How Should You Answer These Five Disney Vacation Questions?

Friends frequently pick my brain about how my family approaches Disney vacations.

They know what I do for a living, but it’s more than that. I’ve spent nearly a year of my life at Disney theme parks.

Photo:visitorlando.com

Since people build knowledge over time, they respect me more for my park reps than my writing.

So, I’ll veer a bit from typical theme park writing today and speak to you as a season park pro.

Photo: Disney

Here’s how you should answer these five Disney vacation questions. 

Should You Spend More on a Better Hotel?

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I frustrate friends when I say that I hate to tell anyone how they should spend their vacation budget.

Even when I know someone intimately, I have no idea how much they have in their bank account.

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So, I presume that everyone will spend most of their vacation agonizing over the cost of every purchase.

In other words, I base my suggestions on a worst-case scenario.

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Even in such instances, I tell my friends two specific things, both of which I fully believe.

The first is that you should always stay at an official Disney resort. The amenities justify a slight bump in cost from a non-Disney hotel.

Just as importantly, the logistics are night and day superior. There are other reasons, and you can hear about some of them here:

A better question is whether you should spend more for a Moderate or Deluxe Tier resort.

Here’s where the conversation grows more challenging. As I tell my ‘ohana, this answer depends on how much time you spend at the hotel room.

If you don’t expect to be in your room much, you needn’t splurge.

When you prefer to take a break from the parks each day, it’s worth more for a Moderate/Deluxe resort.

Should You Purchase Disney Genie+/Lightning Lane?

Disney Genie+

I write articles about this topic regularly because it matters so much for vacationers.

Here’s a recent discussion regarding where I’d suggest Lightning Lane purchases.

Lightning Lane

The thing I tell my loved ones about Disney Genie+ is that Disney has priced these services fairly.

However, you’re under no obligation to buy these services. In fact, it’s a coin flip whether the average park guest will buy them.

Photo: Disney/Scott Gustin on Twitter

Disney has suggested half of customers do, which means half don’t.

I find that statistic telling in that it demonstrates most people don’t have a problem with Disney Genie+ in theory, but that doesn’t make them buy it, either.

Disney Genie

Basically, the conversation comes down to your willingness to stand in lines for extensive amounts of time during your Disney vacation.

Now, let’s acknowledge something about this statement. You’ve always stood in line for hours at theme parks, no matter how old you are.

Photo: Disney/The Street

Nobody has invented a dynamic system yet that allows guests to enter a line and basically walk on a ride.

I remain hopeful this will be possible one day, but it’s probably 10-25 years down the road.

For the time being, theme parks force you to choose whether you stand in line for the standard amount of time or shorten your wait for a slight fee.

I’ve done both, and each option works well enough. The necessity of Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane depends on when you’re visiting.

When the parks post longer wait times, buying one of these services is smart. On less crowded days, you can save your money.

Disney hints at the expectation for your visit. Higher ticket prices reflect increased demand, while cheaper tickets suggest smaller crowds.

So, plan accordingly, and judge for yourself on the date of your visit.

Should You Eat in the Parks?

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As with the hotel response, the answer here depends on your plans for the day.

When you dine at Disney parks, you’ll eat quite well. Disney has hired some of the finest chefs in the world to plan the menus.

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The catch is that even the finest chefs struggle a bit during a frantic moment in the kitchen.

Those of you who have worked at a restaurant are nodding knowingly right now.

When anybody in back of the house notices a bunch of tickets for unfired foods, panic creeps in.

Disney theme parks account for everything, including lunch and dinner rushes.

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Still, some of MickeyBlog’s restaurant reviews demonstrate that some in-park cuisine suffers a bit from volume.

Once you leave the parks, you’ll discover a more relaxed setting at restaurants at the official Disney hotels and at Disney Springs.

Photo:Instagram/ Paddlefish

The trade-off is that you’re sacrificing precious park time to eat a better meal.

Again, you must weigh the opportunity cost of a better meal vs. more theme park time. Most of my friends pick the latter.

I emphatically choose the former, but when you’ve spent a few hundred days at Disney, that’s an easier choice to make.

Should You Rope Drop?

Remember how I recommended that you stay at an official Disney resort?

That topic comes into play again here. When you choose this approach, you gain an amenity called Early Theme Park Entry.

This benefit entitles you to theme park access 30 minutes before your destination technically opens to the public.

So, you have a half-hour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

You may use this free time to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, or Avatar Flight of Passage.

By taking this approach, you lessen the need and benefits of Disney Genie+/Lightning Lane. Yes, several of these concepts tie together.

When you choose regular Rope Drop as someone who isn’t staying at an official Disney resort, you lose most of the advantage.

The people staying at those hotels are already inside the parks, clogging up the lines. As such, Rope Drop doesn’t benefit you much.

Conversely, when you have the option to use Early Theme Park Entry, you ALWAYS should!

Should You Park Hop?

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First, you must buy tickets that allow Park Hopping before this is even an option.

Those of you who want to save money on a park visit probably won’t even have the option.

Presuming that you do, this answer depends on your goals during a park visit.

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Do you want to ride everything, watch all the shows, and meet the characters?

Presuming you do, expect your park day to be hectic enough as is. You don’t need to add a level of chaos by switching to a different park.

However, let’s say that you’re either more adventurous or someone who has visited Walt Disney World frequently.

In that case, I highly recommend Park Hopping, especially on days when your primary park is overflowing with people.

You can switch parks at 2 p.m., which is only part of the story.

Depending on where you’re going, you may need 45 minutes or so to exit one park and take transportation to the other.

In those instances, you can eat lunch at 12:15-12:30 and then bail on your current park.

At 2 p.m., the crowds will begin to shrink at your new destination…partially because some of those guests are Park Hopping, too!

I almost always Park Hop, but I have friends who think I’m out of my mind to do so.

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