We got back last night from a fabulous vacation! We were there for 6 nights and had 5 park days. Here are my thoughts...
Animal Kingdom:
-Flight of Passage is AMAZING (it was our first time ever riding it, and it is a new FAVORITE.) Do not miss it!!!
-Rainforest Cafe is very underrated. We had dinner there and loved it. And the service was fantastic.
-The Up! Bird show is great!
Magic Kingdom:
-The cavalcades are so much fun. We got Dole Whips and sat down to watch characters go by while we ate. This was a highlight of the day! The Princess cavalcade is especially awesome.
-We had lunch at The Plaza. Our group of 6 had two separate reservations since they wouldn't allow me to make a reservation for larger than 4. But when we arrived to check in they easily sat us all together. And we had a great view of the castle and the cavalcades from our table!
-One day we were walking out of the park at 9:20pm and wanted a picture with the castle, but we couldn't find a memory maker photographer anywhere. We were bummed! So we made sure to get that picture taken the next day before closing time.
-Loved riding 7 Dwarfs Mine Train at night!
-We enjoyed our dinner at Tony's.... the food was meh (but fine). Our waiter was awesome, and our view of the Train Station was great since we could see the characters when they were up there.
Epcot:
-Loved walking through the aquarium! We didn't know it would be so awesome!
-Garden Grill was a very fun character meal. We saw the characters probably 8 times each. And the food was yummy too!
Hollywood Studios:
-The day we were there was quite busy, but we still got lots done! We hit Rock-n-Rollercoaster first, then Star Tours, then lunch, then Runaway Railway, then Toy Story Land, and then Galaxy's Edge. By the time we got to Toy Story Land (around 4:00), lines were very manageable.
-Lunch at Mama Melrose was delicious! It was one of our favorite meals.
-I posted above about my experience getting a boarding group for RoR (while I was riding Star Tours at 1pm). haha! I am so glad it worked out and that we got to ride! It was awesome!!!
-After getting called for our RoR boarding group, we waited in line for probably 35 minutes. Then once we got to the front, the experience/ride took about 25 minutes. I had no idea what to expect with the length of that, so I thought I would share!
General:
-Ride times are exaggerated, unless you are in line when a cleaning cycle happens. Then they are pretty accurate.
-Check the weather before you go! We had some chilly days while we were there and were very glad we were prepared with jackets and jeans!
-Mobile ordering is awesome. If you order and then miss your pick-up window then the app let's you pick a new pick-up time. No big deal. (This happened to us when we got in line for Pirates thinking that the wait time would be inflated, but it ended up being accurate and we were late to pick up our food.)
-We didn't rope-drop. It's just not something we are interested in, especially coming from Colorado time zone and having young kids. So we got to the parks around 11:00 each day, and stayed until close. The last 2 hours of the day were wonderful with short lines and the beauty of Disney in the dark!
-We loved that the kids' meals at each of our ADRs offered 2 sides, some of which were desserts. Our kids always chose to get the main meal item, plus 1 healthy side, plus the dessert. And the desserts were so much fun!!! They all had a fun Disneyesque theme to them and they made the meals worth the price
-We had 1 ADR on some days and 2 ADRs on other days. I think I preferred the days with 1 ADR. Less rushed and more time for the park! But having 1 ADR seemed critical for being able to sit, relax, and be served once a day. Such a nice break!
-Having a "break" day is important! We did 3 full park days, and then did a half-day with swimming in the morning, then arrived to Epcot at 4:00, did a couple rides, had our ADR, did a few more rides, and called it a night! It was really good to have some extra downtime that day, and then we were ready to hit our last day with gusto!
Coming home was hard, but I have to say.... I just feel SO GRATEFUL that we got to take this trip. The whole time I was planning it, I felt like there was a chance it might not happen. Either there would be another shut-down, or travel restrictions, or one of us would get sick, or our flights would get messed up.... etc etc etc. I was so nervous! But in the end we got to go, and now we have these amazing memories to cherish forever. I am so thankful, after this crazy year of cancellations and disappointments, that we finally got to do something so special as a family. Masks or no masks, it was 100% worth it!!!