On October 29, I completed the "Four Disney Parks in One Day" Challenge - I think it's safe to say I accomplished more in a single day at Walt Disney World than anyone else ever has.

In the upcoming days on this blog and my website, I'll run through the challenge in detail, including the planning that went into it, the good (and bad) luck I had along the way, and exactly how I managed to visit all four Disney World parks and 37 attractions (some that had waits of over an hour for most of the day) in a single day!  But for today, I want to give you a general sense of the size of this accomplishment with a few stats:

• Total Disney Parks visited: 4
• Arrival time at first park: 7:45am (75 minutes before opening
• Departure time at last park: 12:15am
• Total miles walked: 25
• Longest wait of the day: 12 minutes
• Attractions visited - 37

Thirty seven attractions?!? Yes, it's true - 37 attractions.  And not the "short line" attractions, but every single huge attraction in a single day. Some of these attractions had waits of 30, 45, 60 - even 70 minutes over the course of the day.  Here's the full list park-by-park (attractions are alphabetical - I'll give you the actual order in future posts.)

At Hollywood Studios:

• Rock N Roller Coaster
  
• Star Tours
  
• Tower of Terror
• Toy Story Midway Mania

At Epcot

•  Gran Fiesta Tour
• Journey into Your Imagination with Figment
• Living Seas with Nemo
• Maelstrom
• Mission: Space
• Soarin 
• Spaceship Earth
• I also visited every country of Epcot, got three items of food from the Food and Wine Festival, and visited Club Cool to try sodas from around the world (I don't count these as "attractions" but I probably should!)

At Animal Kingdom

• Dinosaur
• Expedition Everest
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimajaro Safaris
• Primeval Whirl

At the Magic Kingdom

• Aladdin's Magic Carpets
• Barnstormer
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Buzz Lightyear
• Carousel of Progress
• Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel
• Country Bear Jamboree
• Dumbo
• Haunted Mansion
• It's a Small World
• Jungle Cruise
• Mad Tea Party
• Peoplemover
• Peter Pan
• Philharmagic
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Space Mountain
• Splash Mountain
• Stitch's Great Escape
• Tomorrowland Speedway
• Winnie the Pooh
• I also watched the Wishes Fireworks show as well as the Main Street Electrical Parade (though I didn't count these on my list of 37 attractions - once again, I probably should).

Simply enough - it took a lot of planning and preparation. In my next post in this series, I will discuss the strategies I used before the day of the trip to plan out this endeavor. Then in future posts, I'll go through each day of the trip.

In the meantime, please consider making a donation to Make-A-Wish - thanks!

Just a quick note to say I completed the "Four Disney Parks in One Day" challenge yesterday, October 29.  I'll give a full blow-by-blow recap in the near future (I'm recovering from 25 miles of walking right now and need to recuperate...).  It's something you're not going to want to miss - you won't believe how much I accomplished in one day!  It was more than I expected myself!

Stay tuned.  In the meantime, I am still raising money for Make-A-Wish - please consider donating to Make-A-Wish by clicking here.

Just six days to go until my "Four Parks and 25 Rides in One Day" challenge, to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  If you haven't yet read about it, you can learn about my quest to visit every major attraction at Disney World in one day here.

I'll be conducting the challenge next Monday, October 29.  I have been spending countless hours optimizing my route to avoid as many lines as possible, and so this challenge can be successfully completed.

I used yesterday as a dress rehearsal of sorts - I looked at wait times throughout the day (using Disney's "My Disney Experience - Walt Disney World" app, which has real-time updates of wait times throughout the day).  Why yesterday?  Simply enough, October 22nd was a good proxy for October 29 crowd-wise:

• It's a Monday - same day of the week
• The park hours were the same for all four parks
• Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party was scheduled for the day before and after, same as next week
• It's the same time of year

It's reasonable to assume that crowd patterns on October 29 will be at least somewhat similar to October 22.  While I already have a good idea of the crowd levels and how the crowds usually flow, I need an even greater level of precision for this challenge to make it possible.

So here's what I have learned from my dress rehearsal:

1) No surprise, but visiting Hollywood Studios first is a very good idea.  Much as I expected, the only way to get on Toy Story Mania without a long wait is to head there first.  Fastpass won't work, because Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania disappear so quickly. So the first part of the plan is unchanged.

2) The original plan was to head to Epcot second and finish off that park.  However, somewhat surprisingly, I saw that crowd levels were extremely high in the mid morning (and I anticipate arriving mid-morning - around 10:45).  And yet, the crowd levels faded in the later afternoon. I suspect this is due to the Food and Wine festival at Epcot - people get to the park early and ride the rides, then head to Food and Wine when it begins.

Therefore, I'm making a change in my strategy - I'm still heading to Epcot and getting a Soarin' Fastpass (aiming for a return time around 3:00-4:00 - if it's earlier than that I'll experience one attraction and then get the Fastpass).  After I get the Fastpass,  I'm heading to Animal Kingdom, with a plan to return to Epcot later in the day.

3) Animal Kingdom appeared to have very light crowds.  I anticipate I can finish this part of the tour in a few hours and then head back to Epcot.

4) Epcot in the mid/late afternoon is the next stop.  I don't anticipate major waits (and have a Fastpass for Soarin')

5) Final stop is Magic Kingdom, hopefully arriving by 6pm.  Disney has added an hour to operating times - the park is now open until 1am (including the three extra magic hours).  Crowd levels really died down by 11pm - I anticipate I should be able to complete all of the Magic Kingdom, though I may be running around at midnight to get it done!

Conclusion - it will pay to be flexible!

One thing that's notable about this exercise - flexibility will be key.  Crowd levels do change dramatically in the afternoon, and there is high variance.  I usually have my customers avoid afternoons in the parks - the mornings and evenings have lighter crowds (and are more predictable).  However, when trying to visit all four parks in a day, this simply isn't possible - I need to spend every moment I can in a park. So I'm going to have to check wait times and adjust on the fly much more so than normal.

The one other thing I noticed - even though I wasn't actually walking/running around - I was just checking wait times throughout the day - I still got mentally exhausted by the end of the day!  Adding in 12-15 miles of walking is going to make this a difficult endurance challenge!  And I haven't built in meal times.  Hmm... may need to go back to the drawing board on that one!

Be sure so follow along on Twitter on next Monday - I'll be posting photos and updates throughout the day!

In my last post I detailed my plans for visiting all four Disney World parks and the 25 biggest attractions - a week's worth of attractions - in one day! I'm over 30% of my way to my goal of raising $1000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation - if you haven't done so yet, please consider donating today! As I've been further analyzing the optimal plans for touring, I've made a few changes. I thought I'd mention them now:

Change #1 - Early Morning at Animal Kingdom is OUT
This may seem strange - Animal Kingdom opens an hour earlier than the other parks, so it only seems to make sense to visit it first, even if for just a few attractions. In fact, my initial plan was to experience two attractions at Animal Kingdom (Expedition Everest and Primeval Whirl) 

However, under further review, I have decided this is simply a bad idea.  Here's why:

Even if I'm the first person in the park, and on the first ride of Expedition Everest, I probably won't be done with that attraction by 8:10.  Add in Primeval Whirl, and it's 8:20.  Run back to the car and drive to Hollywood Studios, and I get there at 8:45-8:50.

Here's the problem - Hollywood Studios often opens 10-15 minutes early, as early as 8:45.  If I arrive right at opening, and several people are in line at the turnstiles ahead of me, I will not be on the first Toy Story Mania ride - it's going to cost me an extra 10 minutes or more.  That ten minute delay will mean delays for the other attractions at Hollywood Studios.  Ultimately, it could cost me 30 minutes or more at Hollywood Studios.  And that means arriving at Epcot 30 minutes later, leading to longer waits at Epcot as well.  This could lead to an hour delay or longer!

Instead, I will plan to visit Expedition Everest in the late afternoon with the rest of Animal Kingdom. Expedition Everest has a "single rider line" so I can get through it with minimal delay around 3:00.

Change #2 - Ariel's Undersea Adventure is (likely) out
As has been reported many places, the Fantasyland Expansion has been open off-and-on for the last week. so I added Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  But since that point I've learned that it is unlikely that the Fantasyland Expansion will be open when I'm there (unfortunately).  So I'm going to add a new attraction to the list to get back up to 25.  I'm debating the Jungle Cruise, Peoplemover, or Barnstormer.

Revised High-level Summary

If you haven't read my previous two posts yet (or visited my page describing my quest), I am going to try to visit all four Disney World parks in one day on October 29.  And here's the tough part - I'm going to try to visit 25 attractions at the parks, including all the "biggest" attractions.  Yes, in one day! As far as I know, this has never before been done successfully. And as I'm planning, I'm not sure I'll be able to do it either!

You may be wondering how I plan to accomplish this task.  So I'm going to give you a high-level sense of my planning so far.  I use similar planning techniques for my Optimal Magic customers.  However, this is far more complex than the plans for my customers, because in essence, I'm trying to experience a week's worth of attractions in one day!  And unfortunately, unlike my customers, I'm going to have to wait in some lines.

Constraints
First, here the constraints:
Park Hours
Animal Kingdom is open 8am-5pm (including morning Extra Magic Hours)
Magic Kingdom is open 9am-12am (including evening Extra Magic Hours)
Epcot is open 9am-9pm
Hollywood Studios is open 9am-8pm

Traveling - I will have access to a car from 7am-2pm, but not after (my brother will accompany me the first half of the day before he has to head to a trade show in the afternoon, and he's taking the car).

Attraction List - The 25 attractions I'm planning to visit are listed here - there are at least four attractions at each park (and the four "biggest" at each park, as well).

The biggest problem - Soarin' and Toy Story Midway Mania
Here's the deal - the two toughest attractions to complete without waiting in lines are Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios and Soarin' at Epcot.  Both have long lines 10 minutes after their respective parks open, and their Fastpass times go through the roof early (so it's not an option).  That means I need to be at one of those two rides right at opening (and suck it up and deal with a wait for the other).  I think Hollywood Studios is a better place to go to first, because the other rides I'm experiencing at Hollywood Studios (Rock N Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours) all can have long lines, so I should pick them off early before the lines build.

However, you may notice that Animal Kingdom opens an hour earlier.  While I'm less concerned about hitting all the Animal Kingdom attractions, every moment counts.  So my thought is to quickly take in one or two Animal Kingdom attractions, then get to Hollywood Studios for its opening.

So here's the step-by-step strategy:
Start at Animal Kingdom for Extra Magic Hour
7:00am - be at Animal Kingdom parking lot (need as close a parking spot as possible)
8:00am - get to Expedition Everest - be on the first train
Next, there's likely only time for one more ride - gonna go with Primeval Whirl (sort of on the way back to the front of the park, and short)
By 8:15 I need to run back to the car, and drive to Hollywood Studios.  I hope to make it to the front by park opening.

Next to Hollywood Studios
8:45 - Start Hollywood Studios plan.  This is pretty easy - I simply MUST get to Toy Story Mania as fast as possible, followed by Tower of Terror, Rock 'N Roller Coaster (singles line), and Star Tours.  Still haven't decided proper order of Tower of Terror and Rock 'N Roller Coaster

By 10:30 I'm hoping I'm done with Hollywood Studios, and can get to Epcot by 11:00am.

Onward to Epcot
Epcot is going to present a problem - at 11:00am I anticipate an hour wait for Soarin, and Fastpass return times too late to use.  I'm probably going to just have to deal with the Soarin' line.  My thought is to get a Mission: Space Fastpass, then hit Soarin, The Seas, Journey into Imagination and then Mission: Space, saving Spaceship Earth for last (as the lines get shorter as the day goes on at Spaceship Earth).  I hope to be out of Epcot by 1:15pm.

Back to Animal Kingdom!
At this point, I need to get back to Animal Kingdom and finish off the park.  Unfortunately, my brother and partner in crime has to leave me at this point for a conference (what kind of priorities does he have?!?).  So he'll drop me off at Animal Kingdom, and I'm going solo.  If I arrive by 1:50, I still have to experience Kali River Rapids, It's Tough to be a Bug, Dinosaur, and Kilamajaro Safari's.  I'll probably get a Fastpass for one of Kali and the Safari's, hit the other attractions, then return to use my Fastpass.  I think I can get out of the park by 4:15 (I'm counting on crowds to fade starting at parade time if I get in trouble).

To the Magic Kingdom (finally!)
I hope to arrive at the Magic Kingdom by 5:00 at the latest.  Unfortunately, the Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom bus stops at the TTC and adds a monorail trip (more time!).  So if I see a Contemporary Resort bus, I'm taking that instead.  Then I can run from the Contemporary Resort to the Magic Kingdom entrance.  (Though I'm pretty much taking the first bus to a Magic Kingdom area resort I can find).

As far as the Magic Kingdom plan, it's going to take some creativity. I have 11 attractions to hit in 7 hours.  Sounds pretty doable - I'm still working on the optimal plan, but I'm sure I can come up with something.  The key (beyond usual Fastpass strategies) is to hold off until later for the longest line attractions where Fastpass isn't a viable strategy (like Peter Pan).

Conclusion - will this even be possible?
To tell the truth, I have no idea if this will work or not. 25 attractions at four parks in one day is insane.  And I have several "points of concern":

• Making rope drop at Hollywood Studios.  I miss rope drop by 15 minutes could cost me over three hours over the course of the day (because of the snowball effect - each wait makes the next wait longer). Part of me wants to forget about morning hours at Animal Kingdom to ens
• The Soarin' wait.  Can't avoid it.  Hope it's not that bad!
• Walking/running over 15 miles - I run 5K races with my daughter every so often, so I'm not totally out of shape, but I haven't run more than four miles in a day in over a decade!
• When will I eat?
• What if a ride breaks down when I'm in line?  Or (even worse) when I'm on it?  If I lose an hour of time sitting on a broken-down attraction, I'm toast.

What are my odds of succeeding?  I'm going to say maybe 25%.  I'm fairly confident I can get to 20 attractions (heck, I KNOW I could get to 20 it if I just cut out Toy Story, Soarin', and three attractions at Animal Kingdom, but that's cheating). So we'll see! Don't forget to follow my Twitter page for updates (live as long as my phone survives on the day of the challenge)

And finally, a reminder - I am trying to use this crazy stunt to raise money for Make-A-Wish foundation.  Please consider making a donation - you can do so at this link.  

If you read my previous post, you know that on Monday, October 29, I'm going to attempt to visit all four Disney World parks in one day, and experience the 25 biggest (and longest-line) attractions at the parks.  I'll write more about how I plan to accomplish it in later posts.

For today, however, I wanted to let you know that I'm using this crazy stunt to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation's mission is as follows - "We grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy." As you probably know, Make-A-Wish helps many sick children visit Disney World - in fact, more than 40% of all wishes granted involve the Disney Company. So as I'm going on this Disney World adventure, I thought it would be a good thing to also help children with life-threatening medical conditions can also go on their own Disney adventure.

Please consider making a donation - I have created a donation webpage using the donation service Razoo - 97.1% of donation dollars go to Make-A-Wish (which is the highest percentage I could find and quite good when you consider usual credit card fees).  To donate, you can visit this link - in addition, I am going to make a donation page on my website very soon.

Thanks, and I'll be writing more as I prepare for the Four Disney Parks and 25 Attractions in One Day Challenge, so stay tuned!

On Monday, October 29, I'm also going to attempt a feat I've also been told is impossible.  I'm going to try to experience the 24 biggest attractions at the four Disney World Parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios), in one day!

Wait - what?
As you probably know, Disney World contains four theme parks, which are several miles apart from each other.  Each of them can fill an entire day of a vacation (or more).  I am planning to try to visit the biggest attractions at ALL FOUR of these parks in ONE DAY.

Why the heck am I doing this?
For two reasons:
1) As you may know, my business Optimal Magic helps my customers have the absolute best time possible at Disney.  I use sophisticated analysis to build custom plans that enable customers to do everything they want in the way they want to do it, without ever waiting in long lines.  While I would never recommend visiting four parks in one day for a customer, I figured that if I can solve this particularly absurd problem, imagine how great a trip I can help you have  if you do just one park each day!
2) It's fun!

Which attractions will I visit?

So here's what I did - I took a look at all the parks, and started with the "biggest four" attractions at each of them.  Then I added a few more here and there until I was at 20. Then I added a few more that I really wanted to visit.  So here is the attempted list:

Magic Kingdom
1) Space Mountain
2) Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
3) Peter Pan
4) Winnie the Pooh
5) Dumbo
6) Splash Mountain
7) Big Thunder Mountain
8) Haunted Mansion
9) Pirates of the Carribbean
10) Mickey's Philharmagic

Epcot
1) Spaceship Earth
2) Soarin'
3) Mission: Space
4) The Living Seas
5) Journey into Your Imagination
(Unfortunately Test Track will not be open)

Disney Hollywood Studios
1) Toy Story Midway Mania
2) Star Tours
3) Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
4) Rock 'n Roller Coaster

Animal Kingdom
1) Kilamanjaro Safaris
2) Expedition Everest
3) Primeval Whirl
4) Dinosaur
5) It's Tough to be a Bug!

Many people would consider doing just one park's worth of these attractions a successful day.  And I'm going to try to get them all done in just one day!

You probably think I'm going to cheat

I'm not going to cheat.  I'm not going to use anything that is unavailable to any other Disney resort hotel guest.  My ground rules are this:
1) I will utilize Extra Magic Hours (as can any other Disney Resort guest).
2) I am willing to use the single-rider line where it exists (as can any other guest).
3) I will not accept any "extra" Fastpasses to help me in my quest, whether given to me by other guests or Disney staff.  Only exception is any bonus Fastpass that any other guest could get in a situation (for instance, if I'm stuck on a ride that breaks down and Disney offers a Fastpass to apologize), or any "surprise" Fastpass a Fastpass machine spits out (since the machine doesn't know about my quest and won't treat me more favorably than any other guest).

That being said, I'm going to have some big challenges

There are things that will make this very difficult. Let's talk about the two biggest challenges

Challenge 1: I'm going to have to wait in some lines
I hate waiting in lines.  Despise it.  The custom plans I build for customers avoid the lines because I know most people don't want to spend their vacation standing in hour-long lines.

Unfortunately, for this quest, I'm going to have to wait in some lines.  There are certain rides that have long lines all day unless you arrive at opening or get a Fastpass very early.  (For example, Toy Story Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios, and Soarin' at Epcot).  It will be impossible to arrive at 9am at two rides at once, so I'll have to wait in a few lines - something I never do!  What do you do in a line for 30 minutes anyway?

I'm going to try to optimize my time so the lines are as minimal as possible, but I anticipate at least one 60 minute wait.

Challenge 2: The parks are far apart
It's not exactly speedy to get from Animal Kingdom to Epcot, or from Hollywood Studios to the Magic Kingdom.  Travel time is going to eat away at my efficiency.

So how do I plan to visit every major attraction in one day? What is the plan?

It's not going to be easy.  I have found several examples of people visiting all four parks scattered all over the web (examples here, here, and here).  But I haven't found anyone come close to hitting the 24 biggest attractions.  Is it possible?  I don't know.

As for the actual plan - I'll post more about it as we get closer, and I'll post updates day of the trip on my Twitter and Facebook pages.

A sub-four minute mile was considered impossible until Roger Bannister in 1954. Lou Gehrig's 2130 consecutive game streak was considered unbreakable until Cal Ripken Jr. broke it in 1995. Is the 24 biggest rides at Disney possible in a single day?  We'll find out on October 29th!

If you're planning a trip to Disney World over the holidays, be prepared.  The Christmas-to-New Year's week is by far the busiest week of the year at Disney World.  The Magic Kingdom often fills to capacity and stops letting additional guests in (and the other parks occasionally do, as well).  Lines for major attractions can be in the hours, the minor attractions can see long waits, and you may even end up waiting a long time just to order food or use a restroom!  Don't believe me?  Check out this great post by Orlando Theme Park News with photos from last year Christmas time - the crowd levels and the wait times are astonishing.

But fear not - even if you go this time of year, you can have a great trip.  Ive been working with several families this year that are planning trips over the Christmas-to-New Year's school break.  These can be the most challenging trips to plan.  This is not to say you can't avoid the crowds and have a good time this time of year - you can.  But it takes a lot more planning and creativity.

What follows are some high-level tips that will help you have a better trip if traveling to Disney World in the Christmas-to-New Year's time period. These are essential tips.  As always, let me remind you that for Optimal Magic customers I put together a full itinerary that helps them avoid the long lines - even on the busiest days.  These tips won't replace a full Optimal Magic itinerary (and my customers would be mad if I gave everything away for free!), but they're a good start.

Holiday Survival Tip 1: Longer winter school break?  Go after New Year's Day
Many parts of the country have two-week winter breaks for schools, and kids don't go back to school until January 7 or so.  If this is the case for you, then you are much better off starting your trip January 2 instead of going late December.

The reason for this is simple - many areas of the country on the east coast only get one week for winter vacation, and the kids return to school on January 2.  (New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, for example). More kids in school means fewer people in the parks.

If you're one of the lucky ones who get two weeks for winter break (for example, most of the Chicago area), then use this to your advantage.  There will still be crowds after January 1, but they'll be less crazy than the week before.  Plus, hotels will be much cheaper!

Holiday Survival Tip 2: Arrive Early.  Like really, really early
You probably already know that it is best to get to the Disney parks early.  It is even more true during the holidays.

Here's the problem - Disney usually opens its parks at 8:00am the holiday week.  And they add an "extra magic hour" for Disney resort guest from 7:00-8:00.  Usually I don't like the extra magic hour, but during this crazy week, the Magic Kingdom has it every day.  This means you need to use it if you're staying at a Disney hotel

So if the park opens at 7:00am (and you need to account for travel time too), that means you're going to be at the park very, very early!  The good news is that relatively few people are willing to be at the park this early.  So you can usually visit a good number of attractions relatively quickly.

Holiday Survival Tip 3: Get the heck out of the parks in the afternoon
This is sort of a corollary to the previous tip.  If you're going to be at the parks early, you're going to be tired mid-day.  And the crowds are going to be absolutely insane.  I like to take very long breaks mid-day during the holiday season - like from noon to 6pm or longer.  Have a long lunch at one of the hotels.  Go swimming (it may be cold).  Stroll the Boardwalk.  Everything is festive and fun, so enjoy the resort, but don't be waiting three hours to ride Peter Pan!

One important thing to note - the parks (especially the Magic Kingdom) tend to reach capacity in the later morning/early afternoon.  This means if you leave, you may not be able to get back in.  So if your heart is set on watching the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom on December 31st, you're best off just sucking it up in the park.  Would I want to be in a mob scene for twelve additional hours just to see the fireworks?  No, I wouldn't.  But to each their own!

Holiday Survival Tip 4: Park Hopping isn't a bad idea
I don't push the Park Hopper option on Disney tickets that often (it's $55/ticket for a feature that is often not needed).  There are occasions and groups where it makes sense, but more often it does not.

However, during the holidays, it may make sense for more people.  For example, the Magic Kingdom may be tolerable at 7am, but completely intolerable by noon.  Epcot, on the other hand, can better handle massive crowds, and may be tolerable in the afternoon/evening.  So why not head to the Magic Kingdom in the morning, and Epcot in the afternoon?

Be forewarned that in this scenario, if you're going to Epcot to ride the big attractions, you're still going to be waiting in long lines.  But if you just go to soak up the atmosphere and maybe see lluminations, you'll be swarmed with people, but you'll be able to go.

Holiday Survival Tip 5: Bring your wallet
This isn't really a tip as much as a FYI.  While park tickets cost no different during the holiday season, you're still going to spend more money on everything else.  Disney hotels are MUCH more expensive in late December.  Like "take-out-a-second-mortgage" expensive.  Also, Disney increases the prices at character meals and other buffets by a few dollars.  And of course, rental cars and plane tickets will be much more expensive.

Unfortunately, I don't have many tips to avoid these costs.  There are rarely (if ever) discounts on Disney hotels in the holiday period.  Best I can offer is advice to book plane tickets and rental cars early, and avoid the restaurants that increase prices during these periods.

Conclusion: Avoiding lines and having a great time at Disney during the holidays can be done, but it takes effort!

Long story short, it is possible to get on many of the attractions at Disney World during the holiday period, and have a good time, without waiting in long lines.

However, if you choose to go at this time, please have a plan.  If you arrive at the Magic Kingdom at 9:00am, you're going to take an hour to get there on the monorail, and then you're going to be wading through huge crowds and waiting in two-hour lines.  Unless that sounds like fun, you need a sophisticated, full plan for the day.

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  Thanks!

For many people, meeting Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, or one of the many other Disney characters is a required portion of a Disney World or Disneyland trip. Years ago, meeting Disney characters was a sort of "chance" encounter, and there weren't real strategies (or big lines) to meet them.

In recent years, however, if you want to meet a character, you're often going to have to wait in line. This has been a result of many factors (including having specified places to meet specific characters, and more promotion by Disney hyping meeting characters.) 

Since Optimal Magic is all about optimizing your time at Disney parks, I've gotten some questions about how to best get character visits into your trip.  What follows are some strategies for meeting characters:

1) Consider a character meal or two - Disney offers character meals where you have a meal (usually a buffet), and Disney characters will visit you at your table.  The visiting characters depend on the restaurant - for example, the Crystal Palace has the Winnie the Pooh characters, and Chef Mickey's has the "classic" Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and company).
Pros of this strategy:

• No wait - the characters will come to you while you're eating.
  

Cons of this strategy:

• Reservations can be very tricky for some of these restaurants - you will need to make reservations up to 180 days in advance for some of them!
• These meals are expensive!
• Food quality is a bit hit-or-miss (as is true with many buffets).

Optimal Magic Thoughts - If you don't mind the price and can make reservations well in advance, I usually recommend the meals if you simply have to meet the characters.  You're guaranteed to meet them and get photo ops, but without a wait.

2) Use Fastpass - Disney is now offering Fastpasses for meeting Mickey Mouse as well as the Disney princesses. These are at Main Street in the Magic Kingdom
Pros of this strategy:

• Minimal wait

Cons of this strategy:

• You're using up a valuable Fastpass on this meet
• Only choices of characters with Fastpass are Mickey Mouse and Disney Princesses

Optimal Magic Thoughts - This is a reasonable option if you want an audience with Mickey Mouse or especially the Disney princesses (which usually have the longest waits).  Since the Fastpass return times usually aren't that far out regardless of time of day, I would save it for the busy mid-day period.

3) Figure out where they'll be - If there's a random character you have to meet, check with guest services.  They will often know the character's exact locations and times.  If you know that Chip and Dale will be near the Sorceror's Hat at 11:45, make your way over there and hang around at 11:44 - you'll be able to meet with the character very quickly with short or no lines.

Pros of this strategy:

• It's a way to meet random characters you may not otherwise be able to meet.

Cons of this strategy:

• It takes some work to figure out where characters will be, then to work your schedule around it.

Optimal Magic Thoughts - This is an option if you want to meet a more obscure character, but probably not the best option for the "big" characters.  It's also more likely to work at the parks other than the Magic Kingdom.

4) Wait in a line! - Several characters are available at specific points - for example, Pete's Silly Sideshow in the Fantasyland Expansion of the Magic Kingdom has meeting areas for several of the "big name" Disney characters.
Pros of this strategy:

• You know where these locations are, and you can easily find the characters.

Cons of this strategy:

• So does everyone else!  So you're going to wait to meet with characters.

Optimal Magic Thoughts - I'm not a fan of this - anything that everyone else does tends to have longer waits.

5) Don't meet the characters, but see them anyway! A lot of people (kids in particular) want to see the characters, but don't really care as much about meeting them.  If you fall into this category, note that there are characters everywhere - the opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom, all the parades at the parks, Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios - really, all over the place!  You can't really interact with them, but if your kid just wants to see Mickey Mouse, this is a no-wait option.


Pros of this strategy:

• No waits! And see tons of characters at once!

Cons of this strategy:

• No personal interaction with the characters.

Optimal Magic Thoughts - This is actually my preferred strategy for lots of people.  Even if you don't seek out the characters, you will have lots of opportunities to "see Mickey Mouse" anyway. And if your kids are shy or don't really need or want the one-on-one interaction with characters, this is the way to go.


Concluding Thoughts
Seeing Disney characters is a huge deal for some people, and it's completely unimportant for others.  You'll want to decide how important it is to you to meet characters.  If it's of huge importance, take a look at the options above, and decide which makes the most sense for you.

As always, let me remind you that Optimal Magic can plan your Disney trip, well, optimally, and that includes character meets.  And if meeting characters is of importance to you, we'll make sure that it is included in your trip plans without the long waits that other people associate with Disney World and Disneyland!