AB6876
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
We just returned from a week long disney vacation and I had a few observations.
We are former DVC members and stayed at most of the resorts on property, we used to visit the parks quite frequently, however we moved north and life got in the way. This trip marked four years since we have visited WDW as a family.
The parks were packed, we were there 4/11-4/19. However it seems the strategy of arriving early is no longer beneficial.. we noticed the last two hours the park was open were actually the best time to be in the parks with the least amount of people.
Bag check... holy moly... they have to figure out a more efficient system, it was truly out of control the lines and wait associated with bringing a bag into the park.
Our last trip we used fastpass plus, we liked it, however this trip it just seemed cumbersome.. what a pain to have to figure out what you are going to ride 60 days out. There was virtually nothing of importance available the day of as far as fast passes go.
The parks were filthy, I mean trash thrown on the street, trash cans overflowing, bathrooms disgusting.. seriously it was bad.
Mobile ordering was amazing!!!! What a great way to avoid the lines.
We stayed at All Star Sports, the resort was spotless, they were painting buildings and sprucing up the place while we were there. There were at least three high school groups there for their senior trip and all were very well behaved.. it was nice seeing the kids all have a good time. Even with all the people at the resort and even though it was all star sports it was literally the best part of our disney experience (well except the beds they are horrible ).
My overall observation, they are clearly trying to run the parks with less staff, while at the same time the parks are much busier than we have seen them. The CMs are almost non existent, you don’t see them as much as you did before. The CMs we did see looked inundated and too busy to look like they are happy. They just appear overworked and underpaid.
The last day were were there we were just done with Disney. We decided on a whim to visit universal for the first time. It was a small fortune for a park to park pass with the express pass, however it was totally worth it. The parks there were clean, the team members were pleasant and honesty it just seemed like the way disney used to feel. While Disney was wall to wall people Universal was pleasantly less packed. We really didn’t even need to buy the express pass while we were there, however it was nice to have. I’m sorry I would much rather pay an up charge than decide what I’m going to be doing at a specific time 60 days out.
I can’t believe I am going to say this, as I have always been sort of anti Universal, however my next trip to central Florida will be at a Universal resort.
We are former DVC members and stayed at most of the resorts on property, we used to visit the parks quite frequently, however we moved north and life got in the way. This trip marked four years since we have visited WDW as a family.
The parks were packed, we were there 4/11-4/19. However it seems the strategy of arriving early is no longer beneficial.. we noticed the last two hours the park was open were actually the best time to be in the parks with the least amount of people.
Bag check... holy moly... they have to figure out a more efficient system, it was truly out of control the lines and wait associated with bringing a bag into the park.
Our last trip we used fastpass plus, we liked it, however this trip it just seemed cumbersome.. what a pain to have to figure out what you are going to ride 60 days out. There was virtually nothing of importance available the day of as far as fast passes go.
The parks were filthy, I mean trash thrown on the street, trash cans overflowing, bathrooms disgusting.. seriously it was bad.
Mobile ordering was amazing!!!! What a great way to avoid the lines.
We stayed at All Star Sports, the resort was spotless, they were painting buildings and sprucing up the place while we were there. There were at least three high school groups there for their senior trip and all were very well behaved.. it was nice seeing the kids all have a good time. Even with all the people at the resort and even though it was all star sports it was literally the best part of our disney experience (well except the beds they are horrible ).
My overall observation, they are clearly trying to run the parks with less staff, while at the same time the parks are much busier than we have seen them. The CMs are almost non existent, you don’t see them as much as you did before. The CMs we did see looked inundated and too busy to look like they are happy. They just appear overworked and underpaid.
The last day were were there we were just done with Disney. We decided on a whim to visit universal for the first time. It was a small fortune for a park to park pass with the express pass, however it was totally worth it. The parks there were clean, the team members were pleasant and honesty it just seemed like the way disney used to feel. While Disney was wall to wall people Universal was pleasantly less packed. We really didn’t even need to buy the express pass while we were there, however it was nice to have. I’m sorry I would much rather pay an up charge than decide what I’m going to be doing at a specific time 60 days out.
I can’t believe I am going to say this, as I have always been sort of anti Universal, however my next trip to central Florida will be at a Universal resort.
