Tk0021
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
This was our 5th trip to Disney world and the first time during the Thanksgiving holiday. We did Christmas Day/week after Christmas last year and to compare the two we definitely had less crowds during thanksgiving. The weather was awesome as well. We are limited with school and soccer schedules, so we really have to focus on these two holidays and if we were to do it again it definitely would be thanksgiving.
We stayed at ASP this time, but not the first time we stayed at an All Star. We did ASMu last year. We rope drop and used the buses every day and were on the first bus to the parks everyday and were first in line at one of the gates every day. On Saturday we were the first people in MK and got pictures in front of the castle with only workers in the photo on our way to rope drop. Staying in the cheaper hotels and using buses does not mean you can’t be first in line. We have also stayed in deluxe hotels and we prefer the values because we are never in the room.
We went to the parks everyday starting on Monday with AK. We rope dropped the rest of the days and stayed to close except for Thanksgiving day at MK because it was open till midnight. We left around 11:00. We love genie plus and got it for every park. The price did increase that week, but I love the modification function and refresh times constantly. I was able to get top rides from 7:00 pm to 1:00 pm just by refreshing, but you have to be fast. I was able to get LL for rides that were saying they were out of LL by refreshing. I heard people in line in front of me just accepting the time they just got for an LL and I can’t believe that.
What stood out to me was the Saturday after thanksgiving at MK. The hours were 9am to 10pm and the park was noticeably slower that day. We were getting on rides with 15 minute waits and getting usually difficult LLs with no problems on this day. The park was empty after the 8pm fireworks and all lines were super short even 7D after fireworks. I was told that everyone was at Epcot for the festival of holidays which makes sense.
Overall, great trip. We do not plan on going back for a few years since we did two years in a row. My daughters are 12 and 10 and are over the princesses, but still like the costume characters. My 12 year loves Stich and got to meet him twice. They both still like the character meals too, so we do a few of those each trip. My 12 year old also loves animatronic fails and we didn’t see any this year. Lol.
We stayed at ASP this time, but not the first time we stayed at an All Star. We did ASMu last year. We rope drop and used the buses every day and were on the first bus to the parks everyday and were first in line at one of the gates every day. On Saturday we were the first people in MK and got pictures in front of the castle with only workers in the photo on our way to rope drop. Staying in the cheaper hotels and using buses does not mean you can’t be first in line. We have also stayed in deluxe hotels and we prefer the values because we are never in the room.
We went to the parks everyday starting on Monday with AK. We rope dropped the rest of the days and stayed to close except for Thanksgiving day at MK because it was open till midnight. We left around 11:00. We love genie plus and got it for every park. The price did increase that week, but I love the modification function and refresh times constantly. I was able to get top rides from 7:00 pm to 1:00 pm just by refreshing, but you have to be fast. I was able to get LL for rides that were saying they were out of LL by refreshing. I heard people in line in front of me just accepting the time they just got for an LL and I can’t believe that.
What stood out to me was the Saturday after thanksgiving at MK. The hours were 9am to 10pm and the park was noticeably slower that day. We were getting on rides with 15 minute waits and getting usually difficult LLs with no problems on this day. The park was empty after the 8pm fireworks and all lines were super short even 7D after fireworks. I was told that everyone was at Epcot for the festival of holidays which makes sense.
Overall, great trip. We do not plan on going back for a few years since we did two years in a row. My daughters are 12 and 10 and are over the princesses, but still like the costume characters. My 12 year loves Stich and got to meet him twice. They both still like the character meals too, so we do a few of those each trip. My 12 year old also loves animatronic fails and we didn’t see any this year. Lol.
We have always enjoyed our trips but I am not a big fan of G+, especially if I compare it against our FP+ trips in the past. My DW and DDs all mentioned that I spend a lot more time on my phone with G+ and that was before we could modify the times, so that will be even more time on cell. We always get G+ for HS and 50/50 for MK, but rarely get it for AK and EPCOT. We do not do commando anymore (open to close) and much rather close the parks and arrive a little later in the morning. But with G+, it forces me to get up early to grab our 1st ride and then I usually cannot fall back to sleep. I totally agree about the resorts, we have really started loving POP with the extra transportation etc. and we do not spend all day at the parks and usually have 1 or 2 non-park days during our trips and we still do not find the value in paying so much more for a deluxe. We are still hoping to try and do a trip in March, fingers crossed.
