People tend to have a really love or hate relationship with Walt Disney World. For each diehard, visits multiple times a year, annual-passholder-even-though-they-live-out-of-state person out there, there’s also an equal number that feel like Disney takes all the fun out of vacationing through the need for meticulous advance planning.
While I can certainly see both side of the argument, I think there are actually just a few key Disney World hacks that you need to know about — and once you learn them, it’s pretty easy to have that “perfect” Disney World vacation people dream of. So without further ado, here are my top 5 Disney World hacks from my recent trip.
Disney World Hack #1: Choose Your Hotel Wisely, To Enable “Rope Dropping”& To Save a LOT of Money
If a Disney park is set to open at say, 9:00am, and you get there at 9:15am, you’ll be one of the first folks in the park, right? WRONG.
A lot of people don’t realize that Disney parks typically start allowing people through the tapstiles roughly an hour before the parks officially open, and then holds the earlybird crowds at key spots in the park for “rope drop”, in which Disney cast members strategically release the crowd towards key rides early — usually about 30 minutes before official park opening.
This means that parkgoers at the front of the rope drop crowd can typically be fully through 1-2 of the highest average wait time rides in the park before the park has even officially opened for the day. That’s a HUGE advantage that can easily eliminate 1-2 hours of standing in line from your schedule later in the day. Of course, Disney knows this is a huge advantage, and so they’ve done what any good capitalist entity would do: they’ve monetized it.
Starting in October 2021, only individuals staying at an “official” Walt Disney World hotel are allowed to enter the parks 30 minutes early each day – meaning that in order to rope drop, you have to make sure you are staying at one of these properties. But here’s the secret: there are way more hotels that are considered “official” Walt Disney World hotels than just the ones run by Disney. Other hotels that are included in the Early Entry program include (as of this blog):
- Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel (Marriott)
- Walt Disney World Swan Hotel (Marriott)
- Walt Disney World Swan Reserve (Marriott)
- Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
- Waldorf Astoria Orlando (Hilton)
- B Resort & Spa Lake Buena Vista
- DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando
- Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
- Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
- Holiday Inn Orlando (IHG)
- Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista
- Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
- Four Seasons Resort Orlando
And you know what’s great about that list? Most of them have loyalty programs that allow for free stays! On our recent trip, we redeemed 140,000 Hilton points for 5 nights at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista resort, making the hotel portion of our trip completely free! This was a rate of 35,000 points per night, plus taking advantage of Hilton’s 5th night free benefit on points stays. To sweeten the pot even more, you don’t pay resort fees when you book with points, but still get all the resort benefits including free daily coffee and bottles of water. Also, as a Hilton Diamond member, I received a daily food & beverage credit good for $24 a day at the hotel bars and restaurants.
Of course, even if you don’t have enough points to float a completely free stay, you’ll often find FAR cheaper rates at these partner properties, despite a similar (or even elevated, in some cases) level of quality. For example, the Hilton we stayed at is showing rooms available in early December for $199/night. The cheapest Disney hotels available on those same dates cost $709 and $795, respectively. Over the course of a week-long vacation, that can really add up; on a 7-day, 6-night trip, it’s an additional $3,000 just on lodging. 😱 😱 😱
The downside to not staying at a Disney hotel is that you don’t get to take advantage of Disney buses, monorails, or gondolas to get to the park, however, we found that over the course of a week trip, we spent less than $300 on Lyfts going to and from the park (usually twice a day). Some of these hotels also provide their own shuttle buses to the parks, but again, keep rope drop timelines in mind. You may find your hotel shuttle doesn’t get you there early enough. To really make the most of Early Entry perks, you’ll want to arrive AT THE GATE (not just to the parking lot) at least 20-30 minutes BEFORE Early Entry begins (and possibly even an hour early for Hollywood Studios.)
The benefit to rope-dropping and knocking out the “headliners” early in the day, is this means you can usually take a mid-day break from the parks. We went back to our hotel for a nap, pool time, and to recharge our feet and phones most days from about 3-6pm. This spared us from the worst of the mid-day heat, and also from the frequent Florida afternoon rain storms. Rope dropping is definitely the best way to do the parks!
Disney World Hack #2: Consider a “Leading Reservation” To Snag Dining Reservations Earlier
Maybe you’ve heard that one of the other advantages to staying at a true Disney hotel is that you get to book Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) sooner than other park guests. And that’s true — at time of publication, Disney hotel guests can book dining reservations 60 days prior to their check in date, AND for an additional 10 days past their check in date. (So, essentially, 70 days in advance of the end of their trip.)
Non-Disney hotel guests can also start booking at the 60 day mark, but they don’t get to book for their entire trip; they have to book each day’s meals at the 60-day-out point for the day of THAT MEAL. Which not only means you’ll be having to wake up early to try to making dining reservations multiple days in a row, but also means that by the time you’re able to make those reservations, Disney hotel guests that booked at 60+10 have already taken the best restaurant availability. Some really popular spots, like Oga’s Cantina and Cinderella’s Royal Table may already be completely booked out.
Here’s where the leading reservation trick comes in. Disney doesn’t have a penalty attached to cancelling a hotel reservation. So one way to get around this issue is to book a Disney hotel reservation for dates that start 10-days BEFORE the last day of your actual vacation’s final desired restaurant reservation. This will allow you to book ADRS at the 70-days-out mark, guaranteeing a much better selection of restaurant availability.
Then, once you’re past the 60-days-out mark from your final dining reservation, simply cancel your leading reservation!
Two quick caveats to this: you do have to put down a deposit when making a Disney hotel reservation, equivalent to approximately 20% of the “total” for your fictional stay. It gets fully refunded when you cancel. But you do have to be willing to float that money for a little while to take advantage of this option. Additionally, it’s worth pointing out that Disney could easily fix this loophole at any time — in fact, they previously did fix a similar loophole that applied to Fastpass+ booking — but for the moment, at least, this is a really useful tool.
Of course, whether you’re using a leading reservation or not, it is VITALLY important that you set your alarm to get up early for your 60-day reservation date (or have a travel agent on it for you.) Reservations will become available to you at approximately 6am ET that day, via My Disney Experience. Some people also like to utilize multiple screens, so they can book as many things as possible, as quickly as possible.
Keep in mind that Disney IT is…not great. So if at first you don’t find the times/availability you’re looking for, keep searching. Try searching by restaurant, if that doesn’t work, search by date/time. If that doesn’t work, move on to a different reservation and come back to the problematic one, to see if more availability pops up. And if you still can’t find anything, you can try calling in (the Disney customer support doesn’t open until 7a ET), or, if all else fails, you can use a paid reservation finder service like Mouse Finder, Mouse Dining, or Touring Plans that will allow you to see when others cancel reservations, creating new availability.
Disney World Hack #3: You Need a Touring Plan – and “Go Left” is Not Sufficient!
Ok, so you’ve gotten some good ADRs and you’re at the park at Early Entry rope drop. Now it’s just as simple as riding some rides, yeah? Maybe you’ll take the often cited “go left” advice, that since most Disney visitors tend to tour in a counter-clockwise pattern, you can avoid the worst lines by simply “going left” and then touring in a clockwise manner.
And sure, that’s one way to see the parks. But if, like me, you hate standing in line, then it’s definitely not optimal. Each Disney ride has pre-determined ride capacities and load times that create predictable wait times that you can then game, IF you’ve taken the time to plan out which order you’ll ride in. Having a strategic plan for which attractions you’ll do in which order is called a “Touring Plan.”
I STRONGLY recommend the website TouringPlans.com for this. I’ve used them on literally every Disney World and Disneyland and Universal trip I’ve taken as an adult, and each time, it was like I was magically 10 minutes ahead of the crowds all day long. Yes, it’s a subscription service, but it’s worth every penny. TouringPlans.com is the pixie dust that makes my Disney trips enjoyable.
In my most recent trip, despite the fact that FastPass+ wasn’t in service, and Lightning Lanes hadn’t yet been rolled out, I managed to do every single ride we wanted in every single park and never waited in line more than 25 minutes for ANY ride, thanks to my Touring Plan. And in fact, that 25 minute wait time only happened twice (Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run & Flight of Passage) and all other waits the entire rest of the week were 15 minutes or less — including traditionally super-long-wait rides like Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Slinky Dog Dash, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Frozen Ever After, etc.
TouringPlans.com offers multiple pre-planned itineraries for different types of travelers with predicted wait times based on Disney’s historically published wait times, user-reported wait times, historical crowd levels by day, etc. And while the pre-planned itineraries are very useful, I usually opt to create personalized touring plans so that I can work in my own ride preferences, ADRs, mid-day breaks, and pausing for PhotoPass. I also found a lot of value in regularly reading their blog and forum sites, but those aren’t really necessary if you’re not interested.
Moreover, the question of what order to do rides in is about to get a lot more complicated with the introduction of Disney’s new Genie+ and Lightning Lane services, so having a trusted planning tool like TouringPlans to help you know what to expect can be SUPER handy. I seriously can’t recommend them highly enough.
Disney World Hack #4: Look for Post-Park Close Dining Reservations for Amazing Photo Ops
Let’s be honest: one critical part of a great Disney vacation is getting that perfect family photo that you can share on your social media, Christmas cards, and office picture frame. And that’s what this next hack is all about.
In hack #2, we talked about the importance of getting your Disney Advanced Dining Reservations early. And one of the most coveted ADRs you can get is not specific to a certain restaurant, but to a certain time — times near or even AFTER park close.
We were able to do this twice during our trip — we had an 8:55pm dinner reservation at Skipper Canteen Jungle Navigation in the Magic Kingdom, on a night when the park closed at 9:00pm, and an Oga’s Cantina reservation at 9:40pm in Hollywood Studios, on a night when the park closed at 9:00pm. When you get these late ADRs, you get to stay in the park after all other park visitors are ushered to the exits, enjoying a leisurely sit-down meal to pass the time.
Once you’ve finished your meal, you’ll go to exit the park only to find that you’ve got the place to yourself, and can get those unobstructed photos of the Castle or the Millennium Falcon that you’ve been yearning for. Seriously, check it out:
The Cast Members allow you to take your time exiting as well. We never felt rushed with these post-park-close reservations, and we were thrilled with the photos we got as a result.
However, one alternative if perhaps you have little ones who aren’t going to make it to a 9pm dinner reservation — in this case, you might consider a stop in Disney’s Photo Pass Studio in Disney Springs. The Photo Pass Studio allows you to take family photos in front of green-screens of the park, including beautifully empty park shots. Right now, because it’s an inside location, they do still require everyone to be masked up, but it’s a good alternative if your photos aren’t coming out exactly as desired. And it’s also free — you only pay for any photos you decide to buy.
Disney World Hack #5: Make Sure You Have Hot Weather & Wet Weather Supplies in Your Day Bag
Alright, one final tip to make sure you have the Disney experience you’re dreaming of. Keep in mind that while Disney may feel like another world, it’s actually still just Florida. And Florida, pretty much year-round, is HOT and WET. Planning for either possibility is key to making sure no one in your party ends up with a weather-induced meltdown that prevents you from seeing the attractions you want to see.
Regarding hot weather, we purchased a couple of necklace fans on Amazon (and packed plenty of extra batteries to power them). We used these daily, pretty much anytime we were outside. We also utilized mini umbrellas to provide some extra shade whenever we found ourselves in outdoor queues, or if we had a long walk between attractions mid-day.
For wet weather, we also had a pack of rain ponchos in our day bag, along with the aforementioned umbrellas, and extra socks for each of us. Yes, you can buy ponchos in the park, but they easily cost 4-5x what you can get them for on Amazon if you plan in advance. And our ponchos also feaured drawstrings around the neck, which helped keep the rain out better than the Disney ones!
We ended up using our rain ponchos twice, both for brief storms that popped up in the early evenings. Each time, as soon as the rain began, the majority of the crowds ran for the exits, while we continued with our Touring Plans. Planning in advance for how to stick it out through the rain is just another way to make sure you’re always ahead of the crowds.
A few other supplies we found handy included mask lanyards, an old towel (while waiting for fireworks or cavalcades, it’s nice to be able to sit on the ground to rest your feet, and a towel keeps you cooler and prevents you from getting dirty), and refillable water bottles.
So there you go. A fantastic Disney World trip is definitely possible without having to shell out insane amounts of money on private tours, or planning every little things within an inch of its life, if you know the right Disney World hacks. I hope you find this helpful, and please feel free to share your additional Disney tips or questions in the comments.
