Our Thanksgiving / Dec experience, strategies, takeaways...

[MrInfinity]

Well, we're back! As always, so sad to leave Disney World behind for what may be a year or two till our next visit! Been home for a week now, so have a minute finally to reflect on some of the rumors that circulate out here and our own experiences.

We had about 2 weeks between LEGOLAND and Disney World... truly wonderful time. Going to skip the LEGOLAND portion since it's not really relevant to Disney World attractions or strategies. So where to start? I guess with the bad, since that's what gets the most reads...

Downtown Disney / Disney Springs was a disaster. Did not enjoy it all that much since it was under such mega-construction. Took the bus there one day, and it took a roundabout way to get there to avoid the main road, which took forever. And it was only stopping at the Marketplace end of DS, not the DQ end, so we had to boat across. And then on our last day we drove there cuz we could not find Tsum Tsum's anywhere but at the Once Upon a Toy store, and that was awful. We never had a problem parking in the open lots by T-Rex or the LEGO Store, but those were all closed for massive new additions to DS. The open garage was clear down by Planet Hollywood, and it was pretty removed from DS. Just not good. It's becoming so big, with not a whole lot of exciting things going in. More food and stores when there are already tons there! Lots of concept art around, it looks like almost doubling the size of DS.

Jock Lindsey's was cool tho... we loved the flatbread with shrimp appetizers...

Magic Bands... we had to tweak our room reservations, and that took a couple hours over the first couple days and visiting the front desk several times. But it didn't really impact us too much and they comped us some Fast Passes which was nice.

Other than that, things were pretty awesome. Lots of new stuff.

Polynesian... The new Poly pool is AMAZING. Best kid play pool on property. Multiple slides, bridges, just really cool stuff. And Trader Sams was lots of fun. Tiny place, and busy on Fri / Sat, but easy to get in mid-week.

Lines... Lines were awesome. I don't think we waited over 25 min save for one time. Keep in mind our trip covered heavy (holiday weekend) to moderate (early December) crowd levels. We just were not forced to wait in the lines, yet we rode so much. It was like we were going from ride to ride so fast it felt like we weren't having to wait for anything. A lot of this came from good planning... we had our A&E and SDMT passes all lined up ahead of time, which was great. One morning we rode BTMRR 4 times in a row, without having to get off the ride.

FastPass... There were no cases of backups at the FP touchpoints. None. It all worked as expected. FastPass waits were not the "new standby" -- they were 5-10 min. SDMT was great, it was about a 5-min wait, even midday. Other FastPasses were (and always were this way) longer, like things where you have something to do like RnR where you have to wait out the limo room and then wait in the secondary line. Safari FastPass was one of the longer ones, at around 20 min, but 10 of that was because one truck got stuck, so there's really no helping that.

Speaking of SDMT, loved this! Great ride! Defnitely our DS4's favorite ride of all. The animatronics were really cool, and the ride smooth. I think we rode this 5 times since any extra FP we'd get due to a weather cancellation or a ride problem, we'd use on the SDMT. One time we were on a JC boat that lost power mid cruise! Fun times, with a free FP to SDMT.

We tried the Sorcerers... and got addicted. By our 3rd day at the MK, this is all we were wanting to do, having ridden everything so many times.

Hollywood Studios... I was expecting the worst here, being the opening days of the Star Wars Launch Bay and JTA, but we easily got our Sci-Fi breakfast in, then split up and signed up for JTA while I went w our son on RnR twice in a row. After that we met up and did what was our only long wait of the trip, TSMM. We wanted to ride it twice, so we waited it out standby once, and this was an hour wait. Star Tours had short waits all day. We rode ToT twice, RnR again as a group later in the day (after twice at opening)... so between breakfast, JTA, RnR 3 times, TSMM twice, Star Tours countless times, ToT twice, watching the Frozen Singalong (awesome show!) catching the Osborne Lights, and meeting Darth Vader and Chewie with 15-min waits... it was a really great day.

EPCOT... This was more or less what we expected, and we got on about what we planned to get on. Soarin and Test Track at rope drop, TT again via FP and single riders worked like it always did. Imagination had short lines, Nemo, Turtle Talk, all the typical short waits were short. Like 5-10 min or walk-ons.

The new Phineas & Ferb F.O.N.E devices did not work! They upgraded from the old flip phones they had in 2014 to new slab style phones with larger displays (we were excited!) but the programming was really glitchy and they would keep going into a repeat loop that you couldn't break out of. This was in multiple countries with varying phones over 2 days. They just were not working right. This was the most frustrating part of the days cuz we really wanted the Perry pressed penny from France.

Going to pause and continue momentarily so I don't lose this...

 

[MrInfinity]

Continuing...
Animal Kingdom... Was not busy at all. EE had waits of 25 min throughout the day. Dinosaur and Primeval were short... the new Lion King theater was cool, and the Harambe Village was a nice addition.

Our party... we were going with some Disney newbies. Who are now converts, who loved the FastPass system. Really we did not wait for much of anything. They came expecting hour waits for everything, with their basis being Six Flags type parks where hour waits are typical... and they said so many times once you go Fast Pass you never go back!

They really seem to have the timing and the number of Fast Passes they're distributing now down to a science, because they could keep that FastPass line moving so quickly. I also don't think that they are doing 70% of a ride's capacity with FastPass riders. By my counts on the busy rides it was about 50%. Like they'd let a group of 10 go from this line, then 10 from that line... switching off. On lower demand rides like the Barnstormer, there was almost nobody going by FastPass. I think most ppl use their FPs on more useful things, leaving these smaller rides all standby. I'd say this ride was about 4-to-1 in SB to FP ridership.

Crowds... were really not that bad. For so many people out here claiming it's just disastrously busy and not as good as it used to be, we certainly got on way more than ever. Lines were really not a thing for us. Our time was either riding a ride, or doing something else like Sorcerers. Shows did not need a FP, you easily got in via the regular line.

New JTA was really cool. Won't spoil it, but it was awesome.

Launch Bay was neat, but we got to it later in the day and didn't spend too much time looking around since we wanted to meet DV and Chewbacca and get home

Bus travel seemed really improved. Busses ran like clockwork. From the Poly you only need to take a bus to the AK, HS, or DS, but to those, the busses always came w/in 20 min. They had a CM posted there tracking them to ensure this.

Monorail was great when it was operating, but several mornings it was just not operating till 8:30. So we'd have to go down and take the boat. Not a huge deal, but the monorail is usually faster. Some of the mornings they bumped the Poly boats up to the larger size boats instead of the typical smaller shuttle boats to accommodate the non-running monorail traffic.

CMs were typical awesome CMs.

I'll think of more to add as it comes to me... but it was just such a great trip. FastPass has come so far since its conception. And I was really worried about the rumors about how lines are unbearable now, but it turned out to be really great. So much so that we're considering going during the summer months next time so as to not have to skip school.

 

[MrInfinity]

If I could have planned anything different...

I think I'd have planned a couple sleep-in days. I was planning for the worst from reading out here how lines are so bad, so I built rope-drop time into every day. Sometimes with midday breaks on the late nights, but I'd just have scrapped those midday breaks and gone in later instead. The rides were so easy to get on, that the parks we were going to hit up multiple days next time I'm just going to sleep in on those days, hit the pool, and go around noon or so. I think that'd give everyone in the group some extra R&R.

Weather... was I think, unseasonally warm. Nice overall, with a couple cooler drizzley evenings. Sweatshirts came in handy... fortunately we did not get stuck in any downpours on these nights, just light rain. I don't think I could have asked for a better weather turnout given the time of year.

We stayed at the Dolphin too. That was a cool hotel, but the pool was not heated (or barely heated if it was) so it was not comfortable to swim in it, unlike the LEGOLAND hotel and the Poly where the pools were nice.

Other points of interest... Didn't know that the Florida Small World doesn't change the song for Christmas. I was all expecting that from having been at Disneyland but it was the regular tune.

Posted wait times... I did notice many times posted wait times were incorrectly high. Darth Vader was posting over an hour. Figment consistently said 25 min but it was not. One time we watched the Test Track sign change from 120 to 75 right in front of us. How can it change that much that fast. So I think these are not particularly up to the minute, and they're just posting high w the acceptance that if you wait less that's better than posting low and having the waits be longer. Waits were almost always less than what was posted.

This phenomenon of overstating wait times should be considered if you look at any sites that track posted wait times. They were consistently overstated by a large margin during these two weeks.

 

[wdw4rfam]

We were there 19-28 and had similar experiences. Disney springs, definitely a disaster. We stayed an hour and left, and in the past we spent hours almost a full day there. Waited longer for a bus to get back than I think we actually stayed.
In the parks- We also thought crowds were way better than we expected, we accomplished everything we wanted in all 4 parks and never waited more than 20 minutes for anything with good strategy.
Bus service too was great for us, even at CBR. We heard nightmares the week before, and had a bad first day, but starting the 21st, buses were spot on. We never waited more than 5 minutes, and coming back, there was almost always a bus waiting, or 5 minute wait.
We had flawless experience with our MBs. No blue mickeys all trip!!! Except for the fact that we found that changing a FP time was near impossible. One day saw a line roped off for the kiosks that seriously looked like a ride line. Tried to change one at HS and there was only 2 things to choose from. But it's alright, I had good ones to begin with.
The only place we found a little nerve wrecking was Osborne lights. Way too crowded to enjoy like we used to, but happy to be there for the last year. Felt like we were being herded like cattle getting in there, and it was just shoulder to shoulder all 3 days we went.
CMs were all great too. Weather was so good that we have sworn off summer trips from now on, it really makes a difference. Walking around comfortable really made the trip so much nicer- we will never go back in summertime (we usually go September). It was so nice just sitting down outside not worrying about air conditioning or having to re-shower before dinner. It was the best trip in years for us. We had booked universal for next year, and now everyone wants to cancel and go back to CBR and Disney.

 

[wdw4rfam]

If I could have planned anything different...

I think I'd have planned a couple sleep-in days. I was planning for the worst from reading out here how lines are so bad, so I built rope-drop time into every day. Sometimes with midday breaks on the late nights, but I'd just have scrapped those midday breaks and gone in later instead. The rides were so easy to get on, that the parks we were going to hit up multiple days next time I'm just going to sleep in on those days, hit the pool, and go around noon or so. I think that'd give everyone in the group some extra R&R.

Weather... was I think, unseasonally warm. Nice overall, with a couple cooler drizzley evenings. Sweatshirts came in handy... fortunately we did not get stuck in any downpours on these nights, just light rain. I don't think I could have asked for a better weather turnout given the time of year.

We stayed at the Dolphin too. That was a cool hotel, but the pool was not heated (or barely heated if it was) so it was not comfortable to swim in it, unlike the LEGOLAND hotel and the Poly where the pools were nice.

Other points of interest... Didn't know that the Florida Small World doesn't change the song for Christmas. I was all expecting that from having been at Disneyland but it was the regular tune.

We hit rope drop one day at each park, then slept in and swam the other days. It worked out perfect.

 

[MrInfinity]

We hit rope drop one day at each park, then slept in and swam the other days. It worked out perfect.

Definitely a good idea. Rope drop is great, but if you have a week there, you'll get on all the rides so it's not as important!

I also agree w your other point that changing FastPasses was not happening. At least not the coveted ones at Epcot and HS. Gotta pick these in advance and plan to stick to them. On a similar note changing Dining was not an option either. For being seemingly not all that busy, every dining facility was booked at almost every desirable time. Again just gotta be on top of booking these early.

Oh, another first for us, we rented a stroller. This worked out great... shows up at your hotel and you just drop it off at the bell desk when you're done. Would definitely do this again!

 

[dkrauss]

Your right on the money "MrInfinity!

Crowds... were really not that bad. For so many people out here claiming it's just disastrously busy and not as good as it used to be, we certainly got on way more than ever. Lines were really not a thing for us. Our time was either riding a ride, or doing something else like Sorcerers. Shows did not need a FP, you easily got in via the regular line.
Completely agree....we were at WDW from 12/4 to 12/7...the crowds were not that bad. We did the MVMCP on Dec 6th..........and as long as you stayed away from Main St and the castle until the end of the night.........completely manageable.

Launch Bay was neat, but we got to it later in the day and didn't spend too much time looking around since we wanted to meet DV and Chewbacca and get home
To us Launch Bay was a spectacular museum..........and maybe that was its intention. The store portion was a bit disappointing to us. Really only high-end collectibles and phone cases. NO PINS!

Bus travel seemed really improved. Busses ran like clockwork. From the Poly you only need to take a bus to the AK, HS, or DS, but to those, the busses always came w/in 20 min. They had a CM posted there tracking them to ensure this.
At the end of each day, the buses were crowded but that is to be expected. Otherwise agree completely!

CMs were typical awesome CMs.
Agree completely..........we were celebrating our honeymoon and when the CM's saw the pin they always said "Congratulations"! Also got us celebratory desserts at several dining locations too

 

[ols386]

We were there over the Thanksgiving holiday too, and also found the crowd level to be quite manageable, which surprised me. Thought it would be insanely crowded.

Glad you had a nice visit.

 

[MinnieMSue]

We had a lot of glitches with Phineous and Ferb phones too. We were always able to complete missions but it was annoying. We found if we moved away from buildings it worked better although it could have been coincidence

 

[wdw4rfam]

We were there over the Thanksgiving holiday too, and also found the crowd level to be quite manageable, which surprised me. Thought it would be insanely crowded.

Glad you had a nice visit.

Crowds seem to shift so much now. We went last September expecting low crowds and we found unexpectedly higher crowds. This year we expected insane and it was not nearly as bad as expected. TP had our AK day at a 10 and it wasn't bad at all- I never did go back and see if it ended up actually being that. I never saw any day that was horrible. I don't think we will ever go again on a holiday, but not because of crowds but the drive back. We left Saturday the 28th and holy smokes we were stop and go on and off all the way up I-95 through GA and SC and again on I-77 in VA and WV. We just couldn't get away from traffic. Ended up tacking 3 hours on to our already 16 hours. No thanks.