Hi all. I've finally got a few minutes to write a proper trip report for our 3-10 December trip. First off, I'll preface my report with the fact that we always choose the first week of December for our WDW trips due to some of the lowest crowds and best weather of the year. This year proved to be quite different.
From our arrival at the GF Saturday night, we noticed that the grand hall where the tree and gingerbread house are at was EXTREMELY packed full of people. There was about a 25 foot line to take pictures in front of the Christmas tree and house a piece, very unusual for this time of year. We get checked into our room in Boca Chica and decide to go over to the Contempo for a late dinner. The monorail line leaving GF was packed like the ones leaving Epcot after ROE, just plain ridiculous. We finally get over to the Contemporary and the line for QS Contempo is over 30 minutes (at 9pm) and people are literally getting their food and eating while sitting on the floor since there wasn't any seats available. Our group hovered over the seating area while others of us ordered food (which was nearly cold when we got it). We finally ate and headed back to GF. Lines at 1030pm on the monorail were stretched down the aisle and stairs. We were hoping this was a fluke, but it seems that many of the people that were affected by the hurricane months earlier were rescheduled to come back the first week of December (WDW knows this week is slow season, hence the reschedule for then). Top that off with big football and cheerleading tournies being held that week and their families visiting the parks too, it made for a ridiculous first couple days in the parks. Everyone was complaining everywhere, knowing that this is supposed to be the slow part of the year.
Sunday was Epcot day. Crowds were actually quite manageable in the park. We hit up Soarin' (first time seeing the new film). I give the new film a B-. Not because it wasn't clean and beautiful, but because they CGI'd the crap out of it. Much worse than the old film. The new one there's so much fake in it it's hard to discern what is real or not. And the Segway's to fly into each country were tacky tacky tacky. The 3rd theater definitely helps standby wait times. The new turtle talk characters are a nice addition to the Q&A w/Crush. Frozen, definitely better than that horrendous Maelstrom was, and it's nice what they did with the façade around Norway. Mission Space, empty walk-on ride, while still sorta fun, just feels really dated now. Didn't do test track, even though it wasn't that long of a what. Couldn't bare to go on dumbed down SE either. It was also the first time (I've been going to Epcot for 30 years) to do Gran Fiesta. Hopefully the rumors that this is getting changed over hold true. What a waste of space. WS is always fun to walk through during the holidays, and the Liberty Singers are always a high point to the visit. We managed to pull a full day out of the park even though it doesn't warrant it anymore, and ROE can't get changed soon enough IMO.
Day 2- Monday, was Universal day. Mainly because we hadn't seen Harry Potter 2.0 yet, we bought park hopper two see both sides of it (smart Uni, smart). I will say, other than potterland being packed (even though there were 10 minute wait times for everything) the rest of the rides were straight walk-on. D-E-D. I'd say if it wasn't for potterland Uni would be in a world of hurt. Refurb Hulk is still awesome. SO HOT though. Nearly 90 all day in the park with 90% humidity. Made for grumbly day. I know it's been said before , but UNI needs to lay off the screens. They are straight up screen happy. Whilst the Hogwarts express stuff is cool, escape from Gringott's is nearly unwatchable. Forbidden journey was down, so we were only subject to headaches from gringott's and not both. To me the screens make me queasy, not the real stuff. Just an FYI, I'm a pilot and do NOT get motion sickness on anything, but looking at those fuzzy faux screen scenes makes me squint sometimes and makes my head hurt.
Day 3 Tuesday- day off from the parks (good because it rained half the day). Hit up some shopping and the Poly luau (always a good show).
EDIT! Day 4 Wednesday - DHS. Another insane crowd day. Luckily we had fastpasses for the only 3 rides in the park worth doing. Rockin' Rollercoaster looks pretty good after the refurb, audio and lighting are much better than they were in 2012 (our last visit). Sad to see no Osborne lights. Had a late lunch/early dinner at Sci-fi that we had to make reservations for 3 months ago (10 years ago you could walk into it because it was dead all the time). ToT needs to stay, hopefully it doesn't the guardians overlay. MM is always fun. The additions to Star Tours to include Ep. 7 was a nice touch as well.
Day 5- MK. Crowds were so bad there that we decided to buy Christmas party tickets to be able to hit the rides that had 100 minute wait times. First time riding 7 dwarves, solid ride, too short though. BTMRR after the refurb is nice and smooth, AA's are working good. Sorely missing the DL version additions though, which are amazing. Christmas party was 'ok'. A little too cold to stand in 60 minute lines for certain character meet and greets (our son is 19 months old so he was really excited to see his favorite Disney jr. characters in real life). The addition of different types of cookies and drinks was nice compared to the last time we did the party. The hot cider was excellent, but they water down the hot chocolate so much for the parties it's nearly non-drinkable. and the 3 ounce cups are dumb (I get it, waste not want not, overhead is a profit killer).
Day 6- DAK. COLD ! 45 DEGREES pretty much all day, with wind to boot. Crowds still insane. An animal laying in the road on the safari's made our fp line over an hour long wait, which in the cold with a kid is not doable. The CM's wouldn't honor our FP to come back later either, and just told us to wait. Not cool Disney. Everest was the only other thing in the park with a wait time. Most people were just scrambling around the park trying to stay warm and try to find something to do. Needless to say, DAK (just like DHS) needs more stuff. STAT. We love that park, but it's still only a half day gig.
Day 7-check out and Disney springs shopping. Really love what they've done down there. Ate lunch at the Mexican restaurant. Food was good, service was slow. Waited 45 minutes for food when there was only about 25% capacity crowd in there. Overpriced too. Overall, the place is unrecognizable (in a good way).
All in all, we were able to do about 80% of what we had planned. We were on the dining plan, which made for a little more strict of a schedule, and we probably won't do again (although the refillable mugs are great). Toting around a 19 month old was easier than we thought, plus he did great. We hope that Disney doesn't have to reschedule people in the future for that week when we go down there, because honestly I don't think we'll ever go down there in the summer again and we really like the Christmas overlay and low crowds that are normally there the first part of December. FP+ was okay, but limiting 3 rides to it and then not being able to get more added to it after you've done those unless you go to a fp kiosk is kind of a pain. Really like the magic bands. Don't think we'll like the magic pucks though. GF staff was AWESOME. We've stayed at nearly every Disney deluxe resort in the US and this place takes the top spot. The best part though was watching our son shake with excitement the first time he saw Mickey.
From our arrival at the GF Saturday night, we noticed that the grand hall where the tree and gingerbread house are at was EXTREMELY packed full of people. There was about a 25 foot line to take pictures in front of the Christmas tree and house a piece, very unusual for this time of year. We get checked into our room in Boca Chica and decide to go over to the Contempo for a late dinner. The monorail line leaving GF was packed like the ones leaving Epcot after ROE, just plain ridiculous. We finally get over to the Contemporary and the line for QS Contempo is over 30 minutes (at 9pm) and people are literally getting their food and eating while sitting on the floor since there wasn't any seats available. Our group hovered over the seating area while others of us ordered food (which was nearly cold when we got it). We finally ate and headed back to GF. Lines at 1030pm on the monorail were stretched down the aisle and stairs. We were hoping this was a fluke, but it seems that many of the people that were affected by the hurricane months earlier were rescheduled to come back the first week of December (WDW knows this week is slow season, hence the reschedule for then). Top that off with big football and cheerleading tournies being held that week and their families visiting the parks too, it made for a ridiculous first couple days in the parks. Everyone was complaining everywhere, knowing that this is supposed to be the slow part of the year.
Sunday was Epcot day. Crowds were actually quite manageable in the park. We hit up Soarin' (first time seeing the new film). I give the new film a B-. Not because it wasn't clean and beautiful, but because they CGI'd the crap out of it. Much worse than the old film. The new one there's so much fake in it it's hard to discern what is real or not. And the Segway's to fly into each country were tacky tacky tacky. The 3rd theater definitely helps standby wait times. The new turtle talk characters are a nice addition to the Q&A w/Crush. Frozen, definitely better than that horrendous Maelstrom was, and it's nice what they did with the façade around Norway. Mission Space, empty walk-on ride, while still sorta fun, just feels really dated now. Didn't do test track, even though it wasn't that long of a what. Couldn't bare to go on dumbed down SE either. It was also the first time (I've been going to Epcot for 30 years) to do Gran Fiesta. Hopefully the rumors that this is getting changed over hold true. What a waste of space. WS is always fun to walk through during the holidays, and the Liberty Singers are always a high point to the visit. We managed to pull a full day out of the park even though it doesn't warrant it anymore, and ROE can't get changed soon enough IMO.
Day 2- Monday, was Universal day. Mainly because we hadn't seen Harry Potter 2.0 yet, we bought park hopper two see both sides of it (smart Uni, smart). I will say, other than potterland being packed (even though there were 10 minute wait times for everything) the rest of the rides were straight walk-on. D-E-D. I'd say if it wasn't for potterland Uni would be in a world of hurt. Refurb Hulk is still awesome. SO HOT though. Nearly 90 all day in the park with 90% humidity. Made for grumbly day. I know it's been said before , but UNI needs to lay off the screens. They are straight up screen happy. Whilst the Hogwarts express stuff is cool, escape from Gringott's is nearly unwatchable. Forbidden journey was down, so we were only subject to headaches from gringott's and not both. To me the screens make me queasy, not the real stuff. Just an FYI, I'm a pilot and do NOT get motion sickness on anything, but looking at those fuzzy faux screen scenes makes me squint sometimes and makes my head hurt.
Day 3 Tuesday- day off from the parks (good because it rained half the day). Hit up some shopping and the Poly luau (always a good show).
EDIT! Day 4 Wednesday - DHS. Another insane crowd day. Luckily we had fastpasses for the only 3 rides in the park worth doing. Rockin' Rollercoaster looks pretty good after the refurb, audio and lighting are much better than they were in 2012 (our last visit). Sad to see no Osborne lights. Had a late lunch/early dinner at Sci-fi that we had to make reservations for 3 months ago (10 years ago you could walk into it because it was dead all the time). ToT needs to stay, hopefully it doesn't the guardians overlay. MM is always fun. The additions to Star Tours to include Ep. 7 was a nice touch as well.
Day 5- MK. Crowds were so bad there that we decided to buy Christmas party tickets to be able to hit the rides that had 100 minute wait times. First time riding 7 dwarves, solid ride, too short though. BTMRR after the refurb is nice and smooth, AA's are working good. Sorely missing the DL version additions though, which are amazing. Christmas party was 'ok'. A little too cold to stand in 60 minute lines for certain character meet and greets (our son is 19 months old so he was really excited to see his favorite Disney jr. characters in real life). The addition of different types of cookies and drinks was nice compared to the last time we did the party. The hot cider was excellent, but they water down the hot chocolate so much for the parties it's nearly non-drinkable. and the 3 ounce cups are dumb (I get it, waste not want not, overhead is a profit killer).
Day 6- DAK. COLD ! 45 DEGREES pretty much all day, with wind to boot. Crowds still insane. An animal laying in the road on the safari's made our fp line over an hour long wait, which in the cold with a kid is not doable. The CM's wouldn't honor our FP to come back later either, and just told us to wait. Not cool Disney. Everest was the only other thing in the park with a wait time. Most people were just scrambling around the park trying to stay warm and try to find something to do. Needless to say, DAK (just like DHS) needs more stuff. STAT. We love that park, but it's still only a half day gig.
Day 7-check out and Disney springs shopping. Really love what they've done down there. Ate lunch at the Mexican restaurant. Food was good, service was slow. Waited 45 minutes for food when there was only about 25% capacity crowd in there. Overpriced too. Overall, the place is unrecognizable (in a good way).
All in all, we were able to do about 80% of what we had planned. We were on the dining plan, which made for a little more strict of a schedule, and we probably won't do again (although the refillable mugs are great). Toting around a 19 month old was easier than we thought, plus he did great. We hope that Disney doesn't have to reschedule people in the future for that week when we go down there, because honestly I don't think we'll ever go down there in the summer again and we really like the Christmas overlay and low crowds that are normally there the first part of December. FP+ was okay, but limiting 3 rides to it and then not being able to get more added to it after you've done those unless you go to a fp kiosk is kind of a pain. Really like the magic bands. Don't think we'll like the magic pucks though. GF staff was AWESOME. We've stayed at nearly every Disney deluxe resort in the US and this place takes the top spot. The best part though was watching our son shake with excitement the first time he saw Mickey.
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