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Disney World, Florida, RV, RV Florida, RV travel, Travel Tips
When you live in an RV, you may choose to avoid the cold and head south for the winter. For this reason, Florida becomes a huge haven for RVers during the colder months. Sunshine, beaches, friends, and fun are around every corner in this fabulous southern state, and we highly recommend visiting this winter season.
Of course, if you’re in Florida, a visit to Disney World is in order. However, a successful visit to Disney World requires quite a bit of planning. This is just as true for RVers as it is for anyone else, and having a few tips before you dive in is definitely helpful.
Below are some of our top tips for visiting Disney World in your RV.
Time It Right
As mentioned before, winter is a great time to be in Florida. However, when planning a trip to Disney, you have more than just the temperature to consider. You’ll also want to think about when the park is likely to be busy and when hurricanes might make a showing.
In order to avoid both hurricane season and busy season, we recommend planning your RV Disney trip in mid- to late-January, or anytime in February besides Presidents’ Day weekend.
Choose Your Campground Well
Because the weather is almost always hot during the day in Florida, having air conditioning is super nice. Therefore, we highly recommend booking a campground with electric hookups. Additionally, it’s good to be as close to the parks as possible. Luckily, there are plenty of nearby campgrounds to choose from.
Want to have an especially magical experience? We highly recommend staying at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground if at all possible. This is a luxury campground unlike any other, and the free transportation to and from the parks makes your trip much more relaxing.
Stock Up Your Fridge
Food in Disney World is expensive. Luckily, Disney does allow outside food and drink to be brought into the parks, and since you’ll be toting your entire kitchen with you, you can take full advantage of this fact by eating breakfast at home and packing lunches to save money. Just be sure to stock up the fridge before you arrive, because you aren’t going to want to stop the Disney fun for grocery shopping.
Get a Golf Cart
If you do end up staying in Fort Wilderness, you will definitely want to budget for a golf cart rental. This campground is enormous, and while there is free bus transportation available within the campground, it’s much easier to hop in your golf cart and drive from point A to point B.
Store Food Indoors
Florida has no shortage of wildlife. For this reason, it’s important that all food is stored indoors. Sure, you might be camping, and yes, this does mean cookouts and picnics. However, food left out on your campsite is just asking for a visit from a gator or some other Florida creature.
Shade Your Rig
We mentioned earlier that Florida is hot. Obviously, the air conditioner helps, but even in winter the hottest days can be too much for the A/C to keep up with. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to park under a shade tree and pull out your awning once you arrive.
Know the Parking Rates
Finally, if you plan to visit a park for just a day and wish to drive the rig into a Disney World parking lot, knowing the parking rates is important. You see, Disney parking is super expensive even for small cars at $25 per vehicle per day. As you might expect, RV parking is even more expensive, and RV owners can expect to pay $30 a day to park in the theme park lots.
These are our best RV-specific tips for visiting to Disney World. That said, there is much more to learn about Disney World, and everything you learn can help make your trip a little more magical. Therefore, seeking out more info and doing as much planning as possible is definitely a good idea.
About the author: Chelsea Gonzales
Chelsea has the amazing opportunity to take part in full-time RV living and traveling with her tiny tribe. She homeschools her five-year-old son as they travel, and takes full advantage of their unique situation by using the entire world as her son’s classroom. A group of total Disney fanatics, Chelsea and her family often find themselves in the Orlando area in order to visit the Disney parks, but they have also visited over 25 of the 50 states with plans to see many more along the way. No matter where her travels take her, Chelsea enjoys riding bikes, gazing at beautiful sunsets, finding new coffee shops, Irish dancing, and sitting around a campfire with her family.
You can join her adventures through her blog, Wonder Wherever We Wander.
Robert E. ~ “I called in pretty late and didn’t think I’d get assistance with my slide out. I spoke with Mary and she helped me solve the problem I was having. She was real knowledgeable and walked me through a few steps and had my slide out going back in. Thanks for the help at a crazy hour!”
I do believe that if you’re staying on site (at Fort Wilderness) you can park your vehicle for free at any of the parks. You will get a parking pass when you check in.
But, with all of the available transportation, we’ve found that our toad stays at the site. The buses, launches (boat transportation from FW) and monorails will drop you off right at the gate to the theme parks.
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Unfortunately this is no longer the case. It’s a recent change. However, you are correct about the on-site transportation being great for getting around, making parking at the parks unnecessary for the most part.
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As long as you’re staying in the Disney RV park that is…
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I live in Florida About 4 months each winter. Just west of Orlando. Hurricane risk is very low year round- August and September a slight chance. It’s normally not that hot in January-March. High 80s max and typically 70-80 for highs- A/C will keep up fine. No more animals than anywhere else. Gators are not an issue- extremely rare problems. The biggest risk is to your credit card. Staying at Disney RV park or motels is a great way to get early access each day and quick easy entry and exit each day.
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Hey Denis! We also spend winters down here. I agree that your AC certainly will be fine Jan-March. The AC and shade bits apply only if you’ll be down in the warmer months. Depending on what campground you stay in, Gators can cause problems, but not on Disney property. Yes, it certainly is expensive and even more so if you choose to stay in the Disney campground. However, I agree that for those staying short term staying in property is a wonderful way to make the most of a short amount of time.
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Just saw that I did suggest parking in the shade, stating that even winters can be a bit warm for the AC. I think I wrote that as my rig was baking in the early November sunshine because we were parked in a spot with no shade. Haha! So perhaps the shade doesn’t hurt no matter what season it is because the sun is so bright, but you’re probably correct that it isn’t really necessary during the cooler times of year. Thanks for pointing that out!
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Great tips! I didn’t know you could park an RV at Disney!
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