May 17, 2014 - Day at Magic Kingdom
We hadn't planned a day at Walt Disney World when we planned our cruise. While it would have been great fun to take off a week and a half and do a land and sea vacation, we really didn't have the time. We were, however, getting off the ship on a Saturday which gave us a free weekend, so the thought of going to Disney World after the cruise had certainly crossed all of our minds.I think it was the second or third day of the cruise when Rachel said that this felt very Disney, but she didn't feel like she was quite there, yet. She needed to go to Disney World. So she proposed that after we leave the ship, we drive to Disney World and visit a park, then leave around 9 PM and drive through the night back home to South Carolina (Rachel and Max needed to be back on Sunday because Rachel was attending work training, and Max had to move to Columbia for his summer co-op rotation).
Rachel, Mom, Dad, and I are Disney Annual Passholders. Since activating them in October for our birthday/Food & Wine festival celebration, we also visited Disney World for New Year's. In October, we were among the first groups of people to test Disney Magic Bands, so we've had a good bit of experience using My Disney Experience and FastPass+. Max, however, has not been to Disney World since they have eliminated paper FastPasses and switched to FastPass+. While we already had Magic Bands and park tickets, Max was going to have to buy his one-day pass when we arrived. I was a little nervous about how it was going to work with my family using Magic Bands and Max having a one-day, one-park pass.
Our park of choice was the Magic Kingdom which is perhaps the worst to purchase tickets at because you have to do so at the Transportation and Ticket Center, and there are so many other people there to purchase and pick up their park tickets. I waited in a ridiculously long line with Max for half an hour so that he could buy his one day, one park pass. There really should be an express line for one day, one park passes because they take no time to sell. You should be able to purchase them out of a kiosk or something, even.
Rather than paper FastPasses, Disney World now allows guests to make three FastPass reservations in advance (click here to learn more about FastPass+). As soon as Max got his ticket (which was around 11:30 AM), I scanned it into my My Disney Experience app using the "Link a Ticket or Pass" scanner feature. I had already created a profile for Max, so after the ticket scanned, I was able to match it to his profile. On the monorail from the Transportation and Ticket Center to Magic Kingdom, I got us FastPass+ reservations for Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean (because Splash Mountain was unavailable at the time). I was surprised at how easy it was to add FP+ reservations the day-of, immediately after purchasing a ticket.
So my advice for those purchasing tickets at the park or the day of use:
1. Download the free "My Disney Experience" app in advance.
2. Go ahead and log into the app and create an account.
3. Make a profile for yourself and everyone in your traveling party.
4. As soon as you get your tickets, have the MDE app open and be ready to scan in the ticket QR code and link each ticket to the profile of each family member.
