Just got back from a 4-day Labor Day trip. The parks were beyond dead - like "walked on to Kong multiple times throughout the day" dead.
Stayed at RPR - lovely themeing and the staff was amazing. Only complaint was that the hot water took its sweet time kicking in in the shower and sink.
Express passes definitely weren't needed, but they helped save a lot of time (walking on to something with a 15-minute wait still cuts out about 10 minutes!).
The fire effects weren't working in the treasure room on Mummy the entire trip which meant that I had the attention span to notice some of the pop-up soldiers were missing their weapons
Fast & Furious...the less said, the better. Rode it twice solely for the air conditioning. Neither ride had any semblance of a wait time.
Diagon Alley was fantastic as always. Only snafu was that, on one ride, the dialogue got out of sync with the track on Gringotts (which was slightly odd, since you could hear the correct dialogue from the next cart). Early entry was great for getting in a ride or two on Gringotts and just enjoying the empty feeling. Most people seemed to stop at Mummy on their way, so if you head straight there it should be pretty deserted.
Simpsons has to have the best pre-show in any park I've ever been to - SO dang funny and actually makes you pay attention. Half the time I just want to do the line and skip the ride itself.
Hadn't peeked in in years, but I brought a snack in to Monsters Cafe this trip. I forgot how amazingly themed it was! Does anyone remember back when they'd have the costumed monsters roaming around?
FJ had syncing issues on one or two rides - think maybe it's time they bit the bullet and refurbed it. On our last day, it was down the entire morning. Islands in general was kind of out of it that morning - Spidey, JP and FJ were all down for a good chunk of time as soon as the park opened. The others reopened within a half hour, but FJ was down until the afternoon.
Had my first ever complete ride shutdown on Spidey - as Doc Ock was supposed to be dragging us down, it abruptly paused and we were there for about 5 minutes or so. We then had to go through the rest of the ride with the movements, but no video or audio (which was...interesting, to say the least). Got free passes for later, but they weren't valid for any of the "big" rides, so I never used it (plus, lines were nonexistent anyway).
Tried pumpkin juice for the first time...not a fan, unfortunately. I don't like butterbeer either, so the drinks in Harry Potter are just a bust for me
Labor Day was the perfect time to go because schools just started back up, so there were VERY few people in the parks (no one wants to take kids out of school the first week). The only "busy" day was Sunday because it was mostly locals (but even then, lines were never longer than 20 minutes). With that being said, it was interesting to observe the two (very different) dynamics of park-goers: with locals, you had way more efficiency in terms of lines and walking around, but they were also more likely to quote rides, make generally annoying comments during rides and partake in a little more "liquid courage" than tourists. Then, when Labor Day hit and the locals disappeared, suddenly there was a lot more "stopping abruptly in the middle of a moving line to do something that definitely could've waited until the line had stopped again" and "realizing while in a ride vehicle that this random thing that really should've been put away ages ago just HAS to go in our bag in a very specific pocket, so please hold the ride while I get out and put it there." Both rarely happened, but it was still funny to see the dichotomy over the course of the trip.
Think that's it! If any new people have any questions, feel free to ask.
Stayed at RPR - lovely themeing and the staff was amazing. Only complaint was that the hot water took its sweet time kicking in in the shower and sink.
Express passes definitely weren't needed, but they helped save a lot of time (walking on to something with a 15-minute wait still cuts out about 10 minutes!).
The fire effects weren't working in the treasure room on Mummy the entire trip which meant that I had the attention span to notice some of the pop-up soldiers were missing their weapons
Fast & Furious...the less said, the better. Rode it twice solely for the air conditioning. Neither ride had any semblance of a wait time.
Diagon Alley was fantastic as always. Only snafu was that, on one ride, the dialogue got out of sync with the track on Gringotts (which was slightly odd, since you could hear the correct dialogue from the next cart). Early entry was great for getting in a ride or two on Gringotts and just enjoying the empty feeling. Most people seemed to stop at Mummy on their way, so if you head straight there it should be pretty deserted.
Simpsons has to have the best pre-show in any park I've ever been to - SO dang funny and actually makes you pay attention. Half the time I just want to do the line and skip the ride itself.
Hadn't peeked in in years, but I brought a snack in to Monsters Cafe this trip. I forgot how amazingly themed it was! Does anyone remember back when they'd have the costumed monsters roaming around?
FJ had syncing issues on one or two rides - think maybe it's time they bit the bullet and refurbed it. On our last day, it was down the entire morning. Islands in general was kind of out of it that morning - Spidey, JP and FJ were all down for a good chunk of time as soon as the park opened. The others reopened within a half hour, but FJ was down until the afternoon.
Had my first ever complete ride shutdown on Spidey - as Doc Ock was supposed to be dragging us down, it abruptly paused and we were there for about 5 minutes or so. We then had to go through the rest of the ride with the movements, but no video or audio (which was...interesting, to say the least). Got free passes for later, but they weren't valid for any of the "big" rides, so I never used it (plus, lines were nonexistent anyway).
Tried pumpkin juice for the first time...not a fan, unfortunately. I don't like butterbeer either, so the drinks in Harry Potter are just a bust for me
Labor Day was the perfect time to go because schools just started back up, so there were VERY few people in the parks (no one wants to take kids out of school the first week). The only "busy" day was Sunday because it was mostly locals (but even then, lines were never longer than 20 minutes). With that being said, it was interesting to observe the two (very different) dynamics of park-goers: with locals, you had way more efficiency in terms of lines and walking around, but they were also more likely to quote rides, make generally annoying comments during rides and partake in a little more "liquid courage" than tourists. Then, when Labor Day hit and the locals disappeared, suddenly there was a lot more "stopping abruptly in the middle of a moving line to do something that definitely could've waited until the line had stopped again" and "realizing while in a ride vehicle that this random thing that really should've been put away ages ago just HAS to go in our bag in a very specific pocket, so please hold the ride while I get out and put it there." Both rarely happened, but it was still funny to see the dichotomy over the course of the trip.
Think that's it! If any new people have any questions, feel free to ask.
