Hopefully Genie+ with all of its issues will be implemented soon and this will be a non-issue, but for people who are waffling about making the trip without FP, here are some things we experienced that made this trip significantly different from previous trips (for reference we have a 10 year old girl, and then 8, 5, 3 year old boys):
1. By far the most obnoxious is RSR. To ride this without a 60 minute wait, you have to be there at least 30 mins before rope drop - preferably sooner - and you have to run to the ride. Period. The number of people sprinting to radiator springs at 9am/whatever is gross and I can't believe Disney sits there and watches it happen. That said, I'm not going to hang back with my boys so we can be behind 500 people - why do I go to the gym every day if it's not to jog to Cars land with a 50 lb preschooler on my hip, haha - but it's so ridiculous and probably the key factor in dissatisfaction as it relates to this trip vs other trips.
2. Haunted Mansion - also not good. It's never great this time of year, but with FP there was never a wait and it was one my kids like to re-ride. The first time we tried to ride it was also an hour, wrapped around over to the French market. We were able to get to that one the next day because it was a Disneyland start day (more on that later) but when there's a decent number of 45-60 min wait rides, you can't ride them all first thing!
3. This probably isn't changing any time soon, but not being able to park hop until 1pm and having to choose which park a month in advance really puts a damper on things. Out of 3 days, we only had one DL start day (because RSR is so important to my boys and clearly there was no chance of riding with a 3 and 5 year old unless we were starting at DCA) so that was the only day we could ride Haunted Mansion without wasting an hour in line.
4. Other rides had weirdly tolerable waits for a good chunk of the day - Soarin, GOTG, even toy story. Those were still best before 12 though. Some had awful waits for no particular reason (Monsters - 35 minute wait.)
5. Even with virtual queue (which may not be a thing anymore?), web slingers was still 30-45 wait each time. ROTR was about 40 mins each time.
6. Because we spent so much time in line for big ticket rides, we really didn't have time for the smaller rides. I can't think of any Fantasyland rides we went on. Typically in 3 days we have ridden every single ride at least once with many re-rides. This trip was a struggle just to hit all the big rides.
This was all the first week of November, a week we have gone every year for 5 years. Crowds were probably about the same as they always are - relatively a pretty slow week. I can't imagine what lines would have been like with worse crowds.
Is waiting in line soul crushing? Not always but when it's a steady stream of 30+ min waits on every single rides, that adds up. Did we feel SIGNIFICANTLY less productive than normal trips? Yes. Did we feel like we got our money's worth this time? No. Would we ever go back without fastpass? Absolutely not. We have 4 kids, make 1-2 trips a year for 3-4 days each with park hoppers. We are planning on going to Atlantis in the Bahamas instead of DLR in the spring, and that might be the beginning of our slow transition out of Disney trips. Paying $1800 over 3 days to feel like you didn't even get to ride everything you wanted to - and we were there from rope drop until close - is just kind of gross. I would tell parents of young children to strongly consider delaying a trip until some sort of fastpass is in place, because it just isn't the same and definitely feels more like a chore. It was fun to go and our kids had fun but it wasn't the same and they aren't asking to go back, if that tells you anything
1. By far the most obnoxious is RSR. To ride this without a 60 minute wait, you have to be there at least 30 mins before rope drop - preferably sooner - and you have to run to the ride. Period. The number of people sprinting to radiator springs at 9am/whatever is gross and I can't believe Disney sits there and watches it happen. That said, I'm not going to hang back with my boys so we can be behind 500 people - why do I go to the gym every day if it's not to jog to Cars land with a 50 lb preschooler on my hip, haha - but it's so ridiculous and probably the key factor in dissatisfaction as it relates to this trip vs other trips.
2. Haunted Mansion - also not good. It's never great this time of year, but with FP there was never a wait and it was one my kids like to re-ride. The first time we tried to ride it was also an hour, wrapped around over to the French market. We were able to get to that one the next day because it was a Disneyland start day (more on that later) but when there's a decent number of 45-60 min wait rides, you can't ride them all first thing!
3. This probably isn't changing any time soon, but not being able to park hop until 1pm and having to choose which park a month in advance really puts a damper on things. Out of 3 days, we only had one DL start day (because RSR is so important to my boys and clearly there was no chance of riding with a 3 and 5 year old unless we were starting at DCA) so that was the only day we could ride Haunted Mansion without wasting an hour in line.
4. Other rides had weirdly tolerable waits for a good chunk of the day - Soarin, GOTG, even toy story. Those were still best before 12 though. Some had awful waits for no particular reason (Monsters - 35 minute wait.)
5. Even with virtual queue (which may not be a thing anymore?), web slingers was still 30-45 wait each time. ROTR was about 40 mins each time.
6. Because we spent so much time in line for big ticket rides, we really didn't have time for the smaller rides. I can't think of any Fantasyland rides we went on. Typically in 3 days we have ridden every single ride at least once with many re-rides. This trip was a struggle just to hit all the big rides.
This was all the first week of November, a week we have gone every year for 5 years. Crowds were probably about the same as they always are - relatively a pretty slow week. I can't imagine what lines would have been like with worse crowds.
Is waiting in line soul crushing? Not always but when it's a steady stream of 30+ min waits on every single rides, that adds up. Did we feel SIGNIFICANTLY less productive than normal trips? Yes. Did we feel like we got our money's worth this time? No. Would we ever go back without fastpass? Absolutely not. We have 4 kids, make 1-2 trips a year for 3-4 days each with park hoppers. We are planning on going to Atlantis in the Bahamas instead of DLR in the spring, and that might be the beginning of our slow transition out of Disney trips. Paying $1800 over 3 days to feel like you didn't even get to ride everything you wanted to - and we were there from rope drop until close - is just kind of gross. I would tell parents of young children to strongly consider delaying a trip until some sort of fastpass is in place, because it just isn't the same and definitely feels more like a chore. It was fun to go and our kids had fun but it wasn't the same and they aren't asking to go back, if that tells you anything
