BuzzinDownToDisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2014
Just getting my first chance to share some details I observed around the theme parks during our trip from 8/25-9/1 staying at BLT with a 3yo son and elderly parents. There was good, bad and ugly, but mostly good.
Good:
New Fantasyland. I know it has taken some hits here, but NFL was easily my son's favorite section of the park. We spent more time there than anywhere else combined. It feels more open and I really like a lot of the architecture. Kinda wish they had nuked the merch tent and kept the Toon Town houses, but overall I loved this area.
SDMT. Again, if you're a thrill seeker, this isn't for you. If you have a 38.5 inch child who just barely makes the height, it was awesome. I get people feel it is too short, but after riding Barnstormer it felt like Small World in length. It is far and away the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden. One major word of advice though. If traveling with a child hold your hand behind their head as you begin your initial climb. There is a sudden jolt that slammed my kid's head back into the seat pretty violently. I padded it on every ride after and he was fine.
SDMT FP availability. This was a huge concern for me because he loved it day 1 and I had no more FPs for it the rest of the trip. I was able to log on every single night after 10pm and easily find availabilities for the next day. 3 days I was able to find overlapping times, one day I broke up the group which worked better because he rode with Mom and I in the morning, then Grandpa in the afternoon using Grandma's MB.
MBs: I loved the ease of having them. I hate having my pockets full so having no keys or wallet was great. Our MBs worked perfect for every FP, shopping, room entry and park entry all week. My only complaint about them is so many people do not understand how to line them up that there were times you got very backed up at park entry because folks didn't know what they were doing.
MM Photographers: These CMs were awesome. Always quick with a cool photo suggestion, magic shot offer or general theme park advice. One day we were just finishing up a magic shot and out CM told us to stay where we were and we'd see a parade and dance party featuring all the big characters. We had no idea this was happening and it was one of my favorite moments of the trip as my son got to see Woody and Jessie for the first time.
CMS in general: Had some great conversations with them. Saw very few that seemed to be there just for the paycheck. The majority of them were into their gig. I was particularly impressed with the ones working the FP return MB kiosks at rides. So many people either pretending to have a FP or not knowing how to use FP and the CMs I saw handled them really well and with a smile.
Bad:
Weekend crowd level. We booked this trip expecting the heat but hopefully offsetting it with low crowd levels. This worked Wednesday-Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were insane at the MK. Granted there were EMH both days making them not recommended, however I never thought it would be so crowded. 40 minutes for Barnstormer crowded. Over at Epcot it took 40 minutes to get through a FP line for Soarin. That was a killer to our touring.
Broke down rides: Seems every time I turned around a ride was broken down. Space Mountain, Pirates, SDMT (At RD no less), TSMM (Also at RD), Muppets 3D, Star Tours, Test Track (With me on it 20 yards from the exit had to wait 30 minutes to be evacuated), Under the Sea (Rode 4 times, stopped for at least 5 minutes each time), Expedition Everest (Closed the whole morning I was at AK) and on and on. Seems they had an unusually high number of breakdowns every day. The only good thing was it gave us TSMM and SDMT FPs good for any other time of day.
Character Meet and Greet locations. It's great they have moved the Fab 5 and Princesses indoors, but the Woody & Jessie and Tigger & Pooh locations felt like standing on the surface of the sun. These are the slowest moving lines in the whole park as each child gets time to interact with them, the least they can do is throw up some fans. At least Buzz' spot is completely in the shade. Brutal.
The Ugly:
MDE website and app. It was 100% useless in the parks. Could not access it at all via cellular or wifi. Because of this I want to condemn FP+ but I can't because had the site worked I think I would have loved FP+. The problem was it was not possible to do anything on it. With our party split so often between bigger rides and kiddie rides it was tough to keep track of all of it. End result was we wasted FPs for TSMM and SDMT and I didn't even realize it till it was too late. Another example was while waiting on the Pooh M&G my kid decided he wanted to ride the ride after. Simple, we had a throwaway FP for Under the Sea the next hour, I could just log on and switch the experience, right? Nope! No access to your FPs, just error messages aplenty. Infuriating because if the technology worked, it would have made for a flawless day.
DHS Rope Drop and Frozen problems. I was very concerned about the RD procedure at DHS prior to my trip and sure enough, I had reason to. The surge to TSMM was insane, I had one psycho woman try to squeeze her double stroller into a one foot gap between my DW and my stroller, and when she could she started clipping my tires till the wheels got intertwined. Had my son not been strapped in, he would have flown out face first. It was ugly. All that fighting only to arrive at TSMM and it was broken down
However they did get it functioning by 9:15 and we were done by 9:30, so I guess I was good at being a fighter 
My bigger problem was what the Frozen fireworks do to DHS. Let's face it, there is not much to do at this park as far as rides go. We had a Fantasmic Dinner at 5:30 at Brown Derby (Best meal of the trip, BTW) and it started pouring just prior to it. We were holding out hope so we went to Muppets 3D and Star Tours after then started walking over to the ampitheater. Problem was every street back there was blocked off already so they made us walk around the entire park to get there. Fortunately at 8:20 the rain completely stopped.....in time for them to cancel Fantasmic at 8:25. We figured we'd make the most of it and ride a ride and see the fireworks, however upon trying to get to Great Movie ride we find that area was blocked off too. I asked the CM if any rides were open and she replied ToT and RaRC. So there were no rides available to any child under 44 inches after 8pm at a Disney World park. That is the biggest sign that DHS needs to be gutted and completely reimagined. We managed to avoid all the Frozen stuff except the Opening Show all day, but this really put a damper on the night.
Overall though we had an amazing trip, BLT was excellent, had some great meals and really enjoyed the time with family. Might even attempt one of those wacky trip reports myself when I get more than a few minutes.
Good:
New Fantasyland. I know it has taken some hits here, but NFL was easily my son's favorite section of the park. We spent more time there than anywhere else combined. It feels more open and I really like a lot of the architecture. Kinda wish they had nuked the merch tent and kept the Toon Town houses, but overall I loved this area.
SDMT. Again, if you're a thrill seeker, this isn't for you. If you have a 38.5 inch child who just barely makes the height, it was awesome. I get people feel it is too short, but after riding Barnstormer it felt like Small World in length. It is far and away the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden. One major word of advice though. If traveling with a child hold your hand behind their head as you begin your initial climb. There is a sudden jolt that slammed my kid's head back into the seat pretty violently. I padded it on every ride after and he was fine.
SDMT FP availability. This was a huge concern for me because he loved it day 1 and I had no more FPs for it the rest of the trip. I was able to log on every single night after 10pm and easily find availabilities for the next day. 3 days I was able to find overlapping times, one day I broke up the group which worked better because he rode with Mom and I in the morning, then Grandpa in the afternoon using Grandma's MB.
MBs: I loved the ease of having them. I hate having my pockets full so having no keys or wallet was great. Our MBs worked perfect for every FP, shopping, room entry and park entry all week. My only complaint about them is so many people do not understand how to line them up that there were times you got very backed up at park entry because folks didn't know what they were doing.
MM Photographers: These CMs were awesome. Always quick with a cool photo suggestion, magic shot offer or general theme park advice. One day we were just finishing up a magic shot and out CM told us to stay where we were and we'd see a parade and dance party featuring all the big characters. We had no idea this was happening and it was one of my favorite moments of the trip as my son got to see Woody and Jessie for the first time.
CMS in general: Had some great conversations with them. Saw very few that seemed to be there just for the paycheck. The majority of them were into their gig. I was particularly impressed with the ones working the FP return MB kiosks at rides. So many people either pretending to have a FP or not knowing how to use FP and the CMs I saw handled them really well and with a smile.
Bad:
Weekend crowd level. We booked this trip expecting the heat but hopefully offsetting it with low crowd levels. This worked Wednesday-Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were insane at the MK. Granted there were EMH both days making them not recommended, however I never thought it would be so crowded. 40 minutes for Barnstormer crowded. Over at Epcot it took 40 minutes to get through a FP line for Soarin. That was a killer to our touring.
Broke down rides: Seems every time I turned around a ride was broken down. Space Mountain, Pirates, SDMT (At RD no less), TSMM (Also at RD), Muppets 3D, Star Tours, Test Track (With me on it 20 yards from the exit had to wait 30 minutes to be evacuated), Under the Sea (Rode 4 times, stopped for at least 5 minutes each time), Expedition Everest (Closed the whole morning I was at AK) and on and on. Seems they had an unusually high number of breakdowns every day. The only good thing was it gave us TSMM and SDMT FPs good for any other time of day.
Character Meet and Greet locations. It's great they have moved the Fab 5 and Princesses indoors, but the Woody & Jessie and Tigger & Pooh locations felt like standing on the surface of the sun. These are the slowest moving lines in the whole park as each child gets time to interact with them, the least they can do is throw up some fans. At least Buzz' spot is completely in the shade. Brutal.
The Ugly:
MDE website and app. It was 100% useless in the parks. Could not access it at all via cellular or wifi. Because of this I want to condemn FP+ but I can't because had the site worked I think I would have loved FP+. The problem was it was not possible to do anything on it. With our party split so often between bigger rides and kiddie rides it was tough to keep track of all of it. End result was we wasted FPs for TSMM and SDMT and I didn't even realize it till it was too late. Another example was while waiting on the Pooh M&G my kid decided he wanted to ride the ride after. Simple, we had a throwaway FP for Under the Sea the next hour, I could just log on and switch the experience, right? Nope! No access to your FPs, just error messages aplenty. Infuriating because if the technology worked, it would have made for a flawless day.
DHS Rope Drop and Frozen problems. I was very concerned about the RD procedure at DHS prior to my trip and sure enough, I had reason to. The surge to TSMM was insane, I had one psycho woman try to squeeze her double stroller into a one foot gap between my DW and my stroller, and when she could she started clipping my tires till the wheels got intertwined. Had my son not been strapped in, he would have flown out face first. It was ugly. All that fighting only to arrive at TSMM and it was broken down
However they did get it functioning by 9:15 and we were done by 9:30, so I guess I was good at being a fighter My bigger problem was what the Frozen fireworks do to DHS. Let's face it, there is not much to do at this park as far as rides go. We had a Fantasmic Dinner at 5:30 at Brown Derby (Best meal of the trip, BTW) and it started pouring just prior to it. We were holding out hope so we went to Muppets 3D and Star Tours after then started walking over to the ampitheater. Problem was every street back there was blocked off already so they made us walk around the entire park to get there. Fortunately at 8:20 the rain completely stopped.....in time for them to cancel Fantasmic at 8:25. We figured we'd make the most of it and ride a ride and see the fireworks, however upon trying to get to Great Movie ride we find that area was blocked off too. I asked the CM if any rides were open and she replied ToT and RaRC. So there were no rides available to any child under 44 inches after 8pm at a Disney World park. That is the biggest sign that DHS needs to be gutted and completely reimagined. We managed to avoid all the Frozen stuff except the Opening Show all day, but this really put a damper on the night.
Overall though we had an amazing trip, BLT was excellent, had some great meals and really enjoyed the time with family. Might even attempt one of those wacky trip reports myself when I get more than a few minutes.
)
