Hey there, we welcome you to Disney world 2021 tour planning guide. In this blog we’ve got the tips you need to know so you don’t waste any of your time or money and have the best trip ever of Disney in 2021.
Let’s win Disney world in 2021
Everybody, we are going to give you an overview for Orlando Lanes. We hope you got the guidebooks you’ve been reading up and following all the latest news coming out of Disney world but let’s be real, there’s just so much going on right now and it is hard to keep track.
Disney has made it difficult to go to Disney world that’s why we’ve narrowed down the tips you will absolutely need for your 2021 Disney trip and we put them all in one place.
We know you guys love taking notes so, you don’t forget a bit of the info we share with you. We made it easy for you to get the full list of tips we’re going to share in this article.
Are you ready to dive in? Buckle up, here we go!
1. Always Have a Backup Hotel in Mind
May be you have a favorite Disney hotel that you go to every Disney trip or you’ve been planning that this is the year. You’ll finally stay at that hotel you’ve always dreamed of staying at. Mine was always the Boardwalk Well.
You might want to have a backup this year because Disney is still slowly reopening, so not every hotel is accepting reservations at this time and there are several that we don’t have opening dates for just yet.
All-star movies is reopening February 9th and the Polynesian village resort is expected to reopen in the summer but the port Orleans resorts still don’t have an opening date and neither do the other all-star resorts.
2. Use Online Check-in for Your Hotel
You can do this one before you get to Disney and it’ll let you skip the front desk avoiding unnecessary contact and touch points at the check-in desk. You’ll be able to add a credit card or debit card for incidentals and charging back to your room and you’ll be able to put any room location requests and make sure all of your contact info is up to date.
When you arrive you’ll get a text letting you know when your room is ready and your room number, you can use your phone or magic band as your room key so you don’t need to stop by the desk or wait in that check in line at all.
Remember you will do all of this through the My Disney Experience App so I guess that’s an extra tip. Download my Disney Experience App and make sure you’ve got a login and password for that and that you know what you’re doing on the Disney Experience App. That’s a good thing to work on before you even start planning your trip.
3. Where to get a magic band
All right speaking of magic bands the next tip is where to get a magic band starting in January 2021. Magic bands will no longer be complimentary for Disney resort guests. You can use one from a previous trip or buy one through the Disney world website.
The resort guests will get a bit of a discount on buying a new magic band. You can also get them cheaper through shop Disney or even amazon so, check and see when they’re running promos or even check eBay if you’re looking for a certain design.
4. Be Prepared to Wait Outside a Lot
Now be prepared to wait outside a lot. Since everything is socially distanced, lines are a lot longer than what we’re used to right now. Even if the line doesn’t have that many people in it, it may wrap all the way into another land and be almost entirely in full sun.
We’re talking lines for rides, lines for food and even lines for stores. So, be ready to stand in the sun. Bring a hat, open an umbrella for shade and consider a cooling towel.
5. Which Rides to Hit First Thing in the Morning
If you want to cut down on some of that time waiting in those sunny lines hit top rides first thing in the morning when crowds are lower and lines are shorter. The rides which are going to get longer lines throughout the day are Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror Rock and Roller Coaster, Seven Dwarfs of Mine Train and Flight of Passage Frozen ever after are among the biggest contenders for extended lines midday.
Slinky Dog Dash and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway tend to stay kind of the same all day. So, unless you’re really early when you get to the park and you’re one of the first in line think about hitting one of those other rides. We mentioned first so you can really take advantage of everyone else, go into slinky dog dash and you can get on several rides quickly.
6. Know Your Dining Reservation Window
Alright know your dining reservation window because advanced dining reservation windows have shortened you guys from 180 days to just 60 days. If you’re staying at a Disney resort hotel you can book dining for your whole stay 60 days out from your arrival day. If you’re staying off-site you’ll need to do each day 60 days in advance. This could potentially change in 2021 so stay on top of when you need to book things. Don’t ever miss that really important booking date.
7. How to Get a Last-minute Reservation
Number seven is how to get a last-minute reservation. Getting a last-minute dining reservation has gotten a little bit easier in the past year. Since Disney introduced the walk up wait list feature in the Disney experience app. So, if you’re hungry and want to eat at a sit-down restaurant or even a few lounges right now. Check the dining reservations in our Disney experience and you’ll be shown which restaurants near you have availability.
8. Order Masks Online
All right number eight, order your masks which are sold in the Disney parks. Just got a bit of a price hike for those single masks. They used to be six bucks. Now, they’re 9.99 you can still get them cheaper on shop Disney and get those four packs for the same price they were first released at.
9. Opt for Outside Dining
This tip is based off CDC’s suggestions for safety. Disney’s doing a great job of making sure dining inside a dining room is very safe and we have eaten inside dining rooms in Disney world several times since July but maybe you love dining alfresco or would just prefer to do so. Right now we’ve got a list over at Orlando Lanes. So, you know where you can find that outdoor dining. We’ll link it in the description of this article as well you’ll find lots of outdoor dining options in Disney springs like Wine Bar George, Homecoming and Deluxe Burger Over in epcot.
Try spice road table or rose and crown and Hollywood studios and opt for quick service dining. If you really want an outdoor table in magic kingdom, Tony’s town square offers some seating on the patio or you’ll have more options at quick service restaurants and in animal kingdom try nomad lounge or flame tree barbecue.
10. Get the Best Discount on Your Vacation
This is a tip you need in 2021 while touring Disney. When you’re booking your trip make sure you’re saving money where you can and don’t overpay for that hotel room. Check the special offers tab on the Disney world website and subscribe to our website. When there’s a new deal we’ll send it out to you immediately or you can always use a travel agent. We love small world vacations here at Orlando Lanes. They’re experts in all things relating to Disney and they will make sure you get the best deal possible. The great part about using a travel agent is when discounts come out they know it first and they can apply that discount to your trip before you may even be able to get through on the phone lines.
11. Consider Making One Table Service Reservation Per Day
All right consider making one table service reservation per day. So, eating at Disney’s a little tricky. You need to make sure that you are socially distanced and stationary to eat and eating at quick service locations means using mobile order to order. Your food which could take a while right now or you may have to hunt down a table. So, if you make one table service reservation each day. You’ll have a guaranteed time and place to sit and safely remove your mask.
12. You Will Have To Wait For Characters
All right on number 12 you will have to wait for characters. They won’t be in a times guide. Right now Disney is not publishing when characters are coming out or when those cavalcades are happening so character cavalcades promenades etc. are socially distanced meet and greets they’re not scheduled anywhere to avoid crowds forming ask cast members in the area of where a character meet-and-greet usually is.
When a character might be available, they will tell you. Generally, when a character might pop up cavalcades tend to be pretty frequent and they do rotate so just keep an ear and an eye out and those will be easy to spot they come through all the time, so we can imagine. If you’re staying in a park for the majority of a day you will see all of them.
13. Where To Have The Best Character Interactions
Traditional meet and greets aren’t happening right now but you can still get kind of close to characters stationary. The characters like Winnie the Pooh or Joy by the imagination pavilion in Epcot or the stepsisters or some of the princesses by fairy tale hall in magic kingdom or Anna and Elsa in the Norway pavilion of Epcot will be able to talk to you from a safe distance and that can be really fun.
You can spring for a character meal at Topalino’s Terrace, Garden Grill, Hollywood and vine or Chef Mickey’s. They’re a little different right now but you’ll kind of get close and have some one-on-one time with the characters again. Then, here at DFB, we always recommend garden girl because those characters come by a bazillion times. So, they’re always going to be coming by a garden girl because it’s a smaller restaurant and they have less ground to cover. So, the last time we were at garden girl we saw mickey and Pluto and chip and dale probably 10 times coming around.
14. Best Chance Is Getting A Rise Of The Resistance Boarding Group
We’ve been talking tips for getting a boarding pass for the virtual queue for rise of the resistance. Since, the ride opened in 2019 and things have just changed a bit you can now join a boarding group before the park opens at 7:00 am and you can do that from anywhere. You will need to have a ticket and park pass reservation for Hollywood studios the day you want to ride but you don’t have to be in Hollywood studios at 7 am to book that park pass. You can even be in your hotel. You can be at your house and you should still be able to book it as long as you have a ticket and a park pass reservation for Hollywood studios.
Now those boarding groups still go super-fast so, make sure you know how the My Disney Experience App works and you have your tickets park passes and all of your family members linked ahead of time. That can take some time you so guys don’t sleep on that because getting all your family members linked up can be a serious endeavor. Especially, when like aunt Susan doesn’t want to accept the invitation online and your mom’s just like oh just do it. You know it can take some effort. So, don’t sleep on it, don’t try to do it the day before. Give yourself a couple weeks to get your whole travel party on our Disney experience and connect it to you. So, you can make plans for them.
Now having that stuff in there ahead of time means you just need to click through the steps of getting a boarding pass and you’ll be able to do it very quickly. Time is of the essence here though they are still getting completely booked in a matter of seconds. You can always try again at 2 p.m. If you weren’t successful, your best bet is going to be that first release at 7 a.m. and we can’t really stress enough how important it is to have everybody loaded in and to know what you’re doing when you’re trying to book that boarding group especially if you only have one day in studios.
15. Plan Ahead For Resort Days
We love a good resort day and that means basically, when you hang out at your hotel and you spend some time by the pool and you just lounge around your resort to refuel and relax and keep your Disney park stamina but not all pool bars and quick service locations are open or at least not open every day. So, check with your hotel for what’s open ahead of time.
If things are only open certain days and you know you want to eat at those locations on your resort day. You will probably want to plan around their operating hours and again ask about the pool hour situation and find out is there a capacity at the pool and what time should we get there in order to make sure we get a lounge chair.
They haven’t really been filling up when the resorts first opened they filled up a little bit. We haven’t seen that happening a lot lately but you never know so, make sure you’re informed and knowledgeable about what’s open at your hotel and what’s going on with the pool situation.
16. Save Money On Merchandise
Check Shop Disney for promos ahead of time for souvenirs. We always recommend buying some of those authentic Disney Park souvenirs before you even go then you’re not paying park prices for those. You can sometimes get those discounts on chopped Disney and you can save a good chunk of change and even get free shipping. So, you’re all ready to go when your kiddo really, really wants a souvenir.
Now galaxy’s edge merch is even sold online. Now remember they were only going to sell it on batuu and nobody was ever going to get it unless they were on planet. Well now you can get it pretty much everywhere and you can even order stuff while you’re on vacation. So, you can get it shipped directly home instead of having to carry it in your luggage that’s a smart tip to remember. They’re not doing resort package delivery right now where you can get your purchases sent back to your hotel. So, you don’t have to carry them but you can still have your thing sent to the front of the park to pick up on your way out usually, so definitely ask a cast member about that so you don’t have to haul your bags around all day.
17. Check Menus
Always check menus because restaurants may not have your favorite dishes. Right now many dishes have returned like that amazing goat cheese ravioli at California grill that we are not even lying. We just had two of them for dinner but menus are limited. So, check ahead of time on the Disney world website or with our friends over at allyears.net for up-to-date menus. So, you can plan to go to restaurants you really want to eat at and that are offering dishes that you really want to try.
18. Prepare For Lines In Unexpected Places
You need to do this because stores may have lines later in the day especially those big ones and that is something we are thousand percent not used to back in 2019. The Emporium could be packed wall-to-wall with people at park clothes and they were still letting folks in. Now you may need to wait in the line or sign up for a wait list or a virtual line or a virtual queue and still wait in line. Kiosks have been drawing long lines too but they’re harder to notice with everyone six feet apart.
When the line extends much farther than it normally would and don’t forget that some of those shopping locations have specific entrances. Remember that now you can only go in specific doors. So, find the entrance and ask the cast member there what the virtual waitlist situation is.
Here, we got to tell you the last time we were in Disney springs, the wait for world of Disney went all the way back to the other side of the marketplace. It was unbelievable so heads up even if it doesn’t look like there’s a line ask a cast member make sure there’s no line.
19. Driving Versus Flying
This is a big planning question you’re going to need to decide for your family but we’ve got tips either way Magical Express is still running between Disney world and the airport but you will need to grab your own bags. Right now you can still get that complimentary ride to your hotel. You’ll just have to bring your own bags from the baggage claim and get them loaded on the bus.
Now driving could feel safer for you and your family especially, if you live close enough to not need to worry about overnight stays and you pack a lunch for the car. If you live further away you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons as, driving may feel safer though studies around.
Airline travel have shown it’s relatively safe as well but you want to factor in the time it takes to drive or the cost a lot of airlines are running big specials right now. So you’ll want to price things out and consider what your family is comfortable with and also be sure to check if certain airlines are still filling middle seats or not filling middle seats depending on what you guys are desiring from a safety perspective.
20. Skip The 50th Anniversary
All right, this is going to be a very controversial tip so get ready to skip the 50th anniversary unless you really want to be there. The Event Park passes are already selling out for the official October 1st Disney world anniversary date. It is going to be crowded we’re not sure how long capacity restrictions will be in place.
By October, we could see capacity restrictions increase to near normal which means a lot of people celebrations will likely go on all year long. So, you may not need to be there on October 1st to enjoy the festivities but remember even if big things are happening on October 1st, crowds tend to wane a couple of days later and all of the stuff is still there like the specialty food and the specialty merchandise and all of that stuff and of course a lot of those new rides are going to be open after the main October first date. So, if you want to ride all the rides then after October 1st probably makes sense because then they’re all going to be open.
21. Book Those Park Passes Early
All right book those park passes early, whether you’re going for the 50th or not. You’re going to want to book your park passes as soon as you have your tickets. We’ve seen many dates sell out in advance even a year out from the 50th. It’s getting close and it seems that Disney will be using park passes well into 2021. If not beyond so, know which parks you want to visit on which days of your trip, before you buy those park tickets and as soon as you have those tickets and they’re linked to your account go ahead and book those park passes. They are free to get and you can always change them. If you need to cancel and book a different park it’s super easy to do if there’s still availability but you won’t be stuck without a way into the parks, as long as you book ahead.
22. Park Hours Before Booking Your Park Passes
Always check those park hours before booking your park passes. When you’re deciding which park to book on which day take a look at the scheduled park hours. You may be picking your favorite park on a day with shorter hours than the rest of your vacation. Park hours do change a lot, we talk about it almost every day on Disney food blog that the park hours are changing here or there at some point and this is especially true around the holidays or busy periods. So, be sure to check back as your trip gets closer and then you can move those park passes around a little bit if there’s still availability and if they’ve extended the hours in a certain park.
23. Bring Backup Masks
Bring those backup masks and more backup masks and then another extra backup mask. Just in case they may get wet or annoying to wear after having the same strap rubbing in the same place on your ear for hours or kind of like shoes bring extras to swap out throughout the day. We always have to bring multiple different fabrics, some disposable ones and some with different ear straps. We should bring some that tie and some that don’t. Just so, that we can always sort of freshen up and change it out and do something a little bit different like we always find that disposable masks get super sweaty super-fast because they’re not absorbent. Whereas the cotton masks tend to absorb that sweat much but we don’t know we are just letting you know our experience.
Bring those extras to swap out throughout the day and test them out ahead of your trip so that you know if they’re comfortable enough to wear for hours. We loved these masks that I wore in July and then we wanted to wear them again on our next trip but the ear straps were a little bit too tight. So, what we did was we just cut the ear straps and added a little extra elastic to it. After adjusting them a little bit better they were perfect for the next trip. So, if you spend a little bit of time practicing ahead of time then you should be able to save yourself a lot of literal and maybe even figurative pain.
24. Pack Hand Sanitizer
Disney’s got lots of hand sanitizer all over the place but you may find yourself in need of some. When there isn’t a dispenser around or when the hand sanitizer has run out in a particular dispenser or you may just have a preference after using so much hand sanitizer in 2020 that there’s a kind you really like. pack a small container in your park bag and have a larger one in your hotel room to refill each night so you’ll never run out. We can find it just really handy to have kind of a little carabineer hand sanitizer clipped onto our bag and we can just use it throughout the day.
Make it real easy to just have it there so, if I’d get on a ride and I’d use hand sanitizer and I’d get off and I’d immediately use hand sanitizer. So, that just worked really well for us and we had a certain kind that we really liked. We just got a lot of that because we know like when we went to Universal we don’t really like the hand sanitizer at universal.
When they squirt it in your hand before you get on a ride and so, we just kind of made sure that we should always use our own sanitizer to get rid of the smell of the weird stuff that they use that we didn’t like.
25. Take Frequent Breaks
Taking frequent breaks down time during a Disney vacation is important and if this is your first big vacation during the pandemic of 2021, running around all day while wearing a mask can be tough so don’t pack your schedule tight that you don’t have time to just sit for half an hour. If that’s what you need taking breaks doesn’t mean traveling all the way back to the hotel, either the parks have relaxation stations where you can sit or stand safely off to the side and remove your mask for a while but more so than ever before we shall say on these trips.
We’ve needed a break maybe that’s just because we are getting old but build those breaks into your day that’s another reason why we really do like to have that table service meal. It’s really even more relieving than it has been in the past to be able to sit down and take that mask off for a little while.
26. Have A Plan For Eating
You’ve made your advanced dining reservations but you’ll need a plan for snacks too. You must be stationary and distanced to eat and you can’t eat in Queue lines anymore. Those relaxation zones are a good spot to stop to eat but you will need to stop so plan snack time into your schedule and leave yourself a little more time than you think you might need. It may take a few minutes to find a spot that’s out of the way and then it’ll take a little while to actually eat your snack.
Just always give yourself a little more time than you think you’re going to need. Finding your way into and out of the entrances and the exits and finding a place to actually eat your food and finding a table that’s open to sit down, all of this can be really time taking. Those are all taking a little extra time than what we are used to so, build in that time cushion for just about everything you’re doing on your trip including transportation.
27. Prepare To Hunt For The Entrance
All right, stores have specific entrances and exits like we said and you may need to walk a bit to find them. So, just because a door is open that doesn’t mean you can walk right in pay attention to the markers indicating where store entrances and exits are. The stuff is in place to keep you safe and believe us those cast members are dealing with enough. So, don’t try to walk in the exit and just don’t go find the entrance.
28. Get Ready For Rope Drop
Going early to the parks is on our recommended tips again. There was a couple of months there that we said that to go later so, you’re not in the middle of the crush of all the people. When you first go into the park but not anymore. Those queue lines are getting too long and with the crowds increasing after all Disney’s bumped up to 35 as of November 2020 which is still relatively low but waits can reach one hour plus even longer than that even though you’ve got fewer guests. So, plan to arrive early. Hit those rides that will get longer lines later in the day. At least until that fast pass comes back you’ll be able to get a lot done in the first hour or two that a park is open. So, those hours are very valuable if you can get yourself and your family out of bed in time.
29. How To Use Mobile Order Ahead Of Time Mobile
Ahead of time mobile ordering lets you order food from quick service restaurants through our Disney experience app. It’s faster and it reduces touch points and Disney is real serious about you using it.
They don’t want people to just walk up and order at the kiosk the way that you normally would. It is possible to do it but they don’t encourage it so set up your our Disney experience account with your credit or debit card or gift cards in advance. So, when you’re hungry you’re not juggling all that stuff in the park and another thing to be considerate is everybody’s mobile ordering right now, those crunch times like 12 o’clock or you know if you’re going to eat dinner at six o’clock.
Those can get real busy so you may need to actually start your mobile order process like an hour before you actually want to eat because they do have designated times available and once that a time is filled up you have to move on to the next time. So, if you want to eat at noon or one o’clock or something like that start the process at 11 and choose the time that you want to eat before it sells out.
Now there are of course cast members standing outside of restaurants to help you with mobile order. If you need it but if you practice placing an order ahead of time it’ll be so much simpler when you’re there. Again this is something, you can do at home before you even go to Disney world. Just practice you don’t have to actually pay for the item but you can go through the whole process right up to the payment screen to practice it so definitely do that before you leave.
30. Order Food Earlier Than You Think
You should order food earlier than you think from mobile order. We already covered that in the last one but that’s number 30.
31. Make Sure Your Phone Is Charged
Make sure your phone is charged okay phones are super important in Disney world. Right now it’s how you’re going to check in for reservations at restaurants and order your food and get in your hotel room. If you don’t have a magic band check wait times join the queue for rise of the resistance and even there’s a new mobile order checkout for merchandise locations. So, if you want to go shopping and not wait in super long lines to check out your purchases. There are a couple places in Disney world that are testing out a new system where you actually pay for your purchases on your our Disney experience account and then just show them a QR code to get out of the store. It’s brilliant. Anyway is phone very important you cannot do Disney without a smartphone. Absolutely, but it’s a whole lot easier if you have one and you’re going to want to make sure it stays charged while you’re running those apps. So, bring those external chargers or buy a fuel rod. You can purchase a swappable charger from kiosks around Disney world. You can get a new charged one whenever, you need and there are also USB charging outlets on buses and near the tangled bathrooms in magic kingdom and a few other places in Disney world. We are never without a big old external charger brick. We just bring it with us everywhere, and of course we create content for the internet.
So, we are using our phone even more than everybody would be but those chargers can also come in handy for your kids pads’ and all the other stuff that you’re bringing to Disney world. So, it’s always handy to have a couple of those and you can just charge them at night and bring them with you the next day.
32. Keep GPS Enabled
All right keep GPS enabled because the Disney experience app needs GPS enabled in order to perform certain functions like checking you into your room or checking for nearby walk-up waitlist restaurants. Make sure it’s on before you need it so, you’re not holding things up when you’re just trying to get seated for dinner.
33. Stay Aware Of Travel Restrictions
Stay aware of travel restrictions as, some states require self-quarantine. When visiting or returning from certain locations, stay up to date on that info. So, you know what you need to do and stay on top of your state’s requirements as well as Florida’s requirements and factor any quarantine time into your vacation plan.
Hopefully, these precautions won’t affect late 2021 trips but if you’re going to Disney at the beginning of the year these are things you’ll probably want to consider. Now we’ve done a great blog post on how to get a covid 19 test in Disney world because there are places you can get free tests in Disney world. So, we have all of those details there one of our reporters actually, went and got one so, that she could really clearly show everything you need to know about that so definitely check that out.
34. Know When To Visit
If you can only travel during a break school or work that pretty much settles it. But if you have flexibility try not to visit on holiday weekends. If you want low crowds even with limited capacity the parks are going to be crowded. Thanks giving ended up being a little less crowded than we expected but the days following were pretty packed. Especially, in pinch points like main from street USA. Now you won’t need to worry so much about conventions and sporting events in 2021 and at least not likely in the first half of the year practice by the way.
35. Understand The New Park Hopping Rule
Starting January 1st at 2pm if you have a ticket that allows power copping, you will be able to hop to another park after you visited the park, you originally, had a park pass reservation. So, if you book a park pass for Hollywood studios you go there first and then after 2 pm you can park hop to another park that isn’t at capacity. Yet, Disney has said you will not need to make a reservation for the second park you visit but that entrance may be restricted due to park capacity. So, if it’s packed then you’re not going to be able to get in we don’t yet know if you’ll form a queue or join a virtual queue for entrance to the park or how they’ll handle things when a park reaches capacity but we will be reporting all about it on January 1st and we’ll have the updated info here on the channel. So, you know just how to plan be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss it.
36. Check That Your Must-dos Are Open
Check that your must do things are open and available. So, check that ride refurbishment calendar to make sure everything you want to see and do is open. Disney’s water parks are closed through March and water rides typically close in January. So, kali river rapids has already announced its closure and we expect to hear about Splash Mountain in the near future. Now remember Splash Mountain’s transition to the princess and the frog themed ride has also been expedited.
According to Disney we’re not sure when that ride will close for an extensive period but we will let you know as soon as we hear. Anything now because splash mountain usually does clothes for refurbishment in the beginning of the year. It may close down for longer to do that princess and the frog complete redeem.
We don’t know we’ll keep you updated and the Disney world calendar will let you pull up the week you’re visiting and see all the rides that are scheduled to be closed during that time but those things do change so keep an eye on our website for further updates. We write about reforms every single week. Many restaurants are still closed too. We’ve got a post that we continually update over on Disney orlandolanes.com that lists everything that is open right now and everything that’s closed. It’s a great resource to check if your favorite restaurant has reopened because you know we’re reporting every single restaurant that reopens and everyone we see that’s about to reopen.
38. Make Sure You Have A Park Map
All right make sure you have a park map whether, it’s on your phone or a physical map. It’ll make getting around so much easier especially, in Epcot where construction is crazy and it makes getting around really difficult. Right now the our Disney experience app will give you directions inside the parks and tell you the fastest path to get to where you need to go and you can find the closest bathroom or snack location too. But if you want to save some phone battery grab a physical map and keep it in your pocket.
39. Leave Plenty Of Time For Transportation
Leave plenty of time for transportation. Disney transportation has limited capacity. So, it may take longer to grab a monorail or bus and then you could have traffic delays or other issues that mean a trip you thought would take 20 minutes actually takes 45. Even driving yourself the parking at Disney Springs can get pretty chaotic and you could spend an hour driving around trying to find a parking spot. So, leave earlier than you need to. The worst that will happen is you get somewhere a little early but give yourself plenty of time. Especially, if you’re trying to go to Disney springs on a weekend.
40. Staying In Certain Hotels Can Cut Down On Transportation
Staying in certain hotels can cut down on transportation. So, if you don’t want to factor in transportation time every single day of your trip consider staying at hotels. Where you don’t need to use transportation to get to the parks the grand Floridian walkway to the magic kingdom is now open. So, you can walk from all three monorail resorts to the park.
If you stay near Epcot’s international gateway entrance. You can also walk to Hollywood studios and Epcot those hotels include yacht and beach club boardwalk inn and the swan and dolphin the sky liner does have its occasional glitches and just the other week it shut down for a good portion of the day.
But it is generally a quick and reliable transportation mode with more accurate and short travel times than most other methods of free Disney transportation. So, if you want to use the Skylander to get to Epcot and Hollywood studios, stay at art of animation or pop century Caribbean beach resort or Riviera resort.
41. Stay Aware Of Disney’s Policies
Always stay aware of Disney’s policies; from mask policies to refund and change or cancellation fees for hotels and packages things are changing frequently as Disney adapts to the current situation. Disney has extended their flexible cancellation policy several times. The imposed change or cancellation fees are waived right now up until the date of check-in currently that is April 30th 2021 but that will likely change as we get closer to that date depending on what happens with the pandemic.
Using a travel agent can help you stay aware of these policies that may affect your trip again. We love small world vacations and they can answer any questions you have and keep you up to date on all the latest changes.
42. If You’re Traveling In The Summer Consider Trip Insurance
If you’re traveling in the summer, consider trip insurance. Disney and many airlines are waving change fees well into 2021 but they may not continue all the way through hurricane season which goes from June all the way to the end of November. Look into trip insurance and familiarize yourself with Disney’s hurricane policies.
2020 was a very active year and there’s no telling what 2021 may bring. If a hurricane warning is issued within seven days of your arrival you’ll be able to reschedule without a fee usually but keep an eye on Disney’s hurricane policies on their website.
43. Consider Purchasing Memory Maker
Consider purchasing memory maker because now photo pass photographers cannot hold your phone right now so, if you want photos taken of your family in the parks you may want to purchase the memory maker program you can save some money. If you buy the package in advance two it’s a hundred and sixty nine dollars in advance and 189 dollars.
If you purchase after this is a photo pass package and it includes any in-ride photos or photos taken by photo pass photographers in the parks and you’ll be able to download the photos as many times as you want until they expire. That’s currently 45 days from when the photo was taken.
44. Know When The Latest Rides Are Opening
Know when the latest rides are opening. Keep an eye on DFB for ride openings restaurant openings new menu updates and changes. 2021 is going to be an unbelievable year. Everything’s going to keep changing through the year and we’re awaiting the opening dates for a whole lot of new things coming in 2021.
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is coming to the France pavilion in Epcot guardians of the galaxy cosmic rewind and space 220 are also coming to Epcot over in future worlds. The troy coasters coming to magic kingdom, roundup rodeo barbecue is coming to Hollywood studios and so much more. Stay on top of when those things are opening crowds.
It will definitely be a bit more intense around any new ride openings or restaurant openings but you’ll also get to see the latest and newest stuff happening at Disney world. If your trip times out with a restaurant or ride opening.
45. Be Flexible
Finally, be flexible as park hours will change; more entertainment may come back and characters may return to some restaurants. So, much could change. It’s a very unprecedented time for Disney world. We’re always going to be reporting on the latest breaking news here on orlandolane.com.
If you want to make sure you get the absolute latest as soon as it happens sign up for our newsletter. It’s free and if you head to orlandolane.com 2021 Disney’s tour tips, you can sign up for the newsletter right now and get the full list of tips we’ve shared in this article traveling to Disney world.
2021 is going to take some planning you guys but that’s why we’re here to help simplify things and make your planning smooth and your trip perfect genuinely that is why we get up every day. We have a whole team here at Orlando Lanes and we always talk about how we work for you. We work for our viewers our readers our followers. It is our goal and our job to make sure you have an amazing trip to Disney World that you’re not spending money on things you shouldn’t spend money on that you’re not spending more money than you need to be spending and that you have the trip that is going to best suit your family.
Everybody’s different, there’s tons of different things to do in Disney world and you need to choose the ones that are going to be right for you guys. We hope you find this article helpful and we hope you find it useful. We love getting your feedback. So, thank you guys for reading and thanks for visiting.
