You could have easily added the Park Hopper to your tickets while you were down there and gone to whatever parks you wished, whenever you wished. For approx. $55 per ticket (NOT per day,) it would have made your lives a lot nicer.
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We have Annual Passes. What difference would a park hopper have made? My point was: if I have dining reservations made 180 days in advance in one park, I am not about to cancel my dining plans in the morning and go to a different park because the crowd appears lighter at the bus station. I wouldn't attempt that in Walt Disney World. Another resort destination? Maybe. I was addressing a possible reason why a previous poster had stated there's a lack of sponteneity at WDW. Spontaneity can be risky in WDW. You might get shut out of seeing things. I'm not sure how a park hopper helps here. Maybe I'm mis-interpreting your point.
My point was, with the Park Hopper, or Annual Pass, you could go to whichever park seemed least crowded based on your bus line observations, then go to your dining reservation in another park at the appropriate time for your reservation.
We do not have Annual Passes, so always get Park Hoppers so that we can adjust our park schedule to account for crowds. It may take up to an hour out of visiting the park(s), but it gives us the flexibility to schedule our dining reservations without needing to know which park we will be in on what particular day.
I feel really fortunate that I found Intercot while doing research online BEFORE our first trip as a family!
My son has special needs, including cerebral palsy, so I have to plan ahead for accessibility's sake! I was delighted to learn how accessible WDW is for all kinds of needs and after experiencing it for ourselves, we make it a point to visit at least once a year.
After we returned from that initial trip, I realized how much fun I was able to have because Disney went above and beyond to make sure my son was able to have fun!
We've traveled all over the world together, but people still comment on how much we go to WDW. I just tell them it's our "happy place" and leave it at that!
We'll be taking trip #10 in June. I'm still planning every trip (and loving every minute of it!) and we still haven't seen it all!
So is adding park hopper option for $55 for your length of stay no matter how long you're there? I'm thinking I might add it because I'd like to try more restaurants in Epcot but don't want to spend the entire day there.
I take our High School band to disney every 4 years. For 2 weeks before we go, we have "Disney Days" where I take the time to go over every park, every map, talk about the rides, the hidden mickeys, secrets and fun facts. I still get people who think its a back yard carnival and they don't need the help..they are the ones who end up in tomorrow land ALL DAY!!!! But the best reward is when those kids are long gone, and have their own families, and I get a call.."Mr. G..were going to disney...can we get together and you give us that disney days thing again so my family knows what to do?" I love it...:mickey:
Adding the Park Hopper option is good for the number of days of your MYW park ticket.
The Water Park Fun & More option can effectively add days to your ticket, in that you have 14 days from first use of your MYW ticket to use up the ENTRIES allotted on the MYW ticket. Typically, you get one WPF&M ENTRY for each DAY of your MYW ticket.
Hope this helps.
I'm a planner but a lot of people aren't, which is perfectly fine. The problem for them is they think WDW is like a local theme park in size, crowds, etc. However, how do you tell everyone going to WDW to plan and prepare for crowds?
Our neighbors know we go every year and we've told them if they ever go to ask us for advise. So a year ago they told us they were going to Disney at Easter because everyone spends the holidays with their families so the crowds at Disney would be really low. Yikes. But everyone is different and I know a lot of people that just want to relax and wing it on vacation. There is nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately those are the people who don't have a good time and don't return because of it. But lets face it, there are Democrats and Republicans and you're not going to get everyone to agree on how to do things either (I won't even get into that mess). So all I can do is help people who ask for help, and hope that those that wing it have as good a time as possible. I don't want them running my life and I won't try to run theirs.
Yes. For instance, on my upcoming January trip, I made reservations for lunch at Le Cellier. This is supposed to be a high-traffic day for Epcot, so I am going to leave after our lunch, use the park hopper option to take the monorail to MK (which has low crowds that day), and stay until evening, where we will go back to Epcot for EMH.Quote:
So is adding park hopper option for $55 for your length of stay no matter how long you're there? I'm thinking I might add it because I'd like to try more restaurants in Epcot but don't want to spend the entire day there.
It allows you to go to any of the 4 parks whenever you want. You can even try the '4 park challenge' and go to each in one day!
Thanks PopPhan and McLiberal8...why I thought it was $55 per day I'll never know. I will definitely be adding the hopper options next trip.
I may be the crazy one, but I would never let, and have never let, my ADRs dictate which parks I will be spending my day in when I always pay the extra for park hoppers.
Boy, was I ever green on our first visit. My spouse had to drag me to WDW because I didn't want to go. I didn't plan anything.
66 trips later, I am pretty good at planning. We own DVC, are D23 members, have TIW and annual passes, and use Disney Visa rewards.
I try to help newbies when I can, but everyone has their own path to follow!
Before I was married, I went to Disney World at least 15 times, and in the past 7 years have been 8 or 9 times, for a week or more at a time. My husband and I are the "Disney freaks" and people will ask us for advice, or run from us when we won't stop talking about how to do the World right.
My SiL and her husband took their 9 - 12 month old baby a couple of years ago. They refused to listen to anything we had to say, even though we had taken our kids when they were that young. They came back and said that they didn't go on many rides because they didn't think they could take the baby on anything! I think they only did the carrousel in the Magic Kingdom. They just walked around and met the characters. They listened to us when they planned their next trip.
WE are the exact opposite for parks and ADRs. I figure which park we will be at that day based upon my experience with crowds, then make a reservation if we want to eat in that park. MK is usually the most crowded and we only like Liberty Tree and Crystal Palace there. But we also like CHef Mickey's and Ohana as well.
But the last trip, I planned the ADRs for the park closest to us. Problem was we spent more time running to and fro that we wasted a lot of time. So now, the park we are in gets the ADR. Saves us a lot more time.:thumbsup:
Two thoughts on friends who went.
One- A friend and his family went and only went to MK, even though they knew there were other parks, and he told me they didn't like it, there was nothing to do...i asked if they had gone on Peter pan? no. Small world? no. Space Mountain? no. Splash Mountain? no? The parade? no. Fireworks? no......and i'm thinking how can you dislike something you haven't tried?
Two-It amazes me when people say they are goinng to WDW and think it's just another Disnelyand....they have no idea how big it is. they think they can see it all in a couple days. i tell them that i have been there multiple times, over 20 times, and I haven't seen it all, and probably never will. that's what's so awesome about WDW.
We sort of lucked out on our first visit. A friend of mine from work had very recently visited herself and had done a little bit of research before her visit. After they returned she realized that even though she'd done some planning it wasn't enough. Her advice to me was to research and plan and get as much inforamtion as I could before we went. And I did. We had a fantatstic first visit and that began what is now a multiple trip per year obsession. I'm so very glad I listened to her, or I might have been one of theose "I'm never going this again" people.
[QUOTE=mydisneygirls;2230144]Thanks PopPhan and McLiberal8...why I thought it was $55 per day I'll never know. I will definitely be adding the hopper options next trip.[/QUOTE
Good choice!! I really couldn't do without them - we like to eat at Epcot 2 or 3 times, and really don't want to visit it that often ;-) Last time we went, my 16 year old daughter spent a whole day just "hopping" to go shopping! LOL Definitely worth the value since it saves a LOT ot inconvenience for us and makes us feel less restricted. ALSO...you don't have to add it in advance. If you want to try without the hopper, you can add it at any point during your trip when you decide you might want to use it.
For us the planning stage is part of the holiday experience. On our first trip in 1998 we read the "Unofficial Guide" from cover to cover. We didn't know what to expect and decided to follow the touring plans. Not for long as the week time there was really quiet.
13 years later, we've just returned home from a week at the Yacht Club and the planning has started for our return to WDW in Sept 2012. List of must do's (sights, rides, restaurants). Once the park times are released a spreadsheet will be started to sketch out our agenda.
Quote:
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
I know the parks like the back of my hand now after many trips. When i plan i keep it simple, i want to know the park hours, the days of the extra magic hours and what parks, and the
extra stuff like the parades and evening closing shows. I then plan what parks for what days and make the adrs accordingly, if something comes up like it decides to rain and it changes our plan for the day then oh well, stuff happens.
If a friend asks to help with some planning i keep it simple for them to. I dont even get into the stuff like rides and shows. I get the dates they are going to be there and try to make a schedule for what parks for what days. I also give them a couple of incredibly awesome websites to research the ride and show stuff.
Yeah, it's kind of crazy to go on a huge trip like this and not do any research. This year we went for the fist time with my BIL, SIL, (and their two kids) MIL, (and dh and baby)...... I swear, I am pretty sure that they thought the only thing to do there was shop at stores. I am not kidding. More so BIL. It was INFURIATING. One day it was like 1pm and we hadn't done anything besides barely eat lunch and I was on on the verge of tears. At least you don't have to travel with people who are completely oblivious about their surroundings and all they think there is to do is shop!
This sounds like the difference between a tourist and a traveler that one of my college profs taught me a long time ago.
A tourist sees what they have come to see - a waterfall, mountain, or a park. They come expecting to be given an experience, or to have something happen to them. They are essentially passive consumers of the experience.
A traveler goes and experiences what it around them. They don't enter with a lot of preconceived notions, but hopefully with as few as possible, in order to view a place or experience on its own terms (not their expectations). They are active consumers of the experience - participating in it regardless of what it ends up being.
There are a lot of people that go to WDW expected to be entertained... and they aren't disappointed. If you think the point is seeing the castle from main street, or riding BTMRR with your kid the way you did with your dad, you are likely to get that experience. But if you allow yourself to be taken down the interesting sidepaths, down the byways you didn't know about before you went... you will sometimes (often!) end up with an experience you never dreamed of... and that will fill your dreams forever after. That doesn't mean you don't plan (travelers often do far more planning, because they don't know exactly what will happen), but it does mean you can start to feel like your plan is in control, and not you or the experience.
We plan a lot. Often ADR's, targeting parks due to morning EMH and then skipping to a different park that didn't have morning EMH later. In about a week, we'll be going down to run three different races with five individuals, and will be meeting up with three different families (that have never met each other), we have numerous ADR's, a special pirate cruise during Wishes, etc., etc. It is a trip that is planned to the hilt, in deep detail...
...and I guarantee that there will be times that we simply don't know about, and hadn't planned, that will make the trip amazing and magical. Remembering that those will happen whenever, wherever, and not on the schedule I laid out in advance - that's an important part for me.
Most recent best time? Literally stomping and splashing in a flooded EPCOT during torrential rains. Not because it was in our schedule... but because it added to our day :)
--
Brian Davis
There's the family I was behind in line for The Haunted Mansion who said after they were done with "The Haunted House" they were heading to "Splash Waterfall".
Last July in DHS on a very hot day, I overheard a man tell his wife in reference to their daughter, "Before we do anything else we have to get her on the water rides..."
:D
One thing that escaped me in my earlier trips to DW, before I discovered Intercot, is the fun to be had visiting the Disney Resorts.
Since then, we have almost as much fun visiting the various resorts, for a bite or a drink, or to watch fireworks from the beach, as we do going to the parks.
I have to admit, my first trip to WDW was in 99. DW and I were in Orlando for a couple of days and wanted to go to Disney. We had three days and stayed off property.
In my mind, WDW was one park. I knew disney had Epcot and other parks, but I couldn't understand why they were so close they would compete against each other. I went to Disneyland when I was 16 and, now as a married adult, I was looking forward to seeing the east coast Disneyland.
We parked at the TTA. We took a tram ride. I ran through an underpass expecting to see the park. Nothing. Just more transportation. "Where's Disney World at?" I asked. I must have sounded ridiculous.
The cast member explained how to get to the Magic Kingdom. We took the ferry across the lagoon. I bet I looked like a puppy with its head out of a car window. I was SOOOOO excited. What an entrance. (I still make sure we enter the Magic Kingdom at least once that way each trip.)
Upon return home, I booked a 10-day trip the following spring. I researched as much as I could. I found this site, which has provided me with some of the BEST ADVICE. I feel because of his site, I get so much more out of a Disney vacation than I ever could on my own.
Thinking back, I must have sounded pretty silly on that first trip. We had no ADRs. We didn't know anything. I thought it was just a nice park to visit. Boy was I wrong.