Okay, I'm on my last park day (2 days before I leave) and thought these were some points I should pass along. We call this "three up, three down" at my job, so don't think that the bads are equaling the goods. It's been a fantastic trip, this is just a way to highlight some areas of improvement. I'm planning to write a full trip report later that will include glowing reports of 99% of my trip.
Good:
- the crowds are as low as I expected, and lower than what everybody seems to fear. I'll post pictures in my trip report, but I'm pretty sure my longest wait so far has been less than 30 minutes, including FEA which I did not have a FP+ for. I've actually had to search for things to do a couple of times because as a solo traveler, I have been moving FAST and getting through my plans much quicker than I expected.
- I love that you can make new FP+ reservations once you've used your first three. While it hasn't been strictly necessary due to low crowds, it is pretty cool and I imagine it would be super helpful when there are larger crowds.
- the dishes at F&W fest seem much larger than I remember, and the quality has been pretty good. My appetite has been lower than I expected (probably due to heat) so I've typically been eating two dishes per meal. In 2014 I had to eat 3-4 per meal to feel full.
Less good:
- I just got out of the Frozen Sing Along. Since I last went to this, the amount of soap "snow" at the end has increased dramatically and I happened to be right under one of the dispensers. Everybody around me was getting covered in the stuff. It left my hair kind of sticky and stuff afterward. I think it would have been fine if we weren't under what appeared to be a defective dispenser.
- the first 5 days of my trip, getting a full size cup of ice water wasn't an issue. When I went to the Pop QS at the end of day 5, they handed me a small cup (half the normal size). When I asked for a full size cup they said they couldn't give out water in bigger cups, even though I'd been getting bigger cups all along until that point. Since then, it's only been small cups everywhere I go which is worsened by the fact that the last two days have been much warmer. At Animal Kingdom the QS locations were giving out tiny cups - maybe 3 ounces. It was self serve so you could fill up as many times as you wanted, but a 3 oz cup is just ridiculous unless you are staying in the immediate area. It's one gulp.
- the vast majority of CMs I've encountered have been on the scale somewhere between "having a normal day" and "it's a magical day to be alive!" But two CMs were downright surly for no apparent reason. I don't know if they encountered difficult guests shortly before I arrived, but both times the look and attitude I received felt like they were hating life. Considering I saw two CMs maintain their cool and their smile when dealing with some rather rude guests, these two definitely stuck out. Like I said, most of the CMs were fantastic so these two were notable for their uniqueness, not for being the standard.
Finally, something to consider (if it's still available during your trip) is the souvenir popcorn bucket. Right now they have a deal going on where you buy the bucket for $10, then refills are $1.50 for THE LENGTH OF YOUR STAY, AT ANY POPCORN STAND IN WDW. I didn't see this until several days into my trip but if I had, I would have bought one upon arrival. That's a great deal if you like popcorn. It's only the normal buckets though, not the fancy ones. And I don't think you can get the specialty popcorn, just the regular. But still, a fantastic deal.
I guess it worked out okay because I would have been really stressed this morning trying to make our FP+ with the internet not working! FYI if anyone is booking tomorrow there is still lots of availability!
Good Luck I hope it continues for you!
