Last Week in WDW

[CamColt]

We are just back from WDW 8/27-9/2 and I have said this before and I will say it again...this is the best week to go! We hardly waited for any rides, maybe 15 minutes tops for a few. By arriving early and using fast pass we were able to do it all. Even Friday around 12:30/1:00PM the wait times for Buzz, Stitch, and Space Mt were all 5 minutes. I couldn't believe it.

The weather was great despite a few quick downpours and 1 extended rain period Wednesday evening (Ernesto). It didn't seem as hot as it usually does but still warm enough for swimming.

People in the parks were mostly very polite. I dont think we saw 1 incident of line cutting which I was prepared for from reading these boards and recent experiences. Maybe because lines were minimal? We did run into a couple of shows when people just continued to talk over the CM(and the show), which was disappinting. One somewhat annoying, but almost comical incident was in the Carousel of Progress. A father was in there with his 2 children. A little one began screaming bloody murder as soon as the doors shut...and he screamed thorugh out the whole show. People gave him looks and moved seats and even "shushed" him, but there was nothing the poor guy could do. Having kids myself I could feel this guys pain, but it did put a bit of a damper on the show. Also saw only a couple people smoke in a non smoking area and one throw theirs on the ground after. One night we saw a group on the bus eating Mc Donalds (after they announced no eating or drinking) and they left all their trash there. But other than those few instances, I found most people to be very Disneyish!

Speaking of buses, we found bus service to be excellent. We even had 1 ride where it was our party of 6 and another couple all going to DTD to switch buses to get back to Pop Century. Once we realized this, the driver called in and was OK'd to just take us all to Pop Century. That was a welcome dose of pixie dust at 10:00 PM when we were all tired after traveling.

We had ADRs booked for all our meals, exept ESPN as they dont take them. We never waited more than 5 minutes after checking in to get a table. I hope to have dining reviews up soon, but I can tell you the free dining was wonderful (we ate so much!). And Wishes from the California Grill observation deck is amazing.

This was really a great week to be in WDW. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[disneypharm]

Thank you so much for your trip report. It is so great to see positive posts at DIS. Although you encountered several rude and inconsiderate behaviors, you mentioned it as a small disappointment. I loved your comment "I found most people to be very Disneyish". My family never expect everything to be perfect in our WDW trips, we always think that we are very lucky to be able to afford to go to WDW. Small annoying things don't bother us! We will be there in 2 weeks and your report definitely helped me. Thanks again.

 

[CamColt]

Oh yes. The "problems" were definitley the minority. I just mention them because of all the negatives we do hear so often I wanted to note, that it wasnt bad at all.

Have a great trip! Hope you luck out as much as we did.

 

[Dan Murphy]

.....I have said this before and I will say it again.......

You have??



Sounds like a good trip!! And heading back soon too. Thanks for the report.

 

[disneypharm]

Oh yes. The "problems" were definitley the minority. I just mention them because of all the negatives we do hear so often I wanted to note, that it wasnt bad at all.

Have a great trip! Hope you luck out as much as we did.

Thanks CamColt.

 

[ZanneMarie]

We were also there last week (the 24th throught the 2nd) and staying at Pop Century! Maybe I saw you CamColt! I totally agree that this was a great week to be there. Crowds were generally pretty thin although they did pick up heading into the Labor Day weekend. Which park were you at on Ernesto Day? We were at Magic Kingdom and I could not believe how empty the place was! Literally walking on to the mountians and most rides. All in all we loved how the crowds were light and the weather was more comfortable than I expected. The downpours of rain were a bit of a pain but still manageable. Our experience was the same in that most people were quite friendly and I don't remember witnessing any shocking behaviours. Our only issue was that we had trouble getting connecting rooms at Pop as had been requested. Funny thing is that they CM who was helping us gave us our rooms and then never even mentioned that they were just adjoining and not connecting until I asked if there was a possibility of being in a different building and he said we could but that the rooms would not be next to each other--thats when I asked about them not being connecting and he said there were none available. We asked him to look again so he went in the back and came out and said there were none. He offered to get the manager for us to speak to and we accepted. Funny thing was he came back without the manager but with connecting rooms for us. A bumpy start but other than that an excellent trip.

 

[DISFANSHAN]

We were there last week also (8/28-9/1) and agree.......the crowds were minimal! I would do that week again in a heartbeat! We went on Kali River Rapids 4 times in a row, without getting off, at about 10 a.m. The longest line I saw for EE was 30 minutes. We walked onto Haunted Mansion, Buzz, Jungle Cruise, BTMRR, Star Tours, The Safari.
I thought bus service was great. We stayed at ASMo, and never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus anywhere, except Wednesday when we left AK in the rain. We had to wait 3 buses because there were so many people leaving, but still it was no more than 15 minutes!
Free dining was well worth it!! We had made our ADR' s about 4 months ago, so had no problem with them. But even the counter service restaurants were easy. We ate at Casey's twice, just walked right up to the counter with no line (at lunch time!!!), and there were even tables inside available.
The only line that I saw that was too long for us to wait on was Test Track, on Thursday at about noon. It was 70 mins. I thought it had to be a mistake so I asked a CM, but it was correct, so we just fast-passed it.
One thing I have to mention is how much I loved Lights, Motors, Action! My DS7 really wanted to see this , and I just went along, well, because I had to! But this show really amazed me!!! I still can't understand how the cars don't crash into each other, they come soooo close and are driving so fast!!! This is a definite must see!!!!!

 

[maxaroni]

We were at AKL from 8/25-9/2....

It was an awesome week to be there!!! Walk on rides, 5-10 min waits were the max that we had. Went on EE with a 10 min wait.

We were told that AKL was 93% filled to capacity - you'd never know it.

We were at MK on wednesday and it was empty. I heard all of the parks were empty due to Ernesto....where were all of these people???? No rain, no people in the parks, it was great.

 

[ZanneMarie]

We were at MK on wednesday and it was empty. I heard all of the parks were empty due to Ernesto....where were all of these people???? No rain, no people in the parks, it was great.

According to the lady at the Lego store in Downtown Disney DTD was packed that day and was empty in the evening (when we were there). Exactly the opposite of what they normally experience. So apparently people decided to shop instead of ride rides! It was great for us that went to the parks!

 

[MassMom94]

We were at AKL from 8/25-9/2....

We were at MK on wednesday and it was empty. I heard all of the parks were empty due to Ernesto....where were all of these people???? No rain, no people in the parks, it was great.

We were told that a lot of people altered their travel plans because of Ernesto - e.g., people from Atlanta and the Miami area who would have driven delayed or cancelled. And then there were those people supposed to arrive on Southwest...they cancelled ALL of their flights for the day. We were supposed to fly out but wound up staying another two days before we could re-book. Not that we minded!!

 

[Harambe]

OMG!!! What is the matter with all you people? I can't believe you're giving away our secret of going the last week in Aug.! LOL! We had a blast, as you all said - very minimal waits. EMH in the mornings were beautiful - we got to the gates right at 8am and strolled in! I got Fastpasses for EE and the family rode it twice before they even had to use the Fastpass!

We stayed at MK on 8/29 (my b-day) to watch Spectro and to see Wishes. We sat in front of the pin shop near Country Bears on one of the benches and pulled over a rocker, and - you are not going to believe this! - no one even stood in front of us for the parade. After the parade, we shot through the alley that brings you to Aladdin, turned toward POC, and walked right on.

And after Wishes, we got on the second bus back to Boardwalk. Excellent time to go, but I think I'll have to disagree with CamColt about the heat. We thought it was "Holy Crap" hot. Even hotter than last year!

But, please stop telling everyone!

 

[CamColt]

LOL, Harambe! Tuesday was really the only day we felt that extreme "I'm Melting" heat. The rest wasnt too bad. We were at AK at 8:00 on Monday...DH & I rode EE 3x in a row with only about a 5-10 minute wait the 3rd time.

ZanneMarie, we were in the 90s building, ground floor, right behind the laundry and we got connecting rooms. We liked the area, except when we were at the 90s pool and wanted a drink from the pool bar. That was a hike. We were at Epcot on Wednesday. We walked on Soarin then got FPs for later. We then walked on Test Track and Misson Space. When we went back to Soarin to use our FPS there was no regular line, LOL! I think the biggest wait we had that day was for Crush and that was about 10 minutes.

 

[ZanneMarie]

CamColt--we ended up in the 80's ground floor with our connecting room! I had been hoping for 60's or 70's but really ended up liking the 80's location. Last year we were 90's top floor and while I liked being on the top floor it was a longer walk to the bus stop. All in all it was a great trip and while the whole family says we are not going back for a few years (we have been 3 times in the last 18 months) I am working on it!!!

 

[maxaroni]

Tuesday was really the only day we felt that extreme "I'm Melting" heat. The rest wasnt too bad.

Tuesday was the day for us to feel extra hot, too. On top of that, Tuesday was AK day, a hotter park to begin with.

 

[Leota]

I love the last week of August. Last year we only had one day that was almost unbearable. The rest were gorgeous & best of all, line free.

As far as people's behaviour in WDW - I must be oblivious or in a complete Fantasy-like state of mind when we're in WDW because I just don't see all these awful things that people post about here. I think it's because I really don't give much thought to what other people are doing because I'm too busy having fun. I have noticed a couple small things because I love to people watch, but I guess I just don't care that much about that kind of thing. I prefer to look for the good myself. In fact, when I have seen some rude behaviour, it's almost comical & I just shake my head wondering what the heck they're thinking.....

 

[lauritagoddess]

I agree, we were there 8/27-9/3 and it was fabulous last week. We walked onto so many rides, literally we never needed Fastpass for anything. I'm fairly heat intolerant so I was dreading the heat, but it really wasn't that bad. Monday and Tuesday were hot, and then Friday when we were at AK was a literal steambath, but the other days were okay, even with the rain on Wednesday.

With other people's behavior, the only thing that irked me was how many people think that it's a good idea to walk right in front of you when you're pushing a stroller. These are the same people I'm sure who complain about getting bumped by strollers. But again and again there would be people who would walk right on front of us and I'd have to try and stop short to avoid hitting them. There were some times I didn't even try to stop, lol.

 

[mommykds]

Shhhhh... stop telling everyone how great it was or they will all go next year!

We were there 8/22-9/1 & the weather was fine (but we like heat), didn't rain very much, & the crowds were very managable. I was so nrevous readingall the posts about how hot it would be & how free dining would drive the crowds up but it was wonderful!

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

we arrived by amtrak train on wed 23 and we left wed 30th .we stayed at the asmusic. we found the week not to bad either. i thought the heat didnt seem as bad as all the other summers we have gone. we were at ak on tues.early and WOW, idont know if we got there the same time as the tram but itwas CRAZY just getting in. and also, that day was the meltdown day, it was so hot out. that was our hottest day of the week. everest was usually 45 to 60 min wait every time we were there that week. one day my husband waited in the single line, and it wasnt very long wait. we did alot of fp for splash. we usually went aroung 930 ish and usually would leave in the afternoon either for lunch, or a couple of times to swim. then we did go the extra hr. nights. that was pretty good. i found poc to be busier than in all the years we have gone. but we had a great time. all the cms were really nice and friendly. we really had no problems to speak of............cant wait to go back next year............haha