prudence64
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2014
Thanks to everyone on here in helping me plan our trip. We had a great time. I'm looking to return in about 4 years, but my husband and daughter are pushing for 2 years.
Regarding lines - yes, the wait times were much higher than my last 2 trips (Nov. 2000 and Early March 2011). but, I'm not going to blame it on FP. I'm blaming it on the fact that there were a ton more people there. it was packed. The walkways, restaurants, buses, parking lots, etc... were all much more crowded than I was used to. We managed, but it definitely wasn't a slow time to go.
Magic Bands - A+ - loved them. Easy to use. Flawless. convenient. Went bagless 2 evenings.
FP+ - B: it worked well for my family given the crowds. My traveling party would rather stay home then rope drop, so it was nice to have 3 rides set up. Only way we got to do Toy Story I'm sure. Getting a 4th FP wasn't great though. On MK on Monday we got a 4th FP for HM and then there was literally nothing left after that. It was crowded and a party night though. We had similar luck with HS and Epcot. AK worked well though. We were able to change our times of our 3rd FP and then get a 4th and 5th for anything we wanted. Could've gotten more. Biggest change I'd like to see would be able to plan for park hopping. i would've appreciated getting 1 for Epcot and 2 for HS set up ahead of time.
Memory Maker - C+: The photographers were easy to find and the ride photos came into my account without a problem. However, we didn't get our money's worth. All the ride photos had my daughter's face hidden. We didn't do character meet and greets. Next time I will get our photos done and just choose 2-3 to download a la cart. Will save at least $100 that way.
HS Sun 11/9 - We had FP for star wars, ToT, and Toy Story. Did Star Tours 2 additional times and ToT one additional time without fastpasses. Did the Great Movie ride for first time and enjoyed it more than anticipated. Ate at Mama Melrose and did Fantasmic. Was glad to see it finally. Overall, great day - grade A
MK Mon 11/10 - This was packed. "Josh" originally said he had no problem recommending this park for this day. Next time, I'm going by undercover tourist which seemed more accurate looking back. Still, we had a good time. FP for Buzz, Thunder Mountain, and Splash. Did Space with a 15 minute wait. The Thunder FP line stretched way out and everyone was griping, but in reality we were sitting in our train in under 7 minutes. Had 7 people in our party that day. 4 backed out of doing Splash. Of the 3 of us who did it, 2 said they wouldn't go back on it, so it was a bit of a waste. Try to avoid the front row left side if you don't want to get soaked. Went to BOG with FP for lunch. I was glad to see it but wouldn't make a point of going back. Afternoon, saw the new parade which was very good and got additional FP for HM. Rode People mover. - grade B
Evening of 11/10 - Downtown Disney - friend's daughter did BBB which was cute, but glad I wasn't the one spending the money on it. Guys did T-Rex, which they weren't too impressed with. Ladies went to Epcot in evening for Akershus dinner. Very well done - B+
Tues 11/11 - spent day at AKL. Had a nice time. Evening went back to MK. watched fireworks from carousel. Was very cool to see fireworks from both directions. Unfortunately, freaked my daughter out and took her a while to recover. Jumped on Small world with no wait. Went to the 10 p.m. MSEP which was great. Much less crowded and had front row seats - B+
Wed 11/12 - Epcot day. Had FP for soarin. Got into Test Track with 30 min. wait. Crowds were much better. had good view for Illuminations. Still my favorite park - grade A
Thurs. 11/13 - breakfast at Park Fare 1900. Very cute. good food. Monorail to Epcot. More in WS and back to Test track. Jumped to HS and hit a road block. No FPs available. Got in line for ToT and they had tech troubles and we got stuck there for 70 minutes and then got in line for RnR and my daughter chickened out. On bright side, my husband rode star tours 5 more times and we did the art class which was fun even though my pluto was a disaster -grade B-
Fri 11/14 - Had a great day at AK. Did Everest, safari, and Dinosaur and then got additional FP for another ride on everest and the rapids. Saw both flights of wonder and Festival of lion king. Only down side was that my family hated the river rapids. Was too short and not exciting enough to warrant getting that wet and miserable. It's been added to our "never again" list alongside Ellen's Energy adventure. - Grade: A-
Great trip overall even though we didn't accomplish as much in the MK as most of you probably do. We had a fP for SDMT for Thursday, but had enough of the crowds there and didn't go back. It will still be there in 4 years.
Happy to answer any questions.
Regarding lines - yes, the wait times were much higher than my last 2 trips (Nov. 2000 and Early March 2011). but, I'm not going to blame it on FP. I'm blaming it on the fact that there were a ton more people there. it was packed. The walkways, restaurants, buses, parking lots, etc... were all much more crowded than I was used to. We managed, but it definitely wasn't a slow time to go.
Magic Bands - A+ - loved them. Easy to use. Flawless. convenient. Went bagless 2 evenings.
FP+ - B: it worked well for my family given the crowds. My traveling party would rather stay home then rope drop, so it was nice to have 3 rides set up. Only way we got to do Toy Story I'm sure. Getting a 4th FP wasn't great though. On MK on Monday we got a 4th FP for HM and then there was literally nothing left after that. It was crowded and a party night though. We had similar luck with HS and Epcot. AK worked well though. We were able to change our times of our 3rd FP and then get a 4th and 5th for anything we wanted. Could've gotten more. Biggest change I'd like to see would be able to plan for park hopping. i would've appreciated getting 1 for Epcot and 2 for HS set up ahead of time.
Memory Maker - C+: The photographers were easy to find and the ride photos came into my account without a problem. However, we didn't get our money's worth. All the ride photos had my daughter's face hidden. We didn't do character meet and greets. Next time I will get our photos done and just choose 2-3 to download a la cart. Will save at least $100 that way.
HS Sun 11/9 - We had FP for star wars, ToT, and Toy Story. Did Star Tours 2 additional times and ToT one additional time without fastpasses. Did the Great Movie ride for first time and enjoyed it more than anticipated. Ate at Mama Melrose and did Fantasmic. Was glad to see it finally. Overall, great day - grade A
MK Mon 11/10 - This was packed. "Josh" originally said he had no problem recommending this park for this day. Next time, I'm going by undercover tourist which seemed more accurate looking back. Still, we had a good time. FP for Buzz, Thunder Mountain, and Splash. Did Space with a 15 minute wait. The Thunder FP line stretched way out and everyone was griping, but in reality we were sitting in our train in under 7 minutes. Had 7 people in our party that day. 4 backed out of doing Splash. Of the 3 of us who did it, 2 said they wouldn't go back on it, so it was a bit of a waste. Try to avoid the front row left side if you don't want to get soaked. Went to BOG with FP for lunch. I was glad to see it but wouldn't make a point of going back. Afternoon, saw the new parade which was very good and got additional FP for HM. Rode People mover. - grade B
Evening of 11/10 - Downtown Disney - friend's daughter did BBB which was cute, but glad I wasn't the one spending the money on it. Guys did T-Rex, which they weren't too impressed with. Ladies went to Epcot in evening for Akershus dinner. Very well done - B+
Tues 11/11 - spent day at AKL. Had a nice time. Evening went back to MK. watched fireworks from carousel. Was very cool to see fireworks from both directions. Unfortunately, freaked my daughter out and took her a while to recover. Jumped on Small world with no wait. Went to the 10 p.m. MSEP which was great. Much less crowded and had front row seats - B+
Wed 11/12 - Epcot day. Had FP for soarin. Got into Test Track with 30 min. wait. Crowds were much better. had good view for Illuminations. Still my favorite park - grade A
Thurs. 11/13 - breakfast at Park Fare 1900. Very cute. good food. Monorail to Epcot. More in WS and back to Test track. Jumped to HS and hit a road block. No FPs available. Got in line for ToT and they had tech troubles and we got stuck there for 70 minutes and then got in line for RnR and my daughter chickened out. On bright side, my husband rode star tours 5 more times and we did the art class which was fun even though my pluto was a disaster -grade B-
Fri 11/14 - Had a great day at AK. Did Everest, safari, and Dinosaur and then got additional FP for another ride on everest and the rapids. Saw both flights of wonder and Festival of lion king. Only down side was that my family hated the river rapids. Was too short and not exciting enough to warrant getting that wet and miserable. It's been added to our "never again" list alongside Ellen's Energy adventure. - Grade: A-
Great trip overall even though we didn't accomplish as much in the MK as most of you probably do. We had a fP for SDMT for Thursday, but had enough of the crowds there and didn't go back. It will still be there in 4 years.
Happy to answer any questions.
Thinking we will do the later MSEP when we are there in January to (hopefully) avoid the crowds at the earlier parade.
