The one thing about travel days is you either sleep like a rock or you have one of those "transition" sleeps where you are getting used to a different bed.
I think I had one of the latter. I slept fine, but I was up early. That was probably because I was ready for the first day of vacation actually in Disney World.
There were a few things on the agenda for today, but the important part was to get to Disney's Hollywood Studios (which I will affectionately refer to as MGM Studios) for the last of Star Wars Weekends.
First, I needed to pick up our Park Hopper Passes from the Hospitality Desk. This was one area of the trip that frustrated me. You could only pick up your passes between 8am and 10am OR 3pm and 5pm. Kind of inconvenient for people who's flights come in later or who want to hit the parks early...like me.
Anyway, I traipsed down to the Hospitality Desk and got the tickets as well as our snack coupons for our Magic Kingdom day. I'll tell you about those later.
I got back to the room and people were just starting to get around. So I got them up, fed and dressed so we could get to MGM Studios before the park opened.
Now you might be thinking, "Um, Mary, why do you need to be there before the park opens?"
1. You always want to get there before the park opens. It's the best time to get your attractions and shows in before the rest of the world gets there.
2. It's Star Wars Weekends and MGM. It's going to be busy no matter what.
But #3 is most important for our story here: I needed to get my Annual Passes (APs) renewed.
With Annual Passes, you have up to 30 days after the expiration to renew them at the discounted renewal rate. Seriously, it's saves you like $70 per person. Our APs expired on June 6 so we were good.
Even better: I could put the value of my 3-Day Park Hopper passes towards the renewal of my APs. In the end, I paid less than the cost of one AP to renew all four of the APs for my family. That rocks.
Unfortunately, it took a bit of time because there were a lot of people in line at the ticket booths outside MGM.
Now you may be thinking, "Mary, why didn't you just do that at your resort with the Concierge?"
Because you can't. The Concierge can add days and add plus options, but he can't give me an AP. APs are only available for purchase at the ticket windows at the park.
It's a little sucky. I could have saved a lot of time.
I got those done, but I wasn't done yet. I needed to get my special Fastpasses.
Earlier this year, my family did some volunteer work under the "Give A Day, Get A Day" promotion from Disney. Basically, if you fulfill a volunteer need, then you get a certificate that can be exchanged for a one-day, one-park pass. If you have multi-day passes already, you can exchange the certificate for a special Fastpass.
Here's how this works:
You turn in the certificate and you get a special Fastpass card for each person in your party, up to 8 people, I think. Each card has a total of 6 Fastpasses on it: 3 Fastpasses from the Donald group and 3 Fastpasses from the Daisy Group. Each park has its own list of attractions in each group that the special Fastpass is good for.
The cool part about this card is that it gives you "instant" Fastpasses - even if the Fastpasses at a given attraction are gone for the day.
Yeah, this rocks. Especially in the summer, at MGM, during Star Wars Weekends.
The problem: The person who did my APs said I had to get in yet another line to get my Fastpasses. Puke. I got in that line and told the family to go into the park and I'll call them when I get the Fastpasses. I got to the front of the line and the Cast Member says she needs the APs for my whole party to give me the Fastpasses. At this point, I've probably been standing in lines for 30-40 minutes in the FL heat and humidity. I called the family and they were already headed to Toy Story Midway Mania.
I got out of line, entered the park, met them, got their APs and headed to Guest Relations inside the park. By this time, I was sweating bullets and had already sucked down the bottle of water I had brought with me. Thankfully, Guest Relations was in the A/C. I grabbed a CM and asked if there was any way he could get my Fastpasses. He was a gem and took off right away to do it.
Whew. What an adventure. Now I could go off and actually enjoy the park.
Next post will have more pictures and adventures as we head to Toy Story Midway Mania!
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