Good Morning!
We left WDW yesterday (Monday, October 6) and are home safe and sound....here's a few thoughts about our vacation
We stayed at the Dolphin 6 nights and the Contemporary 3, for a total of 9 nights. I'll post about the resorts on the resort board...
the parks in pretty good shape--of course, there are always things that need a touch-up with paint (Buzz Lightyear--the cars are looking rough), but all in all, the parks look great We rode Mission:Space and Mickey's Philharmagic several times during the week--LOVED them both! Everything is ready for the media events this week, too. Stages, plants, sound booths, etc. Can't wait to watch on TV!
characters were out all over the place--at scheduled and random times. Last week, our daughter had Minnie's house all to herself with Chip and Dale! She loved it! We had no idea they were out roaming around....we were in the kitchen, and they came in the back door. Anna had a blast
weather could have been better--we arrived at MCO on Saturday (9/26) at 2PM and it was storming by 5PM....it was rainy and cloudy until Oct 2. On the days it didn't rain, the weather was perfect for the parks. Comfortably cool. Thursday-Monday it was sunny and HOT. Upper 80's yesterday....
upgrading passes I upgraded our passes from Paramount to AP's (we had 7 day hoppers) when we realized that the weather was not going to be good for water parks...the ONLY reason that I did it was that there was a computer problem and were mischarged. I stopped at the Intl Gateway at Epcot with passes in hand. I asked the CM to check on the price of an upgrade--in the middle of the transaction, the computer crashed. I have NO idea what he did with my passes (he went back in an office), but he came back out with new ones, and proceeded with the upgrade from there. It cost less than $100 to upgrade the 3 passes. My DH wasn't with me, so I had to upgrade his later...I went to the ticket window at Future World this time. I had a very efficient CM with a fully functional computer, LOL. This time, the pass was backdated to the date on the PHP pass. I still haven't figured that out since I thought it was supposed to be dated back to the first use date
The cost was $95....If I had started there first, I would NOT have upgraded my passes. In the end, I paid less than $190 to upgrade our 7 day PHP passes to Annual Passes....
crowds much has been made about the difference in Sept/Oct crowds. We arrived on Sept 27 and left on Oct 6. In our opinion, the crowds were much larger starting on October 2 & 3. We walked onto Main St. on Tuesday (9/30) at 3:05 and was able to get a spot on the curb for the parade--we had our choice opf places to sit. We asked the CM where everybody was--she told us the crowds were starting tomorrow, it's October. She was right. M-T-W last week the fast pass machines were covered, with the exception of Pooh. We didn't wait to ride anything--Test Track had a 5 minute wait.
Sunday vs. Monday at the MK We were in the MK on Sunday, Sept 28...Monday, Sept 29....and Monday, Oct 6(yesterday). We didn't go to the MK for EE on Sunday, Oct 5..but were at park close for MNSSHP. The least crowded day? Tuesday and Wednesday Last Monday was very quiet at the MK, yesterday was a MADHOUSE. IASW had a wait at 10AM as we were leaving the park.....most of the fastpass machines were up and running. It was a sea of humanity as I was trying to leave--the CM I spoke to said it was only going to get worse as the week went on.
Any questions?
We left WDW yesterday (Monday, October 6) and are home safe and sound....here's a few thoughts about our vacation
We stayed at the Dolphin 6 nights and the Contemporary 3, for a total of 9 nights. I'll post about the resorts on the resort board...the parks in pretty good shape--of course, there are always things that need a touch-up with paint (Buzz Lightyear--the cars are looking rough), but all in all, the parks look great
We rode Mission:Space and Mickey's Philharmagic several times during the week--LOVED them both! Everything is ready for the media events this week, too. Stages, plants, sound booths, etc. Can't wait to watch on TV!characters were out all over the place--at scheduled and random times. Last week, our daughter had Minnie's house all to herself with Chip and Dale! She loved it! We had no idea they were out roaming around....we were in the kitchen, and they came in the back door. Anna had a blast
weather could have been better--we arrived at MCO on Saturday (9/26) at 2PM and it was storming by 5PM....it was rainy and cloudy until Oct 2. On the days it didn't rain, the weather was perfect for the parks. Comfortably cool. Thursday-Monday it was sunny and HOT. Upper 80's yesterday....
upgrading passes I upgraded our passes from Paramount to AP's (we had 7 day hoppers) when we realized that the weather was not going to be good for water parks...the ONLY reason that I did it was that there was a computer problem and were mischarged. I stopped at the Intl Gateway at Epcot with passes in hand. I asked the CM to check on the price of an upgrade--in the middle of the transaction, the computer crashed. I have NO idea what he did with my passes (he went back in an office), but he came back out with new ones, and proceeded with the upgrade from there. It cost less than $100 to upgrade the 3 passes. My DH wasn't with me, so I had to upgrade his later...I went to the ticket window at Future World this time. I had a very efficient CM with a fully functional computer, LOL. This time, the pass was backdated to the date on the PHP pass. I still haven't figured that out since I thought it was supposed to be dated back to the first use date
The cost was $95....If I had started there first, I would NOT have upgraded my passes. In the end, I paid less than $190 to upgrade our 7 day PHP passes to Annual Passes....crowds much has been made about the difference in Sept/Oct crowds. We arrived on Sept 27 and left on Oct 6. In our opinion, the crowds were much larger starting on October 2 & 3. We walked onto Main St. on Tuesday (9/30) at 3:05 and was able to get a spot on the curb for the parade--we had our choice opf places to sit. We asked the CM where everybody was--she told us the crowds were starting tomorrow, it's October. She was right. M-T-W last week the fast pass machines were covered, with the exception of Pooh. We didn't wait to ride anything--Test Track had a 5 minute wait.
Sunday vs. Monday at the MK We were in the MK on Sunday, Sept 28...Monday, Sept 29....and Monday, Oct 6(yesterday). We didn't go to the MK for EE on Sunday, Oct 5..but were at park close for MNSSHP. The least crowded day? Tuesday and Wednesday
Last Monday was very quiet at the MK, yesterday was a MADHOUSE. IASW had a wait at 10AM as we were leaving the park.....most of the fastpass machines were up and running. It was a sea of humanity as I was trying to leave--the CM I spoke to said it was only going to get worse as the week went on. Any questions?
this trip, we only shared a bus with the Boardwalk (for the Magic Kingdom). In past trips we have shared with the Boardwalk and the Y/B Club. We never had to wait more than a few minutes for a bus to the MK....and the buses we were on were never full. We drove ourselves to the AK, simply because our 2-year old hated the bus ride. We took the boat to MGM...that's always fun...and we walked every day to Epcot. In the evenings, we stopped for ice cream on the Boardwalk. I think that's probably our favorite thing to do--spend the evening at Epcot, followed by a walk on the Boardwalk.
