Just Back, Some Observations.

civileng68

<font color=teal>That May scare the poopy out of m
Joined
Jul 23, 2003
Messages
3,011
I just returned after a week trip and have some observations that I made: Please note that the following opinions are mine and though you may not agree, please approach them with respect. I'm just not very flameworthy.

Firstly, this past week was incredibly crowded, just insane. The park was open until midnight each night and unlike last year at the same week, the crowds didnt clear out after the fireworks. Lines for Space Mountain and Splash Mountain went up to 120 minutes everyday.

While I love Fastpass, at times this week I questioned it's fairness as I realized that some rides like Space Mountain with two seperate ques had nobody at times in the Fastpass line, or very few, and lines in the other que that stretched halfway through Tomorrowland (literally, at times the line nearly reached the Lunching Pad). I couldn't help but think that if they filled the second que that was nearly empty, the waiting time would have been half what it was earlier.

The new que at Its A Small World is nice. The nicest and most obvious work seemed to be just inside the ride in the loading room. Lots of white! All new room in the loading room. Looks great. The rest of the ride was nice, but trust me, it's the same ride, and very very few noticeable differences after the loading. However because it was new and improved, the lines were EXTREME.

The strollers are just madness. I know some hate and cause a big issue over rolling backpacks but folkes, the bigger issue is strollers. Now I am one that fully understands they are needed, but people need to be responsible with them. While on Main St. just before Wishes, I was in a packed crowd moving towards the castle and a lady literally kept nudging me behing my leg. I turned to her and her face seemed frustrated with the crowd, so literally she was nudging me to move forward as if i could. I noticed also in many occassions that folked with strollers never yielded to other foot traffic.

Folks, if you plan on stopping to take pictures, look through a bag, talk to a friend..............please move to the side, then stop. Please dont just stop in mid-walk.

Finally a great innovation was used last night on Main St. (the only night I saw it used), traffic going to the castle was made to stay to "their" right, and traffic leaving was made to stay to "their" right, creating "lanes" on Main St. that moved very fluidly.

On many nights we know they open up the back stage areas for moving out of the park to help ease congestion upon leaving the park. However the parks were so crowded this week that at times the gates just stayed open and even if you came IN to the park, as we did, we were not allowed to use Main St. and instead were redirected backstage and came out at Carousel of Progress.

Leaving the park at night on a crowded night is Mayhem, considering the wait for a ferry is far too long (and then they never even filled the top decks), and the wait for a monorail is far too long. Then when you reach the TTC the wait for a tram is also miserable. Something should be done to ease this.

Cinderellabration was "ok" and I was disappointed that none of the constumed characters were involved at the end, if even for a photo op.

Turtle Talk with Crush was INCREDIBLY cute! MAKE SURE TO GO! EVEN IF YOU ARE AN ADULT AND HAVE NO KIDS!

Never take a CM's word as gold when asking if something will be open or not. Before I left, someone said a CM told them they would not be running the stund show at MGM all week, well, it ran all week long.

I saw the stunt show, pictures to come soon, and it was great. They did mention that not everything make work perfectly yet. The only flaw was that a guy who was supposed to catch fire did not. Also the lady who introduces the show stuttered on her words alot and was a little over the top for me personally. (if you go to the show, sit up on the top row and you can watch Catastrophy Canyon from overhead, pictures to come soon).

While Priority Seating is typically a good thing, it really at times isnt fair. You pay to go to the parks and if you dont have a PS and the park is crowded, you WILL get turned away. We found ourselves at the MK one night and literally were refused at every restraunt we went to (at 4:00). Other than eating the cheaper food, which we werent in the mood for, we were told we couldnt eat in the MK that night. That just doesnt sound right. Id' rather just sit and wait for an hour or more for my name to be called (as relaxation is nice sometimes) but nope, no walkins, PS only. Fortunately someone saw me asking and handed me their PS and changed it at the counter. They were very nice. However, later we found out that so many people make PS at so many restraunts now because of the risk of not getting a seat, and then if they dont feel like going at a later time, they dont, meaning many people would not have had to be turned away. Something needs to be done about this. Most PS do not require any reservation fee either, so you can do whatever you want. Something HAS TO BE DONE HERE.

AFter eating at so many Disney restraunts, I feel for what we pay, the Liberty Tavern is just awesome! The dessert is just WOW! Also we love Le Cellier, and go every anniversary, it is overpriced. The food is great and the atmosphere is nice, but we paid $100.00 for food I felt I could get at any good steakhouse. Also, last year, all of the waiters were Canadian and this year we didnt find but 2 Canadian waiters. Our waiter was from India.

Also, some of the effects in Splash Mountain still were not working. The water effects in the laughing place were still not all working. One of the buzzards at the ends had a bad eye that didnt blink and was stuck in half blink. And someone needs to clean the furr on the last Brer Rabbit at the end of the ride. He's looking a little dungie.

Our first ride this trip on Spaceship Earth was bad show. The bulbs in the TV's on the first incline were burned out and said "The life of the bulb has expired, please replace". We did however notice they were replaced and working fine two days later.

Jasmine is just hot in Cinderellabration, nice abs! Ok, i couldnt help myself.

While some on these boards criticize those who criticize disney for the price of food, I say, that it is too high. We bought food all through the week and it is really too high. Sure you'd pay the same at any park, but that doesnt make it more affordable. I mean, I'm not criticizing Disney but rather all theme park food prices!

CM's need courtesy training in some areas. I love photography and got excited when we were the only two in line for the Epcot monorail and asked to ride in the front, so I could get good pictures. The CM said "Sure, just go sit down over there" and pointed to a roped off bench area. Well when the monorail arrived, he literally just dumped me and my wife and put another adult couple on in our spot. Remember he told us to go sit in a special area, well because of this we were not allowed in line for the monorail. Well by the time I got up and said something to him, the monorail was full and was leaving. We missed it. I was upset, mostly that we missed the monorail. I asked him what his problem was. He said "you have to ask" I said "i did, and you told me to sit there". He said "oh yeah". He totally forgot. Then I said "well can we sit up front for the next monorail" and he said "no, this other couple already asked". I said "you have to be kidding me" and after that he walked off not to be seen again.
 
We just returned as well. I tried not to nudge anyone on purpose with my stroller, if I did, I apologize. But at times it was nearly impossible.

Our trip was a last minute plan, so we didn't have any priority seating planned and dining was tough as you mentioned. But we survived on $4 hotdogs.

Did you have the chance to ride Test Track. We had gotten our Fastpasses, came back three hours later at our designated time, only to be told the fastpass line was a 60 minute wait! We'll be doing that ride on our next trip. The other rides we fastpassed went fine.

We had a great time even though we had to stay off property for the first time in forever.
 
carol1231 said:
We just returned as well. I tried not to nudge anyone on purpose with my stroller, if I did, I apologize. But at times it was nearly impossible.

Our trip was a last minute plan, so we didn't have any priority seating planned and dining was tough as you mentioned. But we survived on $4 hotdogs.

Did you have the chance to ride Test Track. We had gotten our Fastpasses, came back three hours later at our designated time, only to be told the fastpass line was a 60 minute wait! We'll be doing that ride on our next trip. The other rides we fastpassed went fine.

We had a great time even though we had to stay off property for the first time in forever.


We did not get to ride Test Track or Space Mountain. We finally got a FP for SM last night for 11:15 but the rain caused us to leave early.
 
WOW! That was an eyefull! Thank you for your honest observations! I know what you mean about PS's! When DH and I first went to WDW together, we had no idea you had to have a reservation for EVERY sit down resturant at MK! Meaning, during the busy times (say during a SAT evening) if you didn't have a PS then there was no way you would be sitting at a sit-down resturant. Doesn't feel too fair especially when we had no idea (even though it was before the DIS, I did my research- but not too well I gather).

I know what you mean about the price of food. Yes, we all know the spiel about how it is "DISNEY" and everything costs more, but it is like that at ANY theme park! Heck, when DH and I go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for a dinner (we have passes) we spend about the same thing as Disney. I mean, $13 for a piece of chicken, a small corn-on-the-cob, and fries. This doesn't even include the extra $3 per drink! It's crazy, but that's how it goes... :crazy:
 

a good reason why NOT to go during peak season! I hear Christmastime is even worse.
 
pumpkinfish said:
WOW! That was an eyefull! Thank you for your honest observations! I know what you mean about PS's! When DH and I first went to WDW together, we had no idea you had to have a reservation for EVERY sit down resturant at MK! Meaning, during the busy times (say during a SAT evening) if you didn't have a PS then there was no way you would be sitting at a sit-down resturant. Doesn't feel too fair especially when we had no idea (even though it was before the DIS, I did my research- but not too well I gather).

I know what you mean about the price of food. Yes, we all know the spiel about how it is "DISNEY" and everything costs more, but it is like that at ANY theme park! Heck, when DH and I go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for a dinner (we have passes) we spend about the same thing as Disney. I mean, $13 for a piece of chicken, a small corn-on-the-cob, and fries. This doesn't even include the extra $3 per drink! It's crazy, but that's how it goes... :crazy:


Oh I know what you mean about food prices. I am not criticizing Disney but rather all theme park food pricing.

I noticed at one little location that the same Doritos bag you buy in a convenience store that says "$.99" on it ( you know the bag I'm talking about right?) says something else at Disney and is well over $2.00 for tHE SAME BAG.
 
WOW makes my june/july trips sound like a walk in the park.

We went to disney on the spur of the moment after a cruise in 1996 and had no idea it was spring break, BOY was it crowded. At the time we didn't know anything about disney or how to handle disney during crowded times.
 
I also meant to mention that I think Innoventions is now a complete waste of space.
 
civileng68 said:
However, later we found out that so many people make PS at so many restraunts now because of the risk of not getting a seat, and then if they dont feel like going at a later time, they dont, meaning many people would not have had to be turned away. Something needs to be done about this. Most PS do not require any reservation fee either, so you can do whatever you want. Something HAS TO BE DONE HERE.

This has been my one problem planning our upcoming trip. I wanted to book my daughter on the Pirate Cruise (or the new similar cruise) but found it was booked when I asked. I figured I'd call back every now and then to see if there was a cancellation..... a CM finally told me that since there's no deposit involved, people don't cancel. They just don't bother to show up. No penalty to them, but someone else's kid doesn't go on and the boat isn't full. I'd be willing to wait for a table if I was hungry, but I'm not dragging a kid out of a park to go wait by a dock just in case someone doesn't show up.

If people can't be considerate enough to cancel reservations they won't use, it might well be worth WDW having some sort of penalty like they do for other things.

ok, rant mode off now :smooth:
 
You actually have to pay in full for the Pirates Cruise, when you book. You can cancel and get a refund up to 48 hrs before the Pirates Cruise, but unless they have changed it since last year you have to pay in full.
 
SammieG said:
You actually have to pay in full for the Pirates Cruise, when you book. You can cancel and get a refund up to 48 hrs before the Pirates Cruise, but unless they have changed it since last year you have to pay in full.

That's actually good to know. Thank you! I wish the CM had known that, though I guess it still means I'll need to check on availability once we're at WDW. I can handle that - as long as I can remember to check amidst all of the Magic. LOL
 
SammieG said:
You actually have to pay in full for the Pirates Cruise, when you book. You can cancel and get a refund up to 48 hrs before the Pirates Cruise, but unless they have changed it since last year you have to pay in full.


Actually, what I was told when I made our ressies a few weeks ago is that they do not charge your credit card until 24 hours before the start of the cruise. So if your ressie is for a Friday (and the cruise starts at 9:30 am), then they will charge your credit card around 9:30 that Thursday. They advise that if you must cancel, to do so at least 48 hours in advance to avoid this charge on your credit card. But if you don't cancel and you don't show up, your card will still be charged.

I have not seen the charge show up on our credit card statement yet ...

That was what I was told when I made ressies for the Pirate Cruise and the Wonderland Tea Party.

HTH!

Linda
 
civileng68 said:
I also meant to mention that I think Innoventions is now a complete waste of space.

Why? It's been a while since we've been there. What has changed?
 
Crowds were insane, there were alot of strollers. To be honest with you the stroller saved me a lot of headache, my dd5 she can walk but she always got tired but she loved the strollers and they were very easy to get around for the most part when the crowds were back to back it was hard for everyone to get around. I knew it would be crowded, but I had no idea how crowded. I will never go during peak season again. Dont get me wrong we did have a magical time we were with Mickey (who wouldn't!) :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc
 
civileng68 said:
Turtle Talk with Crush was INCREDIBLY cute! MAKE SURE TO GO! EVEN IF YOU ARE AN ADULT AND HAVE NO KIDS!

what is turtle talk? and where is it????

f that happened to me on the monorail i would have been fumming...

thanks for your entry and your honesty it was nice to read :)
 
plutospup said:
Why? It's been a while since we've been there. What has changed?


Well my wife and I went there and firstly the place seems less "full" than it used to be. There really isnt much in them. The things in them were very boring to us. It was supposed to be stuff for the future. HOwever, the video games were games that are out on today's market. Nothing future or special.

To me it just seems like a big enough area to place a great new attraction, maybe a dark ride of sorts. I dont know. Innoventions just seemed incredibly useless and boring.
 
civileng68 said:
Lines for Space Mountain and Splash Mountain went up to 120 minutes everyday. While I love Fastpass, at times this week I questioned it's fairness as I realized that some rides like Space Mountain with two seperate ques had nobody at times in the Fastpass line, or very few, and lines in the other que that stretched halfway through Tomorrowland (literally, at times the line nearly reached the Lunching Pad). I couldn't help but think that if they filled the second que that was nearly empty, the waiting time would have been half what it was earlier.
Thank you for posting all of your observations. I agree with most of what you wrote. However, I think there's a flaw in your suggestion about Space Mountain. I assume that riders get loaded on as quickly as they are able to fill all the seats, and the advantage to Fastpass is that you probably get fed into the loading line sooner than the folks in the regular queue - only because you'll be allowed to board ahead of some of them. Dividing the waiting (non Fastpass) guests into two lines wouldn't actually get everyone loaded any faster. Those at the back of both lines would still have the same amount of waiting time as the ones at the end of a single line. (Think of it in terms of 100 guests in one line. Now, if you divide them equitably into two lines - guest #1 would go in line A, and guest #2 in line B, #3 in line A, #4 in line B, and so on. Then, assuming these guests were loaded on the ride choosing the first person from each line - like two lanes of traffic merging - guests #49 & #50 would still get to the front of their lines in the same amount of time as if they had all been in one line - and #99 & #100 would still be the last to board. I hope this makes sense.) :teacher:


CM's need courtesy training in some areas. I love photography and got excited when we were the only two in line for the Epcot monorail and asked to ride in the front, so I could get good pictures. The CM said "Sure, just go sit down over there" and pointed to a roped off bench area. Well when the monorail arrived, he literally just dumped me and my wife and put another adult couple on in our spot. Remember he told us to go sit in a special area, well because of this we were not allowed in line for the monorail. Well by the time I got up and said something to him, the monorail was full and was leaving. We missed it. I was upset, mostly that we missed the monorail. I asked him what his problem was. He said "you have to ask" I said "i did, and you told me to sit there". He said "oh yeah". He totally forgot. Then I said "well can we sit up front for the next monorail" and he said "no, this other couple already asked". I said "you have to be kidding me" and after that he walked off not to be seen again.
You definitely have my sympathy here. That CM didn't do his job properly. I do know (from experience) that even if you're "promised" a seat up front, if you're just a day guest (not staying on site), and somebody staying at the resort where the monorail stops has asked the concierege (or whoever) - the concierege will tell the CM to let those people ride up front. We were able to ride in the front once, but got bumped at the next stop so some Grand Floridian guests could take our place.

Please keep observing and writing about it. No flames coming from this Disney fan.

:flower: :wave2: :flower: :wave2: :flower:
 
Thanks for the report, I think all those crowds must add to the Disney experience? I'm jealous, I'd much rather be in insane crowds than dealing with SNOW right now!! (all right, it always could be worse!) :moped:

:cheer2:
 
We just got back today. We left on the 17th, did MGM on the 18th and MK on the 19th. We were at both parks when they opened, near the front of the line. We used Fast Passes when we needed to, but went on several rides at least twice. At MK on Saturday (19th), we got on everything we wanted to go on. Thankfully, I have older girls (8 and 11) and we didn't need to do Dumbo, Carousel, etc. We did get on the Teacups without too much wait. MK was very crowded by noon. We went to AK on the 20th (before our Wonder cruise) and the woman working the cruise desk said that they were expecting 25,000 at AK that day. (that park can accomodate 32,000) I told her that I thought there were 50,000 people at MK the day before. I asked how many people MK can take at one time, and she told me way more than AK. YIKES!! :earseek:

We did find out that you do NOT want to cross the MK park right after the afternoon parade. The crowds were so thick, we could not move at all. I am not saying one negative thing about strollers. I have been the one pushing strollers in the past (just not during peak season at WDW), and it is not fun. I was sure glad I did not need to push one this time!!

I will say this, I was expecting way worse. Yes, it was busy. But I think we got a head start. The spring break crowds started on Saturday/Sunday. By that time, we were leaving for our cruise! :sunny:
 
sters said:
a good reason why NOT to go during peak season! I hear Christmastime is even worse.


We went Dec 19-26, no problems. The crowds were very manageable.
 












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