Just Back Nov 23-Dec1

A few thoughts from our recent trip. We have not been to WDW in 3 years and have never been at Christmas, so I'm sure this affected our experience.

-The holiday decorations in the parks are phenomenal. Epcot was our favourite for decor - as well as the Holiday Storytellers.

-Bathroom cleanliness was TERRIBLE! Disney makes a lot of money - hire more restroom attendants, please...

-We were so looking forward to our final meal of the trip - Christmas Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. While the food was good, the service was not. We were squished into a table far too small for our party of 10 and our waitress was quite rude / un-attentive. There also seemed to be a lack of Christmas decor in the restaurant - no gingerbread house or ribbon festooned chandeliers like I had seen online. To be incredibly honest, we could have paid half the price for the same experience at Cracker Barrel.

-7DMT = not that great. We got off and my kids said "Was that it? It was so short and boring!" Can't believe people wait in line for hours for this ride and that I stressed so much over not being able to score a fp for it at 60 days out. We got up an hour early to rope drop it during EMM. Probably will never ride it again. We far preferred Splash Mountain and Big Thunder.

-Animal Kingdom was our favourite park. We have only been once, 18 years ago, and can't believe how it's changed. The vegetation and theming of each land is just so well done. We couldn't get a fp for FOP, but arrived 45 minutes prior to rope drop and were on the ride with less than an hour wait. Pandora at night left us speechless.

-Crowds at this time of year were pretty good. Pathways were sometimes crowded, but the fact that we walked onto several rides with no wait tells me how light attendance was. The oft repeated "There is no uncrowded time at Disney anymore" advice on these boards is dead wrong. We usually go in January / February / March. Late November was WAAAAAAAY less crowded / stressful. Hands down.

-Most of all, I enjoyed resort hoping to view the different holiday decorations. This cost us nothing at all on one of our "off" days, and was the highlight of our week. The tree at Wilderness Lodge - WOW! Anyone know if I can buy mini versions of the teepees and canoes on their tree? My adopted children are Aboriginal and we would love to replicate this tree in our home.

All in all, we had a great time!

We noticed last visit a decline in the cleanliness of the restrooms, so that's been going on for a while I'd say (sadly)
7D isn't a huge thrill ride coaster, it's more a mild thrill well themed, sorry you didn't enjoy it.
Did you complain to the manager at Liberty about your meal and service? They don't know if you don't tell them. As an after thought, you can send an email to Disney, but truly the time to complain was while the poor service was happening

We were there also that week, but we found the crowds much heavier than predicted. Which rides were you able to walk onto without a wait?
We also noticed the uncleanliness of the restrooms. Glad you enjoyed your trip!

castle1 said:

We were there also that week, but we found the crowds much heavier than predicted. Which rides were you able to walk onto without a wait?
We also noticed the uncleanliness of the restrooms. Glad you enjoyed your trip!

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Perhaps it just seemed less crowded to our family because we are used to wall-to-wall during the Spring?

These rides were walk-ons for us. I realize they are less popular rides, but when we go in the Spring the wait for rides like Figment or teacups is still at least 20-30 minutes, never walk on.

Kali River Rapids
Splash, Big Thunder, Buzz, and Speedway (during Christmas party.)
Ariel's Undersea Adventure
Teacups
Prince Charming Carousal
Living with the Land
Journey into Imagination with Figment
Soarin'
Navi River Journey
PeopleMover
Small World

These shows had no wait and we walked right into the theater as they started:

Festival of the Lion King
Hall of Presidents
Carousal of Progress
Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor
Country Bears

As well, for every holiday storyteller we just walked up right as they were starting and had front row seats. Usually only a dozen people or so watching.

Also quite telling: We walked right up to the fence around World Showcase Lagoon 5 minutes before Illuminations and had a perfect viewing spot. We are used to having to stake out a spot 1 hour in advance.

**Should mention that we used touring plans for recommendations on which park to go to which day, and how to tour throughout the parks. I think this helped immensely!**

Sounds like you had a pretty good trip with a few let-downs. We had very similar experiences on our last two visits to LTT. I'm not sure that I will go there again unless I can go for an early lunch a la carte. It seems like the bathrooms have been very hit or miss from the reports the last few years.

I think expectations play a huge role in how we view our experiences at WDW - especially crowds. People that go planning for huge crowds but get lower than expected are thrilled. People who go expecting the park to be empty are often disappointed the other way. WDW has become much better at spreading crowds throughout the year. The old "slow" times are now busier and the old "busy" times are now slightly better for the most part. I think the two weeks following Thanksgiving seem to be a sweet spot in between two periods that are still pretty busy.

It's amazing what having some kind of touring plan will do. We have used plans from TP and Easy WDW and they helped quite a bit. By now I'm at the point where I can make my own plan in my head to keep us ahead of the crowds but I was a lost cause before finding those touring plan sites.

Thanks for the mini trip report!

This is kind of a related question here, my apologies if it is too off topic.
When we go into a restroom at WDW and it is dirty who can we go to and complain right then?
Especially after the fact complaints tend not to carry any weight.
I can't imagine just any CM would have things taken care of.
Any help is appreciated.

Princessclab said:

When we go into a restroom at WDW and it is dirty who can we go to and complain right then?

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Guest services would be the appropriate place to lodge a complaint while in the parks.

Princessclab said:

This is kind of a related question here, my apologies if it is too off topic.
When we go into a restroom at WDW and it is dirty who can we go to and complain right then?
Especially after the fact complaints tend not to carry any weight.
I can't imagine just any CM would have things taken care of.
Any help is appreciated.

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Great idea! If enough people bring it to their attention, maybe something will finally be done to keep the restrooms clean.