We’ll make our triumphant return to Walt Disney World to see what we can accomplish given current wait times and crowd levels. Currently, each of the Parks basically sell out of Passes across each ticket type every day, indicating capacity crowds and peak waits given current restrictions, whether you visit on a Tuesday or a Saturday.

Here’s a look at Disney Park Pass availability for the rest of the month:

Even on a Wednesday and the Easter holiday weeks ago, Animal Kingdom is sold out across each of the ticket segments most days for the rest of the month. So what you see as we go about our day is typical. At least at the moment.

Continue reading “Rope Dropping Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Official Park Open”

We continue from Festival Favorites, also in the World ShowPlace building.

Cider House squeezes its way in between the Festival Favorites and Farmers Feast kitchens in World ShowPlace. With the switchbacks heading just about every which way, you just sort of have to pick one and hope for the best. If you get to the front of the line and it turns out to be Electric Umbrella offering their standard day-old hamburgers, “for extra flavor and maybe more protein,” you can always fake some sort of injury and shuttle off to try again. In reality, it’s easy to find the correct line.

This is of course assuming you know the difference between World Showcase and World ShowPlace. I’ve had a number of entertaining conversations about the topic over the years:

The names are similar enough that some confusion isn’t surprising.

Continue reading “Cider House Review Epcot Flower and Garden Festival”

We’ll analyze how well Disney’s Hollywood Studios is faring these days after taking an in-depth look at how Magic Kingdom crowds and wait times have ebbed and flowed since the Parks reopened in July of 2020. The Magic Kingdom post offers a lot more background into the changes Disney has implemented over the past year, including ranking each week so far by wait time, so you may want to check that out if you missed it and compare how well you did versus other weeks. Or see if your usual week was “crazy crowded” or you managed to visit over that first summer, when it very much was not. Since we’re talking about Hollywood Studios, the answer to our first question is obviously “not well,” so if you have something else to do, that will be the main takeaway by the time this post ends.

While we have the average overall wait across all attractions for every day since the Studios reopened, we’ll largely be focusing on wait times from this year. There are a number of reasons for that that we’ll get to in a moment.

Here’s the full chart of weekly average waits for Disney’s Hollywood Studios since the Park reopened on July 15th, 2020:

Larger: Here.

The chart’s movement doesn’t necessarily differentiate itself that greatly from the Magic Kingdom chart, which we see below:

Continue reading “Reassessing Disney’s Hollywood Studios Crowds and Waits in 2021”

We continue from Northern Blossom.

The World ShowPlace, which Disney has historically utilized for spendy private events during times of non global-catastrophe, is open to everyone again for another Festival as Disney opts to fill in all of the available space. While the website has mocked the notion for some time – as long as the maximum number of people are within appropriate distance to board and fill a vehicle when it’s time to load, there will be no disruption in service, or change in capacity; you have to give it up to Disney for picking up some of the slack. The 6-foot social-distancing markers may keep us at a comfortable distance now. But once I hear that familiar, “Fill in the space now so that your wait will be shorter later,” you can bet that you’re going to feel like you’ve teleported from the safety and distancing of the queue for The Seas with Nemo and Friends and joined me in a packed Miami nightclub. I’m going to be right there no matter which way you look. Just in case you might need something.

Before the demolition of the middle of Future World that will bring lesser versions of every building than the one that came before it, we’d see three kiosks out in front of Club Cool, but the outdoor terrace space where Disney would ordinarily set up the kiosks is currently part of the massive hole in the ground. I think the only redeemable end to the construction woes is if Epcot is the setting for the end of “National Treasure 3,” and Disney didn’t have the money to invest in digital effects because  the cash is already allocated to “Unnamed Star Wars Project 9,” coming to Disney+ this December 2026. Nic Cage actually will run that giant spherical contraption until there’s enough power for the lasers. I don’t want to give too much away.

Speaking of the demolition, if Disney had any sense whatsoever, they’d be selling the pieces of the Future World buildings as they come down and people can take a bit of the Park home without having to buy some framed pin set sometime down the line. Or I’m looking to heave concrete at other bloggers. The jury remains out. Even if a construction worker served you garden variety 40+ year-old Rubble without the traditional flambee presentation, and just a pinch of asbestos for seasoning, they’d still probably be serving better food than the Italy kiosk.

We’ve got a little bit of advertising going on with the trailer full of gear. Imagine visiting Epcot for some Fish and Chips and a Violet Lemonade and coming home with a rideable lawnmower shipped to your house. It happens. Not that I know anything about it.

Continue reading “Epcot Flower and Garden Festival…Festival Favorites Review”

We continue from Citrus Blossom.

Northern Bloom takes up residence in the cabin either just before arriving at the Canada Pavilion or just after passing through, depending on which way you’re traveling through the arctic tundra that’s capped by the 90+ degree daily highs that we’ll be seeing more and more frequently as the Festival presses forward. Refreshment Port sits just to the right of it when looking in this direction, with the prickly Pineapple Promenade and Citrus Blossom behind that in the distance, and the walkway down to Honey Bee-stro and Flavor Full down the path to the left.

I wasn’t expecting to wither through my 11th existential crisis of 2021 while going over a Festival food review, but I had an impossible time deciding if I would prefer to be blossoming, as we were back in Citrus Country, or blooming, like we are here up north. They’re essentially the same thing, but to further complicate things, we aren’t even technically that far north, considering the majority of Canadians live south of Seattle. We’re also standing on the southern half of Epcot, which is the reasoning behind that strange upside-down map we had to continually flip back and forth for a couple of years in an effort to find our bearings. Luckily, EPCOT only has like the one ride. Then there’s the whole east/west thing with what is still Future World West to the right of the entrance, when east is usually the direction that we associate with that side of an area. It’s just a lot to take in.

Back to our ongoing crisis, it’s possible that citrus doesn’t exactly bloom. The Wikipedia page for the orange fruit mentions its blossoms, but never any potential “bloom.” “The flowers are in bloom” sounds about the same as “The flowers are blossoming.” But Citrus Blossom and Northern Bloom probably sound better than Citrus Bloom and Northern Blossom. But “Blossom” may sound more positive in both instances. Either way, whenever someone asks how I’m doing, I respond with “blossoming radiantly, Dear.” So I may or may not have emerged from Walden Pond on  top, as it’s been some amount of time since anyone has asked about my status. “Obviously single,” I guess they assume.

Just the Goose Island beer is new, replacing last year’s Unibroue selection. We used to complain about pricing more often, but we may have reached the upper limit of what Disney thinks they can get away with charging. Instead, we may see portions start to decrease ever-so-slightly. Sort of like that bag of Oreo’s at the grocery store is still $3.99, but comes with 48 cookies instead of the 60 packed into the sleeves a few years ago. Just the non-alcoholic shake is up a quarter over last year. I don’t think we’ve seen more than a handful of price increases so far. Don’t tell Disney.

Continue reading “Northern Bloom Review Epcot Flower and Garden Festival”