How do I plan for attractions at Disney World to avoid the wait

Question

My family is going to Disney World the last 2 weeks in August. We have a 7 day single park passes. I am trying to plan what rides and attractions to go to first and which ones I should be running for Fast Passes. We plan on spending 3 days in MK and a day each on the rest with a floater day to our favorite park at the end. I have 6 y/o twins and a 5 y/o. All love the "action rides" so we plan to hit them all.

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

Without paying extra for speed passes, it's a good idea to avoid the most popular rides during peak hours. Hit the rides with the longest lines as soon as they open.

Answer 2

My wife also used Custom Mouse Plans and we were thrilled with the results!  I was very skeptical at first, but after one day in the parks I knew we had made a great move going with them.  We had used one of the cheaper, one size fits all companies in the past, but these plans were much better for our family.

Answer 3

well to avoid huge lines get to the parks before they open and stand in line to wait for them to open. like if mk opens at 8am get to the parking lot at 7:30am. by the time you park and get to the gates it will be 7:50am and you will have a couple minutes to wait until the park opens.

at mk first start at fantasy land cuz later in the day the rides there have super long lines especially peter pan's flight and winnie the pooh.

also make sure you get over to adventure land after that and do pirates of the caribbean cuz that line gets really long in the afternoon.

if the wait time for splash mountain says 45 minutes or less don't bother with the fast pass just get in line cuz the line never takes as long as it says.

thunder mountain is a different story. when the wait time says 15 minutes its usually more like 30 so i'd get a fast pass for that if the line seems long.

space mountain is usually best when you go on in the early to mid afternoon. but i personally would get a fast pass for it cuz the line is usually always like 30 minutes which isn't bad for adults but the kids will get restless. with the fast pass it usually takes about 10 minutes.

make sure you go on carousel of progress you can the kids will love it. its been my fav since i can remember it when i was like 3 yrs old. i can go on it 3 times in a row i love it that much.

also do the tomorrow land transit authority its cool and gives you a chance to get off your feet for a few minutes and relax and enjoy the ride.

at hollywood studios do the same thing get there before the park opens.

head right for tower of terror and you should be able to hop right on with maybe a 5 minute wait.

then once you get off get a fast pass for it. then go to rock n rollercoaster i'm not sure if your 5 year old will be tall enough you have to be 48 inches tall. i'd wait in line for that it usually doesn't take more than 20 minutes in the morning. and by the time you get off and look at your picture and in the store for a few minutes your time will most likely have come to go on tower of terror again. so i'd go on it. then get a fast pass for rock n rollercoaster then head over to get a seat for beauty and the beast its right near tower of terror and rock n rollercoaster so you aren't walking very far. they start to let people in 30 minutes before the show starts. and the preshow is really good.

and during the time you are waiting for the show to start you can plan the rest of your day.

you never usually have to wait for more than 20 minutes in line at any attraction cuz most of them are continuous shows that all run for about 20 minutes.

get to epcot before it opens as well and head right for soarin. its the first thing everyone goes on and if you don't follow the crowd to the right and down the path to the building "the land" you will be waiting for up to 3 hours to get on the ride. and don't count on fast passes for this ride unless you are getting there when the park opens cuz the fast passes run out by 1pm. and when they are gone the only thing you can do is wait in line.

then so you aren't running back and forth i  would do living with the land, journery to imagination with figment, the seas with nemo and friends, and honey i shrunk the audience.

then i'd go to mission space and if you are going on the regular version the one that gives you G-force get a fast pass and come back later but if you are planning on doing the less intense ride that doesn't have G-forces then i'd just wait in line cuz that line is way shorter then the regular line ride.

if you get the fast pass for mission space then i'd go on test track. the line usually only takes 15-30 minutes to get thru.

i'd then go on ellens uiverserves of energy and space ship earth in the epcot ball.

then go over to the world showcase and do the norway boat ride and the mexico boat ride and walk around the countries and watch the short educational films if you'd like and look in the shops.

then i would do a couple of your fav rides again and stay to watch the fireworks show illuminations reflections of earth its the best fireworks show at disney world as for as i'm concerned.

as far as animal kingdom goes i can't be much help cuz i went once and hated it. we did everything with in 4 hours and then left cuz it was boring.

make sure that your kids know when you see its tough to be a bug that a "bee" comes out of the back of the seat and "stings" you. my niece was 8 and it scared her so bad she started crying cuz she thought she really got stung. and she is as sharp as a tac and still thought a bee was really stinging her. and if you don't knowits coming it can actually hurt a little.

expedition everest is really just a glorified thunder mountain. its nothing big. the yeti isn't at all scarey.

dinosaur on the other hand is kind scary at the end when the t rex has you. unless you think your kids would be ok with it i wouldn't have them sit on the endo on the right side.

well hope i helped.  

Answer 4

Check out the sample Walt Disney World itineraries for your dates from the links on this page: http://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-...  

They won't be a perfect match for your dates, and do use extra magic hours a couple of evenings, but in general are a great guide to how to spend your time at Disney World.

If you don't want to be so structured, another resource that might help is this guide that ranks all the rides and attractions at Disney World. http://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-... The best are on the right side, and the very best are underlined. Try to see the underlined ones as soon as the parks open.

Finally, if these don't provide enough, see the itineraries at touringplans.com

Hope this helps and have a great trip! Dave

Answer 5

You do not have to pay extra for FASTPASSES at Walt Disney World.  If you are really interested in avoiding the long lines I would recommend using an itinerary and touring plans service.  We used Custom Mouse Plans and they were great!  They created our itinerary so that we were in the least crowded park each day.  They created our touring plans so that we never waited more than 10-15 minutes for any of the rides.  Also, their plans were customized for our group, so my kids got to ride the big rides multiple times.  I would highly recommend using their service if you are worried about lines.

We also stayed off site, and  that was not an issue.

Answer 6

The plans listed by the other poster do not include some of the new rides such as Toy Story Mania in Disney Hollywood Studios which will be a huge hit with your kids.  It is very hard to put together a one size fits all touring plan due to the size of Disney World.  I agree with the poster who mentioned Custom Mouse Plans.  We also used them with great success.  The plans were wonderful and we also were able to ride all the rides with little to no waits.  I also recommend using their service if you really want to avoid lines and big crowds.

Answer 7

are you staying on site in one of the resorts? or elsewhere? On site resorts offer you, early entrance and late exit's on certain days with your resort pass card. (they came in handy when we went.) Also, check out the speed passes, you can swipe your speed pass on a particular ride, and it will tell you what time to come back at and you get to go in front of the long lines. It's worth looking into.