Just Back...a few observations

[wdwfun!]

We are just back from our trip Saturday to Thursday. I would agree with other comments that the parks seem more crowded than our previous November trips. Crowd calendar was projecting a 6 on the weekend and then declining to 2 mid-week. We really didn't see much difference between the weekend and mid-week in terms of wait times - very busy. We arrived early Saturday at the Contemporary only to find out the resort was over booked. I spoke with one of managers hoping to pay to upgrade to TPV because our code did not allow us to book it. He said there was going to be some unhappy guests and we saw one later that day in the lobby who had to be moved to another resort.

As far as the parks, MK was opening at 8:45 in the mornings and Fantasyland was slammed by shortly after 9. A lot of families with small children were there early and the Mine Train line was stunningly long by 9. You could do the other rides though with fairly short waits until late morning. "Day of" FPs were available for most rides if you wanted to make changes other than the Mine Train. We generally left MK by noonish and it was very busy by that time. We did go to AK one morning for opening too and we arrived for bag check just a few minutes before 9. It looked like they were letting guests in early too. We were able to ride EE with little wait until about 10 and we got a "day of" FP for the Safari. As far as the other parks, Soarin and TT as well as TSM and RR were very long waits. The single rider line for RR was very slow and CMs were questioning guests as to whether they really were "single riders". There were some large groups in the single rider line.

Overall we were able to get done pretty much everything we wanted to do. It took longer than we hoped and was more crowded than we expected but the weather was fantastic. Best we have had for any of our November trips. The biggest disappointment was that the resorts were not decorated for Christmas. Other than the Osborne lights, it really didn't feel as festive as previous years

 

[Cyrano]

Sounds like overall you had a good time.

Thanks for checking in

 

[danny1649]

I say you sound like you had a great trip , I'm happy for you.

 

[LuvMyEAR]

I have to agree with OP...we were there Nov 9-18 and found the crowds definitely heavier than during previous November visits. I'll take the optimistic point of view and like to think that more people are able to afford vacations this year, despite the ever-climbing Disney costs.

FPs helped to ensure we didn't waste time waiting in long lines, but frankly we NEVER waited in long lines on any trip. I can walk a good distance in a day, but standing or inching forward is extremely painful for me. Prior to FP+, we ever got a line with more than a 15-minute wait time, and always experienced every attraction that appealed to us, usually multiple times. With FP+, the waits are never more than 10 min, but we certainly spend more time zigzagging around to be in place for the FP window. Also, as off-site guests, we have never managed to get a FP for 7DMT, and have only managed to ride it during MNSSHP or MVMCP. Oops, my DGSs did a rope drop race and got an early ride one day!

The weather was fantastic, and Typhoon Lagoon was well-loved. CMs seemed to be more personable than I have noted in years. I cannot say I ever had an outright poor experience prior with a CM prior to this trip but i had noticed a disappointing trend toward more indifference. I was starting to feel like a customer, not a guest, but that trend was, to me, definitely reversed.

I was eager to see the MK hub work at completion and I have to say that it blew me away! I love the new design, and it really improved not just the traffic flow but it is absolutely beautiful. I would still love to see more casually blended seating there as well as in the rest of the parks.

We paid a visit to Disney Springs and that is another place I would love to see when it is finished. What we did see is quite lovely, despite the prevalent construction wall "theming". The expanded parking was long overdue, but I sure missed the days of actually getting a spot near the Marketplace and just strolling in for a quick bite. With the hike from the garage, it is now a planned activity for us, not a place we can keep going back to when we have some extra time.

Just my observations...LOL

 

[tsme]

WOW, I've heard of mere mortal hotels overbooking, but I've never heard of Disney Hotels overbooking. I would be devastated if that happened to us. We plan most of our night ADRs around where we stay & dream of our room. Where would they send these poor unfortunate souls? I would assume it would have to be an upgrade, right? That's just crazy.
I'm glad your trip went well. We are 21 days out from our trip & so very excited.

 

[GPC0321]

WOW, I've heard of mere mortal hotels overbooking, but I've never heard of Disney Hotels overbooking. I would be devastated if that happened to us. We plan most of our night ADRs around where we stay & dream of our room. Where would they send these poor unfortunate souls? I would assume it would have to be an upgrade, right? That's just crazy.
I'm glad your trip went well. We are 21 days out from our trip & so very excited.

I would hope it would be an upgrade. I sometimes daydream about arriving at our mod resort and being told there was an error and they are overbooked and as a result we're being upgraded to a deluxe resort. I'd be fine with that. LOL.

 

[disneysteve]

I'll also agree regarding the crowds. We were there 11/8-11/15 and the place was packed everywhere we went. It was nuts. It felt like some major holiday but it wasn't. We had a great time though it is a little challenging to kick back and enjoy yourself when you are constantly pushing through crowds just to move through the park. I'm glad Disney is doing well but I kind of wish they were doing a little bit less well. We'll be back in January and I'm waiting to see what that is like.

 

[Stubbzilla]

We just got back from ours and found it less crowded than when we've gone in September, early February, and late February. Never been in November before, but the specific weeks we've been have all been value season or one up from that. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get good spots to see the parades and shows compared to when we visited before. However, I had made plans using Touring Plans, and the optimizer's estimated wait times were lower than what was listed for many rides, which at first lead me to conclude that wait times for November have gone up. Except - Disney listed wait times were overestimated a lot - like it said 20 minutes and we really waited 5. Weird. I didn't time our waits so I'm not sure what they actually were. We didn't wait very long for much of anything, except A&E and Seven Dwarfs, which I could not get FP+ for even though we were onsite. We used a combination of rope-drop, FP+, and timing rides for their lowest wait times.

 

[Disneytam]

WOW, I've heard of mere mortal hotels overbooking, but I've never heard of Disney Hotels overbooking. I would be devastated if that happened to us. We plan most of our night ADRs around where we stay & dream of our room. Where would they send these poor unfortunate souls? I would assume it would have to be an upgrade, right? That's just crazy.
I'm glad your trip went well. We are 21 days out from our trip & so very excited.

Our one and only upgrade was at the GF club level. We had a group of 9 of us with 2 standard RPC CL rooms booked and when we arrived they told us that they had overbooked the hotel and upgraded us to a 3 bedroom suite. The strange thing was they knew months in advance that they had overbooked because I had called the hotel about a question I had (years ago you could call and talk to the CL cast members direct) and she jokingly said that they were overbooked and she hoped somebody canceled. I'm so glad they didn't!

 

[RedAngie]

. As far as the other parks, Soarin and TT as well as TSM and RR were very long waits. The single rider line for RR was very slow and CMs were questioning guests as to whether they really were "single riders". There were some large groups in the single rider line.

I never understood why the RnR Coaster single rider line moved so slowly, yet the Everest SR line at AK moves pretty quickly. I know there used to be a sign at RnR warning that the SR line might be as long as or even exceed the standby wait. I suppose the CMs were warning the large groups in the SR line of the possibility.

If pairs or groups want to get in the SR lines, I have no problem with it, as long as they're willing to be separated. DH and I often use the SR line at Everest. Most of the time we're on the same train, a few times right behind each other. One time at Test Track a couple in the SR line put up a big stink and wanted to be seated together. The CM gave them a choice: Separate or leave. They left rather than riding separately.

 

[nooneshome]

We just got yesterday and the crowds are bigger than last year for the same week. We managed quite well getting the tough FPs like Soarin and 7DMT as soon as possible and taking advantage of each having two extra MBs and getting NBFPs. We really crushed it at MK and DHS.

 

[subtchr]

...having two extra MBs and getting NBFPs.

I've seen "SDFP" for same day FP, but what is NBFP?

 

[nooneshome]

I've seen "SDFP" for same day FP, but what is NBFP?

Night Before FPs. I have an old one day ticket that I re-assign to other MBs within a dummy MDE account.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/maximize-fp-get-a-second-set-see-post-227-before-posting.3245463/

 

[subtchr]

Night Before FPs. I have an old one day ticket that I re-assign to other MBs within a dummy MDE account.

Ah, got it, thanks! I understand how it works, thanks to ScrapYap and Hiro, I just had missed that abbreviation. I usually have an extra 3 or 4 day pass that I do the same thing with, thanks to my job as a tour director and consecutive trips, so I do it 30 days in advance!

 

[wdw4rfam]

Funny, we arrived Thursday and found yesterday at MK and today at HS to be way less crowded than we expected. We were saying how it was less crowded than our September trip last year. I'm sure it will get real bad as our trip goes on but we were pleasantly surprised so far. Now the buses at CBR.....another story

 

[wdw4rfam]

We are just back from our trip Saturday to Thursday. I would agree with other comments that the parks seem more crowded than our previous November trips. Crowd calendar was projecting a 6 on the weekend and then declining to 2 mid-week. We really didn't see much difference between the weekend and mid-week in terms of wait times - very busy. We arrived early Saturday at the Contemporary only to find out the resort was over booked. I spoke with one of managers hoping to pay to upgrade to TPV because our code did not allow us to book it. He said there was going to be some unhappy guests and we saw one later that day in the lobby who had to be moved to another resort.

As far as the parks, MK was opening at 8:45 in the mornings and Fantasyland was slammed by shortly after 9. A lot of families with small children were there early and the Mine Train line was stunningly long by 9. You could do the other rides though with fairly short waits until late morning. "Day of" FPs were available for most rides if you wanted to make changes other than the Mine Train. We generally left MK by noonish and it was very busy by that time. We did go to AK one morning for opening too and we arrived for bag check just a few minutes before 9. It looked like they were letting guests in early too. We were able to ride EE with little wait until about 10 and we got a "day of" FP for the Safari. As far as the other parks, Soarin and TT as well as TSM and RR were very long waits. The single rider line for RR was very slow and CMs were questioning guests as to whether they really were "single riders". There were some large groups in the single rider line.

Overall we were able to get done pretty much everything we wanted to do. It took longer than we hoped and was more crowded than we expected but the weather was fantastic. Best we have had for any of our November trips. The biggest disappointment was that the resorts were not decorated for Christmas. Other than the Osborne lights, it really didn't feel as festive as previous years

CBR overbooked certain room types and tried to throw overflow in pirate rooms calling it an "upgrade". It was a big NOT for me. When I book a room that says "queen beds" I am going to sleep in a queen bed someplace in the same zip code as the main building

 

[subtchr]

CBR overbooked certain room types and tried to throw overflow in pirate rooms calling it an "upgrade". It was a big NOT for me. When I book a room that says "queen beds" I am going to sleep in a queen bed someplace in the same zip code as the main building

So what did you end up with? (I'm with you on the queen beds!)

 

[wdwfun!]

As far as the CR being overbooked, I am not sure what could be an upgrade to TPV CL. When the manager told us TPV was overbooked we offered to pay to upgrade to TPV CL but he said that was overbooked too. I asked if we could upgrade on Monday but he said they were at 100% capacity then too. So perhaps a move to a 2 or 3 bedroom at BLT would be considered an upgrade or some may consider the GF CL an upgrade as well. I am glad we got the room we did even though we didn't have a TPV. It was a fun trip.

 

[wdw4rfam]

So what did you end up with? (I'm with you on the queen beds!)

I booked standard. They tried to put us in pirate. I said no way and politely mentioned standard rooms saying queen beds when she tried telling me that standard meant that they could put you anywhere. I expected queen beds which is what it said under standard room. I also know that trinidad south is pirate and would never book that because it's so far away. I told them I didn't care where they put me as long as it had the queens. We ended up in Martinique. Which is a preferred I'm assuming since we are the first building by OPR. Again, didn't want an upgrade, just what I booked.

 

[RedAngie]

The time we stayed at Caribbean they apparently "upgraded" us to a Pirate room as well. I just remember that we reserved a room with a lake/water view, not specifying any other preference, and the CM at check-in making kind of a big deal that he was giving us a Pirate room. We took it, but to tell the truth I didn't like the décor at all. The bed sizes weren't an issue, and neither was the distance from the food court/shops/main pool. Just that the room wasn't to our taste, kind of tacky. But we stayed. It's not like we spent all that much time in the room anyway.

If we return to the Caribbean, I'll know NOT to request or accept a Pirate room again.