Great to read your comments Martin. We’re also just back from 10 days on property, and I’d like add a few of my observations. Hope you don’t mind.
I should preface this with a quick ‘bio’. Although I’ve been to WDW a number of times, there were several years between the first few trips. Since 2007, we’ve made 12 trips and have spent about 90-100 days in the parks during that time. I’ve also been hanging around this site and others since 2005, have read a ton of Disney books and, watched several of Martin’s videos (martinsvids.net). All that to say that while I don’t have the insight and experience of many of the locals or insiders on here, I am more versed in WDW history and its attractions than the average guest.
Also, we do almost every single attraction in the parks, because we’re not just thrill riders and like all the slower paced offerings as well. The only attraction in all 4 parks that we don’t bother with is the Imagination pavilion. It essentially doesn’t exist, so we don’t bother. Here are thoughts based on my recent trip.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
· I have the exact same thoughts as Martin on the attractions, and I commented to my family that Dinosaur, although not like it was when it opened, seemed to have more effects. It was more enjoyable this trip, but I couldn’t articulate all the reasons for that.
· The Wilderness Explorers scavenger hunt is really fun. When we signed up and got our books, all the people registering were adults.
Throughout the day we saw a large number of people participating.
· We watched a Mandrill have surgery at Rafiki’s Planet watch
· Gi-Tar Dan is entertaining
· We love the theming, shows, treks, trails and details of this park very much, but it needs more rides. Pandora needs to be built a.s.a.p.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
· We thought the attractions were in better shape overall than we’d seen the past 10 years.
· The Great Movie Ride looks wonderful and when we were there, we saw a couple aliens and the ‘slime’ in that scene. That scene didn’t look too bad to us. It was nice to even see the munchkin with the manhole on his head pop up because that rarely worked when we rode.
· Muppet Vision was the best we’d ever seen.
· Fantasmic! really looked good for the 2nd trip in a row (better than we’ve seen it in years), and we were okay with the boat not being there because refurbishments are always welcomed.
· Rock ‘n Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Toy Story Midway Mania and Voyage of the Little Mermaid all seemed to be in very good shape (although Martin noted ToT ‘issues’)
· One Man’s Dream still amazes me
· We went to The American Idol Experience twice and didn’t hate it at all. I know that it gets bashed, but we were there on a slow Sept day (ToT wait time 10 min and R’nRC 20 min. mid afternoon) and the Idol 2pm show had over 300 people (I quickly added the number of responders when we did our button test at the start) and was at least half full. We saw it again with even slightly larger crowd. The performers were decent and we found it relatively fast pace and not a bad way to spend 30-40min.
I can't wait for the new Star Wars expansion, and as Spirit noted, perhaps a Cars addition as well.
Epcot
· Still like the reimagined Test Track
· Mission Space orange is a decent ride
· Living with the Land looked good
· Soarin’ is still a fave, but looking forward to a brand new film. This could make the experience almost like a new attraction, as is the case with Star Tours 2.
· I quite like the Seas with Nemo ride, and love spending time in the aquaria after the ride.
· Spaceship Earth looked very good to me. I didn’t see any issues with the animatronics, the burning Rome smell was in force, and the descent showed lots of ‘stars’ and triangles, but thankfully no garbage or working lights during this trip
· Although we enjoyed the Future World attractions, we spent less time there than on any trip the past 10 years. We’re looking forward to a yearlong closure of Imagination, and something significant in there. Wonders of Life needs to reopen as a pavilion as well.
· World Showcase is always fun for our family (all adults) and it keeps improving imho. We love the entertainment-never miss Off Kilter, The British Revolution, Mo’ Rockin’ and the World Showcase Players at U.K.. The additions the past few years of an expanded Cantina, Via Napoli, the upcoming Spice Road at Morocco, La Cava del Tequila and Tutto Gusto wine cellar have all been great!
Magic Kingdom
·
In general, Magic Kingdom buildings, landscaping and its attractions are also in the best shape we’ve seen in years.
· Thankfully, our PoTC rides did not seem quite as bad as Martin’s. The water screen is not clear and there were no mermaids, but we didn’t notice any AAs not singing on our 3 rides. Our boat was fine.
· Tiki room looked good. As Martin noted, we noticed on repeated visits to the attraction that things were being repaired and replaced.
· CBJ looked really good, and like Tiki Room, I don’t mind the shorter version.
· I don’t play any video games at all or anything of the sort, but I love Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. I played on 3 different days and really enjoyed it.
· We’d never seen Splash Mountain in this awesome state! It was like riding a new attraction. The first day we rode, the only things not working of which we were aware were the leaping fountains and a projection effect. The next day, the projection effect was working. It’s nice to see them fixing effects quickly. I assume the leaping fountains will be addressed with the refurb in early 2014.
· BTMRR looked really great. Smoke was billowing from the stacks, geysers on the ride and at the exit were all working and Tumbleweed looked great, except for the bathtub guy who was static. The earthquake scene doesn’t really exist; some dynamic elements are sorely needed there.
· Although the butt of some jokes, the Tangled bathroom area is a nice addition. On more than one occasion, we sat in the shade, had a snack and just recharged. We also sat there one evening to watch ‘Wishes’. It’s a nice spot.
· We enjoyed Enchanted Tales with Belle. The magic mirror effect is very cool, the wardrobe animatronic is neat, but the Lumiere one is amazing! I was a ‘suit of armor’ and my wife, the ‘wardrobe’. All the kids seemed to have a great time, enjoyed meeting Belle, and I liked how we all got a Photopass card on the way out (and a bookmark
).
· We got to see the ‘Sword in the Stone’ ceremony for the first time, and I was selected to try to pull it out. I couldn’t. Some little kid did. What the hell?
· I officially like Lafou’s Brew better than Butter beer
· We rode Journey of the Little Mermaid 5 times, over the 10 days and liked it more and more each ride. I know some people don’t like the medium that was selected to ‘tell the story’, but the effects looked good, all the AAs functioned well, the sound quality was good...it’s a nice addition and a solid ‘D’ attraction imho.
· We didn’t ride the 7DMT...just sayin’
· HM and SM are still favourites. I love the HM queue. Martin described the ride conditions so no need to discuss.
· The most annoying thing on property to me is that stage in Tomorrowland. It ruined COP for us!
· We like Storybook Circus better than Toontown.
· Overall, we found maintenance property wide to be better than it has been for a number of years. That doesn’t mean that there’s not attractions that need attention, but if you believe that this is because of years of neglect, it’ll take George et al. a few years to change the culture and come up with the money to make things better.
Also, Splitsville was a lot of fun for we adults, and we're looking forward to the completed Disney Springs revamp.
Oh yeah, one more thing. The longest I ever waited in a queue at WDW was 2 hours on Thursday, Sept. 12th. It was, however, worth every single second to spend 3 minutes chatting with Marty Sklar and getting my book signed.
