Just a summary of our 7 day visit that ended yesterday.
We stayed at PO-Riverside (AB building 28). A very nice resort which we got at a great
price thanks to these boards. The boat ride to Downtown Disney is nice and the main
pool and quiet pools are all very nice. (Don't make the mistake of going over to use the
French Quarter pool. We did that and it was far more crowded and while the "dragon
slide" is nice theming, the water slide at the Ole Man Island pool is much better.)
We must of picked a good time of year to go because we had very little trouble with lines.
We started with EPCOT and MGM on non-EE days and never saw more than a 20 minute
wait except for Test Track (which we easily avoided with fastpass). We did not even need
to use fastpass for either the Tower of Terror or Rock N Roller Coaster as lines were very
short for both. It surprised me because there seemed to be quite a few people in the park.
The shows all filled up and leaving Fantasmic we overhear a lady saying that she had
been to that show "many" times and thought that this was the biggest crowd she had
seen. (I assumed that theater filled up all the time.)
In the Magic Kingdom we used fastpass extensively. (Also for the Safari and KaliRiver at
the AK.) It amazes me that other people don't seem to take advantage of this system.
But I guess I am glad they don't because we could generally get a fastpass time that was
only about 30 minutes away. If you planned it right you could get the FP and then walk
on a non-FP ride and when it was over you were in your FP window. Or you could
bounce between rides like Space Mountain and Buzz just by alternating the FP and hardly
wait at all. Part of me felt guilty walking right pass all these other people waiting in line
but they have the same chance to use that system. I just can't figure out why anyone
would not use fastpass. At the MK we never went on any of the FP rides except by using
the FP so we virtually never waited in line for any of the most popular rides. By far our
longest line was for the Indy cars.
The most crowded part of the Magic Kingdom was Fantasyland and the longest FP time
we had was for the Winnie the Pooh ride. A nice ride, but not worth waiting in line an
hour, which is what most people seemed to do.
Even though we did not have much problem with lines - we still thought that e-night was
a great deal for $12 per person. We could just walk on any ride we wanted to that night,
except Astro Orbitor which loads slowly and probably involved a 20 minute wait (not worth
the time).
Overall, our families favorite ride is Thunder Mountain RR. I think we rode that 7 times, 3
straight on e-night and then twice on our full day at MK and twice more when we returned
to MK just for the morning. My 7 yr old DD loves that ride. She also rode Space Mountain
(twice on enight, demanding to be in the front seat the second time) and Tower of Terror.
She backed out of Rock N Roller Coaster at the end - and I am glad she did because she
is still scared of coasters that go upside down. Anyway, she is very adventurous for a
girl who just turned 7 - but her second favorite ride - probably Carousel of Progress. She
demanded to go on that a 2nd time when we revisited the MK. (My wife went with her
while I and my other two DD's (10 & 12) opted for a 2nd ride on the TTA to pass the time
until our Buzz Lightyear fastpass window.
The most disappointing attraction was definitely Who Wants to be a Millionaire at Disney
Studios. I was excited about that show and thought my kids would love it as well. We
walked into the 10:15 show right at showtime - no need for fastpass for that one as I
would guess the theater only got about 1/3 full as it was. After the show none of us had
any desire to do that again. In my opinion they spend too much time on the intro's and
theming and leave too little time for actually playing the game. If they don't get better
crowds I have to believe this attraction will not last long. Like I said above, the other
shows we went to at the studios (Indiana Jones, Hunchback, Beauty & the Beast,
Muppets 3D, Drew Carey and Fantasmic at the end) all played to full houses but the
Millionaire show was well over half empty.
All in all it was a very good trip to WDW and my family can't wait to go back again.
We stayed at PO-Riverside (AB building 28). A very nice resort which we got at a great
price thanks to these boards. The boat ride to Downtown Disney is nice and the main
pool and quiet pools are all very nice. (Don't make the mistake of going over to use the
French Quarter pool. We did that and it was far more crowded and while the "dragon
slide" is nice theming, the water slide at the Ole Man Island pool is much better.)
We must of picked a good time of year to go because we had very little trouble with lines.
We started with EPCOT and MGM on non-EE days and never saw more than a 20 minute
wait except for Test Track (which we easily avoided with fastpass). We did not even need
to use fastpass for either the Tower of Terror or Rock N Roller Coaster as lines were very
short for both. It surprised me because there seemed to be quite a few people in the park.
The shows all filled up and leaving Fantasmic we overhear a lady saying that she had
been to that show "many" times and thought that this was the biggest crowd she had
seen. (I assumed that theater filled up all the time.)
In the Magic Kingdom we used fastpass extensively. (Also for the Safari and KaliRiver at
the AK.) It amazes me that other people don't seem to take advantage of this system.
But I guess I am glad they don't because we could generally get a fastpass time that was
only about 30 minutes away. If you planned it right you could get the FP and then walk
on a non-FP ride and when it was over you were in your FP window. Or you could
bounce between rides like Space Mountain and Buzz just by alternating the FP and hardly
wait at all. Part of me felt guilty walking right pass all these other people waiting in line
but they have the same chance to use that system. I just can't figure out why anyone
would not use fastpass. At the MK we never went on any of the FP rides except by using
the FP so we virtually never waited in line for any of the most popular rides. By far our
longest line was for the Indy cars.
The most crowded part of the Magic Kingdom was Fantasyland and the longest FP time
we had was for the Winnie the Pooh ride. A nice ride, but not worth waiting in line an
hour, which is what most people seemed to do.
Even though we did not have much problem with lines - we still thought that e-night was
a great deal for $12 per person. We could just walk on any ride we wanted to that night,
except Astro Orbitor which loads slowly and probably involved a 20 minute wait (not worth
the time).
Overall, our families favorite ride is Thunder Mountain RR. I think we rode that 7 times, 3
straight on e-night and then twice on our full day at MK and twice more when we returned
to MK just for the morning. My 7 yr old DD loves that ride. She also rode Space Mountain
(twice on enight, demanding to be in the front seat the second time) and Tower of Terror.
She backed out of Rock N Roller Coaster at the end - and I am glad she did because she
is still scared of coasters that go upside down. Anyway, she is very adventurous for a
girl who just turned 7 - but her second favorite ride - probably Carousel of Progress. She
demanded to go on that a 2nd time when we revisited the MK. (My wife went with her
while I and my other two DD's (10 & 12) opted for a 2nd ride on the TTA to pass the time
until our Buzz Lightyear fastpass window.
The most disappointing attraction was definitely Who Wants to be a Millionaire at Disney
Studios. I was excited about that show and thought my kids would love it as well. We
walked into the 10:15 show right at showtime - no need for fastpass for that one as I
would guess the theater only got about 1/3 full as it was. After the show none of us had
any desire to do that again. In my opinion they spend too much time on the intro's and
theming and leave too little time for actually playing the game. If they don't get better
crowds I have to believe this attraction will not last long. Like I said above, the other
shows we went to at the studios (Indiana Jones, Hunchback, Beauty & the Beast,
Muppets 3D, Drew Carey and Fantasmic at the end) all played to full houses but the
Millionaire show was well over half empty.
All in all it was a very good trip to WDW and my family can't wait to go back again.
