Quick Review of Parks After 10 Days from an Annual Passholder

[Chef Mickey]

Just returned from 10 days at the World....had a fantastic time. Crowds were light, building on Labor Day weekend, particularly for F&W at EPCOT. Still VERY low crowds most days with only 60-75 minute waits for FOP and 7DMT consistently. Most other E-Tickets were 30 min or less. Excellent time to go. Hot. Didn't rain much.

1) Thank you Cast Members. Incredible job overall. YOU are what makes this experience so enjoyable, despite the operational problems. Characters, servers, custodial, ride operators, etc.

2) Ride maintenance and show quality were iffy. Overall, I'd give it a C+ because several things went the entire time without working (multiple rides). Detail in another post.

3) Food was good overall. We ate at 19 table service restaurants and only were disappointed in maybe 1 or 2. Skipper Canteen was just "OK," Sci Fi was marginal to below average, and 'Ohana remains overpriced. Le Cellier, Be Our Guest , Narcoossee's all outstanding.

4) Prices - Even for me (who says price increases are fine) prices have gotten somewhat out of control on some food and merchandise.

5) Toy Story Land - A Total disappointment. Slinky is "OK" but the Alien Saucer spinner is a total joke. Worse than teacups and almost not even fun. Definitely was done on a budget and it looks like it (someone might have more detail on this). No inside queues and a slightly "carnival" feel. Looks decent at night.

6) Parks were clean. Bathrooms were overall good, rides relatively good, and park grounds were immaculate.

Overall, a fantastic trip and I was sad to leave. Definitely room for improvement and probably slightly downhill from earlier this year, particularly from a maintenance perspective.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Detailed Ride Maintenance Issues:

• The Seas with Nemo - NOTHING working except the screens/projections. Should have been closed. Has this been normal for anyone else? 2 different times, same result.
• Splash Mountain - Utterly disappointing. So many water effects broken/not operating. Many animatronics like the ones popping from the ceiling, not working. Limited alligator movement, crackly audio, lots of stoppages.
• Haunted Mansion - Rode at least 10 times and my favorite ride. The ending hitchhiking ghost effect is a disaster. Terrible. Never works well...need to go back to the original effect.
• Small World - Just a ton of stuff not working.
• Spaceship Earth - The large steam wheel hasn't worked for what seems like over a year and the final scene never takes your picture accurately, so the face always looks stupid....or just doesn't work
• Dinosaur - Just awful really. I felt like 50% of the effects were either not working or limited movement.
• Test Track - Probably the worst experience. 2 times riding, none of the on vehicle information displayed correctly or even at all most of the time. Screens outside ride vehicle after vehicle testing not working. "Process" to ride is way too long, particularly when the vehicle you spent 3 minutes building doesn't even factor into the ride.
• Flight of Passage - Already showing a lot of wear. Seems slightly out of focus somehow?

 

[Chef Mickey]

Problems with prices:

50s Prime Time has decreased portions (fine by me) but increased prices to almost double what they were just 5 years ago. Quality has also decreased. 50s, Sci Fi, Liberty Tree and a few others were hidden values that have since vanished. Cosmic Rays is terrible now...absolute sewer with cold/luke warm food that is tasteless. It must be poorly managed bc it used to be decent.

An ornament is up to $40? $35 T-Shirts? It's just stupid. We stopped buying stuff. I don't care about $3 water or high prices at tables services, but you have to deliver on quality. They did for the most part, but some places are struggling (50s Prime, Sci-Fi, 'Ohana, Cosmic Ray's).

 

[Rumrunner]

Problems with prices:

50s Prime Time has decreased portions (fine by me) but increased prices to almost double what they were just 5 years ago. Quality has also decreased. Cosmic Rays is terrible now...absolute sewer with cold/luke warm food that is tasteless. It must be poorly managed bc it used to be decent.

An ornament is up to $40? $35 T-Shirts? It's just stupid. We stopped buying stuff. I don't care about $3 water or high prices at tables services, but you have to deliver on quality. They did for the most part, but some places are struggling (50s Prime, Sci-Fi, 'Ohana, Cosmic Ray's).

The price increases have been going up. We have found the easiest way for us to cut back expenses were meals. We eat breakfast in the room, eat one meal at Disney-burgers etc, and then eat at night when we get back to motel. In a 10 day trip we save anywhere from $500 to $700. We never buy a $3 water.
We don't do any sit down meals or character meals. Those are the things we have decided were not of value to our family.
We buy one sourvenir per family member and keep the cost reasonable.

 

[Michael T]

Detailed Ride Maintenance Issues:

• The Seas with Nemo - NOTHING working except the screens/projections. Should have been closed. Has this been normal for anyone else? 2 different times, same result.
• Splash Mountain - Utterly disappointing. So many water effects broken/not operating. Many animatronics like the ones popping from the ceiling, not working. Limited alligator movement, crackly audio, lots of stoppages.
• Haunted Mansion - Rode at least 10 times and my favorite ride. The ending hitchhiking ghost effect is a disaster. Terrible. Never works well...need to go back to the original effect.
• Small World - Just a ton of stuff not working.
• Spaceship Earth - The large steam wheel hasn't worked for what seems like over a year and the final scene never takes your picture accurately, so the face always looks stupid....or just doesn't work
• Dinosaur - Just awful really. I felt like 50% of the effects were either not working or limited movement.
• Test Track - Probably the worst experience. 2 times riding, none of the on vehicle information displayed correctly or even at all most of the time. Screens outside ride vehicle after vehicle testing not working. "Process" to ride is way too long, particularly when the vehicle you spent 3 minutes building doesn't even factor into the ride.
• Flight of Passage - Already showing a lot of wear. Seems slightly out of focus somehow?

I went less than a month ago. These were my experiences:

Nemo: Agreed. Same issues that occurred when I went on. Honestly, the whole pavilion needs a lot of TLC.

Splash Mountain: I did not have many issues with. I think that one or two animatronics were not working.

Haunted Mansion: Agreed. The hitchhiking ghost effect needs help.

Small World: I did not see a lot of issues. They have changed the scenes a lot. I don't like it at all. It just feels weird for some reason.

Spaceship Earth: Love this attraction. Needs a lot of help though. But I don't want it to get help because I don't trust Disney at all. Honestly, I can see them changing it into something with IP. So I am terrified that they will update it with IP.

Dinosaur: I 100% agree. I also noticed that they changed the audio a little bit. Now the "Right, Left" is "Left, Right". It doesn't sound right. It sounds cut. (Because it is.) The effects are okay, but feels seriously toned down.

TT: I am getting to the point of not enjoying this attraction. The whole "Design your car" part was cool the first time. Now it is just a drag. And yes, the effects of seeing your score was not working the four times that I went on it. That made me even more frustrated because that is the whole point of the attraction. To see your car's performances on the SIMTrack.

FoP: I went on once. Had no issues. I sat in the 1 spot (All the way to the left.) and had a good experience. See Soarin'? People that aren't sitting in the middle can have a good experience too.

 

[eliza61nyc]

I think that's the one advantage of being a return visitor, I long ago stopped buying tee shirts and trinkets, I did purchase an outfit for my bosses newborn daughter, it was 30 about 27 with my dvc discount.
I enjoy eating out when i'm on vacation anywhere so I factor that into my budget.

I gotta say I'm obviously not as observant, I rode FOP, dinosaur and test track more than twice each and didn't notice a single issue.


Booo, heading home tomorrow morning

 

[Surfin' Tuna]

5) Toy Story Land - A Total disappointment. Slinky is "OK" but the Alien Saucer spinner is a total joke. Worse than teacups and almost not even fun. Definitely was done on a budget and it looks like it (someone might have more detail on this). No inside queues and a slightly "carnival" feel. Looks decent at night.

As locals we go a lot (maybe more than we should), and I can only take issue with this one thing you said. "Almost not even fun?" I would almost rather do SGE over the Alien Saucer. The other stuff you said is spot on with what we have noticed time and time again recently.
The merchandise is a total joke at this point, particularly the shirts. They feel as if they are made of tissue paper, and they are way overpriced. I am glad to see someone else feels the tea cups are better than the alien spin; I have had this arguments with others. They are rough, noisy, and just not fun at all. They truly feel as if they belong in a bad, traveling fair.

 

[DisSplash]

We were just there 2 weeks ago and saw Toy Story Land for the first time ... I happened to love Slinky Dog (kind of felt small like a toy on that one, so I thought the theming did its job. But I agree with you completely on that Alien ride. The queue was terrible, no A/c, and a long stretch with not a lot to look at, the load-in was overlong, especially with one side NOT WORKING (after only 1.5 months?!) ...

And speaking of wear and tear, people have already started tearing up the decals In the Toy Story Queues - we saw a couple of places where it looked like people tried to pull up the fake “stickers.” So disappointing, especially since everything is supposed to be so new. (Again, only 6 weeks open)! Had me worried for what it will like in a couple years ...

 

[Surfin' Tuna]

I should amend my comment to say I agree with DisSplash that SDD is a good coaster for what it is. The kids seem to enjoy it, but it just does not feel Disney enough. They used to really do it right, but all of TSL feels as if they just kinda phoned it in. I understand the balance of obligation to the share holders versus spending, but there are cheaper places to enjoy "rides." Don't get me wrong, the theming is there if you look for it, but it just seems a little bit lacking in what makes Disney special. Or is this the new Disney?

 

[Chef Mickey]

As locals we go a lot (maybe more than we should), and I can only take issue with this one thing you said. "Almost not even fun?" I would almost rather do SGE over the Alien Saucer. The other stuff you said is spot on with what we have noticed time and time again recently.
The merchandise is a total joke at this point, particularly the shirts. They feel as if they are made of tissue paper, and they are way overpriced. I am glad to see someone else feels the tea cups are better than the alien spin; I have had this arguments with others. They are rough, noisy, and just not fun at all. They truly feel as if they belong in a bad, traveling fair.

Lol, let’s change it to not fun at all...it’s bad.

I would love to hear the backstory on this attraction as I literally can’t believe it was even approved as a Disney attraction.

Even Slinky is essentially an amped up Barnstormer and barely even improved. It’s so obvious the land was done on the cheap and a real shame because Toy Story is a great franchise. The 10 year old Midway Mania remains the best attraction...by far.

 

[Mickey5150]

5) Toy Story Land - A Total disappointment. Slinky is "OK" but the Alien Saucer spinner is a total joke. Worse than teacups and almost not even fun. Definitely was done on a budget and it looks like it (someone might have more detail on this). No inside queues and a slightly "carnival" feel. Looks decent at night.

Don't know the budget but Alien Saucer is just a reskin of Maters Junkyard Jamboree from DCA. I think the biggest problem with Toy Story Land is that the Imagineers tried too hard to set the theme and didn't think about the reality. Yes if you are a toy in the backyard you wouldn't have a queue with AC, unfortunately we are in Florida, and could use some AC.

 

[Chef Mickey]

We were just there 2 weeks ago and saw Toy Story Land for the first time ... I happened to love Slinky Dog (kind of felt small like a toy on that one, so I thought the theming did its job. But I agree with you completely on that Alien ride. The queue was terrible, no A/c, and a long stretch with not a lot to look at, the load-in was overlong, especially with one side NOT WORKING (after only 1.5 months?!) ...

And speaking of wear and tear, people have already started tearing up the decals In the Toy Story Queues - we saw a couple of places where it looked like people tried to pull up the fake “stickers.” So disappointing, especially since everything is supposed to be so new. (Again, only 6 weeks open)! Had me worried for what it will like in a couple years ...

Yep, also noticed the one side of Saucers down...although they were running it with no one riding.

I also noticed the peeling paint...it’s just poor guest behavior, but it shouldn’t be so easily worn. It has to be a paint application and most likely prep issue. Sloppy.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I should amend my comment to say I agree with DisSplash that SDD is a good coaster for what it is. The kids seem to enjoy it, but it just does not feel Disney enough. They used to really do it right, but all of TSL feels as if they just kinda phoned it in. I understand the balance of obligation to the share holders versus spending, but there are cheaper places to enjoy "rides." Don't get me wrong, the theming is there if you look for it, but it just seems a little bit lacking in what makes Disney special. Or is this the new Disney?

I am trying to think of the best Iger era attraction. FOP? It’s great, but it’s still a screen ride at its core and I can attest it’s already getting old for me. I’ve probably ridden it 12-15 times, but I’ve ridden Haunted Mansion probably 500 or more times and still love it. Can’t be the practical effects, real animatronics, and physical world they created.

Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Everest, Kilimanjaro...I mean, nothing built since 2006 even approaches these attractions. They are freaking amazing in comparison.

 

[Much-Pixie-Dust]

Yep, also noticed the one side of Saucers down...although they were running it with no one riding.

I also noticed the peeling paint...it’s just poor guest behavior, but it shouldn’t be so easily worn. It has to be a paint application and most likely prep issue. Sloppy.

Noticed same things as you on trip at beginning of August on Saucers only having one side open, TT, HM, and Nemo. The saucers area especially, just looked so cheap. I got a survey after the visit just for the Toy Story Land area. I filled it out with complete honesty.

 

[Chef Mickey]

And taking out Sweet Spells at DHS? LOL!

I know selling pre packaged junk that can sit on shelves for weeks is cheaper, but those homemade treats were great and you can charge whatever you want! Just don’t take them away.

 

[Surfin' Tuna]

The peeling paint in the SDD queue area also really bugged me. Yes, it is the guests, who are not properly socialized, but I also blame imagineering a wee bit on this one. They have been in the theme park business for over sixty years now, so they should have anticipated this and designed and built accordingly. As far as air conditioning goes... there is a little ride known as jungle cruise that has air conditioning in the queue area. This was just another cheap move on Disney's part.

 

[larryz]

You're just tourists--why should they care? veniebas empticius victis -- you came, you spent, they conquered.

 

[Chef Mickey]

You're just tourists--why should they care? veniebas empticius victis -- you came, you spent, they conquered.

True in some ways, but Disney will rely on reputation, repeat guests, and a lot of word of mouth. If it's a beating, not very amazing, and too expensive, you'll tell your friends to skip it. Has an effect....hard to measure, but it's there.

A lot of amazing things are still there, but the last 10 years has been a struggle for attraction development (Pandora is very good, however).

 

[geekza]

I'm just glad that they're repairing the Riverboat track instead of just mothballing it because it's an attraction that caters to "old people" who enjoy a relaxing trip around the river. So much of Disney these days feels like they'll let an attraction rot, rather than paying for it to operate under optimal condition, and then replace it with something unimaginative. Yes, I know that our Small World isn't the original, but it is still one of the last attractions that Walt had a direct hand in creating and holds up. I'm a huge Mary Blair fan and that ride captures her aesthetic perfectly.

 

[erasure fan1]

Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Everest, Kilimanjaro...I mean, nothing built since 2006 even approaches these attractions. They are freaking amazing in comparison.

If it wasn't so short, I would say the 7D mine train is close. If it had one more show scene, giving it a couple more min of ride time, it could have been epic. Unfortunately under built attractions are far too common in this era.