My quick review of last week at WDW!

Ok- I'll set the stage- we have 7 people traveling with us... 2 grandparents, 2 parents, 2 teenagers and a kindergartener...So- we fit the bill for the commercials- we cover every generation!

We had 9 days total, flying in from Atlanta. We stayed at Coronado springs... We have major dining requests in this family (grandparents) as well as ride requests. We have been going this week for the past 6 years in a row because it is a good time to go...

We flew in to Orlando and landed at 8 am and were at our hotel by about 8:45. One of our rooms was ready. Overall the hotel was great, and we were almost as close as we could be to the main building. That was great for the grandparents and the teenagers as they got drinks at night....

Here was our schedule:
Saturday: MK
Sunday: Epcot
Monday AK
Tuesday Blizzard Beach
Wednesday Hollywood studios
Thursday Typhoon Lagoon
Friday MK
Saturday Epcot
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day one- we ate breakfast at Crystal Palace- its a tradition for us.... Dinner was at Tony's/ Both were fantastic with good service and timely seating. It was extremely hot this day (95) and extremely crowded. We are good at planning which lines to hit first to minimize crowd times, but today seemed way off. Everything was a long wait, and it was hot, so we did not move through as fast as we could have. It was a fun day, but we did not get any extra fastpasses throughout the day as they were gone.... Our first clue that we were not the only ones that thought WDW would be a good trip this week.
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tonight we had a birthday present for my Dad- we took him on a birthday fireworks cruise at the MK. It was fantastic. The cruise was wonderful and relaxing. The music is piped into the boat and it is a great view. I would highly higly recommend this. We were picked up and dropped off at the polynesian (dream resort!).... My only negative was the view of what is happening on the castle is a little skewed- cant really see it. This seems to be the new emphasis of the new fireworks show... But wow- it was amazing.
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2- Epcot.... Where did all these people come from?????

We get to Epcot (and all other parks) before rope drop... Well, so did everyone else. We made our way to our fp for Soarin (wait listed at 65 minutes)... After Soarin we went to the Behind the seeds tour.... It was a great tour and our guide was great. It made me want to start a garden after I left... Took the kids to eat at the Garden Grill... It was great and for southerners- they have good sweet tea!

Lines were all long for all the rides and shows- unlike past years...
We went to San Angel Inn for dinner- had to wait a little bit here, but our server was fantastic! We watched the line for the boat ride in Mexico- stretch into the lobby and almost out the from door- 45 minute wait.... Just to give you an idea...
 
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DisneyJayL

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
hanwill said:
Ok- I'll set the stage- we have 7 people traveling with us... 2 grandparents, 2 parents, 2 teenagers and a kindergartener...So- we fit the bill for the commercials- we cover every generation!

We had 9 days total, flying in from Atlanta. We stayed at Coronado springs... We have major dining requests in this family (grandparents) as well as ride requests. We have been going this week for the past 6 years in a row because it is a good time to go...

We flew in to Orlando and landed at 8 am and were at our hotel by about 8:45. One of our rooms was ready. Overall the hotel was great, and we were almost as close as we could be to the main building. That was great for the grandparents and the teenagers as they got drinks at night....

Here was our schedule:
Saturday: MK
Sunday: Epcot
Monday AK
Tuesday Blizzard Beach
Wednesday Hollywood studios
Thursday Typhoon Lagoon
Friday MK
Saturday Epcot
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Hope you're taking a vacation after your vacation.
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK- the day we were most excited for Day 3- Animal Kingdom....

We had scheduled a breakfast at 180 days out for Tusker House at 8:05... No problem in past years... This year- I could not get it until 9:20.... At the time I booked this, I was so mad beacuse it ruined my usual plans...

Well, lucky for us, my usual plans were about to be tossed out the window for this park... on Monday, we had EMH from 7-8 with park hours from 8-11 and night EMH from 11-1. This nightly EMH runs through July 4.... ANd it's necessary....


Needless to say, the grandparents and most of our party did not want to get on a bus for at AK at 6:20... but to our surprise lots of people from our hotel did. We were on a totally full bus, with people standing at 6:20 to go to AK...

We get there, (on the third day of the opening of pandora), with a huge tape line on the left and tons of people directing traffic to get to Pandora...when you got off the main walkway at the turn to get into Pandora there were water stations set up and a separated walkway to get to Pandora. We walked to the section along with everyone else in line.... well the line stretches from the side of the Pandora section down a walkway all the way to the section near The Lion King....Africa I literally thought, " I am totally crazy for standing in this line".

Later in the day, I walked past this same spot and the line was twice as long as when I got in it... The good parts about standing in that huge line no where near the actual entrance for the ride was that it moves fast... Very fast, and most of it is inside. Negative- it's a huge line which will not go down any time soon.... Those 200- 250 minute wait times are going to take a while to go away.

I looked at my watch as soon as we got into line- - 6:54....lol and the line was really moving... Like I said, it is fast moving and mostly indoors (Yeah!) We rode in about an hour. Stand by line, not too bad considering...

I got off, and Immeditely thought, "Yep. That was a short wait- I would totally stand in that line again. It was unreal!" If you kinda like soarin- this was soarin on steroids. It's as close to being a bird and flying as I will ever get.... Wow it was awesome!!!!! Go if you can!


Oh, and my daughter wanted to ride it again.... she did three times throughout the day. They have to cut the line off about 11 pm to get everyone in by 1 am. Just an FYI....


My review- It's my new favorite ride.... And it's awesome!!!!!!


Oh, and HOly Donald Duck, everyone is going there! ANd that makes the wait times for everything else low (Everest was 40 minutes).
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The rest of the trip was busy busy busy! The water parks are great but different... My kids love them, and it's a great way to relax after trudging through the parks every day....They were crowded, but nothing like the parks....

Hollywood Studios was insanely crowded even with half of it closed.... ANd it was really hot that day-so we came home with one of those spray fans... Dang whrere did all of these people come from?
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The new MK fireworks show is fantastic... I won't say anything about it, except you need a full view of the front of the castle to fully appreciate it... I have always been amazed at how the timing of fireworks, music and other actions occur during these shows. They were really amazing yet again with this firework show....


We ate at MK at the Plaza and then later at Liberty Tree... Needless to say- we were stuffed....


My only complaint this day with the busy crowds was seeing how many people were out in the 95 degree heat with their newborns.... This was a theme the whole trip... I have worked in a children's hospital and I know that they cannot handle the heat like an adult. It takes a lot less time for them to become hydrated and it's a serious issue... People, please don't take your 4 week old baby here when it's that hot... I'll worry about your precious baby.... (Dang they are sweet and adorable to see though).
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Last day, finally we get a break from the heat and were dealt with a big old wallop of humidity.... it was really cloudy today- Went to Epcot-

Where did everyone go? It was like a different time of year... really weird crowd level for early in the morning. But they came later- so it was crowded like every day....

And wow, people don't listen... When they ask you to slide all the way down you row, please do... Conversely, if they tell you to pick a spot in your row and it's not necessary to go all the way down, please don't step on my feet when I am already 3/4 of the way down the row...

And for heaven's sake, please don't stop in the middle of the walkway! If my group did that we would clog walkways... We had a stroller and we made a point to get out of the way before we all came to a stop. I did pay attention while pushing, so no one else's ankles got crushed, but please be aware of your fellow travelers. Thanks! Overall, it was not too hard to get through a crowd, but if it had been any more crowded, it would have been frustrating...
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We came back to our room after the monsoon at EPCOT to see that my parents room had their magical express info on their door; ours did not... My son had seen it on the door earlier, so we're not sure what happened.
We called and got it scheduled and they told us to go down to the front desk to get a printout of our confirmation...
My Dad went right then to go get it, and by the time he had gotten there our entire Magical Express pickup had been cancelled...
They fixed at, but it moved our pickup time up 30 minutes to 4:15 AM.... Dang it! We did not want to leave at all- but we were already up until 11 trying to get ready to go...
So, we took a NAP after being on the go all day, and were at the airport at a bright and early 5 AM. Great service on this ride, and the bus was almost 2/3 full at this ridiculous hour of the morning.... Had an uneventful trip on the plane, and we even had room to carry the gigantic pirate ship my parents bought my son in the overhead! We all slept sitting up on the plane...and we were sad to be home...


My son says, he wants to live at Disney so he can do all the parks over and over again... That about sums it up....
 
KMP

KMP

Member
I went last week as well with grandparents, parents, teenager, preteens, kindergartner and toddler. Our experiences were very similar. The kids were happy to stand in line multiple times for Flight of Passage.

Maybe we saw each other and didn't know it!
 
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Delgado

Active Member
I cannot wait to do the rides in pandora! Did you do the river ride? Loved reading about your trip, so relateable. Kudos to you for taking the early morning flight back. I've been too scared to attempt magical express before 10a because we are so exhausted fitting in the late hours the night before!!! You give me hope it can be done!!!
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DisneyJayL said:
My vacation use to be straight days like that. Now, I take one or two days between doing things at the park. If I didn't do that I wouldn't go back to work for three extra days after we get back.

I hope you guys had a fantastic time. Can't wait until our next one.
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We did that last year, but my dad wanted to add a water park and save money. He regretted that decision!
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Delgado said:
I cannot wait to do the rides in pandora! Did you do the river ride? Loved reading about your trip, so relateable. Kudos to you for taking the early morning flight back. I've been too scared to attempt magical express before 10a because we are so exhausted fitting in the late hours the night before!!! You give me hope it can be done!!!
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Sorry- I forgot to do the river ride.. It had ridiculously long waits as well- 200 minutes... I our opinion was that it was not worth it. Luckily, we fast passed that ride,and we were glad we didnt wait in line... Definitely preferd rite of Passage.

And I don't recommend the stay up late, leave in the middle of the night scenario. I still haven't recovered 36 hours later!
 
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hanwill

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
KMP said:
I went last week as well with grandparents, parents, teenager, preteens, kindergartner and toddler. Our experiences were very similar. The kids were happy to stand in line multiple times for Flight of Passage.

Maybe we saw each other and didn't know it!
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Maybe we were standing in each other's line! And sweltering together!
 
Bronson55

Bronson55

Active Member
Enjoyed your quick review, It was factual and even though you had challenges with crowds and heat your family obviously had a fantastic time. I wish more visitors had your families tolerance and and ability to make the most of your well earned vacation. Such a pleasant read. Thanks
 

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