They have a board inside between the center circle and Adventure Land.
Second issue is that “good” rides are going to vary with the rider. My kids don’t ride Splash - many of their favorites are pretty fast loaders. Both my kids have the Tiki Birds (!) on their ten must do list for WDW.
In the past Disney has been upfront about saying “you should be able to do at least eight attractions in a day” at least at WDW. However, this assumes that you are willing to get there at opening and stay until closing - perhaps with a mid day break. We’ve been able (at WDW, I haven’t been to Disneyland) to get the eight in pretty consistantly from opening to eleven a.m. - then things start tightening up and you need to start doing Fastpasses. Between one and three you might as well be swimming - but after four the park starts getting reasonable again.
The problem comes when Joe Vacationer says “its vacation, I want to sleep in” He’s hitting the parts about the time we are thinking about swimming. After four hours and two attractions - having not figured out Fastpasses (nor gotten there early enough to collect them for later use), he gets frustrated and decides that its too crowded and he isn’t getting anything done. And then he leaves - just about the time the rides start freeing up a little again.
I’m going to Disney (Fla) in the middle of February. What kinds of waits should I expect?
I don’t really see this as an issue. I mean, anyone who has ever gone to a large amusement park knows that there can be hour-plus waits at least for the more popular rides. And if is your first ever visit to an amusement park, maybe 5 minutes of research in any number of travel guides, on-line, or by talking to the 99% of the earth’s population who has been to such parks will inform you of this fact. Amusement parks cost a lot and have long lines. Any attempt to minimize either requires seeking discounts and specials, and taking steps to avoid the biggest crowds.
And since, as you observe, the parks are very crowded as is, it is hard to argue that they charge too much.
I also would appreciate a non-rider rate. West of Chicago is Kiddieland, an amusement park aimed primarily at younger kids. 15 years ago or more they used to offer either a one price unlimited ride admission, or a much lower admission with individual tickets available to be purchased for rides. Was nice to take the kids - they could stand in line for the rides that were either too small for us or that we would not enjoy, and then we could pony up a couple extra bucks to go on the train with them. Then around 12-15 years ago they went to requiring everyone pay the unlimited rides admission. Greatly increased the cost for a family of 5 to spend an afternoon.
This summer we will be going to Williamsburg, and my teens want to spend a day at Busch Gardens. My wife will be doing some other stuff and I may be golfing, but I’d like the opportunity to pay a lower rate to just walk around the park a bit - maybe for an hour or so after I drop the kids off, and then again when I go to pick them up.
Another reason they don’t want you standing in line so long is because you’re not spending any additional money in the restaurants or souvenir shops. In most FastPass brochures (at least here in the Tokyo Parks), they always encourage guests to “have a meal” or “buy gifts” until the return time approaches.
Some friends went to Disney World a year or two ago. A hurricane was threatening Florida at the time & a squall line soaked the peolpe waiting to go into the park.
The storm was well away from Orlando. As Gulf Coast vets, my friends knew they were in NO danger & the squall line would blow through.
Most of the people left. Then the sun came out. My friends & some Nebraskans who’d listened to them had NO long waits to deal with.
You should have a good time. Great weather and medium crowds. The absolute worst is the middle of the summer. Ultra hot and humid and extra crowded with families on summer vacation and lots of foreign visitors on holiday. The parks literally start to stink with overheated masses of people.
Shit!
Just looked on-line - it costs $55 to get into Busch Gardens (and an additional $8 to park.) I’ll recommend that my wife and I just drop the kids off, spend our $110 on another round of golf ( for me) and shopping (for her) and then just wait in the parking lot reading a book to pick them up.
I guess I’m out of touch regarding the cost of entertainment today. But while I wouldn’t think twice about spending $20-30 while on vacation to walk around the park, once the price gets over $50 I can’t avoid thinking of the many ways I’d rather spend my time and money.
How does the fastpass work? Do you have to pay extra?
Well, there’s a partial answer: go back to selling ticket books. Charge $N for general admission the way they do now, and you get a book of tickets that you need to use to get onto the big rides. If you don’t use them all up today, save them for next time. They could also charge less for general admission and sell the books separately, so if you knew you weren’t going on any big rides, or only a few, a family could get in for a lot less.
Thanks, I had figured that would be the case, but I figured I would check with someone more knowledgeable to be sure.
How do you figure?
Unless a large number of cars/boats/logs/spaceships are running partially empty (in which case you should be able to get as many rides in as you’re willing to sit through and run back around to the entrance for), Disneyland knows exactly how many people move through a given ride in a day. Take the sum for all the rides and divide by the projected population of the park. It’s a pretty simple calculation.
It shouldn’t be so bad since student Winter breaks are staggered around the country. The trick is to get to the park early with a plan. Start on the far side of the park and work back. You’ll hit the lines in the middle but can knock off an entire “land” in a couple of hours if you’re smart about it. Take the monorail in the morning and the ferry back at night. Also, use the fast pass system whenever possible. Have a great time!
The Fast Pass system is part of the admission price. Basically, you insert your admission ticket into a machine near the entrance of the attraction, and it spits out a piece of paper with a time period of an hour (I think) later in the day. If you come back during that window, you get to use a separate line reserved for Fast Pass holders. Because the number of Fast Passes given out for a any specific time is limited, the line is much quicker. Often you can walk right on. I think you can only have one Fast Pass at a time. Also, on the busiest days, very popular rides may run out of Fast Passes relatively early. Still, if you know how to work it, it’s a big time-saver.
You can have more than one FastPass at one time. Each FastPass has a time printed on the bottom telling you when you can get a new one. With proper timing you can have a FastPass for 2+ rides and be in line at a third ride all at once.
Also, while it will have a return window on it - the pass will generally be accepted after its window (but NOT before).
Are you saying a company should lower it’s price because people might not know what their product features? Parks have websites and rack brochures to tell people what is in their park (It’s hard to walk through a hotel without seeing one). People who have no idea of what lies within those gates are the minority of patronsl it’s quite “fair.” If prices were too high, their attendance would fall off until they adjusted prices accordingly.
Believe it or not, they didn’t do that to anger and frustrate their patrons. They do that to keep the lines for the rides from extending randomly single file throughout the park. If you have never been in an establishment that doesn’t control long-line formation, I can tell you that when the customers simply stand behind the next person, it snakes out and impedes foot traffic of everything in the surrounding area. What would you have parks do? Run more cars faster at unsafe speeds? Turn people away — people who may have just driven half a day or across the country to get there — in order to keep the lines below 30 people?
Incidentally, it’s entirely possible to see every ride, show, and parade in Orlando’s Magic Kingdom in one day, plus many live entertainment offerings such as character greetings. The fastest time we’ve ever recorded for this is 48 attractions in 11 hours and 17 minutes. (The number of attractions vary throughout the year, as Disney routinely closes rides for refurbishment.)
Kind of off-topic, I realize, but I read through parts of your most recent WDW guide at Border’s today - nice work.
We took the kids to Disneyland today. We forgot it was a holiday weekend. It was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it … worse than a Saturday in June.
There were multiple warnings posted outside the park (starting at the entrance to the parking garage) that Disneyland was “very crowded” today. Anybody who didn’t want to deal with it had ample opportunity to turn around and go home before they spent any money.
(We would have bailed but we have annual passes, so instead we just had lunch and let the kids play in some of the no-wait play areas in California Adventure before heading home … after promising to try again next weekend … .)