Disney World Tips and Tricks

I assume it would be easy to find Uber Car Seat at Disney World.

You may want to check out the new Minnie Van service. It's like a Disney run Uber with a $20 flat fee.

Buses are fine but be prepared to wait up to 20 min especially in the middle of the day.

If you're staying at Riverside, consider doing the bonfire and movies on the lawn at night. The pool games in the afternoon are a must. That's been my boys favorite thing to do the four times we've been there (8 and 5 years old).

Just got into Orlando wit the wife and 2.5 yo. No plans but want to do Harry Potter. What else should be done? I know the age isn’t great but at least he doesn’t need a ticket

Oh and wife is pregnant

PhDeac said:

Buses are fine but be prepared to wait up to 20 min especially in the middle of the day.

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I typically plan on 45 minutes to get a bus and travel back to resort. So, any trip back is 1.5hr round trip.

Disney World prices just went up again. Every ticket at every park is over $100.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-ticket-price-increase-20180211-story.html

At the gate, a one-day regular Magic Kingdom ticket will cost $119, a $4 increase. A value ticket will cost $109, a $2 increase, while a peak ticket will now cost $129, a $5 increase.
For the other three parks — Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom — prices are also increasing.
A one-day regular ticket is $114, a $7 increase. A value ticket will cost $102, a $3 increase, while a peak ticket is $122, a $3 increase.

Military tickets are a steal. We're going week after next with my sister and the 4-day park hopper she got us was like $224. If we wanted 5-day it was only $40 more.

So we went to Disney in January. Good time. A few observations.

Stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort, which was very convenient to the ESPN facility where daughter was playing field hockey. They were setting up for the Pro Bowl festivities and contests which were the next week. Awesome facility. Great baseball park for Braves spring training. Cubs have a bigger field in Arizona, but still top notch.

Caribbean beach Resort really sucks overall. They're upgrading the food court so in the meantime they have a buffet set up in a tent and a food truck. They also opened a "Market" in each section of the resort, which was really just a converted guest room with juice, coffee, Bud Light, bananas, etc. Pools looked okay. Resort is huge and shuttle service blows. Half mile walk to anything. Rooms are Days Inn level with some island flair. But, very convenient to ESPN and you get the extras for staying on property.

Went to Hollywood Studios on Friday morning with son, immediately signed up for Jedi training (which he was honestly a little too old for), had Fast Pass for Rock n' Rollercoaster first thing, rode the Toy Story shooting gallery once or twice with no Fast Pass. Got pictures with Stormtroopers and Chewbacca. The park is going Star Wars Crazy with a parade or show like every 30 minutes. Also had Fast Pass for the Star Wars ride and the Indiana Jones show. Fast Pass for Indiana Jones worked out well. Ran into my former next door neighbor at the show.

At at Citricos at the Grand Floridian (instead of the tent at Caribbean Beach Resort). Good fucking halibut dish.

Had one of those special tickets for the Magic Kingdom after hours on Friday night and whole family went. Pretty good deal as you have time to ride everything at least once if you move quickly. New 7 Dwarfs ride is just a slightly smaller version of Thunder Mountain RR imo. Not sure why they thought they needed it.

Went to Animal Kingdom on Saturday morning with son with Extra magic hours and immediately got in line for Pandora Flight of Passage. Was on the ride in 45 minutes. Only rode it once. Wait time ballooned to three hours in the afternoon and they stopped letting people get in line. Had Fast Passes for Pandora River Ride, Dinosaur, and Expedition Everest. That all worked out well. Wound up waiting 1:15 for the Kilimanjaro Safari because some stupid animals laid down in the middle of the road while we were halfway through the line and Disney has some anti-cattle prod policy.

Ate at Jiko that night. Originally was seated next to a little girl with her dad and granddad (guessing, maybe just two gay guys). She was watching Dora on her phone with the volume turned up. Got moved. Very good meal. Waiter gave us dessert because we're a Great American Family.

Sunday, watched field hockey most of the day and moved over to Hard Rock Hotel for Universal Studios part of trip.

Going for a week in late Feb, early-March. 5 days at the parks. Any tips for getting on Avatar -- we could not get fast passes. We got breakfast reservations at Animal Kingdom before the park opens and we might skip the reservations to get in the Avatar line.

Shooshmoo said:

Going for a week in late Feb, early-March. 5 days at the parks. Any tips for getting on Avatar -- we could not get fast passes. We got breakfast reservations at Animal Kingdom before the park opens and we might skip the reservations to get in the Avatar line.

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I dunno. I went on a Saturday and had the benefit of Extra Magic Hours first thing in the morning.

Would definitely try to go on a Tues or Wed to get a better chance of a shorter line if it's that important of a ride for you, or check and see if there is a morning with Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom while you're there (if you're staying at a Disney resort).

Na'vi River Ride is pretty dull and unimportant, btw.

We're staying off resort, and we are going to Animal Kingdom on a Wednesday.

If you think the Navi River Ride is dull, you must hate all the boat rides. Which is perfectly understandable.

Navi River Ride is like Splash Mountain without the splash.

Shooshmoo said:

We're staying off resort, and we are going to Animal Kingdom on a Wednesday.

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If you want to get on the ride, skip the reservations and get to the park. I was there two weekends ago and we got to AK 30 minutes before it opened. The park was already open, although they were only letting people into Pandora. The wait for Flight of Passage was 2 hours (again, this was 30 minutes before the park was supposed to open). Go to the park first thing in the morning and get there early.

GaDeac said:

If you want to get on the ride, skip the reservations and get to the park. I was there two weekends ago and we got to AK 30 minutes before it opened. The park was already open, although they were only letting people into Pandora. The wait for Flight of Passage was 2 hours (again, this was 30 minutes before the park was supposed to open). Go to the park first thing in the morning and get there early.

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Just got back from a trip with 5 days at the parks. We were in Animal Kingdom (through bag check/ticket line) at 8 am, went straight to Avatar, and it was already 2.5 hours. I took one for the team and sat in it with my 8 and 6 year old and got the rider swap for my wife who was with our too short 4 year old. Some shitty teen peed behind a door in line and my 8 year old stepped in it. Get to the ride and the glasses are too big for my six year old daughter (no problem with glasses for any other rides), so I had to reach over and hold her glasses on her face for the entire ride. She was terrified and screaming for the first minute of the rider until I made her look around to see that there were other people watching a video screen and it wasn't really happening (though I explained this to her before we got on the ride and she handled Soarin').

Wife ditched my daughter and walked right onto the ride with the 8 year old and loved it.

PhDeac said:

If you think the Navi River Ride is dull, you must hate all the boat rides. Which is perfectly understandable.

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Disagree. It's right there with Small World on action. Every other boat ride at Disney has more action. There was an 80 minute wait for it when we were there (we had fast passes), and that is way too long for that ride.

We were there two weeks ago and couldn't get Fast Passes for the Flight of Passage ride, so we got to AK a little after 7:00 (park opened at 8). They let people through the gates around 7:30 then people walked/ran over to Pandora where they had the path closed. At about 7:45 they started letting people into Pandora and we were able to get on the ride at 7:50. By the time we got out the wait was already 90 minutes, and it was just at 8 when technically the park officially opened.

same technique worked out for the 7 Dwarves Mine Train and we didn't have to wait. so the key is get there early if you don't have a Fast Pass. we went with my little sister who is a passholder and is very good at planning the logistics so we basically didn't have to wait in any lines the entire time between Fast Passes, getting on rides early, or doing single rider lines where available.

Shooshmoo said:

Disagree. It's right there with Small World on action. Every other boat ride at Disney has more action. There was an 80 minute wait for it when we were there (we had fast passes), and that is way too long for that ride.

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What action do you want? It’s technologically brilliant and beautiful.

It’s not worth 80 minutes but no ride truly is.

Also, I continue to be amazed and baffled at the number of elderly people on carts without any children with them at Disney. I don't understand it at all -- maybe I will when I am 80 and clamoring to ride Small World for some reason. We had a stroller for the kids when they got tired and some old codger flying by on his his cart was yelling "bucket, bucket, bucket" because my 4 year old was holding a bucket of popcorn slightly outside of the stroller and keeping him from meeting Elsa or some shit. I told him to chill out but he had already sped past. At one point there were 4 olds on carts in a vertical row (which was actually nice because they are usually going 4-wide and taking up the entire walkway), and the one in front stopped quickly and the three behind comically ran into each other like it was an act. One of the best parts of the trip.

Anyway -- had a great time!

It's pathetic as shit and Disney enables it.

PhDeac said:

What action do you want? It’s technologically brilliant and beautiful.

It’s not worth 80 minutes but no ride truly is.

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Agree it was beautiful. I was disagreeing on your statement comparing it to "all boat rides." Obviously, Splash Mountain is a different kind of boat ride, and if someone prefers more action to just a straight visuals, I can understand not loving it.