Disney Tip #3 - Keep Your Eyes Open

This year, 2008, is Disneyland’s “Year of a Million Dreams.” Of course 2007 was also Disneyland’s “Year of a Million Dreams,” so it’s completely possible that 2009 and maybe 2010 will be years of a Million Dreams too. Disney is fulfilling these million dreams in a variety of different ways.

Before we left on our trip, a friend tipped us off to watch for a Disney cast member, dressed in white, standing at the exit of a ride. It could be any ride, at either park, most likely first thing in the morning.

If you see this white-clad cast member, approach him or her and he or she will reward you with a super-nifty lanyard containing fast passes for every fast pass ride in both Disneyland AND California Adventure.

This is exactly what happened to Ethan and Robert when the rode the Matterhorn very first thing Wednesday morning. Ethan came running up to us fools waiting in line for the Nemo ride to show us his prize.

For Robert and Ethan, this truly was a dream fulfilled. Robert had been eager to maximize our Disney experience by minimizing the time we waited in line. He was always thinking ahead and picking up Fast Passes for rides like Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Space Mountain, and Soarin’ Over California.

Now, he and Ethan could run around the park and ride all the best rides with out having to wait in line! However, you can’t have your awesome collection of fast passes and use them too. To our fast pass holders, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to “waste” a fast pass on a ride where there was only a 15 minute wait in the regular line and since Wednesday was the least busy day of all our days at Disneyland most of the ride lines were 15 minutes or shorter.

So, Ethan and Robert came home with a pretty cool souvenir (only 3 or 4 fast passes used) and a great memory of having a dream fulfilled.