What is your Disney shameful secret?

[Moliphino]

This was May 2021. They were still loading just your party. But it was horrible. The HUB at CBR in the sun waiting out in the old parking lot (the area down below the loading platform) for the Skyliner... we decided then we would not stay at POP again. Same coming back from EP at night. I will say during the day there was no wait. It was only the morning and evening. It got so bad we started using rideshare to get to and from HS and EP at those times. The line at POP wasn't bad. It was the HUB at CBR.


I'm sure its better now but my DH has his mind set that we will never stay there again. (Which does make me sad. We have only ever stayed at POP)

I was at Pop in May 2021, too. The lines always moved fast, we never waited more than 30 minutes even when it extended into the bus stop area at CBR or when it went almost to the Beach Club at Epcot closing.

 

[Mommy2cody]

I was at Pop in May 2021, too. The lines always moved fast, we never waited more than 30 minutes even when it extended into the bus stop area at CBR or when it went almost to the Beach Club at Epcot closing.

I'm glad your experience was better than mine! We definitely waited a lot longer than 30 min. In fact, the tipping point for us was at 45 min. We were still in the switchback part of the line. We walked over to the Beach Club lobby at got an uber in under 10 min. Maybe we just had an off transportation trip lol. This is a good example of how people can have different experiences even with similar circumstances at WDW. We found ourselves waiting much more than usual that trip. Even for busses.

My issue is that at park opening and closing they should still offer busses to/from the park. Especially for people who may not feel comfortable riding the skyliner.

I still love POP but we are going to try another resort this next trip in December.

 

[Moliphino]

I'm glad your experience was better than mine! We definitely waited a lot longer than 30 min. In fact, the tipping point for us was at 45 min. We were still in the switchback part of the line. We walked over to the Beach Club lobby at got an uber in under 10 min. Maybe we just had an off transportation trip lol. This is a good example of how people can have different experiences even with similar circumstances at WDW. We found ourselves waiting much more than usual that trip. Even for busses.

My issue is that at park opening and closing they should still offer busses to/from the park. Especially for people who may not feel comfortable riding the skyliner.

I still love POP but we are going to try another resort this next trip in December.

AOA has buses at all times. I'm not sure if they run as frequently as they did pre-Skyliner, but Pop guests can use the AOA buses if they want.

The morning bus lines for MK that trip were waaaaay worse than the Skyliner lines. I'd never seen them that insane before, they wrapped all the way over near the port cochere. There were constant buses coming through, but they were still limiting capacity then so it took forever. AK lines were bad, but not quite that bad.

 

[sheilafri]

Love seeing differing opinions, although a lot of my ideas have already been said!

-Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway is meh. I was underwhelmed I guess? I wouldn't wait longer than 10-15 minutes for it.
-Tinkerbell is a a brat and my least favorite character. I would use another "B" word, but don't want to get banned!
-I don't enjoy the Finding Nemo show at all and the benches might be the most uncomfortable seats I've never sat in.
-I actually look forward to the Splash Mountain retheme.
-Don't understand paying Deluxe resort prices. $400-800 a night for what? Maybe if there were a ton of perks or amenities?
-Agree about Food & Wine. Overrated and overpriced. Sure we enjoy some of the food and drink items, but I'm not going to make a trip for it. Plus, I'd rather not eat my food over a trashcan. Go sit and have a meal somewhere!
-I don't get the popcorn bucket thing.
-Pandora is beautiful and FoP is awesome, but I still haven't seen Avatar. And no plans to watch it.

Positive thoughts:

-We love the Skyliner. Worth it to stay at Pop or Caribbean Beach just for that.
-I didn't get Star Wars or Marvel until I did both movie marathons during the pandemic. Now I'm a big fan, especially Marvel.

Agree with practically every point. I’ll go farther and say I can’t see paying for any Disney resort. Values are frenetic, sensory overload campuses. Mods are okay but overpriced compared to similar off-site hotels. Deluxes are just crazy expensive. I’ll stay at Swolphin if I can get a good rate. I don’t need a theme to be able to fall asleep after being in a park all day. I go to WDW for the parks not because it is a splurge vacation destination.

 

[starlite_]

Park hopping in WDW sounds absolutely exhausting. You need to walk all the way to the gate, wait for transportation, board transportation and then however long it takes to get to your new park??? That's what? minimum 1 hr? What an exhausting waste of time imo.

 

[supergirl04]

Another one:

I like the park reservation system. I’ve been during Easter, Christmas and the 4th. I like knowing I can get into those parks in advance.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Park hopping in WDW sounds absolutely exhausting. You need to walk all the way to the gate, wait for transportation, board transportation and then however long it takes to get to your new park??? That's what? minimum 1 hr? What an exhausting waste of time imo.

After having done a no park hopping trip, I agree. I have an AP but my sister and friend only had day tickets without park hopping. We didn't mind being in one park per day and would spend the busiest + hottest times of the day at the pool before hitting up the parks at night or go eat dinner somewhere. We did wish we did 2 Epcot days instead of 2 at HS but that was the only time where we would've park hopped if I'm being honest.

On the flip side I would 100% buy park hopping tickets for Universal Orlando and Disneyland. I think at those parks it's essential given how close they are to each other.

 

[SteveAZee]

Park hopping in WDW sounds absolutely exhausting. You need to walk all the way to the gate, wait for transportation, board transportation and then however long it takes to get to your new park??? That's what? minimum 1 hr? What an exhausting waste of time imo.

It depends on what parks you're hopping between, right? Epcot to HS is the Skyliner, which is a nice ride and a brief rest. MK to Epcot is a couple monorail trips. Both of these are (to me) relaxing and part of the experience of the resort. Worst case, I think, is Animal Kingdom to anywhere. Last trip we drove and parked at AK for the morning and then drove to Epcot for a late lunch... that was probably worst case for us... probably the 1 hour you mention, and not very relaxing or interesting.

 

[starlite_]

It depends on what parks you're hopping between, right? Epcot to HS is the Skyliner, which is a nice ride and a brief rest. MK to Epcot is a couple monorail trips. Both of these are (to me) relaxing and part of the experience of the resort. Worst case, I think, is Animal Kingdom to anywhere. Last trip we drove and parked at AK for the morning and then drove to Epcot for a late lunch... that was probably worst case for us... probably the 1 hour you mention, and not very relaxing or interesting.

I am scared of heights so I cannot ride the skyliner if you paid me to and personally "a couple of monorail trips" sounds tiring already. I do enough transit changes in daily life to want to do it on vacation as well. That's me tho, it certainly opens possibilities if you find public transport relaxing. Out of curiosity, how long does it take to go from MK to Epcot in said monorail rides?

 

[SteveAZee]

I am scared of heights so I cannot ride the skyliner if you paid me to and personally "a couple of monorail trips" sounds tiring already. I do enough transit changes in daily life to want to do it on vacation as well. That's me tho, it certainly opens possibilities if you find public transport relaxing. Out of curiosity, how long does it take to go from MK to Epcot in said monorail rides?

I'm guessing about half an hour, maybe 40 minutes... the travel time is maybe half of that, the rest is the wait at wherever you're starting (MK or Epcot) plus the transfer at the TTC. Busy days and busy times of the day will make that worse. I'm not an expert, but that's from my personal experience.

You can always take the bus between parks... no transfer. Trip time (waiting and travel) might be faster, it might not. I would much rather ride the monorail than a bus, but that's my preference.

 

[wilckepedia]

I'm guessing about half an hour, maybe 40 minutes... the travel time is maybe half of that, the rest is the wait at wherever you're starting (MK or Epcot) plus the transfer at the TTC. Busy days and busy times of the day will make that worse. I'm not an expert, but that's from my personal experience.

You can always take the bus between parks... no transfer. Trip time (waiting and travel) might be faster, it might not. I would much rather ride the monorail than a bus, but that's my preference.

The Epcot monorail has always been my favorite. I almost got trapped not being able to get to the airport on my final day because of a monster storm and the monorail getting shut down. With all the transportation re-routing, it took forever to get back to SSR for my bags. Thankfully the storm also delayed my flight, so I was fine. But that turned into a whole OTHER adventure of a story.

 

[Moliphino]

Park hopping in WDW sounds absolutely exhausting. You need to walk all the way to the gate, wait for transportation, board transportation and then however long it takes to get to your new park??? That's what? minimum 1 hr? What an exhausting waste of time imo.

It's like a 20 minute walk between DHS and Epcot.
I get bored in one park all day (that one Covid trip before park hopping came back was rough), so we hop every day. We don't go back to the hotel during the day, so it's our midday break.

 

[shaqfor3]

Park hopping in WDW sounds absolutely exhausting. You need to walk all the way to the gate, wait for transportation, board transportation and then however long it takes to get to your new park??? That's what? minimum 1 hr? What an exhausting waste of time imo.

I use to agreed with you and still do if you have children but with genie+ I like park hopping. I can use all the good genie+ in DHS or Epcot by 2 or 3pm so I rather go to MK and keep using genie+. The time you waste traveling you can made it up by using LL

Of course this mean that now I have to buy Hopper AND genie+

I would prefer having FP+, no park hopper and more money in my wallet, but not longer an option.

 

[starlite_]

I use to agreed with you and still do if you have children but with genie+ I like park hopping. I can use all the good genie+ in DHS or Epcot by 2 or 3pm so I rather go to MK and keep using genie+. The time you waste traveling you can made it up by using LL

Of course this mean that now I have to buy Hopper AND genie+

I would prefer having FP+, no park hopper and more money in my wallet, but not longer an option.

You can make it up but at the end you used the same amount of time for the same rides and ended up with less money haha.
I suppose if you knew how to work the transportation when it's most efficient you could do your favorite genie+ rides all over the parks in less amount of days. WDW express.

 

[Nick6300]

You can make it up but at the end you used the same amount of time for the same rides and ended up with less money haha.
I suppose if you knew how to work the transportation when it's most efficient you could do your favorite genie+ rides all over the parks in less amount of days. WDW express.

We typically go for 7-8 park days and still ph, which I do sometimes question how inefficient it might be from the perspective that you can book each park twice. We still hop almost every day, except airport or water park days. I think one of our reasons, other than current setup of stacking LLs for evening, why we like to do this is trying to take advantage of difference in park times from AK opening early like 8-7 and MK might be 9-10. Another factor is dining preferences/reservations (i.e. more dinners at EP). Another factor is our touring style & attraction preferences - we have trouble filling our day at AK past about noon and want to hop, for instance. We like finishing at MK for fireworks sometimes. It does waste time for the park to park transportation (we don't ride share). The walking to front of park doesn't really factor for us, with how fast we walk. Maybe I'm just stubborn, but hopping has always been my touring style.

 

[starlite_]

We typically go for 7-8 park days and still ph, which I do sometimes question how inefficient it might be from the perspective that you can book each park twice. We still hop almost every day, except airport or water park days. I think one of our reasons, other than current setup of stacking LLs for evening, why we like to do this is trying to take advantage of difference in park times from AK opening early like 8-7 and MK might be 9-10. Another factor is dining preferences/reservations (i.e. more dinners at EP). Another factor is our touring style & attraction preferences - we have trouble filling our day at AK past about noon and want to hop, for instance. We like finishing at MK for fireworks sometimes. It does waste time for the park to park transportation (we don't ride share). The walking to front of park doesn't really factor for us, with how fast we walk. Maybe I'm just stubborn, but hopping has always been my touring style.

That's all good, it does make sense if a park closed earlier, I might hop then too. On a general basis it still seems very wasteful of time and energy for me, but that's the beauty of it touring styles are what works best for each person.

 

[shaqfor3]

That's all good, it does make sense if a park closed earlier, I might hop then too. On a general basis it still seems very wasteful of time and energy for me, but that's the beauty of it touring styles are what works best for each person.

I understand specially if you are deep in fantasyland and have to come to the entrance. I missed the railroad!

 

[Nick6300]

That's all good, it does make sense if a park closed earlier, I might hop then too. On a general basis it still seems very wasteful of time and energy for me, but that's the beauty of it touring styles are what works best for each person.

Agree, there's so many factors that would go into determining if PH personally makes sense for someone. Park hopping may not make sense for those who have a very long duration trip (i.e. international 2 week guests), a budget conscious person who's purchasing tickets rather than having AP, or much more laid back touring style than me, or maybe a relatively newer to WDW person where they want to do almost everything and each park consumes a significant amount of time, list goes on. Someone who only has 2-3 park days, maybe they want to do a morning at AK and hop to MK with later hours, to be able to sample all 4 parks for their trip.

I agree that the park to park transportation can sometimes be rough if you just miss a bus. We used to allot about an hr. for getting to 2nd park reservation or whatever. There were times of frustration, and other times that we felt fortunate and made the hopping trip smoothly.

We used to do something that made even less sense... when we lived in Tampa, we'd spend most Saturday 1-day trips going to 3 parks, typically rotating between HS and AK to start, and EP/MK using monorail between. Even though we could just go to 1 park and go to a different one the following week, we still had preferences for select attractions and wanted a glimpse of each park. Didn't do that every time, but we went to at least 2 parks each Sat. Driving ourselves between parks, but sometimes there's a long walk from the parking lot too.

 

[Nickylv]

I hate explaining to people that have never been to Disney that it is not an amusement park. They ask do you really like rides that much? And I have to explain that there is so much more to the parks than just rides….they just don’t get it.

 

[com_op_2000]

I hate explaining to people that have never been to Disney that it is not an amusement park. They ask do you really like rides that much? And I have to explain that there is so much more to the parks than just rides….they just don’t get it.

What I tell people who say things like this is:
Whoever pays the piper calls the music.




If your family or friends wants you to go on a vacation and they are willing to pay for it, go and have a great time on them. If you are paying for the trip you go where and when you choose to go.