BurkeTribe
Freak for stress-free fun
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2004
- Messages
- 314
Our trip was awesomely fantastic... will hopefully do a full trip report soon. The many tips we learned around here have helped a lot 
ASMu and OKW were great, clean, fun, well-run.
Wasn't crowded overall really, even with resorts nearly full up on the weekend, plus we planned our park visits well--
Fri-DTD/Rainforest Cafe (some Orlando schools had day off I think)... great service at RF for lunch.
Sat-Studios, light to medium (only real medium was LightsCameraAction show area before and after show)
Sun- AK, light (walk in to Lion King show 3 minutes before start, plenty of seating)
Mon- swim,OKW boat to DTD
Tues-MK, super light at opening (put it this way-- the four of us rode AstroOrb alone at 9:20-9:30, and rode Buzz 4 times with no wait later in the day) to light-medium(around Splash/BTMRR area, too crowded as always because of layout, especially around parade time)
Wed-EpCot, super light early to light later (but the wait for Soarin' was still bad without FP, and even with FP it was about 15-20 minutes)
A few short notes:
1)Don't cut through the "Stroller Parking" area at LightsCameraAction when exiting unless you are picking up a stroller-- it is not a shorter route and causes major logjams as we Strollerians try to get our strollers . PS-sorry to the fellow I hit on the ankles with our stroller while leaving, it was unintentional, really, just too crowded in that bottleneck because of folks without strollers.
2)I'm betting that sometimes that person who folks think is breaking line is not really breaking line purposefully-- I know, because I accidentally did it twice (and then moved back). The first time was in POC store when I noticed two people in line to pay so I got behind them, only to hear some ladies standing 5-6 feet behind and away from what looked like the last person in line say "I guess he's breaking in line." I told them I didn't realize they were IN line and let them move up. The second time was right near the log loading at SplashMtn. The CM told me "go all the way up on the right," so I started to, passing a group of Brits who were standing in the right side line but were watching the left logboats load instead of advancing. Then one lady noticed me and I suppose got worried that their group would get split up by other riders if they kept dawdling (it would, too), so she called them all to "come on" past me. Of course then there was one space in the logboat before theirs, which they offered me but I passed since I was in line 1, soon to sit in front (great seat for splash
)
The general point is, stay with the line so people know you're IN line
And listen to the CMs loading the ride (unlike my 5yo, who was so giddy he could not stop climbing on the line rails
3)The layout of Mickey's Philharmagic entrance is just wrong. Why pack people in and create a "Who concert" potentiality like that?
4)The CMs rocked, didn't notice a negative one during our stay-- I'd score them 96% overall. I did notice that the average age seems to have possibly risen a lot in the last few years, which is a sign of cutbacks, but every CM we communicated problems with was very helpful --special thanks to the FP CM in Fantasyland at PeterPan (or Winnie?) and to front desk and concierge at OKW
.
5)Did not enjoy being bumped from ASMo to ASMu at first, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as ASMo was more crowded
6)McDonalds at AK needs to stop fibbing-- they don't leave off drink lids/straws because of danger to the animals (look at how many other places in AK DO have straws and lids[edit][not positive about the straws, but lots of coffee lids observed], they just don't want to clean up the mess. My guess is DisneyCorp was charging them an extra lid/straw cleanup fee along with the rent
7)There is no way to resist having an ice cream break at 4:30 in the afternoon on a warm day in the parks, even at $2.50 apiece.
I think I'll stop at lucky 7 for now.
Overall, we found everything to be fun, well-run, and stress-free.
ASMu and OKW were great, clean, fun, well-run.
Wasn't crowded overall really, even with resorts nearly full up on the weekend, plus we planned our park visits well--
Fri-DTD/Rainforest Cafe (some Orlando schools had day off I think)... great service at RF for lunch.
Sat-Studios, light to medium (only real medium was LightsCameraAction show area before and after show)
Sun- AK, light (walk in to Lion King show 3 minutes before start, plenty of seating)
Mon- swim,OKW boat to DTD
Tues-MK, super light at opening (put it this way-- the four of us rode AstroOrb alone at 9:20-9:30, and rode Buzz 4 times with no wait later in the day) to light-medium(around Splash/BTMRR area, too crowded as always because of layout, especially around parade time)
Wed-EpCot, super light early to light later (but the wait for Soarin' was still bad without FP, and even with FP it was about 15-20 minutes)
A few short notes:
1)Don't cut through the "Stroller Parking" area at LightsCameraAction when exiting unless you are picking up a stroller-- it is not a shorter route and causes major logjams as we Strollerians try to get our strollers . PS-sorry to the fellow I hit on the ankles with our stroller while leaving, it was unintentional, really, just too crowded in that bottleneck because of folks without strollers.
2)I'm betting that sometimes that person who folks think is breaking line is not really breaking line purposefully-- I know, because I accidentally did it twice (and then moved back). The first time was in POC store when I noticed two people in line to pay so I got behind them, only to hear some ladies standing 5-6 feet behind and away from what looked like the last person in line say "I guess he's breaking in line." I told them I didn't realize they were IN line and let them move up. The second time was right near the log loading at SplashMtn. The CM told me "go all the way up on the right," so I started to, passing a group of Brits who were standing in the right side line but were watching the left logboats load instead of advancing. Then one lady noticed me and I suppose got worried that their group would get split up by other riders if they kept dawdling (it would, too), so she called them all to "come on" past me. Of course then there was one space in the logboat before theirs, which they offered me but I passed since I was in line 1, soon to sit in front (great seat for splash
)The general point is, stay with the line so people know you're IN line
And listen to the CMs loading the ride (unlike my 5yo, who was so giddy he could not stop climbing on the line rails
3)The layout of Mickey's Philharmagic entrance is just wrong. Why pack people in and create a "Who concert" potentiality like that?
4)The CMs rocked, didn't notice a negative one during our stay-- I'd score them 96% overall. I did notice that the average age seems to have possibly risen a lot in the last few years, which is a sign of cutbacks, but every CM we communicated problems with was very helpful --special thanks to the FP CM in Fantasyland at PeterPan (or Winnie?) and to front desk and concierge at OKW
. 5)Did not enjoy being bumped from ASMo to ASMu at first, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as ASMo was more crowded
6)McDonalds at AK needs to stop fibbing-- they don't leave off drink lids/straws because of danger to the animals (look at how many other places in AK DO have straws and lids[edit][not positive about the straws, but lots of coffee lids observed], they just don't want to clean up the mess. My guess is DisneyCorp was charging them an extra lid/straw cleanup fee along with the rent
7)There is no way to resist having an ice cream break at 4:30 in the afternoon on a warm day in the parks, even at $2.50 apiece.
I think I'll stop at lucky 7 for now.
Overall, we found everything to be fun, well-run, and stress-free.
