After we booked our trip to WDW back in April, the day finally arrived and we headed back starting 11/30, returning 12/8. Below is my long winded trip report and my overall thoughts on some of the newer offerings i.e. Skyliner, Genie+, Harmonious & Enchantment. My last visit was May 2017 and our two daughters had not been back since December 2010. We stayed at PoP Century who's rooms had gone up in price over $100 per night in 11 years.
11/30 - Woke up bright and early at 4am for our 8am flight out of Santa Ana...or at least we thought 8am. Unfortunately, 7am rolls around and they tell us our pilot has called out 1 hour before the flight and we will be delayed until 11 AM! We would have missed our connection through Chicago and while there were no real earlier flights, we did get another flight at 11am that took us through Dallas. Of course, we get to Dallas and our flight to Orlando is delayed so instead of getting in at 6:48pm like we originally planned, we arrive closer to 10pm. Not an ideal start as we had plans to visit Disney Springs for dinner when we arrived. Side note, my 20 yr old daughter got a chicken Caeser salad at the TGI Friday's take out in Dallas...don't do that, she woke up in the middle of the night with food poisoning.
12/1 - Magic Kingdom Day. Plan was to be up and out the door for the 8:30am early entry but given daughter had been sick all night, I called an audible and we decided to sleep in and show up at the MK around noon. Now I did still wake prior to 7am to purchase Genie+ and book lightning lane for Jungle Cruise & Seven Dwarfs (extra fee). More thought on Genie+ at the end. Was able to ride Peoplemover (first ride as always), Carousel of Progress, Speedway, Mansion, Pirates, Enchanted Tiki Room, Philharmagic, Pooh, & Jungle Cruise before we left around 6:30pm. Decided we would see Enchantment on our second MK day. Wife and youngest daughter, who was a trooper all day but still not feeling well, headed back to hotel while oldest daughter and I took a boat to the Poly for a drink at Trader Sam's. She and I then headed to Disney Springs as she wanted to try Chicken Guy. Meh, very average chicken strips and really wouldn't recommend.
12/2 - Hollywood Studios. Our first experience with the Skyliner which overall, I loved. Woke up around 6:30am, bought Genie+ and following the advise of Tom Bricker/Disney Tourist Blog, booked Slinky Dog Dash (really fun family coaster). Arrived at 8:00 for early 8:30 entry and they actually let us in early so we immediately went to Mickey's Runaway Railway. I think people will enjoy this. It's not mind blowingly good but it's fun and different. Great family attraction. At 9am (2 hour mark), booked an additional Genie+ attraction and also decided we would go ahead and pay the upcharge to ride Rise of the Resistance. Loved it, only my second time experiencing it. I will say that their land feels more compact, mainly the different entry points we have, especially our much longer entry from Bear Country. Overall, we rode every attraction excluding Smugglers Run because nobody wanted to do it. FYI, best dinner we had all trip was at Mama Melrose's in DHS. Really fantastic, great quality italian. Pricey, yeah, but what isn't in WDW.
12/3 - Epcot Day. Arrived at park around 10am for 10:30am early entry. We did not do Genie+, again at the reco of Disney Tourist Blog. Upon opening, went to Frozen (girls had not experienced it as Maelstrom was still there last visit) and only had a 20 minute wait. From there, on to 3 Caballeros followed by Single Rider for Test Track. We literally waited 1 minute to ride TT. Off to Imagination & Living with the Land. Daughter was still not feeling well so she headed back to hotel. Headed back to World Showcase, had a couple drinks and lunch at Via Napoli. I was so looking forward to VN as it (was) my favorite pizza on earth. Ugh, not nearly as good as previous trips, so disappointing. I dare say that Naples at our Downtown Disney is far better now. Decided to take a monorail ride and head back to the Poly for a drink at Taumbu Lounge...love the Lapu Lapu out of a pineapple. Back to Epcot for a ride on Spaceship Earth (I really wish they would fix that ending, so boring). Wife was tired so oldest and I stayed around to ride the new Rat Ride (very meh, got me motion sick so I had to stop looking at screens). Would not bother with it again. Just missed the first showing of Impressions de France (have never seen it, only plays between 8:30pm and 9:45pm). Left before Harmonious as we planned to see on our last day.
12/4 - Our non-park day. Took family to Disney Springs for a bit of shopping and stayed only a couple hours. Tried to get in to Jock Lindsey's but it was a 90 minute wait so decided to head back to hotel and have drinks at the bar, spend an hour or so relaxing by the pool before our dinner at Trail's End (Fort Wilderness). Great meal but not nearly as good as the old buffet. I do hope they open that back up at some point. From there, took boat to MK and then another boat to the Poly and a final drink at Sam's. Took resort monorail to see the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian and then back to hotel for the night.
12/5 - Animal Kingdom. Another early entry day, arrived around 8:00 for 8:30 entry and were on Expedition Everest by 8:35. No Genie+ purchased for AK. Headed to Pandora and rode Naavi River Journey (pretty but nothing special) before heading out on Safari. We were pretty much able to hit everything we wanted (shows and attractions) and oldest paid for lightning lane just for Flight of Passage (I can't ride it due to motion sickness). We also squeezed in a couple yummy drinks at the Dawa Bar. FYI, the holiday lighting show on the Tree of Life is beautiful. A real highlight for me.
12/6 - Magic Kingdom Day 2. Bought Genie+ and booked Peter Pan. Also paid extra for Seven Dwarfs again as everyone wanted one more guaranteed ride. Early entry and straight to Space Mountain, then to the Astro Orbiter (such a better experience up high like what we used to have at DL). Wife (now dealing with back spasms) and youngest headed back to hotel for an afternoon break with plan to meet back up around 6 pm so we could watch Enchantment at 8pm. Oldest and I stayed around and rode a few more rides and we grabbed a spot dead center on Main Street (between Casey's and Plaza Restaurant) for Enchantment. As soon as enchantment ended, we had about 35 minutes left before the park closed. Rode Peoplemover, Dumbo, Barnstormer and literally walked through the entrance to Small World at 9pm, our last ride at MK...perhaps my last ride at MK forever. Short wait for a bus, a quick couple drinks at the Pop hotel bar and back to bed to rest up for our last day.
12/7 - Epcot Day 2. No early entry, no Genie+. Decided to sleep in a bit to get a little extra rest for both our minds and bodies....we were pretty much all mentally done and exhausted at this point. Took a trip to the Wilderness Lodge as I had never been there and the plan was then to take boat to MK and then visit the contemporary via the resort monorail...which had unfortunately broken down for the day. We walked from MK to contemporary which did not help my wife's back and then a nice bus driver was kind enough to take us to the TTC so we could catch the monorail to Epcot. Spend the rest of the evening at Epcot getting in one more ride on SSE and Soarin. Visited the World Showcase Pavillions, had dinner and drinks and then found a spot for Harmonious. Thankfully the line looked long but didn't take long to get on the Skyliner back to our hotel. And with that, our trip was over. We were completely exhausted and quite honestly, I would have been fine sleeping all day vs going to Epcot but the cheapskate in me wasn't about to throw away that money.
As for the new stuff we experienced:
Genie+ - For MK and HS, we felt like we had to purchase and all the advice we had read was that both of these parks were pretty much a must. I don't think our in park experiences would have been as good had we not done so. Overall, we spent $60 (MK day 1) + $28 (MK day 1 7DMT) + $60 (HS) + $60 (RotR) + $60 (MK day 2) + $28 (MK day 2 7DMT) - $240 extra just to have fastpass experience. All things that were free of charge on every other trip we've had there. Yes, there is some convenience being able to book but we were able to do that with the previous app if I remember correctly, just had to do it well in advance vs day of.
Skyliner - Loved the skyliner. Staying at PoP, it's really the only way to travel to Epcot and DHS as they no longer have busses to those parks from any of the skyliner resort. No real issues per se, just the occasional slowdown as EVC or Wheelchair guests are loaded.
Enchantment - Beautiful fireworks show but really falls short of what a 50th celebration show should be. Truly a clip show vs stirring any emotion around the 50th anniversary. Remember...Dreams Come True did it perfect. This fell well short of that.
Ratatouille - Super Meh, a lot of buildup for little payout. Nobody had any desire to ride it again.
Harmonious - The surprise hit. We sat pretty much as close to center as possible given the stage is up for the festival of the holidays which would block that true center view. This is the one I was really most concerned with as I loved Illuminations. Man, I'm happy that my concerns were unfounded. This show is stunning and I while some may think it's another clip show, actually using native languages and sticking to films that are relatable to World Showcase i.e. not using Toy Story or Cars for example, works as a theme. And yes, the barges are an absolute eyesore during the day but what they do with them for this show is nothing short of amazing. I really, really enjoyed this show.
Other observations:
The ECV thing is an absolute plague on the resort. Disney does the best they can do with it but the amount of extra time/wait caused for transportation i.e. busses, boats, monorail, skyliner can be challenging at times. And that's not even taking into account the rudeness some of these drivers have or their inability to even maneuver one of them without crashing into something. Omnimover type attractions suffer tremendously as well as pretty much every one (SSE, Ariel, HM, Buzz) can't be experienced without multiple stops or slow downs during a single ride.
Giant top of the thigh tattoos area apparently all the rage for WDW visitors
Swearing loudly is a thing
WDW guests are far more rude and pushy in general..from what we experienced. The concept of cutting in front of you in lines is apparently and artform there.
WDW toilet paper (aka sandpaper) for 9 days will do a number on you
At the end of the day, despite some hiccups along the way, we did enjoy ourselves. That being said, I'm not sure I'll ever make a trip back there. The increase in cost with a reduced experience overall (pay more, get less) and just the inability to even relax make it far less attractive to me, especially as I get older. Bottom line, it's just not the same or as enjoyable as it was 11 years ago.
11/30 - Woke up bright and early at 4am for our 8am flight out of Santa Ana...or at least we thought 8am. Unfortunately, 7am rolls around and they tell us our pilot has called out 1 hour before the flight and we will be delayed until 11 AM! We would have missed our connection through Chicago and while there were no real earlier flights, we did get another flight at 11am that took us through Dallas. Of course, we get to Dallas and our flight to Orlando is delayed so instead of getting in at 6:48pm like we originally planned, we arrive closer to 10pm. Not an ideal start as we had plans to visit Disney Springs for dinner when we arrived. Side note, my 20 yr old daughter got a chicken Caeser salad at the TGI Friday's take out in Dallas...don't do that, she woke up in the middle of the night with food poisoning.
12/1 - Magic Kingdom Day. Plan was to be up and out the door for the 8:30am early entry but given daughter had been sick all night, I called an audible and we decided to sleep in and show up at the MK around noon. Now I did still wake prior to 7am to purchase Genie+ and book lightning lane for Jungle Cruise & Seven Dwarfs (extra fee). More thought on Genie+ at the end. Was able to ride Peoplemover (first ride as always), Carousel of Progress, Speedway, Mansion, Pirates, Enchanted Tiki Room, Philharmagic, Pooh, & Jungle Cruise before we left around 6:30pm. Decided we would see Enchantment on our second MK day. Wife and youngest daughter, who was a trooper all day but still not feeling well, headed back to hotel while oldest daughter and I took a boat to the Poly for a drink at Trader Sam's. She and I then headed to Disney Springs as she wanted to try Chicken Guy. Meh, very average chicken strips and really wouldn't recommend.
12/2 - Hollywood Studios. Our first experience with the Skyliner which overall, I loved. Woke up around 6:30am, bought Genie+ and following the advise of Tom Bricker/Disney Tourist Blog, booked Slinky Dog Dash (really fun family coaster). Arrived at 8:00 for early 8:30 entry and they actually let us in early so we immediately went to Mickey's Runaway Railway. I think people will enjoy this. It's not mind blowingly good but it's fun and different. Great family attraction. At 9am (2 hour mark), booked an additional Genie+ attraction and also decided we would go ahead and pay the upcharge to ride Rise of the Resistance. Loved it, only my second time experiencing it. I will say that their land feels more compact, mainly the different entry points we have, especially our much longer entry from Bear Country. Overall, we rode every attraction excluding Smugglers Run because nobody wanted to do it. FYI, best dinner we had all trip was at Mama Melrose's in DHS. Really fantastic, great quality italian. Pricey, yeah, but what isn't in WDW.
12/3 - Epcot Day. Arrived at park around 10am for 10:30am early entry. We did not do Genie+, again at the reco of Disney Tourist Blog. Upon opening, went to Frozen (girls had not experienced it as Maelstrom was still there last visit) and only had a 20 minute wait. From there, on to 3 Caballeros followed by Single Rider for Test Track. We literally waited 1 minute to ride TT. Off to Imagination & Living with the Land. Daughter was still not feeling well so she headed back to hotel. Headed back to World Showcase, had a couple drinks and lunch at Via Napoli. I was so looking forward to VN as it (was) my favorite pizza on earth. Ugh, not nearly as good as previous trips, so disappointing. I dare say that Naples at our Downtown Disney is far better now. Decided to take a monorail ride and head back to the Poly for a drink at Taumbu Lounge...love the Lapu Lapu out of a pineapple. Back to Epcot for a ride on Spaceship Earth (I really wish they would fix that ending, so boring). Wife was tired so oldest and I stayed around to ride the new Rat Ride (very meh, got me motion sick so I had to stop looking at screens). Would not bother with it again. Just missed the first showing of Impressions de France (have never seen it, only plays between 8:30pm and 9:45pm). Left before Harmonious as we planned to see on our last day.
12/4 - Our non-park day. Took family to Disney Springs for a bit of shopping and stayed only a couple hours. Tried to get in to Jock Lindsey's but it was a 90 minute wait so decided to head back to hotel and have drinks at the bar, spend an hour or so relaxing by the pool before our dinner at Trail's End (Fort Wilderness). Great meal but not nearly as good as the old buffet. I do hope they open that back up at some point. From there, took boat to MK and then another boat to the Poly and a final drink at Sam's. Took resort monorail to see the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian and then back to hotel for the night.
12/5 - Animal Kingdom. Another early entry day, arrived around 8:00 for 8:30 entry and were on Expedition Everest by 8:35. No Genie+ purchased for AK. Headed to Pandora and rode Naavi River Journey (pretty but nothing special) before heading out on Safari. We were pretty much able to hit everything we wanted (shows and attractions) and oldest paid for lightning lane just for Flight of Passage (I can't ride it due to motion sickness). We also squeezed in a couple yummy drinks at the Dawa Bar. FYI, the holiday lighting show on the Tree of Life is beautiful. A real highlight for me.
12/6 - Magic Kingdom Day 2. Bought Genie+ and booked Peter Pan. Also paid extra for Seven Dwarfs again as everyone wanted one more guaranteed ride. Early entry and straight to Space Mountain, then to the Astro Orbiter (such a better experience up high like what we used to have at DL). Wife (now dealing with back spasms) and youngest headed back to hotel for an afternoon break with plan to meet back up around 6 pm so we could watch Enchantment at 8pm. Oldest and I stayed around and rode a few more rides and we grabbed a spot dead center on Main Street (between Casey's and Plaza Restaurant) for Enchantment. As soon as enchantment ended, we had about 35 minutes left before the park closed. Rode Peoplemover, Dumbo, Barnstormer and literally walked through the entrance to Small World at 9pm, our last ride at MK...perhaps my last ride at MK forever. Short wait for a bus, a quick couple drinks at the Pop hotel bar and back to bed to rest up for our last day.
12/7 - Epcot Day 2. No early entry, no Genie+. Decided to sleep in a bit to get a little extra rest for both our minds and bodies....we were pretty much all mentally done and exhausted at this point. Took a trip to the Wilderness Lodge as I had never been there and the plan was then to take boat to MK and then visit the contemporary via the resort monorail...which had unfortunately broken down for the day. We walked from MK to contemporary which did not help my wife's back and then a nice bus driver was kind enough to take us to the TTC so we could catch the monorail to Epcot. Spend the rest of the evening at Epcot getting in one more ride on SSE and Soarin. Visited the World Showcase Pavillions, had dinner and drinks and then found a spot for Harmonious. Thankfully the line looked long but didn't take long to get on the Skyliner back to our hotel. And with that, our trip was over. We were completely exhausted and quite honestly, I would have been fine sleeping all day vs going to Epcot but the cheapskate in me wasn't about to throw away that money.
As for the new stuff we experienced:
Genie+ - For MK and HS, we felt like we had to purchase and all the advice we had read was that both of these parks were pretty much a must. I don't think our in park experiences would have been as good had we not done so. Overall, we spent $60 (MK day 1) + $28 (MK day 1 7DMT) + $60 (HS) + $60 (RotR) + $60 (MK day 2) + $28 (MK day 2 7DMT) - $240 extra just to have fastpass experience. All things that were free of charge on every other trip we've had there. Yes, there is some convenience being able to book but we were able to do that with the previous app if I remember correctly, just had to do it well in advance vs day of.
Skyliner - Loved the skyliner. Staying at PoP, it's really the only way to travel to Epcot and DHS as they no longer have busses to those parks from any of the skyliner resort. No real issues per se, just the occasional slowdown as EVC or Wheelchair guests are loaded.
Enchantment - Beautiful fireworks show but really falls short of what a 50th celebration show should be. Truly a clip show vs stirring any emotion around the 50th anniversary. Remember...Dreams Come True did it perfect. This fell well short of that.
Ratatouille - Super Meh, a lot of buildup for little payout. Nobody had any desire to ride it again.
Harmonious - The surprise hit. We sat pretty much as close to center as possible given the stage is up for the festival of the holidays which would block that true center view. This is the one I was really most concerned with as I loved Illuminations. Man, I'm happy that my concerns were unfounded. This show is stunning and I while some may think it's another clip show, actually using native languages and sticking to films that are relatable to World Showcase i.e. not using Toy Story or Cars for example, works as a theme. And yes, the barges are an absolute eyesore during the day but what they do with them for this show is nothing short of amazing. I really, really enjoyed this show.
Other observations:
The ECV thing is an absolute plague on the resort. Disney does the best they can do with it but the amount of extra time/wait caused for transportation i.e. busses, boats, monorail, skyliner can be challenging at times. And that's not even taking into account the rudeness some of these drivers have or their inability to even maneuver one of them without crashing into something. Omnimover type attractions suffer tremendously as well as pretty much every one (SSE, Ariel, HM, Buzz) can't be experienced without multiple stops or slow downs during a single ride.
Giant top of the thigh tattoos area apparently all the rage for WDW visitors
Swearing loudly is a thing
WDW guests are far more rude and pushy in general..from what we experienced. The concept of cutting in front of you in lines is apparently and artform there.
WDW toilet paper (aka sandpaper) for 9 days will do a number on you
At the end of the day, despite some hiccups along the way, we did enjoy ourselves. That being said, I'm not sure I'll ever make a trip back there. The increase in cost with a reduced experience overall (pay more, get less) and just the inability to even relax make it far less attractive to me, especially as I get older. Bottom line, it's just not the same or as enjoyable as it was 11 years ago.
