Just back February 7th- 12th

AlexLovesCats

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 17, 2013
I just returned from a 4 day trip with my husband and wanted to put my thoughts out there to anyone who is interested. I am also going to put a quick dining review up over on the other board..

Pros

-Disney’s Boardwalk Inn – our first time staying here and we loved it. Very clean and bright resort and loved the quick walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Only con was some crowd noise in the room from the boardwalk (if you are facing that side) and of course the high price tag.

-Pandora. We are big fans of Avatar and basically planned this return trip to see Pandora and it did not disappoint. We thought it was so well done and were blown away by Flight of Passage, loved eating at Satuli Canteen also.

-Animal Kingdom in general… this park has officially become my favorite. It is so immersive and fun, and I love the new additions to it. We were lucky enough to encounter Kevin walking around the park and it made my day (I’m a huge fan of Up! And Kevin is my favorite character) – also caught Rafiki and Timon having their dance party which was a lot of fun to watch. And we loved sitting out on the deck at the new Nomad Lounge for a drink and appetizer.

-Happily Ever After- this was our first trip getting to see it and I thought it was fabulous. The projections on the castle are amazing and loved the songs they picked for the show.

-Food- I will post more on this on my dining review but we thought for the most part the food was excellent this trip. Sanaa, Le Cellier, and Satuli Canteen being our favorites this time.

-Disneys Boardwalk- This area is so enjoyable to walk around on a nice night. Multiple nights we came upon magicians and other entertainment acts that were so much fun to watch. Also the Ice Cream place on the Boardwalk (Ample Hills Creamery) is insanely good and worth a trip over to the Boardwalk.

-Weather... we got lucky. It rained half the day Sunday but still felt warm so we didn't mind too much. Other than that high 70s/low 80s and sunsine. Loved it!!!


Cons

-Crowds- I expected the parks to feel crowded as our 4 day trip overlapped a weekend... and they did!!

-Giant High school Cheerleading competition- It definitely seemed to add to the crowd levels in the parks, and just makes it harder to get around the parks when you are constantly dodging big groups. They were mostly fine however we encountered a few groups being annoying (playing music from their phones in line for rides and loudly singing the words , including explicit lyrics … screaming obscenities on roller coasters, staring at their phones the entire time during a ride or fireworks show…) I would say it depends on your personal level of annoyance with this kind of thing but I’ll personally avoid the major cheerleading competitions time for future trips.

-Food prices- We are fine with paying a higher price for a nice meal on vacation but for some reason we had more sticker shock looking at our check after some of our meals than previous trips. We were grateful it was just the two of us, I'm sure paying for dinner for a larger group at some of these places could get insane.

-Updates needed- We noticed a lot of areas that just are starting to look kind of sad and forgotten and in need of some TLC. Especially certain places in Future world in Epcot, Hollywood studios, Magic Kingdom, and some of the resorts. I value the nostalgia of the older areas in the parks and resorts but certain areas could really use a fresh paint job or small update just to keep them looking fresh and nicer. My husband remarked if he was a first time guest paying premium prices it might be sort of a turn off to see how many areas look like they haven’t been touched in 15+ years and I agree.

Other takeaways

-People say it all the time but make sure you factor in rest time. We are both active youngish people and we were surprised how totally exhausted and in pain we were at the end of our days… back, feet and legs aching. I wished I added another day in the middle of the trip just to take it easy at the resort. You really do need recovery time built in there or you’ll be too tired/sore to fully enjoy what you’re doing.

-My husband and I recently bought ‘AllBirds’ shoes before the trip and we both agreed they were really comfortable walking shoes for the parks.

-If having a king room in a Disney resort is important to you I would call and make the request a month beforehand and also try calling the resort the day before. I called a month earlier and put the request on the room for a king and they ended up only being able to give us a room with two queens. I understand they don’t have as many king bed rooms at these hotels since its mostly families but my husband and I sleep in a king bed at home and we do not sleep comfortably together in a queen, therefore we ended up sleeping in separate beds the entire trip. For the price per night we were spending for the room, this really was not ideal. I wish I would have called the morning of check in or day before and made a second request.

-Order groceries to your room. Many of you probably already do this but it makes your resort stay so much more convenient. I just ordered some basics (case of water, cereal and milk, some fruit, half and half for coffee) and it just saves us the time and money of needing to buy breakfast every morning or water bottles in the park. Next time I might order beer too so I am not spending $9 every time I want a beer.

-If you are in a hurry at all don’t use Disney transportation and just request an Uber/Lyft. We found the busses and boats reliable however, it always took way longer to get where we were going than we expected. If you are worrying about making it in time for a fast pass or dinner reservation, just save yourself the stress and use Uber/lyft.


Overall we had a really enjoyable trip!
 
I agree with you about dinner sticker shock. I said the same thing..seemed like everything was a lot more money...still fun..but expensive
 
Thanks for your review! I've always wondered what it is like over on the Boardwalk. Sounds like you had a great time!
 
Thanks for the report! We were there at the same time and had a great time despite the crowds, especially at the Animal Kingdom. We could have crossed paths at Nomad, we were there twice this trip.

Maybe you are in our pictures of Kevin!


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