Trip Planning 101: 10 Tips for Planning Your Daily Schedule for Your Disney World Vacation

Whether you like to plan ahead or play it by ear, it’s a good idea to know a few things ahead of time as you plan your days at Walt Disney World. With so much to see, do, and explore, knowing your preferences ahead of time can help you make the most of your time in the park and experience all the magic. When it comes to planning your daily schedule, here are ten things to consider.

1 – Plan Ahead with Disney Genie

Disney Genie is a digital planning service that is available to guests at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort within the My Disney Experience and Disneyland apps. Disney Genie is complimentary (not to be confused with Lightning Lane, which is a paid service) and is designed to give guests more “flexibility” and give guests tools to “help you make the most of your visit.” Tools include giving guests customized itineraries and suggestions based on interests and top picks. Other features include forecasted wait times, an experience tip board, a dining tip board, and guests can ask the app questions to get information.

You can go ahead and somewhat plan ahead with Disney Genie before your trip. It will ask you for your interests and top picks and will give you a tentative itinerary for each day. Once at Disney World, this can easily be changed and updated as your day goes on. You won’t be able to do some things until the day of (see #2), but you can get an idea of what your day may look like ahead of time.

2 – Plan Ahead and Purchase Your Lightning Lane Selections Before You Arrive

Recently, the pay-to-skip-the-line service at Walt Disney World was overhauled to make using the service easier. There are two ways to skip the line: the first is Lightning Lane Multi Pass and the second is Lightning Lane Single Pass. The first option is to purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass for a day or each day of your visit. It costs each person anywhere from $15-$39 per day. With Multi Pass, you can access the Lightning Lane at select attractions at each park (after making three initial bookings). The second option is to purchase Lightning Lane Single Pass for individual attractions. These are a select group of top attractions at each park that are NOT included with your Multi Pass purchase. They must be purchased separately, and pricing ranges from $7-$25 per attraction, per person. The updated service allows you to book these selections seven days ahead of time (plus the length of stay) for Disney Resort guests or three days ahead for date-based tickets or annual passholders. You can now see what’s available, see exact pricing, and make selections before you make your purchase. This allows you to see if booking Lightning Lanes will be worth it for your trip. Click here to learn more. 

3 – Set an Alarm and Be Ready at 7:00 am to join Virtual Queues

If you plan to try to join a virtual queue, you’ll need to be up and ready to go at 7:00 am on the My Disney Experience app. Actually, you’ll probably want to be ready to go by 6:55 am and have a plan for making your selection. The virtual queue is available for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. These attractions do not have a standby queue, and guests who do not want to purchase access to the Lightning Lanes need to join the virtual queue to ride.

4 – Morning

You can start with a quick breakfast at the resort or book a reservation at a restaurant in the park to get an early start to your day. If you are heading to the Magic Kingdom, you might want to consider getting to the park before the opening to catch the opening ceremony, “Let the Magic Begin.” For all of the parks, the first hour or two after park opening is a great time to get on your favorite attractions.

5 – Lunch

Whether you choose to dine at a table service restaurant or are just looking to grab a quick bite to eat, you can expect that the restaurants will be busy during the traditional lunch hour of 12-1 pm. To avoid the rush, consider an early or late lunch and look for shorter wait times at some attractions. Also, be sure to take advantage of Mobile Order to save time dining.

6 – Breaks

If you plan to spend a full day at the park, you may feel sluggish during the afternoon. It’s important that even though you want to pack as much as you can into a single day, you plan on resting every so often to maybe refuel with a snack and rehydrate since you will sweat a lot in the Florida heat with all of the walking you will do. Breaks are also a good opportunity to reapply sunscreen and plan your future activities.

7 – Wait Times on the My Disney Experience App

One of the best tools you can use while in the parks is a smartphone with the My Disney Experience App loaded onto it. Connecting to the free Wi-Fi provided in the parks, you can check on the wait times for all of the attractions. This is where building some flexibility in your plans can come in handy. If you notice that the wait time is short for an attraction you’d like to ride, heading over, it makes perfect sense to make the most efficient use of your time.

8 – Shows

In the parks, there are several shows you can choose to see throughout the day, from parades to musical performances and lots of other entertainment experiences. While a few happen randomly during the day, the major shows and performances have scheduled times that can be found in the My Disney Experience app. If there’s a show you’d like to see, make sure you find a time that works into your plans.

9 – Dinner

The same experience at lunch applies to dinner – the busy hours are 5-7 pm, when lines for rides may be shorter. Presumably, if you’re looking to dine at a table service restaurant, you should have booked reservations in advance. If it has slipped your mind, you can check the My Disney Experience App to see if any reservations are available or if walk-ups are accepted. You can also ask guest relations or the host/hostess at your preferred restaurant, as some reservations may have become available.

10 – Evening

There are so many ways you can spend an evening on Disney property, including staying in the parks, heading for an evening swim at the resort, or checking out the shopping and nightlife of Disney Springs. Suppose you choose to stay in the parks. In that case, you might want to check out the nighttime shows available at the parks, like Happily Ever After at the Magic Kingdom, “Luminous the Symphony of Us” at Epcot, and Fantasmic! at Hollywood Studios. If you plan on staying to watch, it’s a good idea to stake out a spot early, as the prime viewing areas will get crowded 30-60 minutes before the show.

Disney Springs is also an excellent place to spend your evening, with a huge array of shopping options and incredible restaurants and pubs to experience. It is open late every night, so you can take your time as you explore all it has to offer.

With so many different things to experience in Walt Disney World, the possibilities for filling each day are endless. Ultimately, it comes down to your group’s preferences, the things you enjoy, and what’s on your must-do list. The best advice we can give you is to read about the parks so that you have an idea of what they have to offer, pick your priorities, and then build some flexibility into your time in the event you change your mind on a whim.