A few tips after my recent trip!

[kelleigh1]

Hubby and I just returned from Disney on Sunday, so all of these tips are fresh. As I remember more, I'll try to add to the list, but please feel free to ask questions too.

1. Gas! Gas prices at the on-site Hess stations are comparable to prices back home, so don't be afraid to buy gas on-site. If you enjoy throwing money away, go just outside the resort and you can pay $0.20-0.30 more. We went out by the DTD hotels onto SR 535 on a couple of occasions and were shocked to see the price at those stations at $2.58 or higher. Go a few more miles offsite and the price was the same as the Hess stations onsite - which happened to be the same price that we're paying here at home.

2. EMH: I decided to test the Morning After EMH theory. Sunday night was EMH at Magic Kingdom. Monday was the MLK holiday, but we decided to check out Magic Kingdom anyway. Worst case, we'd just hop to another park. Well, MK was practically empty. My husband walked on Space Mountain. And we walked on just about everything else too. No lines at all. It did get a little busy later, but still not much of a wait on anything. So definitely hit an EMH park the morning after.

3. Morning EMH! I highly recommend taking advantage. We went to Epcot on the early day and headed right for Soarin! We were in the first group and got to sit right in the front row. It was great. As soon as we got off, we headed for the FastPass machines and rode it again an hour later.

4. Downtown Disney! Avoid the place on Saturday night. There is almost no place to park and it's so ridiculously crowded that it's nearly impossible to walk around. Go just about any other day of the week, but find another place to be on Saturday night.

5. Refillable Mugs! I highly recommend taking advantage of this resort feature. We bought our mugs for $11.99 each (and each got a Mickey shaped straw at $0.49 each - mainly so we'd know who's mug was who's). We filled them at least twice a day, which ended up being less than $1 per beverage by the time we left. Where else can you get a drink at Disney for under $1 and get to keep the mug for free?

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now, but I'm sure I'll have some more as I recap our trip.

 

[loopner67]

Hubby and I just returned from Disney on Sunday, so all of these tips are fresh. As I remember more, I'll try to add to the list, but please feel free to ask questions too.

1. Gas! Gas prices at the on-site Hess stations are comparable to prices back home, so don't be afraid to buy gas on-site. If you enjoy throwing money away, go just outside the resort and you can pay $0.20-0.30 more. We went out by the DTD hotels onto SR 535 on a couple of occasions and were shocked to see the price at those stations at $2.58 or higher. Go a few more miles offsite and the price was the same as the Hess stations onsite - which happened to be the same price that we're paying here at home.

2. EMH: I decided to test the Morning After EMH theory. Sunday night was EMH at Magic Kingdom. Monday was the MLK holiday, but we decided to check out Magic Kingdom anyway. Worst case, we'd just hop to another park. Well, MK was practically empty. My husband walked on Space Mountain. And we walked on just about everything else too. No lines at all. It did get a little busy later, but still not much of a wait on anything. So definitely hit an EMH park the morning after.

3. Morning EMH! I highly recommend taking advantage. We went to Epcot on the early day and headed right for Soarin! We were in the first group and got to sit right in the front row. It was great. As soon as we got off, we headed for the FastPass machines and rode it again an hour later.

4. Downtown Disney! Avoid the place on Saturday night. There is almost no place to park and it's so ridiculously crowded that it's nearly impossible to walk around. Go just about any other day of the week, but find another place to be on Saturday night.

5. Refillable Mugs! I highly recommend taking advantage of this resort feature. We bought our mugs for $11.99 each (and each got a Mickey shaped straw at $0.49 each - mainly so we'd know who's mug was who's). We filled them at least twice a day, which ended up being less than $1 per beverage by the time we left. Where else can you get a drink at Disney for under $1 and get to keep the mug for free?

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now, but I'm sure I'll have some more as I recap our trip.

Thanks for posting your tips . I hope you had a really great trip.

I have been going over our "calendar" for the week and your tip about going to the EMH park the next day is a great one. Glad to hear your results after testing it out. We aren't really early risers, so I doubt we'll do EMH in any park, but your advice tells me that IF we are up, it would be worth it. I had also been giving consideration to buying the refillable mugs and now you have me convinced. Good to know!

Thanks again!

 

[Third times a charm]

Thanks for the tips, I was planning on buying the refillable mugs. What are the beverage choices?

 

[kelleigh1]

Beverage choices for the mugs are:

coke, diet coke, cherry coke, sprite, Barg's root beer, Minute Maid Lemonade, iced tea (fresh brewed), coffee, water and hot chocolate. I think that's all of them. There were times when we still had some beverage left in the cup and one of us would be heading down that way, so we'd pour out the rest into one of the styrofoam cups that were in the room so we could get the refill. And since we had the fridge in the room, it was easy to just stick the refilled mug right in there to keep it cold.


Hubby and I are early risers, so early EMH was great for us but we didn't do it every day. We did usually arrive at whatever park we were going to when it opened which was a great thing. It's nice to get there when the crowds are so low.

Overall it was a great week to go because after the holiday, crowds were really low and there were almost no lines. We did check the Soarin' wait time on the board on the days we were at Epcot. Those were almost always high which is why we went there as soon as the park opened and then grabbed the fast pass after so we could ride it again.

Speaking for Soarin'...we were in the front row the first time and then requested a different row the second time. We ended up in the 2nd row. First row goes up higher, so it feels a little different when you start off. Hubby has a fear of heights, but he loved it. Second row...it was a little distracting because you could see the feet of the people in the front row.

 

[bdg100]

We used to use the extra cups in our room to store the leftover soda too, that is until I came up with the idea of using the bathtub. I know it sounds weird, but, you can really store a ton of soda in there. Just make sure you put the plug in, add ice and enjoy. The kids love it and don't seem to mind the countless trips to the food court. We tried it first at Caribbean Beach. We got that thing about half way full of soda, unfortunately we forgot about housekeeping. One day we came back from the parks and our tub, half way full of pink lemonade before we left was now empty. It was OK though, we all quickly took showers and started over. Now we just leave a note not to drain the tub. Hope this works for you and your family too.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

We were also in MK on Monday but I thought it was pretty crowded - I must say though we are not exactly early risers and I don't think we got there much before noon Most of the rides had lines and space mountain was a long wait, something must have happened cause they weren't even letting the regular line into the building, we waited outside for about 15 minutes (sign said a 20 minute wait) before we decided to get off line. We went back later in the week and walked on to Space Mountain several times in a row. Monday was also MLK day so thats why we thought it was crowded It just goes to show what a difference a few hours makes with the crowds! We had a great time - hope you did too!

 

[annie1995]

We used to use the extra cups in our room to store the leftover soda too, that is until I came up with the idea of using the bathtub. I know it sounds weird, but, you can really store a ton of soda in there. Just make sure you put the plug in, add ice and enjoy. The kids love it and don't seem to mind the countless trips to the food court. We tried it first at Caribbean Beach. We got that thing about half way full of soda, unfortunately we forgot about housekeeping. One day we came back from the parks and our tub, half way full of pink lemonade before we left was now empty. It was OK though, we all quickly took showers and started over. Now we just leave a note not to drain the tub. Hope this works for you and your family too.

You don't actually dump soda into the tub to drink later, do you??

 

[kelleigh1]

We were also in MK on Monday but I thought it was pretty crowded - I must say though we are not exactly early risers and I don't think we got there much before noon Most of the rides had lines and space mountain was a long wait, something must have happened cause they weren't even letting the regular line into the building, we waited outside for about 15 minutes (sign said a 20 minute wait) before we decided to get off line. We went back later in the week and walked on to Space Mountain several times in a row. Monday was also MLK day so thats why we thought it was crowded It just goes to show what a difference a few hours makes with the crowds! We had a great time - hope you did too!

I think we left MK around noon. We hit Casey's for some lunch and then left shortly after that. The crowds had definitely increased by the time we were leaving, but hitting the park first thing in the morning made a big difference. We rode everything we wanted. Then we were there again on Thursday for morning EMH and again, no lines. We had breakfast reservations at Crystal Palace that day and only rode Pirates of the Carribean before leaving for the day.

 

[Secondgradememories]

You don't actually dump soda into the tub to drink later, do you??

Thanks for asking this question - all I could think was EWWWW! You've got to know what some people do in the tub! Even a great mousekeeper couldn't get it clean enough for me. Maybe bottles or cans of soda???

 

[ashjohnson80]

so how were the crowds in general? like average wait times for space mountain?

 

[Accentuate+]

Thanks for asking this question - all I could think was EWWWW! You've got to know what some people do in the tub! Even a great mousekeeper couldn't get it clean enough for me. Maybe bottles or cans of soda???

I *think* poster is kidding. I hope so, anyway.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Thanks for the tip about the morning after EMH. Do you think this will be appkicable when the EMH is in the evening rather than the morning?

We will be going to the MK in July. We have it narrowed down to two days. One of the days has an evening EMH. We will not be EMH eligible. I was thinking that if we did MK in the morning/day of the evening EMH, we would be okay. Now I am wondering if we go the morning after if we will work out better. Any thoughts?

Thanks?

 

[kelleigh1]

Thanks for the tip about the morning after EMH. Do you think this will be appkicable when the EMH is in the evening rather than the morning?

We will be going to the MK in July. We have it narrowed down to two days. One of the days has an evening EMH. We will not be EMH eligible. I was thinking that if we did MK in the morning/day of the evening EMH, we would be okay. Now I am wondering if we go the morning after if we will work out better. Any thoughts?

Thanks?

I would suggest going the day after the evening EMH - and probably as close to park opening as you can handle. We were there at 8am on Monday morning when Sunday was the MK evening EMH. It did get busier as the day went on...mainly because it is the most popular park and it was a holiday. When the park has an evening EMH, it will be busier the day of as people arrive throughout the day, especially since they need to get the wrist bands in order to take advantage of the rides during the EMH.

And just as an FYI, if you're in the park and they have EMH, you can still remain in the park, but you just can't ride the rides. Those eligible for evening EMH need to get a wrist band in order to ride the rides, but anyone can walk around the park. Some of the stores and restaurants are open so it's a good time to grab a bite or do some shopping.

 

[kelleigh1]

so how were the crowds in general? like average wait times for space mountain?

For last week, other than Sunday and Monday (because of the holiday), I would say they were below average. I don't remember waiting in many lines at all and those that we did wait in were never more than 10-15 minutes at most. (Soarin' is the exception here. While we were able to ride twice with no wait, that was because of strategy. We saw the wait time listed once at 100 minutes and never under 40 minutes during the day. But the fact that Test Track was closed may have helped to add to the Soarin' wait time.)

If you're looking for low crowds and aren't too worried about what the weather might do, it's a great time to go. We did see a number of tour groups, but it still wasn't overly crowded.

Speaking of the weather, it was great. We had one day in the 60's, but the rest was 70's and even some 80's.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

And just as an FYI, if you're in the park and they have EMH, you can still remain in the park, but you just can't ride the rides. Those eligible for evening EMH need to get a wrist band in order to ride the rides, but anyone can walk around the park. Some of the stores and restaurants are open so it's a good time to grab a bite or do some shopping.

Thank you for your response and the tip above. Good info on staying in the park too. Thanks.

 

[TravelGrl]

The drinks you described were from which park?

I am staying at POR and I understand that the drinks options are different at each park.

 

[tweedlewtwinsmama]

I *think* poster is kidding. I hope so, anyway.

Oh my gosh I hope so. I had to read it twice to make sure I got it right. I clean the tub myself when I get to a hotel (clorox wipes) and I still would not do this. yuck

 

[CPer'sMom]

Oh my gosh I hope so. I had to read it twice to make sure I got it right. I clean the tub myself when I get to a hotel (clorox wipes) and I still would not do this. yuck

LOL!!! I just got done reading it twice (or 3 times!) to see if it really said what I thought it said I'm sure hoping the poster was kidding, but after some of the other things I"ve read on this board.....I don't know

 

[Shells9]

We used to use the extra cups in our room to store the leftover soda too, that is until I came up with the idea of using the bathtub. I know it sounds weird, but, you can really store a ton of soda in there. Just make sure you put the plug in, add ice and enjoy. The kids love it and don't seem to mind the countless trips to the food court. We tried it first at Caribbean Beach. We got that thing about half way full of soda, unfortunately we forgot about housekeeping. One day we came back from the parks and our tub, half way full of pink lemonade before we left was now empty. It was OK though, we all quickly took showers and started over. Now we just leave a note not to drain the tub. Hope this works for you and your family too.

Did you for real do this?????

 

[Emme]

We used to use the extra cups in our room to store the leftover soda too, that is until I came up with the idea of using the bathtub. I know it sounds weird, but, you can really store a ton of soda in there. Just make sure you put the plug in, add ice and enjoy. The kids love it and don't seem to mind the countless trips to the food court. We tried it first at Caribbean Beach. We got that thing about half way full of soda, unfortunately we forgot about housekeeping. One day we came back from the parks and our tub, half way full of pink lemonade before we left was now empty. It was OK though, we all quickly took showers and started over. Now we just leave a note not to drain the tub. Hope this works for you and your family too.

WOW! I am frieked !! If I am reading this correctly, you actually drink from the tub? You stop it up, fill with ice, and then send your children on countless trips to the food court for refills... Your kidding right? Maybe we all just misinterpeted this post . All I know is I wouldn't drink out of anything my 17 year old DS's feet were in .

How do you bathe while there? Now that's a puzzler