BP Vacation Thread: What To Do Where You're Going

[BayBuck]

How about Disney World? For the dads who have taken little kids there (and during, say, Spring Break) any hints/tips for making it out alive? We're going to be doing all 4 big parks, so just wondering what is the most fun (for dad and for the whole family) and where best to grab a cold one along the way... ?

 

[WolverineMike]

How about Disney World? For the dads who have taken little kids there (and during, say, Spring Break) any hints/tips for making it out alive? We're going to be doing all 4 big parks, so just wondering what is the most fun (for dad and for the whole family) and where best to grab a cold one along the way... ?

Take advantage of the fastpass option for rides. Spring Break week, you'll be doing a lot of waiting. The fastpass will let you choose up to 3 rides for the day. Will give you a time window to show up for the ride. Then you bypass all the people waiting in the regular line and go right to the front via the fastpass entrance. That's my biggest piece of advice.

also, make your fastpass selections early because they will control the time options. If you wait until the last minute, if you're going into the park at say 10am, there's a chance the window of time they give you for your third ride could be at 8pm or something.

 

[BayBuck]

Take advantage of the fastpass option for rides. Spring Break week, you'll be doing a lot of waiting. The fastpass will let you choose up to 3 rides for the day. Will give you a time window to show up for the ride. Then you bypass all the people waiting in the regular line and go right to the front via the fastpass entrance. That's my biggest piece of advice.

also, make your fastpass selections early because they will control the time options. If you wait until the last minute, if you're going into the park at say 10am, there's a chance the window of time they give you for your third ride could be at 8pm or something.

Thanks... We are going in just a couple weeks, so we have the whole itinerary fairly well structured - with FastPasses and character experiences and most meals booked months ago - so what I'm interested in hearing about are the cool little things to keep an eye out for, favorite rides/attractions, best bars, things like that.

 

[buxfan4life]

How about Disney World? For the dads who have taken little kids there (and during, say, Spring Break) any hints/tips for making it out alive? We're going to be doing all 4 big parks, so just wondering what is the most fun (for dad and for the whole family) and where best to grab a cold one along the way... ?

Annual Pass holder here.

First and most important point to make is that Magic Kingdom IS DRY!! Remember that when you really want a drink at the end of the day. All other parks serve alcohol.

Get you tickets now, download the Disney World "My Disney Experience" App (which is an awesome tool when you are looking for rides as it updates with wait times regularly), link all of your tickets together in the app and set up FastPasses right away (if they come with your tickets) as they fill up fast for certain rides. You might want to check out the Park Hopper option so that you can go to multiple parks in one day. You can park at one place and Monorail/Bus to the other parks.

What to do at the parks (basic):

EPCOT - Soarin', one of the main attractions, is current closed for renovations. Test Track is fun, but you will want to use a FastPass for it as the wait time can get to 90+ mins soon after the park opens. Most of the other attractions, including Spaceship Earth (the big geodesic sphere) usually have shorter lines, but expect at least 45 mins to 1 hr without fast pass at some. There are also a ton of good places to eat in EPCOT, especially in the World Showcase.

Animal Kingdom - Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris and Dinosaur are the FastPasses for this park. Depending on the age of your kids, Dinosaur might be a bit scary for them. There is a Rain Forest Cafe in the front of the park that kids enjoy as it has animatronic animals doing animal stuff in the background while you eat. It's Tough to Be a Bug is a cool 4D experience as well.

Hollywood Studios - Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Midway Mania, and Tower of Terror are the FastPasses. Star Tours lines always move fast, I have never waited more than 40 mins in the regular line. Near Star Tours they do a Jedi Training for the kids, it is a funny little skit involving Darth Vader, Storm-troopers, and the kids who signed up for their Jedi Training that day. There is a really cool car stunt show here, and an Indiana Jones Stunt show as well (I was picked one time to be an extra out of the audience, that was fun!).

Magic Kingdom - This place is always packed, so pick you FastPasses wisely. One of my favorite attractions here is the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, but that is like a show and the wait time depends on when the next show starts. The newest attraction is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I have yet to ride it as it was not available for Fast Pass when I was there over Thanksgiving and it always had at least a 2 hour wait, but I see now that you can FastPass it now.

Are you staying on property?

 

[BayBuck]

Thanks for the detailed reponse! Notes added in bold below...

Annual Pass holder here.

First and most important point to make is that Magic Kingdom IS DRY!! Remember that when you really want a drink at the end of the day. All other parks serve alcohol.

Get you tickets now, download the Disney World "My Disney Experience" App (CHECK) (which is an awesome tool when you are looking for rides as it updates with wait times regularly) (I did this yesterday, have been playing with it today, checking out the wait times etc), link all of your tickets together in the app and set up FastPasses right away (CHECK) (if they come with your tickets) as they fill up fast for certain rides. You might want to check out the Park Hopper option so that you can go to multiple parks in one day. (We decided against any Hoppers since all 4 parks get 1 day each, 2 for Magic Kingdom) You can park at one place and Monorail/Bus to the other parks.

What to do at the parks (basic):

EPCOT - Soarin', one of the main attractions, is current closed for renovations (too bad, I heard that was a good one) . Test Track is fun, but you will want to use a FastPass for it (CHECK) as the wait time can get to 90+ mins soon after the park opens. Most of the other attractions, including Spaceship Earth (CHECK) (the big geodesic sphere) usually have shorter lines, but expect at least 45 mins to 1 hr without fast pass at some. There are also a ton of good places to eat in EPCOT, especially in the World Showcase (really looking forward to that!).

Animal Kingdom - Everest (CHECK), Kilimanjaro Safaris (CHECK) and Dinosaur (need to check if the youngest is tall enough for this one...) are the FastPasses for this park. Depending on the age of your kids, Dinosaur might be a bit scary for them. There is a Rain Forest Cafe in the front of the park that kids enjoy as it has animatronic animals doing animal stuff in the background while you eat. It's Tough to Be a Bug is a cool 4D experience as well.

Hollywood Studios - Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (somehow missed this one, will check for FP openings), Midway Mania (CHECK), and Tower of Terror (wife has already scared the kids off of this one) are the FastPasses. Star Tours lines always move fast, I have never waited more than 40 mins in the regular line. Near Star Tours they do a Jedi Training for the kids, it is a funny little skit involving Darth Vader, Storm-troopers, and the kids who signed up for their Jedi Training that day. There is a really cool car stunt show here, and an Indiana Jones Stunt show (yes!) as well (I was picked one time to be an extra out of the audience, that was fun!).

Magic Kingdom - This place is always packed, so pick you FastPasses wisely. One of my favorite attractions here is the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (good to know, we like Monsters), but that is like a show and the wait time depends on when the next show starts. The newest attraction is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (CHECK). I have yet to ride it as it was not available for Fast Pass when I was there over Thanksgiving and it always had at least a 2 hour wait, but I see now that you can FastPass it now.

Are you staying on property? (Yes - Polynesian)

I tend to be a pretty rigorous pre-travel researcher, but I always like to check in with the BP crowd before I go, and it sounds like we're on the same page here. We have little girls, so of course there will be the princessy stuff, but I'm still pretty excited about all of it.

 

[scarletmike]

Well, I generally avoid doing this, as I know way too much to actually be of use (I usually spend more time asking questions to figure out what to recommend than actually giving advice ), but...I work there. All of the advice from @buxfan4life is solid, especially since you're just doing one park per day. The Poly is an awesome resort, and you will definitely want to check out Trader Sam's if you like rum drinks, as it is just an awesome atmosphere with interesting apps.

As far as what to look out for, Animal Kingdom is full of little details that 99% of people rush past (either by choice or partly forced, since many of the cool details are in the attractions lines, like the "Yeti Museum" in the line of Expedition Everest), but since you'll have a full day for the park I would recommend slowing down to look around. Do the walking trails (Pangani Forest and Maharajah Jungle Trek) twice, at fairly distant times, because some animals are active at different times of the day. I usually find that the tigers in Maharajah are more active in the late afternoon, while some other animals in there are already asleep that were active earlier (like the birds in the aviary).

I could go on and on, but instead will simply say that if you want any more details, just ask and I can try and help outside the board instead of putting up walls of text that would make Gatorubet blush if I'm not careful.

 

[buxfan4life]

Thanks for the detailed reponse! Notes added in bold below...



I tend to be a pretty rigorous pre-travel researcher, but I always like to check in with the BP crowd before I go, and it sounds like we're on the same page here. We have little girls, so of course there will be the princessy stuff, but I'm still pretty excited about all of it.

At Disney Springs (big open shopping/dining area, open to the public) there is a World of Disney store where you can get the girls an appointment to get done up like princesses and they (along with the others there) officially open the store in a ceremony. It is pretty cute.

 

[buxfan4life]

As far as what to look out for, Animal Kingdom is full of little details that 99% of people rush past (either by choice or partly forced, since many of the cool details are in the attractions lines, like the "Yeti Museum" in the line of Expedition Everest), but since you'll have a full day for the park I would recommend slowing down to look around. Do the walking trails (Pangani Forest and Maharajah Jungle Trek) twice, at fairly distant times, because some animals are active at different times of the day. I usually find that the tigers in Maharajah are more active in the late afternoon, while some other animals in there are already asleep that were active earlier (like the birds in the aviary)

Yep. Lots of cool details, cameos, and jokes if you pay close attention to the decor around the park.

 

[kinch]

Annual Pass holder here.

First and most important point to make is that Magic Kingdom IS DRY!! Remember that when you really want a drink at the end of the day. All other parks serve alcohol.

I've never been to Disneyland nor Disney World, but my longtime travel/work partner went every year and said there was one place to get alcohol in both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. He was not the type to make things up. . .

He did say one of them was only for the upper peeps in the know, whatever that meant (he cleared seven or eight digits a year quite easily and knew his way around).

It doesn't really matter, but I found it interesting.

 

[Dryden]

Thinking this year we're just going to pack up the minivan and head east until 70 ends, drive up the coast into Maine, then head back home and catch Niagra Falls on the return leg. Leave on a Friday and get back the following Sunday. Spend ten days seeing where the roads take us.

Anyone know of some quality bed and breakfasts in New England?

 

[Saw31]

 

[scarletmike]

I've never been to Disneyland nor Disney World, but my longtime travel/work partner went every year and said there was one place to get alcohol in both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. He was not the type to make things up. . .

He did say one of them was only for the upper peeps in the know, whatever that meant (he cleared seven or eight digits a year quite easily and knew his way around).

It doesn't really matter, but I found it interesting.

Your buddy was referring to Club 33 at Disneyland, a private club started by Walt himself, and with a ridiculously long waiting list of people wanting to pay a like $10k+ membership fee. At Magic Kingdom the only place to have anything alcoholic is Be Our Guest, a restaurant themed to Beauty and the Beast. Even then, the options are the wine list and like one or two French beers or something like that, no cocktails or normal beers.

 

[BayBuck]

At Disney Springs (big open shopping/dining area, open to the public) there is a World of Disney store where you can get the girls an appointment to get done up like princesses and they (along with the others there) officially open the store in a ceremony. It is pretty cute.

We're signed up for that one too! - the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique - for the little one's bday.

 

[TDunk]

Thinking this year we're just going to pack up the minivan and head east until 70 ends, drive up the coast into Maine, then head back home and catch Niagra Falls on the return leg. Leave on a Friday and get back the following Sunday. Spend ten days seeing where the roads take us.

Anyone know of some quality bed and breakfasts in New England?

Head over to the "What car do you drive thread?" Thump and his brother might be able to help.

 

[bigdog3300]

Thinking this year we're just going to pack up the minivan and head east until 70 ends, drive up the coast into Maine, then head back home and catch Niagra Falls on the return leg. Leave on a Friday and get back the following Sunday. Spend ten days seeing where the roads take us.

Anyone know of some quality bed and breakfasts in New England?

I'm doing something similar - taking 90 up to Buffalo/Rochester and then heading into Vermont - from there just going to go wherever I feel like.

I've spent a lot of time in the Hartford, CT area and absolutely love it. If you pass through there, you have to stop in for an oddly named but delicious place called 'Plan B'. One of the, if not the, best burger I've had in my life.