In laws used a Disney travel agent or some shit. Booked early last week and we also had to mess with our dates. Originally were going the week after.
yeah I might have to go the third party route bec I cant get any of the dates I want to work on disney.com
only downside of AK Lodge is distance to other parks and since most of your time is at the parks and not at the hotel sometimes it kinda sucks plus the time between buses is rough savannah view rooms are legit tho
I was able to ride Rise twice on Sunday after being denied previously during the world of the virtual queue. It was a glorious day.
Anyone have advice on moving from the airport to an on campus lodge (Animal Kingdom in this case) now that the magic express is dead
Sorry I’m not more helpful. I just don’t have any experience with magical express because I don’t need it.
Rental cars are very expensive these days, but honestly I plan on going that route every time I’m down there. Much easier than relying on their transportation. And if you’re a DVC member, you get free park and resort parking.
My sister does. She is also a travel planner/advisor for them and Universal. So, if any of y’all want to use her services for free, send me a PM.
so whats the deal with magic bands? they no longer give them to you when you stay on site? I have a draw full of them from previous stays do I even need to get new ones?
Need to buy them yourself now, but can still use old ones. Just need to link your new reservations to it.
this is what we’ve always done. Front end is pricey but you can grab groceries for breakfast and snacks and then go out to eat off campus where it may be more reasonable. I always recommend this for anyone who has a big stroller because the buses with a stroller is awful
So I booked a trip to Disney and every single restaurant seems to be booked and zero openings are becoming available as we get closer to our trip. My wife is starting to freak out and of course all the actual trip planning is falling on my shoulders so I'm feeling the heat. We will be staying at Animal Kingdom Resort from the 15th of December to the 22nd. We plan on doing Animal Kingdom park on the 16th (Thursday) and Magic Kingdom on the 20th (Monday) No other parks have been booked as we don't want to go over board. With little ones (3 and 7) were trying to avoid the busier days so if it would be wise to change the days on those parks let me know any tips, suggestions would greatly be appreciated. I did get Magic Bands, they just arrived and I linked our reservations to them. I also have Genie + (I think this is what replaced fast pass) but it seems like I can't book rides till the day of. I've seen conflicting stuff about being able to enter the parks 30 minutes early and stay later... so if anyone could help me out on this that would be clutch. Also none of the character meals have been open and I'm beyond bummed so any tips on being able to book that would be cool. I was told by the travel agent that the hotel will pick us up from the airport and also do drop offs. So I'm thinking I can get away with Ubering any destinations outside of what Disney covers. Any help would be great again.
someone gave me a great hack for making reservations. say you're staying for 7 days, you book another "dummy" trip for 10 days that starts 3 days prior to yours. then when the reservation window for the dummy trip opens up you book everything for the 7 days that overlap and then cancel the 10 day trip. I haven't tried it yet but he's a DVC member who goes about four times a year and does it.
just going by what he told me. I'm too much of a conformist to ever come up with something like that.
This is called “walking” your reservation, and people on Disney message boards absolutely lose their minds over it. It’s a somewhat common practice that Disney hasn’t done anything about to discourage yet.
For the food reservations, have you tried calling? It sounds extremely simple, but if you’re just using their online portal for times, I’ve noticed it’s not always accurate in terms of availability.
That may be a bit complicated at this point. Also not sure how a dummy trip would open options for me that this trip isn’t saying is available
Dining reservations also pop up a ton the day before or day of. People change last minute quite a bit. You also get charged if you make a cancellation less than 24 hours before, so about 36-48 hours in advance you see a bunch pop up. People also double book and only end up using one.
Given how busy it's been this week (there was very limited options for dining the first day I could book) I can't imagine how shitty it's going to be in December. I lucked out getting a Hollywood and Vine character dinner mid day, it was the only character experience available
As a resort guest you get in 30 minutes early to every park every day if you have a park rez for that park. There are currently no more night time/stay late hours. Only morning. Most people have said they open it even earlier than 30 minutes but that’s not advertised.
Yeah there aren’t going to be busy days and light days when you are there. it’s going to be “wow this is crowded this sucks” days and “holy fuck I want to go back to the pool it’s so crowded days” that week.
So this trip was "hey let's get out the freezing north east for Christmas. Just do a chill family day at a resort with an indoor pool" So I spoke to a agent and had booked a week at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando because it had a water park and a ton of christmas stuff in the hotel for the kids. I also booked a day at Sea World. Well I take my wife to the agent to make payment and it turns into a week at Animal Kingdom Resort with two park days... And I have to do all the day to day planning. Merry Christmas Me!
is there any reason why you didnt do the whole think that week of the 13th. I only ask that because after that Thursday you plan to go to AK its going to be even worse bec most of the southern states will be on Christmas break then.
thats what I thought when I saw you had a 7yo also. My two youngest are born on 12/30 and 7/31 literally during the two worst periods ever. Ive tried to do the birthday thing for both once bec I had to as a parent and its a nightmare being at the park during those periods. Atleast you won't be sweating balls in those long lines, but the kids will get tired of those long waits very fast. Prob best to do MK on that Thursday since its going to be the less crowded of your two days and AK isn't going to have as many kids rides to wait through imo.
I cashed in some miles for around $2k in Disney GCs and they just arrived in a big envelope with a bunch of letterhead sheets with 6 individual $50 GCs stuck on each lol. I was hoping they’d just combine my order onto one or a few higher value cards.
Pretty damn good day at MK on Saturday. Open to close, packed in as much as we could. Used Genie+ and Lightning Lane. MK is so much better with older kids (8 and 12) compared to years ago with a damn stroller. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 3x Splash Mountain 2x Space Mountain 2x Jungle Cruise Haunted Mansion Pirates of the Caribbean Country Bear Jamboree The Hall of Presidents Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern Sat and watched a few parades and shopped a bit.
I will be driving all night tomorrow night to get a head start on our Saturday to Thursday stay. 8 hour drive, hoping the 4 yo sleeps through it. This will be her first trip. I might go broke this week…but she’s going to lose her mind.
The Express is done? Well damn. That, going from Fast Pass to Genie, and not giving bands when staying on site all blows.
Lots of shitty decisions by Disney Parks recently. Clearly meant to boost profitability. Not that I make any difference to them but I'm thinking I'll keep my AP for another year then drop it. Can't justify the price when they keep removing benefits while increasing prices (also likely won't bother paying the premium for staying in resort property).
this is where I am as well. We bought but never activated our most recent season passes before the Covid shut down and haven’t been back yet to activate them for the year. Once we use those passes for twelve months we are done. While disney was never inexpensive we hadn’t ever felt we were getting nickle and dimed to death before. Then the parking fees at hotels, now the bands, the genie +, and it goes on.
Chapek is destroying Disney parks. He’s made it so the average middle class family from Ohio could never afford a week at the parks unless they pinch every penny in the budget.
How long has he been running parks? Seems like it’s been trending this way for awhile. lived in Orlando 20 years until last year. Was back at the parks Sunday for first time since we moved and left parks feeling that might be last time I go. Wasn’t a fan of the genie plus system and lighting lane money grab. It’s probably better than having all the fast passes sucked up 60-90 days in advance but having to use the app all day to manage the experience was frustrating and also glitchy. Im probably just spoiled from having gone so many times but to me it seems like the park experience just isn’t as enjoyable as it used to be.