Disneyside 24 hour Event

[nealfreakinporter]

Any boarders here go? Or at? Would love to hear all about it!

 

[pharaoh]

I was there for a while. I arrived at the TTC at 4:45am, and then they finally let us onto the monorails at 5:20am. Got to the park around 5:35am and of course they finally let us in at 6.

I stayed all the way until around midnight. I did take a short break around 5 because it was HOT, but I returned around 8. I wanted to stay longer to see the villains but I was so tired, and my contact lenses were really hurting. Lines for EVERYTHING were long, so I left. Oh well. 19 hours!

I'll post more in detail once I finish packing. Feel free to ask any questions!

 

[nealfreakinporter]

I was there for a while. I arrived at the TTC at 4:45am, and then they finally let us onto the monorails at 5:20am. Got to the park around 5:35am and of course they finally let us in at 6. I stayed all the way until around midnight. I did take a short break around 5 because it was HOT, but I returned around 8. I wanted to stay longer to see the villains but I was so tired, and my contact lenses were really hurting. Lines for EVERYTHING were long, so I left. Oh well. 19 hours! I'll post more in detail once I finish packing. Feel free to ask any questions!

That's a pretty stinking long time! Is this something you would do again in the future? Or a once was enough thing?

 

[pharaoh]

If they did this event again next year, I would consider going again, but I would change around my strategy quite a bit. I'm sorry in advance for this long post!

I really liked the flexibility of having SO MUCH TIME! Since I'm a FL resident, I never do long stays at WDW. I will stay for 3 days at a time, generally, and do one park per day. My favorite park is MK and I always feel like I never have enough time to do the things I want to do, or I'm rushing around too much to enjoy the spirit of MK, which is big for me too. It also doesn't help that i typically visit during REALLY low crowd times, so the parks sometimes have shortened hours.

Having 24 hours to get everything done that I wanted to do was AWESOME, but ultimately, the sun was the killer for me, lol. I'm from Miami and am used to hot weather but I did not anticipate it would be 96 degrees in Orlando in May!

Here's what I did. I got there super early for RD, toured all my faves through standby for the first few hours. I don't like coasters of any kind when I'm solo, so I skipped those. I concentrated on my favorites, and on things I don't normally do. My first few hours consisted of: Haunted Mansion, Small World, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, The PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress, Journey to the Little Mermaid, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean (FP+), Country Bear Jamboree (never done this one before!), Haunted Mansion (FP+), and Hall of Presidents. Stopped for snacks in between some of the attractions, of course! By this point it was noon, so I watched the Festival of Fantasy parade, and then had a lunch FP for BoG at 12:40pm.

I think because the mine train was open all day, plus the mad rodeo that is Anna & Elsa, traffic to most of the attractions down and I really didn't need to use my FP's at all. That was mistake number 1. Next time, I will save them for much later in the day.

I took a long lunch because I was hiding from the sun, and continued on my touring around 2:00. Lurked on Gaston (my favorite Disney hunk) for a bit but didn't take a photo. I was hoping he would be around in the evening but he was gone by the time I came back around 9.

I did Philharmagic, and did some shopping through the afternoon, then I hopped on the train (never done that before!) at Frontierland and took it to Main Street, left MK around 4:45pm.

Back at the hotel (pop), I intended to take a nap but I ended up just washing up and watching TV for a little bit. Then I beautified myself (bahahaha) and headed back to the park at 8:00pm. Mistake number 2 and here's why: I was driving so I could avoid bus crowds. Well, at 8:15 or whenever it was, MK parking was at capacity. So I had to drive to Epcot and park there. When we finally got to the TTC, CM's were yellin' at us to take the ferry, it's faster, blah blah, monorail is backed up. I had never taken the ferry and was up to try something new, so I trusted the CM's.

The Ferry, at 8:45PM when that water pageant with the lit up floats is happening, is NOT faster than the monorail, because the ferry has to wait for the floats to cross the lake. That took at least 25 minutes! I just wanted to be in the park.

Finally got inside the park by 9:15pm and things were very crowded, and roped off for night time entertainment. I wanted to go on more rides but there were long lines for everything, so I just wandered around for a while. I did have one more FP+ for Jungle Cruise, so I did that, and then tried to get an additional FP for HM (again, I love that ride!), but there wasn't one available until very late. I gave up.

By midnight, my eyes really started to hurt because of my contacts, and I stupidly didn't bring my glasses with me, so I decided to head out. I was upset, because I didn't really get to see any of the villains, which is why I came back in the evening. Next time, instead of coming back at 8, I'll skip that crowded mess and come around 1 or 2am

OVERALL I had a great time in the morning, and it was a lot of fun. The only things I didn't like in general were that even though the park was open at 6AM, there were a lot of places that weren't open. I heard about breakfast happening, but I didn't see breakfast anywhere at all. I was starving by 9AM (I'd been awake since 3:30am) so I finally just got a chocolate croissant at Gaston's tavern. I would have liked to see more happening in the morning.

I also wish there were more villains happening throughout the day, instead of the heroes during the day and the villains at night.

If the weather is a little bit cooler next year, I would 100% like to go again and put my new strategies into place.

 

[nealfreakinporter]

If they did this event again next year, I would consider going again, but I would change around my strategy quite a bit. I'm sorry in advance for this long post!

I really liked the flexibility of having SO MUCH TIME! Since I'm a FL resident, I never do long stays at WDW. I will stay for 3 days at a time, generally, and do one park per day. My favorite park is MK and I always feel like I never have enough time to do the things I want to do, or I'm rushing around too much to enjoy the spirit of MK, which is big for me too. It also doesn't help that i typically visit during REALLY low crowd times, so the parks sometimes have shortened hours.

Having 24 hours to get everything done that I wanted to do was AWESOME, but ultimately, the sun was the killer for me, lol. I'm from Miami and am used to hot weather but I did not anticipate it would be 96 degrees in Orlando in May!

Here's what I did. I got there super early for RD, toured all my faves through standby for the first few hours. I don't like coasters of any kind when I'm solo, so I skipped those. I concentrated on my favorites, and on things I don't normally do. My first few hours consisted of: Haunted Mansion, Small World, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, The PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress, Journey to the Little Mermaid, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean (FP+), Country Bear Jamboree (never done this one before!), Haunted Mansion (FP+), and Hall of Presidents. Stopped for snacks in between some of the attractions, of course! By this point it was noon, so I watched the Festival of Fantasy parade, and then had a lunch FP for BoG at 12:40pm.

I think because the mine train was open all day, plus the mad rodeo that is Anna & Elsa, traffic to most of the attractions down and I really didn't need to use my FP's at all. That was mistake number 1. Next time, I will save them for much later in the day.

I took a long lunch because I was hiding from the sun, and continued on my touring around 2:00. Lurked on Gaston (my favorite Disney hunk) for a bit but didn't take a photo. I was hoping he would be around in the evening but he was gone by the time I came back around 9.

I did Philharmagic, and did some shopping through the afternoon, then I hopped on the train (never done that before!) at Frontierland and took it to Main Street, left MK around 4:45pm.

Back at the hotel (pop), I intended to take a nap but I ended up just washing up and watching TV for a little bit. Then I beautified myself (bahahaha) and headed back to the park at 8:00pm. Mistake number 2 and here's why: I was driving so I could avoid bus crowds. Well, at 8:15 or whenever it was, MK parking was at capacity. So I had to drive to Epcot and park there. When we finally got to the TTC, CM's were yellin' at us to take the ferry, it's faster, blah blah, monorail is backed up. I had never taken the ferry and was up to try something new, so I trusted the CM's.

The Ferry, at 8:45PM when that water pageant with the lit up floats is happening, is NOT faster than the monorail, because the ferry has to wait for the floats to cross the lake. That took at least 25 minutes! I just wanted to be in the park.

Finally got inside the park by 9:15pm and things were very crowded, and roped off for night time entertainment. I wanted to go on more rides but there were long lines for everything, so I just wandered around for a while. I did have one more FP+ for Jungle Cruise, so I did that, and then tried to get an additional FP for HM (again, I love that ride!), but there wasn't one available until very late. I gave up.

By midnight, my eyes really started to hurt because of my contacts, and I stupidly didn't bring my glasses with me, so I decided to head out. I was upset, because I didn't really get to see any of the villains, which is why I came back in the evening. Next time, instead of coming back at 8, I'll skip that crowded mess and come around 1 or 2am

OVERALL I had a great time in the morning, and it was a lot of fun. The only things I didn't like in general were that even though the park was open at 6AM, there were a lot of places that weren't open. I heard about breakfast happening, but I didn't see breakfast anywhere at all. I was starving by 9AM (I'd been awake since 3:30am) so I finally just got a chocolate croissant at Gaston's tavern. I would have liked to see more happening in the morning.

I also wish there were more villains happening throughout the day, instead of the heroes during the day and the villains at night.

If the weather is a little bit cooler next year, I would 100% like to go again and put my new strategies into place.

Thanks for the report! I so so want to go. Yeah I like your new strategy! I REALLY want to go to this 24 hour event, but sadly that won't be happening next year, as I will be there at end of March, early April.

Whoa it was H O T there...96, I wouldn't have expected that myself. Did they do Wishes more than once? Id prefer to let the kiddos enjoy the early night celebration, and would prefer to come back later....but I'd HATE to miss Wishes!