Planning a trip to Hawaii – Part 1
Planning 1 | Planning 2 | Planning 3 | Travel | Disneyland (Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4) | Arrival | Surfing | Aulani | Excursion | Hyatt
Disney Parks
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Ticket Options
Making FastPass+ Reservations with Disney’s Website
Making FastPass+ reservations can be an exciting part of your next Walt Disney World vacation. If you are staying at a Disney resort, you can make these reservations 60 days in advance of your trip. If you have an annual pass or a ticket you purchased outside of a Disney World package, you can make your FastPass reservations 30 days from your visit. When Disney says 60 days, they aren’t kidding. You can make these selections starting at midnight if you can stay up that late! Disney has two methods you can use to make your selections, either through their mobile app or their website. We will describe how to use the My Disney Experience website to make FastPass+ reservations.
Touring Plans
Although we love Disney trips, our least favorite aspect is standing in lines. One of our favorite tools that helps us avoid lines is Touring Plans — a website and service that helps you plan around the crowds to maximize your time while on vacation. Touring Plans has studied hundreds of thousands of wait times from all over the Disney parks, and has compiled a statistical model of how the parks run. They can predict, with surprising accuracy, what the crowds will be like at different parks on different days. They also have extensive models of what those crowds do in the park, giving you accurate attraction wait times at different times of the day.
FastPass+ Strategies
Tables in Wonderland
If you are a Florida resident, Disney Vacation Club Member, or a Walt Disney World Annual Passholder, the Tables in Wonderland card is a great way to save money while dining on Disney property. The Tables in Wonderland card will save you 20% off the price of food and beverages, including alcohol, at more than 100 different restaurants at Walt Disney World. The discount applies to dining parties of 10 people or less. The Tables in Wonderland card costs $175 for Florida residents and $150 for annual passholders or Disney Vacation Club members. A second card can be purchased for your spouse or partner for $50.
Jacksonville Special
One of the tricks I’ve described before is to look at alternate travel arrangements. When considering whether to upgrade our tickets this summer to annual passes, I looked for economical travel/lodging arrangements for other possible trips. We had several school breaks to consider, including a Halloween-based trip (which includes some teacher work days in November) and an early February trip (using teacher work days as well). Since these were “quick” trips to fit into a fixed calendar, we needed to be able to fly down to Florida in order to maximize our Disney time.
Rope Drop
One of the best kept secrets at Disney World and Disneyland is rope drop (with apologies to Disney Vacation Club for stealing your thunder). Rope drop is the time when the park opens. Arriving at the park for rope drop is one of the best ways to maximize your time at the Disney parks.