Just Back... Fresh Takes

[Zippa D Doodah]

We were at WDW May 25-30, staying at Pop Century. While we did have another smashing good vacation, not all was well in the House of Mouse. Read on...

1) Enjoy cheerfully painted plywood walls and handsome scrims? All four parks are sure to give you a thrill. I never have been one to mind the signs of progress, but sheesh... maybe it is ti5me to complete some of these projects already

2) 7DMT and TSMM were both down for large parts of the days we visited MK and DHS respectively. That is unfortunate in that it puts a lot of extra pressure on the FP+ system

3) WDW must be issuing a lot of FP+ tickets because there were several ocassions where we waited too long in an FP queue. I still like FP+, but something tells me they could do better

4) We were able to score dinner reservation at BOG two days before we left. WOW! What a meal and what service! It was my favorite Disney dining experience in quite some time.

5) We ran into a disappointing experience at 50's PTC. It took over two hours to be seated and finish our meal. The server was pleasant, but she seemed too busy to take proper care of us or any other table sin our area.

6) Speaking of meals, I was a little put off by my ADR times. Two nights I had made ressies for supper, but we found ourselves ready to eat well before our designated time. We wound up killing too much time.

7) Guests are pigs. Well, at least the ones who are lazy and sorry and leave their bottles and cups in the queue instead of putting them in the trash can that is 10 feet ahead. Related to that, I think it makes Mickey cry when inconsiderate guests. pull sections of wallpaper off the walls in his Townhall greeting area

8) Disney really needs to get serious about giving guests more at Epcot, DHS, and AK. With rising prices it is getting a bit ridiculous that they offer so little to do in these parks. It is still possible to enjoy a full day in each, but more attractions would be most welcome

 

[Mikie]

Thanks for sharing your take.

2) that's got to be super-frustrating when a major ride goes down, especially in DHS - sure, there's lots of other things to do (less so in DHS) but so rough when you stayed up late to get a FP, picked your park days, plotted and schemed and that's the ride that goes down!

3) I've read several things like this that may just be a function of a ride going down temporarily or may be a sign of Disney tweaking to find out just what proportion of FPs they can distribute each hour

4) haven't gotten there for dinner yet but I went for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and food too

8) I thoroughly agree for DHS, less so for Epcot and not at all about AK. While I can't argue there are buildings underutilized in Epcot and Maelstrom taken away, yet I still love the park and with two full days there every trip, I still never feel like I've done all of it. People definitely don't agree with me on AK, but I can easily spend one full day there as it is, they've taken nothing away, and they've just added the one marketplace and working on Avatarland and a night show - I've got no complaints there!

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

We just got back a couple of weeks ago as well. I agree with you on the ride breakdowns. We never were able to ride Dinosaur at AK due to it being down all day. Space Mountain continually had breakdown issues all three days we were at MK- but we did get to see it with the lights on while riding the Peoplemover . BTMR broke down several times as well. These were the longer breakdowns that lasted for good chunks of the day. We also experienced similar waits in the FP queues, which surprised me.

BOG was one of our favorites, too! That's awesome that you scored that just two days before!

Agree with Epcot and DHS needing more attractions, and so does Disney- hence the tiering.

 

[Flamingeaux]

8) Disney really needs to get serious about giving guests more at Epcot, DHS, and AK. With rising prices it is getting a bit ridiculous that they offer so little to do in these parks. It is still possible to enjoy a full day in each, but more attractions would be most welcome

BINGO!!

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think there have been other folks on here saying the same thing about the FP wait times...they may be trying to find the balance between the FP wait and standby.

I agree about the other three parks, they really need a few more rides each. Or at least change out the shows.

 

[UnderTheRialto]

I'm curious whether you tried to get in early for your ADRS, we were able to a few times last trip but I'm sure it varies.

Great report thanks!

 

[100AcreWood]

So what happens when you have a FP+ for a certain time but the ride goes down? Do you still get to ride or did you "miss your window?"

 

[Ambear]

So what happens when you have a FP+ for a certain time but the ride goes down? Do you still get to ride or did you "miss your window?"

You can still ride it whenever it comes back up. Or you can use it on a few select attractions.

 

[Hootch]

We were seated at 50s Prime Time 30 minutes after our ADR time. The food was pretty tasty and plentiful. Our server wasn't as into the atmosphere as some as some of the others around us.

We had a similar problem with Rockin' Roller Coaster. We were there early for SWW and it never started operating. I did ride TOT three times that morning. Waits for TSMM went over 100 minutes and TOT was over 70.

 

[Hootch]

You can still ride it whenever it comes back up. Or you can use it on a few select attractions.

We picked up an extra FP+ for Buzz. It was down. This was our last night Disney and my kids wanted to do the three mountains. BTMRR was an option. It was down when we got over there so we did Splash. We had no problem switching to the alternative attraction.

 

[MainMom]

How long were your too long FP waits? Thanks.

 

[Indio]

We were there last week also (23-30). We never experienced any ride breakdowns - must have just been spotty. Friday (our last day) we were able to get 7 fastpasses. We used 3 in the morning at Epcot. Got to the Magic Kingdom around 3:30 and were able to pull 4 more (1 at a time). We got Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Buzz Lightyear. At 8 pm, there were still a lot of choices for FP+ left.

 

[mckennarose]

So what happens when you have a FP+ for a certain time but the ride goes down? Do you still get to ride or did you "miss your window?"

This happened to us last Sept/Oct with Splash. After Splash remained closed through our window, we got an email notice telling us we can either go back, or pick from a few others. I *think* the choices were Splash, BTMR, Space Mt., Haunted Mansion. Splash remained closed off and on during the day so we picked Haunted Mansion. I didn't have MDE on my phone at the time, so I think that's why I got an email. ??

 

[NC State]

Good report Zip, I agree with everything! I would love for them to go back to the old FP tickets.

 

[Hootch]

We were there last week also (23-30). We never experienced any ride breakdowns - must have just been spotty. Friday (our last day) we were able to get 7 fastpasses. We used 3 in the morning at Epcot. Got to the Magic Kingdom around 3:30 and were able to pull 4 more (1 at a time). We got Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Buzz Lightyear. At 8 pm, there were still a lot of choices for FP+ left.

Rockin' Roller Coaster was down for a couple of days over the weekend.

Our last day in the parks was the 29th and we did well with additional FPs at the MK. We ended up with Space, Haunted Mansion, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz/Splash and BTMMR with a few non FP+ attractions sprinkled in.

 

[darrengs]

So what happens when you have a FP+ for a certain time but the ride goes down? Do you still get to ride or did you "miss your window?"

Last year we were sent an email with some alternate ride options.

 

[tlmadden73]

8) Disney really needs to get serious about giving guests more at Epcot, DHS, and AK. With rising prices it is getting a bit ridiculous that they offer so little to do in these parks. It is still possible to enjoy a full day in each, but more attractions would be most welcome

If you actually count up the rides and shows (things that have a FastPass queue) .. it is amazing how little there are to do at these parks compared to MK .. especially with how old they are. They've LOST multiple attractions instead of gaining them. They really should give you a free hopper pass to go to a non-MK park every time you go to one of these.

At least AK has some great atmosphere and "walking" attractions to see the animals (that I am sure a lot of people just skip over)

 

[Oneanne]

I was just there 05.16 to 05.23: I don't recall encountering any rides that were down but this wasn't a heavy ride trip for me, I was more into just wandering around and doing whatever. I actually think I didn't use about half of the FP+ I had booked. I was able to get some nice ADR's on the fly... including lunch at Le Cellier.

I did the Undiscovered Future World tour and one of the things that struck me was we spent quite a bit of time looking at and talking about things that are closed. Brought back a lot of memories of trips past.

 

[ArwenMarie]

If you actually count up the rides and shows (things that have a FastPass queue) .. it is amazing how little there are to do at these parks compared to MK .. especially with how old they are. They've LOST multiple attractions instead of gaining them. They really should give you a free hopper pass to go to a non-MK park every time you go to one of these.

At least AK has some great atmosphere and "walking" attractions to see the animals (that I am sure a lot of people just skip over)

I think that FP+ has made these parks seem worse. When trying to prebook FPs, it is really noticeable how little there is to choose from, especially because of the tiering. And of course having stuff like Captain EO, the Muppets and Figment as options doesn't help that perception. AK is a bit better, at least there isn't tiering.

 

[100AcreWood]

Wow, I don't like that idea at all. I would be bummed to miss my FP+ window for a major ride.