Picture this: You are on your Disney Vacation, the sun is shining, you have your park day planned out, and you are excited.

But as seasoned Disney travelers know, you should expect the unexpected. There are things that pop up that can throw a hiccup in your day. No, we aren’t talking about your children having a meltdown or your phone dying. We’re talking about chaotic events that happen almost daily in Disney World and how to prepare for them.

Leaving Magic Kingdom After Fireworks

If you have ever left Magic Kingdom right after the fireworks, then you know how chaotic it is to try to simply walk on Main Street. Everyone who gathered for the fireworks is trying to leave at once. You’re trying to dodge strollers, walk through crowds of people, and you’ll probably get separated from your party.

A tip to avoid this chaos is to simply wait it out. You can do this by staying where you are and enjoying the castle views or heading to the shops on Main Street. It’s better to wait because even after you leave the crowds in the park, you’ll face the crowds trying to use Disney transportation.

Rope Dropping Flight of Passage

Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom consistently has high wait times. One way people try to avoid waiting over an hour for this ride is to “rope drop” it, meaning to head straight there as soon as the park opens.

However, since it is a mass crowd of people walking to one area of the park, things can get a bit wild. The crowd is moving quickly, but many Cast Members are usually there to keep it safe. If you want to avoid this chaos, you can purchase an Individual Lightning Lane to guarantee you a shorter wait at a time of your choosing.

Lunch at Cosmic Ray’s

During busier seasons at the parks, you’ll see crowds at quick-service restaurants around lunchtime. Our reporters have seen restaurants like Cosmic Ray’s and Casey’s Corner get packed with people trying to eat.

It can be hard to carry your tray of food or find a table when it gets this busy. We’ve seen it as bad as guests sitting on the floor either waiting for their food or eating. To avoid this mess, utilize Mobile Ordering on the My Disney Experience app and select a time outside of peak meal times.

Exiting Fantasmic!

Over at Hollywood Studios, leaving the nighttime show, Fantasmic!, is plenty of chaos. The show is housed inside an outdoor amphitheater, which is secluded from the rest of the park. Once the show is over, guests must exit the amphitheater and walk down a long path toward the exit.

To avoid this, you can sit in the stadium and wait for most of the people to exit before you start heading out. This could save you the headache over walking with a large crowd of people.

Using Disney Transportation in the Mornings

When staying at a Disney Hotel, you do have free transportation to the parks. This is very helpful, however in the mornings before the park opens, the transportation can be chaotic. Hotel guests are all trying to get to one of the parks and therefore, lines for transportation become long.

The best way to avoid this is to ask your hotel’s front desk when the transportation will begin running and try to be some of the first people there. If you would rather sleep in, grab breakfast at your hotel and wait out the crowds before heading to the parks.

Getting Your Morning Coffee

Each of the four Disney World parks has a Starbucks. This is convenient and is a big bonus for some guests. However, if you want to grab a cup and walk down Main Street with it, you’ll want to pack your patience. In the morning, lines at the Starbucks can be long. Be prepared to wait to order and also wait to receive your order.

To skip this chaos, you can get your coffee fix from many other locations including Joffrey’s stands throughout the park. Some of our team would even argue that Joffrey’s is better than Starbucks, but we’ll leave that fight for another day.

Booking Virtual Queues

Since virtual queues were introduced for new attractions, heart rates have gone up. (Not scientifically proven, but probably, right?) Right now, you can enter a virtual queue at 7 AM for two attractions at Disney World — TRON Lightcycle/Run and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. However, it’s not always so easy.

You’ll want to set an alarm and wake up before 7 AM so you can have your Disney app open and ready to hit the refresh button to grab your boarding group. We have seen the virtual queues fill up in under a minute, so timing really does make a difference. You will have to work around your sweaty palms to hit that refresh button at exactly the right time. Of course, you can always try again at 1 PM if and when they reopen the queue.

Getting Anywhere During the Parade

At Magic Kingdom, you can find the Festival of Fantasy Parade. This usually runs at 12PM and 3PM, but times can change so check your Disney app the day you are visiting. During this parade, it can be very hard to navigate around the park if you are not interested in watching it.

The parade begins in Frontierland, traveling through Liberty Square, the hub at the castle, and down Main Street. This leaves a lot of the other lands hard to get to if you are caught by the parade. You’ll want to think ahead of where you want to go during the parade and make sure you have a path to get there that avoids the parade route.

Phew — that was a lot of chaos, but we made it through! For more Disney tips and tricks, be sure to follow us at DFB.

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What is the most chaotic thing you’ve experienced at Disney World? Let us know below.