🦙Live from Utopia 🦙- Sailing with Daryl 🦙8/2-8/5 🏰with bonus feature of a week at Disney Parks post cruise🏰

[h20skibum]

One thing that is nice about the Disney app, is it will give you real time directions to where you want to go, and will show your progress on a map. 
 

 

The bad thing is, people who are directionally challenged are always looking down at their phone as they try to navigate the map. Almost had several collisions with people looking at their phones.  

[bobmacliberty]

I’m exhausted just reading this!  Does Disney have the equivalent of Star class, where a “Genie” walks you right to the front of the line?  Not sure what that would cost but might be worth it. 

[Momof3gurlz]

51 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I’m exhausted just reading this!  Does Disney have the equivalent of Star class, where a “Genie” walks you right to the front of the line?  Not sure what that would cost but might be worth it. 

They actually do offer a VIP service, but like all things Disney it is costly.  $450 to $900 per hour with a 7 hour minimum.  You’re escorted in the private entrances and front of the line access.  My oldest daughter and her family did this with another family and the husband’s business picked up the cost.  

[h20skibum]

Thrill-data.com is a good site to check if you are planning strategy for Disney, or other parks.  My strategy for Epcot was to book the most popular rides using multi-pass LL and single LL pass.   With the multi-pass, you could only pick 1 (Remy, Frozen, or Soarin), and two from a lower tier.  So, I chose Remy since lightning lane disappears the quickest, and try to get to Frozen when the park opens early for guests.

 

Today, LL availability for Remy was gone at 7:14 which means if you didn’t have it pre booked, you are standing in a 60 minute + standby line.  Likewise, Frozen was gone at 9:59. Four of the rides had people book all available spots before noon.

 

 

I found this helpful in planning which rides to book early.

 

 

Edited August 9 by h20skibum

[A&L_Ont]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

I’m exhausted just reading this!  Does Disney have the equivalent of Star class, where a “Genie” walks you right to the front of the line?  Not sure what that would cost but might be worth it. 

You can get a “Plaid” at Disney. They are basically a human fast pass to every short line. You can’t cut to the front of the line but you can ride repeatedly ride any ride as much as you want. They can only take you to the park that you have a pass for.  For example, if you had a hopper for that day you could go to all of them.  If you only had Magic Kingdom it’s the only one you could go to. There is a minimum time frame and if you want more they charge you extra by the hour. It was enough, but worth the experience. 
 

We were picked up at our Disney hotel in a suburban at before the park opened. We told him what we wanted to do for the day and he immediately made up a plan for the day. We hit all the parks that day and didn’t need extra time when the minimum time was done. I can remember if it was 6 or 7 hours. We were beat because we never stopped moving, except for lunch. We made sure our Plaid joined us for lunch. 
 

 

We got to see behind the scenes where the cast members park their cars, and come out from behind the scenes walls. We walked down back alleys and halls that no one ever sees. 
 

For example at Animal Kindon we parked where the arrows and the wiggly lines are the paths we took. 

 

At Epcot the same idea. 
 

 

[Momof3gurlz]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

You can get a “Plaid” at Disney. They are basically a human fast pass to every short line. You can’t cut to the front of the line but you can ride repeatedly ride any ride as much as you want. They can only take you to the park that you have a pass for.  For example, if you had a hopper for that day you could go to all of them.  If you only had Magic Kingdom it’s the only one you could go to. There is a minimum time frame and if you want more they charge you extra by the hour. It was enough, but worth the experience. 
 

We were picked up at our Disney hotel in a suburban at before the park opened. We told him what we wanted to do for the day and he immediately made up a plan for the day. We hit all the parks that day and didn’t need extra time when the minimum time was done. I can remember if it was 6 or 7 hours. We were beat because we never stopped moving, except for lunch. We made sure our Plaid joined us for lunch. 
 

 

We got to see behind the scenes where the cast members park their cars, and come out from behind the scenes walls. We walked down back alleys and halls that no one ever sees. 
 

For example at Animal Kindon we parked where the arrows and the wiggly lines are the paths we took. 

 

At Epcot the same idea. 
 

 

I could’ve sworn my daughter & group had ride access but I probably misunderstood. I know they had it one day, hit three parks and got on all the major rides.  Plus time for lunch with their plaid. 

[akcruz]

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Thrill-data.com is a good site to check if you are planning strategy for Disney, or other parks.  My strategy for Epcot was to book the most popular rides using multi-pass LL and single LL pass.   With the multi-pass, you could only pick 1 (Remy, Frozen, or Soarin), and two from a lower tier.  So, I chose Remy since lightning lane disappears the quickest, and try to get to Frozen when the park opens early for guests.

 

Today, LL availability for Remy was gone at 7:14 which means if you didn’t have it pre booked, you are standing in a 60 minute + standby line.  Likewise, Frozen was gone at 9:59. Four of the rides had people book all available spots before noon.

 

 

I found this helpful in planning which rides to book early.

 

 

 

Passed this on to my SIL who is planning their upcoming trip to Disney this fall.  He's already using it.

[harryfat1]

22 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Tiana’s Bayou is popular sine it is a new ride.  It was ok, but was a relatively tame ride except the final drop. 

 

 

 

I'm very sad they changed this ride as Splash Mountain was one of my all time favorite rides in all the Disney Parks.

 

The song is so happy at the end of the ride that you want to return and ride it again.  This was from our 2018 visit as I caught the back end of it

 

 

The reviews on the new ride have not been favorable

 

 

[h20skibum]

So my planning strategy worked pretty well for Epcot.  We had all of the rides, that we wanted to do, finished by 1:30.  You could probably do the whole park in a day without any lightning lanes, but you would have to be fast to get virtual queues and expect to stand in some standby lanes for 60+/- minutes. 
 

Our day was Frozen, then breakfast at Starbucks. We had Remy’s Adventure booked next 

It is a 3D animation ride

 

 

After we checked into Remy’s, we got a replacement LL choice of Soarin. It was a nice ride around the world, although some of the projections like the Eifel Tower and Taj Mahal looked bent

 

 

[perfect match]

4 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

After we checked into Remy’s, we got a replacement LL choice of Soarin. It was a nice ride around the world, although some of the projections like the Eifel Tower and Taj Mahal looked bent

It’s the curved screen. The direction of the bend is determined by where you sit. I do tend to find the bent landmarks somewhat disturbing but it doesn’t stop us from going on Soarin’ pretty much every time we’re in Epcot. 
 

After many years of riding Soarin’ in a regular basis we till find things we’ve never noticed before depending on where we’re sitting.

[h20skibum]

We moved on to Nemo’s, which we had. booked. 
 

 

Then on to Spaceship Earth

 

 

It ended with a nice little animation with you head pasted on a character in the story 

 

 

Imagination and Guardians of the galaxy rounded out our morning rides. 
 

When you check the Disney app for rides available for lightning lanes, they will show not available when they are sold out. 
 

 

You can see these showed sold out, just after noon. 
 

Disney does evaluate as the day progresses, and may offer pop up availability.  There must be some significance to the number, because they release those at 12 minutes before the hour. 

[h20skibum]

After spending the afternoon at our resort pool, we headed back to Epcot for our dinner reservation.  This was the first time we had a brief shower on this Disney stay.  It started after we boarded the bus, and lasted about 10 minutes after we got to Epcot.  We just waited it out under the bus stop. 
 

Dinner was at Space 220.  It is one restaurant that doesn’t accept the Disney dining plan.  It is a unique restaurant set in space.

 

First, you are transported to the space station. 
 

 

 

Then, you are dining on the station, with a view. 
 

 

Some of our meal choices for the evening. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[firefly333]

Did you enjoy dinner? Some wierd looking food there. 

[perfect match]

How did you like Space 220? We saw the prices there when it first opened and decided that for us it just wasn’t worth the price. Needless to say we haven’t been there yet.

[h20skibum]

5 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Did you enjoy dinner? Some wierd looking food there. 

The atmosphere was nice, and our grandson said this was his favorite restaurant.  
 

The only thing I thought looked strange was the blue planet cheesecake.  It tasted more like a chocolate mousse with some type of blue coating. Those moons were delicious, and I could have eaten a dozen.  A warm chocolate liquid center inside a white chocolate shell. 
 

Grandson’s salmon was a little too done, as were our filets. 

[h20skibum]

5 hours ago, perfect match said:

How did you like Space 220? We saw the prices there when it first opened and decided that for us it just wasn’t worth the price. Needless to say we haven’t been there yet.

It is still a pricy place to eat, but I looked at it as an experience.  You can certainly get filet and salmon elsewhere, but not with that atmosphere.  We knew it would be one and done for us. 

[h20skibum]

This morning we are off to Hollywood Studios for our last full day at the parks. From our balcony, it looks like the start of another nice day. 
 

 

I have my strategy for today, so we will have to see how it works out. 
 

[firefly333]

23 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

This morning we are off to Hollywood Studios for our last full day at the parks. From our balcony, it looks like the start of another nice day. 
 

 

I have my strategy for today, so we will have to see how it works out. 
 

You are such a trooper. I cant imagine me doing this. Not even close. And calling it a nice day when the weather folks are saying heat advisory lol. Hot and humid. August in orlando. 2nd hottest summer on record. 

 

You guys have a amazing attitude.

Edited August 10 by firefly333

[#55worktoplay]

Your strategy and effort sure seems to have paid off. Compared to our last trip there you seem to have it mastered, I’m sure we were on two rides by 12:30 but totally went in uneducated.   Your notes are very useful for our next trip. 

[h20skibum]

So my strategy changed a little this morning when I looked at my booked lightning lanes.  I didn’t realize my daughter changed one of them, so my booked rides are different than my spreadsheet.  Booked rides are.  
 

Star Tours

Rise of the Resistance 

Slinky Dog Dash

Toy Story

 

So it looks like Hollywood Studios does early entry differently. No rope drop, so go and get in line. We have a pretty long line already for Mickey and Minnie’s Railway at 8:20. 
 

 

[A&L_Ont]

14 hours ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I could’ve sworn my daughter & group had ride access but I probably misunderstood. I know they had it one day, hit three parks and got on all the major rides.  Plus time for lunch with their plaid. 

That sounds 100% correct. The Plaid was basically our cast member that escorted us to the front of every lightening pass line. We came through back hall to doors that brought us out at the front of line or just around the corner. It was very seamless, and no one really knew that we just appeared out of no where.

[bobmacliberty]

The Disney Plaid experience, at $500 per hour for 7 hours, is still cheaper than a CocoCay over the water cabana for my upcoming cruise. 🙄

 

Edit: Just checked my cruise planner and the overwater cabana price has been reduced from $4099 to $2804. A bargain! 

Edited August 10 by bobmacliberty

[h20skibum]

That long line dispersed pretty quickly.  8:50 and the ride is done and we are eating Starbucks and waiting for our first LL ride. 

 

[h20skibum]

We moved on and quickly did Muppet vision 3D which was cute. 

 

Then moved on and did Star Tours which was a simulator in 3D.  Encountered the first glitch with the Disney app.  It registered my wife and grandson entering the ride, but not me, so it wouldn’t let the three of us book the next experience.   I had to circle back and have them tap me in again, then I could select another ride. 
 

Four minutes till our LL time for Rise of the Resistance. 
 

 

[h20skibum]

Rise of the Resistance was the best ride of the day. 
 

 

 

 

 

We were on our way to Slinky Dog Dash when we got this notification. 

 

 

They must be closed for the day, since it told us to select another LL. 
 

Bummer