Just back 8/5 to 8/12

[ArwenMarie]

Just back 8/5 to 8/12

We stayed at Bay Lake which was great

WEATHER:

• The weather was hot! Shocker!
• We made sure we were out early every day and back home for the worst heat of the day.
• However we did luck out with the rain and were able to go back out in the evenings for a bit which was nice.

CROWDS:

• The crowds felt high. Higher than I remember in previous Augusts. Perhaps the passholder lift had something to do with it? Not sure
• The crowds were surprisingly calm and courteous with the exception of some people with jogging strollers who were using them as battering rams.
• We don't use the late hours at MK yet, but I could see when we were leaving at 10 that it definitely could have stayed open later.

CMs:

• CMs weren't overly cheerful but were all professional and helpful. And that's ok especially considering the weather and the crowds

NEW EXPERIENCES:

• Navi River Journey was a huge disappointment.
• I didn't ride FoP but my DH and DS did and they LOVED it.
• Happily Ever After was amazing. I had a hard time knowing where to watch it, whether to watch the castle or the sky. The first time I focused on the castle, the subsequent times I watched the sky.
• Frozen Ever After was my biggest disappointment of the trip. I'm a huge Frozen fan. We made a trip over to Epcot one morning essentially to ride that, along with a few other things. All I will say is that FEA is the ride Frozen got, but not the ride Frozen deserved.
• The Frozen sing-a-long show at DHS is a better Frozen experience than the Frozen ride.

Overall it was a really great trip! We hadn't been to WDW for over two years and had to cancel four trips previous to this one due to ongoing medical issues.

So the fact that we made it there at all was a reason to celebrate I will say that absence may have made the heart grow fonder, as this was one of our better trips. Two years seems to be a good gap between trips for us now.

 

[disneyseniors]

Just back 8/5 to 8/12

We stayed at Bay Lake which was great

WEATHER:

• The weather was hot! Shocker!
• We made sure we were out early every day and back home for the worst heat of the day.
• However we did luck out with the rain and were able to go back out in the evenings for a bit which was nice.

CROWDS:

• The crowds felt high. Higher than I remember in previous Augusts. Perhaps the passholder lift had something to do with it? Not sure
• The crowds were surprisingly calm and courteous with the exception of some people with jogging strollers who were using them as battering rams.
• We don't use the late hours at MK yet, but I could see when we were leaving at 10 that it definitely could have stayed open later.

CMs:

• CMs weren't overly cheerful but were all professional and helpful. And that's ok especially considering the weather and the crowds

NEW EXPERIENCES:

• Navi River Journey was a huge disappointment.
• I didn't ride FoP but my DH and DS did and they LOVED it.
• Happily Ever After was amazing. I had a hard time knowing where to watch it, whether to watch the castle or the sky. The first time I focused on the castle, the subsequent times I watched the sky.
• Frozen Ever After was my biggest disappointment of the trip. I'm a huge Frozen fan. We made a trip over to Epcot one morning essentially to ride that, along with a few other things. All I will say is that FEA is the ride Frozen got, but not the ride Frozen deserved.
• The Frozen sing-a-long show at DHS is a better Frozen experience than the Frozen ride.

Overall it was a really great trip! We hadn't been to WDW for over two years and had to cancel four trips previous to this one due to ongoing medical issues.

So the fact that we made it there at all was a reason to celebrate I will say that absence may have made the heart grow fonder, as this was one of our better trips. Two years seems to be a good gap between trips for us now.

Hi Arwenmarie: We feel exactly the same. I was underwhelmed by FEA, and won't ride FOP as I don't like the affect of height on Soaring, so don't ride it either. Wish I wasn't such a chicken, but after 3 years of riding Soaring and never feeling comfortable, and never really enjoying the ride, I finally said, I quit! Haven't regretted it all. Always wanted to stay at Bay Lake, but out of the budget question for now Did you do DVC for BLT? We have never tried DVC points yet, but maybe will have to give it a try to be able to stay at BLT. Thanks for the short report!

 

[mom2rtk]

Welcome back! Glad you had a great trip.

I see your point on HEA. I have seen other reports indicating that there's just a whole lot going on. Can't wait to see it for myself one day.

That's too bad about FEA. Can you imagine waiting a couple hours for it?

If the Sing-a-long is like the one we saw at DLR, I can see why you liked it better. I thought it was a fun little show.

So glad you were finally able to make the trip!

 

[TNickell27]

This makes me wonder if i should swap my FEA fast pass for Test Track. I've still never ridden FEA, but I just keep thinking that maybe i should just head to FEA shortly after RD and hope for the best. I want to ride it b/c it's a new experience.... but man, I'd be really bummed if I didn't get to ride Test Track. What to do?! ugh.

 

[SUSIEQ]

This makes me wonder if i should swap my FEA fast pass for Test Track. I've still never ridden FEA, but I just keep thinking that maybe i should just head to FEA shortly after RD and hope for the best. I want to ride it b/c it's a new experience.... but man, I'd be really bummed if I didn't get to ride Test Track. What to do?! ugh.

For me, FEA is a big disappointment. I know others like it, but I do not.

 

[ArwenMarie]

This makes me wonder if i should swap my FEA fast pass for Test Track. I've still never ridden FEA, but I just keep thinking that maybe i should just head to FEA shortly after RD and hope for the best. I want to ride it b/c it's a new experience.... but man, I'd be really bummed if I didn't get to ride Test Track. What to do?! ugh.

I think that doing FEA after RD is a good plan. I think the entire area could be a great morning if you had a kid into the princesses. But just as a standalone ride it's not worth a Tier 1 FP IMO

 

[ArwenMarie]

Welcome back! Glad you had a great trip.

I see your point on HEA. I have seen other reports indicating that there's just a whole lot going on. Can't wait to see it for myself one day.

That's too bad about FEA. Can you imagine waiting a couple hours for it?

If the Sing-a-long is like the one we saw at DLR, I can see why you liked it better. I thought it was a fun little show.

So glad you were finally able to make the trip!

I really can't imagine if we had waited a long time for FEA.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Hi Arwenmarie: We feel exactly the same. I was underwhelmed by FEA, and won't ride FOP as I don't like the affect of height on Soaring, so don't ride it either. Wish I wasn't such a chicken, but after 3 years of riding Soaring and never feeling comfortable, and never really enjoying the ride, I finally said, I quit! Haven't regretted it all. Always wanted to stay at Bay Lake, but out of the budget question for now Did you do DVC for BLT? We have never tried DVC points yet, but maybe will have to give it a try to be able to stay at BLT. Thanks for the short report!

Hi disneyseniors! We did BLT through Disney not DVC. We wanted a lot of MK time this trip. We've done split stays there too which is a fun option and keeps the average cost down a bit

 

[loves to dive]

We were there the same and just goes to show how different people's perspective can be, we thought it wasn't crowded at all with the exception of near closing at Epcot WS and just before the FWs at MK. We commented a couple of times on how empty it seemed to us. I agree it was hot and we've been in August lots of times when my son was young, we decided if we ever went again that time of year to make sure we took enough clothes for 3 wardrobe changes a day. We were actually on BTM when HEA was going on, my son isn't a huge fan of fireworks but we did a great view of them going off as the train went around the mountain. That part of the park was almost completely empty during HEA, a perfect time to just walk on rides.

Again different perspectives, I loved Navi River Journey and wan't thrilled with FOP, my son thought Navi was just o.k. but loved FOP.

The frozen ride was just o.k. for me, we rode it in March, I had actually put off riding it because I was a huge fan of the original Norway ride and am one of the few people who didn't like the Frozen movie and if I hear that song one more time I might have a problem just letting it go. When we did ride it I booked us FPs for almost closing time at night and rode it just because I think one should do everything at least once. It was a cool night in March and I got soaking wet, I mean Splash Mountain wet and it was darn cold walking around wet. I probably won't ride it again but not because I didn't like it that much, it was a cute ride but I seriously dislike that movie and don't get me started on what they did to Stave Church in Norway.

Almost every cast member we came in contact with was friendly and helpful with the exception of the desk clerks at Dolphin and since they aren't Disney employees can't fault Disney for that. I felt sorry for a couple of the ride CMs because people just can't seem to either listen or follow directions and the poor CMs are pretty hamstrung as to being able to do something about it. There was a whole group of people who insisted in sitting the middle of the floor in a circle in the stretching room at HM, which meant that the other people couldn't get all the way into the room like they were supposed to. I saw a number of people getting into different row numbers then they were told to on some of the rides, thus throwing off the count the CMs were trying to maintain and separating some groups. Only one time did I see a CM actually do something about it and he made a woman move out of the line and wait until he could get everyone sorted out again. She was a little ugly about it because she wanted her son to be able to ride in the front of BTM but he was pretty firm with her and stood his ground. Even had to have the boat in the Land have to stop because some people kept standing up even after two times of the boat having to stop. Since there is no ride operator any more on those boats there was no one to take them off or actually say something to them.

 

[WithASmile&ASong]

don't get me started on what they did to Stave Church in Norway.

What happened with the church?

 

[loves to dive]

What happened with the church?

They made it Frozen themed. It used to be a viking themed museum, not it's still a museum but they tie it into Frozen.

 

[Amanda999]

This makes me wonder if i should swap my FEA fast pass for Test Track. I've still never ridden FEA, but I just keep thinking that maybe i should just head to FEA shortly after RD and hope for the best. I want to ride it b/c it's a new experience.... but man, I'd be really bummed if I didn't get to ride Test Track. What to do?! ugh.

I'd definitely keep FEA FP and RD TT (its a much longer line even at RD for FEA, and assuming you are going soon the 50% chance of rain daily seems to most often happen in the afternoon - so might as well get TT done as early in the day as possible. They close it in rain IME.) And FEA FP totally sells out - you won't get it back if TT is down for a day of rain. Oh - and TT has single rider line, worst case if you don't feel like doing RD at least you can ride it without a horribly long wait.

 

[WithASmile&ASong]

They made it Frozen themed. It used to be a viking themed museum, not it's still a museum but they tie it into Frozen.

I didn't realize that. That stinks.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Glad you had a great trip.

Your impression of FEA is the same way I felt about 7DMT--I would have been mad if I waited on line a long time for it.

Welcome home!

 

[PPFlight75]

This makes me wonder if i should swap my FEA fast pass for Test Track. I've still never ridden FEA, but I just keep thinking that maybe i should just head to FEA shortly after RD and hope for the best. I want to ride it b/c it's a new experience.... but man, I'd be really bummed if I didn't get to ride Test Track. What to do?! ugh.

We have done FEA at RD a few times and were on within 30 minutes or so. We usually send our teenagers to TT while we take our youngest to FEA. Then we all meet up at Soarin to use our first FP. However, FEA at RD and TT with FP would work great for you!

 

[Hootch]

FEA was good but not great. We were able to get an early FP for it. It was cute. We might do it again since Epcot has a dearth of attractions. (Note Mission Space was closed when we went.) I don't think we would go on standby at the 45 minute wait at that time.

The animatronics are top notch. It appeared to me that the faces were projected which would open up more opportunities.

 

[flortlebap]

Hope the weather holds up for us next week.

I'm surprised about the crowds though - when I've looked at the Lines app it's been surprisingly low waits.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Hope the weather holds up for us next week.

I'm surprised about the crowds though - when I've looked at the Lines app it's been surprisingly low waits.

Are you looking at the Posted Wait or the Expected Wait? The Expected Wait can be lower (or higher) on the Lines app and they mark them more prominently with a much larger font

Stitch was at 30 minutes on Friday...that's crowded to me!

 

[ArwenMarie]

Glad you had a great trip.

Your impression of FEA is the same way I felt about 7DMT--I would have been mad if I waited on line a long time for it.

Welcome home!

That's a good comparison. We did 7DMT at rope drop when it opened and I remember thinking I wouldn't wait for it again, but it was cute.

I think because I like Frozen so much I was more disappointed than I was in 7DMT.

 

[Sweettears]

This makes me wonder if i should swap my FEA fast pass for Test Track. I've still never ridden FEA, but I just keep thinking that maybe i should just head to FEA shortly after RD and hope for the best. I want to ride it b/c it's a new experience.... but man, I'd be really bummed if I didn't get to ride Test Track. What to do?! ugh.

I think that you should do it at least once. I'm a Maelstrom fan and think that FEA gets a bit more hate than it deserves. Also you can always do TT in the single rider line if needed.