JimmyV
Por favor manténganse alejado de las puertas.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 8,060
So much to say without making this a ridiculously long post. So I will try to organize this by themes and parks in a stream of conscious way, as that is the way I mentally recorded my impressions.
Arrived late afternoon on 4/16. Is there still magic? YES…courtesy of American Airlines. Our connecting flight from CLT to MCO was supposed to be a continuation of a flight that originated that day out of Denver. Big snow storm in Denver put an end to that. So we got a text and email and phone call from AA before our first flight took off telling us that our flight from CLT to MCO was cancelled and that we had automagically been re-booked on a later scheduled flight. But that would mean that we would not make our California Grill ADR. Oh well. First bit of magic…American had room for two of us in First Class on our first flight. Perfect. I gave those seats to my wife and daughter, and told them that as soon as we landed in CLT to run to the gate where there was an earlier flight to MCO to see if we could get on the Standby List. They did, and upon arrival, our second bit of magic. AA decided to pull two planes out of the hangar and fly them both to MCO to take care of all of the people who were had their flight cancelled. We got seats on the first of the two planes which left an hour apart. (Just like the Amazing Race). However, our luggage had been re-tagged for the later flight, so we assumed we would not see it until the next day. But we would make our ADR if all went well. Third bit of magic…our luggage actually made it on to our plane! Big props to AA for handling this very well.
Transportation:
Buses were….well….buses. We did a split stay, first at POFQ and then at the Dolphin. Waits for the buses at both places seemed longer than average. The most frequent buses we say in the mornings were the ones going to Disney Springs. We found that rather odd.
Big error in judgment by Disney with respect to road closures for the Run Disney Star Wars Half Marathon. The night before the race, (Saturday Night), we received a recorded message at our hotel providing updates on where and when to catch buses if we were running. (We weren’t). But they failed to mention that Osceola Parkway would be closed in the morning. We typically drive to AK, and planned to do so on Sunday in time for Rope Drop at 9:00. When we got to within a 9-Iron of Animal Kingdom at 8:30, the exit off of World Drive to Osceola Pkwy was still closed. Buses were pulled off to the side of the road waiting for it to open, and cars were re-directed all the way to 192, and then on to a neighborhood road (Sherberth Road) to the back/employee entrance to AK. It took us 50 minutes to go about 2 miles. Big fail. Given that Osceola Pkwy is really the only way in or out of AK, they can’t have the road closed in both directions at 8:30.
Parks and Attractions:
Crowds: Never underestimate what vacations in the Northeast can do to WDW. Touring Plans predictions were low every day by 2 or 3 points. Our first day in the MK was predicted to be a “5”, but they observed an “8”. Over four consecutive days, predictions at the parks we chose were: 5, 5, 5, 7 and the observed crowds were: 8, 7, 7, 9.
FP+ With Using the Mobile App: Much better than using kiosks for one obvious reason. When you went to a kiosk, you looked for what was available and then you moved on. With the app, you can check over and over and over again and options change by the second. If you click on a specific time, such as 2:30 and you don’t see what you want, click on the time again immediately and things might have changed. It was amazing how things change in the span of 5 seconds. Still, for those who insist that FP+ is better because “all the good FPs were gone by 11:00 under the old system", well, guess what? All the good FPs are gone by 11:00 under the new system. It is possible to get lucky. But luck is all you have to rely on. At the MK, we were able to get 6 FPs on our first day there. We could have gotten a 7th, but we had an ADR at Be Our Guest that we wanted to keep. Our extra FPs were for HM, BTMRR (a lucky “get” as it was unavailable all day), and Dumbo. At DHS, there was no way to get a 4th meaningful FP. Pretty much the same at Epcot. We didn’t try at AK as we used our original 3 in the afternoon.
Posted Wait Times: We found them to be fairly accurate. Our 30 minute posted wait at PoTC was 29 minutes. Posted times of 20 minutes all came in around 17 minutes or so. At Rope Drop the wait times are exaggerated. A 15 minute posted wait at RnR was 5 minutes, and a 10 minute posted wait at ToT was a walk on.
Bathrooms: Everyone we went to was well within the range of acceptable.
DHS: Still worth going to. But it is tailor made for Park Hopper passes. We did the park on our getaway day arriving at RD and leaving at 1:00 p.m.. We did everything we wanted to do in that time, including an hour-long lunch at 50’s. We voted on whether we wanted to do lunch or see Beauty and the Beast and perhaps one other show (like Little Mermaid), and the vote came down in favor of food since we didn’t know when our next meal would be. Had we skipped a TS lunch, we could have banged out two more shows and “finished” the park in earnest by 1:00, or 2:00 at the latest.
AK: Ignore those who insist that the Safari must be done “first thing in the morning” because the animals are more active. First of all, 9:00 a.m. is not “first thing in the morning" to an animal. That is about 4 and a half hours later than “first thing in the morning" to them. Second, Disney strategically places food around their habitats, keeping them in close proximity to the safari vehicles most of the day. For the second trip in a row, we visited the attraction at 9:20 a.m. and around 3:30 p.m. and all of our trips were great, with the afternoons beating the mornings by a hair both times. But that has more to do with luck than reason.
The CMs remained in a quandary about the opening of the new stuff at the park. They had hoped for May, but none of them offered any hope that things would move that quickly.
Epcot: Frozen World is moving along at a brisk pace. Two observations that my daughter made left me thinking. First, it may be a mistake to devote an entire Epcot “Country” to Frozen. Yes, the movie was a major hit. But so was Nemo. And so was Inside Out. And so was Beauty and the Beast. And so was Little Mermaid. And in the next 10 years, god willing, there will be three or four more huge hits in the pantheon. By the time Frozen World opens, Frozen will be “just another movie”. And even if it is still bigger than that at the time of opening, what about 5 years from now? Or 10 years from now? And at the rate that Disney gets around to re-visiting and changing things…how about 20 years from now? Will it make sense to have an entire Epcot Country taken up by a movie that came out 25 years prior that is just another single movie in a long line of popular movies? She made a good argument there, and we shall see. The other observation she made caused me to re-think the anticipated tiering at Epcot after the ride and the meet-and-greet open. Both will be immensely popular. Can they make both of them a Tier 1 forcing parents (and kids) to choose one or the other? If not, then perhaps the ride will be a Tier 2. Or perhaps the addition of two more experiences that are worthy of Tier 1 status plus the expansion of Soarin’ will cause tiering to disappear at Epcot. But if the Frozen ride and the Frozen meet-and-greet are split with one being a Tier 1 and the other being a Tier 2, it will be a game changer in terms of FP availability in Future World for sure.
Food and Prices:
(Since this isn’t a trip report, I offer no official “reviews” here. Just some observations.) Prices are certainly higher than ever before. But instead of complaining about prices, I focus my angst on portions. Give me two-thirds as much food and charge me two-thirds of the current price and I will be happy. I really don’t need as much food as they put on the plate, and if the only way to cut prices is to cut portion size, I could live with that. Overall, quality was good. Flame Tree continues to impress me with just about the best counter service food one can get at a mass-produced location such as a theme park. Be Our Guest (dinner) was OK. But what impressed me the most was the pricing. Given what Disney charges at most other high-demand restaurants, the pricing here is downright cheap. When buffets are running upwards of $60, Onion Soup and a Steak for under $40 isn’t bad. And compared to CRT (where you can’t get a bottle of wine), it is a bargain.
Skipper’s Canteen deserves points for effort, but the execution is lacking. It is nice to have another TS option in the MK, especially one that does not serve the same-old, same-old. But nothing that we ate was particularly good. They were taking same day ADRs by way of the app when we were there. We booked a 6:30 table while waiting for the bus on our second MK day.
EMH and After Hours:
We did evening EMHs at the MK on Wednesday and stayed until the park closed to regular guests on Thursday, not buying the $149 ticket. Honestly, late EMHs (until 1:00 a.m.) get you everything you really need, and they are included in the price of your Disney Resort. Will you be able to take a post-apocalyptic photo of a dead-empty MK? No. Will you get 5-10 minute wait times for major attractions? Yes. If you absolutely need to be alone in the park, by all means pay the $149. But when we left the MK at 11:00 on Thursday, we were leaving behind a crowd that wasn’t all that much different than what you would see at the MK between midnight and 1:00 a.m. on an EMH night. Don’t get me wrong. There are more people on an EMH night. But I sincerely question anyone’s need to be in a park with as few people as we saw on Thursday.
That’s all for now. Let me know if you have any questions.
Arrived late afternoon on 4/16. Is there still magic? YES…courtesy of American Airlines. Our connecting flight from CLT to MCO was supposed to be a continuation of a flight that originated that day out of Denver. Big snow storm in Denver put an end to that. So we got a text and email and phone call from AA before our first flight took off telling us that our flight from CLT to MCO was cancelled and that we had automagically been re-booked on a later scheduled flight. But that would mean that we would not make our California Grill ADR. Oh well. First bit of magic…American had room for two of us in First Class on our first flight. Perfect. I gave those seats to my wife and daughter, and told them that as soon as we landed in CLT to run to the gate where there was an earlier flight to MCO to see if we could get on the Standby List. They did, and upon arrival, our second bit of magic. AA decided to pull two planes out of the hangar and fly them both to MCO to take care of all of the people who were had their flight cancelled. We got seats on the first of the two planes which left an hour apart. (Just like the Amazing Race). However, our luggage had been re-tagged for the later flight, so we assumed we would not see it until the next day. But we would make our ADR if all went well. Third bit of magic…our luggage actually made it on to our plane! Big props to AA for handling this very well.
Transportation:
Buses were….well….buses. We did a split stay, first at POFQ and then at the Dolphin. Waits for the buses at both places seemed longer than average. The most frequent buses we say in the mornings were the ones going to Disney Springs. We found that rather odd.
Big error in judgment by Disney with respect to road closures for the Run Disney Star Wars Half Marathon. The night before the race, (Saturday Night), we received a recorded message at our hotel providing updates on where and when to catch buses if we were running. (We weren’t). But they failed to mention that Osceola Parkway would be closed in the morning. We typically drive to AK, and planned to do so on Sunday in time for Rope Drop at 9:00. When we got to within a 9-Iron of Animal Kingdom at 8:30, the exit off of World Drive to Osceola Pkwy was still closed. Buses were pulled off to the side of the road waiting for it to open, and cars were re-directed all the way to 192, and then on to a neighborhood road (Sherberth Road) to the back/employee entrance to AK. It took us 50 minutes to go about 2 miles. Big fail. Given that Osceola Pkwy is really the only way in or out of AK, they can’t have the road closed in both directions at 8:30.
Parks and Attractions:
Crowds: Never underestimate what vacations in the Northeast can do to WDW. Touring Plans predictions were low every day by 2 or 3 points. Our first day in the MK was predicted to be a “5”, but they observed an “8”. Over four consecutive days, predictions at the parks we chose were: 5, 5, 5, 7 and the observed crowds were: 8, 7, 7, 9.
FP+ With Using the Mobile App: Much better than using kiosks for one obvious reason. When you went to a kiosk, you looked for what was available and then you moved on. With the app, you can check over and over and over again and options change by the second. If you click on a specific time, such as 2:30 and you don’t see what you want, click on the time again immediately and things might have changed. It was amazing how things change in the span of 5 seconds. Still, for those who insist that FP+ is better because “all the good FPs were gone by 11:00 under the old system", well, guess what? All the good FPs are gone by 11:00 under the new system. It is possible to get lucky. But luck is all you have to rely on. At the MK, we were able to get 6 FPs on our first day there. We could have gotten a 7th, but we had an ADR at Be Our Guest that we wanted to keep. Our extra FPs were for HM, BTMRR (a lucky “get” as it was unavailable all day), and Dumbo. At DHS, there was no way to get a 4th meaningful FP. Pretty much the same at Epcot. We didn’t try at AK as we used our original 3 in the afternoon.
Posted Wait Times: We found them to be fairly accurate. Our 30 minute posted wait at PoTC was 29 minutes. Posted times of 20 minutes all came in around 17 minutes or so. At Rope Drop the wait times are exaggerated. A 15 minute posted wait at RnR was 5 minutes, and a 10 minute posted wait at ToT was a walk on.
Bathrooms: Everyone we went to was well within the range of acceptable.
DHS: Still worth going to. But it is tailor made for Park Hopper passes. We did the park on our getaway day arriving at RD and leaving at 1:00 p.m.. We did everything we wanted to do in that time, including an hour-long lunch at 50’s. We voted on whether we wanted to do lunch or see Beauty and the Beast and perhaps one other show (like Little Mermaid), and the vote came down in favor of food since we didn’t know when our next meal would be. Had we skipped a TS lunch, we could have banged out two more shows and “finished” the park in earnest by 1:00, or 2:00 at the latest.
AK: Ignore those who insist that the Safari must be done “first thing in the morning” because the animals are more active. First of all, 9:00 a.m. is not “first thing in the morning" to an animal. That is about 4 and a half hours later than “first thing in the morning" to them. Second, Disney strategically places food around their habitats, keeping them in close proximity to the safari vehicles most of the day. For the second trip in a row, we visited the attraction at 9:20 a.m. and around 3:30 p.m. and all of our trips were great, with the afternoons beating the mornings by a hair both times. But that has more to do with luck than reason.
The CMs remained in a quandary about the opening of the new stuff at the park. They had hoped for May, but none of them offered any hope that things would move that quickly.
Epcot: Frozen World is moving along at a brisk pace. Two observations that my daughter made left me thinking. First, it may be a mistake to devote an entire Epcot “Country” to Frozen. Yes, the movie was a major hit. But so was Nemo. And so was Inside Out. And so was Beauty and the Beast. And so was Little Mermaid. And in the next 10 years, god willing, there will be three or four more huge hits in the pantheon. By the time Frozen World opens, Frozen will be “just another movie”. And even if it is still bigger than that at the time of opening, what about 5 years from now? Or 10 years from now? And at the rate that Disney gets around to re-visiting and changing things…how about 20 years from now? Will it make sense to have an entire Epcot Country taken up by a movie that came out 25 years prior that is just another single movie in a long line of popular movies? She made a good argument there, and we shall see. The other observation she made caused me to re-think the anticipated tiering at Epcot after the ride and the meet-and-greet open. Both will be immensely popular. Can they make both of them a Tier 1 forcing parents (and kids) to choose one or the other? If not, then perhaps the ride will be a Tier 2. Or perhaps the addition of two more experiences that are worthy of Tier 1 status plus the expansion of Soarin’ will cause tiering to disappear at Epcot. But if the Frozen ride and the Frozen meet-and-greet are split with one being a Tier 1 and the other being a Tier 2, it will be a game changer in terms of FP availability in Future World for sure.
Food and Prices:
(Since this isn’t a trip report, I offer no official “reviews” here. Just some observations.) Prices are certainly higher than ever before. But instead of complaining about prices, I focus my angst on portions. Give me two-thirds as much food and charge me two-thirds of the current price and I will be happy. I really don’t need as much food as they put on the plate, and if the only way to cut prices is to cut portion size, I could live with that. Overall, quality was good. Flame Tree continues to impress me with just about the best counter service food one can get at a mass-produced location such as a theme park. Be Our Guest (dinner) was OK. But what impressed me the most was the pricing. Given what Disney charges at most other high-demand restaurants, the pricing here is downright cheap. When buffets are running upwards of $60, Onion Soup and a Steak for under $40 isn’t bad. And compared to CRT (where you can’t get a bottle of wine), it is a bargain.
Skipper’s Canteen deserves points for effort, but the execution is lacking. It is nice to have another TS option in the MK, especially one that does not serve the same-old, same-old. But nothing that we ate was particularly good. They were taking same day ADRs by way of the app when we were there. We booked a 6:30 table while waiting for the bus on our second MK day.
EMH and After Hours:
We did evening EMHs at the MK on Wednesday and stayed until the park closed to regular guests on Thursday, not buying the $149 ticket. Honestly, late EMHs (until 1:00 a.m.) get you everything you really need, and they are included in the price of your Disney Resort. Will you be able to take a post-apocalyptic photo of a dead-empty MK? No. Will you get 5-10 minute wait times for major attractions? Yes. If you absolutely need to be alone in the park, by all means pay the $149. But when we left the MK at 11:00 on Thursday, we were leaving behind a crowd that wasn’t all that much different than what you would see at the MK between midnight and 1:00 a.m. on an EMH night. Don’t get me wrong. There are more people on an EMH night. But I sincerely question anyone’s need to be in a park with as few people as we saw on Thursday.
That’s all for now. Let me know if you have any questions.
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