I went to Disney World March 3, 2018. I know that's....pretty late to be doing a trip report, but I wanted to take the time before posting to really evaluate my trip. To start with, I'll evaluate my hotel. P.s. Forgot to mention this was my mom and my first trip ever.
Hotel
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. First off, the resort is absolutely gorgeous. The first thing we did after landing was go to our resort, and walking into that lobby melted the stress away immediately. The pool was also very nice; I understand that there were two, but we only swam in the one with a little slide in it. There was also a hot/cold Jacuzzi section which was a nice option to retreat to if the pool ever got too busy. An important note for anyone thinking of staying here- at one point ducks got into the pool with us. We thought it was funny and didn't mind, but I can see why that would annoy other people. The employees were also pretty nice. The employees all seemed very friendly- nothing but smiles.The beds were beyond comfortable, too.
That's the good stuff. Now for the not so good stuff. For one, I think the food options there that we tried are a little subpar. We ate at Roaring Fork one morning and it was too small for the amount of people there. I don't know if Geyser Point was open when we went, but if it wasn't it really needed to be. The food itself was nothing to write home about either. The mickey waffles in particular were a bitter disappointment. They had an odd taste and rubbery texture. Whispering Canyon Cafe was a bit better. Food was good, and we went the hijacks were still in full swing. I can see why the hijacks were considered the big draw though. It seemed like a place more focused on quantity over quality. I don't regret eating there but with some of the amazing meals we had elsewhere this place fell flat.
The other bad thing (in my opinion)- I don't think I'll ever stay at a resort that's not deluxe. Not because of the stellar experience I had, but the lack of it. It's not the Wilderess Lodge is a bad resort, but I would expect a place labeled "deluxe" to be more...well, deluxe. To me it just liked a (incredibly pretty) regular hotel that happened to be on Disney property. I like the benefits of staying on-site too much to stay off-site, but if this is what Disney considers deluxe they need to up their game. This resort was fine to stay at, but if I considered a deluxe resort average then I really don't want to see what staying at a moderate or value is like.
Now on to the parks!
Hollywood Studios
This was the first park we went to. I'll be honest, we hardly saw it at all. We were supposed to arrive around 3, but because of a very long story I won't get into right now we actually arrived closer to 6. When we finally got into the park we were extremely tired (aside from quick naps on the planes neither of us had slept in around 30 hours) so waiting in long lines just wasn't going to be happening, and because we got there way later than when we were supposed to we missed all but on fastpass- and unfortunately there were no more available for rides we wanted to do. Because of all this, Hollywood Studios was my least favorite park. I'm sure if I went earlier in the day, after a good night's sleep so I was willing to wait in lines, I would have had a more favorable view of it, but that horrible experience of that entire first day put a damper on our park time. I will say 50's Prime Time is an excellent place to eat. Our waitress was very bubbly and sassy, and her humor (and those delicious milkshakes) helped brighten our moods considerably.
Magic Kingdom
This was our second park. There were significant issues getting there. I won't go into in detail, but I was unimpressed both with the employees knowledge of the transportation at Disney and how often monorails broke down. Moving on to better things, we had breakfast at the Crystal Palace. It was a great meal, probably because of that puffed french toast, and the characters were great. Everyone stopped at our table long enough to take a picture. There were no kids with us so obviously they didn't linger but I appreciated them stopping at all. I won't go through every ride we got on and our thoughts on each, but instead say that overall the park has a lot of interesting rides and we had a good time. The Philharmagic ride stands out as being the most awesome since we had never experienced anything like that before.
The quick service restaurants were having a lot of trouble that day. Long lines were everywhere and they moved at a snail's pace. At one point, my mom observed that the line for a nearby restaurant had only moved by two to three people by the time we waited in line, rode, and got off of a ride. We weren't affected much since the only thing we got from a QS was a lemonade slushy (very good by the way), but it's something worth mentioning. As far as food we ate ourselves we went to Liberty Tree Tavern. Seating took a long time, but the hosts talked and joked to us while we waited. While the food was great comfort food, better than Whispering Canyon, the service was very slow. I think it's because we were in a room off to the side from the main action so we were easy to forget about, but the meal took two hours to ge through- twice as long as any other meal we did. I didn't care because we didn't have any fastpasses or anything and it was a nice break from walking but I know some people would.
Last note, the fireworks are, well, boring. I've never been one for fireworks anyway so I'm probably biased but I honestly don't see what all the fuss with these are about. Anyway, this park was great. Fun rides, good food, and warm employees.
Animal Kingdom
This was our third park. For breakfast we had Starbucks, so I won't waste time reviewing that. This park was another awesome one. We started off on the Na'vi River Journey. Despite lackluster reviews we loved it! Maybe we're just easy to please haha. But I did think it was a lovely ride. After that we went to Africa and watched some of the performers there. It was a singing/dancing group. If you've never taken the time to watch the performers here you really need too. They're all talented and they do a good job of interacting with the audience. If you're feeling brave you may even be called up to learn some dance moves. After that we watched the Lion King show. This was one of my favorite things out of everything we did. The performances were just wonderful. The bird dance (sorry, don't know what else to call it) and the monkeys stand out the most. We also walked the trails and did the safari, which were another big favorite. I won't pretend to know much about zoos, but it seems like Disney's is pretty nice. There's a lot of room to roam and they said they even let the different animals intermingle, which I hadn't seen before.
We had dinner at Tusker House. The food was good and had a good amount of vegetarian options which I appreciated. I think it does a good job of having more "exotic" flavors while keeping some "everyday" food at the buffet for picky eaters. The characters were less impressive- we were skipped over by several, probably because of the before-mentioned lack of a child. We walked a few more trails before ending the night with the Rivers of Light show. It was pretty and the light show was unique, but not something I feel compelled to watch again. I think it's definitely a one and done show.
Epcot
Our fourth and last park! We started off having breakfast at Les Halles. Great pastries (we got more to take home), but DO NOT get the frozen coffee. It's some weird coffee slushie that tastes disgusting. After we got in line for Test Track, but so many people got into the Fastpass line that the standby wait time got so long we would have missed lunch if we stayed (lunch was an earl 11 because we had a flight to get to) so we didn't do any rides at this park. We did do the pearl thing in Japan- I highly encourage you to try it if you're on the fence. The girls who got the pearls for us were very into it and honestly made half of the experience. Plus you get a pearl, and who doesn't love that? After was lunch at Chefs de France. Good food, but at this point I was feeling a bit sick. When the waiter saw my face he asked what was wrong, and when I told him I was nauseous he actually took a step back and pretty much ran away. We didn't see him again until the check after that (someone else brought the dessert I had ordered). On the one hand, that was a little rude. On the other, it was also really funny and laughing about helped me feel a bit better.
To save a lot of boring details, we pretty much just walked around the park after that because we didn't have the time to get on rides before leaving to our resort to mage our Magical Express ride to the airport.
Final Thougts
I had a great time! All though I'll have to really think about when I'll go again (Disney is crazy expensive and as a college student I can't afford to go as much as I would want....which is all the time). I loved it, but there is room for improvement. To start, I think the resorts need to either get a little cheaper and be higher quality before the money for them starts feeling worth it. I also think every park but Magic Kingdom needs some TLC. Hollywood Studios felt empty (even if we were willing to wait in lines that night, looking at what was availible I feel confident in saying it probably would have only taken us 5 to six hours to go through the park before running out of things to do). Toy Story Land has no doubt helped with that, but I think it'll need a little more before it starts to feel like a full park. Animal Kingdom and Epcot had more to do, but at AK we were struggling by late afternoon to occupy our time until the ROL show. Epcot has the World Showcase and Future World to walk around, but WS takes only a few hours to get through if that and Future World, if you planned your fastpasses right, would only take an afternoon. All that said, my first trip was a dream come true and I already can't wait until I'm able to go again!
Hotel
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. First off, the resort is absolutely gorgeous. The first thing we did after landing was go to our resort, and walking into that lobby melted the stress away immediately. The pool was also very nice; I understand that there were two, but we only swam in the one with a little slide in it. There was also a hot/cold Jacuzzi section which was a nice option to retreat to if the pool ever got too busy. An important note for anyone thinking of staying here- at one point ducks got into the pool with us. We thought it was funny and didn't mind, but I can see why that would annoy other people. The employees were also pretty nice. The employees all seemed very friendly- nothing but smiles.The beds were beyond comfortable, too.
That's the good stuff. Now for the not so good stuff. For one, I think the food options there that we tried are a little subpar. We ate at Roaring Fork one morning and it was too small for the amount of people there. I don't know if Geyser Point was open when we went, but if it wasn't it really needed to be. The food itself was nothing to write home about either. The mickey waffles in particular were a bitter disappointment. They had an odd taste and rubbery texture. Whispering Canyon Cafe was a bit better. Food was good, and we went the hijacks were still in full swing. I can see why the hijacks were considered the big draw though. It seemed like a place more focused on quantity over quality. I don't regret eating there but with some of the amazing meals we had elsewhere this place fell flat.
The other bad thing (in my opinion)- I don't think I'll ever stay at a resort that's not deluxe. Not because of the stellar experience I had, but the lack of it. It's not the Wilderess Lodge is a bad resort, but I would expect a place labeled "deluxe" to be more...well, deluxe. To me it just liked a (incredibly pretty) regular hotel that happened to be on Disney property. I like the benefits of staying on-site too much to stay off-site, but if this is what Disney considers deluxe they need to up their game. This resort was fine to stay at, but if I considered a deluxe resort average then I really don't want to see what staying at a moderate or value is like.
Now on to the parks!
Hollywood Studios
This was the first park we went to. I'll be honest, we hardly saw it at all. We were supposed to arrive around 3, but because of a very long story I won't get into right now we actually arrived closer to 6. When we finally got into the park we were extremely tired (aside from quick naps on the planes neither of us had slept in around 30 hours) so waiting in long lines just wasn't going to be happening, and because we got there way later than when we were supposed to we missed all but on fastpass- and unfortunately there were no more available for rides we wanted to do. Because of all this, Hollywood Studios was my least favorite park. I'm sure if I went earlier in the day, after a good night's sleep so I was willing to wait in lines, I would have had a more favorable view of it, but that horrible experience of that entire first day put a damper on our park time. I will say 50's Prime Time is an excellent place to eat. Our waitress was very bubbly and sassy, and her humor (and those delicious milkshakes) helped brighten our moods considerably.
Magic Kingdom
This was our second park. There were significant issues getting there. I won't go into in detail, but I was unimpressed both with the employees knowledge of the transportation at Disney and how often monorails broke down. Moving on to better things, we had breakfast at the Crystal Palace. It was a great meal, probably because of that puffed french toast, and the characters were great. Everyone stopped at our table long enough to take a picture. There were no kids with us so obviously they didn't linger but I appreciated them stopping at all. I won't go through every ride we got on and our thoughts on each, but instead say that overall the park has a lot of interesting rides and we had a good time. The Philharmagic ride stands out as being the most awesome since we had never experienced anything like that before.
The quick service restaurants were having a lot of trouble that day. Long lines were everywhere and they moved at a snail's pace. At one point, my mom observed that the line for a nearby restaurant had only moved by two to three people by the time we waited in line, rode, and got off of a ride. We weren't affected much since the only thing we got from a QS was a lemonade slushy (very good by the way), but it's something worth mentioning. As far as food we ate ourselves we went to Liberty Tree Tavern. Seating took a long time, but the hosts talked and joked to us while we waited. While the food was great comfort food, better than Whispering Canyon, the service was very slow. I think it's because we were in a room off to the side from the main action so we were easy to forget about, but the meal took two hours to ge through- twice as long as any other meal we did. I didn't care because we didn't have any fastpasses or anything and it was a nice break from walking but I know some people would.
Last note, the fireworks are, well, boring. I've never been one for fireworks anyway so I'm probably biased but I honestly don't see what all the fuss with these are about. Anyway, this park was great. Fun rides, good food, and warm employees.
Animal Kingdom
This was our third park. For breakfast we had Starbucks, so I won't waste time reviewing that. This park was another awesome one. We started off on the Na'vi River Journey. Despite lackluster reviews we loved it! Maybe we're just easy to please haha. But I did think it was a lovely ride. After that we went to Africa and watched some of the performers there. It was a singing/dancing group. If you've never taken the time to watch the performers here you really need too. They're all talented and they do a good job of interacting with the audience. If you're feeling brave you may even be called up to learn some dance moves. After that we watched the Lion King show. This was one of my favorite things out of everything we did. The performances were just wonderful. The bird dance (sorry, don't know what else to call it) and the monkeys stand out the most. We also walked the trails and did the safari, which were another big favorite. I won't pretend to know much about zoos, but it seems like Disney's is pretty nice. There's a lot of room to roam and they said they even let the different animals intermingle, which I hadn't seen before.
We had dinner at Tusker House. The food was good and had a good amount of vegetarian options which I appreciated. I think it does a good job of having more "exotic" flavors while keeping some "everyday" food at the buffet for picky eaters. The characters were less impressive- we were skipped over by several, probably because of the before-mentioned lack of a child. We walked a few more trails before ending the night with the Rivers of Light show. It was pretty and the light show was unique, but not something I feel compelled to watch again. I think it's definitely a one and done show.
Epcot
Our fourth and last park! We started off having breakfast at Les Halles. Great pastries (we got more to take home), but DO NOT get the frozen coffee. It's some weird coffee slushie that tastes disgusting. After we got in line for Test Track, but so many people got into the Fastpass line that the standby wait time got so long we would have missed lunch if we stayed (lunch was an earl 11 because we had a flight to get to) so we didn't do any rides at this park. We did do the pearl thing in Japan- I highly encourage you to try it if you're on the fence. The girls who got the pearls for us were very into it and honestly made half of the experience. Plus you get a pearl, and who doesn't love that? After was lunch at Chefs de France. Good food, but at this point I was feeling a bit sick. When the waiter saw my face he asked what was wrong, and when I told him I was nauseous he actually took a step back and pretty much ran away. We didn't see him again until the check after that (someone else brought the dessert I had ordered). On the one hand, that was a little rude. On the other, it was also really funny and laughing about helped me feel a bit better.
To save a lot of boring details, we pretty much just walked around the park after that because we didn't have the time to get on rides before leaving to our resort to mage our Magical Express ride to the airport.
Final Thougts
I had a great time! All though I'll have to really think about when I'll go again (Disney is crazy expensive and as a college student I can't afford to go as much as I would want....which is all the time). I loved it, but there is room for improvement. To start, I think the resorts need to either get a little cheaper and be higher quality before the money for them starts feeling worth it. I also think every park but Magic Kingdom needs some TLC. Hollywood Studios felt empty (even if we were willing to wait in lines that night, looking at what was availible I feel confident in saying it probably would have only taken us 5 to six hours to go through the park before running out of things to do). Toy Story Land has no doubt helped with that, but I think it'll need a little more before it starts to feel like a full park. Animal Kingdom and Epcot had more to do, but at AK we were struggling by late afternoon to occupy our time until the ROL show. Epcot has the World Showcase and Future World to walk around, but WS takes only a few hours to get through if that and Future World, if you planned your fastpasses right, would only take an afternoon. All that said, my first trip was a dream come true and I already can't wait until I'm able to go again!
