Waiting in lines is an expected part of the experience at Walt Disney World. Even if you are a FastPass+ wizard, chances are good that you’ll spend more minutes of your life than you care to admit queuing for various rides, shows, attractions and more while on a trip to Walt Disney World. But did you know that not all lines at the resort are mandatory? There are actually several lines that guests wait in for no real reason at all. No matter when you visit the parks, here are five lines you can (and should!) bypass.
1. Bag check
First-time visitors who arrive at a Walt Disney World park are often surprised that the first line they encounter isn’t to get into the park, it’s for bag check. Now if you have a purse, backpack, camera you are going to have to go through this line, no excuses. However, just because one person in a party has a bag, that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to go through the line. There is always a “guests without bags” gate that is usually manned by a security guard or two that is normally adjacent to the massive bag check line, and it is perfectly acceptable to use this gate if you don’t have a bag.
Even guests who do have bags can take advantage of the no bag area by leaving all their bags with one member of their party. Though splitting up won’t work in all circumstances, if you have someone in your party that doesn’t mind waiting, you can get the rest of your party through the front gate tapstiles and save some serious time.
2. FastPass+ reservations
When you make a FastPass+ reservation, you’ll get a return window that generally lasts between 40 minutes to an hour. There’s actually no reason to show up for your 6:50PM Soarin’ FastPass+ reservation at 6:30PM just to stand in line to be the first person to get on the attraction during the allotted time period. However, guests standing in line to be the first to redeem a FastPass+ reservation is a phenomenon that has been happening since the inception of this system.
This is an especially baffling behavior as the core feature of FastPass+ is the ability to skip a line. Why create a line when the idea is to eliminate lines? It doesn’t make sense, clogs up the FastPass+ line, completely halts forward motion for Standby guests, and perhaps most damagingly, wastes guests’ time.
However, you don’t need to be one of these queue-creating bystanders. Do yourself a favor and don’t arrive at the very beginning of your FastPass+ reservation window. The attraction isn’t going anywhere, and you’ll be able to experience it much faster if you wait until your FastPass+ window actually starts.
3. Stroller parking
Though the Magic Kingdom is home to one of the world’s largest parking lots, it is dwarfed by the amount of stroller parking that is found around the resort. No matter where you are inside a Walt Disney World park, chances are good you’re not more than 1000 feet from a stroller parking area. However, some stroller parking areas are more popular than others, and often have several attendants that will offer guests assistance to get their stroller safely tucked away while they ride the Toy Story Midway Mania, the Haunted Mansion, or whatever is close by.
However, even though there may be an attendant or two assisting guests, anyone can self-park their stroller for any reason, no waiting required! Though it’s helpful to have a Cast Member take care of your stroller for you, you don’t have to queue behind one that is helping other guests. Though a Cast Member may move your stroller later on to make space for others, queuing for several minutes for stroller parking is unnecessary.
4. Quick service queues
Around 11AM, lines at popular quick service eateries start to swell, and around the noontime hour, it’s not uncommon for guests to wait an hour or more at places like Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café or Pecos Bill’s Tall Tale in and Café. However, waiting so long for lunch isn’t necessary, even on busy days, as there are two things guests can do to avoid these lines.
First up, guests who don’t mind waiting until after 1PM to eat, definitely should. Not only is this time after the traditional noontime lunch hour, but guests at the Magic Kingdom will also begin funneling towards parade viewing areas for the Festival of Fantasy parade.
If you can’t hold out until after 1PM, guests can also visit some lesser-known eateries that are perhaps off the beaten path. For instance, the Magic Kingdom opens several restaurants only on busy days that almost always have no wait, and many of the quick service eateries deep in Epcot’s World Showcase (especially the Liberty Inn in America as well as the Tangerine Café in Morocco) often have no wait. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a bit of a special case as it doesn’t have that much in the way of quick service dining aside from the quartet of Pizzafari, Local Foods Cafe, Flame Tree Barbecue and Harambe Marketplace, but there are several food stands around the park that offer great selections with almost no wait. Disney’s Hollywood Studios also often has limited options, but if you’re looking to skip the lines at the Sunset Ranch Market, ABC Commissary or Backlot Express, Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner often has very short waits.
5. PhotoPass Pictures
Whether its on Main Street USA in front of Cinderella Castle or at the base of Expedition Everest’s Forbidden Mountain, there are plenty of iconic pictures that many Walt Disney World guests love to take. And with Memory Maker now added to all Walt Disney World annual passes, demand for PhotoPass pictures has definitely reached a new high.
However, instead of queueing behind a PhotoPass photographer (and subsequently blocking traffic around the park), guests can either opt to come back later or find a different PhotoPass photographer. When there is heavy demand for photographers in a certain location, Disney will often deploy other photographers, which negates the need for a line. Simply having some patience in this situation is best, and will keep you from queueing unnecessarily.
Do you have any tips to share on avoiding lines at Walt Disney World?
