Suzy and Perla's Guide to Skipping Lines: the Last Journey of the Super Users

Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your trip reports and tips!

I was able to take my older DD4 for a long weekend mommy daughter trip a few weeks ago. We stayed at AS Sports so we weren't able to test the magic bands or FP+.

On a Saturday, using some of your FP advice, we were able to ride pooh, see rapunzel in the new fairytale hall (wait time said 5 min, we waited at least 20), go on carousel, (grab LM FP), use Peter Pan fast pass, go on small world, see dream along with Mickey, go on Ariel's under sea adventure using FP and grab a lefou's brew all in 2.5 hours! And we still had a big thunder FP ready to be used! By then the heat was getting to my daughter.

We are heading back in January for my younger DD's 3rd bday and hope that the magic bands are up and running!

Thanks for your tips!
 
Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your trip reports and tips! I was able to take my older DD4 for a long weekend mommy daughter trip a few weeks ago. We stayed at AS Sports so we weren't able to test the magic bands or FP+. On a Saturday, using some of your FP advice, we were able to ride pooh, see rapunzel in the new fairytale hall (wait time said 5 min, we waited at least 20), go on carousel, (grab LM FP), use Peter Pan fast pass, go on small world, see dream along with Mickey, go on Ariel's under sea adventure using FP and grab a lefou's brew all in 2.5 hours! And we still had a big thunder FP ready to be used! By then the heat was getting to my daughter. We are heading back in January for my younger DD's 3rd bday and hope that the magic bands are up and running! Thanks for your tips!
thank you so much for your kind words. It sounds like you had a great trip. I just know you'll have a wonderful time in January too. I'm anxious for Fastpass+ to be rolled out for real and all of us to know the real rules. Being a strategist I find it frustrating to just guess.
 
Feeling neglected? I know! I'm sorry. Fall is a busy time for me as we have events every weekend. So I work fulltime and then work Saturday and sometimes Sundays! Which means the Sundays I have off are filled with laundry and cleaning. :laundy: But I finally wrote a Disney chapter.
http://www.enchantingbeginnings.com/enchanted-tales-belle-just-girls/

New Fantasyland in Disney World is all the rage this year. One of the major promises is more inclusive Meet and Greets. With Mickey Mouse debuting as a talking character this week (seriously! Check it out on YouTube) I thought it was appropriate to tell you how I feel about the Enchanted Tales with Belle.

There was much debate with the Fantasyland redux that it wasn’t for boys. And I will admit that meeting Belle isn’t nearly as cool for a 12 year old boy as riding Expedition Everest or Test Track. That being said we did this attraction as our first attraction on our Disney World trip this year, yup, all 11 of us, headed to a meet and greet to a princess. That includes 6 boys. And ya know what? They loved it.

This isn’t just a quick conversation with a princess, it’s a show.

Here’s the run down of our experience.

We got there FIRST. Get to the Magic Kingdom at least 30 minutes before opening. Scan your band or ticket, go to the potty, get organized, look at the map. And then watch the train show. There are two entrances, stand at the one to your left as you face the train. This will put the sun behind the train show and make you squint. I’m sorry. But that is kinda the point. It’s a less preferable view of the train show which means fewer people choose it and you will be in the park faster. Plus, only people “in the know” will be in front of you and that means your crowd will move faster than the right side.

Walk through the castle and go immediately to Enchanted Tales with Belle. Do NOT stop to take any photos or do any tasks. This will mean you make the first show. If you stop, you won’t make that first show and this will put you behind more crowds the rest of the day. The second show would be fine too. But don’t dawdle. Seriously. For more on this click here. There also is video of Enchanted Tales with Belle on that link.

So once you have arrived at Enchanted Tales you will be greeted by a lovely room that is the inside of her and her dad’s cottage.

Enchanted-Tales-Belle-cottage.jpg


One of the great things about this attraction is it is interactive. Everything is to be touched and explored. So all of us enjoyed this room. It has plenty of books and something interesting on every wall. We met a great family who were ahead of us. It was a dad with his daughter who was probably 13. And she was in a tiara! How awesome, right? I love Disney World! Families from all over the world of all different kinds embracing their Disney side.

After a short wait in this room, we were ushered into Maurice’s workroom. This had blueprints and tools and just a ridiculous amount of detail, especially considering you are only in there one to two minutes. It’s a pretty typical inventor’s workroom (because I’ve had a lot of experience in inventor’s workrooms, Ha!) except for the very fancy mirror. After a short little speech by the cast members (basically a safety speech) the mirror turns into a doorway.

Enchanted-Tales-maurice-Workroom.jpg


Basically the first two rooms are part of the queue. They are just to count and get the right amount of people for the show. The real show begins in the Wardrobe room when they choose who will be in the show. It is in this room you begin to realize it’s not just for girls. Boys and girls like attention fairly equally. And my nephews were quick to volunteer to be in the show, with the youngest one being cast as the beast.

enchanted-tales-belle-wardrobe-room.jpg


Once everyone who wants a part has a part, it’s into the main show’s room. It is in this room that the meet and greet takes place. But, again, it’s not just a princess meet. There is roaring and dancing and stomping and marching. I have read online many times that only the kids that are in show are allowed to meet Belle. But this is not true. They welcome anyone who wants to meet her to join the end of the parade, but it is in the show, not afterwards, so be aware.

http://www.enchantingbeginnings.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/enchanted-tales-belle.jpg
The next time we go to Disney I know all our family will want to do Enchanted Tales with Belle, including the boys. If we were to go on a quick 4 day trip with just teenage boys, it could be skipped. In any other circumstances, this should be on your family’s short list of whole family attractions.

Later in this same trip it was my 12 year old daughter (not the 6 year old daughter) who wanted to do this attraction again. And she chose it as her favorite at the end of the trip. The 6 year old girl’s favorite attraction at Disney World was Test Track.

The new Fantasyland is wonderful. It opens up Fantasyland nicely so that you don’t feel cramped. And the area with Dumbo is much better than Toontown, though I miss Minnie and Mickey’s summer homes. With the new roller coaster coming I’m pretty sure the area will meet boys approval. We will then proclaim the whole area “family friendly.” Enchanted Tales with Belle is NOT just for girls any more than Test Track is just for boys. They are entire family attractions.

And just like Test Track, get to this one early.

For more on this Disney World trip see my trip report.

This was certainly a highlight of my trip. A 5 year old boy dancing with Belle, eyes shining and happy as he could be. What could be better?

dance-with-belle.jpg



We did get our Photopass and it is really good. I'm very excited to show the difference between my camera's photos and the Photopass photos and tell you about my Photopass+ experience. Hopefully it won't take me 2 weeks to get it published. :sad2: I love you all. Thanks for sticking with me!
 
Ready for the next chapter? We had Photopass+ this time for our first time.


We have used Photopass several times at Disney World. This past trip we used Photopass+. We preordered using the pre-arrival deal which is $149.00 instead of the $199.00 you would pay after your vacation. You can click here for details.

We go with more than one family and we all split the cost so this makes it more affordable.

First let me explain what they are.

Disney’s Photopass:
All over Disney World there are Photopass photographers. They are in every park all over the place. They give you a card and attached your photos to it. It has a 16 digit code on the back and your photos are attached to it. You then can either buy the photos individually or buy, like we do, the Photopass CD. You get as many pictures as you can taken on your Disney World vacation and then when you come home you go on their a website where you can edit your pictures with fun borders and character signatures. Their website in the past have been annoying and VERY slow. But they have launched a new website in the past month. Hopefully it will be and stay faster and easier to navigate.

Disney’s Photopass+:
Disney’s Photopass+ is exactly like Photopass with one main difference: You also get all your ride photos and meal photos. However, you have a special card to get the ride and meal photos on. So in one way Photopass+ is way better than Photopass as getting all your ride photos is really fun. But if you are going with a big group, like us, of 13 having to have the special card to get the ride photos is a little stressful. And you have to stop at the end of all the rides to get the pictures put on your card. For normal Photopass pictures you can still use the normal Photopass card. For us this was a very minor inconvenience.

Before I can tell you if I think it is worth it let me show you some photos.

Here is my photo of Tinkerbell:

tink-mycamera.jpg

As you can see the Photopass version of this picture is not only better than mine, I had access to cute borders.

tink-photopass.jpg


The above two photos show that Photopass photographers are good. They know their camera and they take this exact same picture over and over every day. So theirs is much better than mine.

Many people buy Photopass and don’t bring any other camera except their cell phone camera. The examples below will show you why that would make me nervous.

We were the first group at 9:15 am to get our photo with Merida. Here is my picture of the event.

merida-mycamera.jpg


And here is the Photopass picture:
photopass+-Merida.jpg


Obviously they had something on their lens, perhaps condensation from having been in ac and not adjusting to the humidity yet.

Here’s the deal. I take a ZILLION pictures on vacation. Who am I kidding? I take a zillion pictures all the time. So Photopass+ is worth the money to me as the more pictures the merrier for me. And because I split the cost with my sister, it was under $100.00 to have professional photos taken. Which when you consider I spent a few thousand on the vacation, $100 for professional pictures isn’t that much. And if we had gotten the Photopass it would be just over $50.00 per family.

My sister likes Photopass because she doesn’t take pictures EVER and doesn’t take a camera on vacation with her. They use their iphones for video and a few candid shots and let the Photopass pictures be their pictures. Well, and taking me along with her doesn’t hurt.

As for upgrading to Photopass+ we very much enjoyed having our ride and character meal pictures. Here is one from Space Mountain.

photopass+-spacemountain.jpg


Yes, we enjoy being goofy. And since on this trip we were going to get all our ride photos we truly started getting creative.

We also used the Photopass cast members who are helpful and knowledgable. There is an official Photopass store at the front of each of the four parks. The below picture is an embarassingly bad photo to be placed on a post about pictures! But I had to include it to show you just how great these cast members are.
photopass-cast-members.jpg


In addition to the official Photopass store, there are Photopass desks at the end of the major rides. We found these to be uniformly helpful also with one exception: Space Mountain. The Space Mt. Photopass set-up is so STUPID! Seriously, it is this round desk that is difficult to queue up to and anyone can walk up the cast member from any direction. In addition, they never seemed to have their a-team working here. And you could purchase things from the Space Mt. store at this kiosk. When you are in the mood to ride thrill rides stopping to get your ride photo already slows you down a little. To then have to endure a not well trained cast member, confused guests, and people buying merchandise makes getting to the next attraction very slow and irritating. But in general, it works really well. I do hope that as the Photopass+ becomes more popular, which it surely will, Disney keeps up with the demand by having enough cast members to keep the lines to get your photos put on your card short and painless.

So are Photopass and Photopass+ CD worth the money?

I don’t buy them every trip. But here is when I do believe it is worth it:

  • Your trip is longer than 5 days. It’s hard to get enough pictures to make it worth it.
  • There are more than one family on your trip. If it is only costing you $100 or less, it is worth it.
  • You don’t want to drag your expensive camera around Disney. Or you don’t even have one.
  • You are going to meet a lot of characters.
  • You have ever bought a ride photo. They are expensive! Might as well just buy them all.
  • You don’t mind stopping to get your picture taken.
  • You want special Disney borders, stickers, and fun stuff on your pictures.
If you choose to not buy Photopass don’t just breeze past the Photopass photographers. They have no problem using your camera as well.

Here's the original post.
 





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