A trip to Disney World is complex and expensive, and knowing a few hacks can make a huge difference. I love Disney parks vacations, and over the years I’ve discovered a few ways to make sure my trips are a success. Here are my top tips.
Throw $$$ at the Mouse
I hate spending money unnecessarily, and I’ve written an entire post on how to save money at Disney World with all my best hacks. But at Disney, time is money. Sometimes it’s better to spend a little extra in order to make the most of your time.
Genie+
Genie+ is Disney’s skip-the-line service. It costs between $16-40 per person per day, depending on the date and park you are visiting. Purchasing Genie+ gives you the ability to book access to Lightning Lanes which allow you to walk right by all of the people standing in line for certain attractions and board the ride first. Using Genie+ is complex and beyond the scope of this post, but check out Disney Tourist Blog’s incredibly detailed post for more information. If you have Genie+, you will save 2+ hours of standing in line each day. The higher the crowd level, the more time (and frustration) you will save!
If your budget can’t stretch far enough to add Genie+ on each day of your trip, that’s OK. It is more effective in some parks than in others. If you can only purchase one day of Genie+ for your group, get it for your Magic Kingdom day. This park has many attractions with Lightning Lanes which makes the service much easier and more fulfilling to use. While Disney only promises that you will be able to skip 2-3 lines with Genie+, it’s not uncommon to use it with 10+ attractions at Magic Kingdom.
If you can afford Genie+ for two days, add Hollywood Studios. This park has many major attractions and very long waits. You won’t be able to use Genie+ for as much as in Magic Kingdom, but you will be glad you have it. If you can get it for three days, add EPCOT. And for four days, add Animal Kingdom. EPCOT and Animal Kingdom have fewer attractions with Lightning Lanes and there is more to do that doesn’t require waiting in line. But it’s still nice to be able to skip whatever lines you can!
Individual Lightning Lanes
Genie+ allows you to access the Lightning Lanes for specific attractions. However, some attractions have Lightning Lanes but they aren’t available to use with Genie+. Instead, you have to pay for an Individual Lightning Lanes for that specific attraction. There are 1-2 of these attractions in each park, and each cost $10-25 per person. It’s no surprise that these are the most popular attractions in Disney World. Again, using these can be complex. Consult Disney Tourist Blog’s post for instructions.
You don’t need to buy an Individual Lightening Lane for all attractions. You can easily avoid the lines by following some tips in the Adhere to the Schedule section below. But you should definitely consider buying one for Rise of the Resistance. This cutting-edge ride in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios breaks down a lot. If you stand in line for a long time in the standby line and the ride breaks down, you are out of luck. With an Individual Lightning Lane, you will be able to come back later or get a refund.
Another reason to consider buying an Individual Lightning Lane for certain attractions is to guarantee access for attractions that have a virtual queue (currently Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and TRON). These virtual queues can run out quickly. Another reason to consider Individual Lightning Lanes is if you have a short trip with limited park time. You can pack more into a park day with a combination of Genie+ and Individual Lightening Lanes.
Stay in the Bubble
One of the best Disney World hacks is to stay in an on-property Disney hotel or at an off-property resort that has Disney benefits. This is known as staying in the “Disney bubble.” While you will probably pay more per night, the perks are usually worth it. The first perk is proximity to the parks. On-property hotels have Disney transportation such as buses, boats, a monorail, and even a gondola system to get you where you need to go. Off-property hotels usually have shuttle buses, and they are often close enough that you can walk to a Disney property and hop on Disney transportation. Or you can book an inexpensive rideshare to get you back and forth to the parks.
Another key perk is early entry into the theme park. This extra 30 minutes each day can save you up to 2 hours standing in line later. And if you stay in a deluxe hotel or the Swan/Dolphin/Swan Reserve hotels (my favs), you also have access to Extended Evening Hours in certain parks a few times per week. You can stay in the park two hours after closing time and enjoy incredibly low crowds in the park.
A final valuable perk of staying on-property or at the Swan/Dolphin/Swan Reserve is ability to purchase Individual Lightning Lanes at 7 a.m. As described above, Individual Lightning Lanes can be key in getting the most out of your day at a Disney park, and they will sometimes sell out on busy days.
Check out my post on the best Disney hotels for every budget for my recommendations on where to stay!
Adhere to a Schedule
Now that we are staying in the Disney bubble and have purchased Genie+ and/or Individual Lightning Lanes, it’s time to get serious. No list of Disney World hacks can be complete without a plea to adhere to a schedule. Now I know what you are thinking. Vacations should be relaxing! Unfortunately, a Disney vacation is usually not relaxing. Book a few extra days at the beach after days at Disney if you want relaxation!
Early Morning Schedule
Here’s what your morning at Disney should look like:
- Depart your Disney-area hotel at least 75 minutes prior to early entry park opening; your goal is to arrive at least 30 minutes before opening.
- Spend the 30 minutes of early entry doing 1-2 major attractions:
- Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train & Peter Pan or Space Mountain & Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Another option is to do one major attraction in Fantasyland or Tomorrowland and then line up for regular park opening to do a major attraction in Adventureland such as Jungle Cruise or Frontierland such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
- Hollywood Studios: some combination of Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Minnie & Mickey’s Runaway Railway, and Slinky Dog Dash.
- EPCOT: Test Track & Soarin’ if you are entering in the front entrance; Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure & Frozen Ever After if you are entering from International Gateway.
- Animal Kingdom: Flight of Passage & Na’vi River Journey
- Park opening to 11 a.m.: continue to ride attractions with lines of 30 minutes or less.
Afternoon Options
There’s nothing worse than a theme park in the afternoon. Most people aren’t like you, and they start their day in the park mid-morning. Crowds grow and grow and reach their peak between 12-2 p.m. This is also the hottest time of the day which is particularly miserable during the summer months.
I have three hacks to manage this difficult part of your Disney World day:
- Option I: Stay in the park. Book a reservation for a sit-down meal, linger over your food, and then fill your afternoon enjoying the park’s shows and atmosphere.
- Option 2: Take an afternoon break in your hotel. Grab something to eat for lunch on the way out, or eat at a restaurant at your resort. Then spend a few hours napping or lounging by the pool or enjoying other hotel amenities. Since you are staying in the Disney bubble, your hotel is guaranteed to be great!
- Option 3: Take an afternoon break at another resort. I will likely never stay in a Disney deluxe hotel, but I’ve spent many an afternoon enjoying their restaurants and lounges and lobbies!
No matter which option you choose, if you have Genie+, remember to stack Lightning Lanes for your return to the park later! Refer to Disney Tourist Blog’s post for more information on stacking Genie+ reservations.
Evening Schedule
Linger as long as you want for your afternoon break, and don’t even think about going back to the park until about 4 p.m. As you walk back in the park, you will see a sea of people limping out with their overtired children! Hopefully you have a stack of Lightning Lanes piled up to take advantage of. Grab dinner before 6 p.m. or after 7 p.m. to avoid the longest lines. And stay until park closing, especially if the park is open after the nightly fireworks or shows are done. Attraction wait times will drop at this point, and you can even jump in line right before park closing. If the park is open until 11 p.m. and you get in line at 10:59 p.m., you will be able to ride the attraction no matter how long the line is!
Zig When Others Zag
Related to adhering to a schedule, zig when others zag is one of the most important Disney World hacks. This simply means that you do something different from what the rest of the crowd is doing. If everyone goes right, you go left! Here are my top tips for zigging:
- Do popular attractions in the early morning and late evening; save shows and less popular attractions for the afternoon.
- Skip parades and fireworks to take advantage of lower lines at popular rides. Also, don’t try to leave the park right after a parade or fireworks. Linger a bit and the crowds for transportation will die down.
- Know that Disney uses wait times to manipulate crowds. As a result, the wait times are often inflated. Generally, you can expect that the line will be 25% less than the posted time. If it says 5-10 minutes (or 13 for Tower of Terror or Haunted Mansion), it’s a walk-on. If you want another source for wait time data, get a Touring Plan subscription and download the Lines app.
- Remember that you can enter Lightening Lanes up to 5 minutes early or up to 15 minutes late.
Identify Typical Crowd Patterns
Zigging when others zag also includes identifying typical crow patterns, such as:
- Magic Kingdom: most people start in Fantasyland or Tomorrowland, so make your way over to Frontierland or Adventureland as soon as those lands open for fewer crowds.
- EPCOT: visit World Showcase in the morning and afternoon and the rest of the park in the evening. The crowds will do the opposite. Most people start in Mexico in EPCOT’s World Showcase, so start in Canada and go counter-clockwise around the countries.
- It’s human nature to go right when entering a new space, so try going left when you enter a park or a ride queue when it splits.
- Eat at off times – think breakfast at 10 a.m., lunch at 2 p.m., and dinner at 8 p.m. Or shift early with a 6 a.m. breakfast, 11 a.m. lunch, and 5 p.m. dinner.
- Stick around if it rains. There’s nothing like a storm to clear out a park. Most of the time the rain passes quickly in Florida. So just put on your poncho or carry an umbrella and continue on with your day. You will benefit from a much less crowded park!
- Remember if schools are on holiday break, the parks will be busy. Plan your trip to avoid school breaks for the least crowds.
Save Some Dough
Now that I’ve encouraged you to spend a lot of money on your hotel, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes, I want to provide a few Disney World hacks that will actually save you money! I went into ways to get deep discounts in my post on how to save money at Disney World. But there are a few ways that you can save smaller amounts here and there. Hopefully enough to cover the cost of Genie+ or Individual Lightening Lanes for the day!
Food
Did you know that you can take food into the theme parks at Disney World? You can carry anything from a simple water bottle to a four-course meal. You can bring in a cooler that is smaller than 24″ long x 15″ wide x 18″ high. Loose or dry ice isn’t allowed, so bring reusable ice packs or simply fill up plastic baggies with ice from your hotel. There are even microwaves available at the Baby Care Centers in each theme park. And you can store your cooler in a rented locker.
While you won’t see me bringing in a full meal, I will always take a reusable water bottle and a few snacks. And I refill my water bottle either at bottle refilling stations or by asking for cups of water at counter-service restaurants.
I will also order off the kids’ menu or share meals with my travel companion. Disney portion sizes are usually quite large. And there are so many snack opportunities! I’m not likely to be hungry for long. And I usually just drink tap water to save the $5 they charge for sodas or bottled water.
Hotels
While I want you to stay on-property in a Disney resort or in a partner hotel, there are still some ways to save cash on your hotel bookings. Here are my top hacks for saving money on Disney World area hotels.
Use Points
You can book rooms using credit card or loyalty points. Use your Capital One Venture X, American Express, or Chase Sapphire Preferred card travel portals to book both on- and off-property rooms. You can also erase your hotel purchase using your Venture X card. Or you can use your hotel loyalty points or bank transferable points to book off-property hotels with Disney perks:
- Marriott Bonvoy: Swan/Dolphin/Swan Reserve
- Hilton Honors: Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace, Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista, Waldorf Astoria Orlando, DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando
- IHG One Rewards: Holiday Inn Orlando
- Wyndham Rewards: Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista, Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
Rent DVC Points
Another option is to rent points for a Disney Vacation Club property from an owner. This allows you to stay in on-property deluxe hotels for moderate prices. This is complex, so again I refer you to Disney Tourist Blog’s great post about this topic.
Book Through Priceline or Hotwire
Book your hotel on Priceline or Hotwire. Many on-property hotels show up here, especially at the last minute. And there’s often a promo code available for you to save 10%+. You can sometimes find on-property and partner hotels on Priceline’s Express Deals or Hotwire’s Hot Rates as well. The hotel name and identifying information is hidden, so it’s a bit of a risk. But often you can get a Disney or partner hotel for a great price. Follow these steps:
- Search for a hotel within Orlando, then narrow down the resorts by selecting the Walt Disney World – Disney Springs and Walt Disney World – Bonnet Creek neighborhoods.
- Look for clues as to what the hotel might be, such as the star rating, reviews, pricing, bed sizes, etc. Some hints:
- Disney value hotels are 3 stars, moderate hotels are 3.5 stars, and deluxe hotels are 4 or 4.5 stars.
- Disney hotels will not have free breakfast or a free airport shuttle, and listings will not have a photo of the room.
- Look at how many reviews the hotel has, the overall rating, and the price, and then compare these things with a listing that doesn’t hide the hotel name.
- These room bookings are non-refundable, so make sure that you are 100% going on the trip. You also need to be OK with whatever hotel you get. Usually you can narrow down to 2-3 options, so make sure any of these options are satisfactory before you book.
Pack Your Patience & Mind Your Manners
I know readers of our blog are nice people with superb manners. However, there’s nothing like a crowded, hot, and complicated Disney park to test even the nicest people. You can count on things going wrong at a Disney park. Genie+ will glitch after you pay a ton of money for it. You will stand in line for what seems like hours and a ride will break down. Your kids will whine and your spouse will snap at you. And it will be a thousand degrees then it will start pouring and your shoes will be soaked. All of these things combine to bring you to your breaking point.
There are two solutions to all of these problems. First, anticipate that things will go wrong and pack your patience. If you expect everything to go perfectly, you will be disappointed. But if you expect some chaos, you won’t be surprised when it happens and will have more coping skills. Second, mind your manners, stay polite, and give grace to everyone involved.
Cast Compliments
If you have issues that are within Disney’s control, you can ask a Disney employee (Cast Member) for help. Simply go to a cart with a blue umbrella in the park, nicely explain your situation, and ask for help. Cast Members are empowered to make magic for guests and can usually help. Sometimes they even go above and beyond in their solutions. If the Cast Member is helpful to you, make sure to leave a cast compliment in the My Disney Experience app. Make sure to make note of the Cast Member’s first name and hometown on their nametag.
Prefer a low-tech version? Simply drop by Guest Services in any park. They will have a form you can fill out. Or you can call Guest Services at 407-824-4321 or send an email to wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com. These compliments are considered by management when making decisions about Cast Members’ advancement in the company. So be generous!
If you want to be even more personal, bring some notes or little gifts from home to give to Cast Members. WDW Prep School has some fun designs you can download and copy for your trip. Or design your own. And you can always attach some candy, stickers, a small handmade craft, or a keychain to the note for extra special service.
What are your best hacks for Disney World?
Tell us below. And check out all of our theme park guides on our website!
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