I just want to document some things from our trip so that I don't forget and can refer back here if there's a tidbit that will help someone.
We were a party of 12 -
Family of 5 with 3 college kids staying at Yacht Club,
Family of 5 with 3 boys ages 10-12, and elderly parents 75 & 81 staying offsite 5 miles away
Our dates May 26- June 1 - All days were extremely crowded. Even though Touring Plans had highest day as a 7 and two of our days as 4 and 5's (for the parks we were going to). Several years ago it used to be that the earlier in June the better as most schools have not let out for summer. However I think we must have gotten caught in the Post Memorial Day crowds. We were extremely planned out so we still had a great time.
Can't say enough great things about the Yacht Club. I loved it! We were in Room 3129. Our reservations were for Beach Club studio but when we got there the college age kids were not thrilled about sleeping on sleeper sofa and Murphy bed so we requested a regular hotel. They switched us to Yacht Club Water view and it was definitely the right choice. We never felt crowded amazingly - granted we were only there to sleep or nap haha.
Refreshing Fast Passes
Refreshing Fast passes worked pretty well. The most significant success was a FOP. Our party was originally going to only be 11 people. When the 12th decided to join I had already snagged our fast passes. I got the FOP for 11 people on my 60+4 day at 2:25. I looked for the next 2 months for that extra fast pass but it never showed up. But the day we were in AK I tried constantly and about 11:00 it popped up. My choices were 2:25 2:35 and maybe 3:10. So there were 3 that were available. I grabbed the exact match and it was like I had just won the lottery I was so excited.
Another fun victory with refreshing was at Hollywood Studios. My family of 5 hopped over there after a MK day and a rest with some R&R 4th fast passes secured after our
3rd ride at MK. We got there about 7:30 and rode R&R. I then set outside grabbing more FP while the college kids rode. Even though it said HS was done distributing for the day I kept trying. Just refreshed over and over until HS showed back up. I was able to grab a total of 4 more R&R and 3 ToT that way. Again my kids were so excited about this.
Refreshing at Magic Kingdom worked good. Although we never saw a SDMT while refreshing, we had booked 2 fast passes for 2 different days and really no one cared to repeat this. They were interest in the other 3 mountains and we had good luck getting them. We also refreshed to Buzz Lightyear, Voyage, Barnstormer, Pirates, at various parts of our trip.
Early Morning Magic at Hollywood Studios
I have mixed thoughts on this. We followed all the tips on here. Arrived about 7ish. Able to grab water and pastries and were let into park with the crowd at 7:20ish. Went straight to Slinky and rode once, then TSM where we were held in line at least 10 minutes with a shut down. after that we rode *** and then back to Slinky. Party split up then with some going back to Slinky and some going back to Alien Swirl. Left Toy Story land at 8:45 and were too late to be in front of rope drop people. But we walked right on to R&R. After that TOT was too long so we walked right onto Star Tours and got to breakfast about 9:40. Everyone loved the breakfast!. Even our gluten free members. So our ride total wasn't as high as we were expecting (SDD 2-3X, TSM 1X, Alien Swirl 1-2X for a total of 5 rides per person. But everyone seemed happy . Also later whenever I asked about favorite rides or what fast passes they wanted me to get, no one every mentioned these 3 rides. Granted our youngest were 10,10, and 12. To do all of this we rushed from place to place.
I think I will add more to this later but just wanted to get some thoughts down!
We were a party of 12 -
Family of 5 with 3 college kids staying at Yacht Club,
Family of 5 with 3 boys ages 10-12, and elderly parents 75 & 81 staying offsite 5 miles away
Our dates May 26- June 1 - All days were extremely crowded. Even though Touring Plans had highest day as a 7 and two of our days as 4 and 5's (for the parks we were going to). Several years ago it used to be that the earlier in June the better as most schools have not let out for summer. However I think we must have gotten caught in the Post Memorial Day crowds. We were extremely planned out so we still had a great time.
Can't say enough great things about the Yacht Club. I loved it! We were in Room 3129. Our reservations were for Beach Club studio but when we got there the college age kids were not thrilled about sleeping on sleeper sofa and Murphy bed so we requested a regular hotel. They switched us to Yacht Club Water view and it was definitely the right choice. We never felt crowded amazingly - granted we were only there to sleep or nap haha.
Refreshing Fast Passes
Refreshing Fast passes worked pretty well. The most significant success was a FOP. Our party was originally going to only be 11 people. When the 12th decided to join I had already snagged our fast passes. I got the FOP for 11 people on my 60+4 day at 2:25. I looked for the next 2 months for that extra fast pass but it never showed up. But the day we were in AK I tried constantly and about 11:00 it popped up. My choices were 2:25 2:35 and maybe 3:10. So there were 3 that were available. I grabbed the exact match and it was like I had just won the lottery I was so excited.
Another fun victory with refreshing was at Hollywood Studios. My family of 5 hopped over there after a MK day and a rest with some R&R 4th fast passes secured after our
3rd ride at MK. We got there about 7:30 and rode R&R. I then set outside grabbing more FP while the college kids rode. Even though it said HS was done distributing for the day I kept trying. Just refreshed over and over until HS showed back up. I was able to grab a total of 4 more R&R and 3 ToT that way. Again my kids were so excited about this.
Refreshing at Magic Kingdom worked good. Although we never saw a SDMT while refreshing, we had booked 2 fast passes for 2 different days and really no one cared to repeat this. They were interest in the other 3 mountains and we had good luck getting them. We also refreshed to Buzz Lightyear, Voyage, Barnstormer, Pirates, at various parts of our trip.
Early Morning Magic at Hollywood Studios
I have mixed thoughts on this. We followed all the tips on here. Arrived about 7ish. Able to grab water and pastries and were let into park with the crowd at 7:20ish. Went straight to Slinky and rode once, then TSM where we were held in line at least 10 minutes with a shut down. after that we rode *** and then back to Slinky. Party split up then with some going back to Slinky and some going back to Alien Swirl. Left Toy Story land at 8:45 and were too late to be in front of rope drop people. But we walked right on to R&R. After that TOT was too long so we walked right onto Star Tours and got to breakfast about 9:40. Everyone loved the breakfast!. Even our gluten free members. So our ride total wasn't as high as we were expecting (SDD 2-3X, TSM 1X, Alien Swirl 1-2X for a total of 5 rides per person. But everyone seemed happy . Also later whenever I asked about favorite rides or what fast passes they wanted me to get, no one every mentioned these 3 rides. Granted our youngest were 10,10, and 12. To do all of this we rushed from place to place.
I think I will add more to this later but just wanted to get some thoughts down!