Walt Disney World: The good, the bad and the ugly

 Recently I went on a trip to Walt Disney World (WDW) with the family for 8 days. It wasn't the first time I have been there but the first in 5 years. I have been to Disneyland and Disneyland Paris as well to get a good comparison of them all. In the 8 days I just noticed a few things that stuck out. Some things were good, some things were bad, and some things were ugly bad. ( Side note: I don't mean to offend anyone with this post it's just my opinion)

The good:

1. Theming. Throughout all four parks the theme of that land was perfect and on point (except Finding Nemo musical in Dinoland U.S.A. But don't get me started on that...)! When you're going from Liberty Square, which has a trail in the middle to represent sewage like it was in that time, to Frontierland you lose the sewage trail but gain the rustic feel. Or going from the futuristic Tomorrowland to the whimsical Fantasyland there is not a mess up in the theme and there is that line where one land ends and the next begins. I love it every time!

2. New Fantasyland. This one I am a little hesitant to put here but I will as I enjoyed it. The Fantasyland expansion was the biggest one WDW has everyone besides opening a park of course. So there was a lot of pressure on them to have this good and all the rage was about this new ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (SDMT). It was a great ride don't get me wrong! But I liked it because I liked singing along to "Heigh Ho" going out of the mine. Otherwise I'd say the ride was pretty lack lustre compared to all its hype. Then there was the Under the Sea: Little Mermaid which is the same as the one from DLR that opened a few years back but has the advantage of an interactive queue (which I'll get to later). Then there is Be Our Guest which was amazing! Probably one of my most favourite Disney restaurants there are now! I won't go into detail as I will make a whole post about it just because of how great it was! New fantasyland was a pretty good thing in WDW.

3. Interactive Queues. I'm not going to lie. Lines are awful. But interactive queues make the lines seem a lot shorter. A perfect example is Peter Pan. Peter Pan was a 60+ minute wait the whole time we were there. With the interactive queue and the queue in general the line seemed to be maybe 20 minutes. It was so simple with just projections of Peter Pan and Tink that you could play with but could kill an hour. Another example is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And one part in the interactive queue you get to charge up dynamite then blow it up in the mine, the trick is that the dynamite is on the surface so it explodes areas on the surface and if a train is going past you can scare them pretty good! Interactive queues were a great thing throughout.

The bad:

1. Pin Trading. Being a Disney veteran I like to pin trade. Pin trading has been going downhill of late but you can really tell at WDW. Buying LE pins is much more complicated than it should be as I'm WDW you can only buy them at 5 stores throughout the resort (1 at each park and DTD). In DLR you can buy LE pins, maybe not low ones but still LE, at any store. It made it very difficult to buy pins and then finding tables or places with pin traders to trade pins. I just felt that WDW was pushing pin traders away.

2. Size. Magic Kingdom was quite large so it was a a bit of a pain to get from place to place. It caused a heartache to get from place to place due to its sheer size. I mean with that much space of course it will be large it just caused some pains trying to get from one place to another quickly. I mean the size has an advantage but it has its disadvantages as well of course.

The ugly:

1. Fastpass +. I am going to control myself as I could make a whole post on just how bad Fastpass + is. It starts off bad when you need to book your Fastpasses before you even leave. Not to mention if you stay at a Disney resort you can book your Fastpasses 60 days in advance compared to 30 days with everyone else. That already gives people a huge advantage. Then once you get there you have to be within that one hour window. Maybe once in a while you will get a nice CM who will allow you to be 5 minutes late but it's not usually likely and we didn't want to risk it. Then the worst thing possible happened on one day we were there. Their whole computer system had crashed. Your Fastpasses worked but you couldn't get new ones, old ones sometimes work, it barely worked to use to charge to the room and it was a huge mess that day.

2. Canada at World Showcase. This was what I was most disappointed about the entire time I was in WDW. The Canadian Pavilion opened with Epcot in 1982 and not a lot has changed which is unfortunate. It is very stereotypical throughout the pavilion and is a little offensive in my opinion. There was references to Lumberjacks, jokes about igloos, and lots of references to French Canadians (which there is not that many of them in general). The Circle-vision show opened in 1982 and then was updated in 2007 but is still very outdated. It was pretty disappointing coming from Disney and a little offensive to a Canadian.

All in all I was impressed but there was a few things that wouldn't make me give it a 10/10. I enjoyed it and was happy as I don't know when I will get to go again, if ever! Until next time!

Corvyn