Well when I say 2 weeks in Disney, we didn't actually stay in Disney but rather on International Drive however as we visited Disney nearly every day it felt like it.
As always let me start by saying, we had a great time. I've been going for over 40 years now and I introduced my wife to it around 17 years ago when we got engaged there and she's been going ever since then. Each year when we go I arrive with fear and trepidation after reading on here how the park is literally falling apart and a mess yet thankfully every year we find it's nowhere near as bad as some people on here appear to make out (in our opinion anyway). So I'll break it down into the four parks and how we found them and remember, this is just our perspective which may differ from yours but that's fine (and just means you're wrong if you don't agree)
Disney Studios
Always our first day go to park as it's smaller than the rest and the disabled parking was always nearest the entrance giving my bad leg the chance to 'break in' on the first day. As we didn't go to America last year (apart from 3 days business related) it's been 2 years since we went. First impressions are that the car park's a mess though I understand the reasons behind this temporary situation. The disabled parking is way off near Television right now so the short walk to get in, wasn't so short this trip. The park still has a lot of charm even through the changes though it's definitely not a full day park at the moment with the lack of open attractions. Rock n Roller coaster still great as ever for me, I literally beam from ear to ear as we accelerate down the first tunnel and into the roll and it always makes life seem great. As there for rope drop I rode stand by 4 times in a row with next to no wait even on the 4th time, fabulous. One thing I noticed though and that was they had the doors always open in the 'recording studio', meaning you didn't have to watch the pre-show which was playing if you didn't want to. I'm assuming this is only when it's quiet, but seemed a great idea and you could watch it if you wanted to?
Toy Story Land was a pleasant surprise, my wife love midway mania so we'd FP'd it anyway but the whole area seemed very nicely themed. Snagged a FP for Slinky Dog (2 actually as my wife didn't use hers) on our last day and for something I'd not thought much of, it was a rather charming and pleasant ride. Very well done and even though the stand by line was around 60 mins, FP took no more than 5 mins to board.
Fantasmic as enjoyable as ever as was Beauty and the Beast which appeared to have a few costume changes and even some new slight musical arrangements since our last trip? Sci-Fi Dine in great as usual though perhaps not sitting directly under the air conditioning unit on our next visit would be the better option. Not sure I like what they've done to New York Street now but I understand it's for the transition into GE. TGMR is a big miss though I'm hopeful it's replacement will be great. Indie still hits the spot after all the years and Star Tours still brings the smiles.
Downside was the lack of Citizens of Hollywood on show, only saw 2 out at a time doing their thing though this could have been a timing issue on our part? When the building has finished it will be a full day park again I'm sure, right now though what's there is great but there's just not enough open. I feel a bit sorry for those who pay for a full day's admission and right now the car park is a bit chaotic to say the least.
Animal Kingdom
Just did the one day visit here over the two weeks as our other planned visit coincided with Mrs Merg being sick that day (nothing serious). Arrived in the afternoon as we wanted to experience Pandora both in daylight and at night. Couldn't snag a FP for Flight of Passage and wasn't prepared to queue for 2 hours so gave that a miss sadly. Na'vi River Journey was about 40 mins so we queued for that and thoroughly enjoyed it. It should have been a bit longer really but what was on it was done very well and the last animatronic was really superb.
I thought that Pandora the land itself was stunning in the daylight, they really hit the ball out of the park creating that and I was so excited to see it at night. When we returned later on though when nightfall came I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed as the lighting seemed much too feint, it was a bit of an anti climax and didn't live up to the potential we were expecting.
Talking of nightfall we also rode the safari in the dark and realised that it's not something we'd do again. There was no breathtaking scenery and what you could see was very shadowy and dark (it's night time, duh). I understand completely that it would be wrong and unfair to have big lights on the animals, it's just you can't see much at all so the experience is about 10|% of the daylight one. We also did Gorilla trails at around 6pm but the gorillas had decided to clear off to bed at that time so again that wasn't the most enjoyable exhibit looking at empty areas with bushes around.
Everest is still great in my book. I know this is controversial however I've ridden both modes and frankly I don't really mind 'disco yeti'. I ride it for the views and the speed and drops and the split second you see the yeti doesn't add much to my enjoyment, most will disagree but that's just me and apologies in advance for saying that.
The evening show there was also very good, we thoroughly enjoyed it though it was very crowded the nigh we saw it. Would definitely see it again and recommend it to anyone in two minds over seeing it.
Epcot
Another classic Disney Park and this year we tried a character breakfast there for the very first time. We did it on our second day of the holiday and had an 8:40am reservation at The Garden Grill as we'd heard great things about it. We entered the park early at around 8am to take advantage of the photo opportunities and Mrs Merg went mad snapping everything in sight in the practically deserted park. We checked in around 8:20am and even though we were 20 minutes early, they were happy to seat us straight away and let the eating begin. It started with a bowl of fruit and a cinnamon roll with icing which was absolutely delicious. Shortly afterwards we were brought a skillet of food which could have fed four people there was so much. It was really good food and when the characters came around they were excellent at judging how much interaction you wanted and is didn't feel awkward or forced. Our waiter was great too and didn't leave our glasses empty for long and kept an eye on us without constantly interrupting, he knew his job very well and was really friendly. We stayed around an hour and weren't rushed at all, he even brought me another drink after we'd paid and I was waiting for Mrs Merg to visit the ladies.
Future World was looking good and I didn't notice the bad smell I had on my last visit around the corner from Club Cool. The Land was a walk on so we did that immediately and my only criticism is the ending needs a refurb and clean up. Nemo was also a walk on that morning as is what it is. Journey is a favourite of my wife's, yes this version! I tell her of the old one but she loves what's there and always rides it, I've got to admit I enjoy it also. Test Track I FP'd yet still took about 30 minutes to complete. I wish you could miss the designing the car stage and following that the queue merge was chaotic with people pushing and jostling, not that fun an experience.
At Spaceship Earth we got a treat. Walking towards it I pulled up with leg cramp and a cast member approached to check I was alright. I explained it was just cramp due to my dystonia and she asked if we were heading to Spaceship Earth to which we relied yes and that we had FP's. She then said "How would you like to go through the V.I.P entrance" and we replied that would be great. She took us up the right side (looking at it from the entrance) and passed the queue to a side door for CM's. Through there and down a very small corridor and through another door into the area kind of between unload and load. She told her colleague she had two 'friends' and on we got bypassing the entire queue and she advised us to change our Spaceship Earth FP after riding at a kiosk as they were unused. It's nice things like this that really make you feel good.
World Showcase is always a pleasure and this year was no exception. We FP'd Frozen which I still think is ten times better than Maelstrom and apart from it's 'placement issue', I don't see why so may hate it so? The Three Caballeros was walk on and we did that several times over the trip. Despite travelling all the way to Florida to escape the UK, as true Brits we ended up in the UK pavilion eating Fish and chips at The Rose & Crown just before Illuminations. The staff being British always ask where we're from as they recognise our accents and this year was no exception and our waiter was very chatty and helpful. I'm always impressed how little they rush you in there and they even spaced out our orders to enable us to watch the fireworks from our table outside whilst enjoying our desert.
Magic Kingdom
The good old Magic Kingdom, so many memories and so much nostalgia there for me. We made five separate visits to the MK on our trip and enjoyed every single one. This year each time we visited the monorail was working unlike last time which was great. Also despite reading about the terrible conditions they're in, we didn't notice that or see any piles of rubbish or dead bodies on them (maybe the days we visited coincided with the cleaners and corpse removers work schedule?). Some work being done currently on the outside of the left side building on Main St but the scrim was up and looked smart enough.
Space Mountain was down several times which was disappointing, one time for over four hours. When I did ride it though it was great, pure nostalgia and joy and just like being a child again. The usual exit is still down but I was quite excited (sad I know) to use the rear exit which takes you around the structure and over the railway track. I thought they'd put a lot of work into this with the fences and walkways etc, a big up for whoever was responsible for that.
The TTA (Wedway to me) was down once for an hour but otherwise up and fine. Queues were common but only for 5 mins or so most of the time. The policy now seems to be to keep the queues up top at load down by staging guests using the moving walkway up there? Not sure why they do this now but it didn't cause too many problems but seemed a bit strange to me.
Got stuck on Haunted Mansion one time and it wasn't just the minute or so for wheelchair loading which happens. We were in the seance room and were there for about 6 minutes or so. I was hoping for a lights on evac as I've never done that but unfortunately they got it working again (one day Disney, one day). Our Jungle Cruise captains were as talented as ever and managed to smile and keep their good humor even though some rude guests were shouting in their own language during one of our trips.
Pirates had no projections into the 'screen' of fog near the start on all three rides though I must say that "We wants the redhead" wasn't as big a miss as many make out. Sure it was strange not having it, but if you can't still enjoy the rest of the attraction then you're really looking at the glass half empty in my humble opinion. Everything else seemed fine and dandy and the Saturday night exodus after park closing was just as crazy as ever at the MK monorail station.
Finally for those who gave up reading this after the first paragraph, I don't blame you and well let's be honest, I probably never really liked you anyway. And for those who read this whole thing apologies, that's ten minutes of your life you'll never get back
Peace out.
