The Bare Necessities Summer 2019

[GezzasGem]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I've got a couple of evenings at Epcot and a morning so I've booked my tier 1 as test track, frozen ever after and Soarin on these days. I feel like I need to say that as it's easy for people to give advice not to bother booking something as a FP when they have it in the bag...

So to answer your question. There is a good chance of rope dropping both test track and Soarin and having less than 15 minutes wait. I'm hoping to do this in addition to the FP!

On our first Epcot day I want to rope drop Soarin as we are going during EMH. This really shouldn't be a problem. We should also have time to get over to test track, but as I have a FP for it on on this day it doesn't matter if it goes tech. We can just do other rides.

Last summer we got on test track on a non EMH day with a 10 minute wait, I'm counting the designing of the car in this time. We were at the park at 8.45, so I suppose you should really add this 15 minutes to the wait time to make it a total of 25 minutes. We made sure we were to the left of spaceship earth and we walked fast! But I utterly refuse to run, especially in that heat!

We don't tend to head into world showcase until afternoon or evening and by then there is a long wait for frozen. I can't really give good tips on this. But it is a fab ride! Even for those who remember Maelstrom.

I've read that many people book up a pre park ADR for Akershus to be able to get on frozen before it becomes a long wait. This strategy is also used by booking up garden grill to get on Soarin. Personally, we are not big breakfast eaters and so only have 1 breakfast ADR and don't want it at 8am...ours is at garden grill at 10am, as I much prefer a brunch! So this is not a strategy that I adopt. But it does seem to work well.

I much prefer the idea of going to Epcot in the evening following a water park day and this way we can have multiple tier 1 FP! This is my ultimate preferred strategy. This is how I've managed to get around the tier 1 issues.

But, all is not at a loss if you don't have multiple visits as we also have managed to get test track and frozen on the same day as 4th FP last summer...in fact last year we had Soarin as a 4th FP which I thought was super amazing only to find that it was just a 20 minute wait in the early evening, around 6pm, I guess everyone had headed into world showcase.

What are your Epcot plans? How many days do you have for FP?

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Thanks for the tips - encouraging that you were able to get the tier ones as a 4th FP too! We have one whole day as Epcot and a second day earmarked if we missed anything, although not sure whether to bother booking FPs for that day as our final three days of trip am quite liking the idea of keeping as 'ad hoc'!
I think a rope drop is definitely on the cards so may look at Test Track first to reduce chance of thunderstorm failures! We also not ones for TS breakfasts.
So maybe Soarin as first FP? I think the queue for Frozen ride is also my fave out of those three and most likely to entertain DD, making it my least preferred choice for my tier 1.
I must admit I struggle with Epcot FP as I find most of tier 2 don't really warrant one, or is that just me?! Will def do Spaceship Earth but third one really is anyone's guess! DH and I not keen on Mission Space so that is off the cards straight away 😂

[collybird]

I was thinking about you at lunchtime and hoping you’d got on okay. Done and dusted in 30 minutes is quite impressive. Thank you for the ‘View Details and More Times’ tip, believe it or not I didn’t know about this, and am suitably ashamed.

It is crazy that you are about to say you’ll be going to Orlando next month.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by GezzasGem

Thanks for the tips - encouraging that you were able to get the tier ones as a 4th FP too! We have one whole day as Epcot and a second day earmarked if we missed anything, although not sure whether to bother booking FPs for that day as our final three days of trip am quite liking the idea of keeping as 'ad hoc'!
I think a rope drop is definitely on the cards so may look at Test Track first to reduce chance of thunderstorm failures! We also not ones for TS breakfasts.
So maybe Soarin as first FP? I think the queue for Frozen ride is also my fave out of those three and most likely to entertain DD, making it my least preferred choice for my tier 1.
I must admit I struggle with Epcot FP as I find most of tier 2 don't really warrant one, or is that just me?! Will def do Spaceship Earth but third one really is anyone's guess! DH and I not keen on Mission Space so that is off the cards straight away 😂

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I couldn't agree more about the ridiculous tier 2 options. I have figment FP twice on two different days. I love that ride, but it really doesn't need a FP. I was really cross when they moved the character spot to tier 1. Although I did already have it booked alongside a TT or Soarin FP before they made the change so it worked out ok for us last year. But this year we will have to queue up, or try to get it as a 4th FP.

I've also this year tried to put my tier 1, or at MK my most important ride, as the first FP. The thinking is that these are the hardest to get rides and the others could be modified closer so that we can quickly use up all 3 FP in tiered parks and try to get 4th FP for other tier 1 rides.

Originally Posted by collybird

I was thinking about you at lunchtime and hoping you’d got on okay. Done and dusted in 30 minutes is quite impressive. Thank you for the ‘View Details and More Times’ tip, believe it or not I didn’t know about this, and am suitably ashamed.

It is crazy that you are about to say you’ll be going to Orlando next month.

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Thanks for sending me good vibes and well wishes at lunch time! It was a really smooth process actually.

I'm not sure I'd ever used the 'view details and more times' link, mostly I'd just accepted one of the three proposed times. It was when I was trying to book late ones on the Discovery Cove day that I found clicking on evening just left me hanging and so I tried the other link. Well there's loads of other times! The horrible photo I posted probably didn't show the times clearly but each little box was a FP time. If I had already booked a FP for that day then some of the blue boxes had a black bold outline showing I couldn't get another FP as it would overlap. It was really handy and I'm going to try to not forget about it next year.

It's now June and I can officially say we go next month

[Eccle]

Really glad it all went smoothly for you, I need to start thinking about mine. Did you have Slinky Dog in any of your earlier trip days! That’s one i’m worried about getting as we only have 5 nights on site.

I always thought Figment was a pointless FP until our trip last year when there was regularly 40 minute queues for it without!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Eccle

Really glad it all went smoothly for you, I need to start thinking about mine. Did you have Slinky Dog in any of your earlier trip days! That’s one i’m worried about getting as we only have 5 nights on site.

I always thought Figment was a pointless FP until our trip last year when there was regularly 40 minute queues for it without!

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Slinky dog wasn't until the second week. I think if I were you I'd do this first, and FOP if you want that. You might have to take an afternoon time slot.

Good luck!

[jothp]

Wow, I'm not sure how I'd missed so much of this thread.

I love the meals you've been eating around the world to get in the mood - such a great idea.

I also love the ears and they didn't look too tricky to make at all. I think it's something I could give a go with the girls. Where did you find the different materials you used? Did you just buy plain headbands in the colour you wanted? I love the fact that you recycled a skirt to make ears.

Well done on getting all the fastpasses you wanted. I agree about Epcot being a pain having three rides in tier 1 and not much worth having in tier 2. We've used the early breakfast at GG to help with Soarin and will do that again next year. By next summer of course we'll have the extra complication of Rat.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by jothp

Wow, I'm not sure how I'd missed so much of this thread.

I love the meals you've been eating around the world to get in the mood - such a great idea.

I also love the ears and they didn't look too tricky to make at all. I think it's something I could give a go with the girls. Where did you find the different materials you used? Did you just buy plain headbands in the colour you wanted? I love the fact that you recycled a skirt to make ears.

Well done on getting all the fastpasses you wanted. I agree about Epcot being a pain having three rides in tier 1 and not much worth having in tier 2. We've used the early breakfast at GG to help with Soarin and will do that again next year. By next summer of course we'll have the extra complication of Rat.

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We are loving the meals around the world! We are doing Germany next week so that will be fun as it's Black Forest Gateaux for pudding.

I really recommend you watch Taylor on WDW couple explain it if you want to make the ears. She did a great job of explaining. I ordered the hair bands from Amazon, they are very cheap. I bought ones that are an inch wide and are a velvet material as I thought that would be the most comfortable and they do seem to sit really well on my head!

The glue gun, stuffing and material I bought from hobby craft. There is a store pretty close to us and I could buy small metre square patches of the material and metre lengths of the trim. The bag of stuffing is what is used for cuddly toys and was £5. It doesn't look like I've even used any though as it's as full as it was when I started so that is basically a lifetime supply of stuffing!

I did think that I was silly to give away some of Kate's old t shirts which were Disney themed as these could have been recycled when she grew out of them. The slightly stretchy material would be great and a smaller pattern is better as it shows up better on the ears.

If you do go ahead and make some please share photos of them I'd love to see them.

[jothp]

Originally Posted by Goldia

We are loving the meals around the world! We are doing Germany next week so that will be fun as it's Black Forest Gateaux for pudding.

I really recommend you watch Taylor on WDW couple explain it if you want to make the ears. She did a great job of explaining. I ordered the hair bands from Amazon, they are very cheap. I bought ones that are an inch wide and are a velvet material as I thought that would be the most comfortable and they do seem to sit really well on my head!

The glue gun, stuffing and material I bought from hobby craft. There is a store pretty close to us and I could buy small metre square patches of the material and metre lengths of the trim. The bag of stuffing is what is used for cuddly toys and was £5. It doesn't look like I've even used any though as it's as full as it was when I started so that is basically a lifetime supply of stuffing!

I did think that I was silly to give away some of Kate's old t shirts which were Disney themed as these could have been recycled when she grew out of them. The slightly stretchy material would be great and a smaller pattern is better as it shows up better on the ears.

If you do go ahead and make some please share photos of them I'd love to see them.

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I love black forest gateaux!

Thanks for all the help. I've got DD watching the video you recommended right now. She seems very keen. A good tip about the material from Hobbycraft, I shall have to pay a visit to our local store. I already have a glue gun and some toy stuffing as DD lost the stuffing that came with a cuddly toy kit and I bought way too much! I'll certainly post some pictures if we get around to making them.

[Eccle]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Slinky dog wasn't until the second week. I think if I were you I'd do this first, and FOP if you want that. You might have to take an afternoon time slot.

Good luck!

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Thank you, yes I do want FOP too, ideally I want FOP on our 60+1 day and Slinky on 60+4 as I pushed that later to try and increase our chances. Those are definitely what I will get booked first, followed by 7DMT. Was ToT hard to get? I heard FPs were limited for that at the moment.

Just working on my plans at the moment!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by jothp

I love black forest gateaux!

Thanks for all the help. I've got DD watching the video you recommended right now. She seems very keen. A good tip about the material from Hobbycraft, I shall have to pay a visit to our local store. I already have a glue gun and some toy stuffing as DD lost the stuffing that came with a cuddly toy kit and I bought way too much! I'll certainly post some pictures if we get around to making them.

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I'm glad to have inspired you. It's a fun thing to do together and I reckon I've watched that video about 5 times. I can make them without referring back to the video now so I'm an expert

The frozen material came from hobby craft as did the red Mickey head print. The hardest part I found was the making of the bows, they didn't seem to come out as well as I'd hoped.

Originally Posted by Eccle

Thank you, yes I do want FOP too, ideally I want FOP on our 60+1 day and Slinky on 60+4 as I pushed that later to try and increase our chances. Those are definitely what I will get booked first, followed by 7DMT. Was ToT hard to get? I heard FPs were limited for that at the moment.

Just working on my plans at the moment!

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I didn't have problems with ToT, I read that it was crazy busy at the moment as they are doing maintenance on one of the lists. So maybe that scheduled refurb is going to finish soon so won't affect us in August.

I found the Dibb FP availability tool really useful. It's in the other planning tools area of the theme park hours menu. This helped me to think about what I was going to get and which days and to know that if I wanted 7dmt on the first few days it was going to have to be an afternoon slot as there were no mornings available. This was a new thing for me, perhaps it's always been there or perhaps it's new but it was really handy! It should also be useful to see which attractions might be available on the day.

Fingers crossed for you. Good luck