The BASH senior trip to Florida is coming upon us, and Disney World has many attractions to visit, rides to ride, and food to eat. Some of them are so good that visitors will go straight to the rides, attractions, and food places and they quickly become very busy. As a person who has been to Disney World over twenty times, I know a lot about where to visit and what to ride, and have learned many tips and tricks from my experience there.
At Magic Kingdom, the oldest of the four parks, there are many major attractions, such as Tron Lightcycle Power Run, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Tron Lightcycle Power Run and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train both get very busy quickly with wait times going up to 75 or 85 minutes when Fantasyland and Tomorrowland open.
Do not go straight to the rides in the morning, but wait until 5 minutes before the park closes. This is the case with Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Hollywood Studios. The wait time for all of these rides will be at most 20 minutes.
The wait times in Magic Kingdom are usually around 30 to 40 minutes because it is the most popular park on the property. The first ride to go to is the Pirates of the Caribbeans, which is usually a 5 to 25-minute wait, another ride to go to in the morning is the Haunted Mansion, since it is in the back of the park it will be a walk-on, which will be displayed on the app and in person as 13 minutes.
In Hollywood Studios the waits for the rides are always high, because they are of high intensity and very popular among guests. The Rock’n Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror are the rides you should go to first, but they will have a high wait and everyone will be going to them. If that doesn’t work out then go to Toy Story Midway Mania or Star Tours. Unfortunately, while the seniors are in Disney World, Muppet Vision 3D will be closed.
In the case of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT, there is a virtual queue that you have to enter on the My Disney Experience app, which is free and available on all devices. Entering the queue and getting a spot in it will be difficult, however, people have found ways to get a place in the queue faster.
The steps to achieve this are as follows, set a wake-up alarm from the time 6:30 to 6:45, get off of the provided Disney Wi-Fi, close out of all other apps and restart your phone, open the My Disney Experience app, scroll to where it says “Join Virtual Queue,” press the “Confirm Party” button, and wait until 7:00. As soon as the clock strikes 7:00, refresh as fast as possible and click through any other prompt that shows up on the screen. If all of the steps were done correctly there should be a number displayed on the app. There is another virtual queue that happens at 1:00 P.M. however, you can only get in one or the other.
While the senior class is in Disney World, the International Flower and Garden Festival will be happening in EPCOT. This is a festival that celebrates nature and offers a variety of food. During the festival, there is a series of concerts at the America Gardens Theater Stage at the America pavilion in the World Showcase named Garden Rocks. The lineup of artists that played in 2024 included, Plain White T’s, A Flock of Seagulls, Herman’s Hermits, and Simple Plan. The rest of the artists can be found on this website. This event is included with your park ticket to EPCOT, however, it is not guaranteed to get in as the lines are usually very long.
Also throughout the World Showcase are sections of countries in the world named pavilions. Some countries that are included are Germany, Canada, America, England, Italy, and France. In these pavilions, there are food stalls where there are small snacks like, pizza, soup, baguettes, escargot, and giant turkey legs, the turkey legs can also be purchased in Magic Kingdom.
In Animal Kingdom, the newest of the four parks, there are not many rides, but the rides that are there are popular and usually have high wait times. Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain will normally have a 20-30 minute wait time, Avatar Flight of Passage will always have a wait time of at least 55 minutes, and Kilimanjaro Safaris, a tour in a safari area of the park, will have a 40 minute wait time, except before the park closes. 5 minutes before the park closes, the wait time will jump up to 75-80 minutes because that is the time the lions wake up.
We wish all the seniors the best of luck on their long awaited trip to Disney this spring and we hope this article gives them, or anyone soon traveling to Disney, some pointers on navigating such a chaotic place.
