***Official September 2021 Thread***

[CruellaNY]

SWitched around dining and park reservations some yesterday; now ready to go in just over 24 hours!

 

[Tonyz]

Tomorrow for me!! The day before always drags on forever!

 

[Rusty2rules]

Hey gang! It's been a while. I returned from my trip a little over a month ago. Had a great trip! We spent 2 days at HS, 1 day at AK, and two days at UO/IOA. I thought I'd share the email to WDW guest services yesterday. What are your thoughts? (No, I haven't gotten a reply back)

I recently returned from my trip to Disney World. The dates were Sept. 12-16. During the stay I also visited Universal Studios. I wanted to digest everything before I replied to this email. I was originally scheduled to stay at Coronado Springs for 5 nights/6 days and spend 5 days at Disney parks. The reduction of perks inspired me to stay off-site and reduce my days at Disney from 5 to 3.

• Galaxy’s Edge was great! As someone who was a teenager sitting in a theater watching the original Star Wars the summer it opened, seeing a life-size Millennium Flacon was a childhood dream come true.
• Savi’s Workshop was a mixed bag. The whole thing felt rushed. With that said, everyone is jealous of my lightsaber. LOL I love it!
• Rise of the Resistance was really, really good. I don’t think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread as I expected, but it was really good. It’s not a ride I would stand in line for 2 hours for. Flight of Passage still beats it in my book.
• I was disappointed with the selection of shirts for a larger person. I wear a 3X. The selection was incredibly limited.
• This was our first visit to Toy Story Land. Midway Mania and Slinky Dog Dash were great!
• The cast members enforced the mask requirement pretty well.
• This was my first stay off-site. After your cut backs, there was no justification for paying double the rate with no perks. Unless Disney brings back some amazing perks, I can’t imagine staying onsite again (never say never). Our stay off-site was incredible! We stayed in a 2 bed/2 bath suite at a resort less than 10 minutes from Hollywood Studios for more than half the price of Pop Century.

As I mentioned, we also visited Universal Studios on this trip. This was our first visit to Universal since the early 2000’s.

• I’ll preface this by saying I grew up on Star Wars. My 27-year-old son grew up on Harry Potter. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter blows Galaxy’s Edge out of the water as far as theming goes. It was absolutely stunning. It felt as if you were walking into the book or movie. I didn’t get that feeling with Galaxy’s Edge.
• Our first day there we did the VIP tour. Roughly $250/person. Disney would be wise to offer something affordable like that. It was great!
• I mentioned physical size earlier. I can ride pretty much any ride at Disney World and not give it a second thought. I was unable to ride several rides at Universal because my harness/lap bar/whatever wouldn’t secure. So, thank you for accommodating larger folks, Disney!
• The My Disney Experience app is far superior to Universal’s app. There’s absolutely no comparison. The biggest advantages were the meal order ahead and the GPS mapping.
• The affordability of Universal is far superior to Disney. Their resorts beat Disney in pricing without losing quality. Our tickets to Universal were buy 2 days/get 2 days free for $225/person. Disney can’t touch that.
• Flight of Passage, Rise of the Resistance, and Aerosmith’s Rock n Rollercoaster beat anything Universal has to offer as far as rides as far as I’m concerned. Midway Mania embarrasses Men In Black.
• Universal has more thrill rides. I also understand Universal and Disney are going after two different groups when it comes to things like that.
• Universal had the same issue with attire for plus sized folks. Very limited.

The bottom line is, if someone said, okay you can go to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom or Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, it would be a tough decision with different factors to be considered (How much do I have available to spend? What kind of attractions am I looking for? Am I staying onsite or off-site?). In the end, for me, I would go with Disney. I’m thoroughly aggravated with Disney reducing/removing perks. As I said, I would probably choose Disney. But the reduction in appreciation of their guests takes a lot of the magic away. I’m also recommending to people who are planning trips to either remove days from their Disney trip and go to Universal instead, or add a couple of days to their trip to visit Universal, as well. As I mentioned, if I had to choose, I’d pick Disney. Universal’s nipping at your heels. 5-10 years ago Universal wasn’t even part of the conversation.

 

[Rusty2rules]

Just a couple of pictures from our trip. (To those in our Facebook group, I apologize, you've probably seen these already)

 

[one_cat]

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