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Orlando Park Tips

marc

CF Legend
Ollie make sure you see Fantasmic and get there early for that as seats are limited.

For the Epcot fireworks sit in the UK area beer garden and again get their early, its the best view.
 

Ollie

CF Legend
Thanks. And will do Marc. How early would you recommend getting there before the shows start?

Looking at opening times for other parks:
Islands of Adventure: 8am-10pm
Universal Studios: 9am-9pm
Busch Gardens: 9am-9pm/10pm (Fridays and Saturdays)
Seaworld: 9am-10pm

Do all those sound right? I didn't realise the parks out there were open so late.

Bugger. Didn't realise Pteranodon Flyers is for kids only. I don't have a child to steal. I WANT THE CREDIT DAMMIT.
This trip is just turning into a list of more and more rides I can't go on lol.
 

Hixee

Flojector
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^I have the cred. Spite. :D

I got on it with my parents when I was about 14 though, so it's not for proper kids. Just try and hope they let you.
 

Ollie

CF Legend
Yeah but Im almost 20 and the youngest of our group is a 16 year old who's the same height as me. :p
I will try but don't want to get to the front of a long queue and be turned away. Especially if it could be spent going on something bigger.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
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But... it's a cred... :lol:

And you look like a toddler. ;)
 

Ollie

CF Legend
Also another couple of questions about Fun Spot in Old Town.

1. Is the Scare Attraction still there?
2. I also heard there was a SCAD Tower there as well but can't find any mention of it on their website. Is that still there?
3. Is it Old Town where the really fast drag car thing is? If so is that still there?
4. Is there anything else there worth doing?

Thanks if you can help. The website isn't very useful.
 

marc

CF Legend
Ollie if ioa is not busy they will let you on.

Fantasmic if you want a good seat 2 hours before the show, same for all firework shows as well.

Best place for Wishes is by a bin at the end of Main Street before it goes left and right.
 

Ollie

CF Legend
2 hours? I was going to say an hour but then though people would say Im crazy to think it was that long haha.
I know how important it is to get a good spot for the shows and stuff. It was like that in Port Aventura where we went to go wait for the fireworks about 45 minutes before they were due to start to get a yard of beer and just wait.
 

marc

CF Legend
You dont need to get there early if your not fussed on the view you get.

Fantasic though is ruined if you do not get a centre view. You have someone in a wheel chair if I remember? If you do you can go to special areas anyway and thats the whole family that can do that.
 

Ollie

CF Legend
But surely there's only so many seats for Fantasmic?
And my brother isn't in a wheelchair but he is registered disabled. But looking at the parks out there they only say they allow one person on with the disabled person so we'll just have to queue.
Plus he's lost his blue badge lol.

Anyway if anyone can answer the Old Town questions on the last page I'll be grateful. Thanks for all your help so far. :)
 

nadroJ

CF Legend
^Basically, yes. Get there early, grab some hotdogs and a drink and just sit and wait. The time goes really quick to be honest and once the show starts you won't regret it.

OldTown is really gross now to be honest. It used to be quite quirky and cool, but when we went this year it was a real dive. The drag racers aren't there anymore, there isn't s SCAD tower. There is a humungous SkyCoaster and 2 creds if you're interested in that but the place really is gross. I'd pop in there for a hour or two after dinner at the MOST.
 

marc

CF Legend
Ollie your going in peak season so it will be busy, fully of Europeans. You say the Americans are not on holiday but its not them you need to worry about its us lot lol.

It all depends what you want to see and do. If there are 2 showings of Fantasmic then go to the later showing its less busy and you can get there an hour before.

When you go to the Magic Kingdom get there an hour before opening as it will take you 30 mins to get from the car to the park and then head straight under the castle and get the small rides done. By doing that you will save time later on. You will not get round the Magic Kingdom in a day and get everything done, its impossible during peak times.

Hollywood Studios, head straight for Toy Story as again you will get stuck in 2 hour queues if you leave it and fast passes go within the hour, this even happened when the park was not busy. Also get a fast pass for RnR as the queue for that even off peak is large, ToT has huge through put I have never seen a queue longer that 45 mins.

Epcot is hard to judge but head straight for Sorin and either ride it or get a fast pass, queues are huge for this ride. You will probably need a fast pass for Test Track as well, queues build up fast and its rather slow moving.

Good luck with Harry Potter World, and again IoA/Universal car park is about 30 mins away from the park.
 

Gazza

Giga Poster
Bugger. Didn't realise Pteranodon Flyers is for kids only. I don't have a child to steal. I WANT THE CREDIT DAMMIT.
This trip is just turning into a list of more and more rides I can't go on lol.
From memory, I heard that adults can ride it in the first and last hour of park operation. When I was at IOA I went straight to DD (Because I was obsessed with the ride and wanted to do it first), but after a couple of goes on that I went straight to the flyers and walked on.
Spite.

Now, for my question...

Can anbody give a full list of attractions at all the parks that have single rider?
 

walker1104

Mega Poster
I can help with that Gazza. I'm heading out there in a couple of weeks so I've been looking into it. Here's the list I have:

Islands of Adventure:
Incredible Hulk
Spiderman
Dr Doom's Freefall
Dudley Do-Rights Rip Saw Falls
Jurassic Park River Adventure
Dueling Dragons doesn't have one anymore if I remember correctly.

Universal Studios:
Hollywood Rip, Ride and Rockit
Revenge of the Mummy
Men In Black

Seaworld:
Journey To Atlantis
Again, I'm unsure about Kraken... I don't think it has.

Busch Gardens
No single rider queues. Not unless Cheetah Hunt has one that I don't know about.

Disney:
Test Track
Expedition Everest
Rock 'n' Rollercoaster
 

Nicky

Hyper Poster
Hope I haven't caught this too late for it to be of use.

Fantasmic is on daily 2 showings a night I think. With me and my Dad we got there about an hour and 40 min before the first show. Got the dead centre. Don't be afraid to walk past people on the rows. Everyone has a tendency to spread out. Grab some food before you go in and just take in the scenery. If you want to get misted with water, sit nearer the front but even where I was sat I got a spray most of the time. The time does tend to pass quite quickly. Mexican waves start as it gets closer to the start time.

With the park hours that it was time the rides close. Same with any other park it takes a while for everyone to empty out.

I know we got everything you are doing done in 12 days and that was with a lot of repetition at the end of the holiday. It took us about 8 days to get everything done so even with larger queues you should be able to do it if you are there for park opening and prepared to stay till the end if you need to. The first two hours or so tend to be quieter especially when the park is open till late but make sure you don't go to the park that has had early Extra Magic as that will be packed with hotel guests. A good tip is to go the day after the park has had late Extra Magic.

*tries to think of any last tips*

TSM is a hellish long queue. FP if possible. It may have eased off slightly with Star Tours being open again but it's better not to risk it. If you can just about see the queue as it enters the building you are expecting about a 1hr 30min to 2hr wait depending how densely packed people are inside and that is with one set of cattle pens closed off. The first time queuing is great because you can look at all the theme. By the second time it gets a bit boring.

Tower of Terror is well worth a ride at night. We did it after Fantasmic and the view was just amazing from the top. It also feels a lot more creepy at night for some reason.

RnR can have a very very slow moving queue but then it can move fast sometimes. It's just a case of luck and how many Fastpassers are descending at once.

For some reason I can only remember Studios really well.

Forbidden Journey queue is constantly moving so even a 2 hour wait time feels like it goes really fast. It only stops for people drinking from the water fountains or taking photos and not having their cameras on the right setting. It's worth checking out the single rider queue and seeing how long it is. Sometimes it is used a lot, other times it is pretty empty.

Single rider is great on Men in Black (as its three to a row) and Mummy at Universal Studios (just due to people wanting to go in large groups or sit in certain seats).

I think that is everything I can remember at the moment.
 
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