Thursday, May 26, 2011

Ok, Disney World Veterans…

DisneyCharactersAs our trip gets closer and closer, I have a few questions for all of your Disney veterans out there…

1. Did you take advantage of the “Photo Pass” options around the park? Are the pictures cute!? We can preorder a cd of all of the pictures for $100! Is it worth it?

2. Did you take advantage of “Rider Swap!?”

3. Do you have any Fast Pass tips?

4. Which “Character Spot” is the least crazy? We’d love minimal wait times! ha.

5. Did any of your kids participate in the Jedi Training Academy?

6. Did any of you participate in “The Pirates League?” Q wants to dress up like a pirate!

7. What about pin trading/vinylmation trading? Worth it? A waste of money? For big kids?

8. Which rides are TOO SCARY for my tender hearted little guy?

9.  Anything else I need to know!?!?

We’re so excited! Disney is ALL I think about!

11 comments:

The Perkins Family said...

Okay, so my best friend just went to disney and she wrote very detailed blogs about each day and exactly what they did and what worked and what they would change. Great resource for you.

http://brownfamily08.blogspot.com/search/label/Disney

Josh and Shan said...

When our family of 14 went we took advantage of the photopass for all of the major photo ops. It was way easier to make copies of the disc than to take the same picture 5 times. And all of the pictures turned out really good!

Can't wait till ya'll get to go!!!

jamielblev said...

Absolutely get the photopass cd for $100 bc the pics are pricey when you get back. And since you know you will be getting it, do all the photo pass moments you can. There's a 1000+ a day it seems.

Fast Pass is a must on splash mountain if y'all like that. It's the "bamboo shoot" like ride. Ask Matt, he should remember that from Astroworld.

Pin trading wasn't a big deal at the age of 4, but autographs from the characters were.

Go to the dollar tree and get the handy hand held fan that you can hang around your neck to help cool you off.

Kristin McNeil said...

photo pass definitely worth it. and use your own too. but 100 bucks is a steal. have everyone have their own photo pass (all adults). you can combine the pics from each online before ordering the cd. also i'd take a picture with your phone of the # on the back of the card, in case you lose it. then you can still 'get' all those pics that were taken and linked to that card.
animal kingdom has a great character spot. minnie, mickey, donald and daisy in little huts.
we haven't done pins before.
rider swap is awesome.
fast pass is handy too. fast pass 'soarin' at epcot. and i'm pretty sure you can have more than one fast pass out at one time depending on the times they were received and for when they are... i'd ask someone at the welcome desk the first day for the details. maybe you can't, just thought you could.
i'd totally do the pirate dress up thing. my husband is considering it for himself when we go in the fall. so all your boys could do it!

Marissa said...

Go and grab your favorite fast pass rides as you enter the park for the day, some fast pass times fill up quickly and you'll get a time for the afternoons, so grab it as soon as you walk in the gate! Then plan your day around those attractions! I found the character wait lines to be shortest at hollywood studios for sure, and that's where we met Lightning McQueen and Mater...totally worth the 20min. wait! We are headed there again in December and the pirate league is the ONLY thing we haven't tried and we totally hope to do it this time around :) Our favorite character breakfast was Chef Mickey's...SO MUCH FUN! ANd the mickey's backyard BBQ dinner show is awesome...hope you guys can make that! We love killamanjaro safari at animal kingdom and that requires a fast pass pull SUPER early, so make sure you catch that one!!!
Soarin' is SO much fun at Epcot, that one fills up quick too!!

stephanie said...

As Shannon mentioned above WE LOVED THE PHOTOPASS option. It is way easier for the group pics. No matter if your fam is 14 members like us or less.

Kirsten said...

We did the photopass just as extras but ended up just using our own pictures. We stuck to character meals so some of those come with pictures included in the price of you meal. Get an autograph book, seem to be a big hit with my 3 year old. Loved the fast pass, we made sure to get them all the rides that had it and would just do something else till the time. They dont let you have more than one pass out during the hour, so you cant go get them all at once (we tried!).

I'm sure we will try to privates and jedi in a few years with my little boy we did all the princess meals! :)

Have fun!

Jaclyn said...

We just got back and we actually didn't really want to purchase any of the photo pass pics. They were cute, but honestly the ones I took of the exact same photo "events" were just as cute and way cheaper! The only ones that seemed really worth it to me were the group shots that I didn't get with my camera.
Pin trading was a total highlight for my 4 year old. She still talks about it!
Stitches great escape was way too scary for my 4 year old. We thought it was a fun kids ride but it was no fun at all for her :(
You are going to have so much fun!!! Can't wait to hear your trip recap!

Chris & Heidi said...

I am a great friend of Miranda Turner. She told me sbout you all going to Disney...we went in October! It was the MOST fun I have EVER had!!!!!!! I would live there if I could! My husband and I took our 14 month old son and 3 year old daughter (their ages in Oct).
The Photo Pass & CD is SO worth it!
We didn't do rider swap.
We did a lot of character meals, so we would do the character spot if the line was NOT long. I would recommend the autograph book (you can buy these is most stores).
The friends we went with, their son did the pirate thing and he LOVED it!!! He was SO cute!
The pin trading and vinylmation is over rated in my opnion.
Most rides for the younger children are at Magic Kingdom (which, we were went to 3 days AND didn't even see half of it!) We were at Disney for 7 days...Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
We did do the Fast Pass...it is worth going early to get on most rides...THE Toy Story ride at HS is SOOOOOOO fun...get the fast pass as soon as you walk in.
WE LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Disney...and it is ALL I think about. Hope this is helpful...have a blast!

Blessings,
Heidi (:

The Gillaspie Family said...

YES! Do the Photo Pass! I took millions of my own pictures, but it was good to have theirs, too. No, we never did rider swap...so much little kid stuff to do that we never did any big rides! Fast Pass...get it as soon as you walk in. And, in Magic Kingdom, most all the rides in Fantasyland have one, so you can grab a pass, go ride a shorter ride, and then grab another one.... Epcot has a great character spot for meeting all the Mickey characters, and then it saves you time in Magic Kingdom so you don't have to "meet" Mickey there. We have girls, so there were no pirates or Jedi on our trip. Only princesses. :) Seems like the pin trading is for big time Mickey fans. We skipped out, but we did get the autograph book for the characters (available in the resort gift store...and the GIANT pens) Not sure on the scary rides...we stuck with all the kid ones and stayed busy busy! If you are totally bored, you can click back on my Nov/Dec from 2010...It's a play by play of everything we did (mine were 4 1/2 and 22 months at the time of the trip.) Have fun!

Laura said...

Isn't it just so exciting to plan and anticipate the trip?!

1. The Photo Pass is great for full group shots you can't really take yourself. They also have "magic" photo ops sometimes- like holding your hands out for the photo, then when you view it, Tink is sitting in your hands.

2. I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to rides. I get motion sickness pretty quick. So, we never used rider swap. K and B just went on things that I had to sit out with J for.

3. First thing in the park, grab the Fast Pass for the ride you most want to ride (HS- Toy Story, expecially).

4. We did Character Spot at Epcot. The wait was 30-45 minutes, but it was worth it to get all those characters at once. The character meet in Hollywood- in Animation Studios- wasn't crowded at all, in comparison. I think it depends on who you really want to meet.

6. If you haven't already, see what appointment you can get for Pirate's League. We are going in Sept, and already, the day we'll be at MK, Pirate's is booked completely. We've done Bibbidi Bobbidi with Beth, and she loved it.

8. You never know, honestly. We thought Haunted Mansion would be too scary, but our kids love it. At Epcot, Beth's favorite ride is Maelstrom in Norway. It scares Jacob, but he said it was fun at the end. The Unofficial Guide books have a scare rating on the rides. A lot of times, we just explain to the kids that it's Disney magic, and that takes away the scariness.

I hope you found the blog I posted for you of lots of my thoughts and opinions. More than anything, HAVE FUN!