Gary M
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 19, 1999
- Messages
- 4,629
This article was a feature in Sunday's Indianapolis Star's travel section,
_____________________________________________________
Making the most of Mickey
10 tips for enjoying Disney World.
By Scott Goldman
scott.goldman@indystar.com
November 7, 2004
Oh, sure. You went to Walt Disney World a couple of times while you were growing up. You remember everything about Disney World. The parks, the lines, the parades, the lines, the monorails, the lines.
But times change. And so has Disney World. Even the lines.
With the addition of the Animal Kingdom Park a few years ago, the degree of difficulty involved in navigating "everything" at Disney grew exponentially. Visitors used to be able to "Do Disney" in four days, maybe five.
Now? It's a good week, or else you simply can't get to everything.
And by the way, hurricane season officially ended last Sunday, so you don't have that to worry about either. The parks closed for a couple of days during the storms (a rare occurrence), but sustained no damage. In fact, the biggest impact was on future bookings, which means good deals -- and even more choices -- this winter at Disney.
Here are 10 tips to help make your visit more enjoyable:.
1.STAY ON-SITE. IT'S WORTH IT.
There is nothing like a Disney World hotel. From the practical -- Disney hotel guests get a lot of perks that "off-site" hotel guests do not -- to the mundane -- the Mickey Mouse wake-up call makes you smile right from the start of the day -- the 22 hotels on Disney property make a Disney World visit more manageable and special.
There are good, and sometimes cheaper, choices off-site but it can be an excruciating process getting into the parks in the morning even without navigating the 20- or 30-minute drive from your hotel to the front gate. And at the end of a 12-hour day of fun, it's much better to slide into a Disney bus to your hotel than to fight traffic.
Disney has been putting most of its building efforts in recent years to the lower-cost hotel options for their guests. The All-Star resorts (there are now three of them) start at $69 a night, and are a fine, affordable option.
We stayed at Port Orleans, the next price level up the food chain. It is a "moderate" hotel, with slightly bigger rooms, a nicer pool and better on-site food options than the All-Star resorts. Our family of five was snug but comfortable in our room, with the hotel providing a pack-and-play crib for our 22-month-old.
There's no good reason to spend your money on a more expensive hotel. Even the four-star Grand Floridian, right next door to the Magic Kingdom, requires the same bus ride over to MGM Studios or Animal Kingdom as it does from Port Orleans. The Grand is a superb hotel, but at roughly $349 a night per room, there are so many better ways to spend your Disney dollars.
And about those post-hurricane bargains? Some of the Disney Value Resort rooms are being offered for as little at $55 a night in January and February and $79 a night February through mid-April. Visit www.Disney world.com for details.
2. YOU WILL LEARN TO WORSHIP FASTPASS.
FastPass is the best addition to Disney World since Space Mountain, and if you haven't been to Disney in a while, this is the biggest change in getting around the parks.
FastPass is a ticketing system that enables you to wait in line for two rides at once. Here's how it works: You slide your park pass into a FastPass machine (it's like an ATM) outside an attraction like Space Mountain at 9:30 a.m., and a ticket pops out telling you to return between, say, 10:30 and 11:30. Then, instead of waiting in the 45-minute line, you can go ride something else, return to Space Mountain at 10:30 and walk into a special FastPass line that bypasses all those waiting in the regular line.
Tip: To maximize time savings, send one person with all your park tickets over to the FastPass machine. If the kids are being pokey, send Mom or Dad racing ahead.
We actually had some, ahem, "cautious" members of our family who opted out of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, the only upside-down coaster in Disney, but we had already FastPassed for them. So, after riding the coaster -- two thumbs WAY up -- I jokingly said we should scalp the FastPasses. My wife suggested something better. We walked to the end of the 60-minute regular line, spotted an obviously exhausted mother with her two kids, and said, "We're about to make your day."
3. EVERYTHING TAKES AN HOUR.
This is an important thing to realize. Time management is imperative, especially when traveling or splitting up.
"How long can it really take to get from Epcot to MGM? It looks so close on the map."
It takes an hour.
"How long can it take to grab a quick bite to eat?"
It takes an hour.
"OK, you take Drew on Mission: Space and we'll wait here. The sign says it's only a 25-minute wait."
It'll take an hour.
The sooner you come to this conclusion, the better off everyone will be.
4. GET A BOOK. DO RESEARCH. HAVE A PLAN.
Want to have a terrible start to your trip? Get to your hotel the first day and say, "OK, gang. Where to?"
An hour later (see? I told you), everyone will be upset that you're still on a bus and not on Big Thunder Mountain.
Have a game plan.
We were traveling with four other couples, so we e-mailed ideas to each other before the trip, and we worked out at least what parks we were hitting each day. That was a good start.
If you're making your first trip with your kids, get a reference book on the park.
Also, hit the www.disney world.com site often for updates on attractions. Knowing what's closed for renovations will eliminate future disappointments.
5. HAVE REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS, ESPECIALLY ON TRAVEL DAYS.
After a two-hour flight, the shuttle to the hotel and the check-in process, it can be a long time from, "Let's go, gang!" to walking in the front door of Main Street, USA. But I know I was a bit unjustly disappointed that my kids didn't instantly succumb to the Disney magic. In fact, our 5-year-old fell asleep in the stroller 10 minutes into the Magic Kingdom.
Kids need time to adjust to the size and scope of Disney World, but once they really get it, there's nothing like the reaction you get.
On our getaway day, we were very relaxed.
We packed, had a nice breakfast, rolled into MGM at around 11 a.m., hit two great rides and called it a day.
The travel day is also a good one to take advantage of the pools, water slides and hot tubs at the Disney hotels.
6. FOOD IS PLENTIFUL. GOOD FOOD? WELL . . .
Lots of fries. Everywhere, it seems, they serve fries. But there are salads to be found. You just have to look hard. We thought we could do better than the food court at Port Orleans, but after $20 pasta in the Magic Kingdom, maybe not.
Be very choosy about your restaurant choices. They can be very expensive, especially at dinnertime. Try to make lunch your biggest meal of the day; it saves money and time.
Also, the popcorn is cheap and filling.
7. E-NIGHTS JUST ROCK.
Occasionally (but mostly in summer), Disney offers a three-hour pass to on-site hotel guests for after the Magic Kingdom closes. The eight best rides are kept open, and for a $12 fee, you can ride Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, all the "mountain" rides and Buzz Lightyear with little or no wait. It's also incredibly cool to walk around the nearly deserted park at night. (The "E-Nights" label refers to the E-tickets that used to define the best rides at Disney World, back in the old days.)
8. WANT TO EAT WITH CINDERELLA? HERE'S HOW.
Hands down, the one "character breakfast" that stands out is Cinderella's Royal Table. You eat in Cinderella's Castle, and all the first ladies of Disney are there -- Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins. And the waiters say things like, "Yes, my lord," when you ask for more scrambled eggs.
The food is good and the characters and service are fabulous, but you need to work hard to get in here. This is the toughest reservation to get at Disney. When the phone lines open at 7 a.m., exactly 90 days out from the day you want, you need to be in the queue or you're not getting in.
My wife started calling at 6:45 a.m., and kept going until finally getting into the waiting queue around 6:53. By 7:05, the day was sold out.
9. THERE ARE TWO GOOD RIDES AT EPCOT. AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT.
The Disney folks finally realized that there was a need for some fun at Epcot, so they added two great rides -- Test Track and Mission: Space. Mission: Space is an intense space simulator; Test Track is a fun car ride that ends with a 60-mph race in a convertible. But the problem is that especially with Test Track, which even our 5-year-old loved, the FastPass tickets can disappear quickly and the regular lines can go up to two hours. Make sure you FastPass these as soon as you enter Epcot. If not, try splitting up and going in the "singles" line, where they'll plug you in much faster if you don't mind riding with a stranger.
10. STAY TO THE END. YOU'RE ON VACATION, AFTER ALL.
OK, so you stayed through the fabulous fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, you and your spouse got teary-eyed looking at the kids' oooh-and-ahhhh faces, and you realized that this whole trip is already worth it. Just for this one memory.
Now, quick -- grab the kids and race for the exit, right?
No. Stop. This isn't the way to end a Disney Day.
Let the rushing mobs sweep past you.
Watch the spotlights change color on Cinderella's Castle. Relax with an ice cream cone from the corner store on Main Street. Do a little late-night shopping.
The buses will still be running, up to an hour after the parks close. You can spend that last hour standing behind 150 people in your final line of the day, or have ice cream and take in the magic of Disney World.
And that choice, at last, is an easy one.
Contact Scott Goldman at (317) 444-6085.
_____________________________________________________
Making the most of Mickey
10 tips for enjoying Disney World.
By Scott Goldman
scott.goldman@indystar.com
November 7, 2004
Oh, sure. You went to Walt Disney World a couple of times while you were growing up. You remember everything about Disney World. The parks, the lines, the parades, the lines, the monorails, the lines.
But times change. And so has Disney World. Even the lines.
With the addition of the Animal Kingdom Park a few years ago, the degree of difficulty involved in navigating "everything" at Disney grew exponentially. Visitors used to be able to "Do Disney" in four days, maybe five.
Now? It's a good week, or else you simply can't get to everything.
And by the way, hurricane season officially ended last Sunday, so you don't have that to worry about either. The parks closed for a couple of days during the storms (a rare occurrence), but sustained no damage. In fact, the biggest impact was on future bookings, which means good deals -- and even more choices -- this winter at Disney.
Here are 10 tips to help make your visit more enjoyable:.
1.STAY ON-SITE. IT'S WORTH IT.
There is nothing like a Disney World hotel. From the practical -- Disney hotel guests get a lot of perks that "off-site" hotel guests do not -- to the mundane -- the Mickey Mouse wake-up call makes you smile right from the start of the day -- the 22 hotels on Disney property make a Disney World visit more manageable and special.
There are good, and sometimes cheaper, choices off-site but it can be an excruciating process getting into the parks in the morning even without navigating the 20- or 30-minute drive from your hotel to the front gate. And at the end of a 12-hour day of fun, it's much better to slide into a Disney bus to your hotel than to fight traffic.
Disney has been putting most of its building efforts in recent years to the lower-cost hotel options for their guests. The All-Star resorts (there are now three of them) start at $69 a night, and are a fine, affordable option.
We stayed at Port Orleans, the next price level up the food chain. It is a "moderate" hotel, with slightly bigger rooms, a nicer pool and better on-site food options than the All-Star resorts. Our family of five was snug but comfortable in our room, with the hotel providing a pack-and-play crib for our 22-month-old.
There's no good reason to spend your money on a more expensive hotel. Even the four-star Grand Floridian, right next door to the Magic Kingdom, requires the same bus ride over to MGM Studios or Animal Kingdom as it does from Port Orleans. The Grand is a superb hotel, but at roughly $349 a night per room, there are so many better ways to spend your Disney dollars.
And about those post-hurricane bargains? Some of the Disney Value Resort rooms are being offered for as little at $55 a night in January and February and $79 a night February through mid-April. Visit www.Disney world.com for details.
2. YOU WILL LEARN TO WORSHIP FASTPASS.
FastPass is the best addition to Disney World since Space Mountain, and if you haven't been to Disney in a while, this is the biggest change in getting around the parks.
FastPass is a ticketing system that enables you to wait in line for two rides at once. Here's how it works: You slide your park pass into a FastPass machine (it's like an ATM) outside an attraction like Space Mountain at 9:30 a.m., and a ticket pops out telling you to return between, say, 10:30 and 11:30. Then, instead of waiting in the 45-minute line, you can go ride something else, return to Space Mountain at 10:30 and walk into a special FastPass line that bypasses all those waiting in the regular line.
Tip: To maximize time savings, send one person with all your park tickets over to the FastPass machine. If the kids are being pokey, send Mom or Dad racing ahead.
We actually had some, ahem, "cautious" members of our family who opted out of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, the only upside-down coaster in Disney, but we had already FastPassed for them. So, after riding the coaster -- two thumbs WAY up -- I jokingly said we should scalp the FastPasses. My wife suggested something better. We walked to the end of the 60-minute regular line, spotted an obviously exhausted mother with her two kids, and said, "We're about to make your day."
3. EVERYTHING TAKES AN HOUR.
This is an important thing to realize. Time management is imperative, especially when traveling or splitting up.
"How long can it really take to get from Epcot to MGM? It looks so close on the map."
It takes an hour.
"How long can it take to grab a quick bite to eat?"
It takes an hour.
"OK, you take Drew on Mission: Space and we'll wait here. The sign says it's only a 25-minute wait."
It'll take an hour.
The sooner you come to this conclusion, the better off everyone will be.
4. GET A BOOK. DO RESEARCH. HAVE A PLAN.
Want to have a terrible start to your trip? Get to your hotel the first day and say, "OK, gang. Where to?"
An hour later (see? I told you), everyone will be upset that you're still on a bus and not on Big Thunder Mountain.
Have a game plan.
We were traveling with four other couples, so we e-mailed ideas to each other before the trip, and we worked out at least what parks we were hitting each day. That was a good start.
If you're making your first trip with your kids, get a reference book on the park.
Also, hit the www.disney world.com site often for updates on attractions. Knowing what's closed for renovations will eliminate future disappointments.
5. HAVE REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS, ESPECIALLY ON TRAVEL DAYS.
After a two-hour flight, the shuttle to the hotel and the check-in process, it can be a long time from, "Let's go, gang!" to walking in the front door of Main Street, USA. But I know I was a bit unjustly disappointed that my kids didn't instantly succumb to the Disney magic. In fact, our 5-year-old fell asleep in the stroller 10 minutes into the Magic Kingdom.
Kids need time to adjust to the size and scope of Disney World, but once they really get it, there's nothing like the reaction you get.
On our getaway day, we were very relaxed.
We packed, had a nice breakfast, rolled into MGM at around 11 a.m., hit two great rides and called it a day.
The travel day is also a good one to take advantage of the pools, water slides and hot tubs at the Disney hotels.
6. FOOD IS PLENTIFUL. GOOD FOOD? WELL . . .
Lots of fries. Everywhere, it seems, they serve fries. But there are salads to be found. You just have to look hard. We thought we could do better than the food court at Port Orleans, but after $20 pasta in the Magic Kingdom, maybe not.
Be very choosy about your restaurant choices. They can be very expensive, especially at dinnertime. Try to make lunch your biggest meal of the day; it saves money and time.
Also, the popcorn is cheap and filling.
7. E-NIGHTS JUST ROCK.
Occasionally (but mostly in summer), Disney offers a three-hour pass to on-site hotel guests for after the Magic Kingdom closes. The eight best rides are kept open, and for a $12 fee, you can ride Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, all the "mountain" rides and Buzz Lightyear with little or no wait. It's also incredibly cool to walk around the nearly deserted park at night. (The "E-Nights" label refers to the E-tickets that used to define the best rides at Disney World, back in the old days.)
8. WANT TO EAT WITH CINDERELLA? HERE'S HOW.
Hands down, the one "character breakfast" that stands out is Cinderella's Royal Table. You eat in Cinderella's Castle, and all the first ladies of Disney are there -- Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins. And the waiters say things like, "Yes, my lord," when you ask for more scrambled eggs.
The food is good and the characters and service are fabulous, but you need to work hard to get in here. This is the toughest reservation to get at Disney. When the phone lines open at 7 a.m., exactly 90 days out from the day you want, you need to be in the queue or you're not getting in.
My wife started calling at 6:45 a.m., and kept going until finally getting into the waiting queue around 6:53. By 7:05, the day was sold out.
9. THERE ARE TWO GOOD RIDES AT EPCOT. AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT.
The Disney folks finally realized that there was a need for some fun at Epcot, so they added two great rides -- Test Track and Mission: Space. Mission: Space is an intense space simulator; Test Track is a fun car ride that ends with a 60-mph race in a convertible. But the problem is that especially with Test Track, which even our 5-year-old loved, the FastPass tickets can disappear quickly and the regular lines can go up to two hours. Make sure you FastPass these as soon as you enter Epcot. If not, try splitting up and going in the "singles" line, where they'll plug you in much faster if you don't mind riding with a stranger.
10. STAY TO THE END. YOU'RE ON VACATION, AFTER ALL.
OK, so you stayed through the fabulous fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, you and your spouse got teary-eyed looking at the kids' oooh-and-ahhhh faces, and you realized that this whole trip is already worth it. Just for this one memory.
Now, quick -- grab the kids and race for the exit, right?
No. Stop. This isn't the way to end a Disney Day.
Let the rushing mobs sweep past you.
Watch the spotlights change color on Cinderella's Castle. Relax with an ice cream cone from the corner store on Main Street. Do a little late-night shopping.
The buses will still be running, up to an hour after the parks close. You can spend that last hour standing behind 150 people in your final line of the day, or have ice cream and take in the magic of Disney World.
And that choice, at last, is an easy one.
Contact Scott Goldman at (317) 444-6085.
