Fargoman2 said:
We leave in 16 days for our fourth consecutive summer trip to WDW. Thinking I know so much already, I'm more than a little lax in preparing this time. So, please, give me the skinny on the following:
1. EMH evening style: worth it, how do you arrange?
2. Magic your way tickets: Buy online in advance or when I get there?
2A. Do unused "plus" options from last year have any value?
3. What's the thumbs-up and thumbs-down on new attractions?
4. Is the FastPass still a big advantage--or is it now just too common knowledge resulting in long FastPass lines and "hard to get" times?
5. Anything else that's new?
Thanks!
I'll try to help out where I can, based on our experience in May ...
1) EMH evening -- Not worth it, IMO. Limited number of rides available, and tons of people. We actually found it less crowded during the afternoon hours (people were napping in preparation for EMH hours later that night maybe?) and, better yet, hitting that park the very next morning.
2) We bought in advance from Ticketmania, for a discount. I also procrastinated, so paid $5 extra to have them deliver it to the AKL. We were arriving on May 21, but told Ticketmania we were arriving May 20, so the tix would be there for sure on the morning of May 21 when we arrived.
3) At Epcot -- Soarin' is a must-do. At MK -- Cinderellebration is booooring. We skipped the Stitch ride, based on so many negative comments. Small World is nice, but the same; the colors are wonderfully bright though and it's a very enjoyable ride. At MGM -- the stunt show was fun to see.
4) In May, we found that a lot of people still did not understand the concept of Fastpass. So we used that to our advantage and was able to grab FPs for a lot of attractions and didn't waste time standing in line. I would definitely utilize, especially for such popular rides as Splash Mountain, Soarin', Test Track and the Safaris at AK.
5) Children do not need to "scan" their fingers when entering the parks. Have your bags open for security so you don't hold up the line. Move to the far end of the security and ticket lines, so you're not bunched up in the middle with the rest of the crowds. Photopass photogs (sorry) need to improve their photo-taking skills, so I would not bother with them. We did hand our own digital camera to the photogs (after they took a pic of us using Photopass) and they would gladly take one of the whole family with our own camera.
Have fun!
Linda
