Even when Disney isn't at its best...its still the best.

[valentinasdad]

My wife and I have been to Disney about 8 or 9 times before we married. We love it and cant get enough. This past March we just did 7 nights at OKW with our 15 month old for the first time. Sad to say this was probably the worst conditions i have seen in Disney since i have been going. I don't want to harp on the construction because we all know whats going on, but i have to say walking down main street and looking at the castle with a crane by its side sure does take something away from the experience. Not to mention all the pictures we took. I couldn't help but think someone here in this park waited their whole life to view the castle and take these pictures and BAM there's that crane. Another issue we had were rides not working properly. After we waited 30 minutes for haunted mansion they tell us ride malfunctioned and they don't know when it will reopen. Pirates of the carribean had an issue with the boats, they were all going too slow the boats all backed up and the ride wasn't in sync with the characters talking. On 2 separate occasions we had an issue with the monorails. Once after chef mickeys for breakfast they were down and it delayed us getting to magic kingdom. 4 days later we took the monorail from magic kingdom to poly for dinner at ohana and after dinner the monorail was down again. We had to wait for bus service to start at poly and we ended up missing wishes at MK. The funny thing is after all that, it was still my best vacation i ever had. My daughter loved it and as i sit here writing this i'm waiting for my resale offer to hopefully pass rofr. What can i say Disney wasn't at the top of their game but they are still the best in the world at what they do.Tons of people on here bash the character buffets for being junky and messy. They are probably right. Its the character interaction that keeps me going back and the look on my daughters face meeting mickey.There are things they may have taken a few steps back on, but they know where that is and they are making improvements just hope sooner rather than later!

 

[Cormoran]

I am so glad you had an excellent time. IMO I can go to the crappiest or the greatest vacation spot in the world, it's more about who you're with than about where you are.

 

[POOHsie]

Pirates is going to be down from 5/11/2015- 9/25/2015 for refurbishment. There's been problems, and the new boats have also presented unexpected problems. Sorry that HM shut down after you waited so long. In the "old days" you used to get paper Fast Passes when a ride shut down. With FP+ on a MagicBand, they don't seem to offer that except in more extreme situations. The monorail has stopped express service since early March thru Summer (something being fixed in the Contemporary over the monorail line) and that has probably caused extra wear on the resort monorail service. Not trying to excuse anything. But when you were at the Contemporary, the walk to MK front gate is super short, and many people stay at this resort just so they can walk there. From the Poly you have 2 choices which are better than bus service. Either take the Poly Motor Launch across Seven Seas Lagoon to MK, or walk next door to the TTC (short walk) and take the big ferry boat to MK. I believe at least 2 ferries are running at all times. I give credit to Disney for planning and doing upgrades for better handling of increased crowds, and biting the bullet to expand the pedestrian area around the hub. Already it looks wonderful and crowds seem happy with the extra real estate. Each time we've stayed at a Disney resort there were assorted maintenance crews painting, pressure washing, bug spraying, replacing worn-out stuff, generally keeping up-to-date in order to be worthy of their premium prices in such a competitive location. We haven't stayed at OKW, but it's on our list for the future. Glad your family had a wonderful time. It's why we've gone to WDW since our DD was a toddler (29 now).