In this episode we share 10 of our top tips and strategies for making the most out of your Disney World vacation! Let’s talk Genie+, Individual Lightning Lane, park reservations, ride stacking, and more!
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Transcript
Rod: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a family of four set off on a global adventure and ended up in a magical place called Disney World!
Jess: Welcome to the Jetsetting Family Travel Podcast. I’m Jess. And I’m Rod. And today we’re talking about Disney World. Our family had annual passes last year and felt like we can finally say we are Disney experts.
Rod: Yeah, there’s this thing about getting an annual pass where you’re committing to paying that much for the year, which means you have to go this many times in order for you to get your money’s worth. And for us, I think we ended up going maybe 10 times across 2021 and 2022. So, I know many of you may be planning a Disney World vacation in your future.
So, we wanted to provide this episode and give you our 10 tips for how to make the best out of your trip. Because one of the things that we do know is Disney World nowadays is not cheap. And when you’re thinking about should I go to Disney World or should I take another trip somewhere else, we have, I think, good recommendations for places that you can go if you don’t go to Disney World, but I, I personally love Disney and I think that a family vacation there can be magical under the right circumstances. And there’s a lot of complexity nowadays with the way that Disney structures park reservations Genie plus individual lightning lanes and all of that stuff.
So, we wanted to spend some time here to let you know about that.
Jess: And if all those words that Rod just said sound foreign to you, no worries. We’re gonna give you a step-by-step guide on how to make the most of your Disney adventures and understand some of the things like lightning lanes and Genie+ and what that means for your vacation, how to utilize it, and hopefully if you’re paying that much money, get the most bang for your buck while you’re at Disney so that your kids can have an incredible time or you, we know a lot of people who go without kids.
Rod: I’ve gone without the kids with my annual pass. So, starting with tip #1, that is to get the Disney World app. A lot of the capabilities and the reservations and the Genie+, and taking a look at the maps and the ride times and all. That’s gonna be available on the app. Take some time to navigate through it.
You can make your reservations from there. You can get Genie+ there. But a lot of the tips that we’re, what we’re going to talk about, they’re going to assume that you have the Disney World App. So really tip number one, get the app. You’re gonna be using it a lot during your vacation there, so make sure that you’re aware of that and that you’re ready to go.
Jess: Yes. Super important. The next (#2), we really recommend that you stay at a Disney hotel. I do realize that Disney hotels are typically more expensive than a local Airbnb. Orlando’s a very cheap place to get an Airbnb, but there are perks that are included with staying at a Disney property that really does make it worth its value.
Some of those things include one, transportation to and from the parks. You can use the monorail system depending on where you’re staying. A bus, you can use the trams. So, there’s just, it makes getting to and from parks way easier. But the big, big perk is, you get either extended, usually morning hours or night hours at a resort, depending on the week.
Those hours change based on which park that goes to, because Disney World does include Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. So, there’s four different parks that are encompassed in that. And when you’re staying at a resort, a lot of times each day there’s magic hours in the morning or at night.
Only resort guest can access that extra hour or two. That’s a huge perk. And another huge perk is you get access to sign up for rides at [7:00] AM before the general public. And that extra access time where you can sign up to get in line for rides can really make or break how efficient your day goes. So, I really suggest I get a hotel.
If you are military, definitely check out Shades of Green. It is a military hotel. It is probably the cheapest onsite option. It books out way in advance. So, if that’s something you want to consider, definitely make sure to get your reservations way in advance. And one of the big perks of Shades of Green is they have flat pricing throughout the entire year.
So even if it’s a holiday or spring break or whatever that may be, their pricing remains consistent, which is why they book out so far in advance. But for military members you can book actually up to three rooms and use those for your extended family as long as the active duty or the retired service person is with your group.
So, you cannot book it on behalf of someone else.
Rod: Yep. No, that was a great rundown. I have no other comments on that tip. So, we’re gonna move on to #3, and that’s all about making park reservations. If you haven’t been to Disney World in a while, you’ll notice that now to go to either one of the four parks that Jess has mentioned, you’re going to need a reservation.
And the way that works is you have to go to that website. Once you buy your tickets, you have to reserve which parks you’re going to go to on certain days, and you want to do this as soon as possible, especially in the busy seasons like summer and holidays, where those reservations can actually book up for certain parks.
So, you want to make sure that you get the reservation in for the parks that you want and also the option of doing the park hopper. What that means is if you want to visit more than one park in one day, then you need this add-on called the park hopper, and that allows you to go into a different park than the one that you’ve reserved after [2:00] PM on that day.
So, we think, and that’s something that we had with our annual passes, but every time that we talk to others, they recommend doing the park just because it allows you to have the flexibility if you feel like you made a reservation to a park and it’s either really crowded or you’ve already done the things that you want to.
Then you can go ahead and go to a different park without having, necessarily made a reservation for that day in the afternoon.
Jess: Perfect. The next item we’re gonna talk about (#4) is, rope drop. I swear last year when someone told me rope drop, I had no clue what they were talking about and I expected when they said, oh, it’s going to the park early when it opens.
I honestly expected some grand celebration where this rope was taken down, and it was like, I don’t know in my head, this Disney magical experience. Not quite what you should be expecting. If that’s what you’re expecting, like me, you may be disappointed.
Rod: It used to be that way before Covid where they’d be a ceremony and they would get special guests to do a little countdown and be like, the park is officially open.
But since the pandemic, I think they’ve had a big focus on trying to keep the crowds as minimal as possible. So that’s led to this like new system of rope drop and opening of the park in general.
Jess: So, the key to rope drop is one, you should absolutely get up early. I am not a morning person. I absolutely hate getting up early.
It’s really hard with kids. You have to get them up early and fed into the park at a very early hour. But rope drop is where you are gonna get to ride the most rides in a short amount of time because it is less crowded. The key to rope drop is whatever time that park is opening, because you have to realize every park has different opening hours.
Those opening hours might depend on if you are a hotel guest or not. So, I’m not gonna give you a specific time, but say Magic Kingdom is opening at [8:00] AM that day, you want to be there by [7:15] at the latest because what will happen is you will kind of get in line with the rope dropping fellow Disney fans and 30 minutes before the park opens.
So roughly at 7L30. The rope or the access point at the front of whatever park you’re at will open and then you can kind of funnel into different areas. So, like Magic Kingdom has tomorrow land and…
Rod: Frontier land, adventure land…
Jess: there’s different lands. So, you kind of pick which land you want to go to first.
And then there’ll be another rope at that section. And then when that rope drop opens, you have to know already which ride you have in mind that you want to get to. And typically, if you are there at rope drop time, you’ll be able to walk on your first ride. So, you really want to prioritize at rope drop the ride that will typically have the longest wait.
Some rides, for example, at Hollywood Studio Rise of the Resistance guys, the line can be as long as two and a half hours long,
Rod: Even three hours.
Jess: And sometimes you do not want to wait three hours for any ride. If you rope drop that ride, you could walk on to that ride, ride it, and that’s off your list.
You’ve saved yourself minimum of an hour and a half that day waiting for it. So, rope drop is a very good way to utilize time. In the past we’ve actually had successful enough rope drops that maybe you get two to three rides in. Yep. I will say last year the parks were way more crowded than normal. Thanks to like everyone coming back due to COVID and I would say we typically only got one ride in, but that might change with time as like the excitement dwindles back down.
Rod: Yeah. So, in terms of those rope drop rides, we have a little list here of the ones that you should try to pro prioritize at each park. In Magic Kingdom, the most popular ride there is the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. It’s one of the newest, like roller coaster rides. I think it’s pretty suitable for younger kids too.
Another one that you could try would be Space Mountain. Next is Hollywood Studios. You have Rise of the Resistance there, the one that Jess talked about. Or you also have a Slinky Dog Dash, which is another rollercoaster ride. Super fun in the Toy Story land section of Hollywood Studios there. In Animal Kingdom, you have Flight of Passage.
This is the Avatar ride, probably the most popular one there at Animal Kingdom, so make sure you check that one out. And there you might have an opportunity after you do Flight of Passage to do the Na’vi River Journey, which is a little gentle boat ride. Jess is making an ugly face at me because, it’s not thrilling enough for her.
Jess: I don’t know, guys. Flight of Passage to me is mind blowing and every time I get off it, I leave it in awe. Its. Oh, honestly, one of my favorite rides at Disney. And I think just going there to, I mean, the Na’vi River has really cool effects, but I’m just never that impressed. I don’t get why people wait so long for it.
Rod: Yeah. And the last one at Epcot is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. This one is, towards the back of the park, but also if you don’t want to do that one, you also have the Frozen ride. Right now, while we’re recording this episode in February of 2023, the most popular ride at Epcot is the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
But that one is only open through virtual queue. So, we’ll talk about virtual queue in a little bit. But if you’re listening to this episode a little bit later in the year and the Magic Kingdom Ride for Tron has opened up. It’s probably likely that the Tron ride will be the Virtual Queue ride and they’ll open up Guardians of the Galaxy to a general standby line.
So, if Guardians of the Galaxy has a standby line available, then you should go rope drop that one instead.
Jess: Yes. Super cool. That one. The Guardians of the Galaxy ride. We got to preview and then we’ve ridden several times. It’s definitely a ride that’s incredible. It’s kind of an intense different rollercoaster, so if you’re really prone to motion sickness, just be aware.
But it is amazing.
Rod: It is my favorite ride. So, I do hear where people are coming from. I do sometimes like end the ride dizzy, but it’s like a good kind of dizzy because that ride and the story that they tell is so incredible.
Jess: So next up (#5) is what is Genie+? So guys, Genie+ this system, I’m not gonna lie, gets complicated, so we’re gonna try our best to simplify it for you.
Rod: Yeah. You may have known this as Fast Pass, in the past, but now it’s been completely redesigned and rebranded, and now it’s called Genie+ and it works a little different.
Jess: So, Genie+cost, oh, sadly, on top of your ticket. If you want to have Genie+ it’s an additional, it varies, but it’s 15 roughly to $29 a day per person. So, you’re looking at spending roughly a hundred dollars more if you’re a family of four. Yep. To have the Genie+. So, what this does include is the Genie+ allows you to get in these virtual queues for lines so that you’re not waiting in lines for different rides.
You do all of this through the Genie app and so. In the morning, if you’re staying at a hotel, you have access to start lining up your rides, essentially.
Rod: Yeah, so that starts at [7:00] AM. So, say you’re going into Magic Kingdom. And on that day, you can start signing up for a Genie Plus Ride at that time at [7:00] AM and then that means that when the park opens at eight or eight 30, whenever that is, then you’ll be able to essentially skip a line to go through that.
There’s a little bit of a difference here because there’s certain rides that Genie+ does not include at each park, and that list changes all the time. But there’s a difference between a Genie+ Ride and an Individual Lightning lane ride. So, the Individual Lightning Lane rides are typically the most popular ones.
So, for example, Rise of the Resistance is probably gonna be an Individual Lightning Lane ride for a while, which means that you can’t book a reservation with Genie+ to skip the line on that one, you would have to purchase, line skip or the Lightning Lane as it’s called for that ride individually.
Jess: Yes.
So, the Lightning Lanes range, depending on the popularity of those rides from seven to 25 dollars per ride per person. So, it adds up really quickly. So typically, our strategy has been to try not to purchase lightning lanes necessarily. We will try to rope drop if we’re going to a park that most popular rides.
We look at whatever the lightning lane list is, is the rides we try to rope drop and then we do typically do Genie+ to fill in the rest of the gaps in the day. Something to note with Genie+, unlike Lightning Lane, you can buy them in the morning and then that just saves your spot for whatever time you get during that day.
They sell out within minutes, so you have to be, have a plan in place, log in, and purchase your lightning lane. Typically, if it’s a very popular ride, it’s gonna be sold out in minutes, so you have to be very prepared. You can refresh the app throughout the day and see if anything opens up, but it is trickier. Something to note with the Genie+ though is so say I book, let’s say It’s A Small World, say it’s [8:00] AM and I really wanna ride It’s a Small World, but the next Genie+ time is at [11:00] AM That’s great. At [11:00] AM I can walk on it’s a small world, but the problem with booking a ride with that big of a time gap is you can’t book another Genie+ ride until you have ridden the ride that you have booked .
Rod: Or if two hours has passed or since your last Genie+ reservation.
Jess: So yeah. If I booked It’s A Small World at [11:00] AM I could then book the next ride at [10:00] AM but that’s still a two hour gap where I’m not riding anything. So typically, you want to try to get your Genie+ times on a ride you want to go on.
Don’t just use it on rides you don’t really care about, but you want to try to get the closest time to whatever time you’re booking it, because the second you’re done riding that ride, if it’s within that two hour window, you can book the next ride. And so, you kind of start to stack them in that manner.
Rod: Yeah, so stacking Genie Plus is, is one of the strategies that we’ve started to use or we use towards like the later end of the year.
The place that that works the best, personally I think is Hollywood Studios. Hollywood Studios typically has the rides with the longest lines. The Slinky Dog Dash, the Toy Story Mania, the rides at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, which are Rise of the Resistance and the Millennium Falcon Ride. You’ve got the Rock’n Roller Coaster.
You’ve got the Haunted Mansion. All of those rides typically end up getting either really long lines or the Genie+ starting times are later on in the day because so many people want to ride those in the morning. So what stacking means is, say you’re going to spend your morning or your day at Magic Kingdom, you have a park hopper and you want to go to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon.
In the morning, you can start getting your Genie Plus reservations for different rides at Hollywood Studios. So, say, at [7:00] AM you get a reservation for, um Slinky Dog Dash, let’s say, or Mickey Mouse Runaway Railroad. Then two hours after that, after Park Open, you can make your next reservation. So that would be typically around 9 or 10 AM maybe then two hours after that, at noon, you can make one more reservation.
So, by the end of that afternoon, or by [2:00] PM you could have up to probably four different ride times to these rides at Hollywood Studio. So, you’d be able to go from one to another without having to wait in any lines. And that’s what the ride stacking is.
Jess: Yes. And so, yeah, like Rod was saying, with the stacking, the only way to stack them is that you is with that two hour gap, you can acquire a lot of them.
So, I really recommend if you aren’t a morning person and you don’t think you’re gonna rope drop, maybe enjoy a calm morning walking Animal Kingdom, which is a really pretty park just to walk around, enjoy, maybe get on a ride or two. And have your Genie+, like Rod said, and start stacking it as soon as you can in the morning to either Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom.
And after your calm morning, either at the pool, at your resort or wherever, head on over to that park and then really enjoy doing a lot in a little amount of time. So, stacking has been a huge thing for us, especially if you’re local like us in Florida, that means sometimes we can just drive up for an afternoon session without trying to get there in the morning, but we have a really productive afternoon.
So, definitely recommend that. You don’t have to get Geni+. I think if you’re someone who’s gonna go to Disney World four or five times a year maybe it’s not so worth it. But if this is your one vacation and you might not come back for three or four years, or you, you know, you might come every two years, I do think that you, by spending that extra money, you’re gonna get more for out of like, value out of your trip and it would be worth it.
Rod: Yeah. And if you do get Genie+ and you see that there’s rides that no longer have availability, a couple of things that you can do is you can refresh the app, and see if spots do open up throughout the day. Another thing you can do is you can try to lower your numbers. So, say you’re at a family of four and you’re typically booking the Genie+ rides for all four people.
You can limit it down to maybe one or two, because sometimes there’s more ride availability and spots for one or two riders at a given time. So, if you can book those, then you can refresh, and try to book the other two at a later time. So, this does get risky because, you can get into a tendency of just like constantly being on the app or refreshing rides, which would take away from the enjoyment of like being in the park, especially if it’s your first or second time.
So, there’s definitely a balance there. If you are prioritizing rides and you have a certain amount of the ones that you know you want to do and you won’t have a chance to do them anytime soon, then maybe refreshing is the way to go. Bring a battery pack for your phone, because you’re probably gonna run out of battery there refreshing. But that’s probably the best way to make sure that you get on the rides that you want.
Jess: The last point about all of this is if budget isn’t a factor for you, I know that for us, you know, when we travel, a lot of times we’re trying to budget, but if it isn’t a factor for you, you can always consider the Disney VIP service.
It’s pretty pricey, but that one you have an actual tour guide who will get you on all of the rides, you just pointed a ride and they’re gonna get you on it immediately and they stay with you throughout your entire day. They actually drive you between park, to park, to park. You usually can do three or four parks in a day hitting up every ride.
It’s an incredible experience, but a very costly one. Yeah. So just something if all of this is overwhelming for you and you have a large budget, I mean, props to you. Go for it.
Rod: Yeah. I think they have a max group size limit of 10 people. So, if you can get 10 people on board, you have to buy your ticket separately from that.
So, it doesn’t include entry. But yeah, look into the VIP tours. It’s an interesting experience.
Jess: And, and say you should expect to spend about $2,000 for the day. Oh, you know, $4,000. $4,000, sorry. It’s a pretty penny. Yep. It’s a magical experience, I guess. Next up is disability access service (#6).
Guys, if you, I mean, don’t take advantage of it, but if you have someone in your family who’s disabled, whether they have a physical disability, whether they may be on the spectrum where, you know, it gets very overwhelming with the crowds and sensory overload, whatever it may be, if it’s something that makes it difficult for you to, walk the park or stand in line.
I don’t know, a plethora of things. You can get a disability access service pass. With this pass, all you have to do is go to guest services upon arrival. You let them know, they typically, they, they can’t ask you for anything in particular, but you let them know that it’s gonna be difficult for you, and then they will actually load the disability access on your app that you need to have and that allows you to book without needing the Genie+ or the Lightning lanes. I believe you book them usually every hour you can get on something.
Rod: Yeah, you can book one ride at a time and whatever the current wait time is for that ride, it’s the amount of time that you’ll have to wait before you can go into the lightning lane for that ride. So, if there’s a two hour wait at Rise of the Resistance with your disability access service, then you can check into that ride at [9:00] AM go do other things around the park and at 11 you can go in with your disability access in right away. And at that point, that’s when you can book the next ride. So, you can’t stack the disability access ride.
Jess: No. Next up guys order food via the app (#7).
Rod: Yeah. Food is something that is really unique at Disney World, I think. But it’s also like when you’re trying to get to rides, sometimes you want to maximize your time, either standing in line or figuring out what the next place is that you’re gonna go or going on a parade or going to shows.
And one of the cool things that Disney does now is you can order all your food at certain self-serve kind of restaurants via the app so you can put in where you’re at. It’ll tell you which restaurants are nearby, where you can order from. You can select all your things on the app. It’ll give you a time of, hey, your food might be ready at around this 30-minute time window.
So then once you get close to that area, you can check in and say, hey, I’m ready to pick up my food. And the app will notify you when your food is ready. You just walk up to the counter and you get it right there. So, you don’t have to waste time standing in a line at that restaurant to get the food that you want.
You can just order it via the app. This is only open to certain restaurants. There’s some. It’s more of a sit-down experience that you’ll have to book a reservation for. And that’s really our next tip (#8), which is there are restaurants or bars, where you do have to make advanced dining reservations. So there’s some of these happen at hotels, some of these are at the parks themselves.
There’s really cool bar at the Galaxy’s Edge world in Hollywood Studios where it’s like a Star Wars cantina. So that one really books out well in advance. So up to 60 days in advance is when you can make these reservations. But if for some reason there’s no availability based on the party size that you’ve selected, one of the things that you can try is to make a smaller party size and see if there’s any reservations available there.
And that way, when you at least have the reservation, you can show up to the door and let them know, hey, we had this many people on a reservation, but do you have a table that could seat maybe, you know, two more people or whatever that is. So definitely recommend some of these dining experiences and check that out if that’s something that you’re interested in.
All right, tip #9. It’s in the unfortunate event that you do have to cancel a Disney Hotel reservation within a 24-hour period. There’s a certain way, typically that’s not a refundable, kind of thing that you can do, but we’ve found a workaround that has worked for us. Not sure if it’ll work for you, but something that you can give a try.
Jess: Yes, I wouldn’t utilize this all the time, but if something comes up where you cannot travel, and you’re having a hard time getting a refund, we have found that you can call and just say, hey, something came up. Can I push my reservation back? And so, what they will do is they can move your reservation back, say two or three weeks, and then you can call back the next day and cancel because you’re outside of that 24 hour window.
So just by moving your reservation it allows you to cancel it without being penalized. We have learned that, I forget what came up that we had to cancel. They did not want to refund us our money. And somehow through Googling and researching, I found this tip.
Rod: All right, last tip (#10). For us, it’s all about the parades and the fireworks.
So, now post pandemic. At first, the, the parades were not available. They would just have like little cavalcades that would go around the park every now and then just to try to keep control of the different crowds. But I think some parades are coming back and the firework shows are definitely back. So, if you do want to prioritize going to a certain parade or a firework show, then one of the things you’ll have to realize is these get super crowded and the soonest that you actually go and you sit on that parade route to secure your seat. You might be waiting maybe 30, 45 minutes, but at least then you’ll get the best views. Magic Kingdom, the fireworks show there happens in front of the castle and that area does get really, really crowded. So that’s the fireworks show that we would recommend.
If you really want to get a good spot, then, you show up early and you kind of wait it out there. The fireworks show at Epcot happens in the middle of the lagoon there. So that one, you don’t necessarily have to kind of wait because as long as you’re anywhere around that entire lagoon, in the World Showcase, you can get a pretty good view of a lot of the times, most of the crowds, show up closer to where the kind of golf ball is, you know, part or close to where the test track and the other rides are. But we found that there’s less lines and less crowds over, across on the other side of the lagoon over by where Japan, and Italy are.
So those are two areas where we’ve seen that firework. One of the benefits if you don’t want to see the parades or the fireworks is since all the crowds are watching those shows, that typically means that the lines for the rides are the smallest during those times. So especially in the fireworks ones, since those happen at the end of the day, typically the park will close after that unless there’s magic hours afterwards.
But one of the things that you can do is as long as you’re in a line for a ride. At the end, when the park closes, they’ll still allow you to go through the line and finish out the ride. And sometimes that means you’re staying 30 minutes to 45 minutes past closing just because you’re still in that line and you do get to ride that ride.
So, something to consider if you’re missing a ride or two at a certain park, then you can bypass the fireworks or middle midway through the fireworks, go line up somewhere. And. Stick it through past park closing. Yeah.
Jess: Overall, you can have a really successful day at Disney. I think the more we’ve gone, the better we’ve got at working the system. So that we really don’t wait in lines that often. But I will say if you want a day jam packed, we are not waiting in lines. It does cost more. Cause that typically means you are paying extra for the Genie+ and the Lightning Lane. But I mean, there’s some rides that I would be willing to pay for and we’re gonna talk about those now.
Some of our favorite rides. There are a lot of rides at Disney that all have their magic, but like I don’t really care if I go and miss them, but there are a few for me that I would pay for. So it would be, Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom is probably my top ride. I don’t know what about it. It’s just magical.
Every time I get off it, I’m in awe. So definitely one you should do. For me. The other is Rise of the Resistance. I think Rod would agree. It is just incredible. I don’t even know how to prepare anyone for that ride. It feels like you’re in a movie.
Rod: Yeah. If you’ve already looked ahead and know what to expect, then good on you.
You’re gonna love it. If you haven’t seen what it is, I recommend that you don’t, don’t get it spoiled. It is an experience and it’s a really cool way to kind of experience the Star Wars universe and feel like you’re in the middle of something special.
Jess: Yeah, that’s what I would call it. It’s not a ride, it’s an experience.
That one’s really cool and one I love that. I don’t know if it’s Rod’s favorite, is the Mickey and Minnie Rail Road. Runaway Rail train is, I just think adorable as like, it’s something a whole family can enjoy. It’s wholesome. It’s cute. It’s a ride. Yeah.
Rod: It’s charming. It’s very immersive, .
Jess: It’s fun. Yeah, it’s so cute.
I just love that. Right? I think it’s one of my favorite, I guess if you had to say like one of the classics, it’s like a favorite. With the Mickey and Minnie and the old classics. It’s just, it’s a good one.
Rod: Yeah. on my list are the Thrill Rides. My top ride favorite one at Disney World is the New Guardians of the Galaxy Ride.
And that one, as Jess mentioned there, it does rotate at certain times, but it’s not like, uncontrolled rotation. It’s very much, it’ll rotate at certain points of the rollercoaster ride and it really adds to like the atmosphere that that ride is trying to show. There’s, there’s a really cool story behind it too.
So similar to, Rise of the Resistance, then there’s several rooms where things will be happening before you get on the actual ride. That one is super cool. It’s still a virtual queue only right now, so you’d have to sign up for the virtual queue right at either [7:00] AM if you’re a park goer, or at [1:00] PM in the afternoon, for the afternoon, kind of virtual queue rides.
And my last one, this one for Nora my daughter. She also loves this ride. This is Expedition Everest. This one is one of older rides. I guess it’s an Animal Kingdom, but it’s really unique, because it has certain surprises, during that ride that I’m not gonna spoil, but it is a little bit more on the thrilling side.
Our son thinks it’s, it’s kind of scary because there are dark portions of it. But, I love it. And usually that one doesn’t have a lot of lines. So, whenever we’re thinking about going to Animal Kingdom, We can manage to wait 20 to 30 minutes, or if we have Genie+ you can usually walk right onto that one right away.
So that’s one of my favorites.
Jess: And the last, last tip, I guess it’s either people love this tip or probably don’t like it is, if it’s raining out, as long as it’s not like thundering and lightning. Because Orlando can get some pretty bad storms, but if it is raining out and you’re willing to get wet, it is a great time to go because the lines dissipate extremely quickly.
People do not want to be in the rain, and so if you’re willing to bear getting wet, It’s a great time to hop on a lot of rides.
Rod: Yeah. Yeah. I think we got lucky one time we were in the parks; we could see the storm clouds rolling in. People were starting to trickle out. The storm started pouring and we were basically running through the rain
It felt like it was a flash flood. We had our little ponchos, but we were able to run to Avatar and basically walk into Flight of Passage, which was super cool.
Jess: Yeah, it was super, super cool. It’s another one. If, if you’re willing, if you really want to get on rides that bad, you’ll be soaking wet. But you won’t have lines,
Rod: Yeah. So, with that, those are our 10 tips for visiting Disney World. If you are going and you have additional questions about a trip, then make sure you reach out to us. You can always email us hello(at)thejetsettingfamily.com. You can find us on Instagram @thejetsettingfamily and if this podcast is something that you enjoy, then make sure that you’re subscribing because we are here to stay.
Every Tuesday we’ll be releasing new episodes and are super excited to continue sharing resources, information to help people travel more together.
Jess: Well, until next time, guys, happy, Happy Jetsetting!
