Empty TreeHouses - Louder Doombuggies - Many Breakdowns

I am currently at WDW and have been to all 4 parks in the past three days, most twice. Here are current trip report random musings os of 3/21/06

The Tree Houses are completely empty. THere are no cast members living in them at present. They are completely vacent.

:kiss: Animal Kingdom
All attractions are open and running. EE has been running all week. Lines at longest are 50 minutes as the load time is so fast. The lines at the Safari comtinue to be the longest in the park. Dinosaur remains the fastest headliner attraction to get onto - it was a walkon three times over the course of the last three days at randomly selected times.

:kiss: Magic Kingdom
The doombuggies seem to have their sound cranked up! Finally! On the other hand, the lighting in some of the rooms is dimmer - to the point of not being able to make some things out in some of the rooms. Whats up with that?
Lines are HUGE, especially after noon. THere have been frequent breakdowns -- The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain seem to break down early and often. When this occurs, the lines start backing up. It was 90 minutes at Space Mountain shortly after opening this morning (it was broken until 11:30). As a result, the TTA and COP have had full crowds throughout the day.

:kiss: Epcot
Is PACKED - no matter when you go, people are flocking to Epcot - and the lines at Test Track and Soarin' remain the longest at the park. Mission Space is often a walk-on during the day. I know someone mentioned that WOL pavilion was going to open during peak -- it is not open, and is shuttered dark. It has even been removed from the park maps. Soarin' has the longest lines in park history - and they use a VERY VERY misleading standby ride board. Having done this ride countless times (see my post Riding Soarin') I guarantee the times on the board do NOT match the actual wait times. At one point they had 50 minutes on the board - I looked inside and the line was at the TWO hour point - the cast member at the front relucatantly changed the board to indicate 60 minutes after I insisted he is misleading those waiting to enter the queu. It remained more than two hours on standby and people coming off the ride were grumbling about the incorrectly posted times. I am writing a letter to Disney to complain about this misleading practice.

:kiss: Disney - MGM Studios
The crowds here have been lower than at the other parks the last three days. None of the standby lines have been longer than 45 minutes for anything. Lights Cameras Action has become THE major crowd control factor in the park - since it only runs three times per day - it causes massive migration to the stadium three times per day - when 5000 people all come pouring out afterwards, all attractions near the stadium get inundated with visitors. TIP : Do the attractions nearest to LCA while the show is in progress.

THe resorts are all full. Busses are plentiful and none of my waits has been more than 15 minutes. No complaints about the job WDW is doing with moving people around.

While I haven't gone, the water parks have been jammed full -- the weather here has been VERY hot the last three days.

Will edit this or add on as needed at the end of my week here on Friday.
 

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
How is the wait for Everest in the late afternoon and on EMH nights? Thanks for the reports :)
 

RonAnnArbor

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK - a quick update:

EE lines are not long at this point in time -- the longest I have seen it the entire week I have been here is about one hour. They move relatively quickly. The fastpasses do disappear earlier in the day. Partly because the park closes so early (6:00) the fastpasses really seem to be gone early in the day. EMH hours, the line was just as long. They just extend the fastpass system to 8:45 rather than 5:45.

Fantasmic! -- OK, I made the mistake of going tonight of all nights, with those 15 MPH winds...I was sitting 10 rows from the back of the ampitheatre in the center...and I left absolutely soaked through from the water effects and the wind blowing all directly at you...not pleasant on this 52 degree evening

Soarin' was back up to peak waits today - all fastpasses were gone by 1:30 pm.

More on the TreeHouses (the old Villas)...apparently the International Student dormatories are now all completed, and all residents were moved there. They are currently not allowed to house anyone in the Treehouses because the only access road to the Saratoga Springs Part III development is on the single road leading into and past the Treehouses. Apparently, because of wetland conservations rules, they are not permitted to house people in those residences while construction is going on at SS. Blame Florida.

Other notes: The DoomBuggies continue to be nice and loud - I think that is an overall sound improvement...several times over the course of the week and all sound was good.

Is it just me, or have families with screaming 2 year olds suddenly discovered that the boatride from Port Orleans to DD is "fun" ? I never recall so many poorly behaved children and screaming toddlers on the boatride as on my two trips this week.
 

RonAnnArbor

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
One final update -- then back to the snows of Michigan tomorrow...

At Animal Kingdom the expected is now occuring every morning - both mornings that I went to AK, there were thousands of people there at opening and waiting at the rope drop area and all the way back across the bridge to the Oasis...at rope drop, half rush to EE and the other half rush to KS, with those who don't know about either one sort of left standing there like bumpers on a pinball machine.

Today was what I called the typical end of week "melt down" day - everywhere you went there were screaming 2 to 4 year olds and angry parents...Parents...LIGHTEN UP! YOur the ones that dragged your two year old into It's a Bugs Life...

Disney handled its crowds well all week - should be smooth sailing for anyone going the next couple of weeks - but all bets are off for Easter weekend.
 

spike595

Member
I just got back today from spending 5 days at WDW.
Monday at AK was busy but tolerable. EE was at 60min in the afternoon with FP out at 3:00.
Tues at Epcot was pretty good in the morning but by noon was PACKED. Every ride had long waits except MS which was at 30 min.
WED... MGM was pretty busy.. 60 min waits
Thurs... MK was packed after noon
Today AK was wall to wall people... like shoulder to shoulder every where.
EE at 10:30 was 70 min and the line was 50m out from gate past the FP station and just past that snack bus thing. We left after about 2 hrs.. couldn't stand it...like Ron was sayin' everyone was at meltdown after a hard week including my kids
more in-depth report from me this weekend
 

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