Mousefan mom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 21, 2015
This was the worst Disney experience we have ever had. We come every year, spend thousands of dollars on Disney vacations--and this one was so disappointing. I've never been disappointed at Disney or wanted to leave early (we checked out early).
The crowds and lines were things that compared with Christmas or Spring break/Easter. Expect to wait a good hour for anything. Philharmagic was even a 30 minute wait. I have never in my life seen the parks like this in July. Yes, you expect heat in July, but what you aren't used to is an hour long wait in the blazing sun before you even enter the indoor que...and no, the reason the line for Big Thunder is all the way back at the Shooting arcade isn't because of social distancing (you are jam packed with people in lines, just walking through the parks--wall to wall), it is literally that long (and this was at 8pm in the evening when you might anticipate crowds to be thinning). There was a Cast member holding a "the line starts here" sign just to get into the Confectionery. Lines for all the snacks, etc. The theme here is an hour line for everything so choose your time/heat tolerance energy well
. If you expect the lines to move quicker because there is no Fast Pass, I assure you its still the same capacity of guests going to rides--just all in one line. It doesn't move quicker and Disney clearly has increased capacity this month (during our stay Hollywood and MK both reached the maximum capacity).
Hollywood, we got up at 6:45 AM, three of us trying to get a boarding group for Rise, and constantly refreshing. We were in the lobby at BW so the Cast Member could assist us, out of 5 families, only 1 got a board group. We decided to try for the 1. Even at rope drop, you waited in a sweaty long in the sun line before you could go get in the line at 8:30 for the rides--the people going to Toy Story land, may be the force be with them...there lines were astronomical (we sadly didn't even make it into Toy Story land this trip). There was at least an hour for every ride in Hollywood that day--we didn't get the 1pm and promptly headed back to our room to cool down. We were told later by another guest at the pool the ride was down for hours so they just didn't do 1pm boarding groups so they could just try to get all the morning groups on when it loaded. All the parks were similarly packed...
Lines for Food and Wine booths at Epcot on our last night, also so very long--made you rethink getting anything. You just couldn't escape the lines no matter what park/time of day, etc. We tried rope drop, mid day, during rain, close...all with limited success.
Mousekeeping--non existent. There were 5 of us at the BW, we got 5 towels, meant to last us and 1 bottle each of toiletry. I had to call to get more, call daily to get the overflowing trash emptied, etc. No one makes the beds or any tidying of the room. I knew it would be less--but I paid $500 a night for this?
We noticed little things like the landscape not as trimmed as it would expect at the quiet pools (first world problem for sure, but its just not the Disney difference), chairs would be scattered or in disarray and no one was tidying them, wet towels on the ground that a guest left that morning, still there that evening when we went for a night time swim. Mosquitoes seem to be worse--not sure if they have cut back on pest control--but I got several mosquito bites this trip near the pool (we spent a lot of time in the quiet pool to escape the crowds and lines) and I've never gotten bug bites at Disney.
Park reservation system is absolutely awful and IMO contributing to the massive crowd swells. Many people won't park hop (and honestly it doesn't make much sense, and like many things at Disney right now you are are paying way more than the value you are getting back) so they stay in all day...Magic Kingdom and Hollywood are consistently the two most stressful and no shows, character meets, etc. to absorb the crowds.
By day 4 we were so done, we only rode one ride. This trip we did less than we have ever done at Disney--we rode no mountains, we left feeling so sad that this is what the pandemic has done to the place we love so much. This was not an uplifting trip--if you are on the fence, I wouldn't recommend going to anyone right now. We spoke to so many Disney vets while there who said the same....I'm sorry.
The good--it does appear the college program has just started back up and the cast members were enthusiastic, wonderful and about the only aspect of the "Disney Difference" we experienced this week....
The crowds and lines were things that compared with Christmas or Spring break/Easter. Expect to wait a good hour for anything. Philharmagic was even a 30 minute wait. I have never in my life seen the parks like this in July. Yes, you expect heat in July, but what you aren't used to is an hour long wait in the blazing sun before you even enter the indoor que...and no, the reason the line for Big Thunder is all the way back at the Shooting arcade isn't because of social distancing (you are jam packed with people in lines, just walking through the parks--wall to wall), it is literally that long (and this was at 8pm in the evening when you might anticipate crowds to be thinning). There was a Cast member holding a "the line starts here" sign just to get into the Confectionery. Lines for all the snacks, etc. The theme here is an hour line for everything so choose your time/heat tolerance energy well
. If you expect the lines to move quicker because there is no Fast Pass, I assure you its still the same capacity of guests going to rides--just all in one line. It doesn't move quicker and Disney clearly has increased capacity this month (during our stay Hollywood and MK both reached the maximum capacity). Hollywood, we got up at 6:45 AM, three of us trying to get a boarding group for Rise, and constantly refreshing. We were in the lobby at BW so the Cast Member could assist us, out of 5 families, only 1 got a board group. We decided to try for the 1. Even at rope drop, you waited in a sweaty long in the sun line before you could go get in the line at 8:30 for the rides--the people going to Toy Story land, may be the force be with them...there lines were astronomical (we sadly didn't even make it into Toy Story land this trip). There was at least an hour for every ride in Hollywood that day--we didn't get the 1pm and promptly headed back to our room to cool down. We were told later by another guest at the pool the ride was down for hours so they just didn't do 1pm boarding groups so they could just try to get all the morning groups on when it loaded. All the parks were similarly packed...
Lines for Food and Wine booths at Epcot on our last night, also so very long--made you rethink getting anything. You just couldn't escape the lines no matter what park/time of day, etc. We tried rope drop, mid day, during rain, close...all with limited success.
Mousekeeping--non existent. There were 5 of us at the BW, we got 5 towels, meant to last us and 1 bottle each of toiletry. I had to call to get more, call daily to get the overflowing trash emptied, etc. No one makes the beds or any tidying of the room. I knew it would be less--but I paid $500 a night for this?
We noticed little things like the landscape not as trimmed as it would expect at the quiet pools (first world problem for sure, but its just not the Disney difference), chairs would be scattered or in disarray and no one was tidying them, wet towels on the ground that a guest left that morning, still there that evening when we went for a night time swim. Mosquitoes seem to be worse--not sure if they have cut back on pest control--but I got several mosquito bites this trip near the pool (we spent a lot of time in the quiet pool to escape the crowds and lines) and I've never gotten bug bites at Disney.
Park reservation system is absolutely awful and IMO contributing to the massive crowd swells. Many people won't park hop (and honestly it doesn't make much sense, and like many things at Disney right now you are are paying way more than the value you are getting back) so they stay in all day...Magic Kingdom and Hollywood are consistently the two most stressful and no shows, character meets, etc. to absorb the crowds.
By day 4 we were so done, we only rode one ride. This trip we did less than we have ever done at Disney--we rode no mountains, we left feeling so sad that this is what the pandemic has done to the place we love so much. This was not an uplifting trip--if you are on the fence, I wouldn't recommend going to anyone right now. We spoke to so many Disney vets while there who said the same....I'm sorry
.The good--it does appear the college program has just started back up and the cast members were enthusiastic, wonderful and about the only aspect of the "Disney Difference" we experienced this week....
We have managed to ride most everything we want eventually as long as we are flexible. I did buy each kid a really cheap cell phone, without cell service set up, to use to play games in really long lines. That has been a help at times, but for the most part the lines aren’t phasing the kids. They are just happy to be here.
