Walt Disney World Holiday

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Hi All,

I decided that for my 33rd birthday I'd take myself to Disneyworld.

Then in my searching discovered that my birthday falls on Memorial Day long weekend, so decided to go just prior to that, and then visit Disneyland Paris for my actual birthday.

My 60 days in advance Fast Pass Reservation date is fast approaching, and having never been to Disney World before, I'm interested to hear what previous visitors to the parks would recommend as selections for the initial 3 fast passes for each park.

 

For those interested in the itinerary, I arrive in Orlando the day before I'm booked at Disney, so I intend to do hotel check-in and head straight for the park. Magic Kingdom is open until 11pm that night for hotel guests, so that's my day 1 park. Day 2 I'm thinking Animal Kingdom, Day 3 at Epcot, Day 4 is Hollywood Studios. Day 5 and 6 are open at this stage. I haven't bought Park Hopper and will add the upgrade on for those last 2 days if I feel the need to hit up more than one park per day, but that's a play it by ear decision.
I'm staying at Pop Century, and secretly hoping the Skyliner will be running by the last half of May. I then have two more nights in Orlando before I fly out again. Am considering Universal tickets, but nothing confirmed for those days yet.

I've been to DLP before, so am pretty set for how to handle that one.

So, what would you be selecting for your first three fast passes for each park?

[Aw hype]

Definitely the Pandora ride at Animal Kingdom. Heard that gets pretty packed. Expedition Everest wouldn't be a bad idea either

[Alex Berriman]

My choices for fastpass selection

MK: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain

EPCOT: Test Track, Mission: SPACE, Spaceship Earth

HS: Slinky Dog Dash (newly opened), Rock n Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror

AK: Flight of Passage, Kilaminjaro Safari, Expedition Everest

 

I was a Cast Member at Mission: SPACE back in 2016 so if you have any questions about the parks I can try and do my best to answer them.

[Whombex]

If for some unlikely reason you don't end up using any of those spare days at Disney (and don't want to do Universal, Islands of Adventure or Sea World), Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral is just over an hour's drive East. 

[aussienetman]

I did a solo Disneyworld trip last August. This is going to sound like an ad but I am so glad I used touringplans.com to sort out my days.  

Planning was half the fun, and I managed to do everything I wanted and more in the short time I was there, and the plan was updated as I was there on the day.

Fastpass for Pandora is crucial if you must do it. 

Remember to take advantage of single rider lines if you don't mind missing queue theming. 

[Wil_i_am_not]

Not very Disney related, but one of your spare nights I would recommend making the trip out to the Fun Spot parks. They're open late (around 12ish I believe) and Mine Blower is an amazing coaster from what I'm told, not to mention the GCI woodie which is also pretty good. Definitely something to consider.

[StelPunther]

Plus 1 for touring plans. Great website, most of it not behind a paywall, BUT the stuff you can pay for is very good. 

 

Universal Orlando is definitely worth a day or day and a half and is a quick drive or Uber from Disneyworkd. 

[ads086]

Thanks for the info guys. All suggestions are basically what I was expecting to hear.

I probably will end up visiting Universal - I’m staying at the Holiday Inn opposite on my non-Disney nights.

[Adam C]

I’m more not sure wat your preferences are (white knuckle etc) but these ar the rides that have the ingest lines.

MK - 7 Dwarfes Mine Train, Space Mouain, Splash Mountain.  Do BTM, POTC, Jungle Boats & Haunted Mansion as soon as the rope drops.  MK is always nuts for being full.  After lunch, do all the shows like Philharmagic & Hall of Presidents.  It gets quieter after 5pm when the prams and mobility scooters start leaving.  Try a Presidential sweet at the sleepy hollow cafe.

EPCOT - The biggest lines are Test Track, Soarin & Frozen ever after.  From memory, you can’t fastpass TT & Soarin together.  Frozen ever after is an average log flume.  So consider fast passing Spaceship Earth and do the Beverly challenge at Club Cool.

DHS - The big 3 are Tower of Terror, Rock’n Rollercoaster & Star Tours.  Until Galaxy’s edge opens, do those.  Fantastic is arguably the best  Night show in WDW.  Get a take out dinner and get a good seat about 45 - 60 mins before the start.  

AK -  Flight of passage, Exp Everest & Dinosaur are the main thrill rides. However, Kali River rapids & the Safari also has big lines.  We enjoyed the Yak & Yeti restaurant.  

If you’re just an adult group, I’d say Typhoon Lagonn has a bit more going on than Blizzard Beach.  Volcano Bay looks good but I’ve read that the lines have been horrendous.

Good Luck

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Great comments Adam - succinct and to the point - but it was incredibly hard to read - please proof read!

[Adam C]

 Sorry Alex, I pushed the submit button before checking it. My mistake.

[joz]

In that classic 'I agree with 99% of what you say but I'm going to talk about the 1% I disagree with' style that the internet it known for:

 

Fastpass for Spaceship Earth? Don't go on it first thing in the morning. There saved you a fastpass. Also Frozen is an average Flume ride? Really? I like the movie fine enough but holy crap that thing looks great. The tech and execution of that ride are next level. Obviously you know if a ride based off Frozen will appeal to you or not but dismissing it as 'An average Flume ride' is a mistake. 

[Adam C]

On 03/02/2019 at 9:29 AM, Wil_i_am_not said:

Not very Disney related, but one of your spare nights I would recommend making the trip out to the Fun Spot parks. They're open late (around 12ish I believe) and Mine Blower is an amazing coaster from what I'm told, not to mention the GCI woodie which is also pretty good. Definitely something to consider.

We stayed next to the Fun Spot on US192.  It's free to walk around.  I wasn't impressed with the rides but the souvenir shops were arguably the cheapest in Orlando.  My kids bought presents for their friends there.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I saw video of Frozen, and thought it looked the tits. Then I saw a video of the transformation from what it was, and realised that very little was changed, and it was, at best, window dressing an existing ride into a new theme.

The tech and execution of most Disney rides are next level, so the fact that Frozen meets that description isn't really an achievement. Sub-par disney still shits on most things we have.

I still think it looks the tits, but considering the physical ride experience remained unchanged, it really is an average ride, but with an awesome theme.

ETA: Here's the video:

 

[Adam C]

5 minutes ago, joz said:

In that classic 'I agree with 99% of what you say but I'm going to talk about the 1% I disagree with' style that the internet it known for:

 

Fastpass for Spaceship Earth? Don't go on it first thing in the morning. There saved you a fastpass. Also Frozen is an average Flume ride? Really? I like the movie fine enough but holy crap that thing looks great. The tech and execution of that ride are next level. Obviously you know if a ride based off Frozen will appeal to you or not but dismissing it as 'An average Flume ride' is a mistake. 

Hi Joz,  I agree that the special effects are superb.  But the physical features of the ride are average.  If it were me, I'd probably book it as a fast pass but wouldn't queue for an hour for it.

[joz]

What ride at Disney is good if you dont count the themeing though? Pretty much all their rides are average but they're dressed up to hell. Even for a family coaster, 7DMT is laughably bad as a coaster but people queue for hours to see the themeing. ToT is a weak as piss drop ride, but totally enclose it and theme it to twilight zone and you get something special. The bit of Haunted Mansion that makes it amazing is not the physical sensation of riding the Omni Mover ride vehicle.

 

Frozen is a standard flume ride. If thats true then ToT is a below average drop ride and Test Track is literally the same as driving to the park.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 minute ago, joz said:

What ride at Disney is good if you dont count the themeing though?

Space Mountain

Small World (think about it)

3 minutes ago, joz said:

ToT is a weak as piss drop ride

I will respectfully disagree, based on DCA's version (yes, i realise it no longer exists). We got quite the kick out of it.

 

You are right of course. I guess having watched that video i was just a little disappointed at how little effort went into the retheme (although, not as bad as Stitch)

Side note - was Lasseters the exact same track as Bermuda?

[Jobe]

On 02/02/2019 at 9:24 PM, Glubbo said:

If for some unlikely reason you don't end up using any of those spare days at Disney (and don't want to do Universal, Islands of Adventure or Sea World), Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral is just over an hour's drive East. 

Absolutely!! The Kennedy Space Centre was a highlight of our trip 18 months ago- its well worth the effort to get to!

Also- do not discount going to Busch Gardens Tampa- its also about an hour away. They have an excellent array of good coasters, as i am sure you are aware. Since you are staying at near Universal, there is a bus that leaves from the main entrance to the City Walk every day. It leaves right on the park closing. Its excellent and very easy to use and fairly cheap as well.

Enjoy your time there- I had an absolute blast!! Cannot wait to go again.

[Adam C]

On 02/02/2019 at 6:24 PM, Glubbo said:

If for some unlikely reason you don't end up using any of those spare days at Disney (and don't want to do Universal, Islands of Adventure or Sea World), Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral is just over an hour's drive East. 

My 2 sons loved KSC but my wife and daughter didn’t.  Remember to take a load of coins as some of the toll booths are unmanned.

[Alex Berriman]

11 hours ago, joz said:

In that classic 'I agree with 99% of what you say but I'm going to talk about the 1% I disagree with' style that the internet it known for:

 

Fastpass for Spaceship Earth? Don't go on it first thing in the morning. There saved you a fastpass. Also Frozen is an average Flume ride? Really? I like the movie fine enough but holy crap that thing looks great. The tech and execution of that ride are next level. Obviously you know if a ride based off Frozen will appeal to you or not but dismissing it as 'An average Flume ride' is a mistake. 

With the way EPCOT works their tiered fastpasses, Spaceship Earth is basically a burn card and why you'll see it in my list. The only other rides you have in the tier 2 passes are Mission: SPACE (my other choice), living with the land, Nemo, Pixar short films, figment and turtle talk.

[joz]

Ah see of it's about gaming the system that's fine. Does make me hate fastpass+ that little bit more though

[Alex Berriman]

21 hours ago, joz said:

Ah see of it's about gaming the system that's fine. Does make me hate fastpass+ that little bit more though

Yeah, its a bit about gaming the system and that most of the tier 2 rides at EPCOT will 90% of the time be walk on's. Mission: SPACE is a weird one because the More Intense side can get multiple delays in rapid succession from people vomiting which is why a fastpass for it can be handy if there is a downtime. I'm not entirely a fan of the tiered system but I can understand why it is needed so that everyone has the chance to book a fastpass for the more popular attractions.