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Online Fastpass+ Reservations To Roll Out To All Guests Very Soon

MyMagic+ Takes the Guest Experience to a New Level with MagicBands

Annual Passholders who pre-ordered online are now receiving their MagicBands in the mail. I just received mine and you can watch my Instagram unboxing video below. All APs can now go through the My Disney Experience website to connect their admissions media with the My Disney Experience App and make Fastpass+ reservations as far as 30 days ahead. You may have any 7 days booked in that rolling 30 day window.

The latest rumor, although there’s no official word from Disney, is that beginning March 31st, just like Annual Passholders, off-site guests will be able to book their Fastpass+ 30 days ahead of time. Guests will be able to enter their ticket information via the My Disney Experience website and have access to the same booking window as APs.

Disney resort guests can book 60-days out. Which is Disney’s big incentive to get you to stay on property (although I always thought that being enveloped in the Magic was enough incentive).

As a local and an annual passholder, I never really know which park I’m going to be at until a few day ahead. If off-site guests and APs share the same booking window, it means I will have to plan at least 30 days ahead to make sure I’m not letting the 10’s of thousands of off-site guests ahead of me in line to reserve their Fastpass times. So far, with only resort guests having an earlier booking window, there have been good options to making FP just a few days out, but with everyone in the pool, it might get more difficult to secure that E-ticket FP+. Making plans 30 days ahead is definitely a change to how I do things now, but I guess I’ll get used to it or I just won’t get many FP+ for popular attractions.

Off-site guests will be able to use their RFID enabled tickets or upgrade to a MagicBand for an, as yet, unannounced price. If you plan to do this on your day of arrival, you might want to allow some extra time in the morning to configure your wristbands. A better strategy might be to head in and enjoy the park in the morning, then get your bands when the park is experiencing mid-day crowds.

Keep in mind that the system is still technically in testing (although as was pointed out to me, when everyone is forced to use it to the exclusion of the old system, it’s not really testing, it’s experimentation). So everything is subject to change.

More details on the MagicBand and Fastpass+ below the jump:

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Fastpass+ Equals Frustrated Guests?

I’ve gone on record saying I’m looking forward to the possibilities that next-gen technologies can bring to Disney parks. Among the first roll-outs of that technology has been Disney’s MyMagic+ system, the primary feature of which is Fastpass+. Fastpass+ lets you make reservations for three… Read More »Fastpass+ Equals Frustrated Guests?

Magic Kingdom Central Plaza Construction Update – March 2014

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The Central Plaza / Hub area of the Magic Kingdom is scheduled to receive a major improvement to the walk-ability and flow from a guest perspective. We covered that story previously. But here’s a basic recap: a second ring of walkways will be added to the hub, new gardens will replace part of the moat and can be used as fireworks viewing party locations, the food vending and castle show out buildings will get makeovers, and lastly (but not least) Casey’s Corner and the Ice Cream Parlor will get expanded seating areas.

Now we’re back with the first of many updates tracking the progress of this major upgrade. Disney plans to take their time and make changes in small chunks so as not to disturb too much of the park’s central plaza at once, but some stuff just can’t be avoided. We’ll try and highlight how that might affect future visits as we go along.

As a starting point, here’s a short video with a look at how the hub looks as construction gets under way:

The end result will be something new for the Magic Kingdom style parks, but I think it will work. See our gallery of additional images below the jump:
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Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Construction Update – March 2014

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As we saw in February’s 2nd update, the walls are down around a small section of Snow White Mountain at the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It will be the last area to open as part of Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland expansion. Since February a lot more landscaping work has been done, to the point where it is practically a forest in some parts. But in other areas there is still a ways to go on just covering the dirt. As we saw in the ride-through POV video, there is also a lot of finished touches on buildings and interior sets.

We still have no word on an official opening date, but some say soft opens could come as soon as late April or early May. We do know that the media event will be the last few days of April. Cast member previews usually start either shortly before media events or shortly after them and then once cast members are done, annual passholders get a chance, and finally soft openings. But sometimes that’s all thrown out the window too. So don’t make any plans until it is official or if you do make plans, have a backup ready in case it isn’t ready. Those coming in June should most likely be able to ride, but nothing is certain. This is a completely unique ride system that Disney had built. Nothing like it exists.

As usual, we have both video and photos from all around Snow White Mountain.

Photos are below the jump:
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Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade Graces the Magic Kingdom

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From the moment the first notes played out over the parade route, audiences were in love with the new Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade at the Magic Kingdom. At the very end of the route crowds broke out into spontaneous and sustained applause for both the creators and performers of this fantastic parade. I think they have a real hit on their hands.

Yes. The parade does involve a few ‘recycled’ elements. But that is a long honored tradition among Disney theme parks, something that dates back to the ‘never throw it away’ mentality of Hollywood studios where much of the original creative team for Disneyland were poached. Also, like most of Disney’s recent parades, you could ask for maybe another unit or two of floats. But at nine units and 100 dancers and performers, the parade feels as large as the Magic Kingdom. It really takes multiple viewings to take in everything. So it’s a shame that it only performs once per day.

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I hope you will be able to make it to the Magic Kingdom to see it in person yourself. But if that’s not on the agenda, here’s my full video of the parade from its second day.

I also had the opportunity to interview a few of the creative team responsible for Disney Festival of Fantasy. Among the things I learned, two of the floats have special tributes to previous Magic Kingdom parades, each of the floats has a hidden mickey on it, even some of the costumes feature hidden mickeys. Two of the floats were imported from Japan. Tokyo Disneyland’s Jubilation parade donated the Princess Garden unit and the Finale unit.

Below the break, I have more photos, a description of each parade unit, and that interview with the creative team.

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