DizneyLizzy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2010
Just got back from a quick long weekend pre-Christmas Disney trip. It was my third December trip in a row, so I thought I'd share some things I noticed this year that were different than past years.
1. Pop Century/Pop Warner - I know this is always a hot topic. This was our first Pop Warner visit, so we didn't really know what to expect. Yes, they were at our hotel. No, they did not keep us up at night. The only time we even noticed them was at the pool. There were two teams at the pool the afternoon we were there. One team was well supervised and had a dad or a coach in the pool with them playing ball. They were fine. The other team was not well supervised was totally out of control. After telling them time after time not to push each other in the pool or run on the deck, I was shocked the lifeguards didn't kick them out. I was a lifeguard for 6 years, and they would have been removed from my pool any day. I guess this brief encounter just goes to show you that your mileage will vary with Pop Warner interactions. I would not hesitate to stay at Pop Warner hotel again - like I said, aside from those two hours at the pool, they weren't even noticeable. If do find yourself at a Pop Warner hotel, my suggestion would be to get a preferred room location - I think this could be why we didn't hear or see them at night. Those kids are NOT in the preferred rooms. We booked one because it was all that was available, but now I'm glad we did.
2. Magic Bands - Our party of three had zero problems with the bands. We never used them to pay for anything, but they worked getting us into the parks and into the room. We had tickets from UT and an AP linked, and never had problems. I think we lucked out. I kept the band in my purse because I hate having things on my wrist.
3. Fast Pass Plus - - I booked ours before the tiering, so we were at least able to use FP+ for headliners at the parks. We also had tickets that weren't part of a package so we were able to pull legacy FP. It was fine the way we used it, but I can't imagine not having access to the legacy system AND having to use the tiering. We used both FP+ and Legacy FP every day.
On our Magic Kingdom morning, between 9 AM and 2 PM, we used our 3 FP+'s as well as 3 more legacy FPs, for a total of 6. We did this without any running around or stampeding. It was just the natural course of the morning. 3 FP+ will never be enough for the MK. On our Epcot day, we used FP+ for Soarin, Test Track, and Maelstrom, and used 2 Legacy FP's - one for a second ride on Soarin' and another for a second trip on Maelstrom - so 5 total. I can see how 3 FP+ can work for Epcot if they get rid of the tiering - same with DHS. We also talked a lot about how FP+ without park hopping really stinks. Again, it wasn't a problem for us on this trip, because we could use Legacy FP to park hop, but in the future, this will be a problem. We all felt really sad when we realized this was our last trip using Legacy FP. It really is one of the best things about WDW...at least for us. We love it.
4. Disney seemed understaffed. I was under the impression that one of the benefits of MM+ for Disney is that they will be able to better staff their parks and resorts. One more than one occasion, I felt like Disney was unprepared for the crowds this past weekend. I normally only travel during the super busy times of the year when they are uber-staffed, so maybe this is just how it is during "low season," but we ran into a few times when the CM seemed to be scrambling. It didn't ruin anything for us, it was just something we noticed. The morning we were in DHS for example, there was only one cashier working at Starring Rolls in the 9-10 hour, which created a huge backup. I've never noticed this when traveling during spring break, June, or closer to Christmas. I actually found that we waited for food/drinks much more on this trip than we did last year when our Christmas trip was Dec. 20th-23rd.
Overall, we had an awesome time, as we always do in Disney, but for the first time I can remember, we don't know when we'll be back. I'm not renewing my AP for the first time in 3 years. MM+ is a huge part of this - we're all curious to see how it turns out. Since we only travel at super busy times of year (with the exception of this past weekend), crowd management is a big part of our experience. We've never had a problem touring during crowded seasons in the past, but if this changes with the advent of FP+ we will probably take less frequent Disney trips.
Hopefully some of this insight is interesting and/or helpful!
Happy holiday traveling
1. Pop Century/Pop Warner - I know this is always a hot topic. This was our first Pop Warner visit, so we didn't really know what to expect. Yes, they were at our hotel. No, they did not keep us up at night. The only time we even noticed them was at the pool. There were two teams at the pool the afternoon we were there. One team was well supervised and had a dad or a coach in the pool with them playing ball. They were fine. The other team was not well supervised was totally out of control. After telling them time after time not to push each other in the pool or run on the deck, I was shocked the lifeguards didn't kick them out. I was a lifeguard for 6 years, and they would have been removed from my pool any day. I guess this brief encounter just goes to show you that your mileage will vary with Pop Warner interactions. I would not hesitate to stay at Pop Warner hotel again - like I said, aside from those two hours at the pool, they weren't even noticeable. If do find yourself at a Pop Warner hotel, my suggestion would be to get a preferred room location - I think this could be why we didn't hear or see them at night. Those kids are NOT in the preferred rooms. We booked one because it was all that was available, but now I'm glad we did.
2. Magic Bands - Our party of three had zero problems with the bands. We never used them to pay for anything, but they worked getting us into the parks and into the room. We had tickets from UT and an AP linked, and never had problems. I think we lucked out. I kept the band in my purse because I hate having things on my wrist.
3. Fast Pass Plus - - I booked ours before the tiering, so we were at least able to use FP+ for headliners at the parks. We also had tickets that weren't part of a package so we were able to pull legacy FP. It was fine the way we used it, but I can't imagine not having access to the legacy system AND having to use the tiering. We used both FP+ and Legacy FP every day.
On our Magic Kingdom morning, between 9 AM and 2 PM, we used our 3 FP+'s as well as 3 more legacy FPs, for a total of 6. We did this without any running around or stampeding. It was just the natural course of the morning. 3 FP+ will never be enough for the MK. On our Epcot day, we used FP+ for Soarin, Test Track, and Maelstrom, and used 2 Legacy FP's - one for a second ride on Soarin' and another for a second trip on Maelstrom - so 5 total. I can see how 3 FP+ can work for Epcot if they get rid of the tiering - same with DHS. We also talked a lot about how FP+ without park hopping really stinks. Again, it wasn't a problem for us on this trip, because we could use Legacy FP to park hop, but in the future, this will be a problem. We all felt really sad when we realized this was our last trip using Legacy FP. It really is one of the best things about WDW...at least for us. We love it.
4. Disney seemed understaffed. I was under the impression that one of the benefits of MM+ for Disney is that they will be able to better staff their parks and resorts. One more than one occasion, I felt like Disney was unprepared for the crowds this past weekend. I normally only travel during the super busy times of the year when they are uber-staffed, so maybe this is just how it is during "low season," but we ran into a few times when the CM seemed to be scrambling. It didn't ruin anything for us, it was just something we noticed. The morning we were in DHS for example, there was only one cashier working at Starring Rolls in the 9-10 hour, which created a huge backup. I've never noticed this when traveling during spring break, June, or closer to Christmas. I actually found that we waited for food/drinks much more on this trip than we did last year when our Christmas trip was Dec. 20th-23rd.
Overall, we had an awesome time, as we always do in Disney, but for the first time I can remember, we don't know when we'll be back. I'm not renewing my AP for the first time in 3 years. MM+ is a huge part of this - we're all curious to see how it turns out. Since we only travel at super busy times of year (with the exception of this past weekend), crowd management is a big part of our experience. We've never had a problem touring during crowded seasons in the past, but if this changes with the advent of FP+ we will probably take less frequent Disney trips.
Hopefully some of this insight is interesting and/or helpful!
Happy holiday traveling
