Semi-live trip report 12/25-12/28

[cschaaf]

A semi-live report of our Christmas trip. It will be me, my wife, her 3 daughters, and each of their significant others.
We have two 2-bedroom suites at Dockside
I bought a bunch of gift cards at Target and used them to pay for the rooms. That was a bit of a pain. They have to swipe the cards on one machine, it prints 2 receipts, they give you one then use the other to enter payment into the booking system.
Then, for each card, it prints another receipt that both you and the desk agent have to sign. It took us 58 minutes to check in.

Part of the delay was the agents computer shut down mid-order. She said they are set to **** down every 8 hours. Once it rebooted, we had to then figure out which cards were applied to the rooms and which weren’t.
Not sure it was worth the 5% savings lol

We rented a scooter from Gold Mobility and it was waiting for us at the bell desk.
Heading over to dinner at Vivo

 

[cschaaf]

It didn't take long to see that navigating with a scooter is going to be a challenge. No one sees the scooters, and, when they do, they race to try to get in front of it.

Dinner at Vivo was very good.

Things weren't as crowded as I had expected. We had to go to guest services to fix a few tickets and I heard a bunch of people at the counter saying some of their party wasn't able to make it due to flight cancellations, etc.

First impressions of the Dockside Family Suite: the rooms are small, but not too bad. My wife and I took the 'back' room and there's very limited storage in here - a small closet to hang things, but no functional shelving. There's a long, narrow shelf below the TV where you can put small stuff like car keys or a wallet and there are small shelves on each side of the bed for a phone and a bottle of water and not much more than that.

The towels aren't great, but are far better than our first stay over at Surfside not long after it opened. There's not enough places to hand used towels - just one hook on the back of the bathroom door.

It would also be nice if there was a curtain between the 'front' room and the sink area, but we'll manage with some "Is everyone decent?" calls before opening doors.

The fridge is a good size, we brought 2 half-gallons of milk, a few snacks that need refrigerated, and bottled water that all fit. We'll eat breakfast in the room before heading out in the mornings.

Due to today being a long travel day, everyone was tired and decided we won't do early entry tomorrow, but plan to on our two other park days. It should be a bit warmer those mornings, too.

 

[cschaaf]

Late start today. Left the hotel around 9:10 and drove ourselves rather than taking the hotel transportation. With the scooter, we felt it would be less of a hassle to disassemble it and take it in our car.
We headed straight to USF and back to gringotts. We were in the queue by 10:00. Standby listed as 100 minutes, we were on in 10
It’s crowded, but doesn’t seem insanely so
MIB next. 35 minutes for standby. The EP line went trough the elevator. First time we’ve ever gone in that way. It may be colder in the MIB building than it is outside

 

[cschaaf]

Tried getting a crepe at 3:30 and they said it’s a 45 minute wait, so we skipped that

 

[cschaaf]

Bourne was fun. Horror Makeup Show was great as always. The two actors threw in new jokes and did some improvisation. At one point, they clearly cracked each other up over an accidental ‘adult’ improvised joke.

Dinner at Red Oven which we still feel is the best deal in the parks/City Walk

Headed back in the park to ride mummy and gringotts one more time tonight.

 

[cschaaf]

Forgot to hit the send on this one.

Had a short wait for Mummy with EP. Gringott's had several 'ride vehicles have stopped' messages while we waited. That slowed us down a bit.

The plan for tomorrow is get to IOA for Early Entry - and hope that Hagrid's is open. If not that, then Velocicoaster.

 

[cschaaf]

Notes from yesterday, the Mummy update looks pretty good. The AA at the beginning move much better than our last tee trips. They took out the practical effect for the scarabs, which was a negative for me.

The hard stops were maybe a bit less harsh, but you still need to brace for them

For RipRide, they pushed all lines around back and then through the lockers. That cased a longer wait than it needed to be. The TM at the EP line said it would be an hour wait. I’d guess we waited 30 minutes.

Finally. The locker area at Gringotts is still a mess. I feel bad for the TMs that have to stand there all day and shout “one person from your party gets the locker, the rest get in line”

No one listens to either, the logical ‘one person goes to the lockers’ or the irrational ‘split up your party’ directions.

As people wait for their locker person, the TM then yells ‘you can’t stand here, this is a fire hazard’

 

[cschaaf]

12/27
We left the hotel around 6:15 and drove to the parks. We got to the IOA gate at 6:40 and they opened around 6:45

From there, it was off to Hagrids. Since we had the scooter, they showed us where to park it, then had us walk in through the entrance to join the line later in the queue. While in line, there were a few announcements about duplicating the bikes. I didn’t track the time, but it wasn’t too long of a wait.

Using the disability line saved us a chunk, no way to tell, but I’d guess 15-20 minutes

The Velocicoaster line took an hour. That’s the longest time we’ve waited for that. Not sure they has all trains running.

When we were next at the load, an empty train rolled in, they loaded in one person from the unload side, then sent the train. The single rider that joined our family said they waited 20 minutes.

It took 1.5 minutes from when a train pulled in to when it left. Never time it before, but it felt like much longer than we’ve seen before.
Waited about 25 minutes for FJ EP. We went to Hippogrff and the TM said the EP wait was 40 minutes, so we all decided to skip it and try again later. Didn’t get back that way again tonight.

We took a break after lunch and went back to the hotel for a few hours. After returning to the park, we rode Spider-Man and went to dinner at NBC. Service was very slow

Back in the parks to ride Velocicoaster. We left our stuff with the people in our party that weren’t going to ride, so that save a bit of hassle at the metal detectors. We waited about 45-50 minutes. The single rider that joined us said she waited about 40 minutes.

Got in line for Hagrids around 9:40, used the disability line and we were out by 10:05. Park closed, so that was the end of our night.

 

[cschaaf]

Last note about last night. We were silting in City Walk while some of our party got drinks and we saw two boys up on the overpass that were spitting on the crowd below. We yelled for them to stop and they scattered. I looked for security, then, their parents and didn’t find anyone. So gross.


12/28
Left the hotel around 6:20. Made it to the gates just as they opened and it took us about 10 minutes to scan in.

The Hagrids line was the longest we’ve ever seen. TMs we’re saying a 2 hour wait when we got in line. The queue went down in front of the Sindbad show, then back up the hill and back in the top of the theater, back out, then back in the theater again.

Once we got to the locker area, they split us out to the disability line and it was a straight shot from there. I think we waited around 50 minutes. Disability line may have saved us another 50 minutes

Got in line for Hippogriff. Posted wait was 40, Tm said EP line was going to be about 25 minutes. While in the line, there was an announcement that said “the next flight will be in 55 minutes”. Not sure what that means., but we didn’t see a pause. Maybe it was just to say the current wait was increased to 55?

Train over to Studios. MIB had a short line, the to Gringotts. Posted as 2 hours. The locker area is a failure.

2 of us collected the bags for the group and went to the locker area. Every bank of the was full and people were jammed in there.

We couldn’t find the two from our party that weren’t riding, so we left the bags on the scooter. Hopefully we’ll see them again lol

Quick tip for those needing a scooter when the weather is cold - make sure the scooter person has gloves.

 

[ruthies12]

I noticed EP was completely sold out for these dates so I'm not surprised your times have long but that still sucks!

 

[cschaaf]

Finishing up lunch at 1:00. Mel’s took almost an hour to get our food

Wait times are through the roof. It’s super crowded today. Many rides over 100 minutes, With Hagrids at 180 and Velocicoaster at 120,

Mummy had a few issues. Trying to avoid spoilers, but the main anamatronic was in B Mode, one scene started before we were in the room, and one scene was totally dark. Still a great ride.

They also said the elevator was out of order, but directed us to a shorter staircase to go up. Coming down, we had to take all of the steps.

Scooter info:
On most rides, it’s difficult to tell where you are supposed to leave your scooter. If you can get to the queue TM, they’ll point the way, but there are rides where you can’t get to the TM right away. In those cases, it we don’t see a sign, we’ll look for a clump of scooters or a place that is out of tractor areas.

We’re happy with the Gold Mobility Scooter. We stay at full bars on the battery until after dinner. To this point, we’ve not had a day where we dropped more than two bars. The headlight and running lights are nice when the parks get dark (especially IoA)

Disassembly and reassembly is easy. It would be possible to do it with one person, but having a second person definitely make it way. The main body of the scooter is heavy and awkward to handle.

 

[lsumommaof4]

How are wait times with EP with the crowds? And with mobile ordering you had to wait that long after you placed order (after you put in prepare my order)? Or for a table or both?

 

[cschaaf]

How are wait times with EP with the crowds? And with mobile ordering you had to wait that long after you placed order (after you put in prepare my order)? Or for a table or both?

EP waits aren’t bad. I usually try to time things, but didn’t on this trip. I’d say that we’d wait ~30 minutes for a 100 minute standby.

We didn’t use mobile ordering at Mel’s. I have a bunch of gift cards and there’s no way to use them on the app.

The TM who was taking the tickets after we ordered disappeared at one point. Our ticket wasn’t on the counter, so I was concerned it was forgotten.

I asked another TM and she went to the pass, came back and said, “it’s up there” as in, it’s sitting in the pass waiting.

Meanwhile, other counter TMs were grabbing what they could. It felt like we didn’t have anyone defending our order.

The first TM came back and washed his hands then looked at the ticket again.

Eventually, we got our food. The fries had clearly been sitting around for a while and we’re terrible.

 

[cschaaf]

Went to The Wholiday show. It was pretty good. It’s a long walk to get there. Akin to Horror Nights

Margaritaville for dinner, then we’ll try to get Velocicoaster and maybe Hagrids again.

The standby lines and times are the longest we’ve seen

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Thanks for the play by play each day. We've never braved the parks XMas to New Years and your report reinforces why we don't .

 

[cschaaf]

Thanks for the play by play each day. We've never braved the parks XMas to New Years and your report reinforces why we don't .

with EP it’s not that bad. Not ideal, but you can still get a lot done.

We rode and saw everything we wanted to, and did our favorites multiple times.

The first two days were lower crowds likely due to the cold, but the 28th (Wednesday) was really crowded especially the HP areas.

If you know that going in, you can manage expectations.

Use EPA to visit the HP areas and/or ride the two big rides without Express (Hagrids and Velocicoaster). That frees you up to use EP on everything else.

 

[cschaaf]

Dinner at Margaritaville was good. I’ve always tried to avoid that place because I don’t want to hear Jimmy Buffet’s music on loop. I went once with a colleague when we were in Orlando for a conference and he was a huge Buffet fan. After tonight, I’d be willing to go back.

Watched the castle show. I have no idea how to fix it, but that show area is crazy. We tried to stay a bit back and we’re by the stage. but plenty of people ran and/or elbowed their way to the front. I’m not so sure that they were better off there.

After the show, our party split up. Four of us went to Velocicoaster, two went to ride High In The Sky, and the last two took Hogwarts express to go ride Mummy again.

At Velocicoaster, we asked for the elevator at the locker area after we stored our bags. It was the craziest we’ve seen those lockers.

Usually, a TM tells you which locker number to go to. This time, it was a free for all. Lots of red lights above the lockers showing they were full. One TM encouraged people to go around the corner to the next set of lockers, but they we all full so you had to double back against the push of the crowd.

Then the line to go through the metal detectors was back to the second locker area.

We got to the load area and my daughter-in-law and I wanted to ride in the front row. We were just about to ask when the TM told us to go to row 1 & 2. My wife won’t do row 1, so it was a nice opportunity to do that and have someone ride with me.

It was awesome in the front row after dark - favorite seat so far.

We got off the ride at 10:01, so another ride was out of the question.

 

[cschaaf]

Random thoughts

• The scooter was a life saver. My wife couldn't have done this trip without it
• The scooter parking areas are hard to find on your own - if they even exist for that particular ride. We'd often just find a place that looked like it wouldn't block any paths or doors, and was out of high traffic areas.
• For the most par, we found the parks very clean. The one exception was an overflowing garbage can at the farthest point in the Velocicoaster queue. Garbage all over the ground there.
• We liked the 2 bedroom suites in Dockside. They were a bit small and could use a few convenience tweaks (a curtain between the main bedroom and bath area) and some shelving in the back bedroom)
• Dockside parking was a bit messy (not because of the hotel, but the people). People made their own parking spaces in the surface lots clogging up the roads when there were plenty of spots in the garage.
  • This morning, we saw warning noted on all of the illegally parked cars. I hope they crack down on that more.
• Since we drove to the parks, we brought our own cereal, milk, bowls, and utensils. That allowed us to eat breakfast before leaving the hotel. There aren't a lot of good breakfast options in the park plus this let us use 'non-park hours' to eat

 

[schumigirl]

Really enjoyed reading your TR, especially your thoughts on being there now, we don`t get many reports around this time of year.

Happy to hear the scooter was such a success, I`m glad you enjoyed M`Ville and did laugh at your reasons for avoiding it, we`re the opposite we love JB on a loop......

You managed to do a lot on your trip and it`s good to hear your thoughts on things that did cause issues, like the lockers and parking at the hotels. The lockers at VC are a good idea, but in practice, not ideal.

You had a mix of good and bad experiences with food, and sorry you witnessed a nasty at Citywalk, you do wonder where the parents are at times. Some people do ruin things for everyone at times.

Thanks for taking the time to write it up......

 

[cschaaf]

Really enjoyed reading your TR, especially your thoughts on being there now, we don`t get many reports around this time of year.

Happy to hear the scooter was such a success, I`m glad you enjoyed M`Ville and did laugh at your reasons for avoiding it, we`re the opposite we love JB on a loop......

This was our first time visiting after Christmas. On past trips, we’d check out on 12/26.

My wife is a teacher, so we’re limited to the busy seasons. The first two park days of this trip felt link early summer crowds. The 28th was significantly more crowded.

We knew going in that it would be busy so we Were prepared for long lines and understood that we might miss out on a ride or restaurant if things were too crazy.

There only a few instances where we thought a line was too long to bother and we skipped attractions that we might have done with lower crowds but we’re low on our list: Fast and Furious, Fallon, Minions, etc.

I can’t stand JB’s music. The coworker I went with was a huge JB fan and he joined in singing every song lol. That’s about the complete opposite of my personality.

You managed to do a lot on your trip and it`s good to hear your thoughts on things that did cause issues, like the lockers and parking at the hotels. The lockers at VC are a good idea, but in practice, not ideal.

I didn’t capture everything we did, either and we could have done more, but we’re slow walkers. I think we ended up with 3 rides on Hagrids (2 EE, 1 at night) and 4 on Velocicoaster (2 EE and 2 at night)

The VC lockers are great when it works. I think the main problem with it is that it’s so different from the other rides. We heard a lot of people in the queue asking each other, “wait, where do I put my bag?”

Also, first time riders don’t realize that there’s still a chunk of queue after the lockers. You feel stressed because you think that’s what’s holding you back from riding.

It doesn’t help that TMs are shouting instructions at you, sometimes conflicting each other. I’m not blaming the TMs, they are trying to help people and it’s loud in there so they need to yell. I don’t really know how they fix it at this point.

You had a mix of good and bad experiences with food, and sorry you witnessed a nasty at Citywalk, you do wonder where the parents are at times. Some people do ruin things for everyone at times.

Thanks for taking the time to write it up......

The food was all pretty good. I think there were only two complaints about food in our group. One was a hamburger at NBC, the person said it was overly Smokey like someone had a heavy hand with the liquid smoke and the other was the Jambalaya at Margaritaville was too spicy. I like spicy and i tried it. It wasn’t too spicy for me, but spicier than I would have expected it to be at a theme park.

This was the first time we had service issues. At Mel’s, I think our food was sitting at the pass and no one grabbed it - even after I asked someone who went over, looked, then said, “It’s up there”. I’m not sure why she didn’t grab it.

And NBC was very slow, too. I called our waiter over and he said he’d go check. He came back and said, “they are playing it now” Amazing how that works . It was still another 10 minutes before we got it so I think they lost our ticket.

One other general complaint - I think at every table service, one persons meal would arrive 5 minutes after the rest of the table.

Thank you for reading and replying!