Tips for Visiting Animal Kingdom And Hollywood Studios In The Same Day

Trying to take in as much of Disney World as possible in a short weekend? Maybe you’re even trying to do two massive parks in one day? Luckily, while it sounds very stressful, visiting Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios in the same day is possible, and you can even have a good time doing it. I can tell you this because I’ve done it, and here are some of my tips:

Tip #1 For Visiting Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios In The Same Day: Understanding Park Hopper Passes

Disney World Park Hopper Passes are special tickets that enable you to hop from one park to the next. However, after purchasing your tickets, you must make a park reservation for the park you want to start your day off with. You will want to do this as soon as possible because, depending on the time of year, parks can fully book up. When booking your reservation, I recommend starting the day with Animal Kingdom because it opens at an earlier time, allowing for maximum time in the parks.

How To Get To Hollywood Studios From Animal Kingdom

It is important to note that currently when park hopping, you are not allowed to visit a second park until after 2 pm. I recommend taking a Disney bus from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios, which you can start boarding at 1:30 pm. Disney buses are located right outside the park entrance.

Tip #2 For Visiting Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios In The Same Day: Arrive Early

In order to truly maximize your time at Disney and have the best chance of riding all the rides and watching all the shows, you should aim to arrive at Animal Kingdom upon opening. Parks are typically the least busy right after opening and right before closing, so wait times for rides tend to be a lot shorter than during the middle of the day.

If you aren’t staying somewhere that provides a shuttle ride to Disney World, I would recommend using a rideshare service. It is much easier and faster than self-parking, which you’d have to pay for anyway. Also, if you don’t already have a Lyft account, you can use a referral code for a few dollars off your first ride. My Lyft Referral Code is ALEXANDRA41609

Bonus: If you’re staying at a Disney Resort, you likely have access to Early Park Entry.

Early Park Entry means that you can enter the park 30 minutes before everyone else, and while this doesn’t sound like a lot of time, you can actually knock out quite a few rides before other people even make it through the entrance. You could also take this as an opportunity to get in line for popular rides that typically have very long wait times, even early in the day, such as Avatar Flight of Passage.

Tip #3 For Visiting Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios In The Same Day: Genie Plus, Lightning Lanes, and Individual Lightning Lanes

When it comes to taking on two parks in one day, Genie Plus on the My Disney Experience App can be your best friend.

Genie Plus

Genie Plus is a free service that can help you plan out your day and prioritize the shows, attractions, restaurants, and characters you want to make a part of your trip. However, I highly recommend spending money on Lightning Lanes, one of the services under Genie Plus.

Lightning Lanes

Lighting Lanes can seem very confusing at first, but once you get a good understanding of how it works and actually start using it, it can be fairly simple. Lightning Lanes are basically a shorter line for a ride/show separate from the typical standby line. When booking them, you are actually booking an hour-long time slot during which you can enter the ride’s line.

The price of using Lightning Lanes for the day varies depending on how busy of a day it is for Disney World, so if you visit on one of their less busy days, it should cost around $15. You can’t make the purchase until midnight, the night before your park reservation, and you can’t book your first Lightning Lane til 7 am the morning of.

I highly recommend waking up early and booking your first ride at 7 am because time slots go fast. When it comes to Animal Kingdom, your priorities should be Navi River Journey, Kilimanjaro’s Safari, and Expedition Everest because these rides typically have the longest wait times and run out of Lightning Lanes the fastest. After booking a Lightning Lane, you can either book the next one after getting in line for your currently booked ride or wait 2 hours (whichever comes first).

You can start booking Lightning Lanes for Hollywood Studios once the time slots begin showing after 2 pm. When it comes to this park, you should be prioritizing rides such as Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Hollywood Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Dash, and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

For a better understanding of how to book Lightning Lanes, I recommend checking out these Youtube videos that I personally found useful:

• The ULTIMATE Guide to Genie+ in Disney World
• New Tips for Park Hopping at Disney World with Genie Plus
• 15 SNEAKY Genie+ SECRETS in Disney World

Individual Lightning Lanes

Individual Lightning Lanes is an additional service for the more popular rides, such as Avatar: Flight of Passage and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. With this type of Lightning Lane, you are paying an additional amount of money for individual rides rather than paying for a pass that covers multiple rides. These typically run out very fast, so if you want one, you will need to be ready to book at 7 am.

Tip #4 For Visiting Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios In The Same Day: Know What You Want To Get Accomplished

When it comes to visiting Disney World, are you prioritizing the rides, the characters, the shows, the food, or are you trying to experience a bit of everything? For this particular trip, I was prioritizing the rides and a few of the shows. Knowing what you want to get accomplished really helps you plan out your day, as well as book Lightning Lanes. Entering the park without an idea of what you want to do can really prevent you from making the most out of your experience. I’d suggest making a list of what you want to get done, such as ride Expedition Everest, meet Mickey Mouse, and watch Fantasmic. This list can be as long or as short as you want it to be.

Tip #5 For Visiting Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios In The Same Day: Don’t Make Dining Reservations

Unless there is a reservation-only restaurant that you consider a must-do during your trip, don’t book dining reservations. During my trips, I realize I eat at such irregular times of the day, and if I had booked a dining reservation for my usual dinner time, I probably wouldn’t have even been hungry. Not only that, but Disney World has several quick-service dining options that are often cheaper and allow for a more flexible schedule. You can also mobile order for some of these restaurants allowing the dining process to be much quicker and easier.

Bonus Tip: Catch The Last Showing Of Fantasmic

With Fantasmic’s reappearance at Hollywood Studios, I recommend catching the last showing of this performance if possible. When I visited, the last showing was at 9:30 pm despite the park closing at 9 pm. This meant I could maximize my time in the park by doing everything I wanted to do before 9 pm and then wrap up my night with Fantasmic after the park had already closed. On less busy nights, there may be only one showing at around 8 pm, and if this is the case, I still recommend watching the show! It is definitely worth your time.

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