Our party consisted of me, my wife, 18 YO daughter, 34 YO daughter & husband, and their three kids: 16 YO daughter, 9 YO daughter, and 8 YO son. Eight of us in total. We did all (4) parks, and 2 days at Universal Studios as well. Our 9th day was one of rest and a brief trip for lunch to T-Rex at Disney Springs.
- Day 1: Wife, daughter, and I arrived via plane and took the shuttle to grab the Turo rental (8 passenger Suburban) at the South lot at the airport. From there, we drove to the Quality Inn & Suites by the Parks for one quick overnight stay (we bought 2 nights just to have a place to store luggage until the VRBO was ready the next day). Dinner at Olive Garden was great. No parks today. Hotel was nice, clean, and breakfast was sufficient.
- Day 2: Drove to airport again to exchange the vehicle, as they gave me a 7 passenger Suburban (middle row had 2 seats instead of 3). Turo gave me what was supposed to be an 8 passenger Ford transit van, but again the carpet did not match the curtains, and I got a 14 passenger with zero room for cargo (cargo ended up riding on the seats). Picked up the other 5 members of our party at arrivals, and took them back to the hotel. We all went to Walmart to stock up supplies for the VRBO stay over the next 10 days. Walmart was crazy insane. Checked into our VRBO (Windsor Resort / gated) which was a 5 BD / 5 BA home with pool, hot tub, game room, etc. called "Infinity Oasis". Gave them a glaring 5 start review. Perfect house. ECV rental arrived from Golden Mobility, and was just what we ordered. Gave them a 5 star review on Google as well. Perfect scooter. Broke it down into <50 lb. pcs. every day and it rode in row 2 of the van. Went back to the hotel quick to get the rest of our luggage and checked out. Had dinner that night at Rockin' Brews. Great food. Wife and I hit up Target that night, and she smashed her iPhone 12 Max in the car door somehow. Nobody had a replacement down there FYI.
- Day 3: Woke up and went to Magic Kingdom. Forgot how long it took to get from the house (15 min. away) into the gates at MK. Monorail was down, so we took the ferry. Could not enter the parks with the MDE app on my Galaxy S22+. Disney explained to me that they "don't talk to Android well at all", and apologized. My entire family had to carry around a plastic card for the rest of the WDW visit, and my photo pass worked for crap. I think we entered the gate around 10 or 11am. We did not get the Genie +, as we wanted to play it by ear. Cost was $20 / day for each of us, and we had the 6 person DAS. We ended up simply getting 8 people through the line on almost all the attractions that first day with the DAS, but soon learned that we were pretty much cheating the system, as DAS only allows 6. We offered to pay for the extra 2 people to be put onto the DAS later that week, but Guest Relations would not do it. We rode everything we wanted to that day. Space Mt., Speedway, Barnstormer, teacups, 7 dwarfs, small world, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, Jungle Cruise, and more. We got our wristbands at the main gate for the party, and started trick or treating. Between daughter and I, we hit maybe 15-20 different people and got 9.5 lbs. of candy. Insane. The rest of the night wasn't terribly memorable to be honest. We were all in dress, but it was a loooong day, and I guess I probably wouldn't do MNSSHP again to be honest.
- Day 4: Animal Kingdom started with It's Tough to Be a Bug 4D show. We then had breakfast at Rainforest Cafe before going to Avatar Flight of Passage. This was nothing short of amazing, and would cause us to change our 2nd day at Hollywood Studios to a 2nd day at Animal Kingdom later on. Rode the Na'vi River Journey and it was off to Asia for multiple rides on Everest. We did a bunch of other things here as well, and really enjoyed the park. Had lunch somewhere (I think it was Satu'li Canteen. Had a burger and it was awful. $100 on lunch for absolute garbage.
- Day 5: Universal's Islands of Adventure. Split up the families right away, because wife and I wanted to shop for a bit in the City Walk. I just enjoyed sitting for an hour to be honest. Once done, we walked into the wrong park somehow and had to go back to guest relations to fix that snafu. Not a great start. We rode a bunch of stuff in the park with Universal's DAS-like system as well. They only allow 6, but it was less restrictive with our 8 from what I found. We rode a few of the rides, but spent most of our time in Harry Potter area. Hagrid's was cool. I didn't do the big rides, and I guess much of the rest of the day was not that memorable for me.
- Day 6: Universal Studios: Took our time here because 4 of us had tickets and express passes for HHN that night. We rode most everything and I left with the other 4 and took them back to the VRBO, then returned for HHN (that was a 2 hour trip to home and back!). Lost my wallet on the Simpsons ride. Ran back and staff had it. What a relief! We did 3 of the houses, all scare zones, and had a few things to eat. That pretty much took us to 1am, and we left, exhausted. I'd get another 3 hours of sleep that night before waking up for our first day at Universal Studios.
- Day 7: Hollywood Studios. Woke up and got to Hollywood Studios as they were opening the gates at 8:30am. Did not do Genie + again. This would be my first of many nights with only 4 hours of sleep or so. Anyway, we are pros at using DAS by now, and again rode everything there at least once: Aerosmith, tower of terror, Toy Story, saw the Frozen Show and cooled off for awhile. Slinky dog dash, Indiana Jones show, but never got to the Runaway Railroad. We finally got to Star Wars land by 6pm or so and did the big rides there with drinks and apps at Olga's. This was the 5th straight day in the parks, and the teens were done by the morning. They wanted to go home badly.
- Day 8: Changed our reservations from Hollywood Studios (having done most everything the day before) to Epcot. Slept in a bit. 34 YO daughter was so sick by now the her husband took her to the clinic for antibiotics and a steroid. She was a trooper. The rest of us spent time lounging at the house and swimming. Got some much needed R&R. Got to Epcot and did the golf ball right away, which was disliked by most everyone except my daughter and I. We then went on Soarin', Test Track, and pretty much everything else except that we couldn't get on Guardians, having got to the park by 1:30pm. Doh! We did some eating as we made our way toward France to ride Remmy's. Rode Remmy's and got out of the park by 9pm or so, and we all headed out to The Olive Garden for a late supper.
- Day 9: Magic Kingdom day #2. Took the monorail to the park this time! Spent a bunch of time in Future World doing all the rides we missed on day 1, and then headed over and did a bunch of the other stuff throughout the park. Wife wanted to see Enchantment, so I told everyone we'd be standing in front of the castle no later than 7pm for the 8:15pm show. We got there eventually, but it was crazy. Too many people, and it was an hour just to walk from the castle to get to Main St. afterwards. Add in a bit of shopping, and a ferry ride back, and I was ready for bed by the time I got back to the house.
- Day 10: Decided to split up a bit. I dropped the other two adults off at Epcot and they rode Guardians twice, while the rest of us 6 went back to Animal Kingdom to do Avatar again. We did Expedition Everest a few more times, and then the water ride with a few other things in-between. We also at at Yak & Yeti's to go area. Had the chicken and also the rib tips. Do not recommend. Adults took a quick shuttle from Epcot to Animal Kingdom, and we all went home by 7pm or so.
- Day 11: Spent the day at the house for the most part, packing up. Did lunch at T-Rex at Disney Springs with 5 of the 8 of us, and it was very good. Gold Mobility picked up the scooter on queue, and it was off to bed for an early rise.
- Day 12: Awoke early and took the family of 5 to the airport. Came back to the house by 6am to rest, but locked my keys in the van and had to call and await a locksmith's arrival. Packed up, hit a couple of gift shops, and it was off to the airport early to drop off the van and hang out in A/C until we could check our bags. 7pm flight home and we got back to our actual home by 10:30pm.
- Android does not work at Disney. Buy a magic band.
- Using host "Aura" on Turo is a mistake. Don't do it. They don't know what their fleet consists of.
- If you want DAS, just tell the staff you can't hold your bladder and you'll get it. It took us 7 hours on the phone to do this however.
- If you want to get the most out of these parks, you will need a leader in the group that will basically need to be staring at their cell phone all day long every day, directing people on where to be and when. This was stressful.
- Don't go to Walmart after the parks close. It's insane.
- I had a great time, but post pandemic WDW is not the same as in the past. There is litter. There is lousy food. There are cast members that are not professional at all. This is reality.
- Quickly learned that you can easily spend 2-3 days at every park and still not see everything.
