Category — i. Itineraries for Walt Disney World

The best visits to Walt Disney World are built from four key choices:

• Picking when to go
• Dividing your time among the parks
• Picking the best days to visit each park (most important the party season August-December), and
• Designing what you do each day, using especially Early Entry, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lanes , to minimize time spent waiting in line.

These last–Disney World’s Early Entry, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lane programs are particularly important.

Wise use of them can substantially reduce your time spent waiting in line. In contrast to what they replaced, the former FastPass+ program, you can make good plans the very day of a visit–in contrast to the former need to start planning your days 60 days ahead of a visit. However, requirements to stay in a hotel eligible for all key components of them means there’s a huge payoff to planning ahead, even so.

AN INTRODUCTION TO WALT DISNEY WORLD AND ITS FOUR THEME PARKS

Walt Disney World occupies about 40 square miles southwest of Orlando Florida, making it just a little smaller than San Francisco and almost twice the size of Manhattan.

It contains hotels, shopping, two waterparks, a campground, and most significantly, four theme parks: Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom is the quintessential Disney theme park and the heart of Walt Disney World.

Inspired by the original Disneyland, it presents iconic attractions ranging from Dumbo to the Haunted Mansion. Loved by the young and old, it is particularly suited to younger guests.

For those tall and mature enough to enjoy everything in the park, all its best can be seen in two long days—but three shorter days will provide a more flexible and relaxing visit.

Epcot

Think of Epcot as being two parks combined into one:

• What used to be Future World, but is now being transformed into “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.

“France” at Epcot

The favorite Disney World park of some adults, Epcot has recently deepened its attractiveness to children–historically Epcot’s weakest feature. Epcot has opened over the past few years new and newly reimagined attractions aimed at the younger set, including Frozen Ever After, a Frozen Meet and Greet, a new in 2023 evening fireworks show Luminous, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and a charming walk-through attraction about water, Journey of Water, Inspired by ‘Moana’.

Another broadly appealing attraction—albeit one with a 42” minimum height requirement and too intense for most younger children—Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, opened in mid-2022.

Epcot repays attention and exploration, and for those old enough to get it, takes more than a day to appreciate. The very youngest visitors may wish to devote half a day to it.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Disney’s Hollywood Studios celebrates movies, music, TV and other popular entertainments via rides and shows.

Recently completing major projects that include 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.

Many of its best rides are thrill rides, so the youngest visitors will have only half a day or so’s worth of appropriate things to do, even with the opening of Slinky Dog Dash,  a “family friendly” roller coaster with a 38 inch height requirement, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, an all-ages dark ride.

Toy Story Land (c) Disney

For folks old enough for its thrill rides, challenges in seeing attractions with reasonable waits make Hollywood Studios best seen over two partial days.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Disney’s Animal Kingdom combines the all-ages appeal of the Magic Kingdom with the repayment to intellectual curiosity that used to be a key value of Epcot.

Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Its rides and shows appeal to almost everyone, but the park best showcases itself to those who also bring an interest in animals—real, imagined, and/or blue.

Before then an easy day, Animal Kingdom visits lengthened with the opening of an entirely new land, Pandora: World of Avatar with two new rides, Na’vi River Journey and Flight of Passage, in 2017.

Animal Kingdom is now an easy two day park and a harder one day park. Only a few of its attractions are inappropriate for the youngest, so target it for more than half a day with the littlest ones.

Those first timers who are able to return for another trip later may come on their first visit with younger kids for just a few days at Magic Kingdom, returning later to both see more of that park and see the other three parks as the kids grow and develop.

First time visitors tall and mature enough to see everything on a once in a lifetime trip should budget the equivalent of seven to eight days in the parks, spread over nine calendar days—three calendar days at Magic Kingdom, and two at each of the other three parks.

THE BASICS OF EARLY ENTRY, GENIE+, AND INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANES

Early Entry, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lanes (“ILL”) are the principal tools for limiting the amount of time you spend waiting in lines. Each of these is built into my recommended itineraries. There are two other tools that I’ll discuss later.

Early Entry. Guests at 46 eligible hotels—every one of those on this page—get at least an extra half an hour in the parks at the beginning of the day, every day. Most of the time, if you arrive at the park tapstiles 30 minutes (earlier at Hollywood Studios, and earlier still during the most crowded weeks of the year) before Early Entry is scheduled to begin, then you will typically be able to see one to three rides that usually build long waits quickly with little in the way of waits. At the eligible hotels—31 Disney owned, and 15 other hotels—Early Entry comes free with your hotel reservation. More on Early Entry is here.

Genie+ is a paid service. In return for a single daily, per-person fee–varying from $15 to almost $40+ tax—you will be able to schedule return times for either some (those in one park) or all (for those with Park Hopper tickets) of the 60 or so rides available through Genie+. Think of it as being similar to a restaurant reservation.

You can book only one Genie+ at a time per person, and can’t book another until either two hours have passed or you have fully tapped in for your next Genie+ ride, whichever comes first. With Genie+, you can see in a day with low waits two to half a dozen or more rides that traditionally build longer waits quickly (fewer at Hollywood Studios and during high-crowd weeks; more at Magic Kingdom and during low-crowd weeks). Genie+ is available to anyone but can sell out, and no particular hotel guests have special privileges. More on Genie+ is here.

Individual Lightning Lane (“ILL”) rides are one or two rides per park where you pay a specific price per person per ride to book an appointment on the ride that day. Unlike Genie+, you can select your time from available slots—in Genie+, if you want a specific ride, you must take the next available slot. Guests at the 31 Disney owned hotels, and at 4 others, get exclusive access to ILL bookings beginning at 7a. Everyone else can’t begin booking ILL until the park of that ride crosses its scheduled opening. As a result, guests eligible for 7a bookings can have a huge advantage, as they can scarf up most or all of a day’s allotment of ILL for the most popular ILL rides before other guests are even eligible. More on Individual Lightning Lane rides is here.

All these rides are also available for no additional cost, but at the price of potentially much more time waiting in line, or the risk of not being able to join a boarding group.

Lowest wait itinerary design optimally includes 7a booking of ILL, seeing the most popular ride(s) you’d otherwise book via Genie+ during Early Entry, and booking the next wave of Genie+ rides to fill out the rest of your day. That’s in general how my recommended itineraries work. And as a consequence, you need to stay in a Disney owned resort, or one of the four non-Disney resorts, that have access to both Early Entry and 7a booking of ILL, to be able to schedule the lowest-wait visits.

There are two other tools available to lower waits, one for everyone, and one for a subset of guests.

Available to everyone is entering lines for rides near the end of a park’s scheduled day. Actual waits typically drop off precipitously in the last hour of operation, at least partly because posted wait times are inflated at the end of the day to discourage guests from filling lines and causing overtime. But you can enter a line as late as a minute before scheduled park close and still ride it, so this is a sound option for seeing one last high-demand ride with a lower wait than you’ll face earlier in the day.

The second tool is “Extended Evening Hours,” available only to guests of 24 Disney World hotels—the Disney deluxes, the Disney DVC hotels, and 4 others. Typically this is offered two nights per week at one or two parks (most commonly Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and most commonly Mondays at Epcot and Wednesdays at Magic Kingdom, but both parks and days vary). The parks are open an extra two hours after formal park close, with most popular rides operating throughout those two hours. This can be a particularly time-efficient way to see rides at Magic Kingdom. More on Extended Evening Hours is here.

INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE, GENIE+ AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT MAGIC KINGDOM

Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom has both more attractions and a wider range of attractions than any other Disney World theme park. For first time visitors with kids old enough to enjoy everything, favorites will almost certainly include many of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the evening fireworks show, Enchanted Tales with Belle, the afternoon Festival of Fantasy parade, the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan’s Flight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, and TRON Lightcycle Run. (Splash Mountain has permanently closed for replacement by Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, expected to open in late 2024.)

All of these rides except for the evening fireworks show are accessible via Individual Lightning Lane (currently Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON) or Genie+ (the rest). Among the dozen or so rides not on the list above but also available in Genie+, most notable for kids old enough to enjoy everything are Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, “it’s a small world,” Mickey’s PhilharMagic, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Magic Kingdom does Early Entry differently than any other Disney World park. First, only two of its lands are open for Early Entry—Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Second, almost every ride in these lands is open during Early Entry—in Fantasyland only character meets are not available, and in Tomorrowland only Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor is not open. Since Fantasyland has many very short duration rides just a quick walk apart, you can knock off several rides there during Early Entry, so long as you avoid Seven Dwarfs.

Given current guest preferences and wait patterns, the most time-efficient way to visit Magic Kingdom is to

• See Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON Lightcycle Run via Individual Lightning Lane,
• See Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and Space Mountain during or right after Early Entry
• Then use Genie+ for a few other rides, with your highest priorities for Genie+ being Jungle Cruise and the other more popular rides outside of the Early Entry lands—Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Haunted Mansion.

Genie+ can also save you time at Magic Kingdom on other rides, so long as you pick nearby enough rides that you don’t dissipate the wait saving by extra walking. It can also save time at the Festival of Fantasy parade for those looking for a great viewing spot, as it will permit a good viewing spot without needing to line up along the parade route so early.

INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE, GENIE+ AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

The best attractions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom are Flight of Passage in Pandora, Kilimanjaro Safaris in Africa, Expedition Everest in Asia, and DINOSAUR in Dinoland USA. In the next group are Festival of the Lion King in Africa, Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond and, on especially hot days, Kali River Rapids.

Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

All of these rides are accessible via Individual Lightning Lane” (currently Flight of Passage) or Genie+ (the rest). Among the other rides available in Genie+, most notable is Na’vi River Journey—a minor ride, but one whose lines can quickly build due to its propinquity to the wildly-popular Flight of Passage.

A smaller group of these rides is available to those eligible for Early Entry. Not on the Early Entry list are Kilimanjaro, Kali, Lion King, and Nemo.

Given current guest preferences and wait patterns, the most time-efficient way to visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom is to

• See Flight of Passage via Individual Lightning Lane
• See Na’vi River Journey during Early Entry, and
• Use Genie+ for a few other rides, with your highest priorities for Genie+ being Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest, Festival of the Lion King, and Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond.

INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE, GENIE+ AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT EPCOT

The Imagination Pavilion at Epcot

The best at Epcot includes (in alphabetical order) The American Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the evening show, Luminous; Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Soarin’ Around the World, Spaceship Earth, and Test Track. Experienced Epcot fans would likely add Turtle Talk with Crush in the Seas 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 Individual Lightning Lane (Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind), or Genie+ (most of the rest—not, though, The American Adventure, the evening show, or Impressions de France).

Other, more minor, rides are also available in Genie+.

Little in Epcot currently much repays Genie+, with the exceptions of Remy, Test Track and Frozen Ever After. A particular value to Genie+ for Test Track is that the ride not infrequently closes due to weather or other issues, so Genie+ helps with getting a return time if it is closed during your window.

Most of these better attractions are also available during Early Entry, including Remy and Frozen Ever After—although not The American Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the evening show, or Impressions de France.

INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE, GENIE+ AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The best attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are Slinky Dog Dash, Rise of the Resistance, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, 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 Individual Lightning Lane (currently Rise of the Resistance) or Genie+ (the rest). Among the half-dozen attractions other than 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.

Frozen Sing-Along at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

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,
• See Slinky Dog Dash during Early Entry (when almost everyone else in the park is heading for Rise of the Resistance), and
• Use Genie+ for a few other rides, with your highest priorities for Genie+ being Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (if you are interested), Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Tower of Terror, and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: APRIL 3 TO APRIL 10, 2022

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 4/2-4/10/22

Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-11p 4/2 through 4/6, 9a-10p 4/7, and 9a-11p 4/8 through 4/22

Epcot will be open from 8.30a-9p  4/2, 10a-9p 4/3, and 8.30a-9p 4/4 through 4/10

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 8.30a-9p 4/2 through 4/5, 8a-5p 4/6, and 8a-9p 4/7 through 4/10

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from  7.30a-8.30p every day

EARLY ENTRY AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/2-4/10/22

• 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 4/2-4/10/22

• Magic Kingdom: 4/6
• Epcot: 4/4

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/2-4/10/22

Magic Kingdom’s afternoon Festival of Fantasy parade will show at noon and 3p every day.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/2-4/10/22

• At Magic Kingdom, the Disney Enchantment evening show is scheduled at 9p 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 except April 6. An even more minor evening show, Disney Movie Magic, shows at 8.40p every night except April 6

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/2-4/10/22

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

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OPTIMIZED ITINERARY 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 late August 2022.

It uses 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.)

As Disney dining—in particular character dining—has not yet fully returned to its pre-COVID roster and style, my Disney World itinerary does not yet include suggested table service dining.

• Once the key roster is open, I’ll add dining back fully in.
• However, currently, your Thursday is entirely open.  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.

The basic parameters of the itinerary follow 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.

Since Early Entry happens every day now, we won’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. During the party season from August to late December, the ebb and flow from it will likely return, especially at Magic Kingdom. The itinerary takes advantage of typical party-season patterns.

Given all that, the general approach (after Epcot first and Magic Kingdom last) 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.

Overall there’s a mix of later evening and early morning days. Late evenings are mostly followed by low-key mornings. Scheduled times in the parks will grow once I add back recommended table service dining.

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.

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

Daily agendas are in the links:

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

This itinerary is dedicated to my friend and co-author Josh Humphrey, who died at the age of 36 on March 10th, 2022. I’ll be writing more about Josh one of these days, but every time I begin to draft this appreciation, I start to cry…

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

SUGGESTED APPROACH TO EPCOT

Think of Epcot as being two parks combined into one: what used to be Future World (now being transformed into “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, and Harmonious, a Disney-character-oriented evening show, which will be shifting to a different show, Epcot Forever, on April 3, 2023 . Another broadly appealing attraction (albeit one with a 42” minimum height requirement and a bit of a motion-sickness warning), Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, also recently opened. Under construction and expected  to open in later 2023 is a walk-through Moana-themed attraction about water, Journey of Water.

Construction has led to the center of the old Future World section of Epcot being a bit of a mess, and the park 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 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; the evening show; Frozen Ever After; Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind; 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 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, the evening show, or Impressions de France).

Other, more minor, rides are also available in Genie+.

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 both 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: Harmonious until April 2, Epcot Forever, which will replace it April 3, or the third 2023 Epcot show, expected to debut later in the year.

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, 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 pick up a park map and “Times Guide”–a schedule.

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 your map, times guide, 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. 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+ Itinerary.)

SUGGESTED APPROACH TO DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Note: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will be closed for refurb from February 20 into “the summer” of 2023.  This closure likely will put even more stress on an already very, very busy park.

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 planet 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” 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), Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, 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 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 a 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.

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:

In Sunset Boulevard:

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

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)

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.

Saturday  Sunday  Monday   Tuesday   Wednesday  Thursday   Friday   Saturday  Sunday

Summary of this Itinerary      To-Do List

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

EPCOT DAY 2: MONDAY AGENDA

(For the general approach to Epcot, see the beginning of Epcot Day 1.)

Today you will complete Epcot. You have no planned dining today, and no planned Individual Lighting Lane purchases, but do need to take advantage of both Early Entry and Genie+.

While you should be able to complete today without going into the evening, you may wish to stay longer, in particular if World Showcase captivates you, and/or if you are eligible for Extended Evening Hours. If you are eligible for and interested in Extended Evening Hours, you may wish to head back to your hotel in the afternoon for a nap and then return to the park for more time in World Showcase and then follow with the Extended Evening Hours.

FIRST THINGS

Before 7a, buy Genie+.

At 7a book Test Track on Genie+. You are unlikely to need Genie+ for anything else at Epcot unless you missed Remy or Frozen on your first Epcot day, but are of course welcome to use it as you wish.

Be at the park’s turnstiles by 30 minutes before the beginning of Early Entry.

AT THE PARK

When Early Entry begins, see Soarin’ Around the World

The order of what happens next depends on the timing of your Genie+ return to Test Track.

• If your return to Test Track begins in the next 30 minutes, head from Soarin’ to Spaceship Earth, ride it, then use your Genie+ at Test Track. Then ride Mission Space, and return to the “World Nature” area and see the attractions in the Seas Pavilion (the aquarium itself, The Seas with Nemo and Friend and Turtle Talk with Crush), then the remaining attractions in the Land Pavilion (Living with the Land and Awesome Planet). Fit in lunch when convenient—Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion is a good choice.
• If your return to Test Track is later, then instead see the attractions noted above in the Land Pavilion and the Seas Pavilion until it’s time to head to Test Track. Do Test Track and Mission Space in “World Discovery,” next see Spaceship Earth, then complete the attractions in “World Nature” you have not yet seen. Fit in lunch when convenient—Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion is a good choice

Next, head to the Imagination Pavilion and see the attractions there– Disney-Pixar shorts, and Journey Into Imagination with Figment.

If time presses, the most skippable attractions above are both of those in the Imagination Pavilion, and Awesome Planet in the Land Pavilion

Next is the completing the rest of World Showcase, starting in Canada and progressing counter-clockwise. Tour as you did Saturday night, checking out the shows and experiences as you wander.

If you are eligible for Extended Evening Hours, you may wish to head back to your hotel for a nap and then return to the park for more time in World Showcase and then follow with the Extended Evening Hours.

PREVIEW OF TOMORROW

Tomorrow you begin your visit to the Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

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