104. Walt Disney World and Epic Universe Updates for the Luxury Traveler

Is Walt Disney World’s new Lightning Lane Premium Pass is really worth the splurge? I bought it on my recent trip to find out for you, and I break it all down in today's episode. Disney is also running some great deals this summer because of a certain new park with a lot of buzz (*cough* Epic Universe *cough*). During my visit to Orlando, I chatted with an employee at this new park and received some new inside scoop!

Mentioned in this episode:
Episode #98: Epic Universe: Exciting Insider Details on the New Immersive Theme Park in Orlando!

Connect with Michele on IG: @jetsettingwithmichele or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/MMTinsiders

Contact Michele to plan your next vacation: www.makinmemoriestravel.co/contact

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com. 

Transcript

Hello, jetsetters, and welcome back to another episode of Jetsetting with me. Very excited for today's episode. I just spent three days in Orlando, and I tested out one of the new, well, two of the lightning lane ways to go with Disney, and I even learned some epic universe updates. So I am here to spill the tea. So I took screenshots of everything I did and the times that I was doing them so I could be sure to give out the most accurate information. So since the last time I was at Disney, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, it was actually almost a year ago because three planned trips between last June and April got canceled for some medical at one reason or another. So it's been almost a year, but yeah. So it was good to get back into the happy bubble.

It was wonderful. I had a great three days there. And on day one, I tested out the brand new Lightning Lane premium pass. Now full disclosure, I really wasn't planning on doing that on Sunday. I really wanted to do it on later in my stay on Tuesday, actually. But as someone who stays off-site and not at Walt Disney World property at a resort there or Swan Dolphin, Swan Reserve, 4 Seasons, and the military, Shades Of Green, I can only buy lightning lanes and make reservations for lightning lanes three days in advance. Somebody who is staying on-site and at those resorts that I just spoke about can buy their lightning lane and make reservations for their entire stay starting at seven days out. Big, huge bonus for staying on-site.

And I'm so glad to see it because after COVID, Disney didn't really have as many parks for staying on-site other than the extra half hour in the morning and some later nights, but this is huge. So I ended up having to do it on Sunday because there was a premium pass available, and I wanted to test out this premium pass. So I have to say, first of all, it is what I have been begging Disney to do in my mind and probably on this podcast, like, for years, because this is as close to the epic to all of the Universal Orlando Express Pass experiences that you can get. It is expensive, not gonna lie, and it's surge pricing, and the Magic Kingdom is always the expensive most expensive. So I did pay $458 for it. One drawback between the premium pass and, like, a VIP tour is you cannot park hop. So I usually tell my clients that one day in each park is good anyway because it does take time to get from one park to another. It can be confusing.

If you have strollers, it's really a nightmare because you have to pack it up and then unpack it and, you know, the whole deal. So I was like, okay. I'm gonna do the premium pass. I'm gonna spend one full day at the Magic Kingdom, and I'm gonna see how much I can get done. And I will tell you and keep in mind, as I say this, that when you decide to buy a VIP tour, like, Disney pays me a commission on that. When you do this lightning lane premium pass or any of the lightning lane passes, I got nada. So for me to tell you this means I'm really being very truthful and open and completely transparent with you. This Lightning Lane premium pass is a game changer.

It is fabulous. I cannot see ever going to the Magic Kingdom again without it. And although I didn't try it at Hollywood Studios, I would say probably that park might need it as well. It was phenomenal. So I did get the premium pass, and I really, really wanted to be able to stay through fireworks because happily ever after is back and haven't seen it since it got back. So I decided to go just from two to nine. I will tell you now that I didn't make it all the way to fireworks, but I did everything I wanted to do. So I got to the parking lot literally at almost 02:00, one fifty seven PM.

And a lot of people don't know this, but when you get to the Ticket And Transportation Center, and then you go you take the tram from wherever you park to the front of the Ticket And Transportation Center, TTC for short, Then there's security, and you go to go through security, and then straight ahead is the monorail. And hidden off to your left is the boat, the ferry boat. I always take the boat. It's just quicker. It's faster. It loads many, many more people at a quick time, and it gets you right there, center, ready to go. So I took the boat. By the time I've done this, it's basically a half hour.

So I got to the park at 02:28PM. I mobile ordered some French fries and a drink from Casey's Corner while I was on the boat. So I get into the park, and I walk all the way down Main Street. I ignore all the Magic Pass photos. I went back and did those a different day, and I walked straight through all the shops in the AC to get to Casey's Corner, picked up my fries and a drink, and then went and stood in line. Can't mobile order, which is frustrating, to get my pizza rolls. Not my the pizza. I like the cheeseburger at Grills.

But they do have pizza, and that's popular too. And then I walked straight to Adventureland and found the best spot. Mind you, it's almost 03:00. Great. And I still had a great spot in Adventureland to watch the 03:00 parade. I have my snack. I have my soda. I was good to go.

So now the parade actually starts in that part of the park. So by the time it runs and gets all the way to Main Street, it's closer to 03:30. Mind you, as soon as it ended, I went to Tiana's Bayou at 03:20. The standby line was fifty five minutes. I got on the ride at 03:33PM, and I was off and getting my magic shot at the exit by 03:49. I mean, people were still waiting in line. I could have ridden it again, except that is one drawback of the lightning lanes, and we'll talk about that in a minute. So next, the only show I went to, because I was really trying to do eticket attractions, The only show that I went to was the brand new Country Bear Jamboree.

I did that at the 04:00 show. And I wanna just take a minute to stop and say one of the reasons that I loved this Lightning Lane premium pass is I got to be present. I was not looking in my phone trying to figure out what attraction I could reserve and get for my next ride. I wasn't trying to stack Lightning Lanes, which is another whole subject. I wasn't trying to, you know, mobile order anything because I already had it. I was able to be present, and I saw things in Tianna's Bayou that I hadn't seen before, and it was so well done. I can't believe how well done this ride is and that I hadn't really even noticed the details last time. I was just too excited to get on it last time, and I was busy taking pictures.

And this time, I was just really present because I didn't have any stress about what I was gonna do after. I knew I wanted to go see the new Country Bear Jamboree show, which I also loved. They've taken out the music, and they've put in, like, true Disney songs, and they're sung by the adorable audio animatronics. It was really, really good. And I walked out, and there was Big Al in IRL from the Country Bear Jamboree. So I waited in line for a few minutes to get my photo with him, and then I went directly to Haunted Mansion, and I saved myself thirty minutes in line. I was on the, attraction by 04:32PM. And from there, I went into Fantasyland.

By 05:10, I was boarding It's a Small World. By 05:28, I was on Peter Pan. Now let me tell you what a huge achievement that was for me to get on Peter Pan in less than forty five minutes. I couldn't believe it. And Peter Pan is normally a ride that I just would not go on because the line is always so long, and I'm not gonna waste time on a VIP tour or a lightning lane because, again, you wanna do all the really the newer, attractions or, you know, favorites. But Peter Pan is considered an eticket attraction. It just is slow because the ride vehicles do not take that many people. It doesn't eat it's not a a feeder ride like some of them are, and it's also due for a big old update.

They really need to give Native Americans a little bit more credit on that ride. I feel like it is still very stereotypical towards Indians, and I don't know that I really ever need to ride it again. But it was really cool to get on it for the first time in years. By May, I was on the little mermaid, which I had only ever ridden in Disneyland. I'd never even attempted to ride it here because it's, like, out of the way. It takes you away from more important slash eticket attractions, but it was so quick and easy. I just walked right on with my Lightning Lane premier pass. And I don't know.

Let me take a brief intermission to tell you, I think I didn't define what a Lightning Lane premium pass is. I just said it's most like the express pass at Universal. Well, the premium pass, you can buy it, as I said, either seven or three days in advance, and you don't need to make any reservations for any attractions. You basically can go on any of the attractions in any order that you want at the park that you have purchased this past four. As I said, I only purchased it for Magic Kingdom, and I would definitely feel like purchasing it for Magic Kingdom again. And as I said, Hollywood Studios, no way would I ever do it for Epcot or Animal Kingdom, and I'll get into more of that in a minute. It is comparable in cost. It's less than a VIP tour.

It's probably about half for a family of four. A VIP tour can run around $6,000 for seven to ten hours. This you know, I paid $4.28. And I realize I'm not paying for a family of four, so there's a huge difference. But if you're paying $10,000 on a vacation to Walt Disney World, you do not want to spend more than an hour at a line in time. So, again, I'm just gonna take a minute at this break after the little mermaid because this really was when I decided it was time to get photos with my main squeeze, Dee Duck, who is back in Fantasyland, close to Little Mermaid attraction in a silly sideshow whatever. Obviously, I'd never been back there. It's near Dumbo.

That's where you can get pictures with Daisy, Donald, Goofy, and Minnie in their, like, circus attire. Mickey is still up at the front at Tony's Town Square Theater. Okay. So a VIP experience is like nothing you've ever experienced. It's not just about the, quote, unquote, lightning lane getting you on or getting you off. It's about the stories. It's about the snacks. It's about, oh my god, where you get to view the parade from and the fireworks.

It's about having someone who is listening very, very closely to what you want to get out of your day and making it happen. And you can park hop. So if you ever wanna try and do, like, every eticket attraction across all four parks, the only way to really get that done is with a VIP tour, I think, or spending a lot of money on lightning lane passes. But if you're by yourself or you a VIP tour is just not in the budget, this is a really, really great way to actually get to experience the magic of the Magic Kingdom. I just I can't say enough about how much fun it was getting to walk on attractions and not being in my phone, which should also save phone battery. I didn't have to use my mobile charger, just a huge thing. Okay. So here we were at 05:42.

I was getting photos with my main squeeze, Dedek. And by 06:04, I was in line for the seven dwarves mind train, which I took a photo of it, had a standby wait of fifty five minutes. And at 06:08, I kid you not, four minutes later, I was boarding the attraction. And so by 06:16, I was off of the attraction and on my way to go ride Winnie the Pooh. I mean, seven tours to my train. Fifty five minutes. I got on in four, and by 06:16, I was already on my way to go ride something else. Now you'll notice that I didn't get on Tron until 06:44.

That is because I did stop for a soda. I drank on my way to Tron. I stopped to post something to my Instagram stories. The breeze was nice, so I just kinda sat for a minute. Six forty four, I was boarding Tron. It had an eighty eight minute standby line. And by 07:03, I was off and having trouble with my locker at the exit at the end of the ride. Yes.

I broke my locker. It's quite embarrassing. The cast member had to literally go around to the entrance side of the lockers and open it for me because something had gotten stuck. It was great. And then I left my sunglasses in there. It was just good times. Now by this time, I decided it was time to go back to Frontierland and Adventureland. So I did cross through Tomorrowland Terrace, took my little shortcut over the hub, and I picked up pirates in the jungle cruise.

I was out of the park by eight. So I went in, as we remember, at two. I left by eight. I did every eticket attraction there was to do. I am pretty sure I did all of them except Space Mountain, which I don't like about ride. I'm sorry. Don't hate on me. I know it's very popular with most people.

And I was done by eight. Yes. I could have stayed. I could have done the fireworks, but, honestly, the heat still takes it out. You have to stay really hydrated, and I was hungry. And I was like, none of the food, the fast food at the Magic Kingdom was appealing to me at that moment. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go. Now, the next day, I did Epcot, and I did it differently.

I bought the individual lightning lane for Guardians. So individual lightning lanes are experiences that you can buy either three days in advance or seven days in advance, the same as you can a premium pass or other lightning lane experiences for certain eticket attractions. These same eticket attractions are not included in a multi pass lightning lane. So we've got three, individual lightning lane, multi pass lightning lane, and lightning lane premium. So I bought the individual lightning lane for guardians and the time because, again, I can only do it three days out. The only time that they had or the earliest time was, like, 07:00. So at that point, I went ahead and bought the multi pass because I wanted to see if I really needed it, and I picked frozen as my first attraction for that. And then you have to pick two more, and I really didn't care.

So I just went ahead into the imagination. But the minute I scanned into imagination, then I could pick a second multi pass, and I was able to get Soarin'. So Sorin's right next door to Imagination. So that worked out really well. But, truly, the standby line for Sorin was only twenty minutes, so I didn't need to have the multi pass lightning lane for that. And frozen was it would have been a sixty minute wait, but that would have been the only attraction with a more than twenty minute wait time. Other than Remy, Remy is an individual lightning lane. So I bought the individual lightning lane for Guardians, which is no longer a standby queue.

There are no more standby queues anywhere at Walt Disney World now. And I bought the multi pass for Frozen and Soarin'. So, truly, I could have just done with the individual lightning lane for Guardians. And, yes, the wait for Frozen would have been sixty minutes, but that would have been the only attraction with more than a twenty minute wait time, and it would have been fine to wait. So, again, I went into the park later because I didn't feel like staying from 9AM till, you know, after seven. But, really, my date at Epcot was not a route riding all the eticket attractions. It was about writing my favorite rides, which is Guardian, Soarin', and Frozen. Remy makes me nauseous, so it's not a priority for me to do that.

Tasting the food from the flower and garden festivals and seeing the beautiful topiaries. So and I had a wonderful day. I wasn't rushing. I knew I was gonna get on Guardians, my favorite attraction at all of Walt Disney World. It's just amazing. I knew I was gonna get to see Frozen. And if I wasn't able to select Soren on my multipass after scanning in for my first attraction. I know I'm speaking a foreign language, and this can be really, really confusing.

The good news is that if you are a client of mine and you book your Walt Disney World vacation with me, you get VIP access to the Wish Upon a Planner's Lightning Lane master class and the complete parks strategy playbook. So you get all that and all these words and this foreign lingo that I am saying. You can read about and you can plot out a great strategy. I am just sharing mine with you and to say that I really did enjoy the Lightning Lane premium pass, and it was worth the expense to me. Again, I wanna say, Disney considers a successful day in the park. If you can do between seven and ten attractions in a day, they consider that you've had a good day. And they say that from park opening to park closing, giving you time to order and sit down and have a meal at some point during that, and then do photo ops and, you know, get your snacks and all of that. Park opens and park close.

Fireworks is considered an attraction. Every ride is considered an attraction. Every show is considered an attraction. So a current one day ticket at the Magic Kingdom is over a hundred dollars. If you divide that by seven rides, 10 rides even, you're paying a lot per attraction. You are paying a significant amount per hour that you are in the park. So anything that you can do to save and make that hour per park lower is something I would recommend. And because this premium pass did allow me to go on so many attractions in such a short period of time.

My cost per attraction was higher because of the cost of that pass, but I got to do more in that amount of time. So it's a cost benefit analysis that you have to make for yourself. Are you going you know, if you're spending that much on a Disney vacation, how much is an extra $1,200 for a family of four, if it means you're gonna get to do everything in that one day? Or do you have time to go longer, and then you don't need it because you can spend two days in the Magic Kingdom or in the park? Magic Kingdom is always gonna be the most crowded, and that's why I used it for my experience experiment and also why I talk about it. Given I've done VIP tours twice, I've used this premium pass. Given the option, obviously, I would always wanna do a VIP tour, but absence of that being affordable or available, this is a great option. Okay. So I did get some epic updates. So this was fun.

I was in line with someone in Guardians of the Galaxy. They two were in the lightning lane line, and he works at Epic. He works in tech at Epic Universe. So I got some serious scoop. He said it is magical. It is the best theme park. And by the way, all the reviews of press and team members and influencers and other travel advisers who have gotten to go, I'll say it is the best theme park in Orlando now. It's that good.

So when I first spoke about Epic Universe, it was episode 98. And at that time, there were no single day park tickets available. There were no VIP or express lane offerings. That has changed as we all suspected that it would. I didn't expect it to happen this soon. I thought the park would open. It is due to open. It's still five weeks out, May 22, and I'm recording this on April 11.

So now you can purchase theme park upgrades like Universal Express. That's the express pass that lets you skip lines. Universal has a VIP shared tour, so you don't have to build out an entire tour with just your family of four people. It saves a huge amount of money over the way Disney does it. It is a great experience. It includes a meal, a breakfast, and a lunch. And after your VIP experience, you get their universal express unlimited pass. So you can go back into any attraction that you want that wasn't included on the tour, or you can ride something again.

It's a truly awesome experience. You can also buy universal photos package is now included with Epic. New ticket options, including a one day Epic Universe ticket, two day tickets that include a day at Epic and a separate day at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. So you could do a two day ticket that includes one day at Epic and then a separate day where you can go park to park. That's new. Okay. So as I said, I stood in line with someone who works there in technology. He had not yet gotten to ride the Ministry of Magic, but he had been through the queue.

He said, and I quote, it's the best queue I've ever seen. It is there's too much to see. You have to go through the queue more than once. It's amazing. His favorite thing about the entire park was the food. He'd been on every ride except the Ministry of Magic. He said the food is his favorite thing, and, of course, the celestial racers. He said that when he rides with friends, they separate, and they each go in two different racing two different cars.

They're racing coasters. And then they literally can wave to each other from upside down on that attraction. Now, he had not yet ridden Ministry of Magic, but his boss had. His boss had told him it was the best ride he'd ever been on. I had found out a little bit more because, as you know, when we last spoke, I was, like, really nervous if it was gonna be a free fall ride, and it does have the pictures of the ride vehicles are like tower Of Terror. But in this case, they are supposed to be like elevators at the ministry of magic, and they are what is known in the theme park lingo as omnidirectional elevators. So I finally found attractions magazine has ridden it and got to write, and a lot of people have ridden it now, but they're not giving spoilers out. So as you ride along, not only are the movements fun and thrilling, but not nauseating, but what you're seeing is a technological spectacle.

You're completely immersed in the ride. Besides being able to see the mechanics of some of the other elevators next to you at the very beginning of the ride, there's nothing that you can see that will take you out of the experience. There are screens, but they're so well incorporated that you sometimes can't tell the screens. You'll also see lots of awesome looking animatronics. This is our first time to see Juan, Harry, and Hermione as animatronics in the other two attractions, about them. They are screens. And along the way, some of these animatronics, you may even mistake for human actors. That's from Attractions Magazine.

So I've heard that it does have falls that are a little fast, but they're along the lines of the fall at the attraction at Galaxy's Edge. So quick falls sort of also like Hagrid's motorbike. So nothing free fall feeling, but it does move an omnidirectional, so in all directions. So similar to how guardians can spin you around, this elevator can turn, but it just says it's very smooth, and it's technologically worth your time. So my big takeaways are it is going to be an epic summer, meaning epic universe is has changed the theme park game, and Disney needs to catch up. It's trying. It is trying. But that means there are lots of Walt Disney World specials.

I'm going to outline them in my enewsletter this week. Disney is on sale. They're having an epic summer sale. So if you're not on my email list, check the show notes for how you can do that and hear all about these fabulous specials. And my other takeaway is it's still hot as Hades down there, and that was early April. So make sure to stay hydrated, wear sunscreen, bring a hat, whatever it takes because it's hot. And until next time, everyone, happy travels. Yay.