There was a dearth of Mickey Bars -a March 2015 PTR- update 4/1 - link to TR!

[ksl5f123]

After much discussion (and a little hand-wringing on my part) we have a first draft of our Magic Kingdom touring plan! It still has lots of “if we” statements, but it will give me the outline I need for choosing FP+ times that don't have us running all over the park.

The morning will either start with


or


We are considering a pre-park opening ADR at Crystal Palace. I am holding one right now for 8:20. I love CP, but we have never had breakfast there before and this is our only MK day so I don't really want to miss the opening show. I'll make that call in a few weeks.

Either way, at rope drop, J and DH will head to Space Mountain. A friend in her class convinced her to give it a try and DH is thrilled that one of the kids wants to ride it with him.
The rest of us will go here


and then here (Winnie the Pooh)


We will all meet up here (Buzz Lightyear) where I will probably never, ever in a million years repeat this score from 4 years ago (so I better share the picture to prove I did it once!)


The next stop is everyone's favorite flying elephant (sorry about the dark photo – it is the only one I have of the “new” Dumbo


Then some teacup spinning

That should finish up the first hour of the day if everything goes according to plan. From there, we will send DH, MIL, J and T off to BTMRR and Splash. We are going to get 4 FP+ for them to use. MIL and I originally thought Splash would be the best FP selection, but now I am leaning toward BTMRR because reported wait times seem a little longer. Opinions? Either way, they will ride the one they don't have a FP for first, then the other. I am hoping for a 9:45-10:45am window.

While they are doing that, the rest of us will go to the Little Mermaid ride and then here (it's a small world - although it probably won't be this beautifully empty again)


We will meet up at the Haunted Mansion (I have never taken a picture here – how odd).

We will then use fastpasses for DH, MIL, T, and J to ride 7DMT and FIL, C, D and I to go to ETWB. I am looking for 11am-noon times here.

Now, it should be getting close to 11:30 at this point. What happens next will depend greatly on what and where we are eating. If we have a BOG FP, we may head straight there if our time is open. If we have some time, we will do


After lunch, J, C and I (and maybe D if he is in a good mood) will head to Anna and Elsa with FP+ if we can get them (letting J use FIL's MB, these are the FP+ we are getting instead of Splash or BTMRR). While we do that, everyone else will head to Pooh or iasw since most of them missed those attractions in the morning. I am hoping for about a 12:30-1:30pm window here.

Then we should get our last FP+ attraction around 2 PM to ride the Speedway. If we need to use some time before our window opens, we will go to Carousel of Progress. Hoping for a 2-3pm window for the Speedway.

I will then immediately try to pull a 4th FP+ for Buzz Lightyear from a kiosk. If we decide to keep the 4:15 PM ADR at CRT, we will do the Peoplemover, and Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and maybe

and the Tiki birds until that window opens. After dinner, we will play it by ear to determine if anyone wants to stay for the parade, fireworks, and late night touring.

If we decide to cancel CRT in favor of the California Grill, we will head back to our room, rest, and get cleaned up for dinner. If we took a break and missed the rest of Tomorrowland, we will go back to do at least those things. I love Tomorrowland late at night. Only diehard fans of Carousel of Progress ride at 11 PM, so often the entire theater will sing along.. I love it!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Just realized its been several posts since I commented! I have read them all on my phone and then meant to come back and comment when I was on my computer and I just have not been on my computer a lot lately!

Cute movie parties! Great ideas for both! I especially love your Rapunzel tower cupcakes. Those are really cute! Don't you wonder who does some of that stuff on Pintrest? I mean those people must have A LOT of time on their hands!

Your MK plans look good to me. I can see where it would be hard to plan for a larger group. It seems like you all have a pretty wide range of interests, so that would get pretty hard to plan for! But, I think you did a pretty good job of accommodating everyone.

Your CRT situation is a toughie. I am a big fan of CRT and would say go for it. But having a Disney "adult" does make I a little more complicated. The experience is pretty awesome. I have heard they can make "adult" sized portions of kids meals if someone prefers a kids meal over the adult selections, but I agree $70 is high for a large helping of chicken nuggets! I really think Disney needs to do some sort of "tween" pricing category. I think 9 is far too young for the cut off!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Plans look good from what I can see.

I've yet to see the opening show ( something I plan on fixing this trip) so I can't weigh in on the pre park breakfast or rope drop debate. I will say that walking down an empty main street sounds pretty special.

 

[ksl5f123]

Just realized its been several posts since I commented! I have read them all on my phone and then meant to come back and comment when I was on my computer and I just have not been on my computer a lot lately!

Cute movie parties! Great ideas for both! I especially love your Rapunzel tower cupcakes. Those are really cute! Don't you wonder who does some of that stuff on Pintrest? I mean those people must have A LOT of time on their hands!

Thanks! They were fun to make and the kids loved them. I would love to have all day to play with crafting and fancy foods, but free time like that won't exist in my house for at least another 10 years.

Your MK plans look good to me. I can see where it would be hard to plan for a larger group. It seems like you all have a pretty wide range of interests, so that would get pretty hard to plan for! But, I think you did a pretty good job of accommodating everyone.

Your CRT situation is a toughie. I am a big fan of CRT and would say go for it. But having a Disney "adult" does make I a little more complicated. The experience is pretty awesome. I have heard they can make "adult" sized portions of kids meals if someone prefers a kids meal over the adult selections, but I agree $70 is high for a large helping of chicken nuggets! I really think Disney needs to do some sort of "tween" pricing category. I think 9 is far too young for the cut off!

It is getting tougher now that some of the kids are willing to try thrill rides, but getting easier too as they are more flexible.

A tween category would be awesome. Even if it wasn't for tickets, it would be great for food. We are keeping several buffet ADRs and she probably won't actually eat enough to justify the cost.

Plans look good from what I can see.

I've yet to see the opening show ( something I plan on fixing this trip) so I can't weigh in on the pre park breakfast or rope drop debate. I will say that walking down an empty main street sounds pretty special.

I love the opening show! The music makes me tear up every time. We have done the empty Main Street twice and it is pretty cool too.

 

[ksl5f123]

So, late last night I was messing around on the DIS. I was thinking about fastpasses and trying to finalize my Epcot and Hollywood Studios touring plans. I remembered a link I had seen somewhere to a website that shows what days there are still FP available for all the popular rides.

I went to that page and they had a blue dot on our arrival day, indicating that it was 60 days out. I had my 60 day calculated as tomorrow, not today! At 11:38 last night (we live in the Central Time Zone), I visited my MDE account and discovered my FP window was open!

So, what did we get?
Animal Kingdom:
Mickey 9-10 AM
Safari 10:15 - 11:15 AM
Kali 12:15 - 1:15 PM

Magic Kingdom for C, D, and me:
ETWB 9:30-10:30
A&E 12:10-1:10
Speedway 1:10-2:10

for DH, FIL, and T
BTMRR 10-11 am
7DMT 11-noon
Speedway 1:10-2:10

for J and MIL
BTMRR 10-11 am
7DMT 11-noon
A&E 12:10-1:10

Epcot:
Soarin' 9:40-10:40am
Nemo 10:40-11:40 am
Spaceship Earth 11:50-12:15

Hollywood Studios
for DH, J, FIL, and T
Star Tours 9:40-10:40
for MIL, C, D, and me
Frozen Sing Along 10-10:15 am
for everyone
TSMM 10:55-11:55
Indy 1:15 - 1:35

It took me about an hour to get everything adjusted. The DHS plan still doesn't really work. We have a 12:35 ADR at 50's Prime Time and I don't think we will make our Indy FP. I just can't figure out anything to put in its place - maybe a throwaway one for the Muppets? Our priorities at DHS are TSMM, the Animation Academy, and Sorcerer Mickey. Not really helpful in making FP!

I did go ahead and cancel the CRT ADRs. Hopefully another family or two can enjoy those and made a 5:05 PM ADR at Cali Grill!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Yay for discovering you can book your fastpasses and getting them done! Good to see that 40 minutes in you were still able to get a Fastpass for Anna and Elsa. It looks like you didn't have any issues tweaking them to be at the times you wanted either.

 

[SarahDisney]

Yay! MK - my favorite park!

I wish I could help you with the CP decision ... but I'm struggling with the same decision, so I can't really.

Rope drop plan sounds good - but remember that if you do CP, it's possible you won't make actual rope drop (if you eat fast you should, but I don't know how "on-time" they are with seating people first thing in the morning).

Holy cow ... congrats on the Buzz score. Hopefully you can achieve it again some day!

So awesome that you were able to book your FP+ a day earlier than expected! Looks like you got some good times.
Hollywood Studios is a really hard one - I think that for Indy having the FP+ doesn't really make a difference, so you can do without it. Having one for Muppets doesn't make much of a difference either, so you can get it as a throwaway if you want, but you can also see Muppets without it if you want. It's definitely a tough decision. I wish they had FP+ for characters at DHS ... I think a lot of people would want a FP+ for Sorcerer Mickey!

 

[ursalita]

How lucky you got to be on the site when your window was open. I was worried I would do the same thing - calculate the wrong FP date. Luckily a flyer that I got from Disney gave me the date. It looks like you have some great plans!

Love the Tangled movie night!! So creative.

 

[ksl5f123]

Yay for discovering you can book your fastpasses and getting them done! Good to see that 40 minutes in you were still able to get a Fastpass for Anna and Elsa. It looks like you didn't have any issues tweaking them to be at the times you wanted either.

There was definitely some that night. I couldn't believe my luck with A&E. There were still several time slots for all 8 of us (I booked A&E for everyone and then changed some to BTMRR).

Yay! MK - my favorite park!

I wish I could help you with the CP decision ... but I'm struggling with the same decision, so I can't really.

I know. I keep hoping that Disney will just give me an 8 AM open that day so it will become a moot point.

Rope drop plan sounds good - but remember that if you do CP, it's possible you won't make actual rope drop (if you eat fast you should, but I don't know how "on-time" they are with seating people first thing in the morning).

Good point. We have never had any trouble getting out of CRT in under an hour and that is table service, not a buffet. So, I guess I was just assuming we could do it at CP too.

Holy cow ... congrats on the Buzz score. Hopefully you can achieve it again some day!

So awesome that you were able to book your FP+ a day earlier than expected! Looks like you got some good times.
Hollywood Studios is a really hard one - I think that for Indy having the FP+ doesn't really make a difference, so you can do without it. Having one for Muppets doesn't make much of a difference either, so you can get it as a throwaway if you want, but you can also see Muppets without it if you want. It's definitely a tough decision. I wish they had FP+ for characters at DHS ... I think a lot of people would want a FP+ for Sorcerer Mickey!

I would love a FP for Sorcerer Mickey! That would be so much better than just trying to find one more attraction that we could either take or leave. For us, DHS is all about TSMM, the Animation Academy, and characters.

How lucky you got to be on the site when your window was open. I was worried I would do the same thing - calculate the wrong FP date. Luckily a flyer that I got from Disney gave me the date. It looks like you have some great plans!

Love the Tangled movie night!! So creative.

The strange thing is that I had been using the countdown in my MDE account. So, I really have no idea how I went from 63 days on Sunday to my window being open Monday night.

 

[ksl5f123]

Our next day is Epcot day! I love Epcot. I think it is such a beautiful park especially during the Flower and Garden Festival.


Epcot is the easiest park for me to plan. We have a 7:45 AM ADR at Chef Mickey's so we may or may not make rope drop. If we do, we will head straight for the Character spot.


If we don't arrive until a little later, we will go to the Land Pavilion.


We have a 9:40-10:40am FP for Soarin' which we will have to do in 2 shifts since D isn't tall enough. So, half the group will ride Soarin' while the other half rides Living with the Land and then we will switch.

After that, we will head to Journey into Imagination. We will ride and then allow the kids some time to do this


I sometimes wonder if my kids will have memories of playing in here like I do. Of course, my memories are of the now defunct upstairs. I vividly remember when I was 8 years old, they had some light pens that you could use to color Figment on a computer screen. I had never seen anything like it (I am dating myself here) and I thought it was the most magical thing ever.

We have a 10:40-11:40am FP for the Seas with Nemo. If we have time before our window opens, we will go into the Seas Pavilion first (through the gift shop) and look at the animals, then go back around and ride the attraction.


We will then go visit Club Cool and Innoventions until our last FP+ window opens. Spaceship Earth between 11:50 and 12:50.


By 12:30, we should be making our way into the World Showcase. The plan is to enjoy the Flower and Garden festival and snack our way around all of the new food booths. I just love all of the character topiaries and can't wait to see what new ones they have since our last visit.



At some point, we will ride the Gran Fiesta Tour and maybe see the Canada movie (love that one!) We will end up at Tutto Italia for our 6:30 PM ADR. See, wasn't that easy?

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Oh gosh I think I have some of the same memories of FIgment!



Sounds like a great day at Epcot!

 

[SarahDisney]

I really love Flower and Garden ... I think last time I was there for it we skipped most of the attractions and just looked at all the topiaries.

Looks like you have a great day planned for Epcot!

 

[francis6306]

So glad you stumbled upon your FP date! and WOOHOO for being in Central time and not having to wait until midnight! LOL

I agree. HS is really hard to deal with FP's.... The way they have it tiered, it sucks!

Your plans are all coming together very well!

 

[ursalita]

Love your Epcot plans, ours are very similar - FP in Future World first then World Showcase in the afternoon. I am really looking forward to seeing Flower & Garden festival for the first time. I didn't realize until after I booked the trip that they have food booths. I thought that was only F&W. Was happy to hear that!

 

[ksl5f123]

Hi everyone! This is my first post on the new DIS! I am loving it. Just before the switch, I was having the re-directing ads problem (that had been a sticky) except the one it was going to was crashing my browser every time! So, I couldn't DIS at all!! It seems like that has been cured with the new board. So, I am looking forward to getting back at it!

 

[ksl5f123]

Oh gosh I think I have some of the same memories of FIgment!

Sounds like a great day at Epcot!

I just love Figment. I have a plush Figment from the 1980s that C has adopted.

I really love Flower and Garden ... I think last time I was there for it we skipped most of the attractions and just looked at all the topiaries.

Looks like you have a great day planned for Epcot!

I think the F&G is just beautiful. I wish I could get that many vibrant colors in my garden.

So glad you stumbled upon your FP date! and WOOHOO for being in Central time and not having to wait until midnight! LOL

I agree. HS is really hard to deal with FP's.... The way they have it tiered, it sucks!

Your plans are all coming together very well!

Yes, Central time certainly worked in my favor. Basically, DHS just needs more attractions. There needs to be a balance between the 5 minute rides and the 30 minute shows. Right now, it is show heavy and that makes planning difficult.

Love your Epcot plans, ours are very similar - FP in Future World first then World Showcase in the afternoon. I am really looking forward to seeing Flower & Garden festival for the first time. I didn't realize until after I booked the trip that they have food booths. I thought that was only F&W. Was happy to hear that!

The food booths are pretty much new since our last visit. I remember there being one food booth in the old Wonders of Life building (I think) last time we went. If it is as good as the pictures from last year, it is going to be a fun day!

 

[ksl5f123]

Alright, on to the last day of touring! Here is the current plan: Wake up at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Eat breakfast on the balcony enjoying the animals and then head here:



We are planning to make rope drop and head directly to



From there, DH, FIL, J and T will head toward Star Tours. Their FP window opens at 9:40. They will have a little time probably. MIL, C, D, and I will probably go to either the first Disney Junior show of the day



or to meet Buzz and Woody.



The 4 of us have FP for the Frozen Sing-a-long arriving between 10 and 10:15.

Eventually, we will meet up back at TSMM for our 10:55-11:55 AM FP.

After that, the goals are the HISTK playground



and the Animation Academy. We will use those to fill time until our 12:30 ADR at 50's Prime time. As it stands right now, we have a 1:15-1:35 PM FP for Indy, but I highly doubt we will be done with our ADR in time to make it. We might still go to the show. After that, there isn't much of a plan. We have a 5 PM ADR for Boma back at AKL, so we need to leave DHS by 3 PM. That makes most of the shows impossible.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Sounds like some good plans.

 

[SarahDisney]

Hollywood Studios plans sound good. I've also found that it's hard to fit in the shows with FP+ times and ADRs. Hopefully you'll get to do a few things before you have to leave.

 

[ursalita]

You have a busy morning at HS. Sounds fun!