Getting The Most Out Of Your WDW Vacation Time

The average WDW vacationing family does not have a full two weeks to take their time inside and outside of the WDW theme parks. Most families don't even have 6 or 7 days days! Often times people visit WDW just because they are passing through the area or are there to visit other popular Orlando attractions and they want to get a taste of what WDW has to offer.

No matter how long you are at 'the land of the mouse' for you definitely want to get the most out of your time there. You want to see as much and do as much as you possibly can. That is why the absolute best way (in my opinion) to tour WDW is to become an "early riser."

Arriving early at the parks is crucial to getting your big "headlining" attractions out of the way with little to no wait at all. The Official Guide (the bible) suggests that you can experience four rides in one hour in the early morning that would take you three hours to accomplish after 10:30 a.m. That's a lot of time you just saved by getting your tush up a little bit earlier. So many people leave WDW and think, "Wow! I missed out on this and this and this! We never got around to all of that!"

In my personal experience I know that i've went to AK and knocked out KS and EE (3 times in the single rider line) all before 10:00 a.m. because my mom and I were there about 30 minutes before park opening. At Epcot it's much easier to waste your time away just because there is so much walking and if you aren't familar with where everything is it's easy to get misplaced. The Studios and Magic Kingdom are the hardest to choose where to go to first thing after park opening. I'm not sure what the Unofficial Guide is suggesting for 2010 but I would say go for Toy Story Mania at DHS and Space Mountain at MK. A lot of people grab a FASTPASS before riding anything and I just don't bother doing that until i've gotten my first ride outta the way. It's not quite as fun knowing you're running towards a FASTPASS kiosk and not an amazing attraction. haha! ;)

I'm sure you're thinking, "Okay, Nazi Stacey! What time do YOU get to the parks?" Well, if i'm going by standard opening time which is normally 9:00 a.m.... I try to get one of the first WDW Transport busses. If i'm ahead of my game I end up waiting on the first bus at the bus stop and enjoy my muffin that I grabbed from the food court using a snack credit from the DDP. :) Magic Kingdom always takes longer to get to from Pop so I have to make sure i'm on one of the first busses for that park but i'm much more lax when it comes to DHS or EP since it's always a fast drive there. Let me just break down my tips... park by park.

Magic Kingdom - Get to the turnstiles (yes, turnstiles) at least 30 minutes before park opening. You'll be brought up to the main entrance to MK. There are TWO ways to get inside of the park. One tunnel is on the left and the other is... on the right. ;) The one you want to head towards is the one with less people and less STROLLERS! Not kidding folks! Strollers will slow you down when it's time to move. This goes for any park... not just MK. After the little opening show shin-dig the ropes are dropped and you are allowed to move into MK. Don't be distracted by the good smells of the bakery if you have your heart set on a certain attraction. Move quickly down Main Street and you'll probably be stopped at the entrance to the land you're approaching. Once 9:00 a.m. hits you'll be walked to the main attraction of that particular land. Keep moving and dodging people. Sometimes staying on the sides and not in the center of the crowd will allow you to be ahead of the pack when the CMs move out of your way.

Epcot - This is the easiest park to lose your place in. Even if you get there 45 minutes or more before park opening and you're right at the rope... you could lose your bearings very quickly if you don't move fast. It's pretty crucial to get to Epcot early since the addition of Soarin'. The line for Soarin' can quickly build and make it impossible to knock out the top attractions very quickly in the morning. When the first rope is dropped and you are allowed past Spaceship Earth... stay on the right! Move quickly up to the center hub and take a right to the little side hub. Ignore the big crowd that will go to the center hub itself. They are dumb and don't know better or are headed for Test Track. Once the rope is dropped at your side "hub" follow the CMs into The Land pavilion and head for the stairs on the back right section of the pavilion. Don't bother with the escalators... use the stairs and head to Soarin' which will be past the waving and cheering CMs on your right. You're good to go!

Disney's Hollywood Studios - With the recent addition of Toy Story Mania it's no longer an obvious move to head towards Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster. Your best bet is to head over to Toy Story Mania now and either ride right away or obtain a FASTPASS. I try and get to DHS about 30 minutes before park opening... if not earlier. The entertainment crew does an awesome park opening show that I like to watch (and sometimes star in) as well. Use Extra Magic Hour mornings here if you can. It's really worth it at DHS because the headliners can get backed up during busy months. Learn the lay of the land before you arrive at DHS because it's the most confusing park to get around in.

Animal Kingdom - This is fairly easy for me to tell you what to do. Even if you are somewhat late getting to the park (20 minutes or less before park opening) you can still weasel your way closer. The key here is to look for the turnstile line with the LEAST amount of people... usually those on the sides. Try to find a line with more adults and less children. Kids have issues with the finger scanning machine so that takes up time for you if you're behind the rugrats. Once through the turnstile don't get distracted by the park map stand... blow through the left or right pathway (whichever is closest to you) and get to the next rope right in front of the tree of life. Position yourself either at the far right or the far left depending on if you are going to KS or EE first. If going to EE first, when the rope is dropped follow the CMs but stay on your RIGHT. There will be little shops with awnings to the right of you... use that space under the awnings to move ahead of people in front of you. No one will even think to occupy that space since it's not actual "road." If you're going to head to the Safari first thing... stay behind the CM and choose either the left or the right side... try to avoid the middle. You accomplish moving past people if you are on the sides. Don't worry! It's not cutting since you're not even in a line! :)

Okay, wow! I've typed a lot! I'm done for now! Feel free to comment and let me know what your tactics are for each park and if you get to the parks early or if you're a late riser.

Bueller? Bueller?

Clearly, i've been absent.
...Clearly.

The thing with planning a WDW trip so far ahead is that once your ADRs are taken care of all you can really do is wait until the trip gets closer. I have one month until my next WDW vacation and i'm mentally trying to get myself super excited. Lots of personal junk has been bogging me down lately and it's hard to think about something so wonderful and fun when you've got "reality" surrounding you and beating you down day after day.

Let me get the bad news over with... the trip has changed to just mom and I. Matt has chosen to go out to see his aunt in California with his mom. That means it will be another team trip for mom and I! Really.. nothing wrong with that. Just kind of a mental bummer.... ya know? Sadly, I have to take care of trying to transfer his Northwest ticket from going to Orlando to going to San Fran or L.A. Ugh. I'm not looking forward to paying the extra fees for that mess.

On a high note... the trip is totally paid off! About two weeks ago I paid the final $250.00 ish and now i'm totally done! Wooo! I'm really still thinking of doing the AP like I wanted to but there are personal reasons as to why i'm not sure it'd be such a good idea. Hmm.. not sure yet. I have more time to think about it. Really... I don't have to decide until the trip is upon us. It'll be about $220.00 just to upgrade my 1 day base to a 7 day park hopper. And the AP will cost me about $520.00. Kind of a big difference but if I KNOW that I will get to use that AP fully then it will be worth it.

It's also time for me to start getting my WDW binder together. The binder I carry religiously until we step foot into our hotel room. I still have to get all of the info typed out and printed so I can neatly store it. Once that is done it's really just a matter of time. Did you know that I left my binder on the plane during my honeymoon and almost totally left the gate without it?

Anyways... i'm hoping someone is still interested in reading this! I'll keep updating when I feel necessary.

Oh, Happy Day!

This morning I set my alarm for 6:45 a.m. Last night I had showered so I was all set and wouldn't have to shower this morning in case I was on hold with Disney Dining for a long time.

Since the new "online dining reservation system" has opened, we've been told that if you booked your vacation through a travel agent or DVC, the online system cannot recognize your vacation at your 90 day window so you cannot book 90 +10 days like you can do on the phone.

The online reservation does have a great advantage over the phone reservation system. The booking window time begins at 6:00 a.m. eastern standard time online while if you call... you need to wait until 7:00 a.m. So, the people able to use the online system have a great advantage when it comes to getting "hard to get" reservations.

I was up and ready on the couch at about 6:50. I decided to mess around with the online system anyways before I started calling. Just for kicks I typed in my confirmation and phone number into the system to see if it would recognize my reservation (booked by Magical Journeys). Well... IT DID! Right away I started going head first into booking.... letting 7:00 a.m. roll right by. The whole time I had this huge fear that this was some sort of glitch or joke and I was going to be screwed out of everything I had put into my "cart."

Luckily, I got to the end of my reservations, crossed my fingers, and clicked "check out." IT WORKED! I got my confirmation e-mail sent to me and everything. So, here are my final reservations.

September 29th - Tusker House @ 4:00 p.m.
September 30th - Coral Reef @ 2:25 p.m.
October 1st - Kona Cafe @ 8:45 a.m. & Raglan Road @ 7:30 p.m.
October 2nd - Cape May Cafe @ 5:55 p.m.
October 3rd - Mama Melrose @ 5:30 p.m.
October 4th - Le Cellier @ 4:30 p.m.
October 5th - 'Ohana @ 5:15 p.m.

The only thing I'd like to change is Coral Reef's time. I couldn't get anything later and i'd really really like a dinner time on the 30th. Originally, I had Le Cellier on the 30th and Coral Reef on the 4th. I couldn't get ANTHING for Le Cellier on the 30th or any other day before the 4th for that matter. At first I thought I was going to have to give up Le Cellier completely but then I noticed that since the system recognized my reservations I was able to go past 5 days from the 29th. When I checked Le Cellier on the 4th I was able to pull up a 4:30 p.m. only! Nothing else at all. It was just fine with me! No complaining here! I was actually surprised how easy it was to book 'Ohana. I got the exact time I asked for.

Glad this is all done and over with. Only 90 days to go!!

Schedule Revision

I forgot to take into account something very important when I came up with my last schedule... Extra Magic Hours! Normally, I don't plan my days around where I end up at night so I basically ignore the Evening Extra Magic Hours all together. The schedule for October hasn't been released yet but i'm basing my schedule for October after September's Extra Magic Hours that have been released. If it is all different then i'll just have to suck it up and deal because once I book my ADRs i'm not going to flip them all around.

What's Extra Magic Hours (EMH for short) you ask? Basically, any guest staying at a WDW resort on property has the ability to get into a WDW theme park 1 hour early or stay in the park up to 3 hours past park closing. The smart people know that the evening EMHs aren't really worth it as you don't get much accomplished because more people are there. Why are more people there? Easy! More people would much rather stay out late than wake up early. Well, i'm a freak of nature and like getting up early at WDW so the morning EMH really works out for me well.

Right now, my revised schedule looks like this.

September 29 - AK ('till close) - Tusker House dinner
September 30 - EP - Le Cellier
October 1 - MK - Kona Cafe
October 2 - AK - Cape May Cafe
October 3 - DHS - Mama Melrose
October 4 - EP - Coral Reef
October 5 - MK - 'Ohana

Happenings Around WDW

I just wanted to talk about a few things that are going on in the parks right now down in Orlando. Lots of new technology... even if it is a little behind the times.

WDW just started a Mobile Room Ready Notification Service for guests staying at a WDW resort on property. Basically, when you check-in and if your room isn't ready, you give them your cell phone number and they will send you a text message or give you a call to let you know when your room is ready. That way you can feel free to mess around at your resort or head to the parks and start having fun. I'm surprised that WDW hasn't implemented this service yet but i'm very glad now that they have. There has only been on instance where my room hasn't been ready upon arrival (and we always arrive quite a bit before 3:00 p.m.) but still I think that it'd be nice to know when your room is ready so you can head back and freshen up or whatever. They will still give you your Key To The World card and your room will be attached but they won't tell you what room until it's ready. That way you don't try and get in early when the room isn't prepared for you yet.

Next up in WDW technology...the ability to book your ADRs online! This excites me as I hate having to use the telephone anymore than I have to. The only thing is... it sounds like there are still a few glitches in the system that they are going to have to figure out. If you call to try and book your ADRs like we've always had to before, you can book 90 days out from your arrival day plus 10 more days after that. Implementing the well known 90 plus 10 rule. It sounds like people are having issues using the 90+10 rule when booking ADRs online. The website says something about 5 days which i've heard means you can book in 5 day increments. So, if your vacation is 7 days, you will need to book your first 5 days ADRs and then go back in and do your last 2. Someone is thinking that if you put in your resort reservation number you should be able to book for your entire vacation but this hasn't been confirmed yet. I book my ADRs July 1st so if the kinks aren't worked out by then I will just call and book all 7 days.

Lastly, on May 8th a new stage show opened at the Magic Kingdom in Tomorrowland. It's Stitch based of course (what isn't these days), and includes go-go girls and break dancers to boot. Funnily enough, the show is closing at the end of the month already. Why? Well, it sucks. haha. Honestly, if you find it on YouTube and watch it you'll see how horrific it is. There is a rumor that the show isn't closing for good. Just for a while so they can tweek it (a lot hopefully) and then reopen when it's actually a decent show. Right now it kinda reminds me of an episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse... set in the future... with Stitch. Now, I love Pee Wee's Playhouse... don't get me wrong... but I don't wanna see something that bizarre at WDW. Some people are saying that they saw the show but couldn't stand there through the whole thing because of the heat. The guest area is not shaded at all and the sun just beats down heavily on patrons. I can understand that the heat could get unbearable but I don't think that it's a sole reason to close the show. The show is just bad and needs to be fixed ASAP. They've already wasted that space enough over the years by not utilizing it... you'd think they'd actually put a good attraction there. hehe. Guess not! :)

Next time... i'll probably post about dining... got food on my mind. :)

Update!

It's been a month since i've last updated my Disney blog. Clearly, this is the time when planning gets slow because not much new information is out for me to plan around.



Today, we confirmed our dining choices. We are going to pay OOP for Kona Cafe breakfast. We pay OOP (out of pocket) because it's not worth a dining credit. The price of the meal itself isn't at the higher end of the restaurant options so we'd be wasting a credit on a $12.00 meal per person when we could be spending it at a restaurant like Coral Reef which is about $30+ per person. For the other restaurants we will be using our DDP credits. I can't actually book our ADRs until July 1st but at least we know we've got what we wanted figured out. I took the time today to get onto touringplans.com to look at the crowd calendar for when we go. All 4's and 5's! Woo! I matched up our restaurants to the best park to go to on each day. All while thinking about other things we might like to do and when we'd like to do them.

September 29 - AK ('till close) then probably EP ADR: Tusker House
September 30 - EP ADR: Le Cellier
October 1 - DS ADR: Mama Melrose
October 2 - MK ADR: Kona Cafe breakfast
October 3 - EP ADR: Coral Reef lunch & Raglan Road late dinner
October 4 - DS ADR: Cape May Cafe
October 5 - MK ADR: 'Ohana

Raglan Road could get moved around. I'm still not sure where to put it. I really don't want to have to put Coral Reef as a lunch but, nothing else works as a lunch. I COULD put Raglan Road on the 2nd but I don't wanna rush anything at MK since we'll be getting a late start anyways because of having breakfast at Kona. I'm also hesitant to put Raglan Road on a Studios day since i'm not sure what day i'm going to audition for American Idol Experience. Right now, i'm thinking October 1st because the crowds will be lower...therefore my competition will be less stiff. And because my friend Ed will still be in WDW with his family and i'd like for them to be able to come and see me if I get a showtime.

I think I will have to sit on that one and think about it. Tough tough stuff. I may end up switching around a bunch of days to cater to this whole ordeal anyways.

Oh, so anyone out there see "Up" yet? I've now seen it 3 times and I am totally obsessed. I got an "Up" shirt at the Disney Store Tuesday. Wanna see?? http://twitpic.com/706cz
I wore it last night when we went to see the movie again. Matt also got one that is pretty awesome. I'm shocked that a medium fit him. And i'm even more shocked that a child's large fit me. Thanks Disney for making me feel tiny again.

How I Plan...

Some WDW vacationers fly by the seat of their pants. They make no real reservations, have no idea where they are going on what day, and certainly have no touring plans set. These people are the complete opposite of me. I'm not saying i'm a planning Nazi. I don't have every day planned out perfectly. I don't like to do that! I like SOME spontaneity.

What I normally do is figure out first what park I plan to START the day at. Not saying we will stay there the whole day because normally we don't stay at one park the whole day. I use Touringplans.com for crowd calendars and tips on what parks to avoid each day. The people that do the statistics for the website also write The Unofficial Guide. Without a doubt, that is the best WDW guidebook and I use that in my planning as well.

I then decide what restaurants my family and I would like to eat at. I always pick two back-ups just in case something is totally booked up when I make my Advanced Dining Reservations. I then take a look at what park i'm going to on each day and match up the ADRs by location as best as I can. Finally, I call the ADR number and set up all of my dining. Sometimes I have to adjust my daily schedule if I have to book a dining reservation on a different day than I had planned. No biggie. It all evens out in the end.

It's time to whip out the planning binder now! I LOVE my binder. I organize it the same way each and every time I go. That thing never leaves my side until we get to WDW. Then it stays safely in the room and I only take one page with me to the parks which is in a plastic page protector. Yes, nerdy... I KNOW! But, it works! The page I take with me has our starting park for each day and the times and confirmation numbers to each ADR. This is what that page looks like...

After that I then make my own "park guides" with the dates, opening times, and any special happenings like parades and fireworks going on. I sometimes also make note of what parks to avoid each day. This stays in my binder so I can easily look at it before heading out to the parks. I know you can retrieve time and event guides at the parks but this is idiot proof to me.

I wish I had a picture of my binder all finished to show you but.. I don't. These photos were actually from our honeymoon when I did a trip report for Intercot. Doing this sort of this is truly where I shine. I'm good at this. I love the research end of it all. FUN FUN!