cadien
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2017
Hello!
This was our first visit to WDW so it is also my first trip report. Technically. I've done two DCL cruise reports. We've been easing our way into Disney, pushed mostly by their acquisitions of Star Wars and Marvel. My husband and I met at San Diego Comic Con and we have a 7-year old boy, so it's all super heroes and science fiction at home. As a 70s kid, I missed the princess thing myself. I was in college when Little Mermaid was released and the serious Disney marketing kicked in. Disney for me was talking animal movies. In a good way. And Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night, after Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. DH, who is younger, has a very strong nostalgia connection to the Disney Afternoons shows. Also, he grew up in the L.A. area, which meant Disneyland. We now live in the middle of the country, but I also grew up on the west coast, so the whole thing about people talking about going to Disney always meaning Orlando has been a big adjustment for us.
This visit happened somewhat impulsively, although I still did 8 months of intensive research and planning after it was decided. Soon after we booked our second DCL cruise, I realized that it ended at Port Canaveral on a Thursday morning. It's not like we'd be going back to work/school on Friday anyway, so it seemed silly not to spend three days at WDW. None of us had been dying to go but I was curious to see what got people so hooked on the place. And DH was finally on board when he found out about Donald's Dino Bash, specifically that it included meeting Scrooge and Launchpad. (We all LOVE the DuckTales reboot, btw.) This would be DS7's fifth theme park, thanks to all the visits to the Southern California grandparents, so we knew what to expect there.
This was a pretty unusual trip. It was only three days, arriving Thursday and leaving Sunday. And to reduce the odds of being overwhelmed and irritated, we decided to only visit Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We'd all been to Disneyland, so we'd already had the Magic Kingdom experience. (And, I'll confess, were not blown away by it. DS and I both prefer Legoland.) DH prefers to leave most trip planning to me but I did have him pick the hotel, since that's an important part of enjoying the experience, and he decided on Animal Kingdom. Our son really loves animals. We watch a ton of Wild Kratts. The distance of the resort wasn't an issue because we never go back to rest in the middle of the day.
We did go with the deluxe dining plan. I know that's very controversial. I spent a huge amount of time on the restaurant boards. But I know how we eat and how we travel. And once I plugged meals and specific menu items into some of the spreadsheets, it made sense for us. (Spoiler: We used up everything without needing to bring snacks home and came out ahead dollar-wise.) Also, we were just getting off a cruise, where the meals are all included. So the whiplash of WDW food prices would not be a vacation.
I spent a lot of time trying to decide on the different events and packages. Paying for a dessert party or dinner package in order to have a low-stress view of fireworks is right up our alley. Especially at the end of very busy days. But we eventually decided that neither Illuminations nor Rivers of Light looked like something we'd want to spend our limited time on. I did book the Pirates & Pals cruise. Peter Pan was on heavy rotation for a while when DS was younger, although his Jake phase was brief. But then that got canceled in favor of (drum roll...) Disney After Hours. It was suddenly announced for our first night there, in Magic Kingdom. Doing MK as a crowd-controlled add-on was much more appealing than devoting a regular day to it, so we decided to go for it.
I subscribed to both Touring Plans and Kenny the Pirate and found them very helpful. Also the downloadable guides on Disney Food Blog.
This was our first visit to WDW so it is also my first trip report. Technically. I've done two DCL cruise reports. We've been easing our way into Disney, pushed mostly by their acquisitions of Star Wars and Marvel. My husband and I met at San Diego Comic Con and we have a 7-year old boy, so it's all super heroes and science fiction at home. As a 70s kid, I missed the princess thing myself. I was in college when Little Mermaid was released and the serious Disney marketing kicked in. Disney for me was talking animal movies. In a good way. And Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night, after Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. DH, who is younger, has a very strong nostalgia connection to the Disney Afternoons shows. Also, he grew up in the L.A. area, which meant Disneyland. We now live in the middle of the country, but I also grew up on the west coast, so the whole thing about people talking about going to Disney always meaning Orlando has been a big adjustment for us.
This visit happened somewhat impulsively, although I still did 8 months of intensive research and planning after it was decided. Soon after we booked our second DCL cruise, I realized that it ended at Port Canaveral on a Thursday morning. It's not like we'd be going back to work/school on Friday anyway, so it seemed silly not to spend three days at WDW. None of us had been dying to go but I was curious to see what got people so hooked on the place. And DH was finally on board when he found out about Donald's Dino Bash, specifically that it included meeting Scrooge and Launchpad. (We all LOVE the DuckTales reboot, btw.) This would be DS7's fifth theme park, thanks to all the visits to the Southern California grandparents, so we knew what to expect there.
This was a pretty unusual trip. It was only three days, arriving Thursday and leaving Sunday. And to reduce the odds of being overwhelmed and irritated, we decided to only visit Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We'd all been to Disneyland, so we'd already had the Magic Kingdom experience. (And, I'll confess, were not blown away by it. DS and I both prefer Legoland.) DH prefers to leave most trip planning to me but I did have him pick the hotel, since that's an important part of enjoying the experience, and he decided on Animal Kingdom. Our son really loves animals. We watch a ton of Wild Kratts. The distance of the resort wasn't an issue because we never go back to rest in the middle of the day.
We did go with the deluxe dining plan. I know that's very controversial. I spent a huge amount of time on the restaurant boards. But I know how we eat and how we travel. And once I plugged meals and specific menu items into some of the spreadsheets, it made sense for us. (Spoiler: We used up everything without needing to bring snacks home and came out ahead dollar-wise.) Also, we were just getting off a cruise, where the meals are all included. So the whiplash of WDW food prices would not be a vacation.
I spent a lot of time trying to decide on the different events and packages. Paying for a dessert party or dinner package in order to have a low-stress view of fireworks is right up our alley. Especially at the end of very busy days. But we eventually decided that neither Illuminations nor Rivers of Light looked like something we'd want to spend our limited time on. I did book the Pirates & Pals cruise. Peter Pan was on heavy rotation for a while when DS was younger, although his Jake phase was brief. But then that got canceled in favor of (drum roll...) Disney After Hours. It was suddenly announced for our first night there, in Magic Kingdom. Doing MK as a crowd-controlled add-on was much more appealing than devoting a regular day to it, so we decided to go for it.
I subscribed to both Touring Plans and Kenny the Pirate and found them very helpful. Also the downloadable guides on Disney Food Blog.