"Almost" Wordless Wednesday: A Little Bit Of This And A Little Bit Of That

Even the waiting rooms in Star Tours are pretty darn cool

The Mon Cal are charged with making sure everything runs smoothly in the Star Tours terminal

The coolest luggage inspector in the galaxy

This one kind of looks like a game show host to us

We managed to catch the bobsled as it flew through a hole in the bottom of the mountain. Sweet!

Wouldn't mind staying at the Disneyland Hotel just to go on the water slide

Saint Ariel!

Dole Whip Ariel!

Nothing like a pair of Chucks on Soarin'

The Friday Fast Pass: The Fastpass!

It's been a while since we did one of our Friday Fast Pass segments! We figured what better way to get back into the groove of offering up some Days In The Park tips than to focus on the very thing we took our segment's namesake from: the Park Fastpass.

What people did before the invention of the Fastpass system is beyond us! Well, we know they stood in line a lot more, but we're sure you get what we're trying to say. And when it comes to line bypassing, nobody does it better than Disney! You need only look to other theme parks and the example they set (charging you above and beyond your park admission for the privilege) to see just what a great thing The Parks have going for them here, and you'd do best to take advantage of it as often as you can.

If you're uninitiated into the world that is Fastpass still, it's really simple to explain. As mentioned before, it's basically a "line bypassing" system The Parks have implemented meant to save people time and cut down on long lines. You get it automatically with your Park admission ticket, so you don't have to do anything except go to the attraction you want and, if it has a Fastpass option available, get a Fastpass ticket to come back at a later time and ride (or see in the case of  World of Color) it without having to wait in the long lines to do it. The attractions that have Fastpass options have little ticket dispensing booths near the entrance and all you have to do is insert your Park ticket (or Annual Pass if you're a passholder) and it will spit out a ticket for you to bring back at a later time to enjoy your attraction. Easy enough, right?

Each of the two Parks has their own set of attractions that are "Fastpass enabled". They are:

Disneyland Park:

• Space Mountain
• Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin
• Autopia
• Indiana Jones Adventure
• Splash Mountain
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Disney's California Adventure:

• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Soarin' Over California
• Grizzly River Run
• California Screamin'
• World of Color

We also have reason to believe that they will be adding a Fastpass option to the new Star Tours: The Adventure Continues and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure in the future (having taken those from Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and we're still unsure about the ones that were at Mulholland Madness previously), but we guess that only time will tell.

So, do we actually use the Fastpass system ourselves? You bet we do! Over the years it's become an integral part of our Park excursions, and it's even more important for people who don't make it to The Parks as often to use this fantastic system.

With that in mind, we present our top 5 tips for using the Fastpass system in The Parks for maximum enjoyment!

1. Begin early! It just stands to reason logically that the earlier you get into The Park, and the earlier you begin racking up Fastpasses, the more you can get throughout the day (barring an attraction running out which does happen, especially with some of the more popular attractions like Space Mountain). You're allowed to get one Fastpass every hour (from when you got your last one - your Fastpass ticket will tell you on the front when you're eligible to get another) so do it! And although we tend to fly by the seat of our pants most days, when we do go to The Park with a mind to ride something, we occasionally do know which attractions we want to get Fastpasses for, and we make sure to move down the list and get our next as quickly as we possibly can so we get everything in before the end of the day. Starting early will help you do that.
2. Double the pleasure! Using the Fastpass system to your advantage you can almost get two rides for the price of one. Many times we'll get a Fastpass, sacrifice ourselves to the lines, and by the time we're done with the first ride, our Fastpasses are up and we can get right back on for a second go-around. It's a really great way to do rides like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain or the Tower of Terror if you've a mind to. And sometimes we've even been able to triple our pleasure! If you have members of your party who aren't riders, if they're willing, you can even borrow their tickets or passes to get extra Fastpasses and do it again! We don't do this one often but we have been known to from time to time.
3. Know what to use your Fastpasses for! In our experience, some of the attractions that have Fastpass options aren't necessarily the best ones to be using it on. The lines are usually pretty negligible and are fast moving so we don't like to use them there. Our suggestions would be Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland Park, and Tower of Terror, Soarin' Over California and Grizzly River Run at Disney's California Adventure. These are the ones that typically have the longest lines during the busiest seasons which can run anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 
4. You can go past your time on your Fastpass ticket to ride. Each Fastpass ticket has a return time on it ("Return Anytime Between 9:30 and 10:30AM for example). For the longest time we thought it was a rule that must strictly be adhered to, but that's not the case. You can go ride anytime after that. We'll never forget when our friends found out that we didn't know this. Their laughter and mockery are still ringing in our ears. We still try to get back to the attraction as quickly as we can, but it's nice to know that if we miss our time for some reason (such as standing in another line) that we can still use our Fastpasses anytime we want.
5. And lastly, pay the kindness forward! We can't count the number of times we've been moving about The Parks, and a family or something has come up to us and offered us their unused Fastpasses. We make it a point (the passes in the picture at the top of this article notwithstanding) that if we have Fastpasses on us that are unused to do our best to give it to another group or family that might be able to use them. If you're not going to use them, do your best to pass them on and make someone else's day just a little more magical. Isn't that what it's all about?

So there you have it: our Days In The Park tips for this week all about the Park Fastpass system. We know that a lot of people already know about this stuff, but you never know when it might come in handy, or when one of our tips might be something even users might not have thought of before.

Do you have any tips of your own concerning Fastpasses? Let us know and we'll do a follow-up article soon and include them. 

Now get out there and ride it up!

Days In The ParkCast - Episode 2

Show Notes:
Originally recorded: 3/27/2011
Final editing done: 3/30/2011
Hosted by: Chad Elliott & Mark Treiger

Intro featuring music by George Thorogood and the Destroyers “Any Town USA” – (music from music.mevio.com; Music Alley)
Park construction and attraction updates
- The new Disney California Adventure entrance
- Sunshine Plaza and the Carthay Circle Theater
- Disney Junior
- Disney Animation Building
- Ursula comes home to The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
- Goofy’s Sky School has an opening date!
- The reopening of Critter Country
- The reopening and a new menu at the Hungry Bear Restaurant
Steakhouse 55!
Hidden Mickey segment
Soarin’ Over California
Outro featuring music by Bowling For Soup “Friends Chicks Guitars” – (music from music.mevio.com; Music Alley

Listen Now:

Six Years Old And Preparing To Soar

The following post is something I wrote for another blog back in May of this year, on my middle son's 6th birthday.  His greatest wish was to spend the evening at Disneyland with his daddy, so I took him out (renewed our Annual Passports while we were there) and got him his Birthday button.  He was so proud of that thing!  

While we continue to work on HalloweenTime posts, I thought it might be a good opportunity to migrate it here.

It has been modified slightly from its original form. - Chad   

For the last couple of weeks, when I've had the privilege of walking my children to school in the morning, I've also had the privilege of standing idly by while Michael and Nicholas, curious as they are, walked over to my son's little kindergarten playground to see the bird's nest.  Apparently, a rather "fat" pigeon was perched in said nest protecting her eggs.

But yesterday was different.  When the boys walked over to look at the nest, the eggs and the "fat" pigeon weren't there any more.  I'm not really sure what happened to them, but it really made the boys quite sad.

Yesterday also happened to be my son's sixth birthday.  He'd been telling me for months that one of the things he wanted most was to be taken to Disneyland by me on his birthday; we never had before.  So, not having to ask me twice about going to Disneyland, I dropped off the other boys with their mom and drove the 40 minutes to Anaheim for his birthday celebration.

I really can't explain why we did what we did next.  Although my kids have been in Disney's California Adventure many times and have their favorites already mapped out there, our first ride of the day was something Nicholas had certainly never expressed any interest in whatsoever; Soarin' Over California.

I was more than willing to ride with him (it's one of my favorites), but I was a little bit worried about him. I knew that if he ever got on the attraction, he would love it, but in the meantime, there was plenty of line and time ahead of us for him to get himself worked up in.  Sure enough, within minutes I looked down at my little man and saw his eyes drop to the floor.  I asked him what was wrong (knowing full well what his answer would be), and with little tears trickling from his eyes, and his little lip quivering, he whispered to me "Daddy, I'm scared."  And while a part of me felt the almost overwhelming desire to take him out as fast as my legs would carry us, I instead knelt down beside him and held him close to me and told him he'd be okay, and that I'd always be there to take care of him; I told him there was nothing to be afraid of.

For the next half hour or so, we meandered through the lines while I pointed out all of the pilots and planes on the wall.  I was trying anything I could think of to keep him mellow.  The entire time, though, I was wrestling with myself. It was only a ride, after all.  Was I doing the right thing?  Was it worth frightening him?

As we neared the boarding gate, he made one last ditch effort to get out of line using the "bathroom" excuse, but again instead of caving I did my best to reassure him (thank God he didn't really have to pee!).  Before you knew it, we were listening to Mr. Patrick Warburton (love that guy!) give us our last minute pre-flight instructions, I was buckling him into his seat, and we were off.

Aside from the running monologue I kept giving him on the flight (to encourage him) it was a quiet flight.  I kept glancing over at him to see his reactions, but for the most part, I just listened to what his hand was saying to me.  It never left his daddy's the entire time.  On the parts where we glided, he relaxed.  On the parts where we flew fast, he squeezed and held me tight.  And in the end, when we left our seats and I asked him what he thought of it, my son soared!

And I couldn't help but think of the "fat" pigeon and her little eggs, and how if they had been left to their devices they would have eventually become little birds in their own right, at first scared, but then later ready to take flight.  And I can't help but think that my little boy is growing up.  He's in the pre-flight himself, and one day soon he'll be ready to soar completely on his own.  He won't need my hand to hold and squeeze anymore.

But until that day comes, Daddy will be right there to hold that hand anytime he wants, and we can soar together.

One satisfied little boy meets Mickey

---