WAstateDVCDaddy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2021
Hi All! Finally getting a chance to post my thoughts on our recent WDW vacation. I really have to say, our experience was a pretty mixed bag of good, bad, and somewhat ugly. After 3 days, I was pretty much ready to say that our first trip in 15 years might be our last trip for the foreseeable future. It's a really good thing our trip was 12 days!
A bit about us - we live on the exact opposite end of the (contiguous) US from WDW, so Orlando is a pretty long haul for us. So although my wife and I haven't been back to WDW in about 15 years, we typically make 1-2 trips per year to DLR, and in the last couple of years, an additional trip to our home resort at Aulani. I have pictures from my first trip to DLR back in 1969, and I've probably made 30 trips there since that time. My DD6 has now made 6 trips to visit a Disney park, and Disneyland Paris is booked for 2024. I'm pretty predisposed to enjoy a visit to the parks, regardless of any of the details.
We flew into Orlando on a redeye, arriving at 8 am on September 23rd. Our plan was to push through day 1 on 5 hours of sleep, then get to bed early on East Coast time, so we'd be up early for the rest of our stay. I had no idea if this plan was going to work with a 6 year old, but it was worth a shot.
I paid to upgrade our tickets to economy comfort - so we could get a little sleep, and we'd be amongst the first to leave the flight. It was money well spent! We arrived a bit early, and we left the plane, got coffee and a cake pop, and were at baggage claim before the bags arrived. Altogether, we were in our ride share about 25 min after the plane landed.
The first 4 days we were at the Swan. It was a wonderful hotel - extremely convenient for our first park days (AK, HS, and EPCOT). There was no one there when we were checking in, the room wasn't ready, but they quickly stored our bag and we were on our way to Animal Kingdom.
Okay - let me warn everyone - the next 3 days may seem like a bit of a grip session. The days following were much better (Thank goodness!), so you can skip the first 3 days if you'd like.
Day 1 - Animal Kingdom
The day started out well. We were in the park by 10:20, and our local friends had already ridden Everest twice, and were on the way to Flight of Passage, which indicated a 6 minute wait. We had ILL's for 3, so we decided we'd jump in line for Lion King. We got there just as a show was about to start, so no wait and we were seated in decent seats. 15 minutes later, DW and DD were napping.
Fortunately, that power nap seemed to be all they needed to make it through the rest of the day. For the rest of the day, here are my memories -
Next up... Day 2 and 3...
A bit about us - we live on the exact opposite end of the (contiguous) US from WDW, so Orlando is a pretty long haul for us. So although my wife and I haven't been back to WDW in about 15 years, we typically make 1-2 trips per year to DLR, and in the last couple of years, an additional trip to our home resort at Aulani. I have pictures from my first trip to DLR back in 1969, and I've probably made 30 trips there since that time. My DD6 has now made 6 trips to visit a Disney park, and Disneyland Paris is booked for 2024. I'm pretty predisposed to enjoy a visit to the parks, regardless of any of the details.
We flew into Orlando on a redeye, arriving at 8 am on September 23rd. Our plan was to push through day 1 on 5 hours of sleep, then get to bed early on East Coast time, so we'd be up early for the rest of our stay. I had no idea if this plan was going to work with a 6 year old, but it was worth a shot.
I paid to upgrade our tickets to economy comfort - so we could get a little sleep, and we'd be amongst the first to leave the flight. It was money well spent! We arrived a bit early, and we left the plane, got coffee and a cake pop, and were at baggage claim before the bags arrived. Altogether, we were in our ride share about 25 min after the plane landed.
The first 4 days we were at the Swan. It was a wonderful hotel - extremely convenient for our first park days (AK, HS, and EPCOT). There was no one there when we were checking in, the room wasn't ready, but they quickly stored our bag and we were on our way to Animal Kingdom.
Okay - let me warn everyone - the next 3 days may seem like a bit of a grip session. The days following were much better (Thank goodness!), so you can skip the first 3 days if you'd like.
Day 1 - Animal Kingdom
The day started out well. We were in the park by 10:20, and our local friends had already ridden Everest twice, and were on the way to Flight of Passage, which indicated a 6 minute wait. We had ILL's for 3, so we decided we'd jump in line for Lion King. We got there just as a show was about to start, so no wait and we were seated in decent seats. 15 minutes later, DW and DD were napping.
Fortunately, that power nap seemed to be all they needed to make it through the rest of the day. For the rest of the day, here are my memories -The Good:
- The park itself! The world of Pandora was amazing - great details, impressive presentation, and really reminds me of why Disney is so different than all of it's competitors
- Avatar Flight of Passage - What a great ride! My DD was a bit afraid of riding it at first, and I was worried about the individual rider vehicles. "What happens if she gets scared and freaks out during the ride?" was running though my mind. But as soon as the ride started, she was completely having fun - even holding her arms up in the air as the banshees dove down into the forest. (I was hanging on for dear life!)
- Photographers - We had purchased the memories package. There were a lot of photographers around, and most of them did a great job with the photos.
The Bad:
- I was worried about ride breakdowns, and guess what? There were tons of breakdowns. When we went to see the Lion King show, we figured we'd meet our friends after they got off the ride. So we wandered over to Satu'li Canteen, and about 70 minutes after they said they were getting into the 60 minute FoP line, we got a couple of drinks and waited to meet them for lunch. Then we waited some more. And more. Finally, 2.5 hours after they told us they were getting in line, they finally exited the ride. They were never told that the ride had broken down, but there were long periods of no movement. And it appears they were running reduced capacity, so when the line did move, it moved really slowly. It continued that way throughout the day.
- Throughout the day, we didn't ride many rides - Everest went down when we were planning on riding. They shut down Kilimanjaro Safari's line early in the day due to issues. And the lines for everything else were pretty crazy. It was really disappointing.
