Travel Hacks

If you read my last blog post about my spring break trip to Walt Disney World, you already know that I am a huge Disney fan. For this post, I’m going to piggy-back off of that post and talk about all of the hacks that my family used while we were in Disney World. I’ll also be sharing some recommendations that we tried out and absolutely loved. 

To start, one of the most important parts about planning your Disney vacation is learning the strategies to master Genie Plus, Disney’s new approach to the “fast pass” that you can use to skip the big lines to your favorite rides. Genie Plus is $15 per person per day but trust me it’s worth it. Genie Plus gives you access to reserve arrival times to over 40 attractions and then use a Lightning Lane pass to skip the line and walk on to rides.

So, every morning while we were in Disney World, my dad would get onto the Walt Disney World app promptly at 7am (when reservations opened to guests) to try and book a Genie Plus and Lightning Lane pass to the headliner rides at whichever park we went to that day. This was a challenge though because basically everybody would try to get the same Genie Plus pass to the same rides, making it super hard to get a reservation. Needless to say, this new way that Disney does fast passes is very tedious and almost stressful so make sure to do your research before your trip to Disney. There are tons of videos online with strategies on how to make the most of your Genie Plus passes.

If you don’t want to mess with Genie Plus, there is one way that my family participated in so that we could go on the newest or biggest rides with pretty much no line. My family calls it rope-dropping and it is basically where you get to the park 30 minutes before it opens and once the “rope drops” and the park opens you pretty much run to the headliner ride. Now this does require you to wake up fairly early but trust me it is so worth it. The rides that we rope-dropped were Remi’s Ratatouille Adventure in EPCOT, Star Wars Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios, and Space Mountain in Magic Kingdom (we didn’t rope-drop Animal Kingdom because their big ride was being renovated).

Now onto my recommendations. This Disney trip was much more fun for me and my family because we got to try so many new and exciting things. First of all, those rides I mentioned in the paragraph above are a must. However, I will also add the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Magic Kingdom, the Tower of Terror and Rock and Roll Rollercoaster in Hollywood Studios, and Soarin’ in EPCOT, to that list. Those are just a few of my favorite rides though.

Now onto the shopping. For the entire trip, I was on the hunt for a simple Mickey Mouse crewneck, similar to one I got from Disney in 2014. However, I went to pretty much every souvenir shop in every park and even in Disney Springs and did not find one crewneck that wasn’t tacky or just plain ugly. Don’t get me wrong I love shopping, but my advice to you is to not waste your time trying to find something cute or minimalistic in Disney World. But let me know if you find a simple Mickey crewneck in a size large please!

Disney has become famous for their unique amusement park food and they have tons of restaurants that make the experience even more fun. The best snack that we had were the classic Mickey Mouse pretzels. They were literally so delicious  but don’t get the cheese with it because it tastes weird. I mentioned this snack in the last blog post but you need to try the cheeseburger spring rolls from Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom has the best quick service food places in my opinion. You have to go to Gaston’s Tavern because literally everything they have there is amazing. Another quick service spot we tried for the first time was the Lotus Blossom Café in EPCOT. If you love chinese food you need to try this place because there was literally no line and the food was so yummy.

In terms of sit down restaurants, we only went to two places because we missed the window to make reservations so make sure you don’t miss that. My favorite restaurant was the Rainforest Café in Animal Kingdom. It was so cool because you were literally transported to the Amazon rainforest. The atmosphere was so cool and they served all kinds of delicious food. We sat next to the gorilla if you ever get the chance to go there. Another restaurant that we are a fan of but couldn’t go to this trip was the Sci-Fi Diner in Hollywood Studios. I love this restaurant because not only do they have great burgers and shakes, but you get to eat your food in an old vintage car while watching old movies. It’s exactly like being at a drive-in movie theater. This restaurant was super cool and I highly recommend it.

I hoped you enjoyed these Disney hacks. Let me know if you have any more!