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

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm sure Test Track being closed didn't help, but I expect the tail-end of the Food & Wine made for some big crowds, especially on the World Showcase side. Between the booths up for the festivals and the pinch points around the lake - it can feel really, really crowded. We've enjoyed most of the different festivals, but F&W seemed the worst to us by far - so much so, we've avoided it for years now. Arts Festival is our favorite and doesn't seem as crazy or loud. F&G is also nicer (for us, anyway), and actually has quite a few things all around the park, not just in the World Showcase.

Your observations don't surprise me at all......

 

[jsmla]

I purchased LLMP last August, booked Remy’s and was never able to get a LL for Frozen.

 

[otten]

We were there around the same time last year. At the very start of the day world showcase was navigable but within a few hours it was almost impassable. We got genie plus but it was pretty useless at Epcot. We couldn't get Remy and Frozen ended up down the entire day (I am sure the latter didn't help crowds).

We're skipping Epcot on our short post cruise trip next year. It's not worth it for the relatively small number of attractions. Granted we're skipping HS too because I feel the same way about that park.

 

[imbelle]

Just got back from a WDW trip and have to give a shout out to Skipper Joey with his Hanukkah version of the Jingle Cruise. I haven't laughed that much on JC in years!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just got back from a WDW trip and have to give a shout out to Skipper Joey with his Hanukkah version of the Jingle Cruise. I haven't laughed that much on JC in years!

That sounds like such fun!!

 

[ST1TCH]

Will try to be as brief as possible. Feel like I could ramble for a while here. We were at WDW 10/30 - 11/6. Just flew home last night.

Had the MNSSHP on Halloween night. The party was fun but felt pretty crowded. IMHO they should dial back the limit by at least 20-25% but it is what it is. Even with almost 8 hours, there's still no way to get it all done. We focused on the parade, fireworks show and Hocus Pocus stage show and then all the PhotoPass folks we could find. We also did Haunted Mansion. Saw the Cadaver Dans and hit a handful of treat stations. But there's no way we could have done the waits for Tron or Seven Dwarves and not run out of time. We were costumed up so didn't try them. Grabbed some flatbreads at Pinocchio's. I'm sure I'm forgetting 1 or 2 things we did, but it feels like that's all we accomplished. Still a great time, probably will plan 2 nights next time.

Magic Kingdom we hit on 11/1 as we wanted to see the change from Halloween to Christmas overnight. Was our first LLMP experience and it went pretty well. Felt at least as crowded as the party the night before if not more so. Couldn't get LL for either Seven Dwarves or Tron so wasn't able to do them based on their wait times throughout the day (at least 60 - 95 each). We did get LL and VQ for Tiana's this day. Very fun ride, good update to the original. We had lunch plans at Be Our Guest and then the Fireworks Dessert Pre-Party. Hit most of the other rides we wanted to do. Still felt like we ran out time though.

And now I've rambled too much already, I'll sum up in bullet points:

- Very crowded most of the trip for what I naively thought would be a "slow" time at WDW. Turns out it's race weekend and Jersey Week(?)
- Seemed I kept picking the wrong park each day as we'd talk to someone in passing "Hollywood was all walk ons yesterday" - not the case the day we go to Hollywood
- Is there a "slow" period at WDW anymore?? Would love to know when that is......
- Parks were full of whole families the whole time -- it's evidently become an epidemic of taking kids out of school to go to WDW -- no judgement here - just an observation
- by the mid to late point of the trip, was kicking myself for not putting forward the $$ 7 days before to just buy the ILL every day for the rides I really wanted - waits were painful -- had to do early entry for Tron and Remy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is now, hands down, my favorite ride on property. I think we got 5 trips on it this time. I did buy ILL for it 2x. Then VQ the rest. BUT as fun as the ride is....I feel like the story during the ride isn't well fleshed out....or you miss 1/2 of it when you're not facing the screens.....we won obviously....but how?
- Aside from Animal Kingdom, I felt like there was no shot to complete any other park (every attraction) in a single day. Was especially noticeable to me at Hollywood. Granted we had both Woody's Roundup (best restaurant) lunch and the Sci-Fi Fantasmic dinner. Never made it to Frozen sing-along, Fantasmic conflicted with the projection show on the Chinese Theater, missed Beauty & the Beast show, etc.
- Food & Wine.On a Saturday.Along with Race weekend.....definitely a no go. Wow the lines for each and every booth.
- Splurged on Polynesian for 3 nights this trip as it was our 25th anniversary.....not sure the $$$ is worth it to me. Granted it's a great resort and a nice room, but the increase nightly from Pop Century....when the supposed benefit of the monorail is extremely slow IMHO - resort line takes forever. Still prefer the Skyliner and buses from Pop aren't too bad (other than park closing time).
- Our last 2 days we went with a much less planned time and park hopped around to get things we missed other days. Were probably our favorite days.
- Luminous? Might be my least favorite Epcot show. I was evidently in the minority in loving Harmonious. My top was probably Illuminations.
- Happily Ever After is still an awesome projection/fireworks show...no matter how many times I see it. Wife wanted to rest in the room so I actually made a solo trip back to MK just to watch it.
- Should have stayed the rest of the week so we could hit Jollywood Nights this weekend

 

[ST1TCH]

Oh, one more thing --

ROTR does have a single-rider line now -- they'll tell you you'll miss the pre-show stuff but that wasn't the case for us. Got to see it all. We were a transport shuttle of all single-riders and then got split up as we were needed once on the Star Destroyer.

 

[Gentry2004]

Will try to be as brief as possible. Feel like I could ramble for a while here. We were at WDW 10/30 - 11/6. Just flew home last night.

Had the MNSSHP on Halloween night. The party was fun but felt pretty crowded. IMHO they should dial back the limit by at least 20-25% but it is what it is. Even with almost 8 hours, there's still no way to get it all done. We focused on the parade, fireworks show and Hocus Pocus stage show and then all the PhotoPass folks we could find. We also did Haunted Mansion. Saw the Cadaver Dans and hit a handful of treat stations. But there's no way we could have done the waits for Tron or Seven Dwarves and not run out of time. We were costumed up so didn't try them. Grabbed some flatbreads at Pinocchio's. I'm sure I'm forgetting 1 or 2 things we did, but it feels like that's all we accomplished. Still a great time, probably will plan 2 nights next time.

Magic Kingdom we hit on 11/1 as we wanted to see the change from Halloween to Christmas overnight. Was our first LLMP experience and it went pretty well. Felt at least as crowded as the party the night before if not more so. Couldn't get LL for either Seven Dwarves or Tron so wasn't able to do them based on their wait times throughout the day (at least 60 - 95 each). We did get LL and VQ for Tiana's this day. Very fun ride, good update to the original. We had lunch plans at Be Our Guest and then the Fireworks Dessert Pre-Party. Hit most of the other rides we wanted to do. Still felt like we ran out time though.

And now I've rambled too much already, I'll sum up in bullet points:

- Very crowded most of the trip for what I naively thought would be a "slow" time at WDW. Turns out it's race weekend and Jersey Week(?)
- Seemed I kept picking the wrong park each day as we'd talk to someone in passing "Hollywood was all walk ons yesterday" - not the case the day we go to Hollywood
- Is there a "slow" period at WDW anymore?? Would love to know when that is......
- Parks were full of whole families the whole time -- it's evidently become an epidemic of taking kids out of school to go to WDW -- no judgement here - just an observation
- by the mid to late point of the trip, was kicking myself for not putting forward the $$ 7 days before to just buy the ILL every day for the rides I really wanted - waits were painful -- had to do early entry for Tron and Remy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is now, hands down, my favorite ride on property. I think we got 5 trips on it this time. I did buy ILL for it 2x. Then VQ the rest. BUT as fun as the ride is....I feel like the story during the ride isn't well fleshed out....or you miss 1/2 of it when you're not facing the screens.....we won obviously....but how?
- Aside from Animal Kingdom, I felt like there was no shot to complete any other park (every attraction) in a single day. Was especially noticeable to me at Hollywood. Granted we had both Woody's Roundup (best restaurant) lunch and the Sci-Fi Fantasmic dinner. Never made it to Frozen sing-along, Fantasmic conflicted with the projection show on the Chinese Theater, missed Beauty & the Beast show, etc.
- Food & Wine.On a Saturday.Along with Race weekend.....definitely a no go. Wow the lines for each and every booth.
- Splurged on Polynesian for 3 nights this trip as it was our 25th anniversary.....not sure the $$$ is worth it to me. Granted it's a great resort and a nice room, but the increase nightly from Pop Century....when the supposed benefit of the monorail is extremely slow IMHO - resort line takes forever. Still prefer the Skyliner and buses from Pop aren't too bad (other than park closing time).
- Our last 2 days we went with a much less planned time and park hopped around to get things we missed other days. Were probably our favorite days.
- Luminous? Might be my least favorite Epcot show. I was evidently in the minority in loving Harmonious. My top was probably Illuminations.
- Happily Ever After is still an awesome projection/fireworks show...no matter how many times I see it. Wife wanted to rest in the room so I actually made a solo trip back to MK just to watch it.
- Should have stayed the rest of the week so we could hit Jollywood Nights this weekend

We were there 10/30-11/5 and our kids didn’t miss any school. Between the end of the quarter/conference days, Diwali and the election the kids were off the whole time. I agree it felt crowded. I posted about Epcot which seemed especially bad. The early days were better until Jersey Week started but I’ve been that week before so knew to expect it.

 

[Gentry2004]

Oh, one more thing --

ROTR does have a single-rider line now -- they'll tell you you'll miss the pre-show stuff but that wasn't the case for us. Got to see it all. We were a transport shuttle of all single-riders and then got split up as we were needed once on the Star Destroyer.

Correct. The new format for single rider does not skip the pre shows. They do caution that it’s still in testing but it worked great for us, especially having ridden before.

 

[hertamaniac]

This week, the single rider line at RotR was seamless as they grouped us together of about 20-30 guests entering the first queue room. Of course, we got separated prior to the ride.

On another note, I rode the train at MK for a couple of laps wanting to see if there was any construction progress visible behind BTMRR. I couldn't see any activity, but what I did see made me laugh.

Right near the section where the Indians/Native Americans were, I saw a few trees must have fallen on the tracks from hurricane Milton and were removed. Except, they just let the logs lay there. That's not what gave me a chuckle since I don't think the Indians/Native Americans had gas powered chainsaws making perfect cuts making large logs and tree stumps. A little lazy for WDW to me.

 

[Gary Stocker]

My family and I are checking out today from CBR and somehow ended up with some.extra coronas and a couple IPAs and waters
If.you are around be glad to pay it forward.
Gary
Xxx-xxx-xxxx
Otherwise I will leave in front of the door (Aruba 5545)

 

[HadesFan]

We were there 10/26-11/2. I usually try to avoid party days at MK, but we ended up going during the day on 10/29 and were pleasantly surprised at how low the crowd levels were. Wait time for Tron was only 30 min. It also became a hunt for popcorn buckets, I was surprised at what was still available, as usually by the time we get there all the Halloween stuff is long gone.

 

[Gary Stocker]

My family and I are checking out today from CBR and somehow ended up with some.extra coronas and a couple IPAs and waters
If.you are around be glad to pay it forward.
Gary
Xxx-xxx-xxxx
Otherwise I will leave in front of the door (Aruba 5545)

Some eager chicagoans at the pool took all of it..off to the Springs.

 

[gottalovepluto]

- Very crowded most of the trip for what I naively thought would be a "slow" time at WDW. Turns out it's race weekend and Jersey Week(?)

Unfortunately every year we get someone thinking early Nov was a good idea and regretting it. It never is. Marathon+Jersey Week+Veterans, it’s an overlap of weird things that result in slammed parks.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Just returned from a week in WDW. 2 adults, 2 teens, experienced Disney goers. We had 6 park days and also went to Typhoon Lagoon. We had two days each in MK and HS and one day in AK and EP. Overall things went very very well and crowds were very manageable. It was easy to make smart touring plans. We bought LLMP one of our MK and HS days. We didn't need it the other days at those parks nor our AK day and all those days felt fun and also productive.

Now...about Epcot. It was a hard and frustrating day. We were torn about LLMP. We ultimately decided not to buy it because it seemed really difficult to get Frozen same day if choosing Remy in advance and we didn't want to pay $24pp just to ride Remy. Based on Thrill Data, same day Frozen was very minimal our day. World Showcase is so crowded even early in the day and by midafternoon was just unbearable. And we went on a Monday! I don't remember it being like this. Was it just because of Food & Wine? Because Test Track is down? If this is just the "new normal" at Epcot, I'm honestly not sure we will keep going. Or maybe just make it a half day morning park. Did I do something wrong? What should I have done differently? Everyone complains about HS, but I had no trouble getting literally every LL there. I would have been willing to pay at Epcot if LLMP provided more value there, but I just didn't see it.

Did you hit Jersey week (11/4-11) on that EP day? Cause that’s generally one of the busier times of the year. If so next time, I’d avoid Jersey Week. My trips got a lot better when I shifted later in Nov…

 

[scrappinginontario]

We were there 10/26-11/2. I usually try to avoid party days at MK, but we ended up going during the day on 10/29 and were pleasantly surprised at how low the crowd levels were. Wait time for Tron was only 30 min. It also became a hunt for popcorn buckets, I was surprised at what was still available, as usually by the time we get there all the Halloween stuff is long gone.

Party days are historically great days to visit the MK as many stay away due to reduced hours. You may find yourself being a party day convert.

 

[tachyonbb]

Frequent visitor, we just got back last week. Our favorite activity was "Up close with Rhinos" we got up close with Mylo and had a great time. Got to pet Mylo Disney donates all the cost of the tour to their conservation group. Highly recommended.

 

[erinch]

We are headed back to PA after an awesome 8 day trip to WDW. My DH and I have APs, and my Daughter and her hubby had 7 day park hoppers. I was an expert Genie + and FP+ user, but got everything messed up in prebooking LLs in the new system. I was going fast and didn’t realize that after 3 days I only bought for them. We stayed offsite at the Vistana, our favorite resort. I also managed to mix up days, and double book both MK SPs for them on Thursday AND Friday, when on Friday, we were at AK.

A series of amazing cast members in Guest Relations in all 4 parks helped me get it sorted, added my husband and myself to their LL times, switched SPs from them to us, and to different parks, and we’re just amazingly sweet, patient, non-judgmental and awesome. We were at the DS Guest Relations today for daughter and SiL to upgrade themselves to APs ( which THEY paid for!) I got to leave cast appreciations for 4 guest services CMs who helped me get stuff straightened out. These accolades go to their managers, and I was glad I made the time.

 

[Tina1]

2 1/2 weeks and I’ll be in the parks love hearing everyone experiences

 

[ssgtravel]

What has been your current experience with posted wait times. Does anyone think Disney is artificially inflating those times so that folks who purchase the Lightning Lanes and passes feel they got their money's worth?