It may sound like we’ve planned quite a bit, but we haven’t. We’ve planned dinner every night to coincide with specific events, but that’s pretty much it. Crazy, Huh?
Now, if you’re really OCD, you can plan quite a bit further, especially if you stay on property. For instance, Disney has something called a Fast Pass.
Let me clarify the Fast Pass. It’s an important concept.
Fast Passes CANNOT BE PURCHASED. Anyone that has an admission ticket can get a fast pass. THEY ARE NOT ALL-DAY THINGS, they are good for one ride at a time. I don’t think you can own more than two (three?) fast passes at a time either, but I’m not certain. They are available with any admission ticket, and they work like this:
Near most all of the major attractions in each park, there’s a little kiosk kind of a place…it looks something like a turnstile for a subway, and there’s no people manning it. It looks like it’s meant to be something that hasn’t opened yet. That is where you get your fast passes. You put in your ticket, and it gives you your ticket back plus a little stub, and that stub gives you an hour window to hit that particular ride. It will say something like, “Tower of Terror 12:45pm to 1:45pm,” and if you come back to the ToT between those times, they will move you to the short line and let you on the ride.
That means that you can get a Fast Pass for ToT, then get on the line for the ride next door, which is the Rock-n-Roller Coaster, wait the full time on line there, have a great time, and when you get off the line, it’s quite likely that your time will be ready for the ToT…so you leave that ride, get onto the next one, and only have to wait for about fifteen minutes. It’s pretty time efficient, like being on two lines at once.
There is a catch, however…in order to make sure that that time window has a short line, they can only give so many tickets in that time slot….and if the ride is really popular, it might move down the times of day really quickly…even to the point where at noon, all fast passes are used up for the entire day. This used to happen at the Toy Story ride all the time, and really fast. (It’s an awesome ride. Love it.)
One thing that people used to do is, at park open, RUN RUN RUN to the nearest popular ride (at that time, Toy Story), get a fast pass, and then get on line to ride it. That meant that by the time they got out from riding it the first time, they were able to go in and ride it a second time, almost back to back.
The computer keeps track of how many you have via your ticket (the one you inserted to get the fast pass), so until the first time slot passes, you can’t get a second one. Again, ANYONE can do this and it is FREE.
IF YOU STAY ON THE GROUNDS, however, There is currently a program being tested called “Fast Pass Plus,” where you can make reservations for different rides at different times. I’m not sure how that works, but Rob’s mom has made reservations for us on a couple of days. An example of this is a day where we’re in the MK all day…we have reservations for the Jungle Cruise at 9:45am, Pirates (PoTC) at 10:50 am, and Splash Mountain at 12:30PM. She has also scheduled lunch that day at the Plaza, and dinner at Be Our Guest, and this is timed so we see the Electric Light Parade and the Wishes Fireworks display, along with the movies on the Castle. Is it a packed day? Not really….there’s plenty of time between the rides seeing as we won’t really be on lines, and we can just stroll along before dinner. But that day is, as you can see, entirely planned. 7 more to go.
We chose another day for Universal Studios. 6 to go. Two days that are open-ended with no plans. 4 to go.
Out of those, Dinners are scheduled, so we know where we’ll be in the evenings. All that’s left (for us) is answering the following and sticking them in the open slots.:
Are we going to DisneyQuest? Yeah, probably. We’re checking our budget. We love it, and that will probably be on one of the free days.
Are we going to see Fantasmic? (If you’ve never seen it, go see it. It’s awesome. One of my favorite Disney shows ever. Maleficent turns into a dragon and sets the whole lake on fire! She’s about 60 feet tall in dragon form. Sit in around the 20th row, unless you don’t mind getting wet. If it’s windy, you’ll get nailed.) Sadly, I don’t think we’re going to see that this year. It only plays at times that don’t match up with our dinner plans. If we had done all the planning ourselves we would have made sure it worked out, but seeing as most of this trip is being taken care of via Rob’s mom and dad (who are absolutely awesome, btw) and seeing as we’ve seen it several times, we can make that sacrifice. But if you’re going and you never have. GO GO GO!
Are we doing any Mini Golf? – interestingly enough we’ve done the Disney mini golf, and now that I’ve seen the Book of Mormon, I’m really curious about something called “Putt-Putt Golfing.” See, there’s a song in the play where one of them sings about his favorite place in the whole world…Orlando…”With Seaworld/ and Disney/ and Putt-Putt/ Golfing!” So now I feel like I want to see it, if it really exists. Still researching. If we do, that will be on one of the open days too, most likely. ADDENDUM! Rob’s parents are up for doing mini golf with us at Fantasia Gardens one night after dinner, so we’ll probably be doing that. Yay! Talk about animated obstacles!
Backstage Tours? – Not this time. We’re on a budget, and we can’t afford to do both Universal AND a tour…plus we’ve taken most of them already.
So with all of that, the schedule now looks like this:
Day 1 – MGM, dinner at Ohana’s timed to go with the Electrical Water Parade.
Day 2 – EPCOT all day. Catch the Voices of Liberty at some point during the day, have dinner at the BierGarten, and catch the 9pm showing of Illuminations.
Day 3 – Busy MK Day all day. Reserved Jungle Cruise and Pirates, lunch at the Plaza, then reserved Splash Mountain. Dinner at Be Our Guest, 8pm Electric Light Parade, 9pm Wishes Fireworks, 9:35 movies on the castle, and at 10pm Electric Light parade hits a second time, in case we miss it the first time (or just want to see it twice). By then I’ll be pulling up a section of sidewalk just to rest m’feet.
Day 4 – Universal Studios Islands of Adventure ONLY (Missing the other park) and come back to Fort Wilderness for Dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. (Rob has pointed out this means a late night at MK with magic hours…then up at ass o’clock in the morning to go to Universal. Ah well…ce’st la vie!)
Day 5 – Animal Kingdom All Day. (Must see Finding Nemo again. Their stage show is awesome.) Dinner at the Tusker House at 5:30. If we get out early enough we could possibly squeeze in Fantasmic if we took a cab over, but honestly, we’ll be so full we won’t want to move, I bet.
Day 6 – Busy MGM Day all day – Reservations for Toy Story Mania, then Tower of Terror. Lunch at 12:30 at the Sci Fi Drive In DIner, then Rock n Roller Coaster at 2:30. Dinner at the Grand Floridian at 6:30pm.
Day 7 – open day all day – Possibly Mini Golf or Downtown Disney, or DisneyQuest. One thing for sure, though. Not So Scary Halloween Party from 7pm to Midnight!
Day 8 – The car service picks us up to head home at 4pm so we’re free till around 2-ish. Also an open day.
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So that’s it. That’s our method. Poorly executed this time about, but still not too shabby, and an awesome vacation is planned with plenty of open space for improv.
We’ve done just about every backstage tour they offer, so if you ever want to know stuff about them, feel free to ask. I love them. It really gives you a respect for all the work they put in to make it look like it’s effortless. I hope this helps other people plan easier.