Some overall thoughts after my trip:
- The CMs were excellent this trip! I hadn't felt that as much over my past couple trips, but they were incredible this time.
- My love for Epcot came back this trip. I was very disappointed with it in 2017 when I went last. Soarin's newest version is not nearly as good as the original, but I love the feel of Epcot. I hope they keep that when it undergoes massive changes.
- The crowds were not bad this trip, but they grew substantially as we got closer to July 4th. The resort parking lots were nearly empty at the start, and nearly full at the end. Also, the parking fees are ridiculous.
- Continuing with crowds, wait times at Epcot never seemed to be high. The highest I ever saw anything was around 70 minutes for TT. FEA was consistently 45 minutes or lower. Soarin was consistently 30 or lower. I'm not sure why, but it was very nice.
- The lack of rides are DHS is noticeable, and the addition of GE will not make the park seem anymore cohesive. It still seems like a park with a major identity crisis with things put wherever there was room. The park layout is either not optimal, or it is not being used correctly.
- TSL is an okay little area, but not something that would make me want to seek out a trip to DHS. SDD is an okay coaster, but if I didn't get to it during a trip, I would not be heart broken.
- I loved AK my last trip, but I was not as high on it this trip. It may have been that the novelty of Pandora has worn off, but the crowds were very heavy both times we went there. There were not enough attractions or things to do to keep the wait times low. Nearly every ride was 40+ minutes. Despite Pandora being a success in my mind, this park still needs more to do from a capacity stand point. Pandora is drawing in larger crowds, but it's just making the entire park more heavily crowded. Epcot can lack attractions on paper, but WS has so much for guests to do. I don't feel like AK has nearly as many "off paper" attractions.
- MK continued to be great. The Tron coaster will be a nice edition to the park. I like how it's kind of tucked back so it doesn't mess up the classic feel to the park. The biggest issue with MK to me is the traffic flow through Adventureland. The Carpets along with the spitting tikis really clog that place up. There needs to be a better way to fix this. They could even expand the walkway back into the JC area without having to sacrifice a ride, because as much as I dislike the Aladdin spinners, they do help eat some of the crowds.
- HEA continues to be a far cry from Wishes IMO, however nearly everyone in my group of 8 LOVED them. I would say I am the only "die hard" Disney World fan in my group, and it just goes to show that IPs are what the casual guests want. I was clearly the only one who valued classic attractions over the newer attractions with IPs. My cousin actually thought PotC was based on the movie.
- The World of Disney at DS is much nicer with its open floor plan than before. Overall, DS is so much more inviting than DTD used to be, however I am not interested in most of the stores outside of the Disney themed ones. I do love the wider selection of food options, though.
- I also loved seeing Pride merchandise in the stores. It made me smile.
- WDW is going to have a whole new feel and look to it in another two to three years. It will be interesting to see what those changes are like. I am excited for some of the changes and additions, but I am skeptical of them, too. While I love that they are adding things, I am so wanting them to lose the focus on IPs. Original stories for attractions is what made Disney parks what they are. I was walking through lines thinking how they used to send Imagineers to foreign places to study them in order to make detailed, convincing attractions with deep backstories, such as EE. Now it seems like there is no room for those kind of things in the budget, and they can do it cheaper by making everything CGI and screens based on a fictional movie character, so they don't actually have to make it feel real.
Overall, a great treat. I really liked the length of this trip. It's a little longer than we normally do, but not too long.
Instead of packing a lunch, sometime tomorrow I'm gonna pack a suitcase. We are scheduled to fly out of Newark Liberty Airport Wed. morning.
) myself to do that. Also, I'm really fickle about food, and bringing a sandwich didn't appeal to me.
was to end at 1am but thankfully we shut it off at 10 minutes past midnight. Wednesday we fly from EWR to Japan....3 hour layover and then arrive at Singapore on Thursday at 11:45pm their time. NJ time it will be Thursday at 11:45am. That's convenient that Singapore and my home are 12 hours apart. I won't even have to adjust my watch
