Post trip thoughts (June 5th - 14th)

[quagmire0]

Not a trip review, as I don't have the energy to make one of those. Just some thoughts/tips from our stay:

1. I forgot how oppressively hot Orlando could get. We encountered mostly cooler temperatures and lots of rain for the first half of our trip, but the last few days were mostly sunny and absolutely excruciating. I would be standing in the shade and still sweating buckets (and I'm not normally a big sweater). I felt bad for the security guards who had to wear long sleeves. One of the ones checking our bags at least had a pretty good attitude about it and had plenty of self deprecating humor to entertain us while we waited.

2. Speaking of security, it's definitely increased. I got 'randomly' selected many times - which I don't normally mind, but one time kind of pissed me off. To set the scene, DW and I usually split up - she'll take the bags through security and I'll take our kids (now 4 kids) through the no bag line and wait for her. So, I've got 4 kids with me, ranging 10 months to 9 years and a big double stroller that I'm pushing, and they select me to be 'randomly screened'. But all the security guard did was mumble to me that I was chosen and pointed towards the metal detector tent. They didn't direct me in any way as to where I could park the stroller or offer to watch the stroller as I walked through or any of that. It was just very poorly executed, IMO. So, it ended up that I just bypassed the check. My oldest went through, but I had no way to go through myself. I'd be abandoning three kids, including a 10mo to do so. I just ended up walking away and no one questioned me about it. It was a one time thing, but it goes to show how security can go wrong. If you're going to go to lengths that the TSA and Disney have done, spend a little time in training your security in customer service. You can be considerate, well thought-out, and still be thorough and quick.

3. I was really hoping to get to see a soft-open of Frozen, but as of Monday they still had all the walls up around the ride and the other buildings they are working on. Not sure if that's changed. Did get to ride Soarin', which was nice. Picture seemed a lot better, but either my nose wasn't working or theatre B's smells aren't working right.

4. Park and bathrooms were pretty clean. I tried to do my part when I saw stray garbage lying around. DW and I were marveling at what it must take to keep the bathrooms in good shape with the number of guests they have.

5. For a new ride, 7DMT sure seems to have a lot of issues. Saw it down several times during our stay, including the morning that we actually had a Fastpass for it. They did end up giving us a 'use anytime' fastpass, which was nice. Also got one when Big Thunder went down. As for 7DMT, it was a little better than I expected, but still the wait is obscene for such a short ride. We only got to ride once. For anyone going to the parks soon, be sure to grab a fastpass or do the Be Our Guest early ADR. Once the park opens, EVERYONE seems to rush to mine train. It's actually nice because all the other rides have almost no wait early on.

6. Keep an eye on those park hours before you go. 8am starts at MK are a godsend, IMO. Not only did the sudden 8am start save us money by bypassing an early BOG ADR, but it also seemed like many people weren't aware of the early start. We showed up at Rope Drop and park attendance for the first hour was super low. Lots of being able to jump into the standby lines with very little wait.

7. There seems to be a stark difference between early June crowds and middle of June crowds. The parks got progressively busier each day, and our last day there yesterday MK was packed. Part of it was probably the rainy weather earlier in the week, but even when things cleared up I could see the crowds building and building each day. It was good that it was our departure day and we were just sort of leisurely taking our time.

8. Those cheap ponchos I bought on Amazon per recommendations here were pretty much useless. They were thinner than garbage bags and tore easily. We ended up having to buy ponchos at the parks, which worked much better (but also had a tendency to break at the snaps).

9. Tiffins, Skipper Canteen, Le Chefs, and Spice Road Table were very good, IMO. Each had a more eclectic menu that I really appreciated. We also really enjoyed Liberty Tree, the 'home cookin'' really hit the spot on a rainy day. Biergarten was 'ok'. The kids enjoyed the dancing but kind of picked at their food. I thought the food was ok, but the price doesn't justify it.

10. We did the walk between Epcot and Hollywood Studios. It's not super long, but it was HOT. We enjoyed a meal at ESPN and a couple frozen margaritas at the Boardwalk though. Definitely took the boat on the way back though.

11. First time watching Fantasmic, SiiS, and Wishes. Also caught Illuminations for the second time. Our poor 10mo was a trooper and made it through. All were awesome and worth it, especially Fantasmic. Ended up skipping Jungle Book because of the mixed reviews.

12. The new FP+ and ability to add/modify fastpasses on your phone worked well. It may lead to more people staring at their phone while walking, which is a negative. Can't tell you how many times I saw that.

13. On a related note, I have a public address announcement: If you don't know where you are going or have to tie your shoe or have to wait for someone or have to stop for whatever reason - step to the side! There were so many situations every day where people would just stop in a already congested walkway and block everyone from passing to just stand there and scratch their head or yell at their family members about something. And there are situations where people would come to a sudden stop on a ramp, almost causing a human pileup. Just step to the side, people.

14. On another related note, it won't kill you if you stop and let someone pass, especially if you're about to cross directly in front of them. This also goes for loading and unloading on boats or trains. I had a total of one person stop and hold traffic for me so I could get my two asleep and one drowsy child in a stroller out of the crowd and off the boat. Everyone else seem to fight to jump in front of me as if there was a fire behind us. This was at the end of the night, and considering that Disney parking lots rarely back up the way parking lots at large stadiums do, there's no real rush. /rant

15. Man I'm tired. We took a day off to go to Clearwater and did a couple 'half days', but I'm still beat from this vacation. Something about it being hard to not hit the parks every day though. Still, kids had a blast. Now we have to take a peek at that Disney credit card statement......

 

[punkin]

6. Keep an eye on those park hours before you go. 8am starts at MK are a godsend, IMO. Not only did the sudden 8am start save us money by bypassing an early BOG ADR, but it also seemed like many people weren't aware of the early start. We showed up at Rope Drop and park attendance for the first hour was super low. Lots of being able to jump into the standby lines with very little wait.

How sudden was the earlier park opening announcement? Are we talking weeks, days, or hours in advance?

 

[quagmire0]

I want to say it was a few days or a week ahead of time for us. I had enough time to re-shuffle my Fastpasses and cancel my ADR. It's just that Disney doesn't really come out and tell you about it, so you have be pay attention to it.

 

[ErinF]

We were there at almost the exact same time, June 4th-13th, so thought I'd chime in.

#1-Yep, we felt the exact same way, the last few days were VERY hot and humid, even very early in the day. The evenings though for the most part, were very pleasant once the sun was going or had gone down.

#2-So sorry about that last interaction with security. I was randomly selected about 4 or 5 times myself and remember mostly pleasant interaction, but I'm sure it varied.

#3-I was very happy to get to ride Soarin' one last time with the old movie. We were in B as well, and I thought the smells were great, even a little enhanced!

#4-I was paying attention to this as well, and I thought all the bathrooms were very clean, as well as the park in general, never even saw an overflowing trash can.

#6-Yes, I totally agree, the MK 8am start time was awesome! We accomplished so much that day, it was really great!

#7-Yes again, felt the crowds just slowly built as the trip went on. Our first full day, June 5th was spent in MK, and our last 2 days were MK as well and it was a pretty noticeable difference in those crowds in particular.

#12-Definitely loved adding FP+ using the app on my phone. And the times and attraction availability was so fluid! If you are patient enough, you can get almost anything (SDMT is the only one that comes to mind that I never saw availability for, and we are a family of 5 for reference). I'd get on my phone and keep refreshing, or just pick something, and keep oscillating the nearby times I was looking for, and I'd eventually get what I wanted every single time. Example: We finished up our 3rd FP in HS around lunch time, wanted to get Splash for the late afternoon after our rest. So I grab the first thing I see, which was Splash for 9pm. Then I go in to modify, choosing first 5pm, then 5:30, then 5, back and forth and back and forth, until something in that exact range would pop up.

#13 and #14-Sadly, this just comes with the territory. There will always be people who are completely oblivious that they are blocking the walkway, or are just inconsiderate when it comes to noticing others around them.

Hope your trip was magical, I know ours sure was!!

 

[Accident]

#7: Local schools ended on June 8th or 9th so they became free on the weekdays after finals and all that mess.

 

[djc9699]

We were there the 4th - 13th as well and I agree with everything you said. We go every June (except last 2 years). Crowds were horrible at MK Monday, the 13th which was our last day. We just roamed around, did our FP+, caught a few shows, then went to Hoop Dee Do and to AK for one last ride on Everest (my 12 year old's new favorite).

Security - We visited the parks 10 days and hit 2 parks on many. I was 'randomly' selected all but two times. I went through bag check every time, but twice. I just get my pockets empty the whole time to make it faster.

We watched Star Wars Fireworks for the first time and absolutely loved it! Wanted to see Illumination, but the two days we went to Epcot, we simply could not make it the whole day. My fault. We rope dropped one day to ride Test Track twice (once with FP+). The other we had 8:05 GG breakfast and hit Soarin' right at 8:55. This worked great and the breakfast there was awesome. We loved it. Saw all characters twice. They just roamed around.

A disappointment for us was BOG breakfast. We were not trying to hit any rides and actually went to HS that day after breakfast. We wanted to eat in the castle. We ate in the room with the rose which was wonderful (the room). The food was horrible. My daughter liked the French toast, but my son and I couldn't even eat our eggs, they were so bad. I didn't know you could mess up scrambled eggs. We ate our fruit and some of the pastries.

The highlight of our trip was Launch Bay. The storm trooper and Jawa interactions were great. My 16 year old son and I spent about 3 hours over two trips in there. I have never seen a Star Wars movie, but totally enjoyed these characters. The Jawas are very interactive and funny. We waited ten minutes for Kylo and 20 for Chewbacca. Chewbacca was a great meet.

We ate at Liberty Tree for the first time as well and absolutely loved the food there. We also enjoyed Crystal Palace - first time there as well. We did not enjoy Tusker House at all. Ate dinner there. Donald by-passed us twice and the food was not good to us.

Ponchos - we too replaced our cheap ponchos with Disney ones. We use them, I think 4 or 5 times and they held up well in the downpours. Wish my shoes would have done better.

Overall, it was a great trip. We did not encounter any rude or unhelpful CMs. No problems with line jumpers or busses. We drove from Texas and then didn't drive again until we left.

 

[Mom2Stitch]

The highlight of our trip was Launch Bay. The storm trooper and Jawa interactions were great. My 16 year old son and I spent about 3 hours over two trips in there. I have never seen a Star Wars movie, but totally enjoyed these characters. The Jawas are very interactive and funny. We waited ten minutes for Kylo and 20 for Chewbacca. Chewbacca was a great meet.

.....my inner nerd is crying for you See the movies, they are so awesome!

Thanks to all posters for the reports and feedback. So glad everyone had a great time.

 

[Momof2Singers]

We were there the 4th - 13th as well and I agree with everything you said. We go every June (except last 2 years). Crowds were horrible at MK Monday, the 13th which was our last day. We just roamed around, did our FP+, caught a few shows, then went to Hoop Dee Do and to AK for one last ride on Everest (my 12 year old's new favorite).

Security - We visited the parks 10 days and hit 2 parks on many. I was 'randomly' selected all but two times. I went through bag check every time, but twice. I just get my pockets empty the whole time to make it faster.

We watched Star Wars Fireworks for the first time and absolutely loved it! Wanted to see Illumination, but the two days we went to Epcot, we simply could not make it the whole day. My fault. We rope dropped one day to ride Test Track twice (once with FP+). The other we had 8:05 GG breakfast and hit Soarin' right at 8:55. This worked great and the breakfast there was awesome. We loved it. Saw all characters twice. They just roamed around.

A disappointment for us was BOG breakfast. We were not trying to hit any rides and actually went to HS that day after breakfast. We wanted to eat in the castle. We ate in the room with the rose which was wonderful (the room). The food was horrible. My daughter liked the French toast, but my son and I couldn't even eat our eggs, they were so bad. I didn't know you could mess up scrambled eggs. We ate our fruit and some of the pastries.

The highlight of our trip was Launch Bay. The storm trooper and Jawa interactions were great. My 16 year old son and I spent about 3 hours over two trips in there. I have never seen a Star Wars movie, but totally enjoyed these characters. The Jawas are very interactive and funny. We waited ten minutes for Kylo and 20 for Chewbacca. Chewbacca was a great meet.

We ate at Liberty Tree for the first time as well and absolutely loved the food there. We also enjoyed Crystal Palace - first time there as well. We did not enjoy Tusker House at all. Ate dinner there. Donald by-passed us twice and the food was not good to us.

Ponchos - we too replaced our cheap ponchos with Disney ones. We use them, I think 4 or 5 times and they held up well in the downpours. Wish my shoes would have done better.

Overall, it was a great trip. We did not encounter any rude or unhelpful CMs. No problems with line jumpers or busses. We drove from Texas and then didn't drive again until we left.

Really enjoyed reading your report, we are scheduled for GG breakfast at 8:05 as well, our first time, we have only had lunch. What time did you arrive at Epcot and how was your experience getting thru security, length of line to eat, etc. Thank you!

 

[punkin]

I want to say it was a few days or a week ahead of time for us. I had enough time to re-shuffle my Fastpasses and cancel my ADR. It's just that Disney doesn't really come out and tell you about it, so you have be pay attention to it.

Thank you. My trip is in 3 weeks and I have ADRs I would need to cancel if parks opened early. I've been checking every day for a week already...still 9 a.m. open.

 

[capegirl]

Thank you. My trip is in 3 weeks and I have ADRs I would need to cancel if parks opened early. I've been checking every day for a week already...still 9 a.m. open.

This is just awful!! I've been checking every day too. I just know I'll be making a bunch of last minute changes.

 

[quagmire0]

Like I mentioned, the 8am change is a hassle when it comes to ADR's and fastpasses, but the beauty is that not everyone (especially the casual visitor) is paying attention and you end up with a half empty park for an hour or two.

 

[jawa7400]

#13!!!! YES!!!!! DH says this like 1000 times per visit!

 

[loves to dive]

Thank you all for your reports. I'll have to pay attention to the hours on my upcoming trip, since I rarely make ADRs in advance I won't have to change anything and I'm an early riser so bonus.

 

[mike0035]

#8) I have read on here that if you have a Disney poncho and it breaks any gift shop will replace it. Did you do this? Just wondering if they still do that

 

[Blue32]

Like I mentioned, the 8am change is a hassle when it comes to ADR's and fastpasses, but the beauty is that not everyone (especially the casual visitor) is paying attention and you end up with a half empty park for an hour or two.

Probably a combination of this and the fact that many people can't or are not willing to get up that early to make it to the parks by 8 am.

 

[Shellyb84]

I want to say it was a few days or a week ahead of time for us. I had enough time to re-shuffle my Fastpasses and cancel my ADR. It's just that Disney doesn't really come out and tell you about it, so you have be pay attention to it.

Thanks for this, I'll be keeping an eye out! I've only ever looked to see if they are closing later.

 

[djc9699]

Really enjoyed reading your report, we are scheduled for GG breakfast at 8:05 as well, our first time, we have only had lunch. What time did you arrive at Epcot and how was your experience getting thru security, length of line to eat, etc. Thank you!

We arrived at Epcot around 7:30, got right through security and then waited in line until 7:50 when they opened the gates to let us in. There were cast members guiding a short direct route to the Land. Our table was ready immediately and since all you order is a drink, the food came quickly. I asked to go ahead and pay the check so we could leave when ready. We were done by 8:45 and walked to the bathroom and then downstairs just ahead of the massive crowd coming in for Soarin'. We walked right onto the ride. It was great.

 

[capegirl]

Like I mentioned, the 8am change is a hassle when it comes to ADR's and fastpasses, but the beauty is that not everyone (especially the casual visitor) is paying attention and you end up with a half empty park for an hour or two.

I really hope this happens for the July folks too, but at this point I'm pretty much expecting the unexpected. I know one thing, Disney 2016 has been a challenge. Peace to all here.

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Does the 8am time show up on MDE??? Is that how you found out???

 

[Batgirl67]

I really hope this happens for the July folks too, but at this point I'm pretty much expecting the unexpected. I know one thing, Disney 2016 has been a challenge. Peace to all here.

So agree with you. We are going in July as well and helping another family plan their first time in July and it has been more challenging than previous years with FP+ options and ride openings and park times not being extended in advance like they used to be.