Klayfish
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 19, 2016
- Messages
- 8,747
Just sitting back down at my office, trying to get myself back into the daily grind. Drove home from WDW yesterday...had such a hard time sleeping last night. I'll just give some quick highlights of our trip. Our first actual park day was 12/21 and our last park day was 12/31, so we had 11 total days in the parks. As most people know, we stay offsite and pack all of our food, so no restaurant reviews.
First thing I'll talk about is crowds, as it's a popular topic. I've made no secret that I think crowd calendars have no value, so I won't compare what the calendar said to what I think. I don't even look at them, so I wouldn't know what they said anyway. But just on my own observations... We were quite surprised how low the crowds were before Christmas. We were in Epcot on 12/21 in the evening and ate dinner at the Electric Umbrella. We used the tables outside and there were literally only 3 other families sitting there, out of the 50 or so tables they have...and this was at 6pm. The rest of FutureWorld was pretty empty. After Christmas, the crowds grew steadily. The last 4 days before we left were the busiest I've ever seen. For example, we actually used a FP+ for Muppets...and it was actually useful. Never seen that before. MK was packed, but we were still able to navigate around. Slowly at times, but never got "trapped". The only time we were sort of stuck was right after a parade. We were in Liberty Square, trying to head to Splash. There was a bit of a bottleneck as the crowd cleared, but I think we were stopped for maybe 60 seconds. After that, the line of people moved...slowly for sure, but steadily. In HS, moving around near ToT and RnR took some patience. We saw lines in AK that we normally wouldn't see, such as at Bugs Life.
I'm always amazed at how good of a job WDW does in getting people in and out of the parks with such crowds. The parking lots were jammed, but they had tram after tram after tram lined up to scoop you up and bring you in. It was very efficient. Even getting into MK wasn't bad. The Express monorail line looked terrible, but like the tram, they had train after train lined up to scoop people up. We often used the Resort monorail instead, simply because there was no line and a train was pulling up as we walked toward the station. Exiting the parks was also easy, even in MK. They had the alternate exit open pretty often, so you walked "behind" Main St, not having to fight through the hub.
So to sum up the crowds...yes, it was very crowded, especially after Xmas, but it never was a major issue.
Rudeness? Honestly, in our 11 days, I encountered a grand total of one rude guest. That's it. I'm not saying they aren't there, but we just never really came across any. Everyone seemed in the holiday spirit and had a decent amount of patience and politeness. Not that everyone was singing Christmas carols in unison, but it wasn't chaos, shouting or anger. Just people going about their business, and in a crowd, showing courtesy and patience. Very pleasant surprise.
Rides? We aren't rope drop people, so we never used that strategy. In fact, I think the earliest we showed up to the parks was 9:30, and that was only once or twice. Typically, we'd show up around 10:00 or so. Since we stay offsite, we could only book FP+ 30 days out...and since we're an AP holder, we could only book days 1-7 at the 30 day mark. Days 8-11 had to be done while we were there, so only 7 days out. We still had quite a nice selection. We are also very much "wing it" people, so beyond the 3 FP+ (which were picked for no particular reasons), we had no set plans when we walked in the gate. We burned through our first three FP+ as fast as possible, so we could get more. We never waited in any standby line that was more than 20 minutes. It took some pretty hard "refreshing" work on the app, but I got a ton of same day FP+. For example, I got SM several times...even literally 5 minutes in advance. Also got things like TSMM, RnR, BTMRR, Splash, Pooh, Pirates, TT, EE (no Pandora stuff), etc... We stayed in the parks about 5 or 6 hours each day and accomplished 6-7 FP+ per day, plus the time we took to eat, see shows, etc... Yes, we saw insanely lone standby lines, such as 2.5 hours for safari, but we never went in any of them and only did things we could do via FP+ or rides that didn't need one (CoP, Stitch, etc...).
CM? I've said it over and over, they are simply awesome. Didn't encounter a single bad apple. Not a one. I can't count how many had smiles on their faces, despite dealing with huge crowds. Or how many of them waived at you. Or how many of the tram operators were being lively and funny and energetic. CMs working attractions were in character and very friendly when the opportunity arose. Again, I'm sure there's a bad one on property somewhere, and everyone has bad days. If they're cutting back on staffing, it didn't show during the holidays. They were everywhere, and all eager to assist. To me, they are a huge part of the WDW magic.
Speaking of magic...some
examples for us...
DS10 was gifted a limited edition Stitch pin by a CM. The kids were buying things and DS10 wanted a Stitch pin that was in the case. The CM gifted it to him. Never had that happen before, he was SO excited. Another CM sort of "gifted" us a popcorn bucket. We were sitting at tables outside of Frozen Sing a Long and a CM walked up with a bucket and said she found it laying on a table and asked if we wanted it. Other fun things for us...we did the surry bike on the boardwalk...all 5 of us on a bike. It was a blast. We watched fireworks from the Poly beach. The first night, which I think was 12/28, we were literally the only ones on the beach. Sadly, it was foggy, so half of the fireworks were blocked. We tried again on 12/30 and saw Fantasy in the Sky. The beach was definitely more crowded, but not packed. Crystal clear sky and it was fantastic!!! Frankly, I wonder if we had a better view of the fireworks than people in the hub. It was amazing and totally stress free. No crowds, no hustle, no rush. We actually booked one night at the Dolphin, because we can stay free on Starwood Points. The kids had a great time at the pool, but we actually wound up going back to our rental house to sleep, because staying on property just didn't fit us (we would have had to go home anyway in the morning for breakfast, etc...and the kids wanted their own rooms).
We had a fantastic time and are so glad we were there. The countdown to summer vacation is on already. I know we do things differently than most, but if you have questions about anything we saw or did, just ask.
First thing I'll talk about is crowds, as it's a popular topic. I've made no secret that I think crowd calendars have no value, so I won't compare what the calendar said to what I think. I don't even look at them, so I wouldn't know what they said anyway. But just on my own observations... We were quite surprised how low the crowds were before Christmas. We were in Epcot on 12/21 in the evening and ate dinner at the Electric Umbrella. We used the tables outside and there were literally only 3 other families sitting there, out of the 50 or so tables they have...and this was at 6pm. The rest of FutureWorld was pretty empty. After Christmas, the crowds grew steadily. The last 4 days before we left were the busiest I've ever seen. For example, we actually used a FP+ for Muppets...and it was actually useful. Never seen that before. MK was packed, but we were still able to navigate around. Slowly at times, but never got "trapped". The only time we were sort of stuck was right after a parade. We were in Liberty Square, trying to head to Splash. There was a bit of a bottleneck as the crowd cleared, but I think we were stopped for maybe 60 seconds. After that, the line of people moved...slowly for sure, but steadily. In HS, moving around near ToT and RnR took some patience. We saw lines in AK that we normally wouldn't see, such as at Bugs Life.
I'm always amazed at how good of a job WDW does in getting people in and out of the parks with such crowds. The parking lots were jammed, but they had tram after tram after tram lined up to scoop you up and bring you in. It was very efficient. Even getting into MK wasn't bad. The Express monorail line looked terrible, but like the tram, they had train after train lined up to scoop people up. We often used the Resort monorail instead, simply because there was no line and a train was pulling up as we walked toward the station. Exiting the parks was also easy, even in MK. They had the alternate exit open pretty often, so you walked "behind" Main St, not having to fight through the hub.
So to sum up the crowds...yes, it was very crowded, especially after Xmas, but it never was a major issue.
Rudeness? Honestly, in our 11 days, I encountered a grand total of one rude guest. That's it. I'm not saying they aren't there, but we just never really came across any. Everyone seemed in the holiday spirit and had a decent amount of patience and politeness. Not that everyone was singing Christmas carols in unison, but it wasn't chaos, shouting or anger. Just people going about their business, and in a crowd, showing courtesy and patience. Very pleasant surprise.
Rides? We aren't rope drop people, so we never used that strategy. In fact, I think the earliest we showed up to the parks was 9:30, and that was only once or twice. Typically, we'd show up around 10:00 or so. Since we stay offsite, we could only book FP+ 30 days out...and since we're an AP holder, we could only book days 1-7 at the 30 day mark. Days 8-11 had to be done while we were there, so only 7 days out. We still had quite a nice selection. We are also very much "wing it" people, so beyond the 3 FP+ (which were picked for no particular reasons), we had no set plans when we walked in the gate. We burned through our first three FP+ as fast as possible, so we could get more. We never waited in any standby line that was more than 20 minutes. It took some pretty hard "refreshing" work on the app, but I got a ton of same day FP+. For example, I got SM several times...even literally 5 minutes in advance. Also got things like TSMM, RnR, BTMRR, Splash, Pooh, Pirates, TT, EE (no Pandora stuff), etc... We stayed in the parks about 5 or 6 hours each day and accomplished 6-7 FP+ per day, plus the time we took to eat, see shows, etc... Yes, we saw insanely lone standby lines, such as 2.5 hours for safari, but we never went in any of them and only did things we could do via FP+ or rides that didn't need one (CoP, Stitch, etc...).
CM? I've said it over and over, they are simply awesome. Didn't encounter a single bad apple. Not a one. I can't count how many had smiles on their faces, despite dealing with huge crowds. Or how many of them waived at you. Or how many of the tram operators were being lively and funny and energetic. CMs working attractions were in character and very friendly when the opportunity arose. Again, I'm sure there's a bad one on property somewhere, and everyone has bad days. If they're cutting back on staffing, it didn't show during the holidays. They were everywhere, and all eager to assist. To me, they are a huge part of the WDW magic.
Speaking of magic...some
examples for us...DS10 was gifted a limited edition Stitch pin by a CM. The kids were buying things and DS10 wanted a Stitch pin that was in the case. The CM gifted it to him. Never had that happen before, he was SO excited. Another CM sort of "gifted" us a popcorn bucket. We were sitting at tables outside of Frozen Sing a Long and a CM walked up with a bucket and said she found it laying on a table and asked if we wanted it. Other fun things for us...we did the surry bike on the boardwalk...all 5 of us on a bike. It was a blast. We watched fireworks from the Poly beach. The first night, which I think was 12/28, we were literally the only ones on the beach. Sadly, it was foggy, so half of the fireworks were blocked. We tried again on 12/30 and saw Fantasy in the Sky. The beach was definitely more crowded, but not packed. Crystal clear sky and it was fantastic!!! Frankly, I wonder if we had a better view of the fireworks than people in the hub. It was amazing and totally stress free. No crowds, no hustle, no rush. We actually booked one night at the Dolphin, because we can stay free on Starwood Points. The kids had a great time at the pool, but we actually wound up going back to our rental house to sleep, because staying on property just didn't fit us (we would have had to go home anyway in the morning for breakfast, etc...and the kids wanted their own rooms).
We had a fantastic time and are so glad we were there. The countdown to summer vacation is on already. I know we do things differently than most, but if you have questions about anything we saw or did, just ask.
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