M SH
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2018
As I sit here the day after we got back from a 9-day vacation, battling the post Disney, or maybe post vacation depression, i thought i would re-live some of our vacation by writing about it. I'll also include some tips and suggestions and mishaps that we and others can benefit from on future trips.
please note that those are my thoughts and experiences. so what works for me might not work for you, and please don't take that in anyway as me telling you what you should do. Do what works for you!
Summary of Highlights and tips:
- August weather and Humidity is not something to take lightly. we struggled with this at many points. next visit, we might try for February (anyone has any experience with crowds, weather? please chime in)
- Crowd Calendars are bogus. on days where it was supposed to be 4/10, IASW had consistent standby lines of 30 minutes.. really? thank God for FP and MDE app. i don't think we would have enjoyed our time waiting in all the lines for all the things we wanted to do.
- FP refresh strategy does wonders and maximizes your park time.
- FP lines are not always fast! on TT, FP took around 30 minutes to get to the design room.
- EMM (Early Morning Magic) is great and well worth the money.
- if you don't have a long vacation (10 days or more) focus on disney only and leave some rest days, or days with half time at the park and other half just relaxing. I think we tried to do too much in the little time we had. next time i would like to get more days and more park day tickets.
- Legoland is not worth visiting, but if you have to, one day is more than enough (including water park)
- Toy Story Land needs more shade and Air Conditioned areas. it's too hot and humid there. SDD lines can get crazy for a short roller coaster ride (i wouldn't stand in the line with no FP).
- Use mobile ordering for food.. it's super fast and convenient.
- Post Disney Blues is real. I started to actually feel them a few days before our vacation ended. i don't know how to get over this.
Our
me, DW, DS (6), DD(5)
Previous trip: August 2012 (DD was not born yet). FP+ was not there yet. But i did a lot of research before this trip about FP+ and was ready for it.
Vacation time: Landed Aug 11, Depart Aug 19.
Plans:
Sunday - MK
Monday - Epcot
Tuesday - Legoland
Wednesday - HS
Thursday - Legoland Water park
Friday - AK
Saturday - MK
Our hotel was the Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas.
TBH I did not buy into the Disney hotels and the Disney Bubble. for the same price of a Value Room, I got a 2 bedroom Villa, King bed, 2 twins, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen, dining room and living room. 1500 SF. ~$150 per night. I chose to get Free breakfast option to replace housekeeping. i don't need someone to make our beds everyday. I got a car for $250 for our entire stay (4 days of paid parking x $22). add all that up and we still save tons of money. + i don't have to rely on Disney transportation and late rides on busses full of people.
EMH is not needed with FP planning and refresh unless you have a very large party and like to wake up very early for Rope Drop or stay very late. We have kids and we can't do that.
If you think sticking a party of 4 in one room works for you, then Disney value hotels should be fine for you. I like to have my space and comfort on my vacation. Moderate and Deluxe disney hotels are still not roomy enough to match the Villa we got, but are also at a much higher price point. Maybe i want to try AKL once, but im not sure the price can convince me or my wife to that matter.
Day 1: woke up 4 AM, drove to airport, and landed in MCO at 1PM.
I wish we planned a park day when we landed, as the excitement and energy was very high. we got only 5 day park tickets, so we couldn't and we just headed to hotel then early dinner then early bedtime to start early next day.
Day 2: MK with Early Morning Magic
Arrived at parking gates at 7 AM. no one there.. free preferred parking.
Was through MK turnstiles at 7:25. entered park 7:45 and off to a great start for our day. EMM is great, please read more in the EMM thread. But if you can afford it, go for it. we did 3 PP, 1 Pooh, and 6 times 7DMT. at 9 am we headed to JC. a posted 10 min time took 45 mins total.. i don't think i will do JC again. same thing happened a few years ago on our previous trip. i have a veto on this ride now.
After we went back to EMM breakfast in FL. Very nice selection. filled up and took some togo pastries and chicken sausages which served well for snacks all through the day. went through most of the rides (Pirates, splash M, BTMR, Space M, Buzz, Tom speedway, Under the sea, IASW, HM, meet princesses, tea cups, and finally Mickey. We used fastpass for almost everything (refresh strategy, read more about it in Refresh thread in parks strategy forum). then exited park at 7 PM.
Day 3: Epcot
arrived 9AM just in time for RD. we were way in the back. but went straight to FEA, and got on with 10 minute wait. then did allrides in future world, all on FP. did Soaring twice, FEA two more times. TT was down several times during the day, and lines were super long (140 + minutes). we had FP for it, but that was also a long line!
Walked around world showcase. We had Lunch at Sunshine, Dinner at Tangerine Caffe in Morocco.
FP for Illuminations, then back to our hotel.
Day 4: Legoland
I didn't know, until after buying tickets, that Legoland was 55 minutes drive from our hotel. I wish i would just bought more Disney days rather than doing this. Legoland was a huge let down, even for my kids who got used to Disney glamor and quality now after visiting MK and Epcot the days before. Legoland looked so lame. we went through most of the park rides which are like lame versions of six flags, in 3 hours, then spent a couple of hours at the water park then drove back. we planned to go again on Day 6 just for waterpark, but after our day there before, we decided to just skip on that day and chill at the pool in our resort.
Day 5: HS
We had FP for TSM, RC, tower of terror. we ended up doing TSM three times, tower twice, Star tours, Alien swirling saucers once, SDD once all on FP using refresh strategy. for shows we saw Mermaid (that was a nice one), frozen sing along, Disney Junior. met some star wars and Disney Junior characters. We had dinner at Sci-Fi Cafe. it's a nice concept, but i felt a little claustrophobic with the small space in the car and low lighting level. then off to Fantasmic before heading to our hotel.
Day 6: Originally Legoland, but changed to nothing
slept in, watched some TV. went to the outlet mall for my wife to do a quick shopping, then back to pool. A dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (which was awesome), then back to hotel. while we needed the rest, this down day started my feeling of being close to vacation ending, and some depression set in.
Day 7: AK
back into action. arrived to Ak at 9:30 AM. we FP'ed all rides. (dino, EE, kali, safari - all twice), NRJ once, FOP three times!! FOP is just amazing. we were lucky that it popped for us with refresh that many times. and i will never get tired of it. We saw it's tough to be a bug. had lunch at Satuli canteen which was also great. We originally had Tusker house dinner reservation, but we were not hungry, so we called and were able to cancel with no fees. after a long day of fun we were tired and left before the nighttime shows.
Day 8: MK
late arrival at about 10 AM. just did some rides that our kids liked most (mountains, buzz, ariel). we had dinner at Jungle Co navigation which was great. saw nightime fireworks (wow.. to many people in the hub), then the sad walk down main street back to the car.
Day 9: The Sad depressing flight back home.
In retrospective, I would have liked more time there, with more, and maybe shorter, park days, with more rest in a much less hot and humid weather. Next time around we would like to visit in February, hopefully when crowds are still low. the problem with that is that we would have to take kids out of school, and we definitely don't want to do that for 2 weeks. so we might do it again with 1 week + weekends. This time around we went right before school starts (which is tomorrow btw), but the weather was too much. Spring break or Christmas/new year are non options because of the crowds. so this is something to think more about.
It's just sad that i look now at the MDE app and i see no Fastpass plans or no Dining reservations.. it's just sad. I wish i can use my magic band to access my workplace building. But oh well, i'll just go look at more photos and you tube videos and ignore work for now.
please note that those are my thoughts and experiences. so what works for me might not work for you, and please don't take that in anyway as me telling you what you should do. Do what works for you!
Summary of Highlights and tips:
- August weather and Humidity is not something to take lightly. we struggled with this at many points. next visit, we might try for February (anyone has any experience with crowds, weather? please chime in)
- Crowd Calendars are bogus. on days where it was supposed to be 4/10, IASW had consistent standby lines of 30 minutes.. really? thank God for FP and MDE app. i don't think we would have enjoyed our time waiting in all the lines for all the things we wanted to do.
- FP refresh strategy does wonders and maximizes your park time.
- FP lines are not always fast! on TT, FP took around 30 minutes to get to the design room.
- EMM (Early Morning Magic) is great and well worth the money.
- if you don't have a long vacation (10 days or more) focus on disney only and leave some rest days, or days with half time at the park and other half just relaxing. I think we tried to do too much in the little time we had. next time i would like to get more days and more park day tickets.
- Legoland is not worth visiting, but if you have to, one day is more than enough (including water park)
- Toy Story Land needs more shade and Air Conditioned areas. it's too hot and humid there. SDD lines can get crazy for a short roller coaster ride (i wouldn't stand in the line with no FP).
- Use mobile ordering for food.. it's super fast and convenient.
- Post Disney Blues is real. I started to actually feel them a few days before our vacation ended. i don't know how to get over this.
Our
me, DW, DS (6), DD(5)Previous trip: August 2012 (DD was not born yet). FP+ was not there yet. But i did a lot of research before this trip about FP+ and was ready for it.
Vacation time: Landed Aug 11, Depart Aug 19.
Plans:
Sunday - MK
Monday - Epcot
Tuesday - Legoland
Wednesday - HS
Thursday - Legoland Water park
Friday - AK
Saturday - MK
Our hotel was the Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas.
TBH I did not buy into the Disney hotels and the Disney Bubble. for the same price of a Value Room, I got a 2 bedroom Villa, King bed, 2 twins, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen, dining room and living room. 1500 SF. ~$150 per night. I chose to get Free breakfast option to replace housekeeping. i don't need someone to make our beds everyday. I got a car for $250 for our entire stay (4 days of paid parking x $22). add all that up and we still save tons of money. + i don't have to rely on Disney transportation and late rides on busses full of people.
EMH is not needed with FP planning and refresh unless you have a very large party and like to wake up very early for Rope Drop or stay very late. We have kids and we can't do that.
If you think sticking a party of 4 in one room works for you, then Disney value hotels should be fine for you. I like to have my space and comfort on my vacation. Moderate and Deluxe disney hotels are still not roomy enough to match the Villa we got, but are also at a much higher price point. Maybe i want to try AKL once, but im not sure the price can convince me or my wife to that matter.
Day 1: woke up 4 AM, drove to airport, and landed in MCO at 1PM.
I wish we planned a park day when we landed, as the excitement and energy was very high. we got only 5 day park tickets, so we couldn't and we just headed to hotel then early dinner then early bedtime to start early next day.
Day 2: MK with Early Morning Magic
Arrived at parking gates at 7 AM. no one there.. free preferred parking.
Was through MK turnstiles at 7:25. entered park 7:45 and off to a great start for our day. EMM is great, please read more in the EMM thread. But if you can afford it, go for it. we did 3 PP, 1 Pooh, and 6 times 7DMT. at 9 am we headed to JC. a posted 10 min time took 45 mins total.. i don't think i will do JC again. same thing happened a few years ago on our previous trip. i have a veto on this ride now.
After we went back to EMM breakfast in FL. Very nice selection. filled up and took some togo pastries and chicken sausages which served well for snacks all through the day. went through most of the rides (Pirates, splash M, BTMR, Space M, Buzz, Tom speedway, Under the sea, IASW, HM, meet princesses, tea cups, and finally Mickey. We used fastpass for almost everything (refresh strategy, read more about it in Refresh thread in parks strategy forum). then exited park at 7 PM.
Day 3: Epcot
arrived 9AM just in time for RD. we were way in the back. but went straight to FEA, and got on with 10 minute wait. then did allrides in future world, all on FP. did Soaring twice, FEA two more times. TT was down several times during the day, and lines were super long (140 + minutes). we had FP for it, but that was also a long line!
Walked around world showcase. We had Lunch at Sunshine, Dinner at Tangerine Caffe in Morocco.
FP for Illuminations, then back to our hotel.
Day 4: Legoland
I didn't know, until after buying tickets, that Legoland was 55 minutes drive from our hotel. I wish i would just bought more Disney days rather than doing this. Legoland was a huge let down, even for my kids who got used to Disney glamor and quality now after visiting MK and Epcot the days before. Legoland looked so lame. we went through most of the park rides which are like lame versions of six flags, in 3 hours, then spent a couple of hours at the water park then drove back. we planned to go again on Day 6 just for waterpark, but after our day there before, we decided to just skip on that day and chill at the pool in our resort.
Day 5: HS
We had FP for TSM, RC, tower of terror. we ended up doing TSM three times, tower twice, Star tours, Alien swirling saucers once, SDD once all on FP using refresh strategy. for shows we saw Mermaid (that was a nice one), frozen sing along, Disney Junior. met some star wars and Disney Junior characters. We had dinner at Sci-Fi Cafe. it's a nice concept, but i felt a little claustrophobic with the small space in the car and low lighting level. then off to Fantasmic before heading to our hotel.
Day 6: Originally Legoland, but changed to nothing
slept in, watched some TV. went to the outlet mall for my wife to do a quick shopping, then back to pool. A dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (which was awesome), then back to hotel. while we needed the rest, this down day started my feeling of being close to vacation ending, and some depression set in.
Day 7: AK
back into action. arrived to Ak at 9:30 AM. we FP'ed all rides. (dino, EE, kali, safari - all twice), NRJ once, FOP three times!! FOP is just amazing. we were lucky that it popped for us with refresh that many times. and i will never get tired of it. We saw it's tough to be a bug. had lunch at Satuli canteen which was also great. We originally had Tusker house dinner reservation, but we were not hungry, so we called and were able to cancel with no fees. after a long day of fun we were tired and left before the nighttime shows.
Day 8: MK
late arrival at about 10 AM. just did some rides that our kids liked most (mountains, buzz, ariel). we had dinner at Jungle Co navigation which was great. saw nightime fireworks (wow.. to many people in the hub), then the sad walk down main street back to the car.
Day 9: The Sad depressing flight back home.
In retrospective, I would have liked more time there, with more, and maybe shorter, park days, with more rest in a much less hot and humid weather. Next time around we would like to visit in February, hopefully when crowds are still low. the problem with that is that we would have to take kids out of school, and we definitely don't want to do that for 2 weeks. so we might do it again with 1 week + weekends. This time around we went right before school starts (which is tomorrow btw), but the weather was too much. Spring break or Christmas/new year are non options because of the crowds. so this is something to think more about.
It's just sad that i look now at the MDE app and i see no Fastpass plans or no Dining reservations.. it's just sad. I wish i can use my magic band to access my workplace building. But oh well, i'll just go look at more photos and you tube videos and ignore work for now.
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