Board 8 > Disney like 26 days away!

(+) Yeah! (+)

neonreaper posted...

Just finished up a night and morning at Hollywood Studios. Rockin Rollercoaster is really good. Tower of Tower is really well done but your mileage may very on this type of ride. Smugglers Run line went faster than the app said, it was like 20 minutes faster. There is also a bit to see in the line though not amazing. The ride is amazing to pilot but everything else seemed kinda bad and my daughter was left pilot so we crashed a lot early on and that led to some grumpiness but she loved it.

Slinky Dog was too crazy to bother with.

Having the 3 extra magic hours in the morning was awesome. Also Skyliner is a game changer

How long was the smugglers run line and did you have plenty of time to ride everything?

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Smugglers Run currently has the shortest wait(55m) of all of the big 5 DHS attractions.

Leafeon13N posted...

Smugglers Run currently has the shortest wait(55m) of all of the big 5 DHS attractions.

What's the big 5

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Smuggler's Run claimed 60 minutes but it took 40. You weave your way through a smuggler's facility and there's an OK amount of stuff to look at.

We didn't get to Slinky Dog because we had to leave at lunch time for an afternoon flight home. My trip was for a family event in Florida so I did a stop at Disney on the way back because light sabers. I would also plan for walking in between attractions. Walking from one end of the park to the other does a number on kids.
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It's sounding like it is impossible to do everything. If multiple things have hour long lines and it is only open 12 hours, then it's gonna be impossible.

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"Everything" is a big word. If you want to hit the 5 rides (or whatever) at Hollywood Studios, you can do that. If you want to also see shows and do the Cantina and make a light saber, nope. It's up to you how you want to run your trip. But I'd prioritize the stuff you want to do, make sure you aren't going from one end of the park to the other (because you're essentially adding 20 minutes to every line and draining everyone's energy), and don't worry about the stuff you don't get to - just enjoy the stuff you do.
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neonreaper posted...

"Everything" is a big word. If you want to hit the 5 rides (or whatever) at Hollywood Studios, you can do that. If you want to also see shows and do the Cantina and make a light saber, nope. It's up to you how you want to run your trip. But I'd prioritize the stuff you want to do, make sure you aren't going from one end of the park to the other (because you're essentially adding 20 minutes to every line and draining everyone's energy), and don't worry about the stuff you don't get to - just enjoy the stuff you do.

By everything I mean all the rides.

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Also holy fuck Magic Kingdom is packed today. Is it some sort of holiday?

I opened the app just to compare wait times and they are all more than triple what they were at peak hours first week of June. All 3 other parks look about on par to when I was there.
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red13n posted...

Also holy fuck Magic Kingdom is packed today. Is it some sort of holiday?

I opened the app just to compare wait times and they are all more than triple what they were at peak hours first week of June. All 3 other parks look about on par to when I was there.

Does it have 3 extra magical hours? I heard some have been.

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Corrik7 posted...

Does it have 3 extra magical hours? I heard some have been.

it had an hour of extra morning hours.
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Monday Hollywood Studios. 11/4 9-9
Twilight Terror 12:40
2pm First time in Forever
4:10 Star Tours

Should definitely rush Slinky Dog, because Toy Story Mania is right across the way. Toy Story Land also has Alien Swirling Saucers but this is a low priority attraction you can do later in the day. If you got to the park early enough, you should have SD and TSM done by 10:30.

This is where your fastpass dictates my route, as normally I'd send you to Rock'n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, but with a ToT fastpass in hand for a little later take the Toy Story Land entrance to Galaxy's Edge and ride Smuggler's Run.

Time permitting, you can exit Galaxy's Edge from the opposite entrance and Muppetvision is right there, I recommend stopping to watch it as this will save you from having to return to the back of the park for the remainder of the day.

As far as rides go, what you are left with is just Rock'n Roller Coaster, Alien Swirling Saucers, Tower, and Star Tours. You have two fastpasses for these, so now you can play the day by ear. I'm going to recommend eating lunch before your Tower of Terror fastpass, just to keep up energy for the day(For any Disney World trip, drink lots of water and eat 3 meals, at least a little bit of food for breakfast before heading to the parks even if like me you aren't a person that normally eats breakfast). You should have about 8-9 hous for these rides(Plenty of time to do literally everything) so lets talk about shows.

DHS is full of them(You have a fastpass for Frozen Sing a Long too), the three I definitely recommend setting aside time for are Muppetvision 3D, Indiana Jones Stunt Show, and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Indy, a Beauty and the Beast show(A little long but if you can work it in go ahead) ,a Lightning McQueen themed show all run at scheduled times, whereas Mermaid and Muppetvision run continuous throughout the day. Pick up a times guide and plan your day from noon to 9 around the scheduled shows you want to see(Disney doesn't have the times listed right now). You could easily see every show and ride every ride at this point, but feel free to skip any that no one has interest in.

Eventually the day will end and you have your choice of two nighttime shows, Star Wars a Galactic Spectacular and Fantasmic. Star Wars has the fancy name but do yourself a favor and see Fantasmic, Fantasmic, even in its watered down Disney World state, is still Disney's best nighttime show. Plan to get to the Fantasmic stage area by 8:45.

Keep in mind you have Magic Kingdom(Very large) the next day. DHS is honestly not a full day park, but you have a full day. Take it easy, dont rush to anything(Except in the morning!); do relax and take in the shows because you will be doing at least triple the walking the next day.
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red13n posted...

Monday Hollywood Studios. 11/4 9-9
Twilight Terror 12:40
2pm First time in Forever
4:10 Star Tours

Should definitely rush Slinky Dog, because Toy Story Mania is right across the way. Toy Story Land also has Alien Swirling Saucers but this is a low priority attraction you can do later in the day. If you got to the park early enough, you should have SD and TSM done by 10:30.

This is where your fastpass dictates my route, as normally I'd send you to Rock'n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, but with a ToT fastpass in hand for a little later take the Toy Story Land entrance to Galaxy's Edge and ride Smuggler's Run.

Time permitting, you can exit Galaxy's Edge from the opposite entrance and Muppetvision is right there, I recommend stopping to watch it as this will save you from having to return to the back of the park for the remainder of the day.

As far as rides go, what you are left with is just Rock'n Roller Coaster, Alien Swirling Saucers, Tower, and Star Tours. You have two fastpasses for these, so now you can play the day by ear. I'm going to recommend eating lunch before your Tower of Terror fastpass, just to keep up energy for the day(For any Disney World trip, drink lots of water and eat 3 meals, at least a little bit of food for breakfast before heading to the parks even if like me you aren't a person that normally eats breakfast). You should have about 8-9 hous for these rides(Plenty of time to do literally everything) so lets talk about shows.

DHS is full of them(You have a fastpass for Frozen Sing a Long too), the three I definitely recommend setting aside time for are Muppetvision 3D, Indiana Jones Stunt Show, and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Indy, a Beauty and the Beast show(A little long but if you can work it in go ahead) ,a Lightning McQueen themed show all run at scheduled times, whereas Mermaid and Muppetvision run continuous throughout the day. Pick up a times guide and plan your day from noon to 9 around the scheduled shows you want to see(Disney doesn't have the times listed right now). You could easily see every show and ride every ride at this point, but feel free to skip any that no one has interest in.

Eventually the day will end and you have your choice of two nighttime shows, Star Wars a Galactic Spectacular and Fantasmic. Star Wars has the fancy name but do yourself a favor and see Fantasmic, Fantasmic, even in its watered down Disney World state, is still Disney's best nighttime show. Plan to get to the Fantasmic stage area by 8:45.

Keep in mind you have Magic Kingdom(Very large) the next day. DHS is honestly not a full day park, but you have a full day. Take it easy, dont rush to anything(Except in the morning!); do relax and take in the shows because you will be doing at least triple the walking the next day.

Thanks. I appreciate that. My kid is too small for rock'n roller coaster so unless someone is really looking forward to it, we may just skip it.

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Corrik7 posted...

Thanks. I appreciate that. My kid is too small for rock'n roller coaster so unless someone is really looking forward to it, we may just skip it.

you can child swap it with a cast member so someone can stay with him and then swap and ride with someone from your group when everyone gets back.

But the Rock'n Roller Coaster line itself is painfully slow. Definitely low priority it either way. Its not really well-themed, and while its a good coaster by itself, there are plenty of better coasters out there in the world.
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Have fun Corrik. I'm jealous but not envious of your jersey week adventure.

When I did jersey week two years ago it was a mad house. But the kids had a blast and really that's all that matters.
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Obellisk posted...

Have fun Corrik. I'm jealous but not envious of your jersey week adventure.

When I did jersey week two years ago it was a mad house. But the kids had a blast and really that's all that matters.

It's not expected to be that busy for that week from what I can tell.

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Its always busy even when its not busy. Are you getting a stroller for the 4 year old?
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Corrik7 posted...

It's not expected to be that busy for that week from what I can tell.

Crowds on both coasts have been unpredictable of late. Hope for the best but don't necessarily count on it.

(Disneyland had some of its biggest crowds of the last 4 months last week, Disney World saw a similar but smaller spike)
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neonreaper posted...

Its always busy even when its not busy. Are you getting a stroller for the 4 year old?

Nah

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Tuesday Magic Kingdom 11/5 9-9
11:10 Jungle Cruise
12:15 Pirates
1:50 Splash Mountain

Ok well Magic Kingdom start is easy. You rush for Seven Dwarf's Mine Train like 80% of the early crowd is going to do. Make sure you look at a map and know where you are going because there are multiple ways to get there(The fastest is a slight right before the castle and then veer left at the tea cups).

After Mine Train you make a mad dash to Peter Pan and hope the line isn't already and hour...and hope the attraction is actually operational. Once this line hits 45m it will only get longer throughout the day and is one of the slowest moving lines in the park with poor operational uptime(And when I rode it this last visit, none of the audio was functioning properly which was a huge disappointment).

Morning in Magic Kindom is going to be a lot of walking, and hopefully again, you got on both of these attractions by 10:15. While Peter Pan and Mine Train are in close proximity, your next destination unfortunately should be Space Mountain, which has this awful location in the back of Tomorrowland(And an exit that is long and will feel like a 10 minute walk).

With those 3 out of the way, you have two big cant-miss attractions left that you don't have a fastpass for, Haunted Mansion and Thunder Mountain, neither of which are anywhere near your current location. But by now crowds will start peaking, so there is no rush to get to either. If it is still early enough, go ahead and knock out a Tomorrowland attraction or two before heading to your Jungle Cruise fastpass(Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Astro Orbiter, PeopleMover would be my choice recommendations).

Keep an eye on wait times and do not try to get to your Jungle Cruise fastpass at 11:10. Since fastpass windows are an hour long and Jungle Cruise and Pirates are in close proximity, I would advise not using your Jungle Cruise fastpass until around 11:40-11:50 or so, even pushing it out til noon if you'd like. The idea is to ride Pirates immediately after.

Next the schedule will dictate your day. Disney World has 4 parks but for whatever reason is slacking in the parade department, and Festival of Fantasy is the only parade in the whole resort and its only running once that day(2pm). Its a fun Parade and most importantly it has an awesome dragon. So stop and watch it. But most importantly, the Parade route will begin at Frontierland before you go towards Splash Mountain and you have a fastpass running right along the 2pm hour. So you are going to want to grab a spot as close to Frontierland as you can get. Depending on crowds, arrive between 1:30 to 1:45. If the park seems super packed, 1:30. This is a theme park, personal space is at a premium here, if there is space in a premium spot and it seems like all the kids will have no problem seeing, take the spot. Watch the parade, then ride Splash Mountain.

The time between your Pirates fastpass and the parade is free time, do what you want with it depending on how much time you have. I will tell you the lowest priority rides in the park: The Barnstormer(A poorly themed to Goofy small child friendly roller coaster) and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin(These are just Dumbo but these mobile and they make creaky sounds like they are struggling). Avoid these unless you've done literally everything.

Depending on free time and the wait time, you want to ride Thunder Mountain either just before picking up your parade spot(A little risky, but maybe not depending on wait) or after your Splash Mountain fastpass.
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Now, things that arent "rides" that I'll definitely recommend. Especially with a 4 year old and a 12 year old(Still young enough to enjoy a little exploring), at some point take the raft over to Tom Sawyer's Island. This will have some rope bridges, caves, and a fort they can kind of run around in. Kids love it, if you arent overweight as an adult, you'll like running around with your kids here. Plan for them to be entertained for about 30 minutes to an hour here. Keep in mind it closes at around 5pm each day, so do it some time in the afternoon. As for shows, the Tiki Room, Mickey's Philharmagic, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, and the Country Bear Jamboree are all worth seeing. They also get you off your feet for a little bit as this will be a long, tiring day

The rest of your day is free, Haunted Mansion will be a line but it is yours to do as you please and you should be in the clear here to do almost everything in the park. There is one very important thing to note here however. Make sure you have the app, and make sure you are ready to book more fastpasses. Because there is a very important trick to fastpass+ after you have used your third fastpass. As soon as you have scanned your Splash Mountain fastpass, you are now free to get ANOTHER fastpass. And once you've used that fastpass, you can get another. I have literally used 10+ fastpasses in a day at Magic Kingdom. The thing is, most people don't get more fastpasses. And most people don't get fastpasses for lesser attractions(Say, Dumbo). So if you are sitting next to Dumbo, you could possibly grab a Dumbo fastpass for 5 minutes out(And you can use fastpasses 5 minutes BEFORE the window opens). So instead of waiting in say, a 40 minute line for Dumbo, you can jump in the fastpass line with a fastpass you just grabbed. Almost every attraction, and many of the shows in WDW use fastpass, use these fucking liberally. This is how I literally cleared the entire park by 5pm on a summer day in June. I even watched carousel of progress...don't watch the carousel of progress, I only went in there because it was raining and I was in tomorrowland. Your kids will hate you forever if you take them into the Carousel of Progress.
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Red you are a god damn Disney machine <3
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red13n posted...

Now, things that arent "rides" that I'll definitely recommend. Especially with a 4 year old and a 12 year old(Still young enough to enjoy a little exploring), at some point take the raft over to Tom Sawyer's Island. This will have some rope bridges, caves, and a fort they can kind of run around in. Kids love it, if you arent overweight as an adult, you'll like running around with your kids here. Plan for them to be entertained for about 30 minutes to an hour here. Keep in mind it closes at around 5pm each day, so do it some time in the afternoon. As for shows, the Tiki Room, Mickey's Philharmagic, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, and the Country Bear Jamboree are all worth seeing. They also get you off your feet for a little bit as this will be a long, tiring day

The rest of your day is free, Haunted Mansion will be a line but it is yours to do as you please and you should be in the clear here to do almost everything in the park. There is one very important thing to note here however. Make sure you have the app, and make sure you are ready to book more fastpasses. Because there is a very important trick to fastpass+ after you have used your third fastpass. As soon as you have scanned your Splash Mountain fastpass, you are now free to get ANOTHER fastpass. And once you've used that fastpass, you can get another. I have literally used 10+ fastpasses in a day at Magic Kingdom. The thing is, most people don't get more fastpasses. And most people don't get fastpasses for lesser attractions(Say, Dumbo). So if you are sitting next to Dumbo, you could possibly grab a Dumbo fastpass for 5 minutes out(And you can use fastpasses 5 minutes BEFORE the window opens). So instead of waiting in say, a 40 minute line for Dumbo, you can jump in the fastpass line with a fastpass you just grabbed. Almost every attraction, and many of the shows in WDW use fastpass, use these fucking liberally. This is how I literally cleared the entire park by 5pm on a summer day in June. I even watched carousel of progress...don't watch the carousel of progress, I only went in there because it was raining and I was in tomorrowland. Your kids will hate you forever if you take them into the Carousel of Progress.

Lol. Yeah, I plan to use as many fastpasses as possible.

Is there any meet and greet with characters that are musts? I saw someone said meeting the princesses is a must do.

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Corrik7 posted...

Is there any meet and greet with characters that are musts? I saw someone said meeting the princesses is a must do.

Enchanted Tales with Belle is kind of neat but unless your kids are really into it, far from a must do.

The lines get get really long. I find the walk around characters like Gaston to be a lot more fun than the mostly photo op princesses.

If the kids have any characters they really want to meet, know beforehand and plan some time for it.
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Also recurring theme here that I left out of the guide. Fireworks are at 9. Assuming you want to watch them(Disney is good at putting on a show, I recommend the nightly show at every park), you want to plan to camp out in front of the castle by 8:30-8:45.
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Thursday Animal Kingdom 11/7 9-8
Adventurers 11:10
Kali River 12:25
Kilamnajaro 3:15
Tusker House 4:30

Animal Kingdom without a Flight of Passage fastpass means you rush Flight of Passage. I cannot stress enough, get up early, be at the park early; even though you might be tempted to stop and see some of the animals at the entrance or on your path or detour for shopping or whatever, once in the park your goal is to head immediately to Flight of Passage as fast as you can. This line is no joke. The attraction is not only really popular, it has a horrible ride tech that loads a lot of people very, very slowly. There is a long overdrawn pre-show and the queue is just huge in raw distance. The line will hit an hour long within 10 minutes. It will hit two hours long within a half hour. If Jersey Week is as crazy as people say it could be, your looking at a potential 3-4 hour advertised wait time eventually(The advertised time is usually inflated). Be there early, hopefully wait less than a half hour(Or beat the crowd and be one of the first groups in).

I'm not quite sure what "Adventures" is. Is that the Bird show mangled up. If I'm right, don't necessarily feel like you have to make that fastpass if you want to do something else at that time, as there is rarely a crowd or need for a fastpass for Up a Great Bird Adventure or whatever they are calling Flights of Wonder now(Its a bird show).

Anyway back to scheduling, when you get out of Flight of Passage, even though Na'vi River Journey is right next to it, check the wait time. If it is scheduled at over an hour I recommend you skip it for now and come back later. The line tends to inflate early as everyone rushes Pandora and then taper off hard in the later hours of the day.

I don't have a concrete plan for Animal Kingdom, and you definitely have options. Make sure you do see Festival of the Lion King and the bird show as they are both typically pretty good(Festival of the Lion King is great, the parts of the bird show with the birds are great, the Up characters are kind of tacky). There is also a Finding Nemo - The Musical show scheduled. I will say Nemo is the one WDW show I did not enjoy in the slightest. It is very long(30+ minutes). It has good reviews online but the target audience felt a bit young for a Disney show and the music was pretty much an immediate miss for me. It draws big crowds but that might just be the Nemo name blinding people. It's Tough to be a Bug is another show, it is continuous running(Like say, Muppetvision) so you can really stop by for that one at any point of the day(I do enjoy this one).

The two other major attractions you need to hit are Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. Everest is great, Dinosaur is a cheap knock-off of Indiana Jones at Disneyland(It uses the exact same ride system and basically 95% of the track layout, but maybe 5% of the effort on the visuals and audio). Everest tends to draw longer lines as the day goes on.

DinoLand has a couple smaller attractions, but one is closed almost permanently(Don't ride Primeval Whirl even if it is open) and the other is another Dumbo knock-off. Though at least this Dumbo knock-off is in a park that doesn't actually include Dumbo. I believe theres a few kids play areas in here as well.

And again, not much scheduling to be had here, fit your day around the showtimes you want to see. But the thing that really makes animal kingdom special is that it is basically part zoo. There are a ton of animals scattered about and even a few larger trails set up for some more headliner animals. Animal kingdom is not really a full day park, and even though it is still my favorite park in WDW, you should be able to clear it likely by dinner time or shortly thereafter.
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Rivers of Light isn't currently on the schedule for some reason but I assume it is still playing. I enjoyed it but it is far from the most spectacular nighttime show at WDW. If you are done with the park and there is still a lot of time until the show, consider if you really want to see it or if the kids are tired and may want an early night. The next day you have Epcot and if you thought Magic Kingdom was a lot of walking Epcot will put it to shame in one walk around World Showcase.
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red13n posted...

I'm not quite sure what "Adventures" is. Is that the Bird show mangled up. If I'm right, don't necessarily feel like you have to make that fastpass if you want to do something else at that time, as there is rarely a crowd or need for a fastpass for Up a Great Bird Adventure or whatever they are calling Flights of Wonder now(Its a bird show).

Adventurers Outpost.

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red13n posted...

The next day you have Epcot and if you thought Magic Kingdom was a lot of walking Epcot will put it to shame in one walk around World Showcase.

Yikes. I thought Magic Kingdom was by far the largest park.

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Most attractions by far but doesn't have Epcot beat in sheer walking distance.