ofcabbagesandkings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2014
Hello! Thanks everyone for your advice on this board. Just thought I would offer a TR of my day yesterday. Took my tween and purchased Early Access for Nintendo Land and the limited one use Express Pass.
We arrived at bag check just around 6:25 for 7am early access (8am regular entry). We were then scanned into the park - make sure you have the QR code or bar code for your early access tickets from your email confirmation, as they can’t scan the tickets from the app. They gave us our paper Express Passes at this point, so nice to not have to keep taking out my phone like with Genie +. The Early access group was held by the Hello Kitty store just past the entrance until 6:45, and then we were all slowly walked down the 3 escalators to the lower lot. There was the QR code for Toad’s Cafe posted at the entrance, so I quickly grabbed it and a photo of my tween in the warp pipe while speed walking to the ride. We were in the first group to board and walked through the whole queue without much time to see all the details. They opened the doors to let us board the cars right at 7am, and that’s also when the Toad’s cafe waitlist opened, so I made us a reservation for lunch. Easy peasy. Once off the ride, we played 3 of the games (we had purchased our power up bands at Citywalk the day before) and did the Bowser Jr. Challenge and explored a bit. At 7:50, the wait was showing 85 minutes so we decided to ride again before regular entry guests arrived. We boarded our second car in 50 minutes, which gave us time to appreciate the queue. By 9am, the shade in the land was gone and all the mini games were at 20 minute waits. The characters were out and were about 30 minute waits. We opted to do our last minigame and leave the land. With express pass, we rode:
Transformers: saved 95 minutes
Jurassic World: saved 95 minutes
The Mummy: (actually popped in right when it reopened via standby, but when we got off it was already at 95 minutes)
Studio Tour: saved 55 minutes
Secret Lives of Pets: (it was at VQ only, but our passes let us in and we waited less than 20 minutes)
Forbidden Journey: saved 90 minutes
Kung Fu Panda: saved 30 minutes
Minions: saved 30 minutes
Ride times can be inflated but I don’t think they were yesterday as I know someone who was stuck in the Jurassic World queue for 2 hours. In my view, the Express pass was worth every penny, even with also having bought early access. We didn’t need the Unlimited though so I’m glad we didn’t pay extra for that.
Toad’s Cafe: we had a waitlist time of noon and got in the (hot, unshaded) outdoor line at 11:45. We were let into the indoor queue right at noon and waited 20 minutes to order. I would say we waited another 25 minutes or so to get our food. We got:
- lemon squash drink: sweet/tart, we loved it
- piranha plant salad: light and refreshing
- Mario Burger vegan version: tween loved it
- Luigi chicken sandwich: just fine
- layer cake: not too sweet, matcha layer was yum, we demolished it
The theming was really cute even if we did watch the same video loop over and over since we were there about 90 minutes. It was a nice break from the heat.
That’s it! I’m glad we went, even with all the $$$$ spent on tickets, food and merch. My tween had the best time.
We arrived at bag check just around 6:25 for 7am early access (8am regular entry). We were then scanned into the park - make sure you have the QR code or bar code for your early access tickets from your email confirmation, as they can’t scan the tickets from the app. They gave us our paper Express Passes at this point, so nice to not have to keep taking out my phone like with Genie +. The Early access group was held by the Hello Kitty store just past the entrance until 6:45, and then we were all slowly walked down the 3 escalators to the lower lot. There was the QR code for Toad’s Cafe posted at the entrance, so I quickly grabbed it and a photo of my tween in the warp pipe while speed walking to the ride. We were in the first group to board and walked through the whole queue without much time to see all the details. They opened the doors to let us board the cars right at 7am, and that’s also when the Toad’s cafe waitlist opened, so I made us a reservation for lunch. Easy peasy. Once off the ride, we played 3 of the games (we had purchased our power up bands at Citywalk the day before) and did the Bowser Jr. Challenge and explored a bit. At 7:50, the wait was showing 85 minutes so we decided to ride again before regular entry guests arrived. We boarded our second car in 50 minutes, which gave us time to appreciate the queue. By 9am, the shade in the land was gone and all the mini games were at 20 minute waits. The characters were out and were about 30 minute waits. We opted to do our last minigame and leave the land. With express pass, we rode:
Transformers: saved 95 minutes
Jurassic World: saved 95 minutes
The Mummy: (actually popped in right when it reopened via standby, but when we got off it was already at 95 minutes)
Studio Tour: saved 55 minutes
Secret Lives of Pets: (it was at VQ only, but our passes let us in and we waited less than 20 minutes)
Forbidden Journey: saved 90 minutes
Kung Fu Panda: saved 30 minutes
Minions: saved 30 minutes
Ride times can be inflated but I don’t think they were yesterday as I know someone who was stuck in the Jurassic World queue for 2 hours. In my view, the Express pass was worth every penny, even with also having bought early access. We didn’t need the Unlimited though so I’m glad we didn’t pay extra for that.
Toad’s Cafe: we had a waitlist time of noon and got in the (hot, unshaded) outdoor line at 11:45. We were let into the indoor queue right at noon and waited 20 minutes to order. I would say we waited another 25 minutes or so to get our food. We got:
- lemon squash drink: sweet/tart, we loved it
- piranha plant salad: light and refreshing
- Mario Burger vegan version: tween loved it
- Luigi chicken sandwich: just fine
- layer cake: not too sweet, matcha layer was yum, we demolished it
The theming was really cute even if we did watch the same video loop over and over since we were there about 90 minutes. It was a nice break from the heat.
That’s it! I’m glad we went, even with all the $$$$ spent on tickets, food and merch. My tween had the best time.
