What was going on at WDW Last Week??

[ErinsMommy]

One of my husband's co-workers just came back from WDW and this was a summary of his trip. Anyone else have similar experiences that went last week??

6 days @ Animal Kingdom (& Split stay at Allstars the last day or two days) & said My Experience was not good & parks were way crowded like 120 minutes plus wait times on rides for EVERYTHING / always!

HE said My experience worked well only on deducting meals BUT checking in & have the bands work on the room entry was a mess as well as you could not make fast passes on the go, my experience tried to tell you that you had to delete everyone & then you could not get new fastpases after that. He also said that you could not do Fast passes at more than one park but only at the park you were at (so he didn’t understand if you had a park hopper & set something up at another park for later) He said checking in & the first day they were at customer service a lot like an hour (which was great but they are overwhelmed with too many people having same problem) & also that the bands would stop working for room entry so if you left the room that the band would not work & you had to go downstairs at hotel resort again to get it reset to get back into your room!

 

[bc7ate9]

We have never had an issue with our Magic Bands not working, but I guess split stays can confuse things?

I have no idea what this means: "My experience worked well only on deducting meals"

I'd guess he's exaggerating at least a little bit and maybe didn't plan enough to have realistic expectations.

 

[wendow]

I have no idea what this means: "My experience worked well only on deducting meals"

That whole report seems somewhat confusing to me but maybe the above sentence has to do with the DDP, and their MB's working fine for that???

We had trouble with our MB's working this past Dec, and it was a split stay trip. No problems this Sept and only one resort.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We were there last week and used the free park calendar on kenny the pirate's website.
It worked perfectly through Wed late evening. We never saw a wait over an hour outside of 70 minutes at TSM.
Epcot was jammed Wednesday night, it was locals for the food and wine fest. I stared at the crowds are there were very few families, but many college aged groups and young adults/couples.
Animal Kingdom was busier than advertised Thursday with close to an hour wait on Everest and the Safari.
Hollywood Studios was beyond packed Friday, it was projected to be a low attendance day. Even Star Tours had an hour wait.

Busses were great, no problems with magic bands, it was really a smooth week for us.

 

[ArwenMarie]

October is just a crowded month now.

 

[scrapquitler]

One of my husband's co-workers just came back from WDW and this was a summary of his trip. Anyone else have similar experiences that went last week??

6 days @ Animal Kingdom (& Split stay at Allstars the last day or two days) & said My Experience was not good & parks were way crowded like 120 minutes plus wait times on rides for EVERYTHING / always!

HE said My experience worked well only on deducting meals BUT checking in & have the bands work on the room entry was a mess as well as you could not make fast passes on the go, my experience tried to tell you that you had to delete everyone & then you could not get new fastpases after that. He also said that you could not do Fast passes at more than one park but only at the park you were at (so he didn’t understand if you had a park hopper & set something up at another park for later) He said checking in & the first day they were at customer service a lot like an hour (which was great but they are overwhelmed with too many people having same problem) & also that the bands would stop working for room entry so if you left the room that the band would not work & you had to go downstairs at hotel resort again to get it reset to get back into your room!

I absolutely do NOT believe 120 minutes plus for "everything" maybe for 7D, Soarin, and Toy Story at the peak times of the day.

 

[bpadair32]

I absolutely do NOT believe 120 minutes plus for "everything" maybe for 7D, Soarin, and Toy Story at the peak times of the day.

I agree. 120mins even for what you listed, with the possible exception of 7DMT seems highly unlikely.

 

[Skywise]

I absolutely do NOT believe 120 minutes plus for "everything" maybe for 7D, Soarin, and Toy Story at the peak times of the day.

Yeah, I'm sure Swiss Family Robinson was only a 60 minute wait.

 

[DisneySOS]

Sounds like they didn't do their homework & research how things run. I had a co-worker tell me they would never go back again. They went the week of July 4th and had no FP+ or ADRs booked for their entire trip.
I know not everyone knows about The Dis and other message boards, but I think even Disney does a good job of letting you know when you need to book stuff via regular mail.

 

[Scubee]

We were there last week. This is a huge exaggeration. We saw peak hour wait times around:

MK: 7D was usually 1-1.5h but we did walk on at the end of a MNSSHP, the mountains were usually 40+min, PP hovered around an hour
Epcot: 70-80m for Soarin, TT was often under an hour
DHS: TSMM did hit 100m one day, ToT was 40m to an hour, 50-70m for RnRC
AK: Didn't pay enough attention

Granted, I wasn't watching wait times all day long but we would break after the morning and look at crowds mid-afternoon to decide where we might go next.

 

[ErinsMommy]

Sounds like they didn't do their homework & research how things run. I had a co-worker tell me they would never go back again. They went the week of July 4th and had no FP+ or ADRs booked for their entire trip.
I know not everyone knows about The Dis and other message boards, but I think even Disney does a good job of letting you know when you need to book stuff via regular mail.

As to possible lack of 'homework' I don't know them personally so can't comment in that regard, but I dont agree Disney does a good job of letting people know by email, mail or what have you. Other than the numerous Incredible booklets I've gotten over the past several months I've had no mail from them and emails I've gotten weeks after the 180 dining and 60 day FP marks. Communication is not Disney's strong feature.

 

[bpadair32]

As to possible lack of 'homework' I don't know them personally so can't comment in that regard, but I dont agree Disney does a good job of letting people know by email, mail or what have you. Other than the numerous Incredible booklets I've gotten over the past several months I've had no mail from them and emails I've gotten weeks after the 180 dining and 60 day FP marks. Communication is not Disney's strong feature.

I think Disney expects that as with most things in life, if you are going to spend a lot of money on vacation, you will do your research. I don't find that to be unreasonable.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I think Disney expects that as with most things in life, if you are going to spend a lot of money on vacation, you will do your research. I don't find that to be unreasonable.

Universal does not require the amount of research and planning. Heck, I can't think of another vacation that does. Even the more expensive DCL cruises don't require the amount of research and planning WDW does.

 

[bpadair32]

Universal does not require the amount of research and planning. Heck, I can't think of another vacation that does. Even the more expensive DCL cruises don't require the amount of research and planning WDW does.

Of course they do. Do you just blindly pick a cruise line? Do you decide to go to Universal without checking what rides are there, what the height requirements are, etc? Do you not check the routes the cruise is taking and what the typical weather is? Different research and planning perhaps, but research and planning nonetheless.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Of course they do. Do you just blindly pick a cruise line? Do you decide to go to Universal without checking what rides are there, what the height requirements are, etc? Do you not check the routes the cruise is taking and what the typical weather is? Different research and planning perhaps, but research and planning nonetheless.

While I have of course waited for 10 AM exactly to get some greatly coveted NYC restaurant that is a rare event. However, I have spent every morning for the last 3 weeks calling WDW to get a Fantasmic! package because they aren't out for 2016. That is a very common occurrence in planning a WDW vacation. Since FP+ started before every trip I am up at Midnight to get my FP+ at 60 days out. That is extreme compared to other vacations.

Even my trips to Europe, which do require quite a bit of research and planning, do rise to the level an average vacation to WDW can consume in time and energy.

 

[ErinsMommy]

I think Disney expects that as with most things in life, if you are going to spend a lot of money on vacation, you will do your research. I don't find that to be unreasonable.

That's not the point, the PP to which I replied to commented how good communication from Disney is. I didn't agree. You don't agree with my disagreement. That's fine - each to their own. You seem to be an advocate for Disney as every post I've said critiquing them you come to their defense, and I'm glad that you're clearly having no problems and/or a better experience at planning your trip than I am with my trip. Good for you!

 

[LJSquishy]

It sounds like they either didn't do any research before their trip, booked a trip less than 180 days out (or even maybe less than 60 days out), or didn't choose to make an itinerary for their group.

I agree with you, OP, that Disney does not do a good job of communicating with you about how important it is to book certain things as soon as the window opens. It's really ridiculous that you even have to book these things so far in advance. It was bad enough with ADRs, but with FP+ being 60 days in advance that's just stupid to me. I do it, yes, but it's stupid.

Since we're all Dis members we are all aware of how important the first few hours after rope drop can be, afternoon peak ride times, and how it dies down quite a bit late at night...but many people aren't aware of that and I do feel bad for those who don't know. I do think a lot of people expect it to be like a normal theme park where you just decide to show up and ride what you want and eat where you want without worrying if they'll deny you entry. I wish it were different.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

I know there was a few conventions going on at at the Boardwalk, 'Swalphin' and Coronada but nothing that would balloon to those type of numbers for wait times. We were there Tuesday and Thursday last week and wait times were no where near those times stated. Plus, food and wine draws out a lot of locals (like us) during the week as we tend to avoid the parks on the weekends for the most part.

Also, people have to remember with MNSSHP on certain days at Magic and closing at 7:00, other parks will see even more guests than they normally would on those days. The Monorail to EPCOT is usually packed on those days coming from Magic. Still, nothing that is out of the ordinary for this time of year. I find this time of year to be quite pleasant at the parks, crowd & weather wise actually.

Last week (on Tuesday) we were able to hit Magic with FP's for Space, Thunder & Splash. Walk on to Pirates (20 minutes) and the Mansion (30 minutes). Head to EPCOT, ride Mission:Space and single rider on Test Track all between one and around six or six thirty then stayed for Illuminations with no issues.

 

[Pkltm]

We were there last week too, it was busy during peak times, saw Soarin and TT sitting at 60-80 minutes but nothing over that, DHS was very busy on the weekend but no unmanageable.

 

[madge]

One of my husband's co-workers just came back from WDW and this was a summary of his trip. Anyone else have similar experiences that went last week??

6 days @ Animal Kingdom (& Split stay at Allstars the last day or two days) & said My Experience was not good & parks were way crowded like 120 minutes plus wait times on rides for EVERYTHING / always!

HE said My experience worked well only on deducting meals BUT checking in & have the bands work on the room entry was a mess as well as you could not make fast passes on the go, my experience tried to tell you that you had to delete everyone & then you could not get new fastpases after that. He also said that you could not do Fast passes at more than one park but only at the park you were at (so he didn’t understand if you had a park hopper & set something up at another park for later) He said checking in & the first day they were at customer service a lot like an hour (which was great but they are overwhelmed with too many people having same problem) & also that the bands would stop working for room entry so if you left the room that the band would not work & you had to go downstairs at hotel resort again to get it reset to get back into your room!

we were there last week -- 3 nights @ ASMovies.
- never saw waits at 120 minutes in any of the 3 parks we visited. we did see 90 @ Toy Story Mania on Wednesday, but that isn't unusual.
- MDE for fastpasses worked fine for us, bands & kiosks, but we have a solid understanding of how they work. if you don't, it can be frustrating. This was on Tuesday & Wednesday. I can't speak to the system any of the other days. We've been there when the system is down & it stinks. :/