I went to Disney for the first time as an adult, on a college trip. The school handled all the logistics, including buying the tickets. I didn’t know about Fast Pass. Imagine what it was like to show up and find out not only that it’s ubiquitous and free (other theme parks I’ve been to only sold them as an upcharge, so I never would’ve considered getting it even if I’d heard of it), but that it’s also a thing you have to sign up for in advance.
I felt cheated. Yet, nobody seemed to care because everyone expected me to already know about it somehow. Excuse me for not being Disney-obsessed, for not living around Orlando, and/or for being too poor most of my life to afford going there. It seems the days of “buy ticket, go into park, get on ride” are long gone. I got there early, yet I went on a total of 3 rides that day: Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, and the frickin’ Small World ride (which was the only one without a line. It was just as bad as advertised.) There was no time for anything else, because the lines were insanely long and I was apparently the only person in the park who didn’t have some sort of Fast Pass.
That was over a decade ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s gotten even worse since then.
Living in Orlando, we locals know to buy the cheaper passes with the blackout dates. Rather that look at the blackout dates as restrictions, we see them as valuable information - those are the days when you want to avoid the parks at all costs.
The best times to go are when the kids are in school, of course. If you aren’t towing kids, you would be an absolute moron to go during the vacation seasons.
Best times:
January, Beginning of February. Town is slow, weather is cooler.
It starts to get busy during Valentine’s Day week, then the Daytona 500, the Daytona Bike Week, then Spring Break weeks across the country.
May - kids are in school, finals are happening, nobody takes their kids out of school for vacay. Park traffic is among the lightest of the year.
Summer is insane, through Labor Day. It’s also brutally hot. Avoid at all costs.
Fall is good, kids are in school. Lots of British come in September/ October/ November but probably not this year. Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights draws a lot of people to Orlando, but not to Disney. Thanksgiving week is always very busy.
Early December - probably the best time to visit. Kids just had Thanksgiving break, and Christmas break is coming, and there are finals. Nobody takes their kids to Disney in early December, and the parks are very quiet.
If you go when it’s busy, you’ll spend most of your day waiting for hours in line on the hot sun. You might get on 4 or 5 rides, if you’re lucky. But go in Early December, or May, and you’ll do a dozen or more rides in a day.
What an informative comment for if your state and federal governments ever stop being dipshits. No offense meant to you personally obviously, I’m assuming you didn’t vote for Alligator Alcatraz.
I would actually like to visit at some point. Your January/February weather is basically my summer weather sans heatwave, it’d be a perfect vacation in the middle of the freezing winter. I’ve got a small kid and I’d wager in a few years, they’re gonna want to see all their favourite Disney characters. It’s almost unavoidable. Plus school starts at age 7 here so if I come a year before that, it’s only kindergarten to miss a week of. Not a problem.
we locals know to buy the cheaper passes with the blackout dates.
What’s that? Where do I see those? Website doesn’t seem to be showing me those, it’s only X day passes you can use within X*2 days or something.
The best times to go are when the kids are in school, of course.
I assume Monday thru Thursday are the best days to be there then? Or are the weekends during schooltime OK too?
Also, where would you suggest staying? In the hotels on the resort itself, or outside? Any nice quality/price ratio hotels, or should I just sell my soul to the AirBnB devil?
I’m talking about Annual Passes, not short term passes.
During high seasons, it will definitely be better during the week than the weekends, but it will be still be extremely busy.
There are a LOT of houses for rent in Orlando. These days, a lot of them book through AirBnB, but a lot use real estate property managers for bookings. Do some Googling, and you should find some nice houses, often with your own pool, in the Kissimmee area for really reasonable rates. It’s especially reasonable if you go with a bunch of people, and split a 4 or 5 bedroom.
Ah that makes sense. Yeah I won’t ever get the annual pass. Wanted to move to the US when it was good for software engineers, but now it seems good for nobody except millionaires. Hope you’re doing ok there, I’m gonna stay in my cozy corner of the world until Putin decides to invade
Dont worry, at Universal, imagine your surprise when you get the fast pass and then get stuck in a (still smaller) line. That’s when you see a group get walked past you and you find out they paid for the VIP ticket and they get to skip in front of you.
That’s nothing, I heard they’re going to start offering Royalty Passes. You donate one or more of your children to their long term pre-employment training program, and you get to jump ahead of even the VIPs.
I went to Disney for the first time as an adult, on a college trip. The school handled all the logistics, including buying the tickets. I didn’t know about Fast Pass. Imagine what it was like to show up and find out not only that it’s ubiquitous and free (other theme parks I’ve been to only sold them as an upcharge, so I never would’ve considered getting it even if I’d heard of it), but that it’s also a thing you have to sign up for in advance.
I felt cheated. Yet, nobody seemed to care because everyone expected me to already know about it somehow. Excuse me for not being Disney-obsessed, for not living around Orlando, and/or for being too poor most of my life to afford going there. It seems the days of “buy ticket, go into park, get on ride” are long gone. I got there early, yet I went on a total of 3 rides that day: Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, and the frickin’ Small World ride (which was the only one without a line. It was just as bad as advertised.) There was no time for anything else, because the lines were insanely long and I was apparently the only person in the park who didn’t have some sort of Fast Pass.
That was over a decade ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s gotten even worse since then.
Living in Orlando, we locals know to buy the cheaper passes with the blackout dates. Rather that look at the blackout dates as restrictions, we see them as valuable information - those are the days when you want to avoid the parks at all costs.
The best times to go are when the kids are in school, of course. If you aren’t towing kids, you would be an absolute moron to go during the vacation seasons.
Best times:
It starts to get busy during Valentine’s Day week, then the Daytona 500, the Daytona Bike Week, then Spring Break weeks across the country.
Summer is insane, through Labor Day. It’s also brutally hot. Avoid at all costs.
Fall is good, kids are in school. Lots of British come in September/ October/ November but probably not this year. Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights draws a lot of people to Orlando, but not to Disney. Thanksgiving week is always very busy.
Early December - probably the best time to visit. Kids just had Thanksgiving break, and Christmas break is coming, and there are finals. Nobody takes their kids to Disney in early December, and the parks are very quiet.
If you go when it’s busy, you’ll spend most of your day waiting for hours in line on the hot sun. You might get on 4 or 5 rides, if you’re lucky. But go in Early December, or May, and you’ll do a dozen or more rides in a day.
What an informative comment for if your state and federal governments ever stop being dipshits. No offense meant to you personally obviously, I’m assuming you didn’t vote for Alligator Alcatraz.
I would actually like to visit at some point. Your January/February weather is basically my summer weather sans heatwave, it’d be a perfect vacation in the middle of the freezing winter. I’ve got a small kid and I’d wager in a few years, they’re gonna want to see all their favourite Disney characters. It’s almost unavoidable. Plus school starts at age 7 here so if I come a year before that, it’s only kindergarten to miss a week of. Not a problem.
What’s that? Where do I see those? Website doesn’t seem to be showing me those, it’s only X day passes you can use within X*2 days or something.
I assume Monday thru Thursday are the best days to be there then? Or are the weekends during schooltime OK too?
Also, where would you suggest staying? In the hotels on the resort itself, or outside? Any nice quality/price ratio hotels, or should I just sell my soul to the AirBnB devil?
I’m talking about Annual Passes, not short term passes.
During high seasons, it will definitely be better during the week than the weekends, but it will be still be extremely busy.
There are a LOT of houses for rent in Orlando. These days, a lot of them book through AirBnB, but a lot use real estate property managers for bookings. Do some Googling, and you should find some nice houses, often with your own pool, in the Kissimmee area for really reasonable rates. It’s especially reasonable if you go with a bunch of people, and split a 4 or 5 bedroom.
Ah that makes sense. Yeah I won’t ever get the annual pass. Wanted to move to the US when it was good for software engineers, but now it seems good for nobody except millionaires. Hope you’re doing ok there, I’m gonna stay in my cozy corner of the world until Putin decides to invade
Dont worry, at Universal, imagine your surprise when you get the fast pass and then get stuck in a (still smaller) line. That’s when you see a group get walked past you and you find out they paid for the VIP ticket and they get to skip in front of you.
The new VIP passes are an additional $400 per person, per day, to skip the lines.
Edit: That’s at Disney, I was just looking over their latest menu. I have no idea what Uni’s ticket structure is.
That’s nothing, I heard they’re going to start offering Royalty Passes. You donate one or more of your children to their long term pre-employment training program, and you get to jump ahead of even the VIPs.