I survived Christmas Week, Again (x4) - FP+, MB, Fantasyland!

[PlutoTheDog89]

January 1st is always the toughest day of the year. It’s the day we leave Disney after our Christmas vacation and head home to cold New York. As I write this, there’s sun glaring through the windows, reflecting off of the bright white snow. The snow accumulation was around 10 inches last night, a perfect “welcome home” from mother nature after experiencing near-perfect weather the past 8 days.

We started the tradition of going to Disney for Christmas back in 2009. My dad had overcome cancer and completed his chemo treatment in the summer of 2009. We wanted to find a way to celebrate his treatment being done, and the start of remission. I returned to college for my sophomore year and was there maybe a week when my mom called me. “We’re going to Disney for Christmas!” she exclaimed. What a better way to celebrate the happy news than in the happiest place during the happiest time.

My family had booked Coronado Springs, and were deciding between driving or flying down. It was then that we had the idea to take Amtrak down. I had taken Amtrak between New York and Pennsylvania many times to visit my family during my dad’s treatment. My mom had a sixth sense that it would snow around Christmas and that we would face a flight delay or not be able to drive. She was right. It started snowing December 23rd into the 24th. It resulted in flight delays, bad roads, and even the risk of our Amtrak train being delayed. The train only wind up being delayed by about a half an hour, so my mom proved right.

It was this trip that I made my first mistake. Upon hearing that we would be going to Disney, I was particularly excited about the prospect of spending Christmas and New Years Eve in a warm climate. It was Florida, so it was going to be warm! The only other time I had traveled to Florida during a non-summer month was during April or May. As a result, I ignorantly packed jeans, short-sleeve shirts, a couple long-sleeve shirts, and shorts. I even packed my bathing suit! The only cold-weather item I had was the one on my back - my winter coat that I wore on the train ride down. I was fortunate to have the winter coat that I reluctantly wore, as Florida saw unseasonably cold temperatures that year. I remember getting down to Florida and immediately feeling the warm breeze. It was 70 degrees and sunny. It would not go above 65 degrees the rest of the trip, and the sun rarely shone. As a result, we encountered brisk nights in the low 40’s, and I suffered a bad cold. The next year would be different, I would pack hats, gloves, handwarmers, and heavier clothes. I would put myself on a strict regimen of vitamins and Airborne. We decided to drive down in 2010, as Amtrak proved was not cost efficient and took just as long as driving. Then it happened. The week of finals I took one wrong step resulting in a broken foot and sprained ankle. I would be in a walking boot for 16-18 weeks. My mom went into panic mode and nearly canceled the trip. Fortunately the good people at Disney calmed her nerves and set me up with an ECV. It changed the entire dynamic of the trip. It was another cold year and sitting sedentary on an ECV did not help. I also caught a cold.

It was bittersweet when we decided to skip our trip in 2011. We were invited to a wedding by another fellow Disney fanatic. The wedding would be in Disney at the Grand Floridian chapel. The date was in April, so we would not have to worry about the warm temperature. It was a short and unconventional trip, so we flew down on a Thursday and returned home that Sunday. The trip was too short. We were “bit” by the Disney bug when we were down there, and quickly decided to return for another Christmas. Months later, we were hit by Sandy and our trip was called into question. Our house would need substantial repairs, and we were not sure that we would have the money or resources to to take the trip. We were booked to fly down, and Disney was willing to refund us. All we would lose would be the security deposit.

A month into cleaning and repairs, we all looked at each other and decided to go to Disney come hell or high water (no pun intended). We left our bare house, filled with tar and concrete floors and rooms separated by studs to drive to the airport early in the morning. We had packed correctly, and were ready to clear our minds and boost our morale at the happiest place on Earth. Weather-wise, we had a few really nice days. Christmas Eve was mild, Christmas Day was t-shirt weather, and we were comfortable with a light sweater on New Years Eve. We did experience two cooler days. Temperatures dropped into the high 50’s right around the middle of our trip, resulting in cold nights. I had come down with a cold, so we decided to skip one of the nights and avoid getting any more sick.

It was tough going home last year. We knew we had a lot of work in the house to look forward to, and that it would be a tough road to recovery. By June or July, the house was done. The house had taken up so much of our attention and funds that we had put off scheduling our trip. I had also decided to leave my job to pursue a career in copywriting. Being unemployed, I was worried. At my last job, we had off the entire week of Christmas. While I would be happy just to be employed, I was hoping that my new job would not conflict with our trip.

In my free time I started writing a guide to Christmas in Disney. I started posting it on Disboards and started a Tumblr blog. I photoshopped a weekly countdown, and offered tips and strategies to tackle the park and deal with the crowds. It was a successful way to keep writing, while putting my excitement to good use.

It was not until August that we begun planning our trip. By then, it was well into the 180-day window for booking Advance Dining Reservations. As a result, we were unable to get our preferences, such as Narcoossee’s for Christmas dinner. Fortunately, California Grill was undergoing renovations and the date for re-opening had not yet been announced. I kept a keen eye on the restaurant’s progress. When they began taking reservations for dates after October, we jumped on it. We now had Naroossee’s booked for the 28th of December, and Cali Grill booked for Christmas night. Everything was falling into place, except my employment. I finally found a job as a freelance copywriter. They were open to my vacation during Christmas week, which was awesome to hear.

I continued writing in my free time. The countdown to Christmas quickly diminished and it was soon December. Knowing the unreliability of an Orlando weather forecast, I decided to pack the Saturday and Sunday before the trip. I knew the essentials - I would need several long sleeve shirts, some khakis for our dinners at California Grill and Narcoosee’s, as well as layers. I was disheartened to see that Disney’s forecast called for rain the entire week. I knew that the forecast could quickly change, but wanted nice weather. Ironically, on the days that it called for rain we were greeted with sunshine and warm temperatures. We did not experience bad weather once. We did experience a passing shower or two. For the most part, though, the weather was gorgeous. It was easily our best trip yet. We even broke out our shorts twice! To add to the gorgeous weather, I managed to stay healthy. THAT was easily the best part!

There were a lot of new things to experience in Disney. Fantasyland continues to grow, the addition of FP+ and Magic Bands, the new Starbucks in both EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, as well as the culmination launch of construction at Downtown Disney. I learned a lot of new tips, took a lot of pictures, and have a lot of feedback regarding Magic Bands, MDE and more. Join me, if you will, on my Disney Trip Report!

 

[dmoore718]

I'm in!!! We drive from PA since it saves us a ton of money and we always go in January, and the weather has impacted our flights several times. Now, we don't worry about it, knowing we can leave earlier if we have to.

Can't wait to read more about Christmas in Disney!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[liloca]

Wowww that is so cool to go on Christmas time. We always go on Jan/Feb and last year we got stuck on Nemo... What a nightmare!!!
I hope one day I can go on Christmas too but I am not sure if I could handle the crowds!

 

[OhMari]

Looking forward to hearing some of your tips.
I just found out we are going in February.
I tried booking ADR's last week and it was sad, but then I remember people have to cancel at the 45 day mark to get a refund if they are not going.
A whole bunch of ADR's opened up and I got almost everything I wanted.

 

[Britard]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

FP+ and MagicBand Reaction

Two new features at Disney include the inception of Magic Band and FastPass+ (which I believe is still considered in testing.)

The MagicBands didnt phase me much. The idea of wearing a band around the parks seemed a bit annoying. But, in the spirit of Disney I picked my color (orange) and went with the flow. When they arrived, I tried it on. It was an awkward fit. The top came up in a square shape, causing the band to have an awkward fit. I would need to break it in to establish the round shape. The MagicBand has a gray outline that can actually be peeled off if the band is too big (for children). Beware, though, as once it has been peeled off, you can not re-attach it. The band is fully customized. It has your name, as well as a unique tracking number on the inside.

As I predicted, Disney has capitalized on the new MagicBands. They now sell shirts that say Im with the Band!, as well as accessories such as covers and buttons. I was surprised that so many people (including my mom and sister) would buy the jewels and flare for their bands.



Lets look at the logic behind the bands. Disney is marketing it as a convenient alternative to a simple room key, as well as a way to customize a consumers experience. The MagicBand holds all of your vacation information: its the key to your room, your park ticket, and your room key. You can also add a credit card to the MB to make purchases. By wearing a MagicBand, you no longer have to reach for your wallet. Simple, right? As convenient as this may seem, they also take away the consumers perception. Gone are the days of monitoring your money or realizing how many times youve swiped the credit card. With a few days into your trip, touching Mickey head to Mickey head has become second nature and your credit card bill has skyrocketed.

Of course, adding a credit card is optional. We opted not to. In the midst of the Target credit card scandal, we decided to simply pay. By the first day, the MagicBand began to grow on me. I enjoyed not having to dig in my pocket for the room key every time I wished to enter our room. Im a forgetful person. I have a bad habit of entering the room, plopping my room key on a nearby table, then forgetting about it, so the large orange band was helpful. I also liked the idea of not having to carry my wallet around everywhere. While I did not use the credit card function, I did see the usefulness when laying by the pool and paying out-of-pocket for drinks. It also came in handy during my jogs. I liked to jog between French Quarters and Riverside. I would always worry that the card would fall out of my pocket, now that worry is gone.

I did not see many examples of customization. The one that I liked was the use of MagicBands with Disney photographers. In the past, you would have to have your photopass ready for the photographer to scan. In a perfect world, you would get a photopass from your first photo and continue to use that pass for all photos. But no one is perfect, people lose and forget passes all the time. It was nice to know that the photos were all going to one place. Now, I will caveat this by stating that Im still unsure of how this works. I believe you have to purchase Memory Maker from Disney. We did not. Im exploring whether we can/should purchase it now.

From a business standpoint, the true purpose of the MagicBands is to track your purchases and preferences. Thats not a conspiracy theory or a negative connotation, its the truth. Grocery stores have used it for over a decade by offering rewards such as discounts and free turkeys on Thanksgiving. The MagicBands at Disney serve as a research tool used by Disneys marketing department. My family is an older family. My sister and I both enjoy going on rides, while my parents enjoy the shows. We love the food and drinks at EPCOT and frequently eat and drink around the world. My sister still loves the characters and taking pictures with them. My sister may be part of a marketing claim that the characters have a positive impact on women between the ages of 25-40. My family may be part of a marketing claim that older families prefer EPCOT. They will track purchases and see what products are doing well among what age group. MagicBands will show what rides are preferred (FP+), and when people target these rides. All of this information will most likely be used to create a better Disney.

FastPass+ has been widely debated across forums such as DisBoards, as well as many blogs. Many people are not fans, others stand behind it, and some are indifferent.

I was excited at the prospect of FP+ when I first heard about it. I marked my calendar and set reminders on my phone for 70 days before our trip, and then again for 60 days. With 70 days left, I sat my family down and we planned our trip. We planned our days and what parks we would like to go to on those days. When I first went on to book my FP+ selections, I was only permitted to do so for days within the 60-day window. For example, I was only able to book for December 24th on October 25th. On October 26th, I was able to change selections for December 24th, as well as make selections for December 25th, and so on. By October 27th, I was able to book the entire trip (December 24th through January 1st).

At the time, I was able to select any three rides at any one park per day. For December 24th, we would be eating dinner at Chefs de France in EPCOT. Being at EPCOT, we booked TestTrack, Soarin, and Spaceship Earth. I put all of our Advance Dining Reservations into My Disney Experience. So, when I put in my selections for FP+, it scheduled the times around my reservation. For example, our reservation was at 7:30pm for Chefs de France. It scheduled me for 5:30pm - 6:30pm at Spaceship Earth, 6:30pm - 7:30pm for TestTrack, and 8:30pm - 9:30pm for Soarin.

If you are unhappy with the times, but like the combination of rides, choose it. You will be provided with three or four combinations of rides. Due to constraints, you may not always receive your top picks. If you chose Soarin, TestTrack and Spaceship Earth, you may receive two choices with all these combinations at different times. The other combinations may be TestTrack, Maelstrom and a character experience, or TT, Soarin, and Maelstrom. If you can manage to find an option with all of your rides, choose it, then try and change the times. The MDE app allows you to change the time and/or experience for each FP+ selection. So, while I was happy with the combination of rides, I was worried that our reservation would run too long to make our FP+ time for Soarin. I chose the selection, then changed Soarin for a later time.

Since selecting my familys FP+, they have changed the selection process. You may still only select three rides at one park per day. However, it now gives you the option to select one headliner, such as Soarin OR Test Track for EPCOT, or ONE of the Mountains at Magic Kingdom, AND two smaller rides. I had to change a few FP+s around due to time constraints, and was disappointed to see the format had changed.

The planning process had its downfalls. For one, Disney releases park hours around one month in advance. During Christmas week, the park hours can change in as little as one week in advance. With Christmas week being a peak, high-crowd week, I felt that it was important to secure my FP+ once the 60-day window opened. Using our dining reservations, my family knew that we would be in EPCOT on Christmas Eve, as well as Hollywood Studios on December 29th. We also knew that we would like to return to Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day, as it has become an annual tradition. We then speculated park hours using past experiences. The past few years, Magic Kingdom had late-night EMH the Friday after Christmas. Because of this, we chalked Magic Kingdom in for December 27th. We planned the rest of the FP+ selections using a process of elimination (for example - we will be in Hollywood Studios the night before, so lets do EPCOT this day or lets leave Saturday open and sleep late after the late-night EMH.)

When it came to booking FP+, we went by the book. It was then that I began to strategize. My parents dont go on rides, and it felt like we were wasting their MagicBands. It was then that I decided to bend the rules. I booked my sister and my FP+ for Rock n Roller Coaster in the morning, then booked my parents for it in the afternoon. After riding in the morning, we switched in the afternoon. Was it cheating? No. Beating the system? Maybe. But I didnt see it as unfair to other patrons. Arguably, we were still getting three FP+ per MagicBand. If my parents were not going to use them, we were.

Another downfall is availability. I was surprised to see that you were able to book many rides the day-of during Christmas week. However, it involved constantly checking the app for availabilities. Surprisingly, it seemed that if people were unable to make their FP+ reservation, they either changed or cancelled it. This led to FP+ availability popping up throughout the day. Now, this was not the case for larger rides like Soarin or Tower of Terror. But, for second-tier rides like Buzz Lightyear, it was easier than expected to find FP+ if you chose to change your experience or book the same day.

I was worried about what would happen should your ride go down. We found out on Christmas Day. Eager to ride Thunder Mountain, we arrived for our 9:30am FP+ to find out that the ride was down. The CM was incredibly helpful. He gave us an idea that the ride would be back up sometime that day. He was unable to say whether it would be an hour or five hours from now, but he was fairly confident it would be back up (they usually know the severity, but will never give you exact certainty.) In the meantime, we were emailed with a list of rides eligible for FP+ at that time with the option to switch. If we chose to put our confidence in Thunder Mountain and the CM, we could hold out until the ride was back up and return at any time during the day. We did the latter. The ride was back up in an hour and we happily used our FP+.

The problem was that when the ride first went back up, it seemed that everyone flocked to it. When the ride goes back up at 11am, you are combining those with FP+ from the previous times, as well as the 11am FP+. This could lead to a longer-than-usual wait on the FP+ line.

Overall I was happy with the MagicBands and FP+. We did not seem to wait on a line once the entire trip. It also felt nice to have an added sense of structure to our trip. We looked to book mainly in the morning, or in the later afternoon or night. We reserved the afternoon (between the hours of ~1pm and 5 or 6pm) to head back to the hotel and relax. This was normally the most crowded time at the park, so we would use it as a break.

The MagicBands proved to be useful and convenient. It was nice to simply touch Mickey head to Mickey head to enter our room and the parks, take photos, and pay for our meals. While Disney is still working out the kinks and testing both new features, I was happy to judge both for myself and have nothing but positive things to say.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Subbing!