Thought I’d type up a rundown of what we did - mostly because I find it enjoyable to go over the play-by-play, but also maybe it will be helpful to someone else.
Nuts and Bolts:
Who - 2 Adults
Park - Magic Kingdom, early entry at 8:30, close at 11:00 (spring break hours and Tron opening)
Purchased Genie +
Purchased ILL for Tron
Stayed on Property at All Star Movies
At Movies, we picked up mobile order breakfast at 6:30. We were second in line for the Magic Kingdom bus. So, we did all the 7AM activity from our spot in line. The bus arrived around 7:15 or so.
7AM Strategy (and mistake):
My travel partner is less tech savvy. So, I put her on BG1 for our virtual queue for Tron. I was too take care of the ILL for Tron. Then quickly switch to BG1 to pull PPF. Despite a solid pull down, the VQ opened on MDE, but I had to pull down and refresh two more times to get the ILL to come up. It finally activated, but I was slow to switch to BG1 to book our first LL. Also, despite checking multiple times, deleting my old credit card from my account, and using my saved new credit card to mobile order that morning my old credit still showed up when purchasing ILL. It was fine because I had the time I wanted, but have your cc ready in case you need it, and definitely don’t put the ILL person in charge of anything other than just that.
We ended up with a 9:55 ILL for Tron, BG5 virtual queue, and a LL between 12 and 1 for PPF (I was not pleased).
We boarded the bus and I spent most of the bus ride refreshing. I was able to squeeze us up to a space mountain option between 11 and 12, but was still not pleased (really wanted to be booking my next one before the two hours wait. I kept at it while waiting at taps and while waiting a rope drop, but nothing really budged.
We roped dropped 7D successfully - word of warning, that rope drop has gotten a bit nasty.
We got the heck out of fantasy land and headed to Buzz.
I realized we might be able to make it back to Liberty Square to rope drop BTMRR with official park opening. We made it and walked on that as well.
By 9, we had ridden three solid rides. Our Tron BG had been called so we headed back. We waited about 30 minutes around 9:30.
Next came my first smooth liner move of the day. While walking back through FL, we noticed that PPF was down. I started paying close attention to BG1 and, as suspected, inexperienced people began dropping passes. I snagged one for around 10 figuring it would either open up and we could use it, or it would stay closed and it would convert. Either way, I would definitely get to pull another pass before the 2 hours after opening hit.
With PPF in my pocket, by the time we got off Tron, it had converted and I could book another one. I was able to pull Space Mountain with lots of refreshing. We had a little time to kill. So, we watched Carousel of Progress and grabbed a sweet cream cheese pretzel at the Launching Pad.
I was able to pull IASW next. So, we headed up to FL to use it.
I still had the PPF pass on deck, but the ride was still down. We decided to head over to Adventureland to check out to visit the Tiki Birds and noticed that POTC was also down (explained the mess over at HM). I snagged a pass for POTC (again people were dropping them) and sure enough it clicked over while we were watching the birds.
We watched the 12:00 parade from Frontierland (great tip to watch there - thanks whoever shared it with me), played some pirates adventure, had the best interaction with Jack Sparrow (he snuck up behind us when we had a treasure map!), and then walked over to see if Mansion had cleared up some. It finally had. So, we hopped in to use the POTC pass.
Immediately after Mansion, we went back up the hill and happened on PPF shortly after it reopened. We swiped our band and hopped on our pirate ship.
At that point, we were headed out of the park for a break and to eat some non-junk food. I decided to book us a late Jungle Cruise. So had that on the account.
Before leaving, we stopped in to watch the presidents. We also popped in to see Mickey.
We took our boat to WL and enjoyed Geyser Point. Then headed back to the park, still with our JC LL on deck for after fireworks, along with our Tron ILL.
We decided to hop on People Mover, which is when I noticed that our account was still showing a multiple experience pass . . . hmmmmm . . . we decided to try it out on POTC. Mansion had been a crowded mess; so, maybe they hadn’t really taken the pass. It worked.
It was still there after POTC… so we used it on Little Mermaid. That’s when it finally dropped off.
We stopped at Gaston’s to get some LeFou Brew, a cinnamon roll, and a gray stuff cupcake. Then we walked through the castle to stake out a spot for fireworks (about 2 hours early - it was only day 2 for HEA).
While waiting for fireworks, we hit our two hour mark. So I was able to book us on a post firework BTMRR - we had been in the front car and it was a slow ride in the morning. After fireworks, we took off to use it and sat in the caboose.
We hoofed it to Tron for our night ride (so cool and worth it!) and then headed back over to end the night on JC. I had never done it at night. So that was fun.
Quick Ride Recap
7D (rope drop)
Buzz (early entry
BTMRR (rope drop #2)
Tron (virtual queue, BG5)
COP (standby)
SM (LL)
IASW (LL)
Tiki Birds (standby)
Pirates Adventure & Jack Sparrow
Parade (found a spot in FL about 15 minutes before it started)
HM (multiple experience pass)
PPF (LL)
Presidents (standby)
Mickey (standby)
People Mover (standby)
POTC (multiple experience pass that didn’t drop)
Little Mermaid (multiple experience pass that didn’t drop)
HEA (spot on Main Street near the garden in front of Casey’s - staked out 2 hours prior)
BTMRR (LL)
Tron (ILL)
JC (LL)