One of the biggest frustrations you may encounter at Walt Disney World is the lines for the attractions. We know you don’t enjoy long lines – we don’t either! Nobody wants to go on a vacation and spend 4, 5, or even 6 hours of each day standing in a line.
In fact, if we were told “spending hours in line at Disney is just they way it is,” we would be leading the charge against going! We have spent too much money to waste all that time standing in line.
The good news is that you DO NOT have spend hours in line during your vacation. With a few tips, tricks, and a little knowledge, you can severely knock out your time standing in lines!
We are living proof to that! It is a rare occasion that we spend any more than 30 minutes waiting in line for an attraction. So without further ad0, here are some line buster tips we utilize on our trips.
How to Avoid Long Lines at Walt Disney World
1. Avoid High Attendance Days
Here is one simple truth: large crowds = long lines. Let’s repeat this again. If you go to Walt Disney World on a day with large crowds you will have long lines throughout the entire day. This is simple math folks!
Case in point…we LOVE Christmas. All the lights and decorations and special things Disney World does at Christmas is unbelievable. However, you won’t catch us anywhere near Walt Disney World during the 2 weeks around Christmas/New Years. Not gonna happen.
We have a crowd calendar for the entire year and a special events calendar which will help you decide when to go to Disney World. It will clearly help you know when the parks are full and when they are not so full. One quick tip to put in your back pocket – avoid any holiday weekend, including 3 day weekends such as Labor Day and Memorial Day.
2. Utilize Lighting Lanes
Lightning Lanes is a paid service that allows you to select attractions to use the lightning lane – and skip the long standby queue. Lightning Lanes starts at $15 per person per day and can go up to the $30s or even higher. Pricing depends upon the date and the park. Magic Kingdom pricing will always be the highest.
This price tag is definitely a turn off for many people, especially if you are on a tight budget. That being said, Lightning Lanes will allow you to skip the long lines of many attractions. It can be a little tricky to figure out, so be sure to head here to get the full run down.
3. Arrive Early to the Park
We know, you are on vacation and you want to sleep in a bit. However, if you are going to make the lines go away, your beauty sleep will need to wait until after the trip.
(Bonus Tip, we like to build in a day or two after the trip just to get caught up on our sleep and to relax before going back to the real world).
Dave says:
“I can remember getting my 2 daughters and son out of bed early morning on our Disney World vacations. They would whine and complain, ‘BUT DAD, WE ARE ON VACATION!’ I knew I had to get them up, dressed, and fed so we could be at the bus stop, then on to the park so when the rope dropped we were one of the first in the park.”
The payoff came as we could experience 3 larger attractions before the crowds came in. This saved us tons of time, and at the end of the day the kids actually thanked me for getting them up early and avoiding all the lines.”
Our recommendation is that you need to get to the park 30 minutes before the listed opening time.
It is not unusual for Disney to drop the rope (open the gates) earlier than the published opening time. Getting to the park at least 30 minutes ahead of schedule ensures you will be one of the first in the park. And once you are in the park…
4. Do the Popular Attractions First
Here is the hard truth: the more popular attractions will have lines over an hour long by noon! We are unwilling to wait in line that long for an attraction.
After we get to the parks early and the rope drops, we make a mad dash to the most popular attractions and do them quickly and then move on to the next one. You do not need a lightning lane pass for these early morning attractions as the lines will be short.
Most popular rides will be:
- Brand new new attractions
- Recently refurbished attractions (for example, when Splash Mountain became Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or the reopening of Test Track after 12+ months)
- Any attraction on the Individual Lightning Lane list
- Slow loading popular rides, such as Peter Pan’s Flight
When you do come to an attraction with two line options, be sure to choose the left side! This is one of 11 tips we have to help save even more time at Disney – you can read the rest here.
Disney was smart to spread the popular attractions all around the parks so you can’t do them all first thing, but if you combine early morning with the Lightning Lanes for later on, you are well on your way to a magical day!
Please don’t run into the Magic Kingdom and sit down on “It’s a Small World”! You can easily hit that one later in the day and I promise there will be very little wait.
5. Use a Touring Plan
There are many resources out there for touring plans of the parks. Our personal favorite is “The Unofficial Guide to Disney World.” Most of these touring plans can help you as you navigate through the parks in a way to drastically limit the long lines.
If you stroll down Main Street window shopping for the first hour you arrive, you are shooting yourself in the foot. As you are strolling, the lines are growing! The longer the day goes on, the worse the lines will become.
You can view our one day strategy for Hollywood Studios here.
6. Utilize Early Theme Park Entry
All guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort have the opportunity to enter all the parks 30 minutes early. This is a huge benefit, and probably one of the main reasons 91% of people choose to stay on site despite the high price tag. We still recommend arriving about 30 minutes BEFORE early entry, as Disney may open the park even before the listed time.
Early Entry is different from rope dropping, and we know that can be confusing. You can see a comprehensive explanation between them here.
If you are staying at Walt Disney World Deluxe resort you have the opportunity to stay late in the Disney Parks! This is called Extended Evening Theme Park Hours. You will need a reservation for the park in order to utilize the extra hours. Typically only one park per day has Extended Evening Hours. You can see the schedule here.
7. Use The Single Rider Lane and Rider Switch
If you don’t mind being split up, you can enter this line (as a group if you wish) and they will seat you one by one when a seat opens up. If you want to go through a headlining attraction this could be a good option.
If you have little ones that can’t ride a certain attraction, you can do Rider Switch. Be sure to talk to a cast member as you are getting in line to make sure you know what to do.
Final Thoughts…
These tips should help you be well on your way to avoiding the massive lines. Remember, there is absolutely no way that you will be able to do everything you want in ever single park. There is just too much to do. Prioritize your few favorites and do your best to avoid the lines for those. You’ve got this!