Not my finest post title.
Continuing from Part 1, it’s just before 10am as we head to Tower of Terror with a 40-minute posted wait.
As written, this is our ideal morning touring plan:
Somebody should probably put a strike through that Muppet Vision kiosk visit too.
Morning touring calls for FastPass+ usage earlier here than at the other Parks for a variety of reasons. The first being that there are not a lot of opportunities to experience short waits. At Magic Kingdom, where there are a lot more things to do, we can move through seven or eight priorities before 11am without using FastPass+. By 9:45am, the wait at Tower of Terror is already going to be 30 to 45 minutes and FastPass+ will save us a decent amount of time. Using FP+ in the 9am slot also allows us to get a 4th FastPass+ earlier in the day when there is more availability.
But day-of FastPass+ availability at the Studios is bad:
On reasonably “crowded” days, there will be no day-of FastPass+ availability for Toy Story Mania, Frozen Sing-Along, Star Tours, and Tower of Terror and very little availability for anything not named Muppet Vision 3D.
Now that you can book additional FastPass+ experiences from your phone, availability is even worse as the only barrier to entry is whether or not the page loads.
A couple more tips along with what’s still true:
You can still initially book a maximum of three FastPass+ experiences but they have to be made one at a time. That means you can book just one or two instead of having to choose three.
Your initial selections must be made at the same theme park, so you can’t initially book two at Studios and one at Epcot.
You can cancel one FastPass+ at a time for any or all members of your party.
If you want to book three Tier 2 FastPass+, you can. You don’t have to select a Tier 1 FastPass+ anymore.
You can select additional experiences from the moment after you scan your ticket or MagicBand at the attraction entrance of your last scheduled FastPass+. So if you have Mine Train for 1pm-2pm, Dumbo for 2pm-3pm, and Barnstormer for 3pm-4pm, you can use your phone to select an additional experience at any theme park with FP+ availability immediately after you scan your tickets or MagicBands at the Barnstormer entrance.
On your phone, the easiest way to refresh availability is to click on the time of day near the top of the screen. Every time I click “Afternoon” it will load current availability.
The “You may plan only 1 of these per day” message is kind of misleading in that it makes it sound like you can book a maximum of one Tier 1 FastPass+ per day. I had initially used FastPass+ at Toy Story and the message reads like I can’t select another Tier 1 FastPass+ because of that. But if you click “Select a Different Experience” it will allow you to book a second (or third or fourth etc.) Tier 1 FastPass+. The “Other Experiences Available” that are listed will all be Tier 2 where applicable.
Cancellations are your friend and happen frequently. Cancelled experiences are put back into the system for someone else to book basically in real time. So while Anna/Elsa FastPass+ are completely unavailable 60+ days in advance, if someone cancels on the day-of, or at any other time, those experiences will be available again. This is me refreshing Magic Kingdom availability on the bus from Studios to Magic Kingdom at 3:27pm and I could have booked either princess.
Availability displayed also seems kind of strange in that it will initially show no availability, but then if you refresh it, it will all of a sudden display a great variety of times. Good things happen to those that refresh.
The app also does not necessarily display all available times or the earliest return time as you scroll through (un)available attractions. Click on the attraction for potentially better times. This is still around 3:27pm and the app is only offering 5:55pm. If I swipe left on that grey square to the right of the screen, it will refresh and load more available times.
Had I been nearby, I could have booked Winnie the Pooh for immediate FastPass+ use.
I was outside Animal Kingdom’s entrance and was able to book Everest for 3:45pm at exactly 3:32pm on Saturday.
One thing that has been true basically since the inception of FASTPASS and continues to be true to this day is that FASTPASS is great when you have it. And sucks when you don’t. In some ways, the fact that refreshing your phone constantly is the best way to procure additional FastPass+ is frustrating. Because who really wants to spend their vacation clicking “Afternoon” over and over again. But if doing so can save 90 minutes in the Anna/Elsa standby line then it’s hard to argue that it’s not time well invested. In the picture above, I’m waiting in a 40-minute Tower of Terror standby line while hundreds of people arrive after me and board before me using FastPass+. Such is life in standby.
So back to the day at hand. The purpose of my visit was basically to see if standby was viable at any of the next few steps on the touring plan, allowing us instead to ride with FastPass+ later in the day. I wasn’t really expecting it to be, which is why FP+ is officially called for here at 10am. Using FastPass+ also protects you against capacity reductions, which are often not on purpose here at Terror.
I put up a gallery of Tower of Terror images on Facebook in case you have any interest. These are all with my 35mm f1.4 Sigma lens, which is a lot of fun to use (poorly).
So I got in line at 9:59am, I was inside the lobby at 10:20am, and I was here inside the library at 10:28am.
And I was here on-ride about 10 minutes later at 10:39am.
And back out front at 10:46am for a total experience time of about 47 minutes. I think that’s too long this early in the morning and I’m going to stick to using FastPass+ here moving forward. Taking a look at posted waits over the last 30ish days:
Larger: https://www.easywdw.com/reports13/tower_terror_waits_spring_2016.jpg
As I mentioned with Toy Story, the waits on this particular day are below average even with some downtime. But the 48-minute average posted wait at 10am is unfortunate and is telling of just how much of an impact FastPass+ has had on early morning wait times.
Back in the day, the first hour of touring was excellent because of two main things:
A: There weren’t that many people there.
B: Nobody returned with FASTPASS priority until at least 9:40am because that was the first return time. Before that time, 100% of the attraction’s capacity went to standby. And FASTPASS returners didn’t typically start clogging up queues until 10:30am or so, particularly when you consider that legacy paper FASTPASSes didn’t actually “expire” until just before the switch over to FastPass+. So you could use your 9:40am-10:40am FASTPASS for Space Mountain right before dinner at 6:30pm if you wanted to. Now with so many attractions seeing maximum FastPass+ distribution, you have the maximum number of people possible returning for every possible window starting immediately at Park open. So little capacity is given to standby that it does not take a whole lot of people in front of you to see 30…40…50+ minute waits at attractions that historically saw much shorter waits. One of these days maybe I will stand in front of Toy Story Mania and see how many people enter the FastPass+ line between 9am and 10am.
Here on Sunset Boulevard right around 10:48am, things are filling in but attendance is still well below average. This is not a “busy” day.
The line for Great Movie Ride cemented the fact that the next couple of hours were not going to be particularly efficient ones.
I got in the 30-minute line at 10:52am.
I spent 12 minutes winding around outside before stepping insid. These screens look ripe for StoryMaker.
Maybe it will display your cable bill. Or how many subscribers ESPN lost last month. Or how many times SportsCenter can say “Tom Brady” over the course of an hour. Or how much money Bob Iger made since you started reading this sentence.
For the most part, this is not necessarily the worst place to spend 15 or 20 minutes in line with the previews and whatnot. My favorite part about the Turner Classic Movies takeover is that they explain a bit about the scenes that you’re about to see and why they’re important.
Before it was just movie trailers. A few pictures:
So I got in line at 10:52am, was seated in the vehicle at 11:16am, and was back out front at 11:40am, for a total experience time of 48 minutes. The website’s conservative estimate on how long the experience will take with FastPass+ is 35 minutes. And since my experience time was 13 minutes longer and I spent 12 minutes in line outside, that seems to be about right.
Of course, the attraction was operating at half capacity. This is an out-of-focus shot of the last room where you watch a few seconds of a lot of movies. Ordinarily, another set of ride vehicles would pull in next to us.
That’s half capacity with a 35-minute posted wait and the entire extended queue full.
Larger: https://www.easywdw.com/reports13/IM_OVER_IT.jpg
Anybody working at Walt Disney World could tell you that the staffing cuts that began in late February are unprecedented. The coffers are unbelievably tight until Memorial Day Weekend comes around next month. And if for some reason you still believe that I’m sitting here at my computer photoshopping all of these people in line, go to Hollywood Studios tomorrow yourself. Let me know how long you waited for Great Movie Ride and whether or not another vehicle pulled up beside you at the end. Though I can save you a trip and answer for you:
30 minutes.
No.
This is 12:17pm after I swung back around after waiting 47 minutes at Star Tours because they were only running two of six simulators. The external queue is completely full and there are more people waiting out here than we’ll see during most of July.
The line was backed up outside the entrance and headed back towards Animation Courtyard. This is with below average attendance.
But if this is too negative for you then I do apologize. I am not sure how else to spin it.
There’s a new cupcake?
I arrived at Star Tours to what was a 40-minute wait that was halved to “just” 20 minutes between the time I first looked at the wait and was able to take a picture of it.
I will admit that I had a weak moment and briefly considered abandoning ship as I had made a FP+ reservation that would be usable since I arrived at 11:50am. I expected my five rides to take me to around 11:15am. At which point I was planning to head back in with FP+ to quickly compare the actual standby wait to the actual wait with FastPass+ back to back.
But I had come this far.
And I got in the “20-minute” line with the outdoor, external queue mostly full.
25 minutes later I was here. Still outside. Most people probably don’t even know where in the queue that this is.
15 minutes after that I was here.
They were loading “F” on one end and “A” on the other for most of the morning, but had increased to four simulators, which is probably why they halved the posted wait time.
All in all, it took 53 minutes to get through Star Tours.
This could easily be 20 minutes. I will take a moment to depart from the decided upon narrative to say that the reason that they are not operating all simulators is not directly attributable to the current budgetary constraints. That’s about all I can say.
Literally nobody waiting to meet Sorcerer Mickey. It will be interesting to see how popular he and Minnie are in their new location. Historically, Mickey saw 20 to 30 minute waits back when the Animation Building was a thing. If you showed most people visiting this picture, I doubt they would be able to place where it is.
So in about four hours, I was able to accomplish the Studios’ five rides in standby and arrive in time to use my 12pm-1pm FastPass+ for Toy Story Mania.
And with FP+, it took a total of 15 minutes between when I got in line and was back out front.
Still full.
With Pizza Planet closed to make way for the ovens necessary to make the improved pies served at Pizzafari, and Studio Catering Co. closed permanently to make way for bulldozers, what remains open at Studios has proven busy. When I visit Backlot Express, I usually eat outside because there’s only a handful of other people and the lighting is better for my camera tilt. But with so many more people eating here, tables are few and far between.
It’s a similar situation over at Min & Bill’s, where you’d historically see just a handful of tables occupied. Now they’re all full of people that appear mostly to be without food.
When you dine does matter. This is 1:20pm.
This is 2pm.
But even with the number of people in the first photo, it was just 12 minutes between when I got in line and when I received my food. That’s pretty efficient.
Disney quietly added this Caprese Sandwich with their March quick service menu update. I will also mention that this is the third time that I’ve been denied an “entree only” with the usual $2 savings that comes along with it. The “Entree Only” button is not currently available at most locations.
With Marinated fresh Mozzarella, Vine-ripe Tomatoes, Herb-cheese Pesto, and Arugula on a crusty Baguette served with Carrot Sticks or French Fries – $9.99.
This is not a particularly photogenic sandwich, unfortunately and I would charge that this is more of a ciabatta bread than a “baguette.” Ciabatta was actually invented in Italy in 1976 by Favaron Francesco to compete directly with the popular French baguette. It was brought to the United States in 1987 by Orlando Bakery of all things, though the bakery is actually Cleveland-based. According to the trademark papers, the word translates to “Old Slipper.” Anyway, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. The bread was fresh and appropriately firm at the start, but I think the vinaigrette and pesto were a little too much for it and the bread became soggy towards the end. The pesto was a bit heavy handed and dominated the flavor profile overall – you might see if they can serve a cup on the side so you can spread a bit yourself. Expect the garlic aftertaste to linger. The cheese isn’t going to be mistaken for mozzarella di bufala, but if you don’t stick your nose up at the grocery store variety then you’ll be just fine with what’s served here. The tomato and arugula are always fresh and provided a bit of a crunch up against the soft cheese. Overall, I thought it was a nice vegetarian sandwich that should satisfy most people looking for something cold and meatless. I wouldn’t have any qualms about ordering it again.
My last FastPass+ of the day was Tower of Terror and I arrived back at 2:11pm to a 30-minute posted wait.
Interestingly, by this time there were only about 15 people in standby with three times as many in FastPass+. Everyone with FP+ still boarded first, but the standby wait would be more like five minutes than the 25 I experienced earlier in the morning.
Not much to see from the top.
The total experience time on this ride was 26 minutes after basically walking into the library pre-show.
So what did we learn?
- Studios is probably not the Park you want to visit without FastPass+ in hand unless you’re skipping most of the rides.
- The late arrival is only becoming a more intelligent option for those that can stay through close. Instead of waking up early and battling the morning crowds, you can arrive in the afternoon and visit the high capacity shows and attractions along with your three FastPass+ selections. In the final two hours of operation, circle back to ride the headliners in standby. You’re going to wait less at most rides 45 minutes prior to close than you would 45 minutes after open.
- Additional FastPass+ availability is slim at Studios in particular. Toy Story’s third track will help open up some slots, but if we’re talking about increasing hourly capacity by 50%, then we’re only looking at adding about 400 FastPass+ experiences per hour. That’s not a lot.
- Don’t get in the standby line for Great Movie Ride if the end of it is closer to Star Wars Launch Bay than the theater. Don’t get in line for Star Tours if the line is farther back than it is on Christmas Day.
Overall, my timing was:
- Toy Story Mania: 8:58am – 9:16am
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster: 9:25am – 9:58am
- Tower of Terror: 10am – 10:40am
- Great Movie Ride: 10:51am – 11:40am
- Star Tours: 11:50am – 12:43pm.
That’s…3 hours 45 minutes plus the initial wait out front and the walk to Toy Story Mania. We’ll call it an even 4 hours.
I will be attending the first Disney Early Morning Magic – Fantasyland tomorrow/today and will report back how that went.
I, sir, am OVER taking your highly accurate and photo documented word on things. But really, are you the bad guy when you are simply reporting the crappy moves Disney has made and then showing us the effect it has in the parks? I think not.
One thought about Tower of Terror. You joined the line at 9:59 and was in the library at 10:28 then on the ride at 10:39. The 11 minutes from the library to the ride is the same no matter if you do FP or standby, they merge before the library. So your standby wait was only 29 minutes, I don’t see that as an awful wait. Stating it was an overall 40 minute wait is slightly misleading as the FP people would also spend 11 minutes between library and boiler room.
I also don’t think waiting up to 30 minutes for Great Movie Ride is that bad either, as you said at least you have films to watch for part of the wait.
These are worthwhile points, but they come from a bit of a “beaten down” perspective. A 40-minute wait is a 40-minute wait. If the wait with FP+ is 11 minutes, that’s not zero minutes, that’s 11 minutes.
I really like how, on Josh’s attraction pages, there’s the total experience time with FP+. This is especially useful when doing rider swaps with FP, so that the non-riders have a rough idea how long they’ll be waiting (e.g., can dad do the Carousel with the baby while the big kids are riding Mine Train with mom).
But our experience has been that the wait with FP+ can vary widely, particularly based on the time of day you use the FP. It can be especially bad for rides like Toy Story and Splash Mountain, which often have downtime during the day, and then re-open, creating long FP+ return lines.
Good points, Patrick. Another thing to consider is that if the attraction had been down for any time, even the FPP lines might be horrendous and filled with those returning who coudln’t ride while the attraction was temporarily closed.
The difference is that the 11 minute wait that is the same for FP and standby on ToT. Its rare there is no wait in the boiler room and it takes 2 minutes just to watch the show in the library and another minute to walk the boiler line queue.
Dinosaur & Test Track both also have similar pre-show elements where FP and standby merge before the pre-show, usually resulting in a 5-10 minute wait from merge point to ride vehicle.
I find the solution to FP+ versus stand-by at DHS is easy. I skip this park; it’s not worth the aggravation. I enjoyed the history of bread Nice job.
I’ve never been a full-day AK or HS person anyway. This post just proves one thing to me: Do AK in the morning and HS in the afternoon to close.
AKA What I do every time I travel for a WDW trip.
Wow. Just, wow.
This is very much what I feared. Our trip isn’t until October, and I have to wonder if the staffing situation will be the primary cause of such touring problems come then. I hate to say it, but over the years, Disney hasn’t exactly been responsive to obvious problems, especially ones caused by their own poor decision-making.
Thanks for putting yourself through this, Josh, so that others won’t have to. It is certainly altering my preliminary touring plan, where we were going to standby rides at HS before heading over to EPCOT for lunch with FP+ in tow.
Our trip is in two weeks…. TWO. I am becoming somewhat apprehensive, to say the least. I don’t expect an empty park(s) in mid-May, but neither do I expect what at least *appears* to be hordes and hordes of people, mostly brought on by all these staffing cuts. Awesome, Disney….. I currently only have one morning planned for DHS. Seems that’ll be enough!
So ride capacity will be back to what we’ve come to expect Memorial Day Weekend?
I’m surprised the third track at Toy Story will increase capacity by so little.
I had read that comment posted on DIS a couple days back. How much more evidence must you provide before people start believing the financial cuts have a direct impact on your visit?
My guess is 3,214 more pictures and at least 162 more direct quotes from CM’s.
LOVE posts like this! So detailed and so precise. your awesome. Sorry for your long waits though!!
Really appreciate you taking one for the team there, Josh. And I agree with Lindsey; all you’re doing is showing us what’s going on with the reduced capacities / staffing. The fact that it’s negatively affecting wait times is plain for all of us to see, either in your posts or in person.
This time last year, that caprese sandwich was a really tasty roasted vegetable sandwich with peppers, onions and zucchini if I remember rightly (I ate it twice), as well as the pesto and maybe some cheese. Seems like Disney took out the more expensive vegetables and replaced them with a slice of tomato. That doesn’t sound like something Disney would do….:-/.
The photos appear out of order on safari/iPhone. First time I’m seeing the problem and thought you might want to know. Thanks for the article!
Joel,
The pictures being out of sync is a safari glitch. You’ll want to clear your cache and reload the page.
“…the reason that they are not operating all simulators is not directly attributable to the current budgetary constraints. ”
So… what IS the reason? Has any guest truly taken time out of their vacation to find their way up the ladder to complain to anyone who would care? Decision makers are’t touring the park and experiencing this so how would they know how awful the impact of reduced staffing is on guests?
Or… do they not care?
I had no idea sorcerer Mickey even existed in HS. My son adores that “brand” of Mickey, and the line looks shorter than the line to meet and greet Josh (Which I would happily drag my kids to in order to fan-gush.)
So after these two articles, it has solidified one thing with me:
Keep going to AK for rope-drop until after lunch, and hit HS after lunch or an afternoon break in the resort. Been doing that for the past 8 visits, works fine every time and I don’t lose a wink of sleep by only spending half of a day and both parks. I know some AK fans want to jump off a bridge and have a blip-vert when they hear this, but …. “AK is a half-day park” (Unless it’s your very first visit there or you’ve never been to a zoo in your life)
People say half day park like it’s a bad thing. If you’re staying at a Disney resort some times it’s nice to not spend all day at a park so you can enjoy the money you spent on where you’re staying. I know I felt bad last trip for not spending as much time at Animal Kingdom Lodge as I should have.
Or it’s 2018 and ROL has opened
jay I fan gushed josh in December with his partner dave shute . I count it as one of my favorite encounters of all time >}
Maybe I just don’t understand the costs involved in running extra Movie ride trams or Star Tours simulators, but I am having a hard time believing that this is really such a huge cost savings for them in the grand scheme of things. I am really hoping your negative press has some effect on the decision makers out there.
I think that’s the point. Disney isn’t saving a boat load of money by decreasing capacity. I have a theory that they want to artificially boost wait times and give the appearance of the park being busier to drive business to their premium events and higher priced times of year. Those times appear less busy because the lines are shorter. Also it just looks to good to shareholders if their park is always “busy”.
Yikes, that makes sense. It would be a huge revenue generator. And logistically, you’d just tell half the staff “you’re now working nights/early mornings instead of peak times” and just shift people around.
on a much smaller scale, I do this with my business. Sure, I offer low priced/budget friendly options, but they are marketed in such a way that no one wants them and they end up spending more to avoid the speed bumps associated with my smaller packages.
I’m still hopeful via his latest update on FB. I really think the problem (aside from staff issues) is that HS has so little to do. MK has loads. Josh has ridden mine train 5 times at MK today before 10am. It’s a bigger park, more rides, etc.
Well, sure, you can pay $69 for a hard-ticket event and ride 7DMT 5 times before crowds arrive. At least it goes to show that the $$ is worth it for people willing to spend that much in addition to admission.
the Saturday after Thanksgiving I went to MK with my wife and 2 kids and by 10:30 we had ridden all we wanted to ride. We didn’t pay extra, didn’t have breakfast reservations and we rode big ticket rides. It can be done.. or rather, it can be done if WDW staffs their park the way they should
I agree. I’m just saying that the fact that Josh posted on FB that he was able to ride mine train 5 times today by 9am during a $69 hard ticket event isn’t specifically a reason to be hopeful. Hopefully the rest of his morning was, and MK is certainly a more forgiving park in terms of the number of attractions.
Along with your point about not saving a bunch of money by decreasing capacity, remember they have about 10,000 or more college interns barely making minimum wage. For what it would cost to add 30-50 more interns in the mornings to operate those rides at a higher capacity a couple extra hours is peanuts. Being that we are talking about Disney World and the effects of these cuts on wait times, quality of service, etc.and then putting them in pictures is very frustrating if you are planning a visit or frequent the parks on a regular basis, but it is not any different than what goes on at the majority of major corporations world wide. Just seems awkward when attendance is up overall, but ride capacity is reduced.
Yikes! I hadn’t connected those dots yet – I guarantee that is what they are doing! No bueno 🙁
Thank you, Josh, for your tireless efforts on this site…it is much appreciated! Love the realist aspect of it vs. the pixie dust snorting that goes on at the DIS.
Rode Dumbo today and they were leaving some cars empty, even though there was a fairly long wait after leaving the play area. We thought the same thing, that they were inflating the waits for some reason.
Thanks for the great posts! So weird that your blog seems to be the only one that talks openly about the frustrating parts of the parks while still loving Disney and hoping for better. But that’s why you’re the must-read site for me!
Ouch. We have a trip coming up quite soon, and it looks like the wait times won’t be fun. That’s going to sting, because it will be a short one.
Hopefully they’ll staff things up by this fall.
I do wonder, though, if the running of only two simulators at Star Tours is for a reason guests will enjoy or not. You’re such a tease, Josh. 😛
LOVE all your posts. They help me, I am a wdw enthusiast, but also a realist. Thank you, for the effort and accuracy.
Whoa. What a rough morning! Thanks for taking one for the team.
This is really helpful for helping me figure out what will be a late arrival at HS on the first day of my trip in November. I’ll try to get my FP+ reservations and be prepared for some waits, and maybe circle back for second rides closer to park close. It’ll definitely be an adventure.
Nothing like commentary from the idiots at disboards. They’ve been to Disney World once, so they know more than anyone! Especially more than someone who’s there almost every day! I wouldn’t give that pathetic site a mention, there isn’t anyone there worth your time. Those accounts are probably all sock puppets anyway, it’s just too difficult to believe that there could be a pool of so many people with under 100 IQs all in one place.
Spot on commentary and analysis. The caprese sandwich sounds delicious! I wonder how a couple of slices of crispy pancetta would fit in there…
Wow I am going to change our plans to rope dropping after reading this thanks Josh! We will go to Rock,first then go to Tower by 9:20 straight to Movie Ride and then Fast Pass Frozen, Toy Story and Star Tours! I hope it works. Thanks for taking the time to post this Josh. It’s really helpful… although I am wondering if going to Rock then to Tower will even work…hopefully I don’t need fast pass at 9:20! 🙂
May I add my 2cents (at best) to the longer lines hypotheses: I believe Disney implemented FP to keep people out of lines, so that they are spending money in the parks (no concessions in lines, yet). However, they gotta keep folks in the parks too. If everything of interest can be visited in 4-5 hours, folks are more likely to leave before spending additional cash for meals, etc.
Also, I think longer standby lines highlights the benefit of FP. You feel “special” if you are avoiding those 50+ minute waits. It commits visitors…
That’s what I was thinking. In its current state it would be really easy to knock out everything you wanted to in a few hours. They don’t want you to realize they’re charging you full price for a handful of attractions, so they stretch those attractions out into something closer to a full day. Of course, lines aren’t very satisfying, which I know they know, but maybe it’s better than being done with the park by lunchtime.
“Ordinarily, another set of ride vehicles would pull in next to us.” Hmm. I can only remember that happening once or twice in all our trips!
We most always see a 2nd ride vehicle next to us. 🙂
Over the past 10 years, I have never been on the vehicle where another vehicle is absent. (hard to write that sentence w/o a double negative)
I wonder how many more days before Earful Tower is gone?
We have always been hard-core rope droppers with an afternoon break and return at night for fireworks/evening shows but I’m rethinking my HS plan. We can have more time to lay around the pool and drink and head to the park later in the day. We’ve visited every other year since our kids were small but I’m not sad this will be our last trip (kids in high school will be going on trips their senior years). These business decisions are very disappointing.
Being a realist does not make you a pessimist… These posts are very helpful!! Seriously – thanks for taking the time to do this and for posting the pictures. It helps me prove to my husband why being there EARLY is so vital! And why all my FP+ plans are just as important! We haven’t been in over 4 years (after years of living in FL and visiting frequently and spontaneously!) so not only is the “new” FP+ a totally different experience, we can SEE proof that things have really changed and are prepared!
The comments on other (lesser) sources about you not even liking WDW make me laugh. I highly doubt that someone who wasn’t passionate about the place would spend as much time and effort on it as you do.
So, you managed to do all the rides at DHS by 1pm without using fastpass at all. Isn’t that a good thing? Even with fastpass it would take about 3 hours – so only 1 hour extra without them. And it sounds like you didn’t have the greatest of luck on the day you visited.
Interesting to see that visiting ToT in the mid-afternoon would result in a very short wait (posted 20mins but more like 10), shorter than the wait early-ish in the morning.
I agree that refreshing the MDE app a number of times helps in finding 4th (or 5th etc) fastpasses. One second there might only be fastpasses for Muppets (and who needs those?) and another second they’ll be fastpasses for GMR and RnR and Muppets. However,
>> “Because who really wants to spend their vacation clicking “Afternoon” over and over again.”
Well, you just have to refresh 3 or 4 times. It’s no big deal and takes just a couple of minutes each time. In a world where nearly everyone once spent hours clicking the screen to make a flappy bird move, clicking “Afternoon” or “1pm” half a dozen times is no biggie. It’s a lot less effort than walking to a kiosk to do the same thing. Or walking across the park to an old paper fastpass machine to check the availability.
Clearly you are missing this Celebrity Blogger’s “wit”, otherwise referenced as ‘snarkiness’; You may considering release/renew ‘ing your IP address.
Thanks for this post, definitely changes my DHS touring day now. How do you like the Sigma 35mm? I plan on buying one in the next couple months, and your photos look awesome, btw.
I find it hilarious that everyone above read the exact same thing – and have such different takes on it. “Thanks Josh for solidifying we HAVE to get to RD early!”, “Thanks for reminding me I can sleep in and head over in the afternoon at HS”, “Definitely doing AK in the morning and HS in the afternoon”, “Definitely doing HS in the morning and AK in the afternoon” 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m fairly certain the kids on college program earn the same wage as anyone else but they do not earn the benefits of PT/FT CM’s
I know that CP’s do not earn the same wage for the same role as regular PT/FT CM’s. They also can not earn tips in bell services or get paid additional hourly premiums for certain work within a role that CM’s earn. My daughter is currently on her second CP.
Josh the interior shots of TOT are fantastic. I could look at detail shots like those all day long, very nice work on TGMR too!
As someone who has never NOT cried hysterically while riding (4x at ages 9, 25, 26, 27) I think I don’t have the same appreciation for those particular shots, lol.
For the record I freak out on ToT, not TGMR 😉
I love the idea of saving HS for the afternoon for our short trip at the beginning of October, but I’ve got a couple of folks that want to ride RnR multiple times–it’s looks like it’s supposed to be a crowd level 4 day–I wonder if the last hour waits would be short enough to accomplish this or if we should just stick with going there first thing in the morning since we’ll use our FP for TSM . . . decisions . . . decisions . . .
Do the Single Rider Line. You probably won’t get to ride together, but the waits were very minimal on our visit and we would meet up in the gift shop. You can also watch the Ride Photos to see when your friends might arrive.
View from ToT is cool at sunset.
Disney’s way to make Hollywood Studios a full day park?? Very concerning the direction Disney has gone. Even park hours. Typically park hours are set a couple months in advance with just minor changes. Now, it seems like Disney is waiting till the last possible minute to set park hours. Yet, I am supposed to schedule my fasspasses, make my dinner reservations well in advance. We go back in mid July and I am wondering if they will even extend hours much–disappointed with the park hours from this past spring break season.
Thank you for this. We went a couple of weeks ago, and it was the rope drop queue for Jedi Training that put us behind schedule for the rest of the day, shame you can’t Fastpass that. On the other hand, we went back there another evening and rode Tower of Terror and Aerosmith back to back five times standby whilst Fantasmic was on, which might be the best time to visit. We got our names up on the electronic posters at Aerosmith, which caught us by surprise, but is a nice touch, especially as they picked up where we live.
It is annoying if the reason for the unexpectedly high queues is cutbacks on staffing on rides. I can understand maintenance downtime and I can understand big queues on peak holiday periods. If they can’t be bothered to run rides when people who have paid full price are queuing at a non peak times of the year, are they just trying to make a certain margin every day ? As said earlier, the marginal cost of adding forty staff must be tiny compared the fixed costs they have running the parks every day.
I’ll bet MickeyMinnieMo doesn’t believe in climate change either.
Thank you for these posts! We won’t be back to WDW until next summer, so I’m sure things will change by then, but I still enjoy reading your touring plan play-by-plays. I appreciate all the crowd photos you include; helps to give a realistic idea of what rope drop will be like (i.e., torture).
ARUGULA? On a CAPRESE? What is Disney thinking? Caprese = BASIL +MOZZERELLA + TOMATO. I realize there is Basil in the Pesto but CAPRESE = Fresh Basil. Major fail, Disney.
Great post, it must have taken you forever to get all those screen shots loaded!…
Will you be making a touring plan for late arrival specifically? just wondering, sounds appealing as we usually ‘run out of things to do’ between 3 and 5 if we rope drop, now there is even less available…oh, yeah, but it takes SO much longer!
maybe this is of topic >>> remember this is the same company that put a chip on drink cups @ quick service eaterys @ your resort to keep their paying guests from having more than 3 refills in an hour . and if you have the luck I have had getting a defective cup making it unusable . crunch the numbers on mass soda purchase by a company like Disney the discounts coke or pepsi would give . really Disney really .
Disney doesn’t pay anything for their fountain sodas. Nothing!
indeed sir