Description: Since this is our anniversary trip, my husband acquiesced by agreeing to go to Disney Sea. Of course, we had both been to Disneyland in Anaheim as kids. So this was our first time doing a Disney trip as adults. My husband admitted that he was expected to be pretty underwhelmed. But guess what… we were totally wow-ed and had the best time!

The best part was doing a bit of research before out trip to find out how to work the FastPass system. It is the civilized way of "cutting in line". I can’t believe how much better using the FastPass made our day; we basically did in one day what it would take us two days to see and do.

So what’s the FastPass and how does it work?

At the most popular and biggest rides including, "Indiana Jones", " Storm Rider", "Raging Spirits", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", and the "Tower of Terror", it’s quite possible to wait up to 130 minutes to get on the ride. But with the FastPass, you are essentially waiting in line without actually having to physically stand in line.

So first go to the FastPass machine of the ride (usually right beside the line-ups), insert your Park Passport which you get when you buy a ticket for the park and get a "Return Time" (this will vary depending on how long the lines are… at the beginning of the day it was usually 30 minutes but later in the afternoon, the return times were longer, up to 90 minutes). But whatever, it sure beats standing in line. So we’d get our FastPass for a particular ride and then go to another part of the park, come back during the allotted time and breeze right in! I cannot believe how easy it was and yet how few people seemed to take advantage of this service. It’s pure genius! So by working the FastPass system, not only did we get to ride EVERY single ride we wanted to, we never had to stand in line bored out of our minds.

The only thing is that you cannot just run around the park, getting Fastpasses for everything at the beginning of the day. Depending on what time your current Fastpass is valid for, you cannot get the next Fastpass until that time has passed.

Here’s my suggestion for getting the most from your day. Instead of waiting 90 minutes (average wait time weekday, much longer on weekends and holidays) for "Journey" (definitely one of the best rides) we got FastPasses and in the meantime, we went to Aladdin’s Theatre (a 3D show) where there were no lineups. Then on our way back to "Journey" to catch our ride during our time slot, we also got Fastpasses for "20,000 Leagues" which is in the same section of the park.

After "20,000 Leagues" go to the Mermaid Lagoon (based on Little Mermaid) and watch the "Ariel" musical in the stunning Lagoon Theatre. The gift shop in the Mermaid Lagoon was one of my favorites. Then, we walked over to the "Lost River Delta" to get Fastpasses for the Indiana Jones ride. While waiting for our time slot for Indiana Jones, we went to the El Dorado Cantina for some surprisingly decent Mexican food and a cold beer (not every restaurant serves alcohol so check the map/directory). As we finished lunch, it was time to go on the Indiana Jones ride but before we did, we went and got Fastpasses at Raging Spirits which is right beside it.

Before the Raging Spirits, we will had about 20 minutes so we went to the Arabian Coast section and went to "Sinbad’s Voyage" which is Disney Sea’s equivalent to Disneyland’s "It’s a Small World". After Raging Spirits (one of the THE scariest roller-coasters I have ever been on, without a doubt), we took the "DisneySea Electric Railway" to the American Waterfront and got our Fastpasses for the Storm Rider. While waiting, we walked around the Mediterranean Harbour and checked out "The Leonardo Challenge".

After Storm Rider, we had a nice greasy Reuben sandwiches and fries with hot drinks at the New York Deli while deciding whether to check out the House of Terror of the nighttime BraviSEAmo show (Disney Sea’s equivalent to Disneyland’s parade). At this point, it was getting cold and we were pretty tired, so we decided to catch the BraviSEAmo show and call it a day. Close