A couple of downsides: Especially long wait for Cinderella/Rapunzel and neither character really stood out interaction wise. (the wait time said 25 minutes but we waited well over an hour; probably close to 75 - 80 minutes).
Highlights for the 3 and 5 year olds included the m&g with Joy/Sadness, Pocahontas/Meko, the Boneyard, the children's interactive area at F&G, and Fantasmic. We also made lots down time for pools and naps. One evening we watched the movie on the lawn at our resort. They just don't have the stamina to make it through a whole day at a park, especially with this heat. Tips: bring a hand held fan, water misting bottle, even an umbrella for the heat if you don't want to break mid day. There are a lot of uncovered areas and the sun can be brutal.
Also another observation: for those who complain about strollers, I dare say at least 70% of the people who are struck by them are struck because they walk or dart in front of them or just decide that the middle of the walkway is just a great place to stop without warning. I can't begin to tell you how many times I had to stop abruptly or maneuver around because someone decided that it would be a good idea to just run in front of a stroller as if their party would disappear with a stride check, or people just suddenly stop instead of moving to the side. One other negative is the food court. While I agree it is convenient and a good place to get meals and snacks, I find it noisy, crowded, and most of the time chaotic.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip, with lots of happy dreams, memories and pixie dust.
We had the same issue, but with Anna and Elsa! We waited FP+ but it was still a bit of a wait. We had great friends of Cinderella and Rapunzel.
YES re: the umbrella. I had mine while waiting for our FP for Festival of Fantasy (which was the equivalent from watching the parade inside an oven). It was a lifesaver. Really kicked myself for leaving the spray bottle at home!
I definitely agree with people stopping in walkways. Even without strollers it caused us a lot of issues too. So glad you also had a great trip!
I was there for part of your dates and had very similar experiences. We were also at MK on the evening of 5/4 (our arrival day) and had a blast just walking on to rides and strolling around the nearly empty park. It was fantastic! We almost skipped going to a park that night after dinner but were so glad we did. We went back to the MK the next day and though the crowds weren't crazy, they felt much larger after the nearly empty park the night before!
We also encountered A LOT of really fabulous CMs in all areas - resort, bus drivers, parks, restaurant servers. It was great .
Sounds like you had a wonderful trip! I wish Disney could find a way to clone the weather we had from 5/5-5/9 and make it like that every single day because it was absolutely perfect.
Oh, man, was that first day fun! I had no idea they even ran SDMT in the rain and we used our FP anyways and got soaked, but it was really fun.
I agree with the weather! It was stunningly beautiful. Glad you seemed to have a great time as well!
Now I'm really worried about crowds, I thought early May wouldn't be too bad.
The crowds were only noticeable at certain times. For us, it was with buses, character lines, and security. When tour groups went in, we avoided the area (for example, not getting in line for Baymax after about 30 teenagers did.) The crowds were really fine! Honestly, there's no real way to predict unless you had a full list of every tour group or large family in the park. Remember that it's about fun and it's easy to have fun in big crowds or little crowds!
I was actually pleasantly surprised at the crowds. It wasn't as crowded as I feared, we got lots done, and the evenings were great! I would just plan on early morning, then break in the afternoon, then come back after 5 or so. It's more relaxed, and at least a lot cooler. We also took a swim/rest break on our Epcot day. We had a couple of near meltdown days (with the girls) that were remedied by kindness and attention by CMs, midday naps and swimming and being flexible. For instance, we had a full AK day planned. We got to the park later than planned, went on the Safari (fp), caught the Lion King, then it fell apart. It was hot and by then everyone was tired (our last day). Instead of Kali, EE, character m&g, Nemo, Dino, dinner, I cancelled all of our remaining fps. I took the girls for some down time while DS, DDIL and DH single rode EE, the girls played the drums and danced in the streets with some musicians, we changed our ADR from dinner to lunch, then went to Dinoland where they played while the others rode Dinosaur, had a great m&g with Pocahontas and Meko, went on Bugs Life, then left. Everyone was happy but only because we didn't insist on following the plans.
Definitely agreeing to all of this. Sometimes you have to break from the plan. We weren't supposed to go back to DHS after dinner at Epcot, but we decided to and had the most amazing evening. And breaks are great! We didn't take long breaks at the hotel, just enough time to rest for a half hour, change, and then go back out, but even the little ones mattered.
omg we had Kurt at GG 3 years ago and we are still talking about him. Good to know he is still there. He was an amazing waiter.
He is FANTASTIC! He bowed a little every time he left our table which we thought was the cutest thing. What a lovely guy! We definitely mentioned his name to guest services via Twitter, but I'm going to email WDW as well.
I have a question:
When are you starting your trip report?
Note: For those who don't know, princessesandpascal is the author of
the greatest trip report ever written.
Ahh, ye of little patience.
(Going through photos and notes today, so it should be soon! We had our title by the third day, so it's definitely coming)
(Oh, psh, I thought that title belonged to you?
Thank you for the free advertising
)
OP, I too, miss the musical intro to the park that the buses used to play. Why would Disney do away with that?
TC
It seemed like a different voice as well, maybe it was just an overhaul and they didn't realize how much people liked it?
Thanks for the great review.
We were also there during that time frame (from April 29th to May 10th) and our experience with CMs was the same -- all positive. The people working at Disney are a special bunch of people.
Lots of school groups (all the ones we saw were very polite --- which is more than can be said for some of the tour groups) but it felt very crowded most days.
We also spent way more time at DHS than I expected. Even with the closures we had a great time there. The Chewbacca and Kylo Ren meets were really well done.
They really are. Even the college program CMs, who made our last trip rough by just not caring at all, really were a phenomenal bunch. Feels good to know we just happened upon a bad group last year and that this year's participants really got what it meant to create Disney magic!
As did we! The Chewy and Kylo meets were some of my favourite moments! So much fun!
I'm not sure they "did away" with he musical intros on the buses, so much as they just don't work anymore. Even over the last few years, I can remember when every bus played it, then only some of the buses, then hardly any. It seems these days it's hard to get a bus where the audio system works at all. That's just been my observation.
Interesting! I figured it was gone because the voice on the bus, I thought, sounded like a different person and we never heard the intros! Maybe that was it, as often the announcements didn't even work. Thanks for mentioning this!
We were there the same time and also made use of the rainy day (amazing!). A few other things to be aware of if you go soon: 1. Ride breakdowns are plentiful. We experienced several everyday. 2. I think some of the crowd calendars are inflated because they are based on wait times. I can't think of a single ride we went on which Disney was running on all tracks or to full capacity. This was the main way we noticed the CM cuts. Lines were longer, but holding fewer people so more folks are visible in common areas and walkways. 3. The second way we noticed the cuts was dining at TS restaurants. While our servers were great, it was obvious there were not enough of them. It routinely took 15-20 minutes between being seated and drink orders being taken. Plan on at least 2 hours for all TS meals, don't arrive starving, and you should be fine!
We had stops on Haunted Mansion and Peoplemover, a really annoying ride of Carousel of Progress where people would not sit down, and the backups on Splash are still as annoying as always!
Yes at the TS thing! Our poor waiter at CRT was absolutely overworked. He was so lovely about it (he was also a Legacy CM with the blue tag, so we knew he was amazing at what he did before he even came to our table), but it was clear that he had too many tables and as a result our meal was very long. He made us not mind at all, though!
We are staying at ASMovies is a few weeks in a preferred room as well. I requested Buzz building #10. Good choice or do you recommend something else?
We were in Fantasia Building 8 (the jack-in-the-box) and absolutely loved it. We actually hoped for Toy Story (our requests were second floor, close to transportation) but we were thankful we got Fantasia and I would personally request it again in the future. We were second floor, right around the corner from the ice machine and elevator, and I couldn't get over how amazing our location was. We felt so close to everything but not facing the pool so it was pretty quiet, and we were quite close to the main building! We didn't walk over to Toy Story much at all, but I think that location looks like a good one. It definitely depends on where your room is in the building as well!
The resort was really wonderful though, so have a wonderful time!
