puffkin
DVC Owner- SSR & AKV
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2001
This is a copy of my final thoughts thread on my recent trip to WDW. It was suggested that I repost them on this board as well. If you are interested, the rest of the trip is chronicled in reports called Buzz and Woody's Great Adventure on the trip reports board.
Dates: June 9th June 16th, 2001
It is so hard to believe that I have been home for over two weeks now, it seems like just yesterday I was busy planning this trip. We both had such a good time, and I truly believe that the DIS is mostly responsible. With all the tips and suggestions that I learned from the boards, we were able to have a magical and virtually stress free vacation. And, because this trip went so well, Buzz would like to go back again (hopefully in early December of 2002). Here are some thoughts and tips (many came from the boards) that helped make our vacation such a success.
- Use Fast Pass. We didnt wait longer than 15 minutes for any ride during the entire trip. The longest lines we waited in were during E-ride night. We saw all the major attractions and everything else we wanted to mainly because of Fast Pass.
- Do the MK early entry. If you dont want to do EE (we didnt either) just go to a park that wasnt EE that day. However, the MK EE is the best time to do the Fantasyland attractions. We got them all done (except for Dumbo) as well as a few other things by 11 am.
- Visit the AK early. They are not kidding when they say this park is 10 degrees warmer than the others are. It was unbearable by 11 am. We wished that we would have scheduled two mornings to come here, because we had to leave by early afternoon and didnt get to see everything we wanted to.
- Give yourself at least an hour to get to Downtown Disney by WDW transportation. This was the one destination that we always had a long wait for a bus.
- Plan your PS ahead of time. We generally had one PS a day. I made them about 2 months before we left for the trip. It was nice to know that we had a nice place to eat dinner that night and we usually needed that hour or so break to recuperate and enjoy the air conditioning.
- The Fantasmic Dinner Package is great! Definitely do this, because it really cuts back on the time you need to wait at the theater. We only waited about 40 minutes, as opposed to 2 hours.
- Shop or eat while waiting for your Fast Pass. We did most of our shopping and snacking while waiting for Fast Pass times. It was actually very relaxing and beat standing in line.
- Do an E-ride night. While we were disappointed with ours, (it was packed!), we did manage to get most of the big attractions in the MK done in a relatively short amount of time. Plus, it was nice and cool out, and the park is so pretty at night.
- Bring a water bottle. We bought a nice one with a strap at Wal-Mart for about $5. We filled it up every morning at the resort and used it throughout the day. We saved so much money not having to buy water!
- Buy the refillable mugs. Since we didnt spend much time at the resort, I didnt think that we would get our moneys worth out of these. However, we used them every morning and almost every night as well as the times we ate a meal in the food court. These are a great buy and a nice souvenir to take home.
- Bring your own ponchos from home. We only used ours once, for about 20 minutes, so I was glad I had bought $1 ones from Target rather than spending $6 on one in the park.
There are many other tips and tricks that are too numerous to mention. These are the few though that helped us out the most during our trip. While the parks were very crowded and hot, however because of some good planning, we were able to minimize their negative effect. My advice is to overplan, then be flexible when you get there. It is nice to know you have a PS if you need it, but if not, you can always cancel it. All in all, the planning paid off, and we had a fantastic trip. Thank you to all the very knowledgeable and helpful DIS members, because without you, this trip would not been as much of a success.
Dates: June 9th June 16th, 2001
It is so hard to believe that I have been home for over two weeks now, it seems like just yesterday I was busy planning this trip. We both had such a good time, and I truly believe that the DIS is mostly responsible. With all the tips and suggestions that I learned from the boards, we were able to have a magical and virtually stress free vacation. And, because this trip went so well, Buzz would like to go back again (hopefully in early December of 2002). Here are some thoughts and tips (many came from the boards) that helped make our vacation such a success.
- Use Fast Pass. We didnt wait longer than 15 minutes for any ride during the entire trip. The longest lines we waited in were during E-ride night. We saw all the major attractions and everything else we wanted to mainly because of Fast Pass.
- Do the MK early entry. If you dont want to do EE (we didnt either) just go to a park that wasnt EE that day. However, the MK EE is the best time to do the Fantasyland attractions. We got them all done (except for Dumbo) as well as a few other things by 11 am.
- Visit the AK early. They are not kidding when they say this park is 10 degrees warmer than the others are. It was unbearable by 11 am. We wished that we would have scheduled two mornings to come here, because we had to leave by early afternoon and didnt get to see everything we wanted to.
- Give yourself at least an hour to get to Downtown Disney by WDW transportation. This was the one destination that we always had a long wait for a bus.
- Plan your PS ahead of time. We generally had one PS a day. I made them about 2 months before we left for the trip. It was nice to know that we had a nice place to eat dinner that night and we usually needed that hour or so break to recuperate and enjoy the air conditioning.
- The Fantasmic Dinner Package is great! Definitely do this, because it really cuts back on the time you need to wait at the theater. We only waited about 40 minutes, as opposed to 2 hours.
- Shop or eat while waiting for your Fast Pass. We did most of our shopping and snacking while waiting for Fast Pass times. It was actually very relaxing and beat standing in line.
- Do an E-ride night. While we were disappointed with ours, (it was packed!), we did manage to get most of the big attractions in the MK done in a relatively short amount of time. Plus, it was nice and cool out, and the park is so pretty at night.
- Bring a water bottle. We bought a nice one with a strap at Wal-Mart for about $5. We filled it up every morning at the resort and used it throughout the day. We saved so much money not having to buy water!
- Buy the refillable mugs. Since we didnt spend much time at the resort, I didnt think that we would get our moneys worth out of these. However, we used them every morning and almost every night as well as the times we ate a meal in the food court. These are a great buy and a nice souvenir to take home.
- Bring your own ponchos from home. We only used ours once, for about 20 minutes, so I was glad I had bought $1 ones from Target rather than spending $6 on one in the park.
There are many other tips and tricks that are too numerous to mention. These are the few though that helped us out the most during our trip. While the parks were very crowded and hot, however because of some good planning, we were able to minimize their negative effect. My advice is to overplan, then be flexible when you get there. It is nice to know you have a PS if you need it, but if not, you can always cancel it. All in all, the planning paid off, and we had a fantastic trip. Thank you to all the very knowledgeable and helpful DIS members, because without you, this trip would not been as much of a success.
Thanks for sharing.
