How to Skip the line and beat the queue at Disneyland, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida
This week I have a special guest interview with my Uncle Rob, I’m sure you can all remember him from his useful advice post about how to pick up free Fast Track express tickets for Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida. Well, now he has another secret hidden gem he wishes to share with you all. Lucky readers!
(The Disney parks in Florida are a lot of fun for all the family)
Together as a family, we all went to Orlando Florida a few years ago, I was a broke student at the time and shared my tips on how to visit Orlando Florida on a backpackers budget.
What really stood out for me on this trip was how some travellers were in the know and had spent some time doing some advance planning before arriving in Orlando, Florida, whilst others simply left this up to the holiday reps to arrange for them.
(Enjoying A Hearty American Dennys Breakfast, perfect way to start your day of Disney park hopping)
My auntie Kate had put together an impressive schedule of what we would be getting up to, each day. I was amazed! It worked like clockwork, we had a plan, we were on a mission and I was blown away by how well it all worked. As I don’t even bother to travel with Guidebooks any more, planning was something I had to rediscover, but it did work wonders for this trip and this was all advice taken from a book which will be revealed later on in this post.
I was blown out of the water by how well this trip was organized, it was great to spend some top quality time with the family, which is difficult when you travel solo full time, and the trip went without any hick ups (of course the guys had some slight Satnav navigation problems from the start, but its ok! It wouldn’t be a family holiday without them!).
(And that’s what these trips should be all about, planned and stress free)
Large family holidays can be stressful, but with a bit of forward planning they can go a lot smoother. That’s why it’s important to read blog posts like this to learn about all the great tips out there.
One area which we will be focusing on in this post, was how we never had to wait any longer than 10 minutes at any given time throughout the whole trip to go on a ride. We already explained how this was made possible by the fast track pass post for universal, so I thought it would be nice to share through an interview style post how this was possible.
Here is an interview with Uncle Rob, about how we skipped all the lines and beat the queue’s at Disneyland, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
(Disney World Florida, A magical once in a lifetime trip for all the family, the last thing you want to be doing is spending hours in line)
DB: Hello Rob, thank you for doing this Interview, As a backpacker I’m always looking for tips and tricks that can help people to travel better. Hidden secrets are always best shared and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing this hidden Gem of a tip with readers here at Travel Dave. When we recently went on a family holiday to Disney World Florida, even though we visited during peak holiday time, we never waited for more than 10 minutes for any given ride, would you please reveal this secret of yours?
RR: Hi Dave. It’s my pleasure, I can talk about that holiday in Florida for hours. Such a fantastic place, and great memories. And with the help of the IOS app “Disney World Lines by Touring Plans” it made things even more enjoyable, it was like having our own personal expert guide to plan our days.
DB: Fantastic, how did you hear about this, was it through a friend?
RR:My wife Kate has a friend who recommended a book called ‘The unofficial guide to Walt Disney‘. It’s a huge book, which Kate couldn’t stop reading. When I eventually tore it away from her I found it literally covers everything! Not only do you learn all the secrets and amazing tips, it really does help build up the excitement for the holiday. It’s in this book that we discovered the App.
DB: I was most amazed by how easily it worked, I couldn’t quite grasp the fact that it kept on working ride after ride, did you also think that it was too good to be true when you first heard about it?
RR:We had a few concerns prior to the holiday with the thought of having to endure long queues as we had no alternative but visit Florida during the Easter holidays. It’s crazy to think but yes, but it’s true there, are days when some parks are more busier than the others. The app will reveal to you what days are best to go on given days. However Easter Sunday is one of the busiest days of the year so even though Magic Kingdom was the preferred option, it was marginal as everywhere was busy. We decided to put all our trust in the app, this included arriving at the park an hour prior to the opening time, this allowed us to be the first visitors in the park. Then we would follow the order the app suggested to take the rides. It even builds in breaks and lunch. The app provides different plan options, 1 day or 2 day plans, plans with young children, express plans etc. We chose the plan most suitable for us, basically a full day of fun with all the major rides. As we entered the park and took in all the magic we made our way directly to Space Mountain. No queue obviously, we were first there. But what followed was actually quite freaky to be honest. We left that ride and made a short trip to ‘It’s a Small World’ past a queue that had now appeared outside space mountain. We walked into the ride unobstructed, smiling like naughty school children at the fact we hadn’t faced a minute of queuing yet. But we must have all been sharing the niggling feeling that this too good to be true scenario would soon come to an end, especially as the next ride on the list was the haunting mansion. The park was now filling up and there would surely be a queue. We found a huge queue for ‘it’s a small world ‘ as we walked out of the ride, and a quick glance at the app we discovered to our amazement that ‘Space Mountain’ now had a 2 hour waiting time. Things didn’t look good for ‘Haunted Mansion’. Our luck had run out? Not so, to our amazement we just yet again walked onto the ride. We were now laughing, it was just unbelievable! This just continued throughout the day as we made our way around the park in what appeared to be the opposite direction to the crowds.
DB: Could you describe the impact this trick had on your overall trip
RR: It made an incredible impact. Basically on one of the busiest days of the year we managed to visit so many rides and not have our memories blighted by having to wait around for hours in queues. We didn’t have to worry about building an itinerary for the holiday as the book and app did that job for us so well. It was incredible how some parks are so much quieter than others on given days. It makes such a difference.
DB: Yes, have to agree, you would never think in a million years that there was some sort of sicence behind visiting Disney parks, but people really do visit parks in some sort of order and also walk around the park in some sort of natural progressive way, amazing someone was able to spend time monitoring these such patters and publish a book and App about it, but I’m sure the background of this idea must have emerged from an X staff member who noticed such patterns, fantastic that there is such a system and you can learn about it and gain this information for yourself, brilliant, a real hidden secret!
DB: Can you share an entertaining story that occurred whilst using this app
RR:As the app did recommend such an early start, I do know of someone who somehow managed to get through the high security entry gate at the Magic Kingdom before it had actually opened so they could buy an early morning coffee. But your secret is safe with me Travel Dave!
DB: What can I say, I do need my caffeine fix in the morning, Luckily Micky Mouse wasn’t awake yet to catch me.
DB: Did the app make you feel like you were a frequent visitor or even a staff member, was it that useful?
RR:It really is a magical place with the atmosphere and stunning weather. But it certainly took away any insecurities and provided real confidence that you were going to get the most out of the day.
DB: Would you go as far as saying it’s a must buy and you would be silly not to get it
RR:I couldn’t imagine going through the holiday without it. Yes holiday reps are available and have a wealth of knowledge. But this was available 24 hours a day, and would give up to date information. It really has to be seen to be believed.
DB: Any Negatives about using this app that you could share?
RR:It did feel at times like we were ‘ticking’ a ride on the app’s built in checklist for the sack of ticking it off. It was as if we were on some kind of mission. But that’s how it felt in a funny kind of way, not a robotic way as it kept on working, we just followed the app and followed its judgement. It was like we had found a secret system, and we would be caught out at any time, but it just kept working! So I would just say relax and enjoy the day and let the app do all the work, oh and trust it! It’s free to download on IOS and you can try it out by looking at all the information and tips it provides. To have full access to things like 10 day crowd forecasts, it only costs an additional $12.99 and we for sure got full value out of it at that price, one very happy customer.
DB: It was a pleasure to interview you and thank you for sharing this gem of advice with others, here at Travel Dave, I’m sure it will be a game changer for some reading.
RR:It’s my pleasure! I Hope it helps readers of Travel Dave to enhance their own trip to Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida.
Big Thank you to my Uncle Rob for helping me out with this post and sharing this awesome hidden secret with you all. If you would like to check out his blog all about his mission to attempt as many Sporting events throughout the year, be sure to check it out and follow him along on his blogging journey, all for a good cause!
If you happen to have used this book too as well as the app, feel free to share your experience bellow, If you also have any additional tips you would like to share or ask any questions at all, simply post below in the comment section, happy to help, thank you for reading!
Travelling the world, one adventure at a time. Follow Dave Brett, a solo adventure travel blogger on his travels around the world. A globe-trotting adventure travel blog featuring travel tips and advice, travel stories, travel videos and travel photography that will inspire your next trip abroad, and help you plan it too. To read more, please visit: