mouseearstx
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 100
We just returned from the parks, and I wanted to share a few tips and experiences that I thought might be helpful to others. We spent 5 days in the parks Friday-Tuesday.
I know many people are talk about rope drop being the best time to ride those hard to get rides, but we prefer the end of the night. The parks seemed to begin clearing out around dinner time. by about 7:30 or 8 PM we started having wait times of about 5-15 minutes for most rides. They seem to stop updating ride times for some of the more popular attractions at some point, because on Saturday and Monday nights, we got in line of Webslingers at 8:30 with a posted wait time of 45 minutes both times. On Saturday we waited 15 minutes, and on Monday it was 8 minutes. Most rides are walk on at that point. After learning this on Saturday, our plan was to try it Monday on RSR, but it was closed, so we did Web Slingers again.
Quick service eating areas are not set up for large parties! Most tables are set up for 4, 5 is a tight squeeze. some may be able to seat 6, but you're going to have to search out chairs that no one is using. We were a [arty of 8, and most of the time we sat at 2 tables that were not close to each other. Best seating area the area in DCA along the back street between Guardian's of the Galaxy and the Monster's ride. It's quiet with lots of trees for shade and not usually crowded, so we could push tables together.
We were surprised that a lot of the quick service places closed at 8 PM, even when the park was open much later. This made it challenging to find dinner options later in the evening.
We used door dash to have a case of water delivered to our room. It cost about $17 for 36 bottles of water, with tip included (we do have Dashpass, so it might be a couple dollars more without). While that seems a little expensive for water, at $4 a bottle in the park, we saved $127 and it arrived within 30 minutes right to our door.
Avoid Main Street at all costs if it rains! We were shopping in the uncrowded shops on Tuesday evening, when it started to rain. The shops quickly filled up to the point where we could hardly move to get from one area to the next! We went outside (with umbrellas) and tried to make our way back up Main Street towards the castle, and no one wanted to let us through! Being WDW veterans, a little rain wasn't going to deter us! The rain cleared out the park, and rides were pretty much walk on after that!
We did use Genie+ on 4 of the days we were there. It was helpful to skip some of the longer lines, but as most of our party won't or can't ride the thrill rides, it didn't feel like we got our moneys worth out of it. If it included more rides I think it would have been a better value. (My personal frustration was buying it for my whole family at $160 a day and having some of them only use it on 2-3 rides
so know your family!) One helpful time, if someone in your ride choses not to ride a specific ride, someone else in your family can use their pass to ride it again.
We stayed at the Tropicana. I like the proximity, definitely a plus! Beds are firm, but comfortable. pull out chair, not so comfortable. We stayed for 5 nights. We had to take out our own trash and go down to the lobby to get clean towels or more toilet paper. They said they would do a cleaning on the fourth night, but no one ever did. Not sure if it's a COVID thing, but having to take out your own trash is not something you want to have to do on vacation. Judging from the overflowing trashcans, this was a common issue.
The parks were very crowed everyday, even Tuesday! If this is low season I would hate to see what summer looks like! At least at DLR there are more rides in the park, so the lines didn't seem to get as long as WDW.
I know many people are talk about rope drop being the best time to ride those hard to get rides, but we prefer the end of the night. The parks seemed to begin clearing out around dinner time. by about 7:30 or 8 PM we started having wait times of about 5-15 minutes for most rides. They seem to stop updating ride times for some of the more popular attractions at some point, because on Saturday and Monday nights, we got in line of Webslingers at 8:30 with a posted wait time of 45 minutes both times. On Saturday we waited 15 minutes, and on Monday it was 8 minutes. Most rides are walk on at that point. After learning this on Saturday, our plan was to try it Monday on RSR, but it was closed, so we did Web Slingers again.
Quick service eating areas are not set up for large parties! Most tables are set up for 4, 5 is a tight squeeze. some may be able to seat 6, but you're going to have to search out chairs that no one is using. We were a [arty of 8, and most of the time we sat at 2 tables that were not close to each other. Best seating area the area in DCA along the back street between Guardian's of the Galaxy and the Monster's ride. It's quiet with lots of trees for shade and not usually crowded, so we could push tables together.
We were surprised that a lot of the quick service places closed at 8 PM, even when the park was open much later. This made it challenging to find dinner options later in the evening.
We used door dash to have a case of water delivered to our room. It cost about $17 for 36 bottles of water, with tip included (we do have Dashpass, so it might be a couple dollars more without). While that seems a little expensive for water, at $4 a bottle in the park, we saved $127 and it arrived within 30 minutes right to our door.
Avoid Main Street at all costs if it rains! We were shopping in the uncrowded shops on Tuesday evening, when it started to rain. The shops quickly filled up to the point where we could hardly move to get from one area to the next! We went outside (with umbrellas) and tried to make our way back up Main Street towards the castle, and no one wanted to let us through! Being WDW veterans, a little rain wasn't going to deter us! The rain cleared out the park, and rides were pretty much walk on after that!
We did use Genie+ on 4 of the days we were there. It was helpful to skip some of the longer lines, but as most of our party won't or can't ride the thrill rides, it didn't feel like we got our moneys worth out of it. If it included more rides I think it would have been a better value. (My personal frustration was buying it for my whole family at $160 a day and having some of them only use it on 2-3 rides
so know your family!) One helpful time, if someone in your ride choses not to ride a specific ride, someone else in your family can use their pass to ride it again.We stayed at the Tropicana. I like the proximity, definitely a plus! Beds are firm, but comfortable. pull out chair, not so comfortable. We stayed for 5 nights. We had to take out our own trash and go down to the lobby to get clean towels or more toilet paper. They said they would do a cleaning on the fourth night, but no one ever did. Not sure if it's a COVID thing, but having to take out your own trash is not something you want to have to do on vacation. Judging from the overflowing trashcans, this was a common issue.
The parks were very crowed everyday, even Tuesday! If this is low season I would hate to see what summer looks like! At least at DLR there are more rides in the park, so the lines didn't seem to get as long as WDW.
