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

[NJlauren]

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?

So anytime I wait stand by I time my wait. I would say on average they are with in 10 minutes for me. Except for Toy Story mania close to park close it was 20 minutes under.

 

[Mombaker]

So anytime I wait stand by I time my wait. I would say on average they are with in 10 minutes for me. Except for Toy Story mania close to park close it was 20 minutes under.

Only at the end of the day. The posted wait time to meet Anna and Elsa was 50 this past week, but we waited closer to 25min. However, Elsa was just over it by the time we got to her so I don’t really feel like that one was worth the wait. The pictures were terrible.

 

[Gabby01]

Just back from All-Star Sports, 1/21-1/25. Thought it was a very cute resort. It had the best water pressure of any Disney resort I've stayed at, and a nice lighted mirror like at All-Star Movies, but no full-length mirror. It was the first time I've had a problem with noisy neighbors, though (not even sports teams, of which I didn't see any--just regular families). I'm guessing that has more to do with the individual guests than the resort itself.

Spent two days at the EPCOT Festival of the Arts. Tried the Lamb Kebab, Chai Tea-Mint Fizz, Chicken Pot Pie, Almond Frangipane Cake and Natilla de Maiz, all of which were good. I was happy that they were selling the regular, $7 postcards of the artworks again, which I missed last year. Did the Animation Academy (I was glad it didn't get cancelled due to the weather, which was pretty bad). Sadly the chalk art had been washed away by the rain again this year.

Overall, I'm glad I got to stay at ASSP and experience FOTA this year. Despite the weather (which I knew wouldn't be great when I booked), I was able to do everything I wanted to.

 

[Karalee402]

@Gabby01 I've seen that Almond Frangipane cake on a few vloggers' videos, and it looks so good! So glad you had a good trip, in spite of the noisy neighbors!

 

[pens4821]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this, but curious if anyone is there this week that follows this thread. We are thinking of going next year this week, and the wait times when I look here and there have been pretty great. Our last two trips have been busy spring break weeks though, so anything will be better than that!

 

[figmentfinesse]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this, but curious if anyone is there this week that follows this thread. We are thinking of going next year this week, and the wait times when I look here and there have been pretty great. Our last two trips have been busy spring break weeks though, so anything will be better than that!

We have come this week every year since 2021 and have had great experiences every time. The only asterisk there is that before this year, this is the week they do Skyliner refurb, taking down one line for a few days at a time until all 3 get their turn.

 

[figmentfinesse]

I wanted to also mention that I have been here about 25 times at all times of year since I started coming as an adult in 2018 and I’m seeing gnats and mosquitos here at SSR.

I’ve never gotten bug bites at Disney before this trip. Not mad at all, whatever it is they do to keep it so rare is amazing and SSR has a lot of nature—I’ve seen raccoons, turtles, snakes and even armadillos here, so I wouldn’t expect it to be bug free. Just surprised after 25 trips and staying at literally every resort in all seasons I’m finally seeing it! Wondering if anyone else at the other resorts have noticed it too.

 

[VAtink]

I wanted to also mention that I have been here about 25 times at all times of year since I started coming as an adult in 2018 and I’m seeing gnats and mosquitos here at SSR.

I’ve never gotten bug bites at Disney before this trip. Not mad at all, whatever it is they do to keep it so rare is amazing and SSR has a lot of nature—I’ve seen raccoons, turtles, snakes and even armadillos here, so I wouldn’t expect it to be bug free. Just surprised after 25 trips and staying at literally every resort in all seasons I’m finally seeing it! Wondering if anyone else at the other resorts have noticed it too.

So funny you mentioned this, we noticed this too last week at different locations around WDW property! It seemed there were always these little gnats flying around, and not just outside, inside too!

 

[miamimama]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this, but curious if anyone is there this week that follows this thread. We are thinking of going next year this week, and the wait times when I look here and there have been pretty great. Our last two trips have been busy spring break weeks though, so anything will be better than that!

We got here Sunday and crowds seemed lower than average at AK yesterday. Monday, though, lines at festival booths at Epcot were surprisingly long all afternoon. Someone said they thought it was because the weather was so good compared to last week. Not sure. Didn't do any rides- but line for Remy was incredibly long as usual.

 

[zackiedawg]

They may have been a bit surprised by the timing of several weeks of higher-than-normal rain in our normally dry season, which combined with bouts of warmer weather that keep coming in after the cold fronts woke up the mosquitos a bit early. Our typical mosquito season is April through October or so. But warm weather bouts and more rain can cause them to pop up in winter months too. Disney does use natural/organic sprays during the hot and wet months, along with their natural mitigation (flowing water, drainage, mosquito-proof foliage and landscaping, and lots of fish in ponds and still water)...but if they weren't expecting rains in the off-season, standing water and moisture can gather in forested and unmaintained areas allowing the mosquitos to lay their eggs and hatch - places like Saratoga, OKW, the path between Boardwalk and DHS, etc can all be spots where you might encounter them until Disney can get in there and treat.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We got here Sunday and crowds seemed lower than average at AK yesterday. Monday, though, lines at festival booths at Epcot were surprisingly long all afternoon. Someone said they thought it was because the weather was so good compared to last week. Not sure. Didn't do any rides- but line for Remy was incredibly long as usual.

Weather makes a HUGE difference. I was at EP the day Glimmering Greenhouses opened early and CMs were expecting it to be swamped that night as that's what happened before. It was like a 10 min wait, bloggers didn't even report it opened early for 2 more days- which is when the cold and wind disappeared. So even FL influencers don't go out if the weather is too cold

 

[LoveToDisney]

I wanted to also mention that I have been here about 25 times at all times of year since I started coming as an adult in 2018 and I’m seeing gnats and mosquitos here at SSR.

I’ve never gotten bug bites at Disney before this trip. Not mad at all, whatever it is they do to keep it so rare is amazing and SSR has a lot of nature—I’ve seen raccoons, turtles, snakes and even armadillos here, so I wouldn’t expect it to be bug free. Just surprised after 25 trips and staying at literally every resort in all seasons I’m finally seeing it! Wondering if anyone else at the other resorts have noticed it too.

I’m very allergic to mosquitoes and welt up horribly for weeks after a bite so WDW has been my favorite vacation spot for decades because I can be out after dusk. My trip in October we stayed at SSR and I got bit 3 times. I hope Disney remains vigilant regarding mosquitoes….it makes a huge difference in enjoying the parks.

 

[Princesca]

We are pretty frequent consumers of Disney properties, and I have to say that this trip has been disappointing, and it's so many little things.

- Second trip in a row our room hasn't been ready at 3 pm.
- One water park open only til 5 makes that 'perk' pretty useless
- Trash everywhere in the parks. Mulch littered with cigarette butts, gum, tags
- The food has been broadly mediocre at QS but that has reached new lows this trip. We even were served a Joffreys donut that was uncooked in the middle.
- The gap between experiences when you can afford to buy all the extras and when you can't has never been more obvious
- So much closed, crowds have been nuts at a time that 'used' to be low crowds (and there not being any of those anymore)
- Inability to get Guardians even though I was up and refreshing before 7 am... I even bought LL but due to injury we weren't able to use it yesterday and it couldn't be moved to today.
- Pool games at resort making my autistic preschooler cry because he couldn't compete and he just wanted one of those dumb ducks... that wasn't very magical...

And a hundred other things. This is the first Disney trip I've taken in my adult life that I seriously have contemplated leaving tickets unused and just going home. I feel so sad and defeated. I am usually a pretty avid Disney apologist and it breaks my heart to feel this way.

 

[Princesca]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this, but curious if anyone is there this week that follows this thread. We are thinking of going next year this week, and the wait times when I look here and there have been pretty great. Our last two trips have been busy spring break weeks though, so anything will be better than that!

I think the crowds have been pretty bad all week. I used Touring Plans to get the best we could but it was thrown off by MK closing early one day which pushed non park hoppers into other parks. I miss the days when you could reliably go some times of year and get lower crowds and good discounts.

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm not sure if this thread is for the 'not so happy' experiences but I wanted to share my own personal thoughts- the 'security' . I mean, I'd like to create montage video of the 'most magical place on earth' ads with videos of small children holding their arms out and being wanded by 'security' officers.... I saw this so often on my last trip there and it's awful.
(or hey,even myself,I mean nothing starts your day off better than getting each and every personal item in your bag sifted thru,touched and handled by a germy strangers hands...) and to top it off when there's so much 'security' on one end of say,Disney Springs, yet on the other end of the property you can just Uber on in with barely a stop to worry about all those eyeglass cases being carried around.
I know, I know those little kids have to hand their stuffed Mickey's over for inspection for the 'security' of us all but c'mon. I'd say overall you can have fun at Disney, but this one major aspect of things really creates a different vibe now.
I know, why complain while on vacation? But here I am complaining afterward- putting on my flameproof suit now

 

[Victoria3]

I'm not sure if this thread is for the 'not so happy' experiences but I wanted to share my own personal thoughts- the 'security' . I mean, I'd like to create montage video of the 'most magical place on earth' ads with videos of small children holding their arms out and being wanded by 'security' officers.... I saw this so often on my last trip there and it's awful.
(or hey,even myself,I mean nothing starts your day off better than getting each and every personal item in your bag sifted thru,touched and handled by a germy strangers hands...) and to top it off when there's so much 'security' on one end of say,Disney Springs, yet on the other end of the property you can just Uber on in with barely a stop to worry about all those eyeglass cases being carried around.
I know, I know those little kids have to hand their stuffed Mickey's over for inspection for the 'security' of us all but c'mon. I'd say overall you can have fun at Disney, but this one major aspect of things really creates a different vibe now.
I know, why complain while on vacation? But here I am complaining afterward- putting on my flameproof suit now

Unfortunately it’s the world we live in. I’m all for it. My experience with secruity has always been pleasant.

 

[pens4821]

I'm not sure if this thread is for the 'not so happy' experiences but I wanted to share my own personal thoughts- the 'security' . I mean, I'd like to create montage video of the 'most magical place on earth' ads with videos of small children holding their arms out and being wanded by 'security' officers.... I saw this so often on my last trip there and it's awful.
(or hey,even myself,I mean nothing starts your day off better than getting each and every personal item in your bag sifted thru,touched and handled by a germy strangers hands...) and to top it off when there's so much 'security' on one end of say,Disney Springs, yet on the other end of the property you can just Uber on in with barely a stop to worry about all those eyeglass cases being carried around.
I know, I know those little kids have to hand their stuffed Mickey's over for inspection for the 'security' of us all but c'mon. I'd say overall you can have fun at Disney, but this one major aspect of things really creates a different vibe now.
I know, why complain while on vacation? But here I am complaining afterward- putting on my flameproof suit now

I’ve never really had an issue, except for once. Last year when entering the scanner kept alerting for so many people. There was a huge line wrapped around of people that needed to be wander and/or bag checked. All I had on me was my phone, nothing else. It took almost 10 minutes because there was so many people. I was so mad, but didn’t say anything. I really wanted to track down a supervisor and say that if you have this many people needing additional scanning, don’t you think there may be an issue with your scanner and move on to another one. It was later in the day (maybe 6ish) so not a busy rush time, and they only had one (maybe two) line open to enter the park.

 

[Minnie1222]

Trash everywhere in the parks. Mulch littered with cigarette butts, gum, tags

Where was this? I thought smoking had been banned entirely from the parks.

 

[wendlle]

I’m very allergic to mosquitoes and welt up horribly for weeks after a bite so WDW has been my favorite vacation spot for decades because I can be out after dusk. My trip in October we stayed at SSR and I got bit 3 times. I hope Disney remains vigilant regarding mosquitoes….it makes a huge difference in enjoying the parks.

The only time I had issues with Mosquitos was at Fort Wilderness for the Campfire Singalong. They were so bad biting my 10 month old at the time, we had to leave.

 

[scrappinginontario]

- Trash everywhere in the parks. Mulch littered with cigarette butts, gum, tags

This park is challenging to believe as smoking has been banned within the parks for years. I’d be shocked if a lot of people are trying to smoke in the parks and if they are, that they take the time to find a trash can for their butt…and many miss the trash bin. ??

We are pretty frequent consumers of Disney properties, and I have to say that this trip has been disappointing, and it's so many little things.

- Second trip in a row our room hasn't been ready at 3 pm.

Check-in time is 3:00 but it is not guaranteed that rooms will be ready at 3:00. I’ve had a room ready as early as 8:30AM and as late as 8:00PM.

‘ Inability to get Guardians even though I was up and refreshing before 7 am... I even bought LL but due to injury we weren't able to use it yesterday and it couldn't be moved to today.’


That would be extremely frustrating and disappointing. I would try asking at Guest Services again as normally in a situation like that they can either move or offer a refund. No guarantee but it’s worth kindly asking.

- Pool games at resort making my autistic preschooler cry because he couldn't compete and he just wanted one of those dumb ducks... that wasn't very magical.

Another disappointment, yes.

And a hundred other things. This is the first Disney trip I've taken in my adult life that I seriously have contemplated leaving tickets unused and just going home. I feel so sad and defeated. I am usually a pretty avid Disney apologist and it breaks my heart to feel this way.

Sounds like you may need a break from Disney. Hoping if you visit elsewhere, in time you’ll be ready to give Disney a try again in the future.