Spring Break at WDW Part 2 - from Guest Blogger Mindy Walbesser

Happy Thursday, folks! Today is the second in a four-part blog post series from my friend Mindy Walbesser about her family's recent vacation to Walt Disney World for Spring Break.

Take it away, Mindy!

Let’s talk about Fastpasses.  Now that Disney has gone to Fastpass+ with pre-scheduled Fastpasses, you must decide before arrival what park you want to do which day.  If you are staying onsite, like we did, your Fastpasses can be made as early as 60 days before arrival.  We did not make our Fastpasses until 32 days before arrival, but that is because we didn’t buy all our tickets until later.  Package guests won’t have to worry about that.  The ideal strategy is to plan to arrive at the park at opening, and reserve your Fastpasses for later in the afternoon.  The general rule of thumb is that the park will be much less crowded at opening, until at least 11am to noon.  Later, when crowds thicken, you will have your Fastpasses+ to get you through.  One strategy could be:

Park Arrival at Rope Drop:  Ride Headliner and popular rides that will have a long line later
Breakfast Stop:  Eat breakfast at a quick service in the park that is offering breakfast or stop for a table service breakfast.  Most park quick services tend to offer pastries, bagels and coffee/juice.
Afternoon Plan: Want a pool break?  If the weather is acceptable to you for a pool stop, head back to your resort to enjoy the pool.  I personally prefer 80° as a minimum outside air temp for a pool break.  If the weather doesn’t look promising, or you don’t care about a pool break, you could schedule your Fastpasses for the afternoon, allowing plenty of time for eating lunch and dinner.  You could even decide to spend your Fastpass+ selections later in the evening. 
Evening Plan:  Have you used all your Fastpasses?  Try booking another one.

Since my family knows we are not rope drop people no matter how hard we try, I scheduled my Fastpasses+ for the afternoon hours.  I tried as best I could to make sure my first Fastpass+ wasn’t until 1pm.  For Animal Kingdom, we were meeting a friend for lunch, so I went ahead and scheduled the Kilimanjaro Safari Fastpass+ for 10am.  The animals are typically more active in the morning.  During our spring break week, we found that it was very difficult to make any adjustments to previously scheduled Fastpasses because there were no other times or attractions available. I am not sure we succeeded in getting a single one.  On our 2nd Magic Kingdom day, we ended up missing our first Fastpass+ for the Jungle Cruise. We tried to reschedule the time, but no other times were available.  We tried to select another attraction, but again, nothing.  For the duration of our trip, we were unable to experience any attraction with a fastpass+ after our first selections were used.  We had to rely on walk in attractions. 

So what do spring break lines look at like at Disney?  As you’d guess, the most popular attractions have the longest lines.  We found that even the Fastpass+ lines were sticking out of the queue and in need of switchbacks.  This is the Splash Mountain Fastpass+ queue at 3:27pm on March 24th.  Earlier in the day, the Fastpass+ queue for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was out the queue, down the hill and across the bridge.  These kinds of lines are not for the faint of heart.  Just walking through Magic Kingdom was a challenge. 

There are a few things to be said about Magic Kingdom.  This park has the most Fastpass+ attractions to choose from, so the Fastpass+ system works best here.  Some of the attractions that we were easily able to experience without having a fastpass were Monsters Inc. laugh Floor, Carousel of Progress and Hall of Presidents.  Pretty much any high capacity attraction in a theater setting is a great choice.  I would have also been able to see Mickey’s Philharmagic, Enchanted Tiki Room and Country Bears Jamboree.  We did not try.  The People Mover is usually a best bet as well, however, it had an unexpected breakdown for most of the day and when it reopened, the lines were very long.  In fact, there was a line sticking out passed the queue ropes to get into the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  I actually had never seen that before ever!  

Epcot was featuring the 2016 Flower & Garden Festival.  During our vacation, Test Track continuously had lines exceeding 90 minutes, often up to 120.  I have seen longer, at Christmas, but a line like that is no fun.  Soarin’ was still down for its refurbishment, and is not back up at this writing.  Maelstrom is still down while it is being made into the Frozen Ever After attraction.  This did not leave much at EPCOT as far as fastpasses go.  We did make a fastpass for Test Track in advance.  Without fastpasses my husband and daughter were able to ride Mission Space while I waited.  It’s not my thing.  We did the Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion.  We could easily have ridden Ellen’s Energy Adventure, but we chose not to.  We did spend a good amount of time walking around World Showcase to experience the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival which really should be renamed the EPCOT Flower & Food Festival.  Each year they have more and more food booths.  We returned to EPCOT in the evening after dinner on Tuesday for late magic hours.  By the time you return to the park, and actually ride, two hours really isn’t that much time.  We were able to ride Nemo and Friends, and Living with the Land. 

This is a good time to talk about dining reservations.  Prior to our vacation, I had only booked one dining reservation.  My husband’s birthday was Wednesday March 23rd and I booked Raglan Road at Downtown Disney, one of his favorites.  I booked that reservation through OpenTable.com instead of Disney’s system.  On Tuesday, a family friend had reservations for the Captain’s Grille at the Yacht Club Resort.  The Captain’s Grill is on my list of acceptable restaurants that are not too hard to get in as walk-up.  Acceptable because the menu contains entrees that appeal to my family.  We decided we wanted to dine together, so when my friend checked in at the podium, she asked if they could accommodate another 3 guests.  This was effectively doubling her reservation party.  We were prepared with a back-up plan, Big River Grille and Brew Pub, as they do not accept reservations.  However, the hostess came back and said it would be no problem.  We were given a nice round table in a private alcove.  The service was excellent and the food was very good.  They even brought my husband a cupcake for dessert because he was wearing his birthday button.  He had no planned to eat dessert as he’s not a dessert person.  We definitely would return to this restaurant again.

I have always found that certain restaurants are easier to get in last minute that others.  Do not even think about walking up to a character meal during spring break without a reservation.  Most won’t even consider you.  The best you could do there is check with guest services at your resort or a park to see if there are any cancellations, or call 407-WDW-DINE.  The easiest to get into are resort restaurants followed by World Showcase restaurants that have limited or no view of World Showcase Lagoon.  Restaurants with a view are very popular for Illuminations, so they’re harder to get.  Restaurants with no view are not easy, but I have done it.  Some last minute favorites are San Angel Inn, inside the pyramid, Restaurant Marrakesh in the Morocco Pavilion, and Chefs de France.  Restaurants at Downtown Disney, now called Disney Springs are also doable because those restaurants do not load all their availability into Disney’s system, and reserve a certain percentage for walk-up.  However, allow plenty of wait time.  Another way to avoid this is to join the Landry’s Select Club.  Landry’s Select members are entitled to first available seating at their restaurants any time.  Just show your card.  Restaurants at Walt Disney World include Yak & Yeti, T-Rex and Rainforest Café.  That gives my family 3 options right off the bat.


(Thanks again, Mindy! Stay tuned for part 3 next week....)