First Visit to MK: Disneylander Documentation

[Californian Elitist]

No, this only started in 2013 when they switched to Fastpass+. They replaced the paper machines with MagicBands but most importantly (and terribly) let everyone book 3 in advance. So a lot more like people started using it, and so they needed more fastpasses to give people, so everything under the sun became fastpass-able. Including parade and nighttime show viewing areas.

Guess it stuck around for Genie+.

Part of the Fastpass+ charade to convince people to schedule more and more of their stay.. and pump up the # of attractions in the FP+ pool.

Instead of Fastpass simply being a line skip.. FP+ was pushing the idea of 'get all the things you want to do!' so it doesn't make sense to tell people to plan and book everything.. and then not be able to do it And of course by increasing the # of FP+ attractions, it avoids the 'nothing to ride' situation in FP+ views.

Thank you both for explaining!

 

[brb1006]

Just thought of another observation. I didn’t see as many animals at MK. I saw several ducks, but that was it. I didn’t see any cats, turtles, and other wild birds that I normally see at DL.

Rabbits do show up at WDW at random occasions, notably at Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. It depends on the Season and weather though.

 

[Disone]

Has it always been this way?

Sadly yes. Just the other day I was walking into journey into your imagination at Epcot. A family was also coming in through the lightly lane and the cm stopped the family. He explained that they are 10 minutes early and while he could allow them to be 5 minutes early, he could not allow them to be 10 minutes early and they would need to wait. Meanwhile, I walked directly onto the attraction. It said it had a 10-minute wait for standby but it did not. Went right to the load station. I sadly thought about that family that was denied admission to their lightning Lane. They could have just gone into the standby line but they're out there in the Florida heat. Waiting 5 minutes to get into their lightning lane 5 minutes ahead of their actual scheduled time. And they paid for that privilege! So sad.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Pecos Bill looks to be an equivalent to Rancho Del Zocalo, which seems to be a nice option. I’ll add Harbor House to my list for the future.

Oh no, Rancho Del Zocalo is wayyyyyy better than Pecos Bill.

 

[tcool123]

Rabbits do show up at WDW at random occasions, notably at Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. It depends on the Season and weather though.

Anecdotal but I’ve seen deer over the last few years at Disney World. A few turkeys as well, boar and their babies, raccoons (and a dead one) and an armadillo a fee months back. It really just depends in all honesty on what you see.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Oh no, Rancho Del Zocalo is wayyyyyy better than Pecos Bill.

And Rancho ain’t even that good to begin with lol.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Turkeys?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

And Rancho ain’t even that good to begin with lol.

Back when they used mahi mahi they had very good fish tacos. But I think they changed it to tilapia last time I was there

I’ve had some really good food at Cocina Cucamonga at DCA though. That’s my first choice for Mexican food at DL Resort.

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Turkeys?

Oh yeah! I’ve seen quite a few at WDW. There was one that lived at Pop Century, he would hang out by the tables right outside of the food court. He was awesome. I saw him on several visits, he was an extended stay resident I guess.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Back when they used mahi mahi they had very good fish tacos. But I think they changed it to tilapia last time I was there

I’ve had some really good food at Cocina Cucamonga at DCA though. That’s my first choice for Mexican food at DL Resort.

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Oh yeah! I’ve seen quite a few at WDW. There was one that lived at Pop Century, he would hang out by the tables right outside of the food court. He was awesome. I saw him on several visits, he was an extended stay resident I guess.

I also prefer Covina Cucamonga, though it’s not spectacular either. But both options are decent to good for theme park Tex-Mex.

I can imagine seeing a wild turkey on resort property, but have you seen one in any of the parks?

 

[tcool123]

Turkeys?

Parking lot for the parks, mostly Animal Kingdom to the right of the retention pond is where I spot most of my critters. But yup wild turkeys! Weirdly pretty common, had three show up at my college which is about 7 miles away from Disney. Probably not the same but interesting to me nonetheless!

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I can imagine seeing a wild turkey on resort property, but have you seen one in any of the parks?

I feel like I have but not 100% sure. I’ve seen deer in the magic kingdom, lots of rabbits, and of course great blue heron, egrets. I’ve seen bald eagles flying over Epcot in the morning. Seen a few gators of course but not sure I’ve seen a gator in the parks. Saw a huge alligator from the monorail by the TTC once.

Years ago a boat driver said there was a small bobcat family that he would see sometimes between port Orleans and downtown Disney.

 

[PiratesMansion]

The other thing that was uniquely terrible about FP+ was tiering.

The three WDW second gates have so few attractions that naturally everyone wanted to book the same thing. So they created tiering, which basically meant that for Epcot and DHS, and later Animal Kingdom when Pandora was added, you could only book one popular attraction in your three. So you couldn't book Soarin' AND Test Track, you had to choose. You couldn't book RNRC AND TSM, you had to pick one. You couldn't do both Avatar attractions.

MK you at least got to do what you wanted, but that didn't necessarily mean you were home free either. In ALL the parks there were some attractions that were very, VERY hard to get if you weren't staying at a Disney resort, because Disney resort guests could book 60 days out vs. 30 days out for everyone else, including APs. So it was basically impossible to get Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Frozen, or Flight of Passage unless you were giving Disney money to stay at one of their hotels.

Believe it or not, people miss this.

 

[Californian Elitist]

The other thing that was uniquely terrible about FP+ was tiering.

The three WDW second gates have so few attractions that naturally everyone wanted to book the same thing. So they created tiering, which basically meant that for Epcot and DHS, and later Animal Kingdom when Pandora was added, you could only book one popular attraction in your three. So you couldn't book Soarin' AND Test Track, you had to choose. You couldn't book RNRC OR TSM, you had to pick one. You couldn't do both Avatar attractions.

MK you at least got to do what you wanted, but that didn't necessarily mean you were home free either. In ALL the parks there were some attractions that were very, VERY hard to get, if you weren't staying at a Disney resort, because Disney resort guests could book 60 days out vs. 30 days out for everyone else, including APs. So it was basically impossible to get Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Frozen, or Flight of Passage unless you were giving Disney money to stay at one of their hotels.

Believe it or not, people miss this.

This sounds like a nightmare. I understand why some folks complained about this system now.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Just thought of another observation. I didn’t see as many animals at MK. I saw several ducks, but that was it. I didn’t see any cats, turtles, and other wild birds that I normally see at DL.

Theres usually rabbits, lizards, and seagulls

 

[PiratesMansion]

Theres usually rabbits, lizards, and seagulls

And gators!

 

[truecoat]

This sounds like a nightmare. I understand why some folks complained about this system now.

It's the pay to play system.

 

[Californian Elitist]

One thing I enjoyed about MK’s small world was the lack of Disney characters in the ride. Their’s isn’t a “where’s Waldo” type game that ours is.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

One thing I enjoyed about MK’s small world was the lack of Disney characters in the ride. Their’s isn’t a “where’s Waldo” type game that ours is.

At this point MK and DLP are the only versions not to have characters.

We'll see if that's still the case at the end of this year when it reopens in Paris.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I figured this deserved its own thread lol. Going to try and report live as much as I can.

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Any reason for the on-line name change? I hope it wasn't because something bad happened.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Any reason for the on-line name change? I hope it wasn't because something bad happened.

I just sent you a PM.