Wait times?

[BigRedDad]

Lines will be very long by 11AM. Most waits will be an hour. My recommendation is to use FP, get their early, and decide how much of the crowds you want to deal with. Its like I told my wife: if I can only go during the busiest times to WDW, I would never go again.

Fortunately, I can go when I want for the most part. DW can decide if she wants to go or not.

 

[bduncan]

FYI- you must be 40 inches to ride Soarin at Epcot.

 

[coachwnh]

We are going to WDW during spring break (the week before Easter). I'm anticipating it to be quite busy, but was wondering how long we should plan on waiting in lines for the rides. My son will be 2.5 yo - so we're planning on slower more kid friendly rides.

The earlier you get in, the shorter your waits. We were there are Thanksgiving and Christmas and went each morning for opening and had very little to no wait at all for many of the top attractions! Like others have said, go right to your top choice and do it first, then start the fastpass collection. you can get so much done early if you are a family of early risers.

 

[Alexis]

I go to Disney every Spring. In reality people it isn't too busy, because hotel prices are more expensive. I usually wait 30 mins or so for a ride at Magic Kingdom.

 

[juniorthomas]

Everything seems to be covered here. So all I'll say is this: have an amazing trip. I hope DS has a great first adventure at WDW.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Use the early morning hours to get the most accomplished with the shortest wait time. Go straight for Peter Pan or Pooh, and then get a fastpass for Little Mermaid. If you do the early hours, you should be able to fastpass the other kid friendly rides.

Later hours also work well too, depending on if you are an early riser or a night owl. I have always been a night owl, and so are my parents, so we always chose the later nights. Most of the smaller rides clear out later or at nap time. I walked onto Little Mermaid at 10:30 the other night.

Also, unless you're doing late night Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom, go on a weekday. Wednesdays are usually less crowded. Everyone heads there first thing. Animal Kingdom is best on a weekend, as most people do this one middle of the week. Don't ask me why. Epcot is usually also best on a weekend, unless you're there for Extra Magic Hours.

Now normally, since your kid is 2 1/2 and therefore not in school, I would advise going in January or early March as it tends to be less crowded, but to each his own, I know it doesn't always work out with work.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Unless we do early hours, we always fastpass Peter Pan and Space Mountain and Splash Mountain in MK and Soarin and Test Track in Epcot, Toy Story Mania in Hollywood Studios and the Safari and Everest in Animal Kingdom.
If we aren't doing Splash that day, we fastpass Big Thunder Mountain and/or Jungle Cruise. The Jungle Cruise line seems to move at a snails pace.

Don't bother with Test Track anymore, they ruined it. Am not kidding. They will be receiving a very long, strongly-worded letter about Test Track from me. Save your Fastpass for Soarin'. Toy Story Mania absolutely requires Fastpasses.
Usually you can do Safari towards 5 pm with little wait. We tend to see more animals later as well.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I wrote this a few years ago to help with Fastpass. It should explain it further.

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

Later hours also work well too, depending on if you are an early riser or a night owl. I have always been a night owl, and so are my parents, so we always chose the later nights. Most of the smaller rides clear out later or at nap time. I walked onto Little Mermaid at 10:30 the other night.

Also, unless you're doing late night Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom, go on a weekday. Wednesdays are usually less crowded. Everyone heads there first thing. Animal Kingdom is best on a weekend, as most people do this one middle of the week. Don't ask me why. Epcot is usually also best on a weekend, unless you're there for Extra Magic Hours.

Now normally, since your kid is 2 1/2 and therefore not in school, I would advise going in January or early March as it tends to be less crowded, but to each his own, I know it doesn't always work out with work.

Most people do AK on Monday or Wednesday because it has historically been early hours. However, in April they have early hours on Saturday.
I used to do late hours, but once we started doing early hours, we only do late hours if the parks aren't crowded that day or we don't have early hours the next morning.
You can always get on rides at early hours, but not always for late hours. Also, the parks aren't anywhere near as crowded during early hours because you have to show your resort key to enter. People can stay for late hours even if they aren't staying in a resort. They simply can't ride. They shop and stroll and keep the place crowded until the last hour or so of the late hours. Now that after hours are only two instead of three hours, it will probably be even more crowded.

 

[disneysince71]

The best line in Disney! You get a pager...Go play and come back when its your turn!!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Most people do AK on Monday or Wednesday because it has historically been early hours. However, in April they have early hours on Saturday.
I used to do late hours, but once we started doing early hours, we only do late hours if the parks aren't crowded that day or we don't have early hours the next morning.
You can always get on rides at early hours, but not always for late hours. Also, the parks aren't anywhere near as crowded during early hours because you have to show your resort key to enter. People can stay for late hours even if they aren't staying in a resort. They simply can't ride. They shop and stroll and keep the place crowded until the last hour or so of the late hours. Now that after hours are only two instead of three hours, it will probably be even more crowded.

My brother and I did the late hours on Sunday night. We got there at 7:30 and stayed until midnight when it closed. In the time, we did: Laugh Floor, People Mover, Buzz Lightyear, Tea cups, Barnstormer, Dumbo, (no wait for both) Pooh, dinner at Cosmic Ray's, Small World, BTM, Pirates, Phillhar Magic, Ariel, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear (again), Buzz Lightyear (again again) and Space Mountain. Now granted, it was cold and we walk fast, but it goes to show how much you can do in the evenings. In the summer, if we get there at about 7:30, we can be done everything we want to do by the time the park closes. I think it's fine that they reduced the hours, especially since I just checked the March hours and if it still were 3 hours, the park would be open until 4am. That's...not necessary and it's probably dead by then anyway. I find most people only stay for about an hour and then leave.

I can't get up early. Uh uh. Too much effort. I'm a night owl, and getting up early is the equivalent of torture, even for Disney. So like I said, either one is viable depending on preference. Since I go in August, we do late hours as the park is not so hot during the later hours. We hang around the pool or water park for most of the day and do the parks sometime in the evening.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

The best line in Disney! You get a pager...Go play and come back when its your turn!!

My dad went on a rant about how he needed 1.) Two Dumbos 2.) A play area with a pager and 3.) Fastpasses when I was about 2. I threw a temper tantrum waiting in line for Dumbo.

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

My brother and I did the late hours on Sunday night. We got there at 7:30 and stayed until midnight when it closed. In the time, we did: Laugh Floor, People Mover, Buzz Lightyear, Tea cups, Barnstormer, Dumbo, (no wait for both) Pooh, dinner at Cosmic Ray's, Small World, BTM, Pirates, Phillhar Magic, Ariel, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear (again), Buzz Lightyear (again again) and Space Mountain. Now granted, it was cold and we walk fast, but it goes to show how much you can do in the evenings. In the summer, if we get there at about 7:30, we can be done everything we want to do by the time the park closes. I think it's fine that they reduced the hours, especially since I just checked the March hours and if it still were 3 hours, the park would be open until 4am. That's...not necessary and it's probably dead by then anyway. I find most people only stay for about an hour and then leave.

I can't get up early. Uh uh. Too much effort. I'm a night owl, and getting up early is the equivalent of torture, even for Disney. So like I said, either one is viable depending on preference. Since I go in August, we do late hours as the park is not so hot during the later hours. We hang around the pool or water park for most of the day and do the parks sometime in the evening.

The difference in parts of March and April and other high volume days is that the parks are open to everyone until 1. So, it is crowded until very late.
The Disney site has different hours listed than on this site. I don't know why.
The late March early April early hours on the Disney site are 7 to 8; not 8-9 as on this calendar (well, that's if they haven't changed it here in the last couple of days). They changed AK to Sat. and HS to Friday.
Non of this really matters except newbies need to be aware the hours do change sometimes.
Mornings are always cooler in the summer. The coolest time of any day is right before sunrise and it increases from there unless some kind of cold front comes through or heavy rain, but normal summer days, early morning hours are cooler than evening hours. However, not having to face the sun may make a big difference to some and the late hours would be better for them.
The only times late hours are less crowded is if it's cold or raining. Then, non-resort guests tend to leave when the parks close.
We have done the really late hours and could ride anything and everything we wanted a number of times, but it did happen to be cold or raining those nights. And, we have been a few, very few, times during high season where even thought the walking areas were crowded, we had 0 waits at some rides. But, typically, late hours during hot months are much more crowded than early hours because so many people, like you, don't like to get up early.
So, I guess it boils down to whether lighter crowds are more important than sleeping-in.
I am very glad that many people prefer evenings as this makes the mornings less crowded for the morning people .

 

[Lightning McQueen]

When you reach the attraction, please ensure you keep arms, legs, feet and hands inside the car at all times. Hold on to you hats and glasses, and when exiting take small children by the hand. Thank you

 

[KatMaria]

Go early! Get fastpasses and just enjoy what you can. It will be busy, so just be aware you probably won't be able to see everything. Pick a few major to do's every day and make sure to get fastpasses or if it is a show in line as soon as they start letting in.

 

[Hot Lava]

I can't get up early. Uh uh. Too much effort. I'm a night owl, and getting up early is the equivalent of torture, even for Disney. So like I said, either one is viable depending on preference. Since I go in August, we do late hours as the park is not so hot during the later hours. We hang around the pool or water park for most of the day and do the parks sometime in the evening.

I don't think they had the late hours the last time I was there. B/c staying late would have been infinitely preferable to getting up early for me as well. Not that I have a little one, it's early no matter what I prefer.