Hello and welcome!
This post contains some of my personal notes for visiting Disney World in Orlando Florida. I have visited Disney World three times, in 2016, 2018 and 2022. They are largely written from a Canadian perspective, but certainly may be applicable to many folks visiting from different parts of the world.
This post assumes that you are new to Disney World, or have little knowledge of it. Some of this stuff you might already know - but hopefully you will also find something useful.
Let's start with the basics and go from there.
Disney World consists of four theme parks, two water parks, and a bunch of other things you can do.
The main theme parks are Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.
It's definitely hard to do a single park in a day. You would need to set some strong priorities. The only park we managed to complete in a day was Animal Kingdom, and we still didn't do everything, just everything we wanted too. Thankfully, it's rare that you want to do everything at every park anyway. Not everything appeals to every demographic.
Most parks usually take at least two days to do, and that's even with Genie+. The reason is because busy rides fill up quickly, and there are least two of those per park. It's easy to underestimate the size of each park - they're huge! It will take some time just to walk between each park "sub area" and between each ride in each "sub area". If you're a morning person, and staying on property, you can get into each park a half hour early. There'll be a special entry line for you. I would recommend doing this and hitting one of the busy rides first (they call this 'rope drop').
Each park is broken up into multiple sections. For example Magic Kingdom has Main Street USA, Tomorrowland, Storybook Circus, Fantasyland, Liberty Square, Frontier Land, and Adventure Land. That’s roughly the order of the lands counter clockwise from the castle (Main Street USA being the “6” O’Clock position).
Each unique land is themed, and can have any number of rides, attractions, or restaurants. For example, Tomorrowland has Buzz Lightyear/Space Mountain, Fantasyland has Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Frontierland has Splash Mountain, Adventureland has Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.
First and foremost thing you should do is download the My Disney Experience app on an Android or iPhone, and log in using your Disney Account. If you don’t have a Disney account, make one, and make sure it’s linked to your hotel and theme park tickets.
Don’t forget about reservations! Since COVID, it’s not enough to just have a theme park ticket. You must also reserve each park you want to visit on any particular day. Otherwise, you'll be turned away, regardless of if you have an entry ticket.
If you purchase Park Hopper, you can go to another park after 2PM. There are buses that go directly between the parks. You don’t have to go back to your hotel first. These buses start at 1:30pm. There are a few exceptions where they are no buses, but it's because there's another way to get directly between parks (monorail or boat).
A lot of your decisions will be based on if you purchase, and how much you use, the paid Genie+ service.
I would recommend purchasing it and using it as much as you can. Each ride has a “Standby” line that you wait in to get onto the attraction. These can be anywhere from ten minutes for less popular rides (like Dumbo) to 30-45 minutes for things like Pirates or Splash Mountain, and really long (like 90 minutes or more) for something like Seven Dwarves Mine Train.
Genie+ will allow you use the “Lightning Lane” for each attraction. In general, you’ll only wait about 10 minutes to get on each ride if you use Lightning Lane. But you have to book your ride window for each ride, and you can only book one at a time. Again, using the Disney App, you can look at the next soonest ride time that you are interested in, and it will tell you when your “start” time is that you can get on the Lightning Lane.
These are one hour timeslots, however typically you can enter the Lightning Lane five minutes early or up to fifteen minutes late (grace period). In fact, I tapped into a few rides just after the fifteen minute limit and it still let me through. If it doesn’t, you can ask a cast member (general term for any Disney park employee) and explain and they may (or may not) be graceful and let you in anyway. Always be respectful of their decision! But always just try it first, even if you’re passed your time.
In the Lightning Lanes, there are two tap points that look like Mickey faces. That’s how you get into a Lightning Lane. Sometimes you have to tap again closer to the ride. If you have a magic band, you tap that, otherwise use the tap entry card they give you (it works the same way).
Not all rides have Lightning Lanes. The carousal for instance, does not.
Secondly, some rides have Lightning Lanes that must be purchased separately and are NOT included in Genie+. For me, it was still worth it to buy the individual Lightning Lanes (anywhere from 10-15 dollars each per rider) but it’s up to you. Make sure you look up the lists for each park in advance. As of August 2022, there is only one ride per park with an individual Lightning Lane purchase:
MK - Seven Dwarves Mine Train
EP - Guardians of the Galaxy
HS - Rise of the Resistance
AK - Flight of Passage
If you’re going the “Full Genie+” route (using it as much as possible, like we did), be prepared to constantly be crisscrossing the parks to get to your next ride. For instance, your first ride might be in Tomorrowland, but your second in Frontierland on the opposite side of the park. The maps in the app help a lot. Also, the maps on the app will tell you the current standby time for each ride.
If you decide to use Genie+ less (or not at all), and are willing to brave the standby lines, you can stay more local. For example, spend one day (or part of a day) in Tomorrowland/Storybook circus, and another in Adventureland/Frontierland, etc.
I still preferred the walking and minimal wait times with Genie+.
You can book your Genie+ reservations starting at 7AM and make sure you do this. Basically you need to be ready with your selections just before 7AM so you can pick the first at 7AM. You can actually pick these far in advance, even months before the trip. Just use the Disney App and select "change day".
Some fill up really quickly (Splash Mountain), others (like Pirates) have plenty of availability throughout the day. You can book your next reservation as soon as you tap into the Lightning Lane ride. I highly recommend this. If you happen to book a later Lightning Lane, you can book another within two hours of booking your previous one, or two hours after park open.
Before you leave Canada, you can get some Disney Giftcards. Get the reloadable gift cards and put like $500 on each one. Use the giftcard over a credit card when you can (buying food, merchandise, lightning lanes, etc) and it can save you a few dollars over transaction fees. They are phenomenal for mobile food ordering, as you can't currently charge that to your room.
If you charge things to your room (via Magic Band, or I presume tap card), you can apply gift cards to your room balance. But you must do this before the day you check out, otherwise your credit card will be charged. Prior to that, your card will be authorized, but not charged. Go to an ATM for your bank that supports it, and take out some USD for emergencies and usage outside of Disney. Usage of luggage trolley at Orlando Airport will cost you $6, cash only.
Speaking of food, it's very expensive at Disney! Budget at minimum $100/day for two adults and two kids. We did a grocery order from Walmart delivered to our hotel. It saved some money on snacks, etc. We bought two 32-bottle Aquafina cases and pretty much went though it all. We probably went through 8 bottles per day. But buying a single bottle in the park is $3.50! That said, I’ve been told you can request free ice water, but never did it as we preferred the bottled water – some folks think their tap water tastes funny.
Bring stainless steel water bottles to keep it cold, however, keep in mind this will get you flagged by the metal detector each time you enter the park. However a security guard did eventually tell us we could just put the bottles in the stroller and they would see them, and not need them to go through the detector.
Speaking of getting into a park, you’ll need to go through Disney security first. If you have a stroller, they’ll wave you through a little easier, but you still have to go through the metal detector. If it doesn’t go off, you’re good, otherwise you need to walk to the side for a bag search. Again it was pretty quick and painless each time. Then you’ll need to get in line to enter the park. They are usually all the same length and do not take long to get through, even if they seem long. You need to tap your magic band (or card) then provide your fingerprint. Make sure you use the same finger every time! If you fail three times, they have to reset your fingerprint and take your picture to prevent fraud.
My five year old had some trouble with the fingerprints, so they programmed his magic band to my finger, and we used my finger each time, which made it easier.
We bought Disney cooling towels also to help with the heat which were nice. Get them wet and keep rewetting them throughout the day. You can then flick them periodically in the air and drape it on your head or shoulders to stay cool. We also had two “mickey fans” for the kids, but the batteries don’t last long. Like a day. Stroller services will swap out the batteries for free if you ask, but you have to wait in line and it takes a while. I would have preferred to have had my own batteries and a screw driver.
Be prepared for lots of rain. While it will often be hot and sunny most of the day, be prepared for it to rain heavily for about 2-3 hours per day, and often with huge thunderstorms. Keep a close eye on the weather forecast (Google "Orlando Weather" is fine), it’s usually pretty accurate. Summer is the worst for rain - there is much less rain in the winter/spring/fall.
Ponchos are your friend. Buy some in Canada before you go and take them with you. Even Dollarstore ones are fine (that’s what we use). A poncho in Disney will cost you $24! Also bring extra sneakers, as the poncho won’t save your feet. So it’s good to have a backup pair. We made frequent use of the hotel blow dryer to dry our shoes. Make sure they are good, very comfortable shoes as you’ll easily be walking 15000 – 20000 steps per day.
Even if you have your own vehicle, I would recommend leaving it parked at the hotel if you are staying on Disney property and using Disney Transport.
Unfortunately, you have to pay for parking at the hotels now (I think it used to be free) and I think you have to pay for parking at the parks too. So leave the car at the hotel and use Disney transport, which is free, and goes (almost) everywhere on Disney property. If it's an on-property hotel, it will have a bus section out front. One for each park, and one for Disney Springs.
Disney Springs doesn’t need a park ticket, it’s basically a huge outdoor shopping mall. You’ll also find a bowling alley, hot air balloon that you can pay to ride in, Cirque du Soliel and a movie theater there too!
It’s nice to walk around, but if you’re only there for short for time, entirely optional.
I’ll talk a bit about the other parks. Epcot is the “big ball” park, which is actually a ride called Spaceship Earth. This ride is super busy in the morning (long line) since everyone hits it first, then completely dead in the afternoon (you can pretty much just walk on via the Standby line). Or use a Lightning Lane.
Epcot is broken up into two large sections, “Future World” and “World Showcase”. Future World itself is broken up into two sections, Left Future World and Right Future World (they would be left and right as you enter Epcot, facing the Big Ball).
Left Future World has the more “thrilling” rides like Mission Space, Test Track, and Guardians.
Right Future World is more relaxed but still fun. It has Figment, Nemo, and Soarin’.
Note that Epcot is under construction right now (as of Aug 2022), so there’s a big closed off area smack dab in the middle you have to walk around. Normally both halves are connected by a big open space.
The World Showcase is connected to Future World via a bridge and World Showcase is huuuuge. It’s broken up into 11 “major” countries. Mexico starts on the left, and Canada is on the right. During the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, there are at least a dozen smaller countries that are just kiosks. If your kid is interested, you can do “Kidcot” – a small station at each pavilion where you can collect cards for each country and get a postcard at the end.
Each country (called a ‘pavilion’) usually has restaurant (sometimes two, sit down and quick service), a giftshop, and some sort of cultural information or show. Only three countries have rides – Mexico (Donald duck boat ride), Norway (Frozen) and France (Ratatouille). All are worth doing! Frozen and Ratatouille fill up fast and have long waits. Lightning Lane them if you can. I’ve never seen the Mexico ride more than a few minute wait – it doesn’t even have a Lightning Lane.
It takes like an hour just to walk around the World Showcase, and more depending on how much time you want to spend in each pavilion.
There is currently no standby line for Guardians. You need to either buy a Lightning Lane (like I did) or get into a “Virutal Queue”. The virtual queue’s start a 7 AM and 1PM and fill up in minutes. It should tell you when you can come to get in line for the actual ride. A cast member told us there’s a “secret” queue at 6PM too that you can try, although we bought the Lightning Lanes, so didn't try this.
Note that if you use the gondola to get to Epcot, it actually takes you to the World Showcase, not Future World (like if you take the bus). We never rode in the gondola’s (always used the bus). The buses are air conditioned. The gondola’s are not.
Hollywood Studios is the next park. It’s actually really close to Epcot (at least by vehicle). In fact you can walk between them, but I think it’s like a twenty minute walk.
You can’t take the gondola’s between them directly (you have to transfer at a hotel). However, there is a boat you can take between them, which is really fun. Like the gondola, it’ll take you to the World Showcase, not Future World. The part of the World Showcase where the Gondola/Boat come off is called the "International Gateway"
Hollywood Studios isn’t quite as sectioned as the other parks. Like Magic Kingdom, there’s sort of a big road that runs down the center. To the right off the main road is another long road which leads you to Rock N Rollercoaster (staring Aerosmith), the Tower or Terror and Lightning MacQueen Racing Academy (I don’t know exactly what this is, we never did it).
Still going on the main road, you take another right to the Disney Junior section and Star Wars Launch Bay (NOT Galaxy’s Edge). Launch Bay is the “old” Star Wars area before they built Galaxy’s Edge. It still houses the Star Wars Character Meets though (BB8, Chewy and Darth Vader).
Two roads on the left merge together near a lagoon and will lead you towards the Frozen musical, more restaurants (The SciFi Diner is really cool!) and shops, and towards Galaxy’s Edge, the real “Star Wars” themed area.
In the center of Hollywood Studios is the Chinese Theatre. This is where Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway is. It’s an awesome ride!
It’s not obvious, but you have to walk “behind” the Chinese Theatre (to the right) to get to Toy Story Land. That has Toy Story Mania (a shooting ride), Slinky Dog Dash (a roller coaster) and Alien Swirling Saucers. Walking through Toy Story Land will lead you directly into Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, which is where you’ll find Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance. Lightning Lanes (as part of Genie+) seemed easy to get for Smugglers Run. You’ll want to buy a Lightning Lane for Rise (or wait Standby).
Galaxy’s Edge is mostly broken up into the two ride areas, a huge marketplace, and food/drink establishments (where you can get the Blue Milk – try it! I won't spoil what it tastes like).
If you walk all the way through Galaxy’s Edge, it’ll take you back to the road to the left of the Chinese Theatre.
Pro-Tip: If you need to take a break and sit for a bit, the ride exit of the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run is quite nice. There's a large exit tunnel where folks come out of the ride, and while you can't sit directly inside the tunnel, there is a (small) sitting area immediately outside the tunnel. The area is nicely shaded, and if you're lucky enough to find a space there, you'll enjoy blasts of air conditioning from the ride exit itself.
Finally Animal Kingdom. Like Magic Kingdom, it is broken up into a bunch of sub-sections.
You enter the park via the “Oasis”. Continue through to “Discovery Island” which is the Hub of the whole park. Clockwise from Discovery Island is Pandora (Avatar – Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey), Africa (Safari, Festival of the Lion King), Asia (Everest, Kali River Rapids), then Dinoland USA (Boneyard, Dinosaur ride, Triceratops Spin).
I think the Oasis also connects via bridge directly to Pandora, bypassing Discovery Island, given its popularity.
Everest is my probably favorite ride in all of Disney World (followed by Mission Space in Epcot, and Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios).
The Safari is also awesome and a must do. The animals can be more active in the morning and at dusk, but you can still see a lot any time of day. There are also walking trails you can do all around Animal Kingdom to see even more animals.
Three out of four parks have Firework shows every night. Magic Kingdom fireworks are the best. I hear Epcot’s are really good too, but we missed them this trip. We saw them in 2016 and 2018, but they have a new show now. Hollywood Studios has the shortest show from what I’m told. Animal Kingdom never did fireworks (the animals don’t like them). They used to have a really cool “water show” instead, but it’s been gone since COVID. They do have brief “kite” shows in the same area currently a few times throughout the day.
We wanted to beat the crowds to the buses, so we left just before the fireworks each day, and the buses were pretty empty. If you wait until after the fireworks, they are pretty packed with standing room only.
Also the hotel food courts will be really busy in the morning and just after park close too. We used Mobile Ordering (through the Disney app) a lot, both at the hotel and the parks. At the hotel, we often used mobile ordering and ate in our room.
The buses run really frequently in the morning and at park close. They are less frequent during the day and you may have to wait a bit if you want to go back to your hotel mid-day.
When we were there, Magic Kingdom also currently has two firework shows, 9PM and 11PM. We only did the 9PM show once, and because we had tickets to the dessert party (so we didn’t have to stand with the crowd). It was worth it. We did one or two more late rides after the fireworks and left around 10:30 – again beating the crowds of the second fireworks show. However I think the 11PM show might be gone since we got back (online hours says it closes now at 10pm).
What else? There are two water parks. Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. We only did Typhoon once, back in 2016. It was fun, but not necessarily a huge draw for us. We would like to try Blizzard Beach but it was closed for refurbishment both times we went back (2018 and 2022).
There is some other stuff you can do like ESPN World of Sports (if you are into sports) and some Mini Golf courses. I don’t think you can reach these by Disney bus though and need your own vehicle. You can get “Minnievans” (yes, they are vans decorated like Minnie Mouse), that you can use Lyft to order and rent. We never did it.
There is also one McDonald’s on Disney Property, but again, you need your own vehicle to get to it (or perhaps use Uber Eats or something).
One thing that annoys me a little is places to wash your hands can be a bit far from where you actually eat. We had tons of hand sanitizer and used it constantly, after every ride and before eating. There are hand sanitizer stations, but they can be a little harder to find than I would like. We wore masks when we could (but it was hot), but very few others wore masks, which of course makes them less effective. So your mileage may vary. I bought insurance through a travel agency before we left in case we a) got severely ill or b) got trapped down there with COVID and couldn’t cross the border back until recovery. The insurance I had handled both cases, but I can’t tell you how good it was, as we didn’t need to use it.
Epcot and Magic Kingdom are also connected via Monorail, and a separate Monorail runs on a loop between Magic Kingdom and its resorts. There's also the Ticket Center which is where you connect on the Monorail to Epcot.
Using the Disney App, you don't actually have to "plan your day". You can go directly to the Tip Board which will just show you all the rides and Lightning Lane times, and can book it directly. Using the plan your day can help you order and prioritize though. This is also how you would select a Lightning Lane at another park if hopping, but be warned - a recent change makes sure you can't select a Lightning Lane at another park until a 2PM or later time is available.
Another thing I'll mention is Memory Maker. You pay $169 for it in advance for $199 while there. I think you have to buy at least three days in advance to get the reduced price.
Basically, there are Disney photographers scattered everywhere through the parks. You just scan your band/pass and they'll do a little photoshoot with you. Sometimes they do "magic shots" which add something into the image.
It also includes all of your character meet photos and ride photos. Well worth it in my opinion, especially if you like photos like I do.
For characters, you can always use your own phone if you want instead. The cast members attending the characters will happily snap a few shots for you with your phone. And you can take your own photos/selfies of the park etc, just no magic shots.
It's really good for the ride photos though.
If you have a magic band, rides should automatically pick up your photos, but it doesn't always work.
With a card, you probably have to tap it at the spot after the ride. Sometimes I tapped anyway
You won't have a magic band unless you buy one. They are generally $25 I think. But you can buy a limited selection at a reduced price before you go (up to ten days before).
They also have Magic Band+ now, which is nice because they are rechargeable and have some extra functionality. I don't have a Magic Band+ though.
Without a Magic Band, you'll just get an NFC tap card. With the magic band, it's also NFC enabled, but also has some low power Bluetooth tracking so it can tell automatically when and where you are on the ride.
But it's not perfect like I said. Some rides seem better than others. Buzz Lightyear seemed bad for tracking. But Seven Dwarves/Splash Mountain seemed better.
When I ordered my Disney package through their site (tickets + hotel, etc). It gave me the option to buy magic bands at a reduced rate.
Magic bands actually used to be free if you stayed on Disney property, but sadly they discontinued that since COVID.
I then picked them up when I checked in at the hotel.
But otherwise you can buy them at many gift stores and they have a wider selection.
Let's talk a bit more about how to use Genie+/Lightning Lane. There are generally three scenarios.
Scenario 1) - Sequential Lightning Lane Entries
Let's say it's 7AM and you book your first lightning lane, Winnie the Pooh, for 9:05 AM.
You then have a 1 hour window to use that Lightning Lane (9:05 - 10:05 am). But there is at least a twenty minute grace period for that Lightning Lane, so you can actually Tap into your Lightning Lane as early as 9:00 AM or as late as 10:20 AM.
You don't need to finish the ride to book the next. As soon as you Tap in, while still waiting in the Lightning Lane line, immediately get onto your phone and book your next. Often, it will be available immediately as soon as you finish the current ride.
Scenario 2) - Stacking Lightning Lane Entries
Let's say it's 7AM and you book your first lightning lane, Splash Mountain, for 3:05 PM.
You can't book any more lightning lanes right away. But 2 hours after Park Open (11 AM in this case), you can book another Lightning Lane for whenever (e.g. Winnie the Pooh at 11:05 AM). Same grace period rules apply. Then, two hours after that booking ( 1:05 PM, you can book another lightning lane immediately, say Pirates, for 1:10 PM. But your Splash Mountain one is still active. Then, once you tap into Splash Mountain, you go sequentially again like in Scenario 1 (or book later and keep stacking).
Scenario 3) - Individual Lightning Lane Entry
You buy these separately, and don't even need to have Genie+ for them.
Starting at 7AM, you go onto the Disney App, and buy an Individual Lightning Lane entry. Let's say you buy Seven Dwarves for Magic Kingdom at 11:05 AM.
You then go into Genie+ on the app, and book for first regular Lightning Lane. Let's say Winnie the Pooh again for 9:30 AM.
Same as before, once you tap into Winnie, book the next while still in line for Winnie.
Individual Lightning Lane booking do not affect your Genie+ booking. They are completely separate and overlapping. Just make sure if you have two booked in the same 1 hr time period, that you have time to do both of them.
Some folks try to 'stack' their Lightning Lanes even more. Book popular rides for late in the evening, then keep booking rides later in the evening as you hit the two-hour rebook window. Use standby or do other activities during the day. Then you can redeem a bunch of Lightning Lane's in the evening. We didn't personally do this though.
Here are some notes on staying fed and hydrated in the parks.
We had two main backpacks, a small one and a larger one. The smaller one was exclusively dedicated to our water bottles - my wife and I had two large stainless steel water bottles (Thermoflasks from Costco) that held about 1.5 L each. We would easily drink them by about 3PM and need to refill them, so I'd say we drank at least 2L of water per day. We ended up having to purchase water at the parks more than I would have liked to refill them them, which was costly, or you can try asking for free ice water at the outdoor food kiosks. If we happened to go back to the hotel midday, we could refill from our (cheaper) bottles we bought from Walmart. The kids also had two stainless steel water bottles, but they were smaller, about 0.5 L. We either refilled them from our larger bottles or purchased bottles.
The second backpack was primarily our baby bag / snack bag. So we had diapers, wipes, our change pad, and a separate Ziploc bag (large) filled with snacks like granola bars, fishy crackers, Ritz crackers, etc. These were a must, as when our kids seemed cranky, usually giving them some snacks made them feel better. It also held our ponchos.
Even for older kids, having a stroller is awesome. You are walking 15000-20000 steps per day - your kids WILL get tired! Having a stroller is nice to cart them around place to place when they are two tired to walk.
Strollers also have one other huuuge benefit - you can store your backpacks in them when you go on rides! There is stroller parking near almost every ride in designated sections (note you'll also see a lot of signs that say "no stroller parking" - don't park there! Official parking will be close by). Otherwise, you'll need to take your backpacks on rides with you, which is a bit cumbersome but doable, or use the locker rentals at the front of the park, which costs money and you have to walk all the way back to the entrance when you need it. The stroller option is by far the most convenient, again, even just to store stuff. If you're going to try to just have one backpack, and don't need baby stuff, you just need water bottles and snacks, probably. Of course, there's also the possibility something will go "missing", but we never had it happen to us and it doesn't seem too common.
My wife also had a fanny pack that she carried everywhere with the more important stuff in it, even onto rides. It had a wallet with money, our IDs, health cards, etc. It also had her phone. We left our passports at the hotel locked in our suitcase though. I kept my phone in my pocket generally.
What to do when it rains?
There are a few options. Option 1 is to pretty much just ignore it and do whatever you want anyway. With a few exceptions, even outdoor rides don't close because it's raining. Often it's just a light rain you can deal with. It's helpful to have a poncho though - in that case, just keep doing what you want to do, get wet and enjoy it! It's soooo hot that often the rain will cool things down and actually feel nice.
We also had a rain cover for our stroller, which we put on if we thought it was going to rain while heading into a ride. Also, the kids could easily ride in the stroller with the rain cover on, so it doubled as a "poncho" for them (they also had dedicated ponchos).
Most (not all) of the rides are indoors. So if you're on a ride, or heading to a ride, and it rains, no big deal. Just put on your poncho to walk between rides, take it off, fold it up (you might need to shake it off a little), and hold it while on the ride. I once did Expedition Everest while it was thunder and lightning.
Also, there are stores EVERYWHERE. Literally. In fact, Main Street USA is actually just two large stores (left and right) with multiple exits and entrances. So when it starts to rain, you can easily duck into a store (or between several stores) to wait it out, and browse the merchandise. I honestly think they count on this encouraging you to buy things, heh. Do keep in mind though that the stores will get a little crowded when this happens.
Same with food - if it's raining, and you're hungry, it's often a good time to go get lunch!
Different parks also have big indoor play areas you can wait out in too. Magic Kingdom has a Dumbo Play area. Epcot has a bunch, there's a play area in Spaceship Earth, near Mission Space, Test Track, Figment, Nemo, etc. Animal Kingdom has the Boneyard in Dinoland USA, although that is outdoors.
If you are preparing for an extended rain period (like 4-5 hours) and don't want to deal with it at the park, you can always go back to the hotel. This is a good strategy for taking a rest anyway. You can watch TV/movies at the hotel, have some down time, etc. Then once the rain dies down, head back to the parks!
I bought four physical Disney Gift Cards from Shoppers Drug Mart (and/or Superstore) and loaded them up there. I've never tried an e-gift card, I assume it would work the same. I registered them all on Disney Gift Card website, so I could check the balance. Only annoying thing is it will show the balance in CDN, but of course everything charges you in USD. Weirdly, I managed to the get USD amount by starting a mobile food order in the app, adding my gift card as payment, then cancelling the food order. It will show you the amount in USD when you add it. Maybe there's an easier way to get the USD amount from the site, I just couldn't find it.
Bus rides to and from the parks are actually pretty short, especially depending on the time of day. If you are heading to the park early in the morning, they probably run at least every ten minutes. Sometimes one bus will be right behind another. Each hotel has a sign out front that will show you the next bus time. Sometimes they'll show it like 1/2 hour away, and it comes in ten minutes.
However, if you wait to go to the parks much later (like 10 AM or thereafter), it definitely could take up to 30 minutes for the bus to come. This really only happened to us once though. And since every hotel has a giftshop near the buses, you can go browse that while you wait.
Same with the evenings, near closing time, there are lots of busses and rarely much of a wait. It's just the "midday" traffic things slow down.
Having your own car probably doesn't save much time if you are staying on property. The parking lots for the cars aren't super close to the parks themselves, so you have to get parked (you also have to go through parking gates which had small lines every time we drove past them in the bus), then walk to the park itself, which is a decent walk. They used to have trams before COVID to take you between the parking lot and the park, but I'm not sure if they still do. In Magic Kingdom, I believe you have to take the Monorail (or maybe the ferry?) to get from the parking lot to the park.
The buses will drop you off very close to the park entrance, with minimal walking. Magic Kingdom is the closest - the bus drop you off very close to the entrance. With Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios (the worst), the busses are further away, but still not a long walk and I think still closer than the parking lot. So while I can't say for sure, I feel like the bus wait time offsets the car transit time, at least in most cases.
Fun fact about the busses - the more "expensive" hotels get the closest buses and the "cheaper" hotels are far away, haha. This is true at every single park. Not significant difference mind you, but it's funny.
We exclusively used Magic Bands, but they now have Magic Mobile - using your phone like a Magic Band or tap card. I never tried Magic Mobile but I imagine it works much the same way. For photos, as long as all the bands are linked on the same count (perhaps with mobile too?) only one needs to tap and the photo gets associated with your account. Occasionally I made sure I tapped a photo if I wasn't certain my kid tapped it properly though.
One last note about coming back to Canada. You must, absolutely and with no exceptions, use the ArriveCan app to get back into Canada. We were warned about this by our airline at the Airport.
You should start this process before you even leave Canada to go the US. Create your ArriveCan account, put in all of your traveller information, and upload your proof of COVID vaccine. You can put multiple travellers on the same account (including adults).
Before you check-in at the airport for your return flight (I did it the night before), you'll need to login to the ArriveCan application on your phone, using the credentials you created before you left. You'll need to create an "entry receipt" which includes answering a health questionnaire for each traveller. You need to show this at Canadian customs when returning to Canada - you might have had to show the airline too (I can't remember for certain).
The app tended to sign me out a lot more than I would have liked - so please make sure you have your credentials memorized so you can easily log back in.
That's it for now! I may update this post from time to time if I think or things, or a result of questions I may get asked. If it's a large enough question/response, I may create a new post.
I hope you found this informative and have a great time on your own visit to Disney World!
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