Just Back (Nov. 7-11) - Good Trip but Nightmare Monday at MK

DavidNYC

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 20, 1999
Just back from our typical Jersey Week trip. Overall great as usual but found same day FP much harder to come by (party of 5) despite the crowds only seeming marginally more crowded than past years and standby times only slightly more than usual (with some exceptions like 250 for FoP which I haven't seen there for some time.

BUT - Monday morning and afternoon at MK . . . whoa. Do you know what MK is like on a hot day when Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan and Haunted Mansion are all down for morning and early afternoon and People Mover and Buzz also go down for short periods. It's not fun. Never see 4 top rides all down at once for that long. The number of anytime FP that were distributed made standby times soar with many FP waits up to 30 minutes. Made one of my few complaints to Guest Services as it was our last day in the park until 2pm before we had to leave for the airport and it killed most of our day (especially with splash since it was brought online twice only to go down again within 15 minutes and because we hadn't been able to ride it that trip (daughter wasn't feeling well our first day in MK so missed it) and it was our last chance to ride this trip, we got off line for other rides and crossed the park twice to get there only to have it go down again while we were on line. So frustrating (especially since it's our favorite and it'll be down for refurbishment our next trip). Guest Services as usually was very polite and accommodating, but needed to vent especially with the ride going down-up-down-up, etc.
 
We were there as well, and left. We lost a few attraction opportunities due to the downtimes as well. We contacted Guest Services and they helped us have a better Tuesday (our last day). Still, on Tuesday our last attraction (Test Track) failed at closure, and then the the Skyliner was down for ~1/2 which backed our exit up considerably. Disney does extremely well with large groups of people, until they don't :)
 
Thanks for your report!

That stinks when all of those rides are down, makes everything else you want to do and see so much harder. Splash is my favorite at MK, I would be bummed if it was down!
 


For WDW vets Monday is a no go for MK.

We also avoid if at all possible but it was our last day and based on the rest of the trip we wanted a bit more time at MK having really done everything at all the other parks that we wanted to do the prior days. We had typical Monday expectations (a couple rides at rope drop, our FP rides and possibly a few additional lower tier ones as 4th+) but the down rides really screwed even those modest expectations up!
 
You are complaining about Splash unfortunately being down on your Nov visit, especially since it it's being refurbed during your next visit. That puts your next visit sometime next Jan-Feb - so approximately within a couple months from now. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the issue.
 
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It worked in my favor. I was a bit concerned when looking at FP availability at the bus stop Monday morning. Fortunately, the FP that I ended up getting were some that went down. I was in the FP line to board Peter Pan when they evacuated it so I got an anytime FP for that. I had a Spalsh FP which, as you mentioned, went down, so I got another anytime FP. Then, I had some luck refreshing for new ones as well. I also did Riverboat and Philharmagic which helped it feel less "people-y."
 


We were there Nov 6-9. Went to MK on Thursday Nov 7...Splash was also down then. When we got in line the posted wait was 25 mins...after waiting 30 mins or so barely moving...they made announcement about trickster Brer Rabbit affecting wait time. We got out of line and posted was up to 80 mins. We did snag as 6th FP later and right as we were boarding they made same announcement about wait times...thankfully we got on and ride but line was insane when we got off. I also thought getting more FPs was tougher than usual and we are only party of 2!
 
For WDW vets Monday is a no go for MK.
Exactly this. Mondays are a huge NO-NO. Always packed, more than any other day.

Why is Monday a bad day for magic kingdom?
I cant remember why exactly....but from what i remember, its something about a lot of packages start on Sunday/Monday. People arrive Sunday, then do MK monday cause typically people's first park is always MK. I'll see if i can find a better explanation as to why Mondays are bad. Saturdays are also bad btw.
 
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Why is Monday a bad day for magic kingdom?

Conventional wisdom is a large number of people visiting whose first full day in the parks fall on a Monday and it's often the first park that people go to. I've generally found it's not a huge difference anymore and especially with good planning and use of FP, it hasn't really mattered too much. I'll still plan it for other days if I can but won't go too far out of my way to avoid it. (But of course when you have a Monday with that many main rides down at once for several hours - that changes matters!) To me, avoiding EMH parks (unless I'm using EMH), not going to MK on Saturday, and avoiding Food & Wine on weekend evenings is more important than MK on Monday.
 
We also avoid if at all possible but it was our last day and based on the rest of the trip we wanted a bit more time at MK having really done everything at all the other parks that we wanted to do the prior days. We had typical Monday expectations (a couple rides at rope drop, our FP rides and possibly a few additional lower tier ones as 4th+) but the down rides really screwed even those modest expectations up!
Yeah, no doubt, sometimes it's just unavoidable on a trip, we've made those same types of decisions before as well. Sounds like you just caught a huge case of bad luck with the rides breaking down. We once were stuck on Space Mountain for 25 minutes during MK AH. Talking about not being happy, but ultimately mechanical things break and Disney doesn't want the issues any more than we guest do.

Why is Monday a bad day for magic kingdom?
We use the MDE to chart the parks a few weeks before we arrive at WDW and just like most of the crowd calendars state, Mondays have wait times that mimic Saturday more so than the other weekdays.
Of course, if you are at the parks in ultra busy times during the year, it's just busy. However, during certain less busy times of the year the Monday issue does seem to exist. (May and Sept, for us.)
Like DavidNYC said, F&W and to a little lesser extent F&G a tough on the weekend nights and of course Saturday is also a no go for MK.
I happen to speak to a couple of managers on our stays at a few WDW resorts in the past and they said, most people depart and arrive on Sundays. So Sundays are lighter than Saturdays and Mondays are worse than Sundays at MK. It makes sense.
 
We were there that same day. Definitely noticed some ripple effect issues from those rides being down (can't remember a time where I've seen so many major rides down at the same time), but didn't impact us all that much. Granted, there were only two of us, but didn't have any issues getting additional FPs for 7DMT, Space Mt. and one or two others, and didn't notice waiting too terribly long in the FP lines, but was bummed to not get to do HM. Also, couldn't grab a Pirates one until later in the evening and we were heading to AK at like 4 so couldn't squeeze that one in either. Still, 3 rides on Space and two on 7DMT (while also getting in a few others like BTMR, Jingle Cruise, etc.) ain't too shabby.

Rest of the trip/other parks were a relative breeze I thought. Easily snagged two unplanned FPs for FoP, multiples for TT, ToT, RnRc, etc. And only waited 40 mins for MFSR. Briefly poked our heads into the WS that Saturday night and it was predictably insane (Sat night for F/W + holiday weekend...yikes) but did F/W on Tuesday as planned and it was a breeze.
 

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