Posted on Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Eric Turner's wife doesn't like queues or crowds, which made Walt Disney World Florida a difficult sell. Eric placated her by hatching a cunning plan to cut the queueing. But did it work?

The Magic Kingdom, Jiminy Cricket's Wishes Fireworks, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin: The list of rides and attractions at Walt Disney World is almost overwhelming.

"Disney needs to stop introducing so many characters – there'll be no room for any new ones." I said this to my wife as we queued up to enter the park and check into our resort with our excited young son.

She said, "They need to stop introducing so many visitors – this place is heaving."

It was my wife's first time in any Disney theme park, and she wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about the visit as my son and I were. She thought it will be one long queueing session, that we would be waiting for hours to get on rides and to buy food.

The Magical Express train direct from Orlando International Airport had already been a little packed. We had to stand for most of the way.

"Queues are a small price to pay for entering one of the best theme parks in the world," I said, grinning.

With her concerns in mind, however, I had been looking for ways to minimise the time we got stuck in queues. I'm not a big fan of queues myself, but my other half loathes them.

In order to exonerate myself after persuading her that Lanzarote was a poor second to Orlando, I needed to make sure she had a good time.

The delight with which my son skipped ahead of us once we enter the park was, I told myself, one brownie point earned; there's no way he'd enjoy Lanzarote as much. It was my son's first time at a Disney park too, although he'd studied the park map in such detail he seemed to have been before. He eagerly pointed out the tessellated orb of the Epcot in the distance, then shrieked when he spotted the Magic Kingdom's famous pink castle in the hot Floridian haze.

Walt Disney World (KingsmanPhotography/Bigstock.com)

We checked into the Pop Century resort. It's classified by Disney as a Value resort (below Deluxe and Moderate) but the place is very clean, tidy and well-maintained. Despite my wife's protests, we were back out in the park in under fifteen minutes. The unpacking could wait!

Magic Bands

At the heart of my anti-queue strategy were Magic Bands. These personalised bracelets do pretty much everything: you can open your hotel door, buy souvenirs, reserve restaurants and use Fastpass+.

Of all these, Fastpass+ is by far the most effective time-saver. It lets you choose to enter queues at certain points, meaning you effectively jump the line and cut your waiting time to perhaps just twenty minutes. You can add up to three Fastpass+ selections each day and you can even edit the times using a smartphone app.

Walt Disney World (iStock.com/Michael Warren)

I thought we might lose some of the spontaneity by organising our day around the Fastpass+, but it actually gave us some structure and made us think about the most efficient way to get around the park.

Excited as we were to start our day, our tummies led us to World Showcase, where we couldn't help but check out United Kingdom and sit down at "Yorkshire County Fish Shop", which, despite the slightly odd name, turned out some pretty tasty fish and chips.

We paid for our food with the Magic Bands, which I had linked to our credit card for quick payment.

I could see my wife was impressed.

The ride-taking began. We used Fastpass+ to 'jump' the queues for Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, both of which were utterly terrifying. However, despite using Fastpass+ these two rides took us three hours, by which time my wife was getting rather tired of the thronging crowds.

She also said that the fish and chips was threatening to make an unscheduled reappearance if she didn't sit down.

And so we found a quietish cafe for a rest. My son was, like so many other kids, overwhelmed by the degree of cartoonish wonder around him. He could barely sit still he was so excited. Mickey, Donald and Pluto were everywhere. They were reproducing.

Walt Disney World (KingsmanPhotography/Bigstock.com)

He was extremely eager to try the Humunga Kowabunga, but I could see from my wife's expression that it was not the time for Humunga Kowabunga. It was time for siesta.

I explained to my son that Humunga Kowabunga would have to wait.

My wife smiled thankfully at me. She really needed to rest.

"We can go later," I told my son.

"But it's going to close soon," he said.

"Not to worry," I said. A look of concern passed over my wife's face.

"We have Extra Magic Hours," I exclaimed, waving my Magic Band in the air. "That means we can go on rides when the people who aren't staying in the park have gone home! No queueing! How cool is that?"

My son's enthusiasm was not matched by that of my wife, whose smile evaporated at the thought of the Humunga Kowabunga, whatever it was.

I could see I had some persuading to do over the next three days.

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