Disney World - 8 Years Later - How Things Have Changed Yet also the Same. Both Awesome!

[Frozen2014]

I'll start by saying I wasn't planning on doing a report...but here I am, a week after returning from our trip and in major trip post withdrawal. So nothing better than writing a report. (I already completed a photobook which is another post trip activity)

Intro - The Players

On this trip is DH and myself, both in our late 40s.
Our son who is 17.
Our daughter who is 13.

The Date

We booked Sat Aug 27 - Sat Sept 3, 2022.

On arrival day, our plan was to go to Disney Springs and swim in the pool. The rest of the trip was planned:

1. Sun - Magic Kingdom
2. Mon - Epcot (extended hours)
3. Tues - Hollywood Studios - Sci Fin Dine In for lunch
4. Wed - Animal Kingdom - Boma breakfast before the park
5. Thurs - Magic Kingdom
6. Fri - Epcot - Space 220 for lunch
7. Sat - Chef Mickey's breakfast, resort hop (flight in the evening)

Special Celebration

This Disney trip was selected by our daughter. She turned 13 earlier this year. When our son turned 13, we had a big bar mitzvah celebration, usual size, which is a big party booked in a hall (about 100 people). For our daughter, we had a more intimate bat mitzvah at our home since we didn't know what covid was going to look like (for the hall you need to book at least a year in advance). So to make up for not having the big hall event, we let her pick a special trip....and guess what she picked.

The Resort

Since this trip was for our daughter we let her pick the resort. Last time, and our only other Disney World trip, we stayed at Art of Animation in a Cars suite. We loved it there as the theming was really cute and it had two rooms and even better, two full bathrooms! But last time we had a car which helped with getting around. There were no parking fees back then.

For this trip, she was deciding between Grand Floridian (every elegant) and Contemporary resort. After much back and forth, she went with Contemporary. The big plus is that we could walk to Magic Kingdom!!! How cool is that!
Another special thing about Contemporary is that I stayed there with my parents when I was 6 so it has personal meaning for me too.

One note is that we are Canadian so even in USD, it was quite pricey never mind about in CAD, so although we did a big splurge, we booked a Garden View room.

However, a few months later a deal came up for Disney + subscribers and for only about $50 more, we were able to switch to the Main Tower, Lake View room. Very excited about that.

 

[Frozen2014]

Magic Bands

Our last trip was in 2014 and I had kept our magic bands. I didn't realize that the time that we would ever be able to use them again, but kept them more as a souvenir. I wasn't expecting them to work as they are a few "models" behind. But after much research, people swore up and down that they would still work for scanning, room key, reservations etc. The only limitation was that rides might not work due to the dead battery. But this wasn't a big deal as we didn't get the photopass.

Anyone recognize the old style?



I did look online and was tempted to buy the previous Magic Bands as they had some basic ones for $10. Then as time went on, the selection was less and less as these Magic Band + ones came out. There were some really neat designs so thought about ordering them, but we decided to just go with ours and if needed, we would purchase when we were onsite.

 

[Frozen2014]

Pre-Planning

Genie+

Last post before the good stuff (i.e. the actual trip)....is that I am a major planner with spreadsheets of many tabs! Last time we came to Disney, it was the FastPass+ system. So this trip would be very different. There was this whole Genie+ to learn with Lightning Lane and Individual Lighting Lane.

We knew that we wanted Lightning Lane on some of the days but then when they announced that they were going to remove the option to purchase it for the whole trip, we decided to add it to our package. There was the fear that it would sell out on certain days (doubt that will actually ever happen aside from perhaps Dec 24 or new years time). But it was also nice not having to worry about the purchase each day (esp if we had to book it midnight to guarantee we got it)

I did a lot of my own tracking of times....wait times of different rides, when they sold out, etc. Then I learned of the Thrill-data site that pretty much was doing what I was doing. Really cool site for major planners like me. Also watched a lot of videos and studied what rides sold out when and the order to book them.

I found the Genie+ a bit nerve racking, although we did use Max Pass at Disneyland and it worked quite well. Mostly, I was nervous about LL and if they conflicted with any ADRs. But overall, it worked out fine.

August Weather

One big worry of coming in August was the heat and the rain. I probably went overboard but ended up coming prepared with:

• UV umbrellas (2 for the four of us)
• cooling towels
• mini handheld fans (kids had mist, DH and mine was smaller without mist)
• hydration packs
• compact water holders
• sandals for each of us

As a sneak peak....I found the fans the most useful of the above (plus sandals)

The Rides
Another part of my pre-planning was to understand the rides. I have some pre-existing eye issues and although I probably would find fine on most things, I am cautious. So did a lot of research to learn if each ride was rough and also any big drops or quick acceleration.

Related to that, I also wanted to learn how chicken exists worked on the rides that I wouldn't be riding (but wanting to walk through with my family) and/or where the exit was for each ride. I also looked if anything was near by so that perhaps I would go on ride B while my family was on ride A (but never ended up doing that one).

 

[DLo]

following along. looking forward to reading more.

 

[Frozen2014]

Day 0 - Travel Day

Our flight from Toronto to Orlando was scheduled at a decent time at 10:15am; however, since the airport had been complete chaos all summer, we left 4 hours early (and up at 5am). We weren't taking any chances.

Another thing we did to limit the chance of issues was to travel with just carry on. If you have seen how I pack for any other trip, you would think this would be impossible for me, as I can fill a suitcase with toiletries alone. But I figured we could make it work in this case since:

• We were going from hot climate to hot climate so we wore pants on the plane but otherwise, just packed summer clothes.
• Disney is different from our cruise vacations since we don't need a change of clothes for dinner.
• After research from our hotel, I learned that they provide shampoo and conditioner (and a substantial amount...not a mini travel bottle for four of us), and also provide a full powered hairdryer, vs a small one that hotels usually have.

So carry ones it was. Thankfully we got on the plane at a decent time, as oppose to being at the end of the line, and we wasn't forced to check anything. Phew.

As a side note, we wore our masks at the airport and on the plane (Canadian rule) and in the uber in Orlando, but took them off once we arrived at Contemporary. This is actually a change for us since Toronto is very mask heavy. It was kind of nice to have a bit of normalcy for the week.

P.S. - Until now, this report has been word heavy but I promise I have more pictures coming.

 

[Frozen2014]

following along. looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for reading along!

 

[Frozen2014]

The Contemporary

We were super excited for this hotel. Our daughter had watched so many videos before our trip, that she could have given us a full resort tour even before we arrived.

We had done online check in and we literally saw the room assigned as we were coming over by uber. I had used Touring Plans to request a room on floor 9 or higher, and overlooking the pool. We didn't exactly get our request as we were floor 7 and a bit further from the pool, but honestly, we were very happy with the room so it didn't matter.

We were room 4320. Here are some pictures of the new Incredibles theme. I know it's not for everyone, but I personally loved it. It wasn't over the top in theming, but more subtle and just cute. It also has a modern and clean feel .
The room has 2 queen beds and a day bed, which our daughter used.



The closet


The renovated bathroom. Comparing to the previous version before the renovation, it had little counter space, but there is plenty of it now. The shower is also great, very large and shelf space.




The toilet area. My only complaint with the room is that there is a door at the toilet but yet it wouldn't close. Not sure if I just missed that day in kindergarten of how to close a door, or if it was defective. But it wasn't a big deal...we just used the main bathroom door and closed that shut.

 

[Frozen2014]

Oh, and I can't forget the view. Just beautiful!






And every night at 10:05pm (I think...we weren't always back in the room by then), the Electrical Water Pageant came by and gave a little show.


And a view of the resort at night.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

I remember your posts when you were planning your trip. Glad to see you had a great time enjoying this report!!

 

[Frozen2014]

I remember your posts when you were planning your trip. Glad to see you had a great time enjoying this report!!

That's so nice. Thank you.

 

[c3h3a3r]

Looking forward to hearing more

 

[Frozen2014]

D0 - Disney Springs

We had two things on the agenda for today, Disney Springs (for DH) and the pool (for the kids). At first our kids had no interest in going to Disney Springs, especially our teenage son where shopping was the last thing he wanted to do, but before we left, we watched videos of the best snacks at Disney and so this changed their minds. Anything for good food!

After unpacking (which was just mostly me as the others just wanted to live in their suitcases), we made a quick stop at Contempo Cafe. DD decided that she wanted a Mickey Bar for snack/lunch rather than waiting for DS. The rest of us waited. We then caught the bus that happened to be there when we got to the bus area, so good timing. The bus ride was pleasant. I had forgotten how far spread out Disney is. It's huge!

Once at Disney Springs we walked around and found a snack. I had heard of Gideon's Cookies but had also heard the place gets really long lines. And sure enough, people were lined out the door when we walked by so we continued walking. We decided on ice cream. The place we picked had really strange flavours but we stuck with something standard. So this is the one time we had issues with our old magic bands as they wouldn't scan. But...the person before us had issues too so maybe it wasn't the band itself. Nevertheless, it ended up being a good thing as the store just gave us the ice cream for free.

We walked around for a bit, DD bought herself cute fluffy pink Mickey ears that she wore for the rest of the trip, and then we caught the bus back to the resort.

 

[Hubie]

Great start! I'm waiting to read more.

 

[Frozen2014]

D0 - Swim and Dinner

When we returned to the resort, our kids wanted to swim. I know it doesn't get the best reviews, but they found the pool at The Contemporary quite nice, especially compared to a standard hotel pool. It's really big and although the slide wasn't the same as a waterpark level slide, it was lots of fun.


Next item....dinner. At the 60 day mark, I had booked our ADRs. We wanted to book Sci-Fi Dine In (Hollywood Studios), Boma breakfast (Animal Kingdom day) and Chef Mickey's breakfast. For the fun of it, I did a search on Space 220 and happened to see a lunch opening on our second Epcot day so grabbed it. I also did a check for Steakhouse 51 on our arrival night and a spot came up so also grabbed it so we had the option. At first, I thought we'd end up cancelling both as the trip was already quite pricey, but then we decided to keep one of them. In the end, we stuck with Space 220 since it seemed like a unique experience and we can go to a steakhouse anytime in our home city.

Regretted the decision a bit as a sit down dinner would have been nice and the timing was perfect, but alas it was not meant to be. So while the kids were swimming we put in a mobile order for Contempo Cafe (for sit down in the cafe after changing). Not the best food but it was fine.

After dinner we returned to the room and then decided to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the 4th floor. How cool that we could see them from our resort! We went a bit early to get a good viewing spot. Not sure if it is like this every night but the fireworks was both over the castle and at Space Mountain, which was great since that attraction was close to Contemporary.



Another neat thing about our location is that the Electrical Water Pageant comes by each night. We checked the app and it said that it would be at our resort at 10:05pm so DD and I went on the balcony to watch it. It's not something you get to see everyday at home (Photo is in an earlier post).

 

[Disney102015]

So nothing better than writing a report. (I already completed a photobook which is another post trip activity)

Love these post-trip activities to ward off the Disney blues! Looks like a great first day, excited to read more!

 

[Frozen2014]

Love these post-trip activities to ward off the Disney blues! Looks like a great first day, excited to read more!

Thanks. Definitely helps "extend" the trip - or to re-live it. Another bonus, is it's nice to write it down as later on, I'll forget all the details.

 

[Frozen2014]

D1 - Magic Kingdom with Early Entry

The plan for each day...I would get up at 6am and shower. Then at 7am DD and I would go on Genie+ and book any LLs, or ILLs. Then the rest of our group would get ready and we'd be all set to leave for a quick breakfast and then whatever park we were going to.

When booking the Lightning Lane on the first morning I had forgotten and kept doing a refresh wondering why it wasn't showing the times. Ugh...silly me as I was obsessed with every Disney detail so I knew very well that they didn't show the times from 7am-7:15am. Anyways, it worked out ok as DD grabbed a LL for Peter Pan. I think it was for around 10:30am, which should have been earlier had I not forgotten what I knew...doh.

In terms or early hours, we weren't going to do start to end each day but figured Magic Kingdom was a good one to do early entry since we could walk (i.e. didn't have to try and coordinate the bus or monorail schedule).

Since it was late August, Magic Kingdom didn't open until 9am, which meant early entry was 8:30am. Working backwards, it seemed like 7:50am would be a good time to leave our resort. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Contempo Cafe. DD's favorite was the cinnamon bun, and DS got something just as healthy like this....nothing better to start the day than a whole whack of sugar....lol.


The nice thing about coming from the resort is that we had our own security check in, and I think it was just us and one other family passing through. Poor DH as the backpack went off every time due to battery packs and/or umbrellas.

Today's plan of attack was to head to Space Mountain for early entry. We walked down Main Street towards the beautiful castle (much bigger than the Disneyland one, which was our last Disney trip)


Then we got to the spot at Tomorrowland where they stop you at around 8:15am. Time to put on a layer of sunscreen and then "ready set go" once they gave the thumbs up.


Space Mountain is one of the rides that I was skipping. It was actually a bit of a stress for me for each ride of either "Do I walk through with my family? And if so, where do I end up?" Or "do we just pick a meeting spot and we meet there after the ride?". For Space Mountain at early entry, it was walk on and the exit was right next to the entrance so I just waited there. However, for most rides, I'd walk through with them and then take the "chicken exit". I preferred this as then at least I got to see any theming in the queue plus it was less wait and I knew exactly when they got on. Sucked that I couldn't just go on with them but didn't want to risk causing any issues.

Here is a photo of People Mover while I waited. (Didn't realize until this trip that it's actually a fun ride)


My family came out after a few minutes. Kids enjoyed it. Made DH a bit motion sick.

 

[Frozen2014]

D1 - Magic Kingdom

For the rest, It'll be a mix of memory and looking at photos.
As mentioned, last time we came to Disney it was FastPass+ so we had 3 booked way before we even got on the plane. Now however, it is Genie+, which is harder to plan. I knew our priorities and knew what sold out the quickest but it was more of a "book on the fly" kind of thing.

After early hours, we headed towards Splash/Big Thunder as our kids were anxious to go on Splash Mountain, my DS's very favorite ride when we came last (at 9). DD had never been on this ride but wanted to go on it. Since we were in Tomorrowland, we walked all the way over to Frontierland, and first went on Big Thunder. This is another one I wasn't going on, but did the walkthrough this time. It's pretty good as the chicken exit is right when they get on the ride. DH didn't ride this either due to needing a rest after Space Mountain.

From there, gonna say we went on Splash Mountain. Again, Splash was another ride that I was skipping. I did the walkthrough, which also let me walk through the whole queue . What is great too is that the chicken exits end where they end so no worries of missing them when they come off. Kids love Splash Mountain. This ride is long...waiting 15 minutes each time!

The rest of the morning is a bit of a blur, but I do remember that we rode Pirates (walk on), and then I think it was time for Peter Pan. As soon as we taped in (this one has two taps), we booked a Lightning Lane for Haunted Mansion (my favourite!). We also went on It's a Small World, Buzz and Tomorrowland Speedway.

Some ride photos...
(Darn, now the "It's a Small World" song is in my head!)






One comment that I'll make is that we noticed that on this trip vs our last trip is that the rides broke down a lot! We were starting to thing that it was "us" that made them break down. DD and I love Haunted Mansion and this one broke down right at the end with "Hurry bacckk. Hurry baacck. And don't forget your death certificate" over and over and over again! Got a bit creepy.

(Another time, it broke down over the ballroom scene which was great as I always feel that I miss so much during this scene as so much is going on but then the doom buggy moves ahead).

 

[Frozen2014]

D1 - Magic Kingdom - Lunch, More Rides and Buckets of Rain!

We grabbed lunch as Cosmic Rays. They had pretty good burgers and fries (the best bacon cheeseburger according to DS). Lots of seating, easy mobile ordering, so no complaints. DD even ended up with two meals as she originally ordered chicken fingers but then she changed her mind quickly to something else. They cancelled/refunded her order but guess the kitchen didn’t get the cancellation quick enough so they said to just take both.

After lunch we made our way towards Frontierland again. I don’t remember exactly the next set of rides, but we did snag a Lightning Lane for Jungle Cruise for the evening. Think we hit rides such as Splash again, Big Thunder and Pirates. Then we had an essential stop to make…Aloha Aisle for Dole Whip! I got the standard one (It looks small in the photo but it's not). DH got the float in the pineapple juice. And DD got a coconut flavored one with a cake pop.





DS didn’t want one and was in search of another snack. He ended up with a rich pretty yummy looking chocolate shake towards Tomorrowland. Note: We were very guilty of zip-zagging at Magic Kingdom constantly going from one end to the other and back again.

We had booked another Lightning Lane for Space Mountain but then it started to rain, no not just rain, absolutely pour buckets! We made a run for Cosmic Rays as did many others. We had heard that it rains daily in Florida in the summer but stops after 5 minutes. Well, not this time. It kept going and going. Space Mountain LL got changed to an Anytime Lightning Land (not sure why it was impacted as it’s an indoor ride).

We hung out at Cosmic Rays for about an hour and then decided to put on our ponchos and make a dash for Monsters Inc. Magic Kingdom has a lot of outdoor rides which all close, but there are some indoor ones that still run. Monster's Inc is a fun show for those that haven't seen it.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. We rode Jungle Cruise at about 6ish with our Lightning Lane (bonus as wasn't expecting to get on this until our second Magic Kingdom day). The person leading it was just ok, plus it was hard to hear her so not the best ride. (We rode it a second time on our next day and much better).

We grabbed dinner at Pinocchio Village Haus. They have a really yummy flatbread.


One neat thing about this quick service is that you can grab a seat overlooking It's a Small World, and wave to the boats as they leave if you want. This inspired us too and after dinner, we went back on the ride.

After that I convinced my family to ride Winnie the Pooh. Don't think I would have convinced them if we couldn't have booked a Lightning Lane (as line was quite long otherwise) but with the LL we almost walked on. SO yes, the ride is childish, but isn't that what Disney is about? To go back to your childhood? I actually find the ride fun as it's not just a boring car on a track, but it kind of bounces about like Tigger. And lots to look at like any Disney ride...so creative!

Rest of the night included Big Thunder and multiple walk on rides for Splash Mountain for our kids. They love that one, plus it's nice for them (not us) that it's so long.

Fireworks started. We weren't at the right place to see them properly but saw some before heading out.



P.S. - I re-read my post and should clarify that I don't find any Disney rides boring. In fact, my favorites are the ones where you are in a car that goes in a track and there is just so much going on. What's nice about these too is that you can ride them again and again and see something different each time.

 

[Frozen2014]

D2- Epcot - Lots of Headliners

Monday was our Epcot day. It also was extended hours, which we were able to attend since we were staying at a Deluxe resort. So our "plan" was to not do early entry but stay from 9-11pm. ("plan" is in quotes as didn't quite turn out like that).

During my Lightning Lane studying, it seemed like Epcot would be tricky booking them since Remy, Test Track and Frozen all seemed to sell out before / or at the 2hr after park opening mark (in that order). So our plan was to book Test Track first on this day and Remy first on our second Epcot day.

So come 6:45am, we had DH put his phone on the time.gov website and at exactly 7am, DD tried to book a Guardians Boarding Group and I tried to book Test Track. DD is a whiz as she ended up getting both!


So then we got ready, grabbed a quick breakfast. DS had a classic Disney breakfast

Then today we would grab the monorail from the resort. So neat that it came right inside! (And security too was before getting on).

When we got there, we still had time before the Test Track Lightning Lane so we went on Spaceship Earth. I really like this ride. It's funny though as no matter how many times we went on it, DH's picture is always messed up. We can't figure out why.

Next we headed to Test Track and oh oh...it looks like it was broken down....ugh! So we got an Anytime Lightning Lane. Ok, no problem, we'll ride it later. But the thing is...we kept checking and checking and it was down almost the entire day! It did eventually come back up but it was close to 9pm....so at least we (minus me) got to go on it once. That was a bit disappointing as DS wanted to go on it multiple times.

On the good side, with out timing and lower crowds, we were able to book a Lightning Lane for Remy, and also later for Frozen (which also broke down!...but I'm jumping ahead a bit).

Our kids went on green colour for Mission Space. Then we headed over to the other side where we went on things like Soarin (love that ride!), Living with the Land (educational) and watched Awesome Plant. We kept checking Test Track but it still showed that it was down,

We were getting hungry so decided to look for lunch at the Food & Wine Festival. Dh got Indian, DD got some noodle dish. DS and I are a bit more picky and didn't see anything we liked. We ended up walking all the way around to France and got some kind of cheese brioche. We were going try Remy stand by but it was a long line.

We kept checking Test Track (still down) and Guradians Boarding group. It was getting closer and ended up getting called around 2:30pm. I walked through with my family so saw the queue. When they came out, DS loved it. DH was impressed but felt blah.....and DD felt blah.... But they said it was really neat.

I don't remember the full details of what was next but I do remember a few things:

• We eventually made our way to Norway to go on our Frozen Lightning Lane and that was today's time for the storm. Huge heavy rain drops again. We got through the Lightning Lane and then they announced Frozen was down. Ugh. We had to wait for a bit for them to do something so we would get an Anytime Lightning Lane. Took a bit.

• We then went to Remy (DD was nervous as Frozen and Remy LLs were back to back but we were fine with timing). What a fun ride! DD and I watched the movie the previous weekend to prepare. The ride is 3D/4D and you get the ride form the rat's perspective. I did get a little queasy afterwards but not bad and I was hoping to ride it again sometime.
  
• We made sure to go to Germany as we watched videos on best treats before coming to Disney and it had an amazing looking caramel shortbread type snack. Yum! It was too sweet for DD but she loved their caramel popcorn . (Nothing is ever too sweet in my book...lol).

• We weren't very efficient in our paths for the day and ended up going around The World 3 times in total!!!!
• These were our steps for the day...
  

Frozen did come back up so we were able to ride it. I was expecting it to be along the lines of Little Mermaid at Magic Kingdom (which I do love), but it's actually neater. It changes to backwards which we weren't expecting and it's just done really well.

We also went on Gran Fiesta while near Frozen. It's a nice boat ride type ride, but very hidden and even hard to find even when we were looking for it.