AAABatteries
Footballguy
There's also no chance if I was in-state that I wouldn't have the resident pass and still be there a bunch. But totally understand her sentiment.
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Disney Vacation (5 Viewers)
- Thread starter DOVCommish
- Start date
There's also no chance if I was in-state that I wouldn't have the resident pass and still be there a bunch. But totally understand her sentiment.
jb1020
Footballguy
That's the sentiment in our house these days. I totally get Disney and supply and demand. Sure, people like us on the internet are balking at prices, but there are plenty of people filling the parks at $125 a pop and $600 a night at the Poly.Capella said:
It could be a short lived thing though. Seems like when we were going it was a bunch of people that just had an annual Disney trip on the calendar. Feels like those are the guys that are being pushed out. Still plenty of people to make that "once in a lifetime" trip to Disney. Maybe that segment is sustainable?
glvsav37
Footballguy
I'm feeling the squeeze too and wondering what the overall value of these trips are now. I'm not going to lie, we were fortunate with our vacations.
The DVC AP was about $550/pp, we would get 2 trips of 10-14 days out of them. We would offset a "ticket buy" year with flights on my Southwest points, then flip and pay for flights when we were on our 2nd trip of the APs.
Now at close to $900/pp for AP's, thats a jump from $2K'ish from my family of 4 to over $4k. I'm not saying its not worth it, but dropping that kind of money makes me want to get more out of those passes. As it was, we were doing less and less park time and more enjoying the resort. My kids are older and we dont need to do every ride anymore.
I know my kids want to go back, my 14 year old daughter specifically. I'm going back in 2 weeks solo so I'm hoping I catch a little bit of the magic when I do. But right now, its not looking like a "must do" like it was in the past
That said, we still have the DVC, so we have to make sure the points are used, banked or sold each year. But I might be seeing more trips to DL where my kids have never been so—if i'm paying the hefty ticket price— that is more of a unique, 1st time experience for them. Also, an Aulani trip has been on the table. So I'll still be doing Disney, just not so WDW focused.
glvsav37
Footballguy
So Disney Genie is the hot topic of the day this month. I've been reading up and watching a lot of video on it. Both good and bad experiences.
I thought this one was a pretty good watch.
Basically 2 people hit up the MK with a list of rides to do. One had G+ (with the Lightening lane single ride purchases), and the other winged it. Obv having a ton of familiarity in the parks helps in both cases. Their day ran from 9am-3:30 pm
The overall outcome is that the girl with G+ saved 2 hours and 53 minutes and spent a total of $32. While they both did the same amount of rides, the G+ girl said overall her day didn't feel rushed and she had a good amount of down time to snack and enjoy the park ambiance overall. The non-G+ girl said that rope-dropping made a huge impact in her day and that time gap most def would have been wider if she were not able to grab a few e-ticket rides early with very low wait times because of it.
Here is a screen shot of their day. You'll see that the biggest time suck for the non-G+ girl was Peter Pan, with a 86 minute standby line vs a 2 min wait for the other girl. And a 36min standby wait for Mine train (which is still pretty good) vs a 2 min LL wait.
Still needs a ton of testing, esp in those very heavy days. But it seems at the very least, G+ could be a worthwhile add on (as much as I hate to say it). That said, many people feel that MK and Studios are really the only parks where it is beneficial. With the overall lack of attractions currently at Epcot and AK, you can pretty much navigate those parks on your own
I thought this one was a pretty good watch.
Basically 2 people hit up the MK with a list of rides to do. One had G+ (with the Lightening lane single ride purchases), and the other winged it. Obv having a ton of familiarity in the parks helps in both cases. Their day ran from 9am-3:30 pm
The overall outcome is that the girl with G+ saved 2 hours and 53 minutes and spent a total of $32. While they both did the same amount of rides, the G+ girl said overall her day didn't feel rushed and she had a good amount of down time to snack and enjoy the park ambiance overall. The non-G+ girl said that rope-dropping made a huge impact in her day and that time gap most def would have been wider if she were not able to grab a few e-ticket rides early with very low wait times because of it.
Here is a screen shot of their day. You'll see that the biggest time suck for the non-G+ girl was Peter Pan, with a 86 minute standby line vs a 2 min wait for the other girl. And a 36min standby wait for Mine train (which is still pretty good) vs a 2 min LL wait.
Still needs a ton of testing, esp in those very heavy days. But it seems at the very least, G+ could be a worthwhile add on (as much as I hate to say it). That said, many people feel that MK and Studios are really the only parks where it is beneficial. With the overall lack of attractions currently at Epcot and AK, you can pretty much navigate those parks on your own
GroveDiesel
Footballguy
I have no idea if this is becoming a typical thing, just a thing at Hollywood Studios, or what, but we got to Hollywood Studios at 7:50am this morning when Early Entry was supposed to start at 8:30am. When we got there they were already letting people into the park. We didn’t rush super fast or anything, but went directly back to the Star Wars area. Walked directly on Rise of the Resistance, then walked directly onto Smuggler’s Run, then directly onto Star Tours. At that point it was about 9am and the regular crowds came pouring in all heading towards Star Wars stuff. We hit Toy Story Mania and Slinky Dog next and got them both in by about 10am-ish. By 9:30 RotT was 110 minutes and Smuggler’s Run was 40 minutes. It’s crazy how much time in line we saved simply by getting up a bit earlier.
Since we had gotten up earlier and we hit a ton of stuff by 1pm, we were able to go back to our hotel to rest for a few hours then headed back to hit a few more things and hit our SciFi dinner reservation. Park closed at 9pm and between 8:15 and 9pm I got in the new Mickey ride (15 minute wait versus over and hour most of the day) and RocknRoller coaster (pretty much walked on).
Good day overall.
Oh, and Rise of the Resistance is freaking awesome.
Magic Kingdom in the morning tomorrow and Epcot in the evening.
Since we had gotten up earlier and we hit a ton of stuff by 1pm, we were able to go back to our hotel to rest for a few hours then headed back to hit a few more things and hit our SciFi dinner reservation. Park closed at 9pm and between 8:15 and 9pm I got in the new Mickey ride (15 minute wait versus over and hour most of the day) and RocknRoller coaster (pretty much walked on).
Good day overall.
Oh, and Rise of the Resistance is freaking awesome.
Magic Kingdom in the morning tomorrow and Epcot in the evening.
GroveDiesel
Footballguy
Thanks to everyone who contributed info over the years in this thread. Got back from our trip and we had a blast.
We only paid for Genie+ on one day and honestly it was mostly a waste. We ended up doing Magic Kingdom in the morning and Animal Kingdom that evening. We only ended up with 3 Lightning Lane times for the day: Splash Mountain (probably a mistake as the line was probably only about 15-20 minutes when we used it), Navi River, and Dinosaur. There were probably more optimal ways we could have used it, but they didn’t work for our plans. It was crazy how fast some early passes booked up though. By not long after 7am, Jungle Cruise times in the morning were pretty much all gone.
My daughter is 12 so it helped (and my family was willing to indulge me), but getting up early and being at the park to be ready to enter for Early Entry if you are staying in-site is huge for getting on rides. We banged out so many big rides early every day that it threw off my plans for each day and allowed us to either ride a bunch of other stuff, ride stuff multiple times, or just be more chill and wander around.
Friday it poured down rain all day, but it still worked out ok for us. We had already planned a later start to the day since it was our Animal Kingdom day and since we got everything done at Hollywood we wanted to do on Wednesday, we had hit Animal Kingdom Thursday evening to do/see some things we wouldn’t want to do in the rain. We still got soaked even wearing ponchos, but there was enough to do inside that we largely managed to stay dry. And the park largely cleared out by 5pm thanks to the rain, so my daughter and I walked directly onto both Flight of Passage and Navi River which was pretty cool.
The two negatives were the food was overall pretty mediocre, especially for the prices, and Art of Animation, while themed quite nicely, is basically just a Motel 6 with Disney paint and landscaping. The rooms are really small and clearly built to be functional/easily cleaned rather than for comfort. It was basically just a place for us to crash and sleep. The only reason the price was tolerable for what we got was that it bought us all the transportation involved along with the early entry time. Just even that half hour getting into the parks early (hour and 15 minutes at Hollywood Studios for some reason) was worth probably the $45 per day Genie+ would have cost my family of 3 plus another ~$30 worth of extra paid Lightning Lane passes each day. I bet being at the park even just that 30 minutes saved us 2-3 hours of lines each day. The longest line we waited in all week was the first time we did Flight of Passage. We waited about 80 minutes but we were dry when it was pouring so we were ok with that. Other than that, the longest we waited was 36 minutes for Slinky Dog Dash and about 20 minutes for Peter Pan.
We only paid for Genie+ on one day and honestly it was mostly a waste. We ended up doing Magic Kingdom in the morning and Animal Kingdom that evening. We only ended up with 3 Lightning Lane times for the day: Splash Mountain (probably a mistake as the line was probably only about 15-20 minutes when we used it), Navi River, and Dinosaur. There were probably more optimal ways we could have used it, but they didn’t work for our plans. It was crazy how fast some early passes booked up though. By not long after 7am, Jungle Cruise times in the morning were pretty much all gone.
My daughter is 12 so it helped (and my family was willing to indulge me), but getting up early and being at the park to be ready to enter for Early Entry if you are staying in-site is huge for getting on rides. We banged out so many big rides early every day that it threw off my plans for each day and allowed us to either ride a bunch of other stuff, ride stuff multiple times, or just be more chill and wander around.
Friday it poured down rain all day, but it still worked out ok for us. We had already planned a later start to the day since it was our Animal Kingdom day and since we got everything done at Hollywood we wanted to do on Wednesday, we had hit Animal Kingdom Thursday evening to do/see some things we wouldn’t want to do in the rain. We still got soaked even wearing ponchos, but there was enough to do inside that we largely managed to stay dry. And the park largely cleared out by 5pm thanks to the rain, so my daughter and I walked directly onto both Flight of Passage and Navi River which was pretty cool.
The two negatives were the food was overall pretty mediocre, especially for the prices, and Art of Animation, while themed quite nicely, is basically just a Motel 6 with Disney paint and landscaping. The rooms are really small and clearly built to be functional/easily cleaned rather than for comfort. It was basically just a place for us to crash and sleep. The only reason the price was tolerable for what we got was that it bought us all the transportation involved along with the early entry time. Just even that half hour getting into the parks early (hour and 15 minutes at Hollywood Studios for some reason) was worth probably the $45 per day Genie+ would have cost my family of 3 plus another ~$30 worth of extra paid Lightning Lane passes each day. I bet being at the park even just that 30 minutes saved us 2-3 hours of lines each day. The longest line we waited in all week was the first time we did Flight of Passage. We waited about 80 minutes but we were dry when it was pouring so we were ok with that. Other than that, the longest we waited was 36 minutes for Slinky Dog Dash and about 20 minutes for Peter Pan.
glvsav37
Footballguy
I'm just gonna leave this here.....
Disney to Cut Portions at Parks, Will Be “Good For Some People’s Waistlines”
Disney to Cut Portions at Parks, Will Be “Good For Some People’s Waistlines”
I was not on the call, so I didn't hear it 1st hand. However I'm sure she may have been joking about how people feel "Stuffed" while at a theme park, but I don't think it played as she expected. Esp given that there are a decent amount of Disney guests that are on the plus sized and above side.During today’s Walt Disney Company fourth-quarter earnings call, the issue of inflation and the potential for increased prices at Disney Parks inevitably came up during the question and answer segment.
Walt Disney Company CFO Christine McCarthy addressed the situation, noting that Disney has no plans to outright raise prices within Josh D’Amaro’s Parks, Experiences and Products division. She did, however, indicate that Disney is looking at a number of ways to cut costs behind the scenes, including “reducing portions” at Disney Parks restaurants.
McCarthy noted that this would be “good for some people’s waistlines” when they visit Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort.
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The Commish
Footballguy
I somehow missed this, but the buses from the airport to the parks (or the cruise lines) now costs money? Have a friend coming to town (family of 4) and it costs less to get a private car service than it does to ride the bus. Really? This is going sideways quickly with all these charges.
Orange&Blue
Footballguy
So this is Disney, but what about universal studios? We are a family of 5 looking to go before Christmas for four days. They no longer offer a food plan. Universal Endless Summer Dockside resort. 4 day park to park tickets with resort is 2657.87. Is that typical? I remember spending 4k for 7 days, all star resort, at Disney back in 2019, with a meal plan, so this seems higher.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
glvsav37
Footballguy
are you there now? I get there tomorrow and been watching the wait times. Will be interesting when I finally get there.
glvsav37
Footballguy
I have not priced UO in a while. From what I understand, the food plan is not really worth it there. But I never got it, so I have nothing to compare it too.
Were both the Disney trip and this UO Trip around the same time? December is getting very expensive there overall.
You may want to reach out to at Travel agent and ask them to price out a trip for you. It will cost you nothing (universal pays them upon booking) and they usually have the inside track on discounts and best use of your budget. I can recommend a few good ones if you are interested. There is not commitment, but you might be surprised how useful they are
I will also add, you may want to price out5 staying at one of their deluxe resorts (Hard rock, Royal pacific or Portifino), b/c they include the ExpressPass as a free perk. Yes the resort is more expensive, but the upgraded room cost is much less then buying the passes for a family of 4 individually. Not spending your money, but if crowds are high, that ExpressPass is like gold!
glvsav37
Footballguy
I think that is after the new year. But yes, WDW is doing away with the Magical Express. Stupid IMO< but thats what they are doing. Mears (who operated it all along, just under the Dis Magical Express name), will be taking it over and there will be a charge for it.
Orange&Blue
Footballguy
Capella
Footballguy
Yea it sucks. We were 60 minutes into a wait on Peter Pan (son’s favorite ride) and barely moved. Finally got out and went on something else. Torturous.
jb1020
Footballguy
$240 plus tax and tip for lunch at Tusker House for my family of 5, you can bet your sweet ### we're leaving stuffed.
Sort of off topic, but are people expected to pay the typical 15-20% at a spot like that? I have and I haven't. Felt bad doing both.
Its funny though, I saw that hit Twitter last night.
jb1020
Footballguy
I hate to hear that. I'm still sitting on the sidelines to see how the new system works. I had hoped it would even things out, but it doesn't sound like it.
themeanmachine
Footballguy
I think it’s going to be pretty ride-specific. Peter Pan is about the worst ride to add any sort of fast pass / lightning lane, the capacity is so low that it takes an already long and slow standby wait and just makes it unbearable. Newer rides that are higher capacity or designed for fast lanes should be less impacted.
GroveDiesel
Footballguy
Yeah, Peter Pan is just a slow ride with small capacity. I think it’s just like that. Last week was a fairly busy week (Jersey week) and I didn’t think lines were all that terrible overall.
Capella
Footballguy
Small world was 50 minutes. Mansion was 70. Pirates was 50. Buzz was 45. Even dumbo was 40. This is a Thursday (granted, federal holiday but wait times were same yesterday according to the app), two weeks before they get really busy.
We were on the Pooh ride and they let a never ending stream of people in from the lightning line before us. IMO, they are making it so you are gonna have to buy that thing to enjoy your day.
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The Commish
Footballguy
glvsav37
Footballguy
Joy. At studios. Pretty packed. Rise is down so I’m on a 75 min line for Mickey Minnies railway. Grrrrr
if I only do these 2 it will be fine but was hoping to maximize my day.
tried getting some LL reservations from the flight but the app couldn’t recognize my location. Kept getting an error saying wasn’t in the US or Canada. Grrrrr. So I missed a ton of opportunity
if I only do these 2 it will be fine but was hoping to maximize my day.
tried getting some LL reservations from the flight but the app couldn’t recognize my location. Kept getting an error saying wasn’t in the US or Canada. Grrrrr. So I missed a ton of opportunity
Capella
Footballguy
“Using the same example of a family of four from the standby queue, Cast Members would let 40 guests in through the Lightning Lane queue in a phase three scenario. “
#### them 
bagger
Footballguy
bagger
Footballguy
I honestly just wish they would double prices and cut capacity in half.“Using the same example of a family of four from the standby queue, Cast Members would let 40 guests in through the Lightning Lane queue in a phase three scenario. “
glvsav37
Footballguy
Idk if that will even work.
imo. You won’t see a dent in attendance until UO opens their new park in a few years. Then OU will be come a viable vacation spot and start taking people away from WDW.
then It will be up to WDW to match with some expansion, but I think they have they heads so far up their Mickey shorts to do anything worth it.
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Redwes25
Footballguy
This is absurd. Sadly Disney is no longer a place for the middle class. They have morphed it into a luxury trip. It is actually pretty sad.
Capella
Footballguy
AcerFC
Footballguy
glvsav37
Footballguy
GroveDiesel
Footballguy
Yeah, so today is Disney+ Day and to celebrate they allowed Disney+ subscribers into the parks 30 minutes early (60 minutes for resort guests) and they had special photos opportunities in park, etc. So that may be partly why the parks were so crowded today.
3 hour lunch
Footballguy
Took the kids to Disneyworld many times and thought I was done with it but decided on San Diego for spring break, not far from Disneyland, a place none of us have been. Does all of the weird new lightning lane stuff apply there too? Can we plan a one day trip without spending 1k or tons of planning?
AAABatteries
Footballguy
It’s been a while since we were there but yes, either works. Previously I thought Disney allowed “external” golf carts to be delivered - are you saying there are no Disney ones, external is not allowed or you tried and nobody has one?
AAABatteries
Footballguy
@Capella - found this with a quick search
Renting a Golf Cart Offsite During Fort Wilderness Stay
There are no check-in requirements to bring your cart on site if you are a registered guest, but Disney is very strict in prohibiting 3rd party rental agencies from bringing a cart onto park property for you. This does not mean you cannot rent a golf cart offsite, and if you want one during peak season times and forgot to reserve one in advance, this may be your only option. You simply have to travel to their rental location, pick up the cart and bring it onto the property with your own vehicle (most agencies offer trailer rentals if you need it to transport the cart).
ETA - obviously confirm this is still the policy with Disney before trying it.
Renting a Golf Cart Offsite During Fort Wilderness Stay
There are no check-in requirements to bring your cart on site if you are a registered guest, but Disney is very strict in prohibiting 3rd party rental agencies from bringing a cart onto park property for you. This does not mean you cannot rent a golf cart offsite, and if you want one during peak season times and forgot to reserve one in advance, this may be your only option. You simply have to travel to their rental location, pick up the cart and bring it onto the property with your own vehicle (most agencies offer trailer rentals if you need it to transport the cart).
ETA - obviously confirm this is still the policy with Disney before trying it.
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Capella
Footballguy
Thanks! I will call back and ask.
Do we need one to get around the site though? Our cabin has a shower - we want to go look at the Christmas lights but those should all be on paved roads, otherwise how would the RVs etc get in there?
The Genie+ and Lighting Lane hasn't started at Disneyland / California Adventure yet, but it is set to open soon. They have started putting signs up in the parks. I would expect they will be operational well before spring break.
Disneyland can easily be done as a laid back one day trip. Both parks entrances are in the same spot. So you can easily park hop. With park hopper it is likely $220/each. So you may not be able to keep it under a grand when factoring in food, parking etc.
3 hour lunch
Footballguy
Thanks. So, basically no planning if I don’t do Genie but $$$. I think I can live with that if the kids want to go. So lines are nothing like Disneyworld? Luckily I don’t care that much about the Star Wars stuffThis_Guy said:
glvsav37
Footballguy
just got back this AM. Overall, good trip but I def feel that Disney may have passed me by slightly. I was there fro business, so my Disney time was limited.
Friday: Flew in and landed at 9:30 am with my plan to grab an Uber, dump my bags at the hotel (Hilton Orlando Disney Springs) literally across the street from DS, and head to Studios, then Epcot. My only goals were to ride Rise, MM Railway and Remmi's.
I knew I had to get and use G+ as well as purchase some LL experiences. Being it was only me and on a short trip, I was fine with that. I also knew that I would be in the air at the time the services opened, so I plunked down the $8 for SW's wifi. So mid flight, I logged in a little past 7 and was surprised to grab a mid day RnR Coaster LL. Then I tried to grab a Rise and I was not allowed b/c I needed to start at 9. So I waited and right at 9 I jumped back on and there were no LL passes avial, but I could grab one for MM Railway. However when I tried to grab it, and I was met with an error message saying the app could not recognize my location and could not complete the action. WTF????? I kept reloading, refreshing, quitting, shutting down, and even resetting my location preferences with no luck. All while watching the time slots go higher and higher...then past the point where I wanted to be in Epcot by then.
As we started our decent, I kept trying but with no luck. Even as we were touching down...no luck, same error message. Taxing to the gate, through the terminal and even waiting for my uber....nothing. It was only until I was about 1/2 way to the hotel that I was able to make a paid LL reservation for Remmie at 8:30 pm.
Frustrated that now I would be waiting in line, I dropped my bags and went to studios...which was bonkers. I mean like worse then summer crowds. Wall to wall people. I got through the gates around 11am. It was Disney+ day and I found out that studios was the main park for a lot of their promotions and presentations. I went straight toward Rise, and as I got up by Indy, I checked the app and guess what? Rise was temporally down (again)...grrrrr!!! So I pivot and went to MM Railway which now was a 75 min wait. So I waited, and it moved pretty well up until I got to the end. As I posted earlier, there was a time where I could see the LL/standby merge point and they had us stopped dead for close to 20 mins past the 75 mins) while the LL people walked through and they let in 1 standby party at a time.
The ride was good, better than expected. But I was not in a good mood while on it.
While on line, Rise came back up. So I left MMRR and went there stopping to grab a Ronto wrap 1st. I got in line and it was at a 150 min wait. Thank god for Netflix and headphones. The line moved slow at first, but once inside the cave area, moved much quicker and I would say it was prob quicker by about 15 mins. The ride is great, no denying it. I considered doing it again being the wait was about the same, but doing the math, would have put me in Epcot too late.
I blew off my RnRC LL b/c I didnt want to risk rise to hit 300+ mins. So I was in the park for close to 5 hours and did 2 rides...grrrrr. All b/c I was not able to participate fully in the G+ service. I was not happy.
Thankfully ,the skyliner makes it easy to get to Epcot. By now I was getting use to the G= app and I was able to make back to back LL's for SSE and Soarin later on. I had to do some shopping for specific items at countries for my family, so I knocked that out. The front end of Epcot was a mess. Getting to SSE from World showcase is bad. I made the mistake of going on the Test track side and the construction walls took me past the new Guardians ride and almost to the front of the park.
My picks at F&W were great, but they were my staples, so I expected it. It was as packed as studios. I sent a photo to my wife and she was shocked. I spent the rest of the night in WS and basically parked myself out in front of Remmi until my LL window opened b/c I was shot (had been up since 5:30am for the flight). Remmi was very good, IMO a notch below Rise, but better than MMRR. They are doing really great things with those trackless cars.
I was very interested in the sight-lines for Harmonious. I walked around a bit checking things out and 1 observation I had is that you dont need to be at the railing to see it well. The barges are ugly, but they are tall and that lets you take a few steps back and still see everything. I found a great spot. You know the big plaza in front of Japan? Where they do the drummers? I stood back there and had a great view.
Harmonious is still an odd show. But its better live. I did like the music and hearing those familiar songs in other languages. If that fits in any park, its Epcot. That said, I didnt stay for the whole thing. About 1/2 way though, I walked over to the International gate way to beat the rush and hopped a skyliner to Riviera to grab my Uber easier.
Overall, I felt very rushed and very overcrowded. Not using the G+ service to its best extent really hurt me.
Sat was a conference day. That night a bunch of us went up to the lounge at the top floor of the Grand Destino Tower at the Coronado. What a great, laid back place with delicious food. Highly recommend for a relaxing night. Plus they have an outdoor area that overlooks Studios and part of Epcot and you can see fireworks.
Sunday was the last regular conference day. That night I was shot and wanted to decompress so I figured I would go to Dis Springs, grab a table and a beer and get a little work down. That was until after going to 5-6 restaurants, I could not get a table even as a single. WTF???? So the best I could do was Deluxe Burger which was a damn good burger but I really was not in the mood to eat out of a paper basket. Afterward I did some shopping, and yea while already still a bit pissed, was really disappointed in the overall merchandise. lots of stuff that was overall cheap looking, or shirts designed so bold or garish that even I would never wear them outside of the parks. I left w/o buying a single thing.
Monday was an advanced conference day which I took part in with plans on hitting MK at night. The classroom ended later then expected so I didnt get to MK until 7pm (closed at 9). Lines were about 35-100 mins for attractions. I grabbed a LL reservation for HM and mainly stayed on the Adventureland/Fronteerland side of the park. Splash was only 25 min (about 10 in actuality) and IDK how long it will stay as Splash, so I rode it. After that BTMRR was also posted at 25 but basically a walk on, so I did that 2x. By then fireworks were going on (they run them at an hour before park close, rather then at park close which I found odd) I went to HM but decided not to use my LL b/c it was a walk on with plans on hitting Jingle Cruise afterward, but unfortunately by the time I got off, the fireworks had ended and a good portion of those people emptied back into the park and JC was back up over 50 mins. So i just gave up and walked around the park taking in the Christmas ambiance.
With nowhere in particular to be afterwards, I decided to take the new walking path from MK to the Grand Flo. It was a very enjoyable and picturesque walk. It is however much longer than the walk from Contemporary to MK. From there I walked trough GF and to the Polly and was able to get into Trader Sams for a few drinks to cap of the trip.
Friday: Flew in and landed at 9:30 am with my plan to grab an Uber, dump my bags at the hotel (Hilton Orlando Disney Springs) literally across the street from DS, and head to Studios, then Epcot. My only goals were to ride Rise, MM Railway and Remmi's.
I knew I had to get and use G+ as well as purchase some LL experiences. Being it was only me and on a short trip, I was fine with that. I also knew that I would be in the air at the time the services opened, so I plunked down the $8 for SW's wifi. So mid flight, I logged in a little past 7 and was surprised to grab a mid day RnR Coaster LL. Then I tried to grab a Rise and I was not allowed b/c I needed to start at 9. So I waited and right at 9 I jumped back on and there were no LL passes avial, but I could grab one for MM Railway. However when I tried to grab it, and I was met with an error message saying the app could not recognize my location and could not complete the action. WTF????? I kept reloading, refreshing, quitting, shutting down, and even resetting my location preferences with no luck. All while watching the time slots go higher and higher...then past the point where I wanted to be in Epcot by then.
As we started our decent, I kept trying but with no luck. Even as we were touching down...no luck, same error message. Taxing to the gate, through the terminal and even waiting for my uber....nothing. It was only until I was about 1/2 way to the hotel that I was able to make a paid LL reservation for Remmie at 8:30 pm.
Frustrated that now I would be waiting in line, I dropped my bags and went to studios...which was bonkers. I mean like worse then summer crowds. Wall to wall people. I got through the gates around 11am. It was Disney+ day and I found out that studios was the main park for a lot of their promotions and presentations. I went straight toward Rise, and as I got up by Indy, I checked the app and guess what? Rise was temporally down (again)...grrrrr!!! So I pivot and went to MM Railway which now was a 75 min wait. So I waited, and it moved pretty well up until I got to the end. As I posted earlier, there was a time where I could see the LL/standby merge point and they had us stopped dead for close to 20 mins past the 75 mins) while the LL people walked through and they let in 1 standby party at a time.
The ride was good, better than expected. But I was not in a good mood while on it.
While on line, Rise came back up. So I left MMRR and went there stopping to grab a Ronto wrap 1st. I got in line and it was at a 150 min wait. Thank god for Netflix and headphones. The line moved slow at first, but once inside the cave area, moved much quicker and I would say it was prob quicker by about 15 mins. The ride is great, no denying it. I considered doing it again being the wait was about the same, but doing the math, would have put me in Epcot too late.
I blew off my RnRC LL b/c I didnt want to risk rise to hit 300+ mins. So I was in the park for close to 5 hours and did 2 rides...grrrrr. All b/c I was not able to participate fully in the G+ service. I was not happy.
Thankfully ,the skyliner makes it easy to get to Epcot. By now I was getting use to the G= app and I was able to make back to back LL's for SSE and Soarin later on. I had to do some shopping for specific items at countries for my family, so I knocked that out. The front end of Epcot was a mess. Getting to SSE from World showcase is bad. I made the mistake of going on the Test track side and the construction walls took me past the new Guardians ride and almost to the front of the park.
My picks at F&W were great, but they were my staples, so I expected it. It was as packed as studios. I sent a photo to my wife and she was shocked. I spent the rest of the night in WS and basically parked myself out in front of Remmi until my LL window opened b/c I was shot (had been up since 5:30am for the flight). Remmi was very good, IMO a notch below Rise, but better than MMRR. They are doing really great things with those trackless cars.
I was very interested in the sight-lines for Harmonious. I walked around a bit checking things out and 1 observation I had is that you dont need to be at the railing to see it well. The barges are ugly, but they are tall and that lets you take a few steps back and still see everything. I found a great spot. You know the big plaza in front of Japan? Where they do the drummers? I stood back there and had a great view.
Harmonious is still an odd show. But its better live. I did like the music and hearing those familiar songs in other languages. If that fits in any park, its Epcot. That said, I didnt stay for the whole thing. About 1/2 way though, I walked over to the International gate way to beat the rush and hopped a skyliner to Riviera to grab my Uber easier.
Overall, I felt very rushed and very overcrowded. Not using the G+ service to its best extent really hurt me.
Sat was a conference day. That night a bunch of us went up to the lounge at the top floor of the Grand Destino Tower at the Coronado. What a great, laid back place with delicious food. Highly recommend for a relaxing night. Plus they have an outdoor area that overlooks Studios and part of Epcot and you can see fireworks.
Sunday was the last regular conference day. That night I was shot and wanted to decompress so I figured I would go to Dis Springs, grab a table and a beer and get a little work down. That was until after going to 5-6 restaurants, I could not get a table even as a single. WTF???? So the best I could do was Deluxe Burger which was a damn good burger but I really was not in the mood to eat out of a paper basket. Afterward I did some shopping, and yea while already still a bit pissed, was really disappointed in the overall merchandise. lots of stuff that was overall cheap looking, or shirts designed so bold or garish that even I would never wear them outside of the parks. I left w/o buying a single thing.
Monday was an advanced conference day which I took part in with plans on hitting MK at night. The classroom ended later then expected so I didnt get to MK until 7pm (closed at 9). Lines were about 35-100 mins for attractions. I grabbed a LL reservation for HM and mainly stayed on the Adventureland/Fronteerland side of the park. Splash was only 25 min (about 10 in actuality) and IDK how long it will stay as Splash, so I rode it. After that BTMRR was also posted at 25 but basically a walk on, so I did that 2x. By then fireworks were going on (they run them at an hour before park close, rather then at park close which I found odd) I went to HM but decided not to use my LL b/c it was a walk on with plans on hitting Jingle Cruise afterward, but unfortunately by the time I got off, the fireworks had ended and a good portion of those people emptied back into the park and JC was back up over 50 mins. So i just gave up and walked around the park taking in the Christmas ambiance.
With nowhere in particular to be afterwards, I decided to take the new walking path from MK to the Grand Flo. It was a very enjoyable and picturesque walk. It is however much longer than the walk from Contemporary to MK. From there I walked trough GF and to the Polly and was able to get into Trader Sams for a few drinks to cap of the trip.
GroveDiesel
Footballguy
I would bet that the majority of people who pay for Genie+ will either only end up being able to use it for 2-3 rides or will essentially waste it using it in a bunch of rides that would have low wait times anyway.
ETA: I was also frustrated with the functionality. It didn’t seem to work the way I expected it to work and, because of that, I definitely did not use it optimally.
ETA: I was also frustrated with the functionality. It didn’t seem to work the way I expected it to work and, because of that, I definitely did not use it optimally.
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glvsav37
Footballguy
I’ll admit I got more use to it as I used it. Unfortunately, I had very little time for learning as I was trying to do a lot of big things in 1 day.
My biggest gripe, vs the last FP system, is that I could not (or could not find) how to get a LL Window beyond the very next time. ie I wanted Remmi for later at Epcot and it only gave me times that were too early. I guess this is their new “next up” strategy but it it does not solve all issues
Rand al Thor
Footballguy
Look into how to stack the lightning lane tickets. I had three stacks going at the same time when I went two weeks ago. I know it's lightning lane, but I'm going to call them FP's just because. Anyway, the triple stack is next level stuff, but doing a double stack is child's play. I think it's probably only worth it at Magic Kingdom. Here's how:
Get your first FP for Peter Pan at about 7:30 in the morning. At this time, your return window should be between 10:30 and 11:30. On busy days, you may have to get it right at 7, that's the earliest they let you. You want your return window to be as close to 11 as possible.
Get to the park at 8:15 and across the lagoon by 8:45. They'll be letting people into Main Street, but you'll be held up from the lands by ropes. Head over towards adventure land.
When they drop the ropes, head directly to Pirates. You'll walk on with no wait and you'll be off by 9:15. Head directly to Big Thunder Mountain. There will be no line that early and you'll walk on/be off by 9:30. Go to Splash Mountain which should still be less than a 10 minute wait. You'll be off and done by 10:00. You can do Aladdin's Carpets, Tiki Bird Show, Country Bear Jamboree or It's a Small World. You are killing time until 11:00. Whatever you do, don't ride Peter Pan until after 11:00. This is crucial.
As soon as 11:00 rolls around, you'll be able to make a second FP. Use that for Haunted Mansion. Now you have two fast passes going at the same time because the system allows you to make another FP reservation after a two hour "cooling off" period. Either intentionally or through a mistake, the system will let you hold overlapping Lightning Lane reservations as long as you honor the 2 hour window. So now after you get your second set of passes, go ride Peter Pan before your window expires (you actually have a 15 minute grace period on the back side of that reservation that they will honor, but that makes me a little nervous to mess around with that window unless it can't be helped).
As soon as you scan your magic bands at the second checkpoint of Peter Pan, you can now make another reservation on what was your first set of FPs. I'd recommend getting something nearby like Small World, Winnie the Pooh or Ariel because they will all have return windows within the hour. Make sure that you wait until everyone in your party has scanned their bands, and make sure the light turns green when they scan it. Otherwise, that person in your party won't be registered as going through that ride and they won't be able to get the second pass.
At this point, you'll be ready for lunch and you have to do a mobile order or risk standing in line. I'd recommend the flatbreads at Pinocchio's since you're there, and then go do your Haunted Mansion FP after. Again, as soon as everyone in your party hits the second FP checkpoint, you'll be free to make another reservation. It's time to start doing the reservations for Tomorrowland, so probably Buzz Lightyear should come next.
You can only get one FP a day for each ride, but you'll still be able to get FP's for Pirates, Thunder Mountain and Splash later on that afternoon because you went standby first thing in the morning. So you can ride those three rides twice without any waiting. Also, sometime around 1pm and 2, you need to get your Jungle Cruise pass booked. That should have a return window of 7:00-8:00 by that time. *Triple stack alert - two hours after you book Jungle Cruise, you will now be able to get a third set of passes going because you haven't used your Jungle Cruise pass and two hours have gone by. You'll be running out of things to book by this point because of the one pass per ride per day thing, but whatever you haven't used a pass on will be available for you because they aren't headliners.
As far as Seven Dwarves, if you have to ride that, you're either going to have to buy the individual fastpasses or plan on hitting it right at 8pm when the firework show starts. Not only do you get to just walk on with no line at that time, you get an awesome firework show from the rollercoaster. Space Mountain is going to be a 30-40 minute wait on average and there's really no way around that unless you spend the 9 bucks for the a la carte fastpass. What the hell, you've already spent 4k bringing the family to Disney, what's another $36 bucks.
I realize it's a lot to keep track of, but I've always enjoyed knowing more than the rest of the crowds at Disney, and for me, it's worth all that nonsense to get everyone on as many rides as possible with no lines. For a little bit of work, Dad looks like a hero. If you're confused, Google up "Genie+ stacking" and see if that helps you. Again, it's a lot of work, but it's better than spending all that money just to stand around in an 80 minute line for a 2 minute dark ride.
Get your first FP for Peter Pan at about 7:30 in the morning. At this time, your return window should be between 10:30 and 11:30. On busy days, you may have to get it right at 7, that's the earliest they let you. You want your return window to be as close to 11 as possible.
Get to the park at 8:15 and across the lagoon by 8:45. They'll be letting people into Main Street, but you'll be held up from the lands by ropes. Head over towards adventure land.
When they drop the ropes, head directly to Pirates. You'll walk on with no wait and you'll be off by 9:15. Head directly to Big Thunder Mountain. There will be no line that early and you'll walk on/be off by 9:30. Go to Splash Mountain which should still be less than a 10 minute wait. You'll be off and done by 10:00. You can do Aladdin's Carpets, Tiki Bird Show, Country Bear Jamboree or It's a Small World. You are killing time until 11:00. Whatever you do, don't ride Peter Pan until after 11:00. This is crucial.
As soon as 11:00 rolls around, you'll be able to make a second FP. Use that for Haunted Mansion. Now you have two fast passes going at the same time because the system allows you to make another FP reservation after a two hour "cooling off" period. Either intentionally or through a mistake, the system will let you hold overlapping Lightning Lane reservations as long as you honor the 2 hour window. So now after you get your second set of passes, go ride Peter Pan before your window expires (you actually have a 15 minute grace period on the back side of that reservation that they will honor, but that makes me a little nervous to mess around with that window unless it can't be helped).
As soon as you scan your magic bands at the second checkpoint of Peter Pan, you can now make another reservation on what was your first set of FPs. I'd recommend getting something nearby like Small World, Winnie the Pooh or Ariel because they will all have return windows within the hour. Make sure that you wait until everyone in your party has scanned their bands, and make sure the light turns green when they scan it. Otherwise, that person in your party won't be registered as going through that ride and they won't be able to get the second pass.
At this point, you'll be ready for lunch and you have to do a mobile order or risk standing in line. I'd recommend the flatbreads at Pinocchio's since you're there, and then go do your Haunted Mansion FP after. Again, as soon as everyone in your party hits the second FP checkpoint, you'll be free to make another reservation. It's time to start doing the reservations for Tomorrowland, so probably Buzz Lightyear should come next.
You can only get one FP a day for each ride, but you'll still be able to get FP's for Pirates, Thunder Mountain and Splash later on that afternoon because you went standby first thing in the morning. So you can ride those three rides twice without any waiting. Also, sometime around 1pm and 2, you need to get your Jungle Cruise pass booked. That should have a return window of 7:00-8:00 by that time. *Triple stack alert - two hours after you book Jungle Cruise, you will now be able to get a third set of passes going because you haven't used your Jungle Cruise pass and two hours have gone by. You'll be running out of things to book by this point because of the one pass per ride per day thing, but whatever you haven't used a pass on will be available for you because they aren't headliners.
As far as Seven Dwarves, if you have to ride that, you're either going to have to buy the individual fastpasses or plan on hitting it right at 8pm when the firework show starts. Not only do you get to just walk on with no line at that time, you get an awesome firework show from the rollercoaster. Space Mountain is going to be a 30-40 minute wait on average and there's really no way around that unless you spend the 9 bucks for the a la carte fastpass. What the hell, you've already spent 4k bringing the family to Disney, what's another $36 bucks.
I realize it's a lot to keep track of, but I've always enjoyed knowing more than the rest of the crowds at Disney, and for me, it's worth all that nonsense to get everyone on as many rides as possible with no lines. For a little bit of work, Dad looks like a hero. If you're confused, Google up "Genie+ stacking" and see if that helps you. Again, it's a lot of work, but it's better than spending all that money just to stand around in an 80 minute line for a 2 minute dark ride.
glvsav37
Footballguy
thats good info @Rand al Thor, TY!!
While I agree, the disney die hards are good for knowing this type of action, it also shows how bad the system has gotten for the general guest.
For starters, these types of plans depend on getting there at rope drop. Generally getting there at RD is the best plan regardless of system, but thats not always possible, esp when you have little kids (with tons of stuff). The rope drop thing was never our style b/c we enjoyed the parks later, esp in summer when the heat was lower, the parks were open until midnight or later and then getting up the next day for an 8am rope drop was not happening. I guess thats the trade off, but still.
All that aside, the average guest does not want to be worried about an NFL level playbook on how to ride the attractions. Hell, most of them still think you can walk up to a restaurant and get a table at 5pm. I'm not saying they should not educate themselves somewhat, but this is also still a vacation. Where I feel disney has their heads up their butts is that they over complicate things under the guise of "equity"
I was def a FP Gamer, no doubt. Even back to the paper FP days, I would have stacks of them for each day. I just think we are tip toeing into an areas where the average guest is going to say enough is enough and prefer to go to a beach or cruise where they can just relax. Worse yet, they go and hate WDW b/c they feel they lost out on the overpriced trip b/c they were not Genie+ masters and never go back and advise everyone to not go.
While I agree, the disney die hards are good for knowing this type of action, it also shows how bad the system has gotten for the general guest.
For starters, these types of plans depend on getting there at rope drop. Generally getting there at RD is the best plan regardless of system, but thats not always possible, esp when you have little kids (with tons of stuff). The rope drop thing was never our style b/c we enjoyed the parks later, esp in summer when the heat was lower, the parks were open until midnight or later and then getting up the next day for an 8am rope drop was not happening. I guess thats the trade off, but still.
All that aside, the average guest does not want to be worried about an NFL level playbook on how to ride the attractions. Hell, most of them still think you can walk up to a restaurant and get a table at 5pm. I'm not saying they should not educate themselves somewhat, but this is also still a vacation. Where I feel disney has their heads up their butts is that they over complicate things under the guise of "equity"
I was def a FP Gamer, no doubt. Even back to the paper FP days, I would have stacks of them for each day. I just think we are tip toeing into an areas where the average guest is going to say enough is enough and prefer to go to a beach or cruise where they can just relax. Worse yet, they go and hate WDW b/c they feel they lost out on the overpriced trip b/c they were not Genie+ masters and never go back and advise everyone to not go.
3 hour lunch
Footballguy
Couple more Disneyland questions if anyone knows much….
Crowd calendars show we should go on the weekend of March 12 as opposed to the following weekdays, presumably due to spring break. However, going on a weekend seems crazy to me. Thoughts?
Anyone have any favorite dining at either park?
Any other tips? Even though I don’t love Star Wars we are going to try for the 7 am virtual queue thing for that.
Are Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates and Haunted M the exact same as DW or are there differences?
Crowd calendars show we should go on the weekend of March 12 as opposed to the following weekdays, presumably due to spring break. However, going on a weekend seems crazy to me. Thoughts?
Anyone have any favorite dining at either park?
Any other tips? Even though I don’t love Star Wars we are going to try for the 7 am virtual queue thing for that.
Are Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates and Haunted M the exact same as DW or are there differences?
Rand al Thor
Footballguy
I totally agree with you, and I told the kids this was our last Disney trip because they've priced us out. It's a shame because 15-20 years ago I was one of the biggest Disney defenders you could find. We now just wait for Busch Gardens to do their big sales and we go there all year long for almost half what one park admission ticket costs at Disney. Ridiculous.glvsav37 said:
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The crowd calendar can be hit or miss. The reason they are directing you to the weekend is because of Annual Pass holders (now actually "Magic Key"). Disneyland has a massive Annual Pass population. The 2 lowest tiers are blocked on Saturday March 12. That can actually lighten the crowd.
If you are looking for a nice sit down meal Carthay Circle is really nice.
As is always recommended, be there at rope drop. You can do more in those first two hours than then rest of the day.
DL is usually open later than DCA. So if you are planning to stay to close, factor that in.
If World of Color is up and running at DCA it is a unique show that isn't at WDW.
DL Pirates is a much better ride than WDW. Much longer and more involved.
Splash Mountain is better at WDW. Shorter at DL
Space Mountain is different. I think the DL is better.
fruity pebbles
Footballguy
Jesus……I’m taking the kids in January and I just want to go on a bunch of rides. I don’t want to have to know the inner workings of Disney World to not end up standing around all day.
