We just got back from a 10-day trip, and here are my thoughts.
Service
Since it was such a long trip, we interacted with TONS of CMs, and I didn't find there to be any difference from any other time we've visited. Almost all of the CMs were just as friendly and willing to help as always.
Genie+
I'm slowly breaking each Genie+ day down in another thread, but overall this worked really well for us. We mostly did standby in the morning (with maybe one or two Genie+ reservations, depending on the day) and stacked Gene+ reservations for whichever park we were going to be hopping to in the evening. The only thing that really stunk was having to get up at 7am every day to make our first Genie+ and ILL$ reservations. That was NOT always fun, especially after late-night EEMH when the rest of the fam was sleeping in. But we got to experience everything we wanted to (often multiple times) with very little wait.
Attraction Downtime
I know YMMV on this, but I didn't feel it was any worse than previous years. There was only one morning that was rough at MK with 2 out of the 3 mountains closed for a significant period of time, but we pivoted and caught them later in the week. If we'd been there for a shorter visit, though, we probably wouldn't have been able to ride them at all, which would have been disappointing.
Food
We didn't have a ton of sit-down reservations this time. Homecomin' was probably our favorite meal...so, so, so good. Artist Point was fine: nothing terribly special but not bad, plus we were there for the ambiance and characters anyway which did not disappoint. DD14 and DS16 really wanted to do Chef Mickey's for breakfast for nostalgia reasons. It was not great, but I didn't have high expectations for it so I wasn't disappointed. The kids also ate at Tutto Italia on their own which they loved. DH and I did Space 220 lounge which was fun, but I wouldn't need to do it again and I'm really really glad we didn't spend a ton of money for the restaurant side. Sci-Fi was as fun and consistent as always (but to be fair, we did it in the middle of the day when it was like 1205 degrees outside, so they could have literally served me cardboard and I still would have been grateful for the A/C).
Probably our biggest disappointment was Via Napoli. The salad was fine but the pizza was just awful: basically sauceless cheese bread with like three pieces of basil. One thing to note: the service was fantastic EVERYWHERE we went: quick-service, sit-down, lounges...CMs were on their game for sure.
Magic
It's 100% still there. We walked past a pop-up character visit at the Poly one afternoon ~ it was so cute. More entertainment is back, CMs were friendly and helpful (can't stress this point enough), everything was clean, transportation was frequent and efficient throughout our entire stay, housekeeping was consistent (we got towel decorations again!), the list goes on and on. It was a great trip!
Service
Since it was such a long trip, we interacted with TONS of CMs, and I didn't find there to be any difference from any other time we've visited. Almost all of the CMs were just as friendly and willing to help as always.
Genie+
I'm slowly breaking each Genie+ day down in another thread, but overall this worked really well for us. We mostly did standby in the morning (with maybe one or two Genie+ reservations, depending on the day) and stacked Gene+ reservations for whichever park we were going to be hopping to in the evening. The only thing that really stunk was having to get up at 7am every day to make our first Genie+ and ILL$ reservations. That was NOT always fun, especially after late-night EEMH when the rest of the fam was sleeping in. But we got to experience everything we wanted to (often multiple times) with very little wait.
Attraction Downtime
I know YMMV on this, but I didn't feel it was any worse than previous years. There was only one morning that was rough at MK with 2 out of the 3 mountains closed for a significant period of time, but we pivoted and caught them later in the week. If we'd been there for a shorter visit, though, we probably wouldn't have been able to ride them at all, which would have been disappointing.
Food
We didn't have a ton of sit-down reservations this time. Homecomin' was probably our favorite meal...so, so, so good. Artist Point was fine: nothing terribly special but not bad, plus we were there for the ambiance and characters anyway which did not disappoint. DD14 and DS16 really wanted to do Chef Mickey's for breakfast for nostalgia reasons. It was not great, but I didn't have high expectations for it so I wasn't disappointed. The kids also ate at Tutto Italia on their own which they loved. DH and I did Space 220 lounge which was fun, but I wouldn't need to do it again and I'm really really glad we didn't spend a ton of money for the restaurant side. Sci-Fi was as fun and consistent as always (but to be fair, we did it in the middle of the day when it was like 1205 degrees outside, so they could have literally served me cardboard and I still would have been grateful for the A/C).
Probably our biggest disappointment was Via Napoli. The salad was fine but the pizza was just awful: basically sauceless cheese bread with like three pieces of basil. One thing to note: the service was fantastic EVERYWHERE we went: quick-service, sit-down, lounges...CMs were on their game for sure.
Magic
It's 100% still there. We walked past a pop-up character visit at the Poly one afternoon ~ it was so cute. More entertainment is back, CMs were friendly and helpful (can't stress this point enough), everything was clean, transportation was frequent and efficient throughout our entire stay, housekeeping was consistent (we got towel decorations again!), the list goes on and on. It was a great trip!
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