Fast pass and dining

Gemma89

Member
I have a holiday booked for September 2017, and I've got my planner pages for next year so me and the BF are gonna try and get a schedule down so we got time to tweak it.... My question is what are your top 5 fast passes? The must do rides? And same on restraunts as were on the dining plan so we're Open to suggestions
 

BrianV

Well-Known Member
I have a holiday booked for September 2017, and I've got my planner pages for next year so me and the BF are gonna try and get a schedule down so we got time to tweak it.... My question is what are your top 5 fast passes? The must do rides? And same on restraunts as were on the dining plan so we're Open to suggestions

In MK
7 Dwarves Mine Ride
Peter pan

In DHS
Toy STory

In EPCOT
Soarin
New Frozen ride (based solely on length of line as I haven't ridden yet)

In AK
By then the Avatar land will be open, so who knows...
 
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Schneewittchen

Well-Known Member
MK fastpasses - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Peter Pan's Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain
Epcot fastpasses - Spaceship Earth, Test Track, and I've never been on it, but Frozen Ever After will be on our list this year instead of Test Track

Restaurants - Restaurant Marrakesh (bellydancers), Akershus (princesses), Crystal Palace (Pooh), Sanaa (Indian-African fusion), Flying Fish (fantastic seafood), Chef Mickey's (Mickey!!!), Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue (dinner show), Kona Cafe (Asian fusion), Artist Point (Northwest steak and seafood)
 
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RememberWhen

Well-Known Member
Have you ever been before? How long are you staying? Where are you staying?
My top 5 FP:
1. Thunder Mountain (MK)
2. Tower of Terror (DHS)
3. Soarin (EP)
4. Everest (AK)
5. Rock on Roller Coaster (DHS)

If you haven't been, all the rides are pretty great. I would suggest purchasing a planning book to help you and pursuing the WDW website to see what rides appeal to you. Some people like the touring plans websites, but I've never personally used them.

Restaurants are hard to recommend, not knowing what you like.
Our all time favorite is Hoop-Dee-Doo (Fort Wilderness). Our favorite character meals would be crystal palace (MK), Chef Mickey's (contemporary) and Garden Grill (EP). We also like many QS options in Epcot.

Good luck and happy planning!
 
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Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
FWIW. (The web address will get censored -- just fill in the asterisks with "wdw prep school," without the spaces:

http://*************.com/maximizing-disney-dining-plan-credits/

If you want to maximize value on the DDP and not have to pay for extra meals out of pocket, you'll want to avoid 2-credit restaurants. My family's favorite, top-value 1-credit dining experiences have been: Biergarten dinner (Epcot, Germany, German buffet with live entertainment); 'Ohana dinner (Polynesian resort, all-you-care-to-enjoy feast of grilled meats and Polynesian-inspired sides); Liberty Tree Tavern (MK, Liberty Square, Thanksgiving-style feast). On our upcoming trip, we're looking forward to trying the highly-rated dinners at Skipper Canteen (MK, Adventureland), Boma: Flavors of Africa (Animal Kingdom Lodge, African-style buffet) and Akershus (Epcot, Norway, princess character meal with Scandinavian-inspired menu).
 
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Gemma89

Member
Original Poster
We're staying 16 days (so the 14 days of th tickets and two travel days where we're gonna just do Disney springs). We're travelling from the uk so wanna make the most of the time but not tire ourselves out.... We're staying at th Caribbean beach resort, I've been before but last time I was 11 and I'm now 27! And he's never been We're also planning a couple of days in universal as neither of us have ever been there!! But because of this we're hoping to splash out on a couple of 2 credit meals (thinking the crystal palace and somewhere else)

We've done Paris so we know the deal with the general rides and characters, and we do like the more thrilling rides as much as the timer but more traditional rides. Also we're gonna be there for Halloween as well so gonna have a look at the Halloween party.....
 
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Gemma89

Member
Original Poster
As for food we generally like everything apart from seafood.... Unless it's fish and chips! we're hoping to take advantage of the food and wine fest too
 
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Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
We're staying 16 days (so the 14 days of th tickets and two travel days where we're gonna just do Disney springs). We're travelling from the uk so wanna make the most of the time but not tire ourselves out.... We're staying at th Caribbean beach resort, I've been before but last time I was 11 and I'm now 27! And he's never been We're also planning a couple of days in universal as neither of us have ever been there!! But because of this we're hoping to splash out on a couple of 2 credit meals (thinking the crystal palace and somewhere else)

We've done Paris so we know the deal with the general rides and characters, and we do like the more thrilling rides as much as the timer but more traditional rides. Also we're gonna be there for Halloween as well so gonna have a look at the Halloween party.....

16 days - that sounds awesome! Since you've booked so far in advance, you'll have plenty of time to enjoy planning (my favorite part)!

Just a couple of thoughts:
1 - Crystal Palace (a Winnie the Pooh character buffet in the Magic Kingdom) is 1 credit on the DDP. Perhaps you were thinking of California Grill at the Contemporary (one of the higher-rated 2-credit signature restaurants)?
2 - Unless you are renting a car, you'll need to arrange for special transportation to Universal. Also, if you're spending 2 days at Disney Springs during a 16 day visit and want to spend 2 days at Universal (a non-Disney park for which you'll be purchasing tickets separately, on Universal's website or at the gate), you'll only need/want 12 days' worth of Disney tickets, and not 14 -- it won't affect your dining plan, as your DDP credits are determined by the number of nights you are staying on property, and not the number of days for which you have tickets. Of course, by the time you get that far out, the cost difference between 12 days and 14 days is minimal, so maybe you'll want 14 days' worth just to give you more flexibility when it comes to your Disney Springs days -- if you decide to spend part of those days at a park, you'll have that option.
3 - If you want to attend the Halloween Party (as opposed to looking at the decorations, which will be up all over the Magic Kingdom, all day every day), be aware that it's a "hard ticket" event, and it's recommended that you purchase those tickets in advance. Guests who haven't purchased party tickets will be herded (albeit politely) out of the Magic Kingdom by 7pm on party nights.
4 - The Food and Wine Festival is a blast -- and a great way to use your snack credits, as most of the kiosk offerings in each country will be designated as "snacks" on the DDP. Some guests like to spend an evening circulating the kiosks to "graze" upon the snacks, in lieu of dinner.
 
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Gemma89

Member
Original Poster
I'm sure I saw it as a 2 credit meal?! Either way we deffo want to do that one, we have looked at the contemporary resort, and we're looking at the character meal at the animal kingdom as the princess ones don't interest us as much (to be honest we've avoided the face characters as we've always wondered about it being awkward that they talk to you n were like 27/26)

The only tickets we can get over here as part of the package are 7, 14 or 21 day hopper tickets, so obviously we did the 14. I've read that they don't start till the first day you go into a park so we weren't wanting to waste a day on the 1st day as we won't get there till mid afternoon and it's a long flight and we don't want to do it half arsed kinda thing. But deffo want to look into transport to universal, is a taxi not viable?

The Halloween party we know is a hard ticket but like I've said we wanna do as much as we can and we love Halloween! Plus the BF is beyond excited that he can meet jack and Sally
 
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Gurt

Well-Known Member
Hi @Gemma89 you can Uber to and from Uni.

We are also on the dinning plan but spending a couple of days at Uni so we have decided to go to the Cali Grill one evening and then on our last full day we are in Epcot so we are eating at Le Cellier in the afternoon they will be our 2 credit meals.

We plan to take advantage of our snack credits @ F&W (we are going Sept this year)

For FP's depending on what rides are most important to you I would say, MK - Space, Big Thunder, Splash, Peter Pan. EP - Frozen, Soarin, Test Track. HS - ToT, TSMM, RnR. AK - Everest, Kilimanjaro Safari, Kali River Rapids.
 
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Gemma89

Member
Original Poster
Yeah we're looking at the snack credits for food and wine. If we've booked but for 2017, will our dining plan be this years or next years? Coz I've read you get two snack credits from 2017?

We're looking at the cali grill and le cellier as well!! But we really wanna do a character meal! Can't decide.

Without sounding stupid what's uber? I've seen it mentioned a few times on these forums
 
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Gurt

Well-Known Member
Hi @Gemma89 we buy our Uni tickets here before we go so I am not sure on the gate price, we use undercover tourist (hope it is ok to mention them) look out for there deal of the day page we got 3 day park to park tickets for the price of 2 days, we also get our sea world tickets form them as they offer 1 day 1 park option that I couldn't find on the sea world website.

Your dinning plan will be the 2017 plan, when looking at which restaurants are on the plan it will be similar (if not the same) to this years list however the 2017 restaurant options will not be confirmed with all the restaurants until later this year, by December it should be confirmed, I had a panic last year when I looked for this year and only saw a fraction of the previous years options.

I wanted to eat at Cinderella's Royal Table but the menu choices really didn't suit us so we didn't want to spend 2 credits.

Uber is like a taxi service, I have not used it before yet myself but I do plan on using it this September, it is a lot cheaper than a taxi or Mears last time we got a taxi from OKW to Uni it was $35 each way I have checked on the Uber fair calculator and it shows as $9-$12. have a look on their website and check with @piglet21 who uses the service and has wonderful info. We do have them in the UK but only in big cities I think, I don't live near a big city so I haven't had any experience.
 
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Gemma89

Member
Original Poster
@Gurt I'll have to check in the new year then for the restraunts, coz we can't make our ADRS till march any ways so we're not too bad.

I'll have a look at their ticket prices, thankyou. I only need like a two day ticket each so obviously we don't wanna shell out for like a weeks pass.... Do they do a photo pass sort of thing as well? As we love doing all those.



@22YrsDVC I'm deffo intrigued by the face characters now, will have to talk to the BF! Mary poppins sounds a hoot though :)
 
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Gurt

Well-Known Member
@Gemma89 I think they do have some sort of photo thing but I am honestly not sure about it, im sure someone on the Uni boards will be able to help you out. Also they do an express pass (Like FP) that you can buy on the gate, before you go check if it will be an advantage to you or not as it can't be used for the Harry Potter stuff and I believe some of the other newer coasters so at $100 a pass on top of ticket price I think is extortionate!

Be ready on your 180 day mark if you are wanting to book any of the busier restaurants, I thought I was ready but I clearly didn't get out of bed early enough, the only resi I could get for BOG was 1 night during Wishes, and if you can't get what you want do keep checking back, people cancel all the time.
 
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Gemma89

Member
Original Poster
@Gurt yeah I'm all over the Harry Potter so they'd be pointless forbid think. Two days of queueing isn't too bad tbh coz we can fast pass things at Disney...

And yeah I was going to ask, how does that work over here in the uk? Making the dining and FP reservations, have we gotta log on for their time or do we have our own log in time to get them?
 
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Gurt

Well-Known Member
@Gemma89 Im not sure I think it is 6am UK time, it was 8am UK time when I tried to book BOG and the only time I could get for any of our MK days was 8pm when Wishes is scheduled for 8pm that night, I couldn't get the time I wanted for Cali Grill so we are going to eat then do a cocktail loop of the monorail and go back to watch Wishes, and the other one I struggled with was Le Cellier but I did book that later than the others.

Fast passes I did during the day (on day 60) and got everything I wanted, but again keep checking if you don't get what you want first time round, I did some changes and I have still got what I wanted with ones to spare.

If your trip is anything like our last September (2013) trip and hopefully this September trip queues won't be too much of a problem, generally queues at Uni for averaged 15 - 20mins
 
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Gemma89

Member
Original Poster
Oh that's not bad!! We're flying out the 26th sept next year and were there till 11th october. Hoping for some alright weather haha but the queues sound manageable so fast passes aren't drastic if we can't get them all. Im gonna be real bad and book both days off work so I can just get up with the BF and sit together and book everything

How do you know what time things like the parades are? Like how far in advance?
 
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Gurt

Well-Known Member
Parades and fireworks are usually listed about 9 months in advance for disney more like 6 months for uni and sea world but park hours can change up to a month before. We go next month and the hours for MK and AK have only just been changed / extended. The hard part with the AK hours have revolved and ROL with the jungle book show in replacement over the summer but it looks like there will be no evening show while we are there but ROL should definitely be well up and running for your trip. I will update you on queue times after we get back as I believe it can be busier now than our last trip and F&W didn't start till after we left last time we missed it by a day so I guess that will have some impact.
 
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