I have tons of tips/tricks I should probably make my own thread but here is the interesting ones (and it'll probably be a lot of them).
- When booking, only put down the deposit. Plan your trip, make your reservations, get your fast passes. Watch all the discounts and change your booking if you see something that saves you more money. The website is extremely friendly to this even showing you a side by side comparison without loosing your originals. If your happy with the changes, you can quickly submit then and pay off your balance at the same date you were originally given. I've never tried to change after paying off, it might still be possible but I like paying less than trying to get a refund.
- The above is also great if your on the fence about the meal plan or which meal plan. If you get lucky, suddenly a free meal plan discount will show up. But once you've planned your trip you can do some math and figure out if the meal plan or which one is worth it and adjust your booking for what saves you the most money.
- you might be able to trigger a better discount email by being logged in, try out a few resorts and alternative dates and wait. This trick also works for online stores where you'll start to buy something, stop and a few days later an email with a discount or coupon appears for it.
- Everyone gets different discount options emailed to them. Grandparent specials seem to be the best rates. Make sure you email and call anyone you know that has been to disney and ask what they have hiding in their email. A good example is right now, the free food offer pails in comparison to what some people got in email. We got a better resort, better free meal plan, better ticket prices with included extras for less money than the website advertised discount.
- If you find near the end of your trip you have extra meals on your plan your never going to use, look for a family when heading to a reservation that could use a nice dinner. It's usually easy to find those that saved for a lifetime for their 1 and only trip. Even if your reservation isn't for enough people, just say "sorry, we have more now".. I've never been turned away.
- You can adjust individual meals into other types, talk to concierge. Break up some tables for extra quick services or snacks instead of not using them.
- The extra food boths found during holidays or the food festival, everything is considered a snack, even if it's over $5. (not alcohol)
- You can request a new fastpass time from the app. After you use your first, try to move your others. Generally we can take 3 fast passes over 4 hours and do them all in 1 hour and start to get more from the kiosks (which we try to change the times on also). Extremely handy for that last day when you just want to hit a few specific rides 1 last time or your first day when you arrived later and just dont' have much time.
- Concierge can add a 4th fast pass in some situations. (although they generally need a reason, be nice to them)
- Any cast member in the parks with a tablet can add a 4th fast pass. (again they might need a reason).
- If you're going to check out the vacation club, when someone at one of their stands mentions the trip to talk and see the demo rooms. Make it sound like you don't have the time and they will throw 5 use almost anywhere at anytime fastpasses onto everyone that came with you magicbands. You get them after you do the visit to the demo rooms. They also have some free icecream and things there for the kids.
- when you hear a ride is broken, don't rush off too fast. Generally when the wait was long they will hand out use anywhere today paper fastpasses if they don't think the ride will be fixed fast. If your lucky, you'll get stuck in rain and they will give you a handfull.
- Most rides (except for the coasters) have 2 or more "tracks". When you hear something like tower of terror is being repaired, stay in line, let everyone else leave and you'll quickly find yourself in the 2 elevators that aren't broken enjoying the ride. Works for most rides except the coasters or outdoor ones you can see there is more than 1.
- Sometimes when a ride breaks or has to close for weather, the fastpass system stops checking what time your fastpass is (early days of the magic bands, not sure if this works anymore). If it was just raining and the ride is reopening or you know it was broken, just try to use your fastpass, worst case the castmember will tell you sorry your fastpass is at x:xx.
- Most rides will never say less than 10 minute wait. This means it's a walk on. some rides with a mini-show in line first will say 12 or 14 minutes minimum.
- As it gets later (after fireworks), some rides stop updating the wait time and stick to 30-40 minutes (less popular but a little crowded may say 20). This is to help parents who want to get their kids to leave. Ask the castmember if the time is accurate. They will always say yes but watch their body language and you should be able to tell if they are nudging you to just go in.
- Another trick to tell if the ride time is not accurate near the end of the evening, sit for a couple minutes and watch if they hand anyone the red "necklace". you'll see them hanging next to the castmember in the front. This is how the clocks get updated and someone waits in line, hands it off when they make it to the ride. If they aren't handing them out every few minutes, then the ride is most likely a short wait and the 'everyone go home' time is up.
- Any non-food shop that sells bottles of alcohol also has cigarettes, including in the parks. There is always 1 that has it. You won't see the cigarettes but ask the cashier closest to it and they have them in a drawer. btw, unless you live in nyc, your going to consider them stupid expensive.
- walt was a smoker if you didn't know, i've always heard that on main street a special only available there pack with his favorite tobacco is available. Again look for the store with liquor for sale. I plan to find out if this is just a rumor next trip but would love to know if anyone knows.
- Use plastic bags with zippers to protect anything you don't want wet from rain or a ride. Handy for smokers.
- I find it interesting most don't know you can have anything you buy in the park gift shops sent directly back to your room. There is no need to carry it around or skip that perfect gift for someone.
- about a month after you were in the park, you should get an email about how you get go into the park section of
disney store online to order anything from the parks. If you don't get it, you can still go there.
- if there is something you forgot and you can't find it online. call customer service of the park you saw it in and they can sell/ship it to you. Works great for somethign you see on a blog for new merch that you "must get". I've done this several times for christmas presents when we didn't make it to disney for the holiday season.
- To stop your kids from non-stop saying buy me that, why can't I get that, but I really need that. Have a camera for them. When they see somethign they want, take a picture. The last night go over all the pictures and let them pick out the 1 thing they really want and your last day is going to get it and enjoying a few last things on the way. It really changes their mood and they enjoy being turned into expert window shoppers who are excited that they may end up with that at the end of the trip instead of cranky that you said no.
- the wifi will eventually not work, have a paper copy of your fastpass and food reservations.
- Just because you couldn't reserve a specific restaurant doesn't mean they don't have room for you. Walk up and ask if they can fit you.
- Using the bus to hollywood studios and switching to the boat is a great way to get to the back of epcot when you have a dinner reservation but not spending the day at epcot.
- One of our favorite breakfast buffets is at Ft Wilderness and it's not a character breakfast or a special event you need to reserve. It's one of the few buffets with a different variety of food than the others. (note, we haven't tried it in several years so I'm not sure if it's still there or which resturant/food court it was in). It might be worth heading over if your thinking of enjoying any of the only found at ft wilderness activities. Some good lazy day options, nice lake beach, easy to get to the bird sanctuary island (which you didn't know was there). It's a nice don't stay at the resort lazy day location within disney.
- If your in line for a ride when the park closes they do not ask you to leave until after you rode it. Same with dinner reservations. You can get some memorial night photos where your the only ones in the park with either of these tricks. Of course you'll need to walk directly from where you are to the exit and the entire park isn't yours so plan which ride around what pictures you want to get.
- Same as above, but use the early morning breakfasts to get into a park early and get some almost just you photos. Some tours are good for this also with start times and meeting locations inside the parks.
