Planning our First Trip ... Help!

[Moms]

Actually the subject line of this thread is misleading ... We are in the process of tentatively planning what will probably be our 20th+ trip (haven't kept track that closely) it is just feeling like our first!

We are Disney geeks but not "hard core" multiple times a year people. Our last trip was Christmas Week 2012. We had a wonderful time and despite the crowds managed to plan right and do everything we wanted to do at every park. That being said we are pretty casual guests ... it a line is too long we'll go get a drink instead! If we can't get an ADR at our favorite restaurant(s) we'll have ice cream instead. We love the whole disney experience and just being there is "magical".

As we start the preliminaries for another Christmas Week trip (2014) I feel like I am going to a foreign country! MDE and Fast Pass + ... Magic Bands ... have things changed that much in less than 18 months?!?!? Or have we been clueless? Do the old standby books (Birnbaum, Unofficial, etc.) have detailed explanations about how these things work? We have plenty of time to "study" but I may need the "cliff notes".

 

[GillianP1301]

Based on what you've said about your casual approach to touring, I don't see that much will change for you in the new MDE, FP+, MB world. You can still try to get an ADR last minute and choose to have ice cream instead, if you can't get it.

The Fastpass situation will be your biggest change. We did MB & FP+ last August, but it was still limited release/testing, so there was never an issue with getting headliners last minute, plus it was still during double dipping time, so we had use of old FP as well. So for our trip this summer, my approach is to plan out my park days (I would do this anyway, regardless of FP+) and pre-book my fastpasses for the major attractions I want to hit for the afternoon timeslots.

If you don't want to pre-plan your days, then you will have the option to book FP+ the day of as well.