anyone JUST back?

[Chrissyb8885]

Just wondering if the crowds are still low as we near the end of the month...We leave in 4 days yay

thanks
Chrissy

 

[Skylarr29]

I just came back and the crowds were very low. I actually walked right on to soarin two times in a row so I think it was pretty low. We never used fast pass the whole 2 weeks we were there and I think the longest we waited was 5 min. Have a great trip.

 

[pgowder]

We were there this past weekend. The lines were all great. Most we could just walk up to or no more than 10 minute wait. The longest was for Peter Pan, it was about 25 minutes.

But it is hot right now!! I'm from SC so I'm used to hot, but this past weekend it was rough!!!

Take lots of water.

 

[civileng68]

I just got back today (we go monthly) and there are some things that pleased me and some things that really disappointed me this trip.

Let's start with the good:

1) Crowds: The crowds are GREAT and right now is truly one of the best times to go for slow crowds.

* Friday the crowds were pretty close (20 minute way for Splash and Space Mountains, 40 minutes for Soarin)

* Saturday the crowds were slightly higher during the day but about 6:00 they dropped and rides like Splash Mountain and Space Mountain were 10 minute waits.

* Sunday I found the crowds to be great at Epcot, however they were unpredictable. We rode Soarin twice with a walk-on type of wait, yet, after our second ride the line jumped from walk-on to 40 minutes in about a 10 minute span. So, if you see a walk-on line, go for it immediately as it may not last because when everyone else sees it they jump on it, causing a bigger wait.

* Monday the crowds were NON-existent! Splash Mountain was "walk-on" even to the point where if you rode the train, and went by Splash Mtn, the fastpass ticket taker was yelling over to the train riders that there was NO line and to come on. Space Mountain had NO line and was literally a walk-on. Pooh was a 10 minute wait. Fastpasses were available for all rides even late in the day.

During this time, Priority Seatings could be made about an hour ahead of your dining time.

A great thing I appreciated was the employees seemed to be incredibly friendly, more than normal and I was HEAVILY impressed by the CMs.

I finally found the best CM I have ever seen before! I dont know his name but he is often found in front of the castle entertaining people before the Share a Dream Come True Parade and is also found entertaining people waitin for Fantasmic! (even on the same day in our case). He sounds to be from New York and is about 60 ish years old. He was so much fun and truly loves his job. This guy deserves an award or some kind of recognition.

With the lower crowds it seemed that more characters were out. Characters were EVERYWHERE. Also the Mayor and Fire Marshall were out and greeting. Main Street had a quartet singing.

Also to those who said the Disney World Marching Band was taken away, that's not true. The Disney World Marching Band opened up the Share a Dream Come True Parade yesterday. They may have removed them for a time though since I had not seen them in over a year. It was also the same members.

There were MANY vehicles on Main St. which you dont see during busy times. They had the double decker bus, an old fire engine and a horse and carriage.



************************************************** **

Now, the bad:

Sorry to say this folks but, as much as even I love Spaceship Earth and Splash Mountain (which are 2 of my favorites), it's time for extended refurbishments. Just in our last two visits we have noticed that Spaceship Earth is really suffering from lack of extended attention. The initial lift that takes you up after boarding has become so noisy and rough that you can hardly pay attention to the audio. The screens are also working on and off. The cars are suffering from audio failures and door failures. Just while we were there 4 cars (just within view) were out of commission with audio failures and 1 car had a technician riding in it through the ride trying to repair the doors on it as they would not open. The ride has become very rough as what seems that either the cars need refurbishment (which is the most likely case) or the track needs work.

Splash Mountain: As always, some of the animatronics didn't work, but I dont worry so much about that. However, many of the characters are very dirty and need to be removed and cleaned. The Brer Rabbit before one of the drops is covered with dust. The lifts are failing constantly now causing extreme delays. Monday, while on Splash Mountain the lifts failed causing us a 10 minute delay and we just sat on the ride, no removal.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The cave is really needing work, BADLY! If you want to know how badly the cave needs work, look up as you are in the cave. Just before the drop you will see 2 or 3 HUGE, gaping holes in the ceiling, exposing all of the infrastructure of the ride above the cave. I took pictures of this with a flash (I was riding by myself) 2 years ago and the holes now are about 3 times larger than they used to be. Before you had to be looking for them to see them, now you can inadvertently look up and WOW there they are!

Ok, today really upset me. We live close enough to be able to spend time in the parks the day that we leave. We stayed until 5:00 today and well, nothing was running.

If I had paid admission (I use an annual pass) I would have been HIGHLY upset! I still was upset as I would have gone to another park had I known how bad of shape the MK was in today.

1) Space Mountain was down. They had the lights on which I saw on the TTA, which was cool, but it was down. It was down when we got there this morning and was down at 5:00 when we left. We asked when the ride would be back up and why it was down. We were told there was no given reason and were not told why it was closed down.

2) Splah Mountain only ran for 1 hour today and that was at opening. Splash never re-opened. We asked at Splash Mountain and we were told they were not aware of the reason and we were told they did not know when it would be back up.

3) POTC was down much of the day today and again, we were not told of a reason and were not told why it was down.

Finally I was a little peeved by this and went to management. I demanded either an explanation as to what was going on or I wanted some sort of compensation for spending a day there when I could have gone and enjoyed it somewhere else OR just gone home a night earlier and saved a vacation day for a later time.

We were not given a reason for Space Mountain or Pirates of the Caribbean but were told that Splash was down for the day and that an animatronic had a bad leak and oil was spilling out and into the water. He said it would not be re-opened until the problem was solved.

I feel that Disney needs to do a better job of informing their employees more of what is going on with the ride. They dont have to tell what is wrong, as that may scare guests, but keep us updated on realistic re-opening times. In most cases they realistically know if it will be 1-4 hours or closed the rest of the day.

Some of the effects in stitch were not working, such as the lasers in the laser cannons.

Fantasmic! The fire on the water was not working.

Lastly, I think the Garden Grill's new menu just sucks. They went back to the way it used to be where you get a little of everything. First of all it is VERY wasteful as we dont eat fish and had to throw it out with every plate. They had recently changed it to where you order one item, such as steak and get all you can eat of that item. It didnt last but a few months before they went back to the old way.

The back of the train station is really getting overhauled along with the interior. I have some pics (to be posted soon on my page) of the inside of the work zone behind the walls. The entire back half of the loop on the MK side of the station is blocked off. They have the entire roadway and sidewalk torn out, so whatever they are doing, it has more to do with than just the station, unless they are extending it.?????????????


Overall it was a great trip and is a great time to go. HOwever they really need to get to work on some things.

The CM's were the best on this trip that I have ever seen.

 

[WDWAurora]

My parents and grandparents are there right now and crowds are great! They walked on to EVERYTHING at MK yesterday. Their longest wait was 5 minutes. AWESOME!

 

[Carnator]

We just got back. The crowds were small. The only ride we got a fast pass on in all 4 parks was Peter Pan. It was about 30 minutes wait. Everything else was 5-10 minutes.