disneydentist
New Member
This is just a series of random observations from our trip. Others on the board have posted great, comprehensive reports that cover things well, so I won't bother you with every minute of our trip. This will tie into some other threads that we've had recently.
ACCOMODATIONS: We stayed at PO Riverside for the second consecutive trip. Room was clean. Furniture showed some wear and tear. Not too long until replacement I'd imagine. Shower curtains were clean. Mousekeeping was just fine. We'd faxed a room request and got just what we asked for. We got a 1st floor room in Magnolia Bend (we listed it and three choices in Alligator Bayou). Food court never seemed to be crowded. Mugs are now $10.99.
TRANSPORTATION: Using the South Depot during crowded times is a good idea. In the AM a bus would will up just there and head to the park. East ismost likely to get bypassed due to a full bus. Some busses ran with their internal lights on at night. Strange. We went to MK a couple of times from other parks by way of the GF and Contemp. During the busier days (Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday) there was a GF/WL bus route. On the other days it was GF/Poly/Contemp as one route and WL/FW as another.
CROWDS: high on Thurs, Fri, Sat as expected. Much lighter on Sun, Mon, Tues. Friday was as crowded as I've ever seen MK. However, we managed to take in 17 rides/attractions at the MK and have two meals (counter service) and snacks. This leads us to ...
FASTPASS: USE IT. We managed to get a lot done even on the crowded days by using FP. They were spitting them out like water. I once got one that said I could have my next one literally two minutes later. I ended up with three FP at one time. A suggestion here, if your FP starts @ 3:00 and you can get your next one @ 3:10 it's probably worth waiting the extra few miuntes, getting the next FP, and then going on the ride. They give you an hour window so why not take advantage of it. On the quiet days it was tougher to get a FP. In MK they weren't available for BUZZ, Haunted, Peter Pan, or Jungle Cruise.
MEAL COSTS: someone had asked how much to budget. We ate breakfast in the room. We generally ate counter service. For us (2 adults, 13 yo DD, 4 yo DS) it was around $25-30 meal. As a note, remember that you can order entrees without fries. This might be useful if you are ordering several at one time. We always seem to have too many fries with four meals. Now we get fries with three and just the entree with the fourth.
ATTRACTIONS: my family and I like the new version of Figment. Not as good as the original but much better than V2. Great Movie Ride wasn't using the main entrance. It looked closed from a distance. Fantasy in the Sky is neat when seen from BTMRR. Fantasmic was not crowded on Sunday night (officially one of the Studio's most crowded days). We walked right in about 45 minutes early and got seats one section left of center. People were still able to get seats after the show started.
NEW ITEMS: at EPCOT they were doing nighttime photos in the area between FW and WS. You could do SE or the lights of winter. Over at the Kodak store you can now get fancier laser sculptures. Instead of them taking a digital photo you can supply the photo of your choice. You can get 3x5 or 4x6 sculptures. These include everything in the original picture and are more like a sheet of glass than the original cube designs. Very cool. There example used on the Main Street photos from MK.
CANDLELIGHT PROCESSIONAL: we managed to get seats for the middle show (in the back) with a very short wait in line. Any seat is a good seat to us since the music is the thing. When we left, the line for dinner package seating stretched all the way back to Morocco. I'd suggest the two earlier shows or the dinner pakage ir you're so inclined.
FINAL ANALYSIS: we had a great time with five full park days. We averaged 12 hrs/day and 16 attractions/day. The early closings for the MK after the holiday forced us to include some park hopping over to EPCOT to round out our days. We usually try to keep park hoppin to a minimum. Ready for June.
ACCOMODATIONS: We stayed at PO Riverside for the second consecutive trip. Room was clean. Furniture showed some wear and tear. Not too long until replacement I'd imagine. Shower curtains were clean. Mousekeeping was just fine. We'd faxed a room request and got just what we asked for. We got a 1st floor room in Magnolia Bend (we listed it and three choices in Alligator Bayou). Food court never seemed to be crowded. Mugs are now $10.99.
TRANSPORTATION: Using the South Depot during crowded times is a good idea. In the AM a bus would will up just there and head to the park. East ismost likely to get bypassed due to a full bus. Some busses ran with their internal lights on at night. Strange. We went to MK a couple of times from other parks by way of the GF and Contemp. During the busier days (Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday) there was a GF/WL bus route. On the other days it was GF/Poly/Contemp as one route and WL/FW as another.
CROWDS: high on Thurs, Fri, Sat as expected. Much lighter on Sun, Mon, Tues. Friday was as crowded as I've ever seen MK. However, we managed to take in 17 rides/attractions at the MK and have two meals (counter service) and snacks. This leads us to ...
FASTPASS: USE IT. We managed to get a lot done even on the crowded days by using FP. They were spitting them out like water. I once got one that said I could have my next one literally two minutes later. I ended up with three FP at one time. A suggestion here, if your FP starts @ 3:00 and you can get your next one @ 3:10 it's probably worth waiting the extra few miuntes, getting the next FP, and then going on the ride. They give you an hour window so why not take advantage of it. On the quiet days it was tougher to get a FP. In MK they weren't available for BUZZ, Haunted, Peter Pan, or Jungle Cruise.
MEAL COSTS: someone had asked how much to budget. We ate breakfast in the room. We generally ate counter service. For us (2 adults, 13 yo DD, 4 yo DS) it was around $25-30 meal. As a note, remember that you can order entrees without fries. This might be useful if you are ordering several at one time. We always seem to have too many fries with four meals. Now we get fries with three and just the entree with the fourth.
ATTRACTIONS: my family and I like the new version of Figment. Not as good as the original but much better than V2. Great Movie Ride wasn't using the main entrance. It looked closed from a distance. Fantasy in the Sky is neat when seen from BTMRR. Fantasmic was not crowded on Sunday night (officially one of the Studio's most crowded days). We walked right in about 45 minutes early and got seats one section left of center. People were still able to get seats after the show started.
NEW ITEMS: at EPCOT they were doing nighttime photos in the area between FW and WS. You could do SE or the lights of winter. Over at the Kodak store you can now get fancier laser sculptures. Instead of them taking a digital photo you can supply the photo of your choice. You can get 3x5 or 4x6 sculptures. These include everything in the original picture and are more like a sheet of glass than the original cube designs. Very cool. There example used on the Main Street photos from MK.
CANDLELIGHT PROCESSIONAL: we managed to get seats for the middle show (in the back) with a very short wait in line. Any seat is a good seat to us since the music is the thing. When we left, the line for dinner package seating stretched all the way back to Morocco. I'd suggest the two earlier shows or the dinner pakage ir you're so inclined.
FINAL ANALYSIS: we had a great time with five full park days. We averaged 12 hrs/day and 16 attractions/day. The early closings for the MK after the holiday forced us to include some park hopping over to EPCOT to round out our days. We usually try to keep park hoppin to a minimum. Ready for June.
Glad you had a great time ! We stayed at POR in October ( Acadia house building) and it was fun for us too !
