Some Just Back Thoughts - May 8 to 13

[BrianL]

Well, i jsut got back from my first tripo in about 18 months - the withdrawal symptoms have been sated! We had a good time too and below are a few notes and observations:

• The damage to the show is noticable with ugly plexiglass everywhere. I understand and support the measures taken, but it was difficult to see. But...
• ...it's still fun! I had a wonderful time. It's still got the magic and the CMs were great!
• Oh, those poor CM's though! Please, people, follow the rules. It doesn't matter what you personally think about them, the rules are in place. It's no different than, "stand behind the yellow line." Just do it!
• Having the Skyliner at Pop is a blessing! I know the rates went up, but it was so convenient.
• I finally got to ride Rise of the Resistance - Okay, WOW, that thing is great and totally amazing! We fought for a borading group at 7 AM and it took until way later in the day to get called. It really put a damper on the day and, dare I say it, it is NOT WORTH IT. We had an HS morning planned for two days, but decided that we'd just rather not go through it as we had afternoon plans on the second day. We gave up our HS park pass and switched it to AK (with a little help from Kevin at City Hall - you rock, man!).
• I may have liked Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway better than Rise.
• Mobile ordreing all food is a pain. It needs to stop or at least have the walk-up option restored. People can't find food if they weren;t aware. I ordered lunch at like 8 AM waiting to get into HS. It's tough to have to think that way.
• Never bring back Fast Pass. 7DMT had a 40 minute wait at mid-day and the line didn't stop moving. I loved that!
• The bus service was very on point. I don't know why, especially considering they can't pack the buses, but they were frequent and fast, even to the busy Pop Century.
• We had one of the best Jungle Cruise skippers ever which was important with some of the show elements being changed out. I didn't catch his name, but thanks to him for a great ride!
• Whispering Canyon was a fun mean - never been before but we had a great server with a lot of personality. I was worried that we may not get the antics, but we did. The food was pretty good, but not amazing.
• Be Our Guest continues to impress and though expensive, we had a late dinner on our last night and it was a great way to cap things off

I'll post more if I think of anything. I'm still processing and exhausted from the trip.

 

[SeanWM48]

i'm curious about your issue with the Rise boarding group/wait time. i found it great to be able to get my ride secured at 7 in the morning and then have the rest of the morning to do whatever. i was in group 80-something so i knew it'd be a few hours.

not to mention it's arguably - maybe not arguably - THE top attraction today in WDW. so you get a sure-thing spot and an idea of what time it's happening. that didn't work for you? was it because now you're committed to being in HS at that time?

 

[BrianL]

i'm curious about your issue with the Rise boarding group/wait time. i found it great to be able to get my ride secured at 7 in the morning and then have the rest of the morning to do whatever. i was in group 80-something so i knew it'd be a few hours.

not to mention it's arguably - maybe not arguably - THE top attraction today in WDW. so you get a sure-thing spot and an idea of what time it's happening. that didn't work for you? was it because now you're committed to being in HS at that time?

Well, the fight to get it at 7 AM is stressful. The fact that people can miss it at 7:01 (or 7:00:01) is a problem! We had plans to park hop, but had to wait. There was no set time for it, nor a guarantee that they even get to it. On Day 2, we had a meal planned at Epcot at 3 PM. If we had gotten anotehr group 70 or higher, we would have had to leave and miss it. We didn't want to be locked in. Once they can go back to full capacity, they should just have a standby line like everything else.

 

[BrianL]

Also, a few more things:

• We got soem Gideon's cookies since we got to DS at about 11 AM. It was a long wait, but the inside of that place is so cool! The cookies are very good too, though maybe not as extra special as one would hope. They are massive though and I ate mine over the course of the three days.
• The new security process is amazingly efficient! I don't know what those new machines are exactly, but they are so fast and easy.
• We were finally Pilots on Smuggler's run, and it is definitely more fun that way. In fact, it's the only way it is fun!

 

[nkereina]

I finally got to ride Rise of the Resistance - Okay, WOW, that thing is great and totally amazing! We fought for a borading group at 7 AM and it took until way later in the day to get called. It really put a damper on the day and, dare I say it, it is NOT WORTH IT. We had an HS morning planned for two days, but decided that we'd just rather not go through it as we had afternoon plans on the second day. We gave up our HS park pass and switched it to AK (with a little help from Kevin at City Hall - you rock, man!).

i'm curious about your issue with the Rise boarding group/wait time. i found it great to be able to get my ride secured at 7 in the morning and then have the rest of the morning to do whatever. i was in group 80-something so i knew it'd be a few hours.

not to mention it's arguably - maybe not arguably - THE top attraction today in WDW. so you get a sure-thing spot and an idea of what time it's happening. that didn't work for you? was it because now you're committed to being in HS at that time?

One definitely has to plan around ROTR if they want to do it. We thought it was a great ride and worth doing once per trip, but we would not disrupt plans in order to ride it a second time. We rode it twice during our October trip. On our first day, we had a boarding group in the 20s and were called shortly after we arrived at Oga's in the morning. We had an hour to report to the ride, but it made our Oga's visit feel rushed. On our second day, we had an earlier boarding group but for whatever reason (ride breakdown, cleaning protocols, etc.), we were called 90 minutes later than the day prior which had a later boarding group. We ended up sitting on a bench to kill time until our boarding group was called because we didn't anticipate it taking that long. So while it may seem like you have an idea of when your group will be called, its really a couple hour range which isn't conducive to having plans that day.

Mobile ordreing all food is a pain. It needs to stop or at least have the walk-up option restored. People can't find food if they weren;t aware. I ordered lunch at like 8 AM waiting to get into HS. It's tough to have to think that way.

Totally agree. I am guessing mobile ordering is done as crowd management to ensure they have enough seating for people, since seating is limited due to social distancing. Unless/until social distancing in restaurants is a thing of the past, I have to assume they will continue with mobile ordering.

 

[BrianL]

One definitely has to plan around ROTR if they want to do it. We thought it was a great ride and worth doing once per trip, but we would not disrupt plans in order to ride it a second time. We rode it twice during our October trip. On our first day, we had a boarding group in the 20s and were called shortly after we arrived at Oga's in the morning. We had an hour to report to the ride, but it made our Oga's visit feel rushed. On our second day, we had an earlier boarding group but for whatever reason (ride breakdown, cleaning protocols, etc.), we were called 90 minutes later than the day prior which had a later boarding group. We ended up sitting on a bench to kill time until our boarding group was called because we didn't anticipate it taking that long. So while it may seem like you have an idea of when your group will be called, its really a couple hour range which isn't conducive to having plans that day.


Totally agree. I am guessing mobile ordering is done as crowd management to ensure they have enough seating for people, since seating is limited due to social distancing. Unless/until social distancing in restaurants is a thing of the past, I have to assume they will continue with mobile ordering.

I feel the same way about Rise. We just couldn't really do things right that day with it hanging over our heads.

I did mobile ordering at Firar's Nook and there were no tables available at all - many people were taking them without food, even though the mobile orders were taking a long time. My buddy got a Turkey Leg well before I even got my food. We took it over to the virtually deserted outdoor space at Village Haus - a CM said it was okay. It was still all a pain and quite confusing too. It just adds stress where it isn't needed.

 

[nkereina]

I did mobile ordering at Firar's Nook and there were no tables available at all - many people were taking them without food, even though the mobile orders were taking a long time.

For the QS locations with indoor seating, the CMs weren't allowing people in without a mobile order pick up confirmation when we were there in October. It didn't stop people from loitering after they were done eating, but we never really had an issue getting a table. I'm sure that's harder to police with the outdoor tables.

 

[BrianL]

For the QS locations with indoor seating, the CMs weren't allowing people in without a mobile order pick up confirmation when we were there in October. It didn't stop people from loitering after they were done eating, but we never really had an issue getting a table. I'm sure that's harder to police with the outdoor tables.

That's good. They weren't really policing the outdoor areas, but we didn't really do any inside ones. It's still such a hassle. Sometimes I don't even know what I want to eat!