1nfrequent
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2012
- Messages
- 173
Recently got back from a trip to the US that involved a break at WDW and thought I'd share my highs and lows (although they're not really lows) together with some tips and observations I made.
I'm a solo traveller so this won't be useful to everyone (or even maybe to anyone) but here goes:
HIGHS
- Disney's Yacht Club - first time in a deluxe Disney property and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The location was perfect (5 minutes walk to EPCOT and 20 minutes to DHS), I loved the fact that people are waiting to greet you when you arrive and the theming of the hotel was really pleasant (especially the nautical smell you get when you walk in).
- Food - I ate at Teppan Edo, Tutto Italia, Via Napoli, Yak & Yeti and had great meals at all of them. I also ate at Prime Time Cafe and although the food was fine, the real reason to go is the service, which I thought was a hoot. I also indulged in Dole Whips, sundaes, cake galore and went for gingerbread Mickeys in a massive way (I am seriously jonesing for one right now actually - I have the Mickey gingerbread sweats and it's not pretty). If it wasn't for all the walking I did I'd have a serious waddle right now.
- Rides - I managed to do all my favourites many, many times. Expedition Everest was a revolving walk-on thanks to the single rider line (seriously, I rode it 6 times in a row) and one time I rode it next to an 84 year old lady who's become my personal heroine. I also did TOT, RnR, BTMR, ST and SM loads of times. Longest wait all week was 45 minutes.
- FP+ - I know this is a contentious subject but I found it worked perfectly for me. It gave me flexibility to change my plans as I needed but also let me structure my trip (which I like but it's easy to do that on your own).
- Disney App - again, this worked perfectly for me and I loved the fact that I could manage my restaurant reservations, my FPs and check out wait times whenever I needed to courtesy of the park-wide wi-fi. I even found myself using the App maps more than the paper ones.
- Magic Bands - again, this worked almost perfectly for me (there was one issue in my Not Exactly Low section below and a minor irritation). I know it's easy to say that as I'm on my own but I really wouldn't want to go back to the old card system.
NOT EXACTLY LOWS
None of these spoilt anything - at worst they were wrinkles to be borne.
- Magic Bands and New Tickets - I needed to buy an extra day's ticket, which I did the day before my 5 day pass expired and then linked up to my Magic Band. Unfortunately, while park hopping the machines read both the last day of my pass and the new day pass as separate tickets, meaning that when I went to go in on day 6 the machines didn't recognise that I had a valid ticket so I got sent over to Guest Services. Fortunately I'd kept my receipt (even though I'd paid cash) and it got sorted within a few minutes but be warned that if you pay cash and don't keep your receipt it wouldn't be easy to resolve (at least according to the 2 CMs I spoke to). Lesson learnt is that you should pay by credit card and buy extra tickets on the day you want to use them.
- Magic Bands and Finger Prints - the machines had problems scanning my finger prints some days and on one day a CM had to reset my account.
- Heat - it was my first visit in May in about 20 years and although I knew it would be hot and humid I wasn't quite prepared for it. Unfortunately I'm not built for heat and I came up with heat rash on my hands and arm, which is slowly getting better thanks to the cold and wet British summer.
- Restaurant wait times - I had reservations for each restaurant I went to and while I understand that you don't immediately get a table the second you walk in, I was irked at having to wait 30 minutes at Prime Time Cafe and 25 minutes at Via Napoli for a table I'd already reserved - especially when those restaurants weren't full. Fair enough if the restaurant's packed out because sometimes you just have to wait for people to finish but nowhere I went was at full capacity (in fact I'd deliberately chosen off peak times for that reason) and given you get hit with a $10 penalty for not making your slot, it's cheeky to not deliver on that slot when it's expected.
- Mobility scooters - I'm not judging whether people need to use them or not because not every disability is visible or obvious and frankly I've got enough foibles of my own to judge other people. However, if you use a mobility scooter please show a bit of consideration to other people. I was at the film show in France and a woman on a mobility scooter didn't know how to park it, with the result that she rammed into a number of seats (including mine) but never apologised for it. One of the other people in the auditorium called her out on it and she screamed at them: "I HAVE DIABETES, YOU KNOW!!" to which the other person replied: "Well if you got off that scooter every once in a while, hon, maybe you wouldn't." It all went down hill from there. Could all have been avoided with a simple sorry.
- Universal Studios - I'd planned to go for a day but everyone I spoke to at DW who'd been there that week (you know what's it like when you get chatting to people in queues) told me that not to because the queues were bad in the heat and given the costs involved in getting over there, buying the tickets and getting back I thought I'd save it for another trip (not least because it'll give me an excuse to go back and see the new Diagon Alley).
- Mine Car Ride - this didn't do a soft opening until the day after I left - grr! Ah well, yet another reason to come back next year ...
OBSERVATIONS AND TIPS
- I saw a bit of massaging of queue times going on at Toy Story Mania and Star Tours with people given the red card of time recording being rushed through once they were in sight distance of the ride - also happened to me when I was given a timer card. I reckon it knocked about 10/15 off the wait time, which could be misleading.
- On RnR, if the single rider line is visibly coming out of the door and the stand by wait time is less than 60 minutes then do the standby line as it will move faster.
- Soarin' and Toy Story Mania- if you get there for rope drop at EPCOT/DHS do Soarin/TSM' first as you'll be on in 15 minutes or less. That shoots up to 60 minutes within the first half hour.
- Sun cream is your friend - I say this because I saw some horrific sun burn in the parks. The Disney shops sell SPF 50 and SPF75 if you forget to bring any (it's cream that needs to be re-applied every 2 hours) and it's worth the price. I've had treatment for early stage skin cancer and I wouldn't wish the worry on my worst enemy. So slap it on and re-apply especially after water rides. I'd also recommend getting an SPF or zinc stick as it gives better durability on body areas that, er, sweat a lot (I mean your neck or nose for anyone snickering at the back).
Anyway, hope that's of some use to people here. Am already seeing if I can find a way to make the sums work for a trip early next year (although it's looking a bit tight).
1F
I'm a solo traveller so this won't be useful to everyone (or even maybe to anyone) but here goes:
HIGHS
- Disney's Yacht Club - first time in a deluxe Disney property and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The location was perfect (5 minutes walk to EPCOT and 20 minutes to DHS), I loved the fact that people are waiting to greet you when you arrive and the theming of the hotel was really pleasant (especially the nautical smell you get when you walk in).
- Food - I ate at Teppan Edo, Tutto Italia, Via Napoli, Yak & Yeti and had great meals at all of them. I also ate at Prime Time Cafe and although the food was fine, the real reason to go is the service, which I thought was a hoot. I also indulged in Dole Whips, sundaes, cake galore and went for gingerbread Mickeys in a massive way (I am seriously jonesing for one right now actually - I have the Mickey gingerbread sweats and it's not pretty). If it wasn't for all the walking I did I'd have a serious waddle right now.
- Rides - I managed to do all my favourites many, many times. Expedition Everest was a revolving walk-on thanks to the single rider line (seriously, I rode it 6 times in a row) and one time I rode it next to an 84 year old lady who's become my personal heroine. I also did TOT, RnR, BTMR, ST and SM loads of times. Longest wait all week was 45 minutes.
- FP+ - I know this is a contentious subject but I found it worked perfectly for me. It gave me flexibility to change my plans as I needed but also let me structure my trip (which I like but it's easy to do that on your own).
- Disney App - again, this worked perfectly for me and I loved the fact that I could manage my restaurant reservations, my FPs and check out wait times whenever I needed to courtesy of the park-wide wi-fi. I even found myself using the App maps more than the paper ones.
- Magic Bands - again, this worked almost perfectly for me (there was one issue in my Not Exactly Low section below and a minor irritation). I know it's easy to say that as I'm on my own but I really wouldn't want to go back to the old card system.
NOT EXACTLY LOWS
None of these spoilt anything - at worst they were wrinkles to be borne.
- Magic Bands and New Tickets - I needed to buy an extra day's ticket, which I did the day before my 5 day pass expired and then linked up to my Magic Band. Unfortunately, while park hopping the machines read both the last day of my pass and the new day pass as separate tickets, meaning that when I went to go in on day 6 the machines didn't recognise that I had a valid ticket so I got sent over to Guest Services. Fortunately I'd kept my receipt (even though I'd paid cash) and it got sorted within a few minutes but be warned that if you pay cash and don't keep your receipt it wouldn't be easy to resolve (at least according to the 2 CMs I spoke to). Lesson learnt is that you should pay by credit card and buy extra tickets on the day you want to use them.
- Magic Bands and Finger Prints - the machines had problems scanning my finger prints some days and on one day a CM had to reset my account.
- Heat - it was my first visit in May in about 20 years and although I knew it would be hot and humid I wasn't quite prepared for it. Unfortunately I'm not built for heat and I came up with heat rash on my hands and arm, which is slowly getting better thanks to the cold and wet British summer.
- Restaurant wait times - I had reservations for each restaurant I went to and while I understand that you don't immediately get a table the second you walk in, I was irked at having to wait 30 minutes at Prime Time Cafe and 25 minutes at Via Napoli for a table I'd already reserved - especially when those restaurants weren't full. Fair enough if the restaurant's packed out because sometimes you just have to wait for people to finish but nowhere I went was at full capacity (in fact I'd deliberately chosen off peak times for that reason) and given you get hit with a $10 penalty for not making your slot, it's cheeky to not deliver on that slot when it's expected.
- Mobility scooters - I'm not judging whether people need to use them or not because not every disability is visible or obvious and frankly I've got enough foibles of my own to judge other people. However, if you use a mobility scooter please show a bit of consideration to other people. I was at the film show in France and a woman on a mobility scooter didn't know how to park it, with the result that she rammed into a number of seats (including mine) but never apologised for it. One of the other people in the auditorium called her out on it and she screamed at them: "I HAVE DIABETES, YOU KNOW!!" to which the other person replied: "Well if you got off that scooter every once in a while, hon, maybe you wouldn't." It all went down hill from there. Could all have been avoided with a simple sorry.
- Universal Studios - I'd planned to go for a day but everyone I spoke to at DW who'd been there that week (you know what's it like when you get chatting to people in queues) told me that not to because the queues were bad in the heat and given the costs involved in getting over there, buying the tickets and getting back I thought I'd save it for another trip (not least because it'll give me an excuse to go back and see the new Diagon Alley).
- Mine Car Ride - this didn't do a soft opening until the day after I left - grr! Ah well, yet another reason to come back next year ...
OBSERVATIONS AND TIPS
- I saw a bit of massaging of queue times going on at Toy Story Mania and Star Tours with people given the red card of time recording being rushed through once they were in sight distance of the ride - also happened to me when I was given a timer card. I reckon it knocked about 10/15 off the wait time, which could be misleading.
- On RnR, if the single rider line is visibly coming out of the door and the stand by wait time is less than 60 minutes then do the standby line as it will move faster.
- Soarin' and Toy Story Mania- if you get there for rope drop at EPCOT/DHS do Soarin/TSM' first as you'll be on in 15 minutes or less. That shoots up to 60 minutes within the first half hour.
- Sun cream is your friend - I say this because I saw some horrific sun burn in the parks. The Disney shops sell SPF 50 and SPF75 if you forget to bring any (it's cream that needs to be re-applied every 2 hours) and it's worth the price. I've had treatment for early stage skin cancer and I wouldn't wish the worry on my worst enemy. So slap it on and re-apply especially after water rides. I'd also recommend getting an SPF or zinc stick as it gives better durability on body areas that, er, sweat a lot (I mean your neck or nose for anyone snickering at the back).
Anyway, hope that's of some use to people here. Am already seeing if I can find a way to make the sums work for a trip early next year (although it's looking a bit tight).
1F
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