Disney Revealed - Walt Disney World Tips and Tricks

I will be reviewing RideMax.com in detail during our holiday trip to Walt Disney World this year. We will be at WDW from Dec 27th-Jan 3rd. I have used TourGuide Mike in the past for my trip planning and he has some wonderful ideas. It’s time to try something new and see how accurate the RideMax software is.

We are going to be at WDW during one of the busiest weeks of the year, so I’m very curious to see how the software handles our trip. Stay tuned. I will post my review in January.  Have a very Merry Christmas!!

I would like to point out that RideMax already is off on the right foot.  I ordered the software this morning and accidentally chose the Disneyland software rather than the Disney World software.  I wrote the support an email and received a response within the hour letting me know that they were crediting back my account.  Now THAT is great service.

EDIT:  We just returned from our trip and I had the stomach flu for almost the entire trip.  We didn’t make most of the parks and I will not be able to review RideMax the way that I had wanted to.  HUGE bummer to say the least.

Have you ever wanted to be celebrated as the “Person of the Year” at Walt Disney World?  SunNews7 has put up a new video that allows you to type in your name (or anyone’s name) and watch a news video that highlights that person as Disney World’s person of the year.  This would be a great treat to show your kids if you are planning a Walt Disney World vaction.

They allow you to customize the occasion as well.  You can choose from the following celebrations.

• Vacation
• Holidays
• Birthdays
• Graduation
• Wedding
• Anniversary
• and Many Others

For the example below I used the name “George Clooney”.  Notice that Goofy even says that name George at the end of the video.  You can email the video to whoever you want or save it for your blog or website.

You will almost certainly ride the Monorail if you visit Walt Disney World. The Walt Disney World Monorail operates over a span of 14.7 miles, with around 50 million Disney guests traveling on the monorail each year.

The three routes on the Walt Disney World Monorail are:

Express: Express service between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC).

Resort: Round-trip local service making stops at the Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Contemporary Resort, the Transportation and Ticket Center, Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, in that order.

Epcot: Service between the Transportation and Ticket Center and Epcot.

A spur track connects the Express and Resort lines to the maintenance shop. Another spur connects the Epcot and Express lines and is located northeast of the Transportation and Ticket Center.

Fun Facts about the Walt Disney World Monorail

Backstage at the MK (on the far northeast side of the park), there is a monorail barn. Ten of the twelve monorails spend the night in there. Why only ten? Because when the barn was built, WDW was only supposed to have a total of ten monorail trains, but two more were added out of necessity for more guest capacity. Each night, two monorail trains have a sleepover in one of the other stations, and if the temps get below freezing, they go deluxe and stay in the Contemporary’s station. Because of regularly scheduled maintenance, no two trains ever spend more than one night in a schedule rotation outside of the barn. Someday, when you’re at the MK and you have a few spare minutes, go outside the gates and turn left. Walk down the pathway under the beams toward the Contemporary, and just before you come to the intersection where North World Drive goes backstage, stop and look up. Above your head is a switch beam, which can move a train between the outer (Express or Exterior line) and inner (Resort or Lagoon line) beams. If you’re really lucky, you might witness an actual switch. While looking up, you’ll also note a spur track that goes north into the backstage area, which then continues into the barn. If you happen to have a recent property map, the Magic Kingdom area spur track and the barn are actually shown on the map, although neither is identified as such. On the Epcot line, there is another spur track to the northeast of the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC), which connects it to the Express beam. What happens in the event that one monorail breaks down along the beam and can’t get back to barn under its own power? There are three diesel powered tractors that can pull a fully-loaded monorail into the nearest station. The passengers are dropped off there, and the tractor then moves the empty train backstage to the barn for maintenance. By the way, the monorail trains also share the barn with the WDW Railroad steam trains. The monorails occupy the upper area of the building and the steam trains have the lower area. TRIVIA: The two “extra” trains added to the fleet are Monorail Lime and Monorail Coral. The way to tell the difference between Monorails Green and Lime and Monorails Pink and Coral is by the white delta shape painted on Lime and Coral’s color identifier stripe on the side of the train.

Since 1971, total miles logged by WDW monorail trains would be equal to more than 30 round trips to the moon. One dozen new cars were put into service along the 14-mile beamway in 1990 as the original fleet received a well-deserved retirement.

Disney World Monorail Map

This list comprises of fun facts for Walt Disney World.  These facts are always fun to tell other people you’re standing in line with or impress (scare) your family with how much knowledge you have of Walt Disney World.

These facts are all compiled by Debbie H. from the Dis Boards.  She maintains a Word document that is over 150 pages long with all kinds of fun facts.  I will be posting the bulk of that information on the blog over the coming weeks.

Walt Disney World Fun Facts - General Information

(1) Go into any Park store–the CMs have stickers behind the desk. Ask them for the “I Made Magic Today” sticker. They will give you 10 Mickey stickers and 1 “I Made Magic Today” sticker. Your job is to pass out the 10 Mickey heads to people that aren’t looking so happy and make them smile w/the sticker or people that are having a great time and telling them it’s because they are so HAPPY. At the end of the 10 stickers, you end up w/your sticker, and you know that every time you look at that sticker YOU MADE MAGIC!!!

(2) Ask the bus drivers if they have any of the tradable bus cards!

(3)  WDW has over 2,000 acres of grass to mow! That’s 18 miles around the Earth’s equator! (…and Disney mows THREE times a week!)

(4) In some attractions, there are VIP lounges. If there are celebrities visiting WDW (or politicians, etc.), they can be taken into the VIP lounges. There are drinks and snacks available in the lounge, photo albums of different celebrities and people who have been in the lounge, and they get taken on to the front of the line when they are ready to ride. (If you look at Spaceship Earth from the back, there is a building attached to it with some window looking things. That’s the lounge in SE!)

(5) IF YOU ASK FOR A LARGE CUP OF ICE WATER THEY WILL GIVE IT TO YOU AT NO COST, AND YOU CAN GET AS MANY AS YOU WANT AT A TIME. (Get two when you get food or when you need something wet and cold. Drink one right way and use one to carry around so you can stay hydrated longer.) Disney won’t tell you this, but they won’t turn down your request.

(6) When leaving MK at closing time, hop on the Resort monorail and skip the massive lines heading to the TTC via the direct Monorail. The resort monorail stops at TTC but is not express. It is more relaxing as you can usually get a car to yourself and can sit. Also, no standing in line on tired feet waiting and waiting, and once you get to the TTC, it is usually between arrivals of the express monorail and there is a lull in the crowds trying to get to the trams. (Additional note: Have one person in your party drive to the Park you are going to [if you are a Resort Guest] and park for free. The rest of your party can ride the bus, boat, etc. [for the fun part of it]. Then, at the end of the night, no waiting in long lines on tired feet. Just hop in your car and go back to your resort!)

(7)  If you have a special needs child with a disorder that falls under the autistic spectrum or is hypersensitive, you can get a note from their doctor and take it to guest services. They will give you a special assistance card. When you get to an attraction, show it to the CM working there. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to wait in line, but they will try to take you into a quieter area for your wait. You can get a sample note from www.allearsnet.com.

(8) A bottle strap that you buy at the parks for cokes/water bottles works great for carrying around Pal Mickey. (Put it around his neck.)

(9) Disney World bought about 150,000 gallons of paint — enough to cover nearly 7,500 average sized homes in 2004.

(10) If you were to stack all of the buttons used by the Costuming Plant Seam Team in one year, you would have a stack 96 times taller than the height of Cinderella’s Castle.

(11) Number of trees, shrubs and flowers: more than 7 million!

(12) Daily water usage: 15 million gallons!

(13) Largest working wardrobe in the world with more than 1.5 million operational garments in use and over 7,000 different garment types. In addition, there are over 2 million pieces of entertainment costumes. Each day, the costuming plant processes between 27,000 and 31,000 garments.

(14) More than 50 million soft drinks sold annually.

(15) 10 million hamburgers, 7 million hot dogs, 9 million pounds of french fries, and 300,000 pounds of popcorn sold annually.

(16) Uses 194,871 miles of toilet tissue, 24,409 miles of paper towels, uses 319,353 lbs. of chocolate, 1.2 million pounds of watermelon, 741,150 pounds of sugar, 1.8 million pounds of flour, 245,000 pounds of fruit filling, 38,000 pounds of white icing glaze, 2.9 million pounds of eggs, 606,000 pounds of bananas, and 510,000 of grapes.

(17) Serves more than 1.5 million soft pretzels, more than 639,000 pounds of macaroni and cheese, and more than 3.8 million ballpoint pens annually.

(18) Uses more than 337,000 pencils annually, nearly 148 million sheets of recycled copier paper annually, and 730,102 gallons of bleach annually.

(19)  214,000 bandages were provided to guests during the year 2004.

(20) In 2004, Walt Disney World recycled 18,322,000 pounds of paper products.

(21) WDW uses human waste as fertilizer! They treat the waste on-property and put it to good use.

(22) In the morning (usually from around 8am-12pm) when the lines are really long to get on the monorail from TTC to MK, take the boat! The TTC boat offers wonderful views and a great breeze in about the same amount of time that the monorail would have taken to get you to MK. A great added bonus: If you get on the TTC boat at those times, Chip, Dale, and Pluto love to hang out on it! Perfect opportunity for your kids to see their first characters at DW-before they even enter the park! Not too many people on the boat either, so there are great opportunities for pictures with the characters.

(23) If you are the first family of the day to request the photo that they take of you on the ride, they will give it to you free!!

(24)  Disney merchandise that is exclusive to Disney World has a gold castle logo on the package somewhere.

(25) Ever notice there isn’t a lot of gum stuck on rides, trees, waiting areas in WDW? That’s because they don’t sell it, just for this reason.

(26) There are more than 20,000 different colors of paint used in Walt Disney World

Looking for the cheapest Disney tickets?  Look no further.  As you’ve probably found there are many different options for buying your Disney World tickets.  I’m going to try to make sense of it all for you and hopefully lead you to making a decision on which tickets you need for your trip.  Undercover Tourist is our pick for cheap Disney World tickets.

First, if you are looking for a one day park ticket you are probably better off just buying your ticket at the gate.  The discounts for Disney World tickets purchased from another company don’t offer any benefits unless you are staying 3+ days.  If you are looking for Disney World tickets for your entire vacation then you should definitely keep reading.

Types of Disney World Tickets

There are basically two types of Disney World Tickets.  The first is called the Magic Your Way (MYW) ticket.  These tickets only allow you to visit one park per day.  The other type of ticket is called the Park Hopper ticket which allows you to visit any park you want on a given day.

Magic Your Way:

1 park per day (no hopping & no water parks) admission for the selected number of days to:

• Magic Kingdom®
• Epcot®
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios™
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom®

Park-Hopper Tickets

More than 1 park per day (hopping allowed but no water parks) admission for the selected number of days to:

• Magic Kingdom®
• Epcot®
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios™
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom®

You may be tempted to go with the MYW tickets because they are cheaper and you don’t think that you will visit more than one park per day, but we always choose the Park Hopper tickets because of the flexibility that they give us on our vacation.  I’m not here to tell you how to spend your vacation, but here are the reasons we choose the park hopper passes.

1. Flexibility - If one of the parks is too busy then we sometimes head over to one of the other parks and enjoy our day a lot more.
2. Shows and Dining - We typically go to the parks early in the morning to get all of our attractions in.  In the afternoon we come back to the resort to relax or clean up for the evening.  We almost always have a dinner ADR (Advance Dining Reservation).  Most of the time it will be in a different park than we toured that morning.  Also, there are many times where we want to see a fireworks show or night-time parade in a different park than we toured that morning.  Having a park hopper ticket allows us to do that.

You can also buy tickets that include a water park option that allows you to visit both of the Disney water parks.

Where to Buy the Cheapest Disney Tickets

You will find many places that say they offer Disney tickets for Cheap, but unless you’re willing to sit through a timeshare presentation, or take a risk dealing with an dishonest broker, then I can only recommend one place.  Undercover Tourist allows you to choose the tickets that you want at a discount off of the Disney gate prices.  We always use Undercover Tourist and they have been reputable and efficient every time.  You simply choose which tickets you want on their website,  and within days your tickets are in your mailbox.  It doesn’t get any easier.  You will not need to wait in line to buy your tickets once you get to Disney.  It’s a no-brainer if you ask me.  The cheapest disney tickets are at Undercover Tourist.  Below are the current prices (and savings) of each of the different ticket prices.

Undercover Tourist Disney Tickets

I see questions all the time about Disney World Parking.  It can be a bit daunting to think about all of the different parking options that you have when going to Walt Disney World.  I’ll try to sum up Disney world parking as best I can.

All of the parks have parking lots that guest can use to park their cars.  The cost for Disney World parking as of August 3, 2008 is :

Auto/Taxi/Limo/Shuttle/Motorcycle $12, Campers $13, Buses $16.  Note, you can not buy a length of stay pass, but you can go from lot to lot with your daily parking pass on the same day.

If you are staying on the Disney World property in one of the Disney owned hotels (Swan and Dolphin excluded), you will not have to pay for Disney World parking.  The resort(s) will give you a parking pass that will be good for the length of your stay.  I personally like taking my own car to the parks so that I don’t have to deal with the bus lines.  Sure, you have a walk a bit more in the parking lot, but I like the flexibility that you have.

Disney Revealed Secret:  If you booked your vacation through AAA (Triple A) you should definitely ask about the AAA Diamond parking lot passes.   These are spots reserved for AAA members and are as close to the front of the lot as the handicapped spots in most cases.  You will still have to pay the Disney parking fee, but you will be walking a lot less.

The last tip I have about Disney World parking is to arrive EARLY!  Read my article about the importance of being at the WDW parks early.

I was sent this list when planning a trip back in 2007.  To my knowledge all of the information is still relevant.

Great Free Things Most People Do Not Know About At Walt Disney World

1. Resort Tip -Campfire Sing-Along with Chip & Dale and Outdoor Movie at the Disney Fort Wilderness Campground. A Disney Cast Member* plays guitar and leads songs while Chip & Dale go around to the guests seated on benches. Afterwards, a Disney movie is shown on an outdoor screen. You do not need to stay at the campground to do this. When: Every Night.

2. Resort Tip -Barnyard Animal Viewing area at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground. When: Daily – closes mid-afternoon. The Animal Kingdom Lodge has a Savannah with giraffes and other animals you can view when dining at or visiting the resort.

3. Resort Tip - The Electric Water Pageant is a floating parade offered nightly on the Seven Seas Lagoon by the Magic Kingdom resort area.

4. Are you staying at one of the Deluxe resorts? Ask if they offer any resort tours or special activities during your visit. For example, the Animal Kingdom Lodge offers a nightly storyteller near the fire pit. The Wilderness Lodge gives tours different times during the week and you can pick up a list of resort “Hidden Mickey’s” from guest services and go on a hunt. Other resorts have similar events.

5. Ask to ride up front with the Driver on the Monorail. Your children may even get a “Monorail License”. You can ask to wait until the next monorail if someone is already in the front.

6. There are free Soda Samples from around the world at Club Cool in Epcot. They’re interesting to try and most are tasty. One is horrible but I won’t spoil the surprise.

7. Epcot - You can send e-postcards with your picture included to friends & family from the ImageWorks lab kiosks at the end of the Journey into Imagination with Figment ride in the Imagination Pavilion. Send funny animated e-postcards can be sent from the kiosks found at the Training Lab at the end of the Mission Space ride. Free e-postcards are also available from the Kiosk near the Kidcot area in the Mexico Pavilion.

8. Speaking of Kidcot Stations – did you know that your child can decorate a free posterboard mask at any Kidcot station in Epcot? Look for the stations near attractions and especially in the World Showcase. You can add a decoration at each station. These usually close in the late afternoon. If the attendant in the China pavilion is from China or from Japan in the Japan Pavilion, ask them to write your child’s name in their language on the mask. Seeing their name written in another language was a highlight for my kids.

9. Try riding a Segway without having to book a tour at the Segway exhibit in the Innoventions West building at Epcot. You must be at least 16 years old and under 250 pounds to ride. It usually opens around 1:00 PM.

10. Younger kids can participate in a free Ladybug release program at The Great American Farm exhibit in Innoventions West. This usually happens daily at 11:30AM.

11. Seeing Miyuki, the candy artist, in the Japan pavilion is one of our favorite things to do at Epcot. Check your times guide (she usually appears Monday through Thursday) – then arrive about 15 minutes early and wait near her cart. If your child is waiting politely, he or she may get to select an animal for her to make. They will get to keep the candy creation. Waiting politely is essential – she doesn’t select children calling, “pick me, pick me” etc.

12. Are you celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or honeymoon? Is this your first visit to Disney World? Be sure to stop by guest services at any Disney theme park to get the free special pin/button. Wear it and you’ll get a lot of well wishes from Cast Members and other guests but you might even get some special benefits like getting to sit in the VIP area at Beauty and the Beast in Disney-MGM Studios.

13. Children under 12 can bake and then sample cookies at the Jr. Chef Station in the lower level of the Land Pavilion in Epcot. This is offered periodically through day – usually on the half hour from 12:30 to 4:30 PM - so check the times board near the Jr. Chef Station. This Jr. Chef Station if found to the right of The Land Boat ride, near the food court. Arrive about 15 minutes early. This takes about 25 minutes.

14. Ride the first raft (about 10 AM) to Tom Sawyer’s Island in Frontier Land at the Magic Kingdom. Take the trails and be on the look-out for paint brushes with dried paint on the bristles laying around (there are about 6 per day). If you find one, take it to the Disney Cast Member and you’ll be given a “Magical Memories” certificate good for a fastpass for your entire family for either Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Limit: 1 per family.

15. The first child at the Tinkerbell Treasures gift shop in the Magic Kingdom can ask to “wake up Tinkerbell”. The child uses a wand and Tinkerbell flies from her box to a drawer with sound affects. The kids are sometimes given a certificate or Tinkerbell stickers. The shop is located behind the castle, in Fantasy land.

16. There is a children’s rollercoaster called “Goofy’s Barnstormer” in Mickey’s Toontown Fair at the Magic Kingdom. If this is your child’s first rollercoaster ride, tell the Cast Member and you may be given a little printed card to commemorate the event – great for scrapbooks.

17. Are you a proud military veteran? Stop by the Magic Kingdom City Hall in early in the morning and ask if you can be the “Veteran of the Day” for the Flag Retreat Ceremony (usually around 5:00 PM). If chosen, you may receive a certificate as a souvenir of the experience.

18. Stop by the Fantastic Plastic Works exhibit in the Innoventions East pavilion at Epcot and you’ll be able to create your own free robot souvenir with snap-together parts from the Manufacture & Create Zone portion of the exhibit.

The next items aren’t really free things – they’re just some of our favorite hidden gems in the Disney parks. We hope they add to the magic for you.

• In Disney-MGM Studios, there is a “Singing in the Rain” umbrella attached to a lamp post. It is a great photo opportunity and a pressure pad under the umbrella usually (unless malfunctioning) will release “rain”. The lamp post is in the Streets of America area across from Lights, Motors, Action!

• As you exit Star Tours (outside of the gift shop) in Disney-MGM Studios, you’ll see a “Speeder Bike” in front of an Endor background. People often assume that it is only for display but you are welcome to sit on it - this makes a great picture. Other wonderful photo opportunities in Disney-MGM Studios are the car outside Sci-Fi Dine In and all over the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area.

• In Animal Kingdom, there is a bridge near Kali River Rapids. There are buttons that cause the elephant statues to spray water on the riders in the rafts below.

• The Animal Kingdom Times Guide does a terrible job of highlighting all the wonderful live entertainment available at this park. One of our favorites are “DiVine” on the trail between Asia and Africa. She looks like a vine and literally blends in with the landscaping when she isn’t moving. Two other excellent groups are the Karuka Acrobats and the Tam Tam’s of Congo which both perform in the Harambe area of the “Africa” area.

• Did you know that closing time at the Magic Kingdom just means you must be on your last ride or in line for the ride by that time? The shops along Main Street generally stay open for about an hour after closing time. There’s no good reason to rush to the lines forming for transportation so take your time and enjoy a few last views of the castle when it is lit up after dark. Stop and notice the window displays in the Emporium (right side of the street as you face the train station, near City Hall). Each window display is a shadow-box or diorama that depicts a different Disney animated movie and most have some form of movement. Most people walk right by and never notice these fascinating displays.

Learn how you can receive free custom touring plans that will eliminate time wasted in long lines: http://www.buildabettermousetrip.com/freetouringplans.htm

Learn how a travel agent specializing in Orlando & Florida can save you time and money on your upcoming vacation: http://www.buildabettermousetrip.com/

If you are a planning a vacation to Walt Disney World you really should consider visiting the DIS Boards.  The DIS boards is a message board that is dedicated to anything and everything Walt Disney World and Disney Land.  You will be able to ask other members any question you have about your upcoming trip.  The user base is so robust that you will generally have an answer to your question in minutes.

I knew I was in the right place when I posted a question about how to get from one ride to another and within 15 minutes someone had respond with a park map that had marked out the exact route I should take.  I was shocked.

The forum is broken up into all different kinds of topics.  My favorite is the “Theme Park Attractions and Strategies” forum.  You can also find topics related to transportation, lodging, photography, and saving money.

I encourage you to really spend some time looking through the thread at the DIS Boards.  You won’t be disappointed.

The Disney Fastpass system will allow you to have a much better experience while in the parks.  The Fastpass is a virtual queing system that allows guests to get a pass for a particular ride and come back at a later time and go to the front of the line.  Fastpasses are available to all guests in the park.  The key to the Disney Fastpass system is to know some rules that aren’t necessarily public knowledge.

You will find Fastpass machines out in front of most of the major attractions at each of the parks.  In order to get a Fastpass for that particular attraction you are required to insert your park admission ticket into the machine and the Fastpass kiosk will spit out a Fastpass.  There will be a 1-hour return time window that will be listed on the Fastpass as well as on a clock above the machines.  There will also be a time listed on the FastPass that tells you when you can get your next one.  Once your return window arrives you can come back to the attraction and get into the Fastpass queue.  This line will generally be much shorter than the standy line and you will be given priority to get on the ride.

Here are some general rules on how to maximize using the Disney Fastpass system.

• ALWAYS be in possession of a Fastpass.  From the second you enter the parks you need to head for the Fastpass kiosks.
• You are allowed to hold two Fastpasses at once.  On the bottom of your Fastpass ticket there will be a time listed as to when you can get your next FastPass.  Make sure you are always aware of that time and grab a new pass when it comes up.  If you miss this window of opportunity it’s going to push all future Fastpass collections back.  You don’t want that to happen.
• There is a one hour window in which you can utilize your Fastpass.  However, many people are not aware that you can actually use your Fastpass AFTER your window has passed.  You are never allowed to use your FP early.
• Assign one person in your group to be the FastPass collector/holder.  This person can take everyone’s park tickets and get Fastpasses for the entire group while the rest of the group heads to the next attraction or takes a bathroom break.  ALWAYS BE COLLECTING FASTPASSES!
• If you have a diverse group, and not everyone wants to do all of the rides, you can use their park tickets for extra Fastpasses for your group.  Sneaky, huh?

The bottom line is that you definitely want to be using Fastpasses on your trip.  There is no excuse for waiting in the standby lines when there are ways to avoid it using Fastpasses.

You’ve put work behind you and you’re finally on vacation.  The last thing that you are going to want to do is get up early on your precious days off.  Who am I to tell you what time you need to get up on your Walt Disney World vacation?  Well, I’m probably not much different than yourself.  I love going to Disney World for vacation.  I also love knowing that if I plan a tiny bit more than the next family that I’ll be able to get a lot more done in the parks with a lot fewer lines.

My two biggest tips for vacationing in Walt Disney World are utilizing the FastPass system and getting to the parks when they open.  This article will focus on the latter.

The first thing that you’re going to want to find out is if any of the parks are going to have an Early Magic Hour (EMH).  Disney opens its gates an hour early to one of their parks (sometimes more) each day.  This is generally reserved for guests staying on the Disney property.  This sounds like a great opportunity, right?  Wrong.  I feel that you should avoid these parks on EMH days.  The extra hour of park time does not outweigh the hordes of people that think they know something that everyone else doesn’t.  You’re better off in a less crowded park and you get to sleep in an hour more.

That said, if you want to make the most out of your day at the parks you will want to be through the turnstiles and waiting for the rope to drop before the scheduled opening time.  This may seem like overkill but I can promise you that you will be able to get in so many more attractions in the first 2 hours of your day if you are there early.

If you have children, each of the parks has a small rope drop ceremony where many of the characters will perform.  This is a great chance to see a lot of the characters together.  Once that rope drops though, you should be on your way to your first attraction.

The next time you’re in WDW, and you’ve already done 5 major attractions in the first hour, you can thank me.  My wife and I generally take a few moments to make fun of the people who are just entering the park at 11am only to find long lines everywhere they look.  Meanwhile, we’re getting hungry and are ready to grab some lunch.