Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[NavyDad]

what QS locations do you recommend at HS? We haven't visited in over a year and haven't had the best experiences in the past with their QS offerings. Would appreciate knowing where to try later this summer when we return.

Thanks!

I'm not the person you asked but we absolutely loved Docking Bay 7 last April. The food options are a little more adventurous than the commissary but between 2 visits we tried nearly everything on the menu and liked it all. The atmosphere inside was pretty cool.

I highly recommend doing mobile order here. We did our mobile order while standing in line and it was ready very quickly so we jumped out of line and walked past 30 groups to pick up our food and sat down. The second time we did our mobile order right before we entered and just walked up to the counter and our food was ready in a few minutes.

 

[rauk]

We're a family of 4 and just returned from a fabulous 6 nights stay at the Polynesian for our first Disney World trip. Our party consisted of me, DH, and 2 DD's who are 8. It was the perfect 1st trip and I wouldn't change a thing. I thought I'd share my experience since I found everyone's posts so helpful. A big shout out to @DisneyFive who posted their experiences and I used it during my planning!


Friday March 10 - arrival day

Arrived at the Polynesian around 11:30am. Made a room request 2 weeks in advance for 3rd or 1st floor Rarotonga, Niue or Samoa, no construction view and got room 1821 in Rarotonga and loved it. The location was amazing, right beside the Great Ceremonial House making morning coffee so easy to get and it's on the path to the bus stop & TTC. We had lunch at Captain Cooks and enjoyed the pool – got the refillable cups, which was great for our morning coffees, lunch sodas & afternoon teas!

When the room was ready, we unpacked and got ready for dinner. We walked around the resort and the kid's roasted marshmallows. Dinner was at Kona Cafe at 7:30pm. We had to rush through it since the kids were exhausted from an early morning travel day.


Saturday March 11 - MK G+ $25
7am booked G+ Peter Pan for 10am
Early Entry we did the following rides with no waits: Pooh, Ariel’s grotto, IASW
Snacked at Sleepy Hallow and got the Nutella fruit waffles - so yummy
G+ 10am Peter Pan, booked HM 11:20am
Mickey's philharmonic
G+ 11:20am HM
Liberty square riverboat
12:30pm lunch reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table and met 5 princesses; lunch was surprisingly good and it was a good way to get autographs
2:30pm-5:30 back at hotel for rest
G+ Pirates of the Caribbean
G+ 6-7pm Big Thunder Mountain was cancelled so used for Aladdin
G+ Jungle Cruise
Fireworks
G+ Space Mountain (kids fav ride)
Got the last 2 hotdogs at the Lunching Pad that we shared so that was dinner!
Back to Poly at 10pm

Amazing day; good use of G+


Sunday March 12 - AK G+ $29
7am booked Kilimanjaro Safari & $16 ILL Flight of Passage
G+ 9:30am KS
Gorilla falls walk
Snack from Harambe fruit market
Rafiki conservation station so my kids could pet some animals!
Festival of lion king show
G+ Navi river
$ILL FOP – outstanding ride! My fav
Lunch at Pizzafari
G+ Expedition Everest
G+ Dinosaur
Tough to be a Bug show
At 4pm made our way to AKL for 5pm dinner reservations at Sanaa

Amazing day; good use of G+ even though there are a limited selection of attractions; we didn't have to wait in those long lines
Back at the Poly we watched a movie under the stars: Raya and the last Dragon


Monday March 13 - Epcot G+ is $29 but didn’t get it
At 6:55am Used time.gov to join GotG virtual queue and got boarding group 81
Had a lazy morning & afternoon at the Polynesian beach and pool; it rained on & off
Lunch at Captain Cooks; the adults shared the veggie & chicken noodles and coconut meatballs, very good. Kids had Mac & cheese
4pm went to Epcot & headed straight to GotG; took 40 min in line
Did Seas with Nemo to kill time before Space 220 restaurant

Space 220 was amazing, dinner took 2 hrs; I had the scallop ravioli & miso glazed salmon, to drink I had the Imagination; DH had calamari and short rib, to drink he had beer; for dessert I had carrot cake and he had strawberry sorbet; so glad we did this dinner

Walked to France to watch Harmonious
Got into line at 9:23pm for EEH at Remy’s and was on the ride at 9:51pm
10:18pm made it to the Frozen in line, 10:32pm on ride
On monorail by 11pm heading back to the Polynesian

I am so glad I didn’t get G+ today. We did not have enough park time to get use of it. ILL and EEH worked well for us


Tuesday March 14 - HS G+ is $25
Used time.gov to get slinky dog for 7-8pm
Booked RotR ILL for $25 from 4-5pm but realized after that it conflicts with Oga’s Cantina reservation

Took monorail to MK, bus to Riviera for 11am character breakfast at Topolinos; breakfast was very good and a nice way to meet the characters and get autographs

At 12:30pm made our way to HS
Saw 1:15pm Indiana Jones show
Saw 2:30pm Frozen sing along show
3pm Mickey & Minnie G+
4pm Oga’s reservation had Bloody Mary & Fuzzy Tauntaun
4:45pm ILL for RotR
Killed time by people watching
6:55pm SDD G+
7:30pm Sci-fi diner
8:30pm Star Tours walk on (didn’t need to use G+ LL)
Walked around Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land at night

Had G+ booked for ToT & Toy Story Mania but left because we were too full
Took bus back to the Polynesian

Great day; G+ selections were mostly late in the day and conflicted with ADRs; the downfall of not being able to choose the attraction time. Today only used G+ for 2 rides although 5 were booked


Wednesday March 15 - MK G+ $29
Family said they wanted to chill so I decided against getting G+ and will wing it today - yikes!! Later that day it sold out
Agreed to enjoy the atmosphere today and not rush and use the money we didn’t spend on G+, on souvenirs and food

Cloudy & cold start to the day
Enjoyed the Train, walked through Main Street stores
Got Cheeseburger spring rolls and pastrami & pepper Jack cheese spring rolls – yummy!
Enchanted tiki room show
Walked to frontier land and had lunch at Pecos Bill and got taco trio and side of nachos, it was ok
Took train to fantasy land and went onto Dumbo
Then went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Factory show; so good
On our way out of the park bought the girls some dolls they’ve been eyeing
Took the boat back to the Poly rather than the monorail to change it up; rested before our 6pm Ohana reservation

Dinner at Ohana was good; appetizers were great, dinner selection was just ok, dessert was great. Loved it as our last dinner at Disney but won't be going again unless they change the steak & chicken

After dinner, the kids joined the Aloha after dark event which consisted of hoola hoops, dancing & games. The kids had a great time. Watched fireworks from the resort. Had plans to go back to MK to take the kids on the carousel but they weren’t into the idea so I let it go and let them have it their way!


Thursday March 16 - check out day
Slept in, packed up and checked out by 11am
Hung out by the pool until we made our way to the airport


As I stated above, I loved this trip for our first Disney experience. I did everything I wanted to do and made such good memories with my family. The Polynesian is an incredible resort and the ambience just added to our full enjoyment of Disney. Now I want to go back to Disney next year – let the planning begin!

 

[BrightMorningStar]

Thank you for your honest review. I stated the same when we did our 11 day trip in December 2022. We were also at Disney in Oct-Nov 2019. This time around did not have the same feeling as in 2019. Longer lines, Genie plus was a bust, rides broken down, food quality not as good, prices extremely high, and parks looked tired. The only salvation for us was that YC, YC cast members, Stormalong Bay and CL were wonderful. If we did go back again, I would consider a resort vacation only. Way too expensive for what the parks had to offer.

We went into the trip with very high hopes. We did not go into it looking for the worst or expecting to be let down. We did not allow the things we read to affect our assessment, but instead our experience.

We did also experience a lot of breakdowns. We got stuck on Dinosaur. It caused the whole ride to be shut down. After 30 - 40 minutes, they walked us off the ride and gave us a limited ride/attraction pass. Test Track went down and after 30 minutes they cleared the line. Mickey/Minnie Railway broke down and after 15 minutes they cleared the line and gave us a limited pass. Peter Pan's Flight went down for a while. Space Mountain was down a lot on the 2 days we visited Magic Kingdom. The list of closures and breakdowns goes on......

When we got stuck on Dinosaur, the technical engineer kept trying to resolve the problem before walking us off. He was talking to us about the issue and explaining that this happens a lot "as of late". I will not go into the details of the conversation as not to give away his identity or cause trouble for him, but suffice to say that this is now the "new Disney" and the maintenance/technical people are certainly not without work.

I will also add, quite a few of the Cast Members did not have the zeal they used to, but we did encounter many great cast members and did a cast compliment for every one of them. We were happy to encounter each of them.

We have all said if we return that we would stay in a rental house in the Davenport area, visit Disney Studios and maybe EPCOT and spend the rest of the time at Universal, the beach and other spots in the Orlando area.

 

[Dulcee]

Just back a few days ago... trip was March 12 - 18. This trip had highs and lows.

I suppose bad stuff first

• Made use of Genie + for the first time and I really dislike it. We used it on a MK/Epcot day and a MK/HS day. It worked better at MK/HS (which was also later in the week and lower crowds, but not lower priced). I hate how much I had to be on my phone trying to find times or modify to a time that worked around park hopping and meal reservations. I hated being back at our rental and not being able to just lounge at the pool because I was on edge for the next time to book to come up. The cost consistently made me feel like I better make sure we get our use from it. I especially hated having to tell my kids "I'll try" every time they asked if they were going to be able to ride XY or Z. It is not a friendly system for people who prefer to leave the parks by noon and not head back in until later in the evening.
• Guardians VQ...I posted about this as it happened but we were locked out of the VQ both of the mornings we had park reservations for Epcot. Not because of poor timing but because of an internal error that never allowed me to build my party. This was not a problem after entering the park but the 1pm VQ times were always conflicting with evening reservations. After much back and forth at an ungodly hour of the morning the app chat was able to secure me anytime reservations for guardians.
• Getting into the parks was a cluster for us most mornings, not because of us but because of consistently being stuck behind groups who didn't understand how to get in via their phones, no park reservations, blue mickey heads, etc. And somehow we always managed to be with a cast member who couldn't seem to keep the line moving while dealing with the problem group. It was very frustrating.
• Inconsistencies.... I wish they could get policies and cast members on the same page. We were traveling as a party of 10 with two scooters. While both handicapped individuals were in 1 car, the second scooter was in ours. All week when parking we were told to park together in the handicapped area because FIL wouldn't be able to walk to where we parked and he wouldn't be able to load the scooter into his vehicle without assistance. Second to last day a parking attendant spoke rather forcefully to us when we said we'd need to follow DH's father since we had his scooter. And then proclaimed loudly don't cry to me when you get towed. Similarly, we had an infant in the party and often needed rider swap. During the first few rider swaps cast members told us, without us asking, that both kids could ride again with the waiting parent. And then later in the week, after getting used to that being the "policy" it magically became one kid. Which would be fine if the kids hadn't become accustomed to it and were then disappointed. Just pick one and enforce it!

Good stuff

• We booked a private fireworks cruise for the MK and it was 100% hands down worth the money. Even on a chilly night. We will totally do this again, even if its just our nuclear family and not the larger group we traveled with this time. Cannot think of a better way to watch the fireworks and significantly better than a dessert party.
• Flower and Garden festival food booths were great again this year. We made sure to eat around the world on a weeknight, waits at the booths were all very short, the selection was fun. We had a great time this night.
• We found standby waits fairly manageable this trip, at least in the AM hours. They were rarely as long as posted, usually 50-60% of what was listed.
• We must have been lucky because we had almost no issues with down rides. The last morning test track was down at opening but it worked out for us as we entered a bit later and were able to hop on just as the ride started up again, this is the only notable downtime I can remember us running into.

 

[BrightMorningStar]

• Guardians VQ...I posted about this as it happened but we were locked out of the VQ both of the mornings we had park reservations for Epcot. Not because of poor timing but because of an internal error that never allowed me to build my party. This was not a problem after entering the park but the 1pm VQ times were always conflicting with evening reservations. After much back and forth at an ungodly hour of the morning the app chat was able to secure me anytime reservations for guardians.

We were told by at least 5 CMs that the VQs do not have an expiration on the return window. If you get a return time at 5 PM and your dinner is at at 4:30, then you can visit up until park close.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We were told by at least 5 CMs that the VQs do not have an expiration on the return window. If you get a return time at 5 PM and your dinner is at at 4:30, then you can visit up until park close.

To clarify, were you told this about Guardian's CMs or TRON CMs? The 2 rides have different return policies.

I believe you're discussing Guardians but unfortunately now we need to specify as TRON return times are restricted to the 1 hour window.

 

[lovethattink]

If you’re flying on Saturday, our local news is warning travelers that it’s expected to be the busiest day of travel for spring break season. Allow extra time to get to your gate.
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/orl...zeaku23G16MwM-75Tc9pCxOTUFpnM&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

 

[vinmar4]

Just returned from a week (3/11-3/18) in a 2BR at Riviera. Two days with my mom in the parks, a day trip to Tampa to pick up my DH and 14 yo DD from her soccer tournament, and then 3 park days. A fabulous trip despite the crowds, and loved the Riviera.

My mom had a DAS for the first time, which allowed us to avoid G+ for most of the trip. But still rope dropped, took a resort break most days, and returned in the evenings.

3/11: Checked in at noon and our room was ready! 8th floor, dead center, overlooking the lake. Lunch at Bar Riva, relaxed, and then an amazing dinner at Flying Fish (I recommend sitting at the bar!).

3/12 (MK): I rope dropped SM and Buzz, and then met my mom for our Keys of the Kingdom tour at 9:30. My parents started taking us to WDW when I was about 5, and now at 51 it was great to learn so many new things. Resort break after the tour, back to MK for a few rides, and then left around 9:30. Lines were so short from ~8-9 due to fireworks.

3/13 (EP): Got my VQ for GG at 7 am. I rope dropped Remy and Frozen, then met my mom back in France. Lovely pastries from Les Halles. TT and Soarin, then I did GG and met my mom in Germany for a QS lunch. Started raining and Skyliner was down, so we took an Uber from BC back to RV. Got another VQ for GG at 6, back to EP, did a few rides with my mom and then walked her back to Skyliner during FW. I then did Nemo, Soarin, and GG during EEH.

3/14 (Rest): day trip to Tampa for soccer. 7:45 pm dinner at Topolino’s. Great food and had a view of the EP FW from our table.

3/15 (MK): Rope dropped SM, Buzz, and BTRR with DH and DD. Yummy waffles at Sleepy Hollow. Shopping and then back to RV. Left for AK at 4, used ILL for FOP, then did KS, dinner at Nomad’s Lounge, and 2 rides on EE. Bus from AK to MK for EEH. Did a few rides with mom, then the rest of us did HM, TS (amazing views of Tron at night), and SM. Got back to RV at 1 am. Ouch.

3/16 (EP): Yes, we rope dropped again. Got VQ for GG at 7 am and bought ILL too. Remy at rope drop but it did not open due to technical problems. Waited it out and rode around 9 am. Met mom for crepes and mimosas (love a French breakfast!). Did TT and Soarin, and then to Space 220 for lunch. The food was awesome, but too much! We brought home leftovers (and did eat them). Resort break in PM and then back to EP for a few more rides before heading back at 9 (watched FW from Skyliner).

3/17 (HS): We were gassed after 2 rope drop days and that late night at MK. So we got G+ and stacked rides for the afternoon and evening. Used Thrill data info to pick the rides in the right order: SD at 7 am, TT at 10:30, MF at 12:30, and TSM at 2:30. Arrived at the park at 12:30, did TT stand by, Frozen sing a long (so funny, it was our first time), Indiana Jones, and then our stacked LL. Ate at Tap House and finished up with SD at night.

Overall an amazing week. Large crowds but we’ve been before and got to do our favorites and the new rides (Remy, GG). Didn’t like buying G+, but not getting up at 6 am made for a happier family on Friday.

Happy to answer any questions!

Hello,
We are taking a trip in July and our 2 grandchildren will be going with their parents. We are aware that it will be extremely hot, so we are planning to rope drop since we are staying at Riviera and probably leave before 2 pm . Never used G+ before, so no actual experience. Would you buy it along with rope drop?
The rest of the family besides the children would want to do TT and all the Star wars rides.
I guess I'm looking for help as to how to start stacking up at 7am. I believe that we can now buy G+ at midnight , correct? We also have park hoopers so we will be going to Epcot later on, and ride TT. We are also planning on getting a VQ at 6PM for late hours on Monday.
Any suggestions would really help
thank you

 

[scrappinginontario]

Hello,
We are taking a trip in July and our 2 grandchildren will be going with their parents. We are aware that it will be extremely hot, so we are planning to rope drop since we are staying at Riviera and probably leave before 2 pm . Never used G+ before, so no actual experience. Would you buy it along with rope drop?
The rest of the family besides the children would want to do TT and all the Star wars rides.
I guess I'm looking for help as to how to start stacking up at 7am. I believe that we can now buy G+ at midnight , correct? We also have park hoopers so we will be going to Epcot later on, and ride TT. We are also planning on getting a VQ at 6PM for late hours on Monday.
Any suggestions would really help
thank you

There are a couple of threads that will assist you with understanding G+ and VQs. I would recommend you read the first posts in each of those threads.

 

[Sparrow'sLady]

While it is fresh on my mind I wanted to pop in and share some thoughts. The whole family wanted to return to Disney so we went this month. It was a huge group of us, but we all kind of did our own thing. We all felt pretty much the same way when we left Disney, so I am sharing the thoughts of 17 people, plus or minus a few differing opinions here and there.

IT WAS HOT - not Disney's fault. Not Florida's fault. I just wanted to say that because it was HOT! LOL

FOOD
We were crazy disappointed in the food. The quality has gone down a lot. You would never know by the pricing. Some things were consistent, like Mickey ice cream, popcorn, funnel cakes, Mickey waffles and most of the rest of breakfast. We were surprised at how much the quality of counter service and table service has declined. Very disappointed. Thankful we could afford it, but disappointed.

CLEANLINESS
The parks were clean. The bathrooms were clean. The ride queues were clean. The busses were clean. The restaurants were mostly clean, but they were not on top of cleaning counter service tables like they used to be. Most of the time if we found a table we had to clean it ourselves. Our resort room was clean, although the bathroom smelled like a troll urinated in it. We have found in general that all Disney hotel bathrooms smell like that, except when we stay in a villa. Not sure the reasoning for that.

CAST MEMBERS
Most CMs did not seem to have the passion for their jobs or company like they once did. It was like going to Walmart. :/ Some of them were great. We let guest relations know about the great CMs. We did not mention the ones who seemed unhappy or uninterested. No reason to cause issues for anybody. We just noticed a huge difference.

GENIE +
We all used it, paying for it by the family and we all hated it. We did not use it every day. We used it for MGM twice, EPCOT once and Magic Kingdom once. We did all standby for the other 6 days. We did not like the way it worked, we felt the cost for what you get was too much, we did not care for the limitations nor would we ever use it again, IF we returned to Disney.

A LA CARTE LIGHTNING LANE
We purchased it for Rise and the Dwarves Mine Coaster. That was a one and done. Not worth it to pay to ride a single ride when you are already paying out the wazoo in the first place. We did it only because we said we are doubtful we would ever return.

PARKS
The parks were very clean. They did not feel the same. I am not sure how to describe it. Something was missing. That happy, happy, joy, joy that was always there was not there.
The wait times posted were usually off. Sometimes in our favor, sometimes we waited much longer than posted. A lot of ride breakdowns. Sadly, it was usually while we were on them or within 3 ride cards to load. On one occasion they gave us an anytime pass, but it would not allow us to return to that same ride. We used a G+ selection for it too, so that was ridiculous.

BUS SERVICE
We waited a long time for busses most days. We stayed at the French Quarter. The worst ones were Downtown Disney, Animal Kingdom and MGM. For Magic Kingdom we missed the bus twice because it is all the way in the back and took forever to get there. We were walking up when they were pulling away. Then we waited about 25 minutes for another one. One driver told us that there was only 1 bus that day for Animal Kingdom.

We did not hate the trip. None of us came home hating Disney. We enjoyed spending time together, laughing, the photos, etc. We just feel that Disney is not what we remembered, what we experienced for many, many years. We felt it was over-priced for the experience. None of us have the desire to return to the Disney of 2023, Chapek's Disney.

 

[Sparrow'sLady]

Never used G+ before, so no actual experience. Would you buy it along with rope drop?

I would not spend money on it again. It is too limited. You can only use it once for a single attraction, the times are spread out too much, etc. I would do rope drop and standby.

 

[Ricguz]

While it is fresh on my mind I wanted to pop in and share some thoughts. The whole family wanted to return to Disney so we went this month. It was a huge group of us, but we all kind of did our own thing. We all felt pretty much the same way when we left Disney, so I am sharing the thoughts of 17 people, plus or minus a few differing opinions here and there.

IT WAS HOT - not Disney's fault. Not Florida's fault. I just wanted to say that because it was HOT! LOL

FOOD
We were crazy disappointed in the food. The quality has gone down a lot. You would never know by the pricing. Some things were consistent, like Mickey ice cream, popcorn, funnel cakes, Mickey waffles and most of the rest of breakfast. We were surprised at how much the quality of counter service and table service has declined. Very disappointed. Thankful we could afford it, but disappointed.

CLEANLINESS
The parks were clean. The bathrooms were clean. The ride queues were clean. The busses were clean. The restaurants were mostly clean, but they were not on top of cleaning counter service tables like they used to be. Most of the time if we found a table we had to clean it ourselves. Our resort room was clean, although the bathroom smelled like a troll urinated in it. We have found in general that all Disney hotel bathrooms smell like that, except when we stay in a villa. Not sure the reasoning for that.

CAST MEMBERS
Most CMs did not seem to have the passion for their jobs or company like they once did. It was like going to Walmart. :/ Some of them were great. We let guest relations know about the great CMs. We did not mention the ones who seemed unhappy or uninterested. No reason to cause issues for anybody. We just noticed a huge difference.

GENIE +
We all used it, paying for it by the family and we all hated it. We did not use it every day. We used it for MGM twice, EPCOT once and Magic Kingdom once. We did all standby for the other 6 days. We did not like the way it worked, we felt the cost for what you get was too much, we did not care for the limitations nor would we ever use it again, IF we returned to Disney.

A LA CARTE LIGHTNING LANE
We purchased it for Rise and the Dwarves Mine Coaster. That was a one and done. Not worth it to pay to ride a single ride when you are already paying out the wazoo in the first place. We did it only because we said we are doubtful we would ever return.

PARKS
The parks were very clean. They did not feel the same. I am not sure how to describe it. Something was missing. That happy, happy, joy, joy that was always there was not there.
The wait times posted were usually off. Sometimes in our favor, sometimes we waited much longer than posted. A lot of ride breakdowns. Sadly, it was usually while we were on them or within 3 ride cards to load. On one occasion they gave us an anytime pass, but it would not allow us to return to that same ride. We used a G+ selection for it too, so that was ridiculous.

BUS SERVICE
We waited a long time for busses most days. We stayed at the French Quarter. The worst ones were Downtown Disney, Animal Kingdom and MGM. For Magic Kingdom we missed the bus twice because it is all the way in the back and took forever to get there. We were walking up when they were pulling away. Then we waited about 25 minutes for another one. One driver told us that there was only 1 bus that day for Animal Kingdom.

We did not hate the trip. None of us came home hating Disney. We enjoyed spending time together, laughing, the photos, etc. We just feel that Disney is not what we remembered, what we experienced for many, many years. We felt it was over-priced for the experience. None of us have the desire to return to the Disney of 2023., Chapek's Disney.

Agreed in all respects, except YC CL, Stormalong Bay when we were there for 11 days in December was our saving grace. We found the same with the parks, rides broken down, CM’s at the parks not at the YC, ride lines, quality of the food at the parks, not at YC and Genie. We will only do a resort trip if we go back.

 

[Sparrow'sLady]

Agreed in all respects, expect YC CL, Stormalong Bay when we were there for 11 days in December was our saving grace. We found the same with the parks, rides broken down, CM’s at the parks not at the YC, ride lines, quality of the food at the parks, not at YC and Genie. We will only do a resort trip if we go back.

What do you mean by a resort trip? Do you mean stay at the hotel and go offsite for entertainment?

 

[scrappinginontario]

What do you mean by a resort trip? Do you mean stay at the hotel and go offsite for entertainment?

Many people choose to stay at a Disney resort but not go to the parks. We've done these too.

 

[Ricguz]

What do you mean by a resort trip? Do you mean stay at the hotel and go offsite for entertainment?

Just use the hotel, restaurants, Stormalong bay, walk the boardwalk, use the skyliner, go to other resorts, maybe do hoop de doo, dine in other resorts. Get out of the rat race of bumping into people, lines, broken rides. A less expensive, less stressful vacation. As older experienced Disney travelers, the rides become less important.

 

[lovethattink]

We have done this many times too. Spent all or most of our time at the resort. The kids always loved the theme pools, movie nights, campfires (when they had them). One time we spent all our time at SSR, though we did walk to Disney Springs
and took the boat there too. My son was totally into making crafts and swimming.

 

[Ricguz]

We have done this many times too. Spent all or most of our time at the resort. The kids always loved the theme pools, movie nights, campfires (when they had them). One time we spent all our time at SSR, though we did walk to Disney Springs
and took the boat there too. My son was totally into making crafts and swimming.

Exactly, we have done Campfires, having drinks at Martha Vineyard, painting at BC, strolling around the boardwalk early in the morning is so peaceful.

 

[mickey916]

When we went in December for nine days we only did three park days. The rest of the time we resort hopped and went to Disney Springs. Much more relaxing vacation.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I would not spend money on it again. It is too limited. You can only use it once for a single attraction, the times are spread out too much, etc. I would do rope drop and standby.

Our experience is different, so we'd disagree - to a point. We found G+ and LL worked much better when focusing later in the day. We were able to gather 2/3/4 options later. So if there is something a family wants to wait standby for, the rope drop option for the morning could work well - enjoy some down time (perhaps pool or festival or other) mid day, and then return (even park hop) late afternoon/evening. I'll admit, that's not everyone's style or desire, but it's how we got a lot of use out of G+. Unlike the FP+ system, we could have overlapping times and make great use of it. The one evening at HS, we had 4 attractions over a 2-hr window, and it worked nicely.

Some families love it, some hate it - we're in the middle. We didn't buy it every day, but when we did, we benefitted with much shorter waits. Earlier this month, standby lines were not attractive and not an option we wanted to deal with.

 

[Swissmiss]

Our experience is different, so we'd disagree - to a point. We found G+ and LL worked much better when focusing later in the day. We were able to gather 2/3/4 options later. So if there is something a family wants to wait standby for, the rope drop option for the morning could work well - enjoy some down time (perhaps pool or festival or other) mid day, and then return (even park hop) late afternoon/evening. I'll admit, that's not everyone's style or desire, but it's how we got a lot of use out of G+. Unlike the FP+ system, we could have overlapping times and make great use of it. The one evening at HS, we had 4 attractions over a 2-hr window, and it worked nicely.

Some families love it, some hate it - we're in the middle. We didn't buy it every day, but when we did, we benefitted with much shorter waits. Earlier this month, standby lines were not attractive and not an option we wanted to deal with.

I'm so glad to hear this. I'm going with my college-age kids in a couple of weeks and I know that we'll be doing afternoons/evenings in the parks rather than mornings and this is exactly what I was hoping we could do. I also love that going in the afternoons means we (or at least I) will enjoy the resorts some more - I feel like we didn't take much advantage of that on our previous trips.