Lake Buena Vista: Carnival Style!
Hi everyone! I recently got back from WDW and wanted to share some of my post-trip report thoughts being that this was my first trip since I have joined the WDWmagic.com forums. So instead of giving a day-by-day account of our trip, I simply want to provide some general observations of on-goings at the parks and sporadic details of our trip (Ok, I have expanded on this original premise quite a bite in the last week). I will likely add some pictures at some point, but I haven’t had time yet to upload them from my camera. Anyway, my wife and I traveled to Walt Disney World from Feb 4 – 11, 2016 during our Mardi Gras break from school and work. As much as we love Mardi Gras and being in New Orleans (trust me, we have done Mardi Gras more times than responsible adults probably should), we couldn’t pass up the chance to go to WDW. Overall, we had an excellent trip, but my wife and I definitely noticed that it is almost impossible for us to go from park opening to park closing anymore now that we are no longer in our 20’s (I know that we are not old, but we ain’t as good as we once was either). So this trip was a bit scaled back from what we normally “accomplish”.
I started out writing this trip report as a brief summary of our experience, but because I got bored at work a good bit in the last couple of weeks since our return, it became quite lengthy. So now, I intend to post it in a few separate sections as I wrap up writing the end. Like I said, we had a great time and most of my comments are positive, but sometimes I cannot hold back from venting my frustrations whenever they arise. In the last section/post, I plan to list those things that I think Disney needs to address sometime in the future.
But for now…I would say enjoy, but who knows if this will actually be interesting. I guess we’ll see!
To Fly or to Drive?
For this trip (February 4 – 11, 2016), we decided to drive to WDW instead of fly. It is about a ten hour drive from our house, so it is definitely doable, but not necessarily a hop skip and a jump away. We decided to drive because we were staying in an adjoining room with friends at a hotel off property (Clarion Lake Buena Vista), and felt that we should have our car with us due to mixed reviews concerning the hotel’s shuttle service.
Eventually we made it to Orlando after an exhausting drive from our house in Louisiana. We were overly ambitious in trying to work/go to class until the evening of departure and then leaving for WDW at night while take turns driving. Needless to say, it only took a few hours of driving before we decided we were stupid and that we needed to stop at a hotel and sleep for a bit. After 3-4 hours of sleep, we were back on the road and made it (thanks to a new radar detector) to the outskirts of Disney World by mid-afternoon. Despite being delirious at this point, I became the most excited I’ve been in a long time as we approached property and I could see the top half of Spaceship Earth from quite a good distance away. Sometimes you wish that you could just bottle that magic up to save for a rainy day…
Hotel
I was rather impressed with the hotel, as it had mixed reviews on TripAdvisor. After the Mousesaver’s discount, we paid well under $100/night. The hotel is very close the WDW property, as it sits near Hotel Plaza Blvd. on Palm Blvd. Other than them trying to talk us into attending a timeshare meeting (which most hotels do), I have no complaints about it. The rooms were surprisingly nice and on-par with the room we had at our stay at the Hilton-Lake Buena Vista on Hotel Plaza Blvd., which we paid 3-4 times the amount for.
We never attempted to use the hotel shuttle since we realized upon arrival that there were basically only one or two departure times from the hotel in the morning, and only one time in the evening to take the shuttle back from the parks. We simply decided to drive to the parks ourselves and reluctantly pay the $20/day parking.
Trip Expectations / Preview
So first, just a little bit of preview about this trip and what we were expecting to do. This is my 5th trip to Walt Disney World overall, and my 3rd trip in four years with my gf-fiancé-and now wife. We decided that since we had been to WDW quite a bit lately (it’s all relative here) that we would use this trip to do some of the things/attractions that we always skip over (i.e. Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, etc.) and also to enjoy some old favorites that may not be there anymore on our next trip (Streets of America, 50’s Prime Time, Writer’s Stop).
Park Experience - Overview
Throughout our six days of park hopping, we were able to visit every park at least twice. As expected, we visited the Magic Kingdom the most with four (maybe five?) separate visits. We picked this time of year because we are off of work for Mardi Gras, and because we like to avoid the heavy summer months. We knew that the parks would be somewhat crowded as this was cheerleading competition week over at ESPN Wide World. There were plenty of cheer-taters around, but nothing too wild or too loud. (The cheerleaders were mostly well behaved, and we only saw two or three Brazilian groups, who weren’t doing a lot of chanting) But in regards to crowds as a whole, the parks were pretty full in my estimation for it being the first half of February. I suppose it’s true that there aren’t any dead periods anymore.
Animal Kingdom
We did our traditional tour of the E-ticket attractions (Everest, Safari) as usual, which is always great. Rivers of Light seems to coming along well, but with large parts of Asia walled off due to ROL construction and Kali River Rapids refurbishment, this area of the park is a bit of a no-go zone at the moment. From the parking lot, you can really see the advancements made toward completion of Avatar-land, which is pretty exciting to see how big this area will be. We normally eat at the Yak & Yeti counter-service, but splurged this time for the sit-down restaurant. It is wonderfully themed as expected with great views of the area. I got the Kobe-beef hamburger which was excellent. My wife said hers was delicious too, although I have no idea now what she ate.
We spent a lot of time in Africa, as this is my favorite area, and got try the new alcoholic Dole Whips. They are pretty darn good. While in Africa, we checked out the “newish” Harambe Market area which is nicely themed, but not much more than a place to grab a bite to eat. We had never taken the time to take the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch / Conservation Station, so this was a first. It was cool to see some of the behind the scenes areas from the train, but the Conservation Station itself left a little bit to be desired. It’s not that it is not a cool space, it is just a lot of effort that goes into catching the train, boarding the train, walking from the station to the pavilion and then touring the Rafiki area. It was simply an extended effort for a moderate pay-off. But overall, I still immensely enjoy the detail of the buildings, props and experience in Africa.
I will leave it here for now, but will be posting more in the next few days. Even if no one reads these posts, I'm definitely having fun recounting and remembering our trip!
Hi everyone! I recently got back from WDW and wanted to share some of my post-trip report thoughts being that this was my first trip since I have joined the WDWmagic.com forums. So instead of giving a day-by-day account of our trip, I simply want to provide some general observations of on-goings at the parks and sporadic details of our trip (Ok, I have expanded on this original premise quite a bite in the last week). I will likely add some pictures at some point, but I haven’t had time yet to upload them from my camera. Anyway, my wife and I traveled to Walt Disney World from Feb 4 – 11, 2016 during our Mardi Gras break from school and work. As much as we love Mardi Gras and being in New Orleans (trust me, we have done Mardi Gras more times than responsible adults probably should), we couldn’t pass up the chance to go to WDW. Overall, we had an excellent trip, but my wife and I definitely noticed that it is almost impossible for us to go from park opening to park closing anymore now that we are no longer in our 20’s (I know that we are not old, but we ain’t as good as we once was either). So this trip was a bit scaled back from what we normally “accomplish”.
I started out writing this trip report as a brief summary of our experience, but because I got bored at work a good bit in the last couple of weeks since our return, it became quite lengthy. So now, I intend to post it in a few separate sections as I wrap up writing the end. Like I said, we had a great time and most of my comments are positive, but sometimes I cannot hold back from venting my frustrations whenever they arise. In the last section/post, I plan to list those things that I think Disney needs to address sometime in the future.
But for now…I would say enjoy, but who knows if this will actually be interesting. I guess we’ll see!
To Fly or to Drive?
For this trip (February 4 – 11, 2016), we decided to drive to WDW instead of fly. It is about a ten hour drive from our house, so it is definitely doable, but not necessarily a hop skip and a jump away. We decided to drive because we were staying in an adjoining room with friends at a hotel off property (Clarion Lake Buena Vista), and felt that we should have our car with us due to mixed reviews concerning the hotel’s shuttle service.
Eventually we made it to Orlando after an exhausting drive from our house in Louisiana. We were overly ambitious in trying to work/go to class until the evening of departure and then leaving for WDW at night while take turns driving. Needless to say, it only took a few hours of driving before we decided we were stupid and that we needed to stop at a hotel and sleep for a bit. After 3-4 hours of sleep, we were back on the road and made it (thanks to a new radar detector) to the outskirts of Disney World by mid-afternoon. Despite being delirious at this point, I became the most excited I’ve been in a long time as we approached property and I could see the top half of Spaceship Earth from quite a good distance away. Sometimes you wish that you could just bottle that magic up to save for a rainy day…
Hotel
I was rather impressed with the hotel, as it had mixed reviews on TripAdvisor. After the Mousesaver’s discount, we paid well under $100/night. The hotel is very close the WDW property, as it sits near Hotel Plaza Blvd. on Palm Blvd. Other than them trying to talk us into attending a timeshare meeting (which most hotels do), I have no complaints about it. The rooms were surprisingly nice and on-par with the room we had at our stay at the Hilton-Lake Buena Vista on Hotel Plaza Blvd., which we paid 3-4 times the amount for.
We never attempted to use the hotel shuttle since we realized upon arrival that there were basically only one or two departure times from the hotel in the morning, and only one time in the evening to take the shuttle back from the parks. We simply decided to drive to the parks ourselves and reluctantly pay the $20/day parking.
Trip Expectations / Preview
So first, just a little bit of preview about this trip and what we were expecting to do. This is my 5th trip to Walt Disney World overall, and my 3rd trip in four years with my gf-fiancé-and now wife. We decided that since we had been to WDW quite a bit lately (it’s all relative here) that we would use this trip to do some of the things/attractions that we always skip over (i.e. Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, etc.) and also to enjoy some old favorites that may not be there anymore on our next trip (Streets of America, 50’s Prime Time, Writer’s Stop).
Park Experience - Overview
Throughout our six days of park hopping, we were able to visit every park at least twice. As expected, we visited the Magic Kingdom the most with four (maybe five?) separate visits. We picked this time of year because we are off of work for Mardi Gras, and because we like to avoid the heavy summer months. We knew that the parks would be somewhat crowded as this was cheerleading competition week over at ESPN Wide World. There were plenty of cheer-taters around, but nothing too wild or too loud. (The cheerleaders were mostly well behaved, and we only saw two or three Brazilian groups, who weren’t doing a lot of chanting) But in regards to crowds as a whole, the parks were pretty full in my estimation for it being the first half of February. I suppose it’s true that there aren’t any dead periods anymore.
Animal Kingdom
We did our traditional tour of the E-ticket attractions (Everest, Safari) as usual, which is always great. Rivers of Light seems to coming along well, but with large parts of Asia walled off due to ROL construction and Kali River Rapids refurbishment, this area of the park is a bit of a no-go zone at the moment. From the parking lot, you can really see the advancements made toward completion of Avatar-land, which is pretty exciting to see how big this area will be. We normally eat at the Yak & Yeti counter-service, but splurged this time for the sit-down restaurant. It is wonderfully themed as expected with great views of the area. I got the Kobe-beef hamburger which was excellent. My wife said hers was delicious too, although I have no idea now what she ate.
We spent a lot of time in Africa, as this is my favorite area, and got try the new alcoholic Dole Whips. They are pretty darn good. While in Africa, we checked out the “newish” Harambe Market area which is nicely themed, but not much more than a place to grab a bite to eat. We had never taken the time to take the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch / Conservation Station, so this was a first. It was cool to see some of the behind the scenes areas from the train, but the Conservation Station itself left a little bit to be desired. It’s not that it is not a cool space, it is just a lot of effort that goes into catching the train, boarding the train, walking from the station to the pavilion and then touring the Rafiki area. It was simply an extended effort for a moderate pay-off. But overall, I still immensely enjoy the detail of the buildings, props and experience in Africa.
I will leave it here for now, but will be posting more in the next few days. Even if no one reads these posts, I'm definitely having fun recounting and remembering our trip!
