The Unspoken Disney World Shoe Rule for Day 1 of Your Trip

We mention all the time how important it is to choose the right shoes for Disney World, and it can be harder than you may think!

Fuentes del Morro Pool

However, there’s another type of shoes you need to bring if you’re planning on doing one of two activities and BOTH of them very much may fall on day 1 of your trip: your Disney World hotel pool or a water park. Here’s why you need to have these pool/water park shoes WITH you when you arrive, not in your suitcase!

Starting in 2025, there’s a new Disney World hotel perk being added for guests — on the check-in day of their trip, they get free admission to whichever of Disney World’s water parks is open at that time (Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon).

Coronado Springs Pool

Not only does this mean that you’ll want to have your swimwear easily accessible, but you’ll also want to make sure you can easily reach your sandals/flip flops/whatever shoes you wear to the water park so you don’t have to travel in your sneakers (you know, the shoes you REALLY need to keep dry and comfortable for the remainder of your trip).

Old Key West Resort

It’s possible that you could arrive at your Disney World hotel and your room isn’t ready yet. Not to worry! You can store your bags at bell services and head over to the water park OR to the hotel pool — whichever you choose, you’ll want those shoes accessible.

Big Blue Pool Kid’s Area

We don’t really recommend wearing your park shoes/sneakers to the pool or any water area, because you’ll have to take them off NEAR the water and risk them getting wet, and then they’ll take FOREVER to dry. (Pro tip: you can try to use the hairdryer in your room to dry shoes! However, if you’re me and are at a meh hotel, the hair dryer will completely die after 5 minutes and they’ll still be damp, so don’t solely rely on that. You live and learn.)

Typhoon Lagoon

We also don’t recommend walking around (pardon me, I’m gagging) BAREFOOT until you’re literally at the water park area or pool area. Do you know how many people walk on those floors? What ELSE has been on those floors? And the ground is just — I can’t even think about it BLECH. Yes, I’m a germaphobe who weirdly hates open toed shoes, but even I’d prefer to wear flip flops (which is a nightmare for me) before walking ANYWHERE barefoot, especially on Disney World property.

Typhoon Lagoon

Bottom line of this post: Just have those pool shoes easily accessible so you don’t need to dig through your suitcase in the middle of the hotel lobby to grab them. It’ll make your life easier, I promise!