scidawg
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 22, 2013
- Messages
- 46
The trip was our first at Christmas time and first other than the water parks since 2013. Mom and Dad celebrating our 26th annv. and we brought our 22yo son along, because as we planned it, we just couldn't convince ourselves to not bring him ;-). A few thoughts:
1: When folks tell you to get there 1hr early for AK rope drop they mean it. We had planned to, but things just didn't go as smoothly as possible and we arrived at the gate about 40 minutes prior to 9am opening. We scanned in and made our way to Pandora where we were probably behind 100-150 yards of wall to wall people. Speed walked to FOP where the line stretched back almost to the bridge. Total wait plus ride time was about 45 minutes so we were exiting about 9:30. WHAT AN ATTRACTION! That is a mega hit with us!
2: Not so Navi River. We got in the standby line with a posted 90 min wait, which we normally wouldn't do, but we wanted to see the new stuff. The wait ended up being closer to 2hr 15 min. They really need to figure a way to balance the Fastpasses with the standby line. I was seriously unimpressed with the ride for the wait. While it is visually nice, there is no story to speak of and by the time we got to the Shaman, which was impressive, the boats were all backed up in front of us, which kinda killed the experience. We might do this again if we could get a FP but wouldn't wait more than 10 minutes on standby (which won't happen for a long time)
3: Magic Kingdom at rope drop on a cold, drizzly morning is awesome! Felt like we had the place to ourselves. Only negative was that we bee-lined to 7DMT and were about 10th in line but it was down. We went to do other stuff, walking on Space, POTC, Jingle Cruise, BTMR, HM and Philharmagic. Grabbed a coffee and returned to 7DMT and were told by the CM at the line that they were dumping the inside and it was probably going to be down for sometime. So we never got to experience that one (oh well, a reason to plan another trip).
4. Epcot WS in the upper 40's to low 50's with a 15 mph wind is COLD! We had a good time despite the cold, but eventually had to head back to the room to warm up and rest which is not our norm.
5: Absolutely loved the new Soarin, and both Holiday Wishes (which we watched from the Poly) and HEA which we saw from the bridge to Tomorrowland (only wish we had had a better view of the Castle, but still a great show!, and this from someone who LOVED Wishes).
1: When folks tell you to get there 1hr early for AK rope drop they mean it. We had planned to, but things just didn't go as smoothly as possible and we arrived at the gate about 40 minutes prior to 9am opening. We scanned in and made our way to Pandora where we were probably behind 100-150 yards of wall to wall people. Speed walked to FOP where the line stretched back almost to the bridge. Total wait plus ride time was about 45 minutes so we were exiting about 9:30. WHAT AN ATTRACTION! That is a mega hit with us!
2: Not so Navi River. We got in the standby line with a posted 90 min wait, which we normally wouldn't do, but we wanted to see the new stuff. The wait ended up being closer to 2hr 15 min. They really need to figure a way to balance the Fastpasses with the standby line. I was seriously unimpressed with the ride for the wait. While it is visually nice, there is no story to speak of and by the time we got to the Shaman, which was impressive, the boats were all backed up in front of us, which kinda killed the experience. We might do this again if we could get a FP but wouldn't wait more than 10 minutes on standby (which won't happen for a long time)
3: Magic Kingdom at rope drop on a cold, drizzly morning is awesome! Felt like we had the place to ourselves. Only negative was that we bee-lined to 7DMT and were about 10th in line but it was down. We went to do other stuff, walking on Space, POTC, Jingle Cruise, BTMR, HM and Philharmagic. Grabbed a coffee and returned to 7DMT and were told by the CM at the line that they were dumping the inside and it was probably going to be down for sometime. So we never got to experience that one (oh well, a reason to plan another trip).
4. Epcot WS in the upper 40's to low 50's with a 15 mph wind is COLD! We had a good time despite the cold, but eventually had to head back to the room to warm up and rest which is not our norm.
5: Absolutely loved the new Soarin, and both Holiday Wishes (which we watched from the Poly) and HEA which we saw from the bridge to Tomorrowland (only wish we had had a better view of the Castle, but still a great show!, and this from someone who LOVED Wishes).
