HydroGuy
A Pirate's Life For Me
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
This was our third trip to WDW and first during Spring Break. We had a great time. My experiences are colored by the two previous trips, lots to Disneyland Resort, one to Tokyo Disney Resort in 2009 and one to Disneyland Paris in 2007.
Weather was the definition of perfect. Mid-80's each day with lots of sunshine, mid-70's each evening, cool early morning. No rain.
Crowds were the most I have seen but not as bad as I expected with the "9" and "10" ratings most days. This compared to a late May/early June trip and the other in mid-June. It was a bit more crowded than mid-June but not terribly so.
Stayed at the Dolphin. On previous trips we spent lots of time doing things outside the parks. This trip was planned to be very park-centric. Dolphin felt a lot less Disney that I was expecting. A beautiful hotel to be sure, and since we were there only for sleeping it did not matter that it lacked a Disney feel.
Access to Epcot and DHS from Dolphin was great. We walked to Epcot but always managed to catch a boat to and from DHS.
Festival of the Lion King and Flights of Wonder at AK it still delivers every time.
Expedition Everest without any Yeti at all is just not the same. See Mr. Yeti Where Oh Where Did You Go?. He was not only not in "disco mode", he was not even visible. It is like a fireworks show with no grand finale. We rode EE about 10 times in 2006 and 2008 with the Yeti in full mode and this time we rode it four times and it just not as good.
Dinosaur continues to be highly underrated IMO.
Arrived at DHS at 8:25AM and were 20-25th in line. Wow! Did the running of the bulls to TSM. Got FPs and waited 10-15 minutes to ride standy-by. Got my best score ever and even beat DS14 once! We were at DHS on June 1, 2008 on TSM's opening day and if anything the whole TSM crowd experience is worse!
Maybe ST re-opening will help.
Did RnR four times and ToT three times, and those are just awesome rides. As is TSM. I think with EE having no Yeti the RnR is my favorite ride at all of WDW. With Yeti in normal mode EE is my favorite.
GMR continues to be a lot of fun and underrated IMO.
Ate at Sci-Fi Dine-In and it looks like they updated their film loops. That place always feels so fun.
Saw LMA for the third time at DHS and also saw it in Paris where it debuted, and I continue to be impressed with this show. Very well done.
I got to rock out with Mulch, Sweat and Shears. They pulled me out of the audience to play with them. Last time we were there they got my DS14 up there. These guys are just very fun and have good energy.
Streetmosphere characters are so Disney. Great fun. I caught them three times. Something they do not do in California but need to in their Hollywood Pictures Backlot area.
Decided to skip Fantasmic because of the long lines and have done it before...
We did the Soarin FP run after entering through the International Gateway. They let us into Epcot at about 8:40AM thru IG and we were right there in the Soarin stampede with those from the front gates.
Enjoyed Sum of All Thrills for the first time. Did it twice with DS14. Normally motion simulators are not my thing but he talked me into it. Better that I expected.
Ate at Teppan Edo for the first time. Also ate at Le Cellier for the first time. Both really good. We did not decide on this trip until early February and of course all the Le Cellier ADRs were gone. I kept watch on the online ADR page and somone canceled about a week before we arrived so I snagged it. Also had a first experience at San Angel Inn - the food there was really good too!
Saw Off-Kilter twice. Once with lead Jamie and once without. They do fine without him - and had a fiddler take over his bagpipe parts - but are of course better with him.
Saw Illuminations twice. Illuminations has never done a whole lot for me. It is impressive but IMO does not feel very Disney to me. Each time I go to WDW I try to expand my thinking about Epcot and this time I felt a little more for Illuminations.
The Magic, Memories and You show on the MK castle was awesome! Totally exceeded my expectations. Definitely worth the time. Also caught Electrical Parade and Wishes. It seems they should update Wishes. The EP was fun and high energy.
I know they did some upgrades to Space Mtn but thought it was more related to the queue. Memory may be hazy but the ride itself seemed much better than last time in 2008. They must have done some ride upgrades. Still not as good as Disneyland's upgraded version (which took 2.5 years BTW), but seemed a lot better than before.
Did an 8-hour Backstage Magic Tour and that was really fun. Got to see and walk thru the Utilidor tunnels under MK
, go under ToT and go under the stage at the American Adventure attraction to see how all the animatronics and projectors work. Highly recommended. I wrote it up for the DISUnplugged blog and it is waiting for editorial input.
The parks looked to be in great shape and really sparkled. I never had a single bad Cast Member experience. They were awesome.
Great trip!
Weather was the definition of perfect. Mid-80's each day with lots of sunshine, mid-70's each evening, cool early morning. No rain.
Crowds were the most I have seen but not as bad as I expected with the "9" and "10" ratings most days. This compared to a late May/early June trip and the other in mid-June. It was a bit more crowded than mid-June but not terribly so.
Stayed at the Dolphin. On previous trips we spent lots of time doing things outside the parks. This trip was planned to be very park-centric. Dolphin felt a lot less Disney that I was expecting. A beautiful hotel to be sure, and since we were there only for sleeping it did not matter that it lacked a Disney feel.
Access to Epcot and DHS from Dolphin was great. We walked to Epcot but always managed to catch a boat to and from DHS.
Festival of the Lion King and Flights of Wonder at AK it still delivers every time.
Expedition Everest without any Yeti at all is just not the same. See Mr. Yeti Where Oh Where Did You Go?. He was not only not in "disco mode", he was not even visible. It is like a fireworks show with no grand finale. We rode EE about 10 times in 2006 and 2008 with the Yeti in full mode and this time we rode it four times and it just not as good.
Dinosaur continues to be highly underrated IMO.
Arrived at DHS at 8:25AM and were 20-25th in line. Wow! Did the running of the bulls to TSM. Got FPs and waited 10-15 minutes to ride standy-by. Got my best score ever and even beat DS14 once! We were at DHS on June 1, 2008 on TSM's opening day and if anything the whole TSM crowd experience is worse!
Maybe ST re-opening will help.Did RnR four times and ToT three times, and those are just awesome rides. As is TSM. I think with EE having no Yeti the RnR is my favorite ride at all of WDW. With Yeti in normal mode EE is my favorite.
GMR continues to be a lot of fun and underrated IMO.
Ate at Sci-Fi Dine-In and it looks like they updated their film loops. That place always feels so fun.
Saw LMA for the third time at DHS and also saw it in Paris where it debuted, and I continue to be impressed with this show. Very well done.
I got to rock out with Mulch, Sweat and Shears. They pulled me out of the audience to play with them. Last time we were there they got my DS14 up there. These guys are just very fun and have good energy.
Streetmosphere characters are so Disney. Great fun. I caught them three times. Something they do not do in California but need to in their Hollywood Pictures Backlot area.
Decided to skip Fantasmic because of the long lines and have done it before...
We did the Soarin FP run after entering through the International Gateway. They let us into Epcot at about 8:40AM thru IG and we were right there in the Soarin stampede with those from the front gates.
Enjoyed Sum of All Thrills for the first time. Did it twice with DS14. Normally motion simulators are not my thing but he talked me into it. Better that I expected.
Ate at Teppan Edo for the first time. Also ate at Le Cellier for the first time. Both really good. We did not decide on this trip until early February and of course all the Le Cellier ADRs were gone. I kept watch on the online ADR page and somone canceled about a week before we arrived so I snagged it. Also had a first experience at San Angel Inn - the food there was really good too!
Saw Off-Kilter twice. Once with lead Jamie and once without. They do fine without him - and had a fiddler take over his bagpipe parts - but are of course better with him.
Saw Illuminations twice. Illuminations has never done a whole lot for me. It is impressive but IMO does not feel very Disney to me. Each time I go to WDW I try to expand my thinking about Epcot and this time I felt a little more for Illuminations.
The Magic, Memories and You show on the MK castle was awesome! Totally exceeded my expectations. Definitely worth the time. Also caught Electrical Parade and Wishes. It seems they should update Wishes. The EP was fun and high energy.
I know they did some upgrades to Space Mtn but thought it was more related to the queue. Memory may be hazy but the ride itself seemed much better than last time in 2008. They must have done some ride upgrades. Still not as good as Disneyland's upgraded version (which took 2.5 years BTW), but seemed a lot better than before.
Did an 8-hour Backstage Magic Tour and that was really fun. Got to see and walk thru the Utilidor tunnels under MK
, go under ToT and go under the stage at the American Adventure attraction to see how all the animatronics and projectors work. Highly recommended. I wrote it up for the DISUnplugged blog and it is waiting for editorial input.The parks looked to be in great shape and really sparkled. I never had a single bad Cast Member experience. They were awesome.
Great trip!
