disneyvoice
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2000
Just back from 9 days at the World. Now I know that the weather was unseasonably hot (some days it felt like we were walking through HELL) so there is nothing that can be done about that. But this is the first year we have been to WDW during free dining and we will NEVER again attend during a free dining time. In fact, if they were to extend free dining during a trip we had already planned I would reschedule. The amount of people there was INSANE. We always go during "off" seasons and have been during the beginning of October and have never experienced waits of more than about 20 minutes with plenty of fast passes. This trip there were two hour waits with fast passes either gone or for a return time close to park closing by mid-morning. We didn't even attempt TSM.
That's not to say that we didn't still have a great time - but I much prefer the less crowded - just stroll onto any ride you want times of the year. Food and Wine Fest was also much different than in the past. In fact, we left the park with our 8 year old as fast as we could as evening approached because there were so many drunk, foul-mouthed, picking fights types of people.
We stayed in an ASMu Family Suite and LOVED it. Hghlight of the trip (at least for me) was getting to perform in one of the American Idol shows (I still haven't shut up about it - I'm driving my family crazy).
We just came home MUCH more tired this time around which I'm sure was due to the combination of the heat and humidity and the larger crowds. The free dining was nice though but I don't think it was worth it enough for us to brave the crowds in the future.
That's not to say that we didn't still have a great time - but I much prefer the less crowded - just stroll onto any ride you want times of the year. Food and Wine Fest was also much different than in the past. In fact, we left the park with our 8 year old as fast as we could as evening approached because there were so many drunk, foul-mouthed, picking fights types of people.
We stayed in an ASMu Family Suite and LOVED it. Hghlight of the trip (at least for me) was getting to perform in one of the American Idol shows (I still haven't shut up about it - I'm driving my family crazy).
We just came home MUCH more tired this time around which I'm sure was due to the combination of the heat and humidity and the larger crowds. The free dining was nice though but I don't think it was worth it enough for us to brave the crowds in the future.