Trip was March 22- 30, just me and the boyfriend. Our last trip to Disney was in 2011, and we did a day at Universal in 2016. This time around we decided to do 5 days at Disney and then spend the rest of our vacation with some friends who now live outside Tampa.
I'll start with our accomodations. A friend of ours let us use his townhouse at Regal Palms in Davenport. I usually prefer to stay onsite, but the "friends and family" rate he charged us was ...well, we stayed at his townhouse. It's a lovely resort, with a lot of amenities -- pool, waterslide, lazy river, hot tub, fitness center, spa and restaurant. You can walk to a Publix supermarket and a CVS drugstore. It never took more than 20 minutes to drive to WDW. the townhouse can comfortably accomodate 8 people, far more space than we needed, but I loved the convenience of a full kitchen and washer/dryer.
Seems to me that each time I go to Disney, there is less and less room for spontaneity. Fastpass+ means I'm actually making appointments to ride 30 days before I set foot in the park. And with more rides using Fastpass, it seems that the standby lines are much longer than they used to be. I never had to wait more than 15-20 minutes for any ride when I had a Fastpass, but the waits for other rides, especially in the Magic Kingdom -- we actually had to get off the line for Jungle Cruise because we didn't want to miss our Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain. It felt like we were able to see and do a lot more before Fastpass +
But I did like our Magic Bands. Considering how often we had to scan in, the $15 that I paid for the band was well worth the investment.
Weather was good, for the most part. A little chilly at night and early morning, but I brought a lightweight sweatshirt and I was fine. We had rain one morning, but it stpped before lunchtime, though the rest of that day was colder than normal.
We were there during the Flower and Garden Show, so we got to see a lot of interesting topiary in EPCOT.
So...our first day was in EPCOT. We rode Spaceship Earth (great for two history geeks like us), Mission:Space (green of course -- I'm too chicken to ride orange, and my boyfriend got sick on orange last trip), Journey Into Imagination (really love Figment, but Eric Idle doesn't look like that anymore...) , Soarin' , Living with the Land, the Seas. The boat ride in Mexico is still cute. Frozen is cute, too, but I kind of miss the trolls in Norway. (My daughrers, in their 20's, absolutely love the new ride.)
Test Track....in the morning we got to design our car, and were about to board the ride when the ride went down. We came back in the afternoon and we were able to ride, but our computer terminal froze and we were not able to design a car. Oh, and guess who needs to remember a scrunchie when she rides? Could not see my face in our ride photo, all you can see is my hair...
We had lunch at Nine Dragons. I thought the menu was very limited but the food and service were excellent. Dinner was at Marrakesh; I loved the musician and the dancer, and my chicken coucous was very tasty.
Our second day was spent at Animal Kingdom. We arrived well before the park opened and ran to Pandora at rope drop. Managed to get on flights of Passage fairly quickly, though...well, I couldn't ride it because the safety restraints wouldn't latch. Boyfriend says it's the best simulator at disney and bewtter than Spiderman or Forbidden Journey at Universsal. We had a Fastpass for Na'vi River, which was amazing. Legend of the Lion King was fun, as aways.
Kilimanjaro Safari ... I'm glad they took out the "story" about rescuing theelephant form the poachers, but...well, you ride through the safarai way too fast to really enjoy viewing the animals. And I'm a New Yorker, spoiled by the Bronx Zoo...
Loved Dinosaur, It's Tough To Be A Bug and Expedition Everest. Kali River Rapids was fun, but ...since they stopped doing the special effects, not only is the ride at Universal better, but the version at my local Six Flags is better.
River of Light .... I know they can't do fireworks here, because of the animals, bu tthe show was...lacking something. The music is pretty, the lights are pretty, the water screen projections are pretty...but nothing spectacular.
We had lunch at Pizzafari (pretty standard) and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (we loved the coconut shrimp).
to be continued...
I'll start with our accomodations. A friend of ours let us use his townhouse at Regal Palms in Davenport. I usually prefer to stay onsite, but the "friends and family" rate he charged us was ...well, we stayed at his townhouse. It's a lovely resort, with a lot of amenities -- pool, waterslide, lazy river, hot tub, fitness center, spa and restaurant. You can walk to a Publix supermarket and a CVS drugstore. It never took more than 20 minutes to drive to WDW. the townhouse can comfortably accomodate 8 people, far more space than we needed, but I loved the convenience of a full kitchen and washer/dryer.
Seems to me that each time I go to Disney, there is less and less room for spontaneity. Fastpass+ means I'm actually making appointments to ride 30 days before I set foot in the park. And with more rides using Fastpass, it seems that the standby lines are much longer than they used to be. I never had to wait more than 15-20 minutes for any ride when I had a Fastpass, but the waits for other rides, especially in the Magic Kingdom -- we actually had to get off the line for Jungle Cruise because we didn't want to miss our Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain. It felt like we were able to see and do a lot more before Fastpass +
But I did like our Magic Bands. Considering how often we had to scan in, the $15 that I paid for the band was well worth the investment.
Weather was good, for the most part. A little chilly at night and early morning, but I brought a lightweight sweatshirt and I was fine. We had rain one morning, but it stpped before lunchtime, though the rest of that day was colder than normal.
We were there during the Flower and Garden Show, so we got to see a lot of interesting topiary in EPCOT.
So...our first day was in EPCOT. We rode Spaceship Earth (great for two history geeks like us), Mission:Space (green of course -- I'm too chicken to ride orange, and my boyfriend got sick on orange last trip), Journey Into Imagination (really love Figment, but Eric Idle doesn't look like that anymore...) , Soarin' , Living with the Land, the Seas. The boat ride in Mexico is still cute. Frozen is cute, too, but I kind of miss the trolls in Norway. (My daughrers, in their 20's, absolutely love the new ride.)
Test Track....in the morning we got to design our car, and were about to board the ride when the ride went down. We came back in the afternoon and we were able to ride, but our computer terminal froze and we were not able to design a car. Oh, and guess who needs to remember a scrunchie when she rides? Could not see my face in our ride photo, all you can see is my hair...
We had lunch at Nine Dragons. I thought the menu was very limited but the food and service were excellent. Dinner was at Marrakesh; I loved the musician and the dancer, and my chicken coucous was very tasty.
Our second day was spent at Animal Kingdom. We arrived well before the park opened and ran to Pandora at rope drop. Managed to get on flights of Passage fairly quickly, though...well, I couldn't ride it because the safety restraints wouldn't latch. Boyfriend says it's the best simulator at disney and bewtter than Spiderman or Forbidden Journey at Universsal. We had a Fastpass for Na'vi River, which was amazing. Legend of the Lion King was fun, as aways.
Kilimanjaro Safari ... I'm glad they took out the "story" about rescuing theelephant form the poachers, but...well, you ride through the safarai way too fast to really enjoy viewing the animals. And I'm a New Yorker, spoiled by the Bronx Zoo...
Loved Dinosaur, It's Tough To Be A Bug and Expedition Everest. Kali River Rapids was fun, but ...since they stopped doing the special effects, not only is the ride at Universal better, but the version at my local Six Flags is better.
River of Light .... I know they can't do fireworks here, because of the animals, bu tthe show was...lacking something. The music is pretty, the lights are pretty, the water screen projections are pretty...but nothing spectacular.
We had lunch at Pizzafari (pretty standard) and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (we loved the coconut shrimp).
to be continued...
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