OlliePop27
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2018
- Messages
- 1,224
A short write up of random thoughts from our recent trip around July 4th. I may add more as I think of things.
Crowds – Very manageable the entire time. We were in the parks July 2-6. Easy to change reservations even day of for multi-day tickets. Wait times were not bad and crowds around DL were never terrible, just the normal pinch points like Adventureland and around Pirates.
Construction – Disappointing for HM and Critter Country to both be closed. Other than using a table at Hungry Bear one time, we never spent any time in this area. New Orleans Square and ROA are my favorite parts of the park and we just never had reason to venture over here. Also, was weird with the train going through all the construction and NOS Station closed (but thankful it was running).
Security – Harbor never had a security line. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, which is a stark contrast to what I expected given the reports in May and June. Disney and the security team deserve credit for this particular security checkpoint operating well.
July 4th – The past few years, crowds have been very light and we decided to give it a go. The day itself was not terrible crowd-wise, except for the nighttime. We opted to do DCA and watch fireworks from the hotel. If you’re willing to skip the DL fireworks, there’s a July 4th pre-show at WOC. The day itself was great for park touring.
Early Entry – We did not have EE and started at the EE park 3 out of 4 days. It seems to have almost no impact on crowds, unless you want to do Peter Pan or Radiator Springs Racers first thing. We started at Alice one of the days, and the line was as short as a non-EE day at rope drop (as was Dumbo, Toad, Snow White, and other rides). At DCA, we started with TSMM and Incredicoaster, which also had no lines. I would encourage people to do what fits best with their schedule and not worry too much about which park has EE.
Genie+ - We had great success again with Genie+ because there’s such great availability between the two parks, and this is with Splash and HM offline. Plenty of availability deep into the night. We did get a couple of gold tier and silver tier MEP’s on some days, but not until afternoon most of the time. Ride uptime was actually pretty good, in my opinion. Even if rides started to sell out later in the day, like Guardians, I could typically refresh and get a time (for 6 people), then keep refreshing and move the time up methodically over time. It takes some effort, but is almost always possible. Genie+ is also really not necessary until after about 11:00 am, so I just kept booking things and modifying the time for later in the day. It allows the evenings to be stacked with several LL rides.
My opinion on Genie+ changed somewhat on this trip, even though I still like the service. Instead of buying it for length of ticket in the future, I think we might buy it day by day. I see the benefit of having at least 1 day where we do not have Genie+, as it would force us to do non-LL rides like the Mark Twain, Tiki Room, Phillarmagic, and watch more shows. Having Genie+ the entire trip, I definitely felt pressure to get the most value out of paying for it. There’s also no doubt that in order to maximize Genie+ with modifying times and refreshing, you have to spend a lot of time on your phone. I love things like the Tiki Room and we just didn't have time do it even with 4.5 park days because of doing so much via LL. We also did long breaks every afternoon because of having little kids, and we devoted two nights to Fantasmic/fireworks, and WOC, so that impacted available time (but worth it for us).
Crowds – Very manageable the entire time. We were in the parks July 2-6. Easy to change reservations even day of for multi-day tickets. Wait times were not bad and crowds around DL were never terrible, just the normal pinch points like Adventureland and around Pirates.
Construction – Disappointing for HM and Critter Country to both be closed. Other than using a table at Hungry Bear one time, we never spent any time in this area. New Orleans Square and ROA are my favorite parts of the park and we just never had reason to venture over here. Also, was weird with the train going through all the construction and NOS Station closed (but thankful it was running).
Security – Harbor never had a security line. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, which is a stark contrast to what I expected given the reports in May and June. Disney and the security team deserve credit for this particular security checkpoint operating well.
July 4th – The past few years, crowds have been very light and we decided to give it a go. The day itself was not terrible crowd-wise, except for the nighttime. We opted to do DCA and watch fireworks from the hotel. If you’re willing to skip the DL fireworks, there’s a July 4th pre-show at WOC. The day itself was great for park touring.
Early Entry – We did not have EE and started at the EE park 3 out of 4 days. It seems to have almost no impact on crowds, unless you want to do Peter Pan or Radiator Springs Racers first thing. We started at Alice one of the days, and the line was as short as a non-EE day at rope drop (as was Dumbo, Toad, Snow White, and other rides). At DCA, we started with TSMM and Incredicoaster, which also had no lines. I would encourage people to do what fits best with their schedule and not worry too much about which park has EE.
Genie+ - We had great success again with Genie+ because there’s such great availability between the two parks, and this is with Splash and HM offline. Plenty of availability deep into the night. We did get a couple of gold tier and silver tier MEP’s on some days, but not until afternoon most of the time. Ride uptime was actually pretty good, in my opinion. Even if rides started to sell out later in the day, like Guardians, I could typically refresh and get a time (for 6 people), then keep refreshing and move the time up methodically over time. It takes some effort, but is almost always possible. Genie+ is also really not necessary until after about 11:00 am, so I just kept booking things and modifying the time for later in the day. It allows the evenings to be stacked with several LL rides.
My opinion on Genie+ changed somewhat on this trip, even though I still like the service. Instead of buying it for length of ticket in the future, I think we might buy it day by day. I see the benefit of having at least 1 day where we do not have Genie+, as it would force us to do non-LL rides like the Mark Twain, Tiki Room, Phillarmagic, and watch more shows. Having Genie+ the entire trip, I definitely felt pressure to get the most value out of paying for it. There’s also no doubt that in order to maximize Genie+ with modifying times and refreshing, you have to spend a lot of time on your phone. I love things like the Tiki Room and we just didn't have time do it even with 4.5 park days because of doing so much via LL. We also did long breaks every afternoon because of having little kids, and we devoted two nights to Fantasmic/fireworks, and WOC, so that impacted available time (but worth it for us).
