For many, a vacation to Walt Disney World is a once in a lifetime visit, so you want everything to be perfect! Whether this is your first trip or your fiftieth, you want it to be perfect, so you don’t want to waste time in the parks.
Learn about how to have the perfect trip and don’t waste your time with these 20 things!
1. Riding Rise of Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
We’re coming in hot with this number 1 waste of time in Disney World! Let us explain! Rise of the Resistance in Galaxy’s edge is Disney World’s most intricate, amazing, and interactive ride experience. That means it has the longest lines in the park! You don’t want to waste your whole Hollywood Studios day waiting in line!
DID YOU KNOW: Rise of the Resistance has an average wait time of over 100 minutes, but has an all time high of 420 minutes! That’s 7 HOURS!
Not only is the wait time really high, this attraction is super high tech, so it tends to break down a lot. Could you imagine spending 2 hours waiting only for it to break down?
Slinky Dog Dash, Avatar Flight of Passage, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train are all in the same boat. These attractions are insanely popular and always have a huge line.
DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME!
Do This Instead…
These attractions really are incredible, which is why people wait so long to get on them. Don’t be one of those people. Rise of the Resistance, Avatar Flight of Passage, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train are all a part of the Individual Lightning Lane system where you can pay for that specific attraction to skip the line.
Totally worth it.
Read more: Tips on how to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance with a long wait here.
2. Park Hopping
There is so much to see in Walt Disney World and so little time to get it all done! We’re to tell you that Park Hopping is a waste of time! Park Hopping is not a quick change into another park. It often can take an hour to an hour to two hours to switch to another park. And for what?
There is no way you can see, experience, or explore one entire Disney park in half a day. Why split that time between two parks and waste hours in transportation?!
Do This Instead…
If you are attractions focused and want to ride all of the rides in Disney World like a personal challenge, consider purchasing a ticket to an After Hours Party. These parties grant you access to the park at 7 PM and then you get to stay for 3 extra hours after the park closes.
We’re not kidding when we say that the parks are empty during the After Hours Parties. We have heard of people WALKING ON Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Dash, and even Rise of the Resistance.
Plus, there’s free snacks, and that’s always a win.
3. Getting Starbucks
There is one requirement to getting up early on vacation (which is pretty much necessary at Disney), and that is copious amounts of caffeine. But no matter how much you want to, don’t go to Starbucks!
Going to any of the Starbucks locations on Disney property is a huge waste of time!
You can’t use the Starbucks app to mobile order and that line is almost as long as the line for Splash Mountain on closing day. No thanks!
Do This Instead…
Disney has a contract with a local Florida coffee company called Joffrey’s, and this should be your go-to coffee fix in Disney World. There are 3 major reasons why you should always go to Joffrey’s over Starbucks in Disney:
- It never has the crazy lines as Starbucks, partly because each park has multiple locations.
- You can mobile order select Joffrey’s coffee drinks at Quick Service locations throughout Disney. (We love the iced coffee with a shot of vanilla!)
- At select Joffrey’s locations, you can actually get Disney art in your coffee! Come on, everything is better with Mickey on it!
Read more: Joffrey’s coffee and why we love it here
4. Getting the BEST Spot for Parades or Fireworks
Like moths to a flame, we love fireworks or a fun parade. Disney really knows how to do both. We love them. You love them. But for goodness sake, getting the “best seat in the house” is such a waste of time!
We have seen people wait and waste hours sitting in the direct sunlight on a curb just waiting for the parade. We have watched people wait for more than 2 hours to ensure that they didn’t lose their precious fireworks spot!
You’re in Disney World to have fun. Trying to get the “best” seat, or wait forever for the show is not fun. It’s crazy. It’s a waste of time.
Try This Instead…
Parades: People tend to think of a spot on Main Street USA for the parades, but we’re to tell you to saddle up and hang out in Frontierland instead. The parade enters the Magic Kingdom through the gate in Frontierland, next to the former Splash Mountain.
It is significantly less crowded and you won’t have to wait to grab a good spot.
Fireworks: If the location is really important to you, consider purchasing a ticket to a Fireworks Dessert Party. This ticket grants you access to unlimited desserts and beverages, but it also grants access to an exclusive viewing area that is mostly unobstructed.
5. Table Service Restaurants
When you have limited time in Disney you want to spend as much time in the parks as you can! If that’s what you’re looking for, then Table Service restaurants are a huge waste of time!
Disney Table Service restaurants are not just like when you take your family out to the local Applebees where from the time you arrive to the time you leave is around 45 minutes.
First of all, most restaurants in Disney it is crucial to have a dining reservation in order to have a table, and even then, it is not guaranteed to sit as soon as your reservation starts.
Then, every Disney dining restaurant has some sort of experience or backstory that takes time. Whether it’s meeting characters, or watching the show, or even taking in all of the details of the place, the immersion can be a huge time suck.
You can expect that a Table Service meal will take up about 2 hours of your time.
DID YOU KNOW that there are special signature meals that can take 3 or more hours?!
Try This Instead…
Disney has a wide range of Quick Service restaurants all over all of the parks and resorts. While there are a lot of basic theme park options in them like cheeseburgers, pizza, or hot dogs, there are also a lot of adventurous and unique cuisine at some Quick Service!
Our favorites are Pecos Bill’s for tacos in the Magic Kingdom, Satu’li Canteen for the beef and noodle bowl in Animal Kingdom, and festival booths for small plates in EPCOT. Hollywood Studios is really our place to snack on sweets everywhere, including alcoholic milkshakes!
See some of the best snacks in Animal Kingdom, which is the park we think has the BEST Quick Service restaurants!
6. Spending a Holiday at Disney
We understand why people book their vacations to Disney over Christmas break. The decorations, the magic, the shows, the snow… Yes, snow. Only Disney can make it snow in Florida.
But we’re here to tell you… Don’t do it. Spending your holiday at Disney is a huge waste of time!
The biggest crowds of the year happen on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. The parks get so full that some years they close the gates to new entries because of capacity… These parks have a capacity near 100,000 people.
That means every ride will be a wait, every show will be crowded, every meal will be a wait for a table. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Try This Instead…
If you want to enjoy the holiday magic at Disney you still can without sacrificing your actual holiday. Disney starts decorating for Christmas shortly after Halloween. Like the day after…
Visit in early November or early December to still get the warm and fuzzies of Christmas without the hassle of the massive crowds! We have visited Magic Kingdom the first two Saturdays of December to test this and we were able to do everything and see everything without the use of Genie+, that’s how much better the crowds were!
7. Going to the Parks at Noon
You’re on vacation, time to throw away that alarm clock, right?
WRONG!
We’re not saying you have to wake up army style at 5:00AM or anything, but sleeping in on a park day is a huge waste of time!
We have noticed that around 11:30 is when the crowds really come into the parks. We always rope drop, and when the crowds come in, that’s when we get a bite to eat or go shopping for a bit.
The worst waste of time - Showing up at noon to Magic Kingdom and walking right into Fantasyland. Welcome to stroller hell, my friend.
Try This Instead…
Rope Drop is a magical time of day where the crowds are low and the temperature is as mild as it’s going to get. Rope Drop is a Disney term used for when people enter the park before the park is technically open.
Let’s explain: You can enter the turnstiles to enter the park itself about 30 minutes before the park actually opens. (Which is the perfect time for those castle pics!) Cast Members rope off the different lands, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland until the official park announcement where they drop the rope so crowds can enter, hence, “Rope Drop”.