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.

= = = = = =

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.

 

So you may be wondering…why all this planning? Isn’t this supposed to be about relaxing and doing everything at will? Yeah…kinda. But it’s also about seeing all the things we really want to see, and with a little planning, we can make things happen that cannot happen without planning. A quick browse along their website, or a phone call to their customer service department (“Have a magical day!”) can easily help you discover what funky stuff is going on that isn’t commonly known that you might want to participate in.

Here’s some examples from our current trip….

During the time period we’ll be in Disney, the following special events are happening:

The Not So Scary Halloween Party

What it is: the MK is closed briefly then opened again for Halloween. The entire park is done in a Halloween theme, creepy music is coming out of the speakers, there’s a parade where the wicked witch flies out of the castle and into the night (instead of Tink!), a fireworks display that is absolutely awesome, and best of all, only a limited amount of tickets are sold. Some of the events are trick or treat events for children. So that means less people in the park, of those people, less are on the rides. You basically have pretty much free run of the park for several hours. Totally worth a separate admission ticket of 60-ish bucks.

Why Plan in Advance: We’ll be there for nine nights. Out of those nine, one is the night we arrive really late, so it’s really eight nights. Out of those eight, the Not So Scary event is only happening for four of those eight, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We need to buy those tickets before they sell out (and they do, as it gets closer to Halloween especially) and make sure it doesn’t interfere with the rest of our dining plan.

How we resolve it: There’s a couple of options. One is to schedule a dinner in the magic kingdom (which is Be Our Guest this time around) that lets us out into the park at approximately park re-open time. We like that option, but it’s not available this time as the Be Our Guest Dinner has been scheduled for us on a night where there’s no party. Other options are to schedule an early dinner somewhere else and arrive via bus or monorail, or even by boat. I like the Boat rides. This time, we are scheduling it on an open day that has no other planning. We’ll play that day by ear. (We DO do that sometimes, once we get all the stuff that requires planning out of the way.)

Side Note about Not So Scary: The fireworks display for this (which lights up the night so bright you can literally read a newspaper by it) starts the same way the Wishes one does…except it’s the wicked witch that flies out of the castle on her broom instead. That’s a great thing to see, but you need to see the front of the castle. The best viewing place is probably the bridge that leads to Tomorrowland. ALSO, the Villains parade starts with the Headless Horseman galloping down main street. He is NOT doing a slow stroll…it’s really neat. So you want good viewing for that as well. There’s seats over by the Diamond Horseshoe that are there for people to play checkers, but they’re hard to get. That would be the best seating, I think. Elevated AND a seat.

Electric Light Parade (MK):

Different times on different nights of the week.

What it is: This is a parade where each float is lit up by hundreds of lights. Many times, the floats themselves are animated and do things. Although I’m more fond of the newer version of this called SpectroMagic (the floats are more animated than the original version, and there’s even a volcano that unfurls into Chernabog!), the beauty and the magic of all these animated floats lighting up the dark cannot be denied. A beautiful thing to see.

Why Plan in Advance: Because this is such a cool event, people line up way in advance to get a good seat. Like an hour in advance. You can stake out your place early and hang out and munch while you’re waiting for it to come by. Unlike fireworks which are up in the sky, if you have a bad seat, you can’t see much, and because there is so much detail on the floats, it’s worthwhile to see it from up close.

How we resolve it: We’ve scheduled a 6:30 dinner at Be Our Guest (Also takes care of a dinner we want) that will get us out at 7:30 ish, at which time we’ll take a lesser known pathway (I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you….j/k…but I have to do it in person and give you a verbal description. There’s just some pathways that some people don’t know as much about that provide great shortcuts) and catch the parade as it leaves the main circle and heads toward Frontierland.  As the parade ends, we have to move towards the front of the castle for two reasons…

Reason Number 1 –

Wishes Fireworks Spectacular (MK):

same as nights as ELP, and different times. Usually around 9pm ish.

What it is: This is one of my favorite fireworks shows. The opening of it makes me cry…I remember this voice coming through the loudspeakers, and it was all these single moments of disney characters making wishes….”I wish I could go to the ball…,” “I wish I was a real boy…,” “I wish…,” and there was this ONE FIREWORK, this one single shooting star of light and for a moment you could feel EVERY KID IN THE PARK all holding their breath and making wishes at the same time….It was incredible, the energy wave was HUGE. Then the real fireworks started, and by the end, well…it’s so beautiful it just makes you cry.

Why Plan in Advance: So we need to not be surrounded by trees. It’s likely we will be because of the parade. So we just need to move a couple of hundred feet towards the front of the castle. That helps for Reason number 2. There’s another thing…this fireworks display starts with Tinkerbell flying out of the castle and into the night. It’s just nice to see her do it and you need to be able to see the front of the castle for that. If you’re facing the castle, she heads out of the right and flies off into the Tomorrowland direction.

Reason Number 2

Movies on the castle (MK)

What it is: we forgot what it’s called but for 15 mins or so, they show a movie on the castle itself using it for a movie screen. It happens different times on different nights, right after the fireworks displays.

Why plan in advance: Because we’ve never seen it before, we don’t know if this will be able to be seen from everywhere…but we do know it will be seen from the front of the castle. So if we gradually move towards the main circle, we should see it just fine.

Electric Water Parade

(various): every night, time depending on which hotel you are watching from.

What it is: I think I mentioned before, it’s a series of animated floats made of lights that float down the river near the hotels. It’s set to music.

Why plan in advance: Well, you want to be in the right place at the right time, and it’s not at the parks, so you have to plan it or just be really really lucky.

How we resolve it: We have a 6:30 pm dinner reservation at O’Hana’s. (fulfilles another dinner requirement!) By the time we get out, we’ll head to the beach on property, relax in the sand with a Dole Whip (one of the snacks that everyone loves. I think it’s kind of like a creamsicle, but it’s with pineapple instead, I’m not sure. Either way, I’ll probably be drinking something alcoholic) stick my toes in the sand, and wait for the parade in one of the hooded doohickies they have to shield you from the wind on the beach. Awesome.

Illuminations Fireworks(epcot):

Every night at 9pm.

What it is: A great fireworks display that goes on on the main body of water in epcot every night at 9pm. They trot out a giant globe made of LED’s and show movies on it. Kinda neat.

Why plan in advance: Literally thousands of people surround the lagoon to watch the display. There are a couple of special options, for example there’s a pirate dinner package which will put you actually OUT ON THE LAKE IN A BOAT during the fireworks, but we’re not paying for that. What we usually do is plan dinner at Canada (one of my dinner preferences) and time it to come out right around 9pm. It turns out that Canada is an elevated building, so all you have to do is pull up a section of wall and sit down and wait. You’ll be above everyone, and you get a great view. There are other places like that around…the terrace over by the Rose and Crown Pub in England is another great and somewhat isolated viewing spot, but we had that reserved for us during our wedding, so I imagine that other people reserve that spot as well. Technically, you’ll be able to see it from everywhere around the lake, but it’s nice to not have to stand on your toes. So it doesn’t really NEED planning, except for comfort level.

How we resolve it: Like I said, usually dinner in Canada, but not this time. This time we have dinner planned at the Biergarten, so I expect that the best nearest viewing area will be right by the miniature train setup they have there. There’s a little bridge that’s elevated ground for landscaping purposes, and I think that will be a great place to view from. BONUS, it has a rail to lean on!

Voices of Liberty (epcot, American Adventure):

15 minute shows every day, every 45 mins from 12:30 PM to 4:15 PM

What it is: The Voices of Liberty are an a capella group. There’s about a dozen of them in the group, and they perform within the American Adventure pavillion right under the dome. They do some classics, and some more contemporary stuff, but all with a kind of patriotic theme. They also do a special carol selection around Christmastime, which is really neat as well.

Why plan it in advance: 15 minutes is a short show time, and the best acoustics are right under the dome. You can go up and sit on the floor (in fact they encourage it) and the sound is awesome. If you miss it, the chances of standing around for 45 minutes to listen for 15 minutes when Disney beckons is kind of slim. So we just want to be aware of the show times on the day we’ll be there to not miss them by buying a snack when we could just wait 15 minutes and get it after.

How we resolve it: We just keep an eye on the time when we’re in American Adventure territory. Doesn’t hurt to grab a funnel cake and hang out.

Non-Special Event – The Hoop Dee Doo Revue

non special because it runs two times a night on certain nights.

What it is: I think I covered this in dinners. I’ll let it go.

Why Plan it in advance: Because it’s in an out of the way place, Fort Wilderness, only accessible by boat or bus. Also, it’s a show with a start time and a dinner, and it has a tendency to sell out because it’s so good. So yeah, reservations, are a good idea.

How We resolve it: We made dinner reservations. That’s it. I hope to take the boat over. I like that boat.

= = = = = =

This does not touch on all the things we don’t really care about, like the Stars and Cars parade in MGM, or the Toy Story Parade, or anything like that. Each park has a couple of parades a couple of times a day. Technically, you can see fireworks from everywhere, but not if you’re indoors, or if you’re surrounded by leaf bearing trees. Some fireworks or parades are worth getting a good seat for.  All that really remains are final finishing touches. It sounds like we’ve planned a lot of stuff, but we haven’t really, because of careful timing, we’ve left quite a bit of open space on our calendar, and we’re seeing all the things we really want to see. So final touches come last…but there’s hardly anything to that, I think.