Difficulties and How to Overcome Them on Your Disney World Vacation

We want to make sure that you have a fantastic time on your Disney World vacation. From finding the best Resort to experiencing all the magic, our goal is to have a wonderful time visiting Walt Disney World Resort. To help you with your Disney planning, we have a few difficulties you might run into and how to overcome them. We hope this will make your Disney vacation fantastic and make Disney planning easy.

Park Passes Being Limited

Since reopening in July, the four Disney theme parks have required a Park Pass Reservation. Once they have a Park ticket, Guests can go into the My Disney Experience and pick which theme Park they want to visit on each day of their Disney vacation. Overall, we haven’t seen all four parks being blocked out on the same day, but we have seen both Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios be blocked out on specific days (like Magic Kingdom on October 1st). To help prevent yourself from being blocked out of a Disney Park, we highly recommend that you book your Park reservation as soon as possible. The closer you get to your travel dates, the more likely there will be that a Disney Park can fill up. Be ahead of the game by booking your Park reservations right away- don’t wait. If you are blocked out and can’t get the theme Park of choice, we recommend that you keep checking back. Increased capacity, as well as cancelations, can open up those last minute Park reservations. It might be another step in your planning, but it shouldn’t be a difficulty that greatly impacts your vacation.

Your Hotel Is Full

You might have your heart set on a specific Disney Resort and when you go to book, it isn’t available. This can be heart-breaking, but it doesn’t mean all is lost. As more and more Disney Resorts open, welcome back to Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter, we should see more openings as people move around. As with Park reservations, when it comes to booking a Disney Resort, we highly recommend booking it early. This will allow you a better chance at getting your top choice. If you don’t, be flexible. There are so many amazing Disney hotels that you might find your new favorite.

Long Lines

Another difficulty you might face on your Disney World vacation is long lines. As capacity starts to open back up, we are beginning to see wait times increase. We have a few options that can help you avoid long lines. First, if you are staying at a Disney Resort take advantage of the early theme Park entry. The early theme Park entry allows Guests staying at these Disney hotels to enter any theme Park of their choice 30-minutes before the official Park opening. This is a great way to get a jump start on rides before the Park even opens. Also, if you are staying at a Deluxe Disney Resort, take advantage of the extended evening theme Park hours. The evening hours are only available to those staying at a Deluxe Resort and are on specific days at either Magic Kingdom or EPCOT. When they are scheduled, they give Guests around 2 to 3 extra hours in the parks. Once again, this is a fantastic way to get on rides with limited waits. A new way coming this week (October 19th) that can help Guests skip lines is the new Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes. Guests will be able to purchase these and therefore skip the regular stand-by lines. Guests can also use the free Disney Genie aspect of the My Disney Experience, which will help them navigate the Park with limited wait times. Taking advantage of these opportunities can be a great way to overcome the difficulty of long lines.

Technology Issues

It is not a secret that a trip to Disney World will rely heavily on your smartphone. My Disney Experience is extremely important to a Disney vacation as it can be your room key, wait times, order food and soon where you will find Disney Genie and use Genie+. Because of this, you don’t want to run into technology issues. To make sure your phone makes it through the day, have portable chargers with you. These can be a lifesaver and prevent any major technical difficulties like no phone access. Sometimes My Disney Experience can go down, so consider having screenshots of your reservations. This can be a good backup if you can’t access information. Technology doesn’t always work perfectly, so be prepared to be one step ahead with these simple tips.

Mobile Order

Mobile ordering used to be an option for Guests visiting a theme Park or Disney Resort, but now it is how all Guests order food at quick-service locations. Although the system, run in the app, is great, the difficulty becomes when there aren’t pick up times available. As the parks have gotten busier, we have seen pick up windows book quickly. To prevent this from being difficult for you, make sure you place those mobile orders early on in the day. If you know where you want to get lunch or supper, but those requests in early in the morning to ensure a spot. Also, know that if you forget and can’t find a pick up time that works, there are small carts around that you can snag a snack from. We love mobile ordering but it can cause some difficulties is you aren’t prepared.

These are just a few of the difficulties you might encounter when heading to Disney World for your vacation. If you think them through and have a plan, you will overcome them and have a magical time.