Just returned from an 11 day stay -- Please read

[Mousemommy1]

Ok, so I promised I wasn't going to do this because I am strongly a believer (especially after this trip) that your experience at Disney is going to be your experience....and that's that.

While it is nice to read "just back" reports....always remember to take them with a grain of salt because you are not the person giving the report and your personal experience will vary.

Anywho....before I left for our trip, I read (and worried) about A/C not being utilized as much...as in attractions and stores being hotter. Well, I can tell you that in our experience...the stores and attractions were freezing as always

And for that matter, not having been in July in quite some time (we usually go in fall or winter)...I was worried about face-melting-off type of heat that our children would be miserable in...well, our first 3 days there, it was hotter in NH (where we come from - WAY up north) than it was in Florida. DD5 even wanted a sweatshirt during Wishes one night. . There were two days that were hot....but we didn't sweat thru our clothes, our deodorant didn't fail...and no one passed out....it was very manageable. . Again, in our
Experience.

Also in July, we worried about hoards of BTG's swooping into line, taking all of the fast passes, chanting in line....well, ok...that DID happen. But, in our experience, on two rides that they had two or three of their representatives jump in front of us....to be quickly followed by 70-100 of the rest of them, CM's saw what happened and quickly escorted us to the front of the tour group.

We also read about rides not working the way they were supposed to...the Splash Mountain boat not running (it was), effects on Kali River Rapids not working (they were). I mean a particular individual could have hit Disney on a bad day where maybe an a/c unit wasn't working, or someone forgot to flip a switch on a ride element.... But sometimes, a poster will take these experiences and come back with a whole "decline of Disney" post....and before you say anything....I have been visiting Disney since 1985 through its sometimes referred to "Hey Days" and I'll tell you what...Disney is still providing magic every day. Really, they are...grounds always clean (my DD5 dropped some popcorn at MK, and a CM appeared out of nowhere with a broom within 45 seconds to sweep it up), the rides are well kept up. The food was mostly excellent (yes, even at Ohana, Le Cellier, and Whispering Canyon Cafe) ...several restaurants that people like to dump on. Again, maybe these folks hit these issues on a bad day, which can happen

My point is, if your going to Disney, GO! Experience the magic yourselves. Don't go looking for problems (which I honestly believe some people do), and create your own experiences. It is indeed a magical and beautiful place (even now).

One other note...I do believe that Disney inflates their ride times...twice we got into a 115 min line for Soarin' and only waited 30 mins...
Similar experiences on Splash Mountain and several other rides.

Sorry for my rant, that is all.

 

[Senator Tressel]

Just back reports are my favorite types of threads, but I agree with you that people should take every single thing that is said as reality. It was only that one person's reality.

I can't believe you got into a 115 minute line though. Bad Diser! Bad!

 

[SLM]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I'm so glad you had such a good trip. I don't doubt that people run into problems or less than magical situations, but I think it's the nature of any forum that those kind of things are reported more frequently. I also think in the summer when people are dealing with heat (and you're right, we've had worse temps here in PA than Fl!) things seem more stressful.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Just back reports are my favorite types of threads, but I agree with you that people should take every single thing that is said as reality. It was only that one person's reality.

I can't believe you got into a 115 minute line though. Bad Diser! Bad!

I don't subscribe to touring plans either!
We sleep late and attend evening EMH's!

But guess what? We rode every single ride, and all of the headliners at least twice. DD8 rode EE 3 x in a half hour time period...

I love the Dis, it has a wealth of information, just most of the information that I tend to ignore.

 

[Gorechick]

Thanks for the post. I haven't been since 2004 so it will be interesting to see how things have changed. We'll be there in 3 weeks and can't wait to make our own magic! It's our 10th anniversary and 7 years old twins first trip. It will be amazing to see it fresh through their eyes and experience their excitement. They were excited going to Chuck E Cheese For the first time a few weeks ago. They couldn't believe that all the games were for them to play as much as they wanted. WDW is gonna blow them away! Glad to hear you found the magic for your family!

 

[coozieman]

Bravo

 

[scdufek]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm glad you also enjoyed the Wilderness Lodge! It looks beautiful! I can't wait for our 11 day trip this Oct!!!

 

[Mousemommy1]

Thanks for the post. I haven't been since 2004 so it will be interesting to see how things have changed. We'll be there in 3 weeks and can't wait to make our own magic! It's our 10th anniversary and 7 years old twins first trip. It will be amazing to see it fresh through their eyes and experience their excitement. They were excited going to Chuck E Cheese For the first time a few weeks ago. They couldn't believe that all the games were for them to play as much as they wanted. WDW is gonna blow them away! Glad to hear you found the magic for your family!

It's wonderful seeing Disney through your child's eyes....this was our girls 3rd trip and they still ooh and ahh over everything. Have a wonderful trip!!!

I have no doubts that there are hiccups in operating such a large business, that is to be expected...I guess the point of my post is to not let brown napkins, or a light bulb out be the catalyst to ruin your vacation....we all need to look at the bigger picture.

BTW, the brown napkins still clean messes....

 

[Senator Tressel]

I don't subscribe to touring plans either!
We sleep late and attend evening EMH's!

I'm gonna have to talk to the mods, but honestly I've never seen someone be allowed to keep their membership with all this evidence against them. I'm sorry that it has to be this way.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm glad you also enjoyed the Wilderness Lodge! It looks beautiful! I can't wait for our 11 day trip this Oct!!!

The WL was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Seriously can't say enough about it.

 

[Mousemommy1]

I'm gonna have to talk to the mods, but honestly I've never seen someone be allowed to keep their membership with all this evidence against them. I'm sorry that it has to be this way.

It's all out there....loud and proud.

 

[LadyBeBop]

Sorry for my rant, that is all.

You call that a rant?

Happy you had a good time.

 

[minushka72]

Well said. One year i actually cancelled our OHana ADR due to all the bad reports I had read. We finally went this past April and the food and service were fantastic! We were seated with in 5 minutes of our ADR time too!

We go almost every year and we are not early risers! We stay late though and we usually ride everything we want to with little wait. We utilize FP and use them within their return window (always have). I can honestly say I have never seen park opening! Our trips are still magical every year too.

 

[Mousemommy1]

You call that a rant?

Happy you had a good time.

That's about as hardcore as I get.

Weel said. One year i actually cancelled our OHana ADR due to all the bad reports I had read. We finally went this past April and the food and service were fantastic! We were seated with in 5 minutes of our ADR time too!

We go almost every year and we are not early risers! We stay late though and we usually ride everything we want to with little wait. We utilize FP and use them within their return window (always have). I can honestly say I have never seen park opening! Our trips are still magical every year too.

We actually made MK rope drop for the 1st time (on my birthday) and it was cool, no need to see it again.

 

[sydsmom1997]

Thank you so much for posting this thread. We are leaving in 27 days (but who's counting..lol) and we haven't been for 6 years. I must admit that after reading some of the recent just back threads, I was getting a bit worried. I was afraid that I might find my magical world in a state that I might not recognize. I'm glad you had a great time! CS resort...here we come!

 

[mesaboy2]

First and foremost, the "rule":

Ok, so I promised I wasn't going to do this because I am strongly a believer (especially after this trip) that your experience at Disney is going to be your experience....and that's that.

While it is nice to read "just back" reports....always remember to take them with a grain of salt because you are not the person giving the report and your personal experience will vary.

Anywho....before I left for our trip, I read (and worried) about A/C not being utilized as much...as in attractions and stores being hotter. Well, I can tell you that in our experience...the stores and attractions were freezing as always

And for that matter, not having been in July in quite some time (we usually go in fall or winter)...I was worried about face-melting-off type of heat that our children would be miserable in...well, our first 3 days there, it was hotter in NH (where we come from - WAY up north) than it was in Florida. DD5 even wanted a sweatshirt during Wishes one night. . There were two days that were hot....but we didn't sweat thru our clothes, our deodorant didn't fail...and no one passed out....it was very manageable. . Again, in our
Experience.

Also in July, we worried about hoards of BTG's swooping into line, taking all of the fast passes, chanting in line....well, ok...that DID happen. But, in our experience, on two rides that they had two or three of their representatives jump in front of us....to be quickly followed by 70-100 of the rest of them, CM's saw what happened and quickly escorted us to the front of the tour group.

We also read about rides not working the way they were supposed to...the Splash Mountain boat not running (it was), effects on Kali River Rapids not working (they were). I mean a particular individual could have hit Disney on a bad day where maybe an a/c unit wasn't working, or someone forgot to flip a switch on a ride element.... But sometimes, a poster will take these experiences and come back with a whole "decline of Disney" post....and before you say anything....I have been visiting Disney since 1985 through its sometimes referred to "Hey Days" and I'll tell you what...Disney is still providing magic every day. Really, they are...grounds always clean (my DD5 dropped some popcorn at MK, and a CM appeared out of nowhere with a broom within 45 seconds to sweep it up), the rides are well kept up. The food was mostly excellent (yes, even at Ohana, Le Cellier, and Whispering Canyon Cafe) ...several restaurants that people like to dump on. Again, maybe these folks hit these issues on a bad day, which can happen

My point is, if your going to Disney, GO! Experience the magic yourselves. Don't go looking for problems (which I honestly believe some people do), and create your own experiences. It is indeed a magical and beautiful place (even now).

One other note...I do believe that Disney inflates their ride times...twice we got into a 115 min line for Soarin' and only waited 30 mins...
Similar experiences on Splash Mountain and several other rides.

Sorry for my rant, that is all.

Second, great post!

 

[fla4fun]

I can't believe you got into a 115 minute line though. Bad Diser! Bad!

I don't know that it is necessarily "bad". Does it go counter to most of the advice on the DIS? Yes. But sometimes the wait time shown just doesn't jive with what is really going on - as evidenced by the fact that the OP didn't wait 115 minutes to ride. The reverse can also be true - the wait time can show low, but maybe they've just had a rush of guests and haven't taken them into account on the clock yet. The great thing about Soarin' is it's so easy to walk back out of if you see the line really is bad.

Although I haven't entered a Soarin' line with a 115 minute time posted (and don't know that I would), I have entered many times with a 40 minute time and only waited half as long at most. Sometimes I don't mind being indoors, if it's a rainy or hot day, so I take my chances. I'm never on a schedule, and rarely book ADR's, so an occasional wait out of the sun doesn't bother me. I'm a late riser on vacation too, most of the time, so that makes a difference in regards to using FP.

Everyone has their own method of touring, and it's nice to hear back from people who do things a little differently than the majority - whether their results are positive or negative.

 

[Planogirl]

I wouldn't ever get into a line that showed a 115 minute wait. I'd be too worried that it was accurate!

Thanks for the post. It's good to read that you had a good experience. As you pointed out, it can be different for everyone.

 

[Allieran3]

Ok, so I promised I wasn't going to do this because I am strongly a believer (especially after this trip) that your experience at Disney is going to be your experience....and that's that.

While it is nice to read "just back" reports....always remember to take them with a grain of salt because you are not the person giving the report and your personal experience will vary.

Anywho....before I left for our trip, I read (and worried) about A/C not being utilized as much...as in attractions and stores being hotter. Well, I can tell you that in our experience...the stores and attractions were freezing as always

And for that matter, not having been in July in quite some time (we usually go in fall or winter)...I was worried about face-melting-off type of heat that our children would be miserable in...well, our first 3 days there, it was hotter in NH (where we come from - WAY up north) than it was in Florida. DD5 even wanted a sweatshirt during Wishes one night. . There were two days that were hot....but we didn't sweat thru our clothes, our deodorant didn't fail...and no one passed out....it was very manageable. . Again, in our
Experience.

Also in July, we worried about hoards of BTG's swooping into line, taking all of the fast passes, chanting in line....well, ok...that DID happen. But, in our experience, on two rides that they had two or three of their representatives jump in front of us....to be quickly followed by 70-100 of the rest of them, CM's saw what happened and quickly escorted us to the front of the tour group.

We also read about rides not working the way they were supposed to...the Splash Mountain boat not running (it was), effects on Kali River Rapids not working (they were). I mean a particular individual could have hit Disney on a bad day where maybe an a/c unit wasn't working, or someone forgot to flip a switch on a ride element.... But sometimes, a poster will take these experiences and come back with a whole "decline of Disney" post....and before you say anything....I have been visiting Disney since 1985 through its sometimes referred to "Hey Days" and I'll tell you what...Disney is still providing magic every day. Really, they are...grounds always clean (my DD5 dropped some popcorn at MK, and a CM appeared out of nowhere with a broom within 45 seconds to sweep it up), the rides are well kept up. The food was mostly excellent (yes, even at Ohana, Le Cellier, and Whispering Canyon Cafe) ...several restaurants that people like to dump on. Again, maybe these folks hit these issues on a bad day, which can happen

My point is, if your going to Disney, GO! Experience the magic yourselves. Don't go looking for problems (which I honestly believe some people do), and create your own experiences. It is indeed a magical and beautiful place (even now).

One other note...I do believe that Disney inflates their ride times...twice we got into a 115 min line for Soarin' and only waited 30 mins...
Similar experiences on Splash Mountain and several other rides.

Sorry for my rant, that is all.

This is a breathe of fresh air after hearing all the "bad" about Disney! I was starting to worry about not enjoying our up coming trip since we haven't been back since 08...

 

[kshattuck]

Thanks for a realistic, positive "just back" report!

So glad you had a great trip -- we have two little girls, as well, and are SO EXCITED to head back to WDW this October! 86 days, but who's counting?!