DisneySMMC Archives - asthejoeflies

Jul 20 2017

Disney World Fastpass+ Tips and Tricks

When Walt Disney World implemented its FastPass+ system, it fundamentally changed the way guests could tour Disney parks. Visiting Walt Disney World requires much more planning than you might think. Fastpass+ is a big part of that. If you know how the system works, you can ride more and wait much less. Or, if your child isn’t interested in rides, you can use it to see more characters. Here are some of my favorite Disney World FastPass+ tips and tricks. The last one is a real favorite of mine; it can be really powerful if you use it, as I can attest. I made a visual guide for that one that hopefully can help you.

Note: I recognize not everyone loves planning and maximizing. Still, if you use one or two of these tips you might make your Disney vacation just a little bit more magical!

Disney World Fastpass+ can be confusing to some, but learn how to maximize your time in the parks and minimize stress with these simple tips and tricks. — Simple rule: Even though the Flight of Passage queue is really cool, get a Fastpass+ reservation for this if you can! (Photo Credit | Kent Phillips, wdwnews.com)

Quick Primer on Disney World FastPass+

FastPass+ doesn’t cost any extra money. As long as you have a Disney ticket, you can make FastPass+ reservations. For Disney guests staying on site at a Disney hotel, you can start making FastPass+ reservations 60 days in advance of the first night of your reservations. For all other guests, you can make FastPass+ reservations 30 days in advance. Fastpass+ reservations are for one hour time windows, usually with a 15 minute grace period. After you’ve used your initial 3 FastPass+ reservations you can make additional FastPass+ reservations, more on that later.

Every Disney guest receives an allotment of 3 initial FastPass+ reservations per theme park day. At the Magic Kingdom, these 3 FastPass+ reservations can be used for any attraction. Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom (and the new, awesome Pandora: World of Avatar) have a “tiered” FastPass+ system. That means you can only make one reservation on the most popular transactions. Your other two fast passes can be used for any attraction. The top tier attractions at Epcot are Frozen Ever After, Soarin’, and Test Track. Animal Kingdom puts the Pandora attractions (Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey) in the top tier. The top tier attractions at Hollywood Studios that matter the most to the majority of guests are Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster and Toy Story Mania.

Take advantage of your Disney World Fastpass+ early booking window, especially if you stay on site at a Disney Hotel

One major benefit to staying on site is the ability to make FastPass+ reservations for the length of your vacation. Let’s say you have a 5 night stay on Disney property. 60 days before the first night of your reservation, you can make FastPass+ reservations for your entire stay plus the day you check out. So if you’re staying on site at a Disney hotel, you can book FastPass+ reservations way ahead of everyone else.

There are lots of benefits to staying off site but this is one of the best benefits of staying at a Disney hotel. Regular guests and annual pass holders can only book 30 days in advance, but you have to book day by day. In other words, you can’t do multiple days at once if they’re beyond your 30 day window.

Regardless of your personal window, one of the most important FastPass+ tips is book as early as you can. This will give you the best chance to get those hard to get rides like Frozen Ever After, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, or the Pandora rides with the least amount of stress.

Book your FastPass+ reservations for early in the day

When you book your initial three fast passes, you want to book them for as early in the day as possible. Since each FastPass+ reservation window is an hour long, booking early in the day basically takes up your entire morning (9-10, 10-11, 11-12).

The reason to book early in the day isn’t the obvious one. When you get to Disney parks early, the lines are much shorter than later in the day, so it’s actually one of the best times to wait in line. Fast passes help make your waits even shorter, but the real reason why you want to use up your FastPass+ reservations early in the day is to utilize the extra FastPass+ reservation you get after using your initial three. We’ll talk more about this “rolling fourth fast pass” later, but basically, after the first three you can keep booking and using FastPass+ reservations one at time.

Prioritize the busiest rides

If you want to minimize time in line, you’ll want to prioritize getting Fastpass+ reservations for the busiest rides. A list of the busiest ride in each park is below. Unless there’s something you MUST do, try to get most of your Fastpass+ reservations for these attractions. Generally, common sense will tell you which attractions you need to book.

Magic Kingdom

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Meet Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theater
Peter Pan’s Flight

Epcot

Frozen Ever After
Soarin’
Test Track

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Toy Story Mania!
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Flight of Passage
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Expedition Everest

Utilize your extra FastPass reservations early and often

After you’ve used your initial three Fastpass+ reservations, you get a fourth Fastpass+ reservation to use. This reservation can be used for any attraction in any park. In other words, once you get to this point you don’t need to worry about “tiered” attractions. Of course, it’s likely that many of the most coveted reservations are gone. Use these “rolling fourth” Fastpass+ reservations to book attractions that have lines but aren’t the most popular. Each time you use one, you can reserve another, so once you’ve gone through your initial three you can make Fastpass+ reservations for the rest of the day. That’s why you want to get the initial three done ASAP.

Use the My Disney Experience app and this technique for hard to get FastPass+ reservations

I learned a simple technique for hard to get Fastpass+ reservations from the Backside of Magic podcast. The basic premise is this. For hard to get reservations, you can often get lucky on the day of using your My Disney Experience app. First, make a reservation for a non-popular attraction. Then, go into your Disney app on your phone and choose to “Modify” that reservation. At that point you can quickly keep searching for Fastpass+ availability. I personally just jumped back and forth between “Afternoon” and “4:00 PM” until I found availability for Frozen Ever After.

My best guess as to why this works? This is the equivalent of furiously refreshing your browser trying to buy concert tickets or something. People switch Fastpass+ reservations all the time, this “refreshing” gives you the best chance to hop onto them when they open up. Best of all, you can do this in line in another attraction. I had no trouble securing Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Frozen Ever After for 3 people when I messed around with it last week.

The downside is, your spouse and children might get annoyed that your face is buried in a phone the entire time. But think of how happy they will be not to wait in line!

Final Thoughts

The Disney Fastpass+ reservation system can be a real asset when you tour the parks. Follow these guidelines if they help minimize your stress when entering the parks. You can really use them to your advantage to cut down your wait times!

Any other tips I missed? Hit me up with any questions or comments down below.

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Jun 22 2017

How to save money on Disney tickets and hotels using points

It’s great travel hacking together with friends, especially when it comes to workshopping ideas. For ideas on how to save money on Disney, I always find myself working with Robert Dwyer, who put me onto the idea of using Thank You Points to book a Disney cruise. We’ve been chatting about upcoming trips and wanted to figure out whether you can use points for Disney tickets and hotels. Turns out, you can, sometimes for a big savings. Note, this post may be too in the weeds for some, so e-mail me if you have questions!

Before I get to my research, let me answer some questions or comments I know I’ll get. First of all, you definitely can get more “value” out of your points. If you use your Ultimate Rewards points to book Lufthansa first class, you can come out ahead in terms of raw cent per point value.

Did you know you can use points for Disney tickets and hotels? You can save lots of money by paying for a Disney vacation with points not cash, here's how. — A trip to Disney can be expensive, but you can pay with points instead of cash if you’d like

But as Bob constantly reminds me (and I think he stole it from Milenomics), book the trips you want to take. Or in the case of families, book the trip your family wants to take. “Value” is a spectrum that takes into account monetary value and entertainment value by the end user (i.e., your kids and loved ones).

Secondly, I may hear comments that transferable point currencies have “better” uses. They most certainly do. But some people sit on seven figures worth of miles and points (like business road warriors). Sometimes you just want to burn points. And, most importantly, using points for Disney tickets and hotels saves you from using cash – which theoretically should help your financial future in the long run (see my discussion with Noah from Money Metagame on the podcast).

Alright, let’s take a look at how to use points for your Disney vacation. TL;DR – Chase Sapphire Reserve gets you the best value. If you’d like the quick version on how to use Chase points, see this guide I wrote on using your Chase points for Disney tickets!

The basics: book through travel concierge

So before I get to brass tacks and numbers, let’s take a look at the basics in theory. There are three major transferable currencies: American Express Membership Rewards (MR), Citi Thank You Points (TYP), and Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR). Each currency can be transferred to airline partners for the aforementioned “better value.”

However, you can also use each currency to book travel. When booking airfare, you get a minimum of 1 cent per point with all these currencies. So a $200 plane ticket costs 20,000 points.

In addition to booking airfare, which can be done online, you can also call the number on the back of your card and ask to book a vacation package using points (or cash if you prefer). This gets you transferred to a department that can put together a Disney vacation for you. As long as you have the right type of credit card, you can pay for part or all of this vacation with points. The devil is in the details: depending on your card you can get different value for your points.

So let’s take a look at which card issuer gets you the most value for your points when redeeming for Disney hotel and ticket packages. I’ll first go through a case study, what the vacation package costs in cash from Disney, and then I’ll show how much it costs in each of the three point currencies.

Case study – Family Suite at Disney’s Art of Animation with 4 day base tickets (2 adults, 2 kids)

For my case study, I picked a random 5 night family suite stay in August at Disney’s Art of Animation for two adults and two children (3-9). I added 4 day base tickets to that (no park hopper). Here’s the breakdown in costs.

As a package: $3199.11

A la carte: $1745.15 (room) + $1448.40 (tickets) = $3193.55 <= tricky Disney!

A la carte: $1745.15 (room) + $1303.56 (4 day tickets but must visit each of the four parks once) = $3048.71

$3000+ is a lot of cash to lay out for a five night vacation, even if it’s a family suite at Art of Animation. So let’s take a look at what it’d cost if booked in points, starting from “worst” value and ending with the “best”. (In quotes because you need to factor in how many of each currency you have, opportunity cost, etc. etc.

Buy Disney tickets and hotel packages using AMEX Membership Rewards (OK)

All American Express Membership Rewards cards, even the no annual fee ones, allow you to use points to pay for your travel. The problem is, the most you can get is 1 cent per point when redeeming for airfare (plus the 50% rebate with the Business Platinum). Making things worse, you get even less than that when booking for other types of travel, like Disney.

To book a Disney vacation package, call the number of the back of your card and say you want to redeem points for travel. If asked, specifically try to get transferred over to cruises and vacation packages (they generally go together). Then feed the agent your dates and type of ticket desired. They will quote you a price in dollars and in points (if you ask for the latter).

I poked around this page from AMEX and found that the most you can get for points redeemed towards vacation packages is 0.7 cents per point.

AMEX wanted to charge $3199.11 in cash. A rate of 0.7 cents per point means the vacation costs ~450,000 Membership Rewards points. If you compare that with the ability to cash out your Membership Rewards as gift cards for one cent per point or for airfare, you might consider calling that $4500. Unless you’re swimming in MR, I prefer the other options.

Buy Disney tickets and hotel packages using Citi Thank You Points (Better)

Since I only have the Citi Prestige and Preferred, I can only get 1 cent per point for non-air travel at the most. Like AMEX, I called the number on the back of my card and said I wanted to book a hotel vacation package with points. If you hold the Citi Prestige, make sure you say “with points”, otherwise they’ll send you to the cash booking agents (incorrectly assuming you want to use your fourth night free).

Citi also quoted me $3199.11 (the same as the Disney package and AMEX), so using Thank You Points would cost me 319,911 points. Better, since you’re getting the same value you could get for gift cards. But you’d still get less value than you could get for airfare (about $4000).

Now I couldn’t confirm this because I no longer hold the card, but I’m guessing like with my cruise deposit, Thank You Premier holders can get 1.25 cents per point. That means if you hold a Premier card, you can book this hotel room and ticket package for 255,929 points. Now we’re talking, since the equivalent in airfare would only be $3199.11.

Buy Disney tickets and hotel packages using Chase Ultimate Rewards (Best)

So I went through the same song and dance with the Chase phone agent, though I should note I spent the least time on hold with them. Chase offered the same Art of Animation room/ticket package for $3251.31 (sorta weird that it’s a shade more).

However, if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you get to apply the 1.5 cents per point valuation when booking this package. That means that Reserve cardholders would only need to pay 216,754 points for this package. That could get you the same value in airfare, but if you redeemed for cash, that many points would only get you $2167.54. So in that sense you can “save” the most this way.

I also checked Port Orleans: Riverside. Again, Chase charged slightly more ($2875 vs. $2867 that Disney wanted), but again you could get the 1.5 cents per point with the Reserve so it would cost 191,667 points.

If you are an Ink or Sapphire Preferred holder, you can get 1.25 cents per point when booking these packages.

Can you buy tickets without the hotel?

One thing to note: you can save a lot (cash OR points) by staying off Disney property. So if it were possible to use points to buy tickets alone, that would be huge.

AMEX and Citi flat out told me this was impossible, but it seems like Chase is a YMMV situation. A phone agent told both Robert and myself that we had to book hotel and tickets together. However, one of the CSR agents I have been e-mailing with quoted me $1450 for tickets (same as Disney a la carte) OR 99,666 points. Two other people have told me they’ve been successful buying tickets using points from Chase, so it seems like a YMMV situation but one worth checking out.

How to decide whether to pay with points or cash

Like I said at the top, I’m sure some people say they would never use their points for this purpose. I can see how people might see this as an extreme version of buying magazines with your miles. Let me offer a couple of counterpoints to this logic.

First of all, when people rave about how transferable point currencies are great because they are so flexible, this is that flexibility in action. Points are not cash. While MR, TYP, and UR all can be redeemed for cash or cash equivalents, in many instances you can likely get more value out of using points this way.

Secondly, these points currencies are valuable but that doesn’t mean using them this way is a waste. Take Chase Sapphire Reserve as an example. Yes, you could use 200K points to book $3000 worth of flights. But, um, what’s the difference between that and using it to book $3000 worth of Disney? Take the trips you want to take!

You could also use those 200K points to more or less book one round trip seat in Lufthansa first class. That indeed would cost like $10,000, but you’d be flying alone without your family. I’m not saying that’s not a good use of your points, all I’m pointing out is that value is in the eye of the beholder. With Chase Ultimate Rewards, there’s so much value to be had that sometimes it’s tough to decide how to use your points. Just make sure you use them!

To me, it comes down to this. Cash can be used for other things. You’ve earned these points to (most likely) save money on your travel. If you use them this way, you’re fulfilling that goal.

Final Thoughts

Membership Rewards, Thank You Points, and Ultimate Rewards points can all be used to book your Disney vacation. They give you the chance to save cash by leveraging your point balances to pay Disney’s prices. These redemptions won’t be for everyone. Still, consider them if you’re trying to cut down cash costs on your Disney trips. And in many cases, Chase Ultimate Rewards comes out as the clear winner.

I still need to try a few things out. Does adding airfare to an AMEX or Citi booking unlock the 50% rebate (AMEX business platinum) or the 1.25 cpp (Citi Prestige)? Or does the airfare get added separately? Also, can you use this for packages in other Disney properties, like Hong Kong or Paris?

What are your experiences with booking Disney vacations using points? Hit up the comments and share your stories.

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Can’t get enough Disney? Check out our Disney planning podcast, Disney Deciphered (latest episode embedded below)!

Jun 09 2017

Disney’s Pandora World of Avatar Review

Back in 2009, James Cameron released his visually spectacular Avatar. The movie was fine (good, not great in my opinion). But to be perfectly honest, its very existence annoyed me because it sparked the 3D craze that I found to be quite pointless. (I think history has borne out my position. I feel the same about VR for the record. AR for the win, though!) When Disney announced that it was building the Pandora World of Avatar, it was greeted with skepticism and indifference.

Disney invited a bunch of media, including Traveling Dad, to their official Pandora dedication last week. I got the chance to visit Pandora as a guest of Disney which, in all honesty, was amazing. It still blows my mind how good Disney can be at customer service; I guarantee the cast members assigned to our team could give Etihad’s residence butler a run for his or her money. But I digress.

The question I entered Pandora with probably echoes in a lot of other people’s minds. Will this land have any impact on me when I lack an emotional connection to the IP it’s based on?

tl;dr – yes. But let’s take a closer look at why.

Pandora World of Avatar truly feels like a whole new world

I don’t think this is an overstatement. Disney redefines how immersive a theme park can be with Pandora World of Avatar. I plan on visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter but I’m pretty sure Pandora takes it. No matter where you look, you cannot tell that you are in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Pandoran sounds

Disney has taken painstaking detail to make you truly believe you have traveled 4 million light years to the world of Pandora. Everything your five senses experiences in the land contributes to this. As you cross the bridge from Animal Kingdom to Pandora, you start hearing the sounds of Pandoran wildlife. These change depending on what time of day you visit the park. I’m not sure what sound wizardry the imagineers used to do this, but sounds hit you from all sides – you even hear sounds coming from the mountaintops. Make it a point to visit the park at dusk, you can experience the change to the nocturnal wildlife. And even if you don’t care about these nerdy details, the sounds really immerse you in the world of Avatar.

Pandoran sights

Meanwhile, as you you enter the land, you start seeing some pretty amazing plant life.

The plant life in Pandora is out of this world. Sorry not sorry. (Photo Credit | David Roark, wdwnews.com)

But the moment you realize you’ve truly set foot on a different planet is when you first lay eyes on the floating mountains. The floating mountains are an amazing technological feat – since mountains can’t actually float! But beyond that, they are also incredibly beautiful and really took my breath away. And if you catch the mountains from the right angle, they truly look like they’re floating. AND HOW DO THEY GET THE WATER UP THERE? Amazing.

The floating mountains look amazing from a distance (Photo Credit | Matt Stroshane, wdwnews.com)

From some angles, they really do look like floating mountains. (Photo Credit | Allen Hou, apinthalffull)

Pandora really deserves time to just walk around and marvel at the careful attention to detail. Disney imagineers created an immersive, believable world full of easter egg rewards for careful explorers. The cast members even add to this. Of particular note are the ACE tour guides. If you see them walking around, engage with them as you would any Tourist Information booth (though they don’t have booths) in anywhere you would visit. They have an impressive wealth of information about Pandora and it’s a lot of fun to hear how fleshed out this world truly is.

Who lives, who dies, who tells Pandora’s story?

One of the criticisms I hear about Pandora is that more attention could have been spent on creating an explicit story and emotional/narrative hooks. At first I found this criticism fair. Nothing screams a story out to you and my (and the general public’s) lack of Pandora knowledge means I can’t connect to the world via stories I’m already familiar with.

But lack of nostalgia or background knowledge doesn’t necessarily equate to lack of story. Pandora, the World of Avatar, tells its story for itself. You really only need one crucial piece of information: it’s 100 years after the events of the movie (and the movies that are yet to be released. Oh, nobody told you, James Cameron plans to make at least four sequels). All the humans trying to exploit the land have left and the land has begun to reclaim what they have destroyed.

Pandora’s story, as told by a queue

This story gets told over and over again, subtly, throughout the land. The queue for Flight of Passage, the marquee ride in Pandora, illustrates this. Now if the queue fills to capacity, the wait tops out at six hours. From what I’ve seen lines have mostly been around two hours. If you’re going to wait two hours for a ride, you could do worse than the Flight of Passage queue.

You begin outside, climbing up a mountain towards a facility that feels like the perch of a Banshee, a pterodactyl like flying creature indigenous to Pandora. Since those nasty nature destroying humans (a company called RDA, from the movie) have left, the mountain’s vegetation has come back to life.

It’s tough to believe they’ve hidden a ride facility underneath all of this (Photo Credit | Allen Hou)

As you enter the facility, you walk through a series of caves that tell a whole story themselves. You marvel at various cave drawings and long abandoned artifacts from native Na’vi peoples.

Na’vi was here.

Finally, you enter a now defunct RDA facility that ACE Explorations (an ecotourism company, ostensibly) has repurposed. But since the entire facility isn’t in use, the land of Pandora has reclaimed much of the RDA facility as its own. Entire sections have been repopulated by native “bioluminescent” plant life. Pictures don’t do the room justice so you’ll have to experience it for yourself. Also, air conditioning!

The queue ends in a fascinating biological laboratory that has an amazing attention to detail, all the way down to random post it notes scientists wrote as reminders to themselves. And of course, the full blown, lifelike, slightly creepy animatronic avatar in suspension.

May contain lifelike substance (Photo Credit | Kent Phillips, wdwnews.com)

The ride queue ends with a briefing that gets a little bit hamfisted with the conservation message. I could have done without that, because the queue told the story just fine. And the ride…

Learn to Fly on Flight of Passage

I mostly love theme parks for the rides. So it says something that it has taken me this long to get to the main event for thrill ride lovers: Flight of Passage. I will avoid major spoilers here, but there will be some light ones. Basically, ACE, the ecotourism people, have brought the avatar program back to life. Short version: you merge your consciousness into a life-sized Na’vi and control it.

In Flight of Passage, you get to perform one of the Na’vi most sacred rites: riding a banshee. The ride vehicle is like nothing you’ve seen before. You essentially climb onto a bike and braces come up behind your back and behind your calves, so take note if you’re a little claustrophobic.

If you have concerns about the ride vehicle, try out the test seat outside the queue (not pictured)

The crazy flight vehicle is in service to creating the most immersive ride I have ever been on. This ride is a simulator but assaults you using all of your senses except taste. You completely feel like you are riding a majestic beast and flying through the beautiful landscapes of Pandora. Quite simply: the ride is spectacular and likely a game changer in the industry.

At this point in my life, I won’t wait longer than 15 min for a ride (by myself) or 30 min (if my children really want to go). I’d gladly wait for this ride for an hour by myself – 4 times my normal tolerance. The immersiveness of the ride, from queue to finish, makes it worth it.

Take me to the Na’vi River Journey

Flight of Passage is the show stopper, but it won’t be for everyone. Luckily, Na’vi River Journey stands tall as a good, but not great, ride on its own. While I feel like Flight of Passage tells a good story, albeit indirectly, I’m not sure I’d say the same for Na’vi River Journey. You take an intimate boat ride deep into Pandora’s bioluminescent forest to find the Shaman of Songs. The visuals on this ride really wowed me – there’s so much going on you can’t take it all in on the first ride. Come to think of it, that rings true for Flight of Passage too.

The ride culminates with the Shaman, who probably is the most impressive animatronic you will ever meet.

The Shaman’s movements are incredibly fluid (Photo Credit | Allen Hou)

Na’vi River Journey will be great for young children and people who want to take a chill ride. While it won’t blow your mind like Flight of Passage, it keeps you immersed in the wonder that is Pandora.

Eat it: food in Pandora

Disney took some big risks with the food in Pandora, but I think they will pay off in the long run. You won’t find spaghetti or chicken fingers here (though there are hot dogs wrapped in pastry for the kids). Instead, Disney went for a distinct feel on the food, with a big dose of Asian influence. Let’s start with the quick service snack shop, Pongu Pongu. You can get frozen drinks with boba on top, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic. I’d say these drinks were my least favorite part of the food – too sweet for my taste and I can’t get over boba being on the top of a drink. It looks pretty, but so weird to me!

Night Blossom from Pongu Pongu

Pongu Pongu does feature the food highlight of Pandora. Pineapple. Cream cheese. In a lightly fried egg roll! The pineapple lumpia is a party in your mouth and everyone’s invited (Simpsons).

Satuli Canteen offers a variety of bowls. Think Chipotle bowls but no wraps. They also sell bao buns (pronounced bow, for the record, unless there is some native Pandoran accent I don’t know about). Supposedly the cheeseburger bao bun tastes like a Big Mac but I didn’t get a chance to try it. The best part of Satuli Canteen, again, is the dessert. The blue cheesecake is simply spectacular – don’t be afraid of the weird color.

Alien cheesecake. Yum.

Pandora belongs to the night

One last thing to note. If your kids can stay up late enough, check out Pandora at night. As the night progresses, it lights up more and more. The floor responds to where people are walking. It’s crazy, I’ve never seen anything like it in a theme park. I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. (Photos by Allen Hou. If you like beer, follow him on Instagram!).

Final Thoughts

To kick off this post I asked the question, “Will this land have any impact on me when I lack an emotional connection to the IP it’s based on?” If you’ve read through this review, you’ve no doubt realized Pandora made a huge impression on me. The land isn’t perfect by any means, but it is simply unforgettable. I love theme parks because I can be a kid and because I can let loose in a different setting. Pandora: The World of Avatar makes me feel like I’ve entered an entirely different world. From start to finish, I felt like I was visiting a different planet as a tourist, and that was so cool. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an Avatar fan or not – the world Disney created in Pandora stands tall on its own. I can’t wait for a repeat journey.

Have you visited Pandora: The World of Avatar yet? If so, I’d love to hear what you thought. If you haven’t visited yet, do you have plans to go soon? Let me know in the comments!

Mar 28 2017

Six reasons to take a toddler on a Disney Cruise

It’s been a little over six weeks since DisneySMMC ended and if I’m being honest I’m still thinking about our Disney Cruise. While we experienced many memorable moments, the Disney Wonder stands tall above the rest. Since I brought my young four year old daughter, I thought I’d tackle a question I had myself before the cruise: should you take a young child on a Disney Cruise?

Have you ever wondered whether you should take your young child on a Disney Cruise? Here are six reasons to sail with your child and Disney! — The Disney Wonder at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island (Todd Anderson, photographer | dclnews.com)

The reasons people might give to skip a Disney cruise with a young child often will be pretty similar to reasons to avoid traveling with young children at all. It can be stressful, they won’t remember it (though I’m on record saying that’s not important to me personally), it’s not worth the cost, etc.

Although you’ll definitely pay the Disney premium for a Disney Cruise, I’d argue that if you’re hesitant to travel with your kids a Disney Cruise is a great place to try some travel at an early age. So in honor of the six weeks I’ve been thinking about our cruise, I present six reasons to take a young child on a Disney Cruise.

1. Disney handles (almost) everything

Parents naturally get stressed out traveling with young kids because of the many logistics. Disney Cruise Line takes a lot of that stress off your hands.

First, getting to and from the ship, for a fee you can book round trip travel from MCO airport or a Disney resort. What really makes life easy is the onboard check-in. For certain airlines, you can check in on the cruise ship. Your bags magically get transported from your stateroom the night before all the way to your home airport’s baggage claim! This worked seamlessly for us even though our flight got delayed for over a day.

On the ship, you pretty much don’t have to worry about anything. You can do as much (or as little) as you want. Every day you will receive your personal navigator, a list of all the ship’s events. You don’t even have to show up to dinner on time if you want, you can go eat at any of the on demand eateries on the ship!

The great thing about young kids on Disney cruise ships (all cruise ships, really) is you everything is contained. You can find pretty much anything and everything you need, you don’t need to negotiate through unfamiliar languages or cultures (I guess the argument can be made about a cruise ship having it’s own culture), you don’t really have to worry about paying for anything extra if you don’t want to, etc. It’s simple and clean, something you paid for up front. As an aside, I think cruises are great for group trips for that very reason – everyone can do their own thing or can hang out together as much as they like.

2. Your young kids will probably love the Oceaneer Club

I won’t say that all kids will love the Oceaneer Club, Disney’s childcare for potty trained 3+ year olds, but I’d venture that most will. There are playgrounds, character meet and greets, arts and crafts, games, group games, iPad games, hula hoops – it’s basically a daycare on steroids. The good kind! (Just kidding don’t use drugs, kids).

I’ll give one example. On the Disney Wonder, kids got the chance to make boxcar racers. After about an hour or so of this craft, Mickey comes out to help the kids race their cars! If that’s not fun for a young child, it certainly would be a bunch of fun for me.

You can also leave the kids in the club for dinner while you spend some quiet time with adults. Or drop them off after dinner and spend some time walking the decks on your own. The hours of the club are generous and you’ll get a message if your kid needs you, so I personally felt very comfortable leaving my daughter there.

3. Castaway Cay is an island paradise for both young and old

One exception to the whole “you don’t have to navigate new and confusing environments” thing from #1 would be port visits. Now personally, I love visiting new places and locales. I don’t love not being sure which tours operate on the up and up or stressing about which souvenirs present the best value.

Castaway Cay was a lot of sun and a lot of funCastaway Cay, Disney’s private island, solves that problem. The island basically serves as an extension of the cruise ship: the beach is free, food is free, souvenirs are…definitely not free. But you know that everyone working on the island works for Disney thus you can relax a little bit in terms of worrying about getting scammed or the like. Yes, you will get scammed for $10 sand toys (bring your own, seriously), but you know who’s selling them to you. Quality Disney sand toys! (That’s a joke, they definitely sell the same toys you can get everywhere, bring them from home. Or bring some shovels and grab some big soda cups from the airport.)

Expensive sand toys aside, Castaway Cay rules. The beach is beautiful and picturesque, there is an amazing water slide, there’s a private beach for adults only, you can bike, you can hike, you can do water sports: there’s a reason “double dip” itineraries that visit Castaway Cay are so expensive. The port of call is simply spectacular.

4. The entertainment caters to both young and old

One thing that surprised me about the Disney Wonder? The quality of the entertainment. I had serious reservations about my daughter sitting through an hour long Broadway styled show. But Disney knows its target audience incredibly well. Each of the Disney cruise ship has a unique show, while some shows feature on multiple ships.

I first took my daughter to Disney Dreams, which basically hits some classic numbers from a variety of well known Disney movies. That gave me the confidence to bring her to the Disney Wonder’s unique show: Frozen, a Musical Spectacular. That show was a truly impressive rendition of a story whose plot I find questionable but whose music I find unquestionably excellent (don’t @ me. Horrible parenting. Obviously I support the strong female lead and sisterly love stuff).

Anyway, the Frozen show combined great acting and singing with some pretty cool technical feats. I won’t spoil them here but they were well worth the hour and my daughter loved every minute of it. It didn’t hurt that it was her first ever viewing of Frozen, either. The Disney Dream will have a new Beauty and the Beast show starting this fall so that should be pretty amazing.

Besides the shows, you have your normal cruise staple: the pool. To be honest the pools are designed for kids in mind, so young kids on a Disney Cruise will have a blast at the pool. To be fair, most young kids have a blast at any pool, but the theming is fun :).

5. Unlimited chicken fingers (and great dining experiences)

Let’s not bury the lede here: unlimited chicken fingers. The very fact that I can go order chicken fingers and fries almost anytime I want makes cruising a magical experience. OK, the quality of the chicken fingers is only average, but still! Chicken fingers!

Joking aside, the dining on the Disney Wonder was great for young kids. The pace of the meal moves quickly, but more importantly, Disney took great care considering how to keep kids entertained during meals. Each dinner restaurant (you are scheduled on an eating rotation) has its own unique menu and coloring page, so that occupies the kids for awhile right there.

Since you have the same servers every night, they get to know what your kids’ enjoy. Even by the end of a three night cruise our server already was able to pretty much predict and get anything M needed (broccoli).

Finally, the entertainment at Tiana’s Place and Animator’s Palate blew me away. Live music always keeps my daughter happy and dancing, and the New Orleans inspired music at Tiana’s Place didn’t disappoint. I got the chance to see two different shows/experiences at Animator’s Palate; both were a ton of fun. Basically, dinner becomes more than just a meal on a Disney Cruise, it’s an experience unto itself, and that’s great for young kids.

Plus, chicken fingers.

6. That Disney magic

Young children love magic the most. Yes, they can be whiny, but older kids are whiny too. But the great thing about young kids is the sense of wonder they have when “magical” Disney moments occur. Unplanned, unscripted, these moments happen from time to time on Disney properties.

Now, if you’re a cynic, you won’t appreciate this stuff at all. But that’s the thing: young kids aren’t cynics. So a young kid on a Disney cruise will love magical moments that happen that you might not even think twice about. For starters, they will get to meet Mickey dressed up in his captain’s outfit, which is pretty great.

But the moment that stood out for me was one night when M and I decided to take a walk through the ship. We were just standing around in a very quiet part of the ship, just the two of us. Suddenly, Mickey, dressed in full Fantasia garb, just sidled on in. He obviously had something very important to do, but he stopped for just that split second to say hello. That’s a cool moment for a 36 year old. That’s a mind-blowingly magical moment for a four year old. You’re not gonna get that on any other cruise line.

Final Thoughts

DisneySMMC gave me the great opportunity to see how my four year old enjoyed both the Disney Parks and a Disney Cruise. And, surprisingly to me, she enjoyed the Disney Cruise more! Perhaps it’s because she had to find other things to do in the parks because of her fear of the rides. I can’t say for sure, but ultimately, she preferred the cruise.

Disney makes their cruises so easy, I wouldn’t be surprised if your young child on a Disney cruise had a great time as well. Think I’m loco and Disney-brainwashed? You’re probably right, but have at me in the comments!

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Mar 13 2017

A child scared of Disney World rides can still have a magical time

Disney World bills itself as the most magical place on earth, and for Disney lovers like myself, it definitely fits the bill! But I never expected to have a child scared of Disney World rides. Still, that’s what I ended up with when I took my 4 year old back to Disney World this year. A funny thing happened when I stopped pushing (or strongly encouraging) her to ride – she had a magical time anyway.

Now I recognize that a vacation to Disney World involves a huge upfront cost. That cost might make you feel a lot of pressure to make sure your family enjoys the vacation. But I quickly learned that making my daughter feel that pressure, even indirectly, hurt the situation. Even simple things like “You should just try it!” could potentially turn Disney from a shared experience into an adversarial one.

Do you have a child scared of Disney World rides? You can still help them to have a magical time with all the other wonderful things Disney has to offer! — Even though she met the height requirement, M wanted nothing to do with Seven Dwarves Mine Train (Photo Credit | Ryan Wendler, wdwnews.com)

This post details some ideas for things to do with your kids besides the rides. I’ll start by just discussing the types of scares you might want to think about, then discuss some fun alternatives in the parks, and finally end with a discussion of whether going to Disney World without rides is “worth it.”

Also one final note: I know people might feel differently, but I’m all about encouraging young children to try new things including things they might be afraid of. This post is directed to parents who, like myself, have determined that they definitely have a child scared of Disney World rides. It also should help you have backup plans if your touring plan falls apart because your child refuses to ride anymore.

Types of scary rides and attractions in the parks

When it comes to rides that might be scary for children, you can break Disney’s rides into two types. Thrill rides present the most obvious fear factor for children. Rides like Star Tours, Test Track, Space Mountain, and Expedition Everest are fast, loud, and can be really frightening for some young children. Even when your children meet the height requirements it still might be too intense of an experience for them. Even though M met the minimum height, I didn’t bring her on Star Tours because I knew she’d be miserable.

The tricky rides are the dark rides – those rides usually themed after a wonderfully happy Disney movie. Rides like Winnie the Pooh, the Little Mermaid, and even Journey into Imagination can get dark and scary for moments. For my daughter some of those moments were enough to ruin the whole ride for her. Eventually she said “no more inside rides” – and that was that. (To her credit, she tried everything at least once).

Finally, a lot of children fear loud noises, so they might even be afraid of things like The Indiana Jones show at Hollywood Studios or even the Muppets 3D show! And for many kids fireworks are a non-starter. If you want to prepare ahead of time, WDW Prep School has a great resource for potential fright factor for rides at the parks. Combine that with a knowledge of your children to mentally prepare, but remember, they might surprise you! In either direction.

Idea 1: Meet some swell characters around the parks

So you’ve planned a 5 day trip to Disney World and after day 1 you realize you have a child scared of Disney World rides. Doh! Not to fear, there’s a lot you can try. The first thing I’d suggest is pivoting and focusing more on meeting characters.

At any of the parks, you can probably fill up an entire morning (or more!) just meeting characters. The key here though is efficiency, you don’t want to wait in line for two hours to see one princess and then just go home. But meeting characters can be a wonderful experience, especially for young children who still think the characters are “real.”

You get three FastPass selections to start every day, if you use two of them for character meet and greets you should save yourself a bunch of time. Grab an autograph book (preferably somewhere off site) and start a collection!

You can also avoid waiting in lines by making a reservation for one of the character dining meals. These meals are more expensive so you are paying for convenience but this is the fastest way to meet a bunch of characters at once. Also be sure to check out the talking Mickey Mouse in Town Hall Square at Magic Kingdom.

Idea 2: Move it and shake it with parades and street performers

There’s a lot going on at Disney World outside of the rides. From a parks operation perspective, street performers, parades, and shows exist to draw crowds away from the rides to cut down wait times. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t great!

My daughter loves the “Move it! Shake it! Dance and Play it! Street Party” at Magic Kingdom. While parents might get annoyed when ¡Vamos! gets lodged in their head for the next four hours, think about the fun a little one would have just dancing with Mickey, Minnie, and pals in the street. Sure it’s supposed to be a parade but that didn’t stop M from busting a move on the sidewalk.

You can also just wander around the parks enjoying the atmosphere. Disney does a great job of having random street performers pop up when you least expect it (though if you do your research you can figure out when to expect it). Whether it be the pianist at Casey’s Corner on Main Street, Taiko drummers in the Japan pavilion, or marching Storm Troopers (okay that might be scary), there’s plenty to see and do on the streets of Disney.

Idea 3: Spend time in Disney play areas

Disney has set aside a lot of play areas for young children. These are well themed and have a touch of the Disney magic – though I’d admit if I paid all that money just for my kids to play on playgrounds I’d be a little miffed.

Still, the Boneyard in Animal Kingdom is a wonder of a play area, toddlers and preschoolers could probably spend an hour there happily before remembering they need a snack. Here’s a great compilation of free play areas from When Tara Met Blog.

Idea 4: Hit up the Kidcot Fun Stops at World Showcase

World Showcase often gets ignored by parents of kids, frankly because kids don’t necessarily love edutainment. But if your kids are young enough, they can have a lot of fun visiting every Kidcot fun stop. Basically, at any of the pavilions in World Showcase, obtain a cardboard Duffy Bear cutout. You can get a special stamp from each country on your Duffy Bear – so lots of young kids (including my daughter) enjoy trying to get the full set.

Each Kidcot fun stop also has a craft that your child can do. You can grab a unique craft/coloring page from each country. Finally, during special events like Flower and Garden or the International Festival of the Arts, you can often pay a small fee (~$6) to participate in various scavenger hunts. Whether you search for hidden Figments or easter eggs, a young child can have a very fun day at World Showcase without getting on a single ride.

Idea 5: Take a day off from the parks at your resort or Disney Springs

I recognize Disney tickets cost a lot of money. And once you’ve used them once, you need to use up all your days within 14 days. But if you have the time, it’s great to take a day off. If you’re staying at an on site Disney resort, you can spend an entire day just exploring the resort and lounging at the pool. Port Orleans: Riverside had tons of stuff we could do on a day off.

You could also visit other resorts, too! The monorail loop by the Magic Kingdom has a lot of great resorts to visit. Ditto the Boardwalk area (the walkway between the Epcot International gateway and Hollywood Studios). Like all of Disney, the theming of resorts really makes for a great experience.

Finally, Disney Springs has undergone some major improvements since its rebranding from Downtown Disney. That place is alive with energy: there are plenty of things to do, eat, play, and try there!

Final Thoughts – Is Disney worth it without the rides?

Some people don’t bring their kids to Disney until they are older, which is totally understandable. At the price point, you may not want to risk the investment only to find your kids are scared of everything.

That being said, I have a newfound appreciation for visiting Disney without rides. In my mind, I used to always process Disney as a theme park – aka I’d calculate the “value” gleaned from my ticket in rides per hour.

Since having kids, I realize that the cost of the ticket covers way more than rides: it covers the ambience, the shows, the surprise experiences you have, and so much more. Obviously, this comes from a Disneyphile perspective, but the fact of the matter is, I just enjoy being at the parks (and around them).

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So yes, I feel you can have a very worthwhile time at Disney without riding any rides. In fact, after we were stranded, my daughter and I spent a lovely half day at Hollywood Studios, and didn’t step on a single ride (though we did go to her favorite attraction, Disney Jr Live!). We reminisce about that day at the parks more than all the other ones, proof that you don’t need to ride to have a memorable time at Disney with your family.

What other non-ride activities did I miss? Let me know!