Back yesterday after 6 days and nights at Coronado Springs.

My first time staying at Coronado Springs and it is a fun little resort and much more enjoyable than our 2018 stay at Pop Century. I really enjoyed the theming (terrific background music) and the room was nice. The food, however, is terrible just like the food courts always have been at the resorts.

I'm a former cast member so I notice the little things and I saw a ton of cast members chilling on their phones in the view of guests. That was a huge no no 10 years ago and assumed it still would be.

Food:

California Grill was fantastic (you have to pay a premium of course) with their timing the food for post fireworks and had world class service. The food was fine.

Sanaa was solid as usual but I do miss the 2 meat option with rice. We had the misfortune of sitting away from the windows.

Homecomin was overrated. I liked the potatoes and the chicken biscuits were good, but I was expecting much more from the fried chicken. Our poor waiter was given us and two tables of 10 plus at the same time so we had no shot at refills or anything.

Maya Grill was just awful. I really enjoyed the live entertainment that was solid, but the food was waaaay overpriced by Disney standards and wasn't very good either. $9 chips and salsa? Come on Disney.

Oga's Cantina was fantastic with really cool food, drinks, and great service.

It was my first time on RotR and on MMRR and I thought both were solid attractions that deserve praise. Disney in general though is sorely missing line eaters like The Great Movie Ride and the current way they have guests queueing for rides are going to lead to some heat stroke deaths. It's just not tenable.

Cast members in general seemed miserable and really not in great moods at all. The professionals at Oga's, RotR, and California Grill really saved the day Cast Member wise but there were plenty of "Six Flags level" cast members.

I hadn't been to Epcot (former Innoventions CP) since it became a walled city and that is just ridiculous and ugly. I did enjoy riding SSE and I still hope every time I do ride it that it won't be the last time I'm riding an edutainment attraction.

Overall I feel that my time as a Disneyphile is over. I'm no longer interested in paying the prices that they're charging for getting something that is now no better than any other well done amusement park. Also Disney doesn't need me as evidenced by the end of Future World and those long attractions that were keeping guests from buying souvenirs.


One minor annoyance of note is that you can't find popcorn at the resorts. I think there would be a market there for those of us wanting to relax in our rooms and enjoy some overpriced popcorn. Especially since we can't get microwaves.

I'm sure I'll be back, but it'll probably be a decade before I go.
 
I've seen a few posts about DAS (I'm sorry those people had rough experiences and this is not a response to those) and thought I'd post about how it went for us. We used it well at all 4 parks. Like everyone else, we didn't get as many rides in as usual, but viewed through the lens of how crazy the parks are right now, it was immensely helpful with my son. My observations:

There was usually a line to get a return time. Lots of people being turned away because ____ (they didn't have DAS set up correctly, they just wandered into a shorter line, they wanted "those fast passes like all of these other people," etc etc). I got BIG smiles from cast members almost every time when they saw I knew what I was doing.

You WILL have to wait the entire return time. If they say 3:58, they mean 3:58! I know in previous times they sometimes allowed people to just walk in or return a little early, but not anymore. We saw a lot of people trying to abuse this.

Many people don't know that you don't have to have your entire party present to get a return time. Me and my husband took turns getting it while the other walked around with the kids. On the flip side, you MUST have your entire party present when it's time to ride. Cast members were very strict about not letting people hold places in line for others.

When getting a return time for a very popular ride like 7DMT, we tried to get them right before meals, so we were in a/c while we waited. Also remember they don't have an expiration window like traditional fast passes. You can get one before leaving a park to go rest or swim, them come back and use it later. They do expire end of day though.

After tapping in, we still encountered waits in about 50% of lines. Still shorter than the standby line though.

Lastly, and this one was a new discovery for us - any Guest Experience member under a blue umbrella can make a DAS reservation for you. I got one by the center entrance to World Showcase (by where the Christmas tree goes up) with no wait. Asking nicely helps ;)
Can you explain more about the blue umbrellas? Do you mean you can get the DAS passes issued for the trip at one of these locations? Or can you get a return time for any ride at one of the blue umbrellas? Example: if you are at an umbrella by Splash but can get a return time for Space mountain without walking over to the actual ride?
 
Forgot to add- food has been abysmal. We’ve eaten strictly qs and most of what we’ve had has been just awful. The repetitive menus are getting old. I think I may never want pulled pork or hot dogs again.

Satuli has always been and remains the best qs on property. It’s been the one great meal we’ve had. I was hoping the MarketPlace might be an improvement, but it wasn’t. The mass production of a limited menu = really bad food. I’m pretty much living on pretzels, ice cream and whatever frozen alcohol I can find. :)

But as of now, Tomorrowland Terrace leads the pack in the worst place we tried with food that was actually inedible.
 


Forgot to add- food has been abysmal. We’ve eaten strictly qs and most of what we’ve had has been just awful. The repetitive menus are getting old. I think I may never want pulled pork or hot dogs again.

Satuli has always been and remains the best qs on property. It’s been the one great meal we’ve had. I was hoping the MarketPlace might be an improvement, but it wasn’t. The mass production of a limited menu = really bad food. I’m pretty much living on pretzels, ice cream and whatever frozen alcohol I can find. :)

But as of now, Tomorrowland Terrace leads the pack in the worst place we tried with food that was actually inedible.
Interesting, I ate mostly QS on all my 3 trips in the last year (including 2 weeks ago) and I never had any issues with food. All were good to great.
 
Interesting, I ate mostly QS on all my 3 trips in the last year (including 2 weeks ago) and I never had any issues with food. All were good to great.

We’re really not picky eaters but I’m talking crispy stale buns, dried out hot dogs, what tasted like spoiled shrimp, dry mac n cheese, chokingly dry hamburgers....really, really bad and at different locations. Food n Wine food was good though and we’re going to give Regal Eagle a try tomorrow.
 
Back yesterday after 6 days and nights at Coronado Springs.

Overall I feel that my time as a Disneyphile is over. I'm no longer interested in paying the prices that they're charging for getting something that is now no better than any other well done amusement park.

This is exactly one of the things that I will be saying when I summarize our stay. The way things are now, without Fastpass, Disney is like any other Six Flags or Cedar Fair amusement park. The way Disney has their park set up right now, it is going to drive people to try Universal, Seaworld and Busch Gardens.

Dan
 


This is exactly one of the things that I will be saying when I summarize our stay. The way things are now, without Fastpass, Disney is like any other Six Flags or Cedar Fair amusement park. The way Disney has their park set up right now, it is going to drive people to try Universal, Seaworld and Busch Gardens.

Dan
For the most part, our experiences and overall feeling are on par with yours.
 
This is exactly one of the things that I will be saying when I summarize our stay. The way things are now, without Fastpass, Disney is like any other Six Flags or Cedar Fair amusement park. The way Disney has their park set up right now, it is going to drive people to try Universal, Seaworld and Busch Gardens.

Dan

Following this thread (an others) over the last few months, my 3 upcoming Disney trips over the next 6 months have gone from: a week at only Disney, to Disney with 1 day at Universal, to half Disney half Universal. Just sounds like Universal is so much more enjoyable right now, which is so sad based on how much we've been looking forward to the 50th! Sigh.. we'll see if any of these trips even happen though, just got a push notification that Florida reported the highest one-day total in new COVID cases since start of pandemic 😳
 
This is exactly one of the things that I will be saying when I summarize our stay. The way things are now, without Fastpass, Disney is like any other Six Flags or Cedar Fair amusement park. The way Disney has their park set up right now, it is going to drive people to try Universal, Seaworld and Busch Gardens.

Dan
Couldn't disagree more. Been to about 10 different parks this summer and that gap is still enormous. All parks are dealing with struggles, and most if not all are worse. But everyone has to decide what is right for them.
 
But what was the price differential? We usually can justify a Disney price because there is a better product.
The product is still significantly better is what I'm saying. And the value is definitely still there for me. My Cedar Point trips are often not too terribly far off in price from my shorter Disney trips. Yes I get those big coasters that I can't get at WDW, but the quality in the full experience is not even close.
 
Got back last night from Disney, we drove from Georgia and were there the 25th-30th. It was just DD18 and myself this trip, this is where she chose to go for her senior trip. After reading this thread, I would say my expectations were tempered but not enough. I was taken aback at just how crowded the parks were (this was my 4th Covid trip) and how uncomfortable the lack of distancing would be in the longest lines I have ever seen there. Wait times were typical of summer so that was expected. Most lines move regularly due to no Fastpasses but there were a couple of rides (Aerosmith, I'm looking at you) that the line remained stationary for so so long. When you are waiting out in the blazing sun, it is just miserable. Turns out that between DAS, rider swaps, recovery and VIP tours, there was a steady stream of people coming through the Fastpass line and it was just like having Fastpasses except the regular line started all the way down by Rosies. All the negatives I have seen others post was true for our trip. We still managed to have fun and a great bonding time but we both also agreed that we are done with summer trips (we normally go every summer at least once). The weather didn't help with thunderstorms every afternoon that lingered much longer than normal. Our last day was the first day that masks were required indoors and from what we saw, compliance was excellent. On the way home yesterday, DD developed a sore throat so we are quarantining until we can get rapid tests tomorrow. She actually thinks it feels like strep but we have to have the Covid test first before they will do the strep test. I have been such a Disney apologist during Covid talking about how well they were working to keep people safe with distancing, etc. That has all vanished at this point and along with it, some of the magic that we are used to experiencing.
 
We’re here now! I’ve been reading this thread and it’s been helpful to set my expectations so wanted to share our experience too. We had Animal Kingdom planned today since it was the day we were flying in and wanted to keep things flexible. Landed at the airport at 8:30am and was at the Swan by 9:45. We took a lyft to the hotel.

Our room wasn’t ready which we had expected so we had them hold Our bags and took our day bag to the park. We took the bus and got to Animal Kingdom around 10:15. We walked leisurely to Nomad Lounge with some photo pass photos on the way. There we’re two parties ahead of us when we got there at 10:40 and they started letting us in at 10:50.

after Nomad, we walked to see the gorillas and then caught the 12:30 lion king show. We got there at 12:15 and there were plenty of seats. We got the text that our room was ready during the show. We hit its tough to be a bug on our way out and went to nap.

Back to Animal Kingdom around 4 and we did Dinosaur with a 7 minute wait, and Everest with a 15 minute wait. We decided to skip the Safari due to the heat and got snacks and cold drinks in Pandora. Then we did Navi River with a 20 minute wait. We got into line for FoP about 20 minutes before closing. The ride seemed to be having problems because we had to wait in that room where they check your DNA for quite a while. And then when we got on our bikes there was a delay again. But we enjoyed the ride. I was exhausted after that so we got a lyft back to the hotel and just got some food from the little cafeteria to eat in the room.

General notes, lines weren’t too bad and they were consistently under the posted time. but the heat really sapped my energy. They were asking people to wear masks once you entered the main part of the line, and that included outdoor lines. We mobile ordered from Satuli Canteen in the evening and it went really smoothly. Tomorrow’s Magic Kingdom!
 
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For the most part, our experiences and overall feeling are on par with yours.
Sounds much like ours as well. Hard to convey the full feeling of it, I know. It's just not the same...

For the food, have you tried ABC Commissary or Woody's at DHS? We had good luck with the F&W booths and those 2 QS. The shrimp tacos were decent enough we thought. Not spectacular, but better than what you described at MK!
 
Sounds much like ours as well. Hard to convey the full feeling of it, I know. It's just not the same...

For the food, have you tried ABC Commissary or Woody's at DHS? We had good luck with the F&W booths and those 2 QS. The shrimp tacos were decent enough we thought. Not spectacular, but better than what you described at MK!
We plan on Woodys tomorrow and we enjoyed several things at the F&W festival but the MK has just been awful.
 
Magic Kingdom day 2. Beautiful morning

Immediately got on a bus at 8 AM. (because we saw the bus and ran 😂) We will see how MK is implementing their mask policy versus Hollywood studios. Hopefully it is implemented as straightforward as it was at HS, which was very easy to understand.

Thru tapstiles at 8:17am.
Family overruled me and we are doing 7DMT at rope drop. :). Maybe 100 people in front of us waiting for 7DMT. They did an initial movement around 8:55am to move the crowd forward, then one minute before 9 AM they let everyone back. OK make that 300 people my initial estimate was way off. :-). It was fairly orderly but a brisk walk. We are circled back around 7DMT about 100 feet past the tea cups. 9:10 AM and through the official Marquee. Masks must start past that point. On 7DMT at 9:30 AM

If these gems were real I would say that this might possibly, just about, cover the cost of this trip, maybe:
View attachment 593497

Heading towards Ariel, and then maybe HM and Pirates . Don’t want to get stuck in a long line for a headliner at this point.

9:38 AM. Ariel. Posted five minutes. Walked on.

9:58 AM. Haunted Mansion. Posted 15 minutes. On in 14 minutes . Line is way shorter than the other day when it took us a long 48 minutes. Nothing was said about putting your mask on as we went under the marquee. I would say about half of the people are masked up in this outdoor Part of the queue. Officially told to put masks on just before entering the indoors for HM

10:33 AM. Pirates. Posted 45 minutes. On in 15. Masks are required as soon as you enter the marquee.
View attachment 593518
We are starting to be able to gauge wait times by the length of the lines.

stopped for some candied almonds.

11:15 AM Aladdin Carpets. Posted 25 minutes. On in 20 minutes. It’s hot out here. This was my son‘s favorite ride the first time we came to Disney when he was 3 years old. Reason why? We scared the poo out of him with Splash Mountain earlier in the day, our first full day. He definitely did not like the unexpected drop. Lesson learned. He liked that he could see the whole ride at once, i.e. no surprises. 😊
View attachment 593525

11:42 AM. Swiss family treehouse… because we like climbing trees when it’s a bazillion degrees out, but hey, no line. 😉
View attachment 593527

11:55 AM. Checking in for our Jungle skipper canteen lunch. First time eating here and we all loved it. We will do this again on our final MK day.
View attachment 593538

VERY happy with how things went this morning. We learned that at Magic Kingdom we cannot do two major headliners in a row at rope drop and be very efficient. By the time you get on your second headliner the line is already long and it works so much better for us to do secondary attractions instead. (If you consider pirates and HM secondary. It’s almost sacrilege state it that way.). Happy with six attractions in three hours though.

1:15 PM and heading back to the boardwalk to rest/swim. Did I say it’s hot today? Feeling the sun more today than others for some reason.

4:38 I’m up. Nobody else is. One of the side effects of having to get up so dang early every day to make things work.

Heading back to MK for a 6 pm ADR at the Plaza. I feel like we ate, came back to the resort, and now right back to eating. I guess that’s pretty accurate though. 😳 It might seem like we are eating a ton but we really can’t eat high volumes of food. We split meals at lunch today for instance. It’s great trying so many new locations though.

5:55 PM. At The Plaza Solid diner food.

7:05 PM. Winnie the Pooh. Posted 35 minutes. Waited 22 minutes

7:47. People mover. Posted 30 minutes. On in 17 minutes

8:18 PM. Buzz light year. Posted 20 minutes. On in 24 minutes. My son and I rocked this one, but I confess, only because the cars got stopped for a while so we got to keep shooting targets. 😳😊😂
View attachment 593614
9:00 PM. It’s a small world. Posted.20 minutes. Walked on
View attachment 593613
Since we watched HEA our first day here, our goal is to ride buzz, , BTMR and Splash before close.

9:26 PM BTMR posted 25 minutes. Walked on. HEA fireworks going off while on the ride. Magical!

9:35 PM Splash. Posted 50 minutes. On in 8 minutes
View attachment 593623

Rushed over and barely made it in time to get some dole whips. Finishing off the night.

Tiring but successful day

Tomorrow: Epcot day and transfer to the Polynesian

-Dan

It sounds like another great day! We arrive tomorrow and plan on watching HEA on Wednesday night so the other nights we are in the MK we can ride rides during HEA. Thanks for the tip on only riding one headliner and then focusing on other non-headliner rides. We might try that.
 

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