marshallandcartersmo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2005
was great! We were at WDW last week, stayed onsite at Coronado Springs (in a refurbished room!) Friday night, moved on to a rented house for the week on Saturday. We were a group of 9, ages ranging from 4-68. We had heard horror stories of heat, humidity, busyness. Yes, it was all those things, but with planning, it was totally fine. I was "in charge" of fastpasses, ADRs, scheduling for all. I can't stress the importants of that. Here's what we did (yes I took notes while we were there, lol)
Sunday--MK (arrived about 8:00, pictures in front of the castle with NO ONE in our backgrounds, literally at the rope following the cast member to our first ride--makes a HUGE difference)
Peter Pan
Pooh
Little Mermaid
Met Ariel
Dumbo
Barnstormer
Rode train to Frontierland
BTMRR pre-scheduled FP+
Be our guest lunch ADR
Seven Dwarfs pre-scheduled FP+
Space Mtn pre-scheduled FP+ (1/2 of our party used their 3rd pre-scheduled FP+ for Speedway at the same time)
Buzz FP+
Haunted Mansion FP+
Saw the parade
Pirates FP+
Jungle Cruise FP+
Aladdin FP+
Small World FP+
Mickey's Philharmonic FP+
Monsters Inc FP+
Dinner at Cosmic Rays
**party split up here, 1/2 went to carousel & met Cinderella & Elana w/FP+
other 1/2 did Peoplemover and Space Mountain w/FP+
Let the park around 7:00, exhausted but saw SO MUCH
Hollywood Studios (arrived about 8:10, at front following castmember to first ride)
Rock n Roller Coaster (could have ridden 2 times in a row with little wait but opted for a snack instead)
1/2 our party used prescheduled FP+ for TOT, other 1/2 for Disney Jr.
Visited Star Wars launch bay & met Chewy, BB8, Kylo Ren
Toured One Mans Dream
Toy Story pre-scheduled FP+
Lunch at 50's Prime Time
Beauty & the Beast 2:00 show
Star Tours w/pre-scheduled FP+
Frozen Ever After
Toy Story FP+
Little Mermaid Show
1/2 our party did Toy Story again w/FP+, other 1/2 got RnR FP+
Animal Kingdom (arrived about 8:30)
Everest 3 times in a row, no wait. Could have done more but got a little dizzy, lol
1/2 of party in walking around Dinoland and waiting in Boneyard
Dinosaur
Safari pre-scheduled FP+
Tough to be a Bug
Lunch-Rainforest Cafe
Kali River Rapids pre-scheduled FP+
Lion King
River Ride in Pandora pre-scheduled FP+
Primeval Whirl FP+
Gorilla Trail
Safari
*we didn't see FOP, chose to get our FP+ for the river ride due to some people in our party not liking motion rides. Regret that decision 100%! River ride was a snooze-fest.
EPCOT (arrived about 8:25)
Soarin
Journey to imagination
Nemo
Turtle talk
Spaceship Earth pre-scheduled FP+
Character meet and greet pre-scheduled FP+
Counter service lunch
Frozen FP+
1/2 group Test Track w/guest services FP+
1/2 group Soarin w/guest services FP+ *my MDE went down after our 3rd fastpass & I couldn't get anymore, I went to guest services & they put an any use fastpass for each member of the party in my account
The last 2 park days we revisted parks we liked, at a more slow pace, but used the same concepts. Arrived a little later & stayed for nighttime fireworks.
The point of my post---plan ahead. AS SOON as you enter the ride with your 3rd fastpass, get on that app and start finding your next ride. I always got the soonest one available, and tried to get it closest to where we currently were. Sometimes I'd get one that was an hour or two out, then click on modify and try to find an earlier opening. That usually worked. When it didn't I'd modify 1/2 of our group--try to get an earlier one for them, then go back and get an earlier time for the other 1/2. Yes, I spent most of the ride queue with my nose in my phone, lol. But it was worth it. We've been to Disney several times, and know our way around, but this was the busiest and hottest by far. Big props to Josh at his website for his tips and advice.
Sunday--MK (arrived about 8:00, pictures in front of the castle with NO ONE in our backgrounds, literally at the rope following the cast member to our first ride--makes a HUGE difference)
Peter Pan
Pooh
Little Mermaid
Met Ariel
Dumbo
Barnstormer
Rode train to Frontierland
BTMRR pre-scheduled FP+
Be our guest lunch ADR
Seven Dwarfs pre-scheduled FP+
Space Mtn pre-scheduled FP+ (1/2 of our party used their 3rd pre-scheduled FP+ for Speedway at the same time)
Buzz FP+
Haunted Mansion FP+
Saw the parade
Pirates FP+
Jungle Cruise FP+
Aladdin FP+
Small World FP+
Mickey's Philharmonic FP+
Monsters Inc FP+
Dinner at Cosmic Rays
**party split up here, 1/2 went to carousel & met Cinderella & Elana w/FP+
other 1/2 did Peoplemover and Space Mountain w/FP+
Let the park around 7:00, exhausted but saw SO MUCH
Hollywood Studios (arrived about 8:10, at front following castmember to first ride)
Rock n Roller Coaster (could have ridden 2 times in a row with little wait but opted for a snack instead)
1/2 our party used prescheduled FP+ for TOT, other 1/2 for Disney Jr.
Visited Star Wars launch bay & met Chewy, BB8, Kylo Ren
Toured One Mans Dream
Toy Story pre-scheduled FP+
Lunch at 50's Prime Time
Beauty & the Beast 2:00 show
Star Tours w/pre-scheduled FP+
Frozen Ever After
Toy Story FP+
Little Mermaid Show
1/2 our party did Toy Story again w/FP+, other 1/2 got RnR FP+
Animal Kingdom (arrived about 8:30)
Everest 3 times in a row, no wait. Could have done more but got a little dizzy, lol
1/2 of party in walking around Dinoland and waiting in Boneyard
Dinosaur
Safari pre-scheduled FP+
Tough to be a Bug
Lunch-Rainforest Cafe
Kali River Rapids pre-scheduled FP+
Lion King
River Ride in Pandora pre-scheduled FP+
Primeval Whirl FP+
Gorilla Trail
Safari
*we didn't see FOP, chose to get our FP+ for the river ride due to some people in our party not liking motion rides. Regret that decision 100%! River ride was a snooze-fest.
EPCOT (arrived about 8:25)
Soarin
Journey to imagination
Nemo
Turtle talk
Spaceship Earth pre-scheduled FP+
Character meet and greet pre-scheduled FP+
Counter service lunch
Frozen FP+
1/2 group Test Track w/guest services FP+
1/2 group Soarin w/guest services FP+ *my MDE went down after our 3rd fastpass & I couldn't get anymore, I went to guest services & they put an any use fastpass for each member of the party in my account
The last 2 park days we revisted parks we liked, at a more slow pace, but used the same concepts. Arrived a little later & stayed for nighttime fireworks.
The point of my post---plan ahead. AS SOON as you enter the ride with your 3rd fastpass, get on that app and start finding your next ride. I always got the soonest one available, and tried to get it closest to where we currently were. Sometimes I'd get one that was an hour or two out, then click on modify and try to find an earlier opening. That usually worked. When it didn't I'd modify 1/2 of our group--try to get an earlier one for them, then go back and get an earlier time for the other 1/2. Yes, I spent most of the ride queue with my nose in my phone, lol. But it was worth it. We've been to Disney several times, and know our way around, but this was the busiest and hottest by far. Big props to Josh at his website for his tips and advice.