So I just got back yesterday from a week-long trip that I treated my mom to. I flew in from Denver and she flew in from Minneapolis on October 1st and we met at the airport. I hadn't seen her in 9 years so it was a bit emotional and I hadn't been to WDW since May 2019, my largest gap since 2004-2012, but that was less emotional. She hadn't been there since 1986 so it was almost a completely all-new experience for her.
So coming in on the tail of Hurricane Ian we weren't sure what to expect, but I didn't notice any lingering issues in WDW. We had mild temps (lows in upper 60s/highs in mid 80s) and NO RAIN the entire trip. I've never had a trip where I didn't have some rain. I made a particular point to my mom to get a poncho to bring with and always have it on her, but she never needed it! So the weather was excellent the entire time.
We stayed at Art of Animation and never had to deal with a stopped skyliner, it was available every time we needed it. There was a break down on the CBR-Epcot line one night, but we were going from HS to AoA so we weren't affected. The bus to MK is a bit long but not awful but a quick trip to AK, so it seemed like a great resort for transportation. The skyliner is just awesome, so fast.
So the day we arrived, October 1st, we went to Epcot. Didn't really notice anything particular for the 40th because we were only there from about 3:30-8:30, but we did get 40th anniversary maps and the Creations store was lined up like crazy so we didn't get in to see any of the day of 40th Epcot merch except what was leftover a couple days later, which seemed like a rack of t-shirts that were day-of 40th anniversary shirts but I didn't like them much so I didn't get one. We ate at San Angel Inn which was... fine. I'm vegetarian, so I do eat dairy and eggs occasionally but I went plant-based because it was easier, but the plant-based food options are generally just... ok. Usually 1 option, 2 if you're really lucky and usually kinda bland. But I never went hungry so that's good. I did an ILL for Guardians but the pre-show broke down while we were mid-teleportation, so we manually walked up to the space ship via a series of stairs and hallways and had no idea what the story was. I'd seen clips of the ride but never watched the full ride through so I didn't know what to expect. We got row 10, so 2nd row when we went backwards. Silky smooth ride and a lot of fun! We did Frozen, SSE, and GFT in Mexico. Good short first day!
Day 2 we went to Magic Kingdom. It was a Halloween party day so we left around 5pm, but the crowds were really good. I got Genie+ while it was still available as a ticket add-on, so I had it for every day of the trip. I'd heard so many horror stories I didn't think I'd get much use of it but I got at least 5-7 rides from it most days. I did ILL for 7D. I'd ridden it before but I did all the ILLs once because I wanted my mom to get on them all in a reasonable time. I still don't understand why it's so popular. It's fine. But we LL'd PP, HM, JC, PotC, and SM. Also did CoP and CBJ and finished the day eating at Jungle Navigation Co which had the one of the best plant-based meals I had at WDW. Really good spices and flavors! Also, saw Tron in person and the entry and railroad tracks looks a lot less close to finished than they do in the pictures I've seen posted. Not surprising at all to me now they announced next spring for the opening. Also, after eating dinner with a ADR the second time, we decided it was kind of a pain to plan around those reservations. I had ADRs for every day, but I ended up cancelling most of them after this day except for Garden Grill which is my favorite restaurant. I had ADRs for Sci-Fi, Tusker House and BoG that I cancelled and I don't regret it.
Day 3 we went to Hollywood studios and got on all the rides except which was always a little too long to merit a wait and was always a little too far in the future to justify a LL. We saw the Frozen show which was a lot of fun but didn't see the Beauty and the Beast show. So this was the first time I got to see Batuu and it's really well themed and RotR (another ILL) was really neat (everything seemed to be working except the cannons didn't move... those are supposed to move, right?), Smuggler's Run was disappointing. We did espectially bad because we had 2 pilots (my mom and me) and 2 shooter people but no engineers. My mom is old so not into games and she was the left-right pilot and I don't think she touched the controls once. It's neat to see a life-sized Millenium Falcon but the game is not fun, and the fact that if you aren't a party of 6 your performance can affect other peoples' experience makes it hard to enjoy very much. I had a blue milk which was fine. The stores didn't do much for me because even though I was 5 in 1977 and loved the original trilogy, the prequels and sequels and oversaturation in general has made me not really care much about Star Wars in general so I had no desire to drop the coin on a lightsaber or droid. Finally got to do SDD for the first time. It's fine for a slightly-more-than-mild kiddie coaster. Was able to LL SDD, MMRR, ST, TSM, and RRC. We knocked out basically everything in one day and it was all new to my mom and I think her favorite ride was a tie between RRC and GotG, which was a surprise to me! We also watched the Indiana Jones show which feels so out of place in the park now, one of the few vestiges of the "working studio" concept, but it's still a lot of fun to watch.
Day 4 we got to Animal Kingdom. We had tickets for MNSSHP that night, so we knew it would be a short day and I've never spent more than a half day at the park. We ILL'd FoP so for the first time in years I was able to relax on the way into the park and watch everyone else make a beeline there. We walked over to NRJ which is still a little disappointing... just so many screens and only 1 animatronic... a really impressive animatronic, and it's nice to have a newer boat ride, but still. Then we had an LL for Expedition Everest which is pretty herky-jerky compared to RRC and GotG. My mom hated it... the line was short so we could have done 2 but she didn't want to go back on. We also got LL for Dinosaur and KS. We did the Gorilla Falls trail, It;s Tough to Be a Bug and got pictures with Mickey and Minnie and headed out around 3pm to chill at the hotel before we went to the Halloween Party. We got to the Halloween party around 5:30 and got our candy bags and some candy then went to the stores to look around before the Halloween party stuff rolled out completely. I was accidentally where they rolled out the party merch, near the front of the line and decided I'd wait and see what they had. It took longer than I thought it would but by the time I decided I didn't really want to wait I was trapped in a crowd and couldn't really get out, so I waited it out. I ended up getting the Minnie ears and a spirit jersey, but boy, I hope you aren't a medium or large, all they had was XS, S, XL and larger. I know they're supposed to be big and baggy but I got an S and it fits but not in a particularly baggy way, just sorta like a regular sweatshirt. What I love about the halloween party is they actually have characters out and about for photo ops like they used to have all the time. I'm really bummed that the only character photo ops anymore are at the specific permanent buildings and the character options are so limited. The lines were long, though, so we only got pictures with Stitch dressed as Elvis. We did SM in pitch black. That little bit of light you usually get actually makes a huge difference. I had no idea which way we were going and was recovering from some bruised ribs and a strained wrist and forearm I got from the week before my trip so it was incredibly unpleasant for me. My mom told me she kept her eyes closed but it was so dark I don't think my experience was any different. Also did HM with the performers right outside the doors who were really entertaining and PotC with the couple of live pirates they had in there. Other than that, got candy, did TTAPM, BTMR, Space Ranger Spin (my mom didn't get it), and IaSW and we were so tired we left around 9:30.
Day 5 we got back to Epcot for a full day. Got a boarding group for GotG to try that again to see the pre-show. It initally said 6pm for group 109 but we eventually got called around 3:30 and we got to see the whole queue and experience the pre-show and got 1st row, so we experience from the back and front. I personally liked the 1st row better but that may be because I had a little familiarity with the ride by then. We got Conga the first time and Everybody Wants to Rule the World this time. I'm not a huge thrill ride fan in WDW but I really like GotG, it's a good addition even if it doesn't really adhere to the spirit of EPCOT. We got to LL Soarin, SSE, RRA, the Seas, and LwtL. The thing with Genie+ in Epcot is with the exceptions of Remy and Frozen the waits were never that long, but the advantage was you could book and ride and book again really quickly and skip 15-25 minute posted wait times (so probably 10-15 minutes in real life.) Finally got to go and shop at Creations shop and they have quite a bit of 40th merch. My favorite by far is the anniversary pins for the original rides. I only got one for Horizons but I nearly got one for World of Motion. We also made our way around the world and I majored in French in college but I haven't been able to speak it to people much at all since I graduated. I always chickened out before when I'd go through France but this time I did it and the cashier was very complimentary of my abilities and said I'd have no problem in Paris! It was, for me, the very best part of the day! I was bummed that the American Experience was closed down but I did get to see Voices of Liberty which is one of my absolutely necessary things to do every trip. Also spent a little bundle in Mitsukoshi which is IMO the best shop in the park. My mom accidentally bought churro popcorn on the 2nd day when she thought it was caramel corn, so she got some fresh caramel corn in Germany which was good, but I guess it doesn't last, it was soggy the next day. Also on the way out I got the Disney Chase Visa exclusive photo op with Mickey and Goofy. My mom didn't want to have to stand and wait so she waited outside.
Day 6 was Disney Springs day. I guess it's a good mall for the non-Disney stores for locals, but most of the stores are also at my local mall so I didn't bother going in any of those stores. My mom got an Orland Harley-Davidson shirt for her husband, but other than that, all Disney merch. Almost stopped at Gideon's but when it looked like it was mobile order only so we didn't bother. It was a nice trip but the Super Hero Store is so disappointing. Why don't they have any She-Hulk stuff yet?!?! So we walked and shopped there for probably 3-1/2 hours and then my mom wanted to go back to the room. I ended up taking the bus to the Contemporary. I had almost bought a Madam Mim pin at MK on day 2 but decided to wait. Then every shop I looked in, including the Emporium where I first saw it, didn't have it, but I checked at the Contemporary shop and they had it! So I got it. And my advice is, if you want a Madam Mim pin and you see it, get it while you can! Then I took the monorail over to MK and did some solo power shopping and riding. I did Barnstormer for the first time ever, TTAPM again, tried to do MAoWtP but it broke down while I was in line, Little Mermaid then monorailed to the TTC and over to Epcot where I did SSE again, hit the Creations shop again, thought momentarily about waiting for TT and JiIwF but decided against it and took the skyliner back to the hotel. I have always gotten parkhopper tickets but this was the first time I actually ever, ever park hopped.
My initial reservation for Friday was HS but I had bought 8 day tickets originally but realized we'd be leaving so early the last day we'd have no chance to actually go to the park so I cancelled one day of the tickets. I had park reservations for all 8 days and they told me I'd need to cancel one and I was going to cancel the last Saturday obviosuly but when I went in to do that they cancelled my Friday reservation and when I tried to rebook they only had Epcot open. So we were originally going to go back to Epcot (which IS my favorite park) but AK was open when I looked on Thursday so I asked my mom what she preferred and she wanted to go back to AK. I'd never spent more than a half day there on any trip but I changed it and i'm pretty glad I did. We ate at Satu'li canteen which was the other great plant-based meal I ate, I'm glad we made it there.We got to see Maharajah Jungle Trek, the Finding Nemo show (so good!), Festival of the Lion King and Rafiki's Planet Watch. I never bothered to see any of the shows so it was nice to get a chance to have a relaxed day and take in some of the stuff I never did before. But even so, we got to about 2pm and ran out of stuff to do and we had ADRs for Hoop De Doo (which I've never seen before) at 6:15 that night so we park hopped over to MK to burn some time and because the quickest transportation is the boat from MK to Fort Wilderness. So we walked back to do Enchanted Tiki Room and have a Dole Whip (another thing I'd never done before.) Then we walked slowly out as the Halloween party folks started coming in and made our way to the boats. We had an hour to wait for Hoop De Doo so we sat out front for a while. We had balcony tickets (all they had available when I tried) so I was worried, but honestly I think they're better than the back-half of the ground floor so I was happy with it. Again, the plant-based food was fine, but the strawberry shortcake was really good. The show was so much fun! It's expensive but if you have a chance and can find the time, it's a great thing to do the last night of a trip as we found it was the last night for a lot of people there. We took the boat back to MK and the bus back to our resort and that was it.
The last morning our flights were both leaving right around 12:30 so we chilled out, headed over to our bus pickup (we did Mears express, which is great to get to the resort as it was in a van and it was direct to the resort and just two of us in the van, but it's the same bus on the way back as DME used to be. We were the last resort stop on the way so it was a direct trip, but it was also a nearly full bus and tough to find a seat.) TSA lines were short, it was emotional saying goodbye to my mom and a great flight home.
So here are some negatives... Stuff broke down more than I ever remember it happening before. Journey into Imagination, EE, RotR, GotG, SD, Pooh were all ones I was either in line for or had LL booked for. There were a lot of others I saw while scrolling the tip board but don't remember which ones they were. Part of the perception might be because Genie lets you see the status of all the rides all the time whereas you had to be near or in line for a ride to notice it before, so maybe it's not really worse, but it seemed like it. The photo ops are disappointing, too. Almost all the fixed photo ops seem to be open now but I really miss walking around and seeing an unexpected photo op. Maybe they're still a victim of pandemic recovery? I dunno. And it's expensive. Prix Fixe menus especially are a bit shocking. I dropped over $120 for 2 at Garden Grill before tip. It's fun, you get pics with Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale, and it's all you can eat but how much can one person eat? And the food is fine but not remarkable great. You DO rotate though.
That being said, I had such a wonderful time. The post-summer, pre-holiday crowds felt totally manageable and the lines for everything but the newest rides and usual suspects were better than I expected. ILL is a little expensive, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for my mom so I paid for one of each and it was worth it IMO. Genie+ worked better than I expected and in a lot of ways I think I like it more than the old FP+ system, outside of that being free and this costing money. I feel like I got my money's worth and it was pretty intuitive for someone who's at least a semi-regular visitor to the parks. I was worried I might miss out on using it efficiently, at least for the first couple days, since I didn't really read or watch any primers on how it works, but I don't think I did. And having a chance to get a LL the morning of rather than not being able to book a FP 5 months before my trip because they booked out at midnight 6 months before the day of was, I think, an improvement. Plus so much easier to get more than 3 every day with the Genie+ app. I'm also sure when there are peak crowds it's probably harder to get as much out of it. Now, that was doing it as a ticket add on, I'm not sure how I'd feel about having to buy it after midnight day of, then having to book the first big ride at 7am. I don't know how fast it sold out, or if it did sell out. But as a ticket add on, where I just had to be up by 7am to book worked really well.
Are things worse than whatever golden age you remember (1983, 1998, 2010, whenever)? Probably a little, but I think we tend to forget the bad things from vacations past and see those times with a rosy glow. WDW was ALWAYS expensive! But ride upkeep seems to be suffering a little. Some of the new stuff feels, to ME, a little off-theme, sometimes a bit cheap. The stores all seem to carry mostly the same thing (outside of the particularly themed shops like in Pandora, Batuu, some AK stores). I wish there were more niche products that you could find in particular shops and then maybe World of Disney instead of every single store. A running joke I had with my mom was "oh, hey, they have bubble wands! You should get one, they might not have them somewhere else!" But maybe those were always a problem and I either didn't notice before or don't remember. Maybe they are real problems. In either case I think they need to be addressed. But after reading a lot of the really negative comments I was a bit reticent... I was worried I might be disappointed. But I had such a wonderful time. Weather and crowds contributed to help that. Seeing my mom and being able to help her enjoy it with my experience to smooth some of the difficulties she'd have had as a noob helped, too. I missed being able to move more quickly and thread through crowds as a solo traveler, but all in all bringing her was a net positive. But I think if you have a trip planned soon and you're worried from other comments that it may be terrible and you'll have a bad time, I'd say you don't need to worry. Weather might suck for you, sticker shock may surprise you, friends or family may have bad moods, but what Disney World has to offer is still largely what you remember. Genie and Genie+ are better for standby lines than FP+ was from what I could tell. Just save a bit more money than you might have before. And have fun!
So coming in on the tail of Hurricane Ian we weren't sure what to expect, but I didn't notice any lingering issues in WDW. We had mild temps (lows in upper 60s/highs in mid 80s) and NO RAIN the entire trip. I've never had a trip where I didn't have some rain. I made a particular point to my mom to get a poncho to bring with and always have it on her, but she never needed it! So the weather was excellent the entire time.
We stayed at Art of Animation and never had to deal with a stopped skyliner, it was available every time we needed it. There was a break down on the CBR-Epcot line one night, but we were going from HS to AoA so we weren't affected. The bus to MK is a bit long but not awful but a quick trip to AK, so it seemed like a great resort for transportation. The skyliner is just awesome, so fast.
So the day we arrived, October 1st, we went to Epcot. Didn't really notice anything particular for the 40th because we were only there from about 3:30-8:30, but we did get 40th anniversary maps and the Creations store was lined up like crazy so we didn't get in to see any of the day of 40th Epcot merch except what was leftover a couple days later, which seemed like a rack of t-shirts that were day-of 40th anniversary shirts but I didn't like them much so I didn't get one. We ate at San Angel Inn which was... fine. I'm vegetarian, so I do eat dairy and eggs occasionally but I went plant-based because it was easier, but the plant-based food options are generally just... ok. Usually 1 option, 2 if you're really lucky and usually kinda bland. But I never went hungry so that's good. I did an ILL for Guardians but the pre-show broke down while we were mid-teleportation, so we manually walked up to the space ship via a series of stairs and hallways and had no idea what the story was. I'd seen clips of the ride but never watched the full ride through so I didn't know what to expect. We got row 10, so 2nd row when we went backwards. Silky smooth ride and a lot of fun! We did Frozen, SSE, and GFT in Mexico. Good short first day!
Day 2 we went to Magic Kingdom. It was a Halloween party day so we left around 5pm, but the crowds were really good. I got Genie+ while it was still available as a ticket add-on, so I had it for every day of the trip. I'd heard so many horror stories I didn't think I'd get much use of it but I got at least 5-7 rides from it most days. I did ILL for 7D. I'd ridden it before but I did all the ILLs once because I wanted my mom to get on them all in a reasonable time. I still don't understand why it's so popular. It's fine. But we LL'd PP, HM, JC, PotC, and SM. Also did CoP and CBJ and finished the day eating at Jungle Navigation Co which had the one of the best plant-based meals I had at WDW. Really good spices and flavors! Also, saw Tron in person and the entry and railroad tracks looks a lot less close to finished than they do in the pictures I've seen posted. Not surprising at all to me now they announced next spring for the opening. Also, after eating dinner with a ADR the second time, we decided it was kind of a pain to plan around those reservations. I had ADRs for every day, but I ended up cancelling most of them after this day except for Garden Grill which is my favorite restaurant. I had ADRs for Sci-Fi, Tusker House and BoG that I cancelled and I don't regret it.
Day 3 we went to Hollywood studios and got on all the rides except which was always a little too long to merit a wait and was always a little too far in the future to justify a LL. We saw the Frozen show which was a lot of fun but didn't see the Beauty and the Beast show. So this was the first time I got to see Batuu and it's really well themed and RotR (another ILL) was really neat (everything seemed to be working except the cannons didn't move... those are supposed to move, right?), Smuggler's Run was disappointing. We did espectially bad because we had 2 pilots (my mom and me) and 2 shooter people but no engineers. My mom is old so not into games and she was the left-right pilot and I don't think she touched the controls once. It's neat to see a life-sized Millenium Falcon but the game is not fun, and the fact that if you aren't a party of 6 your performance can affect other peoples' experience makes it hard to enjoy very much. I had a blue milk which was fine. The stores didn't do much for me because even though I was 5 in 1977 and loved the original trilogy, the prequels and sequels and oversaturation in general has made me not really care much about Star Wars in general so I had no desire to drop the coin on a lightsaber or droid. Finally got to do SDD for the first time. It's fine for a slightly-more-than-mild kiddie coaster. Was able to LL SDD, MMRR, ST, TSM, and RRC. We knocked out basically everything in one day and it was all new to my mom and I think her favorite ride was a tie between RRC and GotG, which was a surprise to me! We also watched the Indiana Jones show which feels so out of place in the park now, one of the few vestiges of the "working studio" concept, but it's still a lot of fun to watch.
Day 4 we got to Animal Kingdom. We had tickets for MNSSHP that night, so we knew it would be a short day and I've never spent more than a half day at the park. We ILL'd FoP so for the first time in years I was able to relax on the way into the park and watch everyone else make a beeline there. We walked over to NRJ which is still a little disappointing... just so many screens and only 1 animatronic... a really impressive animatronic, and it's nice to have a newer boat ride, but still. Then we had an LL for Expedition Everest which is pretty herky-jerky compared to RRC and GotG. My mom hated it... the line was short so we could have done 2 but she didn't want to go back on. We also got LL for Dinosaur and KS. We did the Gorilla Falls trail, It;s Tough to Be a Bug and got pictures with Mickey and Minnie and headed out around 3pm to chill at the hotel before we went to the Halloween Party. We got to the Halloween party around 5:30 and got our candy bags and some candy then went to the stores to look around before the Halloween party stuff rolled out completely. I was accidentally where they rolled out the party merch, near the front of the line and decided I'd wait and see what they had. It took longer than I thought it would but by the time I decided I didn't really want to wait I was trapped in a crowd and couldn't really get out, so I waited it out. I ended up getting the Minnie ears and a spirit jersey, but boy, I hope you aren't a medium or large, all they had was XS, S, XL and larger. I know they're supposed to be big and baggy but I got an S and it fits but not in a particularly baggy way, just sorta like a regular sweatshirt. What I love about the halloween party is they actually have characters out and about for photo ops like they used to have all the time. I'm really bummed that the only character photo ops anymore are at the specific permanent buildings and the character options are so limited. The lines were long, though, so we only got pictures with Stitch dressed as Elvis. We did SM in pitch black. That little bit of light you usually get actually makes a huge difference. I had no idea which way we were going and was recovering from some bruised ribs and a strained wrist and forearm I got from the week before my trip so it was incredibly unpleasant for me. My mom told me she kept her eyes closed but it was so dark I don't think my experience was any different. Also did HM with the performers right outside the doors who were really entertaining and PotC with the couple of live pirates they had in there. Other than that, got candy, did TTAPM, BTMR, Space Ranger Spin (my mom didn't get it), and IaSW and we were so tired we left around 9:30.
Day 5 we got back to Epcot for a full day. Got a boarding group for GotG to try that again to see the pre-show. It initally said 6pm for group 109 but we eventually got called around 3:30 and we got to see the whole queue and experience the pre-show and got 1st row, so we experience from the back and front. I personally liked the 1st row better but that may be because I had a little familiarity with the ride by then. We got Conga the first time and Everybody Wants to Rule the World this time. I'm not a huge thrill ride fan in WDW but I really like GotG, it's a good addition even if it doesn't really adhere to the spirit of EPCOT. We got to LL Soarin, SSE, RRA, the Seas, and LwtL. The thing with Genie+ in Epcot is with the exceptions of Remy and Frozen the waits were never that long, but the advantage was you could book and ride and book again really quickly and skip 15-25 minute posted wait times (so probably 10-15 minutes in real life.) Finally got to go and shop at Creations shop and they have quite a bit of 40th merch. My favorite by far is the anniversary pins for the original rides. I only got one for Horizons but I nearly got one for World of Motion. We also made our way around the world and I majored in French in college but I haven't been able to speak it to people much at all since I graduated. I always chickened out before when I'd go through France but this time I did it and the cashier was very complimentary of my abilities and said I'd have no problem in Paris! It was, for me, the very best part of the day! I was bummed that the American Experience was closed down but I did get to see Voices of Liberty which is one of my absolutely necessary things to do every trip. Also spent a little bundle in Mitsukoshi which is IMO the best shop in the park. My mom accidentally bought churro popcorn on the 2nd day when she thought it was caramel corn, so she got some fresh caramel corn in Germany which was good, but I guess it doesn't last, it was soggy the next day. Also on the way out I got the Disney Chase Visa exclusive photo op with Mickey and Goofy. My mom didn't want to have to stand and wait so she waited outside.
Day 6 was Disney Springs day. I guess it's a good mall for the non-Disney stores for locals, but most of the stores are also at my local mall so I didn't bother going in any of those stores. My mom got an Orland Harley-Davidson shirt for her husband, but other than that, all Disney merch. Almost stopped at Gideon's but when it looked like it was mobile order only so we didn't bother. It was a nice trip but the Super Hero Store is so disappointing. Why don't they have any She-Hulk stuff yet?!?! So we walked and shopped there for probably 3-1/2 hours and then my mom wanted to go back to the room. I ended up taking the bus to the Contemporary. I had almost bought a Madam Mim pin at MK on day 2 but decided to wait. Then every shop I looked in, including the Emporium where I first saw it, didn't have it, but I checked at the Contemporary shop and they had it! So I got it. And my advice is, if you want a Madam Mim pin and you see it, get it while you can! Then I took the monorail over to MK and did some solo power shopping and riding. I did Barnstormer for the first time ever, TTAPM again, tried to do MAoWtP but it broke down while I was in line, Little Mermaid then monorailed to the TTC and over to Epcot where I did SSE again, hit the Creations shop again, thought momentarily about waiting for TT and JiIwF but decided against it and took the skyliner back to the hotel. I have always gotten parkhopper tickets but this was the first time I actually ever, ever park hopped.
My initial reservation for Friday was HS but I had bought 8 day tickets originally but realized we'd be leaving so early the last day we'd have no chance to actually go to the park so I cancelled one day of the tickets. I had park reservations for all 8 days and they told me I'd need to cancel one and I was going to cancel the last Saturday obviosuly but when I went in to do that they cancelled my Friday reservation and when I tried to rebook they only had Epcot open. So we were originally going to go back to Epcot (which IS my favorite park) but AK was open when I looked on Thursday so I asked my mom what she preferred and she wanted to go back to AK. I'd never spent more than a half day there on any trip but I changed it and i'm pretty glad I did. We ate at Satu'li canteen which was the other great plant-based meal I ate, I'm glad we made it there.We got to see Maharajah Jungle Trek, the Finding Nemo show (so good!), Festival of the Lion King and Rafiki's Planet Watch. I never bothered to see any of the shows so it was nice to get a chance to have a relaxed day and take in some of the stuff I never did before. But even so, we got to about 2pm and ran out of stuff to do and we had ADRs for Hoop De Doo (which I've never seen before) at 6:15 that night so we park hopped over to MK to burn some time and because the quickest transportation is the boat from MK to Fort Wilderness. So we walked back to do Enchanted Tiki Room and have a Dole Whip (another thing I'd never done before.) Then we walked slowly out as the Halloween party folks started coming in and made our way to the boats. We had an hour to wait for Hoop De Doo so we sat out front for a while. We had balcony tickets (all they had available when I tried) so I was worried, but honestly I think they're better than the back-half of the ground floor so I was happy with it. Again, the plant-based food was fine, but the strawberry shortcake was really good. The show was so much fun! It's expensive but if you have a chance and can find the time, it's a great thing to do the last night of a trip as we found it was the last night for a lot of people there. We took the boat back to MK and the bus back to our resort and that was it.
The last morning our flights were both leaving right around 12:30 so we chilled out, headed over to our bus pickup (we did Mears express, which is great to get to the resort as it was in a van and it was direct to the resort and just two of us in the van, but it's the same bus on the way back as DME used to be. We were the last resort stop on the way so it was a direct trip, but it was also a nearly full bus and tough to find a seat.) TSA lines were short, it was emotional saying goodbye to my mom and a great flight home.
So here are some negatives... Stuff broke down more than I ever remember it happening before. Journey into Imagination, EE, RotR, GotG, SD, Pooh were all ones I was either in line for or had LL booked for. There were a lot of others I saw while scrolling the tip board but don't remember which ones they were. Part of the perception might be because Genie lets you see the status of all the rides all the time whereas you had to be near or in line for a ride to notice it before, so maybe it's not really worse, but it seemed like it. The photo ops are disappointing, too. Almost all the fixed photo ops seem to be open now but I really miss walking around and seeing an unexpected photo op. Maybe they're still a victim of pandemic recovery? I dunno. And it's expensive. Prix Fixe menus especially are a bit shocking. I dropped over $120 for 2 at Garden Grill before tip. It's fun, you get pics with Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale, and it's all you can eat but how much can one person eat? And the food is fine but not remarkable great. You DO rotate though.
That being said, I had such a wonderful time. The post-summer, pre-holiday crowds felt totally manageable and the lines for everything but the newest rides and usual suspects were better than I expected. ILL is a little expensive, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for my mom so I paid for one of each and it was worth it IMO. Genie+ worked better than I expected and in a lot of ways I think I like it more than the old FP+ system, outside of that being free and this costing money. I feel like I got my money's worth and it was pretty intuitive for someone who's at least a semi-regular visitor to the parks. I was worried I might miss out on using it efficiently, at least for the first couple days, since I didn't really read or watch any primers on how it works, but I don't think I did. And having a chance to get a LL the morning of rather than not being able to book a FP 5 months before my trip because they booked out at midnight 6 months before the day of was, I think, an improvement. Plus so much easier to get more than 3 every day with the Genie+ app. I'm also sure when there are peak crowds it's probably harder to get as much out of it. Now, that was doing it as a ticket add on, I'm not sure how I'd feel about having to buy it after midnight day of, then having to book the first big ride at 7am. I don't know how fast it sold out, or if it did sell out. But as a ticket add on, where I just had to be up by 7am to book worked really well.
Are things worse than whatever golden age you remember (1983, 1998, 2010, whenever)? Probably a little, but I think we tend to forget the bad things from vacations past and see those times with a rosy glow. WDW was ALWAYS expensive! But ride upkeep seems to be suffering a little. Some of the new stuff feels, to ME, a little off-theme, sometimes a bit cheap. The stores all seem to carry mostly the same thing (outside of the particularly themed shops like in Pandora, Batuu, some AK stores). I wish there were more niche products that you could find in particular shops and then maybe World of Disney instead of every single store. A running joke I had with my mom was "oh, hey, they have bubble wands! You should get one, they might not have them somewhere else!" But maybe those were always a problem and I either didn't notice before or don't remember. Maybe they are real problems. In either case I think they need to be addressed. But after reading a lot of the really negative comments I was a bit reticent... I was worried I might be disappointed. But I had such a wonderful time. Weather and crowds contributed to help that. Seeing my mom and being able to help her enjoy it with my experience to smooth some of the difficulties she'd have had as a noob helped, too. I missed being able to move more quickly and thread through crowds as a solo traveler, but all in all bringing her was a net positive. But I think if you have a trip planned soon and you're worried from other comments that it may be terrible and you'll have a bad time, I'd say you don't need to worry. Weather might suck for you, sticker shock may surprise you, friends or family may have bad moods, but what Disney World has to offer is still largely what you remember. Genie and Genie+ are better for standby lines than FP+ was from what I could tell. Just save a bit more money than you might have before. And have fun!
