Long lines and lots of trash

[DGsAtBLT]

I don't think PP meant that we had to clean up after other people, but just make sure we all clean up after ourselves and our kids when we're there. It takes a village and all that....

We were there this time last year and it was really really busy. But honestly, despite all that we managed to do quite a bit and my kids had a blast. I was a bit disappointed that World Showcase was so busy and I didn't get to wander around like I'm used to. Otherwise, it really was a nice trip overall.

She asked if we pick up things we see lying around and leave the park nicer than we found it. I’m surely not going to defend the jerks who toss their garbage all over the parks or all around slobs, but I’m not cleaning up after them either.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I’m at MCO now.

I agree with others who were there this week. There are MORE PEOPLE. this is not a staffing issue alone.

Epcot Tuesday was INSANE. MK yesterday Wall to Wall people as well.

I also saw lots of garbage although bathrooms were clean.

I did see the staffing issues as well. If the parks are so busy there is an 8am open on a Tuesday, why the heck is Dumbo only running one side until 9:30 with a giant line?! Unacceptable. The Speedway was way worse.

We were gone by Tuesday but in the week or so before that Epcot was also nuts. We had people in our party who had visited Epcot at all times of year with the first time being a few months after it opened, and we all agreed we had never seen World Showcase that insane. Wall to wall people in the main walkways. It made it really hard to enjoy it.

I’ve never been during a festival before, but if that’s what a festival does then I’m rethinking our plans to go during food and wine in a year or two.

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Restaurants don't have enough staff and people are cleaning their own tables.

This one threw me off a bit. Are you talking about counter service? If so, you are supposed to clean your own table at most, if not all of them. No idea how you could clean your own table at table service, so I am assuming you mean counter service.

 

[akadada]

This thread is kind of gutting as we will be taking a first and once in a lifetime trip to WDW at the end of April from Australia. I had anticipated crowds and potential high wait times on certain rides but not to the extent this thread discusses. It won't be Spring Break then so I gather that's a bonus.

I'm concerned about being 'newbies' and not knowing the layout and best way to get to things in one park - let alone navigating between the parks! However I have looked at maps and have signed up to Touring Plans and have most FP+ that we wanted. I probably should not have included as much park hopping as I have, however we are going back to our DVC rental for a break after lunch each day, so I don't think it makes much difference.

We had a great experience at DLR in 2015 and I would go back in a heart beat - but I'm not sure it can be in any way compared to WDW purely because of the size of WDW (which is kinnnnnda intimidating). We will have a rental car so I am going to heavily rely on driving between the parks and to ADRs using the GPS! Or using Uber where we have an ADR or dessert party where we'd like to have a few drinks.

It is what it is, we will make the best of it.

You will make out of it what you want. So I would recommend not following posts like this. Read the fun trip reports pages only. The general theme here is that a lot of us disappointed is not necessarily because Disney is awful; quite the contrary, it's still very fun and full of exciting opportunities. Rather many of us have been going there for decades and we simply are trying to come to grips with what many of us find to be a deterioration from what we remember 5,10,20,30 years ago.

Again, though, this is your first; you should mentally prepare your mind with excitement and ways you will find joy. Stop following the trip reports like ours and go to the fun report pages and imagine it will be great because it will be.

Cheers!

 

[akadada]

I’m at MCO now.

I agree with others who were there this week. There are MORE PEOPLE. this is not a staffing issue alone.

Epcot Tuesday was INSANE. MK yesterday Wall to Wall people as well.

I also saw lots of garbage although bathrooms were clean.

I did see the staffing issues as well. If the parks are so busy there is an 8am open on a weekday, why the heck is Dumbo only running one side until 9:30 with a giant line?! Unacceptable. The Speedway was way worse.

ETA
I was also at WDW first week of January. I didn’t think it was that crowded but definitely had the staffing / low capacity issues. This week there were obviously huge numbers of additional people. We were only there due to a work conference - expected crowds but SMH at those stating issues were due to changes in capacity. No.

I rode Splash twice with FP and many of the rooms’ water features and audio were not working on both Sunday and Tuesday. The FP line on Sunday was over 30 minutes. Ridiculous.

When we were there two weeks ago, the FP+ line was also 30 minutes for Splash. It was lined out all the way to the actual bridge. I've never seen that before. Standby was 75. I'm not sure what was going on. Fortunately when we rode it, the ride was in perfect working order. And looked great.

 

[AngiTN]

My first Disney experience was in the summer on 1970 when our family loaded up a green station wagon, drove all the way across the country, visited relatives on the farm and camped at KOA campgrounds en route, and went to Disneyland for a day (hmmm, sound like a movie plot?). It's funny what you remember from long-ago trips when you were young. One thing that stuck in my head was the sight of a visitor standing at the central hub shoveling popcorn into his mouth getting only about half of it in his mouth with the other half falling on the ground. Standing right next to him like a soldier at attention was a CM with a broom and dust pan. Every time a handful of popcorn landed on the ground, the CM would sweep it up, and then wait at attention for the next handful.

Once could view this two ways. In the "good old days", Disney invested enough in personnel so that each visitor could have a personal valet to clean up his/her mess. Or maybe you could view this as evidence that park visitors are entitled pigs. This may not be a popular post, but the truth is that if you see a piles of trash lying around the parks, it is because some visitor put it there. Do you ever pick up garbage you see lying around? Do you ever wipe off the bathroom counter with your paper towel when you are done? Do you ever help out a CM? Do you ever leave the park nicer than the way you found it? Or should you not be expected to do these things because you are on vacation?

Yes to all of that.
I always wipe up the counter, both before I wash up, and after. I don't want to lay my things down in the wet that is there nor leave wet behind for others.
I pick up garbage all the time.
And just this past trip I was hanging up merchandise I found laying on the counter. The CM came up and stopped me and said "You don't need to do that" and said I don't mind, I'm standing here, it's laying there, I see where it goes, it's no problem for me to hang it back up. I was sorry someone else didn't.
On Tuesday we found a damaged Flower and Garden tank at Epcot. DGD found a CM and turned it in to her so some unsuspecting guest didn't purchase it and get home and find a shirt with a huge hole in it.
I try very hard to be a zero impact guest. I don't succeed because I am human and not perfect but I sure never intentionally do anything to make it more difficult on anyone in the service industry.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Yes to all of that.
I always wipe up the counter, both before I wash up, and after. I don't want to lay my things down in the wet that is there nor leave wet behind for others.
I pick up garbage all the time.
And just this past trip I was hanging up merchandise I found laying on the counter. The CM came up and stopped me and said "You don't need to do that" and said I don't mind, I'm standing here, it's laying there, I see where it goes, it's no problem for me to hang it back up. I was sorry someone else didn't.
On Tuesday we found a damaged Flower and Garden tank at Epcot. DGD found a CM and turned it in to her so some unsuspecting guest didn't purchase it and get home and find a shirt with a huge hole in it.
I try very hard to be a zero impact guest. I don't succeed because I am human and not perfect but I sure never intentionally do anything to make it more difficult on anyone in the service industry.

I am the same way. Maybe because I have spent so much time working in customer service.

 

[odd man out]

I am the same way. Maybe because I have spent so much time working in customer service.

You are so right. My daughter worked as a server at Applebees in college. Now every time we go out to dinner, she yells at me for all the things I am doing wrong (from her POV as ex-server).

 

[Stasieki]

Just wanted to send you some positivity. We went last year over spring break and it was very crowded (first trip for my children DD(5) and DS(13 months)). We still had a great time. In fact I loved it so much we went back this past Feb! I picked the first week of Feb bc it was supposed to be low crowds- it was not. I was on here reading a lot of posts like this- trash, crowds, etc. and started to get really discouraged. We ended up having a fantastic time, despite the high crowd levels. This was also with a sometimes grumpy six year old and my almost two year old who is prone to tantrums
Others are right about planning, though. As much as some may find it to be a drag, you need to be on planning all your FPs, dining reservations, etc. I had maps of the parks printed out and planned our days in sections and worked in dining based on where we’d be at certain times.
I want to go back in Nov...lol. We’ll see if I can convince DH!

Agree! I was there Feb 7-13 and then Feb 15-21 over Presidents weekend. I was so nervous, etc. Ended up being a great trip! Were there long fastpass lines, etc. Yes... but it do not affect our overall enjoyment one bit. Many magical moments, and parks as clean as always.

 

[bryanb]

This thread is kind of gutting as we will be taking a first and once in a lifetime trip to WDW at the end of April from Australia. I had anticipated crowds and potential high wait times on certain rides but not to the extent this thread discusses. It won't be Spring Break then so I gather that's a bonus.

I'm concerned about being 'newbies' and not knowing the layout and best way to get to things in one park - let alone navigating between the parks! However I have looked at maps and have signed up to Touring Plans and have most FP+ that we wanted. I probably should not have included as much park hopping as I have, however we are going back to our DVC rental for a break after lunch each day, so I don't think it makes much difference.

We had a great experience at DLR in 2015 and I would go back in a heart beat - but I'm not sure it can be in any way compared to WDW purely because of the size of WDW (which is kinnnnnda intimidating). We will have a rental car so I am going to heavily rely on driving between the parks and to ADRs using the GPS! Or using Uber where we have an ADR or dessert party where we'd like to have a few drinks.

It is what it is, we will make the best of it.

I wouldn't worry too much either. Just to put things into perspective, most people on Disboards and other park forums love WDW. It's from that perspective, we can be both WDW's harshest critics and most fervent defenders. The people here are more likely to notice when things go wrong, and focus on those issues whereas the majority of guests might notice something wrong and not give it another thought. I'm not saying that the people here are wrong. We have an idea of what Disney standards should be and get focused on areas that don't meet expectations.

I suspect there is also a nostalgia bias at play here. We tend to remember all the great things from the past, but not the bad things. If you look at this forum through the years, you'll find that the wave of nostalgia ebbs and flows, but every year people talk about how it was better in the past. (Maybe it was in some ways, but maybe in other ways WDW is much better today too....)

My guess is that most people are still having a great time on vacation. And if it's your first trip to WDW, it's all going to be new to you and exciting either way. My one piece of advice is to not put too heavy a burden on yourself. Planning obsessively is something we love to do here, but a good time can be had by treating your vacation like a vacation -- and not a checklist of tasks that need to be completed. You can't do everything at WDW in one visit, and you probably can't have a day that goes perfectly to plan. So having a positive outlook and being flexible are the secrets to happiness at WDW (and maybe everything!). Enjoy yourself! That trip is going to be awesome.

 

[samsonjs]

This thread is kind of gutting as we will be taking a first and once in a lifetime trip to WDW at the end of April from Australia. I had anticipated crowds and potential high wait times on certain rides but not to the extent this thread discusses. It won't be Spring Break then so I gather that's a bonus.

I'm concerned about being 'newbies' and not knowing the layout and best way to get to things in one park - let alone navigating between the parks! However I have looked at maps and have signed up to Touring Plans and have most FP+ that we wanted. I probably should not have included as much park hopping as I have, however we are going back to our DVC rental for a break after lunch each day, so I don't think it makes much difference.

We had a great experience at DLR in 2015 and I would go back in a heart beat - but I'm not sure it can be in any way compared to WDW purely because of the size of WDW (which is kinnnnnda intimidating). We will have a rental car so I am going to heavily rely on driving between the parks and to ADRs using the GPS! Or using Uber where we have an ADR or dessert party where we'd like to have a few drinks.

It is what it is, we will make the best of it.

I'm going the 3rd week of April. I was aiming between holidays. I'm nervous too because I haven't been since I was a child. I'm trying to decide if we want to get a hopper so we can move around more. I went on Kenny the Pirate and schedule for all of his green days. I hope that helps us.

I don't know much about Disney vacations but it seems like since the economy is doing better and unemployment is lower that Disney vacations would be up.

 

[VitaminC]

A lot of it is about expectations. If you always go the same time of year and are expecting certain things, you might be surprised that things are different. In past years, this week was busy but our nights, for instance, were spent riding tons of rides as walk-ons. That is just not the case this year. We are still having a blast though! We are just adjusting to the crowds, the long lines, the dirty bathrooms (we have noticed a few of these). Planning is key but so is the ability to go with the flow a little bit. To the poster from Australia who is coming for a once in a lifetime trip: don’t let all of these posts worry you, you can still have a wonderful time and find plenty of magic at Disney World. I hope you have an amazing trip!

 

[cindernat]

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments. I do get what all of you mean when you speak of nostalgia and the 'good old days'. Guess I don't have that comparison. We have garbage theme parks here in Australia (harsh but true!) and Disney is just on a different level altogether, I am pretty sure I am going to be blown away.

Yes I'm good on the theoretical planning - I even have a spreadsheet with a tab for each day! I like to be organised but I also have the common sense to know we might have to deviate from those plans too. That's what the Touring Plans app (Lines) will be for. Also no idea what to expect weather wise, people have said hot but with the potential for tropical showers. Have also factored in a sleep in morning followed by swimming at BC/YC pools which look amazing. I have an 8YO son so definitely have to factor in his energy levels.

Again appreciate the pep talks

 

[nco91590]

She asked if we pick up things we see lying around and leave the park nicer than we found it. I’m surely not going to defend the jerks who toss their garbage all over the parks or all around slobs, but I’m not cleaning up after them either.

Oh jeeze! You're right. I thought you were replying to a different thread. Yeah....there's no way I'm picking up someone else's theme park trash lol. I definitely straighten up retail areas tho.

 

[nco91590]

accidentally posted twice!

 

[Kim Gillihan]

We are here now as well. Our trips have always been over spring break and I have never seen it so busy! We arrived yesterday and went to MK for the first part of the afternoon to do our 3 fast passes. Big Thunder Mountain fast pass line was 15ish minutes. SDMT fast pass line was easily 30 minutes. Stand by was 220! That is nearly four hours for a 60 second ride! Hollywood Studios was ok today but we definitely tried to get it all in early. Single rider for Rockin Roller Coaster was 65 minutes, same as stand by. Maybe that is normal? We plan on hitting the mornings and evenings from here on out. The weather is gorgeous!

we were there last week too and it was crazy!!! trying to figure out when to take next trip to avoid crazy crowds..... summer?? july?? hot but....

 

[Jeremy Nolen]

Couple of thoughts - we just got back from an 8-day (well, 7.5) last week (you can see my trip report here)

The parks (especially MK and EPCOT) were VERY busy, with crowds ramping up consistently from mid-morning until evening. World Showcase was crowded to the point of being hard to walk around quickly, especially in the first couple of pavilions to either side. Stand-by wait times for popular rides escalated to 90-150 min by late morning and stayed there consistently throughout the day.

I didn't really notice an issue with trash in the parks (occasional drink cups or water bottles left on a bench, or spilled popcorn, but not to a degree that it bothered me.) The bathrooms seemed spotless as usual.

all my CM interactions were positive (and some were really outstanding) BUT I did notice, upon reflection, CM's talking to each other / checking phones / etc. more than in prior visits (someone else mentioned this above.) Again, didn't really bother me but might be a bad omen for the future.

Ride outages definitely happened while we were there, and some of them created future FP+ problems and exaggerated the stand-by wait times for sure. It didn't seem to me that the ride outages were any worse or more frequent than other trips to WDW (although it is interesting to compare with our USF trip last fall, where we didn't encounter a single ride outage once in the 3.5 days we were there...)

My overall take is that you can still have a great WDW trip with this level of crowds, BUT you have to really plan ahead with your FP+ / dining reservations and be willing to get up early for rope-drop. Driving yourself to Epcot/DHS/DAK helps, too, since you aren't reliant on the bus service, which seems to really struggle with 9-10/10 crowd levels.

 

[kbelle8995]

I just recently got back. I went to Universal and Epcot. The lines were long but I expected that because yes spring break.

The trams to parking lot needs to be redone. They just seem to be falling apart. The bathroom at Epcot were pretty clean and so were Universals. I have to say for Universal they had their entertainment out in force. I literally saw characters, bands and entertainment everywhere. Epcot's flowers were especially lovely.