Just Back, A Few Observations

[barbeml]

For and DH me, this was our ninth trip together: October 24-28 with our good friends Bill & Stacey.

Crowds: We have been spoiled by light crowds with every one of our October trips...until now. The parks and Downtown Disney were mobbed. The Brits and Aussies were on a school break. We met many nice people and remarkably polite children, but got much less done than usual.

Sadly, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party was a disappointment for us. Last year, we walked on every attraction (maybe we were just lucky). This year, the MK was as crowded as I have ever seen it. We did not get good value from our party tickets. I wonder how "limited" the admission is these days. I would caution you that the party can be as crowded as a normal day at the MK, so plan accordingly if you are making the party your only MK visit. The decor was not as good as last year either, and the parade seemed shorter. On a positive note, the fireworks were great and the candy offerings were more varied and generous.

Year of a Million Dreams: On our first day, DH and I returned to CSR for a late afternoon break and said hello to two CMs we passed. The woman called me back and presented me with a pair of special edtion Tink pins…one to keep and one to share. At Studios, we met a fun CM named Brian who really got into his role at Star Tours. As we exited after our ride, he asked if anyone wanted to ride again, and I jumped at the chance. Brian asked our names and where we were from before sending us back to Endor. It was just the four of us….very cool. As we were leaving, he presented us with a certificate with all of our names to commemorate our “Return to Endor.” Stacey got a huge kick out of that.

Other than our experiences, we only saw one couple with the Dream FastPass, and never witnessed anything else.

The Parks: In EPCOT, the Nemo clam mobiles were “broken” every time we tried, and Test Track broke down (see my tags) while we were in line. Having ridden the “intense” Mission Space several times, I tried the “less intense” version with Stacey and actually enjoyed it more…since I was not worried about deep breathing, I noticed more details.

In the Magic Kingdom, we loved the “new” Pirates of the Caribbean, but poor Bill dropped his glasses into the water. It is unlikely they will be recovered. The Haunted Mansion seemed refreshed and appeared to have some new elements since our last visit.

At Animal Kingdom, Dinosaur seemed refreshed as well. All of us felt that the ride was improved and more exciting (not as good as the original Countdown to Extinction, however). B & S waited 40 minutes for Everest, and were a bit underwhelmed by the ride itself, although they raved about the queue areas.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Sorry to hear it was so crowded for you. We were there from Oct.12-23 and the parks were not that crowded. They were very crowded on the weekends but during the week they were great.

We went to the Halloween party on Oct. 16 and it was great. We were able to ride every ride however many times we wanted with only 5 to 10 minute waits. Most times there was no wait at all. We watched Hallowwishs from about halfway down main st. and there was no one else around us. It was so cool.

We were able to see all three shows of Three Dog Night on the 19th at Epcot.

My wife and I did recieve Dream Fastpass's at the Animal Kingdom, it was so great to get them. A CM walked up to us and told us about the Year of a Million Dreams and than gave us the passes. We were also able to ride Everest 4 times that day.

 

[barbeml]

My wife and I did recieve Dream Fastpass's at the Animal Kingdom, it was so great to get them. A CM walked up to us and told us about the Year of a Million Dreams and than gave us the passes. We were also able to ride Everest 4 times that day.

That is soooo cool! Were they good for just AK that day?

 

[sticker231]

We were down from the 21st-28th and we must have picked the right days to visit each park. We were able to ride Nemo once, it was down every other time. Test track was also down a bunch, we were in Epcot three times and it was down for periods each time. The weather was great, we are going to continue our October tradition.

 

[helenm29]

We were there from 10/10 - 10/22. Some days were relatively quiet and some days were SWAMPED! since the Food and Wine fest. were going at Epcot the morning was the best time to go because in the afternoon you could hardly move.
We went to MNSSHP on 10/17 where it was fairly crowded. The rides however were pretty much iether walk on or 10 minute wait. Some of the costumes that we saw were AMAZING though! some real time and thought were put into them. One of my favorite strange ones was a guy who was about 6'5....w/o heals..was dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! he had the whole get up including the bobby sox and Ruby Slippers! if he didn't have a 5:00 shadow you probably wouldn't have noticed.
Year of a Million Dreams was a total dud for us! we very seldome saw any cm's out there giving things away accept for little kids who anounced the opening of something and got a certificate. I don't know why I expected more then that. Helen

 

[jwwi]

We were also there from the 25-30. Very crowded parks, MGM saturday; AK Sun and Fri mornings. Waited over 25 minutes with a fastpass for safari. MNSSHP on the 26 was crowded. We did face painting, even though the line was long, it moved quickly. The deserted trick or treat trail from past trips was mobbed. Stood for a while just waiting. After that we stopped trick or treating until the very end of the night. Frustration with being stuck in the line because of crowd. Weather was beautiful, and enjoyed the extra magic hours. Still had a great time, and now need another vacation to rest.

 

[barbeml]

MNSSHP on the 26 was crowded. We did face painting, even though the line was long, it moved quickly. The deserted trick or treat trail from past trips was mobbed. Stood for a while just waiting. After that we stopped trick or treating until the very end of the night. Frustration with being stuck in the line because of crowd. Weather was beautiful, and enjoyed the extra magic hours. Still had a great time, and now need another vacation to rest.

That's the night we were there...could barely move in Adventureland. We had dinner at Artist Point before the party. Took FOREVER to get to MK on the mobbed boat...heard a CM say they had a surprise last-minute sell-out of that night's MNSSHP.

 

[meab]

good to know we weren't the only ones disappointed with MNSSHP on the 26th. it was our first visit, and most likely our last. our kids, ages 2 and 5, were excited to get candy and wear costumes to the park, but in all honesty, they would have been happy with *any* parade/fireworks, and the lines were most definitely NOT walk-ons (we even waited about 15 min for small world). we felt better off arriving at MK at opening on any day, and you'd be able to accomplish way more. i really wanted to try it out this year while the little one was still free.

we also found the parks crowded, especially in the afternoons. even EMH at epcot on friday night - soarin was a 40 min wait, and test track was about the same i think. the nemo ride was cute, the kids enjoyed it, but i was glad we didn't make special plans to go to epcot on the preview weekend. i probably would have been disappointed. the lines for the food at F&W festival were too long for my patience, so i didn't sample anything

another thing about waits - we were able to get a last-minute adr for boma at 7:10 saturday night. we hoped to be seated earlier, so we coudl eat, and then head to MK for another viewing of hallowishes since we really didn't get a good viewing spot at MNSSHP. so we arrived just before 6pm for the aDr and explained to the hostess that we'd like to be squeezed in early if at all possible (also since we had the 2 small children). she said that was fine and they'd try to squeeze us in. also, they were taking walk-ups at that time, telling them about a 45 min wait. we waited until 7pm, and then realized that if we still take the 7:10 adr, we'll never make it to hallowishes. we left boma, went to the quick service restaurant in AKL, which had terrible service that night - we were waiting, it was almost like they lost our order in the line, and it wasn't even very crowded there. getting a bad vibe from all of this, we decided to leave. we stopped at guest services to complain (if we couldn't be squeezed in early at boma, they should have been honest iwth us), and then headed out to MK, starving. on our way to the bus we realized that we really just wanted to have a nice sit-down dinner instead of running ourselves ragged to catch some fireworks (our 5 year old was starving and the 2 year old was asleep at this point). so we went back in, spoke to guest services again, and she was able to call down to boma and re-secure us a table.

the lesson learned: don't show up to a restaurant early in hopes of being squeezed in!!!! at least we were able to enjoy some of that AWESOME prime rib...eventually!!!

 

[ChrisAlli]

We were there from oct 20-30th. I think the crowds were more than last year at this same time, but a hurricane kept people away I think last year.

But we found the parks very easy to tour. We did use TGM for the first time. We never waited more than 15 minutes for rides. The WS was busy on a Friday night when we went but we knew that going in due to food and wine.

We went to MNSSHP on the 24th and had an awsome time. Watched the first Villians Mix and Mingle turned around after and had front row seats for the parade. I really liked it. Got a ton of candy and rode a lot of rides several times. The fireworks we saw from Toontown. Great view!

I guess we were lucky.

 

[helenm29]

MNSS was really very cool but we probably won't do it again. To me it just seemed too much like just being there on a regular day and to all all that cost on top of regular admittance just wasn't worth it. I'm glad I got to do it at least once though! You certainly don't get to see the Headless Horseman running through the street anywhere else....I think? accept maybe for Sleepy Hollow itself! Helen

 

[ReallyFunMom]

Crowds are crowds, what I find the most annoying about these recent reports is that such a simple NEW ride is having problems and that Test Track continues to have so many problems. Would be nice if Disney could take some of the extra revenue from attendence levels being up and fix rides so that they don't break down so often. It seems to me malfunctions at Epcot and MK should be much less frequent.

 

[barbeml]

Crowds are crowds, what I find the most annoying about these recent reports is that such a simple NEW ride is having problems and that Test Track continues to have so many problems. Would be nice if Disney could take some of the extra revenue from attendence levels being up and fix rides so that they don't break down so often. It seems to me malfunctions at Epcot and MK should be much less frequent.

Especially frustrating in EPCOT where we have no Wonders of Life Pavillion anymore (I think it opens occasionally) and the Imagination ride is barely functioning (no one rides, no one cares), so when attractions break down, everyone flocks to the few that are open and working.

EPCOT deserves better. It really needs some TLC, and a few new countries.

 

[Tigger2252]

We were there from 10/21 to 10/29. Followed TGM's advise and walked on every ride. We were lucky to never catch a ride broken. We rode every ride we wanted to according to our tour plan. We also attended MNSSHP on 10/26 and thought the crowd was crazy! We didn't really bother with rides as we had had the opportunity to ride everything we wanted on a previous visit and my kids were more interested in the parade, fireworks, dance parties, candy, etc. We all dressed up and had a wonderful time. I would do it again in a heartbeat. The only problem we had with the crowd was on two separate days my young daugher was clocked in the face. Neither time did we experience the good manners the OP spoke of. The first woman struck her in the chin with her elbow, hard enough to leave a big red mark and never apologized to her. Simply said Oh! and didn't look at us again (even though I was glaring at her). I was appalled that she didn't tell the child she was sorry and ask if she was alright. The second time a man leaned in front of us with his camera to take a picture in The Living Seas and hit her in the face with his backpack. Again, no apology.