How to Do EVERYTHING in Disney World in One Week

are you ready this is an ultra super jam-packed video where we set out to do everything in disney world in only one week [Music] hey everybody it's aj for disney food vlog we are on a mission to make sure you do everything you want to do at disney world even when your vacation time feels like it's ticking away so buckle in for some high speed high energy planning right here right now hope you brought your water bottle because you'll be breaking a sweat after it's all said and done now we are packing a lot into this video but of course when i mean everything i mean everything you want to do don't just do stuff because it's there i know the point of this video is to accomplish everything but doing everything you want to do is gonna look different depending on who you talk to don't wanna watch country bears okay don't do it you think living with the land is gonna bore your kids that hurts my feelings but okay skip it dreading it's a small world and it's also repetitive refrain no one is forcing you to do anything just make sure you know what doing everything really means for you then use today's tips to make sure you fit them all in now if you want a more specific game plan which features a fully fleshed out day by day itinerary you can drop us your email at disneyfoodblog.com everything in wdw you can use it as your handy dandy planning companion but for now let's hit the ground running and start with what you've got to do before your trip to make sure you can do everything in disney world which days are going to give you the most park hours with the lowest crowds okay choose to visit during disney world's sweet spots disney world has these rare times when crowds aren't awful and park hours are longer than usual they're kind of like the cusp times around those busy times because the park hours are extended but nobody's quite gotten there yet or they've all left already for example let's take a look at the august disney world calendar since august is when we start seeing a dip in crowd levels while kids are starting to head back to school depending on which days you plan to go to magic kingdom you could wind up getting extra time in the park without having to stay in a deluxe disney world hotel to get that extended evening hours benefit most evenings magic kingdom closes around 9 00 p.m or 10 p.m but on some evenings the park is actually open till 11 pm so it's especially important to keep track of magic kingdom hours when those holiday parties like mickey's not so scary halloween party are taking place because if you don't plan on hitting up that party your magic kingdom day is going to slam on the brakes at 6 00 p.m so to clarify all this well we're usually recommending you hit up the disney parks in those non-peak season times since crowds are going to be lower in price points for tickets and hotels will be cheaper if you want to do everything in disney world then you want to go to the parks during busier times of year sometimes disney parks will naturally stay open later for the busier days like till even midnight or later so if you're planning on using your disney resort early theme park entry benefit to get into any of the parks 30 minutes before they open or if you're a deluxe disney world resort guest and you want to tack on an extra two hours of park time with your extended evening hours benefit then you could potentially be in the parks from like 7 30 a.m until 2 or 3 a.m the next day which means you got lots of time to pack in as many experiences as you can this is what we mean by hustling and doing everything in disney world so watch those park hours like a hawk make sure you're going to the parks with the longest hours each day and if you're using a park hopper start your day at the park that opens first and end your day at the one that closes last hope you're caffeinated because you're gonna need it now on top of your caffeine fix you're gonna need a good night's sleep and that's where your disney resort comes into play but disney world resorts are more than just a place to rest your head turns out they make or break you're doing everything in disney world vacation so you gotta book a hotel that's gonna work with you where you stay in disney world does matter and when your number one priority for the trip is to pack everything into one go the big question you need to ask yourself is which park is my group gonna spend the most time in but you're also gonna need to agree on some major budgeting decisions within your group if super close proximity is what you're after then you may be investing a little more money for that convenience especially if you want to be close to magic kingdom because those monorail resorts are great but they're not cheap if you're planning on spending lots of days at hollywood studios or ebcot the price ranges for the resorts are a little wider covering value moderate and deluxe options thanks to the skyliner but if your main priority is accomplishing everything in the parks including some fun add-on experiences like behind the scenes tours magic band plus fancy dining the list goes on then staying in the most affordable resorts can also help you do everything from a different perspective so figuring out your hotel means figuring out if you want to save time on transportation so you can get into the parks faster and do more stuff in the parks or if you want to save money so that you can do more things that cost more money now ready for a game changer that's going to save you so much time in the parks then you're going to love this next point make extra reservations that don't clash with your park day so let's say you're caught between wanting to do disney with lots of dining and extra experiences but you also don't want to take a whole lot of time out of your park day to make it happen you can make reservations for experiences before the parks open and after they close this means you're going to make the most of your early morning hours and your late night hours so many of our favorite disney springs restaurants and lounges like art smith's homecoming maury meadow asia the boathouse jacques lindsay's hanger bar they offer late night dining that's even later on the weekend so after you're all finished up in the parks you can swing by the shopping district to make your after-hours dinner reservations it's also important to note that lots of the disney springs shops stay open later too the world of disney store for instance stays open until around 11 to 11 30 pm so if you want to wait to do your souvenir shopping until after you're done with your park day that's possible and plausible even select disney hotel restaurants tend to stay open later like beaches and cream at disney's beach club resort which is important to shout out because obviously getting a kitchen sink sunday to share with the family should be on your do everything in one week list beaches and cream is closest to ebcott and its international gateway entrance so once epcot closes you can scoot on over to your late night beaches and cream reservation to scarf down a sunday bigger than the size of your head and then there are the early morning specialty breakfasts you can check out this is a great option to get breakfast all squared away everybody's full everybody's ready for a full park day and you can do that before the parks even open consider chef mickey's at disney's contemporary resort or ohana at disney's polynesian village resort even toppolino's terrace at riviera resort they all open at 7 30 a.m and offer character dining so not only can you dine at a popular disney restaurant before the parks open for the day you can also see a lot of characters at once without having to worry about standing in line after line for meet and greet sessions in the middle of your day look at how much time we are saving you okay we can really do everything in disney world now it's important to note that disney's animal kingdom has the shortest park hours of them all meaning less time with the animals so if you want to expand your time with disney's wildlife you'll need to make reservations over at disney's animal kingdom lodge for a starlight safari this thing is so cool both will allow you to take a trip around the resort's african savannas after the sun goes down meaning once animal kingdom closes you can just hit up animal kingdom lodge immediately to keep the wildlife party going now this tour is available for all guests even if you're not staying at animal kingdom lodge just make sure you have those reservations figured out ahead of time and speaking of extra cha-ching for more park time i know i briefly mentioned the after hours parties earlier but if you're visiting around the halloween and christmas season those magic kingdom after hours parties are a great way to get even more time in the parks after they close as well as hit up any of those magic kingdom rides that had too long of lines during the day since park capacity is much smaller during those holiday parties just remember the holiday parties are a completely separate price from your regular theme park ticket so if you're interested in a regular magic kingdom single day ticket and an after hours party ticket prepare to pay double what you'd normally pay if you just stuck with one or the other but nobody ever said doing everything in disney world would be cheap right so we're making sure that you have all the information you need to make the decisions you want to make when it comes to prioritizing money and doing everything in disney world now there are so many different reservations to choose from and each is going to add a little more spice to your overall time in disney world along with specialty after hours events and vip tours which i'll talk about later on you've got dessert parties fireworks cruises haircuts and the newly reopened harmony barbershops spa sessions the possibilities go on and on and on and don't worry i've worked all of that stuff into the itinerary that you can get over at disney foodblog.com wdw so if you're interested in tacking on even more specialty add-ons to your disney vacay secure those advanced reservations early early early on that way you'll have a larger scope of time slots to choose from that'll make your extra experiences easier to squeeze in alongside your other scheduled plans now hold on i am not done talking about the food just yet there are still more ways to stay on top of this do everything marathon when it comes to where you eat and how you order two this is a very very important point i want you to pay attention please because this is something that only disney experts truly understand and that is planning your meal schedules ahead of time to fit in perfectly with your park schedules i'm not just talking about advanced dining reservations for table and signature restaurants because of course you're gonna have to plan ahead for those especially since adrs become available 60 days before the start of your disney vacation nope i'm talking about planning ahead for your quick service meals too this is the problem with being caught in a virgo's brain which is where i live all the time although quick service meals are designed for those right here right now decisions a lot of time can be wasted just trying to decide which quick service you're gonna settle on and when to go there for example if you were looking for places to eat at disney's animal kingdom and you learned that nomad lounge is one of our absolute favorites that doesn't need an advanced dining reservation you might be really bummed to also find out the day of that this popular lounge has a walk-up wait list with the potential of booking up early on the day so getting in line for 30 minutes before it opens like around 10 30 a.m can help you guarantee a table here that's why we've got an entire dfb guidebook dedicated to all the restaurants are on disney world property which you can find on the dfb store website with our guides you can get an overview of all these different restaurants whether it be quick service table service character or fancy dining that you're wanting to learn about and we will tell you when to go to which ones so that you don't waste the time and this type of pre-planning doesn't have to feel like homework you can make an evening of it beforehand with your disney travel group researching the different places and menus while writing down stuff that your family agrees on just like restaurants with advanced dining reservations it's good to look up quick services and lounge info well before your trip so you know what you're getting yourself into and since we're on the quick service subject here's another efficiency tip you need to make mobile ordering your bff we've got a fun anecdote on our team once upon a time she was going to abc commissary and disney's hollywood studios for a late-ish lunch but this is hollywood studios we're talking about here and the lines are always pretty impressive for pretty much everything so the cast member at the front of the restaurant was like if you hop in the physical line it's going to be a 35 minute wait but if you mobile order it'll be like 10 or 15. so that's a no-brainer if you attach your card information to your my disney experience account you're going to save so much time mobile ordering instead of waiting around in a physical line in fact you'll save even more time mobile ordering if you're doing so while you're waiting in line for one of your rides it'll give you something to do while you're spending time in the queue just try to stagger out your mobile ordering pickup times to avoid those peak lunch and dinner crowds otherwise you're going to find yourself returning to said quick service location to pick up your food at the same time as everybody else and that kind of defeats the purpose of mobile ordering to save time now when we say do everything in disney world we're talking to every single one of you which is why this next point is so important a great way to do everything is to separate grown-up time and kiddo time if needed it's easy to get caught up in doing everything the kids in your group want to do but what about the grown-ups after all there are a ton of top-tier restaurants shopping opportunities and romantic evening strolls that you may want to experience but your kids are not enthused about that's where camp dolphin comes into play camp dolphin is like the only child care service left on property right now it's over at the disney world dolphin hotel which is a stone's throw away from epcot and it's a reliable child care service that watches your kiddos while you're out doing your fine dining and shopping sprees but also provides a fun kind of crafting and game activity situation for them through the evening so you don't have to worry about dropping your kids off somewhere to be bored out of their skulls in disney for a few hours drop-off times for kids range from four to five pm and pick up times range from nine to 11 p.m reservations are required for this one which you can find on the swan and dolphin website also there is an age range here so only kids between the ages of 5 and 12 can party it up at camp dolphin if you're looking for other child care services that don't involve you having to travel over to the dolphin resort there are a few in orlando that do provide in-room child care at your disney hotel but these are not directly associated with the disney company so just a heads up on that you got to vet these guys all right we are in the parks we've done our pre-planning now it's time to put it into practice let the vacation commence once you arrive in disney world this is when all that pre-planning is going to start paying off but even after you arrive you're going to have to stay alert and be ready to accomplish everything you want to do which means keeping track of the following things use lightning lanes in the parks the right way so buying disney genie plus or individual lightning lane entrances in order to gain access to the park's lightning lane services where you can bypass the main queue lines is one of the best ways to save time around the parks as long as you know how to get the most out of these purchases again we never said doing everything would be cheap so here are four quick and easy steps to maximize your lightning lanes step one book your next lightning lane asap you can only book one lightning lane at a time on disney genie plus but that doesn't mean you're only gonna be able to make two to three reservations a day just remember to book your next lightning lane immediately after you scanned your last one and if you grabbed a lightning lane for a time slot that's still lots later in the day don't sweat it you can book a new lightning lane after your 120 minute cooldown time passes whether you've used your last lightning lane reservation yet or not so if you book a lightning lane at noon and it's for 4 pm then at 2 o'clock you can book another lightning lane reservation get it just make sure to keep track of how much time has passed so you know when 120 minutes is up and yes this strategy means you might be holding more than one lightning lane pass at once which feels like a super cheat but is totally okay in disney's books step 2 search for earlier time slots let's say you want to avoid waiting 2 hours before booking your next lightning lane but the earliest ride reservation for like space mountain or big thunder mountain isn't until way later in the day well before you send up your little white flag refresh the tip board page guests tend to cancel lightning lane reservations so you might find a ride reservation for even earlier than you were finding before just because someone else had to cancel theirs or give them up this isn't a surefire way to secure an earlier time slot but it has helped us do so many times in the past now step three grab those individual lightning lane entrances not every ride is going to be listed on the regular disney genie plus lineup the more popular rides will be featured in their own section for an extra cost per person per ride the rides featured for individual lightning lane entrances flight of passage and animal kingdom rise of the resistance in hollywood studios seven dwarfs mine train in magic kingdom and the new guardians of the galaxy cosmic rewind over in epcot usually rack up very lengthy wait times or in the case of cosmic rewind those boarding passes tend to book up within seconds of their release so if you want to make sure you see these experiences without having to wait forever and a day for each of them it may be worth it for you to grab those a la carte lightning lanes you can hold up to two individual lightning lane entrances per day in case you want to park hop from one premium ride to the other but the individual lightning lanes i recommend most would have to be for rise the resistance the line for ryze can be brutal especially since it's a ride that's very prone to breaking down which may lead to even longer wait times than you may have originally seen listed on the my disney experience app now the best thing about buying individual lightning lanes is that you can also choose the time you're going to ride that's not something you can do with genie plus and getting the option to actually book a specific time means that you have a lot more leeway with the rest of your day so that's another big perk even though it can be big dollars all right step four here know which rides to prioritize on busier days lightning lanes have the potential of booking up solid so you'll want to make sure you get the hot ticket items on genie plus first jungle cruise and peter pan's flight tend to go quickly at magic kingdom same with millennium falcon smugglers run and slinky dog dash in hollywood studios and for epcot you want to prioritize test tracks since those passes often get snatched up asap and you don't want to leave test track for the afternoon because we all know what happens in the afternoon in orlando right rain and that will shut down test track not interested in paying for genie plus that's okay i've still got ride hacks for you that you can use for free okay despite using those lightning lanes there are gonna be some rides that you can't use lightning lanes for so this next section is all about those tips you're gonna need for those rides now i could talk endlessly about how much time you can save using early theme park entry and extended evening hours to get in line for rides but there are two other important ride hacks i want to remind you about as well the first is rider swap so if you're traveling with a group that's got some tiny tikes in the party who won't be able to ride those big kid rides ride or swap allows one or two adults to stay behind with the kids while the rest of the group waits in line for the big kid ride by the way this doesn't just have to be kids this can also be people who don't want to ride or people who can't ride so let's say this big kid ride is rockin roller coaster over at hollywood studios the first part of your group will wait the full amount of time in line for the high speed coaster and once they finish their ride through it's time to play tag team now the other two adults who hung back with the kids can experience rock and roller coaster without having to wait in a rather thick line all over again just let a cast member at the front of the ride know that you're interested in using rider swap before the first part of your group jumps in line that way the cast member can get you all set up and ready to go now a second ride hack is the single rider line single rider is only available for a limited amount of ride including millennium falcon smugglers run and rock and roller coaster in hollywood studios expedition everest legend of the forbidden mountain in animal kingdom and test track in epcot though single rider doesn't necessarily guarantee that you'll have a shorter weight it definitely can cut your wait time down on occasion the only downside is that your group will be split up among different ride vehicles if you choose to try this method out however if you're okay with riding solo on a few attractions then you've got the possibility of shaving that extra time and saving it for an attraction that your whole group can experience together all right next in our list of how to do everything in one week at disney world is to start to understand the rides that have the shortest wait times so not every disney ride has an ultra intimidating cue that you've got to mentally prepare yourself for some rides average a 30 minute wait or less and if the really popular disney world rides are starting to see those peak wait times for the day consider jumping in line for one of these shorter line rides so these experiences range from dark rides to junior coasters to spinny cup rides to even a few surprises like expedition everest which is actually often regarded as one of the best roller coasters on disney world property but the big thing to take away here if you're seeing any of the following rides start pushing a 35 plus minute wait keep moving right along and try hitting it up again later because you're definitely seeing that ride at its busiest for the day another great way to spend your day in the parks when ride lines are starting to look a little too intense is to slip into one of the many many many disney shows around property disney shows aren't just a good way to pass the time while you're waiting for ride lines to go down they're a good way to experience disney and air conditioning now want us to help you keep track of wait times before your disney world vacation our dfb reporters are out in the parks every day keeping track of wait time trends that way we can keep putting up weekly posts on the dfb website about what we're seeing first hand when it comes to wait times which will help keep you up to date on what you should expect those average wait times to look like during your visit so if you want to keep an eye on the latest news leading up to your big trip sign up for our weekly dfb newsletter the link to sign up is right in the description it's totally free and we have a weekly post on what's going on with wait times in disney world and now for the single most important piece of ride advice i can give you so that you can do everything in disney world in one week don't waste your time with ride lines now i know i've just hit you with a bunch of ride tips but i want to summarize one of the most important takeaways real quick do not waste your day on a single ride am i saying skip over any rides that are pushing 60 plus minute wait times no lengthy wait times are inevitable especially for the more popular rides but if you see a wait time pushing past that two to three hour mark go do something else you have spent good money on a full park day so you shouldn't squander that money on just being able to ride two or three rides and call it good now those two to three hour weights should be taken care of by getting the individual lightning lanes at the beginning of the day because those are usually some of the only rides that push those kinds of weights but if you see peter pan at two to three hours walk away come back to that ride later i'd also recommend keeping tabs on the forecasted wait times that you can find listed on the free version of the disney genie planning tool so you can get a better idea as to when those peak wait times are going to start simmering down just don't spend your entire day waiting for hours on a one to two minute long experience please now you say but aj what if my group is preventing me from doing everything in disney world well let's talk about that because there's one easy method you can use and that's splitting up you know how i'm starting to sound like a broken record by telling you over and over again that everybody's disney world priorities are different well let me change that tune for a second every single person's disney world priorities are gonna be different little scenario for you let's say you've got a day off from the parks but your group is split on how to spend it if part of your group wants to check out the disney world golf courses but the other half would rather take on the water slides and wave pool at typhoon lagoon don't be afraid to split up during the afternoon and reconvene later you don't have to do every single thing with your travel group especially if your group is bigger and has a wide variety of preferences all you have to do to do everything in disney world is do everything you want to do in disney world so splitting up from your group also comes in handy when you're trying to attack multiple experiences at once like epcot's festival food booths for instance let's say you're at the food and wine festival and if one person gets in lines for the alps booth and another person gets in line for the brewing then you can cover more ground and more food in less time everyone can just come together and share now you're still going to want to do everything in disney world once the sun starts to set right great then let's talk about the disney night shift it is now time to talk about fireworks this is a very controversial topic do you scout out your fireworks spot early or don't you well if one of your big disney world priorities is watching the nighttime spectaculars over at epcot and magic kingdom then you need to stake out a good viewing spot maybe 20 minutes before either show starts maybe a teensy bit earlier if you want to be on the safe side but don't spend hours saving your spot for these shows when you could be spending that time knocking out multiple park experiences i know i've talked in the past about being able to watch the fireworks with less of a crowd from behind cinderella castle or on the beach of a nearby deluxe resort or even from the skyliner but if this is your one and only disney trip for a while ignore all that because you'll probably want to see the whole shebang projections and all meaning you need to stake out your fireworks viewing spot a little bit early however if fireworks aren't a big deal for you and you know you still haven't been able to get through all the rides you wanted to experience then don't be a sheep and blindly follow the crowds over to main street usa spend this time getting in shorter lines for the ride since a good chunk of the crowds will be watching the show meaning lower wait times for you now deciding where to eat and if you want to watch the nighttime spectaculars is totally in your control but not everything will be in your control so how do you maneuver around the unexpected well let's talk about rain because you know what rain happens all the time in disney world as you know so your tip if you want to do everything in one week at disney world do not leave when it storms do not leave when it storms do not leave when it storms orlando rainstorms usually don't last too long on average disney world tends to have little black rain clouds that linger for maybe half an hour then tend to go away shortly after i know i know it doesn't always work out that way so even if the storms don't let up don't allow them to derail your do everything in disney world mindset there are still plenty of indoor attractions and experiences you can check out while you're waiting for that rain to pass many guests do tend to flee the parks when storms are brewing so as soon as the rain and lightning starts to let up and things start to open again you'll experience much shorter wait times for a while just be sure to bring your ponchos and umbrellas to stay on track to do everything all right it is time for the silver bullet in our do everything in one week at disney world and that is vip tours that's right you say you want to do everything in disney world you mean business okay i got you let's look at those specialty disney world experiences that take you behind the scenes vip tours are the best way to make sure you ride nearly everything you want to do in one day and by this vip tour we mean the mega vip tour the one that's like many many many hours long it's just you and a plaid and all the rides so how does this happen well when you make a vip tour reservation you and up to 10 of your best friends will get a personal vip tour guide your own private ride vehicle to take you to and from different parks and you actually park backstage so you don't have to worry about going in through the turnstiles you get a customized itinerary created by your group that includes all your must-do rides and attractions and although you do have to pay for park tickets on top of that vip tour price you don't have to worry about paying for disney genie plus your tour guide will help you bypass the long lines and make your way up front and center on every single ride on your must-do list depending on the season vip tours are going to cost you between 425 to 850 dollars per hour with a seven hour tour minimum so doing everything in disney world using this method doesn't come cheap but if you really do find 10 people to join you on this vip adventure you can potentially split that 7 hour bill 10 ways which can definitely help prevent you from having to pay everything yourself but it's also not a bad idea to check in on those less expensive vip tours too if seeing the utilidor's lurking under magic kingdom is on your do everything list then you can always book the keys to the kingdom tour which will literally take you on an in-depth behind-the-scenes tour of the magic kingdom including the utilidors or if you desperately want to pet a disney rhino if that's on your do everything list book the up close with rhinos tour at disney's animal kingdom there are lots of different tours available on the disney world website that can check off those very specific boxes for you and give you the chance to not only do everything in disney world on the surface level but to dive into those behind the scenes exclusive offerings that not a lot of guests get to experience now last big note there's a lot to unpack here lots of pre-planning lots of scenarios that'll force you to improvise lots of extremely long park days but here's the thing don't set yourself up for failure doing everything is a heavy task to take on so if one item doesn't get checked off your grandiose master list that doesn't discredit the other 25 things you've already accomplished so be proud of the vacation you and your group create all right we've made it we've crossed the finish line in record time and still managed to pack in everything you wanted to do on your next disney world vacation now it's time to rehydrate reflect and maybe start planning the next trip don't forget to send us your email at disneyfoodblog.com everything in wdw to receive a fully detailed week-long itinerary of how to put all these tips into practice and accomplish everything in one week in disney world and you know feel free to let us know in the comments how you manage to accomplish everything during your trips or if there's anything you're still struggling to juggle when it comes to planning because trust me we've all been there i'm there all the time it's great to help one another out so we can all prepare for that marathon vacation together thanks for listening everyone and thanks for watching as always this is aj for disney food blog and we'll see you real soon

Channel: DFBGuide

Views: 133,774

Keywords: disneyfood, disney, disney world, disneyland, disneyvideo, disneyvacation, food, disney parks, disney travel, disney tips, disney guides, disney planning, disney trip, disney how to, disney vlog, disney vlogger

Id: 7qNPyJdzqVY

Length: 28min 14sec (1694 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2022