TO-DO LIST FOR DISNEY WORLD GENIE+ ITINERARY
This To-Do List is for the Disney World Genie+ Itinerary.
My recommended itinerary requires that you stay in a hotel that is eligible for both Early Entry and 7a booking of ILL rides, and like everyone else you must also purchase park tickets for your specific dates, and in addition must book specific park reservations for each day of your trip.
In terms of supply and demand, specific hotels are the hardest elements to book, next hardest (but usually much easier so long as you have enough time before your visit) are park reservations, and after that, tickets themselves are easiest to book. However, you can’t make park reservations until you have tickets, so the conceptual order is 1. Hotel; 2. Tickets; 3. Daily park reservations.
As I write this, Disney World hotel reservations are available online through the end of 2023.
A. MORE THAN 180 DAYS BEFORE YOUR PLANNED ARRIVAL DATE
Confirm your budget, planned dates, intended hotel, kids’ development and heights, and your transportation choice and its availability for your planned dates.
Create your My Disney Experience account here and add your family members to it
Set up your hotel, tickets, and if available for package purchase, Genie+. (Genie+ is currently available only day-of, not for package purchase.) Call 407-939-7675 (preferred, because this allows you to tell the reservationist which building at your resort you wish to be in), or click here to use Disney’s online system. If you are following my itinerary, you want the hotel you’ve picked for eight nights, and eight day “one theme park per day” tickets. If possible, add Genie+ to your package, as my itinerary has you using it seven of your eight park days.
Make sure your hotel and tickets are linked in your account, and then make your daily park reservations.
Make your plane reservations, if flying. Make any other needed transportation arrangements.
B. 181 DAYS BEFORE YOUR ARRIVAL DATE
Disney Dining used to begin booking 180 days from one’s arrival date. As I write this, booking begins 60 days from your arrival date. So I technically don’t need this header here. But I am reserving space for it in case things change—and to put you on notice that things might change.
Disney Dining is also not quite back to where I’d like to see it in coming out of COVID.
So right now my only recommended dining is resort (that is, not park) dining on Thursday, your off day.
A late breakfast at Chef Mickey’s and/or dinner at Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue on Thursday are highly recommended! Neither of these is in a park, so no tickets or park reservations are needed–although dining reservations (available at the links) are more or less required, and can sell out very quickly.
However, I do note next the meals I used to recommend:
- Cinderella’s Royal Table, Magic Kingdom. Character meal
- Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, Fort Wilderness, sort of near to Magic Kingdom. Dinner show.
- Crystal Palace, Magic Kingdom. Character meal
- Chef Mickey’s, Contemporary Resort, near Magic Kingdom. Character meal
- Tusker House, Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Character meal
- Crystal Palace, Magic Kingdom. Character meal
- Akershus Banquet (character meal) or San Angel Inn, Epcot
The basic approach is to book the in-park restaurants on the same day as you have a park reservation. Any reservation not in parks (in my list, Chef Mickey’s and Hoop-Dee-Doo-Revue) can be booked either on days you are in the parks they are near—Magic Kingdom for these two– or on your off day.
C. 61 DAYS BEFORE YOUR ARRIVAL DATE
If you will be booking dining the next day, login to your MyDisneyExperience.com account the day before, click the “Things to Do” tab at top right, under Dining hit “Make Reservations,” and practice trying to reserve restaurants for the day before your arrival (hint: use the search box at the upper right).
This may well drive you crazy, but the site works better than it used to…
D. EXACTLY 5.50am EST, EXACTLY 60 DAYS BEFORE YOUR ARRIVAL DATE
1. If you do wish to book table service dining, be on the restaurant website by 5:50am eastern time, and have your highest-priority reservation all set up on the page. Keep refreshing, as you will be let in as soon as Disney’s system decides it is 6a. Book the table service restaurants you wish.
2. Do online check in, requesting as you do any special location points.
3. Order and customize your MagicBands.
E. EXACTLY 7am EST, EVERY DAY EXCEPT YOUR OFF DAY
Every day except for your off day, at 7a you will need to book times for Genie+ rides, ILL rides, or both. This includes your first day, when you likely will be doing this from home.
My friends at Destinations in Florida, the long-time travel agent partners of this site, can do most of this work for you! Contact them using the form below.
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