teacherkim

Yeah we rode it at DL when boarding pass still in place, but that helped space out the crowd immensely; at WDW there was a massive overflow queue and you are talking between 1 and 2 hours just to get to the point of the start of the normal queue. Completely different animal when your only choice is standby or buy ILL. And one morning it was down until just after park open which totally screwed the standby rope drop people.

Having just been there, I agree 100% with Bill. And if you do rope drop get there early so you can be one of the first regular guests in, entrances to the left are closest to where you need to go. You want to go past Star Tours and into that entrance of GE as ROTR is right there. Don't go all the way around through Toy Story land.

Bert I love ya, but I still don't get waiting in line more than 15 minutes for it, unless MAYBE you had many days scheduled and had lots of time to kill!! Of course we waited 2 hours 2 days in a row for them to get Hagrid's up over at Universal the year it opened so.........to each their own and thank goodness for variety being the spice of life

Nrthwnd, I do understand the historical aspect/nostalgia of it. I didn't particularly mind the phone so much but didn't have to use it at MK since we did the party. Booking Genie + rides at the other parks was just a minute or two on the phone each time but I totally get not wanting to mess with it. Personally I preferred the phone to the running of the fastpass kiosks at rope drop. Although it would be helpful if it didn't glitch on Disney's end. I found the wait times are often exaggerated closer to closing time for obvious reasons. I think one of the things that annoys me about Disney more than booking ride times/fastpass is the dining situation. I loathe having to try to pinpoint where and when you might want to eat months ahead of time but risking no chance at some of the better restaurants if you don't. I would much prefer if everything was just walk up with no reservations. I mean if something is a long wait you are in a theme park, it's not like you can't entertain yourself while waiting for a table.

It's funny that you mention Peter Pan. We are casual Disney goers, we go once in a while and never were willing to wait for Peter Pan because we couldn't imagine it would be worth it. So we went this year just because we were there with a larger family group for Christmas and since it is probably the only time that will happen we did the Magic Kingdom after hours party (worth it to me for the lines alone but admittedly ridiculously priced) So during the party PP was only about a 10 min wait so we hopped on just to see and I still don't get it, nostalgia I guess, which is a lot of what the Disney faithful are really fans of I think. The fact that 7 Dwarfs was only about a 20 min wait during the party probably made it more fun than it was; along with the fact that you could walk around the park and watch the fireworks in a reasonable crowd not the normal Disney crush of humanity. The thing that gets me about a Disney visit is the tedious amount of pre-planning and reservations that you have to do ahead of time. Annoying.

Ok I just got a seriously weird survey about possible new animal exhibits at SFDK despite the fact that I stated I had never been there and lived closest to SFSTL On top of that it will not be accurate because they were asking opinions about exhibits without giving anywhere near enough info to accurately have an opinion, plus there were typos, plus they asked on one question to check all that apply but would only let you choose one, and when I answered on one thing that I had not been to a location since before 2018 they then on the very next question asked about my experience there in the last 3 years.............WTF!!

Oh and I have to add that I soooo regret not being able to record my 76 year old mother yelling at my 77 year old dad (and this is a direct quote) "KEEP PUSHING THE F**KING BUTTON" while they were doing the part of the gunners on Falcon

True, but that just goes to show how much we really liked VC, especially since he has always loved RMC. Now what happens when he gets a chance to ride Gwazi, who knows

Just a follow up for everyone now that we are back home. Ummmm, Bill you were so correct, SDD kind of blows. Our expectations were not even that high and it still was kind of a disappointment, massively overhyped for us, a one and done. We actually had way more fun on Seven Dwarves. That being said with a multi generational family group, not all the members being regular theme park fans; the strategy of doing ILL for Rise and regular Genie + LL for Falcon and then the two of us just rope dropping Slinky worked like a charm. Also, fyi, on a second morning just the two of us rope dropped Rise. If you are experienced and know what you are doing, like everyone here on the forum, and are willing to get going early.....you can totally rope drop Rise and then Falcon with almost no wait (in fact we also did Rock n Roller Coaster single rider and were back at the resort by 9:45) BUT that is with the caveat that we were staying on property and they let us in over an hour before park open and started running Rise that day a good 45-50 min before park open. Your only chance if not on property would be to line up at the gate like two hours early so you would be the first of the "regular" guests in.

Ok we just returned from a Florida Christmas trip and having been to Universal many times I have to say that Velocicoaster is amazing! I thought nothing would ever replace SV at CP for my son as his #1 but he is reevaluating that at the moment. It really is the whole package of great coaster and awesome theming.

We were there on the 22nd and had very similar experience. I would say the QQ was worth it for us strictly due to the massive crowds and the fact that we live a 1000 miles away and can't go on a regular basis. Not sure I would have dealt with the crowds but we were already in Clearwater Beach with the rest of our family. FF and Sheikra went down for very short periods but were back up quick. Montu was down all day. Cheetah hunt def had the longest QQ wait with the one station, two train being a big factor as stated. The holiday food booths were pretty good quality wise but were a little too heavy on just desserts versus savory items so to speak. Fine for snacking but not enough to really replace a meal in my opinion. In fact one indication of how crowded it was and prices probably getting to people, etc. The Olive Garden across the street had a 15 minute wait at 9:45 pm

Wow. Been out of town for a couple of weeks and just getting caught up on all the posts. First I've heard of any of this news. I can tell you that sometime last week the park made the decision to not open on Jan 1st and 2nd and make Dec 31st the last day of the season, but no reason why was given. I always thought Jan 2nd was kind of a dumb day to open anyway since it is after the holiday and school starts for most the next day. Interested (and a little worried) about how this plays out but will stay optimistic and hope it benefits operations in the long run.

Yeah I decided it was stupid to chance it with Christmas crowds. Bought them on line today so we are locked in for the 22nd, it should be fine. (She says as she knocks on wood)

Ok, thanks, that makes sense. I'm sure that was the problem. I'll have him work on it when he gets home, in fact that will be one of his jobs tomorrow while I am trying to pack to give him something to do!

So we're gonna be there on the 22nd, I know the hordes will have descended by that time so planning on QQ. Am I safe to wait until we get there that day or is there a sell out risk. The ONLY reason I am even hesitating to buy ahead of time is if just in case we end up switching to the 23rd due to unforeseen long ass family vacation plans getting moved around.

Our main goal for Slinky is to get the credit But hopefully it's a fun little coaster as well. Which is why my son and I will just utilize early entry and try to rush Slinky first. Which will allow us to book ROR and SR at 7 for the whole group. However, the other day my son downloaded the app and tried to link everyone in the group and it wouldn't let him since I already had everyone linked to mine, so I'm wondering if you can even do two people in the group booking now. I'll find out when I'm down there and report back.

Guess the park had better weather info than I did this afternoon, because here come the tornado sirens. Still a little surprised, they use to always pull everyone in anyway, but turns out to be the right decision tonight since they were supposed to be open 5-10

Employees were notified about an hour ago that the park is not opening tonight for inclement weather. Kind of a head scratcher to me since the rain is supposed to be over by 5 or 6 and it's not cold. I remember one year they had employees come in the Friday night of Labor Day weekend when we were under a tornado warning with 100% rain for the entire evening predicted and they were clearly not going to be able to open anything. Guess they are trying to be more careful about spending after the losses of last year? They did end up having to pay everyone for two hours that night before they shut down since there were only about 4 guests that showed up.

Don't count your chickens too quick it may depend what day you go. MT and Spinsanity were up on Sat but not on Fri or Sun.

Hang on. I get that you can book at 7 but I thought the two hour window did not start counting until park open, so if you book Slinky at 7 you wouldn't be able to book Smugglers Run until you use Slinky OR 11 whichever comes first. (assuming a 9 am park open) Am I confused on that? We are staying on property Dec 13-17 with multi gen family members. They don't care about Slinky but want to see GE and do the stuff there. So I think we will book the ILL for Rise and regular LL for Smugglers at 7 (2 people on 2 phones should be able to do it) and then my son and I will use early entry to standby Slinky. We're staying at CBR so can hop the skyliner and be in before 7:30 for an 8 am regular opening. Geez. This is why I don't do Disney very often so f***ing complicated.

Wow. That's why I always stay at the RP with the included express pass, but I've never seen the wait that bad. I've been keeping my eye on things down there since we will be at Disney/Universal Dec 14-20, hoping to visit before the worst of the hordes show up and we will spend Christmas week at the beach (although we will probably hit BGT on the 22nd but will just get QQ) Apparently Disney is so busy this week that Genie+ already crashed

I was pretty sure JL was not on the very first list, but frankly it doesn't matter/not going to argue over that/I could certainly be wrong. It IS very interesting that you relayed that conversation about the employee. My son was only scheduled two out of three days next weekend even though he said he was willing to work all 3 (he's starting school in Jan so has the time) and he said there was at least one person looking to add a shift yesterday and that they had more than enough ride ops on Saturday. To be fair he did say that they have had issues all year with people calling in at the last minute. So maybe admin is a bit gun shy about offering too many rides at the moment? Not sure. I do agree that the lights are not very evenly distributed and also heard that they weren't having Mrs Claus read "Twas the Night before Christmas" on the train this year like last year, which I thought was strange. While this year is still less than normal operations it seems odd to downgrade anything from last year. That area by Thunder is never decorated well with flume closed and now no cars. Seems that would be a good spot for some seasonal food/drink booths or food trucks. I think that if they are going to continue to offer a small ride lineup, which may have as much to do with anticipated poor weather as staffing, then they will need to really up the game on lights, food, shows, activities, etc, etc Although I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt this year since it is still a snafu. Another thought that just occurred to me is that if they have a shortage of maintenance staff they may need a longer downtime season for some of the rides in order to get necessary work completed. Dunno. Just a thought.

Hmmm, we were there for Coaster Christmas the Sat before the fire. Back in 2018 about a week after we were at BGW for CoasterCon, Escape from Pompeii caught on fire. On the other hand I probably shouldn't be pointing out such patterns on a public forum

Justice League was also added to the list and a supervisor told my son that Freeze would be open but he was working Colossus and the Train and never saw it go, so take that for whatever it's worth. I stick to my original thought that the ride list will be somewhat fluid for all of HITP depending on weather and/or available staff.

Yeah, next year they are just making it a two day event. Runaway Mt Coaster had a cool lighting package but omg it was cold riding it Fri night! Also, since ert is always iffy at this event due to temps I was told they are "working" on trailblazers for the attendees instead of ert which would be really, really nice.