If you are looking to book your holiday, or park tickets or plan your Orlando trip you may be seeing various terms and phrases such as “Fastpass” “Photo Pass” “Universal Express” – and have absolutely no idea what they mean, or how they will help you book and plan your fabulous holiday. We can assure you some of these tools are going to make a huge difference to your holiday experience, particularly if you are going in peak times, so we aim to explain a few of the more common ones you will see when you are looking at ticket sites or on Universal or Walt Disney World resort sites.
Firstly we should say there are a fair few crowd calendar/planners available on line – so if you have not yet booked your holiday and you are looking at the best times of year to travel from a crowd point of view then we would suggest you look at these crowd calendars and where possible avoid the busiest times if you are able to. We like http://www.dadsguidetowdw.com and http://www.magicguides.com. They give you the busiest months/days/weekends and help you plan your visit effectively.
FASTPASS
This is a Disney specific help tool. This enables you to book some rides, attractions, shows and character meet and greets in advance of you actual visit to the park. You can do this via the Disney App downloaded onto your smart device – details to follow – or in the parks using the various kiosks or staff members within the parks. You can book three Fastpass selections in any one day, but once you have used one Fastpass you can book another even when you have two still to use. The Fastpass option gives you an hour’s time slot to visit/ride the attraction you have selected and this basically means A QUEUE JUMP! So if the queue for a popular ride is over an hour, but you have a Fastpass booked you enter the ride via a separate entrance and avoid the hour long queue. Genius! And vital during busy times. You can start making Fastpass selections 30 days before your date of arrival and if you are staying in a Disney Resort you can start doing that 60 days before.
UNIVERSAL EXPRESS
This is the Universal equivalent to the Disney Fastpass. The Universal Express ticket is a purchased option, either by the day or for an unlimited amount of days and also allows you to queue jump certain rides and attractions. Again if you are staying in a Universal Resort you get this option included as part of your package so always something to bear in mind when choosing where to stay.
PHOTO PASS AND MEMORY MAKER
Most Disney tickets purchased in advance of travel (rather than on the gate tickets) include the Photo Pass and Memory Maker options as standard. The Photo Pass allows you to access any photos taken of you during your visit to the park by an official photographer or on the rides. They are linked to your entrance ticket (which the photographer will have scanned) and you can then go into various kiosks and stores to view and/or purchase the photos. The Memory Maker option also gives you the option to have the photos downloaded direct to your Disney App account which means you can download them yourself to your own device for printing or saving. It’s a fabulous idea and the ride photographs are often hilarious and also added to by Disney magic to make them look fantastic, and the official photographers know all the best spots and angles to get some amazing photos. A really worthwhile option so make sure the tickets you are buying include them.
DISNEY APP
You can download the Disney App free to your smart device before travel. It is relatively easy to link your purchased tickets to the App and it is from here you can select Fastpass choices, check out park opening times, park maps, show times, parade times, ride and attraction queue times and also, if you link a debit card to the account, allows you to order and purchase food within the Disney Parks which means again QUEUE JUMPING – just sidle on up to the pre-ordered food window and collect your food straight away.
UNIVERSAL APP
We have to be honest here and say we have not previously used the Universal App. As you have to purchase the Universal Express – and we have never had to do so in any of our visits as queue times have been reasonable – we have not had to use the App. However, we have researched it and will be using it on our next visit. It works like the Disney App to show ride wait times, parade times, park opening times, can be linked to a pay source to order food etc, and it is used for the virtual queuing system at Volcano Bay and which will be rolled out into the theme parks shortly. The virtual queue works in a similar way to the Disney Fastpass as in it gives you a time to go back to the ride so you can carry on doing other things rather than be waiting in an actual queue.
MAGIC BANDS
You can purchase Magic Bands to wear like a watch which link to your Disney Park tickets. There are loads to choose from and its easy to link your tickets to them. Instead of fetching a card in and out of your bag each time you want to enter a park or a Fastpass queue entrance, or have a photographer scan your ticket details to save your photos to your account, you simply tap the Magic Band on the entrance electronic booths which give you a reassuring “bing” noise and a “green for go”Mickey head……and you’re in! The Magic Bands also mean you sometimes get a little extra Disney magic on some of your ride photos and videos. The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train video is amazing and the Toy Story photos are fun too!
OTHER PHRASES AND BUZZ WORDS YOU MIGHT SEE
ROPE DROP – refers to the moment the park opens so that you can get the jump on the queues and get to the business attractions straight away.
EXTRA MAGIC HOURS – guests at Disney Resorts get entrance to certain parks on certain days earlier than the general public. Very useful indeed during peak times and a consideration when deciding where to stay. Universal Resort guests also get early access to parks and attractions.
MICKEY’S NOT SO SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY – is an extra ticketed event so you have to pay extra over and above your entrance ticket. However, apart from this being a fabulous trick or treat fun adventure, it allows you to be in the parks after normal opening hours and therefore get on some of the busier rides during a quieter crowd period.
UNIVERSAL HORROR NIGHTS – again an extra ticketed event – legendary in fact! Super scary, not for the kids we think, but again lots of fun and excitement and after hours in the parks. Worth taking a look if you are going to Orlando late September to early November.
Hope this information helps some of you guys.
In the next few blogs we’ll cover tips and hints on how to navigate parks, the amazing and vast array of food options and restaurants in Orlando, both inside and outside the theme parks, the fantastic range of other things to do in and around Orlando if theme parks are not your thing or you fancy a change when you’re there. We will also look at weddings in Orlando as we got married there last year and when we were researching how to go about it there was not a lot of up to date relevant information for us to look at so we had to wing it! We hope to give you the benefit of our experiences, please feel free to ask us to cover any topics you think would be helpful too.
Happy holidays – ours always are!
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