BobbyBond2
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2021
Greetings All!
It’s been a few days, and the Disney hangover persists. I wanted to post when we returned to NY but was busy with everything else. We just returned from a 5 day packed trip to USO/IoA & WDW. We stayed at the USO Hard Rock Hotel (1 Night) and off-site at the Courtyard Marriot Lake Buena Vista for this trip. This post will mostly be my observations and thoughts for WDW since our last visit in June 2021. I’ll post more detail about USO/IoA later elsewhere
We visited HS, MK, and AK; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively.
At HS, it was Disney+ Day and the Friday after Veteran’s Day, so as expected, the parks would be busy. That morning, I decided to purchase Genie+ for my DS, DD, and myself. We were able to get on RnR with our first “Lightning Lane” selection and eventually ToT. At this point, the Lightning Lanes available to Genie+ users were gone for the remainder of the day. We didn’t even attempt at RoTR. Reason 1 - I think it’s ridiculous that $15/pp per ride to skip the line when we’ve already paid for AP’s and Genie+. Secondly, I knew LL would sell out quickly, and as anticipated, it did.
I feel that Disney is exaggerating wait times to get guests to purchase Genie+ and LL. Our first ride was MMRR, posted wait time was 90 minutes, but Touringplans showed 45. We were able to get on in 40 minutes with no issue. I personally use TouringPlans over Genie since “exaggeration” for most attractions seemed genuine.
Quick Food Service at HS was spot on, tables were hard to find (as usual), but mobile ordering was efficient. We were able to get on MMRR, TSM, RnR (LL), ToT x2 (Stby, LL), Smugglers Run, and Star Tours with the crowds. We left the park around 6pm.
MK was our second day. Purchased Genie+ and 2 additional LL’s for 7DMT and SM. Our first Genie+ was for Splash Mountain. We parked a good 1/2 mile from the TTC. They were only boarding monorails in the morning since the fog was dense across the Seven Seas Lagoon. The lines were massive, but the fog cleared, and the ferry boats were opened. We made it to MK a few minutes after rope drop.
We were able to walk onto Buzz Lightyear and ride it twice. Get on the Astro Orbiter and then to our LL for SM. Monster’s Inc Laugh floor was fun and minimal wait. We were notified that Splash was down and that our LL experience was changed (more to follow on this confusion). I was able to book another LL for SM later in the day. Since I booked this, I was out of Genie+ reservations for the time being. We rode a few other rides, such as HM, POTC. Again, Splash was reported down, and our Genie+ reservation was modified.
At this point, I was highly frustrated that I bought Genie+ and hadn’t been able to use any of my reservations. I even went to guest relations, and they were “unhelpful”, almost as if they didn’t understand how the product worked! After talking to another guest with the same issue, they told me that because my “LL” was changed, I now had LL’s for any other ride besides SpaceM and 7DMT. If Guest Relations could have told me this, it would have been nice to know and saved much time! Since we had the additional LL’s, we capitalized on Jungle Cruise and BTMRR.
Most of our wait times were 30-40 minutes at most. Every standby time posted was minimal 60 minutes or more. Yet, TouringPlans was spot on. Splash Mountain remained down for the entire day and never came back online. We had ADRs at Skipper Canteen, which was good. I was a big fan of Happily Ever After, but I have to admit, I felt Enchantment was great!
Day 5 was our travel home day, so AK was the plan. We did *not* purchase Genie+ but LL’s for EE. I couldn’t get any LL’s for FoP. We were able to get on EE for a second time. Posted wait was 75 minutes, and the actual wait was 25. We watched the redacted version of FoTLK (“Celebration of FOTLK”), pretty much the stunts and crowd interaction were removed. KiteTails was “ok,” to say the least. The soundtrack and the idea behind the show were good, but young Simba crashed pretty hard.
We saw the Standby time for FoP was 60 minutes, so we figured it would be our last ride before heading to MCO. TouringPlans said approx 45 minutes. The line was moving well but eventually started to “stall.” I kept checking my watch and started to realize it was more than an hour. Once we got to the lab, we had to bail to make it to the airport with no worry. As we left the queue, the standby time showed 160 minutes!
Summary - As an AP Holder, DVC Member, and Disney fanatic, I admit I’m disappointed in the new direction of Disney Parks & Resorts. Genie+ is unreliable and confusing. The pay more to ride more after you’ve paid enough mentality stinks. Cast Members are not the same. Their “meh” attitudes compared to previous years are pretty visible. I feel terrible for the CMs. They are being thrown to the wolves with all the negative changes, price increases, and guest dissatisfaction as a result. Rides were down quite a bit, which makes me worried that they were not receiving the level of maintenance before the pandemic.
After staying at USO/IoA with express passes, our experience there far exceeded the “Disney Experience” we’ve been accustomed to. As always, we are planning our next trip for May 2022, staying on site. I’m hoping WDW can turn this around for the better. I would love to write a letter to Bob Chapek, but I’m sure it will go into a circular file and never be seen.
Best of luck with your planning!
It’s been a few days, and the Disney hangover persists. I wanted to post when we returned to NY but was busy with everything else. We just returned from a 5 day packed trip to USO/IoA & WDW. We stayed at the USO Hard Rock Hotel (1 Night) and off-site at the Courtyard Marriot Lake Buena Vista for this trip. This post will mostly be my observations and thoughts for WDW since our last visit in June 2021. I’ll post more detail about USO/IoA later elsewhere
We visited HS, MK, and AK; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively.
At HS, it was Disney+ Day and the Friday after Veteran’s Day, so as expected, the parks would be busy. That morning, I decided to purchase Genie+ for my DS, DD, and myself. We were able to get on RnR with our first “Lightning Lane” selection and eventually ToT. At this point, the Lightning Lanes available to Genie+ users were gone for the remainder of the day. We didn’t even attempt at RoTR. Reason 1 - I think it’s ridiculous that $15/pp per ride to skip the line when we’ve already paid for AP’s and Genie+. Secondly, I knew LL would sell out quickly, and as anticipated, it did.
I feel that Disney is exaggerating wait times to get guests to purchase Genie+ and LL. Our first ride was MMRR, posted wait time was 90 minutes, but Touringplans showed 45. We were able to get on in 40 minutes with no issue. I personally use TouringPlans over Genie since “exaggeration” for most attractions seemed genuine.
Quick Food Service at HS was spot on, tables were hard to find (as usual), but mobile ordering was efficient. We were able to get on MMRR, TSM, RnR (LL), ToT x2 (Stby, LL), Smugglers Run, and Star Tours with the crowds. We left the park around 6pm.
MK was our second day. Purchased Genie+ and 2 additional LL’s for 7DMT and SM. Our first Genie+ was for Splash Mountain. We parked a good 1/2 mile from the TTC. They were only boarding monorails in the morning since the fog was dense across the Seven Seas Lagoon. The lines were massive, but the fog cleared, and the ferry boats were opened. We made it to MK a few minutes after rope drop.
We were able to walk onto Buzz Lightyear and ride it twice. Get on the Astro Orbiter and then to our LL for SM. Monster’s Inc Laugh floor was fun and minimal wait. We were notified that Splash was down and that our LL experience was changed (more to follow on this confusion). I was able to book another LL for SM later in the day. Since I booked this, I was out of Genie+ reservations for the time being. We rode a few other rides, such as HM, POTC. Again, Splash was reported down, and our Genie+ reservation was modified.
At this point, I was highly frustrated that I bought Genie+ and hadn’t been able to use any of my reservations. I even went to guest relations, and they were “unhelpful”, almost as if they didn’t understand how the product worked! After talking to another guest with the same issue, they told me that because my “LL” was changed, I now had LL’s for any other ride besides SpaceM and 7DMT. If Guest Relations could have told me this, it would have been nice to know and saved much time! Since we had the additional LL’s, we capitalized on Jungle Cruise and BTMRR.
Most of our wait times were 30-40 minutes at most. Every standby time posted was minimal 60 minutes or more. Yet, TouringPlans was spot on. Splash Mountain remained down for the entire day and never came back online. We had ADRs at Skipper Canteen, which was good. I was a big fan of Happily Ever After, but I have to admit, I felt Enchantment was great!
Day 5 was our travel home day, so AK was the plan. We did *not* purchase Genie+ but LL’s for EE. I couldn’t get any LL’s for FoP. We were able to get on EE for a second time. Posted wait was 75 minutes, and the actual wait was 25. We watched the redacted version of FoTLK (“Celebration of FOTLK”), pretty much the stunts and crowd interaction were removed. KiteTails was “ok,” to say the least. The soundtrack and the idea behind the show were good, but young Simba crashed pretty hard.
We saw the Standby time for FoP was 60 minutes, so we figured it would be our last ride before heading to MCO. TouringPlans said approx 45 minutes. The line was moving well but eventually started to “stall.” I kept checking my watch and started to realize it was more than an hour. Once we got to the lab, we had to bail to make it to the airport with no worry. As we left the queue, the standby time showed 160 minutes!
Summary - As an AP Holder, DVC Member, and Disney fanatic, I admit I’m disappointed in the new direction of Disney Parks & Resorts. Genie+ is unreliable and confusing. The pay more to ride more after you’ve paid enough mentality stinks. Cast Members are not the same. Their “meh” attitudes compared to previous years are pretty visible. I feel terrible for the CMs. They are being thrown to the wolves with all the negative changes, price increases, and guest dissatisfaction as a result. Rides were down quite a bit, which makes me worried that they were not receiving the level of maintenance before the pandemic.
After staying at USO/IoA with express passes, our experience there far exceeded the “Disney Experience” we’ve been accustomed to. As always, we are planning our next trip for May 2022, staying on site. I’m hoping WDW can turn this around for the better. I would love to write a letter to Bob Chapek, but I’m sure it will go into a circular file and never be seen.
Best of luck with your planning!
