Hi all,
Im a newbie and hadnt been to the parks for about 7 years until 2 weeks ago. This was my first foray with Genie plus, lightning lanes, etc. I wanted to write what I thought worked and what Id do differently.
THESE ARE JUST THE PLANS THAT WORKED FOR ME AND MY 7 YEAR OLD. Some of this was luck related. Also, everyone is different. Some kids cant make it 5 hours without a meltdown. We have always been very active and GO GO GO so I knew she could hang through the 4 days, but even so, I wouldve changed a few things. I also know that the outline here worked for 2 but may not work for 4 people or more. This post isnt meant to be "DO IT THIS WAY OR FAIL" type of post. Just my experience.
I took my daughter to WDW for a 4 day trip July 10-13 2022.
Because we were only there for 4 days and were not going to park hop, my plan was 1 park a day and to try and leave mid day so she could nap, then return and do more rides. That part failed miserably as we never left a park. More to follow on that. My plan was to rope drop (be at the park before opening as close to he front of the line as possible) each park as well as use Genie Plus and Individual Lightning Lanes. I figured, though its more money to do this, when you go to Disney you know your going to spend money, so I wasnt going to try and save money when it came to one of the most important aspects of the trip, the rides!
We had a rental car and drove in from St Augustine FL. They charge you to park at the hotel but then if you choose to drive to the parks you dont pay to park at each park.
We stayed at
All Star Sports.
That said, remember this whole post is based off of early theme park entry at each park.
Resort was great and she loved it, even though she doesnt care for sports other than gymnastics! The bus waits for no problem....10 minutes at max. We never had to wait for more than 1 bus as we were out there an hour before ETPE. In hindsight, I wouldve stayed at Art Of Animation to have skyliner access. Wouldve been great for Epcot as Ill write about below.
The itinerary was Day 1, Epcot, Day 2 MK, Day 3 HS, day 4 AK. We bussed to MK and HS. AK was the last day and we were leaving town for a 2 hour drive after, so we drove to AK.
The following park tactics allowed us to ride all the popular rides while never waiting more than 30 minutes during a peak summer week. Ill admit, some luck was involved!
Day 1 - Epcot:
Epcot was a different strategy. Epcot has two entrances. A main entrance and a back entrance called the International Gateway. There are only a few ways to get to the IG. By skyliner, boat, or walk. This is where it wouldve been nice to be at Art of Animation (there are other hotels also that you can do this, but AOA is closes in price and quality to where we were at) because they have skyliner access which wouldve brought us to the IG. Because we were at All Star Sports, we took a Uber in the morning to the Swan and Dolphin and did a 10 minute walk to the IG. When we got there we were 2nd in line. Now why is this important? Remys Ratatouille ride is right near the IG and is one of the most popular rides at Epcot, along with Frozen, Test Track, and Guardians. As soon as we were allowed in the park we went to Remys. Meanwhile I had secured a virtual queue for Guardians and ALSO purchased a Lightning Lane for Guardians. Because these two LL options dont count toward my regular genie plus LL, I also got a LL for Frozen. We got off of Remys, hiked to Test track, went over to our sched LL at Frozen, and went to wait for our 10am ILL for Guardians. By 10 AM we rode the 4 most popular rides at Epcot! We used the remainder of the day to ride Soarin, Figment, Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, etc. The plan WAS to leave mid day and return to watch the night time show, but as the day kept flying by we found that it was already 1pm and started to rain, so we ducked out and ate there. By the time that was done we knew if we left we werent coming back, so we stayed a little longer and missed out on the night time show. My other fear was watching this show late at night and ropedropping MK the next day with a 7yo didnt seem wise, as we would have to be waiting for the bus by 7am. We ended up leaving Epcot about 4, ate supper and used the resort pool till bedtime.
This strategy worked from park to park. We would rope drop a popular ride, pay for a ILL for another, and Genie Plus a third.
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom:
We took the first bus over to MK and purchased a ILL for Mine Train and rope dropped Space Mountain. This allowed us to then immediately do Buzz Lightyear and squeeze in a teacup ride before our mine train run, all before the park opened to general admission. Many people rope drop snow white, but honestly, the point of rope drop is to ride as many as you can BEFORE the place gets overcrowded and it seemed like we would get more done starting at Space. At 7 AM I had also
Genie+ Splash Mountain. My theory on Splash, which has always held true, is ride it early because you know it WILL go down, PLUS, you have weather to contend with. If you think, Ill wait till its really hot at 1pm and ride it then, you may find its not running due to thunderstorms which usually strike late in the day vs early morning. Ironically, this was the day that Splash got shut down later in the day because one of the ride vehicles flooded with people in it so we were happy we did this at 10am. We ended up staying there all day till the nightime show Enchantment. This was where my trip planning needs a overhaul next time. We went for 4 parks, 4 consecutive days. In hindsight, next time I would plan a break day mid way in between, and also place the "night time shows" prior to a rest day. For instance, I wouldve done AK day 1, maybe Epcot day 2, day off to rest and relax, day 4 AK, Day 5 MK. This way we can see the night shows at MK and Epcot and not worry about waking early the next day. Next time!
Day 3 - Hollywood Studios:
Again, we bussed in early and were about 15 people from the front. I paid for ILL on Rise of the Resistance and got a LL for Tower of Terror with the pan to rope drop Slinky Dog Dash. Why LL Tower? Well, I didnt want it shut down later in the day due to weather AND I figd if we did it early we could probably walk on to Rock N Roller Coaster right nearby without a long wait early. When we got to slinky dog it was not running and the cast members told us they advised us going somewhere else but we could wait if we wanted. That said, we ran over to Smugglers Run and were so early for it my daughter and I had our OWN SHIP. After this we walked by Slinky which was still down so hit Mickey and Minnie Railroad. After that it was time for our Tower LL. Did that and hit Rock N Roller with a 5 minute wait. Within the first hour we rode 4 of the most popular attractions and had a ILL for Rise later on. Here is where luck played in. By 2pm we had rode on every ride we wanted and did most shows. I wanted to leave and come back before closing to try slinky again BUT I did something Ill never do again. I had made reservations at the Sci Fi Drive Diner for 3:30, so now we were stuck having to wait or forfeit a fee for cancelling. Whats worse was the service was soooo slow for food you couldve gotten at Woodys Lunch Box we didnt get out of there till 5:30. We rode all the rides and saw a bunch of shows etc and were about to leave at 5:30 when my daughter asked if we could check Toy Story Land 1 more time for a Sox the cat plush. I said ok. As we were walking I saw that the short line at Slinky of people waiting for it to open all started to stand up and move. We ran over and the Cast Member said they are now opening the ride! We walked right on! Amazing!
Day 4 - Animal Kingdom:
Here things were a little weird. Everest was out of service at 7am when I went to do genie plus, so I got a LL for the rapids and we rope dropped Flight Of Passage. After that was the Navi River, and we went to the safari. Post Safari we did the rapids and got a LL for Dinosaur. I saw there were ILL for Flight available so bout them because with Everest down we were gonna have more time. Anyway, we did Bugs Life, watched the kite show, ate, etc. I looked at the app and saw Everest was open with a 5 minute wait! We ran over and got on it. As we did I had a LL spot open so I booked it for Everest again. By the time we got to Everest it was a 30 minute wait (at 1pm!). We rode it, killed 20 minutes, and rode it again with the LL. After that we hit Flight for the 2nd time with the ILL.
To recap, I had 4 days, with a 7 year old, and I hadnt been to the parks in ages, but we were able to do ALL of the major rides and most of the base lvl rides and shows. I learned and here is a recap of DOs and DONTs. Again, luck was also on our side!
DO's:
Buy Genie Plus
Buy Individual Lightning lanes if you can afford to. I understand that a party of 2 vs a party of 5 over 4 days is a huge difference in cost.
Rope Drop. We were able to do so much in that first hour allowing us to take our time, look for hidden mickeys, etc.
Use International Gateway
Stay at a hotel with Skyliner access (its like a ride in itself!)
Plan out your LL and ETPE Rope Drop rides so that you can get to another ride nearby quickly and not have to run across the park
Book an extra day of rest mid vacation to refuel
DONT'S:
Make dining reservations. Quick service is the way to go!
Wait to ride weather sensitive rides for later in the day
Plan on a night show a day before rope dropping.