General impressions from my trip this past weekend, since I found this thread interesting before my trip. Focused on the "extras" so to speak that we paid for:
- Very Merriest After Hours: We had a total ball. It is admittedly a fortune, and we made the decision to splurge- but its hard to beat being at the Magic Kingdom late at night, with short/no waits for rides (the longest was Mine Train for 30 minutes, most were walk on); all the soda/popcorn/water/ice cream/cookies/hot cocoa you can consume; a fun parade and great fireworks; and fake snow on main street
. It did feel more crowded than an After Hours I did in Feb 2020 but obviously different events are hard to compare.
- Genie +: This is the one I don't think I would do again, and minimally wouldn't do for every day of the trip. The good part was that it got us our Slinky Dog ride; Soarin; Test Track; and some other lower level rides to cut the 20min waits on day 1. But by day 2 it really just felt like more of a hassle to remember to check it, and frustrating to try to plan rides around dinner, etc. A bunch of the rides its maybe nice to have, but not really necessary also.
- Staying on property: This is something I always have done and probably will continue to do. the hotels are super pricey, but having disney transport is clutch - we did take a few ubers, but relied quite a bit on bus/skyliner/monorail where we could with general success. We did have some frustrations with the monorail, particularly when trying to get to Magic Kingdom for fireworks, and they had shut down the boats early and only had the resort line - this was frustrating. Early park entry felt useful, especially if you are not inclined to pay for the IAS or Genie +. Disney did get super confused with our switching resorts half way through the trip, and that was also a hassle - so beware, their IT on that type of thing still leaves a lot to be desired!
- Park hopping: Traditionally used to love it, but having to wait till 2 to hop was very frustrating. On day 2 we had some ride breakdowns in HS, with the end result that we were stuck with nothing to do for like 3 hours, as the lines became unmanageable. Really would have to think hard on doing this one again as well, if they don't change the 2pm rule.
Absolutely had a ball and ran myself ragged. Will wait a bit for my next trip, as my wallet is feeling all the extra squeezes from Disney these days.