NHKristy76
Senior Mousketeer
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
Hmm. I haven't noticed ANY closed rides...
November was when I used to go, but over the years I hear it's just gotten insane. Now, having done it once, early October is the time for me. Though we're doing late Jan and the crowd forcasts are so low it's scary... Maybe that's when we will go from now on.
We just got back from Disney yesterday and while it was crowded - I think that Wednesday was my best fastpass day ever at Magic Kingdom. It was incredible how many rides we were able to do. We did Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Big Thunder (6x), It's a Small World, Carousel (2x), Space Mountain (2x), Buzz Lightyear (3x), Monsters Inc, Speedway, Haunted House and we even took a 4 hour break to relax at the condo. We arrived at 9:30am - stayed until 3pm then returned at 7pm and stayed until midnight. We used the Fastpass so much that my friend's husband said at 3pm that he was Fastpassed out. I don't know if people were just not using the Fastpasses or if they added more into the system but it was incredible how smooth our day went.
On Thanksgiving day, we did Epcot, we didn't arrive until about noon so Soarin was out of Fastpasses but we had done it earlier in the week. We did get Fastpasses for Test Track for 6:30pm so we toured the World Showcase, the kids had Passports and loved doing them. All of the shows were fairly empty although the walkways seemed full of people. We had a 4pm reservation at Garden Grill and the characters came by at least 4 times so we definitely felt we got our character value out of the meal. I had grabbed Fastpasses for Maelstrom before our meal so after we ate, we did the rest of the World Showcase, rode Maelstrom and Test Track then the park closed. It was a great day.
On Friday, we went to Magic Kingdom at about 2pm just to do Space Mountain again - it showed 55 minute wait but we got into line anyway, it was maybe 40 minute wait but when we got off the ride, it showed the wait time to be 95 minutes so we didn't go on it again. I was quite happy that the wait time was so much less then expected.
I would certainly do a Thanksgiving trip again as it was not nearly as bad as what I expected. I thought there would be wall to wall people but it was actually manageable and lots of fun. It seemed like there were characters everywhere with manageable lines, the weather was awesome and we were able to do lots of rides by utilizing our Fastpasses.
Here is our breakdown of our park days:
Nov 17 - Animal Kingdom
Nov 18 - Magic Kingdom
Nov 19 - Epcot for morning then Hockey Game in Tampa at 7pm
Nov 20 - SeaWorld
Nov 21 - Hollywood Studios
Nov 22 - SeaWorld
Nov 23 - Magic Kingdom
Nov 24 - Epcot
Nov 25 - Magic Kingdom
We found shopping at Downtown Disney to be easy - we never had any trouble getting a parking spot. We had an awesome trip. We met lots of people from New Jersey and found them to be super nice and friendly - one night at our condo, there was a huge group (probably 40-50 people) that were having a BBQ - I was watching the kids swim and they gave me one of the best tasting/cooked steaks of my life - they saw me sitting them (probably drooling from how good their BBQ smelled) and brought me over a steak - they even feed the kids hot dogs - they were extremely gracious, kind and friendly.
At Hollywood Studios, there was a group of teenagers who were part of a Marching Band, they were trying to use up their Disney Gift Cards at one of the Food Booths - I happened to be behind them (probably 15 kids) and was enjoying their enthusiam when one of them gave me their gift card that had $9 left on it - they were leaving that night and did not want to buy anything else so they gave it to me to treat my son to a special treat - it was such an unexpected and kind gesture - I was amazed.
During our trip, we gave out Fastpasses to help add magic to others too. At Hollywood Studios, we had 2 Fastpasses for Rockin Rollercoaster that we gave at 8pm to a young couple arriving - they were beyond thrilled to get the Fastpasses. We also gave Fastpasses to Big Thunder and Buzz Lightyear as we were leaving Magic Kingdom.
Thanksgiving weekend? I don't want to be the one to say "I told you so," but...
For Holidays like this, it's sad people aren't home with families enjoying dinner. Different ways of being raised I suppose.
I have family there now and they've been only during this time of year, more than 10 times collectively, all agree that they've never, ever, ever seen the parks this packed. I guess it's hellish at some points.
I heard TSM was hitting well over a 140 minute standby wait.
For Holidays like this, it's sad people aren't home with families enjoying dinner. Different ways of being raised I suppose.
Yes, actually I've heard that some people are raised to be obnoxious, small-minded, petty jerks who like to put others down just to make their own thoughtless, provincial choices seem somehow "better." Usually, nobody (not even their own families) can stand to be around people like this.
Not that I've ever met anyone like that myself! I've just heard of them...can't remember where. Maybe the Dis??
I guess their parents just failed. Sad.
Yes, actually I've heard that some people are raised to be obnoxious, small-minded, petty jerks who like to put others down just to make their own thoughtless, provincial choices seem somehow "better." Usually, nobody (not even their own families) can stand to be around people like this.
Not that I've ever met anyone like that myself! I've just heard of them...can't remember where. Maybe the Dis??
I guess their parents just failed. Sad.
harsh..................
Even when the parks are super-busy it is possible to get a lot done with a plan and some Disney street smarts. If you go in unprepared and with unrealistic expectations, the day will be very disappointing.
Here's what I did two days ago on Thanksgiving Day at MK. We entered the park at 9a on an AM EMH day as offsiters, so resort guests had an hour head start on us. We left the park at 11p.
Get FP Mickey/Minnie
Get FP but Splash closed so no FP
Get FP BTMRR
HM
IaSW
PhilharMagic
Get FP Space
Lunch at Cosmic Rays @ ~11a
Rabbit/Alice M&G
TTA
BTMRR (with FP)
Get FP Splash
Space (with FP)
Get FP Space
Teacups
Splash (with FP) but closed again while in queue
Mickey/Minnie M&G (with FP)
Ride resort and Epcot Monorail loops for downtime
Castle lighting @ 6:15p
Dinner at PVH @ 6:30p
IaSW
Splash (with FP)
Re-ride Splash using standby closed again while on ride
Watch MSEP from Splash during offload
Wishes
Space (with FP)
For Holidays like this, it's sad people aren't home with families enjoying dinner. Different ways of being raised I suppose.
Hilarious response, really. Too bad we all weren't raised right, like you.
Quick question. How were you able to get FP's for two different things immediately upon entering the park? Was the return time for the Mickey/Minnie M&G that early that your FP window opened up that quickly?