We will be there for 4 days. Eight adults some in their 20's. Plan is

Day 1 Typhoon Lagoon followed by epcot in the evening end with Illuminations
Day 2 Hollywood Studios finish up at Pleasure Island possible comedy club show
Day 3 Start with Magic Kingdom
Day 4 Go back and hit what we missed.

How do Fast passes work? That is new since we have been there.

We are not making dinner reservations since we do not want to be limited by time.

Any things we should not miss?

BTW one of our group is 5 months pregnant.

Someone in the group is having a birthday while we are there.. Anyway to get her a cake?

Looking forward to suggestions.

Also we are staying at shades of green and already have park hopper passes for the four days. Open to suggestions.

A fast pass is a "ticket" that you can get at specific attractions that draw large crowds. It will give you a specific one hour (I think) window to come back and ride. We found that as long as you come back after your start time they will let you ride, even if it is a few hours later. Also, obtain fast passes as soon as you get to the park because the # they issue is limited. We didn't think of this and all the fast passes were gone for EVERY attraction we wanted at Hollywood Studios.

The only thing I see missing is Animal Kingdom...it was the favorite park for 4 out of 9 of us when we were there last March......

Have fun!

You will need to plan for the woman who is 5 months pregnant since she may not be able to go on some of the rides. She should check with her doctor and make sure what is OK and what not (some have very violent motions that some Obs reco she avoid (a friend of mine just had this problem = but her OB was very specific).

If it were me I would do more Epcot versus Magic Kingdon (which i think is mostly for the sub tweens).

If you don't make dinner reservations, you will end up eating at counter service places all the time you are in the parks. You can make reservations 90 days out. If you don't have reservations made by about 30 days out, you find limited/no availability at most places. Many of the popular Disney hotel restaurants also fill up quickly. You can make the reservations online at Disney's site. You can tell them about the birthday when you are making the reservation for the meal you would like to have the cake at. Disney also has some service the will make extra special arrangements for things like birthdays as well. THat is also available at their website.

Good suggestions. We are going next week so I think the dinner reservations are a no but I see the merit in it. Next time. Is it worth trying places for a walk in if we eat early or late?
Where do you get the fast passes and is there a list of which rides give them? Thanks so much.

The park maps you get when you walk in the parks show you which attractions have fast passes. There are 8 or 10 kiosks outside of the attraction that dispense the fast passes. At Epcot, the Soarin' fast passes usually run out early. At Disney studios, the Toys Story Mania fast passes are often gone in the first hour the park is open. I would think that the newly refurbished Star Tours might also go fast, but I haven't been there since they reopened that ride. You should check the dinner reservations. This is one of the quietest times of the year at Disney, and you may find something. You should try for a walk in. Disney people usually want to help you if they can.

If you use Google, you can find good, hi-res images of the park maps if you would like to look at them before you go so that you have some idea of the layout of everything.

FYI -- Disney restaurants will be busy next week because Disney's Free Dining offer begins October 1-6. The parks may not be busy, but the restaurants will be hopping. Since you are a party of eight, it will probably be difficult to walk up and be seated. If you can make a couple of advanced dining reservations, it might serve you well. I would call Disney, but you can check on-line.

I'm pretty sure that Pleasure Island is closed. That area is going to be re-worked in the future, but for now, it's dark. As another poster mentioned, I think you need more time at Epcot and I would allow a few hours for a visit to The Animal Kingdom.

Have fun!

All of the clubs at Pleasure Island are closed. There are a few restaurants there and some shops. Here is a description of what is there: http://allears.net/btp/faq_pi.htm

One last thing to know about fast passes: if you have one issued in your name, then you can NOT obtain any others until you have used up that first one. In other words, if you get a fast pass that gives you entrance for one ride at 10 am, you can not get a fast pass at another ride, even for a 4 pm entrance, until you use the original fast pass. You can GO to other attractions, you just can't get a fast pass for them.

One thing that probably won't work for your party, but I'll mention it anyway: if you're willing to ride as single passengers, you can go to the front of the line. I did this (I'll admit, I was on my own) for four days in August, and never had to wait more than fifteen minutes at ANY ride*. If there's a ride only a few of you are interested in, and/or you don't need to ride together, you can actually save a lot of time by splitting up, riding at slightly different times, and then coming back together.

* I'll mention the highlight -- not only did I get to the front of the line at the Safari Ride at Animal Kingdom, but I got an entire row to myself!! I was fully prepared to sit on one side and let three or four other people sit with me, but nobody else got onto my seating!

"One last thing to know about fast passes: if you have one issued in your name, then you can NOT obtain any others until you have used up that first one. In other words, if you get a fast pass that gives you entrance for one ride at 10 am, you can not get a fast pass at another ride, even for a 4 pm entrance, until you use the original fast pass. You can GO to other attractions, you just can't get a fast pass for them."

This is not necessarily true. It will tell you on your fast pass ticket when you can get another one.

Thank you for the info. We are getting there Oct 8 so I think we will miss the dining. Any dinner recommendations or more importantly bad stories about restaurants.

Good to know about pleasure island. We will try to get some animal kingdom time in.

Any tips on what to do and in what order to get the most of our days? Thanks for all your help..

The key thing to making the most of your time there is to get an early start. Many people aren't willing to get up early on vacation so the parks are at their least busy the first few hours that they open. If you can get there at opening, you can do a lot before the crowds start building up.

My strategy is to go to a park the day AFTER that park has had Extra Magic Hours. Crowds are lower. I agree with a previous poster who recommends getting to the parks early (at Rope Drop). The crowds build as the day goes on.

You are going to have so much fun!! I just went over Memorial Day. Fast passes are your friends. You get them at the entrance to the rides, and you will feel quite smug walking in the fast pass line. You need to figure out the popular rides so you can get the fast passes early. There are some good web sites devoted to Disney, disboards. com comes to mind. They study statistics on the best times to go the parks based on crowds, and give some valuable advice. Overwhelming.

We only had one dining reservation ahead of time, and that was The Biergarten in Germany World Showcase in Epcot. It was loads of fun, great food, and would work great for a party of 8. It would be a lively place to celebrate a birthday, they called people onstage and the oompah band played for them. We got our reservation very late, it's a very large place. It was not cheap however. We liked the counter food at the parks, we got some good salads and always bought ice cream in the afternoon so nobody starved. Most of the big draw restaurants were full and would not have room for walk ins at the peak eating times. If you want walk ins, I read that off dining hours are the best for this.

My best advice is to pace yourself. You cannot possibly see it all, so enjoy what you see. Spend some time just relaxing. Have a funnel cake loaded with cherries!! yumm. (at Magic Kingdom). And if they predict rain, believe it. We got caught in a major rainstorm that came up very quickly. We were drenched, but it was a warm rain so we were good. Hope you have every bit as much fun as we did, and we had lots!!

Is the whole trip is set in stone?
I went when I was 6 months pregnant for two days and that was plenty. You can't go on the fun rides, go down the water slides at Typhoon, or have the occasional drink at Pleasure Island. We took our then 2 yr. old kid, and it was worth it to see him having a blast. But if it were an only adult trip, I'd probably get out of it.