Just back, some random thoughts (kinda long...)

[Mickey_Maniac]

Just got back from 7 days in The World. A few random thoughts...

Expedition Everest - Should we call this EE or maybe AA for Absolutely
Awesome!! We got to ride this four times on our trip and loved it more
and more each time. The themeing on this ride is incredibly detailed and
authentic. Not to mention this has got to be the smoothest riding steel
coaster I have ever been on. Actually puts RnRC to shame... You have GOT
to ride this. Use FPs though as the stand by can get pretty bad.

Crowds - We have usually gone off-peak, so the crowds last week seemed
pretty high to us, however with good use of FPs and the willingness to
wait for lines to shrink, we were able to do everything we wanted.
Longest we waited for anything was 30 mins for our first trip on EE.

Car Rental - Used Alamo for the first time this trip (always used
National in the past). Our flight was delayed, so we didn't get into MCO
until about 1:30 am last Friday. As you can imagine, we were pretty
tired. got our luggage and went down to get our car. The line at the
Alamo counter was about 30-40 people deep with only 2 agents working the
counter. I am Sooo glad I signed up for QS. QS queue was empty, walked
up, got served next and was out of there in about 10 mins and off to the
garage. I'm sure we were getting lots of dirty looks as we left, oh
well. My advice? Absolutely sign up for QS, you'll be glad you did.

Rides/Attractions - Seemed like there were alot of breakdowns or
malfunctions. Riverboat in Fantasmic had to be pushed around by a boat.
SplMtn and BTMRR both broke down a couple of times. EE closed several
times (ok, ok, I know it's only in soft open). HM was closd for a few
hours one day. There were more, but cant think of them right now.

Cast Members - Contrary to some recent reports, we found almost every CM
we came in touch with to be great. All had good attitudes and smiles.
They seemed very intent on getting everyone to have a good time.

Food - this was one of the low points. The quality of almost all of the
fast food type restaurants seemed well below average. Hot Dogs and
Hamburgers way overcooked, buns stale, fries cold. Most of the table
service restaurants were OK, but nothing to really write home about. Oh
well, we were still at WDW...

All in all a very good trip. We went into this trip with an expectation
that due to the crowds we wouldnt get to do everything we wanted so we
were much more relaxed and easy going about things.

Anybody else just returned, feel free to add your thoughts...

BTW, we are already planning our return trip in August...

 

[DisneyDotty]

Thanks for the report! Can't wait to check out EE!
What restaurants did you eat at?

 

[TwingleMum]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Can't wait to try EE.

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Thanks for the report! Can't wait to check out EE!
What restaurants did you eat at?

Dotty, We ate at mostly buffets. Chef Mickeys, Cape May, 'Ohanas, Boma, H&V (Fantasmic).

Surprisingly, the one that dissapointed us the most was Cape May. It was packed, lines were wrapped around the island, and the food quality was not as good as in the past. 'Ohanas for dinner and Boma's for breakfast were pretty good, I would recommend them. Chef Mickeys and H&V were pretty much as usual.

 

[jann1033]

thanks great info but could you go into details a little more about crowd conditions( like how about places other than ee, did you do emh, were most fast pass lines 30mins or more like walk ons) and the weather..swim-able or too cold for even a snow belt Northerner?

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

thanks great info but could you go into details a little more about crowd conditions( like how about places other than ee, did you do emh, were most fast pass lines 30mins or more like walk ons) and the weather..swim-able or too cold for even a snow belt Northerner?

Jann, Crowds were high everywhere. We went to all four parks, but didn't do any water parks, but the temps were certainly high enough for them. We drove by BB a couple of times on our way back from AK and could see it was packed! MK and AK seemed the most crowded (no surprise there...), but EP was pretty busy too. MGM seemed to be the lowest, but ToT and RnRC were still pretty busy.

We actually avoided all morning EMHs and went to other parks those days. That strategy seemed to work pretty well. Stand by lines for the major rides ranged anywhere from 40 to as high as 90 mins. At one point, Soarin' was 120 mins (for a 3 minute ride, unbelievable!!). We did do a couple of evening EMHs, but with an 8 yr old DD, we obviously didn't stay out too late.

Most of the time, the FP lines were just fine. Little to no wait. the major exception was EE. Because of the frequent shut downs, both the stand by and FP lines got backed up pretty bad. At one point on Wed, the FP line for EE was backed up all the way to the bridge leading to the old Tarzan theater!!! We walked right on by, got some lunch and came back about an hour later and just about walked on.

As mentioned above, most of our trip, the weather was great. Low to mid 80s, certainly swimming weather. We went into the BW pool almost every day.

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Just remembered one other thing. Turtle Talk with Crush lines were absolutely Crazy!!! Every time we went by, the line snaked all through the Living Seas, out the door, and around the fountains in the front of the building. There was no stand by time posted, but it had to be at least an hour.

We have already seen it, so there was no way we were going to wait in that line.

 

[krismom]

Great report- thanks for the tips!
Can you give me more info on the ALamo QS? What is it? I already made a reservation, is it too late to get this service?
Thanks!

 

[EjandMD]

My thought is....don't go during this time if youdon't have to. It wasn't the wait that bugged me the most (we used FP a lot) it was the unflexable schedule we had to maintain. No eating anywhere without and adr. must wait 30 min for a show to get a seat, moving through the parks took long because it was wall to wall people. I don't have kids, yet, and I'll be darned if I EVER go back this time of year again.

 

[steffali]

Just got back from 7 days in The World. A few random thoughts...

Expedition Everest - Should we call this EE or maybe AA for Absolutely
Awesome!! We got to ride this four times on our trip and loved it more
and more each time. The themeing on this ride is incredibly detailed and
authentic. Not to mention this has got to be the smoothest riding steel
coaster I have ever been on. Actually puts RnRC to shame... You have GOT
to ride this. Use FPs though as the stand by can get pretty bad.


Please tell me more about EE does it go upsied down or backwards?? I want to ride it but I am scared, I go on Splash Mtn. and Thunder Mtn. will I be able to handle EE ???

 

[TnTsParty]

Rides/Attractions - Seemed like there were alot of breakdowns or
malfunctions. Riverboat in Fantasmic had to be pushed around by a boat.
SplMtn and BTMRR both broke down a couple of times. EE closed several
times (ok, ok, I know it's only in soft open). HM was closd for a few
hours one day. There were more, but cant think of them right now.


What is up with this ~ when we were there the beginning of the month both BTMRR and SPLMTH were shut down as well (and it was going to be my DH's first time on BTMRR and he was actually looking forward to doing it but that could be because my 8 year old neice teases him that its a baby rollercoaster and he hasn't tried it yet. Then it was broke both times we were at MK. I hope they have it fixed by May!!

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Great report- thanks for the tips!
Can you give me more info on the ALamo QS? What is it? I already made a reservation, is it too late to get this service?
Thanks!

Alamo QS (aka Quick silver) is thier version of a frequent Renter program similar to Nationals Emerald club. I believe you can sign up and then call customer service and ask them to attach your QS ID to your reservation.

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Please tell me more about EE does it go upsied down or backwards?? I want to ride it but I am scared, I go on Splash Mtn. and Thunder Mtn. will I be able to handle EE ???

EE doesn't go upside down, but it does travel backwards for a good bit. Also, one other thing, some of the ride is in the dark, so if that bothers you, I'd think twice about it.