flight: jetblue rocks. the steward/announcer for the trip down was hilarious. the dude was practically doing a set. the tv's made the time flying seem like nothing.
magical express: it took about 4 hours for our luggage to get to our room. i guess that was the magical part. otherwise, great.
wilderness lodge: beautiful place, great staff, great pool and hot tubs. the boat ride from the hotel to magic kingdom was really fun and fast as well. i'd stay there again. we loved artist point restaurant and the roaring fork was the best counter service restaurant we ate at in all of disney.
magic kingdom: our faves were space mountain, thunder mountain, splash mountain, buzz lightyear, tom sawyer island, mickey's philharmagic, haunted mansion and stitch. wishes was amazing, saw it from the castle, the observation deck at cali grill, and the monorail.
animal kingdom: expedition everest was great, but i recommend going on it no more than 2 times in a row. if you score a front seat, you'll have an amazing view at the top of epcot and mgm. asia was unbelievable - just walking around it was a real thrill. we also really liked it's tough to be a bug and kali river. we only went for a half day so we could catch...
typhoon lagoon: we almost skipped this ("we've got water parks at home ... why bother?"), but we loved it so much we went back a second day. i've been to at least 6 different waterparks, and this one is best i've ever been to. the wave pool was *amazing* - the 8' waves kick your ______! we also loved crush n' gusher and several other waterslides.
epcot: the highlight was soarin' - fantastic, we went at least 4 times. we also liked test track, mission space, honey i shrunk the audience, and turtle talk was excellent! i'm still trying to figure out how they did it.
disney mgm: on out 4th day, everyone was tired and our feet hurt, so it was great to go to a park with less walking (smallest of the parks) and lots of sitting. we didn't have the nerve to do tower of terror, but rock n' rollercoaster was excellent. like expedition everest, i wouldn't recommend going on it more than once or twice without a break (once was enough for me). lights motors action and indiana jones were terrific. my wife and i really enjoyed two lesser-known attractions, walt disney one man's dream and magic of disney animation. the kids weren't as into these as we were, but both were fascinating to us.
disney dining plan: ultimately, really convenient and probably cheaper than out-of-pocket. on the other hand, really silly in terms of the quantity of food. for us, it's just way, way too much food. who eats 2 desserts a day? we were so stuffed after the big lunches that we would skip the snack and *still* not be all that hungry at dinner. on the last day, the 4 of us had 16 snack credits left. i went to the roaring fork and bought a bunch of cereals and treats for the trip home, but still, it's all kind of silly. i'd like the plan much better if it could be customized a bit, or if they could at least give you 2 or 3 plans to choose from.
table service restaurants: our favorites from best to worst:
1. boma - the food was phenomenal. the curried coconut seafood soup was one of the best things i've ever eaten in my life, but just about everything was great. for wine drinkers, i highly recommend the wine flights, which allow you to try several south african wines, all of them great. going to boma also gave us the chance to see the animal kingdom lodge, which was magnificent at night.
2. ohana - loads of fun, great food. a cool experience.
3. artist point - excellent, loved it.
4. sci-fi dine-in - a blast. we loved it. the food was good, but the theming was excellent.
5. chef mickey's - great spread, lots of fun.
6. le cellier - really good, but i was a bit underwhelmed, considering all the raves about it i had heard in advance.
counter service restaurants: the roaring fork at wilderness lodge was the best, with tusker house at animal kingdom a close second.
crowds: 95% of the time, we either walked on or had a 5 - 10 minute wait. the week before thanksgiving is a great time to go.
weather: 70's and 80's all week. it only rained once, and that was overnight. we got really lucky.
wierd streak of luck: we got to tom sawyer island at about 3:00 in the afternoon, and as i was telling my kids about the paint brush thing and how it was really unlikely that we were going to find them at that point in the day, i spotted *two* of them. we got two sets of fastpasses for the whole family for splash mountain and big thunder mountain, which was great, since they had 40 - 50 minute waits!
a couple of days later at mgm, we got dream fastpasses while in line for rock n' rollercoaster.
then, about a half hour later, i see the same woman who gave us the dream fastpasses at magic of disney animation, and she gave everyone in the theatre "year of a million dreams" pin lanyards, which according to her, you can't buy anywhere!
next day, we're back at magic kingdom. i go to rent a locker, and we get locker #0001, which is free.
an hour later, we go to peter pan, and we're disappointed to see a 40 minute wait and no more fast passes available for the day. a cast member appraoches us and makes my boys "honorary lost boys" and she fast passes us into the ride and gives us certificates!
that night, we have dinner at ohana. as we're waiting for dessert, the place starts filling up with smoke from the grill, and the management announces that the power went down, shutting down the kitchen's ventilation system, so everyone has to leave the restaurant. we were pretty full from dinner and didn't really want dessert anyways, so i went to the manager and asked if we could settle our bill, and he told us everyone's meal was being comped! i gave our waitress her tip, but otherwise, it was another freebee!
all in all, a fantastic trip. we'll go back.
much thanks to everyone here who provided lots of great, great advice!
chuck
magical express: it took about 4 hours for our luggage to get to our room. i guess that was the magical part. otherwise, great.
wilderness lodge: beautiful place, great staff, great pool and hot tubs. the boat ride from the hotel to magic kingdom was really fun and fast as well. i'd stay there again. we loved artist point restaurant and the roaring fork was the best counter service restaurant we ate at in all of disney.
magic kingdom: our faves were space mountain, thunder mountain, splash mountain, buzz lightyear, tom sawyer island, mickey's philharmagic, haunted mansion and stitch. wishes was amazing, saw it from the castle, the observation deck at cali grill, and the monorail.
animal kingdom: expedition everest was great, but i recommend going on it no more than 2 times in a row. if you score a front seat, you'll have an amazing view at the top of epcot and mgm. asia was unbelievable - just walking around it was a real thrill. we also really liked it's tough to be a bug and kali river. we only went for a half day so we could catch...
typhoon lagoon: we almost skipped this ("we've got water parks at home ... why bother?"), but we loved it so much we went back a second day. i've been to at least 6 different waterparks, and this one is best i've ever been to. the wave pool was *amazing* - the 8' waves kick your ______! we also loved crush n' gusher and several other waterslides.
epcot: the highlight was soarin' - fantastic, we went at least 4 times. we also liked test track, mission space, honey i shrunk the audience, and turtle talk was excellent! i'm still trying to figure out how they did it.
disney mgm: on out 4th day, everyone was tired and our feet hurt, so it was great to go to a park with less walking (smallest of the parks) and lots of sitting. we didn't have the nerve to do tower of terror, but rock n' rollercoaster was excellent. like expedition everest, i wouldn't recommend going on it more than once or twice without a break (once was enough for me). lights motors action and indiana jones were terrific. my wife and i really enjoyed two lesser-known attractions, walt disney one man's dream and magic of disney animation. the kids weren't as into these as we were, but both were fascinating to us.
disney dining plan: ultimately, really convenient and probably cheaper than out-of-pocket. on the other hand, really silly in terms of the quantity of food. for us, it's just way, way too much food. who eats 2 desserts a day? we were so stuffed after the big lunches that we would skip the snack and *still* not be all that hungry at dinner. on the last day, the 4 of us had 16 snack credits left. i went to the roaring fork and bought a bunch of cereals and treats for the trip home, but still, it's all kind of silly. i'd like the plan much better if it could be customized a bit, or if they could at least give you 2 or 3 plans to choose from.
table service restaurants: our favorites from best to worst:
1. boma - the food was phenomenal. the curried coconut seafood soup was one of the best things i've ever eaten in my life, but just about everything was great. for wine drinkers, i highly recommend the wine flights, which allow you to try several south african wines, all of them great. going to boma also gave us the chance to see the animal kingdom lodge, which was magnificent at night.
2. ohana - loads of fun, great food. a cool experience.
3. artist point - excellent, loved it.
4. sci-fi dine-in - a blast. we loved it. the food was good, but the theming was excellent.
5. chef mickey's - great spread, lots of fun.
6. le cellier - really good, but i was a bit underwhelmed, considering all the raves about it i had heard in advance.
counter service restaurants: the roaring fork at wilderness lodge was the best, with tusker house at animal kingdom a close second.
crowds: 95% of the time, we either walked on or had a 5 - 10 minute wait. the week before thanksgiving is a great time to go.
weather: 70's and 80's all week. it only rained once, and that was overnight. we got really lucky.
wierd streak of luck: we got to tom sawyer island at about 3:00 in the afternoon, and as i was telling my kids about the paint brush thing and how it was really unlikely that we were going to find them at that point in the day, i spotted *two* of them. we got two sets of fastpasses for the whole family for splash mountain and big thunder mountain, which was great, since they had 40 - 50 minute waits!
a couple of days later at mgm, we got dream fastpasses while in line for rock n' rollercoaster.
then, about a half hour later, i see the same woman who gave us the dream fastpasses at magic of disney animation, and she gave everyone in the theatre "year of a million dreams" pin lanyards, which according to her, you can't buy anywhere!
next day, we're back at magic kingdom. i go to rent a locker, and we get locker #0001, which is free.
an hour later, we go to peter pan, and we're disappointed to see a 40 minute wait and no more fast passes available for the day. a cast member appraoches us and makes my boys "honorary lost boys" and she fast passes us into the ride and gives us certificates!
that night, we have dinner at ohana. as we're waiting for dessert, the place starts filling up with smoke from the grill, and the management announces that the power went down, shutting down the kitchen's ventilation system, so everyone has to leave the restaurant. we were pretty full from dinner and didn't really want dessert anyways, so i went to the manager and asked if we could settle our bill, and he told us everyone's meal was being comped! i gave our waitress her tip, but otherwise, it was another freebee!
all in all, a fantastic trip. we'll go back.
much thanks to everyone here who provided lots of great, great advice!
chuck
