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A bugbear of mine as a solo traveller, and that might come up for other smaller groups especially on the wider queues like the first half Soarin':

Getting swamped by the group behind.

Am looking for suggestions on how to calmly work out how to create a presence that signifies that there is actually a party (albeit of only 1 in my case) in front of them.

Now I am not a small person, at just over 6 foot and a little bit on the waist, but it is almost as if I have vanished.

Most often it is members moving past to sit on the wall/rope/chain further down so they dont have to stand as often, but they continue the conversation with those still behind. Over a period of time gradually more and more of the group move forward further each time.

The other thing is a member of the party behind that uses you as a physical buffer to stop....

Example my last trip in the the queue for Tower of Terror had someone behind me, head down and on their phone the entire time. They would move forward until the phone touched me...Even with me sidestepping and hands on hips elbows out, they readjusted. Worst part was they were coughing the whole time....Got the cast member involved at the stop just inside for that one, (was sent to the other preshow video room).

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Hi all!

I need some help with planning a 5 day trip, it will be me and my cousin, both in our 30s, we're staying at all stars music from June 5th to 10th, we'll do the free typhoon lagoon on the first day, but I'm not sure how to do the other days.

I have the 3 days hopper ticket and 1 resting day, I planned it like this: Day 1: typhoon lagoon Day 2: AK until around 13h, EP from 14h forward Day 3: rest Day 4: MK Day 5: HS

I plan to rope drop MK, HS and AK to ride the single LL: seven dwarves, rise and flight, also getting lightning lane all days, but maybe I can do AK and HS one day and then HS to EP the other day to have more time at Epcot?

I'm not sure how long it takes to do Epcot and thought it would be a good idea to take the early lightning lane from AK to get some hard to get ones from HS, but maybe doing 2 hoppers will be tiring?

Please let me know any suggestions, thank you all :)

I was having trouble submitting for the Maleficent audition due tonight at 11:30. By the time it checked in I believe it was 11:31. It still says I'm checked in. However, is it possible that it didn't go through/ won't be considered? I know I was doing it last minute but hope it's not all for not!

Inspired by another post pointing out the good, the bad & the ugly of their trip, I wanted to switch it up and provide insight on my most recent trip (with better formatting because I'm doing this on a computer, not my phone). Did 4 days at the park with a park hopper, stayed at boardwalk villas, and my last trip was in 2022. I've been coming to WDW nearly regularly since I was a baby in the 80s, went through an obsessive phase between 2012-2017, and now I just go for family trips. So I've seen it change a lot.

THE GREAT

• Cosmic Rewind. It lives up to the hype, went on twice. Make time in your itinerary if possible to do it twice (and hope to get two different songs). Did virtual queue both times. From the sliding door entrance to completing the ride took about an hour, so take that into account.
• After Dark @ MGM. Sure you gotta pay for the ticket but it is worth it alone just to see the park so empty. Did every ride that I wanted to (skipped Runaway Railway and the saucer ride), saw some fun characters. I'd opt to do this and skip the park hopper day for that day (use it for another day).
• All the service dogs! I just like seeing dogs anywhere I go.
• TRON. Everyone says it is too short, but I found the length just fine. Seemed about as long as Rockin Rollercoaster. The locker thing threw me for a loop at first but after 10 seconds I got it. Fun ride.

THE SURPRISING

• Animal Kingdom. I used to do half days, go on a few rides, write it off as whatever. Now I really enjoy it and the greenery and seeing the animals. Never got crazy crowded and very enjoyable.
• It's Tough to Be a Bug. I had never been on this attraction. Wrote it off as a dumb silly kids thing and I was never into Bugs Life IP. But what an enjoyable and irreverent experience, and even more enjoyable counting how many people up and left during the middle of it.
• Boardwalk breakfast pizza. Knowing Disney I was expecting something slapdash for a high price, but this was good! Highly recommend.
• Guests were nice to CMs. I didn't encounter any instances of people being rude, and in fact, saw a lot of people say thank you and generally respecting them. The guests were just mean to their own families, if anything.

THE BIZARRE

• Finding Nemo stage show. What was this? Family dragged me on it, and it wasn't even cold out so they couldn't use the excuse "it gets you out of the heat." Music was louder than the voice actors so I couldn't follow along the already intricate plot.
• Phone use. Phones are an intricate part of our lives and even more so at Disney, because (for better or worse) everything is tied to it. But I'm not here to gripe about people walking while on their phones, crashing into people, or people using it on dark rides to book their next fast pass and not enjoying the present moment. What was truly bizarre was to see people just having their phones on while literally doing anything, from looking at souvenirs to eating dinner. Like people were just treating it as white noise. The tik tok or reels app would just be playing, volume on, but the person wasn't even looking at their phone. it was just on. weird.
• Under Armor shirts. Not bizarre, per se, but I noticed it was the most worn non-Disney shirt i saw at the parks. Any story behind that?

Final Thoughts

This trip was overwhelming. My brother pointed out that there is no longer a "less busy" time at Disney, so the days of post labor day lulls of ten-15 years ago is gone. It will always be busy, so just book it for whenever you can (except summer and major holidays, unless you like the mayhem). Personally I have seen the quality of just about everything dip, and the aesthetics of connections and communicore hall doesn't appeal to me. Seeing egregious and sloppy alcohol consumption really turned me off this time around (more so than usual with the drink around the world apparel), and that's a whole other beast to address. I enjoyed roaming resorts more than the parks, and you can really have a good time doing pool and activities. The parks, in my case, was best enjoyed an hour after and before the actual park closed, so I tried to do my attractions in those times, and if I wanted to be in the park during the majority of operating hours, it was relegated to shows or just roaming and taking pictures. But this was likely my last trip for the foreseeable future. Disney will constantly evolve and change, and I think I got to enjoy all the new things (Guardians, TRON, Country Bear) and the vestiges of the old that will be demolished (Tom Sawyer, Aerosmith, Muppets 3D).

So I'm celebrating my 50th Birthday at WDW, particularly EPCOT for Festival of the Art. I definitely want to do the Animation Academy, the Seas, Living on the Land, Spaceship Earth, and the Festival offerings. We will probably do Space220 at 2:50, or 4:00 (deciding which to cancel). I know Animation Academy is at the American Pavillion at 12:30 and 1:30. I'm questioning if we should divide it between the Innovations area on one day and World Showcase the next or just do EPCOT 1 day and Hollywood Studios the next. The part that makes this challenging is I've had to have back surgery, and have bad knees, so if I go too hard too long, I have a lot of pain. We are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge so will be taking the bus if that is relevant. It's been ages since I've been to EPCOT so I can't remember how much time it will take. What's the best way to work it?

Looking at rent DVC points for an upcoming Spring Break trip. With as highly regarded as Beach Club seems to be on this subreddit, I find it odd that so many Beach Club options are available in April. My only assumption, which may be wrong, is that those in the know feel like its not worth the $500+ a night price if the pool is closed.

As a first timer WDWer traveling with a 4 and 7 year old, I'd like to know if Beach Club still be worth it if while these renovations occur or should we book elsewhere? I see other good things mentioned like the location but not sure if that alone makes it a winner. Any advice would be appreciated.

Tower of Terror is my favorite ride in Disney World, but there’s one thing that’s always made me curious about the ride? For those of you out there who have rode Tower of Terror, is there any explanation why the final drop or two feels different from the first ones? Like it feels like you’re going sideways almost or about to go upside down. Idk, it’s weird and hard to explain and as many times as I’ve ridden it (which is obviously a lot), I’ve never figured out why the final drops have a different sensation.

Thoughts?

Hi everyone- my trip is in 30 days and I have Chef Mickeys booked for 8:25am. We’re staying at ASMovies. I’m considering a Minnie van to get to breakfast and then monorail to MK. But I would need 2 car seats. Can they accommodate that? Would I need an advance booking? Thanks!

Hey there, fellow WDW panning strategists and over thinkers! We are seasoned WDW travelers with our next trip coming up in June. This year, the little one will be 6 and while her normal bed time is 7:30pm, she is much better about being up late - although she will still be up by 7am regardless of when she goes to bed. We typically stay at a deluxe resort but have never taken advantage of EETPH because she was so little. Because of this, my Disney planning instincts tend to focus on Early Entry/Rope Drop strategies. I am attracted to the idea of sleeping in more this year and focusing on later nights, but I have this fear that I will miss out on attractions and spend all day in lines if I go that route (nightmarish memories of a 3 hours wait for Frozen in 2016 creep in). I am still learning the new Multi-pass/Single-pass ins and out (last trip was April 2024 with Genie+). With Genie+ I was forced into being up early anyways, so it leant well to Early Entry. Do you think that with the new Lightening Lane pre-booking at 7 days plus EETPH I can finally let go my 5:45am wake ups and 7am bookings? Or will entering the parks later make it so I end up missing out because return times fill up? Whats your experience? I'm looking for the nitty gritty details! Thank you!

I'm working on a catalog for passholder magnets and can't find the answer to this anywhere online.

Does anyone know what year/date WDW started sending out the original white and black passholder magnet?

What date did they switch over to the orange mickey magnet?

When did they switch to mailing out the yellow D mickey magnet?

I've just gotten back from a whirlwind 6 day/5 night solo trip. My first solo trip! The idea was to spend as little as possible without compromising the core experience in and around the parks too much. I made the decision to stay on site. Disney was and still is running a deal on rooms that, combined with buying discount gift cards at BJs and 1.5% cash back on my credit card, made my price per night something like $120 dollars per night (the package price with 5 nights and 4 park days was $1462, take 5% off of that due to di). Given that if you stay off site you have to pay for transportation or use what is, from my research, usually an inadequate bus service, when you compare $130 a night to any other hotel, I think Disney comes out on top especially for early theme park entry and the ease and frequency transportation as I just said.

I stayed at all star sports from 1/24 to 1/29 and went to the parks 1/25 to 1/28. Here are some thoughts about different parts of the trip, advice if you want to do something similar, and there will be a full expense report at the end

The Flights: There are three carriers offering nonstop flights from my midsized upstate NY city. One offers flights to Lakeland so that was right out. Spirit and southwest offer nonstop flights to MCO. Southwest for $300-$400. Spirit was $140. That fare came with some huge drawbacks, so it's clearly not for everyone. Spirit's cheapest fare class is called "go". Go fares come with almost nothing. No checked bag, no carry on. The fare only covers your person and a 18x14x8 "personal item" that fits under the seat in front of you. The only way this trip would work is if I could fit everything in a bag under the personal item size because having a checked bag or carry on would have doubled the price of the flight at $60 per bag per way (about $120 total just for either a carry on or checked bag). So I purchased a backpack on Amazon of the requisite size (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1LVFHMJ pro top for this: you can buy a returned bag for 20-40% off). The flight was as you might expect. It was like most other short haul domestic flight although the seat was singularly uncomfortable and I would suggest bringing a jacket to sit on.

From MCO - WDW:
My flight was arriving at 5:30 and I was planning on going to disney springs for dinner. I decided to try out the Lynx route 411 city bus from MCO to Disney Springs. It's pretty easy to do. It's a direct route with no transfers and there are only 7 stops. The Lynx leaves from bus slips A38 through A41 on the terminal A side of the main terminals a and b building. This is the opposite side from mears on the B side. The bus comes evey half and hour and takes about 70 minutes to get to Disney Springs. I know that might seem like a lot of time but I've had Mears take that amount of time. There is a huge upside in that it only costs $2. Recently, the Lynx started accepting tap credit cards right on the bus, so that was fine. The bus drops you off at the transfer center right outside Cirque du Solei at springs. I would probably take the bus again but only if the only baggage I had was a backpack. It wouldn't be worth the hassle otherwise.

How to fit it all into one day per park:
The idea for this solo trip was to try to do as much as possible while keeping costs down. I listen to the Disney Dish podcast (go look it up if you don't listen already) and had heard about co-host Len Testa's statistical modeling of wait times that he packages into the optimizer for TouringPlans.com. I paid $25 for the year. There are a bunch of features that would require too much detail to go into here, however the optimizer recommended some counter-intuitive strategies that ended up being amazing. Here's how the optimizer works: you enter in what day you want to visit, what time you will arrive and what time you will leave, your walking speed and amount of walking you will tolerate, then you tell it what rides, shows, and restaurants you want to visit as well as if you want to take any breaks. It then tells you in what order to visit those rides along with time estimates. I found this helpful in all the parks except Epcot. For example, in HS it recommended rope dropping rockin roller coaster, then tower of terror, then rise of the resistance. Luck shined on me that day and RnR started loading guests 5 minutes before early park entry was due to start. I was within the first 10 cars on RnR, then I ran over and walked on to Tower, then got in the standby queue for Rise all before the park opened to day guests. For people looking to maximize their days, I recommend TouringPlans.

Single Rider:
There are great single rider experiences to be had.... and not so great ones. The new Remy's single rider line was great. I don't know if the secret hasn't gotten out or what but I jumped a 70 minute posted wait in 5-10 minutes, almost a walk on. The rise single rider line was good. Rockin' Roller Coaster seems to take single rider way more slowly than other lines. Use single rider if you can.

Ride Maintenance:
Maintenece seemed to be a little better than in my 2024 trip (I posted that report to this sub a year ago). But there are still easily seen problems. Lights out on the roller coaster portion of small world, on Impressions de france one projector was a few frames ahead of the other two causing problems with the blending. I think they really have made an effort this year, however, they still have more to go.

Mears Connect:
I wish they were more efficient. I had a 7:05 pickup for a 10:30 flight, which is about an hour too early anyway, but then the bus was 20 minutes late. It took 10 minutes to clear security. I wish I could have used that extra time to sleep. I know there are sacrifices to using a shared bus service, but I think it could be done a little better.

The Magic:
Is this solo trip for everyone? No. Even I admit I would have liked more time to stop and smell the roses.... There's always next time! I think the trip went amazing for not purchasing any line skip products at all. I got on 90% of what I could have ever imagined doing. It is at once like I was there forever and that I blinked and it was over.

The Numbers:
All numbers rounded to whole numbers for ease of reading
$1462 package cost
$230 food
1692 DGC total
5.5% discount on DGCs = $1599
1.5% cash back = $1575
$26 shirt
$140 Flights
=$1741 total trip cost

Durables (will be reused so not totally attributable as a cost to this trip):
$34 backpack
$14.57 charger brick
$7.66 new charger cables
=$56 in durables

We plan to visit Hollywood Studio at Feb 7th, and we thought the crowd should be fine. But when I check the waiting time recently, the rides at HS all have very long waiting time. Does anyone know what is going on there? Or all parks are very busy recently?

Howdy Folks,

I have a conference coming up at Coronado Springs Resort. Usually it’s at Swan Dolphin but not this time. Also, kids are old enough to take on the company dime!

So company will comp a couple days. Question is, stay at Coronado for 6 days or Waldorf (I get a pretty steep discount there, sub $260/night).

I loved having the boardwalk and option for evening strolls in EPCOT but that’s likely not happening this time. Also want it to be easy for my wife and kids to get around while I’m at the conference.

Thoughts?

Gotta say, out of my many kids and wife, I’m the most excited about these Disney Pins and have a new found addiction!

I think I am more of a Disney fan than my whole family after our first trip this past week!

As a man in his 30s, it feels strange but I’m ready to go back!

Have the rules changed recently regarding visiting other resorts? I’m arriving tomorrow for a stay at Pop Century and have been planning to go to POR (driving and parking) for the allergy friendly beignets. My wife has celiac and a dairy allergy and can eat very few baked foods, but loves the beignets. Would be a huge bummer if we couldn’t get them.

We’d also like to visit Fort Wilderness to get the quick service lunch, but would take the ferry from MK.

Hey all! Me and the fam are going to WDW in May for a work conference. On the conference days I’m planning to do pool time with the kiddos in the morning and then try to go to all the Disney resorts to explore, play on some playgrounds and do some pin trading.

We are staying at Caribbean Beach, so the skyliner resorts are easy to figure out. But how do I best get to the other resorts? I figure I could skyliner to Hollywood Studios and take a bus to some of the other resorts, but that could be a lot of back and forth. Has anyone ever done this and is willing to share their itinerary? Trying to use just the free Disney transport as one kiddo is in a car seat and I don’t want to pay Minnie Van prices.

We explored all the monorail resorts back in December, so if we don’t get to those it is no huge loss.

Thanks! And if you have any suggestions of which resorts to definitely see over others let me know.

After 7 years of WDW visits, this was a first time experience. What is going on with the parks? All attractions with a +50 minute wait time. Lighting lanes are 35 dollars each guest. Every park was like this... my feet couldn't take it anymore (neither did my back). Missing the old days.

I’ve messaged this to most family members and no one has any idea aside from “a terrifying bear” or “ the thing of nightmares” Is he from movie or show maybe ?? He was so nice and very funny, probably top 5 character meets.

My parents, brother, SIL, and nephews are coming for a visit and they want to eat at T-Rex - we’ll have a party of ten and it’s in 2 weeks. Is it smarter to join the Landry’s VIP program and try to get a walk up table or to pay the $7 for mousewatcher? I’m concerned because of the size of our party.

Alright tomorrow is the day for me- if you are staying on property what order do you book attractions?

Day 1 AK/Epcot (will have extended evening hours and Remys/Frozen are fine but not a major priority). Afternoon TS at Epcot

Day 3 MK and possibly Epcot- focus on MK for rides (will do early entry and EEH at MK). Have TS dinner at MK

Day 4 DHS and possibly Epcot Have TS lunch at DHS. Kiddo also wants to build Droid.

Planning in buying LLSP for FoP (AM Day 1), Gaurdians (PM Day 1), ROTR (Day 4). Also want to bang out a few rides at AK then hop over to Epcot for the day.

Did anyone else hear about this? I’ve seen it three different news sources. But two of the sources I saw the news in is not allowed to be linked here. I would love to know if there are any Disney insiders here who could tell us more? - this is alarming and a safety issue that should be released to the public. It does affect the integrity of the parks and all the safety protocols they supposedly have in place, if this is true.