All kinds of help required please!

[Mrsboam]

I have a mammoth list of questions and as they are so varied I’m finding it difficult to find some of the answers and thought you Disney mad bunch may be able to help…..

We are flying Virgin LGW to MCO 30th Jan and land at 2.55pm staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort for 11 nights.
1. Is allowing 2 hours from landing to getting on the Disney Express a realistic timeframe? (I’m not sure if you book a place on a specific bus or if you just wait for a space and get on?)
2. How long approx. is the bus from MCO to CBR?
3. Do we have to do to CBR and check in before we can head to the parks, or does the Disney Express give you the option of going to straight to the parks and your luggage being taken to your room?
4. Do you receive 3 Fast Passes for each night you stay in Disney accommodation (meaning we would have 3 to use on the day we land, but none to use on the day we depart?)
5. How easy is it to book Fast Passes, I have a draft itinerary, but I understand this will probably be ripped to shreds come Fast Pass booking day, or would it be best to keep our itinerary and keep trying to get the Fast Passes we want?
6. At have looked and Fantasmic seems to be on at 8pm on the day we land. Would we be realistic to book this as a Fast Pass or will it be highly unlikely to be able to get to where we need to be within 5 hours of landing?
7. With shows (such as Fantasmic) how soon prior to their start time should you arrive, 30 mins?
8. Early Magic Hours are between 8am-9am for our duration, am I correct in assuming we need to leave our hotel about 45mins prior to this to get to the relevant park ready for opening?
9. What is the rope drop, and does this occur even when a park is running EMH?
10. Do all rides open during EMH or just a select few and is this the same for all parks?
11. Any idea if the new StarWars rides will be open during EMH?
12. I understand you have to book for the Jedi Training on the day, will this queue be open during EMH or only during park hours and how long approx. is the queue?
13. Do any rides offer a Single Person queue? No one but me is keen to ride the Tower, and whilst they have said they are more than happy to wait, I don’t want to queue for ages on my own as they have to wait.
14. How do you know what is the best way to travel to each park, do people just use the app?
15. Is Disney Springs worth a visit? With us having 10 full days we’re planning 2 days per park (doing half the park each day) and 1 day at the waterpark with a floating day for whatever we fancy, so not sure if DS is worth a visit?
16. How does Photopass work? Do you get your photo taken on rides/my various people and then get access to these online for free or do you have to pay for each download you require?
17. Is our plan of 2 days per park realistic (our kids are 5 and 10)? We plan to utilise the EMH once at each park and then leave about 2pm to chill and then for our next visit arrive at the park for 11ish and stay til closing so we can see the fireworks etc or should we push for full days (which, including EMH, will be 8am to 8pm) for each park once to try and do as much as we can in 1 day and for our second visit just do the things we missed/liked?
18. I understand CBR provide a Pirate kids club thing 9.30am-11.30am, has anyone used this or any on site baby sitters (on the anticipation I will need a couple of kids free hours during our entire stay)
19. We will have spending money plus $300 disney dollars, any recommendations on what to spend this one? We have the QSDP and I don’t think any Character meals would suit us, although I have looked at Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boo for our 5 year old daughter, has anyone been/would you recommend and is there any equivalent for our “oh so cool” 10 year old son?

Like everyone on here, I’m trying to plan a holiday for us all to enjoy and don’t want to be running around like a crazy person following an itinerary. I understand we will want some downtime (which will be either chilling at CBR or maybe Disney Springs) and my itinerary (and expectations) are to plan on riding our 3 Fast Passes a day and anything more than that is a bonus….but everything seems so vast and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed!

Any advice/suggestions/guidance would be so greatly appreciated!

[sprocket]

1. 2 hours should be enough, but you dont need to book the ME, you just turn up and queue.
2. Between 1-2 hours, depending on 2 main factors. how long you have to queue for a bus and if you are drop off 1,2 or 3.
3. You need to go check in. You will probably want to change anyway.
4. You will get 3 on day of arrival and day of departure.
5. They are extremely easy now. You can select times, ie 10:15-11:15 for each FP and each person could have different FPs.
6. I personally would take it relaxed on day of arrival. You may not even want to go to the parks. Maybe resort walk and pool.
7. Most shows are 10-15 mins. Fantasmic about 30 mins if you have a FP.
8. Depending on how busy, then yes 30-45 minutes. Depending on how far the park is. You could arrive at the bus stop and have just missed the bus and need to wait.
9. Rope drop is when you can enter the main park and start your day.
10. Most rides open for EMH.
11. Nobody knows, but i assume so. It be a mystery that be.
12. Cant help with this, but its always booked fully when we are there.
13. Tower of terror no, but a few do. Test track, rock roller coaster and Everest come to mind
14. You go to the resort bus stop and wait.
15. DS is great in the evenings for dinner. Loads of shops and food. You have to go. Check out youtube
16. Most have a area to view and tap your band after the ride, others like Minetrain automatically know your there.
17. 2 days per park is perfect.
18. Cant help here.
19. The QS meals wont be enough, so you will need this for eatting and gifts and toys. You will also be buying things in the shops.

Check out youtube for the parks and rides to help plan in advance.
Use the Dibb historical queue guide for calculating what rides to use the FPs on. You will be surprised at some of the longer queues (ie Peter Pan is always massive)

[Guest]

I have literally never seen so many questions in a single post. I will try to answer some of them using your numbers, if I haven't answered it is because I don't have a clue.

1. I am doing ME for the first time, also to CBR next month and I would certainly expect to be on it within two hours. But at the same time, I will also expect it will be what it will be. I have seen nothing about booking a specific bus, I don't see how that could be possible.

3. You need to be in your room to take delivery of your luggage. I certainly would not be jumping off the bus and leaving my luggage on it. I don't think it goes to parks anyway.

4. You get FPs for your arrival and departure day, assuming you have tickets long enough to cover both.

5. Fast passes are really quite easy at 60 days out. You probably won't get Slinky or FoP the first for the first few days and possible not 7DMT for the first day or two. But other than that, it really is simple.

6. I tend to plan a late night park for my arrival evening. But five hours doesn't seem out of the question. If you miss it, it is not the end of the world, you can try again another night.

8. I would probably leave hotel an hour before I wanted to be at a park.

13. There are not many rides in Disney with single rider, I don't believe ToT has it.

14. I have never needed to use an app to work out how to get to a park. I just go to the bus stop or boat stop.

15. We don't mind spending a few hours at Disney Springs. It might be somewhere worth going in the evening for a quick wander around the shops and then dinner.

16. Assuming you have memory maker the photos will either just appear on your account, or sometimes you need to tap your magic band.

17. We are an all adult party and I cannot imagine doing 8am to 8pm in one park. We would go crazy. We either do one park for a partial day or we would do two parks over a full day. The amount of time you are spending seems ok, although we tend to allocate less to Epcot than we would any other park.

[pinkspideruk]

1. You get allocated to the next available DME coach that is going on your hotel route on arrival - you dont pre-book the time.
2. It depends on how many other people ar eon it and how many other stops it does - they can stop at up to 3 different resorts - its approx 45-50mins from airport normally assuming you are the first stop but allow another 20 mins for each resort stop - so potentially up to an hour and 45 mins. Also allow for waiting in the airport - I'm not sure of the exact timings but I think up to about 45 mins wait is possible once you are allocated a coach
3. DME only drops at resorts so you would need to check in and pick up your magic bands and then go to the park - there is an option to have the DME collect your luggage and deliver to your room - if taking this option you might want to pack a change of clothes in your hand luggage as it can take several hours for DME to deliver your bags to your room - you dont need to be in your room for them to deliver.
4. You can book 3 fast passes per day of your tickets - if staying onsite you can book these 60 days before arrival, if off site it is 30 days, you can also book them at any time in those 60 days up to and on the day. Once your 3FPS are used you can book more which is why a lot of people try and get early morning FP's so they can book extra through the day
5. most people make a rough plan of what they want to do attraction wise and which days and then book these after 12pm on their 60 day mark. If they cant get what they want they check back every now and again to see if any have been released (when people cancel their fps these become available again) it is easy to do
6. your probably going to be exhausted - but yes it is doable and lots of ppl do a park on the first night (we dont as we are too tired)
7. If you have FPs around 15 mins before as the FP queues also get quite big, if you dont have FPs and want decent seats it depends on how busy the park is - generally you will get a seat it will just be at the back if you rock up last minute.
8. yup the buses run quite early as lots of people have early breakfasts and things so you should be fine
9. rope drop is when they open the park they literally used to drop the rope barriers - i havent been to the park for rope drop for a few years they used to have a little opening ceremony with the characters not sure if they do still. Never noticed it for morning EMH
10. majority of rides run
11. it should be - actually they both should be as the new one is due to open dec/jan i believe
12. no idea too old for it sadly
13. some rides have a single rider queue - tot doesnt but if its busy the CMs will ask if they have any single riders in the queue to fill all spaces before starting the ride
14. CBR is only bus and the soon to be opened skyliner so you would pick which ever is easiest for you - if your in a park eg MK then its quicker to get monorail across to epcot than a bus
15. DS is fine for a few hours - we tend to go in the morning as it gets very busy in the afternoon and evening - but it really depends on what you want to do - we like to go there on our arrival for dinner and then do a second visit in the morning to mooch around the shops and stuff
16. get the photos linked to your magic band, anyone can see them/download them for free in your party. And then you can do what you like with them. Some rides are included some arent, look for photographers in parks usually by the photo spots and character meet n greets who will take the pics for you - there are less than there used to be since they started giving it away for free as memory maker
17. See how you feel - full days in the parks can be tiring, I would personally have a look at the park maps and everyone make a list of your must do things, rushing about trying to fill the day as much as possible is some peoples idea of heaven and others hell.
18. nope sorry
19. gifts, shopping at DS, ride photos etc, they do a pirates thing for boys and girls where they get a pirate make over

[DonnaD]

The one thing that jumps out at me from your list is the idea of going straight to a park your first night with a 5 and 10 year old. Are you forgetting about the 5 hour time difference and how long you will have been traveling? A quick meal and walk around the resort and possibly a swim to keep them awake before collapsing into bed is more realistic IMO. You are likely to wake up very early the next day so an early start will be easy.

[LunaNyteskye]

Originally Posted by sprocket

19. The QS meals wont be enough, so you will need this for eatting

See more...

I have to disagree with this. We had the QSDP for 2 weeks and had credits left over at the end. We did pay OOP for CRT but we still would have had credits left if we hadn’t.

[Mymemories]

I’m not going to tackle all your questions but my advise with kids your age is to use all the EMH you can.

Get up early for rope drop that had EMH and use that hour as you’ll get many rides done. Then use your 3 fp. About lunchtime go back to your resort and have some pool time and maybe take a nap. Then go back out to whichever park has EMH in the evening, if there is one, and enjoy the evening shows and fireworks.

We’ve been going since our kids were 2 & 4 (now 21 & 23) and have always done this routine. We’ve never done a park all day with no down time as none of us, adults or kids, would have made it or enjoyed it.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by sprocket

1. 2 hours should be enough, but you dont need to book the ME, you just turn up and queue.
2. Between 1-2 hours, depending on 2 main factors. how long you have to queue for a bus and if you are drop off 1,2 or 3.
3. You need to go check in. You will probably want to change anyway.
4. You will get 3 on day of arrival and day of departure.
5. They are extremely easy now. You can select times, ie 10:15-11:15 for each FP and each person could have different FPs.
6. I personally would take it relaxed on day of arrival. You may not even want to go to the parks. Maybe resort walk and pool.
7. Most shows are 10-15 mins. Fantasmic about 30 mins if you have a FP.
8. Depending on how busy, then yes 30-45 minutes. Depending on how far the park is. You could arrive at the bus stop and have just missed the bus and need to wait.
9. Rope drop is when you can enter the main park and start your day.
10. Most rides open for EMH.
11. Nobody knows, but i assume so. It be a mystery that be.
12. Cant help with this, but its always booked fully when we are there.
13. Tower of terror no, but a few do. Test track, rock roller coaster and Everest come to mind
14. You go to the resort bus stop and wait.
15. DS is great in the evenings for dinner. Loads of shops and food. You have to go. Check out youtube
16. Most have a area to view and tap your band after the ride, others like Minetrain automatically know your there.
17. 2 days per park is perfect.
18. Cant help here.
19. The QS meals wont be enough, so you will need this for eatting and gifts and toys. You will also be buying things in the shops.

Check out youtube for the parks and rides to help plan in advance.
Use the Dibb historical queue guide for calculating what rides to use the FPs on. You will be surprised at some of the longer queues (ie Peter Pan is always massive)

See more...

Why would the QS meals not be enough?

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by sha9

Why would the QS meals not be enough?

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I agree. The QSDP is more than enough food. As a party of 4 adults on the QSDP (for the 4th time) we're only taking around $750 spending money for off-site days, Uber, gifts, souvenirs etc. If they've got the qsdp, $300 gift card plus spending money (however much that might be), I can't see why that wouldn't be enough.

[JellyEllieBean]

First of all, I wouldn’t be going to a park on your first evening, just chill and settle in to the hotel. Usually by the second or third day, we’re parked out and we have a pool day and then go to a park in the evening, you’ve got 60 day fast passes so you’re still going to get some good rides.

We had the full DDP and it was too much food, I’d recommend doing Disney Springs in an evening and choosing somewhere like Wolfgang Puck marketplace, it’s a QS but slightly different options.

Personally, I’d book fast passes from 10:30 onwards, if you get there at park opening you’ll get lots done before queues build up and then you’ll have your fast passes.

I’ve learnt this year that you make a plan but be prepared to change it with how the family feel, we did Hollywood Studios during the day and we’re meant to do EMH at MK in the evening and none of us could face it, so I cancelled the restaurant (use guest services in the park or hotel if it’s within 24 hours so you won’t get charged)

This year I have heard so many children tell their parents they’re tired, hungry, fed up and in one case “not enjoying the holiday at all” so go at your children’s pace and you’ll find you enjoy it more.