Category: Other

You’ve made the decision to head to Walt Disney World during the week of Christmas, or the week after. Although this year will be different than years past thanks to the parks being at limited capacity, it’s still going to be busy. Visiting during such a magical time can be a little rough without the right preparation.

Here are some tips for making the most of visiting during two of the busiest weeks at Walt Disney World.

1. Get to the parks for “rope drop”.
2. Be prepared to be outside more, including in extended queues.
3. Talk to your family members, including kids, ahead of time to set expectations about masks, distancing, and other changes.
4. Mobile order your meals well in advance. The earlier in the day, the more time slots for pick up are available.
5. Take frequent breaks and hydrate.
6. Don’t miss the character cavalcades in all four parks
7. Since FastPass+ is no longer available, use our Lines app to make a Touring Plan and to know which attractions to visit when.
8. Use our Disney restaurant ratings on our site and our Lines app to know the best places to eat.
9. If you’re trying to snag a last-minute dining reservation, use our Reservation Finder – it’s free!

Getting to the parks an hour before they open may seem extreme, but Disney has a habit of opening the parks early on busy days, namely Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. You can usually get multiple attractions done in the first hour of park operations. That’s the beauty of rope drop.

It can seem like the lines for popular rides seem endless. You’re sure to see extended queues practically everywhere. It’s just important to keep in mind that these lines extend so long because of social distancing. Here are some tips for dealing with those extended lines.

Most quick service restaurants and dining locations use mobile ordering through the MyDisneyExperience app. Make sure you’ve read our steps on how to use mobile ordering. Make sure you place your mobile order early in the day. As the day goes on the time slots book up and there can be a 45 minute to hour long wait for a time to pick up your order. Meaning, when you sign into the app to select an Arrival Time to pick up your order the available arrival times can be an hour or later past the current time.

In each of the Disney theme parks have appearances of Santa Claus as part of their character cavalcades. At Magic Kingdom and at EPCOT you’ll find festive character appearances throughout the day as well. Magic Kingdom’s cavalcades are the merriest, as they are basically the Very Merry Christmas Parade floats and costumes. Check out our tips on viewing the character cavalcades.

Even with limited capacity, you’re going to need a tool to help you avoid long lines. You can create your own Touring Plan, or use one of ours that is ready to go. You can also visit without a plan, but view Expected Wait Times in our app and know whether you should wait until later in the day to ride any particular ride.

Finally, the holidays wouldn’t be the holidays without some good eating. The bad news is most of the popular restaurants are already booked up for dining reservations. The good news is you can use our Reservation Finder for free. This tool will alert you when an opening at your preferred restaurant and timeslot becomes available so you can go snag that desired reservation.

Have you visited on Christmas week or the week after? What are some of your tips?

The post Tips for Visiting Walt Disney World During the Busy Two Weeks of Christmas appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com

Filed Under: Christmas, Dos and Don’ts, Trip Planning, disney christmas crowds, disney crowds, Disney Tips

If you need a little pick me up at any Walt Disney World theme park, you’re in luck! Not only does every park have a Starbucks location, but also a Joffrey’s Coffee location. And throughout the year both coffee purveyors provide a few seasonal beverages. Right now you can enjoy a Peppermint Mocha at either location, so on which one should you spent your money?

• Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino at Starbucks – A blend coffee, mocha sauce, peppermint-flavored syrup, milk and ice, topped with whipped cream
• Peppermint Mocha Latte at Joffrey’s – A latte crafted with dark chocolate sauce and peppermint syrup, topped with whipped cream. Available hot or iced

Our team conducted a very scientific side by side comparison, and the winner is the Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino at Starbucks. The flavors of the Frappuccino were much more pronounced, described as “like eating an Andes mint.”

The Joffrey’s Peppermint Mocha Latte did not have strong flavors of either peppermint nor chocolate. Given the choice between the two, we recommend the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino.

Do you like to grab a gourmet coffee when in the parks? What’s your favorite creation?

The post REVIEW – Comparing Peppermint Mocha Coffees at EPCOT appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com

Filed Under: Christmas, Drinking, Epcot, disney christmas, disney coffee, disney starbucks

This weekend is unlike any other in Walt Disney World history. Most annual passholders are blacked out this weekend and next, which is not new. But, Disney has been reliant on annual passholders and other drive-in guests since reopening in July. And while we anticipated holiday travel to pick up this week and next, we’ve been curious as to how things would turn out without the help of annual passholder attendance. The answer? Every park, but Magic Kingdom, had a pretty middle-of-the-road kind of day compared to the average of the past 30 days.

EPCOT’s average wait time’s today ranked number 26 compared to the last 30 days – that’s pretty telling considering it is the Saturday before Christmas week. At EPCOT today we observed 13 out of 500 guests not wearing their mask in accordance with Disney’s guidelines. Put another way, 97.5% of observed guests were wearing their masks properly. Let’s do the numbers, starting with EPCOT.

EPCOT Wait Times

Without annual passholders coming to eat up and drink up at the International Festival of the Holidays, EPCOT seems a little lonely today. We’ve noticed that EPCOT has the most inaccurate posted wait times of the four theme parks, and today was no exception. The reported actual wait times were at 60% of Disney’s posted wait times.

Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros had an average wait time today of 7 minutes. Its 7-day average is 9 minutes, so today ranks #3 for this week. Its 30-day average is 9 minutes, so today ranks #20 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 10 minutes, so today ranks #158 for the past year.

Living with the Land had an average wait time today of 7 minutes. Its 7-day average is 13 minutes, so today ranks #6 for this week. Its 30-day average is 13 minutes, so today ranks #29 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 14 minutes, so today ranks #236 for the past year.

Soarin’ had an average wait time today of 44 minutes. Its 7-day average is 43 minutes, so today ranks #4 for this week. Its 30-day average is 46 minutes, so today ranks #16 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 38 minutes, so today ranks #93 for the past year.

Spaceship Earth had an average wait time today of 20 minutes. Its 7-day average is 22 minutes, so today ranks #5 for this week. Its 30-day average is 23 minutes, so today ranks #22 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 21 minutes, so today ranks #126 for the past year.

Frozen Ever After had an average wait time today of 38 minutes. Its 7-day average is 72 minutes, so today ranks #5 for this week. Its 30-day average is 77 minutes, so today ranks #28 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 60 minutes, so today ranks #188 for the past year.

Animal Kingdom Wait Times

It’s chilly by Central Florida standards, which does make it a great day for animal viewing. But, wait times stayed pretty low at Animal Kingdom today.

Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain had an average wait time today of 27 minutes. Its 7-day average is 24 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 37 minutes, so today ranks #18 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 43 minutes, so today ranks #148 for the past year. We received 21 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 52% of the posted wait time.

Kilimanjaro Safaris had an average wait time today of 14 minutes. Its 7-day average is 24 minutes, so today ranks #6 for this week. Its 30-day average is 26 minutes, so today ranks #26 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 43 minutes, so today ranks #196 for the past year. We received 7 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 30% of the posted wait time.

It’s Tough to Be a Bug! had an average wait time today of 19 minutes. Its 7-day average is 21 minutes, so today ranks #4 for this week. Its 30-day average is 21 minutes, so today ranks #18 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 13 minutes, so today ranks #42 for the past year. Keep in mind, theater based attractions are at reduced capacity due to physical distancing.

Na’vi River Journey had an average wait time today of 50 minutes. Its 7-day average is 54 minutes, so today ranks #5 for this week. Its 30-day average is 54 minutes, so today ranks #20 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 56 minutes, so today ranks #118 for the past year.

Avatar Flight of Passage had an average wait time today of 74 minutes. Its 7-day average is 62 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 70 minutes, so today ranks #9 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 86 minutes, so today ranks #108 for the past year. We received 10 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 89% of the posted wait time.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios Wait Times

Today was about middle of the road compared to the past 30 days. Some attractions like Tower of Terror and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway had fairly low average wait times compared to other days this week.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith had an average wait time today of 40 minutes. Its 7-day average is 39 minutes, so today ranks #2 for this week. Its 30-day average is 46 minutes, so today ranks #20 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 59 minutes, so today ranks #171 for the past year. We received 5 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 84% of the posted wait time.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror had an average wait time today of 61 minutes. Its 7-day average is 65 minutes, so today ranks #5 for this week. Its 30-day average is 53 minutes, so today ranks #8 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 59 minutes, so today ranks #84 for the past year.

Toy Story Mania! had an average wait time today of 31 minutes. Its 7-day average is 28 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 26 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 39 minutes, so today ranks #102 for the past year. We received 5 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 66% of the posted wait time.

Slinky Dog Dash had an average wait time today of 60 minutes. Its 7-day average is 56 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 67 minutes, so today ranks #20 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 72 minutes, so today ranks #161 for the past year. We received 6 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 71% of the posted wait time.

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway had an average wait time today of 41 minutes. Its 7-day average is 46 minutes, so today ranks #6 for this week. Its 30-day average is 48 minutes, so today ranks #26 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 67 minutes, so today ranks #165 for the past year. We received 5 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 68% of the posted wait time.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run had an average wait time today of 72 minutes. Its 7-day average is 65 minutes, so today ranks #2 for this week. Its 30-day average is 55 minutes, so today ranks #2 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 61 minutes, so today ranks #56 for the past year.

Rise of the Resistance is having another good day of operations. As we’ve seen, if Rise is operating well, the rest of the park has decent wait times compared to when Rise has issues. There was one minor blip around 11:00 a.m. There was also the small break we’re used to seeing each day for cleaning or maintenance at 3:00 p.m. In the past 7 days Boarding Groups in the 160 range have been called and it looks like Rise is fairly on pace to do so this evening.

Magic Kingdom Wait Times

We’re accustomed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios having the longest average wait times of the four Walt Disney World theme parks. But today Magic Kingdom reclaimed its throne in that category. Let’s look at all the attractions that had their highest average wait times of the past week.

Astro Orbiter had an average wait time today of 43 minutes. Its 7-day average is 37 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 37 minutes, so today ranks #2 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 30 minutes, so today ranks #16 for the past year.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad had an average wait time today of 57 minutes. Its 7-day average is 51 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 51 minutes, so today ranks #5 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 51 minutes, so today ranks #73 for the past year. We received 6 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 58% of the posted wait time.

Dumbo the Flying Elephant had an average wait time today of 20 minutes. Its 7-day average is 14 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 16 minutes, so today ranks #2 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 21 minutes, so today ranks #87 for the past year.

“it’s a small world” had an average wait time today of 45 minutes. Its 7-day average is 42 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 42 minutes, so today ranks #3 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 34 minutes, so today ranks #34 for the past year.

Space Mountain had an average wait time today of 54 minutes. Its 7-day average is 47 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 47 minutes, so today ranks #6 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 55 minutes, so today ranks #99 for the past year. We received 5 actual wait times today, and the actual wait averaged 96% of the posted wait time.

Tomorrowland Speedway had an average wait time today of 27 minutes. Its 7-day average is 16 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 17 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 21 minutes, so today ranks #77 for the past year.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had an average wait time today of 74 minutes. Its 7-day average is 70 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 71 minutes, so today ranks #8 for the past month. Its 365-day average is 77 minutes, so today ranks #97 for the past year.

 

The post First Weekend Without Annual Passholders – Disney World Wait Times for Saturday, December 19, 2020 appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com

Filed Under: Attractions, disney christmas, disney crowds, disney wait times

One of the things we love about Disney’s mobile ordering is that it has brought attention to many forgotten restaurants. At every Disney resort hotel the quick service dining location offers mobile ordering. At Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground you can mobile order from P&J’s Southern Takeout, and we decided to check out the holiday eats on the menu.

Right now you can celebrate the holidays with your taste buds with a Gingerbread Cupcake, Gobbler Sandwich, or a Holiday Turkey Dinner (available Christmas week). Since it is not yet Christmas (at the time of our visit) Ivonne on our team opted for the cupcake and sandwich.

P&J’s Southern Takeout is right next to Trail’s End Restaurant, and it essentially serves the restaurant’s food as takeout. Our readers give it a 78% thumbs up rating and it is only ranked number 101 out of 107 quick service restaurants at Walt Disney World.

The Gobbler Sandwich is an example of why P&J’s does not have a higher rating. The Turkey Gobbler Sandwich is made with House-smoked Turkey Breast with Cornbread Stuffing, Gravy, and Orange-Cranberry Sauce. For $11.99 it is priced in line with other quick service sandwiches. With the amount of toppings you’d think this sandwich would be very flavorful; sadly that was not the case. To make matters worse, the roll did not stand up this sloppy sandwich, making it messy and difficult to eat. We’d recommend getting the traditional fried chicken or ribs instead.

Thankfully the Gingerbread Cupcake delivered the holiday yumminess we were looking for. The combination of gingerbread cake with cinnamon apple filling was a little worrisome, as it could be a case of conflicting spices. But the gingerbread cake was so mild, which would have been a problem if the filling hadn’t been as delicious as it was. Plus, there’s a cute white chocolate decoration on it featuring Chip and Dale – the campground’s official mascots. Of the various cupcakes we’ve had over the course of the holiday season, this one ranks fairly high.

You do not have to be a guest of the campground to make use of mobile ordering from P&J’s Southern Takeout, or any other resort restaurant.

Have you made use of mobile ordering at a Disney resort restaurant? What’s been your favorite experience?

The post REVIEW – Holiday Eats at P&J’s Southern Takeout at Fort Wilderness appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com

Filed Under: Christmas, Dining, Resorts, disney dining, disney on site hotels, disney’s fort wilderness campground

Disney Springs, much like the theme parks, is always evolving. The West Side portion in particular feels like it is always in a state of improvement. There are lots of forthcoming projects like the M&M Store and Everglazed so let’s take a look at how things are progressing.

We’ll start with a spot that is sure to be a popular spot in the morning, Everglazed. This new spot is between Splitsville and the AMC Theater. This cold brew coffee and doughnut shop replaces the Pop Gallery. It will be nice to have a breakfast option on this side of Disney Springs, but it sure is taking a while for this thing to brew. In early November they announced that they were hiring, but no opening date is announced.

Another sweet spot in this area will be the M&M Store. Similar to the Coca-Cola Store, this destination will represent a big, well-known brand. The concept art looks very similar to the M&M World Store at the Florida Mall which is now permanently closed.

Sadly, two attractions at Disney Springs West Side remain closed for the foreseeable future. The poor unfortunate NBA Experience barely got its footing and then it shut down as part of the March 2020 COVID-19 closure. It has not reopened due to the hands-on nature of its attractions. Despite Disney’s involvement in the NBA Playoffs and Finals, there is no reopening date.

Just a few buildings away, the beautiful Cirque du Soleil theater remains shuttered. An incredible new show themed around Disney animation was set to debut in Spring 2020. In fact, a media preview of the show took place at the beginning of March this year. The future of this show is unclear at this point.

The holiday season is now at its peak, so if you’re planning on visiting Disney Springs get there early and avoid the weekends.

Have you been to Disney Springs lately? What are your favorite things to do at Disney Springs?

The post PHOTOS – What’s New at Disney Springs appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com

Filed Under: Disney Springs, Observations, Photos and Video, disney construction, disney shops, NBA Experience