Actually, it was only 36,982 steps, but it felt like 37,000. The Apple Fitness app on my watch / phone showed a combined 33.75 miles for Tuesday and Wednesday. I was tired when I got home, but it was worth it.
Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping
olafgypsy
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2009
Just back from a 5 day trip! This trip was me, my DS10, my sister, her DH, DD9, DS7, DS2, DS3mos. I was nervous about a trip with so many kids, having really only done WDW recently with my DS10. But my sister asked me to help plan and execute this trip, and I'll take any excuse to go to Disney World, so I swallowed my nerves and took the plunge!
We stayed 1 night at AoA / Pop (Cars family suite for them, standard Pop room for us) before switching to a 2BR AKL standard view villa (Jambo House) with rented points. We exclusively used Disney transportation with some Lyft thrown in here and there. We had 5 day park-hoppers. No dining plan.
I thought I'd organize this post as Hits / Misses / Stray Observations, so here goes:
The Hits:
1. The hotels. They were awesome! The Cars suite is so stinkin' cute, and my sister's family had a great view of the lake. My sister did comment that it felt a lot smaller than she thought it would, and I agreed with that, but it was perfectly adequate for their family's needs for a single night. I don't think it would have been enough space for them for longer. Our Pop room was clean and functional and we had a lake view as well. It was nice that we could go for this cheaper room and still be close to my sister's family. This combo (Pop + AoA) really works well for big families with different room size needs. This was also my first time walking through the common areas at AoA and holy cow, were they awesome! We didn't have time to swim in the Big Blue Pool but it looked amazing, and the Cozy Cone pool is such a dash of nostalgic glory for all things Cars and Route 66.
Although we had only booked a standard view at AKL, we landed a partial savanna view! My sister had commented before this trip that she really wanted to have "giraffes with her coffee" but didn't want to spend the $400 dollars extra for the view......well she got giraffe coffee anyway. We had giraffes wandering through our backyard in the mornings and evenings, as well as several species of antelope pretty much all day. It was incredible. This room size was also more in line with what my sister really needed for her family, and the connecting studio was more than enough for me and my son. We actually ended up using our couch / TV as a living room because they had the pull-out bed and chair in use the whole time. My sister put her 2yr old's kid in the hallway of their 1BR and kept the infant in a bassinet in the bedroom with them.
2. The cast members: With one exception I'll talk about later, all our cast member interactions this trip were wonderful. This was in contrast to the past few post-pandemic trips, in which it had seemed to me like Disney was still struggling to fill positions and not all cast members were at the top of their game or happy to be there. This time, that was NOT the case. From the bus drivers to the attraction staff to the people working the QS dining rooms, everyone went out of their way to make our trip special, make guests smile, and just generally be great humans. One cast member even offered to buy my nephew ice cream when he noticed him trip and fall at Animal Kingdom; another security staff member told jokes to everyone waiting to be scanned and have their bags searched; we had not a single bad experience with wait staff. It was really quite exceptional.
3. Epcot. With most of the construction walls down, low to manageable wait times for many of the rides our little ones could enjoy, the Festival of the Arts Food booths to sample, and beautiful weather to wander the World Showcase, I think this was just about everyone's favorite park. It was certainly the adults' favorite! We would all say our best memory was the sunny afternoon spent in the World Showcase, stopping to linger in Italy while the kids watched the juggler, drinking limoncello cocktails and treating the kids to gelato. The older kids loved collecting the postcards at Kidcot stops and our 2yr old absolutely LOVED It's a Small Mexico. We topped this day off with a visit to Moana's Journey of Water, which was an especially big hit with 7yr old and 2yr old, but which we were all really impressed with.
4. Disney coasters. My DS10 has been absolutely terrified of coasters and refused to ride them in the past, but at Disneyland a couple of months ago he rode the Gadget Coaster and thought "maybe this could be kind of fun after all." Well this time, he rode BTMRR, SDD, and SDMT......and LOVED them. This kiddo has done a complete 180 and now says his favorite park is Magic Kingdom because it has Big Thunder. Mind you, this is a kid who always chose Animal Kingdom because he preferred the tamer thrills of a wildlife walk-through. But on this trip he actually turned to me and asked, "Am I becoming a young thrill-seeker?" Yep kiddo, I think you are!
5. Food. We ate at Roundup Rodeo, Jiko, Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, Topolino's Terrace breakfast, Yak & Yeti, and a number of quick-service locations. We also did some breakfasts in the room. We did not have a single bad meal, but Jiko and Topolino's were particular stand-outs for excellent food, as you'd expect at these prices! But it occurred to us that there are few places where you can have a meal of this quality, tailored to adult palates, accompanied by excellent wine lists, AND find the staff only too happy to accommodate your 5 kids ages 10 to 4 months. Disney really stands out for this.
The Misses:
1. Hollywood Studios: Two huge expansions later, and this park is still a hot mess. We spent very little time here, because after waking up at the crack of dawn to make early entry for SDD, waiting through most of early entry time to ride it, then riding MFSR, every ride in the park had close to an hour-long wait. This was on a day with what I would classify as average crowds. My sister's family and my son are HUGE Star Wars fans, so I took the 2-year-old to the Disney Junior show while they wandered that land for an hour, and then we left. On a previous night, we had entered the park to eat at Roundup Rodeo and ride RotR, which we paid to do. We had Park Hoppers so the calculation is a little tricky, but I reckon we paid about $200 per person >3, or $1200 total, to ride 3 rides and take the 2-yr-old to one show. Yes, I know there are other shows we could have done, but the 2-yr-old could not sit through them. The kids would have loved MMRR, TSMM, and AS2 but no way could they have handled the waits--and the adults didn't want to. We will not be returning to this park until Disney gets a handle on this.
2. Capture Your Moment photographers. My sister's family was yelled at in DHS by a Capture Your Moment photographer when they inadvertently wandered into her (unmarked, un-cordoned-off) shot. The EXACT SAME THING happened to me TWICE at the Magic Kingdom on a previous trip, so this seems to be a consistent issue for guests. In these locations where they are doing the shoots, there is no indication that a photo shoot is going on, and the photographer is often 10-15 feet from the subject. In crowded conditions, it's easy to miss that someone is taking a photo. Why doesn't Disney provide signage or something to these cast members so they don't have to yell at and get grouchy with guests? This was the single bad cast member interaction we had on this trip.
3. Buses with a 2-yr-old and an infant. It's not that the bus service is bad. We rarely waited more than 10-15 minutes for a bus, and we usually got a seat. That's much better than most city public transit systems I've used! But by the time you get to the front of the park, schlep your way to your stop, wait for the bus to arrive, wait for it to load (add 5 additional min per ECV), wait for it to do any stops before your stop at the hotel, and get to your stop -- well, you're looking at an hour park-to-room. There were several days on which the 2-yr-old and infant REALLY could have used a nap back at the room, but the thought of a 2-hr round trip needed to make it happen was too exhausting for the adults! I now understand why people pay $700 a night to stay on the monorail.
4. The line for the skyliner in the morning at Pop / AoA. Thirty minutes just to get on the Skyliner in the morning. Ugh. (But I guess it was better than the buses!)
Stray Observations
1. My DS10 has always had a freakishly long attention span and laser focus, such that he was able to sit through 2-hr movies with us at age 2. Disney shows were never a problem. This gave me an unrealistic expectation of what an average 2-yr-old could handle in terms of sitting through shows, which led to me assuring my sister that her 2-yr-old would be fine at FotLK, which led to our 2-yr-old having a meltdown after about 10 minutes when we wouldn't let him crawl down the bleachers to touch the "mammoth."
2. The character interactions at Topolino's are so fun! I love their artist costumes. My sister commented to me that she hadn't cared about doing a character meal because she didn't get what all the fuss was about, but when she saw how excited her 2-yr-old got especially, and when SHE started fangirling when Minnie came out, she finally "got it." We got a wonderful picture of the whole gang with The Big Guy himself!
3. I love the queue and the whole atmosphere of Remy, but I'm pretty meh on the ride. Our whole group was glad we did it during EEH, but no one had any reaction bigger than "that was kinda cute." Definitely not worth waiting more than 20-30 min for.
4. I really wish there was more Encanto stuff in the parks. My husband is Colombian, so my son is half-Colombian, and this would be such a neat way to help him connect more to that part of his heritage. (Disney / LMM did a really great job honoring the culture in this movie, similar to Coco.)
5. Our group mix turned out to be good because I was on hand to help with the 2-yr-old and infant during the day, but I could also stay later in the park with the 7, 9, and 10-year-old for EEH. This was how we got in rides on SDMT, PPF, and TT -- which ended up being my 9-year-old niece's favorite ride.
6. With the exception of a couple of tired toddler meltdowns and typical sibling squabbling, the kids did way better than I was expecting. Yes, we had to keep my 7-yr-old nephew from climbing everything in sight, but that is par for the course with him, and every single kid really tried to be on their best behavior, and wound up finding something they really loved in the parks. My niece, especially, was gung-ho for Disney after this trip. I would like to do a trip with just her, my son, and my sister at some point.
We stayed 1 night at AoA / Pop (Cars family suite for them, standard Pop room for us) before switching to a 2BR AKL standard view villa (Jambo House) with rented points. We exclusively used Disney transportation with some Lyft thrown in here and there. We had 5 day park-hoppers. No dining plan.
I thought I'd organize this post as Hits / Misses / Stray Observations, so here goes:
The Hits:
1. The hotels. They were awesome! The Cars suite is so stinkin' cute, and my sister's family had a great view of the lake. My sister did comment that it felt a lot smaller than she thought it would, and I agreed with that, but it was perfectly adequate for their family's needs for a single night. I don't think it would have been enough space for them for longer. Our Pop room was clean and functional and we had a lake view as well. It was nice that we could go for this cheaper room and still be close to my sister's family. This combo (Pop + AoA) really works well for big families with different room size needs. This was also my first time walking through the common areas at AoA and holy cow, were they awesome! We didn't have time to swim in the Big Blue Pool but it looked amazing, and the Cozy Cone pool is such a dash of nostalgic glory for all things Cars and Route 66.
Although we had only booked a standard view at AKL, we landed a partial savanna view! My sister had commented before this trip that she really wanted to have "giraffes with her coffee" but didn't want to spend the $400 dollars extra for the view......well she got giraffe coffee anyway. We had giraffes wandering through our backyard in the mornings and evenings, as well as several species of antelope pretty much all day. It was incredible. This room size was also more in line with what my sister really needed for her family, and the connecting studio was more than enough for me and my son. We actually ended up using our couch / TV as a living room because they had the pull-out bed and chair in use the whole time. My sister put her 2yr old's kid in the hallway of their 1BR and kept the infant in a bassinet in the bedroom with them.
2. The cast members: With one exception I'll talk about later, all our cast member interactions this trip were wonderful. This was in contrast to the past few post-pandemic trips, in which it had seemed to me like Disney was still struggling to fill positions and not all cast members were at the top of their game or happy to be there. This time, that was NOT the case. From the bus drivers to the attraction staff to the people working the QS dining rooms, everyone went out of their way to make our trip special, make guests smile, and just generally be great humans. One cast member even offered to buy my nephew ice cream when he noticed him trip and fall at Animal Kingdom; another security staff member told jokes to everyone waiting to be scanned and have their bags searched; we had not a single bad experience with wait staff. It was really quite exceptional.
3. Epcot. With most of the construction walls down, low to manageable wait times for many of the rides our little ones could enjoy, the Festival of the Arts Food booths to sample, and beautiful weather to wander the World Showcase, I think this was just about everyone's favorite park. It was certainly the adults' favorite! We would all say our best memory was the sunny afternoon spent in the World Showcase, stopping to linger in Italy while the kids watched the juggler, drinking limoncello cocktails and treating the kids to gelato. The older kids loved collecting the postcards at Kidcot stops and our 2yr old absolutely LOVED It's a Small Mexico. We topped this day off with a visit to Moana's Journey of Water, which was an especially big hit with 7yr old and 2yr old, but which we were all really impressed with.
4. Disney coasters. My DS10 has been absolutely terrified of coasters and refused to ride them in the past, but at Disneyland a couple of months ago he rode the Gadget Coaster and thought "maybe this could be kind of fun after all." Well this time, he rode BTMRR, SDD, and SDMT......and LOVED them. This kiddo has done a complete 180 and now says his favorite park is Magic Kingdom because it has Big Thunder. Mind you, this is a kid who always chose Animal Kingdom because he preferred the tamer thrills of a wildlife walk-through. But on this trip he actually turned to me and asked, "Am I becoming a young thrill-seeker?" Yep kiddo, I think you are!
5. Food. We ate at Roundup Rodeo, Jiko, Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, Topolino's Terrace breakfast, Yak & Yeti, and a number of quick-service locations. We also did some breakfasts in the room. We did not have a single bad meal, but Jiko and Topolino's were particular stand-outs for excellent food, as you'd expect at these prices! But it occurred to us that there are few places where you can have a meal of this quality, tailored to adult palates, accompanied by excellent wine lists, AND find the staff only too happy to accommodate your 5 kids ages 10 to 4 months. Disney really stands out for this.
The Misses:
1. Hollywood Studios: Two huge expansions later, and this park is still a hot mess. We spent very little time here, because after waking up at the crack of dawn to make early entry for SDD, waiting through most of early entry time to ride it, then riding MFSR, every ride in the park had close to an hour-long wait. This was on a day with what I would classify as average crowds. My sister's family and my son are HUGE Star Wars fans, so I took the 2-year-old to the Disney Junior show while they wandered that land for an hour, and then we left. On a previous night, we had entered the park to eat at Roundup Rodeo and ride RotR, which we paid to do. We had Park Hoppers so the calculation is a little tricky, but I reckon we paid about $200 per person >3, or $1200 total, to ride 3 rides and take the 2-yr-old to one show. Yes, I know there are other shows we could have done, but the 2-yr-old could not sit through them. The kids would have loved MMRR, TSMM, and AS2 but no way could they have handled the waits--and the adults didn't want to. We will not be returning to this park until Disney gets a handle on this.
2. Capture Your Moment photographers. My sister's family was yelled at in DHS by a Capture Your Moment photographer when they inadvertently wandered into her (unmarked, un-cordoned-off) shot. The EXACT SAME THING happened to me TWICE at the Magic Kingdom on a previous trip, so this seems to be a consistent issue for guests. In these locations where they are doing the shoots, there is no indication that a photo shoot is going on, and the photographer is often 10-15 feet from the subject. In crowded conditions, it's easy to miss that someone is taking a photo. Why doesn't Disney provide signage or something to these cast members so they don't have to yell at and get grouchy with guests? This was the single bad cast member interaction we had on this trip.
3. Buses with a 2-yr-old and an infant. It's not that the bus service is bad. We rarely waited more than 10-15 minutes for a bus, and we usually got a seat. That's much better than most city public transit systems I've used! But by the time you get to the front of the park, schlep your way to your stop, wait for the bus to arrive, wait for it to load (add 5 additional min per ECV), wait for it to do any stops before your stop at the hotel, and get to your stop -- well, you're looking at an hour park-to-room. There were several days on which the 2-yr-old and infant REALLY could have used a nap back at the room, but the thought of a 2-hr round trip needed to make it happen was too exhausting for the adults! I now understand why people pay $700 a night to stay on the monorail.
4. The line for the skyliner in the morning at Pop / AoA. Thirty minutes just to get on the Skyliner in the morning. Ugh. (But I guess it was better than the buses!)
Stray Observations
1. My DS10 has always had a freakishly long attention span and laser focus, such that he was able to sit through 2-hr movies with us at age 2. Disney shows were never a problem. This gave me an unrealistic expectation of what an average 2-yr-old could handle in terms of sitting through shows, which led to me assuring my sister that her 2-yr-old would be fine at FotLK, which led to our 2-yr-old having a meltdown after about 10 minutes when we wouldn't let him crawl down the bleachers to touch the "mammoth."
2. The character interactions at Topolino's are so fun! I love their artist costumes. My sister commented to me that she hadn't cared about doing a character meal because she didn't get what all the fuss was about, but when she saw how excited her 2-yr-old got especially, and when SHE started fangirling when Minnie came out, she finally "got it." We got a wonderful picture of the whole gang with The Big Guy himself!
3. I love the queue and the whole atmosphere of Remy, but I'm pretty meh on the ride. Our whole group was glad we did it during EEH, but no one had any reaction bigger than "that was kinda cute." Definitely not worth waiting more than 20-30 min for.
4. I really wish there was more Encanto stuff in the parks. My husband is Colombian, so my son is half-Colombian, and this would be such a neat way to help him connect more to that part of his heritage. (Disney / LMM did a really great job honoring the culture in this movie, similar to Coco.)
5. Our group mix turned out to be good because I was on hand to help with the 2-yr-old and infant during the day, but I could also stay later in the park with the 7, 9, and 10-year-old for EEH. This was how we got in rides on SDMT, PPF, and TT -- which ended up being my 9-year-old niece's favorite ride.
6. With the exception of a couple of tired toddler meltdowns and typical sibling squabbling, the kids did way better than I was expecting. Yes, we had to keep my 7-yr-old nephew from climbing everything in sight, but that is par for the course with him, and every single kid really tried to be on their best behavior, and wound up finding something they really loved in the parks. My niece, especially, was gung-ho for Disney after this trip. I would like to do a trip with just her, my son, and my sister at some point.
MikeandReneePlus5
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2010
great report. you probably already know this but HS needs Genie+ and paid LL$ for Rise to make it work. But.....yeah. That's $30-$35 per person. Not ideal.Just back from a 5 day trip! This trip was me, my DS10, my sister, her DH, DD9, DS7, DS2, DS3mos. I was nervous about a trip with so many kids, having really only done WDW recently with my DS10. But my sister asked me to help plan and execute this trip, and I'll take any excuse to go to Disney World, so I swallowed my nerves and took the plunge!
We stayed 1 night at AoA / Pop (Cars family suite for them, standard Pop room for us) before switching to a 2BR AKL standard view villa (Jambo House) with rented points. We exclusively used Disney transportation with some Lyft thrown in here and there. We had 5 day park-hoppers. No dining plan.
I thought I'd organize this post as Hits / Misses / Stray Observations, so here goes:
The Hits:
1. The hotels. They were awesome! The Cars suite is so stinkin' cute, and my sister's family had a great view of the lake. My sister did comment that it felt a lot smaller than she thought it would, and I agreed with that, but it was perfectly adequate for their family's needs for a single night. I don't think it would have been enough space for them for longer. Our Pop room was clean and functional and we had a lake view as well. It was nice that we could go for this cheaper room and still be close to my sister's family. This combo (Pop + AoA) really works well for big families with different room size needs. This was also my first time walking through the common areas at AoA and holy cow, were they awesome! We didn't have time to swim in the Big Blue Pool but it looked amazing, and the Cozy Cone pool is such a dash of nostalgic glory for all things Cars and Route 66.
Although we had only booked a standard view at AKL, we landed a partial savanna view! My sister had commented before this trip that she really wanted to have "giraffes with her coffee" but didn't want to spend the $400 dollars extra for the view......well she got giraffe coffee anyway. We had giraffes wandering through our backyard in the mornings and evenings, as well as several species of antelope pretty much all day. It was incredible. This room size was also more in line with what my sister really needed for her family, and the connecting studio was more than enough for me and my son. We actually ended up using our couch / TV as a living room because they had the pull-out bed and chair in use the whole time. My sister put her 2yr old's kid in the hallway of their 1BR and kept the infant in a bassinet in the bedroom with them.
2. The cast members: With one exception I'll talk about later, all our cast member interactions this trip were wonderful. This was in contrast to the past few post-pandemic trips, in which it had seemed to me like Disney was still struggling to fill positions and not all cast members were at the top of their game or happy to be there. This time, that was NOT the case. From the bus drivers to the attraction staff to the people working the QS dining rooms, everyone went out of their way to make our trip special, make guests smile, and just generally be great humans. One cast member even offered to buy my nephew ice cream when he noticed him trip and fall at Animal Kingdom; another security staff member told jokes to everyone waiting to be scanned and have their bags searched; we had not a single bad experience with wait staff. It was really quite exceptional.
3. Epcot. With most of the construction walls down, low to manageable wait times for many of the rides our little ones could enjoy, the Festival of the Arts Food booths to sample, and beautiful weather to wander the World Showcase, I think this was just about everyone's favorite park. It was certainly the adults' favorite! We would all say our best memory was the sunny afternoon spent in the World Showcase, stopping to linger in Italy while the kids watched the juggler, drinking limoncello cocktails and treating the kids to gelato. The older kids loved collecting the postcards at Kidcot stops and our 2yr old absolutely LOVED It's a Small Mexico. We topped this day off with a visit to Moana's Journey of Water, which was an especially big hit with 7yr old and 2yr old, but which we were all really impressed with.
4. Disney coasters. My DS10 has been absolutely terrified of coasters and refused to ride them in the past, but at Disneyland a couple of months ago he rode the Gadget Coaster and thought "maybe this could be kind of fun after all." Well this time, he rode BTMRR, SDD, and SDMT......and LOVED them. This kiddo has done a complete 180 and now says his favorite park is Magic Kingdom because it has Big Thunder. Mind you, this is a kid who always chose Animal Kingdom because he preferred the tamer thrills of a wildlife walk-through. But on this trip he actually turned to me and asked, "Am I becoming a young thrill-seeker?" Yep kiddo, I think you are!
5. Food. We ate at Roundup Rodeo, Jiko, Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, Topolino's Terrace breakfast, Yak & Yeti, and a number of quick-service locations. We also did some breakfasts in the room. We did not have a single bad meal, but Jiko and Topolino's were particular stand-outs for excellent food, as you'd expect at these prices! But it occurred to us that there are few places where you can have a meal of this quality, tailored to adult palates, accompanied by excellent wine lists, AND find the staff only too happy to accommodate your 5 kids ages 10 to 4 months. Disney really stands out for this.
The Misses:
1. Hollywood Studios: Two huge expansions later, and this park is still a hot mess. We spent very little time here, because after waking up at the crack of dawn to make early entry for SDD, waiting through most of early entry time to ride it, then riding MFSR, every ride in the park had close to an hour-long wait. This was on a day with what I would classify as average crowds. My sister's family and my son are HUGE Star Wars fans, so I took the 2-year-old to the Disney Junior show while they wandered that land for an hour, and then we left. On a previous night, we had entered the park to eat at Roundup Rodeo and ride RotR, which we paid to do. We had Park Hoppers so the calculation is a little tricky, but I reckon we paid about $200 per person >3, or $1200 total, to ride 3 rides and take the 2-yr-old to one show. Yes, I know there are other shows we could have done, but the 2-yr-old could not sit through them. The kids would have loved MMRR, TSMM, and AS2 but no way could they have handled the waits--and the adults didn't want to. We will not be returning to this park until Disney gets a handle on this.
2. Capture Your Moment photographers. My sister's family was yelled at in DHS by a Capture Your Moment photographer when they inadvertently wandered into her (unmarked, un-cordoned-off) shot. The EXACT SAME THING happened to me TWICE at the Magic Kingdom on a previous trip, so this seems to be a consistent issue for guests. In these locations where they are doing the shoots, there is no indication that a photo shoot is going on, and the photographer is often 10-15 feet from the subject. In crowded conditions, it's easy to miss that someone is taking a photo. Why doesn't Disney provide signage or something to these cast members so they don't have to yell at and get grouchy with guests? This was the single bad cast member interaction we had on this trip.
3. Buses with a 2-yr-old and an infant. It's not that the bus service is bad. We rarely waited more than 10-15 minutes for a bus, and we usually got a seat. That's much better than most city public transit systems I've used! But by the time you get to the front of the park, schlep your way to your stop, wait for the bus to arrive, wait for it to load (add 5 additional min per ECV), wait for it to do any stops before your stop at the hotel, and get to your stop -- well, you're looking at an hour park-to-room. There were several days on which the 2-yr-old and infant REALLY could have used a nap back at the room, but the thought of a 2-hr round trip needed to make it happen was too exhausting for the adults! I now understand why people pay $700 a night to stay on the monorail.
4. The line for the skyliner in the morning at Pop / AoA. Thirty minutes just to get on the Skyliner in the morning. Ugh. (But I guess it was better than the buses!)
Stray Observations
1. My DS10 has always had a freakishly long attention span and laser focus, such that he was able to sit through 2-hr movies with us at age 2. Disney shows were never a problem. This gave me an unrealistic expectation of what an average 2-yr-old could handle in terms of sitting through shows, which led to me assuring my sister that her 2-yr-old would be fine at FotLK, which led to our 2-yr-old having a meltdown after about 10 minutes when we wouldn't let him crawl down the bleachers to touch the "mammoth."
2. The character interactions at Topolino's are so fun! I love their artist costumes. My sister commented to me that she hadn't cared about doing a character meal because she didn't get what all the fuss was about, but when she saw how excited her 2-yr-old got especially, and when SHE started fangirling when Minnie came out, she finally "got it." We got a wonderful picture of the whole gang with The Big Guy himself!
3. I love the queue and the whole atmosphere of Remy, but I'm pretty meh on the ride. Our whole group was glad we did it during EEH, but no one had any reaction bigger than "that was kinda cute." Definitely not worth waiting more than 20-30 min for.
4. I really wish there was more Encanto stuff in the parks. My husband is Colombian, so my son is half-Colombian, and this would be such a neat way to help him connect more to that part of his heritage. (Disney / LMM did a really great job honoring the culture in this movie, similar to Coco.)
5. Our group mix turned out to be good because I was on hand to help with the 2-yr-old and infant during the day, but I could also stay later in the park with the 7, 9, and 10-year-old for EEH. This was how we got in rides on SDMT, PPF, and TT -- which ended up being my 9-year-old niece's favorite ride.
6. With the exception of a couple of tired toddler meltdowns and typical sibling squabbling, the kids did way better than I was expecting. Yes, we had to keep my 7-yr-old nephew from climbing everything in sight, but that is par for the course with him, and every single kid really tried to be on their best behavior, and wound up finding something they really loved in the parks. My niece, especially, was gung-ho for Disney after this trip. I would like to do a trip with just her, my son, and my sister at some point.
However it gets you Rise, Slinky, MMRR, MFSR, TOT, TSMM with no wait (and RNRC if it's running). That's not bad value vs. skipping the park entirely because those are 6-7 excellent attractions. And there is Fantasmic also.
Love Tink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2011
Not to quibble, but there's definitely a wait for all those rides even with Genie+. A shorter wait, but a wait nonetheless (sometimes quite a long one on TOT in particular). It's also not assured that you can get all those rides, particularly Slinky.
Additionally I have issues with the argument "Don't worry, you know that $1,000 your group just spent to visit this park today? We can totally 'make it work' if you just add another $225!"
MikeandReneePlus5
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2010
"Not to quibble"? hardly! lol
I specifically said it's "not ideal" to have to spend more money, I was merely pointing out a park with great rides is easily doable with no waits if you do indeed spend it. The value of that spend is up to the spender. I, too, enjoyed the free FP system of old (both versions). But we have what we have now, no avoiding it.
And yes, it is assured you will get Slinky if you try at 7am. Head on over to thrill-data and you will see it always available for a few minutes.
As for waits...they are very, very short. I said "no wait" which for me it rounds down to, whereas you are clarifying that perhaps it's 5 minutes or so...which is fair. Thanks.
I specifically said it's "not ideal" to have to spend more money, I was merely pointing out a park with great rides is easily doable with no waits if you do indeed spend it. The value of that spend is up to the spender. I, too, enjoyed the free FP system of old (both versions). But we have what we have now, no avoiding it.
And yes, it is assured you will get Slinky if you try at 7am. Head on over to thrill-data and you will see it always available for a few minutes.
As for waits...they are very, very short. I said "no wait" which for me it rounds down to, whereas you are clarifying that perhaps it's 5 minutes or so...which is fair. Thanks.
olafgypsy
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2009
Yes, that's exactly my point. We already spent over $1000 to bring our group to the park. Disney can do what they want, but we won't be returning until our regular ticket purchase actually buys us REASONABLE access to the park's attractions, and I will advise others against doing so - or be prepared to spend hundreds more dollars, or most of their time in line.
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2010
Let’s get away from debating and back to sharing actual experiences of those ‘Here Now and Just Back.’
Discussions re: pros and cons of Genie+ are welcome in the community board. There is no one single answer so let’s not try to convince others of what works for us. Each family does what works for them and that’s a good thing.
Discussions re: pros and cons of Genie+ are welcome in the community board. There is no one single answer so let’s not try to convince others of what works for us. Each family does what works for them and that’s a good thing.
pixiedust2u
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2019
Ehhhh I don’t know about this. I know of many reviews as well has friends/family that went this route and said “never again”. I have to chuckle at “they ride the rides that (in the moment” appeal to them…” because the reality of that is it’s more like 90- 135 minutes these days, for a 1-2 minute attraction.
pixiedust2u
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2019
I just saw they extended park hours into early March. Curious to see reports on crowds after the holiday weekend. Heading there for a girls/adults trip early March.
We did a rope drop (EP) to park close day (MK) on 2/1. Snagged a genie+ for 12:50 Remy at 7 and bought an evening ILL SDMT. Started at Epcot (non resort guests) so 9am entry. Started at test track posted time 40 minutes, was off the ride in 25. Had a wander through the Journey of Water, it was smaller than I expected, but beautiful and well done. Would be nice for a hot day! Would like to see it at night. At 11 we grabbed a genie+ for Soarin for an 11:50 return. We went hunting for a snack, but a lot of the snack carts weren’t open yet and the line at the France bakery was through the door. We settled on some pretzels. Took some photos at the FArts photo props, enjoyed a performance by the Mariachi band in Mexico (a must see, a family fave!) We then went to our Soarin genie+, indulged in some of the FArts kitchens, participated in the paint by number mural and then headed to our Remy genie+. We then started stacking for our afternoon/evening at MK . Roamed around World Showcase a bit more eating, catching performers. Took a photo with Walt, grabbed our FArts pin and then hopped to MK around 3:15, arrived by 3:30. Caught end of parade and mobiles ordered Casey’s Corner. We did many attractions at MK & carousel of progress, Tikki Room, BTMRR (genie+), People Mover, Small World (genie+), Jungle Cruise (genie+), Pirates (genie+), Speedway, and finally HM (genie+). We picked our spot for fireworks around 7:30 for HEA, mobile ordered our treats at the Confectionary (highly recommend doing this! It was mayhem in there!) We left MK at 10, and took monorail to the contemporary for a quick snack before heading to our resort via Uber from contemporary. We clocked in 28.5k steps and had the best day!
Weather was perfect, layers were key. It was busy but manageable with genie+. It was a magical day!
We did a rope drop (EP) to park close day (MK) on 2/1. Snagged a genie+ for 12:50 Remy at 7 and bought an evening ILL SDMT. Started at Epcot (non resort guests) so 9am entry. Started at test track posted time 40 minutes, was off the ride in 25. Had a wander through the Journey of Water, it was smaller than I expected, but beautiful and well done. Would be nice for a hot day! Would like to see it at night. At 11 we grabbed a genie+ for Soarin for an 11:50 return. We went hunting for a snack, but a lot of the snack carts weren’t open yet and the line at the France bakery was through the door. We settled on some pretzels. Took some photos at the FArts photo props, enjoyed a performance by the Mariachi band in Mexico (a must see, a family fave!) We then went to our Soarin genie+, indulged in some of the FArts kitchens, participated in the paint by number mural and then headed to our Remy genie+. We then started stacking for our afternoon/evening at MK . Roamed around World Showcase a bit more eating, catching performers. Took a photo with Walt, grabbed our FArts pin and then hopped to MK around 3:15, arrived by 3:30. Caught end of parade and mobiles ordered Casey’s Corner. We did many attractions at MK & carousel of progress, Tikki Room, BTMRR (genie+), People Mover, Small World (genie+), Jungle Cruise (genie+), Pirates (genie+), Speedway, and finally HM (genie+). We picked our spot for fireworks around 7:30 for HEA, mobile ordered our treats at the Confectionary (highly recommend doing this! It was mayhem in there!) We left MK at 10, and took monorail to the contemporary for a quick snack before heading to our resort via Uber from contemporary. We clocked in 28.5k steps and had the best day!
Weather was perfect, layers were key. It was busy but manageable with genie+. It was a magical day!
krismom345
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2014
Fantasmic! 9:30 show paused “due to unforseen circumstances” tonight - no lightning in the area. Anyone know why?
ckb_nc
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2001
Went two weekends ago to celebrate our 30th anniversary with my kids and son-in-law. We had a blast and really amazing experiences.
Sunday night we were leaving HS, and I realized I had lost the key to our rental car. Last time I could remember it I had put in the pocket on Rise. My kids and son-in-law took an Uber back to SSR. Headed to guest services, and after a call yes our key was at Rise. My wife and I headed back. The dance competition had the park that night, so it took a little bit to get back there but low behold they had my key.
Next day my middle daughter left her phone by Space. We realized it as we approached getting a Dole Whip in Adventureland. Her phone was in Town Hall by the time we made it there.
In both occasions it was a stressful situation that was handled perfectly.
Sunday night we were leaving HS, and I realized I had lost the key to our rental car. Last time I could remember it I had put in the pocket on Rise. My kids and son-in-law took an Uber back to SSR. Headed to guest services, and after a call yes our key was at Rise. My wife and I headed back. The dance competition had the park that night, so it took a little bit to get back there but low behold they had my key.
Next day my middle daughter left her phone by Space. We realized it as we approached getting a Dole Whip in Adventureland. Her phone was in Town Hall by the time we made it there.
In both occasions it was a stressful situation that was handled perfectly.
2xcited2sleep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2008
I don't follow the thread title but am happy to hear that your lost items were recovered quickly.
Editing to add: a previously separate thread was merged
Editing to add: a previously separate thread was merged
Last edited:
North of Mouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2011
Totally don't understand significance of the title, or what it means, but glad your lost items were returned to you.
3rd_time_the_charm
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2024
Weird title. I ***think*** it means that Disney is proving the haters wrong by still having magical moments.
Smugpugmug
IPA enthusiast
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2022
I went to Epcot yesterday and was talking to two separate groups who were coming to WDW for the first time. One of them has a diehard Disney fan friend who is a local and comes all the time so they decided to go themselves. The other party said they would probably never return. The over reliance on the phone really killed the experience for them. They also didn't understand how the VQs work and when I explained to them how the 1 pm drop works, one of the kids said "This is as complicated as performing a space launch".
Epcot was rough yesterday with the rain but it was still enjoyable. Test Track was closed the entire day which made Frozen, Remy and Soarin get up to 2 hour waits in the afternoon. People camped out in the Odyssey building and the Land to get away from the rain. The Land was especially mobbed - have never seen Sunshine Seasons that packed in a long time. The festival booths had 0 lines but I think that was because most people didn't want to eat festival food when it's cold and moderately raining.
Smiling Cheshire Cat
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2009
Never posted here before but enjoy and appreciate the information so here’s my experience:
We visited Tuesday, 2/6- Sunday 2/11 staying in a resort view room at the Boardwalk. We flew Allegiant Air to Sanford and used Uber to transfer to and from the airport. Had a great flight and easy to use Uber.
I was glad I had not used online check in. My sister was supposed to come with us but cancelled the night before when her husband became ill. It was easy for the front desk to remove her as the third adult on my reservation when we checked in saving me a few dollars.
We really enjoyed the refurbished rooms at the Boardwalk and like the overall vibe there. Our room was a long walk from the main entrance but had a great view of the quiet pool, the skyliner, and the Epcot fireworks. Worth the extra steps. My only complaint is about the food options if you want a quick bite, or like myself, traveling with a picky teenager who prefers to eat French fries for every meal.
We visited all the parks and I was surprised at how busy it was. I would recommend finding a schedule of events that the parks are hosting when planning a trip. There was a cheer competition and I’m sure that pushed the crowd meter. We only used Genie plus at Hollywood Studios and was able to get every ride we wanted except Slinky Dog. On our travel day home I tried to get in the queue for Guardians at 7:00 am. I took a screenshot showing the time stamp was still 7:00 and the queue was already full to show my sleeping daughter. I bought a Lightening Lane for the ride but it was down when it was time to ride. I had to go to guest relations to get a refund because we had a plane to catch later that afternoon. It was a bit of a hassle but we were given a refund.
The main purpose of our trip was to do a Capture Your Moment photo session for my daughter’s Senior pictures at Magic Kingdom. She became sick at her stomach the night before and I had to reschedule these to the following day and this was done easily. But I can’t say I’m pleased with the pictures. The experience was good, but the pictures were in my Memory maker account within 30 minutes and had been edited very little so the lighting is not the best in most of the pictures.
As far as food goes, there was good and bad. We ate a Beaches and Cream, which is usually a favorite of ours, but not this time. I got the cheese sandwich, it was so much cheese half of it was on my plate and our fries were old. My daughter likes Nine Dragons and we had a good meal there. We tried Woodys Bbq and liked most things about it. The theming of Andy’s room was great and we enjoyed the salads, sides, and dessert. But the meat was greasy and kind of tough. We had great service all around. Our Cs meals were breakfasts at the Boardwalk Deli, great muffins, and mobile order so easy. The best was the Columbia Harbour house and the worst Yak and Yetis quick service.
Mostly a very good trip. We purchased APs after not having them the last 3 years so planning a quick trip again the end of April.
We visited Tuesday, 2/6- Sunday 2/11 staying in a resort view room at the Boardwalk. We flew Allegiant Air to Sanford and used Uber to transfer to and from the airport. Had a great flight and easy to use Uber.
I was glad I had not used online check in. My sister was supposed to come with us but cancelled the night before when her husband became ill. It was easy for the front desk to remove her as the third adult on my reservation when we checked in saving me a few dollars.
We really enjoyed the refurbished rooms at the Boardwalk and like the overall vibe there. Our room was a long walk from the main entrance but had a great view of the quiet pool, the skyliner, and the Epcot fireworks. Worth the extra steps. My only complaint is about the food options if you want a quick bite, or like myself, traveling with a picky teenager who prefers to eat French fries for every meal.
We visited all the parks and I was surprised at how busy it was. I would recommend finding a schedule of events that the parks are hosting when planning a trip. There was a cheer competition and I’m sure that pushed the crowd meter. We only used Genie plus at Hollywood Studios and was able to get every ride we wanted except Slinky Dog. On our travel day home I tried to get in the queue for Guardians at 7:00 am. I took a screenshot showing the time stamp was still 7:00 and the queue was already full to show my sleeping daughter. I bought a Lightening Lane for the ride but it was down when it was time to ride. I had to go to guest relations to get a refund because we had a plane to catch later that afternoon. It was a bit of a hassle but we were given a refund.
The main purpose of our trip was to do a Capture Your Moment photo session for my daughter’s Senior pictures at Magic Kingdom. She became sick at her stomach the night before and I had to reschedule these to the following day and this was done easily. But I can’t say I’m pleased with the pictures. The experience was good, but the pictures were in my Memory maker account within 30 minutes and had been edited very little so the lighting is not the best in most of the pictures.
As far as food goes, there was good and bad. We ate a Beaches and Cream, which is usually a favorite of ours, but not this time. I got the cheese sandwich, it was so much cheese half of it was on my plate and our fries were old. My daughter likes Nine Dragons and we had a good meal there. We tried Woodys Bbq and liked most things about it. The theming of Andy’s room was great and we enjoyed the salads, sides, and dessert. But the meat was greasy and kind of tough. We had great service all around. Our Cs meals were breakfasts at the Boardwalk Deli, great muffins, and mobile order so easy. The best was the Columbia Harbour house and the worst Yak and Yetis quick service.
Mostly a very good trip. We purchased APs after not having them the last 3 years so planning a quick trip again the end of April.
mickeyluv'r
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2005
This has not been our experience.
Even though we bought G+ and attempted to get Slinky at EXACTLY the correct time, we have not always been able to get a pass for it.
Sometimes we missed out, other times the problem was that MDE jammed up.
We visit the parks at different times of year, and getting passes on slower weeks is easier than during busy weeks.
Part of the situation is that there are always some people who opt to modify. Thrill Data's information reflects that, and it tracks with my experience. On some days we were not initially able to get a G+ for Slinky (and others like Remy), but then a few minutes or hours later we got lucky. If at first someone is shut out, then it is useful to keep trying for a few minutes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work.
YMMV
gottalovepluto
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2014
Since you’re returning just FYI people who need an ILL refund have been able to obtain one via Chat in the app instead of having to go to a blue umbrella/guest relations
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