Just Back! Thoughts on June 24-29, 2018

tiffne

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
This trip was 4 of us: DH, DS (11), DD (almost 13), me. My in-laws were also on vacation with us but mostly just joined us for dinner ADRs.

June 24 - Magic Kingdom -
  • EMM is worth the money for sure. All rides were working and we managed 7DMT 7x and PP 2x. We could have done 7DMT 2-3 more times but I was feeling a little ill. LOL The breakfast was well-stocked and not crowded. At park open we headed to HM and then back for breakfast, then on to Tomorrowland and our first FP (Space Mountain).
  • This day (Sunday) it was easy to get additional FP. Park did not seem crowded. Probably rode at least 10 rides with FP, moving times around and refreshing to get the times I wanted. Mostly did this while waiting in FP lines.
  • We had dinner at BOG around 4:15. Requested the West Wing when we checked in and they honored it. Sat right by the rose! So awesome but it is dark in there. Enjoyed our meal a lot. For my daughter who is kind of between kids and adult menus... they suggested an adult portion of the kids' mac and cheese which was I think just $4 more than the kids meal.
  • HEA Dessert Party with Plaza Garden Viewing - we arrived to the before party still not very hungry. Didn't try any of the new savory offerings. The Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake tasted like nothing...? Not like sugar or toffee or chocolate or anything. It was strange. Not like what I remember from LTT. I thought I would love the Pineapple Delight dessert but it also tasted bland. I'm going to blame it on the slight head cold I was battling. Had no problems getting a great view in the Plaza Garden. Plenty of room all around and I was so grateful not to be in the main hub area! HEA is amazing. I don't know if I would do this dessert party again because the only value for us came from the viewing location. But it was worth it for our first HEA viewing.
June 25 - Epcot
  • Pre-park-open Garden Grill reservation at 8 a.m. We let the server know we were trying to make Soarin' before park open and he was very good about getting food and the bill to us quickly. Characters came around several times. I offended Pluto by calling him Goofy (which resulted in a running joke the rest of the trip any time we saw either character). Food was really, really good. My husband loved the potato thingies (basically tater tots). DS loved the cinnamon roll thing. I appreciated the fresh fruit. We did feel a little rushed since we were trying to beat the rope drop crowd. Would love to experience this without that rush but probably wouldn't do a PPO breakfast without the intent of getting a leg on rope drop. It was pretty expensive for only 50 minutes of actual eating/interaction time.
  • Rode Soarin' in the B section, it was great. High-tailed it to Frozen since we had a FP for TT. The wait said 15 minutes, but Frozen broke down right before we got on the ride. Since TT was down and converted our FP to anytime, we decided to stick it out in Frozen's A/C'd queue. Took about 30 minutes for them to get it running again. We rode it (meh... we can skip it next time) and headed over to TT which had a crazy long FP line due to its earlier downtime.
  • Park didn't seem super crowded, but more than MK the day before. I was able to get extra FP for most rides we wanted to ride again using the refresh method but I noticed FP queues were long.
  • Did Rose & Crown for Illuminations viewing. I think this would be a better value on more crowded days. It didn't even seem that crowded at the restaurant. We spent a super long time here drawing out our dinner until Illuminations. Food was pretty good but not for picky eaters or those who don't like fish. 3 had the burger (they said the fries were excellent), 2 kids had mac and cheese, and I had Shepherd's Pie. The view is really good from this restaurant. But again we've seen Illuminations many times now so we probably could have snagged a spot anywhere along the WS path an hour ahead of time and been fine.
June 26 - Hollywood Studios
  • Arrived around 8:15 for 9:00 rope drop. We were let in, then held at various intersections until about 8:45. We were all dripping sweat. DH didn't want to join the TSMM crowd so we headed toward RnRC. Rode it, then ToT, then RnRC again, the ToT with FP then RnRC with FP, lol. Then off to Star Tours.
  • I was able to add a couple more FP for RnRC/ToT and Star Tours and we hit some shows on stand-by but I never saw a same-day TSMM pop up. The park seemed more crowded than the previous 2 days.
  • We never actually made it over to the Pixar Place area at all!
  • We had Fantasmic Package lunch at Mama Melrose. For the second trip in a row MM was our favorite meal of the whole trip. The bread was so good. DH had the steak, I had the sustainable fish, DD had chicken parm and for picky DS... they made a cheese pizza for him. The dessert trio included in the package was kinda meh. The package is expensive, honestly. We didn't mind so much because we were so happy being in the A/C and eating, lol.
  • We had a Sci-Fi Diner ADR for dinner. Second time we have done Sci-Fi. We love the atmosphere but weren't as happy with our food this time. Our $8.50 onion ring app came with 8 onion rings. That's ridic even by Disney standards.
  • Fantasmic - the dining package seating is great. We had a storm delay. I noticed they opened the area to all people after the initial seating rush. The show didn't seem super crowded so honestly the package was a little wasted. Oh well. I think due to the storms in the area the show felt a little abbreviated. We usually love Fantasmic but left feeling kinda meh about it.
  • Neither kid (or DH) felt like checking out the Star Wars fireworks (and its crowd) so we left. Everyone was exhausted at this point.
June 27 - break day
  • Hit the pools and Disney Springs. Disney Springs is just miserable when it's hot. Had Frontera Cocina for lunch because it was near us and DH wanted A/C seating. I am the only foodie in our family so it was a little fancy for them, haha. Nevertheless they enjoyed the food they got. We also stopped at Ghirardelli and someone remind me next time that those dang sundaes are easily shared and we don't need 4 for 4 people. We also spent some time pin trading and souvenir/gift shopping.
June 28 - AK/MK
  • Hit AK morning EMH since we never snagged FOP FP. I thought the FOP dash wasn't that bad. We were near the front of the crowd and were off FOP by 8:05. Then to NRJ, which was nicer than reviews led me to believe it would be. We have seen the movie so it was a lot of things I remembered from it. Also, at that point I think I was loving anything with A/C. LOL
  • After Pandora we headed to MK. At this point DD was battling the head cold I had passed to her (mild but still annoying) and everyone was just kind of done. I had snagged a FP for HM and when we got off the kids were HANGRY.
  • I was trying to find anywhere that was A/C that was open and we ended up at Cosmic Ray's. First experience there and it wasn't bad. We all had chicken breast nuggets and fries and it was decent. DH had to run back to the hotel to address a work emergency so the kids and I loitered with Sonny Eclipse for an hour because they didn't have the energy or desire to move. We heard his whole routine probably 20 times, haha.
  • When DH was back, we hit a few more rides (Space Mountain we did 3 more times with FP because it's DD's favorite) and then had dinner at Pecos Bill's (beef nachos, just ok although the toppings bar helps. The $2 guac is not good.) After that we decided to take DD back to the hotel because she was miserable.
  • On the way out I did make them stop on Main Street to get a new silhouette done. I have one of each kid from our last trip and it's one of my favorite cheap(ish) souvenirs.
  • MK seemed PACKED this day. Yes I managed a SM FP 3x but it took a ton of refreshing and moving times. There was not a lot of good FP showing up.
  • After we got DD to the hotel to hang with the grandparents, DH, DS and I went back out to ride the monorail to Epcot (DH's wish). Got off at Epcot, rode Nemo and SE one more time with FP I snagged. At this point we had the option of going back to the hotel or taking the monorail back into MK. I was leaning hotel, but...
  • DS wanted to ride 7DMT during fireworks like we did last time so we slogged our way back into MK, battling HEA crowds on Main Street. We made it around to 7DMT just as fireworks started. Waited about 20 minutes in line. Then we rode POC one more time with a FP I nabbed. By then it was 10 and the park closed (DAH was starting).
  • I knew this would happen but we got stuck in the horrible exit traffic. Took us an hour and a half almost to get back to TTC. We were exhausted.
June 29 - Animal Kingdom
  • Woke up a little energized since it was our last day. Headed once more to AK EMH and got off FOP even earlier by 8 a.m. and rode NRJ again and headed over to EE which we rode several times with no wait until 9. After that the crowds came in and the park felt jam packed and HOT.
  • Got a couple cinnamon rolls and a spinach/sausage/goat cheese/egg wrap (which was 98% egg) from the CS by Kilimanjaro Safaris. Rode KS, then we sat in A/C and watched the Nemo and It's Tough to be a Bug shows and snagged a couple FP in Dinoland. Around 2 p.m. when we were exiting Dinosaur the downpour started and didn't stop. DS and DH were wearing sneakers and got soaked so we decided to go back to the hotel for new shoes and come back for our dinner ADR. The rain let up a little bit by the time we got back.
  • Dinner ADR was 5:45 at Yak & Yeti. Our 3rd time there and just as good as the first 2. Probably my DH's second favorite meal (he had honey chicken). After dinner I casually mentioned we could quit and go back to the hotel and the kids were SO grateful LOL. So we missed seeing ROL. But it was raining so hopefully we made the right choice. DH mentioned maybe going back at dark to see Pandora but once we made it back to the hotel and started relaxing, I think he easily changed his mind (we're still bummed about that!)
A few notes:
  • We were prepared, yet unprepared, for the weather. We are from the southeast where it gets very very hot and humid (yesterday it was 98 degrees with 98% humidity and that is not uncommon). Yet what I didn't think of is that we generally hide in the A/C all summer. Slogging through theme parks day in and day out really did a number on our energy levels, even with frequent resort or A/C breaks. Mister fans and necklace fans did help. We really should have planned a daily long afternoon break at the hotel and stuck to it. We only did it a couple times. Don't try to go from rope drop to close in the summer.
  • Plan out what QS locations have A/C. Also it helps to have a TS ADR mid-day to get out of the heat, or late afternoon to get out of the storm.
  • If you have sneaker-wearers in your family, try to get them used to sandals like Tevas or Chacos, that can get wet. Twice we had to leave the park after a downpour got shoes soaked. My husband only wears sneakers and couldn't hack the flip flops we bought him at the gift shop. Meanwhile I was splashing through puddles all smugly in my Chacos (which by the way are amazing - I thought I would need to rotate out a couple pairs of shoes but I comfortably wore them the entire week).
  • Despite all my complaining about the heat, we had a fantastic trip, we really did! I wouldn't rule out coming in the summer again, but would force DH to take those afternoon resort breaks, every single day!
 
A few notes:
  • We were prepared, yet unprepared, for the weather. We are from the southeast where it gets very very hot and humid (yesterday it was 98 degrees with 98% humidity and that is not uncommon). Yet what I didn't think of is that we generally hide in the A/C all summer. Slogging through theme parks day in and day out really did a number on our energy levels, even with frequent resort or A/C breaks. Mister fans and necklace fans did help. We really should have planned a daily long afternoon break at the hotel and stuck to it. We only did it a couple times. Don't try to go from rope drop to close in the summer.

This was also something we discovered after our first few summer trips. The afternoon break at the pool or napping always helped for evening time in the parks. Thanks for sharing.
 

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