Avoiding the Wait at the New FP+ Kiosks

This is a short post for those planning a visit to Walt Disney World in the near future. Disneyland visitors can rest easy — at least for the time being!

After visiting both Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot yesterday and looking again at the situation with the new FP+ kiosks, it’s pretty clear that your selection of which specific kiosk to visit can make a huge difference in how long you’ll have to wait at the kiosk itself, especially if you don’t arrive until after opening time and there are already crowds in the park.

Consider the line for one of the FP+ kiosks yesterday at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I took this picture at the kiosk near the Tower of Terror shortly before 11:00am:

I should note that setting up those FP+ reservations inside the park is something of a labor-intensive process for the cast members staffing the kiosks, so these folks could be standing in line for a while. (And the irony is that FP+ is supposed to help reduce the time you spend standing line.)

Now, look at the line for the kiosks near American Idol. The picture below was taken just a few minutes after the one shown above. Here you can see two very unbusy cast members, complete with FP+ tablets in hand, who without prompting from me were nice enough to pause and smile for the camera, as there wasn’t anyone in line for them to help at the moment:

As this was only about a three-minute walk from the very crowded kiosks near the Tower of Terror, it would have definitely been worth the walk for the poor folks standing in line over there.

I should also note that if you were in the back of the park, the line for the FP+ kiosks near Muppet Vision theater were also non-existent. Note the open machine on the right in the picture below.

Given how unevenly the lines for the kiosks are playing out so far (I saw similar disparities at Epcot), we expect to have some in-plan “tips” in RideMax soon to help steer folks to the shorter lines. In the meantime, remember that it can really pay to look around a bit before you commit to a particular FP+ kiosk.

Have you experienced FP+ yet, and if so, what did you think of the experience?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Disney Spring Break: Three Tips for Beating the Crowds at Disney’s Theme Parks

It’s that time of year again when folks start planning spring break vacations to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Although crowds during this time of year can be very heavy, there are a few simple things you can do to help beat those crowds. I’ll expand on each of these below, but to cut right to the chase, my three tips are:

Arrive early
Have a plan
Choose the “right” park for your visit date

Let’s hit each of these in more detail.

Tip #1: Arrive Early

Regardless of whether you’re visiting Disneyland or Walt Disney World, it’s very important to arrive well before the park opens for the day so that you’re among the first group of guests in the park right when it opens for business.

Consider the two pictures below, taken last year at the Magic Kingdom during spring break. The first shows what Fantasyland looked like just after the park opened for the day:

Now, check out the following picture taken two hours later:

Not only are the lines for the attractions lower first thing in the morning, arriving early also gives you an important advantage in using Disney’s FASTPASS (FP) system at Disneyland, or in using the FASTPASS-Plus (FP+) system at Walt Disney World.

To explain more, first thing in the morning the FP “return windows” for most attractions at Disneyland and at California Adventure are just 40 minutes away, and this is also the time at which you can get your next FP ticket. Contrast this with later in the day, when you may have to wait two hours to obtain your next FP ticket, if they’re even available at all.

Similarly, at Disney World’s theme parks, where the FP+ system is now in full use, arriving early gets you quicker access to the FP+ kiosks which are scattered throughout the parks.

Arriving later in the day could result in a line for the FP+ kiosks that looks like the following picture from the Animal Kingdom, taken at around 11:00am during another busy season of the year (the way some of these folks are camped out makes it look like they’ve been waiting a while):

Tip #2: Have a Plan

OK, I know this one is self-serving, since I earn my living from the RideMax custom itinerary planning tool. But even if you don’t use RideMax, I recommend you at least do some planning before you leave for the park, even if it’s just to sit down and make a list of priority attractions and their general location within the park. (And if you are visiting Walt Disney World and don’t feel like you need the detail that RideMax offers, you can also find good touring advice at the easywdw website. No affiliation, BTW.)

Tip #3: Choose the “Right” Park For Your Visit Date

In addition to arriving early, it’s important to choose the “right” day of the week to visit a given park. For example, the above picture shows the empty line for Radiator Springs Racers first thing in the morning, right after the park opened for the day.

The catch is that for the majority of guests, this scene is only possible on certain days of the week.

What’s important to remember is that both Disneyland and Walt Disney World host some sort of “early entry” program for their hotel guests, which gives these guests access to one of the parks one hour early on specific days of the week. For example, Disney hotel guests are normally allowed early entry to Disneyland on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and to DCA on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Walt Disney World also normally hosts early entry at one or more of its parks on any given day, but the exact day of the week is not always as predictable as it is for the Disneyland resort. (RideMax subscribers can find our “Which Day, Which Park?” recommendations in the RideMax “Tips & Hints” pages, or you can consult the Disney World website for the early entry information as well.)

If you’re not staying at a Disney-owned hotel and still want to get a jump on the crowds by arriving early, the best way to do this is to simply avoid the park hosting early entry on the day of you visit, and go to another park instead. For example, the picture above was taken on a Tuesday, when Disneyland, and NOT DCA, was hosting early entry. Had I gone straight to Radiator Springs Racers when the park opened to the public on a Monday instead, I would have found a large line for this attraction right at opening time. (And don’t even attempt to visit Peter Pan on an early entry day for Disneyland if you don’t have early entry access yourself!)

During a busy season like spring break, a similar scenario can play out at the Disney World theme parks, with hotel guests streaming into the park hosting early entry (or “Extra Magic Hours” (EMH), as Disney calls it) well before the park opens to the public. To start your day with lower crowds, I strongly encourage you to visit a non-EMH park instead.

Do you have a favorite crowd-beating tip you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments below!

DCA Tower of Terror FastPass Update

Just a quick note here on an update to our DCA estimates.

While preparing our Disneyland RideMax update for the remainder of July today, I noticed on the Disneyland refurbishment list the following note:

“Now – January 1, 2014: Tower of Terror will operate at reduced capacity during routine maintenance.”

This reinforces the feedback I received recently from a customer, who indicated that on the date of his visit, Disney wasn’t offering FastPasses for Tower of Terror. My guess is that Disney had actually run out of FastPasses before the customer arrived at the attraction that day, rather than not offering them at all. (Luckily, the customer ended up OK, as he was given his choice of FastPasses when another attraction he was riding broke down during his ride.)

In looking at recent FastPass return times for Tower of Terror, they do indeed seem to be running quite a bit later into the day than what I’d normally expect to see. It’s quite likely that Disney has cut back on the number of FastPasses they issue for this attraction, which of course causes later return windows, especially in the late morning, afternoon, and evening hours.

As a result of the reduced capacity here, we’ve updated our Tower of Terror FastPass return time estimates for all dates currently on the RideMax calendar. I recommend for those of you who have already created plans which include Tower of Terror, that you create new plans instead.

Happy Planning!

Cars Land Advice — Summer 2013 Update

We’re recently back from another extensive multi-day Disneyland Resort visit. And with Cars Land approaching its one-year anniversary, we’ve made an important update to our Cars Land advice, available to subscribers from within the RideMax application itself.

The real focus of the update is on Radiator Springs Racers (pictured above), as right now it’s the most difficult attraction to board without a significant wait in the entire Disneyland Resort. The update is focused on strategies for reducing your wait — and the strategy can change depending on the day of the week and time of the day. Along with the advice, we’ve included pictures, which I hope will make the advice more clear, especially for those who might be visiting Cars Land for the first time.

For RideMax customers, you can find the updated advice in the RideMax “Tips & Hints” area. Look for the page simply titled, “Cars Land Advice.”

And finally, if you’ve visited Cars Land since its opening, what did you think? Did you enjoy these new attractions? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Visiting Disney California Adventure Tomorrow?

If you’re planning to visit Disneyland, Disney California Adventure (DCA), or Disney World’s Magic Kingdom on Friday, May 24th, you probably already know that the parks will be open for 24 hours straight, from 6:00am on Friday morning all the way through until 6:00am on Saturday morning.

What you might not know, though, is that the Disneyland resort is also hosting Grad Night on Friday evening as well, with the Grad Night festivities centered at DCA. As a result, even though DCA is technically “open” for 24 hours, many attractions will be open to regular guests for much less than that. According to the Disneyland website, for example, Radiator Springs Racers won’t open until 9:00am, and will close to regular guests at 10:15pm Friday evening.

We’ve built this assumption into RideMax, of course, but thought you may want to know this if you’re visiting tomorrow. It could be very crowded, but fun too!

What about you? Are you planning to brave the crowds and visit one of these three parks tomorrow? How long do you plan to stay? Let me know your plans in the comments below!