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

[Mle8308]

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.

It's still better than not going!!!

 

[DisneyFive]

Checking HS again just now (1:50 ET) and both TOT and RNRC are (currently) out of LL for the day.

If this is a regular thing, Disney HAS to open up more LL slots. That's crazy that all LL's would be sucked up so early. Takes the value right out of G+.

Edit: I went back and looked at thrill-data.com and sure enough, this isn't that unusual. This is crazy. Less than half the park day gone and all G+'s sucked up. Come on Disney, you can do better.



Tower of Terror is similar.

Dan

 

[leeniewdw]

It's still better than not going!!!

That's true I suppose. But it's an expensive ticket to get in and need to make sure we feel it's worth it!

If this is a regular thing, Disney HAS to open up more LL slots. That's crazy that all LL's would be sucked up so early. Takes the value right out of G+.

I did see a TOT available later, so perhaps you can still refresh to grab cancelations if you are lucky. On that first Friday in Dec, I was able to successfully grab LLs all morning/early afternoon so we had what we wanted when we arrived around 3pm. I *think* I had to work for one ride later in the evening with refresh.

I'll say this, we were planning to be there Pres weekend (technically the Thurs/Fri/Sat) with our adult kids/SOs. We had to cancel due to a job change and some unplanned PTO due to covid/covid exposure that had some of the kids unable to take the PTO. At this point I'm relieved based on crowds/waits. I'll be interested to see how that weekend works out.

 

[Lsdolphin]

If this is a regular thing, Disney HAS to open up more LL slots. That's crazy that all LL's would be sucked up so early. Takes the value right out of G+.

Edit: I went back and looked at thrill-data.com and sure enough, this isn't that unusual. This is crazy. Less than half the park day gone and all G+'s sucked up. Come on Disney, you can do better.

View attachment 646501

Tower of Terror is similar.
View attachment 646502
Dan

 

[Lsdolphin]

yep same thing happened to me on multiple days at MK with PP, SMT, And JC

 

[DisneyFive]

yep same thing happened to me on multiple days at MK with PP, SMT, And JC

I think Disney is trying to make G+ attractive by significantly limiting the number of LL spots for each attraction, thereby:

1. Making the LL super fast once you arrive
2. Making the Standby lines even longer

However by reducing the number of LL spots available each day they are:

1. Making the popular rides run out of availability by early afternoon (I mean there's typically 5-7 hours of park time left!)
2. Frustrating the purchaser of G+.

So it's counterproductive. Limiting the number of LL spots each day makes G+ look more attractive when you don't have it, but once you have it you realize the very limited capability of it. (especially compared to FP+, I have to sneak that in there )

Dan

 

[Lsdolphin]

I think Disney is trying to make G+ attractive by significantly limiting the number of LL spots for each attraction, thereby:

1. Making the LL super fast once you arrive
2. Making the Standby lines even longer

However by reducing the number of LL spots available each day they are:

1. Making the popular rides run out of availability by early afternoon (I mean there's typically 5-7 hours of park time left!)
2. Frustrating the purchaser of G+.

So it's counterproductive. Limiting the number of LL spots each day makes G+ look more attractive when you don't have it, but once you have it you realize the very limited capability of it. (especially compared to FP+, I have to sneak that in there )

Dan

Exactly my experience!
I basically spent $15.98 for 2 rides

 

[dd316]

Just back from an 8-day trip. Did everything we wanted to and more. Only experienced a few days where I felt it was overly crowded. Yes there were lines galore, but with other offerings still limited we just waited in the lines. Was really no big deal. Never paid for Genie+, only did ILL for ROTR once because I absolutely had to guarantee I was getting on that ride at some point. Only ride I missed out on was TOT, but that was because nobody wanted to ride it with me.

The longest line we waited in was 7DMT, a little over an hour. We did not rope drop anything - most days we didn't enter a park until after 10:00. It was all about managing the crowds - patterns were pretty easy to see so we worked it well. One day they closed MK early, just before close I only waited 10 minutes for Peter Pan.

 

[mouschievous]

Based on our experience, they could definitely release more LL and still keep those waits short. Almost every LL we had was a walk on. I would totally be good with a 15 minute wait if it meant I could get more use of G+.

 

[jmparry]

At WDW Jan 27-Feb 2. The first few days, temps were in the 40s and 50s, so we were grateful for coats and layers!

Early Entry We Rope Dropped Peter Pan on our MK day: on bus from resort by 7:15, through tapstiles by 7:45, and within the first 50 people waiting by the Teacups. The CMs held us there until exactly 8:30, most went to SDMT, we walked on to PP. IASW was down, but we rode Dumbo and Little Mermaid by 9am.

Genie+ I purchased Genie+ only for MK. Had some trouble getting the app to complete the transaction ("Disney, please take my money!"), so it was 7:05am before I selected Jungle Cruise which was then 4:50-5:50pm I set an alarm on my watch for 11am and every 2 hours after. I got Pirates for around 5:30, then Small World and Pooh for 8:20 and 8:40. I do think Genie+ was worth the price, but I prefer being able to set up the day ahead of time. It was a distraction for me to have to pick times every two hours, just my opinion.

ROTR Bought ILL$ at 7am, got 11:30-12:30. Standby was at 2 hours all day, best money spent all trip! We are huge SW fans, first visitors to GE, and Rise was incredible!

Mobile Ordering This is the best! I used it at all 4 parks and it worked so smoothly. Standby food ordering always had long lines, and we had our food within 10min of pressing "I'm here." The only exception was Aloha Isle for Dole Whips. Since they can't prep the orders ahead of time, the "Your food is ready" notification is really just telling you to get in a line to have your order filled. At a busy time, standby is probably faster!

Festival of the Arts A first for us and it was amazing! I only wish we'd had more time there. Broadway Concert, artists autographing their work, and the delicious food really made our Epcot day special!

Crowds It was definitely crowded for late January, but not as bad as summer! We waited 30-60 min for Soarin', LWTL, Kilamanjaro Safaris, and TSMM.

Overall, we had a fabulous Mother Daughter trip! The best memories are of CMs at Rose & Crown, Skipper Canteen (Richard), and Geyser Point (Cecelia).

 

[DisneyFive]

Based on our experience, they could definitely release more LL and still keep those waits short. Almost every LL we had was a walk on. I would totally be good with a 15 minute wait if it meant I could get more use of G+.

Agree 1000%. Yeah, back when FP+ was around we never expected to walk right on. Our typical waits were 5-10 minutes.

Dan

 

[mom2rtk]

Based on our experience, they could definitely release more LL and still keep those waits short. Almost every LL we had was a walk on. I would totally be good with a 15 minute wait if it meant I could get more use of G+.

I imagine they will ramp numbers up soon enough.

 

[twodogs]

I imagine they will ramp numbers up soon enough.

And I fully expect them to increase the price of G+ any minute. If you look at what they did with the pricing of Max Pass at DLR, they increased it steadily over time. And this is probably the only way to continue to make G+ feel "worth it" to some people; they have to increase the price to decrease how many people are buying it, to improve the guest experience for those who bought G+. They will keep raising the price until people stop buying....

 

[itf]

And I fully expect them to increase the price of G+ any minute. If you look at what they did with the pricing of Max Pass at DLR, they increased it steadily over time. And this is probably the only way to continue to make G+ feel "worth it" to some people; they have to increase the price to decrease how many people are buying it, to improve the guest experience for those who bought G+. They will keep raising the price until people stop buying....

This is exactly why I added G+ to our tickets for summer now. I suspect the same.

 

[Josh125]

We just got back from a 6 day trip, a few thoughts.

We used Genie+ for all parks and ILL for ROTR, Ratatouille, and M&M Runaway. Overall I thought the system did what it promised, extracting more money out of the guests. Just kidding, sort of. We rode everything we wanted to and found the app overall worked well. I didn't care for getting up a 6:50 AM every day on vacation but it did work.

The crowds were unbelievable. Easily the busiest I've seen the parks outside of the holidays.

We had great CM interactions and really never came across a grumpy person. Even as short handed as they are we were quite pleased with the experience.

The EPCOT ball is stunning, just amazing. We of course saw pictures ahead of time, but wow! The walls are still atrocious, though.

We took advantage of the EMH for DVC & Deluxe resort guests at MK. Now this is what I'm talking about! We walked on anything we wanted outside of 7DMT.

Like everyone else we hated the current park hopping rules. The Mouse actually lost money on us because we were unable to hop over for sit down lunches.

We used some pandemic points (didn't go in 2021) and upgraded to a 1 bedroom at BLT. We usually stay in a studio. It was great but is going to make it nearly impossible to go back to a studio.

It was certainly a situation of it's as magical as you make it. We've been going every year, sans the pandemic years, for 10 years and things have certainly changed. Most for the worse IMO but I do understand it is a business and their only obligation is to the shareholders.

 

[TheMick424]

Anyone have a recent AK experience to share? Wondering when they actually let resort guests into the park for Early Entry.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

When Disney is expecting crowds, they are running on all cylinders, longer hours, more cars/trains running on attractions, more food carts open.

The problem is, they should always know exactly what to expect based on park pass reservations. They really have no excuse to NOT be running on all cylinders. I get that there are still staff and product shortages, but they can easily adjust capacity to prevent these issues. They 100% control crowd flows.

 

[lynzi2004]

The problem is, they should always know exactly what to expect based on park pass reservations. They really have no excuse to NOT be running on all cylinders. I get that there are still staff and product shortages, but they can easily adjust capacity to prevent these issues. They 100% control crowd flows.

I completely agree! That’s why further down in my post, I stated that with park reservations, Disney should know what to expect and staff accordingly. But no one knows what the arbitrary number of park pass reservations are (with the exception of Disney) that triggers the EXTRA hour of Early Entry compared to the half-hour, that triggers at 10pm closing vs an 8pm or triggers some of the $ILL to get thrown in the regular Genie+ pool. All of which happened at Christmas and made our trip very enjoyable. So for people saying it’s crazy crowded there right now (and I can believe them, I had a good friend there the past 2 weeks who has been navigating Disney for 30 years tell me it was nuts) it can definitely be worse but there might be some benefit to going at the “worse” time. As someone who is willing to work the extra morning/night hours, it’s actually my families advantage to go during the holiday times. For other people definitely not so much. I do think Disney needs to up their staffing overall, but with park pass reservations still remaining for each day, I guess Disney is willing to see how far they can push it before guest satisfaction drops to a point that attendance falls!

I’m actually struggling with this dilemma right now. We have a trip planned for early March and from a Genie+ and $ILL perspective it’s going to actually cost me more and I may not get as much done each day vs the week of Christmas. That seems crazy to me that I would actually be disappointed in how many rides I could get done on a Sunday in March vs a day or two before Christmas but it’s true! At HS, we did Slinky, MMRR, RnRc and TOT in the hour early entry before the offsite guests were allowed in. No matter how I try, there’s no way I can get those all done in the 30 min of early entry in March.

 

[lovethattink]

Please remember to keep this thread to your recent experiences and not what Disney should or shouldn’t do. A new thread on the topic of what Disney should or shouldn’t do may be started on the theme park community subforum.

 

[JJsmama]

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.

ugh! We’re scheduled to go March 6-10 because my kids want to go after skipping 2-3 years. These reports are much appreciated but it sounds awful there these days! The crowds, the changes, and then not even being able to plan in advance— I honestly want to cancel the whole thing and save my money! Plus, i have celiac disease (gluten allergy), so planning ahead where we will be near to eat is a big deal. I don’t know whether to grin and bear it and ‘make the best of it’, or go with my gut, cancel and disappoint my son. Not good choices,