Pre-Trip The worlds on fire, let’s go to Disney World trip

Dory71 · Apr 29, 2021

Darstarr said:
Shhhhh....
Take a Saratoga Springs bus. Get off at the Congress Park stop. Walk the little pathway all the way to your left and cross the bridge into DS.

You beat me to it. I was going to suggest that too. Love walking from Congress Park to the Springs.

Zipadeelady · Apr 29, 2021

jharvey said:
Day 2: Animal Kingdom (Sunday)
Park Hours: 8am-7pm

A few points. First, we’ve always done breakfast at the resort. I love, absolutely love, the potatoes at Disney resorts. But for this trip, sans fastpass, we are doing pop tarts, etc in the room, then getting to it on 8am open days.
- I/ we love animal Kingdom. That said, in all of our previous trips, when sacrifices needed to be made, it was always Animal that took the cut.

So, we will do the same as day 1, and get to the bus stop as close to 6:30am as possible.

Top priority is identical to several thousand of my closest friends- Flight of passage. We’ve obsessed over Pandora since 2011 (I think) when they first mentioned the deal. Our trips never lined up to allow us to partake. I am a Star Wars obsessive. But Pandora is my top must do for the trip.
After FOP and NRJ, we will be Kilimanjaro bound.
-After that, we separate. I will rely on my 9 year old to act as my beard to get me out of riding Everest. Ella and I will snack while the other 4 take their lives into their hands. Jokes on them, I’m carrying policies on 3 of them.
- Because I trend towards masochism, I aim to do Kali as our last attraction prior to lunch. We love it, and I don’t care, let’s roll.
- Lunch at Satu’li canteen. Not lying, if FOP is my top must do new thing for this trip, Satu’li is top 5ish.
- this is where I’m thinking of falling back into my old touring habits. I have planned a 2 hour midday break. We are not swimming folk. In the past, midday break meant nap time. My 13 year old is a judgmental little cuss, and is trying to guilt me into skipping this.
- when we get back, I plan to hit one of my top 20 favorite Disney attractions- it’s tough to be a bug. Don’t judge, I love it.
- then it’s a lot of wandering around. Dinosaur will be the only thing I’m thinking would be a priority after our return.
- my last objective, for the night, is to wander Pandora at night. I’d love to ride FOP once more at the end of the night if possible.

- My family loves Disney Springs, so we are aiming to eat there. At park close I’m thinking we catch a bus that is convenient to Disney Springs. Ideally, in a non-coco world, that would mean a bus trip to POR then catching a boat to Disney Springs. So, that’s my big ask for this day-

Ive already gotten some good suggestions for food options in DS. If I refuse to drive it, or ride share, what would be your quickest way to get from AK to Disney Springs at park close?

I feel the need to add my input. This is very important. I love Satu'li, I think it is one of the best QS but.....everyone seems to go with the noodles or rice as a base. Don't, go with the potato hash. Even if you don't like sweet potatoes (which i don't), you can't taste them. I always get the roast beef with hash and creamy herb sauce. Sooo good. Aw man, now I'm hungry.

spock8113 · Apr 29, 2021

IMHO: Wilderness Lodge, Ohana, Pizzafari, SciFi Cafe, PrimeTime Cafe (eat your veggies) and Columbia Harbor House (Sit upstairs).
Don't ever ask for ketchup at the Whispering Pines Cafe.
Princess Breakfast at the Castle and Be Our Guest "Dining Experience" both over-rated and the former can be sensory overload for little kids. Again, IMHO and experience.
Did the food plan and tracked the prices, no real difference and the food plan forces you to eat or throw out dessert.
Too much food when you're hot and full of drinks trying to stay hydrated.
See my Disney Experience credentials below

jharvey · Apr 29, 2021

Darstarr said:
Shhhhh....
Take a Saratoga Springs bus. Get off at the Congress Park stop. Walk the little pathway all the way to your left and cross the bridge into DS.

Boom!!! Thanks

Darstarr · Apr 29, 2021

jharvey said:
Boom!!! Thanks

jharvey · Apr 29, 2021

Zipitidoda said:
I feel the need to add my input. This is very important. I love Satu'li, I think it is one of the best QS but.....everyone seems to go with the noodles or rice as a base. Don't, go with the potato hash. Even if you don't like sweet potatoes (which i don't), you can't taste them. I always get the roast beef with hash and creamy herb sauce. Sooo good. Aw man, now I'm hungry.

You see, I was leaning heavily towards being basic and getting the burger pods/buns. You may have sold me

Songbird76 · Apr 30, 2021

Darstarr said:
Shhhhh....
Take a Saratoga Springs bus. Get off at the Congress Park stop. Walk the little pathway all the way to your left and cross the bridge into DS.

That's what we did in 2019, but I wasn't sure SS was open, so I didn't want to suggest that in case it was closed and there WAS no bus there. If it's open, it's a BEAUTIFUL walk, and not a long one.

Zipadeelady · Apr 30, 2021

jharvey said:
You see, I was leaning heavily towards being basic and getting the burger pods/buns. You may have sold me

Rookie move. Don't go with the pods.

Now i hope the bowls are still as good as the ones I had in 2018 & 2019. I haven't had a chance to come back yet. I didn't want to wear masks so didn't make it last October.

Darstarr · Apr 30, 2021

Potato Hash all the way!!!

KellBelle · Apr 30, 2021

Following along!!!

Zipadeelady · Apr 30, 2021

Darstarr said:
Potato Hash all the way!!!

jharvey · May 2, 2021

Day 3: Hollywood Studios (Monday- MemorialDay)
Park hours: 9am-8pm

So, I haven’t been here in a while. Just as long as Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Great Movie Ride are in my life, all is good... Well damn...

This park has gone through an amazing change since our last visit to it in 2017. This will be our first exposure to Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge as well as to the desecration of the great movie ride. This is the only park, aside from Magic Kingdom, in which we have two days planned.
Notes: Tower of Terror is by far the scariest ride I’ve ever ridden. I’ve done it twice, and was shocked I talked myself into the second. I do not think I’ve got it in me to ride this again.

- Plan is to get to the park as close to an hour and a half before park open as possible. The skyliner is new to us, so we will try this, for our first exposure on that day.

- DW is on boarding pass duty in the morning.

Toy Story Land is priority for the morning. Of all the rides/attractions left from on our last trip, Toy Story Midway Mania is by far our favorite. After hitting slinky dog early, the idea is to hit TSMM at least once.

At that point, we split up. I’ll take the 9 year old as my beard as the other 4 do Tower. Maybe Ella and I can try Mickey/Minnie while they do that.

Once we join back up, we will go to Galaxy’s edge together. Empire strikes back came out the year I was born. Jedi came out when I was 3. Star Wars was my first pop culture love and has been my most consistent pop culture obsession over the years. Odds are, I will cry, and I’m on with it. My plan is to just explore the land, while resisting the temptation to empty out my bank account in this land.

After the exploration/riding of rides, we are open for lunch. We are in the minority, we really like ABC commissary. That is our safety school though. We are leaning towards eating in Galaxy’s edge. I’d love to hear recommendations. Note: we’d like to keep it to CS. And we are doing Sci-fi for lunch on our second day at Hollywood.

- If we take a break this day, it will be after lunch. Spitballing, the break would be from 1pm-3pm.

Once back, we will be at the mercy of wait times. We like Muppetvision, so we will knock that out. Our one advantage is we are not eating dinner in the park that night, so we can probably make up for that early disadvantage by being able to knock out some attractions while people are sitting down for dinner. Low yield goal is to hit Mickie/Minnie if we can catch the wait time at 45 minutes or less. Other than that, just play around Toy Story Land until...

We have a dinner ressie at Wine Bar George at 8:30pm. What is the quickest way to get to Disney springs from Hollywood? The caveat is, we’d like to not leave Hollywood before 7:30pm. I’m guessing getting over to the Dolphin or Swan and then bus from there.

And then Wine Bar George- we’ve never eaten there, but I’ve heard good things. Any recommendations? I’m not a drinker, but when in Rome. So, recommendations for that too.

thanks

wishicouldgomoreoften · May 2, 2021

jharvey said:
You see, my family is setting me up for failure. No one mentioned seat size. I’m 6’6 and 250 pounds. Thanks for the get out of jail free card.

If you can get into Expedition Everest, you can get into 7DMT.

Songbird76 · May 3, 2021

jharvey said:
Day 3: Hollywood Studios (Monday- MemorialDay)
Park hours: 9am-8pm

So, I haven’t been here in a while. Just as long as Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Great Movie Ride are in my life, all is good... Well damn...

This park has gone through an amazing change since our last visit to it in 2017. This will be our first exposure to Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge as well as to the desecration of the great movie ride. This is the only park, aside from Magic Kingdom, in which we have two days planned.
Notes: Tower of Terror is by far the scariest ride I’ve ever ridden. I’ve done it twice, and was shocked I talked myself into the second. I do not think I’ve got it in me to ride this again.

- Plan is to get to the park as close to an hour and a half before park open as possible. The skyliner is new to us, so we will try this, for our first exposure on that day.

- DW is on boarding pass duty in the morning.

Toy Story Land is priority for the morning. Of all the rides/attractions left from on our last trip, Toy Story Midway Mania is by far our favorite. After hitting slinky dog early, the idea is to hit TSMM at least once.

At that point, we split up. I’ll take the 9 year old as my beard as the other 4 do Tower. Maybe Ella and I can try Mickey/Minnie while they do that.

Once we join back up, we will go to Galaxy’s edge together. Empire strikes back came out the year I was born. Jedi came out when I was 3. Star Wars was my first pop culture love and has been my most consistent pop culture obsession over the years. Odds are, I will cry, and I’m on with it. My plan is to just explore the land, while resisting the temptation to empty out my bank account in this land.

After the exploration/riding of rides, we are open for lunch. We are in the minority, we really like ABC commissary. That is our safety school though. We are leaning towards eating in Galaxy’s edge. I’d love to hear recommendations. Note: we’d like to keep it to CS. And we are doing Sci-fi for lunch on our second day at Hollywood.

- If we take a break this day, it will be after lunch. Spitballing, the break would be from 1pm-3pm.

Once back, we will be at the mercy of wait times. We like Muppetvision, so we will knock that out. Our one advantage is we are not eating dinner in the park that night, so we can probably make up for that early disadvantage by being able to knock out some attractions while people are sitting down for dinner. Low yield goal is to hit Mickie/Minnie if we can catch the wait time at 45 minutes or less. Other than that, just play around Toy Story Land until...

We have a dinner ressie at Wine Bar George at 8:30pm. What is the quickest way to get to Disney springs from Hollywood? The caveat is, we’d like to not leave Hollywood before 7:30pm. I’m guessing getting over to the Dolphin or Swan and then bus from there.

And then Wine Bar George- we’ve never eaten there, but I’ve heard good things. Any recommendations? I’m not a drinker, but when in Rome. So, recommendations for that too.

thanks

I have read in other TRs that ABC Commisary is really good at the moment. They updated their menu and it has been consistently good, from what I've heard. Of course I haven't been there in years, so I can't speak to whether or not that's true, but I'm hearing people say they were shocked it was so good. My lunch from Woody's lunchbox was good a couple of years ago and I wanted to go back and try some of the other things, but never did. But if it's open, it's a decent choice. GE wasn't open yet on our last trip, but I was under the impression that food options there were less than impressive and that they were pretty limited.

jharvey · May 3, 2021

wishicouldgomoreoften said:
If you can get into Expedition Everest, you can get into 7DMT.

I have never, nor will I ever, ride Expedition Everest. Number one least likely ride for me, in all of WDW is Rock n rollercoaster. Number two is Everest. Nopers

jharvey · May 3, 2021

First change up to the trip plan- and it’s very minor.
Day 0: Travel Day

DW takes epilepsy meds. And there have been many a day where we receive items thru Amazon, eBay, or a favorite comic shop, that she only has a vague memory of even ordering. Well, we finally benefited ladies and gents. If there is ever a law firm ad that pops up asking, “If you or a loved one ever, in a drug induced stupor ever got 4:30pm ressies for an early dinner at Boathouse, call the law offices of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe”, I’ll be ready.

We love Boathouse- yay!!! That make 4 TS for this trip. And unless I can get via Napoli on our Epcot day, we are done.

This will be our 7th trip and we’ve never hit the boardwalk. Day 0, is it worth it after the early dinner at Boathouse?

Dory71 · May 3, 2021

jharvey said:
First change up to the trip plan- and it’s very minor.
Day 0: Travel Day

DW takes epilepsy meds. And there have been many a day where we receive items thru Amazon, eBay, or a favorite comic shop, that she only has a vague memory of even ordering. Well, we finally benefited ladies and gents. If there is ever a law firm ad that pops up asking, “If you or a loved one ever, in a drug induced stupor ever got 4:30pm ressies for an early dinner at Boathouse, call the law offices of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe”, I’ll be ready.

We love Boathouse- yay!!! That make 4 TS for this trip. And unless I can get via Napoli on our Epcot day, we are done.

This will be our 7th trip and we’ve never hit the boardwalk. Day 0, is it worth it after the early dinner at Boathouse?

Skip the Boardwalk not much going on there since Covid.

jharvey · May 4, 2021

Dory71 said:
Skip the Boardwalk not much going on there since Covid.

Point taken. There are several things we’ve never done because there was always next trip. Boardwalk is on that list along with Fantasmic, festival of the lion king, and finding Nemo the musical. Alas, these are first world problems.

jharvey · May 5, 2021

Day 4: Magic Kingdom
Park Hours: 8am-9pm

we will snack for breakfast and aim to be at the bus stop no later than 6:45am to be in position for rope drop.

- we are going to aim to do our old school touring plan from pre-Covid times.

Top priority will be Peter Pan’s Flight, Many Adventures of Pooh. Splash mountain will be the star of this day, like any other magic kingdom day for us. Our goal then is to spend a fair amount of the morning in Tomorrowland. This is probably a bottom two land for us in MK (outside of night time). TTA is back, yay! We have no ressies for TS for this day. For lunch and dinner we are thinking Cosmic Rays and sleepy hollow We’ve never done cosmic rays. May sound odd, considering we’ve been doing Disney trips since 2010. But our MK days usually involve CHH, Liberty Tree Tavern, and Crystal Palace. Also, I’ve always threatened to do the waffle sammich, since they first announced them, but have never pulled the trigger. I think it’s luck is up.

* planning on at least considering a midday break. If we do, the idea is to do one from 2pm-4pm.

We will shut the park down. This is our 2nd of 3 MK days this trip, but our last chance to close it down as the last day will have us leaving out by 4pm.

jharvey · May 5, 2021

Day 5: EPCOT
Park hours: 11am-9pm

with the late opening, we should be able to chill a little more than usual. Wake up at a more reasonable time and shoot to have breakfast at the resort and aim to be at EPCOT as early as practical. I came across a podcast that gave the tip to take the skyliner to Hollywood. By that time (9:30ish), the skyliner to Hollywood should be less busy. Then, once at Hollywood, catch a boat to EPCOT. I’ll have to find the podcast and listen to it, but they recommend getting off at a hotel stop, prior to Epcot and just walk it as that would save some transit time. I’ve stayed at Pop, POR, and CBR. I’ve been blissfully ignorant of 99% of what I just mentioned. Unless someone takes a fair sized BM on that, I’m willing to try it.

EPCOT has always been in contention for my favorite park. But since my last trip EPCOT became Downtown Disney circa 2014 and Hollywood circa 2018- a major construction zone play acting as a functioning business.

No ressies- we will be eating through the Flower and Garden carts. If we can luck into a Via Napoli ressie between now and close of park that day, I will be a happy man. We’ve eaten at via Napoli each Epcot day since 2012. Otherwise, we will just graze all night. I’m down either way.

Ride wise, I love Soarin sooooo much. My only other must do is Spaceship Earth. DD9 loved the three caballeros, so we will make that a bigger priority than Disney had apparently made it. Otherwise, the name of the game is to chill and enjoy World Showcase. And as God as my witness, I will burn that place to the ground if I don’t get same day walk up to Via Napoli. Serenity now!