So this is meant to gripe a little, provide a warning and offer hints to be helpful.
Got back Sunday night after a week in the parks with my wife and 12 y/o son. We have been going to Disney for over 20 years, this was probably our 12th or 13th trip so I'm fairly in the know.
In no particular order . . .
a. Family/Group T-shirts is a thing now. Not sure why. And not sure when someone picked a black shirt they were thinking ahead to it being 90 degrees and humid.
b. EPCOT on a Saturday night - can't recommend unless you are a roving pack of bros & ho's drinking yourself stupid around the world. It was super crowded, like nothing I've ever seen, don't know if the dining and drinks promotion were bringing them in but every drink and food cart was 40-50 deep line. They were loud, drunk, obnoxious and organized by T-shirts. Walked three countries without seeing security but I did count 7 people smoking in the main route including a cigar puffer. Of course the first security guard I did finally see was in England and he was apparently working as a bouncer keeping people from trying to enter the pub via the side door but doing nothing about the smokers outside. Maybe Disney will get sued when these drunkards kill themselves driving home after 12 drinks but for now I'm sure Di$ney loves their money.
c. Speaking of security, my wife was literally run down by a rental stroller at night at MK near Splash Mountain. The person who hit her then ran off with the stroller and didn't stop at all - I thought hit and run was a crime. Wouldn't it be reasonable to have a security presence to prevent people from running with a stroller at night? So a family helped her into a nearby shop and the medic wrapped an ice pack on her injured ankle and I pushed her in a wheelchair the next couple hours as we hoped the swelling would go down.
d. Electric scooters are everywhere now, and not just used by the handicapped elderly. Seems like a tipping point has been reached as I saw 20-30 y/o's and teens in them now, mother-daughter teams, etc. The vast majority seem to be rentals and the drivers, maybe because they don't normally use them, tend to go too fast and hit their horns if you have the audacity to be walking in their way. I think WALL-E was on to something.
e. Resort pools - Stayed at Wilderness Lodge for a few nights then moved to Coronado - both pools had these obnoxious DJ music set-ups going in the afternoon. Thumping disco pop music and a girl on a mic trying to get line dancing going. It was ludicrous. At most, I saw 4 or 5 elementary age girls dancing while 100 other pool guests had to suffer through the noise pollution. I'm not expecting a quiet pool since I'm going with my son but this nonsense has to stop. Be warned to take ear plugs.
f. Dole Whips - at MK, I thought they had discontinued it since when we got to Adventureland it was our first stop at the stand that we had been hitting for 20 years and they were only selling orange/vanilla ice cream swirls. Luckily and bigger better multiple line stand had been opened behind Aladdin's ride IIRC.
g. Wilderness Lodge dining - three meals, three problems. 1. The Roaring Fork quick serve isn't quick anymore. They redesigned the flow/layout and instead of grabbing a hot breakfast sandwich you get a number and they bring it out to your table. Great, except that it took 24 minutes. Not quick, no good. Avoid it. 2. Then there was dinner on a reservation at the Whispering Canyon the first night - multiple empty tables in view and the hostess told us it would take 15 minutes to be seated. Then she had them seat us in the back room and I was hitting my knees trying to get into that seat (different than the rest of the tables there) so we asked to be in the main dining area and she made us wait again to be seated even though there were tables open everywhere. When we voiced our concern to our server she said that the hostess was actually the manager! 3. Whispering Canyon a couple days later, again a reservation for breakfast. Ordered the all you can eat skillet for three. Took over twenty minutes for what should be a basic meal for this restaurant. Then for the refill another twenty minutes and it only included 2 strips of bacon for three people, asked immediately for additional bacon, especially for my son who loves it and it didn't come until we were ready to go. Sort of got the feeling it was a concerted effort to slow things down to cut costs.
h. The Fast Pass pre-planning ticket rez is a great thing, seems like more people should take advantage since it makes your day more efficient and minimizes back-tracking. Still though, according to my wife's fit-bit we walked 58 miles in 6 days. Need a vacation from my vacation.
Hope this helps someone out there . . .
Got back Sunday night after a week in the parks with my wife and 12 y/o son. We have been going to Disney for over 20 years, this was probably our 12th or 13th trip so I'm fairly in the know.
In no particular order . . .
a. Family/Group T-shirts is a thing now. Not sure why. And not sure when someone picked a black shirt they were thinking ahead to it being 90 degrees and humid.
b. EPCOT on a Saturday night - can't recommend unless you are a roving pack of bros & ho's drinking yourself stupid around the world. It was super crowded, like nothing I've ever seen, don't know if the dining and drinks promotion were bringing them in but every drink and food cart was 40-50 deep line. They were loud, drunk, obnoxious and organized by T-shirts. Walked three countries without seeing security but I did count 7 people smoking in the main route including a cigar puffer. Of course the first security guard I did finally see was in England and he was apparently working as a bouncer keeping people from trying to enter the pub via the side door but doing nothing about the smokers outside. Maybe Disney will get sued when these drunkards kill themselves driving home after 12 drinks but for now I'm sure Di$ney loves their money.
c. Speaking of security, my wife was literally run down by a rental stroller at night at MK near Splash Mountain. The person who hit her then ran off with the stroller and didn't stop at all - I thought hit and run was a crime. Wouldn't it be reasonable to have a security presence to prevent people from running with a stroller at night? So a family helped her into a nearby shop and the medic wrapped an ice pack on her injured ankle and I pushed her in a wheelchair the next couple hours as we hoped the swelling would go down.
d. Electric scooters are everywhere now, and not just used by the handicapped elderly. Seems like a tipping point has been reached as I saw 20-30 y/o's and teens in them now, mother-daughter teams, etc. The vast majority seem to be rentals and the drivers, maybe because they don't normally use them, tend to go too fast and hit their horns if you have the audacity to be walking in their way. I think WALL-E was on to something.
e. Resort pools - Stayed at Wilderness Lodge for a few nights then moved to Coronado - both pools had these obnoxious DJ music set-ups going in the afternoon. Thumping disco pop music and a girl on a mic trying to get line dancing going. It was ludicrous. At most, I saw 4 or 5 elementary age girls dancing while 100 other pool guests had to suffer through the noise pollution. I'm not expecting a quiet pool since I'm going with my son but this nonsense has to stop. Be warned to take ear plugs.
f. Dole Whips - at MK, I thought they had discontinued it since when we got to Adventureland it was our first stop at the stand that we had been hitting for 20 years and they were only selling orange/vanilla ice cream swirls. Luckily and bigger better multiple line stand had been opened behind Aladdin's ride IIRC.
g. Wilderness Lodge dining - three meals, three problems. 1. The Roaring Fork quick serve isn't quick anymore. They redesigned the flow/layout and instead of grabbing a hot breakfast sandwich you get a number and they bring it out to your table. Great, except that it took 24 minutes. Not quick, no good. Avoid it. 2. Then there was dinner on a reservation at the Whispering Canyon the first night - multiple empty tables in view and the hostess told us it would take 15 minutes to be seated. Then she had them seat us in the back room and I was hitting my knees trying to get into that seat (different than the rest of the tables there) so we asked to be in the main dining area and she made us wait again to be seated even though there were tables open everywhere. When we voiced our concern to our server she said that the hostess was actually the manager! 3. Whispering Canyon a couple days later, again a reservation for breakfast. Ordered the all you can eat skillet for three. Took over twenty minutes for what should be a basic meal for this restaurant. Then for the refill another twenty minutes and it only included 2 strips of bacon for three people, asked immediately for additional bacon, especially for my son who loves it and it didn't come until we were ready to go. Sort of got the feeling it was a concerted effort to slow things down to cut costs.
h. The Fast Pass pre-planning ticket rez is a great thing, seems like more people should take advantage since it makes your day more efficient and minimizes back-tracking. Still though, according to my wife's fit-bit we walked 58 miles in 6 days. Need a vacation from my vacation.
Hope this helps someone out there . . .
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