maranara
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2006
We got home last night from my DD's (7) first ever trip to Disney! We had a phenomenal week - thank you to everyone who answered all my ridiculous questions as we planned it! Some thoughts to share...
We stayed at AKL. It was AMAZING. I'm pretty bummed this morning to not be waking up to giraffes out my window. It was perfect for our family. Very quiet and relaxing, we loved Boma and the Mara (we ate most of our dinners there), and the animal experience made us really feel like we were on vacation. Side note: people complain about how far away from the parks AKL is. It wasn't. Maybe we're so used to DC area traffic, but every bus trip seemed quick.
We didn't have a good sense of Disney crowds until we were there. A few of our days were considered a 1 for crowd-levels. So we were expecting to walk right onto rides. Ummm....NO. Some rides we did walk right on to, but most there was a wait. The popular rides (and even some of the smaller rides) had long (to us) waits. And the walkways through the park were hard to navigate. It has nothing to do with Disney - it's just that our expectations of a low crowd day vs. what an actual low crowd day were very different. I don't know how people do it when it's actually crowded. Or in the summer. Some of the lines are in the direct sun...July and August must be BRUTAL. Anyways, fast passes were our friend. It's our first time using them, and there's definitely a learning curve to getting same-day FPs. I was able to do it all but one day (and, to be fair, I didn't try the last day...we were done with rides and just wanted to walk around World Showcase), but I never figured out how to get more than a couple more. One of our MK days (a crowd level 2) I tried to get another one around 5 and it said that all FPs were assigned for the day. Maybe I should have refreshed a few more times, but it was fine. We did see some huge tour groups - both international and big groups of cheerleaders/dance team girls. The international groups were better behaved then the US teenagers. In fact, the few times we saw bad behavior (line cutting, littering, leaving a bathroom stall a mess) it was always Americans. I had read about South American tour groups and chanting but I didn't see any of that. DID see the cheerleaders chanting. And being loud. And generally unaware that there were young kids around them.
Being flexible with plans was the most important part of our trip. We found out on day 2 that my daughter was scared of some of the rides she was most excited for. Sobbed after Space Mountain. So we had to regroup. Changed out some FPs, skipped some rides we thought we would do. I'm just glad we figured out what scared her before we spent 10 minutes on Pirates.
(it was the dark that scared her, not the ride - she loved Thunder Mountain so much we rode 3 times) We also found out that DD was NOT interested in shows (kind of a bummer for me since I wanted to see a few) but was ALL ABOUT THE CHARACTERS. We joked before the trip that we would be waiting in every character line that Disney had to offer, and that truly is how we spent a lot of our trip. Counted the pics on the plane home...we met 53 different characters. That's right, 53. And that doesn't count the ones we met 2 or 3 times. The subscription to Kenny the Pirate's site was worth every penny if your kid is into characters. Some of the lines were really long - we waited 45 minutes for Pooh and Tigger - but DD was really focused on meeting them all. The click-top sharpie was perfect for autographs and I'm glad we got Memory Maker so we have all the pictures now. Was surprised by how many adults were in line to get autographs and chat with characters. We waited a LONG time Saturday for a couple who had about a million things to discuss with Belle - to the point that the rest of the line was discussing what was happening.
Getting to the park for RD each day was huge. We were able to choose something each morning to ride without a line...at Epcot we did Soarin' both mornings (and the first day also met Joy & Sadness and Baymax before Soarin'), Thunder Mountain/meeting princesses at MK, Toy Story at HS, and Safari at AK. That first hour each day was really wonderful.
We did EMM in Fantasyland on Tuesday. I'm torn about whether it was a good value. We rode Pooh first...which terrified my daughter. She LOVES the original Pooh movie, but somehow seeing the Heffalumps that large was too scary. And Mine Train was down most of our EMM hour. So that just left Peter Pan and the carousel. We did get to use our wrist bands for all 3 rides as FPs until noon, but we did have to wait each time (a short wait, but still, a wait) and it messed up our morning plans since we had planned on moving on by 9:30 but that's when we were back riding Mine Train. We did get to ride it 4 times, which is more then most people do, but Disney really needs a better plan if Mine Train is going to be down for EMM. It seems like it happens at least once or twice a month during EMM...you would think that they would know to come in early on those days to be sure it's up and running. It was a lot of money to not get to ride it. Not sure I would do it again unless it's running more consistently.
We had 2 days at Epcot and still didn't really do much of the Festival of the Arts. DD liked painting the mural and I tried one of the specialty coffee drinks but that was about it. I don't think I would go back to Epcot on the weekend, especially not with young kids. It smelled like a frat party - everywhere we looked were big groups of drinkers at various stages of drunkenness. We were behind one group waiting to get our passport stamped who literally asked my 7 year old if she was doing a shot in every country like they were. I was also surprised by the lines for food and drink on Saturday, and not just for the Festival of the Arts booths. Was very happy for our Chefs de France reservation and we had dinner back at AKL. Our plan was to snack around the world - no way we could have done that on Saturday without spending our day in line.
Even with 6 days in the parks (2 at Epcot and MK and 1 at DHS and AK) there was a lot in each park we didn't do. There's just too much. It's ok - we'll be back in a few years. I can also see how people prefer going when the hours are longer. I was surprised by how fast our days went - each day it would be 11 and then all of a sudden it was 3 or 4. We never made it back to the resort for a mid-day break, but since we weren't at the parks late at night it was ok.
Some highlights of our trip...at Epcot we loved Frozen Ever After, Soarin', and Test Track. We bought my daughter a passport and she really liked getting it stamped in each country. We also LOVED our Garden Grill dinner. Good food and fabulous character interaction. They kept coming around...we're good friends with Chip and Dale at this point.
At MK we loved Mine Train and Big Thunder Mountain. And Splash Mountain was awesome too. We also really liked Monsters Laugh Floor. Somehow I was picked to talk to one of the monsters (I was sitting on the aisle in the middle of the theater) which made my DD SO happy. We also LOVED our dinner at Be Our Guest. Definitely the best meal of our trip. At DHS we loved Jedi Training and Toy Story. We ended up riding it 3 times - could have ridden it more if we had more time! At AK we loved the safari and my DD was obsessed with Wilderness Explorers. I wish they did the badges past 5...she could have kept going for sure. Other random thing we loved was the Discovery Island Carnivale. Dancing as a family at the party was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.
We stayed at AKL. It was AMAZING. I'm pretty bummed this morning to not be waking up to giraffes out my window. It was perfect for our family. Very quiet and relaxing, we loved Boma and the Mara (we ate most of our dinners there), and the animal experience made us really feel like we were on vacation. Side note: people complain about how far away from the parks AKL is. It wasn't. Maybe we're so used to DC area traffic, but every bus trip seemed quick.
We didn't have a good sense of Disney crowds until we were there. A few of our days were considered a 1 for crowd-levels. So we were expecting to walk right onto rides. Ummm....NO. Some rides we did walk right on to, but most there was a wait. The popular rides (and even some of the smaller rides) had long (to us) waits. And the walkways through the park were hard to navigate. It has nothing to do with Disney - it's just that our expectations of a low crowd day vs. what an actual low crowd day were very different. I don't know how people do it when it's actually crowded. Or in the summer. Some of the lines are in the direct sun...July and August must be BRUTAL. Anyways, fast passes were our friend. It's our first time using them, and there's definitely a learning curve to getting same-day FPs. I was able to do it all but one day (and, to be fair, I didn't try the last day...we were done with rides and just wanted to walk around World Showcase), but I never figured out how to get more than a couple more. One of our MK days (a crowd level 2) I tried to get another one around 5 and it said that all FPs were assigned for the day. Maybe I should have refreshed a few more times, but it was fine. We did see some huge tour groups - both international and big groups of cheerleaders/dance team girls. The international groups were better behaved then the US teenagers. In fact, the few times we saw bad behavior (line cutting, littering, leaving a bathroom stall a mess) it was always Americans. I had read about South American tour groups and chanting but I didn't see any of that. DID see the cheerleaders chanting. And being loud. And generally unaware that there were young kids around them.
Being flexible with plans was the most important part of our trip. We found out on day 2 that my daughter was scared of some of the rides she was most excited for. Sobbed after Space Mountain. So we had to regroup. Changed out some FPs, skipped some rides we thought we would do. I'm just glad we figured out what scared her before we spent 10 minutes on Pirates.
(it was the dark that scared her, not the ride - she loved Thunder Mountain so much we rode 3 times) We also found out that DD was NOT interested in shows (kind of a bummer for me since I wanted to see a few) but was ALL ABOUT THE CHARACTERS. We joked before the trip that we would be waiting in every character line that Disney had to offer, and that truly is how we spent a lot of our trip. Counted the pics on the plane home...we met 53 different characters. That's right, 53. And that doesn't count the ones we met 2 or 3 times. The subscription to Kenny the Pirate's site was worth every penny if your kid is into characters. Some of the lines were really long - we waited 45 minutes for Pooh and Tigger - but DD was really focused on meeting them all. The click-top sharpie was perfect for autographs and I'm glad we got Memory Maker so we have all the pictures now. Was surprised by how many adults were in line to get autographs and chat with characters. We waited a LONG time Saturday for a couple who had about a million things to discuss with Belle - to the point that the rest of the line was discussing what was happening. Getting to the park for RD each day was huge. We were able to choose something each morning to ride without a line...at Epcot we did Soarin' both mornings (and the first day also met Joy & Sadness and Baymax before Soarin'), Thunder Mountain/meeting princesses at MK, Toy Story at HS, and Safari at AK. That first hour each day was really wonderful.
We did EMM in Fantasyland on Tuesday. I'm torn about whether it was a good value. We rode Pooh first...which terrified my daughter. She LOVES the original Pooh movie, but somehow seeing the Heffalumps that large was too scary. And Mine Train was down most of our EMM hour. So that just left Peter Pan and the carousel. We did get to use our wrist bands for all 3 rides as FPs until noon, but we did have to wait each time (a short wait, but still, a wait) and it messed up our morning plans since we had planned on moving on by 9:30 but that's when we were back riding Mine Train. We did get to ride it 4 times, which is more then most people do, but Disney really needs a better plan if Mine Train is going to be down for EMM. It seems like it happens at least once or twice a month during EMM...you would think that they would know to come in early on those days to be sure it's up and running. It was a lot of money to not get to ride it. Not sure I would do it again unless it's running more consistently.
We had 2 days at Epcot and still didn't really do much of the Festival of the Arts. DD liked painting the mural and I tried one of the specialty coffee drinks but that was about it. I don't think I would go back to Epcot on the weekend, especially not with young kids. It smelled like a frat party - everywhere we looked were big groups of drinkers at various stages of drunkenness. We were behind one group waiting to get our passport stamped who literally asked my 7 year old if she was doing a shot in every country like they were. I was also surprised by the lines for food and drink on Saturday, and not just for the Festival of the Arts booths. Was very happy for our Chefs de France reservation and we had dinner back at AKL. Our plan was to snack around the world - no way we could have done that on Saturday without spending our day in line.
Even with 6 days in the parks (2 at Epcot and MK and 1 at DHS and AK) there was a lot in each park we didn't do. There's just too much. It's ok - we'll be back in a few years. I can also see how people prefer going when the hours are longer. I was surprised by how fast our days went - each day it would be 11 and then all of a sudden it was 3 or 4. We never made it back to the resort for a mid-day break, but since we weren't at the parks late at night it was ok.
Some highlights of our trip...at Epcot we loved Frozen Ever After, Soarin', and Test Track. We bought my daughter a passport and she really liked getting it stamped in each country. We also LOVED our Garden Grill dinner. Good food and fabulous character interaction. They kept coming around...we're good friends with Chip and Dale at this point.
At MK we loved Mine Train and Big Thunder Mountain. And Splash Mountain was awesome too. We also really liked Monsters Laugh Floor. Somehow I was picked to talk to one of the monsters (I was sitting on the aisle in the middle of the theater) which made my DD SO happy. We also LOVED our dinner at Be Our Guest. Definitely the best meal of our trip. At DHS we loved Jedi Training and Toy Story. We ended up riding it 3 times - could have ridden it more if we had more time! At AK we loved the safari and my DD was obsessed with Wilderness Explorers. I wish they did the badges past 5...she could have kept going for sure. Other random thing we loved was the Discovery Island Carnivale. Dancing as a family at the party was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.
