Disneyland locals, just back from 6 days at WDW; thoughts and AK for the win!

rentayenta

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 28, 2007
First off a big THANK YOU to everyone on these boards who helped me plan our anniversary trip. We had an amazing time. We got home last night, are unpacked, laundry in, so I thought I would share a few insights with y'all. It had been nearly 6 years since our last visit.

WDW is incredible and AK is bar far the best park. Our opinion is that in order of parks its goes AK, DHS, MK, and then Epcot. Epcot needs some major updating; there is so much dead space, like so much. But lets start with the positives.

AK just WOW! I had little faith in Pandora and didn't understand how Disney made that leap and I am happy to admit I was dead wrong. Its so esthetically appealing, the entire park is aside from Dinoland (but I understand why it's there). We loved FOP and Na'vi and truth be told, I liked Na'vi more. :blush: I know this puts me in a very small if almost nonexistent minority but just wow. The vibe of the ride just hits all the good feels. Pandora at night is pure magic!

The FOP pre-show is a little too long but its truly an incredible journey. As one who can suffer from motion sickness, this ride did not affect me at all.

We dined at Tiffin's for lunch and I have to say it was overall the best meal we had on this trip. The service, ambiance, and food were all outstanding. We also dined at California Grill for brunch, Jiko for dinner, Sanaa for dinner plus some others. I ended up cancelling over half our ADRs as it was just too hot to eat a huge meal everyday. California Grill and Jiko were both fantastic and I would recommend both. Sanaa was much louder than I remember. The bread service was the star of the meal.

BoG for lunch was a minor let down. We ordered the French Dip, French onion soup, and grey stuff cupcake. This was a one and done for us. I didn't find the food any better than Pecos Bills or Columbia Harbor House. Glad we got to see the inside though and worth the $30.

Toy Story Land is adorable and SDD is a fun little coaster; DH liked it better than 7DMT. Once Galaxy's Edge opens, it'll be a tie between DHS and AK for best park. 6 years ago DHS was my least favorite park and now its second in line. ToT and RnR were as fun as I remembered!

MK is a good park but we are local to Disneyland and Disneyland has my heart. Having said that, the wide walkways at MK are soooo nice. Splash is so much better at WDW too. We also rode POTC (superior at DL), 7DMT, Mickey's Philharmagic, and the PeopleMover.

Epcot. Club 33 is incredible! We were treated to a lovely anniversary celebration. If you have the chance GO!

Epcot. The countries need updating..... to me anyway. Almost an entire store for perfume, teas, etc? With Amazon and access to everything, it seems like some of the spaces could use a facelift. We did spend a lot of time at Rose and Crown and met some really fun people! The drinks were really good and we had a wonderful afternoon.

The heat: I am spoiled living in Southern California. That is all. :faint: There was a super brief storm daily and somehow we missed every single one of them. pixiedust:

Bagless entry: the only way to go! We did this twice but the bag check lines were not all that bad on the days we brought bags.

Transportation. We stayed at AKL/V and didn't have any transportation issues. One morning in fact, we made a total newbie mistake. We hopped the MK bus for Epcot. :blush: Our bus driver was an angel and found someone to drive us to Epcot. We encountered really kind CMs the entire trip. Our servers were all outstanding!

In addition to the already mentioned we dined at Mara (QS at AKL/V), ordered room service one evening for a late dinner after our Epcot day (read day drinking), we snacked around AK and tried those siracha fries. OMG so good. We had our share of Mickey pretzels, cocktails, and frozen Cokes. We brought our own coffee for the room and bought creamer and donuts from the store at AKL/V. In Disney Springs we went to Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar, what a fun concept! Disney Springs overall was just okay but probably because I am not a big shopper. We tried the turkey breakfast sandwich at Woody's Lunchbox and it was really nice; much better than I expected for a QS sandwich. It was also big enough to share.

We took tons of Photopass pictures and I love just how many photo ops there are.

Refresh needs its own chapter in the bible. :woohoo: For reals; it worked a like a charm. We picked up Na'vi that way, twice. It does require having your face in your phone though.



Overall we had an incredible anniversary trip. I am happy to answer any questions. :thanks:
 
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Yay! So glad to hear/read that you had a great trip! Yes, there's no comparison to the weather out in DL, perfect temp and I really don't think I ever saw a cloud. lol
 
Great writeup. I just got back last week and I had the same issues with eating and the heat. I just didn't get to try all the snacks and dining that I wanted to because the heat just took it out of me. I managed to gain about 5 lbs anyway.
 


Yay! So glad to hear/read that you had a great trip! Yes, there's no comparison to the weather out in DL, perfect temp and I really don't think I ever saw a cloud. lol

Thank you! I know, our weather is unparalleled. :cloud9:


I’m so glad your anniversary trip was so successful!


:thanks: It was so much fun. We are pretty tired today though. One day I got 23,000 steps. :faint:

Great writeup. I just got back last week and I had the same issues with eating and the heat. I just didn't get to try all the snacks and dining that I wanted to because the heat just took it out of me. I managed to gain about 5 lbs anyway.


I stepped on the scale today and its 3 lbs up. LOL. We cancelled so many places we wanted to try but after day 2, we were just stuffed and felt that way the entire time. We did drink a ton of water though.
 
Happy to hear of your awesome visit! I'm a Disneyland local too, and agree that Animal Kingdom is my favorite WDW park. It's the most new and fresh, and amazingly well themed. And it has some amazing food too.

Just to not gloss over this, you got to eat at Club 33 at Epcot? I never got to step into Club 33 even in my days as a DL CM -- and might never -- so that must be incredibly special.

I'm assuming they used the space formerly occupied by the Chase lounge during Food & Wine. Are you members of Club 33 from Disneyland? How was the food and the atmosphere?
 


So weird this thread got moved. I see mini reports and thanks all the time in the theme park section. Oh well. :upsidedow


Happy to hear of your awesome visit! I'm a Disneyland local too, and agree that Animal Kingdom is my favorite WDW park. It's the most new and fresh, and amazingly well themed. And it has some amazing food too.

Just to not gloss over this, you got to eat at Club 33 at Epcot? I never got to step into Club 33 even in my days as a DL CM -- and might never -- so that must be incredibly special.

I'm assuming they used the space formerly occupied by the Chase lounge during Food & Wine. Are you members of Club 33 from Disneyland? How was the food and the atmosphere?


Yes, I didn't mean to gloss over but Club 33 was amazing! ::yes:: It occupies the old Chase Lounge which I am unfamiliar with. This Club, unlike Disneyland's Club is very strict on the sharing of photo/details. We are not members of either Club 33. I like Disneyland's better but again, like most locals, I am partial to most everything Land v World.

AK is out of this world! Out of 6 days, we visited AK 3x. :blush: We just couldn't get enough. I agree about the food!

Me too. Disneyland is my "home" park and Animal Kingdom is my favorite WDW park. I enjoyed reading about your trip.


:thanks: I wish we could have an AK on this coast but goodness knows we don't have the room. LOL! Or the climate.
 
Glad you enjoyed your trip so much and I'm very happy you loved Tiffins!! It quickly became our favorite signature after our first visit. I love Epcot and enjoy the countries, some more than others, but I won't disagree that some need.....work. Change. Something :) Hopefully it's coming down the line and us Epcot fans won't be disappointed!

Also Happy Belated Anniversary :goodvibes
 
Sounds like a wonderful anniversary trip! Glad you enjoyed it!


It was a fabulous trip, thank you! I feel sort of lost now without a WDW trip to plan.

Glad you enjoyed your trip so much and I'm very happy you loved Tiffins!! It quickly became our favorite signature after our first visit. I love Epcot and enjoy the countries, some more than others, but I won't disagree that some need.....work. Change. Something :) Hopefully it's coming down the line and us Epcot fans won't be disappointed!

Also Happy Belated Anniversary :goodvibes

Thank you! :cutie:

Tiffin's was incredible and I am so glad we tried it. It was hardly on my radar, then off, then totally on. I highly recommend it. It was not only a lovely meal in a beautiful setting but also a terrific park break!

::yes:: I hope they make some changes to Epcot as well. There was some construction going on but not sure for what.

Happy belated anniversary! As a fellow Disneyland local, I love reading about visits to WDW. :)

It was a blast and I loved all the planning. I feel mildly ripped off, but would be a fool to admit it, living less than 10 miles from DL, with regards to lack of a need for planning. ;) Thank you for the anniversary wishes!
 
First off a big THANK YOU to everyone on these boards who helped me plan our anniversary trip. We had an amazing time. We got home last night, are unpacked, laundry in, so I thought I would share a few insights with y'all. It had been nearly 6 years since our last visit.

WDW is incredible and AK is bar far the best park. Our opinion is that in order of parks its goes AK, DHS, MK, and then Epcot. Epcot needs some major updating; there is so much dead space, like so much. But lets start with the positives.

AK just WOW! I had little faith in Pandora and didn't understand how Disney made that leap and I am happy to admit I was dead wrong. Its so esthetically appealing, the entire park is aside from Dinoland (but I understand why it's there). We loved FOP and Na'vi and truth be told, I liked Na'vi more. :blush: I know this puts me in a very small if almost nonexistent minority but just wow. The vibe of the ride just hits all the good feels. Pandora at night is pure magic!

The FOP pre-show is a little too long but its truly an incredible journey. As one who can suffer from motion sickness, this ride did not affect me at all.

We dined at Tiffin's for lunch and I have to say it was overall the best meal we had on this trip. The service, ambiance, and food were all outstanding. We also dined at California Grill for brunch, Jiko for dinner, Sanaa for dinner plus some others. I ended up cancelling over half our ADRs as it was just too hot to eat a huge meal everyday. California Grill and Jiko were both fantastic and I would recommend both. Sanaa was much louder than I remember. The bread service was the star of the meal.

BoG for lunch was a minor let down. We ordered the French Dip, French onion soup, and grey stuff cupcake. This was a one and done for us. I didn't find the food any better than Pecos Bills or Columbia Harbor House. Glad we got to see the inside though and worth the $30.

Toy Story Land is adorable and SDD is a fun little coaster; DH liked it better than 7DMT. Once Galaxy's Edge opens, it'll be a tie between DHS and AK for best park. 6 years ago DHS was my least favorite park and now its second in line. ToT and RnR were as fun as I remembered!

MK is a good park but we are local to Disneyland and Disneyland has my heart. Having said that, the wide walkways at MK are soooo nice. Splash is so much better at WDW too. We also rode POTC (superior at DL), 7DMT, Mickey's Philharmagic, and the PeopleMover.

Epcot. Club 33 is incredible! We were treated to a lovely anniversary celebration. If you have the chance GO!

Epcot. The countries need updating..... to me anyway. Almost an entire store for perfume, teas, etc? With Amazon and access to everything, it seems like some of the spaces could use a facelift. We did spend a lot of time at Rose and Crown and met some really fun people! The drinks were really good and we had a wonderful afternoon.

The heat: I am spoiled living in Southern California. That is all. :faint: There was a super brief storm daily and somehow we missed every single one of them. pixiedust:

Bagless entry: the only way to go! We did this twice but the bag check lines were not all that bad on the days we brought bags.

Transportation. We stayed at AKL/V and didn't have any transportation issues. One morning in fact, we made a total newbie mistake. We hopped the MK bus for Epcot. :blush: Our bus driver was an angel and found someone to drive us to Epcot. We encountered really kind CMs the entire trip. Our servers were all outstanding!

In addition to the already mentioned we dined at Mara (QS at AKL/V), ordered room service one evening for a late dinner after our Epcot day (read day drinking), we snacked around AK and tried those siracha fries. OMG so good. We had our share of Mickey pretzels, cocktails, and frozen Cokes. We brought our own coffee for the room and bought creamer and donuts from the store at AKL/V. In Disney Springs we went to Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar, what a fun concept! Disney Springs overall was just okay but probably because I am not a big shopper. We tried the turkey breakfast sandwich at Woody's Lunchbox and it was really nice; much better than I expected for a QS sandwich. It was also big enough to share.

We took tons of Photopass pictures and I love just how many photo ops there are.

Refresh needs its own chapter in the bible. :woohoo: For reals; it worked a like a charm. We picked up Na'vi that way, twice. It does require having your face in your phone though.



Overall we had an incredible anniversary trip. I am happy to answer any questions. :thanks:

Outstanding overview, thanks! We just returned on Aug 8th.....although I disagree with your park rankings your post was still superb!!! [Huge SW fans here so DHS is #1, we did not like AK at all....oh well...]
 
As a Disneyland local, I agree about Magic Kingdom - before they redid FL it was bleak.

You said you brought coffee for the room? Did you bring your own coffeemaker?


::yes:: We brought Israeli instant coffee. It puts most coffee maker coffee to shame. We get it from Amazon. Its amazing and smooth. We bought half and half from the gift shop and used the sugar/sweetener from the in room coffee packets. Our Israeli friend introduced us to it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JNSP316/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



Outstanding overview, thanks! We just returned on Aug 8th.....although I disagree with your park rankings your post was still superb!!! [Huge SW fans here so DHS is #1, we did not like AK at all....oh well...]


Thanks! We had such a great time. DHS will be DH's #1 once Galaxy's Edge open up. How was your trip? Sounds like we missed some pretty heavy storms; did you get hit with those?


Thanks for the writeup. I enjoyed seeing your pictures on Instagram! It's been far too long since I've been to AKL.



Thanks! Good to see yours too; Hawaii is a bucket list for me. I think I am the only adult reaching 50 who's never been. LOL! Michael needs to fix that stat! ;)
 
Thanks! Good to see yours too; Hawaii is a bucket list for me. I think I am the only adult reaching 50 who's never been. LOL! Michael needs to fix that stat! ;)

The only problem is, once you visit it doesn't come off of the bucket list -- you want to go again! :laughing: We had a blast!
 
The only problem is, once you visit it doesn't come off of the bucket list -- you want to go again! :laughing: We had a blast!


I can only imagine; it looked amazing! I have enough points for a June stay at Aulani but the flights are downright outrageous! :faint: Its either there or another trip to WDW. I hate having nothing to plan. :hyper:
 
I can only imagine; it looked amazing! I have enough points for a June stay at Aulani but the flights are downright outrageous! :faint: Its either there or another trip to WDW. I hate having nothing to plan. :hyper:

Airfare is expensive, but it is a bucket list item...:scratchin
 
Why hello. Animal Kingdom has been my favorite park since it opened. AKL/V also one of my favorite resorts, although I just stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and for a moderate resort, I was very impressed. Hope all is well with you. I miss Southern California occasionally...:)
 

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