DisneyWorld - Pitstops for Kids

Tour any Disney theme park attraction in 15 minutes or less (all day, any day)

Note: For current FastPass+ tips for touring Walt Disney World parks, please see our Understanding FastPass+ post. The below information still applies to touring Disneyland Resort parks.

No one should wait more than 15 minutes for any Disney theme park attraction…no matter what season, day, or park. Touring Disney line-free can be done, even during the busy Spring Break, summer, and holiday seasons. In fact, my kids were unaware lines even existed at DisneyWorld and Disneyland until they were well into their school-aged years, and that’s exactly as it should be for great family Disney vacations. Below, I’ll show you how to avoid Disney lines in five steps by providing a ‘real world’ example of how we toured Disney Studios during Spring Break with ride lines under 15 minutes (so you can, too).

Get to the park at Rope Drop.

Sorry, late-risers, but this is non-negociable. If your park of choice opens at 9 am, as Disney Studios did the day we toured it, you need to be passing through the ticket stalls no later than 8:45 am. (Remember, parks have ‘soft’ openings; their main streets and entrance areas open earlier than their ‘lands’.) Park crowds snowball (and alarmingly fast!), and it’s important to stay ahead of the curve in the morning, to ensure you’re still ahead by midday. (Trust me.) If you’re arriving to your park by Disney transportation, I recommend leaving your resort one hour prior to park opening. During our Disney Studios day, we left Animal Kingdom Lodge at 8:15 (a bit late, but we had good bus karma), arrived at Disney Studios at 8:30, and were through the ticket booth five minutes before 9 am.

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Use FASTPASS.

Disney’s FASTPASS is key to avoiding lines, and I’m always amazed to encounter park guests who still don’t realize what it does and that it’s free. Here’s how FASTPASS works, in a nutshell:

1. For rides offering FP (look on your park map for the FP emblem), locate the FASTPASS Distribution kiosks. They’ll be next to the ride entrance or exit.

2. Insert your Key to the World Card or park ticket (whatever you used to enter the park), and the kiosk will issue a FASTPASS ticket (and your own ticket back). You can gather up your whole family’s tickets and do them all at once.

3. Check the FP ticket for your return time. It will be an hour window. Disney Cast Members will tell you you need to return to ride within that window, but we have found you can return any time after the first time listed (they don’t ‘expire’). However, I’ve heard this may change, if it hasn’t already, at least at DisneyWorld.

4. Your ticket will also show a time you may secure your next FP or set of FP. (That’s important too, as you’ll see below.)

5. Return to the ride at your appointed time window, and enter the FASTPASS Return line. You’ll need those tickets, so hang onto them.

6. Bypass the stand-by line, and enjoy the ride!

Prioritize your FASTPASS ride options.

Before you enter the park, you’ll want to identify your top four priority FastPass-enabled rides. Obviously, your choice will depend on your family, their needs (and their heights). On our Disney Studios day, our FP plan was: Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, and Star Tours. Our goal: to ride all four, with a 15 minute or less wait, and visit other attractions in-between, all before noon. Here’s how we executed it:*

1. Upon entering the park, we went directly to Rock ‘n Roller Coaster (next to Tower of Terror). We secured FP times for RnR (return time of 9:35-10:35), then walked right over to Tower of Terror and rode stand-by (5 minute wait). Upon exiting Tower of Terror at 9:15, we noted that the stand-by line wait time was now 30 minutes (and we’d note that by 9:30, it had grown to 70 minutes). Remember that snowball effect? It’s never more pronounced than during Spring Break or holiday times!

2. After exiting Tower of Terror at 9:15, we grabbed some breakfast at the nearby counter service restaurant (no lines or crowds at this hour), and while everyone was eating, I walked across the park to Star Tours to secure our next set of FPs, even though we’d yet to use our first set. (Remember, you don’t have to wait until you’ve used your previous FPs to secure new ones. The time you’re ‘released’ to secure new FPs is printed on your most recent FP.) After I returned, we walked over to RnR at 9:45 to ride.

3. After exiting RnR at 10:00, we headed toward Star Tours, pausing to let the kids play at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play lot in the shade until our allotted FP time (10:25-11:25). While they played, I watched the clock in order to cross the street to Toy Story Mania as soon as we were allowed another set of FPs.

4. Once I’d secured the Toy Story Mania FPs, we walked over to Star Tours and rode at 10:45. After exiting at 11 am, we caught the MuppetVision 3-D show (stand-by wait: 5 minutes), and exited at 11:30, just in time to use our Toy Story Mania FPs (11:45-12:45).

5. We rode Toy Story Mania, and were ready for lunch, having (peacefully) enjoyed all our ‘biggies’ at the park, by 12:05 pm.

*To execute our plan, you’ll need either two adults, or one adult and one tween or teen who’s willing (and trusted) to traverse the park.

Save shows, parades, and ‘low priority’ FP rides for the afternoon.

With all your high priority rides done, you’ll be able to spend time in the afternoon watching shows that don’t include a wait time or taking in a parade. Or better yet, go back to your hotel for a swim or a nap!

If you know you’ll want to ride an attraction twice, make it your first stop.

If you’re sure you’ll want to ride something twice, secure FPs for it, then immediately ride it stand-by (your first ride should be your only stand-by ride all day during busy seasons).

If someone’s too short for a ride everyone else enjoys, do the parent swap on top of your FP.

To utilize the Parent Swap, simply tell the Cast Member outside the FP line of your intention. Proceed through the FP line, then have one adult wait with the child while the other members of your party ride. Afterward, the first parent can immediately ride while the second parent supervises the child, ensuring he or she doesn’t have to wait as long (and you don’t need to wait in even the FP line twice). As a bonus, the other members of your party can often ride twice in a row.

An exception for parents of small children:

If your children are small and the bulk of your time in the park will be on non-FP attractions that garner long lines (such as rides in Fantasyland, ToonTown, or California Adventure’s Bug’s Life), ride as many as possible directly after rope drop before the wait time reaches above 15 minutes. (In our experience, this rule of thumb ensures 30-45 minutes of ride time before Fantasyland and Co ‘snowballs’.) Once the ride lines creep above 15 minutes, get out and grab FPs! Better yet, send one adult to grab FPs while the other adult plays in Fantasyland.

Photo credit: DigitizedChaos and bartsworldv6.

How to tour any Disney attraction in 15 minutes or less

A stay at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is one of our family’s favorite–if not thefavorite–DisneyWorld resort. When readers ask me, “Why pay to stay at a DisneyWorld resort?” I always cite Disney’s impeccible attention to detail, from the in-room touches to the grand lobbies to the on-site restaurants…always themed to perfection. No where is this attention to detail more evident than at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

From the moment you pull up outside Jambo House (the main lodge), you’re greeted by sweeping thatched rooftops, the vast lobby with its four-story high beams, tapestries, and woodwork, and more than one smiling Cast Member saying, “Welcome home!” Inside, Disney has paired their (let’s face it, sometimes romanticized) take on safari Africa with real artifacts depicting African tribal life and wildlife. Guests can take tours of the property to learn more, but just a wander around the lobby and hallways will yield an interesting cultural lesson.

And then there are the animals. Roaming three separate 30 acre expanses within the resort property, they can be viewed from the observation decks off the lobbies and hallways (a great way to see them if you’re simply touring the resort or enjoying a meal at one of the Animal Kingdom Lodge restaurants) and from ‘Savanna View’ room categories. Before staying in a Savanna View room (on average, $65 more expensive that a pool view room and $85 more expensive than a standard view room), I wondered whether the upcharge would be worth the money. Answer: yes. If you can budget for the extra expense, do so. Waking up to giraffes, wildebeests, or elephants outside our balcony never got old. (Though in full disclosure, I think I got a bigger kick out of it than the kids!) If a Savanna View room is not in your budget however, a stay at the lodge is still worth your consideration; the animals can be spotted throughout the resort, including adjacent to the pool!

Animal Kingdom Lodge room amenities:

Room amenities obviously vary by room type, but all will include split bathrooms and either two queen beds, one king, or a queen and a set of bunk beds. Our Savanna View room comprised of two queen beds, but it was the extra balcony space (and views) that made it worth it. (Other room categories also feature balconies…just without the animal views.) All rooms come with free daily coffee, a mini fridge, hairdryers, Disney’s signature H20 spa products, and available laundry service. (The standards you’d expect.) We especially loved the effort Animal Kingdom Lodge goes to in their recycling efforts. Separate recycling bins are located throughout the resort, and even within the rooms, so it’s easy to do your part even while on vacation.

What you get with the Disney ‘deluxe’ category:

Because Animal Kingdom Lodge falls within DisneyWorld’s ‘deluxe’ category of resorts, a childcare facility, Simba’s Clubhouse, is located on-site (for an extra hourly fee), and the resort hosts not only a cafeteria-style counter service restaurant, but a sit-down restaurant and one signature dining restaurant. It also features two fitness centers and a spa, two Animal Kingdom Lodge pools (one in the main Jambo House and one in the newer Kidani Village), both with hot tubs (important to my family). Room service is available, and there’s a full bar poolside (as well as a shaded playground). Activities are led every afternoon by a live DJ at the main pool (my kids loved playing Disney trivia and a Disney version of a ‘cake walk’ where small prizes could be won), and additional kid-oriented activities are scheduled daily in the lobby. During our visit, a Cast Member was leading crayon rubs of the African emblems and art on the lobby floor.

What cannot be measured in room rates or vacation value is how truly ‘apart’ Animal Kingdom Lodge feels. We’re Disney fans, but after we leave the parks for the day, we don’t like feeling like we’re still in one…Animal Kingdom Lodge has those small Disney touches, but doesn’t feel overly ‘Mickey-i-fied’. You really do feel away from it all, tucked into your own imaginary corner of a Disneyesque Africa.

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Animal Kingdom Lodge restaurants:

In addition to room service, Animal Kingdom Lodge features their counter-service cafeteria, The Mara, which is located adjacent to the main pool. We ate here for both breakfast and lunch during our stay, and never paid more than $7 per person for a well-made entree. The lodge also hosts one of DisneyWorld’s most touted signature dining restaurants, Jiko, The Cooking Place, and two moderately priced (by Disney standards) family restaurants: Sanaa (in Kidani Village) and our family’s favorite, Boma: Flavors of Africa. Everyone in our family, from the picky seven-year-old to the adults, love this African buffet. It’s not cheap, but worth the price to try so many unique and delicious dishes. (You have to try the coconut rice!) Tip: visit Boma on the dining plan to get the most value!

Date last visited:

March 2012

Room rates:

Room rates at any Disney resort vary drastically by room type and season. Value season pricing for Animal Kingdom Lodge generally starts at $265 for a standard view room, but better deals can certainly be had by going through a Disney-specific travel agent (our recommendation is Dreams Unlimited).

On-site perks:

No matter what DisneyWorld resort you stay in, you’ll enjoy certain perks, such as Disney Transportation (both to and from all parks and resorts during your stay), Disney’s Magical Express (which picks you up from and returns you to the airport, as well as handles all your bags…you can ‘check’ them right at the resort!), the option of the Disney Dining Plan (worth it!), and early and late entry into the parks during Extra Magic Hours. And since Animal Kingdom Lodge is a deluxe resort, you can take advantage of the on-site concierge, who can not only find you reservations for dining and other activities, but can print your boarding passes before you depart.

Directions:

If you use Disney’s Magical Express, you don’t need to worry about directions, but if you’re driving, the resort address is 2901 Osceola Pkwy Lake Buena Vista. Signage is easy to follow (follow directions to Animal Kingdom and the Blizzard Beach water park).

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge hosted Pit Stops for Kids at no charge, as part of the Disney Fantasy media preview cruise. While we appreciate their hospitality, all opinions of the resort are our own. Photo credit: BestofWDW and Pit Stops for Kids.