Words of wisdom from Epcot MM?

[torontominnie]

I wondered whether anyone wanted to share some wisdom from the first Epcot MM? I loved seeing the printed schedule and would be grateful for any other information people might be willing to share. Many thanks!

 

[NicoleLarson]

My best advice, use your snack credits early. Do not wait until the end of the night, the lines get very long and choices become very limited. Also bring a water bottle.

 

[DaisyNY]

Following along…I’m interested too!

 

[lexybear]

If you want the brownie from smokehouse get it early. We got in line at 8:40 by the time we got to register they were sold out

 

[kittylady1972]

We attended 25-January, our first DVC MM at EPCOT but we've done others. I'm still not sure we'll ever get it "RIGHT" but here is what we did, right or wrong.

You could enter as early as 700pm, but parks closed to regular guests at 9pm and of course some could still get in lines at 9pm for rides.

Maybe don't enter too early or you may not last until the evening when the lines really drop. However it is nice to have more park time if that's your only park day.

We entered the park around 8pm.






Our first mistake was we had a Virtual Queue booked that day for Guardians that we could ride between 7:30pm and 8:30pm I think? Since DH and I had regular tickets, and our DS 19 was coming with us and had NO ticket, I gave him my MagicBand and sent the 2 of them on the ride. They entered around 8pm and weren't out until about 8:45pm. Lots of lost time there. STRIKE 1 for us.

We headed from there to Mission Space Orange: Walk On
Checked out Test Track, was showing a wait though I doubt it was accurate (can't recall) but we bypassed it and headed to Spaceship Earth...which was down.

Strike 2 for us....didn't wasted time walking there and back.

We then decided to hit Finding Nemo (walked on via the Lightning Lane) followed by Imagination. It was now approaching 10pm so they were selling "special" merchandise in the Imagination store...it was a few DVC items, not worth the time.

We grabbed some drinks at a nearby cart with our vouchers.

Now that it was 10pm, it was free ice cream time! So we headed into the Land pavillion, grabbed our free ice cream, and rode Soarin'...maybe 20 minutes from entry to exit for that.

I believe we headed to Frozen next, and saw Mushu meeting and taking photos in China and a SUPER long line for the Kringla bakery! BTW if you want anything from the booths, get that food well before 10pm. We waited maybe 20 minutes end to end for Frozen (on ride and then off ride). Then off to Test Track.

At Test Track we pretty much walked right in to make a car, but you had the option to bypass car making and just ride the ride. You could also take whatever time you wanted making the car, and if you were done early you just opened the doors and went into the area to line up for the ride. This went quickly.

It was now 11:45pm, so we headed to Guardians. This was end to end also about 25 minutes. We could have gone once more and maybe even twice getting in line last minute. We wanted snacks now, but the two carts nearby with food had some long lines. Now they went pretty quickly, but my peeps were done and didn't want to wait.

Strike 3...don't wait until the end for snack if possible.


I got in line and used my many snack tickets for 3 waters, a popcorn and a Mickey pretzel (they were out of cheese). Then I left the park. Mickey was doing photos right at the new Walt statue, but though it was before 1am they were closing his line so no photo...very sad.

So if food is priority...definitely get that first. We had a big dinner at Sebastian's Bistro before 7pm so we weren't hungry for a while and could focus on rides. We did not make it to Remy, so not sure of good timing for that one either.

 

[DisTravels]

My best advice, use your snack credits early. Do not wait until the end of the night, the lines get very long and choices become very limited. Also bring a water bottle.

Agree, use snack vouchers early and when you find something you like, get another!!

 

[torontominnie]

Thank you! It’s always a challenge for us to make good choices with the food vouchers. Between the kids there is always someone who thinks they have a better plan…. I’m hoping to focus mainly on the rides this time around

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

If you don’t eat before you go, you will be starving by the end of night. Restaurants close early and the snacks are meager.

 

[lexybear]

I remember when they used to give actual meal credits. Seeing sides being given such as beans and coleslaw is kinda a downer after going to many of the older events

 

[NicoleLarson]

I remember when they used to give actual meal credits. Seeing sides being given such as beans and coleslaw is kinda a downer after going to many of the older events

Well they say those things because that's what they want you to get with your credits. You could also get the 8.75 beef wellington and $8 mussels from cuisine classics booth, and the 9.75 rissoto from the gourmet landscapes booth as your snack credits. Epcot is a great place for the snack credits. AK is okay, mix of some good sweet and savory. HS is pretty limited with savory options, tons of good sweet ones like the $9 funnel cake sundae. Plus lines tend to be a lot lower vs the massive lines you would see when they gave you the meal ticket. So there's definitely pros and cons to both ways

 

[kboo]

Any suggestions of "best bang for the voucher" snacks? In either flavor, volume or portability?

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Well they say those things because that's what they want you to get with your credits. You could also get the 8.75 beef wellington and $8 mussels from cuisine classics booth, and the 9.75 rissoto from the gourmet landscapes booth as your snack credits. Epcot is a great place for the snack credits. AK is okay, mix of some good sweet and savory. HS is pretty limited with savory options, tons of good sweet ones like the $9 funnel cake sundae. Plus lines tend to be a lot lower vs the massive lines you would see when they gave you the meal ticket. So there's definitely pros and cons to both ways

Actually the lines are prohibitive. We were there a few nights ago for MM and Disney has serious food operations issues. Plus those portions are are one bite.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Any suggestions of "best bang for the voucher" snacks? In either flavor, volume or portability?

Popcorn

 

[kboo]

I cross-posted with @NicoleLarson ... Between looking at that and the map, I realized that the festival food carts will be different when we are there, so there's some limit to the "planning" we can do.

Happy to see maple popcorn available, though. It's one of my faves. Second only to the caramel popcorn in Germany which looks like it'll be closed during MM. Will they accept MM vouchers before closing? If so I will load up on the caramel popcorn. My only prior MM experience was AK and we didn't get there until the park had already closed to regular visitors.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

If you don’t eat before you go, you will be starving by the end of night. Restaurants close early and the snacks are meager.

Thanks for this critical tip. I wasn’t worried about using free vouchers, figured we’d just buy food when hungry and save time…so good to know that it’s not necessarily going to be easy to find. Especially with two kids that can get hangry.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Are there any free treats such as Mickey bars or only voucher snacks are free?

 

[erionm]

Are there any free treats such as Mickey bars or only voucher snacks are free?

Yes, there will be free Mickey ice cream bars and fruit bars.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Oh another issue (and I like MM, so I am not knocking it, but it has problems)— drive if you can. They shut down the monorail and everything is bus and, well, disaster. Especially for people staying at GFV, Poly, or BLT. They send all of those people to 1 (!) bus stop, and it’s the worst operations ever. I don’t think Disney has anyone working in operations anymore. More buses came for port Orleans than the monorail resort category. DH was like, port Orleans isn’t even dvc, right? And not one person was in line for the port Orleans bus.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Oh another issue (and I like MM, so I am not knocking it, but it has problems)— drive if you can. They shut down the monorail and everything is bus and, well, disaster. Especially for people staying at GFV, Poly, or BLT. They send all of those people to 1 (!) bus stop, and it’s the worst operations ever. I don’t think Disney has anyone working in operations anymore. More buses came for port Orleans than the monorail resort category. DH was like, port Orleans isn’t even dvc, right? And not one person was in line for the port Orleans bus.

So grateful our waitlist for BCV cleared, that sounds like a nightmare at the end of a long night… but do you really think driving is better than ride share?

 

[maleficandace]

We attended 25-January, our first DVC MM at EPCOT but we've done others. I'm still not sure we'll ever get it "RIGHT" but here is what we did, right or wrong.

You could enter as early as 700pm, but parks closed to regular guests at 9pm and of course some could still get in lines at 9pm for rides.

Maybe don't enter too early or you may not last until the evening when the lines really drop. However it is nice to have more park time if that's your only park day.

We entered the park around 8pm.

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Our first mistake was we had a Virtual Queue booked that day for Guardians that we could ride between 7:30pm and 8:30pm I think? Since DH and I had regular tickets, and our DS 19 was coming with us and had NO ticket, I gave him my MagicBand and sent the 2 of them on the ride. They entered around 8pm and weren't out until about 8:45pm. Lots of lost time there. STRIKE 1 for us.

We headed from there to Mission Space Orange: Walk On
Checked out Test Track, was showing a wait though I doubt it was accurate (can't recall) but we bypassed it and headed to Spaceship Earth...which was down.

Strike 2 for us....didn't wasted time walking there and back.

We then decided to hit Finding Nemo (walked on via the Lightning Lane) followed by Imagination. It was now approaching 10pm so they were selling "special" merchandise in the Imagination store...it was a few DVC items, not worth the time.

We grabbed some drinks at a nearby cart with our vouchers.

Now that it was 10pm, it was free ice cream time! So we headed into the Land pavillion, grabbed our free ice cream, and rode Soarin'...maybe 20 minutes from entry to exit for that.

I believe we headed to Frozen next, and saw Mushu meeting and taking photos in China and a SUPER long line for the Kringla bakery! BTW if you want anything from the booths, get that food well before 10pm. We waited maybe 20 minutes end to end for Frozen (on ride and then off ride). Then off to Test Track.

At Test Track we pretty much walked right in to make a car, but you had the option to bypass car making and just ride the ride. You could also take whatever time you wanted making the car, and if you were done early you just opened the doors and went into the area to line up for the ride. This went quickly.

It was now 11:45pm, so we headed to Guardians. This was end to end also about 25 minutes. We could have gone once more and maybe even twice getting in line last minute. We wanted snacks now, but the two carts nearby with food had some long lines. Now they went pretty quickly, but my peeps were done and didn't want to wait.

Strike 3...don't wait until the end for snack if possible.


I got in line and used my many snack tickets for 3 waters, a popcorn and a Mickey pretzel (they were out of cheese). Then I left the park. Mickey was doing photos right at the new Walt statue, but though it was before 1am they were closing his line so no photo...very sad.

So if food is priority...definitely get that first. We had a big dinner at Sebastian's Bistro before 7pm so we weren't hungry for a while and could focus on rides. We did not make it to Remy, so not sure of good timing for that one either.

Thanks for this! I want to make sure I understand. The party started at 10pm. You were allowed to enter at 7pm? And use your snack vouchers prior to the party starting at 10pm? Everything is closed between 9pm-10pm, correct?