Thursday's Tip

Since we're prepping to leave for our next WDW vacation tomorrow (this makes trip #15 for me, if my calculations are correct; #8 f0r my husband; #6 for my oldest daughter; and #5 for my youngest daughter), I've got packing and planning on the brain. Today's tip is really more of a fact: Disney World is always changing. Which sort of leads into a tip: check and re-check. Even if you've been a dozen times. Even if you just read something on a fan site. Even if...well, just check and re-check. And it could still change tomorrow.

Here's an example: For years, I have been telling clients that FASTPASSes don't necessarily have to be used within the time window that is given on the card. You can use them any time after that time window opens. This has ALWAYS been my experience. However, I recently read on a fan site that Disney is beginning to enforce the actual time window printed on FASTPASSes. I'm still hopeful that this isn't true (we've become quite accustomed to using them at our leisure!), but I intend to ask the first Cast Member I see upon arrival at the World. And I'll probably ask at least two others just to make sure I get the same answer. Check and re-check.

Another great example: parade paths. I've seen fan sites state unequivically that a parade runs this direction or that direction. But here's something I know to be fact: parade routes change. Most of them continue to follow the same general path, but they do switch the direction periodically. So if you're staking out a spot in Frontierland, hoping to hop on Splash Mountain as soon as the parade passes, you'll want to ask a Cast Member if, indeed, the parade will be beginning at that end of the Park. And then maybe ask someone else too. Check and re-check.

But don't take my word for it...ask someone else "in the know." Check and re-check.