WDW Resort - June 2022

Since Pagoda Gift Shop left a thorough report on his visit to Disney I'll be brief. Our trip lasted from June 7th through June 16th and included stops at BGT, SWO, and the Kennedy Space Center.

Saratoga Springs

This was my first stay on Disney Property in 30 years. We stayed in a studio unit in the Congress Park section of the resort.

Good: Our unit included a fairly large mini fridge which allowed us to buy enough groceries to have breakfast and lunch taken care of. The Artist's Palette had a reasonable selection of groceries at a decent price for those items we ran out of. Everything we needed was in walking distance of the unit.

Needs improvement: The biggest issue was with service. On our first night we called bell services to have our luggage delivered. It took almost 20 minutes to get a hold of them and then 45 minutes to get our luggage. Housekeeping skipped over our room on the day we requested service. We also ran out of cups and conditioner. Each of those items required a 10 minute wait on the phone.

Animal Kingdom - 1/2 day

Genie+ - No

New to me: Na'vi River Journey

Good: Plenty of shade

Needs Improvement: We arrived at 2pm, so I'm sure our experience isn't typical. The crowds were heavy and there just aren't enough attractions to spread the crowd out. Dinosaur was our first stop, a posted 30 minute wait. About 20 minutes into our wait they announced the ride was shut down and everyone needed to leave the line. Not "The ride is experience technical difficulties. We don't know how long it will be" but "Leave the line now" Our plan, after Everest and the Safari, was to snag a ride on the shortest wait in Pandora first. Na'vi had a 60 minute wait posted. It was 85 minutes with absolutely no air flow and a few guests overcome from the heat. This was further compounded by the obvious preference for Genie+ guests. The queue at Na'vi does a terrible job of hiding the merge point. I felt really bad for the CM at the merge point as the standby line was getting super frustrated by the stream of Genie+. We ended up skipping Avatar as our frustration levels after this were through the roof, we needed to eat, and get back to the resort.

Epcot - 2 days

Genie+ - No

New to me: Guardians: Cosmic Rewind, Ratatouille

Good: Rope drop was a super relaxed experience. The crowds were fairly light both days as we were able to grab a ride on Ratatouille with under 30 minute waits both days. This was my first trackless ride which definitely plusses the dark ride experience. We were able to get VQ reservations for Guardians both days. There's a whole thread on the ride. I'll just say that it's as good as advertised. We got "Conga" and "September" for our tracks. Wait times for everything were generally low as we avoided the mid-day crowds. The food and drinks at the Flower and Garden Festival were quite good, reasonably priced, and served quickly.

Needs improvement: Les Chefs de France was just ok. I've been there in the past and really liked the food, but it wasn't as good as I remembered. The construction in the middle of what used to be known as Future World makes navigating the front of the park a pain. Couple that with the lack of shade in that area and it's quite unpleasant.

Hollywood Studios - 2 days

Genie+ - Yes (4 rides and 5 rides)

New to me: Rise of the Resistance, Smuggler's Run, Slinky Dog Dash, Alien Swirling Saucers, Mickie and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Good: Rise of the Resistance is hands down the best experience at the Disney Parks. I am not a Star Wars super fan but it was such an immersive experience from the first pre-show all the way to the end. Slinky Dog was a fun ride but certainly not worth a 90 minute wait. Mickey and Minnie is very well done. I was concerned because I find the new shorts to be quite annoying but I was pleasantly surprised.

Needs Improvement: Genie+ is almost a must at this park. With high demand attractions and not a lot of rides to spread the crowd everything had long waits within 2 hours of park opening. You almost have to rope drop this park as well if you want to avoid a two hour wait for Rise, but be there early. On our second day they started welcoming guests at 7:30, instead of 8. Also, can we get some shade?!

Magic Kingdom - 2 days

Genie+ - Yes (9 rides and 10 rides)

New to me: None (except may the new scenes in Pirates and Jungle Cruise)

Good: The longest wait we had was 45 minutes for Seven Dwarves at rope drop on day 1. With Genie+ we didn't wait more than 30 minutes for anything else. The food at Liberty Tree Tavern and Tony's was very good, better than expected. Although the parks were busy they never felt overcrowded, except for waiting at rope drop.

Needs improvement: Pirates was majorly stacking boats. On each of our three rides we were stuck on the second to last scene of the ride.

Genie+ is well worth it at MK and HS but less so at AK and Epcot. Staying on property is a definite must if you want to avoid long lines at the parks but you have to get to the parks EARLY. Overall we had a good trip but I don't think we will be back for some time. Given the Supreme Court ruling from this past Friday there are certain states that we have decided not to give any of our tourism dollars. Unfortunately, Florida will probably be added to that list. Farewell Mickey!

Mickey can be found in California as well. ;)

Sorry to hear about you experience at AK. I should have mentioned that a lot of people recommend Flight of Passgage ILL$ in the place of G+. Glad everything else worked out well, though.

We will be visiting California Mickey at the end of January!

Mulfinator:

Needs improvement: Pirates was majorly stacking boats. On each of our three rides we were stuck on the second to last scene of the ride.

This just seems to be the way they run their boat rides. I remember my first time riding Navi River Journey and thinking that the backup of boats was for a lift or drop for when the ride would actually get started. It was just the queue for the station... :)

Yeah, there's nothing really to improve there. Guests get in and out of boats as they do. There are no restraints to check. It doesn't really cost them extra to have excess boats.

I've not been to Liberty Tree, but I'm curious because the food is mostly terrible at Magic Kingdom.

Liberty Tree is a family style all you can eat joint. The turkey and pot roast were very good while the pork tenderloin was decent. Top it off with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and green beans. The toffee cake for dessert was delicious as well.

Tony's was good in my opinion because of the sea bass. The rest of my party had a lower opinion of their meal.

Tony's is pretty bad. Not a fan.

BOG this fall was much better, still over priced but my fillet was good, and the French onion soup and dessert trio were excellent. That said it’s really hard to justify a meal in MK when there are such better options at the nearby resorts (monorail and Bay Lake.)

I can think of one: location.

It's been a while since I was at Liberty Tree for the family-style meal. The last time I was there they had an a la carte menu for lunch, and it was surprisingly decent. My recollection of the platter is straight up processed comfort food. It might not be Stove Top and Kraft Deluxe, but it is not that far off. That's not bad, but you have to have the right expectations going in.

Skipper Canteen is my go-to inside MK, and there really isn't a second choice in the park. It's surprisingly good, but some folks have a hard time finding something on the menu because there isn't really anything that is Theme Park Standard. If Skipper isn't available, I'd rather duck out to Kona, and I keep meaning to try the Grand Floridian Cafe. I miss the Wave; The Steakhouse 71 menu doesn't do much for me.

The boat thing at Pirates and Small World annoys me... you're not upping capacity if everyone is sitting stacked at the end of the ride. You know what kind of throughput you can do, so just put fewer boats in the trough so there's not a 5 minute wait to exit the ride.

Yeah, there's nothing worse than finishing a ride and just coming up on a backup of boats - so you sit there and wait, looking at the same thing for 5 minutes while you get constantly bumped as more boats come in. When the ride is over, I want to disembark and walk out the exit with the feelings of just having ridden the ride, not the wait to get to the platform.

Brian Noble:

It might not be Stove Top and Kraft Deluxe, but it is not that far off.

It was definitely Stove Top or a version of it. I grew up on chicken, Stove Top, and mashed potatoes so it was right up my alley.

Y'all suck. I love having Robo Depp sing "Yo Ho" over and over again to me.