So, myself and my wife just got back Saturday the 8th of December from a week at WDW. We did a 4 day park hopper (military priced) and one day at Universal (just to see HP Land). The biggest issue wasn't the parks this trip, more the people (we had 7 people total in our group, both younger and older). It was a family reunion of sorts, devised by my wife and I last year. We thought it'd be a good idea...
I won’t get into the logistic nightmare of having half invalids for parents complaining about their feet and the multiple bathroom stops (I swear we wasted 6 hours in the bathroom over the course of the week). Even with a very detailed itinerary we still struggled to drag people to stay on task. I truly don’t know how parents with babies and elderly people in tow with them can have any fun at all. It seems like a waste of money. More power to you guys’ who can deal with all that crap. Our next trip will be just me and my wife. Maximum fun, minimum pain.
The parks report:
MK- It looked great as usual. This is my 5th time there for Christmas. The buildings looked still freshly painted, all the Christmas trimmings were done to perfection.
Rides: POTC enhancements are ‘okay’. The animated projection for the mermaids is a
Little hokey for my taste, but it’s refreshing to see them trying something new.
Haunted Mansion. This is the first time I’ve been there for the interactive queue. I’ve heard all the bad stuff about it on the boards and I personally really liked it. I think it added to the fun of the ride overall.
IASW. Still don’t like it compared to Disneyland’s version, but all the stuff inside looked freshly painted. That little part of Fantasyland seems really cheap compared to the rest of it. That part of the world needs a refurb to match the rest of Fantasyland, and to keep up with New Fantasyland.
New Fantasyland is awesome. The Little Mermaid ride is exactly the same as DL version. The queue is unbelievable. The Barnstormer ride is good for a kid. All the attention to detail is really great to see. It’s on par with Carsland here in Cali. Be Our Guest restaurant had excellent food and even though the line was out the door for lunch, it still moved quick.
Space Mountain. Great as always.
I really can’t emphasize how much New FL looks great. Sure the Seven Dwarves Mine Train construction is ugly, but it really doesn’t detract from the quality work that has been accomplished. I really think that WDO needs to address the rest of FL to make it match the quality (at least topically) to New FL. It’s like walking into two different worlds over there. Old Fantasyland feels out of place and cheap in certain areas.
Food: Like I stated, we got a chance to eat at Be Our Guest. My wife and I split two entrees (steak and ham and cheese sandwiches). Both were great. The rest of our party got the pork entrée with potatoes and veggies and all said it was great as well. My wife got a chocolate mousse cupcake for dessert and the bite I had was really good. I thought it would be dense cake, but it was light and fluffy.
We also ate at the Harbour House, which was ok. Still feels like a 1980’s version of Long John Silver’s though. Tomorrowland Terrace continues to have THE WORST FOOD in the park. This holds true at the DL version as well. Both are geared toward an 8 year old’s pallet.
We also attended the Christmas Party one night. We’ve done this before and like usual it’s great. The one change that we noticed is that the cookie/hot chocolate spots were in major restaurants and there were only a few mobile stations set up. So the lines were horrendous. The CM uniforms were festive though!
Christmas Wishes Fireworks were great as always, but not too much change from a couple years ago when we were there last. The new Celebrate the Magic is a definite upgrade from the MM&Y, but I recommend standing farther away from the castle while viewing it. If you get a spot around the circle you’ll lose some of the magic because you can see the grainyness of the projections. We watched it twice and the farther back you get, you’ll enjoy it much more.
All in all, last week WDW was the place to be. 10-15 minute waits on nearly everything as well.
EPCOT:
Rides. We rode everything in the park with minimal wait times (except Soarin’, which seems to always have a ridiculous wait time of an hour, so we don’t go on it. Especially since it’s the same exact ride out here in DL). I’ll only comment on what people want to know about and what I hate. Test Track 2.0. We rode it the day before the official opening. The queue is soooo much better. It doesn’t resemble the hokey ride of TT 1.0. The bugs need to be worked out with the design process. Half the CM’s don’t know what they’re doing still, and the wait in the queue is fast/slow/fast/sloowww/medium, and then you get to your build station and the CM’s have to explain things to you. I knew this would be a learning curve, but I feel this will diminish the appeal of this ride over time. Inside the ride look almost exactly like the concept drawings. However, you can barely hear what ‘test’ you’re supposed to be doing as you speed through all of them. The ride is faster through the middle before the speed test and the effects are cool, but the ride is still lacking something special about it. As my wife put it, ‘it’s a boys ride now’, I’ll agree with that statement. It’s much more a boys ride now than ever before. The post show stuff and interactive games are great. The showroom is much better as well. All in all, Disney gets a solid grade of B on this ride. Anything better than that people are lying to you.
Maelstrom continues to be a joke of a ride, and quite possibly the worst thing ever devised by Disney. It lacks coherent thought and touts an OIL RIG at the end of the ride, right before you watch a CONSERVATION video. I’m all for oil production, but I think there are two differing thought processes going on there… Anyway, I will always hate this ride, and we’ll still ride it just for the comic relief of seeing other people’s dissolutioned faces as their walking through the gift shop. ‘F’
Spaceship Earth. This is the first time I’ve ridden that ride since it’s been dumbed down. They literally waste 5 minutes of ride time with that terrible Jetson’s crap at the end. I can’t believe they reduced this ride for our dumbed down education system here in the US. ‘C’
Food: We ate at Tutto Italia, still good food. A bit overpriced, but that’s Disney. We also ate breakfast down in The Land at their grab and go, and it was really good and reasonably priced.
Overall, Epcot was great. The lines were short for everything (except Maelstrom, there’s a sucker born every minute!, lol). The countries looked great and we caught a few stories from various Christmas Santa’s as well. Andy Garcia did an excellent job as emcee of the Concert as well. Illuminations needs to be replaced, fast. That show continues to be lackluster and doesn’t match World of Color in DL nor any other pyrotechnics show that Disney offers.
Animal Kingdom:
We really liked the changed format of the safari. It doesn’t feel as kiddy as before. It feels more natural the way its set up now. Flights of Wonder is still cool, but the dude who is supposed to be the famous tour guide/explorer is cringe inducing. He sounds like a bad knockoff character from the old Bozo show. EE was still great, but Disco Yeti is barely able to be seen with the darkness over there. We rode it twice (pretty much walked on it both times) Some people in my party missed it both times, even with me pointing out where it was at in the ride. It’s a shame. It was glorious back in the day when it worked. Dinosaur needs to go. Such as waste of a great ride system (Indy at DL) with a boring plot. Sad as well. That goes for all of Dinoland. It’s an out of place park for Disney. It feels like a carnival. It feels cheap. They need to retheme both Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur, or as much as I hate to say it, bring Avatar in. I’m not a fan of that movie, but ANYTHING is better than what is there now. Festival of the Lion King is a great live show, first time I saw it. Flame Tree BBQ is still great food too, but the 45 minute wait in line was the longest line we had for the entire week, food/rides combined.
Disney MGM/err Hollywood Studios:
Probably the busiest of all the parks for the week (don’t know why, considering they have the least amount to do there). Rockin’ Rollercoaster is great when it works, but that damn ride goes down more than anything in all of the Disney parks I’ve been to. Either something screws up while riding it, or we get turned away in the middle of the queue. FIX THE GLITCH WDO. ToT is still a great ride. It’s a bit more jolting at California Adventure, so it’s a bit more exciting that Hollywood Studios version, but I like the immersive dark ride element the HS version has. The Indy stunt show is still fun, but so dated… time for something new there too. Beauty and the Beast live show is still great as well. My wife’s favorite part of that park, besides the Osborne Festival of Lights, which is always amazing. We didn’t eat this time in HS, but we have in the past. Nothing really notable at any of the restaurants anyway in this park. This park and AK are ½ to ¾ day parks anyway.
All in all, the trip was good. I recommend the first week of December just because lines are usually shorter and the weather is relatively good (75 degrees all week on average). Even with all the new openings last week, it wasn’t crowded.
On a side note, Harry Potter land doesn’t belong at Universal. It’s so immersive and well done that it makes the rest of Islands of Adventure pale in comparison. I’m sure Disney is kicking themselves on not carrying that movie franchise.
Another side note. Butterbeer isn’t really that good. It gives you a headache. Unless you’re a butterscotch freak, skip it. LeFou’s brew is actually better at New FL. Give it a try.
I won’t get into the logistic nightmare of having half invalids for parents complaining about their feet and the multiple bathroom stops (I swear we wasted 6 hours in the bathroom over the course of the week). Even with a very detailed itinerary we still struggled to drag people to stay on task. I truly don’t know how parents with babies and elderly people in tow with them can have any fun at all. It seems like a waste of money. More power to you guys’ who can deal with all that crap. Our next trip will be just me and my wife. Maximum fun, minimum pain.
The parks report:
MK- It looked great as usual. This is my 5th time there for Christmas. The buildings looked still freshly painted, all the Christmas trimmings were done to perfection.
Rides: POTC enhancements are ‘okay’. The animated projection for the mermaids is a
Little hokey for my taste, but it’s refreshing to see them trying something new.
Haunted Mansion. This is the first time I’ve been there for the interactive queue. I’ve heard all the bad stuff about it on the boards and I personally really liked it. I think it added to the fun of the ride overall.
IASW. Still don’t like it compared to Disneyland’s version, but all the stuff inside looked freshly painted. That little part of Fantasyland seems really cheap compared to the rest of it. That part of the world needs a refurb to match the rest of Fantasyland, and to keep up with New Fantasyland.
New Fantasyland is awesome. The Little Mermaid ride is exactly the same as DL version. The queue is unbelievable. The Barnstormer ride is good for a kid. All the attention to detail is really great to see. It’s on par with Carsland here in Cali. Be Our Guest restaurant had excellent food and even though the line was out the door for lunch, it still moved quick.
Space Mountain. Great as always.
I really can’t emphasize how much New FL looks great. Sure the Seven Dwarves Mine Train construction is ugly, but it really doesn’t detract from the quality work that has been accomplished. I really think that WDO needs to address the rest of FL to make it match the quality (at least topically) to New FL. It’s like walking into two different worlds over there. Old Fantasyland feels out of place and cheap in certain areas.
Food: Like I stated, we got a chance to eat at Be Our Guest. My wife and I split two entrees (steak and ham and cheese sandwiches). Both were great. The rest of our party got the pork entrée with potatoes and veggies and all said it was great as well. My wife got a chocolate mousse cupcake for dessert and the bite I had was really good. I thought it would be dense cake, but it was light and fluffy.
We also ate at the Harbour House, which was ok. Still feels like a 1980’s version of Long John Silver’s though. Tomorrowland Terrace continues to have THE WORST FOOD in the park. This holds true at the DL version as well. Both are geared toward an 8 year old’s pallet.
We also attended the Christmas Party one night. We’ve done this before and like usual it’s great. The one change that we noticed is that the cookie/hot chocolate spots were in major restaurants and there were only a few mobile stations set up. So the lines were horrendous. The CM uniforms were festive though!
Christmas Wishes Fireworks were great as always, but not too much change from a couple years ago when we were there last. The new Celebrate the Magic is a definite upgrade from the MM&Y, but I recommend standing farther away from the castle while viewing it. If you get a spot around the circle you’ll lose some of the magic because you can see the grainyness of the projections. We watched it twice and the farther back you get, you’ll enjoy it much more.
All in all, last week WDW was the place to be. 10-15 minute waits on nearly everything as well.
EPCOT:
Rides. We rode everything in the park with minimal wait times (except Soarin’, which seems to always have a ridiculous wait time of an hour, so we don’t go on it. Especially since it’s the same exact ride out here in DL). I’ll only comment on what people want to know about and what I hate. Test Track 2.0. We rode it the day before the official opening. The queue is soooo much better. It doesn’t resemble the hokey ride of TT 1.0. The bugs need to be worked out with the design process. Half the CM’s don’t know what they’re doing still, and the wait in the queue is fast/slow/fast/sloowww/medium, and then you get to your build station and the CM’s have to explain things to you. I knew this would be a learning curve, but I feel this will diminish the appeal of this ride over time. Inside the ride look almost exactly like the concept drawings. However, you can barely hear what ‘test’ you’re supposed to be doing as you speed through all of them. The ride is faster through the middle before the speed test and the effects are cool, but the ride is still lacking something special about it. As my wife put it, ‘it’s a boys ride now’, I’ll agree with that statement. It’s much more a boys ride now than ever before. The post show stuff and interactive games are great. The showroom is much better as well. All in all, Disney gets a solid grade of B on this ride. Anything better than that people are lying to you.
Maelstrom continues to be a joke of a ride, and quite possibly the worst thing ever devised by Disney. It lacks coherent thought and touts an OIL RIG at the end of the ride, right before you watch a CONSERVATION video. I’m all for oil production, but I think there are two differing thought processes going on there… Anyway, I will always hate this ride, and we’ll still ride it just for the comic relief of seeing other people’s dissolutioned faces as their walking through the gift shop. ‘F’
Spaceship Earth. This is the first time I’ve ridden that ride since it’s been dumbed down. They literally waste 5 minutes of ride time with that terrible Jetson’s crap at the end. I can’t believe they reduced this ride for our dumbed down education system here in the US. ‘C’
Food: We ate at Tutto Italia, still good food. A bit overpriced, but that’s Disney. We also ate breakfast down in The Land at their grab and go, and it was really good and reasonably priced.
Overall, Epcot was great. The lines were short for everything (except Maelstrom, there’s a sucker born every minute!, lol). The countries looked great and we caught a few stories from various Christmas Santa’s as well. Andy Garcia did an excellent job as emcee of the Concert as well. Illuminations needs to be replaced, fast. That show continues to be lackluster and doesn’t match World of Color in DL nor any other pyrotechnics show that Disney offers.
Animal Kingdom:
We really liked the changed format of the safari. It doesn’t feel as kiddy as before. It feels more natural the way its set up now. Flights of Wonder is still cool, but the dude who is supposed to be the famous tour guide/explorer is cringe inducing. He sounds like a bad knockoff character from the old Bozo show. EE was still great, but Disco Yeti is barely able to be seen with the darkness over there. We rode it twice (pretty much walked on it both times) Some people in my party missed it both times, even with me pointing out where it was at in the ride. It’s a shame. It was glorious back in the day when it worked. Dinosaur needs to go. Such as waste of a great ride system (Indy at DL) with a boring plot. Sad as well. That goes for all of Dinoland. It’s an out of place park for Disney. It feels like a carnival. It feels cheap. They need to retheme both Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur, or as much as I hate to say it, bring Avatar in. I’m not a fan of that movie, but ANYTHING is better than what is there now. Festival of the Lion King is a great live show, first time I saw it. Flame Tree BBQ is still great food too, but the 45 minute wait in line was the longest line we had for the entire week, food/rides combined.
Disney MGM/err Hollywood Studios:
Probably the busiest of all the parks for the week (don’t know why, considering they have the least amount to do there). Rockin’ Rollercoaster is great when it works, but that damn ride goes down more than anything in all of the Disney parks I’ve been to. Either something screws up while riding it, or we get turned away in the middle of the queue. FIX THE GLITCH WDO. ToT is still a great ride. It’s a bit more jolting at California Adventure, so it’s a bit more exciting that Hollywood Studios version, but I like the immersive dark ride element the HS version has. The Indy stunt show is still fun, but so dated… time for something new there too. Beauty and the Beast live show is still great as well. My wife’s favorite part of that park, besides the Osborne Festival of Lights, which is always amazing. We didn’t eat this time in HS, but we have in the past. Nothing really notable at any of the restaurants anyway in this park. This park and AK are ½ to ¾ day parks anyway.
All in all, the trip was good. I recommend the first week of December just because lines are usually shorter and the weather is relatively good (75 degrees all week on average). Even with all the new openings last week, it wasn’t crowded.
On a side note, Harry Potter land doesn’t belong at Universal. It’s so immersive and well done that it makes the rest of Islands of Adventure pale in comparison. I’m sure Disney is kicking themselves on not carrying that movie franchise.
Another side note. Butterbeer isn’t really that good. It gives you a headache. Unless you’re a butterscotch freak, skip it. LeFou’s brew is actually better at New FL. Give it a try.
