Disney overwhelm

[Ivylane]

Hi, we’re going to Disneyworld for the first time in a few weeks, and I’m looking for advice from someone whose been since all the fast passes have changed over to the new system. My head is absolutely spinning with the itinerary and genie app, lightning lane, park hopping and extended hours. Our itinerary is done and park days are booked but someone who has just come back told DH it’s exceptionally busy right now, queues are ridiculous (like 420 minutes for the popular rides) and the heat is awful. My kids (7 & 9) aren’t great in the heat so me and DH are now in a bit of a flap that they’re going to be far too hot in crazy long queues. We’re lucky enough to be staying in one of the Disney deluxe hotels which means we get 30 mins early entry to the parks, so our plan is to go in early and do one or two of the main rides, hopefully get another one in on the genie app then leave the park for a fair few hours and go back to the hotel to hopefully escape the worse of the heat and the crowds, then go back into the park at 5pm when it is hopefully a bit cooler and slightly less busy… this is what the man who spoke to DH advised- does this sound like a good option? The thing with this strategy is that it means we’ll be loosing time in the parks so we don’t want to miss a lot of things, which leads me onto mu other question- regarding “park hopping” if I’m booked in magic kingdom for the day for example but wish to “park hop” to another park later in the day, is this allowed and when do I book this? Would this be booked in advance or would I have to do it on the day? I knew Disney was going to be very busy but for someone who isn’t naturally organised I’m finding it very overwhelming. Any advice appreciated! Thanks

Hi!! We’re in the throws of Disney planning for next year and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing with our son- having a break in the middle of the day.

There’s some excellent Facebook groups you can join - just search for Disney and it’ll come up, there’s some UK specific ones that I’ve found very useful.

You can park hop to any park after 2pm so long as you have visited your original park that day. So if you’re booked for magic kingdom you need to attend mk first and then you can park hop to any of the others after 2pm.

just try to relax! From what I hear genie plus works just fine.

If you’re going for the second half of August, I wouldn’t worry about the crowds because most schools go back then.
Your plan sounds perfect - exactly what I would suggest doing at any time of year, let alone the summer. You won’t really lose too much time in the parks because without a mid-day break, a 7yo and 9yo would never last until park closure. You’d probably all be defeated by about 7 or 8pm and therefore miss out on the fireworks and illuminations.

Thank you for replying… so park hopping do you book the park you want to hop to on the day? I’m so confused!

Thanks, ah good I’m glad it’s not a crazy plan!

No you just book your first park and then you can hop to any other park after 2pm, you don’t have to book your second park. You just need to have checked in at your chosen park before you can hop. Make sense?

I was there at Christmas which was extremely busy. I decided not to pay for genie+, we have been before with fastpass but decided just to completely go with the flow.
We had a great time, we did early hours each day to ride the popular rides and then decided what to do after that. It was packed but we still did everything we wanted to do.
Was lovely not being tied to our phones and not being to a schedule.
No need to book a second park, but they won't allow you entry unless you've turned up to the first park you booked for.

Thanks for all these replies, really helpful.

It's been a while since we went, but the Disney queues for the rises were mostly covered and in shade and very well managed.

Take cooling towels and misting fans

crowds really reduce second half of august as US schools go back

420 minutes is 7 hours - are there really people in the world so desperate to go on a theme park ride that they’ll spend 7 hours of their life waiting for it?!

Your plan sounds perfect. We went with our 4 DC over Easter this year and it was VERY busy. A few other suggestions that worked for us:

1. you don’t need Genie+ in Animal Kingdom at all if you make it your second park of the day and always ‘hop’ there in the evenings. Between 6pm-9pm the park is lovely, cool and relaxed with very short queues. We did Flight of Passage 3 times never queuing longer than 25 minutes, you need to enter the queue just before the park closing time. We entered at 20.50, on each occasion the waiting time showed over 60 minutes , we waited 15-25 minutes. You can ride Dinosaur as a walk on as many times as you want, no queue in the evenings. We did Safari twice, again entering 10 minutes before the closing time - once it was a walk on, the second time it was a 10 minute wait. AK ended up being our favourite park this year because of the relaxed evenings.


2. Magic Kingdom works best with Genie + due to the number of eligible attractions. We would stack many rides for the evening and come to the park after 5pm. We also used the fireworks slot to ride the ‘Mountains’ multiple times (splash and Big Thunder are a walk on during the fireworks)


3. Hollywood Studios was the worst for usthis time, Genie + doesn’t really buy you more than 2 of the popular rides as they all sell out very fast. It’s also very difficult to find shade when queuing due to the way the park is designed. HS were our most tiring and disappointing days. We ended up riding the gondolas (Skyliner) to get some rest and cool down , the kids loved it and it soon became our daily thing , we hopped on the skyliner, visited a few resorts and it was perfect to escape the heat and the crowds.

I hope you all have an amazing time, Florida is our all time favourite family holiday.

Thanks for all the tips 😀

We are here now!

I am pleasantly surprised by the queues, less than ones I’ve encountered at UK parks recently. I think the longest we have encountered so far was about 90 mins. Where are you staying? We are on site and have got into a bit of a routine of going out early and late and coming back to the hotel 12-4 ish.

Regarding ‘park hop’ - you can just go to the park of your choosing after 2pm. The only thing is you need to actually have been to the park you’ve booked (for example, you can’t just miss the morning and go to your chosen park after 2).

ps. It is very hot and humid but there are fans in queues and lots of queues are indoors with air con.

Haven't been recently but try the DIBB forum for excellent advice on everything Disney
Your plan sounds good though and don't forget there are also thunderstorms early pm many days too so a natural break
I imagine you can still get free water from any kiosk and don't forget water rides to cool you down
Enjoy!

Very jealous, which resort are you staying in, we've been a few times in summer, it is very hot but we always found because of the time difference we'd wake up really early, do magic hours and disappear back to the hotel for swimming and a rest.
Evenings were back to wherever we felt like for dinner and fireworks or Disney springs for a walk around

There is a great website called The Dibb
It has great information and top tips

You have to go to the booked park first before you can hop to a different park after 2pm as long as theres availability. I've seen vlogs where people just walk in and out. Vlogs could help you plan try L&R Dreaming, The kershaw adventures, Nathan staker, Adam hatton, themepark worldwide etc.
Have you considered buying the dream guide? Its only been out afew months but as its a book you can highlight bits, check info etc when you need to.

We're going to Paris and I've spent a lot of time planning it even though we've been before. We'll be going in for EMT then having a swim/afternoon snacks etc to break up the day.