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Some people enjoy that kind of thing. My family has done both the "micromanage everything and do literally every single thing in all parks in four days" and "that's retarded just go with the flow" and each kind of vacation has its merits. If you only have a few days, it's your first time, and you want to get in as much as possible, it might be worth the extra aggravation to be uptight about timing and poo poo. And besides, it keeps you busy in free time for several weeks beforehand while you're doing your research and dreaming about your ~*~awesome vacation~*~. When you're an old hat though, yeah, it's better to go at a slower pace.
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Sep 1, 2014 22:54
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:06 |
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JoshTheStampede posted:Disboards jokes aside, how important is intelligent FP+ stuff? I just set ours for October and just sort of took the suggested slots as long as they didn't conflict with dinner reservations, I didn't really plan the out for location considerations because it was sort f overwhelming. Is that crazy? I've never been a vacation planner (I have a list of places i'd like to see over x amount of time, how I get there, I dont care) but this whole disney fast pass thing just is a bit scary. Also from what i've seen they can conflict with your reservations. I was trying to schedule the haunted mansion and it conflicted with my V&As chef dinner. How long does it generally take to get between parks? silicone thrills fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Sep 2, 2014 |
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Sep 2, 2014 02:23
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I usually budget myself an hour, mentally. Yeah, I'm usually earlier than I need to be but I'm not normally surprised. That's taking Disney transport though. Driving you can probably shave some time off of that. I was at the last idol show. Remind me to never trust a fastpass+ cm to make my fastpasses. He booked me one GMR instead of idol, and the system is set up so I had to use the GMR one to book an idol one. Can't use the app to book my fastpasses until they figure out how to let cms do so.
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Sep 2, 2014 03:07
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If you drive between parks, 15-20 minutes or more depending on how long it takes to get from the rear end end of where you just parked and to the gates. Using Disney transportation I would say half hour to forty five minutes on a good day but an hour as Cais mentioned would be wise. FP+ is good if you don't have a real plan to stick to but want to skip the lines. We book ours in advance and flex at the park. Don't trust the app though, it boned us bad on two occasions where we swapped passes for a different attraction and rather than offer us the same time slot it chose some other random hour never informing us of the fact.
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Sep 2, 2014 15:13
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I'm really unimpressed with MDE lately. I've seen lots of people complaining that it's screwing up their FastPasses, sometimes erasing them completely. This is especially annoying when you stayed up til midnight to get a FP for Anna and Elsa. Sometimes Guest Service can reinstate them if you took a screenshot.
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Sep 2, 2014 15:57
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When I am at FastPass return, if a guest can prove to me they have a fastpass when it seems they dont, either via screen shot or the app, I am allowed to permit them entry. Not sure if that is as flexible at some of the more popular FP destinations, but it's easier than having a guest be frustrated.
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Sep 2, 2014 16:15
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But now you have the added aggravation of telling a guest "I'm sorry but did you happen to take a screen shot of that?" which will no doubt start a firestorm if they are not wise enough to do so. Does this mean you have to now convey that to guests somehow telling them we know our system is screwy so please cover your rear end and take screens now?
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Sep 2, 2014 16:58
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The FP people in the park have asked me to take a picture or a screenshot every time I've changed stuff with them. As for doing it from off property, shrug.
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Sep 2, 2014 17:17
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When you do it at a kiosk they ask you to take a photo of it, and they recommend printing it out for those doing them before they arrive. I get lots of guests with print outs of their fast passes, which helps when their fastpasses disappear into the ether of MyMagic+
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Sep 3, 2014 05:48
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Is Be Our Guest really hard to get into these days? We made our dining reservations as soon as we could, and our agent said she was shocked we got a reservation. Also we have a large party of 11 total, some of the reservations are broken up into 5 and 6 and we're being told we can ask to 'have our tables together'. I worked restaurants for a long time in a previous life and I can't see that happening for a 7:30 PM Saturday night reservation at BOG. Confirm/Deny?
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Sep 4, 2014 23:03
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skipdogg posted:Is Be Our Guest really hard to get into these days? We made our dining reservations as soon as we could, and our agent said she was shocked we got a reservation. Be Our Guest reservations go at the 180 day mark. It's still very popular.
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Sep 4, 2014 23:12
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It's easier now to get a reservation than it used to be, but it can still be kind of tricky. You can absolutely ask to have all 11 of you seated together and they may or may not accommodate. Disney is used to big family parties, so it's not impossible.
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Sep 5, 2014 00:22
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My wife and I will be visiting WDW and Universal for the first time at the end of the month, and this thread has been super helpful. Thanks goons!
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Sep 5, 2014 16:46
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My family will be going to Orlando from the 11-16th of October. We are trying to figure out if we need to get a fast pass set up from home now, or can we do it in the park? We are only doing Magic Kingdom for one day, and with 2 kids and a husband, I want them all to enjoy as much as we can. Plus, am I at a 1% chance of getting fast pass for Elsa and Anna?
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Sep 7, 2014 03:19
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You're staying offsite? You'll have to wait to set up fast passes until you get in the park. You'll have to go to a kiosk and set them up there. I would say chances are slim you'll get an Anna & Elsa fast pass the day of. They only do 9 fast passes per hour and most people set them up way in advance.
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Sep 7, 2014 15:18
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We are staying offsite yes. Thank you for the information, apparently everyone we talk to has differing information and I know we have you here, as well as other DW experts. Thank you! Yeah I figured as much for frozen princesses. Thanks again for the info.
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Sep 7, 2014 17:25
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Richard M Nixon posted:I've been posting a lot on the disboards to prep for my trip next year and I catch myself sighing and shaking my head constantly at the posters over there. Does anyone else do the same? Maybe my time spent on SA and (long before) Reddit and the *chans has warped me, but those posters are just so squishy and sugary sweet. It's like reading what my mom and grandparents would be posting if they knew how to use a computer. The GBS in me has to resist the urge to reply "im gay" to every inane post on that forum. If you want your Disney discussion to be more SA-ish, I'd recommend the WDW Kingdomcast http://wdwkingdomcast.podbean.com and their facebook discussion group. Just a bunch of sarcastic assholes reviewing every bathroom on property, talking about how lovely magicbands are, and reliving old Epcot attractions.
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Sep 7, 2014 19:24
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Braksgirl posted:You're staying offsite? You'll have to wait to set up fast passes until you get in the park. You'll have to go to a kiosk and set them up there.
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Sep 7, 2014 19:33
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Yes, you're right. I forgot they changed that. I don't get many offsite clients so I completely forgot. It used to be offsite's couldn't book them early. But hey, with that news maybe you can get lucky and get a fastpass for A&E. That's pretty good news!
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Sep 7, 2014 19:43
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Interesting that WDW message boards were brought up earlier today, because I was wondering; besides Disboards, are there any other decent WVW boards? Disboards just gets aggravating after a while. Especially when there is a topic in "Theme Parks & Strategies" with a woman asking what kind of stroller would be appropriate for a 7 and 8-year old. 
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Sep 8, 2014 04:05
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I like Passporter. http://www.passporter.com/home-of-disney-world-cruise-travel-tips-planning-articles-photos.html It's ugly. but the advice is usually fairly good.
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Sep 8, 2014 14:44
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Doronin posted:Interesting that WDW message boards were brought up earlier today, because I was wondering; besides Disboards, are there any other decent WVW boards? WDW Magic Forums are pretty decent. It doesn't devolve into the complete batshit craziness that is DisBoards: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/ Although I don't delve very deep into those boards, so they could go full on crazy as well. I just don't see it. They tend to be a lot more jaded then DisBoard people. I renew my love of DisBoards just because I love people frothing at the mouth about dole whips and Frozen going in the world showcase. I actually won't begrudge someone asking about strollers for 7-8 year olds though. Disney World is huge. Especially Epcot (isn't it like 2km just to walk around world showcase?) some kids, even at 7 or 8 can't handle that. Granted, most of the time you end up with that picture of the fat kid in the stroller (This one) but some kids may need it. My daughter is 6 and I was worried yesterday when we were at a theme park that she wouldn't be able to handle walking all day. She did it like a champ, and I think next year when she's 7 and we're at Disney World she'll be ok, but it can be tough on some kids.
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Sep 8, 2014 15:23
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I get a double stroller for my 7 and 4 year old. Disney strollers are pretty enormous and the parks exhaust adults, let alone kids. When you're less than ten, you've got tiny little legs. Now once you get to be about 11 or 12, that's around where the line gets crossed.
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Sep 8, 2014 15:27
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It for sure depends on the kid. My three year old sister in law did better than the eight year old we had along at Disneyland.
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Sep 8, 2014 15:39
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It definitely depends on the kid. My oldest is 8 and she grouses about walking, but my 2 year old was absolutely fine walking all day. For our trip next year, I'm stoked at the idea of not bringing a stroller. I like to travel light and a stroller is super inconvenient.
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Sep 8, 2014 19:25
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Roar posted:I get a double stroller for my 7 and 4 year old. Disney strollers are pretty enormous and the parks exhaust adults, let alone kids. When you're less than ten, you've got tiny little legs. Absolute disagreement. 7 is probably still ok depending on the size of the kid, but if you coddle your 8-11 year old so much that they can't use some of that limitless kid energy to run around WDW at mach 4, its just sad. Yeah, they will end up getting tired and probably a little cranky. That's a natural reaction to being hella excited and running around for days. Ultimately it's good for them. I won't personally judge anyone who disagrees. I'm a non-parent and don't intend to tell any parents how to do their business as it concerns raising their kids. But I absolutely remember seeing a bunch of kids that were plenty big enough to walk around WDW in strollers, and in response imagined a future filled with Wall-E style fat people chairs because people forgot to teach their kids to walk and to endure a little bit of the burn as a sign of positive change.
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Sep 9, 2014 04:45
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I'm a non-parent but I know enough to realize all kids develop differently. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with weight or structure or whatever. There's lots of way overweight kids but that mach 4 energy only lasts so long. I think 11 is pushing it. I went down to WDW at 10 and I remember being so tired that I could barely lift my feet by the end of the day, and we just did magic kingdom. Most the kids my age were fast asleep against their parents. Now with park hopping and people running around trying to get to fast passes, ADRs and character meets (possibly criss-crossing the park over and over and over again), I could see a 10 year old needing a place to sit for a while, if not a stroller. But then a lot of people seem to be doing midday breaks for kids under 15 or so and that should work out fine too. If your 10 year old is getting pushed everywhere from daylight to dusk in a stroller and the kid doesn't have any medical reasons for that, it's stupid. If your 10 year old just needs pushed out of the park at the end of the day because you waaaayyy over did it, I can't say I blame the kid.
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Sep 9, 2014 13:41
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The fact is that most older kids will want to walk around anyways but it's good to have the stroller for when they inevitably get exhausted. Fatty fatcakes refusing to walk at all is one thing, but most kids are quite another. This is sort of the same argument as the people who rent electronic scooters because they don't want to walk/"can't wait on their feet in line for that long". God I loved telling people that our line was wheelchair accessible and that we even had a chair that they could use in line. They gave me the sourest of looks.
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Sep 9, 2014 14:21
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^^^ If looks could kill, asking folks in scooters to transfer would be on my death certificate. Kids who are worn out by their parents vacation methods are a common sight at all of the parks. I rotated to FastPass Merge at Pooh, and we have this brick wall that's next to the gift shop and there was 7 or 8 year old just full on sleeping on it while one of his parents and other siblings were on Mine Train. We currently live in an age of not just enjoying the vacation but enjoying every single last second to squeeze the pennies out of what they paid for. Disney vacations are expensive, so parents are now often looking for ways to extend their bucks. It kind of saddens me to see it too. When Magic Kingdom has Extra Magic Hours until 2am and your four year old is screaming they want to go to bed and you are telling them "Hell no, we are gonna ride Dumbo five times" perhaps you've lost sight of the reason. Your child is never going to scream "I want to go to sleep" ever again, and you are straight up ignoring. Come on, people. In other news, I actually had to do the adult version of the stroller thing the other day. My knee locked up pretty bad over the weekend (had to call out of one shift and get released from another) and then my friends from home came to visit. I had promised them weeks earlier that I'd get them into Magic Kingdom with my guest passes, but I was like "My knee says never mind" but they offered to get me a wheel chair because they desperately wanted to go. As a CM I get free wheelchair rentals, so I said "sure." I got a lot of dirty looks from people who assumed I just didn't want to walk. TheBigBudgetSequel fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Sep 9, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2014 16:10
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Speaking of disabled access, I'm contemplating a trip out, and would be going with a disabled person (no wheelchair, non-visible disability, was always fun seeing the judgmental looks from other guests), and life was great with the disabled pass. However the last time we went was before the whole hooplah about people gaming the system and hiring guides who would get one for you, and I heard that the rules have been changed. Anyone know what it's like now? "Skipping" the lines was huge on a trip where we could only go out for 2-3 hours at a stretch before having to take a few hour break in the room before heading out again.
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Sep 9, 2014 16:48
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Fejsze posted:Speaking of disabled access, I'm contemplating a trip out, and would be going with a disabled person (no wheelchair, non-visible disability, was always fun seeing the judgmental looks from other guests), and life was great with the disabled pass. However the last time we went was before the whole hooplah about people gaming the system and hiring guides who would get one for you, and I heard that the rules have been changed. Anyone know what it's like now? "Skipping" the lines was huge on a trip where we could only go out for 2-3 hours at a stretch before having to take a few hour break in the room before heading out again. The process has changed. You can now get a DAS card. It has slots for rides. You go to a ride, and they can give you a return time that will be ten minutes less than current standbye wait time. (So, if a ride has a 30 minute wait, your return time will be in 20 minutes) When your return time is up, you can come to the FastPass line. Unlike FastPass, there is no end time, BUT you can only have one ride on the card at a time. You must ride it and have the time crossed out by a cast member before getting a new time at another ride. IF the ride has a 10 minute or less wait, you will be let right in . It is not ideal and is still working out it's growing pains, but I tell guests who are having trouble with it to make use of FastPass+ reservations on top of their card to gain fast access to more rides in a given day. My aunt uses it for her son, and that seemed to work where they could get on rides quicker, and made it similar to the old system if not quite as convenient.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:18
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Fejsze posted:Speaking of disabled access, I'm contemplating a trip out, and would be going with a disabled person (no wheelchair, non-visible disability, was always fun seeing the judgmental looks from other guests), and life was great with the disabled pass. However the last time we went was before the whole hooplah about people gaming the system and hiring guides who would get one for you, and I heard that the rules have been changed. Anyone know what it's like now? "Skipping" the lines was huge on a trip where we could only go out for 2-3 hours at a stretch before having to take a few hour break in the room before heading out again. Depends on the disability and the needs of the person now. If it's solely mobility/fatigue related, you'll be told to rent a wheelchair/scooter and wait in line with everyone else as lines are (mostly) accessible. If they can't stand in line for some reason or another (various autistic reasons for example) you now get a card that you take to the ride and the person gives you a return time equal to the length of the current wait time. When you return at the designated return time it works like a fastpass basically and you skip over the line. You can have only one return time at a time. There's no more skipping lines due to disability anymore. TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Kids who are worn out by their parents vacation methods are a common sight at all of the parks. I rotated to FastPass Merge at Pooh, and we have this brick wall that's next to the gift shop and there was 7 or 8 year old just full on sleeping on it while one of his parents and other siblings were on Mine Train. This poo poo angers me. I assume these people are at Disney World at least partially for their kids, and yet they're treating their kids like poo poo to ride a ride. One of my favourite things at Disney World is the Main Street Electrical Parade. Know how many times I've seen it since my daughter was born? 1. And that's because she took a nap in the afternoon. I also really like all the firework shows. Know how many I've seen? Zero, because it's past her bed time, and she really dislikes the loud noise of fireworks. There's so much stuff I love at Disney World that I don't get to do because she can't handle it/isn't old enough/isn't tall enough, and I suck it the gently caress up and ride Carousel of Progress 4 times in a row because she loves singing the song. gently caress people, don't abuse your kids because you want to ride Dumbo!
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Sep 9, 2014 18:18
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CoP is unironically one of the best rides in Tomorrowland after the TTA.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:23
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Roar posted:CoP is unironically one of the best rides in Tomorrowland after the TTA. Have you seen my limited edition Carousel of Progress 50th Anniversary T-shirt?! It's pretty awesome! Also, why are there no CoP pins? Sure, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, It's A Small World all get pins, but no CoP 
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Sep 9, 2014 19:00
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Happitoo posted:Have you seen my limited edition Carousel of Progress 50th Anniversary T-shirt?! It's pretty awesome! Probably because they'd have gleefully murdered it/gotten rid of it years ago if not for it being what it is. It's loving amazing and I love that stupid ride so much. If not gotten rid of it, they'd have rammed it full of Meet The Robinsons horrible poo poo years ago because Time Travel Something. Every time it goes down for maintenance I get real wary it's not going to come back.
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Sep 9, 2014 19:10
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Are the FastPass kiosks still at the rides or has it all moved to FastPass+? We're going at the end of the month. We tend to be a little more spontaneous and will hit a couple, if not several parks in a day. Planning which park we'll be at and what we'll be doing every hour that day this far in advance really doesn't sound like much fun.
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Sep 9, 2014 22:04
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Dr. Benway posted:Are the FastPass kiosks still at the rides or has it all moved to FastPass+? We're going at the end of the month. We tend to be a little more spontaneous and will hit a couple, if not several parks in a day. Planning which park we'll be at and what we'll be doing every hour that day this far in advance really doesn't sound like much fun. Then forget about fastpass because it's all fastpass+ now.
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Sep 9, 2014 22:20
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Dr. Benway posted:Are the FastPass kiosks still at the rides or has it all moved to FastPass+? We're going at the end of the month. We tend to be a little more spontaneous and will hit a couple, if not several parks in a day. Planning which park we'll be at and what we'll be doing every hour that day this far in advance really doesn't sound like much fun. The amount of old FastPass paper kiosks is now zero. You do it digital or you don't. They have added Park Hopping into the mix now. You still have to book the three for one park, but after than you can hop. That really only works if you go to one of the three non MK parks first then hop to the MK one though. Only MK has enough FastPass options for that to be helpful on moderate to busy days.
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Sep 10, 2014 05:15
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Thanks for the replies. We'll sort something out.
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Sep 10, 2014 23:57
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:06 |
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Went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party yesterday. It was a little pricey, but I think it was worth it. MK was not very crowded that day, and all the rides were pretty much walk on during the party. Great fireworks and parade!
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Sep 11, 2014 04:26
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