THINGS TO KNOW AND THINGS TO DO PRIOR to ARRIVING AT DISNEY PARKS!
Do you like to wait in 2-3 hour wait lines? NO? Then KEEP READING!
Are you staying at Thousand Trail Orlando or a non-Disney Park? Yes? Then Keep Reading!
Download the DISNEY PARK APP!
This will allow you to keep up on wait times on all attractions but also important changes if you are in a timed queue for a popular ride. Know WHEN you can make reservations for your MAIN park for the duration of your stay. If you are NOT staying at a Disney resort, you may want to avoid parks on the days that they have early entry for resort visitors. Parks with early entry varies each day. I don’t recommend park hopping unless you simply want to go for the night lights/fireworks show at a particular park or that’s the only way you can visit all four parks.
A Magic Band makes everything easier!!
- NO TICKETS TO LOSE! Tap the big Mickey button and watch it turn to Green.
- Unlock your Disney Resort hotel room with a tap
- Tap your band to pay for your Disney purchases and food.
- Tap your band to photos displayed from attractions. View them on line in your app account.
Magic Bands are not just a one time investment. Buy the cheapest one that will work. 🙂 We luckily kept ours from our 2014 visit, used them again in 2019, and 2022!
GENIE +
Genie + is a fast pass system, now called Lightning Lane, that you have to PURCHASE daily if you value your time and don’t want to wait in horrendously long lines. (90-150 minutes) The Genie+ option is available anytime after midnight each day. We paid $15 each day, except for FRIDAY, November 4, and Monday, November 7 when the price went up to $20. I don’t know if that is based on the number of reservations for all the parks for a given day, or if the price simply increased after the Halloween décor in each park was magically replaced with everything Christmas.
— The Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations can also be used when you park hop—BUT—be aware that the popular rides within the second park being “hopped to” won’t likely have any LL times left for you to reserve! .We learned that when we tried it, and ended up quite disappointed. Knowing this, I do not advise paying more to get a Park Hopper Ticket unless that is the only way to see each park in the time you have at Disney World.
AND THERE’S MORE To KNOW!
INDIVIDUAL Lightning Lane Pass!
The INDIVIDUAL Lightning Lane Pass (ILL) that is a timed ride ticket for a specific, and highly sought after ride. There is a limited quantity of ILL’s available each day, and will sell out, so know before you go to bed if there is an ILL that you want the next day. Buy it as soon as possible after 7 AM. You will be given some time slot options to lock into.
- You CANNOT purchase an ILL for a ride in a park you plan to park hop to at 2PM.
- You don’t have to purchase the Genie+ Pass to buy the ILL for a specific ride. It will not interfere with the regular Lightning Lane reservations you make using the Genie + system for the rest of the park attractions.
QUEUE Rides
A QUEUE ride is usually for a new attraction. Currently, (2022) it is Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster. This is THE BEST ride in all of Disney!! Sooo much fun. It does not COST to get into a queue if time is available, BUT you must be in the park to do so, AND it must be your reserved park for that day. (No hopped to park will work.)
The queue for such a ride opens at 7 am and again at 1PM.
Hopping to that park after 2 will NOT allow you to join the 1PM queue. Both queues for the day are ONLY for guests with a park reservation for that park. (We learned that from experience. )
Once into a queue time slot know that time is only an APPROXIMATE time to be ‘called”. You need to check on it periodically. Our first one moved a full hour or so earlier. If you miss your group’s call to show up, you will miss out completely!
All of this with the Genie+ LL and the Individual LL is meant to keep the lightning lanes truly fast way into a line and onto the ride!
I HIGHLY recommend planning what parks you want to go to on which day, and what your priorities are for each one. All this will help you get more of your time in each park!
I know it is insanely expensive to buy a Magic Band, and then figure in these additional passes for popular rides, especially with the cost of admission for multiple days, but YOU have to decide how patient you and those with you are for waiting in horrendously long queues, and how important is it to your party to experience the ride attractions that have recently been added? We tried without the LL and ILL our first day, and knew quite soon, we were going to pay.
NOW – GO AND ENJOY BEING A KID AGAIN!!