Category — i. Itineraries for Walt Disney World

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MARCH 4 TO MARCH 12, 2023

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, parades, early entry, extended evening hours, and fireworks.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/4 – 3/12/23

Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-11p 3/4 and 3/5, 8a-10p 3/6, and 9a-11p 3/7 through 3/12

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 8.30a-9.30p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-8p every day

EARLY ENTRY AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/4 – 3/12/23

• Magic Kingdom: every morning
• Epcot: every morning
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: every morning
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: every morning

EXTENDED EVENING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/4 – 3/12/23

• Epcot: 3/6
• Magic Kingdom: 3/8

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/4 – 3/12/23

Magic Kingdom’s afternoon parade will show at noon and 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/4 – 3/12/23

• At Magic Kingdom, the evening fireworks Disney Enchantment show is scheduled at 8.15p 3/4 through 3/11, and 8.30p 3/12
• At Epcot, the Epcot evening show Harmonious is scheduled at 9p every night
• At Disney’s Hollywood Studios,
  • A minor evening show, Wonderful World of Animation, is scheduled at 9p 3/4 through 3/11, and 9.30p 3/12
  • An even more minor evening show, Disney Movie Magic, shows at 8.40p 3/4 through 3/11, and 9.10p 3/12
  • The evening spectacular Fantasmic shows at 8 and 9.30p 3/4 through 3/11, and at 8.30 and 10p 3/12

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/4 – 3/12/23

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: FEBRUARY 25 TO MARCH 5, 2023

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, parades, early entry, extended evening hours, and fireworks.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/25 – 3/5/23

Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-11p 2/25 and 2/26, 8a-10p 2/27,  9a-11p 2/28 and 3/1, 8a-10p 3/2, and 9a-11p 3/3 through 3/5

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p 2/25, 10a-9p 2/26, and 9a-9p 2/27 through 3/5

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 8.30a-9.30p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-8p 2/25 and 2/26, 8a-7p 2/27 though 3/1, and 8a-8p 3/2 through 3/5

EARLY ENTRY AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/25 – 3/5/23

• Magic Kingdom: every morning
• Epcot: every morning
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: every morning
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: every morning

EXTENDED EVENING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/25 – 3/5/23

• Epcot: 2/27
• Magic Kingdom: 3/1

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/25 – 3/5/23

Magic Kingdom’s afternoon parade will show at noon and 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/25 – 3/5/23

• At Magic Kingdom, the evening fireworks Disney Enchantment show is scheduled at 8.15p every night
• At Epcot, the Epcot evening show Harmonious is scheduled at 9p every night
• At Disney’s Hollywood Studios,
  • A minor evening show, Wonderful World of Animation, is scheduled at 9p every night
  • An even more minor evening show, Disney Movie Magic, shows at 8.40p every night
  • The evening spectacular Fantasmic shows at 8 and 9.30p every night

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/25 – 3/5/23

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: FEBRUARY 18 TO FEBRUARY 26, 2023

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, parades, early entry, extended evening hours, and fireworks.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/18 – 2/26/23

Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-11p 2/18 and 2/19, 8a-10p 2/20, and 9a-11p 2/21 through 2/26

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p 2/18 through 2/25, and 10a-9p 2/26

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 8.30a-9p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-8p every day

EARLY ENTRY AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/18 – 2/26/23

• Magic Kingdom: every morning
• Epcot: every morning
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: every morning
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: every morning

EXTENDED EVENING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/18 – 2/26/23

• Epcot: 2/20
• Magic Kingdom: 2/22

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/18 – 2/26/23

Magic Kingdom’s afternoon parade will show at noon and 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/18 – 2/26/23

• At Magic Kingdom, the evening fireworks Disney Enchantment show is scheduled at 8.15p every night
• At Epcot, the Epcot evening show Harmonious is scheduled at 9p every night
• At Disney’s Hollywood Studios,
  • A minor evening show, Wonderful World of Animation, is scheduled at 9p every night
  • An even more minor evening show, Disney Movie Magic, shows at 8.40p every night
  • The evening spectacular Fantasmic shows at 8 and 9.30p every night

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/18 – 2/26/23

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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OPTIMIZED ITINERARY WITH TRON FOR GENIE+ AND INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Below is my Genie+ based Disney World itinerary for first time visitors who may never return, updated in late February/early March 2024.

I’ll publish another itinerary shortly that will cover  “summer” updates:

• The opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and re-opening of the Country Bears at Magic Kingdom
• The re-opening of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and The Little Mermaid–A Musical Adventure at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Until then, the following and its links will work just fine!

My itineraries  use almost all the tools available to guests to shorten waits, and thus will only work for those staying in a Disney-owned or other hotel eligible for both Early Entry and for 7a booking of Individual Lightning Lane attractions. That narrows the list to all of the Disney-owned value, moderate, deluxe, and DVC properties, and in addition Shades of Green, the Swan, Swan Reserve, and Dolphin. (For more on these hotels, see this.)

Included are a detailed To-Do List with everything you need to do–especially reservations–when, and detailed daily agendas that cover what to do and see, in order, in each of the parks.

For how I constructed it, see lower on the page.

For a larger version of the itinerary image, click here.

This itinerary won’t work all weeks, and some weeks that it mostly works it may need some little adjustments. Check your week here.

TO-DO LIST FOR THE DISNEY WORLD GENIE+ ITINERARY

The To-Do List for this itinerary is here.

DAILY AGENDAS FOR THE DISNEY WORLD GENIE+ ITINERARY

Detailed daily agendas are in the links:

• Saturday
• Sunday
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

BUILDING AN ITINERARY FOR FIRST-TIMERS AT DISNEY WORLD

The basic parameters of the itinerary follow my previous itineraries—guests see Epcot first and Magic Kingdom last among the four parks, and specific days are chosen for specific parks to avoid typically higher-crowd days.

Beyond that, the general approach is to put Hollywood Studios on weekends, as it is horrible pretty much every day, and weekends are busy at all the parks. If there’s no better day at HS than a weekend, why not go there on a weekend, so that you can see another park on a possibly less busy weekday?

In addition, guests are at Epcot and Magic Kingdom on the days these parks most commonly have Extended Evening Hours (which don’t make crowds higher those days, as the old EMH might have), so that guests eligible for Extended Evening Hours can enjoy them if they wish without paying for a park hopper.

Since Early Entry happens every day now, we don’t see the ebb and flow of specific park crowds on specific days that we used to see with the once or twice a week Extra Magic Hours. However, during the party season from August to late December, the ebb and flow of crowds from party day schedules does return, especially at Magic Kingdom. The itinerary takes advantage of typical party-season patterns.

Overall there’s a mix of later evening and early morning days. Late evenings are mostly followed by low-key mornings.

The general approach to the parks is to see the most popular ride via ILL, and the most popular Genie+ ride via Early Entry. This puts you several steps ahead of everyone else in the parks. In general I don’t use some advanced techniques available (such as stacking Genie+ in afternoons or evenings) unless they work naturally in the flow of a day, and for cost reasons avoid park hopper tickets–which also limits some advanced Genie+ techniques available.  Future itineraries may use such tools.

This itinerary is dedicated to my friend and co-author Josh Humphrey, who died at the age of 36 on March 10th, 2022.

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(Note: this is from the Disney World Genie+ with Tron Itinerary.)

SUGGESTED APPROACH TO EPCOT

Think of Epcot as being two parks combined into one:

• What used to be Future World, and is now  “World Nature,” “World Celebration,” and “World Discovery,” somewhat explores ideas, technology, and the planet Earth, and has most of the attractions;
• World Showcase suggests a permanent World’s Fair, with an intriguing mix of attractions, cultural experiences, themed architecture, shopping, and dining.

The favorite Disney World park of some adults, Epcot has recently deepened its attractiveness to children (historically Epcot’s weakest feature). Epcot has recently opened new attractions aimed at the younger set, including a Frozen Ever After ride, a Frozen Meet and Greet, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, the Moana-themed Journey of Water, and Luminous, a Disney-song based evening show.

Another broadly appealing attraction (albeit one with much intensity,  a 42” minimum height requirement and a bit of a motion-sickness warning), Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, also recently opened.

Epcot still uncomfortably straddles two audiences, not yet being quite enough kid-pleasing (although much better than it was), while disappointing those whose greatest admiration for Epcot is reserved for incarnations from the 1980s and 1990s that were much more focused on ideas, technology, and the planet Earth.

Purely on attractions—and like Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Epcot offers much more than attractions—the best at Epcot includes (in alphabetical order) The American Adventure; Frozen Ever After; Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind; Luminous: Mission: SPACE; Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure; Soarin’ Around the World; Spaceship Earth; and Test Track. Experienced Epcot fans would likely add to this “best of” attractions list Turtle Talk with Crush in the Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion and both the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along and Impressions de France in the France Pavilion.

Most of these rides are accessible via Disney’s new paid systems, either “Individual Lightning Lane” (currently Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind), or Genie+ (most of the rest—not, though, The American Adventure, Luminous, or Impressions de France).

Most of these better attractions are also available during Early Entry, including Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After—although again not The American Adventure, the evening show, or Impressions de France. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened as a boarding group/virtual queue ride, and I expect that so long as it remains in that status, it will not be available during Early Entry. However, those eligible for Extended Evening Hours will have a special additional 6p option for booking a boarding group for Guardians during the extended hours.

While you can successfully do much of the best of Epcot in one long day, Epcot repays attention beyond the major attractions, and it’s hard to predict ahead of time what parts of Epcot will most appeal to your group. Thus, my suggested itinerary divides Epcot over two days.

EPCOT DAY 1: FIRST SATURDAY AGENDA

Your plan today is to see Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and also two or three key Epcot World Showcase attractions, and to fit in among these what you can of other parts of Epcot’s World Showcase. You will complete your Epcot visit on another day.

You need to book an Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) visit to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and also Genie+ for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and, if it sounds like fun to you, also for Frozen Ever After.

Your other priority today is seeing Epcot’s evening show, Luminous.

LOGISTICS

Before 7a, buy Genie+.

At 7a, book an Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) time for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and check the time available immediately Genie+ for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.  If it sounds like fun, later Sunday morning (2 hours after park open), come back to Genie+ and book Genie+ for Frozen Ever After.  Note that you may have to keep coming back to find Genie+ times for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After late enough to work for your park arrival time.

Book all these to begin no earlier than four hours after you expect to arrive in Orlando, and try to book Cosmic Rewind for the first hour you expect to be in the park.

Arrive at your hotel, and check in. Unless you are arriving late, your room will likely not be ready, but you can leave your bags.

Head to Epcot as soon as you can.

AT THE PARK

Your plan today is to see Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, two or three key Epcot World Showcase attractions, including its nighttime fireworks show Luminous, and to fit in among these what you can of other parts of Epcot’s World Showcase. (You will complete World Showcase on Day 2.)

You should have ILL for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Genie+ for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and, if you are interested, also Genie+ for Frozen Ever After.

Those arriving late may have to thin the below to just Guardians, Remy, and the evening show.

Go through the turnstiles and head to your first booked ride, ideally Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and then head to World Showcase, and while keeping an eye out for your Genie+ return times, see the pavilions starting with Mexico and going clockwise.

• Each pavilion will have some or all of shopping, special exhibits, a ride, a movie, and other special features.
• Check My Disney Experience and the pavilion itself, to see what each pavilion has.
• For scheduled events, sequence what you do when among items that are not scheduled (shops, exhibits, and rides), and bounce back and forth between nearby pavilions, so that you don’t have to wait long for the scheduled item

Have dinner from a convenient counter service. (World Showcase is loaded with them.)

Continue touring World Showcase clockwise until no later than 8:30p.

Pick a spot for the evening show Luminous. From where you are likely to be, the stretch along the lagoon between the American Adventure Pavilion and the Japan Pavilion is likely best. If you are ready well before 8.30p, then the other end of World Showcase—the area just at the edge of World Showcase and the rest of Epcot, between the Disney Traders and Port of Entry gift shops—is a great place to watch from, but it fills up much earlier and sometimes is used for special events.

Watch the evening show, and on your way out of the park, be sure to watch the lights on Spaceship Earth.

Return to your hotel.

PREVIEW OF TOMORROW

You will complete some early logistics tasks, then have the morning off before spending the first of two days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

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(Note: this is from the Disney World Genie+ with Tron Itinerary.)

SUGGESTED APPROACH TO DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Notes:

• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will be closed for refurb into “the summer” of 2024.  This closure likely will put even more stress on an already very, very busy park.
• Later in 2024, an attraction closed since COVID will emerge from a re-do: The Voyage of the Little Mermaid: a Musical Adventure.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios, at its opening in 1989, celebrated and illuminated the making of movies and TV shows in a setting of an idealized Los Angeles. While references to film, movie and animation franchises still dominate its offerings, over the last decade or so it has lost most of its “making of” attractions, and expanded its settings to imaginary places, of both this and other planets.

Recently completing a major expansion that includes new Toy Story and Star Wars lands, Disney’s Hollywood Studios now takes more than a day to see with reasonable waits, especially since many days of the year demand for its rides via Genie+ and Individual Lighting Lane purchases quickly can exceed supply, leading to some spectacular waits for those who are shut out. Moreover, reliable reliability issues with a couple of key attractions—Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror in particular—make it wise to plan a second day at the Studios just in case something breaks on Day 1…

The best attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are Slinky Dog Dash, Rise of the Resistance, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (if open), and Tower of Terror. In the next group are Toy Story Mania, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (more appealing to deep Star Wars fans than to the general public), Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Fantasmic.

All of these rides except Fantasmic are accessible via Disney’s new paid systems, “Individual Lightning Lane” (currently Rise of the Resistance) or Genie+ (the rest). Among the half-dozen attractions beyond those noted above available in Genie+, none much needs Genie+, although it can be handy for the scheduled shows like Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, and Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage.

A smaller group of these rides is available to those eligible for Early Entry. All those listed above as “best” and “next group” except Fantasmic are on the Early Entry list, as are the minor rides Star Tours and the skippable Alien Swirling Saucers.

Given current guest preferences and wait patterns, how quickly ILL for Rise of the Resistance and Genie+ for Slinky Dog Dash, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway sell out, and how hard it can be on medium or high crowd days to get more than 2 or 3 high-priority Genie+ bookings, it can be very hard to do the Studios without substantial waits.

The most time-efficient way to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios is to see Rise of the Resistance via Individual Lightning Lane, to see Slinky Dog Dash and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway during or right after Early Entry (when almost everyone else in the park is heading for Rise of the Resistance), and to use Genie+ for a few other rides, with your highest priorities for Genie+ being Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (if you are interested), Tower of Terror, and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

While with luck you can successfully do much of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in one long day, probably missing some shows as their limited schedules can be hard to optimize, and facing some long waits, a more relaxing and forgiving approach divides it over two days.

In my suggested itinerary, your Day 1 focus is an afternoon and evening covering (mostly via Genie+) the attractions near Sunset Boulevard, interrupted by ILL for Rise of the Resistance on the other side of the park.

Later in your visit, Day 2 has you seeing the rest of the park, beginning with Slinky Dog Dash and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway during Early Entry, your key Genie+ that day target being Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and with more ILL and Genie+ available for re-rides of Day 1 attractions or re-booking rides that didn’t quite work out on Day 1…

DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS DAY 1: FIRST SUNDAY AGENDA

Your visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios begins today. After you have done the logistics tasks in the early morning, the rest of your morning is free to sleep in and goof off, after which you will see the areas of the park near Sunset Boulevard, interrupted by a trek to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to see Rise of the Resistance via ILL.

LOGISTICS

Buy Genie+ before 7a.

At 7a, book a time via Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance. Take the earliest availability after noon that you can get. You may have little in the way of choices…

On Genie+, check the return times for Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (if open). If either shows availability noon or later, book the one that overlaps least with your ILL return times. If return times are still showing for the morning, refresh the Tip Board every five to ten minutes or so, as one or the other will start showing post-noon return times shortly. If both look about the same, pick Tower of Terror.

Two hours after official general public park open—that is at 10.30a for an 8.30a park open most days– come back to Genie+ and book whichever of Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster you hadn’t already booked. Your return time will most likely be midafternoon to early evening, depending on crowd levels. If Rock ‘n’ Roller is closed, pick another available attraction–if any!–that you’d otherwise see on Day 2, considering especially Indiana Jones and Frozen Ever After, as these are the trickiest to fit in on Day 2.

Today you do not need to use Early Entry.

You should have dinner reservations at 50’s Prime Time Café as a Fantasmic Dining Package for around 6p.

AT THE PARK

Arrive at the tapstiles at Disney’s Hollywood Studios no later than the opening of your first ILL or Genie+ window, unless they are 3p or later, in which case arrive by 1p.

Your plan today is to see all the attractions in the Sunset Boulevard area, including Fantasmic, and in addition Rise of the Resistance via Individual Lightning Lane. You will complete your visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on another day.

I can’t give you a schedule of which attractions to see when, as your Genie+ and ILL return times will shape your day, but your goal is to see and do the following, while making your dinner reservation (links are to show schedules):

In Sunset Boulevard:

• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
• Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy
• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (if open)
• Tower of Terror

In the nearby Animation Courtyard

• Disney Junior Dance Party (skippable if your party has no little ones)
• Star Wars Launch Bay (skippable if your party has no Star Wars fans)
• Once it opens in later 2024, The Voyage of the Little Mermaid: a Musical Adventure

Elsewhere via ILL:

• Rise of the Resistance in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Back on Sunset Boulevard:

• Fantasmic. Arrive at least 30 minutes before showtime, and ask the cast members where to go for Fantasmic Dining Package seating.

Check the times for Fantasmic and for Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage (most commonly on the hour into the late afternoon) at the links above to fit them in.

PREVIEW OF TOMORROW

You will have an early start for your final visit to Epcot.

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