The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[Centauri Space Station]

Really enjoyed my first trip, the Walt Disney studios tour was a great cherry on top. Honestly I think I like it more than WDW.

Really? More than COP, peoplemover, SSE, The Land, American Adventure, World Showcase, Tower of Terror, Safari, Pandora, AKL, Grand Floridian, Yacht and Beach, Boardwalk, Old key west, Typhoon lagoon, skyliner, etc?

 

[PiratesMansion]

Anyone have any tips for getting on Monsters After Dark? I’ve never experienced it and I’d love to avoid a 100+ minute wait.

Am I correct that it has its own Lightning Lane, distinct from regular Mission: Breakout? Is there an ideal time to grab a LL for it?

Based on my experience last year, it's not particularly complicated to experience if you've got LL.

Guardians switches over at 3 to Monsters After Dark daily and it is indeed counted as its own LL, so you can get LLs for MB and MAD on the same day. LL will become available for MAD once it runs out for MB, so keep watching the app. Note that the app doesn't display MAD wait times unless you click on it, not sure if there's any similar complication with LL. I'd recommend going on a day without OBB if you're intent on riding MAD so that you have a longer window to book LL times.

I actually found Guardians to be running better this time of year than when I usually visit (summer) because since the ride has increased demand, there weren't any suspect closures of drop shafts as I'm accustomed to.

 

[mickEblu]

Anyone have any tips for getting on Monsters After Dark? I’ve never experienced it and I’d love to avoid a 100+ minute wait.

Am I correct that it has its own Lightning Lane, distinct from regular Mission: Breakout? Is there an ideal time to grab a LL for it?

I haven’t been on MAD in a couple years so maybe the process has changed but as far as I can remember it didn’t have its own LL which is why you’d have no wait for the original version before 3pm as everyone was waiting to use their LL for after 3pm. That might be the reason they changed it if I’m not mistaken.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Really? More than COP, peoplemover, SSE, The Land, American Adventure, World Showcase, Tower of Terror, Safari, Pandora, AKL, Grand Floridian, Yacht and Beach, Boardwalk, Old key west, Typhoon lagoon, skyliner, etc?

Honestly, a lot of those older attractions are more interesting as nostalgic time capsules than genuinely great attraction experiences to most modern guests IMO. I'm happy COP and Peoplemover are still around, to be sure, but they're not exactly E Ticket experiences or attractions likely to be warmly embraced by most first-time visitors in 2024. Same with LWTL and SSE, in all honesty (and SSE has needed that refurb for ages). American Adventure is underappreciated but I'm fairly certain that user isn't American, and I can't really blame international visitors for not responding to the "Yay America!" attractions in the same way.

TOT and Kilimanjaro are great, but it's sort of akin to saying "but how can you like WDW? Don't you miss the Matterhorn and Indy and RSR?" I appreciate TOT and Kilimanjaro when I'm there, but they're not so uniquely great such that they completely cancel out all of DL's good points.

Resort hopping is cool and all, but the substance of the experience should be the parks. I strongly suspect that part of the reason longtime WDWers slowly drift towards the resorts is because the parks at WDW are so uniquely stressful to experience that walking around the resorts is comparatively low-stakes and stress free. You've put some obscurities on that list too-I genuinely wonder how many people who aren't actually staying there ever make it over to OKW.

Skyliner is a gondola system extremely similar to numerous others by the same company around the world; the WDW system is undoubtedly convenient and fun, but probably the most unique thing about it is that it has Disney characters painted on the cars.

The waterparks are well themed but are really pretty minor aspects of the experience for most. At least Typhoon has added some more modern slides, but man are some of their older slides pretty dated (in a charming way, I'll specify, but dated nonetheless).

And of course WDW is a uniquely stressful theme park destination, such that every other Disney resort in the world is considerably less stressful to visit. Part of the appeal of going to California or the other Disney parks is that you eliminate a lot of the stupid nonsense WDWers have to deal with and take in stride. I can only imagine many do so because they seldom actually visit other parks, or are sufficiently loyal to the WDW classics that they are willing to play WDW's little games to experience them (or so it seems to me). Whether or not WDW or DL is better will always be debated; what is undebateable to me, however, is that DLR is considerably easier to experience, and sometimes that's enough to give it an edge.

Undoubtedly WDW has a lot of cool and unique stuff that isn't located elsewhere; however, of the experiences that are directly comparable (which happens to include a lot of the true classics), DLR more often than not pulls ahead. And that's without the other advantages the CA parks offer, like longer park hours, better weather, and unique attractions of their own.

You present a list of WDW assets as though those things make it uniquely unbeatable, and perhaps for you that is true-but that's not necessarily going to be the case for everyone, especially on this side of the boards.

 

[tanc]

Really? More than COP, peoplemover, SSE, The Land, American Adventure, World Showcase, Tower of Terror, Safari, Pandora, AKL, Grand Floridian, Yacht and Beach, Boardwalk, Old key west, Typhoon lagoon, skyliner, etc?

I hate the amount of time you waste just getting around WDW resort. I loved how much easier it was to get around DL. I also just loved the rides that DL has to offer. Especially rides like Alice in wonderland, Mr. toad etc. They’re so charming and such a fantastic addition to the park’s identity. I don’t really have much attachment with Pandora or ToT, and imo the best ToT in the world is in Tokyo. I’d say that I enjoyed DL more than I did TDL or Disney Sea honestly.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Based on my experience last year, it's not particularly complicated to experience if you've got LL.

Guardians switches over at 3 to Monsters After Dark daily and it is indeed counted as its own LL, so you can get LLs for MB and MAD on the same day. LL will become available for MAD once it runs out for MB, so keep watching the app. Note that the app doesn't display MAD wait times unless you click on it, not sure if there's any similar complication with LL. I'd recommend going on a day without OBB if you're intent on riding MAD so that you have a longer window to book LL times.

I actually found Guardians to be running better this time of year than when I usually visit (summer) because since the ride has increased demand, there weren't any suspect closures of drop shafts as I'm accustomed to.

Thank you! I guess it’s simply a matter of being at DLR around the time of the (surprisingly early) 3pm switch and then checking LL return times on the app. I’ve casually glanced at the app on evenings when I’ve not been at the park and it seems like MAD is perennially out of LLs, but presumably that’s not the case closer to the 3pm switch.

 

[Too Many Hats]

I haven’t been on MAD in a couple years so maybe the process has changed but as far as I can remember it didn’t have its own LL which is why you’d have no wait for the original version before 3pm as everyone was waiting to use their LL for after 3pm. That might be the reason they changed it if I’m not mistaken.

Thanks! It’s a little confusing on the app but it seems like MAD actually does have its own LL at this point, which hopefully makes it a little easier to actually get on the ride (without waiting an eternity in line).

 

[Rich T]

Really? More than COP, peoplemover, SSE, The Land, American Adventure, World Showcase, Tower of Terror, Safari, Pandora, AKL, Grand Floridian, Yacht and Beach, Boardwalk, Old key west, Typhoon lagoon, skyliner, etc?

The last time I rode COP, it was in such bad condition we had to sit through 2 acts twice when the carousel didn’t move. Sitting through an act of COP twice in a row is worse than being stuck on IASW.

PeopleMover is great, but I’ve never liked the MK layout: everything past Space Mtn. is a snooze.

Epcot is the reason to visit WDW, but for me the experience gets a bit worse (thanks to corporate decisions) every year.

I don’t find Living With The Land very entertaining. But, having said that, I don’t want it replaced with more IP.

World Showcase is a treasure… but I find it less so with each dumbing-down cartoon addition/retheme.

Tower of Terror (and Slinky Dog) are wonderful, but both are stuck in a park that does nothing for me.

Pandora is an impressive-looking small land based on a franchise I genuinely can’t stand.

I generally like AK a lot. Safari can be fantastic or a complete dud, but that’s just the way such experiences go.

I don’t care about WDW resorts or water parks, but I’m not their intended audience. I actually prefer UO’s hotels and Volcano Bay.

Skyliner gives a wonderful view of roads and mud… and the character window skins impede even *that*. It’s an impressive, nicely free system, but it’s not a ton of fun.

I think WDW is impressive, but spread too thinly with not enough attractions per park. And it’s stuck with Florida’s weather.

I prefer DLR because all the fun is concentrated in an easy-to-get-around, densely-packed, attractions-everywhere package. Nearly Zero time spent on travel between. For me, way more fun-per-minute during an average stay.

And DL’s Fantasyland is amazing and packed with attractions and history. For me, MK’s feels very shallow and corporate by comparison.

MK is about to bulldoze Rivers of America for… freakin’ Cars.

Something actually happens in the final lift tunnel of DL’s Big Thunder. (Hoping up the upcoming MK refurb really gets this otherwise wonderful ride back to the top where it belongs.)

DL has rotting PeopleMover tracks, but MK has the awful, functioning, time-wasting Tomorrowland Speedway, so I’d call that even.

If I move out of FL, the only WDW-only features I’ll genuinely miss are Spaceship Earth, Country Bears and the long, lovely walks around World Showcase and AK. And Epcot’s entry music loop. And the ferry boats to MK. Right now, I visit UOR most of the time because it has DL’s no-hassle, no reservations, easy-to-park-hop, more-fun-per-square-foot atmosphere. DL and UOR genuinely relax me and entertain me. WDW often feels, for me, like a chore just to get anything done. Thank goodness for the WDW CMs; they are EVERYTHING for that property.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Thank you! I guess it’s simply a matter of being at DLR around the time of the (surprisingly early) 3pm switch and then checking LL return times on the app. I’ve casually glanced at the app on evenings when I’ve not been at the park and it seems like MAD is perennially out of LLs, but presumably that’s not the case closer to the 3pm switch.

Potentially earlier than 3-MAD LL's become available the moment MB LLs run out, which could wind up being much earlier than 3 depending on crowds and system utilization.

 

[PiratesMansion]

The last time I rode COP, it was in such bad condition we had to sit through 2 acts twice when the carousel didn’t move. Sitting through an act of COP twice in a row is worse than being stuck on IASW.

PeopleMover is great, but I’ve never liked the MK layout: everything past Space Mtn. is a snooze.

Epcot is the reason to visit WDW, but for me the experience gets a bit worse (thanks to corporate decisions) every year. Sometimes it gets worse multiple times a year.

Living With The Land is not very entertaining. But, having said that, I don’t want it replaced with more IP.

World Showcase is a treasure… but less so with each dumbing-down cartoon addition/retheme.

Tower of Terror (and Slinky Dog) are wonderful, but both are stuck in a park that does nothing for me.

Pandora is an impressive-looking small land based on a franchise I genuinely can’t stand.

I generally like AK, but I find Expedition Everest to be an uncomfortable ride on a very dull layout. Safari can be fantastic or a complete dud, and that’s just the way such experiences go.

I don’t care about WDW resorts or water parks. I actually prefer UO’s hotels and Volcano Bay.

Skyliner gives a wonderful view of roads and mud… and the character window skins impede even *that*. It’s an impressive, nicely free system, but it’s not a ton of fun.

WDW is impressive, but spread too thinly with not enough attractions per park. And it’s stuck with Florida’s weather.

I prefer DLR because all the fun is concentrated in an easy-to-get-around, densely-packed, attractions-everywhere package. Nearly Zero time spent on travel between. For me, way more fun-per-minute during an average stay.

And DL’s Fantasyland is amazing and packed with attractions and history. MK’s feels very shallow and corporate by comparison.

MK is about to bulldoze Rivers of America for… freakin’ Cars.

Something actually happens in the final lift tunnel of DL’s Big Thunder.

DL has rotting PeopleMover tracks, but MK has the awful, functioning, time-wasting Tomorrowland Speedway, so I’d call that even.

If I move out of FL, the only WDW features I’ll genuinely miss are Spaceship Earth, Country Bears and the long, lovely walks around World Showcase and AK. And Epcot’s entry music loop. Right now, I visit UOR most of the time because it has DL’s no-hassle, no reservations, easy-to-park-hop, more-fun-per-square-foot atmosphere. DL and UOR genuinely relax me and entertain me. WDW often feels, for me, like a chore just to get anything done. Thank goodness for the WDW CMs; they are EVERYTHING for that property.

WDW things I really like:
-All of DAK (minus anything in Dinoland)
-Old School Epcot attractions and ambiance
-The unique feel of their Adventureland compared to others
-Improved Jungle Cruise (too bad they won't run enough boats anymore)
-Their Space Mountain (not better than the DL version IMO, but I do appreciate the different ride profile and the great airtime of the FL version)
-Improved HM (unless the Hatbox Ghost placement truly killed it)
-TOT
-Disney Springs is much better than DTD (but it's still just an outdoor mall at the end of the day)
-Way better table service lineup
-I do enjoy resort hopping more than I should
-Respect points for keeping Muppetvision-at least, for now.
-The water parks are fun when I'm able to do them

Things I really liked that they threw/are throwing in the dumpster:
-OG Country Bear Jamboree
-TSI, two-island edition
-A better Splash Mountain than DL
-Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
-Journey Into Imagination OG version
-Morocco Pavilion (slowly degrading now that Disney's taken it over)
-A real animation studio!
-Impressions de France, which can technically still be seen from 7:30 PM and later, I guess.

I thought Great Movie Ride sucked, but replacing it with MMRR instead of making the latter a new build was an objectively stupid move in a park that has like nine rides.

I've already expounded at length in other threads at how overrated I find the majority of the newer attractions they've put in that I have experienced elsewhere.

But I'm going mostly to Disney parks around the world for a castle park that is well maintained and isn't a PITA to experience, and WDW just doesn't offer that. And given that they had the best lineup of non-Castle parks once upon a time and keep dumbing them down instead of just building more attractions that fit the original themes, well...it doesn't look good.

OR I could just go to Disneyland, where they have most of the things I value, attrations are easier to experience by order of magnitude, and typically everything's in better shape, too.

 

[Rich T]

… -Their Space Mountain (not better than the DL version IMO, but I do appreciate the different ride profile and the great airtime of the FL version)
-Improved HM (unless the Hatbox Ghost placement truly killed it)
…

I also really enjoy MK’s Space Mtn. layout and agree it’s DL’s equal in its own wild, very different way.

I think the placement of the Hatbox Ghost on MK’s Haunted Mansion hurts the ride’s once-perfect story flow. And I also find it completely ineffective. He looks out of place, like a stage actor embarrassingly making his big entrance onstage during the wrong scene. What a stupid waste of a great animatronic. He doesn’t ruin the MK ride, but he does the narrative no favors.

 

[waltography]

...Their Space Mountain (not better than the DL version IMO, but I do appreciate the different ride profile and the great airtime of the FL version)...

I went to WDW for the first time last year and was genuinely taken aback by their Space Mountain. "Matterhorn Bobsleds but in pitch darkness" was not what I was expecting so it was unexpectedly terrifying. Very fun though now that I know what to expect hahaha.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

The last time I rode COP, it was in such bad condition we had to sit through 2 acts twice when the carousel didn’t move. Sitting through an act of COP twice in a row is worse than being stuck on IASW.

PeopleMover is great, but I’ve never liked the MK layout: everything past Space Mtn. is a snooze.

DL has rotting PeopleMover tracks, but MK has the awful, functioning, time-wasting Tomorrowland Speedway, so I’d call that even.

That happens if someone leaves one of the theaters and it resets. Maintenance has been improving since they spruced up the finale sets and are redoing the seats. It’s still a classic and should be at every resort.

The buzz tunnels one of my favorites with the futuristic salon lady and going over the ride. DLs pm was mostly going over autopia for the end of its ride and a glimpse at the circle vision queue.

Thats apples and oranges to compare a rotting empty track with a ride that functions and exists at DL as well. While it’s longer both still pollute the area with sound and smell.

 

[Rich T]

That happens if someone leaves one of the theaters and it resets. Maintenance has been improving since they spruced up the finale sets and are redoing the seats. It’s still a classic and should be at every resort.

The buzz tunnels one of my favorites with the futuristic salon lady and going over the ride. DLs pm was mostly going over autopia for the end of its ride and a glimpse at the circle vision queue.

Thats apples and oranges to compare a rotting empty track with a ride that functions and exists at DL as well. While it’s longer both still pollute the area with sound and smell.

Thanks for the info about the cause of the scene repeats at COP. It’s a wonderful, historic attraction that should be preserved, but I hope they can come up with a better solution for the reset, because sitting through the same lengthy scene twice in a row is something that should never be inflicted on an audience. Talk about an illusion-killer.

The outdoor trip over Autopia and past the monorail station was my favorite part of DL Peoplemover, so for me the ride started off strong and just kept getting better all the way to the final station approach. I even liked the layout when it became Rocket Rods. Personal preference. I agree the MK Buzz view and hair salon are fun.

I’ll take any opportunity to make a snarky comment about Tomorrowland Speedway. Seriously, except for the impressive display of mowed lawn, it gets my vote for biggest Disney pile of garbage that isn’t named “Cars Road Trip.” Disneyland’s Autopia is better in nearly every way, from layout to scenery to steering. On Autopia, I’m sad when it’s over, and it’s a fairly lengthy ride. If only DL’s cars didn’t look like something you’d get free in box of cereal in the 70’s…

Sorry about the lengthy nitpicking on my original post; I was waiting for my car to be fixed, and I had lots of time…

I have many complaints about WDW and the way it’s currently run, but everything I don’t like can be (relatively) easily fixed; the foundation is rock solid. All Disney has to do is move forward, spend the money AND stop destroying attractions people love. My hope is that the ongoing competition between Disney and Universal brings out the best in both and results in a complete win-win for theme park fans.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Potentially earlier than 3-MAD LL's become available the moment MB LLs run out, which could wind up being much earlier than 3 depending on crowds and system utilization.

Ahhh okay, this is the part my brain was not comprehending. Thanks so much!

 

[TP2000]

Getting caught up on the forum and there's not much good news to be had lately in Anaheim, but at least this made me chuckle...

Police say woman with 2 children arrested at Disneyland after not paying for tickets is a repeat offender

The mother of two arrested at Disneyland this week was uncooperative and refused to comply with requests to provide her identification, authorities said.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Getting caught up on the forum and there's not much good news to be had lately in Anaheim, but at least this made me chuckle...

Police say woman with 2 children arrested at Disneyland after not paying for tickets is a repeat offender

The mother of two arrested at Disneyland this week was uncooperative and refused to comply with requests to provide her identification, authorities said.

www.foxnews.com

Imagine having to explain to your kids you can’t go to DL anymore because you are now trespassed.

Poor kids, hopefully they have another family member who can still take them so they don’t pay for their mom’s lack of morals.

 

[Parteecia]

I don't quite understand why she was let in. If she was a known problem, couldn't they flag her pass? And if the entry CM had suspicions about the children's ages, couldn't they have held her at the gate for a manager to confirm?

But mostly I wonder if this was happening while I was eating at Boardwalk Pizza and I missed it, darn it!

 

[coffeefan]

Couldn't they have taken her out through the backstage?

 

[chadwpalm]

I don't quite understand why she was let in. If she was a known problem, couldn't they flag her pass? And if the entry CM had suspicions about the children's ages, couldn't they have held her at the gate for a manager to confirm?

But mostly I wonder if this was happening while I was eating at Boardwalk Pizza and I missed it, darn it!

You can't accuse someone without proof. They can look at security footage and suspect that her kids were not under 3, but that wouldn't really hold up. They needed to catch her in the act and demand proof while she was committing the act, and they finally did.

The thing is, she wasn't arrested or handcuffed because she sneaked her kids into the parks. They did it because she was being defiant, uncooperative and belligerent toward the police.

They most likely chose not to confront her at the gate because Disney doesn't want a scene at the place where people are getting their first impressions of the park for the day. They seemed to have waited until they were near an easy egress point in the park.

Couldn't they have taken her out through the backstage?

A few CM's chimed in on Reddit and I thought one of them said they escorted her out backstage and didn't drag her handcuffed through the entire park.