distherapy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 1,191
Back from an incredible week at WDW March 8-15. Wanted to share my thoughts as I have enjoyed reading others experiences. I also wanted to assuage fears about fp+ as best I can.
Thoughts:
Yacht Club Our room was far from the lobby, but easily accessed from the outside - which was also a more interesting walk than wandering through "Shining"-like hotel hallways. The cast members were warm, friendly, and helpful. Housekeeping was great, as was the view. I loved the location and we had easy access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios (we walked to Epcot and we both walked and took the boat to the Studios.)
FastPass+ - I admit it I was really, really worried. We were a rope drop and heavy fastpass using family and I knew this would be a different kind of vacation. We decided to go with the flow and honestly it was our best trip yet. I could see how it wouldnt work as well for everyone, but for us, it was very successful. In fact, it relieved SOME of the rope drop pressure (hard to teach an old dog new tricks.) We did have a day where we wandered into Epcot a few minutes after rope drop and got breakfast in France unheard of to the old me. This only worked for us because we didnt need to ride the headliners multiple times each day I know this wouldnt be the case for everyone.
My Disney Experience I used an iPhone 5 with AT&T service and had very little trouble. I sometimes toggled off WiFi if it seemed slow. I did bring a spare battery charger and would charge at dinner. That being said, I wanted to note a couple of things:
1. When changing fastpasses during the day, I found more availability day of than the day or weeks before.
2. When changing fastpasses, sometimes it looked like it only pulled up 2 guests instead of all 4 of us. If I clicked through like that was right, it would correct itself later. Definitely buggy, but didnt slow us down.
Dining We had the Deluxe Dining plan and enjoyed some great meals. This time, some favorites were places that previously hadnt been stellar, so that was a nice surprise. I loved Yachtsman, Narcoossees, and Flying Fish. I liked San Angel Inn and dinner at Be Our Guest. Our wait staff at both Yachtsman and Narcoossee's were exceptional which contributed to great experiences.
Epcot Seas Aqua Tour Absolutely the highlight of our trip. Swimming with the sharks, stingrays, fish, and sea turtles (while waving to the people in Coral Reef and Living Seas) was incredible. Cant recommend it enough.
Crowds - Better than I thought for our first Spring Break trip. We used easywdw crowd calendar.
Misses The only thing I didnt enjoy or wouldnt do again was the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party. It was chaotic from start to finish. The bathrooms had no toilet paper or paper towels. The flow for desserts and drinks was poorly planned huge line and no easy access to anything. The staff seemed tense. It was nice to have a good place to watch the fireworks, but the other pieces were so frustrating that it made the evening a disappointment. I will say, we had a MUCH easier exit of the park than I had ever dreamed left right after the fireworks, walked behind Main Street with maybe a dozen other people, and walked right out onto a bus which pulled away right after we arrived. That was unexpected and a huge stroke of luck.
Also, Josh from easywdw wrote a post recently about the effect fp+ has on some of the former afternoon walk-on rides and it couldnt have been more accurate. Our easy afternoon standbys are no more!
One last note I did not find that fastpass+ lines were much different than fastpass, with two exceptions:
1. Safari at AK line had an extended queue and looked awful, but moved very quickly.
2. Big Thunder Mountain - I dont even know what to say about this one! We came up to it once and it was so long we couldnt even tell what it was. We came back a little later and it still looked long, but moved very quickly. We were on in maybe 6 minutes.
Okay I think thats it. I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully this might help some people. I do believe there were some times when we got lucky. I also think there were some times when we made our own luck. I know that what worked for us wont work for everyone, but wanted to share that we had a great time.
Thoughts:
Yacht Club Our room was far from the lobby, but easily accessed from the outside - which was also a more interesting walk than wandering through "Shining"-like hotel hallways. The cast members were warm, friendly, and helpful. Housekeeping was great, as was the view. I loved the location and we had easy access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios (we walked to Epcot and we both walked and took the boat to the Studios.)
FastPass+ - I admit it I was really, really worried. We were a rope drop and heavy fastpass using family and I knew this would be a different kind of vacation. We decided to go with the flow and honestly it was our best trip yet. I could see how it wouldnt work as well for everyone, but for us, it was very successful. In fact, it relieved SOME of the rope drop pressure (hard to teach an old dog new tricks.) We did have a day where we wandered into Epcot a few minutes after rope drop and got breakfast in France unheard of to the old me. This only worked for us because we didnt need to ride the headliners multiple times each day I know this wouldnt be the case for everyone.
My Disney Experience I used an iPhone 5 with AT&T service and had very little trouble. I sometimes toggled off WiFi if it seemed slow. I did bring a spare battery charger and would charge at dinner. That being said, I wanted to note a couple of things:
1. When changing fastpasses during the day, I found more availability day of than the day or weeks before.
2. When changing fastpasses, sometimes it looked like it only pulled up 2 guests instead of all 4 of us. If I clicked through like that was right, it would correct itself later. Definitely buggy, but didnt slow us down.
Dining We had the Deluxe Dining plan and enjoyed some great meals. This time, some favorites were places that previously hadnt been stellar, so that was a nice surprise. I loved Yachtsman, Narcoossees, and Flying Fish. I liked San Angel Inn and dinner at Be Our Guest. Our wait staff at both Yachtsman and Narcoossee's were exceptional which contributed to great experiences.
Epcot Seas Aqua Tour Absolutely the highlight of our trip. Swimming with the sharks, stingrays, fish, and sea turtles (while waving to the people in Coral Reef and Living Seas) was incredible. Cant recommend it enough.
Crowds - Better than I thought for our first Spring Break trip. We used easywdw crowd calendar.
Misses The only thing I didnt enjoy or wouldnt do again was the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party. It was chaotic from start to finish. The bathrooms had no toilet paper or paper towels. The flow for desserts and drinks was poorly planned huge line and no easy access to anything. The staff seemed tense. It was nice to have a good place to watch the fireworks, but the other pieces were so frustrating that it made the evening a disappointment. I will say, we had a MUCH easier exit of the park than I had ever dreamed left right after the fireworks, walked behind Main Street with maybe a dozen other people, and walked right out onto a bus which pulled away right after we arrived. That was unexpected and a huge stroke of luck.
Also, Josh from easywdw wrote a post recently about the effect fp+ has on some of the former afternoon walk-on rides and it couldnt have been more accurate. Our easy afternoon standbys are no more!
One last note I did not find that fastpass+ lines were much different than fastpass, with two exceptions:
1. Safari at AK line had an extended queue and looked awful, but moved very quickly.
2. Big Thunder Mountain - I dont even know what to say about this one! We came up to it once and it was so long we couldnt even tell what it was. We came back a little later and it still looked long, but moved very quickly. We were on in maybe 6 minutes.
Okay I think thats it. I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully this might help some people. I do believe there were some times when we got lucky. I also think there were some times when we made our own luck. I know that what worked for us wont work for everyone, but wanted to share that we had a great time.
