Here now Sept 11-22 with 4 year old and baby

[lolomarie]

We have 3 days left in our trip and so I thought I'd post for those who are here soon.

Weather: holy man it's HOT!!!!!! I thought it would be hot but this is nuts. (I'm Canadian for referemce).

Crowds: MK crowds on party days are low! 35 minute wait for Space. AK was manageable with FOP fast passes. EPCOT is busy with F&W. Lines haven't been long for us, but it feels busier than the other parks. HS was busy in toy story land.

MDE: is terrible. Fast passes never show up and app never works for adding new ones. Luckily with low crowds this hasn't impacted us greatly, it's just extremely annoying to go off memory for FP or find a kiosk.

Cast members: have been amazing. They've gone above and beyond this trip and we feel the magic.

New rider swap: is horrible for families with young children. Staying in the same area and doing the ride twice in a row is unfair for young kids. We've started skipping it and one person in our party just skips the attraction.

Disney Springs: we've had such a great time here! The dance party my son and I started at the stage tonight was amazing!

Food: soooooooo good. Crystal Palace, T-Rex (yup, that too), Sultulii Canteen, Polite Pig, Tusker House, Earl of Sandwich, Ghiridelli. Everything has been excellent.

Travel with young kids: this has been tough. The heat, lack of sleep (even with nap breaks), over stimulation. All make for cranky kids. Trying my best to look past some things while keeping my standards in place, but it's been hard.

Happily Ever After Dessert Party: food was nice. But garden was crowded. I didn't realize how crowded it would be and our spot was slightly obstructed. Kinda disappointed for the money spent.

Halloween Horror Nights: UNREAL! So much fun and we have one more night to go!

Let me know if you'd like to know anything. And I'll try my best to answer.

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

Thanks for the live update. We have an ADR for breakfast at Crystal Palace on our next trip (Nov-Dec 2018, no kids). We haven't been there before. Did you do breakfast, and if so, how was your experience there? Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[brockash]

We have 3 days left in our trip and so I thought I'd post for those who are here soon.

Weather: holy man it's HOT!!!!!! I thought it would be hot but this is nuts. (I'm Canadian for referemce).

Crowds: MK crowds on party days are low! 35 minute wait for Space. AK was manageable with FOP fast passes. EPCOT is busy with F&W. Lines haven't been long for us, but it feels busier than the other parks. HS was busy in toy story land.

MDE: is terrible. Fast passes never show up and app never works for adding new ones. Luckily with low crowds this hasn't impacted us greatly, it's just extremely annoying to go off memory for FP or find a kiosk.

Cast members: have been amazing. They've gone above and beyond this trip and we feel the magic.

New rider swap: is horrible for families with young children. Staying in the same area and doing the ride twice in a row is unfair for young kids. We've started skipping it and one person in our party just skips the attraction.

Disney Springs: we've had such a great time here! The dance party my son and I started at the stage tonight was amazing!

Food: soooooooo good. Crystal Palace, T-Rex (yup, that too), Sultulii Canteen, Polite Pig, Tusker House, Earl of Sandwich, Ghiridelli. Everything has been excellent.

Travel with young kids: this has been tough. The heat, lack of sleep (even with nap breaks), over stimulation. All make for cranky kids. Trying my best to look past some things while keeping my standards in place, but it's been hard.

Happily Ever After Dessert Party: food was nice. But garden was crowded. I didn't realize how crowded it would be and our spot was slightly obstructed. Kinda disappointed for the money spent.

Halloween Horror Nights: UNREAL! So much fun and we have one more night to go!

Let me know if you'd like to know anything. And I'll try my best to answer.

ITA about the new baby swap, but honestly choosing not to use it because it's so frustrating is exactly what Disney wants to happen. It helps them eliminate having to deal with it at all. Dont get me wrong we just returned a week ago and we did the same thing with someone skipping the attractions because it just wasn't worth the hassle, but that's a shame and so disappointing.

 

[kappyfamily]

Thanks for the update. Glad the food has all been good, sorry about the downside of your trip. Way to keep a positive attitude! Have a great time!

 

[mamaofsix]

Just wondering what you mean by the "new" rider swap? How is it different than it was before?

 

[ClapYourHands]

Just wondering what you mean by the "new" rider swap? How is it different than it was before?

Previously the non-rider got to have paper return that allowed him/her to come back that day (or within a few days). Now the non-rider has to get the rider return on his/her magic band and only has an hour to ride it. The result is that the young children are stuck waiting for two adults to ride instead of getting to drop off mom/dad and then go do something else with the other adult returning when it's convenient. I don't think it's the magic band issue as much as it is the one-hour window tying up the day.

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

Yes! And with FOP this could be little ones are waiting for over an hour. We always split up riding when we did rider swap. Usually riding something in between for our son. Not possible now

 

[ClapYourHands]

When we went last time, our boys were old enough to ride everything, but our daughter was an infant. We went with a family that had two daughters, one was big enough to ride everything, and the other was borderline. I split us up into group A and group B for fast passes, so we'd take turns being the adults that got to ride the "headliner" first while the others took the younger kids to something tamer. Later in the day when it was convenient, the adults who hadn't ridden would go back to Splash (or whatever), and the first adults would take over kid duty. Obviously, we could all ride together on Buzz or Peter Pan, but it was great not being tied to waiting at a ride.

If you only have an infant, the new RS isn't too bad. If you have toddlers or preschoolers, it's a terrible tease to have them in this amusement park where they can see and hear tons of fun rides, but they can't go DO any of them because they've got to spend the next 45 minutes waiting on their parents and siblings to ride a rollercoaster.

 

[pooch]

So the non rider can’t take the child somewhere else and do something else for an hour? Because they make you stay? Or an hour isn’t enough time to do something else?

 

[ClapYourHands]

So the non rider can’t take the child somewhere else and do something else for an hour? Because they make you stay? Or an hour isn’t enough time to do something else?

An hour is usually not enough time. Maybe if you have a close attraction and a FP for it, but if there's walking and standby line involved, you might not get back in time.

There has also been some confusion if EVERYONE in the party needs to have a FP for the ride before RS can be used. There have been reports of some CMs requiring the returning adults to have the FP for the ride, which means they cannot have a FP to accompany the younger kids on a smaller ride. When we went a few years ago, we had the first adults and big kids booked on Space Mountain, and the second adults and children booked on Pooh. I suppose we could have just gotten FP for the smaller kids, but would your 4-year-old be okay riding Pooh solo? I'm pretty sure that most kids who are too short for the headliners are also too young to go through the FP queue by themselves and ride alone.

It also makes it nearly impossible to do RS with standby on some rides. If the first adult is standing in the standby line, he or she might not be off the ride to swap childcare within the hour. When we went in 2016, the first adults and the older kids waited over an hour for 7DMT, so there was no way the second adults could have made the one-hour window.

 

[KateMW]

What has changed about the rider swap and is it for all rides of just the very popular ones?

 

[pooch]

An hour is usually not enough time. Maybe if you have a close attraction and a FP for it, but if there's walking and standby line involved, you might not get back in time.

There has also been some confusion if EVERYONE in the party needs to have a FP for the ride before RS can be used. There have been reports of some CMs requiring the returning adults to have the FP for the ride, which means they cannot have a FP to accompany the younger kids on a smaller ride. When we went a few years ago, we had the first adults and big kids booked on Space Mountain, and the second adults and children booked on Pooh. I suppose we could have just gotten FP for the smaller kids, but would your 4-year-old be okay riding Pooh solo? I'm pretty sure that most kids who are too short for the headliners are also too young to go through the FP queue by themselves and ride alone.

It also makes it nearly impossible to do RS with standby on some rides. If the first adult is standing in the standby line, he or she might not be off the ride to swap childcare within the hour. When we went in 2016, the first adults and the older kids waited over an hour for 7DMT, so there was no way the second adults could have made the one-hour window.

Yes, I can see that might be difficult especially during high crowd times. We took our kids and grandkids in November, of course still under the old system. But we pretty much rode once and then again as soon as they all got off just to avoid back tracking too much. I was usually the one to wait with the 2 smaller (6 and baby) kids but we always found stuff to do. For example, while everyone rode Everest, we went to the bone yard. Space Mountain - we headed to the circus area. The first group would text when they were done & we'd go back. Yes, there was some waiting but no one sat with nothing to do. Again, we were not under the 1 hour gun but I feel like we were back within that timeframe anyway. YMMV

 

[ClapYourHands]

What has changed about the rider swap and is it for all rides of just the very popular ones?

See above for RS changes

RS is for rides with height limits. Children who do not meet those height requirements are not even allowed to wait in the queues. In practice, many are the most popular rides, but not all. You can't get RS for Navi River Journey or Peter Pan, even though they are extremely popular because anyone, even a baby, can ride. But you can get RS for Barnstormer or Primeval Whirl which are not hard to get tickets.

MK:
Splash Mountain
Space Mountain
7DMT
Barnstormer
Indy Speedway
Big Thunder

AK:
Flight of Passage
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest
Kali River Rapids
Primeval Whirl

Epcot
Frozen
Test Track
Soarin'
Mission Space

HS
Alien Swirling Saucers
Slinky Dog
Star Tours
Tower of Terror
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

 

[Jennasis]

Did the 4 year old attend HHN??

 

[KateMW]

I knew what it was for and basically how it worked, but I thought you always had to basically just swap out? I guess I was wrong. So it's not for ALL the rides you have to be back within an hour? We only plan to RS a couple of things and we have fast passes for all of them, so hopefully it will work.

See above for RS changes

RS is for rides with height limits. Children who do not meet those height requirements are not even allowed to wait in the queues. In practice, many are the most popular rides, but not all. You can't get RS for Navi River Journey or Peter Pan, even though they are extremely popular because anyone, even a baby, can ride. But you can get RS for Barnstormer or Primeval Whirl which are not hard to get tickets.

MK:
Splash Mountain
Space Mountain
7DMT
Barnstormer
Indy Speedway
Big Thunder

AK:
Flight of Passage
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest
Kali River Rapids
Primeval Whirl

Epcot
Frozen
Test Track
Soarin'
Mission Space

HS
Alien Swirling Saucers
Slinky Dog
Star Tours
Tower of Terror
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

 

[ClapYourHands]

I knew what it was for and basically how it worked, but I thought you always had to basically just swap out? I guess I was wrong. So it's not for ALL the rides you have to be back within an hour? We only plan to RS a couple of things and we have fast passes for all of them, so hopefully it will work.

I think I misunderstood your question. The list above is of all the attractions that can utilize RS. The hour return window is now a requirement for ALL of them.

You didn't always have to swap out immediately because Disney does not allow children below the height requirement to even enter the queue. At Universal, on the other hand, everyone goes through the line, and then there's a room near the loading area where the non-riding adult and child wait, and then the adults swap out quickly after the first adult finishes. At Disney, you used to be able to go elsewhere in the park and do something with the younger children instead of waiting near the first ride.

 

[Giz1026]

Thanks for review on RS. We are going in November with a large group and one toddler and I'm worried how this will play out. I'm guessing whichever parent has the toddler at the time of the ride is just going to miss out . I wouldn't want to hold up most of the group while doing the second ride and preventing them from moving on.

 

[nkereina]

Happily Ever After Dessert Party: food was nice. But garden was crowded. I didn't realize how crowded it would be and our spot was slightly obstructed. Kinda disappointed for the money spent.

When you say the garden was crowded, are you likening it to Main Street/Hub crowded? Most of the reviews I've seen have said the garden is just comfortably full, so I wonder if you had an expectation of more space in the garden which ended up not being the case. We have a party booked for October so I've been watching these reviews closely to understand everyone's perspectives.

 

[Dezign]

When you say the garden was crowded, are you likening it to Main Street/Hub crowded?

I'm wondering the same thing, lolomarie. And thank you for your report!

 

[ktlm]

Thanks for your report! We are on the fence about whether to cancel the Happily Ever After Dessert Party. I was wondering since they are doing both before fireworks and after fireworks dessert reservations now if that would make the garden area much more crowded. Sounds like it does. Were people standing or sitting in that area for the fireworks? If I am going to get someone tall standing directly in front of me there, just like on Main Street, it doesn't sound like it is worth it for us.