Hard to believe a decade has passed.....

[stan]

Well, here it is. My wife and I (kids now grown up) are going on our own to spend a few days at Disney World to get out of the cold of Chicago. It was 11 years ago that we last went to DisneyWorld, and I will be interested to see how it (and I) have changed.

And (horrors!) what's more we are planning to split our time this trip - 3 days at Disney and 1&1/2 days at Universal.

We are staying at the Caribbean Resort (we have been warned by Disney about the construction, but the proposed future gondola transport seems like it might be cool.

So, as we plan for the trip (early February) - what are the new Must sees (Toy Story?) and the "don't worry about it if you miss it".

The current FastPass system seems interesting but more constrained, and the Extra Hours are bit sporadic, sometime in morning, sometimes in evening, and designed around other pricey morning or evening dining and extra hour experiences.

Not to mention that they now started daily parking fees at the resorts - so if you take the car to a park from the resort, you have pay twice!

As always - grateful for any help the DIS community can give.

 

[rosegoldmonorail]

TSL is cool! they have such fun little details, and i've heard slinky dog dash is great (haven't been on it yet though)

you HAVE to get on flight of passage in pandora. even if you're not an avatar fan it's truly one of the greatest rides in disney. also, i would try and get on navi river journey. it's such a beautiful ride, it's almost breathtaking... tbh i kinda like it more than FoP (this isn't a popular opinion though LOL)

i haven't actually seen it yet, only listened to it, but the new nighttime fireworks show at magic kingdom is awesome! it's called happily ever after

also the nighttime show at epcot is ending this year, illuminations, so you might want to see that. it's a really great show

 

[stan]

So, what have waits actually been like for Flights of Passage? Everything I have looked at said the three days of our trip (Feb 5,6,7) are among the lowest crowds projected, but still - no Fast Pass for it until like 6PM on the 5th, and we weren't planning on being there that late. On a low crowd day, what would be the wait if we went to Flights first thing? Given the late fast pass (and the fact that we will likely want new fast passes when we go to Epcot later on the 5th) the 3 FPs I got for AK are for Safari, Navi Rive Cruise, and the first Lion King Show.

 

[rosegoldmonorail]

So, what have waits actually been like for Flights of Passage? Everything I have looked at said the three days of our trip (Feb 5,6,7) are among the lowest crowds projected, but still - no Fast Pass for it until like 6PM on the 5th, and we weren't planning on being there that late. On a low crowd day, what would be the wait if we went to Flights first thing? Given the late fast pass (and the fact that we will likely want new fast passes when we go to Epcot later on the 5th) the 3 FPs I got for AK are for Safari, Navi Rive Cruise, and the first Lion King Show.

Unless you rope drop it, FoP is gonna be anywhere between a 60-90 min wait, possibly even more (and that's on a low crowd day)

 

[stan]

Okay! Here we go! General Plans in Place for the first 2 of 3 days of Disney!
Day 1: Animal Kingdom (w/DW and Brother!) - Get there at opening and go on FoP, then FastPass River Na'vi, then Bug, UP, Safari, Lion King show, then onward with Dionosaur, Everest, and on to Epcot! At Epcot - SE, then Test Track, American Adventure, and dinner at Spice Road, then Frozen, Illuminations, and (luckily late hours) Imagination and Space (while having sad faces over no more Energy)

Day 2: Spend time with Florida relatives in morning, then on to MK! At Kingdom: Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Tiki, Jamboree, Haunted Mansion, Parade, Buzz, Carousel, Peter Pan, Pooh, Carpet, Presidents, Jungle Naviation Dinner, PhilharMagic, Dumbo, Fireworks, Speedway Buzz again?

Some Fast Passes already in place, hope to get others as they are used, but so happy to see that Feb 5-7 is predicted to be among the very lowest crowd days! Looking for a mostly no-line vacation!

I do say, however, that I do not like the new Fast Pass system, the forced block on passes no having any time overlap, along with forcing Park Hopping guests to only choose one park, makes for some tricky planning at times!

Now time to plan Day 3!

 

[stan]

OK! All three days are now planned! Our Magic Bands are on their way (never had one before)! Day 3 will be Epcot in the morning and HS at night. The plan is that between Day 1 (evening) and Day 3 (morning) all the Epcot rides will be taken care of, and we will have time to wander around and explore the joy of the Arts Festival. Then, in the afternoon, take the boat to HS, and do many of the HS rides, see the Star Wars Fireworks, then walk back (or take boat) to the BoardWalk and walk around for a while, then take the bus back to Epcot parking to leave.

But this FastPass+ system is really difficult to think about when one is Park Hopping. If you FastPass your morning park, you risk not getting anything for the afternoon, and if you need to assure passes for heavy afternoon rides, you can't get passes for anything in the morning. The FastPass+ definitely has much less flexibility and responsiveness than the old system!

Looking forward to Flight of Passage (I am sure we will wait) and Frozen (hopefully not too long a wait), even with no Fast Passes in hand yet.

But, we're getting excited to go back after 10 years, and to spend a day at Disney World with my brother (who is even more crazy about Disney)!

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Have you downloaded the My Disney Experience app? It's helped me keep track of wait times so I can judge how best to schedule (or re-schedule) a fastpass if I rope drop a particular ride. I wish I had seen this earlier, but if any of the After Hours events are viable for you, I'd say go for it. But it looks like you have your vacation pretty well mapped.

I think you might enjoy this video about some of the differences from 10 yrs ago:

 

[stan]

Thanks Apollo! Glad to see they got rid of straws, now we just have to remember to bring our reusable ones (my wife always carries a couple with her! It will be great to be able to use them to sip the now available wine! We did download the My Disney Experience on my wife's phone. My brother warned me of the power it takes (and of the battery exchange program at the parks) so we actually have a few smart phone power rechargers and plan to bring them!

And we just got our magic bracelets! Time to enter a paperless, keyless, electronic, magical world!

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Thanks Apollo! Glad to see they got rid of straws, now we just have to remember to bring our reusable ones (my wife always carries a couple with her! It will be great to be able to use them to sip the now available wine! We did download the My Disney Experience on my wife's phone. My brother warned me of the power it takes (and of the battery exchange program at the parks) so we actually have a few smart phone power rechargers and plan to bring them!

And we just got our magic bracelets! Time to enter a paperless, keyless, electronic, magical world!

The same people from the video had a great suggestion in another: screenshot all your fastpass & advanced dining reservations. No need for the app to open unless you're making changes on the fly

 

[stan]

Once I see it's on the phone I'm app to start jumping up and down in excitement. (In reality I'm more of a paper person - everything I have done ahead of time I'll have down on a piece of paper).

And I hadn't thought about making changes on the fly - I was more expecting to make changes on the mouse!

 

[stan]

OK, the first day is pretty planned now. Busy and full at AK!
Start with rope drop to see Flight of Passage, then on to Bug (to fill time to FP+), then on to Na'vi River (FP for 2, FP for Everest for 1), then one of the Animal Trails, mobile order lunch from Yak, then UP, then Safari (FP), then Lion King, then Dinosaur (FP) then Nemo.

Then on to Epcot where we can hopefully get on Spaceship and catch a day FP to get on Soarin' and/or Test Track and/or Frozen before/after our dinner at Spice Road, followed by American Adventure and perusing the stalls at the Festival of Arts and seeing Illuminations. It's evening Extra Hours, so hopefully we can fit in Frozen towards the end of the Evening if we didn't get a FP, along with the PIXAR shorts and Imagination.

 

[stan]

Found this old photo from my first Disney trip to Disneyland (I am the one on top). We will be spending this trip with my brother for one of the days (the one on the bottom)