I went for one day at MK and EP yesterday. While we all had our laughs about that "unmagical" complaint, I couldn't help but think that, if I was a 1st timer, this potentially could have sucked. When we arrived, the "parking police" were not doing a great job of directing traffic. They had blocked off the normal path to handicapped so handicap had to stay on the same path as regular traffic but, at the point that they were parking cars, they were pointing handicap further down...to no one. We had to drive through the massive crowds gathering for the trams, which I was really uncomfortable with as I drive a suburban and there were little kids running around everywhere, with no one saying where to go after that. I ended up going up some down lanes getting over to the back up handicap area and self parking. Odd. Even at almost 12, the TTC was packed. I had to activate new APs so we stood in that line for over 45min. Monorails are down weekly between 11am-7pm. No resort or MK line. Only the Ferry which had a massive crowd backed up even in front of the monorail ramps. From the time I got on property til I stepped foot on Main St was over 2hrs! :O I was beyond surprised. While I wasn't complaining and just readjusted my plans for the day, people around me were definitely upset. I even overheard a guy talking about how Disney's lost the magic and wasn't what it used to be. I kinda rolled my eyes, at first, but then realized what it must be like for 1st timers.
I was prepared for the castle's cranes and the drained moat, I didn't know the work was actually being done during park hours. They were up there painting the roof tiles of the castle which created a lot of noise that could even be heard at parade time. On one hand, I find the drained moat interesting. On the other, it was quite ugly with misc. work supplies everywhere. Of course, splash was still closed. I had a bit of a chuckle. We rode the CoP. While that place could use some serious love, I had to laugh that they "updated" the 90s scene by adding a flat screen TV. It looked so out of place! haha. I figure the projection TV they had in there must have gone out requiring replacement but a flat screen was very out of place with the clothing and decor.
When we left MK to hop over to EP, it was 630 so still no monorails. They were roped off so we joined the masses for the boat. I did check for a bus and saw they added one single bus to TTC. Disney, while I understand the work schedule is what it is, the compensation for crowd movement and control was very poor. When I was arriving to MK, there were 3 ferries, but the extra docks weren't being used so there was a traffic jam with the Ferries. 1 bus to go back and forth to the TTC wasn't even putting a dent in the crowd. When we got back, we hopped to monorail over to EP. From walking through the MK gates to walking in the gates of EP took over an hour. Our time at EP went rather well and am happy to see torch #7 was finally firing up. After Illuminations, when we headed back to the TTC, there appeared to only be one monorail making that run. From the end of Illuminations to the time I got to my car was almost an hour and a half.
I'm aware this is probably old news but I'm glad to see WIFI property-wide. I'm sure the MDE app is the main reason. Once my APs were activated, I was given the option to do FP+ on MDE for whatever day I choose. Of course, I couldn't do multiple parks. Oh well.
While I'm not complaining about our day, I definitely heard people that were unhappy and saw why.
I was prepared for the castle's cranes and the drained moat, I didn't know the work was actually being done during park hours. They were up there painting the roof tiles of the castle which created a lot of noise that could even be heard at parade time. On one hand, I find the drained moat interesting. On the other, it was quite ugly with misc. work supplies everywhere. Of course, splash was still closed. I had a bit of a chuckle. We rode the CoP. While that place could use some serious love, I had to laugh that they "updated" the 90s scene by adding a flat screen TV. It looked so out of place! haha. I figure the projection TV they had in there must have gone out requiring replacement but a flat screen was very out of place with the clothing and decor.
When we left MK to hop over to EP, it was 630 so still no monorails. They were roped off so we joined the masses for the boat. I did check for a bus and saw they added one single bus to TTC. Disney, while I understand the work schedule is what it is, the compensation for crowd movement and control was very poor. When I was arriving to MK, there were 3 ferries, but the extra docks weren't being used so there was a traffic jam with the Ferries. 1 bus to go back and forth to the TTC wasn't even putting a dent in the crowd. When we got back, we hopped to monorail over to EP. From walking through the MK gates to walking in the gates of EP took over an hour. Our time at EP went rather well and am happy to see torch #7 was finally firing up. After Illuminations, when we headed back to the TTC, there appeared to only be one monorail making that run. From the end of Illuminations to the time I got to my car was almost an hour and a half.
I'm aware this is probably old news but I'm glad to see WIFI property-wide. I'm sure the MDE app is the main reason. Once my APs were activated, I was given the option to do FP+ on MDE for whatever day I choose. Of course, I couldn't do multiple parks. Oh well.
While I'm not complaining about our day, I definitely heard people that were unhappy and saw why.
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lol. I didn't see extra buses for them, though. If you wanted to go from CR to poly for ADRs, I'd imagine you'd have to bus to MK then bus hop to the other.