Wanted to jump on with a quick update: Usually, the early-in-the-season Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party are a pretty safe bet for lighter crowds and shorter lines. However, the first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party of the season has ALREADY sold out. This year, the first party is Thursday, November 9, 2017. That party has already completely sold out!!
A couple things that COULD be contributing to this: Perhaps, Disney is releasing few tickets for the very first party of the season, giving them a chance to work out any kinks in this year’s party events, shows and parades. Or, they might limit the tickets for the first party to generate news and stories like this one: this could build excitement and drive people that have been thinking about attending the parties this year rush to commit and buy their tickets before they’re all gone!! Or, quite simply: There may just be a LOT of people planning to attend that very first party. Usually, that week in November is reasonably light traffic–maybe this year is different? Maybe more people are traveling to Disney this November? I don’t work for Disney, so I honestly don’t know. I’ll keep researching and see if I can learn anything more about this year’s crowds.
Our tickets for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party are for the 5th party of the season, November 16. I will be sure to report back after the party to let you all know how crowded it is (or isn’t!) and whether it’s sold out by party night. Here’s a link to my post with more details about Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
How about all of you? Are you planning to visit Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this year? Have you bought your tickets yet? I’d love to hear from you!
One of my very favorite times to visit Walt Disney World is during the Christmas Holiday Season. I LOVE seeing all the resorts and theme parks decorated for the holidays, and I love the little “extra” holiday magic and cheer that seems to permeate WDW at this time of year. Having said that, however, I do want to add that I tend to avoid the ACTUAL holidays as the crowds Thanksgiving week and the week before and after Christmas tend to be INSANE, with parks reaching capacity and actually closing to additional guests on some days. The last time I went for the week of Christmas, we were in the Magic Kingdom on a day the park closed to additional guests at 10 a.m.!! The crowds were crazy. Standby lines were up to four hours for some attractions, and it was uncomfortable and difficult to even just walk around. Moods were challenging and finding the holiday spirit was a little more difficult than usual. I don’t enjoy the parks as much when they are that crowded, so I tend to avoid that time of year. (Note: It is ABSOLUTELY possible to go and have a great time during the holidays, as long as you set your expectations properly, plan ahead and pack your patience. I don’t want to imply you can’t have a terrific vacation at this time of year—it’s just a little more challenging. I’ll cover that in a separate upcoming post.)
I have found that by visiting in mid-November or early December, I can enjoy most of the benefits of the Holiday season at Walt Disney World without the Thanksgiving or Christmas crowds. If you are lucky enough to visit WDW during this time of year, I highly encourage you to take some time to visit some of the resorts to see their Holiday decorations—each resort decorates differently, and in accordance with that resort’s overall theme. I’ll talk about “Resort Holiday Décor” (another favorite topic) in a separate post, AFTER our upcoming vacation when I hope to get some updated pictures, time permitting!
Many of Disney’s holiday festivities can be enjoyed with your regular park admission. Hollywood Studios Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! And Sunset Seasons Greetings are included in a visit to Hollywood Studios this year, and Epcot’s International Festival of the Holidays and classic Candlelight Processional are both part of your standard Epcot visit during the season.
At the Magic Kingdom, however, many of the “special” holiday activities are part of a special ticketed event: Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP) begins in November and runs several evenings per week through Christmas. On the days when the party is held, the Magic Kingdom will close early to regular park guests. If you are visiting WDW during this time, I strongly suggest you check the party dates and plan to visit the Magic Kingdom on a non-party date, unless you have park hopping tickets and can visit a different park in the evening, once the park closes.
MVMCP requires separate admission, and includes special shows, parades, character greetings, merchandise and fireworks only offered during the parties. The tickets are on the pricey side, so deciding if MVMCP is right for your vacation takes some consideration.
PRICING
Pricing varies for the party, based on the day. Weeknights earlier in the season are a little more economical….the most expensive dates are after Thanksgiving and peak a few days before Christmas. MVMCP occurs on 24 nights, starting on Thursday, November 9 and running through Friday, December 22. In November, the dates fall primarily on Thursdays and Fridays, with a couple Sundays and Tuesdays. There are no parties Thanksgiving week. In December, it’s most Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Prices start at $89 for adults (plus tax) and $84 (plus tax) for children, ages 3 – 9 for early parties and rise to $95 for adults (plus tax) and $90 (plus tax) for children after Thanksgiving, and peak at $109 (plus tax) for adults and $104 (plus tax) for children just before Christmas. There are a couple Fridays in December with $99 (plus tax) tickets for adults and $94 (plus tax) for kids.
Note: Disney Vacation Club Members do have access to slightly discounted pricing…but for select nights. For the early parties in November, DVC members can save $7 per ticket; later in the month, the savings drops to $4 per ticket—and there are no DVC tickets available after December 12. Annual Passholders have access to the same discounts as DVC members.
You can click here to buy tickets direct from Disney: Disney MVMCP
Undercover Tourist: You can save $7 off the price of the regular Adult ticket by purchasing through Undercover Tourist here: Undercover Tourist MVMCP
Note: UT prices include tax where Disney ticket prices don’t add the tax until you check out. This sometimes can cause confusion, so I wanted you to be aware.
UPDATE: Some December dates have already sold out this year, including December 8, 19, 21 and 22.
SCHEDULE
The party officially starts at 7 p.m. and runs until 12:00 a.m. Guests with party tickets can enter the Magic Kingdom as early as 4 p.m., but party-related events, characters, and merchandise will not be available until after 7 p.m.
Something they started last year that will be continued this year is that the park will close to regular day guests without party tickets at 6 p.m. That should significantly help with the crowds at the beginning of the party. In past years, some day guests would stay and enjoy some of the atmosphere, shows and merchandise without having purchased a party ticket, and this created some frustration and larger than anticipated crowds for party guests. Day guests couldn’t access any rides without a party ticket, but if they avoided cast members, they could still enjoy some of the other benefits. Hopefully, the extra hour before the party start will help the cast members move most day guest stragglers out before the party starts. While I understand the frustration of day guests not wanting their day to end early, if I pay extra to attend a special ticketed event, I expect that everyone else enjoying the event with me has also paid the premium. Disney does a good job of alerting guests that there will be a party that evening and the park will be closing early, so guests can plan to attend a different park that day if they choose, or if they have park hopping privileges, they can “hop” to a different park at 6 pm when the Magic Kingdom closes.
To maximize the value of this pretty expensive ticket, I recommend you plan to be at the Magic Kingdom at or near 4 pm. This gives you the opportunity to enjoy a few rides and have an early dinner before the party begins, and gives you a little more park time for your party dollar. Fast Past Plus reservations are not available during the party, but you should be able to book a couple for the late afternoon. Remember, Fast Pass Plus windows are one hour, and you have a grace period of 10-15 minutes after the window closes to use them. You may want to try and book a 3:30 FP, a 4:30 FP and a 5:30 FP if there are attractions available that work for you. Arriving at 4 p.m., you’re within your 3:30 – 4:30 window for the first attraction. No FP+ will be available after 6 p.m.
Guests with Party tickets will be issued a wristband. You MUST have a wristband to ride attractions, shop or dine after 7 p.m., once the party has begun. If you enter the party at 4 p.m., you will get your wristband then. If you are in the park on a regular admission prior to 4 p.m., (I don’t recommend burning a regular park day on a day when you have a party ticket unless you are an Annual Passholder) there will be stations at various places where you will be able to show your park ticket and get your wristband. Yes, Disney will sell same day party tickets to day guests in the park who want to stay for the party—unless the party is already sold out. Same day tickets are priced higher than purchasing in advance.
The official show and parade schedule for 2017 has not been released yet as the first party is not until November 9. I will update once the “official” schedule is out there.
But unofficially, based on last year’s schedule, I think there are a few things we can count on:
It will SNOW on Main Street. At many points throughout the evening, SNOW will fall. For those of us from snowy climates, this may not be that exciting. But for thousands who NEVER see snow, this is a relatively big deal. And, I have to admit, does add to the Holiday magic. (Protect your cameras though…the “snow” has soap in it and is not great for those expensive lenses.)
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade will happen twice during the party. Once relatively early and once later in the evening. Last year, the times were 8:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Note: that’s the time the parade will depart from it’s starting point in Frontierland near Splash Mountain. Depending on where you go to watch the parade, your time to see the parade may vary. Generally, the first parade is more crowded than the second, although if you go on a very busy/popular/sold out night, it is likely that BOTH parades will be very crowded. This is a big highlight of the party for me—it’s one of the best parades Disney does, second only to the Halloween themed Boo to You parade featured during the Halloween parties. Note: After the parties end just before Christmas, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade will happen during regular park hours for a few days, so if you ARE going to be in the park during Christmas, you CAN see this parade during the day without a Party ticket. I really like seeing it at night though.
Holiday Wishes Fireworks will happen between the two parades. Last year was at 10:00 p.m. I LOVE fireworks, and Disney fireworks are just AMAZING. Holiday Wishes is another favorite of ours. This is another MUST NOT MISS part of the parties for us.
Frozen Holiday Wish will happen twice during the evening. This is the short “mini-show” where the castle’s holiday icicle lights light up for the evening. The first show was at 6:30 p.m. last year, so day guests could see it as well as party guests. The second show was at 8:15 p.m. Generally, both of these are pretty crowded, but the second will be less crowded than the first. (Note: This happens every night during the holiday season, usually at 6:30 p.m., so this is one party event that you don’t have to be at the party to see, you can see it on another night if that works better for you.) I am a BIG fan of the icicle castle, my husband will tell you I take dozens of pictures of it every trip during this time of year…but the extreme crowds in the hub and on Main Street for this make it a hit or miss, no big deal for me personally.
Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration (Castle Forecourt Holiday Show) will happen several times during the evening. Last year’s times were 7:40 p.m., 9:25 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and 12 a.m. This holiday themed show features Mickey and Minnie as well as many other characters and runs about 25 minutes. For us, this is a must-not-miss show, so we will try to catch it sometime during the party.
Totally Tomorrowland Christmas will happen several times during the evening. This is a cute show at the back of Tomorrowland, and features Stitch, Buzz Lightyear, and Mike Wozowski and is upbeat and fun. It’s around 15 minutes long. Last year’s times were 7:40 p.m., 8:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. This one is cute but unless we happen to be back there when it is happening, we don’t tend to catch it. Too much else to do!
Character Greetings will happen throughout the party. Another big highlight of MVMCP is the special Character Greetings you may not be able to get any other time. Some characters have special Holiday/Winter attire, and sometimes there are characters (Scrooge McDuck) that you NEVER see. One really popular staple is Jack Skellington in his Santa suit. Once this year’s information with specific characters and locations is released, I will update this post.
DINING
There are “complimentary” treats available during the party to party guest. Usually there are four locations that feature treats. Last year, you could find Hot Cocoa and Snickerdoodle Cookies at the Tortuga Tavern in Adventureland; Hot Cocoa and Peppermint Bark Cookies in Tomorrowland at the Lunching Pad; Eggnog and Ginger-Molasses Cookies in Liberty Square at Heritage House and in Fantasyland, you could find Apple Cider, Sugar Cookies and Snow Cones at Pete’s Silly Sideshow. There are healthy options available upon request.
In addition, some of the Quick Service spots that remain open during the party (this is LIMITED, so I recommend you have dinner BEFORE the party—besides, you don’t want to spend time sitting down and eating when you could be enjoying all the party festivities!!!) offer “special” items only available during the parties. These are NOT free, but can be fun “Special” treats. Last year’s special treats includes Holiday Tree cupcakes, Peppermint hot fudge sundaes, Frozen Snowflake cupcakes and holiday cookies.
Most restaurants close early on party nights, so plan to eat early. Again, you probably don’t want to spend party time eating dinner. Our very first Holiday party we didn’t plan for dinner, and didn’t realize how limited dining options would be after 7 p.m. We ended up getting room service at 1 a.m. back at our hotel! Don’t assume all the Quick Service places will be open—Pinocchio’s Village Haus becomes a treat station and Columbia Harbour House closes completely. You can make Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) for sit down restaurants up until the party starts; if you don’t have a party ticket, be advised that they will ask you to leave the park after you have finished dining. I recommend planning either a late, big lunch and snacking during the party or doing an early dinner (before 6 p.m.). This year, we’ve got reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern at 5:25 p.m. on party night. We’re planning to enter the part at 4 p.m. and hitting a couple of rides before dinner, then we’ll be all set for the party!
ATTRACTIONS
Most, but not all, attractions are open during the party. Usually, less active attractions like Carousel of Progress are closed. Generally speaking, party crowds are lighter than a typical busy Magic Kingdom day, and there are no Fast Pass Plus reservations so everything is standby lines. Usually, lines for the attractions that are open are significantly shorter than during a regular day, especially later in the evening.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the newest “big” attraction—it tends to still have long lines, even during the parties. If possible, get a pre-party fast pass to minimize your wait time for this one, or plan to visit it near the end of the night. I wasn’t successful in my Fast Pass mission, so I will be keeping an eye on the wait times here throughout the night. It’s our first night of vacation, and our first time back in three years so hitting our favorite attractions IS a priority for us…just not the only priority.
Obviously, sold out parties and more popular evenings are busier and have longer lines than earlier, less congested parties. If you plan to attend a party closer to Christmas, be prepared for heavier crowds. If you set your expectations properly, you will still have a great time—you just may have to be a bit more strategic.
Disney has not yet officially announced which attractions will be open during the party, but usually all the most popular attractions are open. One of the best values of the party for us is being able to walk on (or have very short waits) for most of our favorite attractions. It can still be a struggle to get everything done though, so make sure you take a look at everything you want to do during the party and plan your attraction visits AROUND the special party events. You don’t want to be riding It’s a Small World and miss the special, party only Fireworks, if the fireworks are important to you. Yes, riding all your favorite attractions with short lines is AWESOME, but most likely, you will be visiting Magic Kingdom at least once more during your trip—make sure you get the most bang for your park ticket and take advantage of the party activities you won’t be able to do on a regular day. If that Scrooge McDuck meet and greet is important, prioritize that over a third time on Pirates, know what I mean? Don’t let time get away from you. The actual party time is 5 hours, 7 p.m. until 12 a.m. That’s actually NOT a lot of time with all the activities and character greetings going on. Pick your most important activities and make sure you work everything else in around those.
PHOTOPASS/MEMORY MAKER
If you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you already know that I am a BIG proponent of PhotoPass and Memory Maker. For me, photos are my FAVORITE souvenir. Writing this blog, looking through photos of past parties and park visits brings back feelings and memories—it’s hard to top having visual captures of special moments and memories. I mean, the moment my husband proposed is forever captured in a PhotoPass picture—it’s a running joke between us that I drag my husband and any other family members traveling with us to as many PhotoPass photographers as I think I can get away with before they kill me. Some family members are more understanding of this than others. Note to self: Death is a quick way to ruin a vacation!
Unless it’s a really short trip, or you just REALLY don’t like getting your picture taken, I highly recommend purchasing Memory Maker before your trip. If you have an annual pass, Memory Maker is included with your Annual Pass. Here’s a link to my detailed post about PhotoPass and Memory Maker: Disney PhotoPass/Disney Memory Maker
During the parties, there are usually some special “Magic Shots” or “Animated Magic Shots” that are available ONLY during the parties. If you aren’t familiar with “Magic Shots” these are the pictures where a PhotoPass Photographer “adds a little magic” to the picture after he/she take it. Some “Magic Shots” from last year’s MVMCP included Toy Soldiers, Tinkerbell in her Holiday outfit, Jack Skellington’s dog Zero, and the “Kringle Krew” dancing through pictures in “Animated Magic Shots”.
PhotoPass Photographers will be at many locations around the party, and they stay out until after the party ends and the park closes, so take LOTS of pictures. The more you take, the better the odds are that you will LOVE some of the finished results! I like to play the odds! 😉
After the party, you’ll find special borders and stickers available to you for the pictures taken during the party.
Note: If you DON’T have Memory Maker, Disney DOES offer a one day option for $59.99 that you can have guest relations add to your account—If you think there’s a remote chance that over the course of 5 hours (or 9 hours if you enter the park at 4 pm) you’ll like at least 5 pictures enough to want to keep them, this is a DEFINITE MUST. (Of course, if you’ve read any of my other posts, you know that I recommend you get Memory Maker for your trip anyway—if you already have Memory Maker, your party pictures will automatically be part of it, along with the special party-only borders and stickers.)
ADDITIONAL OPTIONS
Disney offers a Holiday Wishes Dessert Package for an additional price. Each package includes desserts and beverages and special fireworks viewing areas. The Fireworks Holiday Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrace features reserved seating throughout the experience, both during the Dessert Party and during the fireworks. Tickets for this package are $79 for adults and $47 for children ages 3-9 (tax not included). This is IN ADDITION TO your ticket for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
The Fireworks Holiday Dessert Party with Plaza Garden Viewing includes desserts and (non-alcoholic) beverages and a seating area for the dessert portion of the party; after dessert, you are led to a standing room only viewing area in the Plaza Garden. Tickets for this package are $59 for adults and $35 for children ages 3-9 (tax not includes). This is IN ADDITION TO your ticket for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
I am a fan, generally, of Fireworks Dessert Parties, especially for very crowded park days. In fact, we have tickets for the Plaza Garden Viewing party for another night during our trip, primarily for just that reason. The park will be crowded, and we LOVE Disney Fireworks and getting good pictures of them are very important to us. The parties are a good way to insure you have a great spot to view the fireworks and who can resist lots of desserts? I don’t think the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Pary is the best value—while you’ll have seating the whole time, it’s a lot of money for a chair and it’s not the best spot for the Fireworks. I was really happy when they added the Plaza Garden option as it’s more economical and, I believe, a better spot to see the fireworks. We’ll find out when we get there in November! I’ll be taking pictures and posting my review after our trip.
BUT: Even though I am a fan of the Dessert Parties in general, I do NOT think they are worth it for the parties. Unless money is just NOT an issue at all for you, and you could potentially attend more than one party during the season, I don’t think the Dessert Party (either one) is a good value during the limited party time. Basically, you’ll end up spending 1 hour or more at the Dessert Party, and while that will include the fireworks, it’s a BIG CHUNK of party time where you won’t be available to do other party activities. Or you’ll cut your dessert party time short (potentially missing out on the treats you are paying for) to enjoy more of the party activities. I think it’s a losing proposition. The party ticket is already pretty pricey, and then to add another $60-$80 (plus tax!) on top of that just seems pretty excessive to me. In addition, the party crowds ARE smaller than a regular park day, so I don’t think it’s as important to set aside a special viewing area for the Fireworks. We’ll find out for sure when we are there in November; I’ll be posting a review of this year’s party and our personal experience after our trip.
The MVMCP Fireworks Dessert Party might make sense for you if you’re attending a sold out party, have issues standing for long periods of time, or if you have big issues with the crowds; if you can afford it, and it makes sense for you and your traveling group, go for it.
BOTTOM LINE: IS IT WORTH IT?
Everyone is different, and I encourage you to think about your unique situation to determine if this is a good value proposition for you and your traveling party.
Things to consider:
Ages of Your Group: If you have very young children, you may not want to attend an event that keeps them up past midnight. Alternatively, you may choose to leave the party early to protect their bedtimes (and your enjoyment with them the next day 😉 ). If this is the case, your party time shrinks from 5 – 9 hours (if you enter the park at 4 p.m.) to 3 – 5 hours. The party may NOT be a good value at that point—you have to evaluate what activities you could complete in the available time to determine if there’s enough value for it to make sense for YOU.
What you have planned for the next day: If you have a BIG day or really early start planned for the next day, you may NOT want to do a party that lasts until Midnight. We tend to MAXIMIZE our party enjoyment which means we stay as long as we can, until they basically kick us out 😊. Think about how long it will take to get back to your resort. Depending on where you are staying and how big the crowds are for the buses and monorails, it could be 2 am before you are in bed. This year, we have an Epcot day planned for the next day, with a 9 am park open. I will probably make breakfast in our room, so hopefully we won’t have to get up until 7ish…and we can walk home from the Magic Kingdom, so even staying late, we should be in bed by 1ish. Think about what you’ll do the next day. Can it be a rest day? Or a sleep really late day?
Do you (and the rest of your group) enjoy the holidays? If yes, the party is a big YES. If NOT, avoid the party—you will NOT be able to escape Christmas music and holiday magic if you attend MVMCP.
Finances: There is not getting around it: These party tickets are pricey. A few years ago, tickets were under $60, and the decision was a LOT easier. Now that tickets are nearing $100 for what is, essentially, a five-hour event, the decision is not as clear cut. However, the party does include a LOT of value. The parade and the fireworks alone are worth the cost of admission TO ME. Your mileage may vary. Short attraction lines and unique character greeting opportunities are extra value FOR ME. Throw in free cookies and special PhotoPass Magic Shots and I’m THRILLED. But everyone is different. For us, this meant working a couple extra weekends to make enough extra $$ to be able to do it. It also meant NOT doing a couple other things we might have done otherwise…but for us, this has a lot of value, and is an important component of this year’s vacation.
Souvenirs: Are you a pin collector? Do you always try to find that one t-shirt that no one else has? The parties feature unique merchandise that is ONLY available during the parties (and sometimes at outlets a few months later, haha). Last year’s party only merchandise includes several shirts, a Christmas ornament, a special magic band, and some special pins, including a limited release pin only available for Annual Passholders. The pins almost always sell out, as does most of the other limited edition special “Party Only” merchandise. Disney has not shared what this year’s merchandise will be, but one of the advantages of attending a party earlier in the season is that you are much more likely to have a lot more to choose from than later in the season. They don’t re-order; once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Park Bag
So…is it worth it for YOU? I’d love to know what you decide. For us, it’s absolutely worth it. We LOVE the Christmas parties. I am SO excited that we are kicking off this year’s trip with the party—it will be a GREAT way to celebrate our anniversary and our return to Disney.
I can’t wait to share with all of you our party-going experience after our trip! 22 days to go!
I can’t believe we are FINALLY less than thirty days from our long-awaited return to Walt Disney World! Here are some things to consider as you round the corner for your final thirty days before your vacation:
Confirm/Add Dining and Fast Pass Plus Reservations: At 45 days out, people that had booked tentative vacation plans will firm up their plans. Often, this results in cancellations, both in Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) and Fast Pass Plus (FP+) reservations. What this means for you (and me!): If there was a ADR or FP+ you wanted, you might get lucky. My rule of thumb is to check a few times a week on the couple of ADRs I was not able to get for our trip. I am already pretty happy with my FP+ reservations, so I’m not messing with those, but if I wasn’t, I would absolutely be checking and making changes as availability changed.
For this trip, there were several ADRs I wasn’t able to get, primarily because of the “early” Thanksgiving this year, and the resultant higher crowd levels than I am used to. Our trip ends up falling the weekend before Thanksgiving and a LOT of people head to Orlando for Thanksgiving week. The crowds are projected to hit peak levels by Sunday, and this definitely impacted my ability to book the meals I wanted to book for us, even though I booked as soon as our 180 day window opened up. Specifically, I wanted to do at least one more character breakfast, either at Magic Kingdom or Epcot. I keep checking, but alas, nothing has opened up. I’ve also checked for Be Our Guest reservations for breakfast or lunch as an alternative, but nothing has opened up there either. That’s a different reservation as it’s a “Quick Service” restaurant, but I still prefer to have a reserved spot rather than just wait in line. The other one I’ve been trying to get is a change to our Tusker House character breakfast on Monday, November 20. We currently have an 8:10 am reservation, which was the earliest reservation I could get, and worked when I booked it as the park opens at 9 that day. BUT Disney has since added Extra Magic Hours for that day at 8 am (AACK, now 7 am!), and I sure don’t want to spend that extra “Magic” time with lighter crowds at breakfast! Most likely will cancel, but in the meantime, I keep trying, hoping a 6-7 am will open up for us.
Review and Confirm Flight Information. I booked our flights back in June; I have often had flight times changed by the airline as the date of flight draws closer. The airline doesn’t always notify me (in my experience), so I’ve learned to double check. In this case, our outbound flight was originally scheduled for 9:05 am, with a scheduled arrival in Orlando at 12:40 pm. Unfortunately, that has changed slightly. We now depart at 9:47 am and land at 1:35 pm. Not a whole lot I can do about it, but at least I know. The worse impact is on our return flight. It now leaves Orlando almost two hours earlier than originally scheduled. THIS change pretty much completely kills my plans to visit Disney Springs on our last day. I had made a lunch reservation at the Boathouse that will have to be cancelled as it’s for 12:30, and we’ll need to be at the airport by then. I always hate leaving at the end of a vacation, and having the airline steal two of my last hours from me makes me very sad. Again, not a whole lot I can do about it, and at least I know and can change our plans to make the best of that morning…but I’m BUMMED.
No, we’re not flying Alaska Airlines OR going to Disneyland. But how cute is that plane?
Review and Confirm Transportation Plans.This is a big one for us this trip—still trying to decide what to do. As you may or may not know, Disney offers FREE transportation to your Disney resort hotel to and from the airport, called Magical Express. They will retrieve your luggage, and transport it to your resort for you, and deliver it to your room within 3 hours of your arrival.
Disney also offers FREE transportation between resorts and theme parks via monorails, buses and boats. The advantages of Disney transportation is obviously, it is free. Also, you don’t have to worry about navigation or getting lost. As long as you make sure the sign on the front of the bus says it’s going where you want to go, you’re good to get there. Generally, Disney transportation will get you closer to the “front door” than parking in the lots will. Disney transportation is easy to use, and often results in fun additional stories for your vacation memories as you meet and talk to other passengers on your mode of transportation. These are all good things.
The problem is that I’m a control freak. I admit it freely and clearly. I don’t have a lot of patience, especially when it comes to going from park to park. Disney recommends you allow AT LEAST an hour to go from point A to point B if you are using Disney transportation. When we are ready to go, I like to GO. I don’t want to wait. I like the freedom of having a car. I like the freedom of knowing that if we need to leave property and go to the grocery store, we can. I like the freedom of knowing that if I want to leave the park in the middle of the day and go to another park, or back to my hotel, I just have to get to the car, I don’t need to wait for a bus or a monorail. But given our current financial situation, is it smart to rent a car? Maybe not. I found a pretty good deal, and I have a car reserved for us at the moment. But I’m wrestling with the decision. I hate buses. I tend to get carsick. Even the bus that goes to the rental car places at the airports can make me ill. But we’re staying at a monorail resort that is walking distance from the Magic Kingdom. So, we have two parks that we will definitely NOT drive to—MK and Epcot. It’s just easier to walk or take the monorail. That leaves general errands, getting to and from the airport, going to Disney Springs potentially on the way to the airport, and driving to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. I WANT to have a car. I like having a car. I like driving around Disney property. I like driving to different resorts and going exploring. I don’t want to NOT have a car. BUT it would be smarter to NOT rent a car. So I’m debating.
Currently have a reservation and I continually check for better rates. Also on my list: I have to call and find out if we can rent the car we have on reserve currently with a debit card instead of a credit card. Again, given our current financial situation, this may be a deal breaker. And the reality is, we don’t have a lot of fluff time built into this trip. The only real “exploring time” we have is the day we arrive and the day we leave. I don’t know. Hate to give up the car, but….
Start Planning Touring Strategies.It’s time to start thinking about your strategies for each park. Let’s face it, you don’t want to wait in long lines and you want to maximize your time at attractions your group wants to do. Review your Fast Pass Plus reservations, park hours, ADRs and start to make a plan of attack. I tend to have a loose strategy, based on my experience over the years and many, many park visits, but I also visit sites like Disboards and Touring Plans and review their strategies and advice.
At thirty days, I also check Disney’s posted park hours and fireworks/evening entertainment schedules as those often change closer to trip time. Especially around the holidays, Disney pretty frequently will add hours and/or second shows, based on anticipated demand. I believe Disney HAS extended park hours for several days of our trip; however, their website has been down a LOT the last few days and I haven’t been able to confirm on their site. I have a full-time job (and a second job too!) and unfortunately, I can’t play on the internet all day. Bummer. Fortunately for me, I also use TouringPlans.com, and they are great about updating park hours and show times.
As suspected, park hours have already changed:
Friday, November 17: No change so far on this, our first full park day. We are planning to hit Epcot, which is currently scheduled to be open from 9am to 9 pm, with Illuminations at 9pm. We had an Illuminations Dessert Party for our guests on our wedding day, so this show holds a lot of sentimental value for us and will be a highlight of the day for us for sure! We’ve got ADRs booked for lunch at Via Napoli and dinner at Le Chefs de France (one of our favorite restaurants at Disney theme parks).
Saturday, November 18: I have planned this as a Magic Kingdom day. We have ADRs for lunch at the Plaza and dinner at the Jungle Skipper’s Canteen. Original park hours were 9 am – 10 pm, with Happily Ever After Fireworks at 10pm. NEW HOURS: 8 am – 12 am; Fireworks still at 10 pm. This changes our plans for that day…not by a lot, but it does relieve a little pressure and ensures we take an afternoon break. We’ll plan to walk over to the park around 7:15, and will probably leave shortly after lunch to return to the resort and rest for a few hours. While the crowds will be high, I think with a good touring strategy, we’ll be able to do everything we want to do and not wait in significant lines. I’m pretty happy with the three hours Disney has added. Means a nice relaxing afternoon break for us for sure!
Sunday, November 19: This day is planned as a Hollywood Studios day. When I originally booked our ADRs, the park hours were 9 am to 8 pm. Disney later added EMH for 8am. I cancelled our breakfast reservation at Hollywood and Vine, partly because the last time we did that one it was terrible and partly because if it wasn’t going to be something we could do BEFORE the park opened, I didn’t want to do it. We also have ADRs for lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater (a FAVORITE of our, so FUN) and the Hollywood Brown Derby for dinner. Now the park hours have been extended to 9 pm and they’ve added a Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! Parade at 8 pm. Not sure yet if we will check that parade out as Fantasmic is currently scheduled at 8:30 pm and we enjoy that…but we have seen Fantasmic several times and may want to take advantage of lighter crowds in the park during that last hour before it closes—and we’ve never seen the Jingle Bell Jingle BAM parade.
Monday, November 20: Wow this one has a big change, so glad I checked! We are planning Animal Kingdom for Monday, November 20. Crowds are at peak levels on this day as Thanksgiving week has arrived. I’m expecting crazy crowds. Original park hours were 9 am to 7 pm. Later, EMH got added for 8 am. NEW Hours are now 8 am to 10 pm, with EMH at 7 am!! Also they’ve added two shows of Rivers of Light: one at 7 pm and one at 8:45 pm. I may completely re-work our touring strategy for this day…I’m very excited to see Rivers of Light, and Animal Kingdom is SO beautiful at night. Very excited they’ve extended the hours BUT I had planned to go back to MK maybe (or at least our resort) to watch one last Happily Ever After fireworks at 10 pm…may need to rethink that. (And see where the car comes in handy? We could stay as late as 9:15 at AK and comfortably make it back to MK for fireworks by 10 if we have a car. If we are using buses? Probably need to leave by 8:30, just to be safe.)
Tuesday, November 21: This is our last day, and now, thanks to earlier departure flight, probably means we won’t do much at all. MK opens at 8 am instead of 9 am, so maybe we’ll stop by one last time for an hour or two before we go, assuming we’re all packed. More realistically, we will probably use the morning to pack and IF WE HAVE A CAR, visit Disney Springs and at least the GIANT World of Disney store on our way to the airport. {Sigh, the thought of leaving is already making me sad and we haven’t even gone yet!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m a little crazy!}.
Review and Confirm “Other” Reservations. For us, “Other” includes our Owner’s Locker. Owner’s Locker is a service we use to store a box full of “stuff” in Orlando in a temperature controlled environment. It’s a genius idea and a GREAT solution for frequent Orlando vacationers. Basically, you get this big purple plastic storage tote, it’s 20” x 22” x 13” deep. They deliver it to your resort on the day you arrive. The first time, it’s empty. You fill it with non-perishable items you don’t want to have to pack and carry down every time you visit. On the last day of the trip, you pack it up, zip tie it closed, and they come and pick it up and take it back to the warehouse. Next trip, they deliver it to your resort on your arrival date. Once you check in, you tell Bell Services you have an Owner’s Locker and they will bring it to your room. (Side note: They’re usually heavy, packed with all your stuff, so be prepared to tip the bell person a little bit). Owner’s Locker also will store golf clubs; they rent strollers, too.
Our membership includes one visit per year; additional visits are $27.50 per visit. We keep all kinds of stuff in ours. Shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, hair spray, a frying pan and burner (we usually stay in DVC studios that don’t include a stove), rain ponchos, general first aid supplies like band-aids and blister packs…. all kinds of stuff. It makes packing for our Disney trips a lot quicker and easier. We basically just need to worry about clothes. This trip, we’ll have to clean our box a bit, as there’s been an unplanned delay of three years between visits. No doubt some stuff has expired or deteriorated. This service is especially perfect for DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members as most DVC members visit at least once per year, but I think it’s great even if you are a regular vacationer that tries to visit every 10-18 months. Especially if you have kids…lots of stuff you want to have “just in case” but don’t always want to take up suitcase space with…store it in a locker.
There’s a onetime fee at the beginning of $75 and then you pay annually, based on how many lockers you have and which plan you select. There’s a basic storage plan, where you pay $85 per year, and just pay the $27.50 each time you visit. {Prices are based on ONE locker}. This plan is best if you don’t visit every year. There a moderate plan, which is $105 per year, and includes one visit per year. Finally, there’s a Deluxe plan that is $196 per year, but includes unlimited visits. For us, it’s been a pretty good deal. Especially in years where we went a few times. We can pack in 20 minutes and head to the airport. (NOT that my husband would ever be happy with that…he’s a planner…likes to be organized and packed WAY ahead. I’m just saying we COULD pack and leave in 20 minutes!) They deliver the lockers to the resorts in a purple van…if you ever see a bright purple van zipping around Disney property or at Orlando resorts, it’s probably Owner’s Locker. When the box is delivered and we open it, it’s a little like Christmas. This time, it’s been forever since we’ve seen our beloved park bag with all it’s pins…Can’t WAIT to see it again!
Park Bag
First Aid and Toiletries
Cooking Stuff
Toiletries
Rain Panchos
Candles
Plan for Real World Complications: Now’s the time to make sure your pet sitter or house sitters are confirmed. Make sure you know when you need to refill your prescriptions, and that you won’t be running out of critical medication while you’re on vacation. If you’re going to be gone for more than a few days, you may want to place a vacation hold on your mail and newspapers. Now’s the time to start making plans for coverage at your job. Remind your boss when you’ll be gone, and let them know your plans for getting the important stuff done while you’re gone. For previous trips for us, this meant processing payroll and taking employee and vendor phone calls at the parks…fortunately, my current job is a little less demanding and will more easily wait for me while I’m on vacation. I’m processing some things early before I go, and a few things will have to be done FIRST thing on my first day back, but for the most part, my company won’t be TOO affected by my absence this trip. But it’s important to make a list of everything you do that’s mission critical that may come up while you’re gone, and have a plan to make sure those things get addressed or at least, have a plan to deal with it if a ball gets dropped while you’re gone. You don’t want to come home to giant piles or big fires…it will make vacation a punishment and not a reward. Knowing its covered while you’re gone will make your trip MUCH more enjoyable. Confirm the plan for when you get home: are you picking your pets up that night, or the next day? Are you dropping the kids off at your mom’s as soon as you get home or a few hours later? Are you going straight to work from the airport? How are you getting to and from the airport? Will you drive and park? Uber? Cab? Is a family member or friend taking you? Now is the time to get that all figured out. Side note: If you park at the airport, take a picture of where you parked your car. And where it is in proximity to the transportation pickup point. One year, we spent a LONG time in blazing heat trying to find our car; we’d written down the lane number, not realizing both sides of the building used the same lane numbering strategy and we were on the opposite side of the building. OOPS!
Check the Weather. Check the planned weather for the time you are going and start thinking about what you want to pack.
Rainy Day Parade Photo: Brooke Hudson
Plan ahead…we use the guest room bed, just like my mom taught me when I was a kid 😊 and start putting things on the bed that we think we’ll want to take. It’s our anniversary trip and I have a few surprises planned, so not EVERYTHING will go on the guest room bed but we’ll start the piles in the next week or two. Note: Make sure to check the weather when it gets closer to your trip date. One year, the weather changed dramatically a couple days before our trip, and the originally predicted 70’s and sunny changed to 40’s and SNOW. Yes, we went to Disney in early November and had SNOW. And it hadn’t snowed in Chicago yet that year. Ay yi yi! While it was a good excuse to buy some new sweatshirts and some Disney gloves, it’s usually better (and more economical) to pack for the right weather!
Break in your Shoes.I think I mentioned this in a previous blog post, but if you are getting new shoes for your trip, get them now and start breaking them in. If you’re not getting new shoes, make sure whatever shoes you are taking are comfortable and that you’ll be ok standing and walking in them for 12 plus hours per day, up to five miles (on average) per day. If the answer is NO, better come up with a back up plan!
Online Check-in/Add Celebrations. Anytime after thirty days, you can check in for your resort reservation online. This simplifies and expedites check-in (theoretically) when you arrive at your resort. This is also the time when you can make room requests and/or add celebrations to your resort reservation. At the moment, the online functionality is NOT allowing you to add celebrations; you’ll need to call Disney to do that. It’s a nice touch though. If you’re celebrating a birthday, they’ll have a birthday button ready at check-in for the celebrant, and they’ll usually wish them Happy Birthday. In our case, we’re celebrating our wedding anniversary AND Frank’s birthday, which falls the day after we get home. It only takes a few minutes, and while you should never EXPECT cast members to do anything special for you, the additional information SOMETIMES can result in something special. Note: If you call to add a celebration to a trip, you will need your reservation confirmation number. DVC Members will also need your DVC Member ID.
I’m planning a little something special to help us celebrate our anniversary, but I’ll tell you about THAT in a separate post. HINT: It involves CAKE.
Well as usual, I’ve probably told you way more than you EVER wanted to know. And of course, I have lots more to share in future posts 😉. Just can’t seem to help myself. And I’m so excited to share my first trip report with all of you once we get back!
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is the Halloween-themed special event for Halloween at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Please note: There is also a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party offered at Disneyland. Since I’ve never been to that one, I don’t feel like I can tell you much about it, so this post is strictly about MNSSHP at WDW. It’s held on select evenings starting in AUGUST (which seems REALLY early to me to start thinking HALLOWEEN but I digress). The party is a special “extra” event that requires a separate ticket. The event runs 2 – 3 nights per week through November 1. Officially, the party goes from 7 pm to midnight on the days it is scheduled, so the Magic Kingdom closes to regular day guests at 7 pm.
Party ticket prices start at $74 for the parties at the beginning of the season, and gradually increase, the closer you get to Halloween. Tickets for the parties close to Halloween tend to sell out early, even though they are priced $100+. This year, the dates for MNSSHP are August 25 and 29, September 1, 7, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 29 and October 1, 3, 5, 6, 9,10, 12, 13 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 27, 29 and 31 and November 1.
The main question I usually get is “Is the Halloween Party Worth it?” And my answer, as with many things Disney is, “It depends.” A few years ago, when tickets were still $50-$60, my answer was an automatic YES. I think the parties are fun and the parade and the fireworks are really something special. However, prices have gotten a lot higher over the last few years, making it a much more challenging decision.
Benefits:
Early admission: Even though the party doesn’t start until 7 pm, you can enter the park with your party admission any time after 4 p.m. 4 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. means 8 hours in the Magic Kingdom; and with the exception of the “SOLD OUT” parties and the parties close to Halloween, generally the crowds are lighter than a “typical” park day at the Magic Kingdom, so you can usually take advantage of shorter lines and ride more attractions.
Boo to You Parade: This is one of my favorite parades that Disney offers. The Boo to You parade features floats and dancers that you don’t get to see any other way. All the Disney characters featured in the parade are wearing their Halloween costumes. It’s fun and not to be missed if you attend the party. It’s offered twice during the party, once at 9:15 pm and once at 11:15 pm. Generally, we attend the 11:15 pm parade as the crowd is lighter by then.
Hallowishes Firesworks: At 10:15 pm, a special Disney Villains themed fireworks display shoots off over Cinderella’s castle. If you’re not a fireworks fan, it’s a great time to get on rides with short or nonexistent lines, but if like me, you’re a fireworks fan, Hallowishes is pretty terrific.
Headless Horseman: Right before the parade, as long as the weather is good, the Headless Horseman gallops down the parade route, through the empty streets (blocked off for the parade). It’s creepy and cool at the same time. Note: He does not always ride so you can’t count on it 100% but when he does, it’s a big highlight of the night.
Special party-themed merchandise: At 7 p.m., the shops will put out special Halloween Party themed merchandise that is ONLY available during the party. At minimum, there are usually special pins, shirts, and ears, and often other “special” items. There are special Halloween Party pins available for Annual Passholders and DVC Members, again, that you can only get during a party. If you’re not a merchandise person, this is no big deal but as a (somewhat reformed) souvenir junkie, I’m always eager to check out the special party themed merchandise.
Treat Stations: throughout the park, there will be “Treat” stations where you can stand in line with your trick or treat bag and get free candy from whomever is a party sponsor that year. This is something I think has kind of deteriorated in recent years, but still seems to be a fairly big draw, especially for the kids. You used to get more candy, and a bigger variety of candy. Now, it seems the lines are longer, the candy is pretty standardized, and you don’t get much at the various stations. Not a big deal for me personally as I generally skip this altogether, but for some people it’s a main attraction. This year, there are 14 “Treat” stations, including a special “allergy-friendly” station in the Town Square Theater for those with special dietary restrictions.
Castle Forecourt Stage Show: There is always a Villain themed stage show offered on the Castle Forecourt Stage a few times during the party. It’s usually a 15-20 minute show and I’ve always enjoyed them as a way to see characters you don’t often get to see in the parks. This year’s show is themed the Disney classic Halloween movie, “Hocus Pocus”. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve heard good things. It sounds campy and fun.
Costumes: MANY MANY MANY guests dress for Halloween for these parties, and that is one of the best highlights for me personally. I love seeing everyone in their costumes. The creativity and variety is really fun to see. There are some restrictions for security purposes—you can’t wear any costumes that cover your face, you can’t carry weapons, etc. (for a full list of restrictions, check out Disney’s website), but people manage to do some pretty terrific costumes. You don’t have to wear a costume, but it’s more fun if you do–even if it’s something quick and simple. One note: Keep the Florida heat and humidity in mind. It is NOT fun to melt in your costume, trust me on this.
Character Greetings: As with the parade, all the characters at the Character greetings during the party are in their Halloween costumes, so you can get unique pictures that you can’t get on a normal park visit.
Special PhotoPass Themes: If you have PhotoPass pictures taken during a Halloween party, you will have access to the Halloween party themed PhotoPass stickers and borders that you can add to your pictures.
There are usually some special “Magic Shots” only available during the Halloween Party. If you’re not familiar with Magic Shots, these are pictures taken of your group by PhotoPass photographers with something special added “magically” into the picture after they take it. For MNSSHP, these usually include hitchhiking ghosts or a ghostly hearse driver. Note: I have heard recently that ghostly magic shots are no longer limited to MNSSHP; however, in my experience, you had to get the picture taken at the party to have access to those special shots.
Shorter lines for attractions: You cannot book Fast Pass Plus reservations for any attractions during a party, but generally, you won’t need them. Once the party gets going and regular day guests have left, there are a lot fewer guests in the park than on a regular day. There are exceptions to this: In recent years, Disney has increased the number of tickets they sell for parties, and the sold out parties, especially near Halloween, can get pretty crowded from what I’ve heard. I’ve only ever attended parties in late September or early October, so our experience has always reflected pretty light crowds, especially later in the evening after parents with little kids have gone home.
Things to Consider:
There’s no getting around it, this is a pricey ticket. If money is no object, the parties are fun and offer some unique merchandise and entertainment that you won’t get to see unless you buy a ticket to a party. So, I say go for it. If, however, you are like me and money IS a big deal, this can be a much more challenging decision. If you are an Annual Passholder, you technically already have a park ticket for this day, so you can feel like you are paying twice to attend a party.
Some ways that we’ve made the party ticket a worthwhile spend for us: 1) we usually plan the party for a day we DON’T visit any other parks—we just go to the party. Often, this is the day we arrive, and would most likely not get a “full” day in at the parks anyway. 2) We avoid parties that fall on weekends or close to Halloween—those tend to be more crowded (and more expensive!) 3) We plan to arrive at MK at 4 p.m. to maximize our time at the park for the evening. If possible, we either sleep late that day, or, if it’s a travel day, we try to catch a short nap in the afternoon before the party. 4) we stay for the entire party, not leaving until they throw us out after midnight. 5) We take advantage of as many party-themed unique entertainment options as we can. In other words, we watch the shows, we go to the parade, we stake out a good spot for the fireworks. We will take character pictures if the lines aren’t too long. 6) We ride as many of our favorite attractions as we can during the party, knowing the lines will be longer on other days. We usually ride during the first parade, as well. 6) We take lots of PhotoPass pictures.
If you are NOT an annual passholder, planning to attend a party means you can buy one day less on your park tickets. If you were planning to purchase 5 day pass, purchase a 4 day pass instead. Just make sure you don’t visit any parks on the day of the party—make it a rest day, or a Disney Springs day. It’s not a big savings on your park pass, but it can help defray the cost of your party ticket a little bit.
Do you LOVE Halloween? Do you like to be SCARED at Halloween? This is NOT a scary Halloween event, like Halloween Horror Nights at Universal or Fright Fest at Six Flags. This is a family themed Halloween event, much more focused on FUN than SCARE. So, if you love haunted houses and people jumping out at you, you might not enjoy Disney’s idea of Halloween.
Do you like to dress up for Halloween? Do you have a terrific family theme idea for your Halloween costumes? Do you like seeing the characters in unique costumes you don’t normally see them in? If any of these answers are yes, you would probably enjoy the party.
AGE and ENTHUSIASM. I’m not sure this is a great value for families with small children, even though small children are part of the target audience. Most of the time, I see families with small children leave after the fireworks, about an hour and a half before the end of the party, and often I see small kids conked out on parents’ shoulders or in strollers way before that. That’s a lot of money to spend for a couple of hours of entertainment and some trick or treating. And some REALLY cute pictures! Definitely an individual decision for sure. If you know you won’t be happy after 10 pm, you’ll just be too tired, the party probably isn’t worth it for you.
There is an available add-on you can get, again, if money is simply not a concern for you: there is a HalloWishes Dessert Party, priced at $79 per adult, $47 per child ages 3-9. Note: the HalloWishes Dessert Party requires a MNSSHP ticket, so this is $79 on TOP of the party ticket. Basically, Halloween themed desserts and a special fireworks viewing area. Personally, I don’t think this is a good value at all…it takes up too much of your time and there is just too much other stuff going on at the party that you don’t want to miss. Plus, WAY too pricey in my opinion.
So…the bottom line:
If money is not an object and you like a FUN Halloween Disney themed event….plan to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
If you can attend a party earlier in the season, and replace a regular park day with attending the Party, MNSSHP may be a reasonable value for you.
If you are a costume junkie (or LOVE seeing Characters and visitors in costumes), MNSSHP should definitely be on your wish list, if the pricing makes sense for you.
If you like to go to bed early, or prefer your Halloween to be truly terrifying, give MNSSHP a pass.
I’d love to hear your perspective on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Are you attending this year? Planning for next year? Let me know!
One question I get asked a lot is “Should we purchase the Memory Maker?”. The short answer: It depends.
Ok, for me, it’s pretty much always YES…but I’m a HUGE photo nerd.
For more NORMAL people, there are several things to consider, and I will get to those in a moment. But first for those of you that DON’T know:
What is Disney PhotoPass?
Disney PhotoPass is a service that Disney added years ago, and I think it’s absolute GENIUS. Basically, they have photographers stationed at numerous locations around each park to take pictures of you and your group. This completely solves the “Did Mom even GO on that vacation? She’s not in ANY of the pictures” dilemma. For many families, there is always one person that takes all the pictures and they are never in any of the shots. Or, people rotate who takes the pictures, but there are never any pictures of EVERYONE together, because one person always steps out to take the picture. For some, Selfies have helped to address this problem, but with a Selfie, it’s still really tough to get a group or to include people AND a landmark in the picture.
The Solution
Disney has solved that. Basically, the PhotoPass photographer will take your group’s picture, usually with a park icon or landmark in the background, and then they will either scan your magic band (the easiest) or give you a PhotoPass card with a 16-digit number on the back. Note: If you are given a Photopass card, immediately take a picture of the back of the card just in case. If you lose the card, but have the number, you can still locate your pictures.
Big Group Attractions
Generally, at big group attractions where PhotoPass take lots of pictures (Enchanted Tales with Belle, for example), the photographer will hand out PhotoPass cards at the end; once you enter the number on your computer, you’ll have access to ALL the pictures they took during that particular event. If your kid had a role in the show, you do NOT want to lose that number! So take a picture of the back of the card, just in case!
PhotoPass photographers will also take pictures using YOUR camera or phone, so don’t be afraid to ask. This can be a way to save on Memory Maker or PhotoPass downloads.
Ride Photos and Videos
Some rides take your picture during the ride…those are now PhotoPass pictures, and can be attached to your Magic Band or PhotoPass card. The RFID technology in your MagicBand communicates with the reader at the attraction and automatically adds the photos or videos to your account.
Splash Mountain Attraction Photo (Photo: Disney PhotoPass)
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in the rain Photo: Linda Harkness
Character Meals
Some character dining meals also offer PhotoPass pictures, but not all of them. Also IF there is a PhotoPass photographer at a character meal, it will usually just be for a picture you take before you enter the restaurant. PhotoPass photographers do not go around with the characters as they visit your table, so ALWAYS bring your camera to character meals.
After You Get Home
After your trip, you will be able to visit the PhotoPass website to view all your pictures. You can add borders and stickers to the photos, and you can make products like Photobooks, calendars and mugs featuring your pictures on the Disney PhotoPass website. One picture can turn into 10 or 15 by the time you are done playing with borders, cropping, black and white, etc. Some borders are unique to particular locations, seasons, or events, adding a little extra magic to those photos.
PhotoPass pictures are also now available in the My Disney Experience app, so you’ll be able to look at them as your trip goes along. Most photos and videos appear in your app within 20 minutes.
NOTE: Pictures are only available on the PhotoPass site for about 30 days (unless you are an Annual Passholder.)
What is a Magic Shot?
Magic Shots are pictures taken by a PhotoPass photographer with a little something extra magical added later. The most common ones feature TinkerBell standing on the palm of your hand, or a bunch of balloons added to your upstretched arm. There are a variety of Magic Shots available at different times. During Star Wars Weekend a few years ago, we got Magic Shots with light sabers added. Recently, they added some pirate themed Magic Shots near the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
During Mickey’s Not-so-Scary Halloween Party, there are special Magic Shots offered near the Haunted Mansion that feature some Happy Haunts.
How to Get a Magic Shot
Disney changes what Magic Shots are available from time to time, and not all PhotoPass photographers will offer to do them. Your odds are better if there’s no line and if you’re nice and friendly. PhotoPass photographers work very hard, and are on their feet for many hours a day, usually in pretty hot temperatures and sometimes not treated very well by guests. In my experience, if you are nice and there’s not a line, they’re more likely to spend a few extra minutes with you, and usually that results in some Magic Shots. To see what Magic Shots are currently available, visit the albums at the Disney Photo Pass Facebook Page.
What is Memory Maker?
Memory Maker is the product Disney sells that enables you to download all the PhotoPass photos, including attraction pictures and videos, linked to your My Disney Experience account for one price. You get the rights to the photos, allowing you to print them through any service you like. If you DON’T purchase Memory Maker, you can download individual PhotoPass photos, Magic Shots or attraction rides or videos, but individually, they are priced high.
Another benefit of Memory Maker: SHARING. If you have friends or family that share media with you via My Disney Experience, you will have access to all the PhotoPass photos and digital content on THEIR PhotoPass account, too. For our wedding trip, this worked out AMAZING. We purchased the Memory Maker and our whole group shared their pictures with us. Combining pictures from everyone, we got to see lots of amazing moments that we missed during the trip. We made CDs for everyone after the trip with all their pictures after we’d downloaded them. This is a great way to help defray the cost of Memory Maker—if you can share the cost with other family members, it makes the purchase much more palatable.
How Much Does Memory Maker Cost?
Currently, you can purchase Memory Maker for $199. If you plan ahead and order Memory Maker at least 5 days BEFORE your vacation, you can purchase it for $169. Note: Photos in your PhotoPass account will expire 45 days from the date taken, so make sure you download all your pictures before you hit that 45-day mark.
Note: If you are an Annual Passholder, PhotoPass downloads are included with your Annual Pass (Photos and other digital content expire 365 days from date of capture for Annual Passholders). For us, this was a big factor in choosing which park tickets we’d purchase this year. But that’s a topic for another day 😉.
So, back to the original question: Should I purchase Memory Maker?
Yes, I strongly recommend you purchase Memory Maker for your vacation (purchase it in advance to save $30) unless
you hate having pictures from your vacation with everyone in them, including you
it’s a super short trip, and you’re not likely to have the chance to have many PhotoPass shots taken
you (or most of your group) refuse to pose for pictures
rides: you don’t care about attraction photos or videos or you don’t tend to ride any rides
Basically, if pictures are NOT a priority for you or your group, Memory Maker probably DOESN’T make sense for you.
If finances are a concern, and let’s face it, for many of us, finances are a major concern, you can try and play the odds. If you think you’ll end up with 10 or less pictures that you’ll really want to “OWN”, you could try NOT purchasing the Memory Maker. But if you get home and find there are 50 pictures you can’t live without, you’ll find yourself spending MORE money after the fact. At the prices Disney charges for individual photo downloads, if you end up wanting 15-20 of the pictures, you’ll spend more on individual downloads than you would on Memory Maker, which would get you EVERYTHING taken during your trip and linked to your account.
Note: You CAN purchase Memory Maker after your trip, but at the $199 price, not the pre-trip $169 price. But if you find you have LOTS of pictures you want to download, it will probably be cheaper to buy Memory Maker, even after your trip, than to purchase individual downloads. (Tip: if you have any friends or family traveling within 30 days of your trip, you could split the cost of the Memory Maker and share your photos and digital content. Just make sure to add your borders and download the pictures relatively quickly after the second trip is complete–you don’t want to risk any pictures dropping off).
A Disney vacation is a significant investment, and I firmly believe capturing those memories in photos is an important part of that investment. So, I plan for Memory Maker (and the post – vacation photo book I will make) in my vacation budget and savings plan.
Maximize Your Investment
I will say this: If you DO make the investment in Memory Maker–make sure you take advantage of it! Hit lots of PhotoPass photographers around the parks, use different poses, ask for Magic Shots. You don’t want to get home and regret the purchase. As long as you use it, Memory Maker can be a good value. With individual pictures priced at $12.95 (5×7), it doesn’t take THAT many photos for Memory Maker to make sense.
As I mentioned before, I’m a total photo nerd. I make my poor husband stop at almost every single PhotoPass photographer in every park. I LOVE having pictures from our vacations. We went once for a weekend trip (Memory Maker was more economical in those days, granted) and I almost didn’t buy the Memory Maker…I decided to go for it, and was so happy I did. I think I ended up with 45 PhotoPass pictures from that trip, before I started adding borders and stickers, and cropping them, etc. It was well over 100 by the time I was done “playing” and downloaded them. That’s a pretty light PhotoPass load for us, but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on any of them.
Sharing
For the wedding trip, there were only 3 park days, but we ended up with more than 200 pictures, once everyone shared their media with us. It was AWESOME. (Note: If one person buys Memory Maker, that purchase is linked to THAT account and they are the only account that can download the pictures for everyone that shared media. Everyone linked to the account can VIEW them, but only the purchaser can download. It’s super easy to share after you’ve downloaded though, so I don’t view this a big concern—just wanted you to be aware.)
Also, I like to stack the odds. If you take one picture, the odds are fairly high that you won’t love it. If you take 20 pictures, the odds are fairly high that you will love AT LEAST 2 or 3 of them!
Spaceship Earth (Photo: Disney PhotoPass)
Photos are a great way to relive magic moments. Disney vacations are typically FULL of magic moments you don’t ever want to forget. Disney’s PhotoPass and Memory Maker are great tools to help make sure your memories are preserved.
Make a Copy!
One more tip: If you do purchase Memory Maker, or even just individual PhotoPass photo downloads, make sure you make a back up copy of the files and store it somewhere different from where you store the original files. The cloud, another computer, a jump drive–just have a copy. I’m currently hunting for PhotoPass pictures from our January 2014 trip. With all the wedding planning that year, I didn’t do my usual routine with Disney trip pictures, and they are NOT where they are supposed to be. {sigh. I know I made a copy. I just don’t know WHERE I made the copy 😉}.
Do you have any questions about PhotoPass or Memory Maker? I’d love to hear from you! Or send me your favorite PhotoPass pictures and I will share them here, with your permission (of course!).
She said WHAT?? TRAINING FOR MY VACATION? Is she INSANE? Well, yes, but that’s beside the point 😉 Seriously, I said training for your vacation and I meant it!
My goal in writing for this site is primarily to help you have a better Disney vacation. I want you to do a little up-front planning to make your trip go smoother. I want to tell you about new attractions or restaurants to help make sure you don’t miss out on something you’ll really enjoy. I want to offer tips and tricks to help you maximize your time and fun at the parks. I want to help you prepare for the best possible, most enjoyable vacation for you and your family.
How much good would all that do if, at the end of the first day, you are EXHAUSTED and your feet and legs hurt so much that you can’t even sleep that night? Or worse, if you end up with terrible blisters on your feet that significantly curtail your vacation activities as your trip wears on? Your vacation will definitely be much LESS enjoyable if you end up spending 2/3 of it in pain, trust me. I’ve been there. Which is precisely why I want to make sure you DON’T make the same mistakes.
Listen, these days, most people lead relatively sedentary lives. We drive to work, we spend the day sitting at our desks, we drive home and we sit down to eat dinner and then sit down at the computer or on the couch to watch TV. Obviously, there are many exceptions to this…If you work out most days and you routinely get 12,000 steps or more on your FitBit or pedometer, this article isn’t for you. You are in terrific shape for your vacation, go off and do something active 😉.
But if you’re part of the majority of us who DON’T routinely get more than 12,000 steps per day, you may want to consider training for your vacation.
A Disney vacation is wonderful and fun, and a great chance to let go of your worries and play together and drink in the magic and adventure. What it is not, as a rule, is relaxing. A Disney vacation is an active vacation. Now, I need to point out that it is possible to have a relaxing vacation at Disney…every resort has a pool, and there are golf courses and lots of other relaxing leisure activities you can take advantage of. Or if you are able to spend 2-3 weeks at Disney, it’s much easier to have a relaxing vacation, because you can spread out your park days and have more down time, and you can be much more leisurely about visiting attractions. Or if you have the means and time to visit multiple times per year. Or the means to hire a VIP tour guide that can help you get around behind the scenes and avoid many of the worst lines. There are definitely ways to have a relaxing vacation at Disney, if you have time and means. I don’t happen to have any of these ways or means, though…😉
I’m talking more about the average Disney vacation that most families or individuals take—3-7 days, time off work, trying to maximize your time in the parks and seeing and doing as much as humanly possible, maximizing your “return on investment”. Let’s face it, for most of us, a Disney vacation is a BIG expenditure, and you want to feel like you’ve squeezed every drop of fun out of that darn trip so you feel that spending was worth it. (There are lots of ways to do Disney more economically, and there are tons of budget travel tips out there—I’ll do an article on that in the future…but again, I’m talking mainly about the “average” trip right now).
First thing to think about: Disney resorts are LARGE. Some are VERY LARGE. In other words, just to get from your room to breakfast or the bus stop, you may walk a half mile (or more). Add to that: each Disney park is LARGE. Some are VERY LARGE. (Are you sensing a trend here?). It is not unusual to walk five miles or more in a single day, visiting only one park and not really pushing yourself. If you park hop, or really push to see EVERYTHING in a particular park, criss-crossing and revisiting favorites?? You could do more like 7-10 miles. In a single day. On a particularly adventurous day a few years ago, a friend and I set a goal to visit all four parks in a single day, and then ended up back at MK for fireworks at the end of the night…technically visiting four parks with five visits. We each logged more than 14 miles that day. That’s a half marathon, baby!
My point is, if you are NOT accustomed to spending long periods of time standing and walking 5-7 miles per day, multiple days per week, your Disney vacation is going to be physically more demanding than what you are used to. If you don’t prepare, you will be in serious pain after a day or two. Ideally, you have 2-3 months before your trip, and can ramp up slowly and without too much effort. Basically, your goal is to get to walking 5 miles per day, 4-6 days a week by about a week before your vacation. Note, I’ve tried getting ready using biking instead of walking, and that didn’t help as much. You really need weight bearing, low impact exercise. Part of it is time based too. Unless you walk really fast, 5 miles is going to take you around an hour and a half. That doesn’t compare in any way shape or form to 10 -12 hours on your feet, but it helps to get some decent time in as well as mileage on your feet. I’m a pretty heavy person, so my issues may be more challenging than yours if you are in better shape than I am, but even if you’re tiny, you’re still going to be putting a lot more pressure than you are used to on your legs and feet, walking and standing on hard surfaces all day long.
If you wear a FitBit or pedometer, take a look at your current average steps per day. If you are habitually below 12,000, start by trying to add 500 or 1000 steps per day for a week or so, and then try and add another 1,000 steps per day the next week. For example, I’ve been hanging around the 8,000 steps per day neighborhood for a few weeks now, so this week, I’m trying average 9,000 steps per day. Next week, I’ll work on 10,000 and 11,000 the following week. Make sense? For me personally, It takes about 2,300 steps for me to reach one mile. So my goal is to be closer to 15-16,000 steps by the time we leave for vacation. Everyone is a little different, and based on your height or stride length, you may need more or less steps than me to hit a mile. I found this helpful article that talks about this: How Many Steps in a Mile?
If you don’t have a pedometer, that’s ok. Just take a look at what you are currently doing and, if you’re not spending a lot of time on your feet and/or walking, add more! If you are completely sedentary, try walking for 20 – 30 minutes a day for a week or so. Then add another 10-20 minutes after that. Or take a separate 10-20-minute walk, later in the day. Whatever works for you, however you can fit it in.
Use what you have: if you can, take a walk outside on the sidewalk or street. Don’t worry too much about speed, unless you are also working on weight loss or training for a race. Just walk and try and enjoy yourself. Some days, I’m able to take a short walk on my lunch break at work. I always find my energy and mood lifted in the afternoon on those days. If you can’t walk outside, walk inside. Do you have a treadmill or elliptical? Great, use those. Just try and mix some outside, on the pavement time too. Your legs and feet need to build up a little endurance on those surfaces. If you are dealing with snow and ice or torrential rains and can’t walk outside and don’t have access to a treadmill or elliptical, DON’T GIVE UP! You can walk around your house. Turn on some music and dance around your house. March in place, jog in place, go up and down stairs. Just stay on your feet, and try and get those miles in. I also sometimes will use YouTube walking videos to help me get some variety in my walking inside routine: I really like Jessica Smith. Check her YouTube page out here: Jessica Smith TV She has a TON of free walking workout videos, as well as lots of other types of workouts, including stretching, yoga, kickboxing…all kinds of good stuff there.
Trust me on this: I know we are all busy, and finding time to exercise is something that everyone struggles with…but you are spending a lot of money on this vacation and you do not want to spend it miserable. And if your feet, legs, hips and back are killing you by the end of day 1, you will be miserable! I’ve been there, and it really impacted my enjoyment of the trip. Sometimes, it’s easier to motivate yourself to be more active when it’s in pursuit of VACATION rather than for the sake of being more active for it’s own sake. *Yes, I know, we should ALL be working on being more active because it’s good for our bodies and our brains. That is a fact. I KNOW. BUT…I’m still a work in progress. If thinking about vacation gets me moving when nothing else will? I’ll think about vacation!
Think about the rest of your travel group, too. You may not be able to get your kids to walk five miles 4 days a week with you, but can you get them to do more walking than they do normally? If you will be pushing a stroller with a 30-pound kid in it all over Disney, guess what? You should probably be pushing that stroller on at least some of your long walks before your trip. Try and get your spouse to do more walking too. It’s great if you can do this together, and spend time talking and getting excited about your trip. For my husband and I, our work schedules make it pretty tough to walk together most days BUT I’ve already started pushing him to walk every day in preparation for our November trip. He doesn’t want sore feet and legs any more than I do, so fortunately, he’s listening to me. We make a game out of it, teasing each other over who got more miles in each day or week.
Another thing to train: Your vacation footwear. Do NOT buy brand new shoes for vacation and not wear them for several days and miles before you go! I have done this in the past and my feet were NOT happy! Just like wearing heels at your wedding, you need to break in your shoes before you go on vacation. If you follow through and are walking a lot in the weeks leading up to your trip, try to have your ”vacation” shoes at least two weeks before your trip, and start wearing them on your walks.
There are a lot of different opinions out there on the “best” shoes for Disney vacation. I’ve seen everything from flip flops to high heels (really? Are you crazy, lady? All I can think is OUCH.) I tend to wear comfortable athletic shoes—not too old, I want lots of good cushion and shock absorption left in them. But wear what is comfortable for you, keeping in mind that you will be walking on hard surfaces for many hours and miles per day.
How are you planning to “train” for your Disney vacation? I’d love to hear from you!
You know what I find really interesting? When my alarm goes off on a work day—REGARDLESS OF THE TIME or how much sleep I’ve had, I immediately and automatically hit the snooze button. I seem physically incapable of getting right out of bed.
But when the alarm goes off on vacation (or for vacation related insanity like Fast Pass scheduling….) BAM, I jump right out of bed like it’s full of snakes or spiders or something. I’m sure that says something very troubling about me and my brain, but I’m not in the mood for deep psychological analysis this morning, so we’ll move on.
At any rate, the alarm went off and I headed straight down to the computer. I immediately logged into My Disney Experience, and headed straight to the Fast Pass Plus reservation area, selected my “Group”—my husband Frank and myself—and tried to choose my dates. It was still only 5:55 AM, so you guessed it…no luck. They are not kidding with that window. All that was available were reservation dates up to 30 days out. It looks at your hotel reservation and does not open that 60-day window until 7:00 AM (Eastern) the 60th day our from the first night of your reservation.
Tried again at exactly 6:00 AM and magically, the window now showed all the days between now and the last day of our vacation. (The sixty-day window is for day 1 of your vacation—or really the first night in a Disney hotel…but the window then opens for every night you’ve booked in Disney hotel for the duration of that reservation, and will include the day after the last night. They’re assuming you get up, check out and go to a park on your last day. For those of you that like to resort hop: The window will open for the duration of that first reservation. So, if you are staying two nights at All Star Movies and then heading to the Grand Floridian for four nights, ONLY the first two nights will show up in your initial 60-day window. You’ll have to go back in two days later and book your fast passes for that second reservation.)
My plan of attack was to try and get the most difficult Fast Pass Plus (FPP) reservations out of the way first. I had planned our Epcot day as November 17, day 2 of our trip, and I really want to check out Frozen Ever After; it is new since our last trip. After you select your “group”, choose the date for the first FPP you are booking and then the system asks which park you want to visit.
By default, the system will automatically offer FPPs in the morning first. Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios all feature a tiered system. They group the most in-demand attractions in one tier, only allowing you to choose one from that tier, and the rest of the FPP attractions in the other tier, allowing you to choose two. If you want times in the afternoon or evening, you can select those windows.
I chose November 17 and Epcot and the two tiers popped up. It defaults to morning first, and will show the earliest available FPP slot for each attraction. **Note: If the attraction you want is not listed, it means there are NO available FPP left for that attraction for that day. This means you will either have to wait in regular lines for the attraction or try to get a FPP for a different day of your trip. For Frozen Ever After, the earliest available slot that day was 2:20 PM. I immediately grabbed it. It takes you to the next screen, which is a confirm screen. Take a quick look and make sure all the members of your party are listed and that you have the attraction and time slot you selected on the previous page. Once you confirm, it will ask if you want another FPP, and offer the option to continue on the same day or select a different day.
For my purposes, I wanted to work on my next most difficult attraction: Flights of Passage at Animal Kingdom. I grabbed the date and the earliest time offered was already 4:30 pm. I then booked FPP for Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safari for the same day. Yay. And then I realized I was booking the reservations ON THE WRONG DAY. I was supposed to be booking on Monday, November 20 and instead I’d grabbed Sunday, November 19. I blame the early hour and the lack of caffeine. CHECK YOUR DATES PEOPLE!!! I immediate chose to book a new FPP on a different (and correct) day, went to Animal Kingdom and found the earliest Flight of Passage FPP available on THAT day, which was 2 PM. Grabbed it, and then proceeded to book the other two I wanted for AK for that day.
I then went back to November 19 and selected Hollywood Studios. It immediately tells me I already have FPP booked for that day and to book new ones, I will be cancelling the old ones. I knew that already, but it’s good to note that Disney TRIES to stop you from accidentally canceling something you DON’T WANT to cancel. It will ask you to make the choice for each member of your party individually. (See screen shot below.)
You will also see an error like this if you are trying to book a FPP in a window that overlaps another FPP. I kept trying to overlap by a few minutes for attractions that were close together but it caught me every time.
For Hollywood Studios, the most important attraction for us is Toy Story Mania. We LOVE that ride. Sunday has Extra Magic Hours, so we will be heading straight to Toy Story Mania as soon as we are allowed into the park but I wanted to have a FPP for later so we can ride it again. I booked one for 10:45 AM. We’ll end up using it toward the end of the window as we have lunch reservation at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at 11:55 AM. The other two FPP I booked for that day are Star Tours, 9:50 AM and Tower of Terror, right after lunch.
After HS FPP were booked, I went to Saturday and booked our FPP for Magic Kingdom. I wasn’t as worried about these because I knew we were going to the Christmas Party on our first night and would likely be able to ride everything we wanted at least once that night…The toughest one to get at MK is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so I did that first and got a 2 pm window. The other two I grabbed were Peter Pan’s Flight and Haunted Mansion.
I then went back to Friday and booked the remaining two FPP I had for Epcot. Spaceship Earth and Mission Space. I’m not too worried about either of these, and may end up cancelling or choosing alternate times or attractions as I get closer to the trip and have a better idea of how we will be touring the park.
Finally, I booked a few FPP for Tuesday morning, our final day. I suspect we won’t end up going to the park on this day; I’m leaning more towards stopping at Disney Springs on our way to the airport but just in case we DO decide to go to the park, I booked a couple at MK (walking distance from our resort and our favorite park). Once we decide whether we will use these, I will update and/or release these FPP.
Here’s a different error message you might see. I didn’t run into this when I was actually booking, but I did run into it later when I was trying to book additional FPP to help me with this article. I basically logged out and logged back in to fix this issue. I know errors are super annoying, but you have to admit, this error message is awfully cute!
Once you’re finished, Disney will show you all the FPP reservations you’ve made. I highly suggest printing or saving these pages to PDF so you have a copy of what you booked. I’ve never had a problem, but I have heard a few stories of FPP being dropped from the system somehow…I’m not sure having a printout will help in the conversation with Disney about any missing FPP, but it sure couldn’t hurt. Hopefully those bugs were worked out in the beginning and that is NEVER an issue anymore, but ya never know.
Note: If you are visiting Magic Kingdom on a date where there is a special event, for example, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the software stops issuing FPPs at 5:30. The park closes to non-party guests at 7:00 pm. (Note these parties are special ticketed events and require separate purchase of a ticket. I will be talking specifically about this in a separate post.) If you have a ticket to the party, you can enter the park any time after 4pm using your party ticket, even though the party doesn’t start until 7 pm. So, you can reserve FPP between 4pm and 5:30pm. The system won’t let you overlap passes by even five minutes, though, so you may want to try and book a 3:30 or 3:45 FPP as your first one, even though you won’t be in the park until 4 pm. You’ll have until 4:30 or 4:45 to use the FPP, based on the 1-hour reservation window.
The Bottom Line
My early morning mission was successful. I was able to book Fast Pass Plus reservations for each attraction I’d planned to, and generally, the windows that I booked work for what I have planned for each day of our vacation. I didn’t run into any technical challenges at all, and the only glitch was one I created myself by choosing an incorrect date. I’ve still got a few things to figure out, so I may make a couple minor changes on the less popular attractions as we get a little closer to vacation, but overall, I’m pretty happy with how it went. I was even happier when I went back to bed for an hour before getting up and heading to work! 😉
Focus on what is most important to you and your group. If you all have different favorite attractions, write down everyone’s favorites and determine which are likeliest to have the longest lines. Do any of these attractions offer Single Rider lines? Is that an option for your group if they do?
Single Rider Lines
For example, at Hollywood Studios, we love Toy Story Mania, the Tower of Terror AND Rock-n-Roller Coaster. Disney puts all three of those attractions into one tier, because, shock of shocks, those are a LOT of people’s favorite attractions. By utilizing Extra Magic Hours and making sure we are at the park before it opens, the odds are fairly good that we will be able to ride all three of these attractions before the lines start to get long, and that, by far, is the best strategy.
But if for some reason, we can’t do all three pretty early and avoid the lines, the first one we will drop initially and ride later is Rock-n-Roller Coaster, because it has a single rider line. Traditionally, most people like to ride with the rest of their group, so if a group has an uneven number, you might end up with an empty seat. Disney will almost NEVER waste an empty seat, so they pull from the “Single Rider” line to fill that seat. What that means to you: If you are willing to ride the attraction sitting next to someone you don’t know while your loved one(s) sit next to someone else, you can shave LOTS of time off your wait times. There are a lot of groups of 3 and 5, so there is a high demand for single riders to fill in those groups. The longest we’ve ever waited in the single rider line was twenty minutes, and that was on a CRAZY busy day with one of the longest regular standby lines we’ve seen—almost 3 hours! You still enter the line together, you wait in line together, you just split up right before your ride vehicles are loaded. Most of the time, Frank and I end up in the same car, just different rows. Every once in a while, you may end up riding a couple of minutes apart and one of you will have to wait at the other end for a minute or two but if you’re open to it, it’s a GREAT way to avoid the line, ride the attraction you like quickly and move on about your day. Currently, Disney offers three attractions with single rider lines: Test Track at Epcot; Rock-n-Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios; and Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom.
Character Greetings
When most people think about Fast Passes, they tend to think primarily about rides. Sometimes, they’ll consider shows. But one other type of attraction that can be reserved via FPP is CHARACTER GREETINGS. If this is something that is important to you, you may want to consider using FPP to schedule some of these during your trip. The most popular characters (especially the Frozen princesses, Anna and Elsa) often have CRAZY long lines, full of lots of small and frequently tired and impatient children. Some kids are scared of the characters, even the princesses, so you may want to consider that before using up a FPP reservation if your child hasn’t even met a character before. Character greetings are something we enjoy, but they aren’t super important to us, unless we are traveling with more of our family. One of my favorite Photopass pictures from the wedding trip is with most of my family and Sorcerer Mickey.
Note: We did not book FPP for this greeting. Mickey was there, the line wasn’t long, I browbeat everyone into going over there 😊. So, we tend NOT to use FPP for Character Greetings, just hopping into lines if they are short and we have time. BUT, I know for many people, getting that picture with Snow White or Goofy will MAKE their trip. If that’s you, consider booking a FPP reservation.
Bottom Line
I look at FPP as a bonus—a way to get extra rides on a favorite, or a way to combat long lines later in the day after everyone else has shown up, or as a way to ride something we like that normally has long lines in a park we won’t get to until later in the day.
Identify your top priority attractions. Determine if they are Tier 1 attractions (at Epcot, Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios). Think about where in the park your top priority attractions are located. Think about where you have scheduled meal reservations (or, if you don’t have meal reservations, think about approximately when you think you might want to take a meal break and, potentially, where.) Think about WHEN you will be at the parks, and whether you’ll be able to take advantage of lighter, early morning crowds.
Finally, think about which attractions may be the hardest FPPs to get. Right now, the highest demand FPPs are Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain, all at Magic Kingdom. Frozen Ever After, Soarin’, Test Track and Illuminations at Epcot. Toy Story Mania and Rock-n-Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. At Animal Kingdom, the “hot” attractions are Avatar Flight of Passage, Na’vi River Journey and the Rivers of Light nighttime show.
Now that you’ve prioritized, you’re ready to book your Fast Pass Plus reservations!
A few things to keep in mind:
You can only book up to three FPP reservations in any given day, and those must all be in the same park.
Three parks (Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios) use a tiered system, grouping the most popular attractions together, and limiting you to choosing just one of those for your initial three FPP reservations. Be aware of which attractions are in those limited tiers and prioritize which ones are most important to your group.
Once you’ve used all three of your initial FPP reservations each day (or cancelled any unused ones), you will be able to book one additional FPP reservation using the app on your phone or one of the kiosks in the park itself. Once you’ve used that one, you’ll have the option to book another one and so on.
Based on that, you may NOT want to choose an evening attraction or FPP time slot late in the day as one of your first three FPP reservations. If for example you select Epcot Illuminations viewing as one of your FPP for a particular day, you will max out at three…you will never be able to book any additional FPP after you use your first three because you won’t be using the third one until the park is technically closed for the day.
Disney will not let you overlap FPP reservations, even if the attractions are right next to each other. So, if you have one FPP at 10:45 am, you can’t book another one for 11:30 am.
If you are visiting the Magic Kingdom on a day with a special ticketed evening event, FPP windows will end early. For example, on days when there is a Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween Party, or a Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the park closes at 7 pm to non-Party guests. The system stops issuing FPP reservations at 5:30 pm, and you won’t be able to book any FPP for later than that. (Note these parties are special ticketed events that require a separate purchase. I’ll be talking more about these parties in a separate post.)
If your group is good about getting up and getting going in the morning, do not waste FPP by booking them in the first hour of the day…there usually aren’t long lines until after 10 or 11 am, so why burn a fast pass when you don’t need it? Use it later when it can really save you from waiting in line.
Similarly, if you know your group is NOT good about getting up and getting going, don’t waste FPP by booking them too early…if you aren’t likely to arrive in the park until noon, don’t book FPP’s at 10 and 11…you won’t use them and they’ll be wasted. Take your family’s touring style into account when you are planning.
Manage your expectations. Waiting in line for attractions is part of the overall theme park experience. You WILL be waiting in some lines, no matter how carefully you plan and no matter how early you get up. FPP are limited, and there are a LOT more attractions you’ll want to ride than you’ll be able to book FPP for. Know that you absolutely will be waiting in lines and while I like to plan as much as I can to minimize lines, it’s impossible to avoid them completely without avoiding most attractions altogether. (Unless you live in Orlando and can go whenever you want. Then obviously, if there’s a line, you can leave and ride another day. I am so jealous of those people!)
Even when you have a FPP, you may not “walk right on”. Generally speaking, with FPP, you’ll usually wait 10 -15 minutes max, but sometimes things happen that can make that wait longer. In extremely busy periods when the regular line has waits of 2 plus hours, you may end up waiting as long as 30 minutes in the Fast Pass return line.
There are lots of ways to help the time pass quickly while you wait in line—In a few days, I’ll be putting up a separate post on some of the things we try to keep from getting too bored in line.
Finally, remember that there are FOUR parks at Walt Disney World, filled with a TON of attractions, shows, characters, dining experiences, shops and magical experiences. There are two water parks. There are several golf courses. There are lots of water craft and activities you can try. You will NOT be able to do everything. You may not even be able to do everything you really, really want to do. Focus on the few MOST IMPORTANT attractions or events, and fill in the rest of your time with what you can fit. Don’t make yourself crazy. It’s all wonderful, and if you relax and accept that you can only do so much (and gee, you’ll just have to plan another trip to do the rest!😉)
As long as you make sure to hit the most important stuff (for you and your group–everyone is different, and what’s most important to us, may NOT be important for you) you will have a wonderful magical time.
Tomorrow morning, 6 am Central Time…our Fast Pass Plus reservation window opens. For those of you that AREN’T familiar with Fast Pass Plus, it’s a tool that Disney implemented a few years ago that rewards those of us who (neurotic, anal, a little crazy, planning nerds) like to plan ahead. Fast Pass Plus lets you schedule time to ride up to three attractions per day in advance…When you use it, you SIGNIFICANTLY reduce your wait times on those pre-planned attractions. There are (of course) some limitations…
Your Fast Pass Plus reservation window opens 60 days before the first day of your trip, if you have Disney hotel reservations (and these MUST be linked to your My Disney Experience account). If you’re not staying on Disney property, you have a 30-day window for Fast Pass Plus reservations.
Fast Pass Plus does not really allow for park hopping in your planning. All three preplanned attractions in a particular day MUST be in the same park.
Fast Pass Plus uses a tiered system to prevent you from using all three Fast Pass Plus reservations on the most in-demand attractions…or on the same attraction.
Now, I know that many of you will read this and think “are you crazy??? You expect me to know WHAT ride I will want to ride WHEN on my VACATION?????” And my answer to you is simply, “Yes. I am crazy.” Reality. BUT I also will say…it only takes a little planning, but it will have a BIG impact on the success and joy in your vacation. Because trust me, if you can reduce your time standing in line, you WILL have more fun. You’ll be able to do more, see more and most importantly, SIT DOWN AND REST MORE. Just kidding. Well, maybe not. But you will free up some time to give you more time, period. And you can use that however you want. Highly recommended: Naps on the monorail. But I digress…
And the bottom line: You can change your mind. You can decide not to use your advance FPP reservations. You can choose to make the FPP reservations as a “break in case of emergency” back up plan and go merrily about your laid back, no planning involved vacation. But I STRONGLY suggest you take 20 minutes and go ahead and book them. JUST IN CASE. No one will ever know, I promise. 😉
A couple of things that work in our favor: When you schedule a time for your Fast Pass Plus (FPP), you are actually scheduling a one-hour window. If your planned ride time for Toy Story Mania is, for example, 11:00, you can go to the attraction any time between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm and ride the attraction with either no wait, or a very short wait. **Note: Rumor has it that most cast members working the FPP entry points will give you a 10-15 minute grace period if you’re late for your window BUT keep in mind…they don’t have to. So, I try very hard to never need that grace period. I don’t want to risk wasting my FPP. Once you have used your three booked in advance FPP, you can use the My Disney Experience app on your phone to book additional FPP reservations, one at a time, or you can use kiosks in various locations around the park. I’m excited to see how this has improved over the last couple of years…Last time I was in the parks, the app didn’t work very well and I got REALLY frustrated. But I’ve been hearing good things so I’m optimistic.
The other thing that is helpful is that you can set up everyone in your family or traveling group as a “FPP group” so you can book all your FPP together. In the very early days of FPP, this was a real challenge. You’d book one set for one person and then have to go back and try and book the same ones for the next person…it was super challenging. Fortunately, they fixed that, and booking in groups works really well now.
If you are someone that is really good about being at the park early for rope drop and/or extra magic hours, you generally can ride the most popular attractions first thing without needing to use up your FPP. That’s the strategy I use…I plan on early entry and try to ride the most popular and in demand attractions first, and book our FPP reservations for a little bit later in the day, after the crowds have started to pick up and the lines are getting longer. If the wait would be 10-15 minutes without a FPP, why use up a FPP? I’d rather ride without a FPP when the lines are short and take advantage of FPP when the lines are longer. Of course, that doesn’t always work perfectly, but again, I have to emphasize getting up early and getting to the park of your choice BEFORE it opens is KEY to doing everything you want to do without feeling rushed or waiting in super long lines.
Tonight, to prepare for tomorrow morning’s FPP reservation session, I reviewed my tentative plans for our trip. I reviewed scheduled meals, and which park I planned to visit when. I reviewed park hours and Extra Magic Hours schedules. I made little quick sheets to have with me in the morning. I reviewed the current tier structure for each park, and I have a pretty good plan of which attractions I’m going to try and book first.
Because our trip this year rolls into Thanksgiving week, which is a peak period for Walt Disney World, I suspect I will not be able to get all the FPP that I’m hoping for…but I will give it my best shot! Hopefully between Extra Magic Hours and always being early for open, we will be able to hit those really important attractions…
I already have two breakfasts that I will be cancelling because Disney has added Extra Magic Hours those mornings in the parks we were planning to visit. Both breakfasts were planned to help us get into the park early and be fed and already inside when the park actually opened. BUT now that EMH has been added, I don’t want to sacrifice that extra hour sitting down at breakfast. A big bummer because the Tusker House breakfast at Animal Kingdom is one of my favorites, but it can’t be helped. {sigh}
I’ll update you tomorrow on how my FPP reservations go.
Today I have Disney on the brain! We are 62 days out from our trip to Walt Disney World for our third wedding anniversary…because we are staying at a Disney resort and have already purchased our ticket media, our Fast Pass Plus booking window will open Sunday morning at 7 am Eastern time. Guess who will be on her computer at 5:55 am Central time on Sunday? ME. SO not happy about that, but it MUST be done, haha. (Yes, yes, I know. FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS.)
Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about our Fast Pass Plus strategy so I will have a plan of attack Sunday morning. The end of our trip falling into Thanksgiving week means that I really will probably have to grab the fast pass reservations for the END of our trip first to hopefully get what we want. I’ve tentatively planned Animal Kingdom for our last full day at Disney, which will be Monday, November 20. I am SUPER EXCITED to see the new Pandora (Avatar-based land) attractions, and I know they’ve made the two Pandora attractions both Tier 1 attractions, which means I can only book ONE of them as a Fast Pass attraction. ☹ I’ve got to spend some more time on my Fast Pass strategizing, so I will sit down tomorrow and review our meal reservations and each day’s tentative agenda and write down my basic plan for each day, and then identify which attractions I want to try and get Fast Passes for.
When I was younger, I was the Queen of Exhausting Disney Vacations. We had to be at the park for rope drop (or earlier), we had to see and do EVERYTHING and we had to stay until the bitter end (or the Kiss Goodnight), regardless of how late that might be. I also liked to park hop, just on principle, so on Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom days, I almost always included at least a few hours at a different park. While we had a BLAST, those trips were a little frantic, and VERY tiring. It always seemed like we needed a vacation from our vacation when we got home.
Now that I’m a LITTLE older (😉), some of the URGENT must do everything or die mentality has faded. I love Disney so much, and I truly love almost every single attraction, show, shop and mode of transportation. BUT, I don’t have that “I don’t know when I’ll ever be back here” again feeling I used to have. Some of that is maturity (we can only hope), some of it is owning DVC (when you KNOW you have points every year, it’s a little easier to calm down and say, we will have the points to come back next year), some of it is knowing my husband has also become a Disney fan (not that I gave him a TON of choice, but he honestly DOES really love it too), some of it is knowing that I have friends and family members that also enjoy it A LOT that I could probably talk into a trip eventually…. Regardless, I no longer tour the parks “COMMANDO” fashion. I do still try to be at the parks for rope drop…honestly, that is the SINGLE best tip I could give anyone planning a Disney vacation. If you do nothing else, GET TO THE PARK BEFORE IT OPENS. You can usually get more done in the first two hours of the day than you’ll be able to do the rest of the day. SO many people like to sleep in, or have a hard time getting their families up and going, they don’t get to the parks until late morning, or even early afternoon. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT.
But where before, I would plan our days to run run run, now I strategize and prioritize a little more. I think it makes a BIG difference in how much my husband (and my Mom, in the trips I take with her) enjoy our trips.
One of my very favorite times to visit Walt Disney World is during the Christmas Holiday Season. I LOVE seeing all the resorts and theme parks decorated for the holidays, and I love the little “extra” holiday magic and cheer that seems to permeate WDW at this time of year. Having said that, however, I do want to add that I tend to avoid the ACTUAL holidays as the crowds Thanksgiving week and the week before and after Christmas tend to be INSANE, with parks reaching capacity and actually closing to additional guests on some days. The last time I went for the week of Christmas, we were in the Magic Kingdom on a day the park closed to additional guests at 10 a.m.!! The crowds were crazy. Standby lines were up to four hours for some attractions, and it was uncomfortable and difficult to even just walk around. Moods were challenging and finding the holiday spirit was a little more difficult than usual. I don’t enjoy the parks as much when they are that crowded, so I tend to avoid that time of year. (Note: It is ABSOLUTELY possible to go and have a great time during the holidays, as long as you set your expectations properly, plan ahead and pack your patience. I don’t want to imply you can’t have a terrific vacation at this time of year—it’s just a little more challenging. I’ll cover that in a separate upcoming post.)
