Disney World May 2017

[Yoshi]

Last week we went to Florida mainly to go to Miami and see the Phillies play the Marlins. Since we were already going to be in Florida, we spent a few days at Disney World. Hollywood Studios was skipped for this trip because there wasn't enough time to visit all 4 parks and with so few rides plus not wanting to miss Animal Kingdom with Pandora opening, it made the choice of which park to skip, easy.

 

Epcot was the first park on 5/28. For Sunday of Memorial Day weekend it was crowded but I have been there when it has been much worse.

 

Because of the tiers of FastPass Plus, besides Test Track, the other 2 selections were Living With The Land and Journey Into Imagination. Surprisingly, they were actually needed as both rides had 40 minute standby waits and Living With The Land had the FastPass line all the way to the entrance.

 

The Flower and Garden Festival was still running and the topiaries all over the park were nice. It was strange to go back into the Wonders of Life building although the entrance to Body Wars and Cranium Command were covered up and if someone had never been in the pavilion before, they probably wouldn't have known what used to be there.

 

The Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival was something new for this trip and the first film with Mickey was good, the other 2 Pixar films were just ok.

 

With rumors of Universe of Energy leaving, we made sure to stop there. The Ellen audio animatronic with serpent type creature are still gone and if the rumors are true of the ride being removed, they probably won't be returning.

 

Frozen had a 2 1/2 hour wait, not worth it and even if a FastPass could have been booked before the trip, it's not worth getting over Test Track which was just under 2 hours most of the day.

 

Besides the attractions listed we also rode The Seas With Nemo, Spaceship Earth, Gran Fiesta Tour and saw the film in France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[29yrswithaGApass]

Love the Spaceship Earth photo!

 

I hope the rumored refurb of EPCOT comes true. There are too many vacant buildings around the park.

[Yoshi]

Thank You

 

I agree there are too many vacant buildings. I would have liked to have seen at least one of Odyssey, Wonders of Life or Millennium Village used for some kind of attraction.

[29yrswithaGApass]

Yes, and even the little shops in the countries. For example, all the small stores in Canada in the upper level around the "hotel" before heading down into the Circlevision movie are now just locked up. They use to quaint little shops that greatly added to the experience.

[The Master]

It is sad to see EPCOT as a shadow of its former self. Though I fear the refab future world will be greatly dumbed down like with Living Seas. Like with the Guardians rumor as I really do not want to see Futureworld become another Marvel Island. Even Ellen was dumbed down quite a bit from the original UOE.

Edited June 12, 2017 by The Master

[dougdrummer]

Four years ago when I went to Epcot I was disappointed by how many buildings were abandoned. Like someone said, it seems to be a shell of its former self. That level of excitement I remember from the 80's and 90's seemed to be gone. If I get back to Florida, I'll be going to Universal instead of Disney.

[TylerRRC1972]

I didn't think any of the Disney Parks in Florida could use anything Marvel. Something only Parks West of the Mississippi can use.

[GAcoaster]

They can use Marvel, but only the characters not licensed to Universal. They've been able to have Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange, but Universal has all the Avengers characters.

[dougdrummer]

It all went downhill when they ousted Captain Eo.......LOL

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgpLqrhOPs0

Edited June 14, 2017 by dougdrummer

[Yoshi]

The 2nd day of the trip was Memorial Day, 5/29 and we were going to The Magic Kingdom.

 

Instead of bag check at metal detectors at the park entrance, there is now a security checkpoint at the Ticket and Transportation Center.

 

Jungle Cruise was first, after seeing the Jingle Cruise version last time, I liked seeing the standard version of the ride.

 

Pirates was next, fun but after riding Disneyland's version, it makes me wish that Disney World had gotten the full ride.

 

Splash Mountain was the first FastPass ride of the day. The front row was soaking, not as bad as Thundercreek Mountain and with the hot weather, I didn't mind. Some things weren't working in the ride such as the Brer Rabbit audioanimatronic that moves along a path. This is still my favorite flume ride anywhere although Knott's is a close 2nd (or 3rd if I count Disneyland's Splash Mountain as 2nd).

 

We still had some time until our next FastPass at Peter Pan's Flight so went to It's A Small World first and then to use our FastPass. I would like to see the new interactive queue but not enough to wait in a long line. It still seems like it's one of the top 3 most popular rides in the park I guess because of the low capacity and that it is different that other dark rides with the ships suspended from the ceiling.

 

After lunch at Pinocchio's Village Haus we went to Mickey's PhilharMagic and then Tomorrowland. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was skipped this trip because it's not worth a 90 minute wait and even if FastPass had been available, it wasn't a priority ride.

 

Space Mountain had too long of a line and I was hoping to ride it later in the day. Tomorrowland Transit Authority is always fun especially because it rarely has a wait. After that we went to use the next FastPass at Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin. After almost 20 years since my first ride (I can't believe the ride is 19 years old already), I finally got Galactic Hero with 999,999 points without the ride stopping or slowing down. I locked onto the 100,000 point target under Zurg and got up to 965,00 before the final room and just made it. I heard you got a button if you get Galactic Hero and now you get a sticker that says Galactic Hero on it. Carousel of Progress was next where the first show scene repeated.

 

I was able to book a 4th FastPass for Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh after riding Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin and after a short wait at The Little Mermaid ride, we went back to the older section of Fantasyland. After that, I booked a 5th FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which wasn't until after the fireworks.

 

Haunted Mansion was good as usual and after dinner at Columbia Harbor House we went to the Emporium for a little while before getting a spot in the hub for Happily Ever After Fireworks. I was considering skipping the fireworks because last time I saw Wishes it was horrible with the hub overcrowded to the point you couldn't move and were basically trapped until the show ended and even then it was a gridlock. This time crowd control was better with it possible to get back into a land from the hub if necessary and after the show ended, it only took a couple of minutes to start walking to the next area of the park.

 

I thought the fireworks were better than Wishes and maybe equal to Disneyland Forever. I think I have to give the slight advantage to Disneyland Forever because the projections were not only on the castle and also on the Matterhorn and It's A Small World so crowds were more spread out. The castle projections for this show were very good with a lot of different movies represented.

 

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was next. It's fun for a mine train even though I still like how some other mine train coasters like Runaway Mine Train just have 1 lift so you aren't slowing down for a 2nd or 3rd lift hill.

 

After another ride on Splash Mountain with almost no wait, the last ride of the day was Space Mountain. It was close to the park closing time and although the wait time said 45 minutes, I heard that wait times were sometimes over estimated near closing to discourage people from getting in line. That happened to be the case and it took a little less than 25 minutes. The ride has been running much better compared to years ago where the ride now seems smoother. It's almost seems impossible that the coaster only goes up to 27 mph when Harley Quinn Crazy Train is only 4 1/2 mph slower. Space Mountain feels faster than that.

 

It was a tiring day at the park spending around 14 hours but fun and we got to ride everything that was important to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Master]

I thought with WDW fast pass you were limited to just 3 a day? Good job on Buzz Lightyear.

Edited June 15, 2017 by The Master

[Yoshi]

Thanks

 

You can reserve 3 FastPass each day, then after you use those 3 you can book 1 more at a time either on your phone or at a kiosk. We usually try to book the first 3 as early in the day as we can so we can to try to get more FastPasses. The only problem is that on the same day, especially by the afternoon the availability isn't great for most of the major rides and for some rides, completely gone.

[scott]

Great shots of the fireworks.

It sounds like you do Disney right.

[Yoshi]

Thank you

 

With the limitations of FastPass+ compared to the old system, it takes some strategy and planning and we usually are able to visit almost all the attractions we want to. I do miss the old days of being able to be more spotaneous and getting multiple FastPasses early in the day to save for later when lines were longer.

[Yoshi]

Tuesday 5/30 was the last day at Disney World and it was spent at Animal Kingdom.

 

The first FastPass was Kilimanjaro Safaris. This was a rare safari ride where the lions were actually awake. After that it was time to go to the Pandora section of the park.

 

The area looks impressive with some buildings / structures and lots of plants that I'm sure probably hold more significance for anyone who is a fan of the movie or has at least seen the movie. If you don't want to read about the Na'vi River Journey, skip the next few paragraphs and some of the photos at the end of this report.

 

Na'vi River Journey was the ride we had FastPass for. The standby line went almost to the entrance of the land and had a posted 150 minute wait. With FastPass, it took around 5 minutes. The boats only have 2 rows and 2 boats are dispatched at a time.

 

There is a lot to look with most of the theming plants and there are some screens with characters and creatures from the movie. I would have liked to have seen more audio-animatronics rather than all those screens. The Shaman audio-animatronic towards of end of the ride is cool and hopefully it fares better than the Yeti at Expedition Everest has been. The ride is really short, probably a little over 5 minutes. It was fun and worth riding but not something I would wait more than 30 minutes for without a FastPass for a first ride and wouldn't wait more than 15 - 20 minutes on a future trip if a FastPass couldn't be obtained or there were better choices of rides to reserve especially for anyone who wants to ride Flight of Passage because you can't get a FastPass for both Pandora rides.

 

Flight of Passage wasn't even considered for this trip. FastPass was gone and the standby wait was 4 hours. Even if FastPass had been available, I'm not sure I would have wanted to try the ride knowing how I don't like motion simulators.

 

The store had a line to enter probably because of all the Banshee robotic figures that a lot of people were carrying around the park, either on their shoulder or in a box. I would have liked to have seen the store but it wasn't worth waiting for especially because I wasn't going to get anything.

 

We ate at the Satu'li Canteen for lunch. The choices were somewhat limited with most of the entrees bowls that you could customize. I didn't feel like a bowl with the heat and humidity and was going to try the burger pods except they were already pre-made and had mustard in them (there was no mention of this on the menu board but I had heard about it when reading reviews before the trip) so I got the kids meal cheese quesadillas. With the way counter service prices have gone up, it was a good deal at $5.99 for 2 quesadillas, grapes, chips and a soda.

 

Dinosaur was the 3rd FastPass ride of the day. There was no one in the FastPass ride and unlike past trips, there was not much of a line after the pre-show. It's a fun ride but I would take Indiana Jones Adventure any day over Dinosaur.

 

I skipped Primeval Whirl because I didn't feel like riding a spinning coaster and was originally planning to ride Expedition Everest using the single rider line since not many people know about it and rarely has much of a line. The last few times I have ridden the coaster, the backwards section really got to me even though it doesn't go upside down and I can handle boomerangs better even though they are more intense coasters. I didn't want to take a chance on getting dizzy or a headache especially combined with the weather and skipped it this trip.

 

On the way out the park we saw It's Tough To Be A Bug.

 

Rivers of Light sounded cool but we had a 4 hour drive to Miami and the odds of getting in didn't sound good. With a 5,000 seat capacity and supposedly 2,500 seats each going to FastPass and the dining packages, that only leaves 1,000 seats for standby for each show and even going to the earliest show would have meant getting into Miami probably close to 1 or 2 a.m. by the time we left the park.

 

Overall I thought Pandora was an ok addition. I would have liked to have seen another ride added since the park still only has 9 rides but it helps make Animal Kingdom a full day park.

 

On the way to Miami we went to the Hard Rock Cafe at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood. Since they had a promotion of $25 free slot play for new casino card signups, we also checked out the casino. It's one of the worst casinos I have been to. The non smoking "section" consists of a few rows of maybe 25 - 30 machines total with at least 5 or 6 of the same machine. The rest of the slot floor is all smoking compared to PA and NJ casinos that are about 50% smoking and 50% non smoking and NY and DE casinos that are 100% smoke free. It also wasn't low roller friendly with machines that had the option to play less than max lines or reels removed. I got $24 back from the $25 free play so walking out with free money was nice.

 

Marlins Park was interesting. Attendance is horrible and because of that we got great seats for $20 plus fees on StubHub. Parking was only $15. The big negative was no free cups of water and they would not give you an empty cup to fill up at the water fountain or give you an empty cup even if you bought a bottle of water. As usual the Phillies lost but that is to be expected when the team loses 22 out of 28 games in May. The actual attendance was horrible, all you saw were empty blue seats and someone reported that actual attendance was 1,590 fans (paid attendance was around 15,000 but no way was that actual attendance). I know it's a day game with 2 teams not making the playoffs but under 2,000 fans attending a MLB team is really bad. Thankfully the roof was closed and it wasn't too warm inside since sitting outside would have not been fun.

 

It was a nice trip and was nice to see Pandora and check another stadium off our list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The home run sculpture that activated way too often because the Marlins kept hitting home runs.

 

Empty seats everywhere