Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

PICKING THE BEST AND WORST DAYS TO VISIT THE DISNEY WORLD PARKS

As I’ve noted extensively elsewhere, this time of year–basically, until December 20, excluding Thanksgiving Week–although Disney World is largely un-crowded, you can choose your way into a really crowded park.

The issue is varying evening hours and entertainment, which can draw, or repel, huge numbers of people.

This week is a particularly good example (see the image, from the calendar I post every Friday), with

• Two early 6p closes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (10/2 and 10/5), each with no Fantasmic
• Four early 7p closes at the Magic Kingdom (9/29, 10/3, 10/4, and 10/6), each with no Wishes or evening parade, because of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and
• Late 10p closes at Epcot Friday and Saturday, because of the Food and Wine Festival

Here’s the basics: people are repelled by early closes and the absence of well-loved evening shows, and attracted by late closes and the traditional evening entertainment.

So look at Saturday 10/5 at the Magic Kingdom–it’s the only day in a four day stretch where the park is open later than 7p, and when Wishes and the evening parade will be showing. Moreover, Disney’s Hollywood Studios closes quite early, and people will avoid that park and be particularly drawn to MK for the same reasons.

So the Magic Kingdom will be just mobbed the 5th.

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the 3rd and 4th, with normal closes and normal evening entertainment, are between two days with 6p closes and no evening shows.  Both dates will be much more crowded than the early-close 2nd and 5th.

The 4th will be particularly crowded at the Studios.   On the 4th, it has morning Extra Magic Hours, which always draws extra people from the Disney resort hotels–and those without park hoppers then stay all day. Moreover, there’s nothing going on at other parks other than Epcot’s later 10p close to draw people away from it. And the Magic Kingdom’s 7p close will have people looking away from the Magic Kingdom for the next best alternative…

So the takeaway?  If you can see the evening shows on a different night, then make your principal park visits on days with they have materially early closings. 

You will find easy lines and un-crowded parks, and see more than you would on days with longer hours–because those longer hours attract disproportionate crowds!

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Update 10/8: These deals are out!!  See this.
Rumors have been rampant since Monday that Disney World will release two deals for 2014 on October 8.

The most common version is that room-rate discounts and a Stay/Play/Dine deal will be coming out then, and will cover much of January, all of February, some of March, and early April.

I haven’t been able to confirm any of the specific details being written about with my own sources, but the Mysterious J has confirmed that two Disney World deals in fact will come out October 8. 

As I get more details sent from trusted sources, I will pass them along!

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: SEPTEMBER 28 TO OCTOBER 6, 2013

The material below details operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

The same stuff is in the image, but organized by park, not by topic.

(And for more on September 2013 at Walt Disney World, see this, and more on October, this.)

[Read more →]

So last weekend I raced off to Walt Disney World to be a tester of MagicBands and FastPass+–both part of the emerging MyMagic+ offering at Walt Disney World.

FastPass+, which permits you—well, for now, those of you in the test–to reserve times to visit rides up to 60 days ahead, is the heart of MyMagic+, and what I was really interested in testing.

The short version is that my test went fine, (the photos on this page are from that visit–rides that I saw using FastPass+) but I’m still not sure how all this will shake out for typical first-time visitors to Walt Disney World who may never return. (A more detailed moment-by-moment “trip report” is here.)

I already knew going in that there would remain several key questions that won’t be fully answered until full roll out of the program—and maybe not even until a while after that:

• How many “headliner” Fastpass+ per day can people get?  Will this vary for on and off-site hotels, and, for on-site visitors, by hotel class?  In the test, all on-site hotels are treated the same, and you can get three headliners a day.  Will that stay the same? See the excerpt above from the The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2014 (click it to enlarge it) for some speculation that it might not.
• Will the parks still be relatively un-crowded at opening? I can think of three or four reasons why they might stay that way, and three or four why they might not.  This is partly a technical question (how many FastPass+ windows will be offered at 9a) and partly behavioral—how many people will grab those slots, and having grabbed them, get out of bed in time to use them?

To these open questions—which the test couldn’t answer and I didn’t expect it to—a third question emerged that I should have thought of before, which is how many people will actually reserve Fastpass+ anyway?

This is important, as it has implications for how many regular Fastpasses will be available to be pulled on the day of visit.  (Based on Disney’s current terms of service, at full rollout you’ll be able to use one or the other, but not both.  During the test so far, you’ve been able to use both, though this could change at any time.)

I started thinking of this because of Steve Russo’s recent post on MousePlanet, which quotes an inside source– “Admiral Boom,” no less!–as follows:

“The premise is that we can take some percentage of the FastPasses available in the parks and turn them over to the vacation planners, to be used as a perk for pre-planning one’s stay (and/or for staying on property).

The goal is to minimize the impact of doing that to the already successful, current program. In the end, one will still be able to walk into a park and get FastPasses, just like we can today…

By the way, we don’t expect pre-arranged FastPasses to be a major item. Studies have shown us that the majority of our guests don’t want to pre-plan their vacations to that level.”

If this holds up—especially the last point–FastPass+ may have a smaller impact on visits than many of us have been thinking.

But maybe not.  It’s a matter of headliner capacity.  If relatively few use Fastpass+, but all of them book headliners, it may be that you can get a Fastpass on the day of visit for Mickey’s PhilharMagic…but not for the headliners.

There’s still no official word on the general release of FastPass+ to everybody.

One of the questions I did expect to be able to test last weekend was how well the system worked.  For me, it largely worked fine, but not perfectly.  I was able to make multiple changes, some on the fly, and most—but not all—MagicBand FastPass+ readers worked.

The fact that they didn’t all work tells me there’s still bugs to be fixed…which tells me that FastPass+ won’t be fully rolled out for everyone probably until 2014.

Multiple reports have been coming in that visitors to the test resorts are now able to book FastPass+ for visits beginning in November.  That’s a good sign.

And on Tuesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference said that Fastpass+ will be “fully rolled out fairly soon…”

I’m trying to not read too much into the word “soon….”

Meanwhile, a more detailed moment-by-moment “trip report” is here.

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Disney World rides can close for re-dos at any time, but the winter “ride closure season” from early January though mid-February is the most predictable time for Disney World rides to close for rehab and refurbishment.

Splash Mountain is the major attraction that most commonly closes in this period, with closures of a week, a month (most common) and several months.

So far–in great news–it looks like Splash Mountain will only close for a few days in 2016. A couple of other great rides are closed around the same time, however.

Here’s what we currently (think we) know about 2016 Disney World winter ride closures:

Magic Kingdom:

• Splash Mountain closed January 6 – January 10
• Liberty Belle Riverboat closed January 18 – 22
• Space Mountain closed January 11 – 15
• Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin closed January 15 – February 11

Animal Kingdom – no known closings

Disney’s Hollywood Studios – no known closings

Epcot – no known closings

I’ll add more winter ride closures as they are announced…

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Welcome to those of you joining me from Capturing Magical Memories and those of you just hopping aboard!

I am the 5th stop on this month’s Magical Blogorail Teal. Enjoy the ride as this month we talk about Disney-themed Halloween costumes…and in my post, it’s all in the context of a review of Mickey’s Not-So Scary Halloween Party!

MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (“MNSSHP”) is a special, separately ticketed party that happens on certain nights every September, October and early November in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

(See this for more on logistics–Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party dates, tickets, etc.)

At the party you will find un-crowded rides, a special parade (shown twice!), special fireworks, trick-or-treating, dance parties…and a ton of guests in costumes!

COSTUMES AT MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

Costumes are not required, and not everyone wear them, as you can see in the image above. It’s of a group in line to get pictures taken in front of Cinderella’s Castle.

The most common costumes I saw in my September 2013 visit to MNSSHP were princess costumes and pirate costumes, and after that Marvel costumes. Lots of Disney themed costumes!

Whole families dressed as pirates were not uncommon–the whispers on the buses were such choices were made because “it’s all we could get dad to wear…”

But more curious costumes were not uncommon. I think the black outfits above were costumes…although perhaps the group was going clubbing after MNSSHP…

I saw a couple of fun get-ups in the smoking area near the Tomorrowland Terrace–this one…

…and this couple.

And this party in Adventureland proved a Disney theme was not required!

THE PARADE, FIREWORKS, DANCE PARTIES AND TRICK-OR-TREATS AT MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

MNSSHP has a special set of Halloween-themed activities.

For example, the parade–Mickey’s Boo-to-You Parade–is seen only at MNSSHP.

It starts with ducks…

…and mice…

…but then shortly shifts to my favorite part, Haunted-Mansion themed dancing gravediggers and ghouls.

These are followed by Disney villains, but the parade returns to “not-so-scary” at the end, with candy!

These kids really liked the parade.

There’s two showings of the parade, with spectacular Halloween-themed fireworks between.

You can also find in both Liberty Square and Tomorrowland dance parties featuring Disney characters–the shot above is from “Woody’s Happy Harvest Roundup” at the Diamond Horseshoe in Liberty Square.

Character meet-n-greets are all over the place–with both common and unusual characters–and there’s also a ton of trick or treat locations…both of which raise an issue.

STRATEGY AND RIDES AT MICKEY’S NOT-SO-SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

All the major rides are open, and many minor rides as well. Most have very short waits. In my September 2013 visit, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder had 10 minute waits, and Enchanted Tales with Belle just 30 minutes. (That’s me on the right, defending Belle.)

The trick-or-treat spots and character greetings, on the other hand, have pretty long lines.

So the best approach is to skip the character greetings and trick-or-treats–or delay them until after the second parade–and spend the first part of the evening on rides.

Do rides through the first parade (that is, til about 8.45 if the first parade is at 8.15p) and then watch Celebrate the Magic, the wonderful fireworks show Happy Hallowishes, and the second showing of the parade.

Some families will be worn out by now.  If yours has energy left, keep going with with more rides, or trick-or-treating!

I struggle with whether or not this party is worth the money for first-time family visitors who may never return.

It’s quite expensive–more than $200, and even over $300 on some dates (prices vary by date and whether or not you buy in advance) for a family of four.  And it’s just a five hour show (7p to midnight)–though Disney unofficially lets you in starting at 4p.

Yet the fireworks are the best Disney World offers, the parade is a hoot, the rides have short lines…and the costumes are fun!

My overall take is that for first-timers this time and money is better spent elsewhere, but that’s a really close call, and for sure I’d recommend it to returning visitors! But enough with the pirates costumes already dad, OK?

And Happy Halloween, everyone!

MORE ON DISNEY-THEMED COSTUMES FROM MAGICAL BLOGORAIL TEAL

Thank you for joining Magical Blogorail Teal this month. Our next loop will be on October 22nd with an all new theme.

Keep checking in with our blogs in between loops to keep up to date with our Disney info, photos and stories. If you are looking for more Disney magic, you can make your way over to The Magical Blogorail website to see all our members and their blogs, as well as all our previous loops.

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail Teal loop should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard!

1st Stop ~ The Many Adventures of a Disney Lovin’ Spectrum Mom
2nd Stop ~  Disney with Babies, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
3rd Stop ~ The Disney Kids
4th Stop ~ Capturing Magical Memories
Final Stop ~ yourfirstvisit.net

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