So I took a 7 day trip to Disney and Universal on May 13th to May 20th, overall, I had a great time, the weather was awesome for half of the trip and terribly rainy and cold for the later half. However, I came home with a few general thoughts about the parks..
This is a point of view from a 26 y/o male who went with his friends and family. I realize people will disagree with my opinions who have kids and maybe appreciate or better utilize some of Disney's "kid attractions/areas."
I love Magic Kingdom and have an appreciation for HM, POTC style of rides, but I realized without at least one higher thrill ride; that park isn't quite as exciting. Last trip we loved going on Space Mountain for a fun thrill ride and then take a break on some slower rides. I like the older nostalgic rides and rode Splash Mountain for the first time.. (the drop is nothing like I thought it would be!) I understand MK is traditionally a kids park but a quicker paced ride similar to Space Mtn would be even better - at least they're re-doing it and it will be a new exciting thing again.
I saw the Celebration parade at MK and despite it being about a torrential down pour, everyone was dancing and "appearing" to have a great time - I thought that was pretty cool.
For some reason Epcot got really old to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the park, but we brought 1st timer and on the day they landed Epcot was open the latest, so naturally, we went there. I don't think Epcot is a good "starting" park to bring someone to who is in their late teens. While I enjoy all of the rides - they need something with a lot of re-ridability. I think each park needs at least one or two faster rides to help balance out the park. Test Track is cool and I like it, just nothing over the top. There just doesn't seem to be a lot to do that you would want to ride multiple times. I'd like to see Figment's get a change up and Honey I Shrunk the Audience turned into something else.
Toy Story Mania is the best ride idea that could've gone into DHS. TSM has a ton of re-ridability and eventhough it's not a wild ride, it's something that I could do over and over and always have a great time. I think DHS is really starting to turn around. I had family there who had never seen Pixar Place before. It's refreshing to see a new "land" and know that there are future rides coming to this area. Although I love these rides, Star Tours and Great Movie Ride need to be updated and changed. (I realized ST2 is on it's way). I think DHS has moved from 3rd best park at night easilly to 2nd. It's just unfortunate there is not more of a draw to go to the back of the park - it's a ghost town back there at night. A new Star Tours, a Monsters Inc ride, and I think this park could almost outdo MK on some levels. Oh, and the backstage tour needs to be bettered or trashed. Just not the same excitement and "mystery" as when I was a kid visiting in the 90s.
Sadly, Animal Kingdom falls under the same boat as Epcot. A lot of cool stuff to see and do, just not several times in one day. I felt like people didn't know about "Dinosaur" or that it even existed in the park. It's a sweet ride, I'm surprised it isn't advertised better. AK is easilly and "half day" park if it's not packed. A few more attractions would really help this place become it's own.
I had a great time at USF/IOA - they have some amazing rides and I feel like alot of them are ones you want to go on again and again. I'll agree staff generally are friendlier and will go out of their way to conversate at Disney; it isn't that much of a difference between USF and WDW. I had a IOA gift shop employee act extremely nice and very talkative. At the same token, I also encountered wierd/jerky employees at both USF/WDW. (WDW employees smoking as they stand at at their counter).
To be honest, I'm pretty pumped about what's coming to Universal with the several new rides/land being added soon. Maybe Disney is keeping other projects hush hush, but there definitely isn't a great anticipation with them right now.
My biggest gripe about "guests" at all parks.
Guests who take flash pictures inside of dark rides including Small World, HM, POTC, etc etc. I absolutely hate that and have no clue how they cannot find that incredibly distracting to others.
Disney went WAY wrong by selling those flashing necklaces and other glowing colorful items. I had several people (adults and kids) wearing those things on dark rides and it just ruined everything. I sat through Maelstrom with a light show going on and it lit up the entire ride. Common sense and courtesy could go a long way.
The Disney umbrellas are probably the cheapest pieces of crap I have ever seen. Our group of 6 bought umbrellas at DHS. Within the first hour 3 of them broke, and they were replaced. By the next day 2 more were broken. The fabric is barely held to the metal arms by a small piece of thread and within a day or two of (normal) use almost 3 to 4 arms were exposed. Mine broke three times in 4 days with the umbrella not raising, the fabric ripping off, the strap breaking off, and they're so thin that heavy rain hitting the top leaks straight through. Sadly, these were purchased/replaced at various locations at all the parks and all were of the same poor quality. My friend's USF umbrella functioned perfectly the entire trip. I realize it could be a fluke of bad merchandise, but for $10, it was quite a piece of trash.
Families who stop in the middle of the row during a show. While we all know this is common, I saw it now more than ever. Why are you and your children more entitled to a center seat then any other famlies behind us? I didn't have kids with me so I didn't mean sitting in crappy seats as much, but I can't stand it. We went into It's Tough to be a Bug and a family of 7 sat right in the row of a very packed theater. My friend said something like "That's why you don't stop in the middle" and the mother replied, "We don't speak english" and smiled! We had heard them speak perfect english. That made me about punch her square in the face. It's idiots like that I wish CMs would watch and address.
We had a lovely night time ride on Jungle Cruise, sadly, the boat we were in only had one working speaker and we couldn't hear our Skipper. On top of it there were 3 HS girls who thought they would take pictures (of themselves), talk, and text on their phones the entire time and not even look out of the boat at what was going on. Then why get on?! Is it common for skippers to leave the interior boat lights on during the night time rides and inside of the temple? Our guy did and it really ruined the feeling of being out at night when we had bright lights on us the whole time, not a huge deal, just different than I remember.
This is going to sound stupid and random. So due to the earlier park hours we would come back and watch TV. Unfortunately the All Stars resorts get pretty basic cable channels, however, we did enjoy the classic Disney/Mickey Mouse cartoons. I laughed hysterically at the old school Goofy cartoons and the "How to" videos he was always in. It really wrapped up the day when we would watch these. My only thing is.. the cartoons played in the same order at the same time, every single night. So the first night or two we didn't really mind, but I was really hoping to see some other episodes.. NOPE.. the same stupid shows every night at the same EXACT times. For something so simple, I was pretty disappointed at this. There are hundreds of early cartoons.. and we were able to see the same 10 until we finally quit watching. Such a small thing, I know.. just kinda surprising, I guess.
I saw the best and the worst of the Disney Transportation busses. We stayed in All Star Music and I had never been on a bus where you share it with other hotels on the same line. In one instance we waited for an Epcot bus for 45 minutes and when it arrived, it was full and we were cramped extra tight with wet ponchos and all. As we leave All Star Movies (the last hotel) we see 3 Epcot busses pull up behind us and take nobody. Rather than load us throughout all 4 busses, we were all jammed into 1. I can tell you everyone was pretty upset and I thought for all the coordinating they do with the bus system.. how could this happen?!
Another day we waited an hour for a bus to pick us up from Typhoon Lagoon. And the second visit to TL we waited for 25 minutes and then were stuck in a line of traffic that made us sit on the bus for 50 minutes! Apparently there is only one lane out of the TL parking lot and with all the busses and cars leaving, we weren't going anywhere. I couldn't believe there would be a design where EVERYONE shuffles out of the same exit. Talk about a time waster!
Now this may sound like an advertisement but it's not. On two days we were waiting to go to USF and had planned on taking Mears from our hotel. They now charge $18.00 a person and not only go to Sea World first, but will also go to other WDW resorts. So it can possibly take 45 min to an hour and a half in a ride that should take maybe 20 minutes. This guy approached me from "Speed Way" transportation. He drove all of my family (6 of us) directly to USF for $35.00 each way. He was extremely prompt, friendly, and you can call him 20 minutes before you're ready to go and he's there. Now this is only a deal if you have at least 4 or more people to go to one place. For all of us to go to USF through Mears it would've been $108.00 round trip. With SpeedWay it was $70 and we were right on time both ways. Mears is not always the best about being quick and I have gotten back an hour to two hours late which can quickly ruin your night. The phone number for "Speed Way" is 407-466-3639. I'm only putting this out there becuase it was so efficient and a great deal for larger groups who may want to leave Disney property.
While this may sound like a lot of griping, I really did have a good time. May is an awesome time for weather and crowds. I got to do a lot in a little bit of time. I like going back but sometimes feel the "excitement" factor a little less with each visit as WDW falls behind in some areas of keeping things up to date and fresh. I guess I feel like if I have seen the same Great Movie Ride show when I was 8 years old and I am now 26.. it is time for change.
Thanks for readin' :wave:
This is a point of view from a 26 y/o male who went with his friends and family. I realize people will disagree with my opinions who have kids and maybe appreciate or better utilize some of Disney's "kid attractions/areas."
I love Magic Kingdom and have an appreciation for HM, POTC style of rides, but I realized without at least one higher thrill ride; that park isn't quite as exciting. Last trip we loved going on Space Mountain for a fun thrill ride and then take a break on some slower rides. I like the older nostalgic rides and rode Splash Mountain for the first time.. (the drop is nothing like I thought it would be!) I understand MK is traditionally a kids park but a quicker paced ride similar to Space Mtn would be even better - at least they're re-doing it and it will be a new exciting thing again.
I saw the Celebration parade at MK and despite it being about a torrential down pour, everyone was dancing and "appearing" to have a great time - I thought that was pretty cool.
For some reason Epcot got really old to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the park, but we brought 1st timer and on the day they landed Epcot was open the latest, so naturally, we went there. I don't think Epcot is a good "starting" park to bring someone to who is in their late teens. While I enjoy all of the rides - they need something with a lot of re-ridability. I think each park needs at least one or two faster rides to help balance out the park. Test Track is cool and I like it, just nothing over the top. There just doesn't seem to be a lot to do that you would want to ride multiple times. I'd like to see Figment's get a change up and Honey I Shrunk the Audience turned into something else.
Toy Story Mania is the best ride idea that could've gone into DHS. TSM has a ton of re-ridability and eventhough it's not a wild ride, it's something that I could do over and over and always have a great time. I think DHS is really starting to turn around. I had family there who had never seen Pixar Place before. It's refreshing to see a new "land" and know that there are future rides coming to this area. Although I love these rides, Star Tours and Great Movie Ride need to be updated and changed. (I realized ST2 is on it's way). I think DHS has moved from 3rd best park at night easilly to 2nd. It's just unfortunate there is not more of a draw to go to the back of the park - it's a ghost town back there at night. A new Star Tours, a Monsters Inc ride, and I think this park could almost outdo MK on some levels. Oh, and the backstage tour needs to be bettered or trashed. Just not the same excitement and "mystery" as when I was a kid visiting in the 90s.
Sadly, Animal Kingdom falls under the same boat as Epcot. A lot of cool stuff to see and do, just not several times in one day. I felt like people didn't know about "Dinosaur" or that it even existed in the park. It's a sweet ride, I'm surprised it isn't advertised better. AK is easilly and "half day" park if it's not packed. A few more attractions would really help this place become it's own.
I had a great time at USF/IOA - they have some amazing rides and I feel like alot of them are ones you want to go on again and again. I'll agree staff generally are friendlier and will go out of their way to conversate at Disney; it isn't that much of a difference between USF and WDW. I had a IOA gift shop employee act extremely nice and very talkative. At the same token, I also encountered wierd/jerky employees at both USF/WDW. (WDW employees smoking as they stand at at their counter).
To be honest, I'm pretty pumped about what's coming to Universal with the several new rides/land being added soon. Maybe Disney is keeping other projects hush hush, but there definitely isn't a great anticipation with them right now.
My biggest gripe about "guests" at all parks.
Guests who take flash pictures inside of dark rides including Small World, HM, POTC, etc etc. I absolutely hate that and have no clue how they cannot find that incredibly distracting to others.
Disney went WAY wrong by selling those flashing necklaces and other glowing colorful items. I had several people (adults and kids) wearing those things on dark rides and it just ruined everything. I sat through Maelstrom with a light show going on and it lit up the entire ride. Common sense and courtesy could go a long way.
The Disney umbrellas are probably the cheapest pieces of crap I have ever seen. Our group of 6 bought umbrellas at DHS. Within the first hour 3 of them broke, and they were replaced. By the next day 2 more were broken. The fabric is barely held to the metal arms by a small piece of thread and within a day or two of (normal) use almost 3 to 4 arms were exposed. Mine broke three times in 4 days with the umbrella not raising, the fabric ripping off, the strap breaking off, and they're so thin that heavy rain hitting the top leaks straight through. Sadly, these were purchased/replaced at various locations at all the parks and all were of the same poor quality. My friend's USF umbrella functioned perfectly the entire trip. I realize it could be a fluke of bad merchandise, but for $10, it was quite a piece of trash.
Families who stop in the middle of the row during a show. While we all know this is common, I saw it now more than ever. Why are you and your children more entitled to a center seat then any other famlies behind us? I didn't have kids with me so I didn't mean sitting in crappy seats as much, but I can't stand it. We went into It's Tough to be a Bug and a family of 7 sat right in the row of a very packed theater. My friend said something like "That's why you don't stop in the middle" and the mother replied, "We don't speak english" and smiled! We had heard them speak perfect english. That made me about punch her square in the face. It's idiots like that I wish CMs would watch and address.
We had a lovely night time ride on Jungle Cruise, sadly, the boat we were in only had one working speaker and we couldn't hear our Skipper. On top of it there were 3 HS girls who thought they would take pictures (of themselves), talk, and text on their phones the entire time and not even look out of the boat at what was going on. Then why get on?! Is it common for skippers to leave the interior boat lights on during the night time rides and inside of the temple? Our guy did and it really ruined the feeling of being out at night when we had bright lights on us the whole time, not a huge deal, just different than I remember.
This is going to sound stupid and random. So due to the earlier park hours we would come back and watch TV. Unfortunately the All Stars resorts get pretty basic cable channels, however, we did enjoy the classic Disney/Mickey Mouse cartoons. I laughed hysterically at the old school Goofy cartoons and the "How to" videos he was always in. It really wrapped up the day when we would watch these. My only thing is.. the cartoons played in the same order at the same time, every single night. So the first night or two we didn't really mind, but I was really hoping to see some other episodes.. NOPE.. the same stupid shows every night at the same EXACT times. For something so simple, I was pretty disappointed at this. There are hundreds of early cartoons.. and we were able to see the same 10 until we finally quit watching. Such a small thing, I know.. just kinda surprising, I guess.
I saw the best and the worst of the Disney Transportation busses. We stayed in All Star Music and I had never been on a bus where you share it with other hotels on the same line. In one instance we waited for an Epcot bus for 45 minutes and when it arrived, it was full and we were cramped extra tight with wet ponchos and all. As we leave All Star Movies (the last hotel) we see 3 Epcot busses pull up behind us and take nobody. Rather than load us throughout all 4 busses, we were all jammed into 1. I can tell you everyone was pretty upset and I thought for all the coordinating they do with the bus system.. how could this happen?!
Another day we waited an hour for a bus to pick us up from Typhoon Lagoon. And the second visit to TL we waited for 25 minutes and then were stuck in a line of traffic that made us sit on the bus for 50 minutes! Apparently there is only one lane out of the TL parking lot and with all the busses and cars leaving, we weren't going anywhere. I couldn't believe there would be a design where EVERYONE shuffles out of the same exit. Talk about a time waster!
Now this may sound like an advertisement but it's not. On two days we were waiting to go to USF and had planned on taking Mears from our hotel. They now charge $18.00 a person and not only go to Sea World first, but will also go to other WDW resorts. So it can possibly take 45 min to an hour and a half in a ride that should take maybe 20 minutes. This guy approached me from "Speed Way" transportation. He drove all of my family (6 of us) directly to USF for $35.00 each way. He was extremely prompt, friendly, and you can call him 20 minutes before you're ready to go and he's there. Now this is only a deal if you have at least 4 or more people to go to one place. For all of us to go to USF through Mears it would've been $108.00 round trip. With SpeedWay it was $70 and we were right on time both ways. Mears is not always the best about being quick and I have gotten back an hour to two hours late which can quickly ruin your night. The phone number for "Speed Way" is 407-466-3639. I'm only putting this out there becuase it was so efficient and a great deal for larger groups who may want to leave Disney property.
While this may sound like a lot of griping, I really did have a good time. May is an awesome time for weather and crowds. I got to do a lot in a little bit of time. I like going back but sometimes feel the "excitement" factor a little less with each visit as WDW falls behind in some areas of keeping things up to date and fresh. I guess I feel like if I have seen the same Great Movie Ride show when I was 8 years old and I am now 26.. it is time for change.
Thanks for readin' :wave:
