News Peak season crowds have arrived

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yet, it's a highly aesthetically pleasing land with immersion and intrigue of traveling to an alien planet that is familiar yet very different from earth. It doesn't matter if no one thinks about the movies. It stands on it's own and has FoP to back it up.

It is and excellent built standalone land...not enough attractions...but well built as planned.

The problem is that Star Wars is gonna have to be exceptional or the fans of the IP will turn on it. That’s the problem with IP that DOES have a following.

I’m sensing toy story is gonna be a mistake....as they really have no capacity and it’s gonna be mobbed in a park that lacks kid appeal and already is too crowded for its footprint.

That’s all theory...I’m just looking at possible issues.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Be our guest is a cafeteria 2/3 of the day and a typical overpriced bad MK restaurant at night.

I mean...it LOOKS like a cafeteria that is all about mass processing.

 

[Horizons '83]

Be our guest is a cafeteria 2/3 of the day and a typical overpriced bad MK restaurant at night.

I mean...it LOOKS like a cafeteria that is all about mass processing.

I beg to differ with you on that.. (the overpriced bad MK Restaurant part)

 

[trainplane3]

Maybe the differing reviews pertain to different meals (CS breakfast, CS lunch, TS dinner). Breakfast is often derided as a very poor value for what you get. I can say that in my experience of 3 lunches there (spread over 5 years), the speed of service and quality of the food went down a bit each time, so that we went from raving about the place to no longer caring to have lunch there. Most of the dinner reviews I've read, however, have been very positive (although the menu will undergo a significant change starting this summer, going from a la carte to a prix fixe experience, so the jury's out on that).

Ah, I've heard about the menu change this summer. I forgot it was going to a price fixed setup. I'm still looking forward to trying it regardless (I think we're either doing dinner or lunch, most likely dinner). It'll be interesting to see how the new menu setup goes over.

 

[Kman101]

Be Our Guest definitely seems to have mixed reviews. I've never dined there and had little desire to do so (not against the place, just not a must do for me). A lot of guests love it simply because of the decor inside, the idea of dining in Beast's castle appeals to a lot of fans of the movie. It's no wonder it was a 'win' for them in that sense. But of course at the end of the day, all of the themed or decorated restaurants are all just big cafeterias, that is true. At least Disney usually themes them well

 

[winstongator]

The problem is that the SW attractions have nowhere near the capacity/throughput of EITHER LMA or Backlot tour and will have much greater demand.

It's not just capacity/throughput. You need to account for the 2 hr line. Consider FoP. It goes through 1008 FP+ per hour, and 432 standby's. Say each FP+ is 15 minutes, that's 252 guest-hours per hour. Say each standby rider waited 2 hrs. That's 864 guest-hours per hour. The other way I look at it would be the FP+ queue would have say 252 people in it (15 min worth), while the standby queue would have 864 in line. That ride would have 1116 guest 'occupied'. Consider Muppet 3D running at OHRC of 900/hr. Say the show is just at capacity - minimal wait. It's 15 minutes, so it's occupying 225 guests at once. Roughly 1/5th FoP.

Crunching #'s for March 27, a 10/10 versus 3/6 a 6/10 at MK. I looked at 7 rides, Big Thunder, Peter Pan, Space, Splash, 7D, Jungle Cruise & Haunted Mansion. The difference in my calculation for average number of people in line for those two days is 506, 162, 540, 351, 408, 243, 360. The wait times were taken from touringplans observed waits. Peter Pan doesn't help a lot, even though its wait went from 75 to 120 min, mostly due to its low capacity which is 1/4th of Haunted Mansion. Haunted Mansion going from 50 min wait to 75 absorbed 360 guests. 7DMT has roughly half the capacity of Haunted mansion, but it absorbed more guests because its lines went up by 55 min vs. 25 for HM. The big absorber is Space Mountain as it's got the highest capacity of the 4 thrill rides at MK, and its line went from 100min on a 6/10 to 160min. Big Thunder absorbs a lot of extra guests because its wait went from 45 min to 120 min.

My argument is that you can replace high capacity attractions with lower capacity attractions and keep the same guest absorption rate as long as those lower capacity attractions maintain long lines. Would you rather wait 120 min for a ride at Galaxy's Edge or ride Great Movie Ride 3x?

The other thing is that, from what I've heard, they don't want the lines from the rides clogging up Galaxy's Edge the way they have Pandora. Somehow they'll limit it to what they can hold in the attraction buildings, route the standby queue's out of the way, and/or cap the number of guests in Galaxy's Edge at once.

 

[UncleMike101]

Be Our Guest definitely seems to have mixed reviews. I've never dined there and had little desire to do so (not against the place, just not a must do for me). A lot of guests love it simply because of the decor inside, the idea of dining in Beast's castle appeals to a lot of fans of the movie. It's no wonder it was a 'win' for them in that sense. But of course at the end of the day, all of the themed or decorated restaurants are all just big cafeterias, that is true. At least Disney usually themes them well

We've had dinner there four times and lunch once.
The décor is fine for a castle but the main dining room has the feel of a large cattle barn where the servers are trying to get all of the animals fed and back out to pasture in the Park.
It's noisy, rushed, and not a relaxing experience.
The side rooms on the other hand are much quieter and we didn't feel rushed.
The new Prix Fix menu doesn't appeal to us so we'll likely try the Jungle Skipper Canteen for dinner next time.
We had Lunch there and the variety on the menu made it easy for everyone to find something they liked.

 

[cdeev8690]

This completely...and the bold sentence is the viable, WDW management directed agenda.

I could have waited on 30-40 minute lines but I didn't feel I needed to. I go frequently enough as an AP that I was fine picking and choosing my battles.

 

[ToTBellHop]

We've had dinner there four times and lunch once.
The décor is fine for a castle but the main dining room has the feel of a large cattle barn where the servers are trying to get all of the animals fed and back out to pasture in the Park.
It's noisy, rushed, and not a relaxing experience.
The side rooms on the other hand are much quieter and we didn't feel rushed.
The new Prix Fix menu doesn't appeal to us so we'll likely try the Jungle Skipper Canteen for dinner next time.
We had Lunch there and the variety on the menu made it easy for everyone to find something they liked.

Why did you have dinner there 4x then?

 

[mikejs78]

The problem is that the SW attractions have nowhere near the capacity/throughput of EITHER LMA or Backlot tour and will have much greater demand.

Greater demand but higher throughput because no one went to those two attractions.

 

[UncleMike101]

Why did you have dinner there 4x then?

Because a certain young member of our party insisted on seeing, and being photographed with, The Beast.
And as everyone knows Grandparents are so easy to operate that a child can do it.

 

[ford91exploder]

Man, I don't know...

Terminator, Terminator 2, Aliens, True Lies...those are all pretty good movies.

However, I don't think his full list of credits (Piranha II and Point Break included) changes the fact that "Titanic is not good" is being used as a talking point when it won Best Picture. Seems disingenuous at best, albeit par for the course considering the source.

Titanic was a techinical tour de force, as a movie it was an overly long chick flick.

I think the breathtaking CGI contributed a lot to its best picture oscar

 

[ford91exploder]

Greater demand but higher throughput because no one went to those two attractions.

Funny every time i went to LMA bleachers were full...

 

[mikejs78]

Funny every time i went to LMA bleachers were full...

Every time I went it was maybe 25-50% full...

 

[disneygeek90]

It is and excellent built standalone land...not enough attractions...but well built as planned.

The problem is that Star Wars is gonna have to be exceptional or the fans of the IP will turn on it. That’s the problem with IP that DOES have a following.

I’m sensing toy story is gonna be a mistake....as they really have no capacity and it’s gonna be mobbed in a park that lacks kid appeal and already is too crowded for its footprint.

That’s all theory...I’m just looking at possible issues.

Why are you already assuming it won't be exceptional?

I am a big Toy Story fan but I've never had any expectations more than something new and a nice area to walk around. With the attractions they put there, you have to manage expectations.

 

[Bairstow]

Man, I don't know...

Terminator, Terminator 2, Aliens, True Lies...those are all pretty good movies.

However, I don't think his full list of credits (Piranha II and Point Break included) changes the fact that "Titanic is not good" is being used as a talking point when it won Best Picture. Seems disingenuous at best, albeit par for the course considering the source.

I'm constantly impressed at how well Terminator 2 and Aliens have held up over the years. While Cameron might not be one of the best directors in the world, he is more of a rennaisance man than most. It's always impressed me how much of his own concept art he draws himself.

His movies might not be high art, but he's certainly responsible for a lot of the artistry that goes into them, more than many in his field.

 

[TheDuke]

It is and excellent built standalone land...not enough attractions...but well built as planned.

The problem is that Star Wars is gonna have to be exceptional or the fans of the IP will turn on it. That’s the problem with IP that DOES have a following.

I’m sensing toy story is gonna be a mistake....as they really have no capacity and it’s gonna be mobbed in a park that lacks kid appeal and already is too crowded for its footprint.

That’s all theory...I’m just looking at possible issues.

The issue with HS now is a general lack of things to do, but I think the expansion is just going to make it worse given that it doesn't sound like they're adding much capacity. So it's just going to mobbed with a bunch of extra people with not enough rides to go around. I don't know when I'll ever feel the need to go there again.

 

[the_rich]

I beg to differ with you on that.. (the overpriced bad MK Restaurant part)

I've been there for lunch and for dinner. My party enjoyed both immensely. Also it in no way looks like a cafeteria. I think the themeing is top notch.

 

[TheDuke]

I made briefish visits to MK a couple times this week. Today seemed to be pretty crowded, Monday less so and I was able to do a lot more then. So it can really vary.

What's the deal with the place anyways? I swear I hear "It's amazing" as much as I hear "It's not worth it". Do they keep changing menus? I'll be trying it for the first time this fall actually.

It's a standard quick service restaurant in a great themed setting. Make of that what you will and decide if it's worth the extra time.

 

[larryz]

Isn’t it amazing that the people who complain the most about WDW are the same people who visit quite often?

One could almost surmise they have ... "an agenda" ...

Maybe they're trying to discourage people from going so they'll have a less hectic experience....? Hmmmm?