Just back...kinda disappointed

[DWDan]

Thanks much for the feedback!

I have read nothing but 'cons' for the Extra Magic Hours. I do plan on purchasing the hopper pass and would probably plan to avoid those parks except for maybe late at night, but not sure then if it would even be worth it. On the easywdw.com site, whichever park has EMH for that day, the site says to avoid that park (like the plague), but I know if you don't have the hopper pass you will probably go to that park for the extra time.

Your point about time and park distance is going to really going to be interesting with how long it will take to get from attraction to attraction and then how long you have to wait. I certainly don't mind standing in lines (weird for someone to say) and will utilize the FP+ when possible. I've read the best time to use FP is when the park gets busy (11a-5p)and each person gets 3. I don't want to be running from ride to ride, but I also know I want to see and do as much as I can. I guess you don't know just how long some things will take. My group should be on the mobile side and I will be acting like a drill sergeant to get everyone up early and get to the parks for the opening - lol

Dining Reservations are definitely something I'm concerned about. Not so much the ADR part, but I never thought that if you have a reservation every night that you are locked into that park for at least that evening. And I'm not sure what anyone's appetite will be like and when they'll want to eat. It's almost like you need to plan what you're going to be doing around where you're going to be eating.

I recently read that what we might consider "low" crowd levels is still crowded...Disney at its lowest is still 85% occupied and they have 25,000 rooms or something, so it will always be "crowded", I think. It's just that everyone has a different subjective idea of what crowded is to them, how long it should take them to walk, how long they should wait to go on a ride, etc. I just don't want to be in a log jam of people walking on the back of my shoes (and vice versa) for the entire trip, but maybe that's what I will have to expect and if it's not like that then it's a win.[/QUOTE]

 

[Jeannie in NJ]

We have been lucky enough to have been to Disney many times so there are only a few must do for us now.
Soarin (for me)
Indiana Jones stunt show
Beauty and the Beast
Muppets
Lion King show
the rest of the rides (we don't care to do the "thrill" rides) for ex. Haunted Mansion, POTC, the Land, etc we just do whenever the lines are not too bad. We are there for 8 or9 days so have plenty of time to do everything that we want.

The only must have meals are:
Coral Reef
50's Prime Time Diner

everything else is counter quick service.
we like to just visit the parks (mostly WS) and wander around, but that is just our way of enjoying Disney.

 

[itchin2go]

1. Extra Magic Hours- I read a lot about the pros and cons of them. I'm not sure I would do them unless I knew I could park hop. We went to two parks that had Extra Hours in the morning and it wasn't a benefit to us, partly because our group wasn't mobile enough. The parks definitely seemed to get very crowded by lunch time. And in my opinion, park hopping is not that easy, unless you're riding the monorail.

In response to the bolded part, every park gets crowded around this time - EMH or not. It's why we bolt soon thereafter. We generally get our touring done before lunch, and then return to the parks for dinner/fireworks only.

If you did want to stay in the parks through the "gridlock" hours, I would only do attractions such as Mickey's Philharmagic, where there's a short wait most of the time.

Sadly, you can't avoid that midday gridlock simply by picking a different park. You may pick a better park, but it's still going to get wildly busy in those mid-day hours.

You CAN tour differently and at least mitigate the effect of the midday masses.

 

[ELSA711]

In response to the bolded part, every park gets crowded around this time - EMH or not. It's why we bolt soon thereafter. We generally get our touring done before lunch, and then return to the parks for dinner/fireworks only.

If you did want to stay in the parks through the "gridlock" hours, I would only do attractions such as Mickey's Philharmagic, where there's a short wait most of the time.

Sadly, you can't avoid that midday gridlock simply by picking a different park. You may pick a better park, but it's still going to get wildly busy in those mid-day hours.

You CAN tour differently and at least mitigate the effect of the midday masses.

We don't leave the park mid day because we usually go in the fall during shorter park hours but it is when we plan our sit down meals. I always make sure I get a TS meal between 1-3pm to wait out the nonsense.

 

[dkrauss]

I'm sorry your trip was less than magical. It seems there aren't any times that are truly uncrowded any more, and as a PP mentioned there are a lot of tricks to avoiding the crowds and making the most of a Disney trip that take a lot of time to research. I also think many people go into a Disney trip with very high expectations, so when things don't go exactly the way they anticipated it's disappointing which is completely understandable.

Hopefully if you do decide to go back, you learned some things on this trip that will help you for next time. I definitely learned some things last year, both about how WDW works and about my family, that are helping me plan better for this year.

The thing about crowd calanders and crowd estimates is they're not fool proof. They're mostly educated guesses. Many times they're based on prior year info or around discounts at the time. Things change....and at WDW thats a very big given! WDW is doing all it can to fill rooms during the so-called "slower times". Even Peter Werner has said on the DisUnplugged that previous slower times just don't seem to be as slow anymore. Slow and Less Crowded at WDW is an oxymoron it seems these days..........just need to keep a level of perspective. I do agree that can be difficult given the cost of a WDW stay.

Its also more difficult to tour with younglings. The expectations change. In the end the OP said the younglings were happy in the end that really is all that matters.

Next time will be better!

Doug

 

[Davey Jones II]

We spent eight days at WDW last October (plus three Universal days). We experienced a lot of the things that people are complaining about in this thread, but we still felt that we had a great trip. Yes, it was pretty crowded, and we did a lot of rushing around much of the time, but we kinda like the adrenaline rush of that. I know we would be bored silly with a "sitting on the beach" kind of vacation.

We did a LOT of park hopping on this trip. One reason is that the Electrical Parade was a top priority for us, and it was only being presented three times during our stay. We didn't want to spend all day at MK on parade days, because of the overcrowding, so we would do another park and then hop to the MK in the evening. Also, we wanted to do the water parks, but not spend all day there, either. So sometimes we would start at a theme park in the morning, switch to a water park in the afternoon when it got hot and crowded, then go back to another theme park in the evening. FP+ worked well for this touring plan because I always booked them for late afternoon/early evening, without the worry that all the FPs would be gone when we got to the park.

Spontaneity? Well, there was some. If we stumbled across a short standby line, and we weren't hurrying for a FP+, we would get in line. We didn't have ADRs. Sometimes we would be headed to a show but something else would grab our interest, so we would plan to see the show later, or even on another day.

Wait times? It varied. As other have noted, Disney inflates the posted wait times, so you can usually expect to wait less than that. The longest waits we experienced were when a ride broke down. That happened at Mission: Space, for some reason, but it happened more often at Universal. We experienced stalled lines at Spiderman, Escape from Gringotts, and Transformers. We also waited 50-60 minutes for Despicable Me and Forbidden Journey (we did single rider after that!). No, we didn't have the Express Pass.

We did wait maybe 40 minutes for 7DMT one time (posted wait time 60 min.) just after rope drop. That was on a Saturday. Overall, the wait times at Disney were not too onerous. Of course, we only rode TSMM with FP+ (on multiple days), we never got around to Soarin', and we had some short waits on certain rides because my g.f. was in a wheelchair due to bad knees.

If you go when they're holding Halloween or Christmas parties, I would highly recommend doing at least one of the parties. They are usually sold out, but most rides are a walk-on all night anyway. That way, you can catch up on the rides you missed, or the ones you want to do again. Many times during our trip, we would pass a ride with a long posted wait time, but just tell ourselves "we'll do it during the party."

Our party day was at the end of our trip. We used it as a rest day, chilling out at the hotel, and packing for our departure the next day. We got to the MK at 4:00, and found light crowds! As others have noted, if you go to the MK on a party day, the crowds and wait times are noticeably lighter, because people know they will have to leave around 7.

The difference was unmistakeable. On non-party days, the posted wait for Splash in the afternoon was usually around 55 min. When we got there for the party, we went directly to Splash and were pleasantly surprised by a posted 25 min. wait time (and we waited maybe 15-20 min.)

Expense? Well, we are two adults, and the whole trip cost about $1500 apiece. That includes our flight from Canada and our three days at Universal. We stayed at All Star Sports, the least expensive of the value resorts. We didn't have free dining (unfortunately, we lost that when we changed our reservations) but we ate counter service. We also carried protein bars with us every day. Thoser are quite filling, and substituted for at least one of our meals daily (by the way, if you bring protein bars, also carry bottles of water. Those bars make you thirsty.)

At Universal, we stayed off-site, for about $45 per night, at Baymont Inn and Suites, just a mile from the parks. We did get a discount on the room from Expedia because we booked our flight with them.

Overall, we loved our trip, especially the new stuff. New Fantasyland was entirely new to us, and Diagon Alley, of course. We definitely got our money's worth. Other people's experiences can vary a lot, but hopefully there is something in this "mini trip report" that can help others plan for upcoming trips.

 

[IrishNYC]

Just got back from a week visit (May 1 - May 8). We had 4 adults in our party and two preschoolers, so while we visited all parks we focused on preschooler activities. First of all, I know that Disney is expensive, and while I can afford the trip, I just didn't think it was a good value at all for what we experienced. Considering we were spending over $500 a day just in park admission, I felt underwhelmed at the experience. We specifically went at this time because crowds were said to be lower, we even went to specific parks on the days the crowds there were expected to be lower. But it was crowded. We felt like we couldn't do much more than our 3 fast passes because we didn't want to wait for 40 to 60 min in line. Also, getting additional fastpasses was annoying because of the limited availability of kiosks in which to do this. Sometimes I didnt have a choice in FP times, so my 3rd fastpass was for 4pm. That means I had to wait until after that to get a 4th one, but someone else could be on their 8th by that point. Doesnt seem fair. Also the selection was pretty poor for additional fastpasses anyway. My main problem with the FP is when we used them for shows or parades. We still had to get their early and wait in order to get a good seat. My view is, if you are using FP for a show or parade you shouldnt have to wait that long or race with the crowds to get a good seat. For example, we had FP for the Lion King Festival show. We lined up and waited and then when they let us in, people raced across the performance area to get seats, people literally ran, and some of my party had to sit several rows back from the rest o f us because people filled in around us and we didnt get seats together. Why cant this be orderly? We got there, we lined up? Did we really have to RUN across to get seats? Another point is when booking fastpasses we didnt have much time selection, even though I did it at 1am on the day I could book, so we had to walk across parks to get from one thing to the next. Also the other thing that bothered me was the seating, if I am paying 100 for a so-so lunch I at least expect to have seating, more than once I would had to wait for seating to open up, and then scramble to try to find enough chairs. the tables were often dirty too. Overall the kids enjoyed the trip, so that is what counts, I just felt like the whole trip was hurry up and wait, or race around trying to get seats.

We (2 adults and a 5 year old coaster enthusiast) were there May 2-9. While the parks felt crowded to me, the only ride we waited more than 10 minutes for without FP were Barnstormer and we skipped Dumbo and Pooh because of long (30+ minute) lines. We even rode EE several times in a row around 2-3pm because there was no line.

We planned our days well, were there at RD all but day, and rode everything except the two rides mentioned above. We never stayed in a park later than 4pm either.

 

[LizzyS]

Crowds WERE lower. There is no such thing as uncrowded anymore. There is very crowded, crowded, and somewhat less crowded. If you want access to multiple rides without long waits, you really need to do rope drop, not show up closer to noon. At least the kids had fun!

I am personally a very big supporter of getting up and getting anywhere as early as possible. I've barely used Fastpass at all at Disneyland and we do the "e ticket" attractions early in the morning with little to no wait time. I did a lot of research before the first trip and made astute observations in subsequent trips, so I know which attractions I need to hit early and which ones can wait until later in the day.

Count me in for being a bit intimidated by all the planning for WDW, though! I like to have a general plan, be very well informed, but then go with the flow if something disturbs those plans.

 

[itchin2go]

I am personally a very big supporter of getting up and getting anywhere as early as possible. I've barely used Fastpass at all at Disneyland and we do the "e ticket" attractions early in the morning with little to no wait time. I did a lot of research before the first trip and made astute observations in subsequent trips, so I know which attractions I need to hit early and which ones can wait until later in the day.

Count me in for being a bit intimidated by all the planning for WDW, though! I like to have a general plan, be very well informed, but then go with the flow if something disturbs those plans.

In response to the bolded, this will work perfectly.

The way you do things sounds a lot like may family. We used legacy FP *some*, but were not the ones with handfuls of FPs to use later at night. We found it to be the same with FP+. We rode most everything standby, early in the day, with no trouble.

 

[elaine amj]

I am personally a very big supporter of getting up and getting anywhere as early as possible. I've barely used Fastpass at all at Disneyland and we do the "e ticket" attractions early in the morning with little to no wait time. I did a lot of research before the first trip and made astute observations in subsequent trips, so I know which attractions I need to hit early and which ones can wait until later in the day.

Count me in for being a bit intimidated by all the planning for WDW, though! I like to have a general plan, be very well informed, but then go with the flow if something disturbs those plans.

The cheat sheets from EasyWDW would work perfectly for your style.

I am an insane minute-by-minute planner - but even in the days of legacy FPs, really didn't use that many because we also wanted to minimize criss-crossing the parks so I just planned accordingly and used maybe 3-4 FP- a day.

 

[Delilah1310]

We spent eight days at WDW last October (plus three Universal days). We experienced a lot of the things that people are complaining about in this thread, but we still felt that we had a great trip. Yes, it was pretty crowded, and we did a lot of rushing around much of the time, but we kinda like the adrenaline rush of that. I know we would be bored silly with a "sitting on the beach" kind of vacation.

We did a LOT of park hopping on this trip. One reason is that the Electrical Parade was a top priority for us, and it was only being presented three times during our stay. We didn't want to spend all day at MK on parade days, because of the overcrowding, so we would do another park and then hop to the MK in the evening. Also, we wanted to do the water parks, but not spend all day there, either. So sometimes we would start at a theme park in the morning, switch to a water park in the afternoon when it got hot and crowded, then go back to another theme park in the evening. FP+ worked well for this touring plan because I always booked them for late afternoon/early evening, without the worry that all the FPs would be gone when we got to the park.

Spontaneity? Well, there was some. If we stumbled across a short standby line, and we weren't hurrying for a FP+, we would get in line. We didn't have ADRs. Sometimes we would be headed to a show but something else would grab our interest, so we would plan to see the show later, or even on another day.

Wait times? It varied. As other have noted, Disney infates the posted wait time, so you can usually expect to wait less than that. The longest waits we experienced were when a ride broke down. That happened at Mission: Space, for some reason, but it happened more often at Universal. We experienced stalled lines at Spiderman, Escape from Gringotts, and Transformers. We also waited 50-60 minutes for Despicable Me and Forbidden Journey (we did single rider after that!). No, we didn't have the Express Pass.

We did wait maybe 40 minutes for 7DMT one time (posted wait time 60 min.) just after rope drop. That was on a Saturday. Overall, the wait times at Disney were not too onerous. Of course, we only rode TSMM with FP+ (on multiple days), we never got around to Soarin', and we had some short waits on certain rides because my g.f. was in a wheelchair due to bad knees.

If you go when they're holding Halloween or Christmas parties, I would highly recommend doing at least one of the parties. They are usually sold out, but most rides are a walk-on all night anyway. That way, you can catch up on the rides you missed, or the ones you want to do again. Many times during our trip, we would pass a ride with a long posted wait time, but just tell ourselves "we'll do it during the party."

Our party day was at the end of our trip. We used it as a rest day, chilling out at the hotel, and packing for our departure the next day. We got to the MK at 4:00, and found light crowds! As others have noted, if you go to the MK on a party day, the crowds and wait times are noticeably lighter, because people know they will have to leave around 7.

The difference was unmistakeable. On non-party days, the posted wait for Splash in the afternoon was usually around 55 min. When we got there for the party, we went directly to Splash and were pleasantly surprised by a posted 25 min. wait time (and we waited maybe 15-20 min.)

Expense? Well, we are two adults, and the whole trip cost about $1500 apiece. That includes our flight from Canada and our three days at Universal. We stayed at All Star Sports, the least expensive of the value resorts. We didn't have free dining (unfortunately, we lost that when we changed our reservations) but we ate counter service. We also carried protein bars with us every day. Thoser are quite filling, and substituted for at least one of our meals daily (by the way, if you bring protein bars, also carry bottles of water. Those bars make you thirsty.)

At Universal, we stayed off-site, for about $45 per night, at Baymont Inn and Suites, just a mile from the parks. We did get a discount on the room from Expedia because we booked our flight with them.

Overall, we loved our trip, especially the new stuff. New Fantasyland was entirely new to us, and Diagon Alley, of course. We definitely got our money's worth. Other people's experiences can vary a lot, but hopefully there is something in this "mini trip report" that can help others plan for upcoming trips.

thanks for sharing your review! sounds like you had a great time!

 

[LizzyS]

The cheat sheets from EasyWDW would work perfectly for your style.

I am an insane minute-by-minute planner - but even in the days of legacy FPs, really didn't use that many because we also wanted to minimize criss-crossing the parks so I just planned accordingly and used maybe 3-4 FP- a day.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I just came back and pretty much had he best time EVER.

May 6: Magic Kingdom
May 7: Epcot
May 8: Hollywood Studios
May 9: Animal Kingdom
May 10: Thyphoon Lagoon/ Magic Kingdom

We rode every ride, saw all of the shows and met MOST of the characters with no problems at all.

 

[JanaDee]

I just came back and pretty much had he best time EVER.

May 6: Magic Kingdom
May 7: Epcot
May 8: Hollywood Studios
May 9: Animal Kingdom
May 10: Thyphoon Lagoon/ Magic Kingdom

We rode every ride, saw all of the shows and met MOST of the characters with no problems at all.

I would have had the best time EVER, too if I would have gotten engaged at Disney.

 

[guenzo1]

Sorry to hear your tip didn't live up to expectations.

 

[lustergirl]

I just came from the world: 4/29-5/1 and had an awesome time. Was a little different this time for me as I took more breaks, letting my knees rest. I had quite the opposite experience at the Lion King Show. I thought it was smoothly ran and honestly can't see how any running to get seats was allowed. There really is no bad seat in the house while watching this show. One of the biggest complaints I had was the outrageous teenagers who were staying at AS Sports while I was there. Didn't research the fact that there was a cheerleading competition going on at the same time and a lot of the kids were staying at Sports.

One bad thing was that I didn't receive my luggage until the day after I arrived home. I was relieved when the airport called and said they were delivering my luggage.

 

[Monykalyn]

I would have had the best time EVER, too if I would have gotten engaged at Disney.

especially with that ring!

I think we had a good time last year was, in part, due to all the tips I picked up from these boards. Both good and not so good trip reports (or mini reports) were very helpful (10 year gaps between trips-lotta changes). Probably one of the most helpful things was the easywdw site and the fastpass thread here. Going in June we knew it would be hot and crowded. As someone said on another thread "you may be sweating but it's Disney sweat".

 

[I'mfarfaraway]

We were in Disney the previous week (April 25th-May 2nd) and while it was "magical" at times, it just seemed like the magic was spread a little too thin with all of those people in the park. I think our opinion was a little skewed because we hadn't been to Disney in 20 years. A lot has changed, including the crowds. I wouldn't classify our trip as disappointing, but it didn't meet all of our expectations. And since it is Disney, our expectations were high. This is what I took away from this experience. You can plan and plan and plan some more (which I did for about 8 months), but until you get to Disney and see everything first hand, it's hard to relate the planning to the actual experience. Now that I know what to expect when I'm actually in the World, my planning will be different (hopefully more effective) next visit.

You have hit the nail on the head when you speak to seeing everything first hand. Our first trip was 2 years ago and we thought we had done a really great job of planning. And we had but this time we will plan differently because we know what things are have to be done and what can be left serendipity.

 

[Davey Jones II]

thanks for sharing your review! sounds like you had a great time!

We did, thanks.

I wanted to add one thing to my report. I don't know if they still do it this way, but we observed an apparently consistent FP+ policy. When we were late for our FP+ window, and the standby line was long, they let us in the FP line anyway. When we missed our window but the standby line was reasonable (say, under 30 min.) they would politely instruct us to join the standby.

Of course, that is in addition to the leeway you get when you just barely missed your FP+ time. I believe the official or unofficial policy is that they let you in if you only missed your window by 15 minutes.