My son, Simon and His Grandmother Graf eating breakfast with Chip. Can you guess the restaurant?
FastPass day has come and gone. All we have left to do before we pack and go down to Disney is tweak and massage our reservations into the most optimal compromise of time, location and events that we can find. Adjustments to time and place have been made to accommodate FastPasses for attractions. Some of the more popular attractions had a limited selection of times and dates. We now have a collection of wonderful things to do and wonderful places to eat.
Do you guys remember him? Hint, He was Frozen out of his spot in Epcot.
We made our fast passes based on several criteria. Primarily, we wanted to fit the new attractions (new to us anyway) into the list at times when the whole family would be in Walt Disney World. No FastPasses were ever available for “Smugglers Run” so we have planned two whole mornings in Galaxy’s edge in hopes that our Extra, Extra magic hours can work some magic for us. I believe that Extra Extra magic hours extend to the other parks as well, We may attempt to rope drop Flight of Passage or Navi River Journey, to be able to ride them multiple times on Animal Kingdom day.
Yes, even 55-year-old kids can do Pirates League.
Second, we wanted to try to keep things in a single park for a morning or an afternoon. Sometimes we will have to move from one park to another to take advantage of a meal or an event that we wanted to attend. We planned travel time between the parks for instances when we have things to do in multiple parks. Our Park Hopper tickets will get a workout on this trip. The Tuesday of our vacation, we have fast passes in Epcot in the morning. In the afternoon and evening, we have tickets to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party. My wife and I went to the party when we were there 5 years ago. We did Pirates League and wore the makeup throughout the evening. It was so much fun! I hope that we have planned enough transportation time in the day to keep stress levels low. When we plan a full day in a single park most of our FastPasses were in the morning to early afternoon. After finishing our FastPasses, the chance exists that we can get another one for a favorite attraction in that park.
Epcot will look very different soon.
We spent a great deal of time working on those attractions that were on our “must-do” list. Working within the limitations of the FP+ system we were able to get most of our favorites including Rock and Roller Coaster and Test Track. We managed to score fast passes to all the attractions that we had yet to do. Our last trip to any of the Walt Disney World parks was an impromptu trip to EPCOT during the Flower and Garden Festival. At that time, Frozen Ever After’s line was prohibitively long. This trip, we had the luxury of the 60-day window so getting a fast pass for this attraction was not a problem. Several new attractions have opened from the time of our last visit. We were able to set up fast passes for all the new attractions we wanted. FastPasses were available for Flight of Passage and Navi River Journey in Animal kingdom for several days and time slots. We were also able to get passes for Slinky Dog Dash. Thanks to you, Looper Nation, and your posts on the Looper Nation Facebook page, we also were able to nip fast passes for Oga’s Cantina for which we are very grateful! We have, over time, adjusted time and dates for our FastPasses when we could. Some of the attractions that offer them become unavailable and stay that way.
What a beautiful day at the Magic Kingdom this was!
One minor change to our plans includes a day at one of the water parks. My personal favorite is Typhoon Lagoon. A relaxing day in the water park will be just what we need after the intense goings-on of the rest of the vacation. As a side note, one of my favorite sounds in Walt Disney World is the sound of the Wave Generator in Typhoon Lagoon and the reaction of people in the wave pool. The next time you are there, listen for the great WHOOSH then the screams of delight from the crowd. Since our last visit to Typhoon Lagoon, Disney has closed the Shark Tank. I’m not sure how much visitors to the park used the shark tank. It seemed that we could walk into the area and redo the attraction without a wait. Personally, as a former Scuba Diver, I loved the attraction and was somewhat saddened when it closed. However, I understand the possible reasons for its closure.
I feel that we are ready at last. All our planning is in place. We have paid for our vacation and the countdown to our October 4th date grows smaller. Our Dining options are in place, even though I imagine there we will be futzing with our Advanced Dining Reservations all the way to the day we leave. We have Family meals planned at ‘Ohana and at California Grill for the five of us. We have wonderful meals scheduled at Enzo’s Hideaway for Sunday supper, Jaleo for tapas and sangria, and Toledo for more wonderful Spanish food. Of course, you can’t eat at every restaurant in the parks. We were forced to a couple of my favorites because I love so many of the restaurants at Walt Disney World. A few restaurants will have to wait for the next trip. Now, my family will soon be boarding our early non-stop flight to Orlando. I can’t wait to begin spending time in the most magical place on Earth with the people I love the most. Let our new Walt Disney World Adventure Begin!!!
