BWV from 1/18-1/22

mjlass11

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
I had booked a 2 BR garden/pool view in September for the above dates. The trip included myself, my partner, my nephew and a good friend. Thank God fro Disboards so I was prepared for FP+, MBs... We took DME from the airport and only had to wait 10-15 minutes for our bus. Our planes arrived at 11 and we made it to the resorts by 1230. My MB worked fine for checking us in on the DME. Upon arrival at BWV, our room was ready!!! . They checked all of out MBs and my partners wasn't activated (some computer glitch), and they got it up and working in no time. Our MBs truly worked flawlessly our entire stay for our rooms, FP+s, charging to the room... We had trash/towel service on the 4th day, and they usually restock the coffee but they didn't this time. We had brought extra so it wasn't a big deal, but not sure if we were lucky in the past or this is a new policy.

We walked to HS where we spent the first day. This was the Saturday before MLK, and temperature was cool (50s) and breezy. Crowd levels were supposed to be a 4-5 that day with HS being least desired. The park didn't seem too crowded, but stand by lines were quite long for the big 3
(up to 120 min for TOT). Glad we had FP+ for TS and TOT. We did "double dip" for a FP to RR. I guess that I was surprised by the waits.... have never been to Disney at this time, but expected significantly shorter stand by line times given these projected crowd levels.

Second day we went to AK.... was a level 3-4 crowd day and this was a preferred park....temp in 60s and fairly nice. Got TIW card here and had to wait about 20 minutes for this. Had FP+ for Everest, Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl. Standby times for safari and Everest ended up again over an hour. But we we able to see/do everything we wanted. Ate at Boma at AKL for dinner....great as always.

Third day went to EPCOT (MLK day)...again was supposed to be a low crowd, preferred park and temp was like 75 and was beautiful outside. Had FP+ to Soarin and MS..... "double dipped" for TT (last day for double dipping) as standby was over 90 minutes. We again were able to see/do everything without any problems. Ate at Biergarten, and the buffet lines were huge.... had to stand in line about 15 min before reaching the buffet....never seen it this busy before....reservation was at 7. Enjoyed the food, show and company. Earlier in the day we ate at the big CS place near Innovations, which was packed, and the napkins are now just plain brown... no Disney pic stamped on them.

Last day went to MK at about 9 AM. Same predicted crowd and temp as previous day. Crowds were very slow initially..... went on Haunted Mansion, Pirates and saw Philharmagic by 10AM. Again were able to see/do everything we had planned. FP+ worked fine, but would have been much nicer to get at least 5 instead of three. Wanted to go on Space Mountain a second time, but it broke down for a few hours. Also, the lines to get past FP+ station were much longer than the old FP lines. Took the boat to Poly as monorail was down for maintenance.....long lines and took about an hour to get there (from 4 to 5PM) as most people didn't realize the monorail was going to be down during the day. Ate at Ohana and it was great. Delicious food, nice waitress who didn't rush us and brought us more when we wanted. Wonderful experience.

To sum it up MBs and FP+ worked well for us...mostly because we stayed onsite and Disboards taught me to do my homework and have everything planned out prior to arrival. If we were not staying onsite, it would have been awful. The lines for the kiosks to book FP+s onsite were VERY long, as were the standby lines for the rides at a supposedly slow crowd time. I'm unsure if the ride lines were so long because of FP+ or that it was MLK weekend. A friend of mine whom works at Disney said that this rollout has been anything but smooth. I know that if I had spent $300 for a pass and had to wait over an hour to book FP+ or wait in line for each ride for over an hour that I would have been very angry. The app was very slow at times, so I think that trying to change times would have been difficult. Also, had we planned on being spontaneous or hop parks, FP+ is not conducive to either. I guess my best advice while this is being rolled out is to plan ahead, and use your FP+s for your absolute must see/dos, because the standby wait times may be a long time.
 

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