We were down June 1st - 8th and said the same thing. Ive also seen YouTube videos since we were there showing more construction. The Space Montain exit seems to have gone under scrims and there were scrims up over the sidewalk and part of Mainstreet USA. Early in the trip my wife and I commented that it was the first time in 4 or 5 trips that gave an unobstructed view down Mainstreet looking at the castle.
Construction at the resorts is prevalent and the skyway is coming along nicely. There is roadwork in several places as well, which doesn’t bother/affect me as much as theming at the parks or resorts, but is nonetheless construction that is visible on any WDW vacation. Disney Springs is still being developed and I even saw an article about the golf coursess going down to see some improvements over the coming months. It seems that they are gearing up heavily for October 1 2021.
Now, full disclosure, these observations come from an AP holder (not local) that visits the parks at least twice a year and often times 3 or 4 times per year, as well as carrying DVC membership, so take that into account as you read this.
My thought is that we cant get the gain without the pain. Hear me out; Take Downtown Disney for example, it has been completely overhauled to Disney Springs and become a must visit on virtually every trip. The road construction that took place over there was brutal but the roadways before the Disney Springs conversion wasn’t great either. Look at it now, it’s amazing. Bus transportation is less congested and centrally located and the state of the art parking garages make driving yourself even more appealing.
Remember the Pandora construction? How long did that take? A Century? Remember how skeptical most of us die hard Disney fans were? Look how great that turned out. It’s beautiful over there. Improved quick service dining that is influencing other quick service locations and improving their quality and selections, Innovative ride systems that people are fascinated by, and attention to detail that is impossible not to notice. Toy Story Land will open in only a few days and I suspect we will be pleasantly surprised. Not to mention that Galaxy’s Edge will be revolutionary.
How about the room/resort upgrades we have seen. Pop Century, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Grand Floridian Villa’s, Polynesian Villa’s, Wilderness Lodge (both Copper Creek and Boulder Ridge) Villa’s, How improved are these locations? Ive stayed at Pop twice throughout the refurbishment and can testify that the resort is much improved with the updates to the rooms. I can say the same about every resort I listed. The only one that we have not actually stayed at is the WL since the refurbs, but we have visited and had stayed their before and can say, they too, are much improved. I can only imagine that the additions to Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs along with their room overhauls and ovderalll ‘rebranding’ will have the same outcomes.
When it comes to transportation the bus fleet is still being converted to the new paint scheme and more accordion busses seem to be showing up. The Minnie van fleet is growing and service is improving. The Skyway is coming along and will become as memorable as a monorail ride is currently for future generations. It will be efficient and hopefully releve the bus fleet enough to service under-served areas of property. Imagine if we didn’t have to share a bus with two other resorts when we stay at one of the Crescent Lake resorts. I’m not saying this WILL happen but that it could be an additional benefit to the Skyway system coming online.
The construction stinks, but face it, the payoff is worth it. Think about this, all of the projects mentioned in this post have happened in the last 3-5 years. If there was no construction or improvements going on, we would complain that it was stale and outdated. I think that the construction is part of what keeps me coming back. I’m a bit of a completionist and WDW causes a complex for people like myself. I LOVE it, but find myself looking forward to the new things that are on the horizon. Even something as disenchanting as the roadwork at the MK entrance has me curios and anxious to see the updates. So, I wouldn’t say it makes things less magical per say, but it enhances my anticipation for future trips. We always try to experience something that we have never done each time we are on property and the changes make that easy to achieve lately. There have been very few things that we are disappointed with after they go through the construction process and I can only hope that that is the case with the current construction projects on property.
It was kind of nice seeing the castle during our last visit without the crane. Not saying the crane ruined our vacation or anything, it was just a case of "MSUSA and the castle look great-but would look better without the crane."
