Just back...spontaneity alive and well!

[Jennasis]

Just back from a long weekend May 12-15. Stayed at BWV. Haven't been in May in a long time, but found it a delight! We did more winging it than ever before and was very successful with it.

1. Arrived Thursday late afternoon and off to a rocky start at BWV. Long story but we will scratch this one off our list (location IS great though). When room was ready we dropped our bags and headed to MK for a few hours. We had 3 FP (PP, Splash, Space) and a dinner reservation at BoG. Dinner was fantastic once again. The passes were timed perfect and we were also able to walk on PotC, Buzz, HM, BTMRR, Small World, Speedway...skipping the parade and castle show were key. We watched Wishes from the castle wall in NFL and it was sooo cool! Right after the fireworks we went to 7DMT since i wont waste a FP on this again and the line was 30 minutes...and now I won't ever wait for this at all again. What a lame queue lol. Its a cool ride at night though.

2. Lines were routinely inflated everywhere we went. TP Lines app had the best line info once again.

3. Weather this time of year is fantastic! Not a single drop of rain!

4. Park CMs were great. Most bathrooms were good, some needed help.

5. Staggering number of unsupervised middle school groups. They were loud, rude, obnoxious. Screaming like banshees on rides and plowing through crowds.

6. Star wars stage show and fireworks were amazing! Our meet with Kylo Ren was epic! I also made the mistake of sticking my tongue out at the stormtroopers on patrol and they totally harassed me for it. A great interaction! Jawas didnt disappoin either. I traded blank CD that i had written "Death Star Plans" on and they went WILD over it. Traded me for a droid part. As i left i shouted "Utini!" At them and they went nuts!


7. Flower & Garden was beautiful! Food waz delish. I will be dreaming of that brisket hash for a long time.

8. The new ice cream shop on the Boardwalk was soooooo goooooood! Ample Hills Creamery.

9. On our MK night there was an after hours event. I saw a total of 7 guests with lanyards.

10. We did more character meets than ever! They have so upped their game in this department. Many just wandering around (clarabelle cow, horace horsecollar, brer bear etc, Prince Phillip) and the new meet with Baymax and Joy/Sadness was awesome! Joy and i danced around because she pointed out we have tbe same haircut and happen to be wearing the same color.

11. We managed to walk up to Via Napoli and get seated with no reservation! 8pm and were seated faster than the places where we had an ADR. Plus we ate and were done by 8:45, walked out and got a prime spot for Illuminations. One afternoon we swam and were hungry and found ESPN Club to be a great choice ..no reservations needed, great menu, great service.

12. 4th FP options ranged from slim to pathetic at all parks. So we tended to head back to resort for a midday break to chill.

Any questions just ask!

 

[mocame]

Just back from a long weekend May 12-15. Stayed at BWV. Haven't been in May in a long time, but found it a delight! We did more winging it than ever before and was very successful with it.

1. Arrived Thursday late afternoon and off to a rocky start at BWV. Long story but we will scratch this one off our list (location IS great though). When room was ready we dropped our bags and headed to MK for a few hours. We had 3 FP (PP, Splash, Space) and a dinner reservation at BoG. Dinner was fantastic once again. The passes were timed perfect and we were also able to walk on PotC, Buzz, HM, BTMRR, Small World, Speedway...skipping the parade and castle show were key. We watched Wishes from the castle wall in NFL and it was sooo cool! Right after the fireworks we went to 7DMT since i wont waste a FP on this again and the line was 30 minutes...and now I won't ever wait for this at all again. What a lame queue lol. Its a cool ride at night though.

2. Lines were routinely inflated everywhere we went. TP Lines app had the best line info once again.

3. Weather this time of year is fantastic! Not a single drop of rain!

4. Park CMs were great. Most bathrooms were good, some needed help.

5. Staggering number of unsupervised middle school groups. They were loud, rude, obnoxious. Screaming like banshees on rides and plowing through crowds.

6. Star wars stage show and fireworks were amazing! Our meet with Kylo Ren was epic! I also made the mistake of sticking my tongue out at the stormtroopers on patrol and they totally harassed me for it. A great interaction! Jawas didnt disappoin either. I traded blank CD that i had written "Death Star Plans" on and they went WILD over it. Traded me for a droid part. As i left i shouted "Utini!" At them and they went nuts!


7. Flower & Garden was beautiful! Food waz delish. I will be dreaming of that brisket hash for a long time.

8. The new ice cream shop on the Boardwalk was soooooo goooooood! Ample Hills Creamery.

9. On our MK night there was an after hours event. I saw a total of 7 guests with lanyards.

10. We did more character meets than ever! They have so upped their game in this department. Many just wandering around (clarabelle cow, horace horsecollar, brer bear etc, Prince Phillip) and the new meet with Baymax and Joy/Sadness was awesome! Joy and i danced around because she pointed out we have tbe same haircut and happen to be wearing the same color.

11. We managed to walk up to Via Napoli and get seated with no reservation! 8pm and were seated faster than the places where we had an ADR. Plus we ate and were done by 8:45, walked out and got a prime spot for Illuminations. One afternoon we swam and were hungry and found ESPN Club to be a great choice ..no reservations needed, great menu, great service.

12. 4th FP options ranged from slim to pathetic at all parks. So we tended to head back to resort for a midday break to chill.

Any questions just ask!

1. We were there 4/30 to 5/10 and experienced lower wait times on those rides too. Coming on this trip, we only had 1 FP for 7DMT and when we were at Disney it took 2 days to try and get another FP for it. We never wanted to wait an hour to ride standby. We loved the ride but it is way too short.

2. TP Lines was the best app for the most accurate times during our trip.

3. You missed the rain the week before! But overall it was pretty nice!

4. Same experience with CMs and we didn't have any problems with bathrooms.

5. The week we went had a lot of SUPERVISED middle school groups. I was next to them in the ride lines and food lines and remarked how well behaved they were. Supervision, I think is the key. Sorry, you experienced the other groups.

6. Unfortunately, it rained our Star Wars fireworks night. Bummer! What a great experience you had with the stormtroopers and Jawas! We saw the stormtroopers in action and loved watching their interactions with people.

8. Good to know for the future.

12. We got some good 4th FPs but it took constant checking and refreshing to get them.

Thanks for your report!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

When and where in the world did you see those characters just wandering about?? Did you stumble onto an Epcot character training session?

Sounds like you had a great trip, May might be the new 'it' time to go for lower crowds.

 

[Jennasis]

When and where in the world did you see those characters just wandering about?? Did you stumble onto an Epcot character training session?

Sounds like you had a great trip, May might be the new 'it' time to go for lower crowds.

We had just walked out of pecos bills on Thursday at 5pmish and they were all walking along there and had stopped to play with a guest. Weren't doing a traditional meet but we got to see them and they waved at us.

 

[Missyrose]

We had just walked out of pecos bills on Thursday at 5pmish and they were all walking along there and had stopped to play with a guest. Weren't doing a traditional meet but we got to see them and they waved at us.

Those characters show up for basically a Frontierland flash mob...

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

What kind of ice cream did you try at Ample Creamery? We are staying at BC this summer and plan on visiting the new ice cream shop (although we are partial to No Way Jose at Beaches and Cream )

You mentioned 4th FP were slim. We have a triple resort stay coming up with our tickets attached to the third resort stay (part of FD package so can't change), so while we can access tickets, we can't make FP+ until the morning of. Do you think there will be decent selection left for us at the morning of? We aren't counting on headliners, but it would be nice to get FP for things like Buzz, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Jungle Cruise... Do you think we'll have a chance for FP like these ones? We are going end of August.

Thanks for your post - got me my Disney fix

 

[Jennasis]

Those characters show up for basically a Frontierland flash mob...

That would explain it!

 

[Jennasis]

What kind of ice cream did you try at Ample Creamery? We are staying at BC this summer and plan on visiting the new ice cream shop (although we are partial to No Way Jose at Beaches and Cream )

You mentioned 4th FP were slim. We have a triple resort stay coming up with our tickets attached to the third resort stay (part of FD package so can't change), so while we can access tickets, we can't make FP+ until the morning of. Do you think there will be decent selection left for us at the morning of? We aren't counting on headliners, but it would be nice to get FP for things like Buzz, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Jungle Cruise... Do you think we'll have a chance for FP like these ones? We are going end of August.

Thanks for your post - got me my Disney fix

We didn't try for MK 4th passes. There was very little at Epcot or DHS or AK. We weren't sure what park to hit this morning before heading home and after seeing how little worthwhile was available, we just wandered world showcase instead.

 

[conandrob240]

Interesting that what sounds like a slowish week (walk ons) would have such terrible 4th FP availability. I think we need to be prepared that we'll just have 3 to work with and not expect to ever get a useful 4th

 

[Jennasis]

What kind of ice cream did you try at Ample Creamery? We are staying at BC this summer and plan on visiting the new ice cream shop (although we are partial to No Way Jose at Beaches and Cream )

You mentioned 4th FP were slim. We have a triple resort stay coming up with our tickets attached to the third resort stay (part of FD package so can't change), so while we can access tickets, we can't make FP+ until the morning of. Do you think there will be decent selection left for us at the morning of? We aren't counting on headliners, but it would be nice to get FP for things like Buzz, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Jungle Cruise... Do you think we'll have a chance for FP like these ones? We are going end of August.

Thanks for your post - got me my Disney fix

Oh and we got the ooey gooey butter cake sundae with chocolate milk and cookies and malty salty pretzel ice cream, caramel, whipped cream, chocolate chips and cherry on top

 

[jaz0308]

Those characters show up for basically a Frontierland flash mob...

Cool! Never saw that before! Maybe because we are always there in the heat of summer!

 

[Missyrose]

Cool! Never saw that before! Maybe because we are always there in the heat of summer!

Saw it on May and August trips. No set times, as far as I know.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Oh and we got the ooey gooey butter cake sundae with chocolate milk and cookies and malty salty pretzel ice cream, caramel, whipped cream, chocolate chips and cherry on top

Lord Thunderin...... that sounds like a trip in and of itself.

 

[JimmyV]

Great report. You watched the fireworks from our favorite spot...behind the castle between the new rampart walls and gift shops.

 

[anniemae]

sounds awesome! Dare I ask what happened at BWV?

 

[ariane37]

1. Arrived Thursday late afternoon and off to a rocky start at BWV. Long story but we will scratch this one off our list (location IS great though).

Sorry to hear that. We've stayed at BWV 4x; love(d) it, but had major bad issues with CM's there last Nov. I won't go into it either because it's very long, I wrote about it in a TR I did and just thinking about it gets me very , but it was enough to turn me off to the resort for a long while. You can't beat the location, though!

We watched Wishes from the castle wall in NFL and it was sooo cool

We also did this for the first time last Nov. and then again in Jan. LOVE that spot!

Star wars stage show and fireworks were amazing

AND we saw the fireworks in Jan. I'm hoping whatever "new" fireworks they start up will be just as great.

The new ice cream shop on the Boardwalk was soooooo goooooood! Ample Hills Creamery

Good to hear! We're staying at BCV for the beginning of our next trip so we'll definitely try it out.

One afternoon we swam and were hungry and found ESPN Club to be a great choice ..no reservations needed, great menu, great service.

Totally agree on ESPN Club, too

Oh and we got the ooey gooey butter cake sundae with chocolate milk and cookies and malty salty pretzel ice cream, caramel, whipped cream, chocolate chips and cherry on top

OMG now I'm DEFINITELY going here lol!

Sounds like you had a great trip! Thanks for sharing

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Interesting that what sounds like a slowish week (walk ons) would have such terrible 4th FP availability. I think we need to be prepared that we'll just have 3 to work with and not expect to ever get a useful 4th

That is probably the best attitude to have. Then you'll either be pleasantly surprised (and you could be, people do cancel fastpasses so good ones might pop up) or you'll be prepared at least if you don't see any good ones.

 

[NeuroCindy]

Do you have a picture(s) of Joy and Sadness?

 

[Jennasis]

Do you have a picture(s) of Joy and Sadness?

I do...have to download our photopass pics but will upload them asap.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

it would be nice to get FP for things like Buzz, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Jungle Cruise... Do you think we'll have a chance for FP like these ones? We are going end of August.

I think you have a reasonable shot at the ones you listed. We went first week of May which is supposed to be similar to late August crowd wise. What we saw was all headliners and meet and greats were gone basically first thing in the morning (some people had good luck with constantly checking but we only got a couple that way). The rides you mentioned had some availability for later in the day. I would definitely try to get them quickly in the morning.