RedHeadedFairy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2012
- Messages
- 1,172
We just returned from a 4-day off site stay. We have AP's & wanted to get as many trips as we can in before they expire. We stayed Sept 5-8. 
We converted the paper tickets to RFID when we arrived & I was glad - everything has been converted to touch point entry & I didn't see a lot of the manual paper card readers available so I know that would have been a hassle.
Seriously, the crowds could not have gotten ANY lower. On Thurs at Epcot the wait for SOAT was 15 min at 90 mins after RD. With the NOJ event happening on Friday & Saturday, MK was a walk-on for everything on Friday with the exception of PP. After lunch it only took us about 2.5 hours to do HM, PP (with FP-), Philharmagic, ETWB, VoTLM, Dumbo, Teacups, Buzz, Monsters, People Mover & Space. The heavy rain & lightning that moved in slowed us down a bit & since it wasn't letting up & we'd accomplished so many of our must-do's, we called it a day. That was after riding the Main St Trolleys, the Tink/Vidia M&G, doing Splash & BTMRR twice & having a leisurely lunch. We had done walk-on at POTC & Aladdin the night before when we saw Wishes & got our Dole Whip fixes.
The mosquitos were really, really bad while we waited for the ferry after Wishes - both on the dock while waiting to load & once on board waiting to depart. They were HUGE but that was the only time we ran into a problem.
The FP+ testing had zero impact on our trip or wait times. We saw very few people with bands compared to the total amount of guests.
I can confirm that old KTTW cards that never had park tickets assigned to them will most definitely work to pull FP at this time. We used cards from RO stays that we had from Oct & Dec & both worked fine. We were doing everything standby with no wait so the FPs that we pulled are for our scrapbooks, I brought them all home.
While Rope Drop wasn't a huge deal in terms of crowd management we found it essential in terms of dealing with the heat! The mornings were pleasant & the evenings were manageable but between about 1-4 pm during the height of the heat it was ungodly.
Other than some technical difficulties at the Indiana Jones show yesterday, we had no issues with ride closures. We were astonished that BTMRR seemed to stay running all Thurs night & all day Friday - last visit we had constant closures.
Frogg Toggs are my new best friends.
I'll take these things to every ball game, theme park and every other outdoor event no matter what. They were so simple to handle & store & provided instant & huge relief.
We tried some new food places just to break the habit of only sticking to old favorites. The Yak & Yeti counter service at AK was AMAZING! I don't tend to like the fries in the parks but theirs were incredible! Pecos Bills was new for us too - DD loved the toppings bar for chili cheese fries & taco salads & it was especially nice to see sweet potato fries on the menu for something different. The counter service (Boulangerie Patisserie) in France was also yummy! DD picked out a dark chocolate & raspberry mousse parfait that was perfect with the ham & cheese croissant. I have no idea what it was - it's not on their regular menu, they had all kinds of pastries that weren't officially listed on their menu!
I have to also give a shout out to Kenny the Pirate for his character info. We used the app a lot in the parks for M&G times & DD loved reading all of his little tips & tricks while waiting in line. It often triggered her memory about small details about the character or movies & gave her lots to talk about when her turn came.
DD finally got her Tink M&G - the wait was only 15 mins at half an hour after RD. It still took about 30 min altogether, but it was a Must Do on her list. Just before she was finished up, DD asked Tink if she could spare some pixie dust & Tink made a big show of looking all around to make sure no one was watching & then leaned down really quickly to rub shoulders with DD; leaving a good smattering of her body glitter all over DD's shirt & upper arm. It made her day!
The Dumbo charging stations rocked!! Much less crowded than the ones outside the Tangled restrooms & it was so easy to grab treats from the Big Top & juice up our phones while we ate & rested in the shade for a bit.
We converted the paper tickets to RFID when we arrived & I was glad - everything has been converted to touch point entry & I didn't see a lot of the manual paper card readers available so I know that would have been a hassle.
Seriously, the crowds could not have gotten ANY lower. On Thurs at Epcot the wait for SOAT was 15 min at 90 mins after RD. With the NOJ event happening on Friday & Saturday, MK was a walk-on for everything on Friday with the exception of PP. After lunch it only took us about 2.5 hours to do HM, PP (with FP-), Philharmagic, ETWB, VoTLM, Dumbo, Teacups, Buzz, Monsters, People Mover & Space. The heavy rain & lightning that moved in slowed us down a bit & since it wasn't letting up & we'd accomplished so many of our must-do's, we called it a day. That was after riding the Main St Trolleys, the Tink/Vidia M&G, doing Splash & BTMRR twice & having a leisurely lunch. We had done walk-on at POTC & Aladdin the night before when we saw Wishes & got our Dole Whip fixes.
The mosquitos were really, really bad while we waited for the ferry after Wishes - both on the dock while waiting to load & once on board waiting to depart. They were HUGE but that was the only time we ran into a problem.
The FP+ testing had zero impact on our trip or wait times. We saw very few people with bands compared to the total amount of guests.
I can confirm that old KTTW cards that never had park tickets assigned to them will most definitely work to pull FP at this time. We used cards from RO stays that we had from Oct & Dec & both worked fine. We were doing everything standby with no wait so the FPs that we pulled are for our scrapbooks, I brought them all home.
While Rope Drop wasn't a huge deal in terms of crowd management we found it essential in terms of dealing with the heat! The mornings were pleasant & the evenings were manageable but between about 1-4 pm during the height of the heat it was ungodly.
Other than some technical difficulties at the Indiana Jones show yesterday, we had no issues with ride closures. We were astonished that BTMRR seemed to stay running all Thurs night & all day Friday - last visit we had constant closures.
Frogg Toggs are my new best friends.
I'll take these things to every ball game, theme park and every other outdoor event no matter what. They were so simple to handle & store & provided instant & huge relief. We tried some new food places just to break the habit of only sticking to old favorites. The Yak & Yeti counter service at AK was AMAZING! I don't tend to like the fries in the parks but theirs were incredible! Pecos Bills was new for us too - DD loved the toppings bar for chili cheese fries & taco salads & it was especially nice to see sweet potato fries on the menu for something different. The counter service (Boulangerie Patisserie) in France was also yummy! DD picked out a dark chocolate & raspberry mousse parfait that was perfect with the ham & cheese croissant. I have no idea what it was - it's not on their regular menu, they had all kinds of pastries that weren't officially listed on their menu!
I have to also give a shout out to Kenny the Pirate for his character info. We used the app a lot in the parks for M&G times & DD loved reading all of his little tips & tricks while waiting in line. It often triggered her memory about small details about the character or movies & gave her lots to talk about when her turn came.
DD finally got her Tink M&G - the wait was only 15 mins at half an hour after RD. It still took about 30 min altogether, but it was a Must Do on her list. Just before she was finished up, DD asked Tink if she could spare some pixie dust & Tink made a big show of looking all around to make sure no one was watching & then leaned down really quickly to rub shoulders with DD; leaving a good smattering of her body glitter all over DD's shirt & upper arm. It made her day!
The Dumbo charging stations rocked!! Much less crowded than the ones outside the Tangled restrooms & it was so easy to grab treats from the Big Top & juice up our phones while we ate & rested in the shade for a bit.
