purpledisneyprncess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 11, 2008
- Messages
- 826
Hi,
We just came back Fri night from our Disney road trip and we thought the crowds were not bad at all. Then again, we were comparing to last Easter's trip where crowds were insane. I did ample research even though this was our 5th trip. Like always, it paid off. I used Josh's (easy wdw) recommended park days. I think he was pretty accurate with the exception of Wed and Thurs. Wed at MK was "highly or most" recommended. Thurs at MK was not. We went both days to MK and I would say that Thurs, MK was less crowded! Like my DH said, it may be that we got lucky in the different areas of MK as Fantasyland might have been highly congested but not so in Adventureland at the times we were in each section....but overall I felt the EMH in AM didn't bring in that much more crowds on the day we were there. As on site guests we could have done EMH but we had a late night prior and missed them. On 1 morning, we got to ride headliners multiple times because we did rope drop. Ex: My daughter and I went straight to BTM at 9 (park open) and walked on. Got off ride and went right back on. 5 min wait! Then later we used our FP+ for it. 3 times in 1 day! While we did that, DH and DS rode Space, Buzz and Astro Orbiter.
The wait times without FP weren't so great though during the late morning into the day. This is Disney leveling the playing field so to speak, for their less popular rides. We saw higher waits on Small World but also saw the headliner wait times more stabilized. So rather than 20 min for a less popular ride & 120 min on Big Thunder, it was more like 45/70. I think that's their way of trying to manage crowds within their parks. Same sentiment on why they have tiering at parks with fewer rides.
Speaking on FP+, I liked that I could change a FP on the fly. We were on the bus on our way to MK and I switched the time of Peter Pan. It was so easy and quick. I have to admit, scheduling the time and day of your FP 60 days in advance seemed so ridiculous to me. What if we were tired and needed to change the times, or if we decided to change a park day? We like to schedule a rest day which means no park that day. We do that and it works. If there's rain on our park day and sunny on our "relax day", we just switch days! It's nice to know you can still do that. I don't see a reason to micro plan that much, takes some spontaneity away. Also, I told the CM how I Iiked with the old FP way, if we had an unused FP that we would spread Pixie dust and give to another guest. He said Disney does that for us now! So if someone misses their FP another guest can pick it up. Nice!
Another plus to FP+ was we were not running all over the park collecting FP. It was so much more enjoyable to pick FP from my phone, and use them. We really were more relaxed and soaked in more of reveling in the magic that is Disney.
Magic bands & the MDE app- Both were very convenient! I think if our MDE app was buggy like many experienced, I'd be very upset. We had only 1 morning in Epcot that it kept saying the system was down. I asked a CM that was standing with an iPad and he told me to close the app and reopen it, which that did the trick. Also, I heard the magic bands will be avail in future to off-site guests for around $15 fee. And heard if you lose a band, in the future, there will be a charge. A CM told me this but I didn't get a chance to see if that was a fact. I also noticed that I knew more about certain things than CMs knew! That CM I was speaking to had no idea Anna and Elsa would have a home of their own in MK in the future. I think they need more training on things being rolled out. Guests shouldn't be doing more research than CMs. IMO, they should get accurate info coming down from management and they should review it often. I think there were many crabby CMs because of uncertainty. I'd be frustrated too if where I worked was making major changes but you couldn't give customers accurate info if they themselves don't have it.
Overall, FP+ and magic bands were great. With rope drop, we did our fav rides more than once. Then used a FP for it later. Then at night rode it again during parade and fireworks. I realize if we didn't have 5 days in the park, we wouldn't have done as much. We were fortunate.
Stroller- We used Apple Strollers. $7/day for double stroller. No complaints, would recommend! Make sure you check of they deliver to place you are staying. We did a split stay and had to pick up from their store near DTD, but they picked it back up at Pop at end of our stay.
Ice water at counter services is free. We liked that!
Soft cooler, no glass, was nice to have snacks for the kids on hand. That came in handy.
To anyone with planned trips coming up, keep up with your research! Check the ride refurbishment list and plan accordingly!
I will try to answer any questions. We had such an amazing time. Flower and garden festival at Epcot was wonderful.
We went into this trip with a very positive attitude even though we were hesitant to see how these new changes would play out for us. It was fine!! I can say, all the work being done in MK wasn't so pleasing on the eyes, but the new parade Festival of Fantasy, made up for it! Plus we just took most of our castle pics after 7pm, when the cranes came down!
We just came back Fri night from our Disney road trip and we thought the crowds were not bad at all. Then again, we were comparing to last Easter's trip where crowds were insane. I did ample research even though this was our 5th trip. Like always, it paid off. I used Josh's (easy wdw) recommended park days. I think he was pretty accurate with the exception of Wed and Thurs. Wed at MK was "highly or most" recommended. Thurs at MK was not. We went both days to MK and I would say that Thurs, MK was less crowded! Like my DH said, it may be that we got lucky in the different areas of MK as Fantasyland might have been highly congested but not so in Adventureland at the times we were in each section....but overall I felt the EMH in AM didn't bring in that much more crowds on the day we were there. As on site guests we could have done EMH but we had a late night prior and missed them. On 1 morning, we got to ride headliners multiple times because we did rope drop. Ex: My daughter and I went straight to BTM at 9 (park open) and walked on. Got off ride and went right back on. 5 min wait! Then later we used our FP+ for it. 3 times in 1 day! While we did that, DH and DS rode Space, Buzz and Astro Orbiter.
The wait times without FP weren't so great though during the late morning into the day. This is Disney leveling the playing field so to speak, for their less popular rides. We saw higher waits on Small World but also saw the headliner wait times more stabilized. So rather than 20 min for a less popular ride & 120 min on Big Thunder, it was more like 45/70. I think that's their way of trying to manage crowds within their parks. Same sentiment on why they have tiering at parks with fewer rides.
Speaking on FP+, I liked that I could change a FP on the fly. We were on the bus on our way to MK and I switched the time of Peter Pan. It was so easy and quick. I have to admit, scheduling the time and day of your FP 60 days in advance seemed so ridiculous to me. What if we were tired and needed to change the times, or if we decided to change a park day? We like to schedule a rest day which means no park that day. We do that and it works. If there's rain on our park day and sunny on our "relax day", we just switch days! It's nice to know you can still do that. I don't see a reason to micro plan that much, takes some spontaneity away. Also, I told the CM how I Iiked with the old FP way, if we had an unused FP that we would spread Pixie dust and give to another guest. He said Disney does that for us now! So if someone misses their FP another guest can pick it up. Nice!
Another plus to FP+ was we were not running all over the park collecting FP. It was so much more enjoyable to pick FP from my phone, and use them. We really were more relaxed and soaked in more of reveling in the magic that is Disney.
Magic bands & the MDE app- Both were very convenient! I think if our MDE app was buggy like many experienced, I'd be very upset. We had only 1 morning in Epcot that it kept saying the system was down. I asked a CM that was standing with an iPad and he told me to close the app and reopen it, which that did the trick. Also, I heard the magic bands will be avail in future to off-site guests for around $15 fee. And heard if you lose a band, in the future, there will be a charge. A CM told me this but I didn't get a chance to see if that was a fact. I also noticed that I knew more about certain things than CMs knew! That CM I was speaking to had no idea Anna and Elsa would have a home of their own in MK in the future. I think they need more training on things being rolled out. Guests shouldn't be doing more research than CMs. IMO, they should get accurate info coming down from management and they should review it often. I think there were many crabby CMs because of uncertainty. I'd be frustrated too if where I worked was making major changes but you couldn't give customers accurate info if they themselves don't have it.
Overall, FP+ and magic bands were great. With rope drop, we did our fav rides more than once. Then used a FP for it later. Then at night rode it again during parade and fireworks. I realize if we didn't have 5 days in the park, we wouldn't have done as much. We were fortunate.
Stroller- We used Apple Strollers. $7/day for double stroller. No complaints, would recommend! Make sure you check of they deliver to place you are staying. We did a split stay and had to pick up from their store near DTD, but they picked it back up at Pop at end of our stay.
Ice water at counter services is free. We liked that!
Soft cooler, no glass, was nice to have snacks for the kids on hand. That came in handy.
To anyone with planned trips coming up, keep up with your research! Check the ride refurbishment list and plan accordingly!
I will try to answer any questions. We had such an amazing time. Flower and garden festival at Epcot was wonderful.
We went into this trip with a very positive attitude even though we were hesitant to see how these new changes would play out for us. It was fine!! I can say, all the work being done in MK wasn't so pleasing on the eyes, but the new parade Festival of Fantasy, made up for it! Plus we just took most of our castle pics after 7pm, when the cranes came down!
