The New Elite Commandos

[Greenfield1984]

Much has changed as our kids have gotten older too. Teenagers don't want to do the same things as toddlers.[/QUOTE]

Yep its very interesting adapting. Ive gone from being a kid with parents, to honeymooning with the wife at disney, to have infants, toddlers, soon teens and inlaws.
Every trip is unique as a result. Makes it so you are constantly updating your plans and keeps things fresh.

 

[dragonfly57005]

I’m th planner for the trip. I like to preplan and know how things are working.
I don’t want to spend the time on the trip focused on my phone to get more fast passes. I came to spend time with my Hubbie and our 6kids.

 

[Greenfield1984]

I’m th planner for the trip. I like to preplan and know how things are working.
I don’t want to spend the time on the trip focused on my phone to get more fast passes. I came to spend time with my Hubbie and our 6kids.

Good call.
I absolutley have been making adjustments and adding to our fast pass selections.
But not to the extent that im avoiding my family.

Heres a commando pro tip:

Only make and modify fp selections during bathroom breaks. You arnt going to want to be spending time with your loved ones at this time anyway, unless you are incredibly strange, so you might as well multitask.

Sure you may get a few dribbles on the floor and people may look at you funny. But darnit im getting my tower of terror moved up 10 more minutes!

 

[Belle's Librarian]

Haven’t seen this mentioned, but I have young kids who love character meets. Our strategy is to meet characters first thing in the morning while everyone else heads to rides, then go to our FPs, with me modifying and refreshing to maximize those. Two weeks ago, we met all 4 castle princesses plus Merida before heading to Enchanted Tales around 9:45. We did even better at HS, where we met Daisy inside the gates, headed to Olaf, Minnie, and Mickey with no wait, then rode Star Tours and Alien Saucers on standby. I managed to pick up a coveted SDD FP for later by refreshing while we waited in line, then we headed over to Launch Bay and did more character meets there. I think our longest character line was about 15 mins for BB-8. Kids loved it and we packed a ton of stuff into those early morning hours, with valuable FPs later in the day.

For ADRs, don’t underestimate the last-minute bookings. I wouldn’t plan a whole trip that way, but if you check frequently 24-72 hours out, you’d be surprised what pops up.

 

[Davey Jones II]

I think the new elite commandos are the ones who best juggle the various available strategies, as long as they are meeting the goals for THEIR trip, not just avoiding crowds as much as possible (which, yes, is ONE of our goals, too).

I think a holistic use of effective strategies is the key. Of course, how to pull that off is probably a whole, 100+ page thread by itself...

 

[dragonfly57005]

Haven’t seen this mentioned, but I have young kids who love character meets. Our strategy is to meet characters first thing in the morning while everyone else heads to rides, then go to our FPs, with me modifying and refreshing to maximize those. Two weeks ago, we met all 4 castle princesses plus Merida before heading to Enchanted Tales around 9:45. We did even better at HS, where we met Daisy inside the gates, headed to Olaf, Minnie, and Mickey with no wait, then rode Star Tours and Alien Saucers on standby. I managed to pick up a coveted SDD FP for later by refreshing while we waited in line, then we headed over to Launch Bay and did more character meets there. I think our longest character line was about 15 mins for BB-8. Kids loved it and we packed a ton of stuff into those early morning hours, with valuable FPs later in the day.

For ADRs, don’t underestimate the last-minute bookings. I wouldn’t plan a whole trip that way, but if you check frequently 24-72 hours out, you’d be surprised what pops up.

Great idea!