There are lots of ways for families to enjoy time at Walt Disney World Resort (WDW), from a day of splashing at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park to leaving the theme parks for character dining at a Disney resort hotel. We especially love the restaurants at Disney Springs for a memorable meal.

The key to any good family outing to Mickey’s house, however, is knowing the best way to park and get from point A to point B at WDW. And that’s why this guide to transportation at Walt Disney World is here for you!

Walt Disney World puts on a lot of outstanding annual festivals and after-hours events, but Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is one that many families (mine included) look forward to every year.

At Disney World, Halloween is among the best times to visit and it's largely because of this fun after-hours event. During Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, the entirety of Magic Kingdom Park transforms into a spooky celebration where guests wear costumes and everyone can trick-or-treat throughout the park.

The holidays at Walt Disney World Resort is the most magical time of the year in Orlando. But with holiday-themed treats, festive merchandise, pricey ticketed events like Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and more, Christmas at Disney World can also be expensive. Add in the fact that the holidays are one of the busiest times of the year at Walt Disney World, and it’s easy to see why inexpensive and less crowded holiday activities should be on your family’s must-do list as well. We’re showing you how to conduct your own self-guided tour of Disney hotel Christmas decorations using the monorail.

As someone who's been visiting Disney World for more than a decade, I know that Epcot reigns supreme when it comes to dining.

The park offers both sit-down and quick-service dining options. Plus, there are four festivals every year, each of which brings new kiosks with special food and beverage offerings.

Here are my 10 favorite places to eat at Epcot.

Booking tables at Disney restaurants well ahead of your trip is often essential to a smooth visit to Disneyland or Walt Disney World. After all, it's hard to eat dinner in Cinderella Castle or sip a mint julep at Blue Bayou without doing a bit of advance planning. But thanks to recent updates to both the Disney World and Disneyland apps and websites, it just got easier to make Disney dining reservations at all the parks.

I've been visiting Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival for a decade. This year, the festival features 25 "global marketplaces" — kiosks offering food and drinks inspired by cuisines around the world — as well as nightly concerts, themed merchandise, and fun scavenger hunts.

The event is included in normal Epcot admission, and since most menu items cost between $5 and $10, it's one of my favorite inexpensive ways to get the most bang for my buck at Disney World.

I'm a major Disney Parks fan who lives close to Walt Disney World Resort and writes about theme parks for a living. I'm also a mom who has been taking her kids to Disney for over a decade. This means when people I know — from family members to random Facebook acquaintances — plan a Disney World trip, they usually reach out to me for tips to make it run smoothly.

Often, they want to know whether Genie+ is worth the expense (it is) or how to get their most coveted dining reservations (use a third-party reservation-tracking website, such as Touringplans.com). I'm always happy to share these tips and more, but there's one piece of advice I always impart, unsolicited: Visit one Disney World theme park in the morning, return to your hotel for some pool time and a nap in the afternoon, and then go back to the parks in the evening.

I'm a 42-year-old mother of two, and one of my favorite places to go when I need some time alone is Walt Disney World Resort. I visit the park regularly with my husband and teenagers, but there's something special to me about strolling through EPCOT's World Showcase alone or renting a pool cabana at a Disney hotel and spending the day reading. Even if I'm not inside a Disney theme park, it brings me joy to know I'm hanging out on Mickey's turf.

Moms are no strangers to the idea that self-care is important, but sometimes we question how far we're allowed to go with it. A face mask seems fine, for example, but judgment starts to creep in when we consider taking a couple of hours — or days — to ourselves to lounge by a pool. Barbara Greenberg, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in families and adolescents, says this shouldn't be the case for a few reasons.

As a frequent Disney World visitor, there's nothing I dread more than the painful logistics of getting from point A to point B.

In 2017, I started traveling by Minnie Van, Disney's network of polka-dotted Lyft rideshares. It's not cheap, often averaging about $40 a ride, but for me, it's worth it.

Minnie Vans can be scheduled through the Lyft app and will transport guests to all Disney World resorts, theme parks, Disney Springs, and anywhere else across the property from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. daily.

On a hot day at Walt Disney World, there's truly nothing better than taking a break from the crowds and excitement to find a seat in the shade and enjoy a Dole Whip. The delightful and delicious frozen treat has been a Disney Parks staple for nearly 40 years, but its roots go back to 1976, when Dole became the sponsor of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland Park in California. Dole Pineapple Whip, as it was known back then, debuted at the Florida resort's Magic Kingdom Park in 1984 as a sweet treat sold at Aloha Isle.

Dole Whip arrived at Disneyland two years later and has since spread globally to the company's resorts, including to Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disney Resort and Aulani in Hawaii. In 2017, Dole Whip even hit the open seas, sailing aboard Disney Cruise Line.

Disney World is known for its four theme parks, but the Central Florida property also offers two water parks — Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

At Typhoon Lagoon, Disney World's tropical-themed water park, there are 11 water attractions ranging from waterslides to a wave pool. Typhoon Lagoon closes at 8 p.m. most days, but on select nights, it holds H2O Glow Nights, a special after-hours ticketed event that runs from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

My first visits to Disney World were long ago — before I moved from Maryland to Florida — and always with my family in tow.

When my husband, kids, and I relocated to Central Florida seven years ago, it was a no-brainer that we'd purchase annual passes. For years, we made memories in the theme parks, but, as my kids turned into teenagers, they weren't as interested in visiting anymore.

I decided to keep my own annual pass because I love visiting Disney alone. Even when my husband and kids held passes, I still loved nothing more than escaping alone for the day to visit a Disney park or shop at Disney Springs.

The holiday season at Walt Disney World Resort may be among the most magical times of year at the destination, but it’s also the busiest. Not only is the Christmas season at Walt Disney World a time for major crowds, but there is also a flurry of additional activities to enhance your family’s holiday celebration. These added holiday activities at Disney give families an incredible bang for their buck, but can also make it hard to decide which Christmas activities at Disney are worth it, and which aren’t.

Visiting a Walt Disney World theme park is no longer as simple as purchasing a park ticket and showing up at the gate of whichever park at the Orlando complex you feel like visiting that day. Since Disney World fully reopened after closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the resort has had a reservation system in place that's made visiting require even more forethought than ever. And, although there have been slight tweaks to the system of Disney World reservations since they were implemented in 2020, the resort shows no indication that it will stop requiring them any time soon.