I last went about 5 years ago. The secret is to go into the park when it opens and go straight to the top 3 attractions you want to see that will have long lines, get a fastpass for those.
Also during the parade/fireworks is a good time to ride rides.
The fastpass system is completely different than it was 5 years ago. That advice is no longer useful - these days people have been pulling fastpasses for 2 months before the day you go to the park. You’re better off going on the long line rides as soon as the park opens.
But yes, parades & fireworks are good times to ride. Just don’t be on the wrong side of the park - getting through the parade & fireworks crowds takes a long time.
Depends on Disney World or Disneyland. Disneyland still uses the day-of FastPass. WDW uses the “you have to decide what you want to ride and when months in advance no seat-of-your-pants freedom for you” FastPass+ monstrosity.
And leave at lunchtime. Go back later. The worst way to experience any theme park is to feel like you have to stuff yourself all at once. Take a break, take a nap, hit the pool, whatever, and then roll back in for dinner or afterwards. (Or switch parks as you please.)
The Park Hopper is 100% worth it.
Damn, that’s too bad. I thought the old fastpass system was generally very good.
Indeed, the Unofficial Guide’s (coauthored by occasional poster here Len Testa) advice is to go to only go to the Park with “Extra Magic Hours” if you’re going to get up in time to use the hours. Then leave as soon as the park gets busy. Between the people who stay on property going to the park with EMH, even though they don’t get there in time to use the EMH, plus the people who never leave mean that parks winds up busier than normal.
The new system is great if you educate yourself on it, and work it hard. You really need a trip planning system to get the most out of it. Being willing to stay up until midnight a few nights in a row to get the rare passes is a plus as well. But yes, for the 99% of park goers unwilling or unable or unaware to do so, the new system is a downgrade.
So,
Disney has changed Fastpasses incredibly in the past three years. You now book them 60 days in advance (30 if you aren’t on site). You can only book ONE E ticket attraction at Epcot per day (and two additional) that far out. (You can get more day of as you use the ones you have). Frozen is an ETicket (so is Soarin’ - so you’ll have to choose). So they do ask you to book a time in advance. In fact, that’s what the author did - to get his 16 minute wait time.
Frozen is brand new - and its Disney’s hot commodity - so Fastpasses disappear fast at sixty days out. If you aren’t staying on site, you will wait in line. The building it is in used to house the Norway troll ride - there isn’t a “wait inside” spot. And Florida is hot in July - shocker.
We are heading down in August. We will not be seeing the Frozen attraction (we are grown ups and used our Fastpasses for Soarin)
And three hour lines at Disney aren’t new. Those where the Splash Mountain lines in the 1980s.
As a former Florida resident and an annual DW state-resident pass holder, please accept the advice I used to give friends and family before we went to Disney World: “Disney World is about standing in lines. At the end of the lines, there will be some brief interludes of motion and/or entertainment. When those interludes end, we will go find another line to stand in. THAT is the Disney World experience: standing in line, talking with your family and friends and the strangers around you.”
Of course, I had been so many times that I used to know which rides formed lines quickly and which didn’t and I could get you thru both the Magic Kingdom and Epcot AND MGM Studios in under 10 hours (yes, all the ‘good rides’ and a bunch of mediocre ones too). No one ever went to DW with me and went home disappointed.
FWIW, they also just launched a full additional theatre for Soarin to majorly increase ride capacity. I think one of them is fully dedicated for Fastpass, no more line merging. But either option there should be a lot faster now.
Also make sure to hit the Energy Adventure ride, as it may be your last chance to see “Stupid Judy,” based on current rumors.
I may be able to skip “stupid Judy”. I hear they added another TSM track as well. And I got La Nouba tickets today.
If we do a late night at Epcot, we might see Frozen. But probably not. This is a grown ups drinking trip. (Which might put stupid Judy back on the agenda)
I’ve found that the wait for Living With The Land, despite being a premium ride, is usually less than Stupid Judy if you don’t count the pre-ride film. And I’d rather people watch in the line for LwtL than listen to Alex and Ellen! Plus, LwtL has actual water and tiny waterfalls instead of the only water on Energy being the snot coming from the dinosaurs mouths.
If you’re not doing late nights at Epcot, you’re doing the whole grown up drinking trip thing wrong.
I think Living with the Land has been dropped back down to second tier now.
When they originally launched, Soarin and Test Track were really the only legitimate Tier 1s, but they stuck Malestrom in the tier for those times when both of those ran out of slots. When that closed for the Frozen conversion, they stuck LwtL there as the fallback option.
Now that Frozen gives three Tier 1 options again, I don’t think they need LwtL there anymore.
It’s been a while since we FastPassed LwTL since the line is usually pretty manageable, but I also believe that it is no longer a 1st tier.
I haven’t seen any mention of the WDW My Disney Experience app. It’s free and absolutely fantastic – you can have all of your bookings, dining reservations, and FastPasses organized in one place, plus it allows you to modify or cancel your FastPasses at any time. You can now get your additional FastPasses (after using the three you booked on a given day) right on the app instead of having to find a kiosk in the park to do it. It has park hours, current wait times for all the attractions, lists of shops and restaurants and menus for the latter, park maps, and any pictures you’ve had taken by the Disney photogs and rides.
You do need to educate yourself on how the system works, and it changes often (for example, my last trip to WDW was in February and the FastPass system has already been improved), but learning how to work with it will save you SO MUCH time and frustration.
MagicBands were brought up before; they aren’t FastPasses but your FastPasses will be loaded onto them (if you have them) so that you get onto a ride at the designated time by waving your MagicBand over the right spot and having it approve you. MagicBands are wrist bands that you either get from Disney when you stay in one of their hotels or buy directly in the parks if you’re not staying with Disney, and they have all your Disney stuff loaded on them. With your MagicBand, you can get into your hotel room, charge stuff at any Disney location, get into the parks, and use it as your FastPass. They’re pretty nifty.
At least Frozen Ever After is an actual attraction. A few years ago when Anna and Elsa first appeared as meet-and-greet characters people were waiting 3-4 hours in the middle of July to say hello to them and get a picture taken.
As a former central Florida resident who’s had plenty of season passes for all the parks over the years (Disney, Universal, SeaWorld), my rule for visiting Disney and having a good time is simple. 1) Visit only in November thru February. 2) Do not visit the week before/after Thanksgiving or the weeks around Christmas.
We usually go the first or second week of either November or December. The weather is beautiful and the crowds are minimal.
Disney in July or August? I wouldn’t go if you paid me.
Yeah, right now its the only thing that works for my daughter’s school schedule - she’s sixteen and will not be drinking through Epcot. However, she wants to watch her parents and their friends drink and then LARP the hell out of Agent P.
We went to DL the week after Thanksgiving and walked onto every ride. We had a local friend that brought us, and she was awesome for strategy. We spent the whole day, and went on most really good rides more than once. YMMV
Thanks @muldoonthief.
@aldiboronti - I did my grad school research on techniques for minimizing your wait in line at theme parks. (The Time-Dependent Traveling Salesman Problem, for you math/CS folks.) I also wrote the software the Unofficial Guide uses to create optimal theme park touring plans. That’s been used more than 12 million times in the past 5 years. And I co-author a bunch of travel books now.
So yeah, I agree there’s a better way to manage lines. 