Pre-Trip Disgruntled Walt Returns to WDW in July after an 8-year absence

Well, it's finally happening. I, along with my family of TEN other Disgruntled Walts ranging in age from 3-70, will be making our return to Walt Disney World from July 8-15 this summer.

I'm not going to share many personal photos here for privacy reasons (or at least they will be edited with Disgruntled Walt pasted on top), but I'm definitely going to be posting my thoughts on the planning process, the trip itself, and everything in-between!

My family began visiting WDW in 1990, making annual trips beginning in 1992 until 2010 (I made my debut as an infant in 1997!). My parents moved heaven and earth to make these trips happen for our family (as an incentive for good grades), and we loved it. We made a few more visits in the 2010s, but we have not been back since 2017 (and haven't been in a Disney park at all since 2019). The price point and other issues turned us away; lots has changed since then.

On the penultimate day of our last trip to WDW, they announced the Great Movie Ride was closing, and my disgruntling began (as you can see by the photo). Fast-forward to the present, and they've announced so many disgruntling things I scarcely know what to call myself.

But we'll see...

Will this trip render me "Gruntled" once again? Or will a different name change be in order come July 16? Follow along to find out!

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

We will be returning to Old Key West to stay for the first time since ca. 1999, but it was my family's first on-site resort stay in 1992 when it was still called Disney's Vacation Club Resort. When we last visited for lunch at Olivia's Cafe about twelve years ago, our picture was still on the wall, so I'll be curious to see if it's still there now!

I had to convince my cost-conscious eldest brother that we needed to spring for the parkhopper perk (in fairness, his children make up a good percentage of our total group, so he is footing a great deal of the bill). We have never not used parkhopping, and frankly, it seemed weird to change our tactics for our "one last hurrah" trip. The argument against it was that without the parkhopper, we would be more laid-back in that we wouldn't be trying to cram too much into one day by visiting multiple parks. But I actually used the same logic as an argument FOR the parkhopper, since it affords us the most flexibility. Thankfully, my family went with the parkhopper.

 

[Disstevefan1]

We expect a full report @Disgruntled Walt . Don't hold back and we expect you to pose with yourself in EPCOT.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

A little bit about our group:

P and G - The patriarch and matriarch, for whom we are doing this trip - 70 and 69 yrs old at the time of the trip

M - Eldest brother, father of four, very cost-conscious (for that reason!) - 42 yrs old

T - Wife of M, been with us for three prior trips (DL 2015 & 19, WDW 2017) - 36 yrs old

C - 40 yrs old - Second brother, introduced me to being a Disney fan, might actually know more about Disney than me...maybe

J - 36 yrs old - Next brother, likes to be more laidback in his vacation planning (so we often used to butt heads on our trips)

B - Disgruntled Walt - 28 yrs old

The Children:

m - 8 yrs old - The only girl in the group other than her mom, visited WDW as an infant in 2017, turned 3 in Disneyland in 2019, and had a planned 2020 trip taken from her by a pandemic. Her memories are very vague, but she's hungered for this for years. She's very strong-willed about what rides she can and can't go on (she doesn't like "scary" things, but I've convinced her to go on Dinosaur since I told her it's closing)

c - 7 yrs old - Visited Disneyland as 1 yr old in 2019 (obviously doesn't remember), a daredevil who plans to ride everything and claims to not be scared of any ride.

s & j - 5 yrs old and 3 yrs old, respectively - they were both born when the world was going crazy, so they have never experienced going to any Disney park, and their ride tolerance (for what they are tall enough to do) will be an interesting thing to observe. I mentioned to c that Space Mountain makes you sit by yourself, and s overheard me and was quite disturbed at the prospect.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Cannot wait to hear your thoughts on everything now. We went back in 2023 after a 15 year break and loved it just as much as before apart from it obviously being a lot more crowded.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

154 days to go! I'm loving the countdown feature in the signature! It's a nice way to keep track!

 

[erstwo]

I am dying for you and your group just thinking of the heat in July (not to be dramatic, but I nearly perished last October - heck - I was hot last week when it topped out at 82!)
But your group is mostly younger - so hopefully it won’t be as bad for you.
Definitely looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the status of the parks!

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

I am dying for you and your group just thinking of the heat in July (not to be dramatic, but I nearly perished last October - heck - I was hot last week when it topped out at 82!)
But your group is mostly younger - so hopefully it won’t be as bad for you.
Definitely looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the status of the parks!

We always went in July or early August back when we were going regularly, so we’re used to the heat! After Chicago winters, we welcome it!

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

95 days to go! I'm starting to put together some itineraries, will share some of my ideas soon!

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

An article was published on Yahoo recently about top restaurants at WDW. Now, my family used to be experts, but we're eight years removed from our last trip so we're not sure how much has changed. The author of the article seemed like she didn't quite have all of her facts right, so I want to verify a couple things with those of you who are more recent visitors.

1. Can you meet the Beast at the Be Our Guest restaurant for dinner? She claims it's a part of the whole experience.
   
   
2. 'Ohana is characterized in the article as this: "The main course includes chicken wings, pork dumplings, and a noodle skillet with beef and shrimp." To me, this doesn't sound the like the 'Ohana of my youth. Is it still all-you-can-eat meat and shrimp? I know they got rid of the skewers since COVID and it comes in bowls, but the article made it sound like something very different than what it used to be.

Thanks in advance!

 

[littleroo]

 

[littleroo]

 

[littleroo]

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Hard to believe we've reached the 60 day threshold for making dining reservations! If there are any egregious planning errors I have made, please feel free to give some feedback. My family has some pretty strong preferences, an inability to get anywhere before 12pm, as well as a mandate to try to keep it to one uber-expensive meal per day, so the plan is this:

Flight arrives Tues, July 8 at 3:30pm - probably not making it to a park, but MK if we do, and something cheap for dinner. Otherwise, try our luck at Olivia's or go to Disney Springs.

Wed, July 9

Animal Kingdom day, with Boma at AKL as our big meal for dinner at 8pm. Is the park actually only going to be open till 6pm with EEH till 8pm? That seems absurd for the middle of summer!

Thurs, July 10

Magic Kingdom day, with Liberty Tree Tavern (a family favorite) for lunch at 2pm. Stay at Magic Kingdom till park close with a QSR like Haus, Harbour House, etc. Hopefully watch Disney Starlight!

Fri, July 11

Epcot in the day, with lunch at Space 220 at 1:00pm. Hopefully we can get on Guardians at this point.

Boat over to Hollywood Studios.

Dinner at Sci-Fi Dine-In at 6:30pm? Maybe? We're not sure on this one just yet, might bump it to later.

Fantasmic at night to end the day.

Sat, July 12

First half of the day open to fill in what we still want to do (Could slot-in Sci-Fi here for lunch). If we instead go to Epcot in the day, we could take the Monorail over to the Contemporary for early dinner at Chef Mickey's.

Magic Kingdom night for the rest of the night.

Sun, July 13

1PM Hollywood and Vine Lunch at DHS. Do any remaining DHS stuff we want to do. This will be the day we definitely get on Rise if we have failed previously.

Magic Kingdom night once again, unless there's some compelling reason to go somewhere else.

Mon, July 14

Animal Kingdom in the daytime, then Cape May Cafe for dinner at 5pm.

Epcot for Extended Evening Hours till 11pm, including seeing Luminous and definitely getting on Guardians. Maybe even more than once?

Tues, July 15

Plane departs at 7:30pm, so we have the first part of the day open. We may try to go to a park in the morning for some bonus time, but most likely just eat at Olivia's, maybe swim, and bid farewell.


Phew, that was exhausting. I miss spontaneity.