Just back, and it couldn't have gone smoother!

[Magpie]

No glitches at all with our FP plusses this time (compared to when we visited last December, and half our parks didn't show up). Every single time we scanned our bands, it worked - instantly!

Even the readers seemed better at picking up our bands.

Didn't see any lines in the FP returns. Never had to wait for anything, if we had a FP for it. And we just picked our other times wisely. Never stood in line more than 15 minutes all week, even Standby. Rode and saw everything except the Rock and Roller Coaster (which makes my husband sick) and Country Bears (which we didn't get around to).

Only saw the FP entrance backed up twice in nine days, due to other guests blocking the entrance and arguing with the cast members. Which, come to think of it, is also exactly how often we got stuck in a Quick Service line, while slow-pokes mulled over the menu, repeatedly changed their minds, failed to do simple mental math, and tied up the cast member on the cash.

And after visiting all four parks on Sunday, which was apparently a "level 9" crowd level, I'm totally not worried any more about coming down during high crowd periods. It was completely manageable!

Most interesting comment... as we were hopping from the Magic Kingdom over to Animal Kingdom in the afternoon, we heard a girl comment to her group, iphone in hand, "I wonder how many people are on this bus because they saw the wait times at Animal Kingdom?"

This was, indeed the first time I've actually seen (small) crowds at Animal Kingdom right up to close - even at 9pm! So I do wonder if the ease of checking wait times at other parks is causing some increase in park hopping. But, even with that, Everest and all the other rides were still walk-ons and the waits for characters weren't completely unreasonable.

Everest in the dark is the Best. Coaster. Ever.

I miss Disney already...

 

[princessallegra]

Yay! Glad you had a great trip! We have a similar outlook to you. I've seen your posts before. We are going in November for our baby's first trip and my dh's 35th. She will be 14 months. We're excited to try the new system. We think it will benefit us nicely with our new addition. Thanks for the update. Are you doing a TR?

 

[prudence64]

Seems like things are coming together. The positive reports are starting to add up quite a bit.

 

[mrsp1030]

This was wonderful to hear! We are also going in November with crowd levels going up to "9" as it is Thanksgiving week. Did you book your FP for later in the day and park hop? That is one strategy we plan to use as we like to take mid day breaks every now and then.

 

[dorchrislen]

Glad you had a great time! I am surprised, though, since this is spring break month.

 

[ciera321]

Just that I wanted to hear! Glad you had such a great trip!

 

[Magpie]

Yay! Glad you had a great trip! We have a similar outlook to you. I've seen your posts before. We are going in November for our baby's first trip and my dh's 35th. She will be 14 months. We're excited to try the new system. We think it will benefit us nicely with our new addition. Thanks for the update. Are you doing a TR?

!4 months! That will be fun. Be sure to book her a haircut at the Barber Shop on Main Street!

I'm not planning to do a trip report, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Glad you had a great time! I am surprised, though, since this is spring break month.

So was my husband, who booked this trip without realizing it's spring break. He went into this figuring we'd survive the crowds, at best.

However, Disney really steps up the crowd control when things get busy, and we discovered that it all ran pretty much just as smoothly as it does during quieter times of the year. If an attraction has two sides - both sides will be running. There were extra busses. More street entertainment. Etc...

This was wonderful to hear! We are also going in November with crowd levels going up to "9" as it is Thanksgiving week. Did you book your FP for later in the day and park hop? That is one strategy we plan to use as we like to take mid day breaks every now and then.

It depended on the day. I meant to follow the 'book later in the day and hop' strategy, but my husband LOVES Soarin', so every day we were in Epcot, morning or evening, we had to book FPs for that park. Similarly, I LOVE Toy Story, so any day we were in Hollywood Studios, morning or evening, we had to book FPs in that park. And Animal Kingdom never needs FPs, ever.

Some of our FPs were "wasted", because they simply weren't necessary at the time we booked them, but we didn't mind, as we got what we really wanted (Soarin' or Toy Story).

Here was our Sunday, on the 6th, when we had morning FPs:

Arrived at Hollywood Studios around 10am, having slept in.

FP+ Toy Story Mania.

Standby Star Tours

FP+ Great Movie Ride (Standby was 20 minutes)

Did the Animation Studio's film and drawing class.

FP+ Tower of Terror at 12:30.

At lunch, returned to our resort for a nap.

Arrived at Animal Kingdom around 5pm. Park is open until 8pm.

Walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw tigers. Chatted with a lovely cast member from Poughkeepsie, who actually remembered us from last year!

Dinner at Yak and Yeti for 6pm.

After dinner, rode Dinosaur (walk on).

Rode Primeval Whirl (walk on).

Rode Expedition Everest (walk on).

Saw "It's Tough To Be a Bug" (plenty of empty seats in the theatre).

We also spent two days happily eating our way around the World Showcase in Epcot (I had to legitimately earn those stamps on my Flower and Garden Festival passport! ). And, being forced for the first time to actually PLAY Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom in order to collect my cards, I discovered a love for the game, so we spent about two half-days defeating Hades. It was a very spontaneous trip - sometimes ride focussed, sometimes taking in other aspects of the parks instead.

My big discovery? Despite what the posted wait times say, Toy Story's waits drop to about 10 or 15 minutes, during the last half hour Hollywood Studios is open. You can get 2 or 3 rides in, easy!

 

[JeanetteK]

Really glad you had a good trip! Reading more positive threads recently is reassuring!

 

[Mad Hattered]

I sure didn't see that coming! Glad you had a great trip!

Actually, according to Josh the Easter Crowds have not been as predicted so you may not have actually witnessed a "9" crowd.

Early Easter crowds haven’t met expectations thus far as staffing levels are ratcheted up to their second highest levels of the year and the Parks are open longer than any time of year outside of December 25th – 31st. We’ll pop in later this week.

And from WDWMagic

Epcot was seriously uncrowded for this time of year. Arriving at 130 the main parking lot sections still had many empty rows at the back (at least 6 or so) and the east lots were unused (except for the usual AAA stuff). The world showcase was also light around 5ish. The usual bottleneck by mexico didn't exist. I've seen far worse on F+W festival days. The place was so uncrowded that the fish and chips outdoor line had one person on it ay around 6. Weird.

How did your MK days work out?

 

[Shaden]

!4 months! That will be fun. Be sure to book her a haircut at the Barber Shop on Main Street!

I'm not planning to do a trip report, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.



So was my husband, who booked this trip without realizing it's spring break. He went into this figuring we'd survive the crowds, at best.

However, Disney really steps up the crowd control when things get busy, and we discovered that it all ran pretty much just as smoothly as it does during quieter times of the year. If an attraction has two sides - both sides will be running. There were extra busses. More street entertainment. Etc...



It depended on the day. I meant to follow the 'book later in the day and hop' strategy, but my husband LOVES Soarin', so every day we were in Epcot, morning or evening, we had to book FPs for that park. Similarly, I LOVE Toy Story, so any day we were in Hollywood Studios, morning or evening, we had to book FPs in that park. And Animal Kingdom never needs FPs, ever.

Some of our FPs were "wasted", because they simply weren't necessary at the time we booked them, but we didn't mind, as we got what we really wanted (Soarin' or Toy Story).

Here was our Sunday, on the 6th, when we had morning FPs:

Arrived at Hollywood Studios around 10am, having slept in.

FP+ Toy Story Mania.

Standby Star Tours

FP+ Great Movie Ride (Standby was 20 minutes)

Did the Animation Studio's film and drawing class.

FP+ Tower of Terror at 12:30.

At lunch, returned to our resort for a nap.

Arrived at Animal Kingdom around 5pm. Park is open until 8pm.

Walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw tigers. Chatted with a lovely cast member from Poughkeepsie, who actually remembered us from last year!

Dinner at Yak and Yeti for 6pm.

After dinner, rode Dinosaur (walk on).

Rode Primeval Whirl (walk on).

Rode Expedition Everest (walk on).

Saw "It's Tough To Be a Bug" (plenty of empty seats in the theatre).

We also spent two days happily eating our way around the World Showcase in Epcot (I had to legitimately earn those stamps on my Flower and Garden Festival passport! ). And, being forced for the first time to actually PLAY Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom in order to collect my cards, I discovered a love for the game, so we spent about two half-days defeating Hades. It was a very spontaneous trip - sometimes ride focussed, sometimes taking in other aspects of the parks instead.

My big discovery? Despite what the posted wait times say, Toy Story's waits drop to about 10 or 15 minutes, during the last half hour Hollywood Studios is open. You can get 2 or 3 rides in, easy!

Very glad you had a good trip !

To us, the day you posted looks horrible, unless you are leaving things you did out, but I don't think you are. But, that's the thing with Disney, like most things in life, it is different for different people.

Again, very happy you had a great time though, but if that's all you can get done it really isn't looking good to me

Hopefully May doesn't get messed up too much.

 

[magicbob]

And Animal Kingdom never needs FPs, ever.

I wouldn't go that far. There have been plenty of times in the past when I was very happy to have a FP for Kilimanjaro Safari and Expedition Everest to avoid waits between 45-120 minutes.

 

[CNYDisneyFan]

Glad it went well.

 

[Magpie]

I sure didn't see that coming! Glad you had a great trip!

Actually, according to Josh the Easter Crowds have not been as predicted so you may not have actually witnessed a "9" crowd.

Early Easter crowds haven’t met expectations thus far as staffing levels are ratcheted up to their second highest levels of the year and the Parks are open longer than any time of year outside of December 25th – 31st. We’ll pop in later this week.

And from WDWMagic

Epcot was seriously uncrowded for this time of year. Arriving at 130 the main parking lot sections still had many empty rows at the back (at least 6 or so) and the east lots were unused (except for the usual AAA stuff). The world showcase was also light around 5ish. The usual bottleneck by mexico didn't exist. I've seen far worse on F+W festival days. The place was so uncrowded that the fish and chips outdoor line had one person on it ay around 6. Weird.

How did your MK days work out?

That makes sense!

Each of our MK days was different. We spent one entirely in Tomorrowland, for instance.

Just looking at my notes, on Tuesday, we got to the Magic Kingdom around 5:30pm. I had made FP+ arrangements for Pirates and Splash, but we'd already ridden Pirates earlier in the week and it was raining so Splash didn't appeal. So we swapped them out for Pooh and Pan. Our evening looked like this:

1. Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom (aprox 2 villains)

2. FP+ Winnie the Pooh.

3. Rode It's a Small World, standby. No need for FP - walked right past the merge point.

4. FP+ Peter Pan

5. Had dinner.

6. FP+ Haunted Mansion

7. Hall of Presidents

8. Rode the Peoplemover (because my husband loves that ride, especially at night).

9. Rode the Carousel of Progress

10. Stuffed ourselves at the Wishes Dessert Party (yay! ).

11. Buzz Lightyear, standby - about 5 minutes.

We could have kept riding Buzz over and over, as the park had pretty much emptied out by this point, but my husband's basically a once-and-done kind of guy. And he was tired. So we headed out for the busses.

Very glad you had a good trip !

To us, the day you posted looks horrible, unless you are leaving things you did out, but I don't think you are. But, that's the thing with Disney, like most things in life, it is different for different people.

Again, very happy you had a great time though, but if that's all you can get done it really isn't looking good to me

Hopefully May doesn't get messed up too much.

It's not ALL you can get done. Check out my MK evening above.

Here's the important things to remember: We didn't wait in line. We didn't wander around with nothing to do and nowhere to go. We did everything we wanted to do.

Also, be sure to read people's trip reports. If everything everyone's reporting looks "horrible" to you, then you will need to consider a different vacation destination.

For me and my husband, there's a few things we consider VERY important to a successful vacation, which are almost certainly different from what you consider important.

1st: A midday nap. He works a stressful job and doesn't get enough sleep during the year. Midday naps are probably his favourite part of the vacation (and he makes them worth my while, too. )

2nd: He has his favourite rides, which are Soarin' and the Peoplemover. And he has his "must do"s every trip, which are the Hall of Presidents and the Carousel of Progress and the Voices of Liberty. But he's also a "once-and-done" kind of guy. We had many opportunities to ride repeatedly, on Toy Story, Test Track, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, Everest, etc... but after he'd been through once, he was done. Either his tummy gets squiffy, or he ends up with a headache/sore shoulder (I'm lookin' at you, Toy Story!).

A good touring plan should get you what you want. If it can't, then figure out where you have to go to get what you DO want, and head there.

I wouldn't go that far. There have been plenty of times in the past when I was very happy to have a FP for Kilimanjaro Safari and Expedition Everest to avoid waits between 45-120 minutes.

It's all about timing. We walked onto Kilimanjaro Safari with no problem at 6pm (with the last Safari departing at 7pm). And every evening we were there, by the last hour of operation, they'd closed the FP+ line to Expedition Everest and were just hustling people through. You can ride over, and over, and over, if you just show up at the right time.

I would never try to ride the Safari or Everest in the middle of the day when everyone's there. It's pointless! Ride early or late, and use the middle of the day for shows.

Unless, for some reason, you can only go to Animal Kingdom during a particular four hour window during the busiest time of the day, you're best off saving your FP+ for a different park.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Glad to hear you had a good time! I am so jealous that you got to experience AK in the dark!!!

 

[Redmic]

You tour like us, except instead of nap time we do pool time. That break is a really fun part of the trip. Thanks for the encouraging report!

 

[lugnut33]

Thanks for the update.

FP+ is designed exactly for people who tour like you. Glad it's perfect for your family.

 

[wisblue]

My daughters pulled off what we consider perfect execution of touring and use of FP+ at the MK yesterday. They arrived for the 7 AM EMH at the MK and rode everything they wanted (mountains, HM, POC, JC, PP, LM and a few other Fantasyland rides) before 11 AM and then saw the noon version of the parade. After that they took the monorail to the Polynesian for a snack and then went to Epcot where they enjoyed the flower and garden displays, used FP+ for Soarin, Spaceship Earth, and Mission Space, did a few other things, and had dinner at Via Napoli.

In short, they did a lot of things on a hot, crowded day while staying out of the parks during the heart of the afternoon. All while I sat here watching it snow.

 

[lustergirl]

Magpie: glad to hear your had an awesome trip. You are right about naps: I love my afternoon nap at Disney World.

 

[Day-Day]

Very glad you had a good trip !

To us, the day you posted looks horrible, unless you are leaving things you did out, but I don't think you are. But, that's the thing with Disney, like most things in life, it is different for different people.

Again, very happy you had a great time though, but if that's all you can get done it really isn't looking good to me

Hopefully May doesn't get messed up too much.

I am with you on this but maybe not "horrible". Some of the positive reports I've read do not look so good compared to what I'm used to during less crowded times. I'm glad that the OP was able to relax and enjoy what the parks had to offer based on the situation.

Looking at the Spring Break Poll for 2014, this week is the peak week but the spring breaks have been more spread out this year. The peak is not as high as in year's past (close to 26% during peak week in 2013).

 

[Shaden]

However, Disney really steps up the crowd control when things get busy, and we discovered that it all ran pretty much just as smoothly as it does during quieter times of the year. If an attraction has two sides - both sides will be running. There were extra busses. More street entertainment. Etc...
Really ??? I mean, REALLY !?!?!? lol, to try and spin peak periods as anything anywhere CLOSE to mid or low seasons is HILARIOUS. I mean, we had no doubt you would come back talking about how great FP+ was ... but REAAAALLLYYY Busy season is just as smooth as slow season, yea, ok.

Does Disney "step up" and TRY to make things as best they can, sure they do ... but the comparison or suggestion they are anything like moderate or low season is fairly laughable. Maybe that's not what you meant to imply, but that's what it seemed to me.

And Animal Kingdom never needs FPs, ever.
Again, um, sure. Never does EE or Safari hit 90- 120 minute wait times .... oh wait, they do.

Sooooo your magic night, which again would not at all align with what we would like to do, was doable because it was raining as and you said ... the park had "all but cleared out"


It's not ALL you can get done. Check out my MK evening above.
Again, your words, the park had "all but cleared out" sure, you can get a ton done in an empty park, congrats.

Here's the important things to remember: We didn't wait in line. We didn't wander around with nothing to do and nowhere to go. We did everything we wanted to do.

Fair enough, everything YOU wanted to do but particularly looking that the rides that YOU want to do, those are the ones that have been MOST negatively impacted by FP+. The fact that you went to MK when it was raining and the park was empty, or that you were in AK while no one showed up for evening EMH does not make FP+ at all a positive impact on your trip.

Also, be sure to read people's trip reports. If everything everyone's reporting looks "horrible" to you, then you will need to consider a different vacation destination.

Not everything everyone reports looks horrible by any means, just your trip, and a few others. I love WDW, or at least I did, and I am hoping to again. Heck if the 4th, 5th, 6th FP become possible, FP+ probably wont be a major negative anymore for me and mine. But really, Try to consider causation a bit here, oh and try not to put words in my mouth or perceptions in my mind.



For me and my husband, there's a few things we consider VERY important to a successful vacation, which are almost certainly different from what you consider important.




It's all about timing. We walked onto Kilimanjaro Safari with no problem at 6pm (with the last Safari departing at 7pm). And every evening we were there, by the last hour of operation, they'd closed the FP+ line to Expedition Everest and were just hustling people through. You can ride over, and over, and over, if you just show up at the right time.

So then FP+ isn't good ? If its all about timing ?

I would never try to ride the Safari or Everest in the middle of the day when everyone's there. It's pointless! Ride early or late, and use the middle of the day for shows.

That's funny I have only ever ridden it in the middle of the day, sometimes a couple times even, once just before lunch, once after lunch, both times with FP-

Unless, for some reason, you can only go to Animal Kingdom during a particular four hour window during the busiest time of the day, you're best off saving your FP+ for a different park.

Sure I agree, while FP "+" limits you to 3 FPs, of course we used to use FP-s in the busy park of the day all morning and as it got busy, then hopped to the less busy park and continued to pull FPs.

I am with you on this but maybe not "horrible". Some of the positive reports I've read do not look so good compared to what I'm used to during less crowded times. I'm glad that the OP was able to relax and enjoy what the parks had to offer based on the situation.

Despite what the OP or anyone else might think, I really am glad they enjoyed their trip as well, truly. I am always happy to see people happy, even people I don't like, and I don't even know the OP to like or dislike them. I wish unhappiness on no one.

But the OP has been one of the most staunch supporters of FP+ and constant proponent of everything WDW has done, as if it can do no wrong and its always awesome and great and rainbows and sunshine and ... bleh.

Its just really funny to read this kind of a report, and the implications about how awesome FP+ and Disney at high season are when considered in that context.