Hey all, I wrote some of this during the trip and some when I got back. Sorry for any mistakes in advance, I dictated some of it and boy did my words come out wrong sometimes. I looked for trip reports and may have just missed them. Mods, feel free to move it if needed.
Saturday March 26
I traveled with my husband and daughter (9).
We stayed at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee. It's a huge hotel with multiple water slides and pools. I would've preferred to stay on property but we were tagging along for my husband's conference and it was located here. Our rooms was just okay, it had multiple things left around that makes me think it wasn't cleaned properly. We don't spent a lot of time in the room so we cleaned up some of the grosser things and went about our week.
Animal Kingdom - Sunday, March 27
We Ubered to the park today because we missed the shuttle due to sleeping in. The time change from West Coast hit us a little bit. The drive was quick and there were no lines to get in at about 11:00.
This park is incredible, I had no idea what to expect here. To me it was like the most incredible zoo I've ever been to. We rode Flight of Passage, Na'vi River Journey, Dinosaur, The Safari and watched It's Tough to be a Bug, saw all of the animals and then the rest of my group road Flight of Passage again. We ate at Rainforest Cafe, it was just okay food as usual, my husband and I ate at the one years ago in Downtown Disney in California. My 9-year-old daughter loved the theming and enjoyed her pizza.
Magic Kingdom - Monday, March 28th
We caught the complimentary shuttle from the hotel today to the park. I was very surprised that you're not dropped off at the park. Obviously I missed out on some research when I was looking at transportation. We left our hotel at 10:15 a.m. and got to the park gate at 11:15 a.m. The bus did a drop off at Disney Springs prior to taking us to Magic Kingdom. I was also surprised to learn you have to take a monorail or a ferry to the park once you got dropped off at the parking lot, definitely my fault for not researching well. Very dramatic and fun to ride the ferry and see that Castle getting bigger as you go to it.
Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion is better than
Disneyland in my opinion. Jungle Cruise and Peter Pan are also better at Magic Kingdom. Again this is just my opinion. Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland definitely trumps the one at Magic Kingdom. We loved Seven Dwarfs Mine Train so much that my husband and daughter went on a second time at the end of the night. Country Bear Jamboree was so much fun, I saw that show when I was nine and I don't know if that is the same show. The one I saw was in Disneyland possibly were Hungry Bear is now?
We ate at Cinderella's Royal Table and oh my gosh it was worth every penny. We were sat at a window table so we had a view of fantasyland. My daughter and I each had the tenderloin both were incredible. I did not have high hopes for the food here and was only going for the experience. We will definitely do that again. I would have loved to have tried some flights of wine but it was just too darn hot outside to drink.
We ate at Plaza Inn for dinner and it was nothing special. They were really far behind so we waited long after our reservation time. The food was just mediocre and I didn't get part of my meal. Waitress was really nice and took the missing food off the bill of course.
We closed the park down this night and had such a great time. We rode Seven Dwarfs Mine Train twice, the Barnstormer twice, Peter Pan, Ariel, Small World, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates twice, watched Country Bear Jamboree, rode the carousel, and Winnie the Pooh.
Hollywood Studios - Tuesday, March 29th
We swam in the morning so we got to Hollywood Studios at 1:15. We did Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, Slinky Dog Dash, Toy Story Midway Mania and watched Frozen. We were gone by 4 after some shopping. I don't love this park. It could have been that it was scorching hot and we encountered our first, and only, unfriendly people of the trip but it had a weird vibe there.
After leaving early we went back to our hotel, met up with my husband and then headed over to Disney Springs. We ate an incredible meal at the Boathouse and will definitely be eating here again. I get stuck on restaurants but I really like and this could be one the next time we come back. Although there were so many restaurants that I did want to try perhaps we won't. I got a steak and shared it with my daughter. We ordered mac and cheese on the side and it was really good., She also had the 50th cupcake and declared it the best one of the trip. My husband had a few oysters and the mini shrimp boil. He loved both. Our waitress was excellent! We had so many great waiters and waitresses on this trip. We didn't encounter any unfriendly cast members either.
Magic Kingdom - Wednesday, March 30th
We went back to Magic Kingdom today. It was very hot but we were able to go on a ton of rides. This park and Animal Kingdom to me have the most shade. We ate at Steakhouse 71 for dinner and it was excellent. The only issue is they were running really far behind on reservations. We continued to run into this, one thing I noticed while we waited for tables We had reservations for was the amount of people who came and said sorry for being late, one lady said sorry for being an hour late to her reservation. It really sets things back for the people who can consistently show up on time. We all three had the New York strip, I had a bowl of french onion soup, some of the best I ever had, before dinner. My daughter had french fries as her side. I also had Mac and cheese. My husband had the au gratin potatoes and I really wish I would have gotten those instead.
After dinner we could only do Haunted Mansion and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train again, we had to skip our Jungle Cruise plan because we ended up getting off of Haunted Mansion at 10:59 and the park closed at 11. I opted out of Seven Dwarfs maintain as I had had a few glasses of wine with my dinner.
It was our last day at Magic Kingdom so we walked out real slow right at closing and just took it all in. I don't want to sound like I'm hating on DLR but man the castle here is so much more majestic. Disneyland will always be my first love but wow Disney World is putting that to the test.
Epcot - Thursday, March 31st
Epcot is my new favorite park here. We loved Ratatouille and Frozen. We ate croissants, and eclairs, and a ham and cheese sandwich, had a mint infused tea in Morocco that was extremely refreshing. My husband tried a few beers and had a margarita. We ate lunch at La Cantina de San Angel and it was awful. We had the nachos and the chips were so stale, it was not white nacho cheese but instead was just run of the mill orange cheese that had no flavor. We also had fresh caramel popcorn and a caramel apple from the Werther's store.
We had dinner at Via Napoli and it was excellent. We ordered the 20 inch pizza and it was so big was falling off the pan. Really good flavor. I had the caprese salad and my husband had the calamari we both had glasses of wine and they were excellent.
We walked around and around here just exploring the countries. Didn't do a ton of rides, Frozen x 3 because my daughter was obsessed, Ratatouille, Living with the Land, Soarin, the Three Caballeros, Test Track, and I think that's it. I told my daughter this was my day and I wanted to wander.n
Hollywood Studios - Friday, April 1st
Today'says trip to Hollywood Studios was much better. I may have been quick to judge this park before. Even though it was very hot and humid we got a ton done and had a great day. We did Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway twice, Tower of Terror twice, Slinky Dog Dash, Toy Story Midway Mania twice, watched Beauty and the Beast, watched the Frozen show, and my husband did Rock and Roller coaster.
We ate at Hollywood Brown Derby for dinner. I got the Cobb salad it was as good as I hoped, my daughter got the kids filet and she said it was the best steak she's ever had, we ordered it rare and it actually came rare. You could cut it with a fork. My husband got the scallops and shrimp and the sherry cream sauce was incredible. I would definitely get that next time. The rolls were so good we used the leftovers to eat the sauce from my husband's dish.
Day of our flight home - Saturday, April 2nd
This is our last day and we are spending it at the water park at the hotel before our flight. I think I count six water slides, a lazy river, a nice long deep pool, and then a shallower pool with basketball hoops and fun things for kids. They also have one of those Flo Riser things that you can surf on for an additional fee. We paid for late check out and it was totally worth it to be able to shower and get ready before our long flight home.
Recap
We're home now and freezing of course. It was 40 degrees last night when we got off the plane in Seattle. I am already planning a trip back but with staying on property. I want more days so that we can rest between, six straight days was tough for me. Without these boards I never would have been able to do halfnod the things we did.
My favorite park is definitely Epcot followed by Animal Kingdom. Of course the two parks I only reserved for one day each. I don't think there would be a time where we park hopped, the distance between parks was no joke. People talk about it here but coming from DLR and being able to just walk quickly back and forth, it was something I needed to see to believe.
I loved how much room there was in each park. It didn't feel as crowded to me because there is was room to walk around people.
One question, where are the churros and churro toffee? I was so bummed that there aren't the long, fresh churros like we have in DLR in every land. Also churro toffee is my very favorite treat so I missed that.
We had such a great time and fell in love with Disney World. Also Florida in general. What a beautiful area, next time we'll go out exploring more and hit up a beach for a day. We can't wait to go back!