***Official March 2026 Thread***

[Wood Nymph]

Only 29 more days for me!!
Hope it thaws out by the time I get there!

We are at WDW now and it is really, really cold - like 25 degrees in the morning. But we will be back in only 27 days. It will be warmer, for sure.

 

[Pills]

*Very* slight change of plans. It was over $400 more to fly on the 19th, so we're going down the 18th and staying a night in All Star Music ($166 with the AP discount).

Can't do park reservations until my daughter has her schedule, which she will on the 5th and 12th for the two weeks. Dinners are easy enough with hopping, though. Also, we're taking a bunch of her felloe CP friends out to Tappan Edo on the 22nd.

We did get GEO 82 for lunch on the 21st as we figured she wouldn't be off on a Saturday.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We did get GEO 82 for lunch on the 21st as we figured she wouldn't be off on a Saturday.

The flatbread at GEO-82 is really good.

 

[Elliemay2]

Hi! What is everyone's lightning lane plans? Will you get them? What is your strategy? Do you you purchase them and accept what it gives you at first and then try to modify or do you try to select times when you are purchasing? I will be purchasing for 8. Have you purchased for a group before? Tks!

 

[Khokhonutt]

Hi! What is everyone's lightning lane plans? Will you get them? What is your strategy? Do you you purchase them and accept what it gives you at first and then try to modify or do you try to select times when you are purchasing? I will be purchasing for 8. Have you purchased for a group before? Tks!

We're not doing lightning lanes. This is our first trip back to WDW since 2011. We did Disneyland in 2017. In both of those trips, free paper fast passes were in use. I've researched the lightning lanes quite a bit, since planning this trip and here are my thoughts.

• First, I'll say, I understand each family and plan is unique, so what's good for us, I don't expect to be good for everyone else. I'm not trying to cause a fuss, with what I'm guessing may be a less popular opinion. I'm just sharing a different perspective. That said..
• I'll admit, this whole paying for fast passes just doesn't sit well with me. With that in mind, we're willing to see how things go this trip. Our mindset is, I've been going to WDW since the 70s and we've been going as a family since the 80s, so I expect to wait in lines. I know the old paper system was kind of a fun way to avoid some lines, but we've still always made the best of the lines. We look for hidden Mickey's, we take in the special elements in the queues, we talk about the last ride and the next ride, we plan meals and we talk and play games.
• We very much value flexibility in our trips. Some of our most enjoyable aspects of visiting the parks is wandering and seeing what makes each park unique. For me, planning my rides to a point where I have to plan where I'm going to be a few weeks out, then have to chase new rides on my phone to get my money's worth, just didn't appeal to me. Most of the 2nd half of our week is intentionally left open, so we can jump wherever we want to catch things we've missed or want to do again.
• We've always done rope drop, so we'll be doing that again. We're early risers and love experiencing the parks in the early morning, before the worst of the crowds show up. We take mid-day breaks, then head back to close the parks each night. That has always worked for us, we're hoping it will work this time.
• We do buy park hoppers and we are doing the after-hours parties for Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. The park hoppers help with our flexibility. With the after-hours parties, I expect to get some short ride lines and we'll enjoy seeing the parks lit up at night.

Jeff