Just got back from a week at the world. This was a very nice trip for the most part with a few nice surprises along the way.
First let me say that most of WDW was full of construction walls. I have been going every year in September for about 15 years now and this year seemed to be the heaviest on walls. New ones were springing up overnight.
SSE old wand area was still walled off when we got there but openned a few days later. If you hadn't seen the wand before you would have never known it was even there. They did an excellent job at restoring the area. Scafolding popped up overnight on the legs getting ready for a paint job.
This walkway between the Imagination Pavillion and WS was blocked over night in preperation for the Food and Wine Festival.
The patio at the new Fountain View Eddy's Ice Cream Shop openned as well.
Not sure if this is there all the time but this speaker looked very out of place above France. If it is there for Illiminations then they didn't do a good job at hiding it during the day.
Over at MK the whole main street area was fitted with fall decor.
A new crane appeared one day as well and construction people were seen on top of the castle during the stage show.
Over at the HM it looked as though they weren't going to be ready for openning. But when the scafolding came down it revealed a fresh coat of paint for the facod and a new "red" canopy. Crews were still putting in lights under it the day before it openned.
On our first day to MK, Space Mountain was evacuated while were were just getting ready to board. We rode the TTA so we could see it with the lights on. People were being evacuated from the top by using the elevators in the middle of the structure. It was back up and running a couple of hours later.
The new Contemporary DVC construction was going well as seen in this photo from a SeaRacer. A second crane was being constructed as well. On a side note, while we were waiting to board a monorail at the Contemp, a guest asked a CM what they were building outside and he said they haven't been told yet, lol.
The new shop inside the Contemporary is getting fixtures.
At MGM...er...Hollywood Studios, they are alsready preparing the area for Christmas.
We stayed at CSR this time because we didn't want to wait in long lines at the bus area to get back to our resort. We got on the first bus for CSR everytime and got to sit down. Last year at Pop we waited on average 45 minutes to an hour when leaving the parks at night.
The only real problem we had was after our dinner reservations one night at Ohana's. Guests were told at the front desk that they could hop on the monorail and go to MK to catch the busses back to their different resorts. This was around 10PM and when we got to the monorail station at the Poly we were told the monorail was closed (even though we could see the resort one running for the next 45 minutes). The CM at that station told us to go downstairs and catch a bus to DTD where we had to transfer to our resort busses. Well, a DTD bus didn't come for 1/2 hour and by the time it came there were close to 250 angry people waiting to board the only bus to DTD. People were starting to rent cabs together and carpool back to their resorts. We crammed the first bus so tightly but still couldn't fit everyone. Once we got to DTD the station there was crammed with more angry guests waiting to return to their resort after a rediculous detour. One guest asked the bus driver if they could call on the radio to dispatch more busses and the driver told them they weren't allowed to. On our way back to CSR we could hear the dispatcher over the radio calling every bus that was available to DTD because the station was full of guests. I'm sure there was a lot of complaining that night to guests services in each resort.
The only other snag was on the day after the HM openned. Sept. 14 and 15 was planned as an AP event at the HM. The official website said that AP members could enter the HM in a special line through the sevants quarters between 9AM and Noon on these 2 days. We were at the rope drop on the openning day as well as the next day for the AP event. When the rope dropped for the AP even we all rushed to HM and were rudely yelled at to stop. The HM was closed for technical difficulties and they didn't know when it would open. What made us mad was that no one came to the rope to tell us about it. It had obviously been down for a while but no one informed the mob of AP members waiting to ride it until we all ran into the line for it. Had they have told us while we were standing there for a half hour than we wouldn't have been so upset. When it finally did open there was a separate line for AP guests. It did not got through the servant's quarters as stated on the official website but mearly merged with the regular guests before the turnstiles. This was such a waste of time and the AP guests that were there when we were in line were also very dissapointed. They made it sound as if it was a special deal but it was merely just a signboard and a detour around another chain was all that was there for the event.
Those couple of things aside it was still a very happy visit to WDW. More pictures to come!
First let me say that most of WDW was full of construction walls. I have been going every year in September for about 15 years now and this year seemed to be the heaviest on walls. New ones were springing up overnight.
SSE old wand area was still walled off when we got there but openned a few days later. If you hadn't seen the wand before you would have never known it was even there. They did an excellent job at restoring the area. Scafolding popped up overnight on the legs getting ready for a paint job.
This walkway between the Imagination Pavillion and WS was blocked over night in preperation for the Food and Wine Festival.
The patio at the new Fountain View Eddy's Ice Cream Shop openned as well.
Not sure if this is there all the time but this speaker looked very out of place above France. If it is there for Illiminations then they didn't do a good job at hiding it during the day.
Over at MK the whole main street area was fitted with fall decor.
A new crane appeared one day as well and construction people were seen on top of the castle during the stage show.
Over at the HM it looked as though they weren't going to be ready for openning. But when the scafolding came down it revealed a fresh coat of paint for the facod and a new "red" canopy. Crews were still putting in lights under it the day before it openned.
On our first day to MK, Space Mountain was evacuated while were were just getting ready to board. We rode the TTA so we could see it with the lights on. People were being evacuated from the top by using the elevators in the middle of the structure. It was back up and running a couple of hours later.
The new Contemporary DVC construction was going well as seen in this photo from a SeaRacer. A second crane was being constructed as well. On a side note, while we were waiting to board a monorail at the Contemp, a guest asked a CM what they were building outside and he said they haven't been told yet, lol.
The new shop inside the Contemporary is getting fixtures.
At MGM...er...Hollywood Studios, they are alsready preparing the area for Christmas.
We stayed at CSR this time because we didn't want to wait in long lines at the bus area to get back to our resort. We got on the first bus for CSR everytime and got to sit down. Last year at Pop we waited on average 45 minutes to an hour when leaving the parks at night.
The only real problem we had was after our dinner reservations one night at Ohana's. Guests were told at the front desk that they could hop on the monorail and go to MK to catch the busses back to their different resorts. This was around 10PM and when we got to the monorail station at the Poly we were told the monorail was closed (even though we could see the resort one running for the next 45 minutes). The CM at that station told us to go downstairs and catch a bus to DTD where we had to transfer to our resort busses. Well, a DTD bus didn't come for 1/2 hour and by the time it came there were close to 250 angry people waiting to board the only bus to DTD. People were starting to rent cabs together and carpool back to their resorts. We crammed the first bus so tightly but still couldn't fit everyone. Once we got to DTD the station there was crammed with more angry guests waiting to return to their resort after a rediculous detour. One guest asked the bus driver if they could call on the radio to dispatch more busses and the driver told them they weren't allowed to. On our way back to CSR we could hear the dispatcher over the radio calling every bus that was available to DTD because the station was full of guests. I'm sure there was a lot of complaining that night to guests services in each resort.
The only other snag was on the day after the HM openned. Sept. 14 and 15 was planned as an AP event at the HM. The official website said that AP members could enter the HM in a special line through the sevants quarters between 9AM and Noon on these 2 days. We were at the rope drop on the openning day as well as the next day for the AP event. When the rope dropped for the AP even we all rushed to HM and were rudely yelled at to stop. The HM was closed for technical difficulties and they didn't know when it would open. What made us mad was that no one came to the rope to tell us about it. It had obviously been down for a while but no one informed the mob of AP members waiting to ride it until we all ran into the line for it. Had they have told us while we were standing there for a half hour than we wouldn't have been so upset. When it finally did open there was a separate line for AP guests. It did not got through the servant's quarters as stated on the official website but mearly merged with the regular guests before the turnstiles. This was such a waste of time and the AP guests that were there when we were in line were also very dissapointed. They made it sound as if it was a special deal but it was merely just a signboard and a detour around another chain was all that was there for the event.
Those couple of things aside it was still a very happy visit to WDW. More pictures to come!
