Ins and Outs of Disney's FastPass+

Ahem . .  . Sorry, guys, there are no real tricks to this. . . yet.



Gotta smile with Minnie and Pluto!

There are a few facts that I can list, and I will, but for the most part there are no tricks to securing the FastPass+ for certain coveted rides except to catch the ride during the off season, or staying at a WDW hotel, or waiting in lines (horribly long wait times during peak season!)



The show right before the 'soft' park opening.

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Tips:

• If you can afford to stay in a WDW hotel, then do so. This gives you up to 60 days in advance to schedule your FP+ times. WHICH MEANS: you have to know which park you are going on any given day. There is no freedom to change your mind at the last minute. Oh, the WDW gurus say that you can, but not during peak season as all the 'good' FP+ passes are gone before you even get to the park. If you buy your tickets, but stay off-site at another Orlando hotel, then you have only 30 days prior to your visit to get your FP+ tickets.
• Go to the online map, print it out, and have some family meetings prior to picking your FP+ options. Your vacation will be much happier if you let everyone choose something they really, really want to do. And this way, you can familiarize yourself with the park, the rides, and the set up.
• Last year I groused about the new maps. Well, there was a reason for the way they set up those maps--they have an online phone app that gives you the wait times of various attractions. Yes, there are tons of people starring at their phones as they figure out where their FP+ is and how long the wait times are for the attractions around the FP+ time. And yes, there was one day, a Saturday, that the app was down for virtually all day. If we hadn't jotted the information down prior to walking out the door we wouldn't have had a clue when or which FP+ we had, along with the time of our dinner reservations. Just realize that there are probably 100,000+ people at these four parks on a crowded day, all trying to log on to their app.
• My hubby's Samsung 5 had enough battery juice to last all day (8 am- 9 pm), but not all phones last that long. There were many people sitting next to a plug all around the park. On an aside: the Universal Florida app wasn't as good and we roamed a lot, which sucked up the battery juice.
• Only three (3) FP+ passes are issued each day. You can try to get more FP+ AFTER the final time frame of your last issued FP+. Each FP+ takes an hour time frame, which means that you can have FP+ tickets back-to-back. For example: 9-10 am--7 Dwarves Mine Train, 10-11 Big Thunder Mountain, and 11-12 Pirates of the Caribbean. After the 12 PM time passes you can go to a kiosk and try to get another FP+. Many times the wait times were up to an hour just to see if there were any FP+ tickets left for a particular ride. . .  In other words: don't waste your time if it's peak season, just wait in line or get up at the butt-crack of dawn to be one of the first to ride the ride.
• The way we would plan the previous three FP+ times would be to ride the Mine train toward the end of the FastPass period and then hit Thunder Mountain at the beginning of the Fast Pass time. Don't forget to allow for lunch and the ensuing crowds at the lunch places.
• If you are an early morning park person, I would suggest not getting your first FP+ until an hour after the park opens. You won't need one in the first hour of operations because the park isn't that crowded.
• And no, you can't have two FP+ at one park, and then park hop to your third FP+. We wanted to do that since we tend to eat at EPCOT in the evenings. As it currently is set up, you are not able to do this.
• Rides that normally don't crowd up had waits of 45 min. or longer. The Haunted Mansion was one of those rides.
• Peak season is hideously crowded. They even offer FP+ locations for parades, fireworks, along with character greetings. Yeah, it's that crowded. Plan to have ZERO personal space as people will squish and squeeze their way into any small opening. It's not so bad first thing in the morning, but by late afternoon you are dealing with hot, tired, sweaty, and stinky people with a very short fuse. .. .just saying. And that's not all the screaming kids throwing temper tantrums because they are hot and tired.
• If you are an early morning park type person, get thee to a park at least 30 minutes prior to opening. Many times they will have a soft opening and open the main gate 10-15 minutes before the official opening. Don't kill yourself or others as you gallop to Space Mountain because the rides themselves will NOT open until the official opening time. The early opening allows you to place yourself in a good spot to get on the ride in a timely manner.
• Do not waste your time going to a show during this first hour of any park opening, focus on riding the big rides before the lines get too long. Shows might look crowded from the outside, but most of them offer a system of various pre-show rooms.
• IF you stay in a WDW hotel, you must take advantage of the early park entry times offered. It isn't every park on every day. Some are late night hours after the park is closed, but remember that everyone else who is staying at a WDW hotel will be going to that park after the other parks close, thus jam packed with stinky, sweaty humanity.
• It's the early morning hours you want as most of the late nighters are still sleeping. You have to figure out your schedule to work the early park openings into your schedule (yes, it's on their website and in their brochures). On a side note: the early/late park hours don't necessarily stay the same every year, AND the times change according to the park hours during that particular time of year. Summer offers longer hours than spring or fall, staying open as late as 12 AM or even 1 AM.  
• When you choose your FP+ options don't expect to get the primo roller coaster ones each day. They allow two big rides and one minor type attraction. This is really a pain in Epcot where you can have either Soarin' or Test Track, but not both on the same day. Remember the early days of Disney where they had A, B, C tickets? You would only have one or two A tickets, but you couldn't give the C tickets away. Yeah, some of the FP+ options are like the C tickets. Do you really need a FP+ to see Captain Eo? I think not.

That's all I can think of to offer as suggestions for right now. If you have any questions, please ask away. I'm getting tired of talking to myself on this blog.

Here are a few pictures taken at Walt Disney World.

All these pictures are taken with hubby's cell phone.

Here are a few pics from the Magic Kingdom:


Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom. Disney drained the ponds on either side and are doing some major construction. No, we don't know what they are doing.

Space Mountain. I think we rode this about six or seven times. This is the best picture! We texted our friend Steve with a daily picture since I didn't want to post on FB that we were gone, and this was one of the first ones we sent.

Buzz Lightyear ride. I suck at the laser shooting, personally I blame the hubby for moving the car when I line up my shot. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

on Big Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster

This was very early in the morning and the crowds were light.

Sad gargoyle needed some sugar--on entrance way into the Beast's castle.

On walkway to the Beast's castle, the 7 Dwarves Mine train is coming out of the mountain. The picture doesn't capture the gorgeous color of the plants on the mountain.

From Animal Kingdom:



Expedition Everest is in the background--totally awesome roller coaster.  The small peak to the left of the mountain is the temple in the next picture on the way up the mountain.



Going up on the steep incline of Expedition Everest. We usually hit this ride in the single rider line. We had a FP+ for this shot.

 

Kilimanjaro Safaris. . . blurry young giraffe.

Kilimanjaro Safaris. Elephant and baby.

 

From Hollywood Studios: 

 Olaf and FROZEN characters are huge at this park. They even had a fireworks show that we could see out our hotel window. It was nice to watch right before going to sleep!

Numerous big screens had Olaf interacting with the visitors throughout the day and especially during the park opening and the fireworks.





Yep, they even had Olaf cupcakes--carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

Toy Story Mania

Star Tours. The new show combines different scenarios in each ride to give a multi-faceted thrill ride that isn't the same every time you ride.

Tower of Terror. Yes, we are the goofballs on the back row. :-) We wouldn't have raised our arms if we were in front of people. This is taken at the top of the drop, right as the elevator falls. Again, this ride is set up with an infinite number of scenarios that have different drops, mixing long drops with short drops.

 

Tower of Terror behind us. The last time we took a picture here--the kidlet was up to my chin. Oh, my, how she has grown!



 

 

And finally a few pictures from EPCOT:  

 AT the Rose and Crown Pub in the UK. Post dinner. I had an incredible Scottish salmon dinner, and I don't even like salmon!

 Outside of Paris. The Eiffel Tower is in the background.

 

 The Japan pavilion. We buy the funkiest Japanese candy at the department store there. It's so good!

 

 Picture taken from Italy facing toward the front of EPCOT. The round ball is Spaceship Earth. It's a sleepy kind of ride that had Dame Judi Dench ('M' of the most recent James Bond flicks) narrating.

 

 At the China Pavilion.

 

 We ate Italian on our last WDW night.

 Outside Canada and 'Bow Falls'.

 And those are a few of the pictures we have of Walt Disney World 2014. Todd managed to keep most of the crowds out of the pictures. The most crowded location was Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom.

The new expanded Fantasyland was a big draw along with the newly opened Seven Dwarves Mine train. It was a fun ride. Not an exciting coaster, but a very Disney one.

More from Universal Florida in a day or two!

Later, peeps!

#1 Tip for Florida vacationers

DO NOT GO IN THE MONTHS OF JULY OR FIRST TWO WEEKS OF AUGUST!

 

 Jus' sayin'!

 

That sentence pretty much states it all in a nutshell, my friends.

 

Yes. I've been on vacation.

 

Yes. It was so hot we sweated as soon as we walked outside . . . and we're used to the heat and humidity!

 

Yes. We went to Disney World in Florida . . . again.

 

Yes. We rode the new Seven Dwarves mine train.

 

Yes. We went to Universal Florida. . . again. 

 

Yes. We went to Diagon Alley and rode the new Escape from Gringotts ride.

 

No. We didn't wait 4 hours (yes, you read that right. 4, as in four, quattro, cuatro, quatre, vier, etc.) for the Gringotts ride, but many people did. We waited for an hour, but that's what you do when you get up before the butt-crack of dawn to wait in line for the ride.

 

The heat. The crowds. The sweating. The blisters. The lack of sleep. The exhaustion. The 20,000+ steps a day on our Fitbits. The 10-15 MILES of daily walking.

 

 

UGH!

 

And then the good . . . The Disney bars. The rides. The food! The beer (one for every country, right?). The butterbeer ice cream.

 

MMMMMmmmm!

 

 



Our vacation started innocuously enough, three travelers ready for vacation on a beach in Florida . . .

Bright eyed and bushy tailed on the first day of vaca



Our balcony at Ft. Lauderdale



Photobombed by the daughter on beach



Sunset with a thundercloud in the east over the Atlantic

 

 



We've known for quite some time that we are NOT beach people. After a couple of hours we are bored, but it was a nice break for what was next to come. . .

 

(to be continued . . . )



Post Vacation Tips and Tricks -- General

Yes, I took a vacation.

Yes, we went back to Florida--Universal and Disney World.

Yes, things are changing--mainly, WDW, but I gleaned a few more pieces of wisdom while on vacation. I'll break the rides and stuff down in a couple other posts.

Ten Tips

1--If it is humanly possible, DO NOT GO TO FLORIDA DURING THE SUMMER! Yes, we had no option since we can't take our kidlet out of school to hit the parks during the off season. Suffice it to say, we were there with all the other parents who have to vacation during a very short window of opportunity during school breaks. . . It almost made this parent want to start homeschooling just to have the option of going at a different time.

2--If you must go during peak season do as I suggested--study the maps, know your families likes and dislikes (don't waste your time standing in line for the Beauty and the Beast show if everyone wants to ride rides), plan your day, park hop if you can. We usually did two parks every day, but did manage three parks one day. Yes, it was tiring, but sometimes you have no choice.

3--Find current maps online. Disney switched up their maps (HATE IT) by printing a map of the park by placing an image of the park with true North at the top of the map, which means you have to figure out where the park entrance is in relation to the maps and work from there. This is instead of previous incarnations of the map where the entrance is at the bottom of the map.

4--Disney also messed with the details of the map. The park looks like an artist's rendering of an aerial picture of the park with numbers on each building. This makes it difficult to figure out a) where you are, b) where you want to go, with out stopping and opening the map to figure out what all the circled numbers are in reference to. Did I mention that I HATE this new map?? And what makes it really bad is that I'm very familiar with the parks and I was very confused looking at these maps! But they never asked my opinion. Sometimes change is just change, and not necessarily for the better!

5--Pick up a Times Guide at every park. If you are at a park over a weekend, get a new Times Guide on Sunday. Yes, sometimes there are drastic changes with rides that are closing for refurbishment, or the night time parades and fireworks will change, or even the park closings. Many times Magic Kingdom was open until Midnight or later, but then when school starts and attendance lags, they close the park earlier. When they have Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween, they will shut the park down, UNLESS you have paid to attend the Halloween Party (you have to get a special wrist band).

6--The earlier you get out of bed to get to the park, the fewer people there are. . . . This is true, BUT remember there are tens of thousands of people in these parks, fewer doesn't mean none, it means less humanity in your near vicinity than there will be when you are wandering around the park at 11:00 AM. Take advantage of the Early Magic Hours if you are staying at a hotel on site. The Extra Magic Hours in the evening aren't as good since everyone from the other parks will converge on the one park with later hours.

7--People will simply stop in the middle of the walkways. Seriously, if you need to have a family consultation pull off to the side.

8--People are rude, clueless, and will use their kids as battering rams. TRUTH. If kids aren't available, they will use electric scooters, empty baby strollers, wheelchairs, or their fat grandma to push through a crowd . . .and into your shins or Achilles tendon depending on which way they are going.

9--Florida is freaking hot in the summer. The temps aren't bad, usually in the lower 90's, it's the 100% humidity that will get you. You will sweat in body places you never thought it humanly possible to sweat. Keep hydrated. Most of our crankiness was due to dehydration.

10--Again, parents please school your children--or husband--to NOT FART IN AN ENCLOSED RIDE. This is just gross and rude. Yes, I'm talking to the kid who let one rip while sitting in the simulator while waiting for the Star Tours ride to start . . . there was a reason Yoda was staring at you!

More info coming this week!

Later, Peeps!

Wally World Tips and Tricks--part one

I drafted this blog last summer as soon as we returned from Florida, but I never got around to posting it . . .  probably because I never wrote part two! I'll work on part two this weekend and post it next week some time. Hope this helps!

So you are planning to go to Walt Disney World (WDW)? Or Universal Florida (UF)?

Then you better be prepared with more than a wallet stuffed full of money!

I have so much information to share that this might take more than one blog to do it in. In the past, I've shared a few 'must do' secrets, but if you have to go to these parks smack dab in the busy season, then you really need to follow my tips and tricks.

If you have never been to these parks, the first thing you need to do is go out and buy the UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO WALT DISNEY WORLD. No, I am not associated with this book, nor I do not get any financial recompense for recommending this book. It's just a good book that CRAMS loads of information on every page. And I highly recommend you start reading this book 6-8 months PRIOR to your vacation. Yes, there is that much information to be had. The last version that I bought--2007--is about 2-inches thick with tiny font, plus it had added information about Universal Studios. I don't know if the newer books provide that information.

I'll tell you up front--the book is overwhelming--true, there's tons of information, but you have to sift through the words to find what's important for you and your family.

AND this will change as your family becomes older and your preferences change. For example: going to these parks with little kids is totally different than going to them with pre-teens.

Before you even contemplate going to either one of these parks, see if you can pull your kid from school to hit the parks during 'shoulder season'. Shoulder season is off season, usually when the kiddos are in school, but the windows of time are narrowing. The key thing to remember is that the crowds are lighter, the lines aren't as long, the temperature cooler, and it might be just a little bit cheaper.

Getting there--this last year, we drove. It was it's own adventure reminiscent of the road trip I took in my youth. Kids have it so easy now with electronic gadgets and gizmos, while I had to play I SPY or read while I was that age.

Driving was fun, but time-consuming and boring. I don't know if hubby crunched the numbers, but with the added gasoline/hotel/meals I don't know if we saved any money driving vs. flying, or not. Part of the reason we drove was so the kidlet could go to the beach. We went to two different beaches, so that part was worth it.

In the past when we flew, we would board a plane at 5-6 AM, arrive in Atlanta at 2.5 hours, board another flight to Orlando, rent a car and be eating Wendy's no later than 1 PM. Many times we would be in our hotel and on a ride three hours later. The added expense of a rental car is slightly offset by the convenience of having a car and not having to rely on the park transportation to get you to the individual parks.

Hotels--I'm spoiled here. We have always stayed at an on-site hotel. We stay at the Portofino when at Universal, and this last time at WDW we stayed at the Beach Club, which is walking distance from Epcot, instead of the Wilderness Lodge (still my favorite hotel!). I don't care where you stay because during the crowded season, you can expect most of your hotel costs to DOUBLE! BUT there are a few advantages to staying on-site.

• If you're simply comparing room sizes to outside hotels then you are doing yourself a disfavor because you need to factor in the experience and convenience of being onsite. For example: if you stay at the Wilderness Lodge, you will feel like you are visiting Yellowstone National Park. And when you travel to the Magic Kingdom, you go by boat, which is a fun experience! When at the Beach Club, you can walk to the back entrance of Epcot. Staying at the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, or Contemporary, then you can ride the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. And WDW has a fleet of buses that travel from all hotels to the various parks.
• If stay on site and you do drive your car to the parks, you don't have to pay a parking fee at those parks, which can save you $16/day/park (2014).

Staying onsite at the Universal hotels will provide you with an Express Pass voucher for the days you are in the park. Of course, for those people who don't stay at one of their hotels, UF offers a variety of options for the Express pass--the cost depends on the estimated crowd levels and time of year. The more crowded it is, the more an Express pass will cost. Click on their site to find out what a daily pass is for X amount of people in your family--and then decide if it's more beneficial to stay at an on-site hotel or not!

• Again, trust me, the extra cost of an onsite hotel is totally worth the advantage of Express Passing the long lines, plus getting into the park an hour early to the Harry Potter experience and Transformers.
• You can walk to the parks (NOT recommended if you're at the Portofino as you will get plenty of walking at the parks!), or take a bike taxi, or wait for the boat.

That's it for today. I'll have a few more suggestions in a few more days!
. . . and will probably remember a few that I forgot about when I wrote this blog!

Later, Peeps!

I'm Home

I CAN'T HANDLE IT ANY MORE!!!

Sorry, but I have to blog. It's not like I have anything to say, but blogging helps me get my writing juices flowing. I think reading Erica Orloff's blog for today helped me put it all into perspective.

I darkened my blog for two reasons: 1) to get humping on my Golden Heart entry, 2) to go on vacation. Yes, I went to Florida, Disney World and Universal, for nine days. If you ever want to visit Universal and Islands of Adventure stay in one of the Universal parks (we stayed at the Portofino). Why? Because of the super-duper cut-in-front-of-everyone-else in line perk! Talk about awesome! We jumped (legally) so many lines it wasn't even funny. Riding The Hulk back to back about four times before moving on to Dueling Dragons, etc. It was awesome! Way better than the Disney Fast Pass system. This was our first year at the Universal parks. We wanted to wait until the kiddo was tall enough for the roller coasters and she had a great time.

On Tuesday, we moved into our Disney hotel, Wilderness Lodge, and started hitting the Disney parks. The crowds at Disney were three-fold what they were at Universal with a multitude of languages being spoken (yes, I'm chalking the Brits into this category, 'cause you have to tune your ear to their dialect).

EPCOT was having it's Wine and Food around the World thing. Interesting, but I'll NEVER do it again. In case I haven't stated it before, I'll repeat: I don't do crowds. I hate crowds with a passion and these crowds rivaled the ones that are at Disney during the summer. UGH!! And the heat! Florida was having a heat wave for October. Yes, the temps were between 93-95 with high humidity. Double ugh!

By Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the water park, Typhoon Lagoon, I was starting to get a tickle in my throat. Thursday, I wanted to curl up and die. Every time I coughed it felt like my ribs were going to explode. Thursday night, I went to the hotel while the hubster and kiddo went to the Magic Kingdom to watch the SpectroMagic parade (twice), the fireworks, and ride a gazillion rides. I watched America's Next Top Model. Yeah . . .

I started feeling better by the time we left on Sunday, which means the kiddo started getting sick. She's been home with me all week, spiking 103 degree temperature. Took her to the doc on Monday and she's positive for Influenza A. Turns out 81% of positive Flu A patients are positive for H1N1. It's settled in her chest, so I'm calling the doc again. Pneumonia is one of the hazards of the flu, along with dehydration. Hubster was home on Wednesday and Thursday. He still feels like crap, but he went to work today--probably to infect the rest of his employees.

I'm still planning to finish Rosewood Manor in time for the Golden Heart. If I can read my pathetic synopsis and first fifty pages this weekend then I'm good to go on Monday.

Here's hoping!

Write on!