Trip Report 9/11-9/15

[Jimbo1229]

Well I've been waiting 11 years to make the trip back and well things sure have changed. We did a 4 day hopper, going on Monday and Tuesday with Wednesday off, then back in Thursday and Friday. The park was packed everyday we were their and to top it off it was hot Monday and Tuesday. It finally cooled down Tuesday night and made the rest of the week comfortable. The place was so crowded, it made it hard to walk with having a stroller. People are so rude and would just walk in front of you and not even apologize. Wait times were average but the park just seemed overwhelmed at times. Don't even get me started about the break downs. I think pirates and splash and little mermaid were broke down 50% of the time we were there. We did get to ride almost every ride except for indy, which im super bummed about. One thing I was shocked to notice is that the maintence crew is slacking on light bulbs. We saw so many burnt out lights on rides and ive never seen that before. The landscaping in the park looked great, which is one thing I love about Disney parks.
Everything we ate tasted good and the monte cristo was flipping amazing. Worth every penny, even though it was $20. Food sure has increased since ive been last. The lobster nachos at cove bar were delicious and affordable at $16, you got a lot.
We stayed at the Fairfield inn and would totally stay there again. We got the firework view room which was cool. We could see the show from the balcony and avoid the leaving crowds. Only gripe was the pool was closed for resurfacing. On the hot days, this sucked.

 

[Geemo]

I know what you mean about break downs....
The last time we rode Splash, it broke down just as we were about a few feet away from going over the drop.
The belt stopped moving, music stopped and all the lights went on. We were the last to be evacuated due to our location on the ride.
It's not real easy crawling out of the log upon to the walkway...

The back scene was quite interesting as we walked through the tunnels and hallways.

 

[Jimbo1229]

I know what you mean about break downs....
The last time we rode Splash, it broke down just as we were about a few feet away from going over the drop.
The belt stopped moving, music stopped and all the lights went on. We were the last to be evacuated due to our location on the ride.
It's not real easy crawling out of the log upon to the walkway...

The back scene was quite interesting as we walked through the tunnels and hallways.

At one point Splash, Pirates and Indy were all down for 45 mins at the sametime. Along with the mansion closed for overlay, NOS and Critter Country was a mob scene.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Splash, HMH, and Ghost Galaxy have all been down multiple times today. At one point I held four Multiple Experience passes as a result.

 

[Jimbo1229]

Splash, HMH, and Ghost Galaxy have all been down multiple times today. At one point I held four Multiple Experience passes as a result.

I think the park is being pushed past its breaking point. They need to limit the people coming in and give the rides longer breaks. I know that's not the answer but things are getting worse with closures and down time

 

[onlyoneash]

It's because you went black hole week. We all endured it too.... https://www.disboards.com/threads/no-woc-9-14-black-hole-week.3618674/

But yes, Disneyland has a decreased staff through September (assuming that includes maintenance) so the rides simply aren't running as efficient and so many rides were down that week, that the rides that were up were completely overloaded. Combine that with the fact that I guess Disneyland assumed this would be a slow week, but it was actually crazy made a bad mix of rides going down and insane crowds. Lesson I learned is never go in the "off season". Just as many crowds with APs unblocked, but less rides, less hours, and less staff.

 

[Jimbo1229]

It's because you went black hole week. We all endured it too.... https://www.disboards.com/threads/no-woc-9-14-black-hole-week.3618674/

But yes, Disneyland has a decreased staff through September (assuming that includes maintenance) so the rides simply aren't running as efficient and so many rides were down that week, that the rides that were up were completely overloaded. Combine that with the fact that I guess Disneyland assumed this would be a slow week, but it was actually crazy made a bad mix of rides going down and insane crowds. Lesson I learned is never go in the "off season". Just as many crowds with APs unblocked, but less rides, less hours, and less staff.

The hard part for me is that's when I can start vacation time. Our business doesn't slow down til September. it sucks for me

 

[Pamela M]

I think the parks were a little more packed the past couple of weeks cause of Irma. We had a few people say on here they cancelled their WDW trips for Disneyland trip.

 

[KBinCO]

we were there wed-fri and I agree, it seemed very busy but we were prepared for that. We actually got a lot in Wednesday despite the crowds. Thurs we got evacuated off of the Little Mermaid right in the middle. We had ridden it Wednesday so my kids found it very exciting to finally get evacuated off of a ride. I didn't notice the light bulb issue. We had a great trip but the crowds made it more stressful and less magical than our previous 2 trips. We did very little in Fantasyland because half the rides were down or went down while we were waiting and the other half always had insane waits.

 

[Jimbo1229]

I probably would have never noticed the light bulbs, but standing around in lines so much you notice these things

 

[Linkura]

Splash Mountain was the first ride we did on our trip on Sunday, and it was so dark that you could barely see many of the animatronics. I don't know if the lightbulbs were burnt out or they were trying to hide broken animatronics. Splash is our absolute favorite at WDW, so to see the DL version in such sorry shape was saddening.

I didn't really notice burnt out bulbs in the queues, but Splash was the first thing that came to mind when I read your post.