Disney World

So twice a year a “Dapper Day” is organized at Disneyland and EuroDisney, with days planned at the Florida parks. I had the chance to go the the Disneyland one today. I’m rather pleased about how my outfit turned out.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/DnIRA90.jpg)

That's a cool concept. It puts me in mind of how, when I went to Grad Nite at Disneyland many many years ago, there was a dress code that required sport coats and skirts. Maybe this is just the Old Man I've become talking, but methinks Mickey got it right that night: my friends and I looked quite sharp, thank you very much.

Anyone done Rise of the Resistance yet?

It seems like most of the ROTR posts on reddit have slowed down already. I didn't see any for this week on the Disney reddits. I am heading down next week and was trying to figure out if people still need to get there before the park opens in order to get a spot in the virtual queue.

Also, anyone have an idea of if could I go get scanned in by myself and get my group in line or does everyone need scanned in? It looks like only one person needs to get in the queue to add a whole group, but I didn't see anything about if the whole group has to be onsite.

We'll be heading to Disney World in November. I'm not really a Disney person though I'm interested in Marvel & Star Wars. My wife is super excited, however. She hasn't been in there in about 20 years and I've never been. Luckily we'll be going with another couple who go several times a year, so we'll have some guides.

Any advice on planning or must-see attractions? More brains, more better and all that.

manta173 wrote:

Anyone done Rise of the Resistance yet?

It seems like most of the ROTR posts on reddit have slowed down already. I didn't see any for this week on the Disney reddits. I am heading down next week and was trying to figure out if people still need to get there before the park opens in order to get a spot in the virtual queue.

Also, anyone have an idea of if could I go get scanned in by myself and get my group in line or does everyone need scanned in? It looks like only one person needs to get in the queue to add a whole group, but I didn't see anything about if the whole group has to be onsite.

I only know what I read on touringplans.com and hear on the Disney Dish podcast, but they seem to think that you should plan on getting there super early and immediately locating a cast member to get you into a virtual boarding group, and then expect that you might not ride until late in the day. That is to say, the word is that the ride is awesome but that it's very hard to get a ride because of frequent breakdowns.

As to adding your group by yourself, the Disney Dish guy had the experience that he could not add people to his boarding group if they were not already physically in the park. Of course, that was a day one report, so things may change.

Thanks, all I have seen is day 1 stuff and there is no way I am getting my whole group there before the park opens... Might just have to give this one up.

Nevin73 wrote:

We'll be heading to Disney World in November. I'm not really a Disney person though I'm interested in Marvel & Star Wars. My wife is super excited, however. She hasn't been in there in about 20 years and I've never been. Luckily we'll be going with another couple who go several times a year, so we'll have some guides.

Any advice on planning or must-see attractions? More brains, more better and all that.

My main advice: Continually stop to smell the roses. Don't try to do everything. Don't rush from ride to ride. The entire place is loaded with details that people rush past to get to the next big thing. That's true of the parks and resorts. Take your time and enjoy. You know, as if you're on vacation. Look around and marvel at the details, because you'll be in a place that is filled with technical and architectural wonders designed with immersion in mind. Even finding Mickey silhouettes hidden by the designers can be a full time activity (there are books and websites dedicated to it).

LouZiffer wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

We'll be heading to Disney World in November. I'm not really a Disney person though I'm interested in Marvel & Star Wars. My wife is super excited, however. She hasn't been in there in about 20 years and I've never been. Luckily we'll be going with another couple who go several times a year, so we'll have some guides.

Any advice on planning or must-see attractions? More brains, more better and all that.

My main advice: Continually stop to smell the roses. Don't try to do everything. Don't rush from ride to ride. The entire place is loaded with details that people rush past to get to the next big thing. That's true of the parks and resorts. Take your time and enjoy. You know, as if you're on vacation. Look around and marvel at the details, because you'll be in a place that is filled with technical and architectural wonders designed with immersion in mind. Even finding Mickey silhouettes hidden by the designers can be a full time activity (there are books and websites dedicated to it).

^^ this... This is my biggest regret. We rushed from ride to ride to “get the most out of it”. If (probably more of an “if” than a “when”) I ever get to go back... I don’t know if I’d be terribly concerned if I didn’t get on a single ride.

Nevin73 wrote:

We'll be heading to Disney World in November. I'm not really a Disney person though I'm interested in Marvel & Star Wars. My wife is super excited, however. She hasn't been in there in about 20 years and I've never been. Luckily we'll be going with another couple who go several times a year, so we'll have some guides.

Any advice on planning or must-see attractions? More brains, more better and all that.

Wear comfortable shoes that you've worked in over several long walks before you go.
Soak up the atmosphere of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood Studios, Asia in Animal Kingdom, and Morocco in EPCOT.
Ride Expedition Everest and don't miss the queue. Ditto with Haunted Mansion.
Start early, take a break in the middle, and go back late.

We are planning on heading down to Florida the last couple weeks of February with our 1, 3 and 5 year olds. First time as a family, and planning on hitting the magic kingdom twice while we are there. Disappointed that the runaway railway opens the week after we go home, but wasn’t planning on going to Hollywood studios anyways. Even though I’d like to also get to Galaxy’s Edge, it’s not going to happen this time around.

Any suggestions and tips for small children? We’re not going to be able to leave the park for nap, but I figure we can find a quiet corner somewhere, and it might not even matter as kids just fall asleep in the stroller.

easy sunday wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

We'll be heading to Disney World in November. I'm not really a Disney person though I'm interested in Marvel & Star Wars. My wife is super excited, however. She hasn't been in there in about 20 years and I've never been. Luckily we'll be going with another couple who go several times a year, so we'll have some guides.

Any advice on planning or must-see attractions? More brains, more better and all that.

Wear comfortable shoes that you've worked in over several long walks before you go.
Soak up the atmosphere of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood Studios, Asia in Animal Kingdom, and Morocco in EPCOT.
Ride Expedition Everest and don't miss the queue. Ditto with Haunted Mansion.
Start early, take a break in the middle, and go back late.

One trip I had shoes where the arch support had collapsed. I ended up hobbling around the parks and bought a cane from a store in Animal Kingdom. Even after I got some arch support inserts, it took my poor feet days to recover.

Hey! My mom and stepdad are taking me and my wife and our 3 kids (1, 3, and 8) to Disney World at the end of February, staying at the Contemporary Resort, with 3-day park hopper passes. I've done a lot of reading and research already, we've booked FastPasses for the things our kids are most interested in, and I made a reservation to go build a droid one afternoon at Galaxy's Edge. I'm excited and curious to see how it all goes.

Our general plans are Magic Kingdom day one (Tuesday 2/25), Hollywood Studios day two, Animal Kingdom day three. My oldest is a bit of a scaredy cat, so I am trying to keep my expectations very low in terms of what rides or experiences I might convince her to go on. I'd love to get anyone to go to any of the Star Wars stuff with me, but again I'm not expecting much--my kids are not interested in Star Wars, although my 8 year old has become obsessed with Baby Yoda recently and did watch the middle hour or so of Empire with me before deciding it was too scary, so maaaaybe she'll be up for something like Star Tours? That's the main reason I booked the droid building thing, though, a way to guarantee me a little time in the Star Wars stuff. My whole planning experience is seeing tons of things that look cool to me and reading tips about how to optimize our fun, but then reminding myself that this is a trip for the children, not for me, and trying to take deep breaths

I took my 5 year old to the Magic Kingdom in October, and we focused on the character meet & greats over rides, which was definitely the smart choice. She did go on Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was just about at her limit for being scary (particularly the waterfall at the beginning).

Based on the experience of my parents taking me and my three siblings to many amusement parks while we were growing up: I'd focus on making sure the 8 year old has a good time as she's the only one old enough to both remember it and appreciate it. If you can, see if your mom & stepdad can take care of the one year old and maybe even the three year old, even if just for one of the days. It may seem mean to not do it as one big family group, but honestly, they're too young to get much out of the park experience and stand a good chance of negatively impacting the experience the rest of you have.

Everything Stengah says sounds smart. Also smart to go in with low expectations for what you get to do for you. That was my experience when I went to Disney World when my boys when they were 7 and 5 (also courtesy of grandparents). And it turned out, well, magical. Just taking everything at their speed and looking at it through their eyes was wonderful. Never felt like I was missing out by not getting to go on the E ticket rides that I love. My experience was also that just planning things that they might enjoy was more than half the fun.

I’ve done the park hopper set up with my entire family and found that animal kingdom and Hollywood studios are really small compared to Amato’s Kingdom. I would really look at your animal Kingdom day especially if you have a little ones that scare easy. Both the Dinosaur and Everest ride can be pretty scary. I would recommend watching a video of the ride in action. If you are planning on the Pandora based rides, Flight of passage has a crazy line all the time. There are some great shows there though and I recommend the Nemo show for sure. Hollywood studios I haven’t been to since Galaxy’s Edge opened but The Toy Story rides are great. Some great shows there too like the beauty and the beast play, the FroEn sing along, and a super sweet laser show for the little mermaid.

Since you have the park hopper I would also suggest Epcot. There were some really cool rides there that blend science and fun. Test Track is great and if you want to do a character meet and great meal the spinning restaurant has some of the best food for those set ups.

I’m heading down for our fourth time in Feb as well for a single Magic Kingdom day because it is our favorite and we are bringing Grandparents this time. We need Disney Stan shirts to identify Disney goodjers!

We're down here right now, with the 3.5 and 1.3 year old, plus the grandparents. Yesterday was the first park day, we did magic kingdom, and the kids did pretty good. Today we're at Studios. They bumped opening up to 7am. We got everyone moving pretty early, but still didn't make it here until 9am, so all the slots for Rise of the resistance were gone. According to someone in line, they were gone at 7:30am. So basically no chance I'll get on that thing this week. The earlier opening also meant that all the lines were already long. The older kid and my wife both want to go on Slinky, but she couldn't snag a fast pass for it, and they line hasn't been below two hours yet. Wife wants to try it, but since the kid was prett antsy in the 50 minute line for something else, that seems like a bad idea. The 50 minute line was the shortest in the park.

I don't know, I like Disney, but it's basically a great experience that's always ruined by the crowds. I really wish my wife would've let us wait until the kids were older to bring them for the first time. This is annoying, expensive, and neither will remember any of it.

Thanks for the expectations-setting, Chaz. Hope it improves for you! Kind of a relief to know that the Rise of the Resistance stuff might be hard to manage even if I had willing participants, I will just put that out of my mind altogether.

Rise of the Resistance is supposed to be fun, though I wouldn't go through the trouble right now (some diehards are though!).

People start lining up at the studios at 5am or so. The last few days, Disney has been letting them in the park at 6:00 or 6:30 (nothing in the park is open, but you can go in). Once your pass shows you're in the park, you're ready for the virtual stampede when the app allows everyone to take Rise of the Resistance slots starting at 7am. Your entire party must be in the park by then, and all spots are usually gone within a few minutes.

A friend of ours did this run with his family a few days ago. They got their spot right when the app allowed them to at 7am - group 72. All spots were taken within a couple of minutes. The ride broke down several times that day, and their group didn't make it in. Disney made up for it with a fastpass for Rise of the Resistance the next day and a one day entry ticket good for one year (this is very rare, but things were really screwed up that day).

We spent the week of Dec 22-29 at Disney World -- the first time we've been at the park for Christmas. We had a great time but packed too much into such a short trip - we were exhausted when we headed home. I also don't think we'll go back around Christmas again - it was the busiest we've ever seen it, having previously visited in every season. It was also wetter than expected - a warmer version of our weather at home (Vancouver).

RE: Galaxy's Edge and Rise of the Resistance - we joined the line up madness for 2 days of our trip. We were at the park, in line, by 5:30am both days. There was a fun to it, big crowd of people excited to go in. The park opens up to the main street 30 mins early, which allows you to get in and be ready to sign up for a virtual boarding pass for Rise at official park open time.

Both days we were able to get a boarding pass number < 20, which meant we could get on Rise in the morning. As soon as the park opens they funnel people to either Galaxy's Edge for immediate boarding of Smugglers Run, or to Toy Story land. We did Smugglers Run (Millenium Falcon ride) both times - it translated to getting on to the ride within 45 minutes. We then had some time to explore before heading to Rise. Basically this let us get into Galaxy's Edge and experience both rides, plus explore the whole area, before noon.

We saw Rise break down both days - one day we had a delayed boarding, the second day we were stuck in line for about 40 minutes. In the end we were able to ride both days and the experience is fantastic - mind blowingly cool. It is a ~20 minute experience made up of 3-4 "attractions" stitched together (the end ride being about 5 minutes). Our entire family felt the early days were completely worth it.

Galaxy's Edge and Avatar (specifically flight of passage) were our trip highlights (both new since we were last in Orlando).

Wow, congratulations on getting on the new ride!

Reddit posts are showing massive lineups by 6am still. Posters were saying that this week is the first time some tier of annual passes have been able to get in since the ride opened, which would explain the insanity. I've also heard some chatter from people saying they've never seen Hollywood Studios this busy, and that's translating to the rest of the parks being busier too. I took a look at wait times for Animal Kingdom today (we were at epcot), and holy hell, the Pandora rides were in the 2-3 hour range. I figured it had been long enough for demand to die down on those.

We considered seeing if I could add park hopper to my ticket for a day so I could go do the early morning thing, then go rejoin everyone else. But I think that'd cost $60, and who knows when or if I'd get on. I'll console myself by doing The Void instead, which I've wanted to do for a few years now.

Chaz wrote:

Reddit posts are showing massive lineups by 6am still. Posters were saying that this week is the first time some tier of annual passes have been able to get in since the ride opened, which would explain the insanity. I've also heard some chatter from people saying they've never seen Hollywood Studios this busy, and that's translating to the rest of the parks being busier too. I took a look at wait times for Animal Kingdom today (we were at epcot), and holy hell, the Pandora rides were in the 2-3 hour range. I figured it had been long enough for demand to die down on those.

From our fellow Floridian friends that's accurate. The story above was from the first day their passes allowed entry, and it was nuts. Reservations are depleted within a few minutes right now, and many folks who line up end up without them. There's little benefit to getting in line before 6:00-6:30am anymore, as your chances of getting a decent group number (or getting one at all) aren't improved by arriving earlier than it takes to get in the gate before they become available.

Right now I'm not sure what Disney can do to improve this further besides offering special events like they do with MK for Halloween and Christmas. The attraction and area are hideously popular and attendance is at an all time high at all parks. Floridians with Theme Park Select passes (more affordable yet flexible) have one Friday thru Sunday they'll be able to get into the studios this year unless restrictions are lifted. There's a massive amount of people with those annual passes, and their only options are Monday thru Thursday. This pretty much ensures it'll stay busy non-stop.

EDIT: By the way, we were in WDW with friends Sunday and today. Did MK and AK Sunday, and Epcot today. Some highlights...

- Tried the new I Lava You float at Sunshine Terrace. It's orange/vanilla blended "Dole Whip" (how is it Dole Whip without pineapple?) floating in orange Fanta with strawberry and passion fruit syrups, and topped with pop rocks. It's surprisingly tangy, though the so-called Dole Whip reminded me heavily of children's aspirin (seriously it wasn't bad, but very reminiscent of the flavor). The pop rocks lasted throughout eating it. IMO it's worth having once as a new experience before going back home to REAL Dole Whip goodness.

- A friend tuned me into the fire roasted corn cart just outside of the safari in AK. I hadn't tried it before, and holy #$%^ that corn is GOOD. It's an ear of sweet corn, fire roasted, and rolled in a salt and curry spice mixture which takes it to another level. A bit over $5 is worth it for this thing, which I never thought I'd say about an ear of corn.

- If you've wanted Epcot to get some love, well... it's getting it. Construction in Epcot is in full swing. Future world has go-away green walls everywhere as WDW is putting their focus on it first. Things are going to be weird for a good while, and even bathroom locations are shifting around as construction progresses through its phases. Despite good signage we found it disorienting, and we go a LOT.

Yeah, we were at Epcot yesterday, and it felt like the whole park was under construction. It's good they're adding stuff, but I really have no clue what epcot is after that, and it's going to blow up crowds there too.

I looked at the app this morning around 8am and there were still boarding groups available. I might add park hopper to my ticket and try to get there really early tomorrow and try my luck. If it's not bad and worth it, we might add hopper to my wife's and get the in laws to keep an eye on the kids early the next day so she can do it.

Heading to DW in May. Anyone done the Build a lightsaber thing? How are the sabers? Can I take my (will be almost) 4yo in and would he enjoy building my saber with me?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Heading to DW in May. Anyone done the Build a lightsaber thing? How are the sabers? Can I take my (will be almost) 4yo in and would he enjoy building my saber with me?

We didn’t do the sabers but we did do the droid shop - I believe they are much the same. You can go with one “guest” - so effectively two of you together should be fine.

While my kids were older (disclosure: one of the droids was for me) I certainly saw younger kids.

We're going in late May/early June and I already prepped the wife that my "souvenir" was going to be a lightsaber.

Hopefully, I can entice my son with something cheaper.

Yesterday we went to Epcot to take in the Festival of the Arts. Some notes...

- The only bathrooms currently open in Future World East are in the Electric Umbrella. They're really small, and the line for the women's room was ridiculous. The Epcot Experience and Future World West are worth the walk if you need to go.

- There's now a walkway from the front entrance to The Seas! It starts at the bathrooms to the right of Spaceship Earth. That makes it a LOT faster to get to that side of the park.

- The Epcot Experience (inside what was formerly known as Odyssey) is well worth going to. Don't spoil it by looking it up online, because in person this attraction is incredible.

- Tried the following from the festival: Sushi doughnut (VERY good! This year's has wasabi, eel, and sriracha sauces on the plate.), Rainboba (Okay, but there's better), Deconstructed Breakfast shake (Star of the day. This one's awesome.)

- The Beauty and the Beast sing-along is cute, and we were loud (as we usually are with singing). I'm kind of 'eh' on how it changes the story, but I'm that way about BatB in general anyway.

- Epcot Forever is a wonderful, heartfelt tribute to the park with a ton of nostalgia. The show will only be there for a short time, which fits well for a park that's in the midst of its biggest transformation ever. Both it and The Epcot Experience had me choked up. Epcot, to me, has traditionally been about humanity hoping and striving to be better stewards of our world and better to each other. That comes through strongly.

- We were there with some good friends including a few teens. As happens with our family, our kids started leading the others in the group in silly dances to the background music while we waited for Epcot Forever. Unexpectedly, the Brazilian school group next to us noticed. For about a half hour, we had ~30 kids being led by my oldest in improvised dances such as the slow chicken dance, some kind of weird polka which also involved flossing while moving sideways in a circle, and a very rushed version of the macarena (at one point they were in a big circle cheering my youngest in the center, who was performing the macarena at blinding speed). Finally, an experience has exceeded the Epcot Segway tour with a big dude in my group who would squeak like a mouse and mutter "sh*t" repeatedly whenever he was moving.

EDIT: Oh! One more thing! There's a free unique passholder magnet at the festival for those who have annual passes. It can be picked up at the BACK of the temporary Mouse Gear location. You'll see signs to your left after you've passed through erstwhile Innoventions East and are heading towards Mission: Space. The new magnet has a nice watercolor figment on it.

A couple pics...

My 3 and friends crossing the Delaware (my youngest in the back is seasick)
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/aJN9Y9z.jpg)

Sushi donut
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/sHVrqod.jpg)

Ok that sushi donut looks edible. I was first picturing a fried doughnut stuffed with rice and fish and it sounded disgusting.

We’ve done the drive down to Florida and it went surprisingly well with a 5, 3, and 1 year old. My father-in-law rented a house and it’s not far from Disney World. The plan is for just me and my 5yo to go on Thursday or Friday depending on weather, and then when my brother-in-law and nephew show up on the weekend, we’ll all go for a day next week.

The boy is excited to go. He’s big enough to go on all the rides, so we’re going to do things like Space Mountain, that the other boys aren’t tall enough for.

I’m pretty excited too, especially for some one on one time with the boy to run around the park.