jrtoastyman
Purveyor of Fine Latex Products
- Joined
- May 22, 2011
Full disclosure, this will not be a full-blown trip report, just a few things I thought were worth memorializing from our trip, which was from January 15-24, and included stays at the Swan (just for the first night), Bay Lake Tower, and Royal Pacific at Universal. Without further ado:
1. We've been to WDW over MLK weekend several times now, and it seems to get busier and busier each year. That said, by Wednesday, the crowds were gone and the crowds were very manageable.
2. I rode the Mine Train as sort of a "well, I guess I need to do this" expecting to be disappointed, but came away pleasantly surprised. Not a thrilling ride, but definitely fun. Looking forward to taking my daughter on it when she feels up to it.
3. Finally made it over to Flying Fish, fantastic meal. Probably the third best meal I've had on Disney property, behind bluezoo and Monsieur Paul. Really tasty, and a great meal by any standard, not just by theme park standards.
4. I continue to be stunned at the amount of walking you do at Disney. Averaged about 10 miles a day.
5. While I can't say that it really impacted the trip in a negative way, the presence of construction walls everywhere was very noticeable. Particularly at Animal Kingdom, it seemed like they were visible at every turn. The hub area at Magic Kingdom was similarly a mess, but it was really only an issue during the evening shows -- with so many viewing spots either off-limits or blocked by construction walls, everyone was sort of forced into the center, and we found that we had to stake out a spot well before we normally would this time of year.
6. The new Festival of Fantasy Parade is just awesome. Probably the best parade I've seen in a Disney park, period.
7. If you care even a little bit about Harry Potter, you owe it to yourself to take a little trip over to Universal to see the new Diagon Alley area. It is just astonishing what they've done over there, the attention to detail is really unprecedented. My daughter loved casting spells with her wand and just seeing these characters and scenes she knows come to life.
8. We started at Disney and then went over to Universal, staying at a Universal resort. As maligned as the Magic Bands are, I have to say, I missed having that little all-in-one band around my wrist. It seems silly to complain about, but having just used the band for nearly a week, having to carry around and shuffle a room key, express pass, and park ticket was noticeable hassle. It's tough to beat the express pass perk that they have at Universal and it unquestionably blows away FP+ in terms of its ease of use, but from the standpoint of the complete experience, I was surprised at how much I missed the band. I don't want to overstate this, and I can't tell you how much, if at all, it moved the needle for me, but having done a WDW/USF trip before the bands came out, the difference in convenience was something I really noticed this time, as compared to last time where I didn't notice a difference at all.
Happy to answer any questions anyone might have!
1. We've been to WDW over MLK weekend several times now, and it seems to get busier and busier each year. That said, by Wednesday, the crowds were gone and the crowds were very manageable.
2. I rode the Mine Train as sort of a "well, I guess I need to do this" expecting to be disappointed, but came away pleasantly surprised. Not a thrilling ride, but definitely fun. Looking forward to taking my daughter on it when she feels up to it.
3. Finally made it over to Flying Fish, fantastic meal. Probably the third best meal I've had on Disney property, behind bluezoo and Monsieur Paul. Really tasty, and a great meal by any standard, not just by theme park standards.
4. I continue to be stunned at the amount of walking you do at Disney. Averaged about 10 miles a day.
5. While I can't say that it really impacted the trip in a negative way, the presence of construction walls everywhere was very noticeable. Particularly at Animal Kingdom, it seemed like they were visible at every turn. The hub area at Magic Kingdom was similarly a mess, but it was really only an issue during the evening shows -- with so many viewing spots either off-limits or blocked by construction walls, everyone was sort of forced into the center, and we found that we had to stake out a spot well before we normally would this time of year.
6. The new Festival of Fantasy Parade is just awesome. Probably the best parade I've seen in a Disney park, period.
7. If you care even a little bit about Harry Potter, you owe it to yourself to take a little trip over to Universal to see the new Diagon Alley area. It is just astonishing what they've done over there, the attention to detail is really unprecedented. My daughter loved casting spells with her wand and just seeing these characters and scenes she knows come to life.
8. We started at Disney and then went over to Universal, staying at a Universal resort. As maligned as the Magic Bands are, I have to say, I missed having that little all-in-one band around my wrist. It seems silly to complain about, but having just used the band for nearly a week, having to carry around and shuffle a room key, express pass, and park ticket was noticeable hassle. It's tough to beat the express pass perk that they have at Universal and it unquestionably blows away FP+ in terms of its ease of use, but from the standpoint of the complete experience, I was surprised at how much I missed the band. I don't want to overstate this, and I can't tell you how much, if at all, it moved the needle for me, but having done a WDW/USF trip before the bands came out, the difference in convenience was something I really noticed this time, as compared to last time where I didn't notice a difference at all.
Happy to answer any questions anyone might have!
