Just Back: Thoughts from 5/4-5/10! Any questions?

[princessesandpascal]

Just returned today from an AMAZING week at Disney! The travel party was myself (22) and my best friend (21) who was a WDW newbie (this was my seventh trip!) We stayed in a preferred room at All-Star Movies from May 4th-May 10th and did 5 1/2 days in the parks. I'm going to write a full trip report over in the TR board at some point but here are a few of my observations:

Cast Members: Please, if you are going to WDW in the next little while, listen to one thing I'm about to say. Do not listen to the DISboards when people say the CM quality has gone down. This trip was was hands down the best service we've ever received at WDW. Our best CMs were Chris on Photopass on Main Street, Kurt at the Garden Grill, and David at Cinderella's Royal Table, but it's really hard to narrow down a top group. Everyone was friendly and excited and creating Disney magic for guests everywhere we turned.

Weather: Our arrival day it rained cats and dogs all night, and as a result the park was EMPTY. We did 7DMT in 20 minutes in the standby line, walked onto BTMRR over and over, and it was a pretty amazing first day for my friend! Just a note: even if it's hot, if it looks like rain, bring a sweater or a cover-up in the park bag. Pinocchio Village Haus was freezing when we were having dinner after being caught in the rain! Every other day was beautiful.

Memory Maker: This was one of the worst parts of the last trip I took with my mom, but they redeemed themselves. They were even trying out some new poses, having us hold out our Celebrating/Grad buttons toward the camera.

Crowds: Not sure where all the high school tour groups came from, but the parks were crawling with huge groups of teens and kids. When I went on a Disney trip in July I didn't even see this many groups of South American tourists. Maybe May is the new time? Or was it just the All-Stars?

Food: Columbia Harbour house is SO good, guys. Yorkshire County Fish Shop was also a hit. We were on the dining plan and ate at Tusker House, Beaches and Cream, Cinderella's Royal Table, Crystal Palace, Via Napoli, and Garden Grill. My friend's favourite was Garden Grill, while mine was Via Napoli. Neither of us were blown away by Tusker House.

Hollywood Studios: We shockingly used almost a full day here. Spent lots of time in Launch Bay and did Kylo and Chewy's meets each twice (at night we came back with a BB-8 cup acquired to get some fun pictures), a few rounds on Star Tours, a couple on Toy Story, Frozen and Indy, Great Movie Ride, Muppets, etc. We could've done a full day, easy. It is definitely a park in transition.

Random highlights/things not to miss: Joy and Sadness at Epcot (they were really fun even for two young adults!), the Jawas at Launch Bay (be prepared to chase one around if they get their hands on your BB-8 cup... not as if I'd know this from experience), Festival of Fantasy (it's my all-time favourite Disney show, so if you haven't gotten around to it by this point, at least look into it), and the Star Wars Fireworks (we caught them from the parking lot and they were stunning, so I can only imagine how amazing they were in person. The newbie loved Big Thunder Mountain, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Festival of the Lion King, and the Frozen show, among others.

The only issues or bummer experiences we had were with buses. There was no Epcot bus in sight when we were trying to make our Garden Grill reservation and nearly missed it, and they removed the musical park intros that played when you arrived at a park (how it used to play One Little Spark at Epcot, Mickey Mouse March at MK, etc). It wasn't a huge deal but I missed it!

(Edit!) Forgot a couple notes: Security is bonkers at MK right now with adjusting everyone to be screened. I was randomly selected once out of the no bag line (while trying to make the aforementioned Garden Grill reservation since a woman on the bus told us to run or else my card would be charged) and my friend was selected twice. Three different days they screened everyone. Also, FP+ reservations are a lot harder to secure for the more popular attractions the same day, but it's not impossible. (The app only worked about 30% of the time, anyways.)

If anyone has any questions about anything, I'll do my best to provide answers! Disney is definitely in a transitional period right now, and it's rough with a lot of things closed/not finished, but there is no shortage of magic. The people were kind, the parks were clean, and the cast members were providing the levels of service that sent both of us home feeling happy and magical!

 

[Graciegirl5]

It sounds like a great trip. I'm glad you both had so much fun!

 

[Mikie]

Wonderful notes, glad you had a great time!
My question is about early & late hours. Did you do any morning or evening EMH or the paid early/late events? If you didn't do these, did you notice anything special about crowds on the days that had them? Thanks!

 

[princessesandpascal]

Wonderful notes, glad you had a great time!
My question is about early & late hours. Did you do any morning or evening EMH or the paid early/late events? If you didn't do these, did you notice anything special about crowds on the days that had them? Thanks!

We did morning EMH Friday at MK, Saturday at AK, and Sunday at DHS. Hopped to a different park early afternoon and I DEFINITELY noticed a raise in crowds around 11am on each of those days. We returned to DHS by around 6:30 Sunday night and it was a lot calmer. We didn't attend MK the day there was the early paid event, but we did the day of Disney After Hours. It was busy, but I think that was more due to the day before (Wednesday) having a lot of rain, pushing a lot of MK visits to the next day. We also did evening EMH Wednesday night, but because of the rain, it didn't seem to have any affect and the park was still deserted.

Early EMH and park hopping out has been a go-to strategy of ours for short trips, and it continued to work well.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Those are the dates of my trip, too. I agree on the crowds, and we also made a full day of HS. We did every single thing at HS except One Mans Dream. I also agree about the CMs. They were fantastic, with the exception of a few at Epcot (very unprofessional at the package pickup area) but that's all. They were great at distracting the girls when they were getting cranky, and we got lots of special stickers. We tried 4 new restaurants - Tusker House, Skippers, Garden Grill, and Grand Floridian Café. Skippers and GFC were awesome, and are now on our list of must dos. The Club Villain was great, and the food was really good. The villains were pretty much on point, and Cruella really stood out.
Thoroughly loved the meet and greets; some were terrific! Especially loved the interaction with Tinkerbell, Tiana, Anna & Elsa, Joy/Sadness, Baymax was really funny; he deflated down to be shorter like the grandkids. Joy & Sadness wait was only around 25 - 30 minutes, Baymax, 10. Pluto at the GG was funny. Undoubtedly one of the best was Pocahontas and Meko. They took each family back alone and they characters played with the kids. They played hide and seek, running around acting silly and the girls had great fun.
We also went on the rainy day to MK, and our experience was the same. Rode lots, short or no wait times.
I noticed a lot of tour groups but no especially bad or obnoxious behavior. Not overly loud, mostly kids being kids.
My DGD5 had a lot of first time rides. DID NOT like ToT, loved TT, Pirates, and Spaceship Earth ( the ball ride). They both (also had DGD3) loved the BBB.
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). Also not impressed with the buses. We had long waits for MK and HS the first few days. By the time they showed up, the crowds were pretty large. The last MK day they said it was a traffic jam and we sat at MK on the bus for 20 - 25 minutes. Figment broke down on us 4 times; one time we were stranded alone in a room for over 20 minutes. Luckily it was the Eye Chart room so we got the girls to tell us what the numbers on the eye chart were. Then we played Eye Spy, and finally just started getting the girls to tell us colors of objects. We got stuck in the next to last room witch is pretty much dark, but it was blissfully short and we were moving before the scared of the dark freak out. We missed Illuminations entirely. Being that I have been to WDW many times, the shortage of CMs was noticeable. Photopass photographers were plentiful, pleasant, and lots of magic shots!
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.

 

[KBoopaloo]

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.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Wonderful notes, glad you had a great time!
My question is about early & late hours. Did you do any morning or evening EMH or the paid early/late events? If you didn't do these, did you notice anything special about crowds on the days that had them? Thanks!

I paid close attention as 2 of our MK days were extra paid hours event days. Thursday got pretty crowded around 3, but we were cutting out about that time. Sunday was also a pretty full day but we ended up leaving around 4:30 to go back to the resort and swim. DS and DDIL went back to MK and had a great time; they said the crowds weren't bad, and they went on a lot of attractions in 2 hours (MK was open until 11 for regular guests that day). There was only 1 paid morning event while we were there. I believe it was on a Saturday, and I avoid MK on Saturdays like the plague. We had 3 EMH days planned: 5/4, arrival day was MK EMH. Like the OP said, it rained and MK was pretty deserted. We went to HS 5/6 and after Fantasmic, it cleared out quickly. We stayed and rode the GMR, then left with DGD3 while DH and DS stayed with DGD 5; they went on Star Wars numerous times and GMR again. Last, we went to EP on 5/9 and had a lovely time. The park never seemed crowded, we arrived around 9:30 and had a short wait time for Joy/Sadness, went to breakfast at GG, then went back for a 10 minute wait for Baymax. We walked on every ride, met 5 characters in the World Showcase, rode Figment again (where we broke down) so we decided to do EMH to ride TT while I took the little ones to meet Mickey and friends. I dare say, had it not been for the breakdown, we would have ridden Figment at least 2 more times. The most crowded days were today (AK) and Thursday (MK) but I really think MK was so crowded because of the rain on Wednesday.

 

[Taylor Nicole]

Now I'm really worried about crowds, I thought early May wouldn't be too bad.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Now I'm really worried about crowds, I thought early May wouldn't be too bad.

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.

 

[lovethattink]

Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a great trip!

 

[Eastern]

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.

 

[JerseyDevils]

Sounds like a great trip! We have gone in end of April-early May the last 6-7 years and love it! So i'm really missing Disney right now because we are usually just coming home too! Trying out late August-early September this year! Can't Wait! Happy to hear the about the great CM's!!

 

[nilla]

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.

 

[gap2368]

Just returned today from an AMAZING week at Disney! The travel party was myself (22) and my best friend (21) who was a WDW newbie (this was my seventh trip!) We stayed in a preferred room at All-Star Movies from May 4th-May 10th and did 5 1/2 days in the parks. I'm going to write a full trip report over in the TR board at some point but here are a few of my observations:

Cast Members: Please, if you are going to WDW in the next little while, listen to one thing I'm about to say. Do not listen to the DISboards when people say the CM quality has gone down. This trip was was hands down the best service we've ever received at WDW. Our best CMs were Chris on Photopass on Main Street, Kurt at the Garden Grill, and David at Cinderella's Royal Table, but it's really hard to narrow down a top group. Everyone was friendly and excited and creating Disney magic for guests everywhere we turned.

Weather: Our arrival day it rained cats and dogs all night, and as a result the park was EMPTY. We did 7DMT in 20 minutes in the standby line, walked onto BTMRR over and over, and it was a pretty amazing first day for my friend! Just a note: even if it's hot, if it looks like rain, bring a sweater or a cover-up in the park bag. Pinocchio Village Haus was freezing when we were having dinner after being caught in the rain! Every other day was beautiful.

Memory Maker: This was one of the worst parts of the last trip I took with my mom, but they redeemed themselves. They were even trying out some new poses, having us hold out our Celebrating/Grad buttons toward the camera.

Crowds: Not sure where all the high school tour groups came from, but the parks were crawling with huge groups of teens and kids. When I went on a Disney trip in July I didn't even see this many groups of South American tourists. Maybe May is the new time? Or was it just the All-Stars?

Food: Columbia Harbour house is SO good, guys. Yorkshire County Fish Shop was also a hit. We were on the dining plan and ate at Tusker House, Beaches and Cream, Cinderella's Royal Table, Crystal Palace, Via Napoli, and Garden Grill. My friend's favourite was Garden Grill, while mine was Via Napoli. Neither of us were blown away by Tusker House.

Hollywood Studios: We shockingly used almost a full day here. Spent lots of time in Launch Bay and did Kylo and Chewy's meets each twice (at night we came back with a BB-8 cup acquired to get some fun pictures), a few rounds on Star Tours, a couple on Toy Story, Frozen and Indy, Great Movie Ride, Muppets, etc. We could've done a full day, easy. It is definitely a park in transition.

Random highlights/things not to miss: Joy and Sadness at Epcot (they were really fun even for two young adults!), the Jawas at Launch Bay (be prepared to chase one around if they get their hands on your BB-8 cup... not as if I'd know this from experience), Festival of Fantasy (it's my all-time favourite Disney show, so if you haven't gotten around to it by this point, at least look into it), and the Star Wars Fireworks (we caught them from the parking lot and they were stunning, so I can only imagine how amazing they were in person. The newbie loved Big Thunder Mountain, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Festival of the Lion King, and the Frozen show, among others.

The only issues or bummer experiences we had were with buses. There was no Epcot bus in sight when we were trying to make our Garden Grill reservation and nearly missed it, and they removed the musical park intros that played when you arrived at a park (how it used to play One Little Spark at Epcot, Mickey Mouse March at MK, etc). It wasn't a huge deal but I missed it!

(Edit!) Forgot a couple notes: Security is bonkers at MK right now with adjusting everyone to be screened. I was randomly selected once out of the no bag line (while trying to make the aforementioned Garden Grill reservation since a woman on the bus told us to run or else my card would be charged) and my friend was selected twice. Three different days they screened everyone. Also, FP+ reservations are a lot harder to secure for the more popular attractions the same day, but it's not impossible. (The app only worked about 30% of the time, anyways.)

If anyone has any questions about anything, I'll do my best to provide answers! Disney is definitely in a transitional period right now, and it's rough with a lot of things closed/not finished, but there is no shortage of magic. The people were kind, the parks were clean, and the cast members were providing the levels of service that sent both of us home feeling happy and magical!

I was down the last week of April stayed at all star sports for one night had such a bad time they moved me for free to animal kindgom then I had the rudest CM ever ( like I had nightmares ) but then I ran into a lot of amazing CM on my last day I did not want to go to HS so I went to MK when I went to see about getting new FP the CM helping me found out what happens and fave me 6 anytime FP

 

[Tuffcookie]

OP, I too, miss the musical intro to the park that the buses used to play. Why would Disney do away with that?

TC

 

[ciera321]

Great information, thanks so much for sharing. We leave Tuesday! I'm glad your friend enjoyed Disney World!!!!

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

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.

 

[BrianL]

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.

 

[Notso]

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!

 

[luvallprincesses]

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?