Keys to avoiding long waits, regardless of crowd level

[Masonmj84]

I've found that, by following these principles, I almost never have to wait more than 10-15 minutes for any attraction, regardless of crowd levels.

1. Arrive before rope drop (unless unnecessary, see below)

2. Use FP+ for the most popular attractions you plan to visit on a given day (subject to tiering requirements), such as SDMT and FEA (helps if you stay on property so you can be eligible to reserve 60 days out)

3. Use first hour in park to ride standby on the most popular attractions for which you didn't reserve a FP+, visting in order of popularity (i.e., based on what builds largest line fastest)

4. Have at least a 6 day ticket, which enables splitting MK and/or EP into at least 2 days each (and divide those parks into pieces)

5. Be satisfied in visiting most, if not all attractions (especially the most popular ones), only once

For example, we have an upcoming spring break trip, for which we have 8 day tickets. We plan to spend 3 days at each of MK and EP and 1 day at each of HS and AK. At MK, we divide the park geographically (1 day for Tomorrowland, 1 day for Fantasyland, and 1 day for Frontierland+Adventureland). At EP, we divide based on Tier 1 FP attractions (1 day based on FEA, 1 day based on Soarin', and 1 day based on TT).

The only day we have to be to the park well before RD to avoid any long waits is our HS day (in order to ride both R&RC and TSM without signficant lines). On our Fantasyland and Frontierland+Adventureland MK days, we'll try to arrive a little before RD and on the rest of our days, it's not critical to arrive at rope drop (especially our EP days).

The one thing that can mess things up, of course, is if an attraction is down when we plan to visit. But that's just something we try to roll with, given it's a variable we can't control.

Otherwise, the above strategy is practically foolproof, even during the busiest seasons.

(FWIW, we are go back to our resort in the afternoon people)

 

[pitpat]

Good tips. But how do you make a whole day out of Tomorrowland? If you start there at RD, you can be done with it by 10, 10:30. I guess that leaves you free to do whatever else you want.

I like to divide MK into basically left and right going straight down the middle.

 

[Klayfish]

You've got some solid points, but some of it may or may not be practical or what a person wants to do. For us, sorry, not doing rope drop (by rope drop, I mean showing up 45 minutes or more before the park opens). We may show up right around the time the park opens, but that's it. Zero interest in standing outside the park early in the morning waiting for the gates to open. We'll maybe miss one extra ride over someone who does, and that's a trade off we'll make.

Having a 6 day ticket may not be realistic for everyone. So if you only have 3 days, have to do the best you can with what you have.

You don't have to be satisfied with visiting attractions only once. Not at all. There are plenty of attractions we ride multiple times...and it has little to do with avoiding long waits.

For us, we have a bit of a different mentality...it's WDW...it's busy...there are going to be lines. We do what we can to minimize it, but to some degree it is what it is. We use FP+ to our full advantage. We know what rides are crowded most and what aren't. We know where we're going (that's another key). We are flexible in our plans (another key). Using some of those strategies, on our last visit (which was 17 days long), the longest we waited for a ride was 30 minutes, with most being 10-20 tops. The longest line of any sort was just under an hour, for Joy and Sadness which has no FP+ option. But at the end of the day, we really don't stress about the lines. We just do our thing and if the line is longer than we want, we just do something else. There are so many options, you really don't need to wait in long lines.

You've got some good suggestions there, but everyone does things a bit differently.

 

[drdrowsy]

-if you can, make FP+ early in the day (9-10, 10-11, 11-12am) so that you can chose further FP+ experiences the remainder of the day (depending on park on crowd level, this may be more or less successful)
-you can make additional FP+ reservations as soon as you scan in for your final booked FP+. don't even need to wait until you finish riding the ride
- when booking 4th (5th, 6th, etc) FP+ in the app you sometimes need to search in the app for the FP+ time you want (search for 2pm or 1:30pm or "afternoon," may give you different options )

 

[mom2rtk]

5. Be satisfied in visiting most, if not all attractions (especially the most popular ones), only once

I'm not ready to lower my expectations to that level.

 

[ArwenMarie]

If you spend three days in Epcot, how many hours per day do you spend there? Doesn't seem like there is enough to do for three days?

 

[bfost87]

Oh there's plenty to do in Epcot if you enjoy a cheeky beverage or two haha

 

[avoiding work]

Another tip is to visit a park the day after an extended magic hours evening at that same park. The thinking here is that a lot of on-site folks will have been at the park the night before, and may choose to visit a different park after that.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I like to divide MK into basically left and right going straight down the middle.

I like to take in the whole glorious thing day after day. I may start out in Adventureland, but if I get an itch to go to Tomorrowland then off I go.

And I also disagree with settling for riding headliners only once. Sure, I'd rather have an unanesthaetized root canal than stand in a 3 hour FEA queue for a second go round, but even for 95% of the headliners twice is nice and three times is better. It's a matter of picking one's spots for queuing.

 

[dreiwhit]

We did pretty much everything you recommended on our last trip, and we got to see and do everything we wanted, and then some!