Trip Report Packed park w/o rhyme or reason

Hotel: WDW Dolphin Resort
Dec. 11th -15th
Park Days 12th - 15th
Dec. 12th HS - ROTR virtual queue group 67 confirmed.
Park opened a full hour prior to posted time.
Decent opening crowds seemed to stretch the temperature tents well beyond the skyliner and past parking lot main walkway (well it would have if they didn't switch-back the line).
1st Attraction M&MRAR, maybe 15 minute wait.
2nd, RR - walk-on.
3rd, ToT - 10 minute.
4th, RR - 5 minutes.
5th, SDD - 20 minutes.
6th, Midway Mania - 15 minute
7th, Galaxies Edge... this is the part of the story where it all fell apart. Smugglers Run was up around 85 minutes and it looked it, it was visually intimating and was skipped. Stores (any GE store, whether food or merch) had a ridiculous line, they were also skipped. In frustration we left and walked through the Walt Disney Dream museum, movie was down for some reason and never came back up.
Lunch at the 50's Diner ... Good but 2 meatloaf diners, 1 gin and tonic, kids meal, and a couple of shakes shouldn't total $106!
8th, RoTR - breaks down told to come back later, given a "fastpass" return ticket.
9th, Star Tours - 30 minutes.
10th, Muppet Vision - 10 minute.
11th, Mickey & Minnie shorts - 20 minutes.
After that we realized we had seen Santa in his Camaro go by about 7 times.
12th, ToT - about 45 minutes.
Daughter fell backwards while leaning against the low fence/barrier for the rose bushes in front of Brown Derby while waiting in the popcorn line, she tore up her back by the thorns and was all messed up emotionally because aside from the pain and embarrassment she also had to stay in the thorns till we could free her because her hair got tangled. Spent about the next hour in the first-aid station.
13th, RoTR take 2 - One of the Kylo Ren parts missing, otherwise its an ok attraction.
At this point we tried to just relax a bit, adults had some adult beverages and we just kind of limped around for a little bit.
14th, Frozen Sign - a - long - Waited about 10ish minutes
15th, failed to get in line for smugglers run in time, but, was allowed to build a droid
END OF DAY

Dec. 13th - EPCOT
Day Two Park Epcot - I miss the days when you would just bang out the future world attractions and then afterwards do the countries. Trying to mix them together leads to an exhausting day of darting from from of the part to the back or over and over, my dogs were barking by the end of the day.
10:00am they start letting guests in - we entered via International Gateway
1st, Frozen ride - posted 85 minutes waited about half that
2nd, Test Track - waited 25ish minutes can't remember what was posted but I think it was 60
3rd, Nemo - walk-on
4th, Spaceship Earth - 10 minutes
Lunch San Angel Inn, the wait time just to enter the Mexico pavilion was like 55 minutes - with our reservations we walked right in.
5th, Grand Fiesta Tour - 10 minutes
6th, American Experience - can't remember if we were at the 4:30 show or 5pm show
7th, Jammitors in Canada for a little while
8th, World Showcase Pavilion for a little while, told my wife I could build the Washington monument just like they did - she rolls her eyes.
9th, O' Canada - 10 minutes
10th, Living With the land - walk on
11th, Soarin - maybe 8 minutes
12th, Awesome Planet - Walk on
13th, Figment - Walk on
14th, Tried to get a look at the new fountain, no luck
15th, bought a pin under the sphere
END OF DAY

Day Three Magic Kingdom - Rain from about 11:30am to about 2pm
Opened 45 minutes before posted time.
1, Big Thunder - walk on
2, Big Thunder- walk on
3, Splash- walk on
4, Space Mtn. - 35 minutes
5, Buzz - 45 minutes
6, Carousel of progress - 5 minutes
7, Tomorrow Land Speedway - 8ish minutes
8, Pooh - 20 minutes
9, Little Mermaid - 10 minutes maybe
10, Haunted Mansion - 25 minutes
For Lunch we left the park and took a boat over to Wilderness Lodge for an extremely subdued experience at Whispering Canyon.... I didn't even think about it when I booked it that they'd not be able to do half the stuff they usually do. Food was good, servers tried to be as fun as they could, however, the experience is disappointing when you're totally expecting the normal fun stuff they do there.
Came back and just tried to do some shopping in the hopes that the crowds would die down, it was insanely crowded and although we didn't wait very long apart from buzz and space, we were in the app constantly trying to stay one step ahead of the hoards of people. We weren't successful as the remainder of the day was longer times.
11, Pan - 30 minutes
12, Small World - 50 minutes
13, Pirates - 35
14, Jingle Cruise - 45
15, Space Mtn - 45
End of day.
 
Last edited:

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
Hotel: WDW Dolphin Resort
Dec. 11th -15th
Park Days 12th - 15th
Dec. 12th HS - ROTR virtual queue group 67 confirmed.
Park opened a full hour prior to posted time.
Decent opening crowds seemed to stretch the temperature tents well beyond the skyliner and past parking lot main walkway (well it would have if they didn't switch-back the line).
1st Attraction M&MRAR, maybe 15 minute wait.
2nd, RR - walk-on.
3rd, ToT - 10 minute.
4th, RR - 5 minutes.
5th, SDD - 20 minutes.
6th, Midway Mania - 15 minute
7th, Galaxies Edge... this is the part of the story where it all fell apart. Smugglers Run was up around 85 minutes and it looked it, it was visually intimating and was skipped. Stores (any GE store, whether food or merch) had a ridiculous line, they were also skipped. In frustration we left and walked through the Walt Disney Dream museum, movie was down for some reason and never came back up.
Lunch at the 50's Diner ... Good but 2 meatloaf diners, 1 gin and tonic, kids meal, and a couple of shakes shouldn't total $106!
8th, RoTR - breaks down told to come back later, given a "fastpass" return ticket.
9th, Star Tours - 30 minutes.
10th, Muppet Vision - 10 minute.
11th, Mickey & Minnie shorts - 20 minutes.
After that we realized we had seen Santa in his Camaro go by about 7 times.
12th, ToT - about 45 minutes.
Daughter fell backwards while leaning against the low fence/barrier for the rose bushes in front of Brown Derby while waiting in the popcorn line, she tore up her back by the thorns and was all messed up emotionally because aside from the pain and embarrassment she also had to stay in the thorns till we could free her because her hair got tangled. Spent about the next hour in the first-aid station.
13th, RoTR take 2 - One of the Kylo Ren parts missing, otherwise its an ok attraction.
More later...
Sounds like a typical day at Disney -

80% Best Day Ever
10% This sucks
10% Why did I waste my money coming here again

Sorry about your daughter in the thorns. Hopefully in a year you can all look back and have a chuckle.
 

tired_photog

Active Member
Going to HS Dec. 31st for the first time in 8 years! So I'm very interested in hearing other people's touring plan experiences. In hindsight would you recommend doing Smugglers Run first at rope drop instead of M&MRAR? I'm really torn on how to start the day at this park.
 

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