bluwater
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
- Messages
- 447
During our stay, we visited all of the parks as following:
EPCOT: 3X
AK: 1X
DHS: 3X
MK: 4X
We used 6 days on our passes, so we were doing some hopping.
We were there last week. It was C-R-O-W-D-E-D. I have never seen it like this. Lines like crazy. People so thick it was sometimes hard to walk around. And, it was HOT! We will never, ever, every go in July again. But, in order to survive and be able to ride anything, we learned the following:
The strategy that worked best for us is this:
-When possible (when your body will allow
) be at the park opening - especially on morning extra magic days. Morning extra magic hours are so wonderful!!
- Avoid parks that have evening extra magic...at least until the evening magic hour begins. These parks will be especially crowded during the day! Go to a different park and enjoy it.
-follow the mid-day exit rule. Get out of the park during lunch (or jus tafter lunch if you have an ADR at a TS place in the park). Go swim and nap. Come back later. The park crowds seem to begin to swell around 11:15am.
-Watch your fastpass refresh time. The time when you can get another fastpass is not always the time that you can ride the ride. Sometimes, it is sooner. You need to check the small print at the bottom of your fastpass to see when you can get another one. As soon as you can get one, do it! Yes, you can hold more than one fastpass at a time. Example, we fastpassed Toy Story Mania at 11:21am. The return time was 8:05 - 9:05 PM. Do I need to wait til then to get another fastpass? No! The small print on the bottom of my fastpass told me that I could get another fastpass at 1:21pm.
-If you enter the park at opening and go to your favorite ride, which is very popular and has a fastpass associated - and you think you'll want to ride it again later, fastpass it BEFORE you ride it. You can fastpass for a quick return time, then ride, then get another set of fastpasses sooner than if you'd waited to fastpass when you got off. You HAVE to maximize the fastpasses - so not sleep on one minute of your fastpass times.
-If your fastpass is for a popular ride with a 2 hr minimim wait period for another pass, but you want to fastpass a ride that is much less popular with a shorter return window, try fastpassing it before the 2 hr refresh time is reached. You might get a fastpass before your refresh time (not your RETURN WINDOW - your REFRESH TIME). Remember, your return window is in large bold print at the top of your fastpass, your refresh time is in small print at the bottom. Know the difference. This is important. Example: Toy Story is popular and is going to give you the maximum refresh period of 2 hrs. You fastpass it and get an 8 hr RETURN WINDOW TIME and a 2 HR FASTPASS REFRESH TIME. You then go to Star Tours and see that it has a 1 hr FASTPASS REFRESH TIME. You may be able to Fastpass Star Tours only 1 HR after you've fastpassed Toy Story, even though your Toy Story REFRESH is 2 HRS. We tried this and found that it sometimes worked.
-If you wind up wanting to leave the park before using your fastpasses, give them away. It's a nice thing to do and people will appreciate it soooo much! You'll be surprised that lots of people in the parks don't even know what fastpasses are. They think you have to buy them, like you do in Six Flags. We gave away our Dream Fastpasses in Magic Kingdom - to two older ladies who were first-time visitors and said "we don't know what "fastpass" means"....I hope they used them.
- When in a line, leave room in front of you. Do not get right up on the back of other people. The air circulation will keep you cool and you'll have room to move up if the person behind you doesn't follow this advice. In one line, the man behind me was so close that he kept stepping on the backs of my flip-flops. That's too close! Sheesh.
-Don't just map out what you want to ride.....map out your "chilling" locations. What rides will you ride just to get off your feet and get into some A/C. I like Tomorrow-Land Transit Authority for this. It is always easy to get onto and I can zone out on it and put my feet up. In Epcot, I like Spaceship Earth to chill out - once fell asleep on it
You can also ride the train around MK to chill out.
-Don't be tempted to stay in the parks so late that you won't want to get up in the morning to be at rope drop. There is NO better time than early morning to be in parks. You'll skip through the parks and ride everything with ease...then wave "so long suckers" to everyone coming in at 11:30am, as you exit to go get some lunch and a cool swim or nap in the room.
-Feet: Think about your feet before you depart. Your feet will ache. Switch shoes each day or every other day. Do not wear the same shoes each day. Sneakers are best (a good pair)....flip-flops may feel cool, but your feel are likely to ache after a full day or two. I rotated between 2 pairs of really good athletic flip-flops (Nike and Timberland) and a pair of New Balance running shoes. Even so, my feet ached at the end of each day (less so with the NB running shoes). My daughter and I would take turns giving each other hot towel wraps and lotion massages before bed. I bought my favorite foot scrub and peppermint foot lotion (cooling) for foot rub-downs each night.
Specific Ride Advice:
Tower of Terror: do not worry about getting into a specific elevator - the ride sequence is random and no ride in the same elevator will repeat. Just go to whatever elevator you are sent, sit wherever. Don't pull your belt really tight if you want a little "air time" when you are weightless. We loved the air time. Rode ToT 8X on this visit. Loved it, loved it!
RnRC: Lots of head banging against the harness. Keep your head back against the headrest so it won't bang. We heard lots of complaints from people who banged their heads and ears (earrings pinched or poking). Keep your head back and you'll be fine.
Splash: Look for all of the Hidden Mickeys. If you don't know where they are, go into the little shop next to the entry to Splash and look for the book about Hidden Mickeys - browse the Spash Mtn section and then look for them on the ride - so many of them!!! Very cool. Also, consider buying the book. It is awesome. It tells you about the Hidden Mickeys all over WDW. We had a ton in our room at Polynesian.
Not so unknown secret: Ride standby during parades and fireworks!
EPCOT: 3X
AK: 1X
DHS: 3X
MK: 4X
We used 6 days on our passes, so we were doing some hopping.
We were there last week. It was C-R-O-W-D-E-D. I have never seen it like this. Lines like crazy. People so thick it was sometimes hard to walk around. And, it was HOT! We will never, ever, every go in July again. But, in order to survive and be able to ride anything, we learned the following:
The strategy that worked best for us is this:
-When possible (when your body will allow
) be at the park opening - especially on morning extra magic days. Morning extra magic hours are so wonderful!! - Avoid parks that have evening extra magic...at least until the evening magic hour begins. These parks will be especially crowded during the day! Go to a different park and enjoy it.
-follow the mid-day exit rule. Get out of the park during lunch (or jus tafter lunch if you have an ADR at a TS place in the park). Go swim and nap. Come back later. The park crowds seem to begin to swell around 11:15am.
-Watch your fastpass refresh time. The time when you can get another fastpass is not always the time that you can ride the ride. Sometimes, it is sooner. You need to check the small print at the bottom of your fastpass to see when you can get another one. As soon as you can get one, do it! Yes, you can hold more than one fastpass at a time. Example, we fastpassed Toy Story Mania at 11:21am. The return time was 8:05 - 9:05 PM. Do I need to wait til then to get another fastpass? No! The small print on the bottom of my fastpass told me that I could get another fastpass at 1:21pm.
-If you enter the park at opening and go to your favorite ride, which is very popular and has a fastpass associated - and you think you'll want to ride it again later, fastpass it BEFORE you ride it. You can fastpass for a quick return time, then ride, then get another set of fastpasses sooner than if you'd waited to fastpass when you got off. You HAVE to maximize the fastpasses - so not sleep on one minute of your fastpass times.
-If your fastpass is for a popular ride with a 2 hr minimim wait period for another pass, but you want to fastpass a ride that is much less popular with a shorter return window, try fastpassing it before the 2 hr refresh time is reached. You might get a fastpass before your refresh time (not your RETURN WINDOW - your REFRESH TIME). Remember, your return window is in large bold print at the top of your fastpass, your refresh time is in small print at the bottom. Know the difference. This is important. Example: Toy Story is popular and is going to give you the maximum refresh period of 2 hrs. You fastpass it and get an 8 hr RETURN WINDOW TIME and a 2 HR FASTPASS REFRESH TIME. You then go to Star Tours and see that it has a 1 hr FASTPASS REFRESH TIME. You may be able to Fastpass Star Tours only 1 HR after you've fastpassed Toy Story, even though your Toy Story REFRESH is 2 HRS. We tried this and found that it sometimes worked.
-If you wind up wanting to leave the park before using your fastpasses, give them away. It's a nice thing to do and people will appreciate it soooo much! You'll be surprised that lots of people in the parks don't even know what fastpasses are. They think you have to buy them, like you do in Six Flags. We gave away our Dream Fastpasses in Magic Kingdom - to two older ladies who were first-time visitors and said "we don't know what "fastpass" means"....I hope they used them.
- When in a line, leave room in front of you. Do not get right up on the back of other people. The air circulation will keep you cool and you'll have room to move up if the person behind you doesn't follow this advice. In one line, the man behind me was so close that he kept stepping on the backs of my flip-flops. That's too close! Sheesh.
-Don't just map out what you want to ride.....map out your "chilling" locations. What rides will you ride just to get off your feet and get into some A/C. I like Tomorrow-Land Transit Authority for this. It is always easy to get onto and I can zone out on it and put my feet up. In Epcot, I like Spaceship Earth to chill out - once fell asleep on it
You can also ride the train around MK to chill out.
-Don't be tempted to stay in the parks so late that you won't want to get up in the morning to be at rope drop. There is NO better time than early morning to be in parks. You'll skip through the parks and ride everything with ease...then wave "so long suckers" to everyone coming in at 11:30am, as you exit to go get some lunch and a cool swim or nap in the room.
-Feet: Think about your feet before you depart. Your feet will ache. Switch shoes each day or every other day. Do not wear the same shoes each day. Sneakers are best (a good pair)....flip-flops may feel cool, but your feel are likely to ache after a full day or two. I rotated between 2 pairs of really good athletic flip-flops (Nike and Timberland) and a pair of New Balance running shoes. Even so, my feet ached at the end of each day (less so with the NB running shoes). My daughter and I would take turns giving each other hot towel wraps and lotion massages before bed. I bought my favorite foot scrub and peppermint foot lotion (cooling) for foot rub-downs each night.
Specific Ride Advice:
Tower of Terror: do not worry about getting into a specific elevator - the ride sequence is random and no ride in the same elevator will repeat. Just go to whatever elevator you are sent, sit wherever. Don't pull your belt really tight if you want a little "air time" when you are weightless. We loved the air time. Rode ToT 8X on this visit. Loved it, loved it!
RnRC: Lots of head banging against the harness. Keep your head back against the headrest so it won't bang. We heard lots of complaints from people who banged their heads and ears (earrings pinched or poking). Keep your head back and you'll be fine.
Splash: Look for all of the Hidden Mickeys. If you don't know where they are, go into the little shop next to the entry to Splash and look for the book about Hidden Mickeys - browse the Spash Mtn section and then look for them on the ride - so many of them!!! Very cool. Also, consider buying the book. It is awesome. It tells you about the Hidden Mickeys all over WDW. We had a ton in our room at Polynesian.
Not so unknown secret: Ride standby during parades and fireworks!
