First time posting in Trip Reports - I enjoy reading everyone's write-ups!
I'm not going to be as detailed as most people but I thought I would throw out a few observations and thoughts to help anyone else going soon.
Just returned today. Spent last week (March 25th - April 2nd, 2017). First trip in 7 years!!!!
Hotel: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village
- Stayed in a two bedroom villa which was great.
- Booked through David's Vacation Club Rentals to use someone else's Vacation Club points. GREAT EXPERIENCE!! I won't go into the details of it all, but if you haven't done this, I highly recommend it. If you have questions on how it works, let me know. I am glad to tell you all I know (it can seem a little daunting at first).
- Used TouringPlans.com in planning - they have pictures from the different rooms to help you pick where you want to stay within each hotel. And they will fax Disney your room request a few days before hand. It worked and I got the room I requested. Great site!!
- WORST THING ABOUT IT - it is really far from MK, EP, HS - but I felt the Disney transportation was fantastic the whole time, even when we were stuck waiting a few buses after fireworks.
Magic Bands: Loved them. Put a credit card on there and didn't even need to carry a wallet! Photos automatically linked to My Disney Experience (it was a little "Big Brother" at first, but also pretty cool). Got cool "skins" for them on a website called Magic Your Band which worked nicely and customized them for a fraction of the cost of buying fancy ones in the parks.
Food:
- LOVED: Chicken and Waffle sandwich (Sleepy Hallow), Macaroon Ice Cream Sandwich (Ice Cream shop in France), Butter Chicken (Sanaa at AKL, Kidani), and LeFou's Brew (Gaston's Pub).
- OVERRATED: Be Our Guest - Got reservations far in advance for lunch - it's fine, food is decent, atmosphere is fun, but do not wait hours to get in. Totally not worth it.
NEW EXPERIENCES: New Fantasyland is great - I wouldn't wait 1.5 hours for the Mine Train, but it was much more fun than I was led to believe. Rivers Of Light is (in my humble opinion) TERRIBLE! We went in over and hour early to be able to see it, and it was not good. Music was not inspiring. The backdrop water spray didn't fill in enough to even make out what was being projected on it. The water fountain flowers were cool, but mostly I just didn't think it was up to Disney standards. It will be busy for quite a while I assume. Once the hype dies down, if you can wander in at showtime to see it, it's worth judging for yourself, but don't waste your whole evening waiting for it.
Fast Pass +: This was my first time using it. It's frustrating, but it works OK. In Epcot and HS, where you are limited on top tier rides, it's tougher. But if you're on this site, I assume you know how to manage in the parks and will do fine. I didn't realize you could cancel ones you didn't need once you had started your day. This helped a lot once I figured it out. (For example, I would maybe have Soarin', Spaceship Earth and Journey into Imagination one morning, with plans to park hop to MK in the afternoon. We would enter Epcot, then cancel Imagination since we didn't really need it, and pick up something for MK that afternoon. It worked well instead of wasting a FP on a ride we didn't want to see or didn't need a FP).
I'm not going to be as detailed as most people but I thought I would throw out a few observations and thoughts to help anyone else going soon.
Just returned today. Spent last week (March 25th - April 2nd, 2017). First trip in 7 years!!!!
Hotel: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village
- Stayed in a two bedroom villa which was great.
- Booked through David's Vacation Club Rentals to use someone else's Vacation Club points. GREAT EXPERIENCE!! I won't go into the details of it all, but if you haven't done this, I highly recommend it. If you have questions on how it works, let me know. I am glad to tell you all I know (it can seem a little daunting at first).
- Used TouringPlans.com in planning - they have pictures from the different rooms to help you pick where you want to stay within each hotel. And they will fax Disney your room request a few days before hand. It worked and I got the room I requested. Great site!!
- WORST THING ABOUT IT - it is really far from MK, EP, HS - but I felt the Disney transportation was fantastic the whole time, even when we were stuck waiting a few buses after fireworks.
Magic Bands: Loved them. Put a credit card on there and didn't even need to carry a wallet! Photos automatically linked to My Disney Experience (it was a little "Big Brother" at first, but also pretty cool). Got cool "skins" for them on a website called Magic Your Band which worked nicely and customized them for a fraction of the cost of buying fancy ones in the parks.
Food:
- LOVED: Chicken and Waffle sandwich (Sleepy Hallow), Macaroon Ice Cream Sandwich (Ice Cream shop in France), Butter Chicken (Sanaa at AKL, Kidani), and LeFou's Brew (Gaston's Pub).
- OVERRATED: Be Our Guest - Got reservations far in advance for lunch - it's fine, food is decent, atmosphere is fun, but do not wait hours to get in. Totally not worth it.
NEW EXPERIENCES: New Fantasyland is great - I wouldn't wait 1.5 hours for the Mine Train, but it was much more fun than I was led to believe. Rivers Of Light is (in my humble opinion) TERRIBLE! We went in over and hour early to be able to see it, and it was not good. Music was not inspiring. The backdrop water spray didn't fill in enough to even make out what was being projected on it. The water fountain flowers were cool, but mostly I just didn't think it was up to Disney standards. It will be busy for quite a while I assume. Once the hype dies down, if you can wander in at showtime to see it, it's worth judging for yourself, but don't waste your whole evening waiting for it.
Fast Pass +: This was my first time using it. It's frustrating, but it works OK. In Epcot and HS, where you are limited on top tier rides, it's tougher. But if you're on this site, I assume you know how to manage in the parks and will do fine. I didn't realize you could cancel ones you didn't need once you had started your day. This helped a lot once I figured it out. (For example, I would maybe have Soarin', Spaceship Earth and Journey into Imagination one morning, with plans to park hop to MK in the afternoon. We would enter Epcot, then cancel Imagination since we didn't really need it, and pick up something for MK that afternoon. It worked well instead of wasting a FP on a ride we didn't want to see or didn't need a FP).
