Just back 11/2-7

[Jenny]

We went to DTD 11/2, MK & Epcot on 11/3, AK & Epcot on 11/4 and a character breakfast at Cape May on 11/5.

Weather: warm! sunny & in the 80s. a little breezy at night. we didn't wear jackets but we were in our hotel by 8 p.m. every night. we were in t-shirts & shorts the whole time. swimming during the day. we also went to Cocoa beach on 11/6.

Crowds: i think any park any time of the year tends to get crowded starting at noon (that's when we park-hop). The Fastpass system for Soarin was horrible. I waited 30 min. w/ a FP - i had a baby swap pass too....by the time i finished, my DH who had waited w/ the kids had lost it....he didn't even go on. Other than that, we walked on the rides in Fantasyland & Toontown in the a.m. at MK on Thurs. 11/3. We had no problems at Epcot w/ SE, Figment, Mexico, Norway in the p.m. The lines at the F&W booths were also reasonably short in the p.m. on Th & Fri, 11/3-4. We had little or no waits at AK during the a.m. on Fri. 11/4. we used FP for the safari but ran into some bad luck there. we arrived at 9 a.m. to the safari & there was a 10 min. wait - we decided to get a fastpass...we later entered only to wait 20-25 min. b/c there was reportedly a giraffe on the path who wouldn't move so you never know what's going to happen.

We had a magical time! Our highlights included meet & greets w/ the characters w/ little or no wait & many special moments for our DD3: she woke up Tink at MK, participated in Belle's Storytime at MK, danced & played drums at an African outpost at Epcot, enjoyed Kidcot stations at Epcot, etc.

One note: we took our 2 DDs, ages 1 & 3, & the 3 yr old was more afraid of things than she was in jan. 05 as a 2 yr. old. She was shaking during ITTBB & Philharmagic (more so for ITTBB). she was also nervous on Snow white, Peter Pan, pooh & Figment. She did Ok on Norway (we avoided HM & Pirates this time around but mostly due to time constraints.) we made it through all by talking to her but i wouldn't say that they were her favorites. The 16 month old was just wide-eyed, taking it all in w/out signs of fear or enjoyment...just staring at everything. she was definitely afraid of the characters - i don't think i'll be doing a character meal any time soon again!

(we stayed off-property).

any questions?

 

[mtdevine615]

Thanks for the report, glad to hear you had a great time. I'm not sure what going on with Soarin but you're not the first to complain about this. When we went the first time it was AP preview and it was great, no lines, no waiting. I'm not sure how we're going to do it when we go down in January. Maybe go right there get a fastpass for later but get in the regular line and ride it right then. Oh well, we'll figure it out. Maine

 

[Jenny]

the soarin line is tricky for some reason. my parents arrived earlier that day around noon, got in the regular line even though it said 50 min. & waited for only 20 min. I got our fast passes around 2:45 later that day for a return time of 5:20-6:20. my mother & i got in the fastpass line around 6 & waited for about 30 (longer than she had waited earlier in the day in the stand-by line). i usually don't go to epcot in the a.m. but i guess that's probably the answer. arrive early & go over there first thing...i'd do what you suggested. get a fp, ride first in standby then return & ride again w/ the fp. it was fun!