Conquering Disney on Memorial Day Weekend

[Vince the Floridian]

Hello everyone! Long time reader first time poster here, I figured I would finally decide to join the fray here at the TPR boards and the first think I come to do is to ask for some prime advice.

 

I've been offered a free trip to WDW (how do you pass that up? ). We'll be going this Friday and Saturday with Park Hopper access. Much to my surprise this weekend is...*gulp*...MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!!!

 

Now, living in Florida I've always known to not visit theme parks on holidays, especially one like Memorial Day Weekend. It gets way too crowded, and crowds are something that can be avoided when you have the luxury of going to the parks almost whenever you want. What I really want to be able to do is ride the "big boy" rides at all the parks (Everest, Tower of Terror, etc), ride the new Star Tours and do some Star Wars Weekends stuff (don't really care for seeing the celebrities, just to see whatever else is there, y'know?). Obviously doing all this when there are thousands of others trying to do the same thing that weekend is easier said than done. I'm going to the parks compliments of a CM my friend knows, does anyone know if we'll be getting some sort of Fastpasses?

 

If you guys have any ideas or have braved the Memorial Day monster before, please let me know!

[BarryH]

Let's see...I braved the Magic Kingdom on July 4th two years ago. The longest wait I had was 20 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean. How did I do it?

 

- Arrive before opening (8:00 am on July 4th), FP was not available until 9:00 am

- Hit the low capacity rides first: Dumbo, Tomorrowland Speedway, Teacups

- Hit the Fantasyland rides

- Use Fastpass extensively and always have a FP in hand. When you get a FP, you will have a one hour return time and also a time when you can pick up another Fast Pass. When the time comes to get another FP, go and get one before your return time.

- Enjoy the shows and high capacity rides in the afternoon.

- Do the rides you enjoyed again in the evening. Try to ride stuff during or after a parade. Example: Haunted Mansion was running a 45 minute wait in the afternoon. I waited to ride after the Spectromagic parade. Wait time was then 15 minutes.

 

It looks like you're trying to do a "thrill ride tour" of the Disney parks. I actually was planning on doing it over the Memorial Day weekend but my plans changed. However, here is what I was planning:

 

Start at 9:00 am

Disney Hollywood Studios: first do Star Tours, then TOT (Fast Pass) and Rock N Roller Coaster (single rider line)

Animal Kingdom: Kali River Rapids (Fast Pass), Expedition: Everest (single rider line), Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur (Fast Pass one while doing another)

Epcot: Mission: Space (Fast Pass), Test Track (single rider line), Malestrom

Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain (FP), Big Thunder, Splash Mountain (FP)

 

I was planning on going Sunday. The latest park to close on that day is the Magic Kingdom. I would have started at MK since that's the busiest Disney park, but I would start with Star Tours since it just reopened and everyone wants to ride it.

 

Good luck!

[Vince the Floridian]

Your thrill ride tour plan sounds like it'd work, Barry. When do you think I should grab fastpasses for the rides you listed? Right when I get to the park? That's a bit of back-and-forth walking but I'm a young dude, I can take it!

[BarryH]

I would grab a Fast Pass as soon as you can. At each park, there's a queue board (check the park map for the locations). I tend to grab a Fast Pass for the attraction that has the longest wait time. For example, if I go to the Magic Kingdom and I find a 30 minute wait for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder, but a 70 minute wait for Space Mountain, then I'll get a Fast Pass for Space Mountain. I can probably ride Splash Mountain and Big Thunder as I wait for the Space Mountain Fast Pass window to open.

 

Getting Fast Passes can involve a lot of walking. Usually, the thrill rides at Disney parks are on opposite sides of the park. Epcot's thrill rides tend to be clustered around each other. Animal Kingdom's rides are very spread out. It took me 15 minutes walking at a brisk pace to reach Expedition Everest! But in the end, you can ride 1-2 rides while waiting for your Fast Pass window to open.

[Homeboy23]

I will second Barry's "thrill ride tour" as I did something very similar two summers ago at the end of June with the only difference I did Epcot last instead of Magic Kingdom and it worked out perfect. I got on all the rides I wanted to in all four parks in one day.

 

What type of phone do you have? They are a few apps on Droid (If it is on Droid it is probably on the Iphones) that have wait times for rides which is not as accurate as the queue board at each park but if you are walking around having the wait times on your phone is very helpful.

[BarryH]

I would check the park hours too. Usually, Animal Kingdom closes the earliest followed by Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot. Usually, Epcot is the latest to close unless it is a busy time. Then Magic Kingdom is the latest. During Memorial Day weekend, Animal Kingdom closed the earlies, followed by Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom.