Here Now & Just Back - A Place To Share Your Recent Experiences

[Wood Nymph]

The cast member party for MK was canceled for tonight. I don’t know if MK hours will change or not? And I heard the cm party will be rescheduled.

We were at MK today and the signs said that the park closed at 4:30pm. Our waiter at LTT talked about today's early closure but didn't mention that the CM party was cancelled.

 

[Josh125]

MK did in fact close at 4:30, we are here. It has been rescheduled. Resort guests enter at 8:30, but more importantly deluxe resort guests and DVC resorts have extra magic hours from 9-11 PM tomorrow night.

 

[Sarahslay]

We’re going to MK tomorrow morning. Does anyone know what time resort guests are being let in? Are the rides starting earlier than 8:30am?

We got there right at 8 and were let through in to the park, no clue if people had gotten in before us in to the park, there was just a lot of people. Rides did not start until right at 8:30 on the dot, it was that way at all the parks (and it seemed like extra madness for us at MK for some reason, little kids don't understand). Also, only half the park was open both mornings we went, only Tomorrowland and New Fantasy

 

[Birdsg223]

The rain and early MK close was great today. Many rides were walk on all day.

 

[emmabelle]

The rain and early MK close was great today. Many rides were walk on all day.

you know I was tempted to change my ressie to MK. Missed opportunity

We got there right at 8 and were let through in to the park, no clue if people had gotten in before us in to the park, there was just a lot of people. Rides did not start until right at 8:30 on the dot, it was that way at all the parks (and it seemed like extra madness for us at MK for some reason, little kids don't understand). Also, only half the park was open both mornings we went, only Tomorrowland and New Fantasy

I noticed that with both Epcot and HS.

 

[bsmcneil]

Cons
Enchantment - I hate to say it, because I wanted to love this show, but I was so disappointed. The projections on Main Street are very cool, but the soundtrack and the fireworks were very disappointing. I didn't feel anything when watching, like I did with Happily Ever After. Just generic Disney soundtracks.

So, when it first came out, so many people were saying it was bad and a handful of people said, "Wait to make a judgment until you see it in person." So, I did. And I'm with you (I didn't get to see the projections - we had spots on the hub grass with the fireworks pre-party) - it was disappointing. I had talked up how Disney nighttime entertainment (fireworks, etc) were great with story, scoring, visuals, etc to my kids and they didn't really care for it (and it didn't really do anything for me). It definitely didn't feel as special and woven together as Wishes (or HEA). It just felt meh (and this was last night of my trip, and fireworks/Disney nighttime things are my very special/favorite thing - so I was primed to love it. I'm usually a crier at these).

 

[bsmcneil]

I'm never concise but I'll try:

• Enjoyed the trip. Definitely didn't feel as special as things have before.
• CMs were great and helpful for the most part. I really appreciated that.
  • I had one particular experience that was frustrating but 100% understandable. We were rushing to get to the fireworks pre-party and I wasn't 100% sure where Tomorrowland Terrace was. I asked one CM who gave me some directions but it became confusing. Stopped and asked the next CM I saw, who was a CM who was Earning their Ears. She had no idea (and was working in Tomorrowland). And I don't mean she had a general sense - it was a deer in the headlights moment. And, unfortunately, she didn't walk me over to another CM or have any way of finding it - she just couldn't help. And she apologized and I totally get it - just was frustrating (we were the last party to check in and all went fine).
  • I also had some frustrating experiences of CMs not having info and/or telling me info I knew to be wrong (no need to pay down your balance throughout the trip if you want to use gift cards - just let it all store up and pay at check-out - which I knew was wrong and then ... sure enough, they'd charge my CC. This only mattered because I had purchased a ton of GC to save money over the holidays and planned to pay for everything possible with those).
• I saw more CMs "Earning my Ears" this trip than I did in late Sept (after I had understood a lot stared with CP). I honestly couldn't believe how many!
• G+/ILLS was really frustrating for me (and at the same time, it helped our trip). I've posted about that in other threads.
  • Biggest frustrations were trying to juggle with kids and not really being able to predict things, and times switching during purchasing (ILLS) and/or not being able to choose times.
  • This was especially true one day (we were going to MK and I knew we'd be getting there later in the day - so I wanted to try to get a LL for the afternoon ... but any time I got close and clicked, it would refresh and give me earlier times, which I'm sure would be great for many people). I seemed to recall one day (not then, though) that we could set hours (and I forgot about that again until just this moment) and some sort of alert or tutorial with that could've been helpful (like, with the Genie questions it asked, it would be awesome to ask "When will you get started." Minor issue and with most families, likely not a concern. But I was a single parent trying to juggle it all and I hated refreshing for 40 min when I could've gotten a little more sleep that day.
• My kids enjoyed it - and it was super frustrating for me to think, "Yeah, but if you could only see ___ (Fantasmic, meet characters, not walk around this huge wall in Epcot, etc etc etc)" all the time. There are worse problems - but that kept coming up for me.
• It was really frustrating when a livestreamer walked in front of my two small kids to stream ROTR and blocked their view (this was in the room - I don't know SW/SW:GE very well - where you see Lt. Bek, etc. It just felt really discourteous.
• Thank goodness there are bathrooms in the FoP line . I had tried to prep the kids but we made it through 40 min in the line for TSMM before they had to leave for the bathroom (the only attraction we were going to do without a LL that was more than a 10 min wait). Luckily when a similar thing happened for FoP, we didn't have to give up our spot (and we never got to do TSMM sadly, which I think they would've loved).
• There was more merch than I expected. I did get the wrong size of a shirt and wanted to exchange it but couldn't find it again (Encanto at DAK and then we only went there one day) and I wish I had more time to shop as we rushed through things.

Dining

• Topolino's really is as good as so many people say. We lucked out to get one of the last slots on our last day of the trip (I think I got the ADR at, like, 11:55 the night before). Top notch! Chef Mickey's was good - but Topolino's was great.
• I'm pretty sure I'm the only person to get so excited about going to a buffet (Boma) for the asparagus. But man I love their asparagus!
• Man, people are not kidding when they talk about the quality of T-Rex/Rainforest Cafe. Like, I knew but the kids really wanted it (and again, I had found a good GC deal during the holidays). I'm glad we did it ... and the food was not worth the very cheap gift card I used, lol.
• Because things were so unpredictable (kids' first time and Genie+), I ended up just cancelling most of our ADRs after the first day. Disney would've made a ton of more money from me/through those if Genie+, in particular, wasn't so frustrating and inflexible.
• I'm proud/troubled to say we made far more progress on the Kitchen Sink than I ever thought we would .

 

[TheMick424]

• Because things were so unpredictable (kids' first time and Genie+), I ended up just cancelling most of our ADRs after the first day. Disney would've made a ton of more money from me/through those if Genie+, in particular, wasn't so frustrating and inflexible.

I have been wondering how much of an impact Genie+ is having on dining revenue. We typically have 1 TS meal a day for dinner, but thinking there may be a couple days where that is at risk.

 

[MainMom]

We got there right at 8 and were let through in to the park, no clue if people had gotten in before us in to the park, there was just a lot of people. Rides did not start until right at 8:30 on the dot, it was that way at all the parks (and it seemed like extra madness for us at MK for some reason, little kids don't understand). Also, only half the park was open both mornings we went, only Tomorrowland and New Fantasy

That’s all that is ever open on morning EMH.

 

[DisneyFive]

I have been wondering how much of an impact Genie+ is having on dining revenue. We typically have 1 TS meal a day for dinner, but thinking there may be a couple days where that is at risk.

I agree, and it does more than that. It actually caused us to remove entire days from our trip.

Our last few vacations to Disney have been 10 nights long. Including Park Hopper‘s.

This upcoming summer we went down to 8 nights and no Park Hopper‘s. That is mostly, but not all not due to Genie plus (+$640) but also due to the loss of Magical express which will now cost us an extra +$160 round-trip, and the overall increase in resort and ticket costs.

There is a limit to what I am willing to spend on a Disney vacation and this year, sadly, it hits at eight nights rather than 10.

Dan

 

[Sarahslay]

That’s all that is ever open on morning EMH.

I was just saying that because some people don't know, my dad wanted to ride PP one morning so we went over there first thing, as we stood in line many people went over and got to the rope blocking it off and were super upset (one guy visibly mad). Some people don't know, so it's always good just to add just in case, what's known to some isn't known to all.

 

[p8ntldy]

I was just saying that because some people don't know, my dad wanted to ride PP one morning so we went over there first thing, as we stood in line many people went over and got to the rope blocking it off and were super upset (one guy visibly mad). Some people don't know, so it's always good just to add just in case, what's known to some isn't known to all.

What is PP?

 

[Naomeri]

What is PP?

Peter Pan

 

[Yoshi]

I was at Hollywood Studios today and Touring Plans has it as a 4 on the crowd calendar. I’ll be curious to see what the actual crowd level was when they post it tomorrow but I’m going to guess it was really an 8 or 9.

Tower of Terror was running at half capacity with a wait of 90-110 minutes most of the day. Slinky Dog Dash had a posted 2 1/2 hour wait in the afternoon. Even just walking around the park was difficult.

 

[leeniewdw]

I just looked for yesterday. HS was listed as an actual 7. MK was listed as a 10, so it's definitely crowded. We have a tentative trip for first weekend in March and just glancing at the return times the last few days and it's looking almost more busy than first weekend in Dec (our last trip).

We may have to adjust our expectations. I went back and looked at our 2 days in December and it was much lower than what's showing for our trip in March. We did fine with rides utilizing LL, ILL$, and an AH event, but felt like EPCOT/World Showcase was an absolute mad house. Hmmm.

 

[mfly]

I just looked for yesterday. HS was listed as an actual 7. MK was listed as a 10, so it's definitely crowded. We have a tentative trip for first weekend in March and just glancing at the return times the last few days and it's looking almost more busy than first weekend in Dec (our last trip).

We may have to adjust our expectations. I went back and looked at our 2 days in December and it was much lower than what's showing for our trip in March. We did fine with rides utilizing LL, ILL$, and an AH event, but felt like EPCOT/World Showcase was an absolute mad house. Hmmm.

Oh boy. We’re going for Sat & Sun of President’s Day Weekend.

If a random Wednesday in early February was a 10, I can only imagine what those days will be like.

 

[lynzi2004]

Oh boy. We’re going for Sat & Sun of President’s Day Weekend.

If a random Wednesday in early February was a 10, I can only imagine what those days will be like.

From our experience, you might be better off! When Disney is expecting crowds, they are running on all cylinders, longer hours, more cars/trains running on attractions, more food carts open. We were there the week before Christmas and got so much done by being smart with a plan and staying ahead of the crowds. On a random Wednesday in February, Disney isn’t going to have the staffing or hours they do over a holiday. With the reservation system now, it shouldn’t really make a difference as they know how many people will be there, but there’s a lot of reservations that likely to unused or whatever so I do think Disney is typically more prepared over holiday vs non-holidays. I’ve heard several people shooting for “low-crowd” times be disappointed the last several weeks. But most of the chatter around the holidays, was that it was crowded but Disney and the guests expected it and that Disney was prepared. (At Christmas…not so much aThanksgiving, that was a disaster!)

 

[leeniewdw]

Checking HS again just now (1:50 ET) and both TOT and RNRC are (currently) out of LL for the day. Perhaps that's due to staffing/hours etc as mentioned above.

Probably good thing we are looking for a warm getaway in March and everything else just a bonus. We really struck out in early Dec for the 1 night we were at EPCOT for the Holiday Fest, we planned to snack our way around the world but the lines were crazy. We ended up getting a pretzel just to have something to eat and didn't actually get some real food until Mexico (we were going counter clockwise) at the end.

Any predictions for how crowded the first weekend of Flower/Garden will be?

 

[Mle8308]

Checking HS again just now (1:50 ET) and both TOT and RNRC are (currently) out of LL for the day. Perhaps that's due to staffing/hours etc as mentioned above.

Probably good thing we are looking for a warm getaway in March and everything else just a bonus. We really struck out in early Dec for the 1 night we were at EPCOT for the Holiday Fest, we planned to snack our way around the world but the lines were crazy. We ended up getting a pretzel just to have something to eat and didn't actually get some real food until Mexico (we were going counter clockwise) at the end.

Any predictions for how crowded the first weekend of Flower/Garden will be?

Epcot will be packed, always is the first day of a festival.

 

[leeniewdw]

If we go, it would be the first Friday, 3/4 of the Flower/Garden. Technically it starts on 3/2. Either way, I'm sure it'll be crowded.