Just back....my 2 cents

[5dizneynutz]

Just got back Monday from 5 days of fun at my favorite place! I was traveling with my youngest DD and her best friend, both 16 and my mother, who was using a scooter. Our plane landed at 1:30, got to POR at about 3:30. We did not use online check in because of our room requests. Regular check in took less than 5 min and we got all of our requests! First let me say, LOVED the Magic Bands!! No more digging for cards, very convenient! FP+... I didn't love it or hate it. In past trips, we found we never used more than 3 or 4 Fp- and we ONLY go during some of the busiest times. We always have done RD and always get so much done during this time. If the waits were longer than 30 min, we either pulled a fast pass or waited until after our pool break, when the lines were usually shorter. That being said, I planned all our FP+in the evening ( we had complimentary 4 day PH's) We did RD all 4 days. Well let me tell you, I think the jig is up, I feel like there were many more people trying our "secret" plan! It got much more crowded, much faster in the morning hours than other trips. We still got a lot done, just not as much as usual. We definitely didn't get as much done at AK but that was because we were there during a torrential downpour and a tornado warning! Fun times, lol! We always take at least a little afternoon/ pool break and come back in the early evening. As I said before we scheduled our FP+for the evening and I feel like we didn't even need them. We "wasted" ones for SM and TOT because they were walk ons. We did TOT 3x in a row and could have done SM more than once but didn't want to get wet, it was pretty chilly that night! The only mishap is one evening we had a FP for TSMM and the bus for HS took FOREVER to come at POR, so we missed our FP window. We could have tried to still use it but we would have missed our dinner reservation at Sci-Fi. It really didn't bother us too much because we think TSMM is kind of lame :scared1 We don't know what the fuss is about that ride Anyway, to each his own, now if it had be been TOT or RNR I would had been pissed!
All in all, it was a great trip, just not long enough!!

 

[JimmyV]

Well let me tell you, I think the jig is up, I feel like there were many more people trying our "secret" plan! It got much more crowded, much faster in the morning hours than other trips. We still got a lot done, just not as much as usual.

Thanks for the report. At this point, I think it is difficult to ascertain whether more people are using RD making the parks more crowded earlier, or FP+ just makes the parks seem more crowded because SB lines are getting cut off sooner than ever before. Not sure we'll ever know. I suppose one non-scientific way to figure this out is to observe how many people are waiting at bus stops prior to park opening hours to see whether more and more people are getting left behind because the buses are filling up more at that time. If a typical bus stop had 30 people waiting at 7:30 each morning and now there are 75, I suppose that might tell us something. But I'm not sure that a 20 minute wait at a ride that used to have a 5 minute wait tells us the same thing.

 

[tink20]

Glad you guys had a great trip. We always did rope drop too. We could ride several of our favorites. We have not been since all the new changes, so I don't know how I feel about all that. I just don't feel like dealing with any glitches. Sounds like you didn't have any technical problems...that's good.

I can't wait to go again!

 

[5dizneynutz]

I'd have to say I thought the bus stops at the hotel had way more people waiting early in the morning than I had remembered in the past.

 

[5Hfan]

I would speculate more people were hitting rope drop as offsiters to get in line at kiosks to book fast passes? Maybe rope drop will drop back some with offsiters having 30 day prebooking now too?