Disney/IOA in February, it's been 6 years

[nesser1981]

since our last visit and it was for Keira's Make A Wish trip, who has been lately?

So fill me in, I've been reading on the magic bands and fast pass plus, we're staying off property, so I guess I can set those things up until 30 days out?

We're planning on doing Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom and then probably just a park hopper pass to Universal/Islands of Adventure. The kids are really only interested in the Harry Potter stuff over there.

I think we'll try to do a character meal at Chef Mickey's for Harper.

I've been browsing the DIS boards already, but I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Favorite Restaurants at Universal/IOA?

[LynnZant]

It's been a year and a half since Disney. We went at Christmas, and those magic bands were neat. Although, you are supposed to be able to add more attractions if you use your three fast passes, but nothing else was available because of the crowds.

We are heading back to Universal later this year, so we'll see if there are any good eats. And, how cool the new HP stuff is.

Have fun!

[cherrygutz]

We were there last week for my daughter's 7th birthday. We visit the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Then we went to Universal for HP

Magic bands can be used to pay for anything in all of Disney's parks from food to drinks.

Fast pass is like a special pass so you don't have to wait on a regular long like. Some stand by wait is 30-90 minutes, if you have a fast pass you could get in easily and fast. All you have to do is plan for them (you'll get 3), say if you want to ride in Pandora and it usually take 90 minutes, you can put that on your fast pass plan so you will not have to wait 90 minutes long. For us, we chose those that my daughter like to see/visit and we checked the waiting time, if it's more than 40 minutes, we use the fast pass like in Pirates.

[Julie Billingsley]

We were at WDW and Universal in March. Had a fabulous time. You will have a blast!!

We were only at Universal for 2.5 days so for table service we only tried Mythos, Margaritaville, and Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. Of those choices, our favorite was Toothsome. Frankly Margaritaville was awful service and lackluster food. Mythos was good service but disappointing food. At Toothsome we all loved our meals and enjoyed the decor (steampunk). We had both lunch and dinner there. Lunch was much more enjoyable because it's incredibly busy at dinner time. I had the chicken BLT both times. Yum!

As for quick service meals, we ate at both Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks. Enjoyed our meals there but truthfully English specialities aren't my family's favorite, so I'd pick just one of them to go to just for the Harry Potter experience. I'd just look at the menus to see which one has items you are more interested in. One is at Universal Studios Florida, the other at IOA.

We LOVED the Wizarding Worlds sections and next time we go I'm planning on only doing a one day trip and just doing those sections and nothing else. We enjoyed all the other areas of the parks as well, but I don't think I can go on the huge thrill rides anymore due to my neck injury. Or maybe my family will go to the other parts of the park and I'll just drink Butterbeer and chill with the other Hogwarts students. Definitely make time to see the Tale of Beetle the Bard. We loved the little street play they did. The show we saw was the Tale of Three Brothers. Also enjoyed the show of Celestina Warbeck. (Tip- they pick a guy out of the audience to participate. If you want your husband to be the one they pick, get there pretty early, chill on the steps, and have him not be holding a beer.) The Triwizard Spirit Rally was also a quick fun thing to see.

Hope you have a great time!!!

[nesser1981]

Thanks for the info!

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[nesser1981]

Originally Posted by Julie Billingsley

We were at WDW and Universal in March. Had a fabulous time. You will have a blast!!

We were only at Universal for 2.5 days so for table service we only tried Mythos, Margaritaville, and Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. Of those choices, our favorite was Toothsome. Frankly Margaritaville was awful service and lackluster food. Mythos was good service but disappointing food. At Toothsome we all loved our meals and enjoyed the decor (steampunk). We had both lunch and dinner there. Lunch was much more enjoyable because it's incredibly busy at dinner time. I had the chicken BLT both times. Yum!

As for quick service meals, we ate at both Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks. Enjoyed our meals there but truthfully English specialities aren't my family's favorite, so I'd pick just one of them to go to just for the Harry Potter experience. I'd just look at the menus to see which one has items you are more interested in. One is at Universal Studios Florida, the other at IOA.

We LOVED the Wizarding Worlds sections and next time we go I'm planning on only doing a one day trip and just doing those sections and nothing else. We enjoyed all the other areas of the parks as well, but I don't think I can go on the huge thrill rides anymore due to my neck injury. Or maybe my family will go to the other parts of the park and I'll just drink Butterbeer and chill with the other Hogwarts students. Definitely make time to see the Tale of Beetle the Bard. We loved the little street play they did. The show we saw was the Tale of Three Brothers. Also enjoyed the show of Celestina Warbeck. (Tip- they pick a guy out of the audience to participate. If you want your husband to be the one they pick, get there pretty early, chill on the steps, and have him not be holding a beer.) The Triwizard Spirit Rally was also a quick fun thing to see.

Hope you have a great time!!!

Keira and Sean would love the thrill rides, me and the boys not so much, so I'm thinking just a park hopper to see Harry Potter and the Seuss stuff. The kids still talk about Seuss landing from our trip before.

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[JuliaM]

Magic Bands are only included if you're staying in a Disney hotel (although you can purchase them). That's also the only way you can use them to pay for stuff. You're not actually paying with the band but are charging it back to your hotel room.

If you're purchasing Memory Maker, the photos from Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Frozen Ever After as well as the on ride videos from Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Tower of Terror can only be added to your account through the MagicBand. There are no touchpoints to claim your photos for those and no touchpoints for any of the ride videos. It's done through the MagicBand's long range RFID.

After you've used your initial three Fastpass, you can make additional ones (one at at time) by using your My Disney Experience account. You can either use the MDE app on your phone or at a kiosk in the park. Unless they've changes something since I was there in December, the app can only be downloaded on Android or iPhones. It's not available for Windows based phones.

EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom use a tiering system for FP. When you choose your initial three FP, you can only choose one tier one attraction and the other two would have to be tier 2. You can get another Tier 1 attraction FP after using your initial three (if there are any still available).

For Epcot, the Tier 1 attractions are Frozen Ever After, Soarin', Test Track and Illuminations. Tier 1 attractions at Hollywood Studios are Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Toy Story Midway Mania, The Great Movie Ride, Beauty & the Beast, , Fantasmic, and the Music of Pixar Live. Animal Kingdom's Tier 1 attractions are both of the new attractions in Pandora - Avatar Flight of Passage and Na'vi River Journey.

You can also choose all three FP to be Tier 2 attractions.

Staying offsite, you will be able to set up your FP 30 days in advance but I believe it's 30 days in advance for each (ie: if you're going to be in Disney Park 7 days in a row, you'd make your FB 30 days in advance each day for 7 days - staying onsite you can make them 60 days in advance for your entire trip - up to 10 days, I believe).

There's a lot of construction going on in Hollywood Studios right now for the additions of Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land and sever attractions have closed for that. Also, Wishes has been replaced at Magic Kingdom by Happily Every After which is both fireworks and projections on the castle. The Main Street Electrical parade stopped it's run last year and has been moved back to Disneyland so the only parade at Magic Kingdom now is Festival of Fantasy in the afternoon.