Caleb's Mom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2004
6 Nights Oct. 23-29, 2017
The primary goal of this trip was the Keys to the Kingdom Tour as my son had finally turned 16 and was old enough to do the tour.
Accommodations: Port Orleans Riverside
Due to some flight delays we didn't actually arrive at the resort until 1:30am on the 24th. We were exhausted and opened the room door to a surprise -- low and we were upgraded to a Royal Guest Room! I was traveling with my 51 year old DH and 16 year old DS who didn't quite appreciate what that really meant. But even in my tired state I was excited. The fiber optic fireworks in the head board were so cool and all the little details were neat - including the bathroom faucets that were shaped like Aladdin's lamps. If you've been in one of these rooms, you know one wall is entirely framed princess photos - my son's bed was directly under them which he thought was a bit creepy.
Keys to the Kingdom Tour:
Ordered our tickets 3 months in advance and used a Disney Visa Card for the discount. Tour guide was Megan and she did a great job. I won't spill any secrets about the info she shared but I will tell you where we toured and what we did. If you don't want to know, skip the next few sentences. We met at the theater at 9:00 for the 9:30 tour. They gave us headsets, name tags and a bottle of water then allowed us to choose our lunch off a menu of about 8 items. Tour starts on Main Street, moves to Adventure Land, Liberty Square and then we ate lunch at the Tomorrow Land Terrace. At lunch they give you your key pin. We did not tour Tomorrowland at all. After lunch we went into Fantasy Land. We did 3 rides/attractions -- Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room and Haunted Mansion. They take you into the restricted/behind the scenes area to see the parade floats and the underground utilidors. All in all a very enjoyable day and I'd recommend it. The pace is nice - didn't feel like we had been walking over 5 hr at all and there were ample restroom stops.
The Parks:
Animal Kingdom Pandora - The land was jam packed with curious guests. We grabbed a fast pass to ride the Banshees as soon as our window opened 60 days out. Even with a fastpass we waited in line for :40 but the standby line was over 3 hours. As we approached the end of the line, a cast member was giving out bonus fastpasses to everyone for the long wait. We were very grateful for this because it then allowed us to do the Na'vi River too. The glowing features in Pandora at night were great.
The night light up show on the Tree of Life was a nice bonus and well done - we stopped to watch on our way out of the park.
A note not to pass up the side stage shows - there was a high energy show near the Outpost that had music, singing and dancing that we actually watched twice. It's all of those things that make a Disney trip unique and fun.
Hollywood Studios - I'll preface by saying we are not StarWars people and with all of the construction that is going on we were only there for 4 hours. Rode Midway Mania and Tower of Terror, saw MuppetVision, got our photo taken with StarLord and Groot then ate ice cream and wandered through the shops on our way out. (Note that Groot is an animatronic about 12" tall - not sure what I was expecting but that wasn't it.) Didn't see any streetmosphere actors like usual this time. We may have stayed longer if there had been some street shows to watch. Midway Mania was closed to standby and only taking fastpasses so I only rode once which was disappointing because that is my favorite attraction in all of the parks.
Epcot - Started the day by getting our Soarin' on and ended the day with Spaceship Earth + did some food sampling in between - mainly some sweets and desserts now that I think about it. Just spent the day roaming about randomly. We saw British Revolution play a set in the UK I think we watched the American Adventure movie too.
Magic Kingdom - Wanted to see the new castle / fireworks show Happily Ever After and we were not disappointed! Loved it. Stayed on to see second show Once Upon A Time and while nice we were not as wowed. The wait and crowds to see these shows is mind boggling. We went to stake our claim 2 hours (yes 2 hours) in advance and it was almost too late to get a good castle view anymore.
Weather:
An end of October mash up! We wore jeans and sweatshirts 2 days, it rained one afternoon (not an isolated shower but an afternoon rain) and 2.5 days it was a lovely mid70s to mid 80s.
Random Transportation Thoughts:
Rental Car - We only ended up using to & from the airport and one day to the parks - think we'll save the $$ and try an Uber if we go next year.
Airplane - We experienced about :20 of rough turbulence on our flight down to FL which put my tummy on edge. This was only compounded by the fact that that 2 guests across the aisle from me brought a meal onto the plane which smelled like boiled sewage. Just a public service announcement to keep the food odors neutral on the plane folks.
Disney Buses - No bad waits. At Riverside if you get on/off at the main bus stop you must wait for it to make the circle of the entire resort when returning from the parks. Final day the bus arrived at Animal Kingdom to take us back to the resort. As it pulled up, there was so much condensation on the windows you couldn't see into it so I knew they had the AC flowing. We're from WI so we know cold and this was downright brutal. It was like a polar bear cave on wheels and the temp outside was only mid 70s at best! There were only 6 total passengers on that bus too so no body heat.
Food:
We are not foodies. We primarily snack our way through our vacations. We did have two tasty meals in Disney Springs at Blaze Pizza and Wolfgang Puck Express. We had treats from Sleepy Hollow at Magic Kingdom - the Nutella waffle with fruit is super yum. We also dined in the resort food court twice on typical food court fare. Oh, and DS had a Zombie Frap from Starbucks.
A good time was had. We hope to return again for some more Disney magic. But until then if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
The primary goal of this trip was the Keys to the Kingdom Tour as my son had finally turned 16 and was old enough to do the tour.
Accommodations: Port Orleans Riverside
Due to some flight delays we didn't actually arrive at the resort until 1:30am on the 24th. We were exhausted and opened the room door to a surprise -- low and we were upgraded to a Royal Guest Room! I was traveling with my 51 year old DH and 16 year old DS who didn't quite appreciate what that really meant. But even in my tired state I was excited. The fiber optic fireworks in the head board were so cool and all the little details were neat - including the bathroom faucets that were shaped like Aladdin's lamps. If you've been in one of these rooms, you know one wall is entirely framed princess photos - my son's bed was directly under them which he thought was a bit creepy.
Keys to the Kingdom Tour:
Ordered our tickets 3 months in advance and used a Disney Visa Card for the discount. Tour guide was Megan and she did a great job. I won't spill any secrets about the info she shared but I will tell you where we toured and what we did. If you don't want to know, skip the next few sentences. We met at the theater at 9:00 for the 9:30 tour. They gave us headsets, name tags and a bottle of water then allowed us to choose our lunch off a menu of about 8 items. Tour starts on Main Street, moves to Adventure Land, Liberty Square and then we ate lunch at the Tomorrow Land Terrace. At lunch they give you your key pin. We did not tour Tomorrowland at all. After lunch we went into Fantasy Land. We did 3 rides/attractions -- Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room and Haunted Mansion. They take you into the restricted/behind the scenes area to see the parade floats and the underground utilidors. All in all a very enjoyable day and I'd recommend it. The pace is nice - didn't feel like we had been walking over 5 hr at all and there were ample restroom stops.
The Parks:
Animal Kingdom Pandora - The land was jam packed with curious guests. We grabbed a fast pass to ride the Banshees as soon as our window opened 60 days out. Even with a fastpass we waited in line for :40 but the standby line was over 3 hours. As we approached the end of the line, a cast member was giving out bonus fastpasses to everyone for the long wait. We were very grateful for this because it then allowed us to do the Na'vi River too. The glowing features in Pandora at night were great.
The night light up show on the Tree of Life was a nice bonus and well done - we stopped to watch on our way out of the park.
A note not to pass up the side stage shows - there was a high energy show near the Outpost that had music, singing and dancing that we actually watched twice. It's all of those things that make a Disney trip unique and fun.
Hollywood Studios - I'll preface by saying we are not StarWars people and with all of the construction that is going on we were only there for 4 hours. Rode Midway Mania and Tower of Terror, saw MuppetVision, got our photo taken with StarLord and Groot then ate ice cream and wandered through the shops on our way out. (Note that Groot is an animatronic about 12" tall - not sure what I was expecting but that wasn't it.) Didn't see any streetmosphere actors like usual this time. We may have stayed longer if there had been some street shows to watch. Midway Mania was closed to standby and only taking fastpasses so I only rode once which was disappointing because that is my favorite attraction in all of the parks.
Epcot - Started the day by getting our Soarin' on and ended the day with Spaceship Earth + did some food sampling in between - mainly some sweets and desserts now that I think about it. Just spent the day roaming about randomly. We saw British Revolution play a set in the UK I think we watched the American Adventure movie too.
Magic Kingdom - Wanted to see the new castle / fireworks show Happily Ever After and we were not disappointed! Loved it. Stayed on to see second show Once Upon A Time and while nice we were not as wowed. The wait and crowds to see these shows is mind boggling. We went to stake our claim 2 hours (yes 2 hours) in advance and it was almost too late to get a good castle view anymore.
Weather:
An end of October mash up! We wore jeans and sweatshirts 2 days, it rained one afternoon (not an isolated shower but an afternoon rain) and 2.5 days it was a lovely mid70s to mid 80s.
Random Transportation Thoughts:
Rental Car - We only ended up using to & from the airport and one day to the parks - think we'll save the $$ and try an Uber if we go next year.
Airplane - We experienced about :20 of rough turbulence on our flight down to FL which put my tummy on edge. This was only compounded by the fact that that 2 guests across the aisle from me brought a meal onto the plane which smelled like boiled sewage. Just a public service announcement to keep the food odors neutral on the plane folks.
Disney Buses - No bad waits. At Riverside if you get on/off at the main bus stop you must wait for it to make the circle of the entire resort when returning from the parks. Final day the bus arrived at Animal Kingdom to take us back to the resort. As it pulled up, there was so much condensation on the windows you couldn't see into it so I knew they had the AC flowing. We're from WI so we know cold and this was downright brutal. It was like a polar bear cave on wheels and the temp outside was only mid 70s at best! There were only 6 total passengers on that bus too so no body heat.
Food:
We are not foodies. We primarily snack our way through our vacations. We did have two tasty meals in Disney Springs at Blaze Pizza and Wolfgang Puck Express. We had treats from Sleepy Hollow at Magic Kingdom - the Nutella waffle with fruit is super yum. We also dined in the resort food court twice on typical food court fare. Oh, and DS had a Zombie Frap from Starbucks.
A good time was had. We hope to return again for some more Disney magic. But until then if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
