I found the parks to be busy, but not obscene. Dhs on Tuesday night was flat out empty. Wednesday was very tolerable in dhs and MK with the exception that the big people eaters were still usually 30mins or more. But times were mostly 30-60mins... even for things like the mine train. Heck I was able to get a Peter Pan FP day of
Thursday was significantly more busy... and I didn't ride a whole lot of stuff as most waits were north of 30mins. I did more shows. All in all I found the crowds largely inline with crowd calander expectations of 7/10.
I was focusing on things I had not done in person yet.
Frozen was my biggest wait at 60mins (posted was 70... mid day wed). I liked it... except the whole segments leading into and out of the Elsa scene are completely barren... especially noticeable on the outbound reverse section. Yuk!
Test track 2.0? Again... barren. I think it's quite the letdown compared to 1.0 (which was horribly outdated and needed a refresh).
Soarin - wait times clearly have been helped with the new theater. This one is till loved by the crowd but I think is a downgrade and shows a lack of desire for perfection in the show producers. Clearly no one thought about the image distortion when designing it... the Paris scene is embarrassing. The Taj Mahal looks really bad. The cgi animals are mostly fine. The gag cuts the crowds likes but I find to be so uninspired compared to the emotional pulls of most of the previous ones. The new one has zero sense of hang gliding at all... every scene is too fast and seems to have little credible movement. The old film started you out with more gliding sequences and then advanced to into the faster, more just pure flight scenes the desperate you got into it.
Soarin feels like an imitation that lacks the heart of the original.
Sse wait times were very high and didn't ride because of them.
New tsmm track clearly was helping. Waits were usually less than an hour (and saw 35min!! On Tuesday).
Star Wars stage show was ok for people wanting just to see characters. Hint... watch from behind the stage to get one on one engagement with the characters as they return to their tents. The Star Wars projection show would have been nice as some filler show... but not as a park anchor. Would not tell someone to invest 60mins saving a spot for it. Even my "pure customer" coworker with me said he wouldn't keep his 8yr old up if he was cranky to see the show. Unfortunately the poor sightlines for much of the viewing areas I'm sure will cause a lot of complaints and more changes to the central hub. Those show towers are fugly!
The storm trooper march is cute. Were those speakers along Hollywood bvld on the roofs always there? Pretty out of character for the buildings.
Huge thumbs up to the new muppets production in liberty square. Live performance, good acting, good script, good setting. My only concern is people less familiar with the characters may get offended by the "only the American parts..." gag. Maybe they should have given Sam the eagle a bit more of an intro to lead into that gag.
Festival parade I really liked too. I think it hits on all the buttons you want from a Disney parade with really no negatives to mention.
Made a point to see wishes too. I sure hope this is not the end of high altitude, big boom fireworks in the MK. Fireworks with music needs to be the lead act... not a costar!
