Learn how to use those fast passes and how many you get, as it's not always clear (you get more than 3 a day).
When a ride is saying there are no fast passes soon just keep refreshing it and usually one can pop up.
Make sure to use those fast passes for princess meet & greets & Fairyland Hall, the line may look short but we got stuck in one for a long time.

EDIT: LOTS of time meeting princesses and characters with a almost 3 year old. Which reminds me, take your kid before they hit 3 because they're free.
Meet Disney characters @ Big Top at Pete’s Silly Sideshow. You can show up usually 10 minutes before it opens and get within the first 3 people.
We were first once and Daisy, my daughter's fav, opened the door and led her by the hand all the way in....she still talks aboot it!

If any of you have older kids or are kids at heart yourself there is a cool card game at magic kingdom called "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" I suggest looking it up. I have been stockpiling for years and have extra (back up) books of cards for the game. If anyone wants to borrow a book during there stay pm me. Borrow it for your stay then return it for the next person or my nieces to use while there in town.

If your going with a big group check out Tables in Wonderland. It gives you 20% off including alcohol but can only be used at certain places. Good for up to 10 guests. If your there for a week with guests it more than pays for itself.

Love that game. I completed my free set this last visit. Highly recommend

IMG_20200202_103340 (resized).jpg

If you’re after signature don’t stand in lines. Do the “character breakfasts, lunches, and dinners”. You get to meet 4-5 characters while sitting down eating. They come to you instead of waiting in lines for hours.
Auskerhaus in Epcot and Mickey Buffet in the Contrmporary will satisfy most of the obligatory princess character signatures.

This is solid

Contemporary breakfast is pricey though, but character wise worth it.
No princesses when I was there last though, just disney animals

Nice thread,
Moved to Tampa a few years ago, immediately got annual passes for Disney, and also Universal and Legoland for last year. Will drop Legoland, debating Universal, will keep Disney.

Big Star Wars fan, the new area is awesome and the new rides are great. The lightsaber experience is better than the droid building, but twice the price. Cantina is cool but they cram you in there and limit your time to 45 minutes, so can be hit or miss on enjoyment. Great coasters for keepsakes.

Also a DVC member and we usually stay at the Boardwalk which lets us avoid transportation and walk to either EPCOT or Hollywood Studios. Best bar for a good beer in EPCOT is in England, and in Hollywood is the Taproom.

The Gondola is a great way to get from EPCOT to HS and back, takes about 20-25 minutes, which is about the same time it can take you to walk it, while resting your feets.

Enjoy.

You have a healthy stack going yourself!

I always stay at Beach Club Resort. Easy walk to Epcot and boat ride to Studios.
Cape May cafe has a great buffet spread but pricey. Characters for breakfast. Usually
Minnie, Donald, and Goofy.

God bless you sir. Whenever I walk past a huge line and see it's for a charcter meet and greet, I see less people who are in ques for the rides.

For you DVC members, are you overall satisfied with the program? I've thought about it from time to time, but I never can make the #'s work.

Shit man we were there in May and there weren't any short lines for anything!
But yeah she was too young for a lot of the rides, height and scars, so I was keeping spaces open for you I guess

I've been there when mine were younger. We waited in a few lines, then we learned to do the dinner meet and greets.

I was just there the third week in January, and there was not one day where it was "light". Well - Epcot during the week wasn't too bad, but my wife had us going to MK on a Saturday.

Bad idea.

We joined way back in 2006 and it's probably one of the best purchases we've ever made. For us, it's paid for itself many times over... BUT with the price-per-point as it is today, as you said, it's harder to make the numbers work.

We recently added on some resold Hilton Head points (it's a small resort and difficult to get a reservation at if it's not your "home" resort). Resale is a lower cost option, but you do have to be aware of the limitations of resale versus direct (there are some benefits you only get with a direct membership).

Surprised no one has mentioned Pin collecting .
Its pretty cool trying to complete entire sets.
We have a book that must weigh 15 pounds, and it's all pins.
TSA made my daughter show them what all this metal was in her carry on.

I’m actually here right now. First time in 20 years. My kids are teenagers so the character meet and greets aren’t really a big deal for them.

I didn’t find the food to be that amazing. Especially for the cost. We did stay on the club level at the Beach Club and the food they provided was great since it was included and had enough variety to not get old.

Star Wars and Pandora were unbelievable. These 2 are the Gold Standard for “theme” parks. The “Rise of the Resistance” ride is the most well integrated ride I’ve ever been on.

The rest was kind of meh for me. I’ll come back for Tron eventually but I didn’t care for Magic Kingdom. Epcot is basically a drunk fest now.

I think epcot before was famous for being the only place you could get alcohol so it was always a drink fest
I think it was before pleasure island came around?

Pleasure island is gone with downtown Disney. They rethemed that area to Disney Springs. More family friendly now.

Epcot probably was a drunk fest then. I wasn’t of drinking age 20 years ago so I might not have noticed as much. All the parks have alcohol everywhere now. Epcot just seems to have a lot more drinking going on. It is kind of boring though lol. Mission Space was cool.

My old stomping grounds . At worked at sci-fi for over 11 years . Things I suggest . Go to the big rides during the parades and shows . Most people will be watching those making the lines way shorter . Go to Walgreens or cvs and buy some ponchos , spray mist bottles and some snacks . Also if your staying on property go to the Walgreens and buy your liquor and take back to the room if you like to drink . Not saying you won’t buy drinks while your out but this will help a lot . Also get on the monorail and sky cabs and check out the resorts . There are really cool bars and restaurants in all of them and the buildings themselves are amazing . Definitely do fast passes and also get a turkey leg !

We go to Disneyworld almost every summer because our 15 year old twins love it. The last 2 years we were able to stay at Kidani village, in the 2 bedroom suites they have. Unbelievable! Unfortunately its back to the All Star for us this year as the guy we bought DVC points from is using them all. On that note, if any DVC members here ever have points they are thinking of not using, send me a message. Seriously. We would love to stay at Kidani again next year.

Yep it's just bringing it up because the wasnt widespread booze back in the 80/90s.
I still like epcot but it's a lower key thing for sure.you hit a couple rides then walk around the ring which time a good way to spend a day, grab some food in Morocco etc.
Come to think of it, it was getting dark by the time we were coming to the end and it looked like the party was getting going.

Epcot should be better once the new attractions get built. I do love walking around the International Village - we were there last Sept for the Food and Wine Festival. While it wasn't as good as I expected, it was still interesting to do.

That Figment ride is just horrible - I know there is some history on it, but ugh!

Out of all the parks, I see the least amount of kids at Epcot.

I'll be the heel.
We just got back from 4 days at DW. My old, flat feet just can't take it anymore. And they're all smoke free now (thanks Karen).
RotR was cool, but if I have to get up at 5 am to get there, to "maybe" get to ride it,...nope.
I went for my 3 and 10 yr old girls, so they made it worth it. But like Lindsey Buckingham, I'm never goin back again.

Club level has free drinks!!!

Haha totally...I sitting thought that shit wondering why i bought a figment stuffed animal as a child

Went to an Epcot employee after hours party many years ago and it rocked. Wasn’t a Disney sponsored event. Police broke it up around 4am. Loved meeting people from all over the world. Especially Lerna. Will never forget it!

The ride queue was a bit off putting. We almost missed out but managed to get a spot.

Hollywood studios is my favorite park by far.

I found MGM, er, Hollywood def needed some improvement, but if course they hadn't opened star wars when I was there. Although you wouldn't know it by the marching storm troopers every 2 goddamn minutes.i do always enjoy some muppets though.

My daughter and I stayed at the Polynesian, this past July. We had a blast I wish we could go when it's not so crowded,but she's a teacher,so the summer is the best time for her.
I'd like to recommend https://www.gardengrocer.com/.
It was great having fruits and stuff to eat for breakfast in our rooms. I also had my V8 juice every day. I normally don't drink it because of all the sodium,but I love it! Great for keeping your electrolytes up in the sweltering summer heat. We bought the groceries mainly to save time in the morning.

Ever taken 2 small kids to Disney world in late July? It was like 3 degrees less than Hell!! OMG. No more of that time of year. How do you guys feel about, or how do you do their food packages? What’s best?

For some reason, the Muppets show just hits that part of my brain that fondly remembers watching the original show as a kid. I know it was the last thing that Henson did, and he's there. It really does capture some of the magic of the ITC show, that nothing has since has.

The Rose and Crown always seems to draw the rowdy ones. They're always getting smashed at that place...don't think I've seen any of the other bars in the other lands quite like it.

I've been to the UK many times, and I have to say that the Rose and Crown really does emit those pubs. Kind of like how Raglin Road does in Disney Springs.

Does she do any of the challenges?

My sister passed away last September. We used to love going to Disney World together. Every time we were there was amazing. Each journey was special, but I think my favorite was the 25th anniversary of the park. We had saved up for a year for that trip, and we went nuts. We stayed in a few places, including the tower in the Contemporary facing the Magic Kingdom so we could watch the fireworks from the balcony. We even ate at Victoria and Alberts that trip, which was bonkers. Unfortunately it’s been many years since she had been able to make the journey, and I didn’t want to go without her. But now that she has passed, I’ll be going again this September. But until then I just got this on my forearm a few weeks ago:

F1374B51-3BE5-4727-A9B2-868669F9A4D8 (resized).jpeg

So, am I the only one that considers what kind of Disney trip I could have when thinking about buying a NIB game?

Biggest Disney regret: not buying into DVC in 1988 when we first seriously considered it.

Not totally related, but if anybody is a fan of disney history, I highly recommend the Defunctland YouTube channel. Funny and informative guides to attractions that are no more (Disney and non-Disney related). That can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVo63lbKHjC04KqYhwSZ_Pg

The newest video is a history of Videopolis, Disney's Teen Night Club. It's actually an extended version of a past video he did on the same topic. The YouTube channel has done a lot of videos on past TV shows lately, but if you scroll to older videos you will see videos about ExtraTERRORestrial: Alien Encounter, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Journey to Imagination.

And if that YouTube channel interests you, I HIGHLY recommend this mini-documentary (linked below). It's about two friends who wanted to document their favorite ride, Horizons, before it closed for good. They figured out a system that allowed them to jump off the ride, wander around the sets without getting caught, and then hop back on the ride in an empty car to leave. They got so good at it that they were sometimes exploring the ride for up to 4-8 hours! It's really interesting and tells a good story about two friends who shared a passion for Disney.

For the annual dues of $1000 - how many points do you get for that?

I loved the Horizons ride. Just watch the linked documentary, so incredible and so sad.

Thanks for sharing.

Glad you enjoyed it. It's definitely sad, but very touching.

I use this service every year I go. Great start to every morning with breakfast in room and quick start to the day.

If you don't want the show, go next door to the trail's end restaurant. Same food, but more variety in a buffet and much cheaper. We consider this to be the best kept secret and usually go there twice on our trip.

If you like to say in the deluxe resorts it's worth it. We bought into the polynesian in resale for $140/point. I think the retail is now $235/point. After 8 trips, you'll break even and then it's just the dues. For our family of 5, it's completely worth it. I wish we'd have done it sooner since we go every year.

We go at the end of august every year with 3 kids. Temps are usually 90-96F, but we make it work.

Food packages aren't worth it. You have to eat a lot for them to be worthwhile. I personally don't like eating a half pound burger for every meal. My wife and I both eat kids meals. They're cheaper and we're fine having a turkey sandwich. A footlong hotdog is bigger than two hotdogs combined and only a couple bucks more.

Depends on the resort. https://www.resalesdvc.com/2020-proposed-annual-dues-disney-vacation-club/

Mine are $1300 for 200 points at the polynesian.