• The Ultimate Disney World List For A Family Vacation •

Woman holding a lightly salted Mickey Mouse pretzel standing in front of the Magic kingdom Cinderella Castle

Disney World is full of Magic! All of your favorite Disney movies are brought to life in one place; multiple theme parks and resorts here at Disney. This list will be so helpful to you in planning your Disney World vacation with your family. Below you will find information to help you prepare and have the best MOST magical Disney experience.

Disney World Park Maps

Click below and you will see the newly updated maps for each theme park – Grab a map when you enter your theme park of choice.

Disney Locations

Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom

Walt Disney World has four theme parks to visit and experience. There are also Disney Springs and many Disney resorts that bring the magic also.

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom Rides

Shows at Magic Kingdom

Let the Magic Begin – Opening Ceremony
Disney Festival of Fantasy – Parade
Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire – Character Show
Disney Enchantment – Firework Show
Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade – Parade

Magic Kingdom Food

Food Options at Magic Kingdom

Epcot

Epcot Rides

Shows at Epcot

Harmonious – Evening Firework Show

Epcot Restaurants & Food

Food Options at Epcot

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios Rides

Shows at Hollywood Studios

Wonderful World of Animation
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular – Show
For the First Time in Forever – Frozen sing along show
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage

Hollywood Studios Restaurants

Food Options at Hollywood Studios

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom Rides

Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
Avatar Flight of Passage
DINOSAUR
Kali River Rapids – Wet Ride
Kilimanjaro Safari’s – Safari Animal Tour
It’s Tough to be a Bug

Shows at Animal Kingdom

Food at Animal Kingdom

Food Options at Animal Kingdom

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Genie+ Lightning Lane

Genie+ Lightning Lane was also known as Fast Pass before they rebranded to make it easier on everyone wanting to visit Disney by saving time on standing in line. There are 2 lanes for the busy attractions when wanting to ride a ride at Disney World. One is the Standby Lane and the other is the Lightning Lane. If you are wondering how you can scan for Lightning Lane you will either need to have your tickets on your phone to scan or a magic band that is connected to your MyDisneyExperience account.

This add-on is $15 + tax (USD) per ticket per day at the park. Depending on the day, time of year and when you purchase your genie+ tickets the cost could vary. Prices range from $15-$28 per person per day. and the time I’ve seen $28 was New Year’s eve. You will be able to choose 2-3 rides you want to use it for once per day. If you want to ride the same ride again after you used your Genie+ Lightning Lane you will need to go wait in the standby line.

When purchasing the Disney Genie+ you will need to do so through your My Disney Experience app. The service of Genie+ will not be available until 7:00 am the day of your visit. So be sure to be ready to choose your rides early because others going to Disney will be doing the same thing. It will give you a time frame and you will need to check to see if some of your rides could be overlapping. You can still ride the rides that are over lapping because Disney gives you a grace period on when you can show up for your ride or arrive after your scheduled time. It is 5 minutes before and 15 minutes late.

Virtual Queue

When a new ride opens at a Disney World park then they will do a virtual queue to steer away from 8+ hour standby lines. The virtual queue helps because you have an assigned time to return and you can ride other rides while you wait for your group to be called back.

Guardians of the Galaxy has a Virtual Queue and a Lightning Lane but not a standby line at this time. A virtual queue is an online standby ticket. The times you are able to get one for your group are at 7am and 1pm.

To get on the Virtual Queue you will need to have a reservation booked for Epcot the day of. You need to be logged into your My Disney Experience app a few minutes before 7am and at 7am [ON THE DOT] is when you can snag your spot for your group to ride Guardians of the Galaxy.

If you are not able to get your group a spot at 7am for a call back. You can try again at 1pm but you will need to be at the park already to try again for this group. Once you get a spot on the virtual queue you are only allowed 1 per day – this helps others wanting to experience the ride too.

The tickets disappear in seconds! So have your phone ready to refresh when its time to join the queue. I have been in group 96 and group 17 and I clicked them both less than a second after refreshing. It all depends on how many people are planning to be on the app that morning and you wont know until you join the queue and get your call back boarding number assigned with a time to return to ride the ride.

Tron is another ride that will be opening April 4th, 2023 and they will be instilling a virtual queue to cut down on wait times in standby lines. Click here for more information on the Tron ride.

Apps to Download for Disney

Click the pictures below to go straight to the Apple Store to download these apps

My Disney Experience – Free – This App is the Walt Disney World app that will help you get around and plan your Disney World trip. You will be able to order meals, check on ride times, personalized itinerary, times of shows and more.
Heads Up! – $1.99 – This App keeps you busy playing a game with your friends or family while waiting in line. You start by playing the game with your phone placed on your head and the word will display for the players. They will have to help you guess the word before time runs out. With each answer you get right you tilt the phone forward to receive the next word to guess.
Play Disney Parks – Free – This app only works when you are inside one of the 4 Disney World parks. It’s another app you can play while standing in line with your friends and family. The games are interactive and when you are at attraction queues help you immerse yourself in Disney stories. You can also test your Disney knowledge by playing some Disney trivia.

Disney Movies to watch before you go to Disney World

The blue underlined links are for the rides that correspond with the movies.

Tips for Disney

Rider Switch

We have used this many times to be able to go on rides that our younger kids can’t or do not want to ride on. Even if you are switching riders with a child that does meet the ride height requirements but doesn’t want to ride, you can still do a rider switch. Just request Rider Switch to a Cast Member at the front of the ride entrance; they will let you know where to go to scan your passes. You will just scan 2 passes for the people that will be switching. After the 1st set of riders goes through the standby line and gets off the ride to they will be trading responsibilities then the 2nd set of riders will go to the Lightning Lane scan their passes then go through Lightning Lane line.

Activities Around Parks

Epcot has Kids Spots and at each of these spots there will be a pin trading board you can trade your Disney pins with. The Kids Spots are at each “country” in Epcot and they are labeled on the Map and on the walls right by the location. Each country has a post card to collect, color and it has a sticker. When you collect each paper from every country you will receive an actual post card you can mail back to your home and mickey will write and send a message to you.

Press a Penny

The penny pressers are in different areas of each theme park. Bring a bag of quarters with you and some shiny pennies to press. Some of the newer penny presses cost $1 for 1 and $5 for all 8 of the pennies. There was a penny press in Epcot (France) near the Kid Spots that was 51 cents. This is a great cost-effective souvenir to grab and also a fun activity to experience. Here are the locations of each penny press; they do not all have the same pictures pressed on them. Scroll down to the map and choose the park you are looking for the presses locations.

Disney Springs

Disney Springs is outside the theme parks but is still owned and operated by Dinsey. They have FREE parking. So many fun entertainment going on at Disney Springs. When you walk around you will be able to shop, grab something to eat, go watch a movie, catch a live band show or simply walk around the area for a fun evening out. There is a Lego store, Disney store, M&M store, and more. You can even grab yourself a Dole Whip here! We bought BLUE Dole Whips for the kids and they loved them!

Jackfruit sandwich from Disney Springs food trucks — Check out the Food Trucks

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If you like family vacations check out our Itinerary to the U.S. Virgin Islands here to get ideas for your future trip to one of the U.S. Territories.

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