Disney World advice \ tips

[Zyklon]

Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest, the Safari ride, and then pick whatever for the third one.

Hollywood Studios: The toy story ride can get up to 3-4 hours long so I would choose that over Rock n' Roller coaster (can only pick one or the other). Tower of terror shouldn't be too busy in the morning, but you can get a fast pass in the afternoon if you really like it. Star wars usually tops out around an hour, maybe two if its busy, but again, pretty empty in the morning. You can also get a fastpass to the nighttime show, which means you would have a guaranteed spot which is nice.

Epcot: Will you be with kids? Then you'll want to get the Frozen ride. If not, go with Soarin (you can only choose 1 of Test Track, Soarin, and Frozen) and if you also want to ride Frozen then get in line right when that area opens ( I think around 11). Then do what ever you want for your other two, it doesn't really matter. I think we got one to meet mickey and left the last one open, but since you'll be going during the busy time, id probably go with Spaceship Earth and maybe Mission: Space if your into that type of ride.


Magic Kingdom: We have Space mountain, New 7 Dwarves roller coaster, and Peter Pan which all usually have the longest waits. Splash mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion are all good options, just depends on what time you get to the park and which direction you go when you get there.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Are you going to the AdvoCare Invitational as well? I will be going with the in-laws, but haven't been before. They have been a few times but I would also be looking for suggestions/tips from others. I know we will be staying in Epcot at the Swan Hotel for a couple of nights.

Planning on it. We are staying at a resort within Disney and is only 14 minutes from the Advocare Tourney arena.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Depends on who you are going with. Do you have young kids you need to cater to or can you do what you want to do? I have done both and if I was planning something there for myself or family around my age I would spend quite a bit of time at Epcot. Youll drink some expensive beer and eat some overpriced food, but I think it's the most fun of the parks.

It's a big family event with people of several ages. My brother and me are in the 30's so we will look to more of the adult rides. I have 2 nieces going who are 3 and 7.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Totally worth staying on Disney property, you spend a lot of time commuting otherwise. And you got extra hours at parks (early or later). Couple this with a Park Hopper and you can cover a lot of ground strategically.

It's been a few years (3 or 4) since we've been to DisneyWorld, so we couldn't do FastPasses in advance.

Book your restaurant stuff NOW, if not sooner. The good ones, especially, fill up fast.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. Can't wait for this as it will likely be my first and probably only trip there so I want to hit the good stuff. My wonderful step-grandmother is putting this on and she has taken care of both the airfare and hotel for everyone going.

 

[Cyclone11]

I usually let my wife plan all vacations and she does a great job, but I would recommend the package that includes food if you stay in their resorts. You get to have refill on drinks anytime drinks too. We were full all the time and worth the money. On the rides, for sure do the haunted Mansion, Rock n roll. We did all the resorts and it was all fun. Planning on going back when the freaking snow gets here, hopefully spring break.

 

[Clonetown15]

If you are looking for intense rides, Mt Everest and Rocking Roll Coster are really great, space mountain is also good, the star wars ride, i dont remember the name is really underrated. Thunder mountain at Magic was surprise hit too.

Lot of great rides, one thing to know the food is not great but they charge like it is.

 

[Cyclone11]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. Can't wait for this as it will likely be my first and probably only trip there so I want to hit the good stuff. My wonderful step-grandmother is putting this on and she has taken care of both the airfare and hotel for everyone going.

Enjoy!

 

[cloneu]

Thanksgiving is one of the worst times to be there, even with Fast Passes you will be waiting in some lines on the popular rides. I waited about 20 minutes in the fast pass line on space mountain at Easter. Schedule all of your fast passes as early as you can in the day, need to use them all up before you start scheduling additional ones.

Download an app (Disney or other) that has the wait times on it. No need to walk halfway around the park to see how long the wait is at a ride. Also makes it easy to switch Fast Passes to different rides if you want to.

There are plenty of rides/attractions with short lines. They might not be high thrill/excitement but taking some time to sit down and go through the Carousel of Progress or similar is a nice break, especially if it is hot out.

Buy a book or check out some of the Disney World blogs for tips and do some planning. Our first day at Magic Kingdom we booked our fast passes randomly and picked out some of the stuff we wanted to do. Spent a lot of time in lines or trying to figure out what to do next. The second day we had more of a plan/schedule between rides, parades, shows, character lunch and we did about twice as much in the same amount of time. Planning is key unless your main goal is to people watch.

This might not apply to you as much as people with kids, but if you are buying souvenirs and staying at a Disney hotel they will take them to the hotel for you. No need to carry stuff around or wait until the end of the day to buy stuff.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Great advice on here. We got the Unofficial Disney World book as well. It was overkill, but once you get past the overwhelming amount of info and break it down into sections, it was really worth the money.

Staying on site is more expensive, but completely worth it IMO. As Nick said, if you have a large group and are wanting to eat together, book it now. We went over Christmas last year and that is my #1 piece of advice. After that, get your fast-passes in order. It's a lot to plan, but it's well worth the research.

To see everything, you really need 5-6 days (with a "chill out at the pool" in there). If you need to leave a park out, I'd nix Animal Kingdom. Mt Everest was really fun, but the rest of the park was a little meh for me. But if you are going with younger kids, they'd probably love it. It really depends on what you guys want to see/do.

Many people will recommend getting there early before the crowds hit. We chose to sleep in and hit the fireworks displays every night. I enjoyed every one of them and still hit most of the rides I wanted to hit.

You walk several miles each day, so try to get in Disney-shape before you get there. You don't want blisters on the first day to ruin the rest of your trip.

I enjoyed Hollywood Studios a lot more than I thought I would. The Star Wars ride is really fun. The jedi training is fun for younger kids and pretty damn cute to watch. They also have Rock'n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror, which are two highlights. Their fireworks was also my favorite.

Just go into it realizing that it's going to be like walking around a mall a week before Christmas with people walking at different speeds and stopping right in front of you. Don't get in a hurry and you'll enjoy the experience about 100% more.

We had a blast. People that went and didn't enjoy it likely went there with that attitude beforehand. If you need any specific info, hit me with a PM anytime.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Cloneu brought up a great point. The Disney app on your phone is pretty awesome and well worth it.

Also, if you want to get pictures of everyone, the photopass is a decent option so someone doesn't get left out of the picture. They take pictures all throughout the parks as well as allowing you to save the ride pictures.

You probably won't get your money's worth (just being honest) but it was nice to get plenty of pictures with everyone in them. Plus, if your accounts are all linked, you can view everyone else's pictures using the app.

 

[Fitzy]

I went twice on family vacations growing up and here's the experiences I had the most fun with:

Magic Kingdom:

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin - You might think this is for kids, but it's a blast for all ages. We got to the park early in the day and went on this 3-4 times in a row because we all loved it so much. If I remember correctly, there's one target you can hit that's worth huge points for your final score. Probably can find where it is easily on Google.

Splash Mountain - Fun log flume ride, but can get busy.

Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain - Both are coasters worth at least one ride to say you did them, but thought Space Mountain was a little over-hyped.

Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor - Underrated show. Interactive with the audience. They'll obviously spin it toward the youngsters, but I remember laughing pretty well even when I was high school age.

Epcot:

Mission: SPACE - Simulation ride that is a ton of fun, but I got a little queasy on it the second time I did it. Definitely not something you should do if you're the type of person who gets sick on rides a ton.

Soarin' - Enjoyable, but another one I kinda think is overrated a bit. Lines can get long fast.

Project Tomorrow (The Big Epcot Globe Ball) - Relaxing ride that's good to get on after you've done a lot of walking around. Good history lesson too.

Definitely be sure to walk around the lagoon and "tour the world." Lots of food to sample!

I didn't get to go on Test Track either times I went, unfortunately. But it looks like a blast.

Hollywood Studios:

Star Tours - Awesome because I'm a Star Wars fan. But would likely be fun for a non-fan as well.

Toy Story Mania! - I remember this being fun, but like others have echoed, lines can be a disaster and the ride isn't too long, so I felt like the wait/payoff ratio wasn't as good when we did it.

The Great Movie Ride - If you love movies, I recommend this.

Haven't gone on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster or the Tower of Terror because I was more of a wuss back then. If I ever go down there again, I plan on hitting both of those.

Others:

Can't offer an opinion on Animal Kingdom since we opted to skip out on it on both trips.

However, we went to Typhoon Lagoon instead because it was covered in our package and it has a 10/10 wave pool. Makes every wave pool in Iowa seem like a kiddie pool. Those waves were legitimately twice my height.

Downtown Disney can be a good place to visit at night too if you want to do some shopping/dining/people watching.

All of the nightly fireworks shows at the park are fantastic too.

Have fun Rulzzz!

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Last time I went to Disney World was for a conference. On Wednesday night they closed Magic Kingdom just for us so we had free access to everything. About the longest wait was 5-10 minutes for the Alien Attack thing (do they still have that?) Most things you just walked right up and got in. I rode Space Mountain a bunch of times.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I've seen several people here mention the Peter Pan ride at Magic Kingdom, so I feel compelled to bring it up. I had a fast pass for the Peter Pan ride because I heard how packed it was. I thought it was far and away the worst, most over-hyped ride.

The stand-by line was around two hours as I walked by everyone and I was expecting something awesome. You ride around on a ship and basically see an animatronic retelling of the story and places. I was really unimpressed with it. Given the popularity of it, I was expecting more of a coaster or at least a modest thrill ride. Nope.

I couldn't help but think how ticked off I would have been if I had waited that long for that boring ride.

 

[cloneu]

Magic Kingdom:

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin - You might think this is for kids, but it's a blast for all ages. We got to the park early in the day and went on this 3-4 times in a row because we all loved it so much. If I remember correctly, there's one target you can hit that's worth huge points for your final score. Probably can find where it is easily on Google.


Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor - Underrated show. Interactive with the audience. They'll obviously spin it toward the youngsters, but I remember laughing pretty well even when I was high school age.

Highly recommend these two, pretty much everybody can do them and everybody will enjoy themselves.

 

[Clonefan32]

Highly recommend these two, pretty much everybody can do them and everybody will enjoy themselves.

The Buzz Lightyear ride was a ton of fun. Our 4 year old didn't like it too much, but I was too busy making sure I didn't lose to my wife to console her.

As someone else said, skip the Peter Pan ride. It's nothing more than a super-trippy sky ride at the State Fair.

I also didn't know I was a claustrophobic person until there was a bottleneck in It's A Small World. I wanted off that boat so ******* bad.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Just returned from my trip. Here my rundown

Animal Kingdom - Didn't get to that park. Was supposed to do the safari but opted out of our group fastpass. If I go back I think that's all I would do there.

Epcot - All I did there was a Pixar 3D show. It was three short pixar cartoons in 3D, liked it alot. Outside of that and seeing the famous Spaceship Earth building nothing peaked my interest.

Hollywood Studios - Did The Great Movie Ride, the Indiana Jones stunt show, Rock n Roller Coaster - liked this coaster much more than Space Mountain which I will talk about later, and Tower of Terror. I did Tower of Terror at night which IMO is much more fun because of the part where ride opens up and you can see part of the park. Adds to the scare factor.

Finally Magic Kingdom where of the 7 days we were there I went 5 of those days. We had in our group my 3 nieces and nephew so we did the Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary resort by Magic Kingdom. It's a buffet lunch where Mickey and friends all come out and make an appearance at your table.

I did 14 rides/shows at MK and at least 5 of those twice. I didn't do the dwarf mine train or Thunder Mountain - lines for both were ridiculous all week. Did the Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean ride is just okay, but the design of what you see inside is amazing, Aladdin carpet ride, Monsters Inc. comedy show, and finally Space Mountain and Splash Mountain.

Did Space Mountain twice and think I'll stop there. Great ride but not a fan of all the jerkiness on that ride. I much rather do the Aerosmith coaster than Space Mountain. Splash "freaking" Mountain. Far and away the best ride for me. I've heard this ride get alot of meh talk but I loved it. I went 5 times including 3 times the last day all in the span of about 70 minutes. I was in the first section of the car 3 times which is the section that gets wet the most.

I'll never understand though the people that wait in a line that is more than a hour long much less those in the 2 hour long lines.

Had one of the best weeks of my life. Everyone needs to get there.

 

[carvers4math]

Knew you would have a great time Rulzzz because you went into it with a positive attitude. Hope the little ones had a blast too.

 

[theantiAIRBHG]

Happy to hear you had a good time Rulzzz. Per your text it sounds like you met some great people along the way as well

 

[BCClone]

Glad you had fun rulzzz, although you did look a little nervous behind the basket during the Indiana state game.

I would pick rock'n roller coaster also. Things have changed since we were there just 3 years ago. To get fast passes, you had to actually be at the rides to get them.