Postby KeithS » Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:33 pm
General Observations
What follows is a bunch of random thoughts of mine from the visit - if I think of others, I'll add them here (Greg, this will answer your mosquito question above!)
Security
It is much more visible at WDW now. There were police dog units, marked cars, more thorough bags checks, and random metal detector screening – I was picked more times than Della, probably because I had cargo shorts with phone, camera, sunglasses, wallet etc which made my pockets bulge. We also saw armed police inside the Magic Kingdom – something I didn’t think we’d ever see. In the past, police were always confined to backstage, but now you’ll see Orlando Troopers in the MK (we saw a pair of them in Town Square with one resting his hand on his firearm as he strolled past!).
Art of Animation
Fantastic – it is just like it was in 2013. I thought we’d see the paint chipped, the gardens messy or something different – but it looked brand new still! The food court still had real cutlery and the food there was very good too – can’t recommend this place enough.
Mosquitos
Here is something new – when we got to the resort, we found a can of insect repellent in our room with a mosquito safety brochure. The zika virus is big news in Florida at the moment as it begins to spread from the Miami area northwards through the state. In Disney Springs on our first day, we also noticed the mosquito stations manned with cast members providing free repellent there too. This was also repeated in the parks. Universal was doing the same thing.
Refill Mugs
This is a big negative for us – the refill mugs are now handleless…which is a big shame. The handles made carrying multiple mugs easy for one person. The change was only made in August – so this is a new thing and I expect that public opinion will be heard loudly. It didn’t affect us too much, but imagine if you were getting drinks and some snacks for a family of four? In the past, you could carry the drinks in one hand and everything else in the other – now it is not so easy. It smells of a cheap cost saving measure – the same as our the mugs are no longer personalised for each resort – remember when they were a great keepsake of where you were staying? I miss those days!
Cast Members
Also remember the old days when we thought WDW cast members were the best? Well we noticed a general decline in that on this trip. Nothing bad happened directly – it is just a general vibe. In the past, if you walked through a resort, cast members would often say ‘Good Morning’ or something like that – on this trip though, more than half of them wouldn’t respond even if you initiated a good morning…it was very noticeable and suggests a morale problem at the resort. We also met a few downright grumpy cast members including a photopass guy who just didn’t want to be there. Maybe it had been a long-hot summer and they were over it, but they have to remember that for the guests there now, that is not the case.
We did meet lots of nice ones too – don’t get me wrong, however it was not like the old days – standards had definitely slipped a long way in the parks and resorts – I’ll be interested to hear from Mel and Lisa when they return.
Memory Maker
Now this is an awesome product – we pre-bought the Memory Maker package for our room which is linked to the Magic Band. It allows you to get your digital photos from Photopass and attractions for $169 USD for the length of your stay. We did a stack of meet and greets and other photo opportunities and it was as simple as scanning your Magic Band and the photos appeared in the My Disney Experience within about 20 minutes. They also included small videos and other little pieces of ‘magic’ which were cool. Highly recommended.
Magic Bands
We love these! These should be everywhere! From getting into the park, taking photopass pictures, opening your resort room, fastpasses, buying stuff or even getting special things happen like your name appearing on posters in rides – they just work and work flawlessly. Sure, Disney are tracking you etc – but they already know everything about you anyway…
Food Service
Gee – this has always been bad, but during the free-dining plan period it is even worse. It always takes a long time to get served and then the guest starts to divide up their meals and snacks across their plan…it is such a pain. Once when we went to a counter and said we weren’t on the dining plan, the cast member said “thank god…!”
And what is it with American’s who wait in a food service line for 15 minutes then when they finally get served, they then turn to their family and ask them what they want – they had 15 minutes to think about! Argghhhh.
Keith
Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015