Just got back, here's my thoughts

[americanv8]

Got back yesterday morning early doors, flew TUI Premium into Glasgow and had a lovely 5:30am drive back to Sunderland! Stopped at Gretna for some caffeine and charge the car.

Melbourne Airport is pretty small and quiet, TUI Premium get the use of lounge which was great. Full service bar & buffet (all free) and TUI come to collect you before boarding begins.
Worth noting the rental car return at Melbourne is incredibly easy to miss (Alamo), you see the sign really late and where you actually have to turn in there's a sign saying Exit which made me miss the turning completely. If you're doing full to full fuel return there's a Sonoco, 7 Eleven & Cumberland Farms fuel stations on the junction of W NASA blvd & S Wickham Rd which are about 5 mins from the airport.

Anyway, i was kind of dumping my brain whilst out there, my musings & thoughts

Last time we were here was Christmas 2021. 2 Adults & 2 mid teens, so this is also viewed from what's changed between then and now as well.

I’ll start with the Home of the Mouse. Disney has lost its magic for us, it’s a real cash grab in all aspects. Everything just feels like they’re trying extort as much out of you as they possibly can without anything in return. I wasn’t going to buy any Lightning Lane Multi Pass just to see how it went, but decided to buy Magic Kingdom on the day as a test, bearing in mind we went on what the crowd calendars predicted as a quiet day. Pretty big mistake when your only choice of slots starts at 8pm! Few rides had nothing left at all. We did manage to get a Tron VQ but then for some reason when that was redeemed we couldn't get a Tianas Bayou at 1pm. The app said no members of our party were eligible, i queried with a couple of Disney CMs and was told you're only allowed 1 VQ per day, most people say thats untrue but i can't argue with what happened to us.
As for LL I did manage to get the times down but it required me to be on my phone almost constantly refreshing. Not a great experience & the whole day just felt like a chore.

Next up EPCOT, for us its just duller than dishwater, got a Guardians VQ and really enjoyed it but couldn’t ride it again unless we purchased a single LL at $17 each! No Test Track, Soarin’ was down and 90+ minute waits for Ratatouille & Frozen almost consistently means there isn’t a lot to do anymore (Don’t mention Mission Space). Walked out onto the boardwalk and found only the pizza place open, everything else closed & ice cream place doesn’t open until 3pm. Took a ride on the SkyLiner for the first time, despite being told we could do a round trip, when we arrived at Riviera we were told to exit.
We decided to duck out of Epcot and made it over to Animal Kingdom at 3:30pm, waited 65 mins for Flight of Passage with an advertised wait of 95 mins. Disney absolutely inflate the standby times to push you to buy LL. Everest had an advertised standby of 40 mins, we were on in 25. (Makes me wonder what Frozen & Ratatouille would have actually been)
DHS is the shining star as far as Disney is concerned.
Food prices aren’t terrible compared against the competition, but the size/value proposition has decreased markedly.

Most cast members we encountered was nice enough, couple of miserable gits.

Seaworld is a great park for coasters now, haven’t been for a while so really enjoyed Pipeline, Penguin Trek & Ice Breaker.
I’d suggest getting the All Day Dining included with whatever ticket you buy because the food prices are out of control. If you had to buy the entree, side and drink it’s going to cost you minimum $35 each! Bought 2 normal filter coffees from Coaster Coffee as we entered the park and that set us back $13.50! Seaworld also have that mandatory 5% surcharge by on everything and they’re cash free. Staff are thoroughly miserable, especially in catering.
Park was quite dirty, lots of full trash cans overflowing. Special mention to the parking which is the most expensive of all the parks (Busch is the same) at $34
Kind of reminded me of how a Six Flags park is run.

Busch Gardens was marginally better but lots of concessions/QS windows closed as well as 2 of the All Day Dining locations & can you believe they want to charge $5 each to use the sky ride 🤣
Queues were non existent on a Monday though, walked on everything. First time on Iron Gwazi …. holy cow !

Universal is brilliant, Studios does need a bit of investment - guess that’ll come once Epic is up and running. IOA fantastic as always. Loads to do, loads to see, loads of shopping opportunities, food prices in park are a little on the high side but still fairly reasonable. Went to HHN opening night and had an absolute blast, we did have Express and without it we'd never have managed to do all the houses given the 70-90 min wait times all night. Standard queueing just looked miserable, rows & rows of switchback fencing. Even with Express we still had between 15-30 minute waits once the Express queue merged with the main queue. Slaughter Sinema 2 was about 30 mins, the rest were really 15-20 mins. We entered the stay & scream by Minions Cafe at 3:30pm, joined the queue for Quiet Place which opened at 5:45pm (Ghostbusters was 5:30 & Insidious 5:15). We were out of QP by 6pm then decided to get some food - Slimer Korean Corndog & Marshmallow Man S'More. Finished all the houses and exited the park at 1am, my 15 year old daughter was absolutely broken

I found driving this year to be the worst i've ever encountered, people are absolute idiots. It probably isn't help by the state of the roads and the sheer amount of roadworks going on, seems like they're building new roads absolutely everywhere and signage can get really confusing at time. (Special mention to Sand Lake Road Junction next to I Drive! what the hell were they thinking, lets push the traffic onto the wrong side of the road). It’s way worse than at home & I’ve been driving for 32 years (driven here dozens of times as well).
I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to use your mobile while driving there but you wouldn’t think it. I was sitting next to a young girl at the lights who was flicking through TikTok holding her phone on the middle of the steering wheel, completely oblivious to when the lights went green, then she dropped in behind me and almost rear ended at the next lights. And, the amount of people I’ve saw hooning down the outside lane, completely missing the standing traffic ahead of them then slamming their brakes on and skidding across to the hard shoulder was ridiculous.

Eating out was a mixed bag, some great meals & service, some pretty poor affairs. Didn't encounter anyone begging for tips though, or asking if we understand tipping. It’s printed on the bottom of the bill but I’ve never had it rammed down my throat like I’ve seen mentioned across social media. Didn't tip at QS though or the likes of Starbucks.
Found it was pretty expensive eating out though, we’ve averaged $80 inc tip for breakfast & $140 inc tip for evening meal. Evenings always consisted of 4 soft drinks, a couple of appetisers for the table & 4 entrees.
Standout performers for meal & service are Kekes Breakfast at Doctor Phillips (absolutely outstanding), Chuys in Kissimmee, Texas Roadhouse in Kissimmee & Sickies Garage on International Drive (superb burgers).
Disappointments include Longhorns on International Drive - Service was awful
Hard Rock in Universal - Service sub-par, Meal not great & Price disgusting.
iHop opposite Endless Summer on International Drive was pretty good as well.

[wildkard8]

Sounds like a good bit has went downhill. We are there October but only really doing the universal parks and HHN. Rest will be beaches, shopping and sports games.

Looks like i might need to consider express for HHN. I do remember 5 years ago doing it and the queues being really long . . was hoping it might be different this time

[americanv8]

Originally Posted by wildkard8

Sounds like a good bit has went downhill. We are there October but only really doing the universal parks and HHN. Rest will be beaches, shopping and sports games.

Looks like i might need to consider express for HHN. I do remember 5 years ago doing it and the queues being really long . . was hoping it might be different this time

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To be fair it was opening night, i don't know if HHN has "quiet" nights though. Express was stupidly expensive (think it was £560 for the 4 of us) but i felt we wouldn't experience even half the houses without it, i hadn't been to HHN for 20 years and wife & kids haven't ever been so kind of felt necessary.

[Jamie99]

Nice report, glad to see you enjoyed HHN in the end, I know the stay and scream wait was painful, I was there with you.

[Nutkin]

Using phone while driving in Florida is illegal but it is a secondary offense, so you cannot be issued a ticket for it. You have to have something else with it like Wreckless driving etc.

Going out in a few weeks sounds like EPCOT isnt what it used to be might give it a miss.

[ajw77]

Just got back this weekend as well. We really noticed the number of drivers on their mobile phones.

Had a private transfer from Tampa to Disney and our driver even commented on it, said it's become a real problem, he sees it all the time when he's out driving ☹

[themeparksandy]

Epcot the park that’s changed the most since my 1st visit in 1993.
What’s the food like round world showcase and Sunshine seasons has always been excellent for us with DHS been the worst but not been since 2016.

[princess allie]

Originally Posted by Nutkin

Using phone while driving in Florida is illegal but it is a secondary offense, so you cannot be issued a ticket for it. You have to have something else with it like Wreckless driving etc.

Going out in a few weeks sounds like EPCOT isnt what it used to be might give it a miss.

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Epcot is our 2nd favourite park. I’d recommend giving it a go.

[Hevfev]

What a shame about Epcot! It’s my favourite park and we find loads to do - we’ve been 4 times on this trip. Do you not enjoy the food and wine festival?
Not just the big rides like Guardians, frozen, ratatouille and soarin, but we also enjoy living with the land, figment, spaceship earth, and the little boat ride in Mexico. The little ones enjoy the splash pad too.
I’ve never been fussed about test track and mission space makes me 🤮

We are staying in Davenport and the longhorns closest to us has been fab food and fab service.

I agree about Disney in some ways. A lot of the staff are miserable and speak to people like c**p, some are lovely. Same goes for guests - rude af! It is a money making scam In terms of the LL but fortunately we didn’t need it.

I think the weather had been particularly bad with rain or we’ve just been unlucky 😛 expected though with it being August and we went prepared with ponchos.

Glad you enjoyed universal. We haven’t been for a few years as we have two young ones who won’t get anything out of it.

[Nutkin]

Originally Posted by princess allie

Epcot is our 2nd favourite park. I’d recommend giving it a go.

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Honestly, I design cars for a living and test track was my favorite ride so if that’s down I’m kinda out and will go back when it re opens . Only going for a week so still plenty to do