Wow - just back and amazed at low crowds - a quick review post ***Pics Added 10-2

[sharona]

Just returned for a 3 night/4 day trip Saturday - Tuesday (9/26-9/29) to RPR. It was my 4th visit. Left my DD12 home this time due to school and had some fun meeting up with my FL pals.

Resort - room not ready until 4pm but we did get our requested tower 1. Room was on 3rd floor so we were at lobby level which was very convenient. I think it was a Handicap Access room based on the extra large bathroom and multiple bars in the shower. Nice view of the bridge and lily pond. Excellent experience with bell services holding our luggage and getting us settled in.

Parks - Wow! We were amazed at the low crowds. We had EP but I looked at wait times as a matter of curiosity and the only SB waits longer than 15 minutes we saw the entire trip were on Saturday at HE (going from US to IoA) right before the park closed early for HHN (60 mins posted, 45 actual), and at Minions most days was at 20-30 minutes.

We walked on FJ and Gringotts several times in the afternoons with posted 10 minute waits and used SR lines twice at Gringotts on Tuesday morning and ended up riding together because there were carts going out with empty rows! We also used the SB queues for Spiderman and Mummy as I wanted to see the queue rooms there. Walked right on both. IMO, Spiderman was worth the look but Mummy was just meh.

Tried Terminator and Horror Make Up show for the first time. Loved them both!

Food - We ate at HR Cafe for dinner on Saturday - no reservation 730pm seated immediately. Great steaks and excellent service. Another night we had the all you can eat Wok Experience at RPR's Islands restaurant - it was excellent and fun, highly recommend. You choose your veggies and sauce and protein and they Wok it right on the spot. Lunch at 3 Broomsticks was very good. Lots of great treats too - the cheesecake at that little place to the right on entering US (name?) was heavenly (Death by Caramel), Pistaccio Vanilla and Butterbeer ice cream at DA, super salty popcorn refills, frozen drinks by the pool... all was good. Our only complaint was our breakfast at Islands, we ordered off the menu instead of the buffet and our waffles were served cold. Thank goodness for the warm syrup. ETA - forgot to mention that breakfast at Islands included visits from Grue and Stuart, Scooby, "the Bunnies"?, Homer and Bart.

Service - Great all around. Pleasant smiles and friendly service everywhere we went. Nice enough that it came across as genuine but not so overdone that it seemed fake.

Weather - Workable. Saturday was great. It rained Sunday from 5ish into the night but we were already back at the resort. They closed the pool bar due to lightning and it poured through dinner so we ate on site which turned out to be a great decision! Monday the rain held off until we were leaving IoA at 7pm. Sudden torrential downpour with everyone running for cover. It let up shortly after. Tuesday it rained off and on while we were at the park in the morning but it had pretty much stopped by the time we left for the airport at 1pm. We did not get to see the lunar eclipse due to cloud cover

All in all another great trip! I did take some pics on Saturday and Sunday - will try to post them soon.

 

[thewelts]

Thank you for your trip report. We are going to Universal in December for our first trip (12-14) before returning to WDW for 4 nights. Your information is very helpful!

 

[HM]

Sounds wonderful. I did look at the ride app yesterday and saw the short waits for just about everything! So nice.

 

[christophfam]

Wish I was there now!

I always pick the worse times... of course there isn't always much of a choice when you're working with the school calendar. I won't complain too much as I only have a couple of years before my trips will be solo with both kids off to college.

 

[schumigirl]

It's amazing right now......we still use EP though.....even when there's no-one there.....lol.....

Glad you had lovely time.......

 

[SouthAfricaTraveller]

Can not wait to go on Friday, hope the crowds will stay away! So excited!!

 

[pcstang]

Everyone is a little south of USO at the mouses house it's ridiculous! My wife looked at my on the bus ride back to the resort and said...I've had my fill of WDW for at least the next 5 years. Yep!

 

[SingLikeC]

Glad you all had a great time! Thanks for the insight.

I'm still concerned about whether or not we've made the right decision by staying at RPR at the end of October instead of doing a full CBBR trip. I guess it's better safe than sorry as crowds could fluctuate at a moments notice. Still would prefer the extra CBBR savings though if I knew for sure that crowds would be like what OP stated.

 

[imprint]

Glad you all had a great time! Thanks for the insight.

I'm still concerned about whether or not we've made the right decision by staying at RPR at the end of October instead of doing a full CBBR trip. I guess it's better safe than sorry as crowds could fluctuate at a moments notice. Still would prefer the extra CBBR savings though if I knew for sure that crowds would be like what OP stated.

Unless you are going to be at Universal October 26-28, I think you will be glad you have the unlimited express passes. A crowd calendar I checked has the second half of October as either "moderate" or "busy" every day except the 26th-28th.

 

[sharona]

Glad you all had a great time! Thanks for the insight.

I'm still concerned about whether or not we've made the right decision by staying at RPR at the end of October instead of doing a full CBBR trip. I guess it's better safe than sorry as crowds could fluctuate at a moments notice. Still would prefer the extra CBBR savings though if I knew for sure that crowds would be like what OP stated.

I love RPR but if cost is a concern then you can always stay somewhere less expensive then buy EP if needed.

We drove by CB and I have to say not impressed. I guess they were going for a retro look but IMO it just looks old.

 

[dixonsontour]

How long are you staying SingLikeC?

If only a couple of days then I'd do the express.

If longer then I'd do Cabana bay. I'm biased but we loved the resort last October (were there 7 nights 18th October onwards) and are staying 10 nights from 14th this year.

We found crowds very low and manageable, hoping for a repeat this year. We used the early entry and got to parks at opening. We don't do the biggest coasters but had pretty much no wait for anything. I did a trip report show me the minions on her if you want a look.

Touring plans has crowds from 20th to end of October as only 2 or 3 out of 10 busy.

 

[macraven]

I'm at Disney now and line wait is craZy
3 fast pass does t cut it

Heard less waits at the dark side this week

 

[sharona]

@macraven Head over to Uni!

IoA on Monday on our way out - about 6pm with a 7pm close...

 

[pcstang]

I'm at Disney now and line wait is craZy
3 fast pass does t cut it

Heard less waits at the dark side this week

Yep! We are done for quite some time with Disney. Will make are unit visit in a week that much better!

 

[saskdw]

I'm at Disney now and line wait is craZy
3 fast pass does t cut it

Heard less waits at the dark side this week

Hmmm......wait times on the app look pretty reasonable. Actually quite slow.

 

[angierae]

We're going January 9-10-11 and we're looking at a 5 and 2 2's. I am fairly confident in my decision to stay at CBBR and save the $. We even upgraded to the family suite even tho there's only two of us, and it's still significant savings.

 

[SingLikeC]

Unless you are going to be at Universal October 26-28, I think you will be glad you have the unlimited express passes. A crowd calendar I checked has the second half of October as either "moderate" or "busy" every day except the 26th-28th.

Lol that's funny because we're doing CBBR Oct. 26-28, then RPR Oct. 28- Nov. 1 so I guess my predictions were right on the money!

 

[SingLikeC]

I love RPR but if cost is a concern then you can always stay somewhere less expensive then buy EP if needed.

We drove by CB and I have to say not impressed. I guess they were going for a retro look but IMO it just looks old.

Yea, we thought about buying the EP separate, but after I did the calculations we're still coming out ahead with RPR. If RPR is as great as you say then I'm sure we'll love it too.

 

[Spacepest]

*peeks in this thread*

I'm hoping for low crowds in October. I'm staying at Cabana Bay, and not because of money issues, but because the hotel looks so neat and fun. If its low crowds, awesome, if not, I will pay extra for express passes. The only thing we did buy express passes were for the Halloween Horror Nights events.

Eh, just looked at various crowd calendars. My days will be a mix of moderate and low crowds according to these predictions. The most crowded days we actually have tours planned so we'll be bypassing the crowds.

 

[sharona]

*peeks in this thread*

I'm hoping for low crowds in October. I'm staying at Cabana Bay, and not because of money issues, but because the hotel looks so neat and fun. If its low crowds, awesome, if not, I will pay extra for express passes. The only thing we did buy express passes were for the Halloween Horror Nights events.

Eh, just looked at various crowd calendars. My days will be a mix of moderate and low crowds according to these predictions. The most crowded days we actually have tours planned so we'll be bypassing the crowds.

If your group isn't opposed to the single rider lines, they were basically empty while I was there. We used them to get around the preshow stuff on Gringotts and FJ after the first time around.