Disney Ride Tips and Tricks for Not Waiting In Line

When visiting Walt Disney World, one of our main goals is to ride Disney Rides without Waiting in Line too long. However, this sometimes proves difficult since we also don’t love tacking another $30 dollars per person for a Lightning Lane Pass onto our daily Disney Budget. As such, we’ve rounded up all the best Disney Ride Strategies that can help you limit your Disney World Ride Wait Times. Here is our list of Disney Ride Tips to help you have a better trip without wasting time or money.

There are several different ways to ride rides at Disney World, so we’ll give you the breakdown here. Our tips are mostly used with Stand By Lines. No lightning lane purchase required. Here are the ways you can ride rides at Disney World.

Types of Ride Lines at Disney World

• Stand By Lines: Just get in line and wait. Disney World Ride Wait Times are noted at the entrance of each ride, and in the My Disney Experience App. Free.
• Virtual Queue Boarding Pass: Sometimes, Disney World requires a virtual queue boarding pass, especially when rides are new. Read more about Virtual Queue below. Free.
• Lightning Lane Multi-Pass: This pre-purchase Lightning Lane option allows you the chance to pick up to 3 rides for which you want to skip the line. And then you can simply add more, or stack rides, throughout the rest of your day. $30+ per person, per day.
• Lighting Lane Single Pass: Offered for a few select popular rides, this pass gets you one ride on select ride in each park. $18- $35 depending on ride, park, time of year, demand.
• Lightning Lane Premiere Pass: This pass allows you access to every lightning lane ride, all day long, at one park. Cost ranges from $160- $400 per person, per day, depending on the park.

Note that you never have to pay to ride a ride at Disney World. Because while the Lightning Lane Pass system does offer skip the line at Disney World perks, if you’re traveling with family, the typical $30 per person per day cost can add up fast! As a result, we only ever use Lightning Lane Passes at Magic Kingdom, which has the most rides and the most crowds. So, how do we tackle the rest of the parks, and rides without spending all day in line? With these Disney Ride Tips, that are good no matter when you visit the parks.

Try the Disney World Single Rider Lines

A great strategy for to skip the lines at Disney World, is to get into the “Single Rider” line at the most popular rides. These are very short lines. While this may mean that you won’t sit next to your travel partners, or friends, if they’re in the line too, they’ll not be far behind you. And it could make all the difference when the wait is over 30 minutes long.

Check Disney World Ride Wait Times in the My Disney Experience App

Ride wait times are built into the My Disney Experience App and can give you a good idea throughout the day of what ride waits look like. This allows for last-minute ride choices when you see a ride you hoped to ride has “too long” of a wait! We use Disney Ride Tips constantly to ride rides we like but often don’t have on our to-do list.

Check the Ride Time at the Ride!

Believe it or not, we’ve found loads of time discrepancies between the My Disney Experience App and the REAL-TIME Wait times. That said, we always recommend actually walking to the ride and checking the wait time. Though the wait times posted are sometimes also off, we’ve had experiences of a 20-40 minute difference on some rides. Where the Wait time is actually MUCH LESS than the posted time on the sign or the App. Definitely one of the best Disney Ride Tips.

Visit on Weekdays from 8 AM-  3 PM

One of the best Disney Ride Tips is all about timing. Aim to visit Disney World during weekdays between 8 am- 3 pm. These times will always be less busy than evenings and weekends. And Tuesdays, in particular always have fewer crowds. Check out the Best Days to Visit Each Walt Disney World Park to pick your best day in each park.

The majority of Disney guests arrive between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm, and rope drop crowds are in line from park opening. As such, sometimes the best time to get in line is after the rope drop crowds, but before the incoming guests arrive. If you aim for the most popular rides in this sweet spot time, you have a good chance of low lines.

Plan Rides During Meal Times

People like to eat meals at certain times. That said, planning rides for when others are eating is a great way to have shorter line waits. You can usually find lower lines 9:00-11:00 am, 12:00 pm -2:00 pm, and 5:00 pm-7:00 pm are excellent times to plan rides, because everyone else will be eating. And since you’ll be riding while others are eating, you’ll also have better luck with the lines at the restaurants since you’ll be eating during off-meal times too.

Plan Rides During Park Hopper Transit Time

At Walt Disney World, Park Hopper is open all day, BUT, many people typically switch parks right after lunch. As a result, many people are in transit to that second park between 1-2 pm. While this also overlaps with dawdling lunch crowds, you’ll get the double bonus of also having a large number of people heading to other parks. This opens up ride lines quite a bit between 1-2 pm. One of the sneakier Disney Ride Tips, this one isn’t used by many, and you’d be surprised by how low waits can get this time of day.

Plan Rides During Shows, Fireworks, and Parades

Following the same concept as riding rides during meal times, the same goes for shows, fireworks like Happily Ever After and parades. While everyone is reserving their spot on the sidewalk for the parade, show, or fireworks, you can often find rides with little to no wait! Double-check the My Disney Experience App for ride wait times just before showtimes so you can catch a short line and still see the show afterward.

Some Lines are Okay to Wait in

Believe it or not one of our Disney Ride Tips actually encourages you to wait in line. Certain rides at Walt Disney World have beautiful, interactive ride queues that are an experience all on their own. If you find you *must* wait in line for a ride, these are the rides that will offer the best waiting experience. Peter Pan’s Flight in particular has an interactive bedroom area; just clap your hands to see Tinkerbell, sparkles and Peter’s shadow come to life on the walls.

• Animal Kingdom: Avatar: Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest
• EPCOT: Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Hollywood Studios: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Tower of Terror
• Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pans Flight, Jungle Cruise

Get in Line an Hour Before Closing Time!

Another great strategy to get on the best rides at Walt Disney World, without having to wait too long in line is to just aim for that last hour the park is open for the most popular rides. Many people leave right after the fireworks show, or nighttime spectacular ( also a great time to hop on rides) so lines are naturally shorter late in the evening. And some Disney rides are better at night! Slinky Dog Dash in Hollywood Studios is a fun one to ride at night and routinely sees long waits all day long.

Arrive at Rope Drop 

Using a Rope Drop strategy ( arriving about 30 minutes before the park opens) is for getting on the most popular rides without waiting in super long lines. However, since many people use this strategy, you may find even longer lines at the popular rides, early in the morning. As such we recommend if you’re using this strategy that you arrive as early as possible at the gates so that you can be at the front of that line, giving yourself the best chance of getting your ride first.

If you have Early Theme Park Entry as a result of being a Disney Resort Guest, you can get in even earlier. Once allowed in the park, you can then race-walk to your ride of choice and wait in a considerably longer line than you’d surely find later.

Rides to Rope Drop-in Each Disney Park

• Animal Kingdom: Avatar: Flight of Passage, Na’vi River Journey, Kilimanjaro Safari
• EPCOT: Test Track, Frozen Ever After, Soarin’, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Hollywood Studios: Slinky Dog Dash,  Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Flight of Peter Pan, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Know the Most Popular Disney World Rides Before you Go!

Whether you’re planning Lightning Lane Multi Passes, or just getting a hand on where most of your ride line time will be, knowing the busiest rides in each park is helpful. Grab our Walt Disney World Checklists for each park so you can see what rides are in each park and make a plan.

Animal Kingdom’s Busiest Rides

Flight of Passage. Typical 2-3 hour wait during the holidays. On a rope drop morning, this goes down to about 45 minutes, unless you’re really fast, of course.

Epcot’s Busiest Rides

Guardians of the Galaxy located in Epcot World Discovery and will always have a  line. But for Rollercoaster fans, it’s worth it!

For Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure we recommend you add these to your Lightning Lane Multi Pass, or plan to wait during meal times, when lines are lower. Waits are typically over an hour for Frozen Ever After and Remy during the holidays.

Hollywood Studios Busiest Rides

Rise of the Resistance in Galaxy’s Edge, Slinky Dog Dash and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway are the most popular rides in Hollywood Studio. We recommend adding these to your Lightning Lane selections or running to these rides once the gates open, as it gets pretty filled up throughout the day.

Magic Kingdom’s Busiest Rides

TRON, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Snow White’s Mine Train Ride and Peter Pan’s Flight are by far the most popular rides in Magic Kingdom.  Other super popular rides in Magic Kingdom are Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and Haunted Mansion. As all have devoted followings and higher waits during busy times of year.

Learn the Virtual Queue Boarding Pass System

The Virtual Queue Boarding System at Walt Disney World is offered for rides usually right after they open. You can access Disney’s virtual queue is available through the My Disney Experience App and involves accessing boarding passes at certain drop times; 7 AM, 1 PM and 6 PM ( for Deluxe Resort Guests only). At present there are not any Virtual Queue Rides at WDW, but you can check out our Virtual Boarding Pass Guide to get a feel for how it works.

Use Lightning Lane Passes

By far the easiest way to not wait in lines at Disney World, is to have lighting lane multi-passes for each person in your party. We almost always get this for Magic Kingdom, but in the other parks we find it’s not needed as much. Check out all the details about Lightning Lanes, if you’d rather pay to skip the line.

Hopefully, this post has given you some insight as to all the ways ( so far) that you can save some time by not waiting in line at Walt Disney World.