mla973
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2004
Setting the stage: Fifth trip as a family. Me: 37, DH: 37, DS: 6
(I did two semesters as a DCP and this was my 27th trip to WDW. I think I know everything.
)
Resort:
We stayed six nights in a savannah view studio at Animal Kingdom Lodge on the Kidani Village side. This was our third time at AKL. It is a gorgeous resort with a lot of unique features. This trip, we found the bus system to be efficient. Some feel the resort is 'too far out' but we didn't feel that way last week. We did enjoy the addition of Sanaa as a CS option, so as to avoid walking to The Mara for breakfast; however the meals were smaller than The Mara's offerings. The kids' meals were also the same price, but did not include a drink (as they do at The Mara). So, convenient but not as good of a value.
Parks:
We purchased a 5 day ticket (no hopping) and visited MK, EC, DAK, DHS and MK, in that order. We lucked out with zero rain all week, which helped us keep up our plans. We had FastPasses booked for each park, but I'm not sure I made the best choices (it's tough to know what's going to be busy 60 days beforehand). We were able to ride nearly everything we wanted, with the exception of SDMT at MK, since the wait times were too long for us to wait (45+ all day long). We found the crowds easily manageable except for the last MK day, but perhaps that's because it was EMH AM.
We went to Epcot during the Festival of the Arts and found it a great new addition to the park's events. We didn't partake in any classes or any festival food, but our son loved the painting scavenger hunt and the KidCot artist palette sheet. We were able to catch a great seat at the America Gardens Theater for the Broadway song performances. That was fantastic.
The new Once Upon a Dream show at Cinderella Castle was the best show/attraction of the trip. It was great technology, but also nice music and a bit of fireworks. It was only once of several things we did twice.
Side note on Disney Springs:
As someone who has spent a lot of time at WDW, and Downtown Disney, I am a little bummed that my once beloved shopping and dining mecca now looks like a high end mall. A very nice high end mall, but one that I could find anywhere in any city in the country. I also dislike the bussing service to Disney Springs. There is one drop-off point, and there is A TON of walking to get to either side. No more quick trips to pick up that one last souvenir at WoD. This is a several hour trip, at least, given the size of the area.
Food:
I forgot how expensive WDW food was until this week! We kept costs down by sharing larger entrees and drinks. In some cases, the kids' meals were fabulous deals compared to adult meals. We only ate at three TS restaurants: Via Napoli, Sci Fi Drive In and the new Planet Hollywood Observatory. I felt the servers were all bummed when we mentioned we weren't on the dining plan. Via Napoli was good, per usual, but the service was only okay as we just ordered drinks and pizza. Sci Fi was very good (but definitely priced hi for the atmosphere). We ate at PHO on it's second full day of opening. We like American-style food, and this did not disappoint. The mac-n-cheese burger by Guy Fieri was the best thing we ate all week!
CS top picks were Yak and Yeti and the flatbread pizza at The Mara at AKL.
Observations:
1. I have never before noticed so many dogs with guests. And not large service dogs, but little dogs like a corgi and a chihuahua. Once on Peter Pan, a guest walked her dog to a crate at the ride's exit, then got on the attraction, and a CM stayed with her dog (in the crate) until she exited the ride. I best we saw a dozen smaller dogs throughout the week; some being carried (or riding a Scooter) and some on leashes.
2. Pin trading is still going in full force. Many of the refreshment carts at DAK had pin boards, and many of the resorts and stores do as well. We saw a lot of kids and adults trading, and we had a lot of fun doing so too. I did not notice any vinylmation trading, and the vinyl merch selection was quite limited. We did receive fake pins from CMs when trading. (To us, that's okay, but wanted to share in case others are expecting to receive only authentic pins.)
3. Why is it the last person to arrive at the bus stop thinks they need to be the first person on? My son asked more than once why people were pushing and cutting. If a six-year-old notices, it's probably time to reevaluate behaviors.
Tips:
1. During MK EMH, Adventureland and Frontierland are not open. We didn't know and it wrecked our day's plans. So, if you're going early to MK, try for Fantasyland or Tomorrowland attractions and FastPasses.
2. Ask at merchandise locations with a lot of pins if they have a pin trading board. AKL has a 'pin drum' at each front desk, and some other areas within the parks have creative ways of displaying multiple pins for use.
3. Put down your phone.
Just enjoy the attraction. It's not likely that you'll watch it over and over on your phone in the future anyway.
4. The waits to see characters were typically 30+ minutes at every park. If you really want to see them, catch a show, or get a FastPass.
5. The Frozen sing-along show at DHS was one of my favorite things during the trip. The two 'hosts' were hilarious, with clean, adult-minded humor that really carried the show between songs.
I'm happy to answer any questions. I'll post some highlight photos below.
(I did two semesters as a DCP and this was my 27th trip to WDW. I think I know everything.
) Resort:
We stayed six nights in a savannah view studio at Animal Kingdom Lodge on the Kidani Village side. This was our third time at AKL. It is a gorgeous resort with a lot of unique features. This trip, we found the bus system to be efficient. Some feel the resort is 'too far out' but we didn't feel that way last week. We did enjoy the addition of Sanaa as a CS option, so as to avoid walking to The Mara for breakfast; however the meals were smaller than The Mara's offerings. The kids' meals were also the same price, but did not include a drink (as they do at The Mara). So, convenient but not as good of a value.
Parks:
We purchased a 5 day ticket (no hopping) and visited MK, EC, DAK, DHS and MK, in that order. We lucked out with zero rain all week, which helped us keep up our plans. We had FastPasses booked for each park, but I'm not sure I made the best choices (it's tough to know what's going to be busy 60 days beforehand). We were able to ride nearly everything we wanted, with the exception of SDMT at MK, since the wait times were too long for us to wait (45+ all day long). We found the crowds easily manageable except for the last MK day, but perhaps that's because it was EMH AM.
We went to Epcot during the Festival of the Arts and found it a great new addition to the park's events. We didn't partake in any classes or any festival food, but our son loved the painting scavenger hunt and the KidCot artist palette sheet. We were able to catch a great seat at the America Gardens Theater for the Broadway song performances. That was fantastic.
The new Once Upon a Dream show at Cinderella Castle was the best show/attraction of the trip. It was great technology, but also nice music and a bit of fireworks. It was only once of several things we did twice.
Side note on Disney Springs:
As someone who has spent a lot of time at WDW, and Downtown Disney, I am a little bummed that my once beloved shopping and dining mecca now looks like a high end mall. A very nice high end mall, but one that I could find anywhere in any city in the country. I also dislike the bussing service to Disney Springs. There is one drop-off point, and there is A TON of walking to get to either side. No more quick trips to pick up that one last souvenir at WoD. This is a several hour trip, at least, given the size of the area.
Food:
I forgot how expensive WDW food was until this week! We kept costs down by sharing larger entrees and drinks. In some cases, the kids' meals were fabulous deals compared to adult meals. We only ate at three TS restaurants: Via Napoli, Sci Fi Drive In and the new Planet Hollywood Observatory. I felt the servers were all bummed when we mentioned we weren't on the dining plan. Via Napoli was good, per usual, but the service was only okay as we just ordered drinks and pizza. Sci Fi was very good (but definitely priced hi for the atmosphere). We ate at PHO on it's second full day of opening. We like American-style food, and this did not disappoint. The mac-n-cheese burger by Guy Fieri was the best thing we ate all week!
CS top picks were Yak and Yeti and the flatbread pizza at The Mara at AKL.
Observations:
1. I have never before noticed so many dogs with guests. And not large service dogs, but little dogs like a corgi and a chihuahua. Once on Peter Pan, a guest walked her dog to a crate at the ride's exit, then got on the attraction, and a CM stayed with her dog (in the crate) until she exited the ride. I best we saw a dozen smaller dogs throughout the week; some being carried (or riding a Scooter) and some on leashes.
2. Pin trading is still going in full force. Many of the refreshment carts at DAK had pin boards, and many of the resorts and stores do as well. We saw a lot of kids and adults trading, and we had a lot of fun doing so too. I did not notice any vinylmation trading, and the vinyl merch selection was quite limited. We did receive fake pins from CMs when trading. (To us, that's okay, but wanted to share in case others are expecting to receive only authentic pins.)
3. Why is it the last person to arrive at the bus stop thinks they need to be the first person on? My son asked more than once why people were pushing and cutting. If a six-year-old notices, it's probably time to reevaluate behaviors.
Tips:
1. During MK EMH, Adventureland and Frontierland are not open. We didn't know and it wrecked our day's plans. So, if you're going early to MK, try for Fantasyland or Tomorrowland attractions and FastPasses.
2. Ask at merchandise locations with a lot of pins if they have a pin trading board. AKL has a 'pin drum' at each front desk, and some other areas within the parks have creative ways of displaying multiple pins for use.
3. Put down your phone.
Just enjoy the attraction. It's not likely that you'll watch it over and over on your phone in the future anyway. 4. The waits to see characters were typically 30+ minutes at every park. If you really want to see them, catch a show, or get a FastPass.
5. The Frozen sing-along show at DHS was one of my favorite things during the trip. The two 'hosts' were hilarious, with clean, adult-minded humor that really carried the show between songs.
I'm happy to answer any questions. I'll post some highlight photos below.
