Amazed and Disappointed

[MickeyMinnieMom]

It's fairly empty here compared to previous August trips, and I think Disney mostly has itself to blame.

We're not really finding this, and we're here now as well. Staying at BLT.

Feels about the same to us in Epcot, AK, DHS, and worse in MK as compared to last year. I'd bet that would coincide with TP's "observed" waits when you compare 2016 and 2017.

 

[wdwlver]

We left this week. Thought MK at night was crazy crowded. Especially on Saturday.

 

[Harmacist]

I was last here in August in 2015. Epcot and dhs defintelt feel less crowded. AK feels more crowded due to pandora, however if you skip pandora in the morning you can do the rest of the park in relative ease and hit pandora later in day. Haven't even attempted meh pandora.

Magic kingdom feels slightly less crowded, but not enough to warrant the cut in hours. It's still very crowded and those late hours are sorely missed. I would've abused the heck out of them this trip.

 

[ArwenMarie]

We just got back on Saturday. MK in particular felt a lot more crowded to us compared to previous years. We went to the fireworks twice and there were a lot of people in the park still trying to get on rides at 10. They could have easily kept it open until 11 at least and staggered the departures. We would have stayed longer if we could have.

 

[robl45]

We just got back yesterday and usually we were there spring break and memorial day weekend and it was just as crowded to us and maybe more so. The ridiculous amount of rides we missed at night as well as sad kids not getting to stay out and the added amount of rushing to get things done before the park closed did me in for next year. Maybe 2019 will be better.

 

[DCJ]

Magic Kingdom closing at 10 last week was a bummer. The one night they did extra magic hours 10 to midnight didn't help much. Some of the rides were shut down after 10 (people mover, jungle cruise). Splash Mountain went down after 10, came back up for a few minutes, then down again, which made Pirates and Haunted Mansion wait times very high. Most of the food was shut down, however we did find Cosmic Rays open, but they only had one section of the restaurant open, and it was packed. Casey's was also open, but extremely crowded and the line barely moved. The crowds after Happily ever After trying to get down main street were insane. Magic Kingdom was much more crowded than I remember last year. All week they were posting extra magic hours at Animal Kingdom 10 to midnight, but really it was only Pandora open with only two rides ( that you couldn't ride for the most part). C'mon Disney, Magic Kingdom closing at 10pm in the summer?

 

[robl45]

Yes I dont understand the extra magic hours. We went to magic kingdom the first night of our trip with the extra magic hours and they used to suck before when they were 12-2am because the waits never went down as much as on a normal night when the park closed at 12am and from 10pm or so most rides were walk on. But closing down major attractions for extra magic hours was just maddening. Splash and jungle cruise not open during extra magic hours? I can understand carousel of progress not being open, but splash mountain and jungle cruise should be open. No fast passes either during extra magic hours.

Oh and during the late night for epcot. Test track went down 30 minutes or so before 11pm closing. we got there at 1045 and they said your welcome to wait but likely it won't come up until the park is closed. So we went to Frozen instead. Got there at 5 of 11 and waited 30 minutes in line. Guess what? That one broke too just as we started on the ride. Had to be evacuated. I'm sorry, I know rides go down, but you've cut the hours on the parks and then the late hours you do have 2 of 3 major rides at epcot go down? As if those two rides don't go down frequently during the day. They couldn't have put in the extra effort to get it fixed so people could ride instead of just closing the parks? That was our last night. I got 3 return passes to epcot sitting here. Really useful Disney. Thanks a lot.

Magic Kingdom closing at 10 last week was a bummer. The one night they did extra magic hours 10 to midnight didn't help much. Some of the rides were shut down after 10 (people mover, jungle cruise). Splash Mountain went down after 10, came back up for a few minutes, then down again, which made Pirates and Haunted Mansion wait times very high. Most of the food was shut down, however we did find Cosmic Rays open, but they only had one section of the restaurant open, and it was packed. Casey's was also open, but extremely crowded and the line barely moved. The crowds after Happily ever After trying to get down main street were insane. Magic Kingdom was much more crowded than I remember last year. All week they were posting extra magic hours at Animal Kingdom 10 to midnight, but really it was only Pandora open with only two rides ( that you couldn't ride for the most part). C'mon Disney, Magic Kingdom closing at 10pm in the summer?

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

We're back from our trip, and REALLY felt the hours cut in MK and lack of anything to do WDW-wide beyond 10pm. Two rides in Pandora effectively did not count at all. Ridiculous.

I'll be able to write more in the next few days. For now, I'll only add that the hub area around fireworks time was not only crazy crowded, but unsafe on one night. We've never seen anything like it in 20 trips, including one trip at Christmas. We were stunned at how badly it was managed -- a true miss for Disney, like we've never seen.

 

[tripplanner2]

I know there are a ton of replies on here. I came to the board tonight to find a good address or email address to send a letter stating my families disappointment in the lack of nighttime hours at MK, the lack of MK EMH's, and to ask when they will replace the evening parade. I know tons of people will disagree but the evening parade, with the music, was what made Disney special to me. One fire works show that you must stand in front of the castle in order to see the projections is not very magical. I found MK to be very dirty this year, overly crowded, and very disappointing. Adding insult to injury, not only did they cut the park hours during EMH's but they also cut ride offerings. My family was VERY disappointed. We always hit the parks in the late afternoon and stay into the evening to enjoy the cooler temperatures. Yes, Pandora was great the first time we saw it, but there was nothing special about Disney this year as there usually is.

 

[tripplanner2]

We're not really finding this, and we're here now as well. Staying at BLT.

Feels about the same to us in Epcot, AK, DHS, and worse in MK as compared to last year. I'd bet that would coincide with TP's "observed" waits when you compare 2016 and 2017.

We were there from August 10 - 20 and we NEVER found the parks to feel empty. Quite the opposite...always jam packed.

 

[Aurora0427]

We were there 8/23-9/3. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom always felt packed. You could get a lot done at MK in the mornings. It was nuts on Friday 9/1 and Saturday 9/2. Animal Kingdom was always crowded- even by 9:30 there was a 40 minute wait at the safaris. Epcot definitely felt less crowded, even with Food and Wine. Lines were not bad Thursday and Friday evening at World Showcase.

 

[kagmypts]

I know there are a ton of replies on here. I came to the board tonight to find a good address or email address to send a letter stating my families disappointment in the lack of nighttime hours at MK, the lack of MK EMH's, and to ask when they will replace the evening parade. I know tons of people will disagree but the evening parade, with the music, was what made Disney special to me. One fire works show that you must stand in front of the castle in order to see the projections is not very magical. I found MK to be very dirty this year, overly crowded, and very disappointing. Adding insult to injury, not only did they cut the park hours during EMH's but they also cut ride offerings. My family was VERY disappointed. We always hit the parks in the late afternoon and stay into the evening to enjoy the cooler temperatures. Yes, Pandora was great the first time we saw it, but there was nothing special about Disney this year as there usually is.

Out of all of the changes that Disney has made in the recent years, this is the one that upsets me the most. We miss having an evening parade!

 

[DisMommyTX]

I am disappointed that they didn't extend ANY evening EMH for AK past Aug. I didn't expect it to be every night, but I really though they would at least give us a couple nights per week for Sept.

AK closes at 7pm during our Nov trip with no late emh. And for the epitome of bad planning, MK has 9 or 10pm close with HEA starting at closing every night! Are they TRYING to make sure everyone has a terrible experience leaving at the end of their magical day?

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I am disappointed that they didn't extend ANY evening EMH for AK past Aug. I didn't expect it to be every night, but I really though they would at least give us a couple nights per week for Sept.

AK closes at 7pm during our Nov trip with no late emh. And for the epitome of bad planning, MK has 9 or 10pm close with HEA starting at closing every night! Are they TRYING to make sure everyone has a terrible experience leaving at the end of their magical day?

They want to leave you wanting more so you come back and spend more money. All of those folks doing the "once in a lifetime trip" will need to come back a 2nd time.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I am disappointed that they didn't extend ANY evening EMH for AK past Aug.

Truthfully, if it was to be anything like Aug with them only keeping 2 rides open, nothing lost!! We found Pandora EMH (it wasn't even AK EMH!!) useless. Too crowded and lines still too long throughout.

 

[elaine amj]

We were there from Aug 13-28 and the lack of late hours was sad. The latest was MK EMH until midnight. I managed to do that 1x and Epcot EMH 1x. Otherwise most nights the whole place rolled up by 9/10pm. I never did attempt AK EMH as I figured the lines would be super long with just 2 rides. We went to Disney Springs after the parks closed a few times. The first time, we discovered the shops closed at 11pm! It was disappointing as Disney Springs is advertised to be open until midnight. We ended up just strolling and "window" shopping, then having an ice cream at Ghiradelli's.

We still had a good time, but I sure miss late nights at Disney.

 

[dizneyfiend]

I know there are a ton of replies on here. I came to the board tonight to find a good address or email address to send a letter stating my families disappointment in the lack of nighttime hours at MK, the lack of MK EMH's, and to ask when they will replace the evening parade. I know tons of people will disagree but the evening parade, with the music, was what made Disney special to me. One fire works show that you must stand in front of the castle in order to see the projections is not very magical. I found MK to be very dirty this year, overly crowded, and very disappointing. Adding insult to injury, not only did they cut the park hours during EMH's but they also cut ride offerings. My family was VERY disappointed. We always hit the parks in the late afternoon and stay into the evening to enjoy the cooler temperatures. Yes, Pandora was great the first time we saw it, but there was nothing special about Disney this year as there usually is.

I thought it was just me!!! I found the cleanliness and general appearance of the parks to be subpar. We still had a blast but we noticed...