Random Observations and Musings on March 18-24 Visit

[HydroGuy]

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!

[NaLisa]

Congrats on another great WDW vacation, and thanks for sharing your experience!

[jason4024]

Sounds like you had a great trip. My wife and I want to do one of the tours, hopefully on our adults only trip. Kinda hard to do that with the kids....

[TangaroaTiki]

Nice trip report, thanks for sharing!

[kappyfamily]

Great review, thank you!

[KJay]

Great trip report- thank you! And I totally agree about Dinosaur being highly underrated...it's one of my favorites!

[tlenzendorf]

Originally Posted by HydroGuy

Expedition Everest without any Yeti at all is just not the same. See Mr. Yeti Where Oh Where Did You Go?.

Well after just finishing Kingdom Keepers II, I think the Yeti is in DHS right now since Malificent freed him and Chernabog is loose!

Glad to hear you had a good trip

[Jestocost]

Originally Posted by HydroGuy

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.

We were at WDW March 21-27 and found the crowds to be very light in the mornings and only slightly busy later in the days. This is true compared to our Spring Break the prior year, compared with the end of May/beginning of June last year, and definitely compared to Christmas and Thanksgiving trips. If any one of the days we were there was really a "9" or a "10," then we've been there for a few "15" days.

Space Mountain was posted at 40 minutes at 1:30 p.m. last Monday but was in reality a walk on, for example. I did not see a single ride--even TSM and Soarin'--with a posted standby wait time of more than 70 minutes at any time the entire week. In the past I have seen TSM as high as 210 minutes and Soarin' at 180 minutes, with both commonly in the 120+ minute range.

[mom2rtk]

Originally Posted by Jestocost

We were at WDW March 21-27 and found the crowds to be very light in the mornings and only slightly busy later in the days. This is true compared to our Spring Break the prior year, compared with the end of May/beginning of June last year, and definitely compared to Christmas and Thanksgiving trips. If any one of the days we were there was really a "9" or a "10," then we've been there for a few "15" days.

Space Mountain was posted at 40 minutes at 1:30 p.m. last Monday but was in reality a walk on, for example. I did not see a single ride--even TSM and Soarin'--with a posted standby wait time of more than 70 minutes at any time the entire week. In the past I have seen TSM as high as 210 minutes and Soarin' at 180 minutes, with both commonly in the 120+ minute range.

Don't you think the spring break crowds were maybe more spread out this year because of how late Easter is?

[g-dad66]

Originally Posted by HydroGuy

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.

We were there the exact same dates as you, and I agree with both of these comments (except that we have seen worse crowds -- namely during this same time frame the past two years).

Originally Posted by mom2rtk

Don't you think the spring break crowds were maybe more spread out this year because of how late Easter is?

Yes, I think so.

Also, I think the targeted free dining promotions are having an effect, because since last October, I have been reading reports from those who went during the free dining weeks and found the crowds larger than what they expected them to be.

Conversely, those of us who went during the time frames when there was no free dining seem to be finding crowds lower than what we thought they would be.

[21hearts]

Sounds like a great trip.

[Jestocost]

Originally Posted by mom2rtk

Don't you think the spring break crowds were maybe more spread out this year because of how late Easter is?

That's certainly possible. FWIW, we were at Universal for two days before moving over to Disney and, with the exception of WWHP, those parks were dead. You could have shot a cannon down most of the streets in US on Sunday without much risk of hitting anyone and IOA on Saturday wasn't much busier.

[MissRoseRed]

I'm glad you had such a great trip! It's so nice to hear about the times when everything goes right

I have been avoiding thinking about Disney for a little while because September seems soooooo far away. I'm happy that yours was the first post I read today when I stopped by the boards - now I can get excited!!

[momof2n2]

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.

Where did you fit this in, touring wise?

[HydroGuy]

Originally Posted by momof2n2

Where did you fit this in, touring wise?

The line never got that long and Epcot had a "10" rating for crowds. We did SOAT in the morning at like 10:30 or 11AM, and then did it again in the afternoon at around 3PM. The line at 3PM was only 2-3 minutes long. In the morning it was 10-15 minutes.