Just back - sharing attraction notes

[srauseo]

Just back from a trip to WDW - Thursday, February 18 through Monday, February 22. Quick notes on the attractions we hit and the amount of time it took. We also shopped, bought snacks and drinks, took photos, explored, etc., during the times specified but I excluded time spent at sit-down meals except where noted:

Friday, February 19 (easyWDW crowd: 7)
Magic Kingdom 8:00-9:40am
Attractions: Astro Orbiters, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, BTMRR, and IASW with little to no wait.
Space Mountain was closed during EMH. Buzz Lightyear opened a little late. Haunted Mansion did not open at 9:00. Didn't ride Splash because it wasn't warm enough for us and I always get soaked.

Animal Kingdom Noon-3:15pm
Attractions: ITtbaB, Maharajah Jungle Trek, EE (FP), Pangani Trail, Safari (FP) with little to no wait.
We had booked a FP for the 3:00pm FOTLK show but the schedule had changed at some point and there wasn't a 3:00pm show that day. I got an email and MDE notification at 12:30 saying the
"experience was temporarily unavailable". I confirmed on the sign outside the theater that there wasn't a 3:00pm show on the schedule. This glitch is annoying. I'm sure the schedule wasn't changed at 12:30 that day. It would have been nice to get an alert earlier so I could have tried to rework things. In any event, we were given a golden FP good from 2:30 until park close so we went on Safari at 2:30 instead of using the original 3:30 FP we had booked.

EPCOT 3:45-8:15pm
Attractions: SE, Serveur Amusant, Matsuriza, 3 Caballeros, and Nemo with little to no wait. (Dinner at San Angel Inn from 5:45-6:30)

Saturday, February 20 (easyWDW crowd: 7)
Magic Kingdom 8:45am-11:30am
Attractions: 7DMT (twice after 8:00am breakfast at BOG), Space Mtn., HM, JC, PotC (very small splash-no standing water in boat), Tiki Room, and JotLM ranging from no wait to 20 minutes.

Hollywood Studios 1:30-5:30pm
Attractions: Muppets, Star Tours (FP), IJESS, TSMM (FP), GMR, and BatB ranging from no wait to 20 minutes for GMR. (Had FP for ToT but sister chickened out.)

Monday, February 22 (easy WDW crowd: 3)
EPCOT 9:00am-12:00pm
Attractions: Test Track (FP), LwtL, JiI, Pixar Shorts (FP but not needed), TTwC (FP) all with little to no wait. There was a line for TTwC so the FP was useful here around 11:00.

 

[TheLittleMerMom]

I had read another post somewhere that the MK opening/welcome show had, thus far, not been happening this week due to refurb?

Was this the case on your trip?

 

[srauseo]

We saw the Welcome Show on Friday morning before the park opened at 8am for EMH. I don't know if there was a show on Saturday as we were inside already for breakfast.

 

[Skubygurl72]

Thanks for this! DS and I leave this FRIDAY!

 

[twinsmama]

Ahh thanks!!! We leave friday too, woot woot!

 

[srauseo]

I'm not sure what was going on with Tomorrowland on the Friday. Usually I think Space Mountain and Buzz are open for morning EMH but both were closed with cast members posted out front. Haunted Mansion likewise did not open at 9 and was not open by 9:15 when we walked by again. I think the cast members at Mansion were handing out FPs to come back later so it didn't seem like an unplanned thing. Perhaps they were testing opening fewer attractions for EMH and at 9am to see what happened. It was frustrating to me as it threw off my itinerary but we got to do the rides on Saturday that we missed on Friday.

 

[twinsmama]

I'm not sure what was going on with Tomorrowland on the Friday. Usually I think Space Mountain and Buzz are open for morning EMH but both were closed with cast members posted out front. Haunted Mansion likewise did not open at 9 and was not open by 9:15 when we walked by again. I think the cast members at Mansion were handing out FPs to come back later so it didn't seem like an unplanned thing. Perhaps they were testing opening fewer attractions for EMH and at 9am to see what happened. It was frustrating to me as it threw off my itinerary but we got to do the rides on Saturday that we missed on Friday.

Maybe tech issues? I would think if they wanted less rides open during EMH (say to save on staffing) they would choose less-popular rides to make unavailable.

 

[CarrieR]

We were there on Saturday the 20th and they definitely did have the welcome show.

(And then one of the most frightening, dangerous rope drop experiences I've ever had the misfortune of being a part of. When you have the people walking the rope moving more slowly than the crowd, the people near the rope are going to get squeezed out, trip on their own feet, and risk getting trampled. Walking the rope requires quick walkers!)

 

[srauseo]

(And then one of the most frightening, dangerous rope drop experiences I've ever had the misfortune of being a part of. When you have the people walking the rope moving more slowly than the crowd, the people near the rope are going to get squeezed out, trip on their own feet, and risk getting trampled. Walking the rope requires quick walkers!)

I have had enough bad experiences being at the front of the rope drop crowd that I am probably just going to avoid being at the front going forward. I will FP the headliner ride that everyone is aiming for and head to something just a little bit lower on the list at rope drop instead. Also, BOG breakfast works great for 7DMT if you can get and that puts you ahead of the pack for the rest of the morning.

 

[CarrieR]

Unfortunately, lately we've been planning our trips inside of 180 days - plus we felt BoG was really mediocre for what they were charging.

Truly, the best method is the "filter" method used at DHS/Epcot. Having everyone scan in at opening spreads the crowds enough that there's not a hazard of tripping over your own feet. I understand why that's not done at MK but I'm not sure that "walk the rope" is any safer than the running of the bulls!