I have been a bit anxious about this trip because of all the reports about heavy crowds, Fastpass + or forget it, etc. But we arrived this morning and were confused because we didn't see any of that!
Using the wonder Cheshire Figment ticket information (and a PM with him where he confirmed my math and I was only off by a penny!)....we were able to bridge our 1 day tickets from 2008 into brand new APs. The CM at first didn't understand the bridge stuff so I asked for a supervisor and while waiting was wishing CF was working today, lol.....only to find the supervisor was completely aware of it and the first CM was new.....and boy did I give him a chance at training, lol. Bridging, upgrading, resident status, parking refund, and the TIW card. This is now a well trained CM, lol.
Ok....but what about those crowds....yeah it did seem like there were more people wandering around MK and later in the day EPCOT, but I think all they were doing was wandering! Or, it was because a lot of them seemed to be in or pushing strollers.....i.e. the young crowd.
We rode Space Mountain with a posted 10 minute wait, but reality was it was walk up to the loading zone and waited maybe 2 minutes to get seated. Rode it twice in a row this way.
Indy Speedway was posted at 30 minutes, but reality was half that to get into a car.
We wandered through the new Fantasyland and the line for BOG lunch only went maybe a dozen people past their entry.....we opted not to do this and wandered a bit just looking at all the new stuff then headed to EPCOT.
We wanted to be at EPCOT for lunch and to be sure to see Miyuki (Candy Lady in Japan) as this is her last week.
Soarin' was the worst line of the entire day.....but it was posted at 40 minutes but took us 27 to get through it. For Soarin' after lunch I thought that was fantastic. FP was available, but we decided not to get one because we knew we'd not be able to meet a later time and while I consider half an hour to be a "long" wait, it was good for Soarin.
We rode Test Track....30 minute stand by posted, but single rider was less than 10 minute.....did that twice as well.
Mission Space (Green) posted at 5 but it was really just walk on. Orange, which we didn't do, was posted at 10. Did Green twice.
Watched Miyuki twice and talked with her about her leaving.....Saturday is her last show. But, she gave us her business card and said to watch her website as she has many things in the works. Sad to think of not seeing her each year. We were blessed with several of her creations, back when she could give them out.......she made reference to not being able to give them away and while she was professional about it, you could hear she didn't like it. Took lots of pictures with her....but sad.
It was a short day because we had some non-Disney things to do, but I really didn't see any of what I've been reading. Yeah, the crowds were larger than I recall the last several years just before Thanksgiving, but they all seemed to be doing something other than riding the rides, lol. We didn't have any need to get FastPass, but the machines indicated they were available....but with 10-20 minute standby waits posted, why bother.
Just as we were leaving it started a very very light rain....thankfully the downpour waited for us and we were literally pulling out of the parking space to leave when the rain got heavy....and it's now about 9:30pm and it's still raining quite a bit. A real bummer for those that had tickets for tonight's MVMCP!
Tomorrow we have a play to go to at Orlando Shakespeare, but we'll hit MK in the afternoon. Hoping that it will be just as good for lines as it was today!
Using the wonder Cheshire Figment ticket information (and a PM with him where he confirmed my math and I was only off by a penny!)....we were able to bridge our 1 day tickets from 2008 into brand new APs. The CM at first didn't understand the bridge stuff so I asked for a supervisor and while waiting was wishing CF was working today, lol.....only to find the supervisor was completely aware of it and the first CM was new.....and boy did I give him a chance at training, lol. Bridging, upgrading, resident status, parking refund, and the TIW card. This is now a well trained CM, lol.
Ok....but what about those crowds....yeah it did seem like there were more people wandering around MK and later in the day EPCOT, but I think all they were doing was wandering! Or, it was because a lot of them seemed to be in or pushing strollers.....i.e. the young crowd.
We rode Space Mountain with a posted 10 minute wait, but reality was it was walk up to the loading zone and waited maybe 2 minutes to get seated. Rode it twice in a row this way.
Indy Speedway was posted at 30 minutes, but reality was half that to get into a car.
We wandered through the new Fantasyland and the line for BOG lunch only went maybe a dozen people past their entry.....we opted not to do this and wandered a bit just looking at all the new stuff then headed to EPCOT.
We wanted to be at EPCOT for lunch and to be sure to see Miyuki (Candy Lady in Japan) as this is her last week.
Soarin' was the worst line of the entire day.....but it was posted at 40 minutes but took us 27 to get through it. For Soarin' after lunch I thought that was fantastic. FP was available, but we decided not to get one because we knew we'd not be able to meet a later time and while I consider half an hour to be a "long" wait, it was good for Soarin.
We rode Test Track....30 minute stand by posted, but single rider was less than 10 minute.....did that twice as well.
Mission Space (Green) posted at 5 but it was really just walk on. Orange, which we didn't do, was posted at 10. Did Green twice.
Watched Miyuki twice and talked with her about her leaving.....Saturday is her last show. But, she gave us her business card and said to watch her website as she has many things in the works. Sad to think of not seeing her each year. We were blessed with several of her creations, back when she could give them out.......she made reference to not being able to give them away and while she was professional about it, you could hear she didn't like it. Took lots of pictures with her....but sad.
It was a short day because we had some non-Disney things to do, but I really didn't see any of what I've been reading. Yeah, the crowds were larger than I recall the last several years just before Thanksgiving, but they all seemed to be doing something other than riding the rides, lol. We didn't have any need to get FastPass, but the machines indicated they were available....but with 10-20 minute standby waits posted, why bother.
Just as we were leaving it started a very very light rain....thankfully the downpour waited for us and we were literally pulling out of the parking space to leave when the rain got heavy....and it's now about 9:30pm and it's still raining quite a bit. A real bummer for those that had tickets for tonight's MVMCP!
Tomorrow we have a play to go to at Orlando Shakespeare, but we'll hit MK in the afternoon. Hoping that it will be just as good for lines as it was today!
