When you think of a vacation to Walt Disney World, your first thought is probably about Mickey. Your second thought is most likely about the rides. You probably think that going to Disney is as simple as booking a room and buying park tickets. Truth be told, Disney is one of the most complicated places we have ever visited and requires some advance planning. While you *can* just show up and hop in lines, you probably won't have a great experience. Popular rides can have wait times of over two-hours. Even the less popular rides still usually have wait times of 25 minutes or more depending on the season you are there. The overwhelming majority of people who went to Disney World once and hated it were the people who did zero planning and just showed up thinking they could just walk right onto all of the rides.
Right now, you are already one step ahead of the curve simply by reading this. We're going to let you know the basics of what to expect from rides and attractions, how to get on them, when to ride them, and how to book ride reservations at each park. This is just an overview and won't go into ride specific details.
Terms used in this article:
My Disney Experience App = MDE - Disney's official app
Genie+ = a paid "skip the line" service
Lightning Lane = LL - the physical line you enter at the ride
Standby Line= the physical line you will enter at the ride if you do not have a time booked
Individual Lighting Lane = ILL - a paid way to skip certain lines
Virtual Queue = VQ - a free way to experience certain rides
Booking Rides with Genie+
The best way to ensure you get onto the rides and attractions you want is to purchase Disney's new Genie+. If you have been to Disney World, but maybe it's been a few years since you have been, you are probably familiar with the old, and free, FastPass+ system. Under the Chapek Rein of Terror, this free skip the line service was removed and changed to be offered as an extra paid option. This outraged the long time Disney fanbase. However, with Genie+ selling out through most of Spring Break this year, I don't foresee this paid system going back to a free service any time soon. While the majority of people will agree it's an outrage to pay for something that was always free, consumer demand is also high and reports show that people are willing to pay (even if outraged by it). That being said, this is the single best way to ride more and wait less. Genie+ is not just for rides, it can also be used to skip the lines at character meet and greets.
Side note: Disney recently started including your ride photos for the day for free when you buy Genie+. This does not include pictures take by the photographers stationed around the park. Just the on-ride photos. They will show up in the MDE app and are available for you to download to your phone.
How to Book Rides with Genie+
So how does it work? At time of this writing, Genie+ is available to be purchased at 7am on the day of. Currently (June 2023), pre-booking months in advance (like you could under the old FP+ system) is not available. However Disney has mentioned that they are working on a way to possibly offer this in the future. This is not going to be an extensive guide to Genie+, just a general overview. This is an incredibly complicated system with rules and booking time restrictions. This would be a 30 minute long post if I were to cover all of the details of Genie+.
To use the service, you will need to make sure, ahead of time, that you have the My Disney Experience (MDE) app installed on your phone and signed into your account. Log in, purchase Genie+, and make your first reservation at 7am. Once you get to the park, you will enter through the line side marked "Lightning Lane" (LL) during your 1-hour arrival window for your booked ride. Only use the Lightning Lane entrance at the ride where you have a time booked and use the "Standby Entrance" for rides and attractions for which you do not have a reservation. You can only make one reservation at a time. You can make your next selection either after you redeem your Genie+ ride, the ride time has expired (like, you don't actually ride and the 1-hour window as lapsed), or 2-hours after your initial selection. So essentially, you can hold 2 reservations at the same time if you book your first one at 7am and your next one at 9am. Disney promotes this as being able to skip 2-3 lines per day. If you play the system right, you could do a couple more than that.
Yeah, sounds great, right? So, how much is this service going to cost you? Disney has switched to a dynamic pricing system. This means that on busier days, such as school holidays, special events, and weekends, cost per day will be higher. You can expect anywhere from $15-$29 per person per day with the lowest pricing on days with the lowest crowds. No too bad of a price to skip the lines if you are a single traveler or a small family of three, like us, going in the off season. However, if you are a larger family of five or six, the extra cost every day adds up quickly.
Of note, you will often see really, really long lines at the LL entrance. Don't worry about this. Cast Members allow multiple LL parties in for every one Standby party. You can see in these pictures that it looks like the Standby line at Rise of the Resistance is a walk-on, but it had a posted 280 minute wait. In contrast, the Lightning Lane was was backed up incredibly far (that's still the LL line in the last picture!!!) Even though this line was backed up well beyond the actual ride queue entrance, we still only waited about 30 minutes in total.
It's important to also keep in mind that Genie+ is not for every single ride. The top one or two rides at every park are excluded from this and cost even more to ride! Which brings us to our next section below...
Individual Lightning Lanes
To add to the complicated system even further, the top rides at every park are not included with Genie+ and are a separate cost. These pay-per-ride are the most popular rides with the longest lines at each park. Of note, you can still by these Individual Lighting Lans (ILL) rides on their own without having to buy the whole Genie+. Once again, the pricing is a dynamic pricing system. We have only ever once actually paid to ride one of these rides. It was last November when we accidentally went during Jersey Week and I couldn't get a free Virtual Queue for the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. I love this ride so much that I broke down and paid a whopping $20 PER PERSON just to ride this one ride. So yeah, these ILL riders will set you back a few bucks. I really don't recommend spending the money on them if you are a Disney regular, and I hated myself for doing it. However, if you are an infrequent guest or you are doing a shorter stay of less than five days, then go ahead and spend the money. The only one I truly endorse is Rise of the Resistance. It breaks down quite frequently. Due to this, lines back up really long when it does finally re-open (which is what had happened in the above picture). They move all of the LL guest through really quickly leaving the stand by parties waiting forever.
Here's a breakdown of the ILL rides at each park
Magic Kingdom- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON Light Cycle Run
EPCOT- Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
Hollywood Studio- Rise of the Resistance
Animal Kingdom- Avatar Flight of Passage
Virtual Queue
The ONLY way to ride Disney's two newest rides is with either the paid ILL or the free Virtual Queue (VQ). There is NO Standby line for either Guardians of the Galaxy or TRON Lightcycle Run. The good news is that VQ is a FREE system. The bad news, it's extremely difficult to actually book a ride through this system. Starting at 7am, guests can try their luck with getting into the VQ system. In theory, it's super simple. Click on "Join Virtual Queue" from the main MDE screen. It will then show you a list of available options. Add the members of your party who want to ride and click through to the end. However, in practice, it's not as easy as it sounds. At 7am, thousands of people are also trying to click and get a spot. These spots are gone in literally half a second.
The best way to secure a free spot with VQ is to be on the app and ready to go at 6:58 am (ugh...Not what you wanted to hear on vacation). Make sure you are NOT on Disney wifi. Disconnect and use your mobile service network. Go ahead and click through as much as it will let you. As soon as the clock turns 7:00, click that button to join. Do not pause. Do not hesitate. Just click. Do not click before 7:00. And may the odds be ever in your favor.
If you don't get on at the 7am time, ride slots will reopen at 1:00. For the 1pm time, you must be inside of the actual park to be allowed to join. For the 7am chance, you can be anywhere in the country.
Best Use of Genie+ Rides
Not all rides and experiences are actually worth using a Genie+ pass. Most all of the shows will have little to no wait and high capacity. It's also predictable to know when show happen. True "shows" will run on a set schedule with show times posted in advance at the theater and on the MDE app. "Attraction" shows, such as Carousel of Progress, Muppet Vision 3D, Mickey's Philharmagic, etc. will run on a continuous schedule, such as every 15 or 20 minutes. Using a Genie+ selection on these will not save you any time as everyone must enter and exit at the same time. These are great filler options to use in between your Genie+ rides. I also love shows in the middle of the day because they are a great way to cool off in the AC when the sun is blaring down at 2pm.
Take a little time and pick your top "must-do" rides and make those your priority Genie+ selections. Rides such as Space Mountain, Frozen Ever After, Pirates of the Caribbean, Expedition Everest, and Slinky Dog Dash will all sell out very quickly. Or if you wait past 8am to make your selections, they may only have times slots left for later in the day.
Rope Dropping
Rope Dropping comes from back in the day when Disney had a literal rope that they would drop when the parks officially opened. Hence the term "Rope Drop". These days, there is not a physical rope that is dropped. Now the term is used as a verb, as something you do. This is also a little misleading as the parks typically open anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before posted time. And on property guests have early access by 30 minutes before park opening. One of the best ways to get on the more popular rides is to be at the park entrance 1-hour or more before official park opening, or Rope Dropping the park. I'm not talking, leave your resort an hour before opening. I mean, be there, at the entrance, one hour or more before posted opening. Don't worry, you won't be the only ones there that early. There will already be a HUGE crowd. Cast Members will let guest in to the parks to a certain point until they are ready to open the rides.
Other Strategies
I personally LOVE Disney firework shows and would never miss one. The Kiddo, on the other hand, would much rather be riding rides. During the 15 minutes before and throughout nighttime fireworks shows, rides are virtually empty. She can usually ride Space Mountain twice back to back during Magic Kingdom's fireworks. I would never recommend skipping a night time show to ride a ride to any first timer. The nighttime shows are just so magical (yep, I cry every time). But if your family really doesn't like fireworks and magic, the this is a good time to knock out some rides with low waits. Ride times area also typically a little lower during the typical lunch and dinner times. If you can adjust your meal schedule and eat at brunch or linner times instead, you can usually get through ride queues more quickly. Ride times may also be a little lower during parades, but we have not found parades to be a huge impact anymore like they once were. If you have night owls in your family, lines within 30 minutes of closing are usually pretty low. As long as you are in line 1-minute before official park closing, you will get to ride. This is a strategies we use a lot.
Character Meet and Greets
You expect lines for rides, right? But did you know that you also have to wait in lines to meet characters? Characters don't just roam the parks for you to stop and hug. You can find designated character spots on the MDE app. You can also use Genie+ to skip the lines for most characters. Character Meal Dining is also a fantastic, yet expensive, way to meet some of your favorite characters without having to wait in long lines.
I hope this helps to give you a starting point when trying to plan your Walt Disney World Vacation. For help booking a room or Disney Vacation Package, check out Jillian with Destination Dreaming Travels. She's a FREE travel agent waiting to help you book your most magical vacation ever.
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