Search

[Coaster]

Howdy, SDCFans! Next week I will be in sunny Orlando, Florida for a school trip. I know we will be attending the Magic Kingdom at WDW and Islands of Adventure at Universal for sure.

I have been to both of these parks when I went on vacation with my family in Orlando six years ago, but this time I will be in a large group of 14. I'm excited to go again, I'm sure many things have changed since I was there last.

I was wondering if any of you had any tips on how to experience these world class parks in large groups while maximizing the experience under time constraints? I'm sure we will get to go to other parks as well, but these are just the two our group has decided on for sure. I know betamike works at WDW....maybe he has some tips.

[Junior]

Coaster, take lots of photos, then post them with reviews when you get back! Enjoy the trip...

[sanddunerider]

sounds like a great trip! enjoy yourself and be safe!

[Joy]

I was at WDW the first week of January this year, and MAN, I loved it. I'd been there once before, but only to Magic Kingdom & MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios).

This time around, I got to go to all four parks.

My main tip is to go to Barnes 'n' Noble and buy the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger. Make sure to get the one that is the main one, not ones of the specialized for specific groups ones.

Other than that, I just recommend being at the parks before opening; try to be as early as possible. By doing so, the minute the rope is dropped, you can head to specific attractions to grab FastPasses before they're all gone.

For Animal Kingdom, go for Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro FPs. For Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Mania is THE it spot; my friend ran for FPs, and by the time she was walking back to meet us, the line for the *FPs* was several blocks long. For Epcot, Soarin' definitely requires a FastPass unless you head straight for the ride to get in line first thing (depending on the crowds; we were there on a slow week). And for Magic Kingdom, the key FPs would be for Peter Pan's Flight and Space Mountain.

Touringplans.com is the Unofficial Guide's website and has some great info on it. Allears.net and wdwinfo.com are good sites for planning your trip, too.

I don't have any advice about Universal as I've still yet to go there.

EDIT: Just thought of something! If you go to Hollywood Studios and want to ride Star Tours, that'll DEFINITELY have to be your first FastPass trip. Don't be surprised if you find yourself in line for hours for the ride, 'cause it JUST re-opened after being completely overhauled.

[Coaster]

Thanks for the tips Joy! I have the Birnbaum's WDW guide book from 2004, my last trip there. That is probably out of date so I do need to do some more reading elsewhere.

Could you refresh my memory with the Fastpass system? We relied on it heavily when we were there and it worked great. But I can't remember how it works for sure. You can only have a Fastpass ticket for one attraction at a time, is that correct? For instance, I could not get a Fastpass for Splash Mountain and then try and get a Fastpass ticket for Space Mountain five minutes later?

For Universal, what our family did was just go to the Single Riders line. That line is MUCH shorter and since Universal's Fastpass system is an additional fee, we weren't interested in doing that. Yes, with the Single Riders line we did run the risk of being separated on the rides, but a great majority of the time we were just split in half and we still got to ride together, while waiting in a MUCH MUCH shorter line.

[Joy]

Let me see if I can remember how it went:

Except for Soarin', the rides will let you on at any time of the day, even if your FastPass window is "expired"; they barely even look at your FP as you enter the line. Heck, my friend dropped her FP to Kilimanjaro, and the guy was nice enough to let her get in with us without her FP. They're pretty lenient about it, as long as the time is at or after the first time printed on the pass. (except at Soarin'; apparently they're the one ride where they WILL keep you from boarding if your FP time has expired) So, you can use it whenever you want.

Therefore, you can have more than one FastPass at a time, because there's a time printed on the pass for when you can grab your next pass.

[Junior]

Just a quick note...when my family and I went to STAR TOURS in 1996, The technology in use for this simulation attraction was essentially indential to the diving bell. It simply was a different theme. I imaging the revamped Star Tours is pretty fantastic, especially because the effects would be cutting edge...just think if they would bring back the diving bell? Enjoy the trip to Florida!

[Coaster]

I'm a Star Wars nerd so I'm hoping we get to go to Hollywood Studios so I can check out the new Star Tours! I remember it from when I was there and I thought it was pretty cutting edge back then, I can't imagine what it's like now. I'd love for them to bring back the diving bell! SDC really needs more of an indoor high tech attraction, like a 3D show,  or something of that nature. But I'm not getting my hopes up. :p

I also coud take another ride on the Tower of Terror. That ride is simply amazing! I keep wanting to call it Disney MGM Studios, because that's what it was when I was there. Did MGM and Disney's agreement just run out? Did they try to come up with a new contract or anything?

[Joy]

I'm really not sure what the details were about the name change. BetaMike probably would know...

OMG, I loved Tower of Terror so much that we rode it a second time!

Star Tours is now in 3D, and you visit two different planets, randomized from a list of six, and there are two other elements that are randomized from a list, so there are over 50 different possible combinations of what you may experience on the ride!

[thelarsonsix]

Only slightly OT, but I didn't know betamike worked at WDW. Learn something new everyday here.

[Coaster]

^^Wow, 50 different ride combinations?! That sounds like a lot of fun. And Tower of Terror is in my top 3 favorite rides of all time. It is just unbelieveable the amount of theming went into that ride, and how different it is from any other ride I've ever experienced.

^I can't remember for sure but betamike might be a "higher up" at Disney. I think I remember him posting that he is on a team that checks for ride safety or something like that.

[spgoad]

Cool! I know you'll have a blast. I'm a huge Disney fan, but just getting my first real exposure to Disney parks this year (went to Orlando for a week in January, Anaheim for 5 days next month). That said I'm a huge planner and really like forums like this one, so I did a ton of "research" on DISBoards.com. You can find all kinds of great information about both WDW and Universal there. Might be worth some time reading and asking questions if you have some specifics.

Some random thoughts I have off the top of my head -

IOA was great, but crazy with the crowds. We got there at opening and there was already a wait to get into the Harry Potter section of the park. The wait was 10 mins at the time, later in the day it got to be over 2 hours just to get into that section! Then another hour and a half for the headliner Forbidden Journey ride. So, my advice, go early if possible, and remember as a big group you don't always have to stick together. They areas are extremely well themed, but TINY. I'm not even sure your whole group could fit in some of the shops (like Olivanders). Another HP tip - Go through the regular line for the Forbidden Journey once. It's long, but worth it for the cool castle tour you get. After that, only use the single rider line. The ride is very dark and there are basically little walls between you and the other riders on the ride vehicles, so you really gain nothing but lost time by not taking advantage of the single rider line. When we were there the main line was hour and a half long, single rider took less than 10 minutes.

Disney - Fastpass is your best friend. :-) Once you get one you can get another at either the time printed on it OR two hours after when you got it, whichever is sooner. So, for the super popular rides like Star Tours, if you get a FP at 9am with a return time of 1pm, you can get another FP at 11am. The only caveat in that situation is that your second FP can't be for Star Tours (same ride), it has to be for different ride. In normal situations where you get a second FP at the return time printed on pass, your second FP can be for whatever ride you want.

With big groups, I think it can kind of depend on the group dynamic what you want to do. Some may want to all stick together and others may want to split up. If you want to stick together to do some major rides, there are some large vehicle rides where you could probably all fit in one (Pirates of the Caribbean, It's A Small World, Great Movie Ride). But for a good portion of the rides, the vehicles are much smaller, so you'll have to at least split up somewhat. You can also check out some of the theater like events as a big group (Philharmagic, Tiki Room, Laugh Floor). It just kind of depends on what your group wants to do.

Best times for the big headline rides without getting a FP is right at park opening, or just before close. Using FP wisely and riding the high capacity/less popular rides in the busiest times, my wife and I never waited more than 20 mins or so for a ride in January. It was awesome. Keep in mind the large vehicle rides/theater attractions like I mentioned are often very high capacity, so their waits will be considerably less than the headliners during busy times.

Ok, that's all I've thought of for right now. :-) I get very excited talking about Disney parks, they are such awesome theme parks. Maybe not big thrill ride wise, but their atmosphere (especially Magic Kingdom) is unmatched. Have fun!

[Coaster]

^Thanks for the tips! That really disappoints me to hear that about the HP section....I can't believe there would be a wait to get into that section! Since you were there in January and it had just opened, maybe that's what the deal was. Maybe that has died down since then. I sure hope so because I know we will be crunched for time.

I think our group will stick together for the most part, but probably split up for an hour or two at a time depending on what people want to do.

Also, I think we have decided to do Seaworld. However, some of our group wants to do Seaworld's new waterpark Aquatica, which is what I think I am going to do. I've already been to Seaworld San Antonio and San Diego, and they are basically all the same. Plus, I've looked at Aquatica's website and it looks like a lot of fun!

[spgoad]

Yes, HP area definitely could have died down a bit more now... but it is still barely a year old, so I suspect it is still fairly busy. Honestly the biggest problem with it for me is that it seems they didn't anticipate the crowds. Nothing is big enough to handle the people coming in. Their crowd control was very frustrating to me. That said, the smallness makes it seem very "real" and adds to the intimacy of the theme. It's a brilliant section of the park, we enjoyed our time there, don't get me wrong. We just won't be going back anytime soon till we hear the crowds are better.

Haven't seen Aquatica... I'll have to check it out. Of course I don't know that we'll ever have enough time in Orlando do try all the other parks. There is so much to do there, but we like WDW a little too much. Can't see us taking a trip to Orlando without going there, and of course that limits our time to go elsewhere. I think I just need to retire there... (in another 30 years or so...) :-)

[Joy]

Just consider yourself lucky that you won't be going to Universal the week the last Harry Potter movie comes out; the biggest HP convention EVER is happening that weekend, so IOA's gonna be PACKED with HP fans.