At WDW Now!

[purvislets]

Today is going pretty good. We let the baby sleep in again (I've found this is much better than trying to drag her out of bed early in the morning) and headed to Epcot around 9:45. Since she's just a little thing, we only rode Nemo and Figment, but there were practically no lines for either one. I did notice on the board with all the wait times that Mission Space had only a 10 minute standby, Test Track had usually around 30 minute standby and Soarin was about 40 minutes. We left a little after lunch time and have just been relaxing around the pool.

We're saving up our energy for a big day tomorrow. We're heading to the Rope Drop for MK EMH tomorrow morning around 7:30 or so to ride the Dumbo ride and the Carousel. Then, we're going to hop to DHS so DH can ride Toy Story Mania (he didn't get to do it yesterday because he was park hopping with my brother for the thrill rides). We may hang around and meet some of the characters we missed yesterday. Then, back to the hotel for some down time. After that, we'll be heading to AK for a little bit for evening EMH. The only thing I really want there is a picture in front of the Tree and a ride on the Safari. Other than that, we'll just look at some animals and head back to pack.

 

[traci]

Sounds like a great plan! Thank you so much for for posting while on your trip. It is so much fun getting to share in your magic (and not so magical moments...like dinner last night!!) Have fun! and check in anytime! I love hearing all about it!!!!

 

[wahoolio]

With the fastpass, we waited maybe 10 minutes before being able to get onto the ride. We didn't wait after we got the fastpasses at 10am because the line was already 40 minutes and it didn't get any shorter throughout the day. Get there as early as you can and get a fastpass!

Amen to that -- we were at DHS last Saturday for EMH, arrived at the TSM fastpass queue at 8:30am. At that time, there were 6 fastpass machines in operation, and the lines for each went about 8-10 deep. After about 5-10 minutes or so, I got our fastpasses with a return time of 12:15pm. The standby line was 60 minutes long by 8:40 am. And this was while the park was still only open to WDW resort guests for EMH !

 

[teambraunlovesdisney]

Thanks wahoolio, sounds like crowds are a little lighter or at least that is what I will tell myself. Sounds like you are having a great trip!

 

[purvislets]

Just woke up from our naps... we had a very busy morning!

We got up around 6:15 for a quick breakfast, then arrived at MK for morning EMH. They did a very short opening show (a few characters, no train, family still there to throw confetti) then it was a real free for all. We cut through the castle to Fantasyland and made it on the first Dumbo ride of the day! Natalie absolutely loved it. Then, we were able to ride the carousel ride twice with no line and hop straight on It's a Small World. Can you tell it was all about Natalie this day?

After that, we hopped on the monorail to the TTC then on a bus to DHS. DH didn't get a chance to ride TSM and I really wanted him to see it. We got to DHS around 9:40 and headed straight there. We waited in a 20 minute line for fastpass that stretched all the way back to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. By the time we got up there our fastpasses were for a 11:55 return time. Not too terrible really. The standby line was already over an hour.

We saw The Little Mermaid show, met Leo and Annie, met JoJo and Goliath, had some lunch, walked around a bit, met Mike and Sully, then headed back to TSM. By the time we got there, the fastpass distribution was giving out passes for 6:20-7:20 and the standby line was 90 minutes. The fastpass line took maybe 10-15 minutes to get through and we had a blast! I helped Natalie aim this time so she got some extra points. =) After leaving the ride, the standby was down lmao: ) to 80 minutes and the fastpasses given out were for 8:00.

If it hasn't been said enough yet, let me say it one more time....GET TO DHS EARLY EARLY EARLY AND HEAD STRAIGHT FOR TSM TO GET FASTPASSES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO WAIT IN AN HOUR+ LINE!

In about another hour and a half we're heading to AK for evening EMH. Then it's back to the hotel to pack!

 

[traci]

We plan on getting to DHS at rope drop. We plan on heading straight for TSM. Now, do we get in the ride line or just go straight to Fast Pass?

Many Many Thanks again for your thread! what does your daughter love most? Is she enjoying the characters or the attractions more??

 

[shawnk63]

I was just reading your post and I checked the AK calendar on disneyworld.com for EMH and unless I'm looking at it wrong or they added it late, I don't see AK EMH listed for tonight....?
They did show them for 10/15.
So if you read this in time, please double check that before ya'll head over there.

 

[traci]

I was just reading your post and I checked the AK calendar on disneyworld.com for EMH and unless I'm looking at it wrong or they added it late, I don't see AK EMH listed for tonight....?
They did show them for 10/15.
So if you read this in time, please double check that before ya'll head over there.

Oh No! I hope it was added in or it's just a typo. Let us know if it all worked out

 

[purvislets]

We plan on getting to DHS at rope drop. We plan on heading straight for TSM. Now, do we get in the ride line or just go straight to Fast Pass?

Many Many Thanks again for your thread! what does your daughter love most? Is she enjoying the characters or the attractions more??

It really depends on the day I suppose. We always headed straight for the fastpass line just to be safe, but I guess if you have another adult in the family, you could have one wait at the fastpass line while the other runs to check the standby wait time. Cell phones or walkie talkies would be good to have so you can figure out which you'd rather do.

Natalie loves the kiddie rides, especially the ones like Dumbo and the Triceratops Spin. She does not like the darker rides so much except for maybe Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh. She's also having a really great time meeting all the characters! She just lights up and runs to them and gives them hugs and kisses! I know some kids get nervous around the characters but she's just not one of them.

I was just reading your post and I checked the AK calendar on disneyworld.com for EMH and unless I'm looking at it wrong or they added it late, I don't see AK EMH listed for tonight....?
They did show them for 10/15.
So if you read this in time, please double check that before ya'll head over there.

You were absolutely right... I got my days mixed up! Luckily, I checked before we left so we got there with about and hour and a half to spare. We were able to ride the Safari which I'd really been looking forwards to, meet Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, then hit Triceratops Spin without a hitch. Afterwards, we ate at the Rainforest Cafe just outside the gates. It was such a fun day!

Now we get to do the dreaded part...packing! I'm gonna get started on it now, then around 9:15 we're headed over to building #2 to watch Hallowishes from the hotel! We should be able to see quite a few of the fireworks because they seemed to set off pretty high the other night. We have a fairly good view of the Illuminations fireworks too and we even got to see some of the regular Wishes ones yesterday.

 

[traci]

We are doing dinner at Rainforest for our AK day. How did you like it?

Enjoy your last night! Thank you again for sharing your trip with us

 

[purvislets]

We are doing dinner at Rainforest for our AK day. How did you like it?

Enjoy your last night! Thank you again for sharing your trip with us

We really enjoyed it! Our server (Brock) was so great and the food was delicious! They don't take reservations in advance so it's actually really easy just to walk up and get a table when you get there. The one in DTD usually always has a wait!

 

[mikkiwikki]

Hi Purvislets - Im enjoying your trip report!

We are traveling to POP for the first time on 11-22 and Im a little nervous about the following things in this order.

1) Neighbor Noise in the rooms so we cant sleep
2) Bus waits
3) food court over crowded ness.

HOw have you found these three items during your stay?

 

[purvislets]

Hi Purvislets - Im enjoying your trip report!

We are traveling to POP for the first time on 11-22 and Im a little nervous about the following things in this order.

1) Neighbor Noise in the rooms so we cant sleep
2) Bus waits
3) food court over crowded ness.

HOw have you found these three items during your stay?

Thanks for reading!

1) We barely heard anything out of our neighbors the entire trip. Sometimes, you can hear other room's toilets flushing but it's really minimal. If you can, request a room that is not facing a pool to cut down on late night swimming noises. Our room was on the lake side of 50's building 3 and it was so quiet!

2) Bus waits can really vary. The longest we waited this week was maybe 20 minutes for a second bus to come by. On the night of MNSSHP there were probably 6-7 bus loads of people waiting to get to MK, so we hopped on an Epcot bus, then a monorail to the TTC, then the monorail to MK. Got there in about 30 minutes vs. waiting forever for a bus. Know your way around! It can really be helpful to know other ways to get to the parks.
That being said, today when we were leaving every bus stop had at least 3 bus loads of people waiting. I guess it's because it's the weekend.

3) If you can avoid the food court between 8am and 10am, you should avoid a lot of the crowds. On the mornings we were up early (around 7) the food court was empty, but when we got there around 9 it was absolutely packed with people! We were never there for lunch so I'm not sure about that, but dinner crowds were moderate but not nearly as bad as breakfast. We brought most of our own breakfast foods so most of the time we only had to look for a table to eat at rather than wait in food lines.