Hello All,
Just thought i would put my thoughts in from our Trip from the end of July. We were there from July 20 to 27th. First of all, I thought that the crowd levels were very low with the exception of HS (more on that disaster later). Walking through MK, we never felt like were in a crazy crown no mater where we were. Of course it is an amusement park with a tonne of people in it, but never did I feel crowded in anywhere. From out trip there were some bad points and some great points. Nothing ruined our day but there were a few things that were negative, but we also have some moments that made us feel like the magic is still alive and kicking in the parks.
The Bad:
1. The photopass photographers. We purchased the memory maker(or whatever it is called now) and we definately feel like we received our money's worth as we received close to 500 pictures from our week. However, we found that the quality of alot of the photos was lacking. I would say a quarter of the pictures were blurry or overexposed. I feel that this is due to the photographer not taking the time or caring enough to make sure to take or a good picture or not being trained to take good pictures. Also the photopass photographers at AK we found to be rude. They all seemed to be annoyed like we were bothering them to take pictures. At Hollywood studios the photographers in the disney jr area seemed to be more interested in chatting with the character and other cast members than actually taking the pictures.
2. HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS ROPE DROP! We didn't plan on being super early to HS, but the kids woke up early and were ready in no time (never happens) so we were at the park early enough that we were the second family at the "rope". By the time the park was ready to open there were people all the way back to the entrance of the park. This is when things got bad. The first thing is people that feel that they have the right to be in front of the line even though they showed up late(not disney's fault) like the dad that sent his son to ask the cast member a question and the went to get him and just stayed at the front. Then they started to move us to the back to to Toy Story Land. I have never felt like my kids were in an unsafe place at disney until this moment. No mater what the cast members did, people went around and pushed and shoved. My wife picked up our daughter at one point to make sure she didn't get pushed down. My son was in the stroller and he was alittle freaked by all the people around him. By the time were got to the back, we were probably 100 to 150 back. Luckily we had FP for slinky so it did not mater to us, but I could see someone being there super early and then being upset being bumped back like that.
Now for the Good.:
1. Our 2 year old son loves mickey and the gang but the first look he took at Mickey and he was scared beyond words ("too big" was his reaction) So we did not want to see anybody. The second character stop we made was Cinderella and Elena. Cindy was alittle snooty but then isn't she always? My son wanted nothing to do with her. Then we went to Elena. Same thing. Except Elena was having nothing of it. We took our family picture and were to go but she stopped us and pulled our son aside just the two of them and spent literally 5 minutes talking to him and showing him the room to make him feel at ease. She finished it off with a big red kiss on his forehead that made for a great picture! After that he ran up to everyone and was ready to interact. She didn't have to do that but she made a point to try and make him comfortable. That interaction probably saved our trip picture-wise!
2. We wanted to get mickey pretzels at HS and went to one of the carts. When we got there the cast member said that they had just run out but there was another cart just down the road that had them as well. I said that it was okay and grabbed some popcorn for one of the kids and was ready to move on to the other cart when they showed up with fresh pretzels. The cast member told me to wait a minute as they had to take them out. So I waited a minute and when she gave them to me, I went to pay and she said that it was Mickey's treat for having to wait. I told her I literally only waited 1 minute and that I was okay paying but she wouldn't let me pay. I thought that this was really nice and my kids were excited that Mickey had bought them a pretzel.
3. My Daughter and I had fast passes for 7DMT. She isn't into rollercoasters much but she wanted to go. Long story short a kid in front of us made a comment about it being super fast and she chickened out when it was our turn. She was upset and 10 minutes later asked if we could try again as she wanted to try. I told her the line was too long and we would waste too much time (posted 80 minute wait). She was super upset so I thought I would go to the cast member and ask if there was anything I they could do. We went to the fast pass line and I explained what happened to the cast member and she said that it was not a problem and told my daughter to go give it another try. That turned my daughters mood from upset to happy instantly.
4. The nighttime show at magic kingdom. I have always loved the show at MK, but I had not yet experienced the new show with the castle projections. It was absolutely amazing and my 2 year old won't stop talking about "the magic" from the show.
I know these things probably seem little to most people but I feel like little things like this was what makes Disney different from everyone else.
Sorry for the long rant....but I just wanted to share the good and bad from our experience.
Just thought i would put my thoughts in from our Trip from the end of July. We were there from July 20 to 27th. First of all, I thought that the crowd levels were very low with the exception of HS (more on that disaster later). Walking through MK, we never felt like were in a crazy crown no mater where we were. Of course it is an amusement park with a tonne of people in it, but never did I feel crowded in anywhere. From out trip there were some bad points and some great points. Nothing ruined our day but there were a few things that were negative, but we also have some moments that made us feel like the magic is still alive and kicking in the parks.
The Bad:
1. The photopass photographers. We purchased the memory maker(or whatever it is called now) and we definately feel like we received our money's worth as we received close to 500 pictures from our week. However, we found that the quality of alot of the photos was lacking. I would say a quarter of the pictures were blurry or overexposed. I feel that this is due to the photographer not taking the time or caring enough to make sure to take or a good picture or not being trained to take good pictures. Also the photopass photographers at AK we found to be rude. They all seemed to be annoyed like we were bothering them to take pictures. At Hollywood studios the photographers in the disney jr area seemed to be more interested in chatting with the character and other cast members than actually taking the pictures.
2. HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS ROPE DROP! We didn't plan on being super early to HS, but the kids woke up early and were ready in no time (never happens) so we were at the park early enough that we were the second family at the "rope". By the time the park was ready to open there were people all the way back to the entrance of the park. This is when things got bad. The first thing is people that feel that they have the right to be in front of the line even though they showed up late(not disney's fault) like the dad that sent his son to ask the cast member a question and the went to get him and just stayed at the front. Then they started to move us to the back to to Toy Story Land. I have never felt like my kids were in an unsafe place at disney until this moment. No mater what the cast members did, people went around and pushed and shoved. My wife picked up our daughter at one point to make sure she didn't get pushed down. My son was in the stroller and he was alittle freaked by all the people around him. By the time were got to the back, we were probably 100 to 150 back. Luckily we had FP for slinky so it did not mater to us, but I could see someone being there super early and then being upset being bumped back like that.
Now for the Good.:
1. Our 2 year old son loves mickey and the gang but the first look he took at Mickey and he was scared beyond words ("too big" was his reaction) So we did not want to see anybody. The second character stop we made was Cinderella and Elena. Cindy was alittle snooty but then isn't she always? My son wanted nothing to do with her. Then we went to Elena. Same thing. Except Elena was having nothing of it. We took our family picture and were to go but she stopped us and pulled our son aside just the two of them and spent literally 5 minutes talking to him and showing him the room to make him feel at ease. She finished it off with a big red kiss on his forehead that made for a great picture! After that he ran up to everyone and was ready to interact. She didn't have to do that but she made a point to try and make him comfortable. That interaction probably saved our trip picture-wise!
2. We wanted to get mickey pretzels at HS and went to one of the carts. When we got there the cast member said that they had just run out but there was another cart just down the road that had them as well. I said that it was okay and grabbed some popcorn for one of the kids and was ready to move on to the other cart when they showed up with fresh pretzels. The cast member told me to wait a minute as they had to take them out. So I waited a minute and when she gave them to me, I went to pay and she said that it was Mickey's treat for having to wait. I told her I literally only waited 1 minute and that I was okay paying but she wouldn't let me pay. I thought that this was really nice and my kids were excited that Mickey had bought them a pretzel.
3. My Daughter and I had fast passes for 7DMT. She isn't into rollercoasters much but she wanted to go. Long story short a kid in front of us made a comment about it being super fast and she chickened out when it was our turn. She was upset and 10 minutes later asked if we could try again as she wanted to try. I told her the line was too long and we would waste too much time (posted 80 minute wait). She was super upset so I thought I would go to the cast member and ask if there was anything I they could do. We went to the fast pass line and I explained what happened to the cast member and she said that it was not a problem and told my daughter to go give it another try. That turned my daughters mood from upset to happy instantly.
4. The nighttime show at magic kingdom. I have always loved the show at MK, but I had not yet experienced the new show with the castle projections. It was absolutely amazing and my 2 year old won't stop talking about "the magic" from the show.
I know these things probably seem little to most people but I feel like little things like this was what makes Disney different from everyone else.
Sorry for the long rant....but I just wanted to share the good and bad from our experience.
