George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
It's completely different than WOC, which is more boring than Algebra 2.
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WDW Questions and Hotel Recommendations?
- Thread starter mickEblu
- Start date
Travel Junkie
Well-Known Member
Unless it is really a busy day you should be able to find a spot pretty close to showtime. The lagoon is massive so it has lots of space to find a spot. I really like illuminations but does show it's age. It has a fire barge (pretty much what is sounds like) if that floats your boat.
Magic Kingdom's fireworks show is really good.
Fantasmic! at DHS is a joke compared to DL.
I enjoyed River's of Light at AK, but most find it boring. It is slow and lacks the spectacular in nighttime spectacular.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
There's nothing like Illumination at DL or really any of the other resorts. It's a message of solidarity that is completely IP-less and awesome.
Other random thoughts:
Crowds: Unlike the California parks, many, many people will arrive at the parks at opening and the parks fill much faster (partially because the parks generally open a bit later than DLR). It's much more important to arrive early.
Foodwise: If you're doing Table Service, in my experience if it's not BOG or a character meal it's pretty easy to book most restaurants. Many EPCOT places have already been mentioned, but for snacking, definitely try the School Bread in Norway and hit up the massive, awesome bakery in France. Most of Magic Kingdom's food is incredibly bland and generic compared to Disneyland. The new restaurant in Pandora is fantastic. Tiffin's is the restaurant I recommend if you want a nice, pricey splurge in a park.
Many of the restaurants now have online ordering, and it's super convenient. You place your order, and then when you get to the restaurant, they'll make it for you with minimal waiting.
Parking: Parking is super easy and efficient at WDW. I don't mind the TTC and I think taking the ferry to the MK is an underrated experience,
Park-Hopping: Plan on a minimum of 30 minutes from park to park.
Size: The parks (minus DHS) are massive compared to the California parks, so I highly recommend planning some downtime especially for the two year old. That said, there are fewer attractions per park, and the lines can be quite long compared to DLR.
Animal Kingdom is one of the best themed parks in the United States, so if possible, take it at a slower pace, enjoy the details, go down the animal trails. It's a park to be savored, not blitzed through.
Rivers of Light: It's ok, but if you want to see ROL and eat at Tiffin's, get the dining package. It's actually pretty easy to come out ahead moneywise!
Other random thoughts:
Crowds: Unlike the California parks, many, many people will arrive at the parks at opening and the parks fill much faster (partially because the parks generally open a bit later than DLR). It's much more important to arrive early.
Foodwise: If you're doing Table Service, in my experience if it's not BOG or a character meal it's pretty easy to book most restaurants. Many EPCOT places have already been mentioned, but for snacking, definitely try the School Bread in Norway and hit up the massive, awesome bakery in France. Most of Magic Kingdom's food is incredibly bland and generic compared to Disneyland. The new restaurant in Pandora is fantastic. Tiffin's is the restaurant I recommend if you want a nice, pricey splurge in a park.
Many of the restaurants now have online ordering, and it's super convenient. You place your order, and then when you get to the restaurant, they'll make it for you with minimal waiting.
Parking: Parking is super easy and efficient at WDW. I don't mind the TTC and I think taking the ferry to the MK is an underrated experience,
Park-Hopping: Plan on a minimum of 30 minutes from park to park.
Size: The parks (minus DHS) are massive compared to the California parks, so I highly recommend planning some downtime especially for the two year old. That said, there are fewer attractions per park, and the lines can be quite long compared to DLR.
Animal Kingdom is one of the best themed parks in the United States, so if possible, take it at a slower pace, enjoy the details, go down the animal trails. It's a park to be savored, not blitzed through.
Rivers of Light: It's ok, but if you want to see ROL and eat at Tiffin's, get the dining package. It's actually pretty easy to come out ahead moneywise!
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't hype Illuminations up too much. As someone who grew up with it, I love the show... But it's showing its age and seems pretty lo-fi compared to newer shows like Fantasmic, World of Color, etc. The message and music are still great, as is the setting within World Showcase. But that globe is kinda feelin like stonehenge from Spinal Tap these days if you know what I mean.
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
WOC is newer and crappier.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't hype Illuminations up too much. As someone who grew up with it, I love the show... But it's showing its age and seems pretty lo-fi compared to newer shows like Fantasmic, World of Color, etc. The message and music are still great, as is the setting within World Showcase. But that globe is kinda feelin like stonehenge from Spinal Tap these days if you know what I mean.
Well...awesome mainly because I doubt Disney would greenlight the show today. It actually fits Epcot! I admit I had completely blocked out the globe.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Making the proper approach to the Magic Kingdom from across the Seven Seas Lagoon should be done at least once, even if it means taking a bus to EPCOT Center and boarding the monorail.
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
If you get to MK early, you can park right in front. The only downside is transportation to and from TMK and the parking lot. It gets horribly backed up at night and unlike DL, you can't opt to just walk back, unless you're Jesus Christ.
GiveMeTheMusic
Well-Known Member
That is indeed a good way to get around the parking situation, hopping via monorail.
Thanks for this! I appreciate the thoughtful details and tips. I will definitely keep them in mind. Cheers!
GiveMeTheMusic
Well-Known Member
The bakery in France will make you a fresh hot brioche ice cream sandwich. Phenomenal. The Norway bakery as the popular school bread item which many love (I'm not into coconut myself), but I prefer the rice cream, which is divine.
MK has the Citrus Swirl at Sunshine Tree Terrace in Adventureland. It's a swirl of vanilla soft serve with frozen orange juice concentrate. You either love it or hate it, and I love it. Brief scare last week when it was temporarily removed from the menu, but it's back. Mobile order from the official app to save time.
Satuli Canteen in Pandora is excellent counter service, offers mobile ordering as well. Counter service is very disappointing at MK, the world's most popular theme park (supposedly), but Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square (right next to the castle) serves delicious Bruxie knock-off sweet and spicy fried chicken waffle sandwiches, great in a pinch.
The only decent counter service in Future World (Epcot) is Sunshine Seasons in the Land, and it's very good.
Try to avoid eating at DHS if at all possible.
Has anyone run down which rides are exact clones for you yet so you can be comfortable skipping some things for time?
MK
Tiki Room
Pirates (just plain sucks compared to ours, queue notwithstanding - worth riding for the superiority complex it will give you if you have time)
Mermaid
Buzz Lightyear (terrible)
Tomorrowland Speedway (poor person's Autopia)
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor (not a clone, just really bad)
EP
Soarin' (same film, just with an Epcot finale)
DHS
Toy Story Mania
Star Tours
Fantasmic (utter garbage, only watch if you have ample time and need a laugh)
DAK
It's Tough To Be A Bug! (I guess this is a WDW exclusive now!)
Primeval Whirl and TriceraTop Spin (these aren't clones, just garbage fire rides you should skip)
If your visit falls before May 12, don't miss the Meet Mickey experience at MK in Town Square. He's talking Mickey up until the 12th, when budget cuts silence him.
Space Mountain is rickety, rough and has no soundtrack. Splash Mountain is better than DL's. Haunted Mansion is better than DL's. Big Thunder is arguably better than DL's, but not hugely different. Tom Sawyer Island is still there, which is nice. Country Bear Jamboree is great, as is the PeopleMover. Carousel of Progress is cool to see for history, but not in really great shape. Jungle Cruise is meh, a little different, not particularly better or worse. They still have the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, untouched. There is zero to see on the train, so don't expect Primeval World or Grand Canyon Dioramas like DL. Happily Ever After fireworks are fantastic, make sure you can see the castle for projections.
At DHS, there are a lot of shows. Most of them aren't great. Beauty and the Beast Live is awful. Voyage of the Little Mermaid is short, fun, kitschy. Indiana Jones stunt show is worth seeing if you're a big Indy fan.
Everything at DAK is worth doing except for the things I listed above and Kali River Rapids, which is the world's worst rapids ride. Kilimanjaro Safaris is great, Everest is fun, Dinosaur is fun, Festival of the Lion King is fabulous. The Finding Nemo musical is probably the best movie-to-stage adaptations the parks have ever done, all original music from the husband-wife team who wrote the songs for Frozen and Coco. Rivers of Light is not worth seeing.
Epcot is huge. All of World Showcase is worth doing - every ride, and if you like CircleVision, those movies too. The American Adventure is a huge old school Disney attraction that they would never do today. Try to time your visit to that show to coincide with the Voices of Liberty performing in the rotunda beforehand, they're incredible. IllumiNations has some cool, huge and loud pyro at the beginning and end, but the middle drags on with nothing but that damn globe on the water. It's nothing like WOC, it's meant to be a fireworks show on the lagoon. It's worth seeing.
Hope all that helps! You dizzy yet?
MK has the Citrus Swirl at Sunshine Tree Terrace in Adventureland. It's a swirl of vanilla soft serve with frozen orange juice concentrate. You either love it or hate it, and I love it. Brief scare last week when it was temporarily removed from the menu, but it's back. Mobile order from the official app to save time.
Satuli Canteen in Pandora is excellent counter service, offers mobile ordering as well. Counter service is very disappointing at MK, the world's most popular theme park (supposedly), but Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square (right next to the castle) serves delicious Bruxie knock-off sweet and spicy fried chicken waffle sandwiches, great in a pinch.
The only decent counter service in Future World (Epcot) is Sunshine Seasons in the Land, and it's very good.
Try to avoid eating at DHS if at all possible.
Has anyone run down which rides are exact clones for you yet so you can be comfortable skipping some things for time?
MK
Tiki Room
Pirates (just plain sucks compared to ours, queue notwithstanding - worth riding for the superiority complex it will give you if you have time)
Mermaid
Buzz Lightyear (terrible)
Tomorrowland Speedway (poor person's Autopia)
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor (not a clone, just really bad)
EP
Soarin' (same film, just with an Epcot finale)
DHS
Toy Story Mania
Star Tours
Fantasmic (utter garbage, only watch if you have ample time and need a laugh)
DAK
It's Tough To Be A Bug! (I guess this is a WDW exclusive now!)
Primeval Whirl and TriceraTop Spin (these aren't clones, just garbage fire rides you should skip)
If your visit falls before May 12, don't miss the Meet Mickey experience at MK in Town Square. He's talking Mickey up until the 12th, when budget cuts silence him.
Space Mountain is rickety, rough and has no soundtrack. Splash Mountain is better than DL's. Haunted Mansion is better than DL's. Big Thunder is arguably better than DL's, but not hugely different. Tom Sawyer Island is still there, which is nice. Country Bear Jamboree is great, as is the PeopleMover. Carousel of Progress is cool to see for history, but not in really great shape. Jungle Cruise is meh, a little different, not particularly better or worse. They still have the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, untouched. There is zero to see on the train, so don't expect Primeval World or Grand Canyon Dioramas like DL. Happily Ever After fireworks are fantastic, make sure you can see the castle for projections.
At DHS, there are a lot of shows. Most of them aren't great. Beauty and the Beast Live is awful. Voyage of the Little Mermaid is short, fun, kitschy. Indiana Jones stunt show is worth seeing if you're a big Indy fan.
Everything at DAK is worth doing except for the things I listed above and Kali River Rapids, which is the world's worst rapids ride. Kilimanjaro Safaris is great, Everest is fun, Dinosaur is fun, Festival of the Lion King is fabulous. The Finding Nemo musical is probably the best movie-to-stage adaptations the parks have ever done, all original music from the husband-wife team who wrote the songs for Frozen and Coco. Rivers of Light is not worth seeing.
Epcot is huge. All of World Showcase is worth doing - every ride, and if you like CircleVision, those movies too. The American Adventure is a huge old school Disney attraction that they would never do today. Try to time your visit to that show to coincide with the Voices of Liberty performing in the rotunda beforehand, they're incredible. IllumiNations has some cool, huge and loud pyro at the beginning and end, but the middle drags on with nothing but that damn globe on the water. It's nothing like WOC, it's meant to be a fireworks show on the lagoon. It's worth seeing.
Hope all that helps! You dizzy yet?
Cool thanks! I think im going to try to see Illuminations. Seems to get a lot of good reviews from folks on this site.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
SDMT and Frozen are difficult to get in the advance visit window. However, if your party is small or you break into a group of 2 you can refresh constantly enough to pretty much get any attraction you want within a few hours or in many cases even less... except FOP.
Arrive 90 minutes early for FOP OR make it your last ride. Under no circumstance should you get in line at any other point in time. Especially do not stroll up 30 minutes before park opening and get in line for FOP. You'll wait 2-3 hours and waste the morning when the lines are shorter elsewhere.
However, if you do arrive before park opening, but like in the 20-60 minutes before time slot, just stroll over to the other Pandora attraction for a walk on and then continue about your day at other attractions. Come back to FOP at closing.
I feel guilty as I did one of my MK days solo this past June and I felt like I was cheating the system. FP+ practically lets you chain whatever the hell you want. I think my 5th FP of the day at like 11AM was on Pooh, I rang the FP through and booked Seven Dwarfs Mine train for 5 minutes later while still in the Pooh queue. The entire day was like that, I literally just waltzed from FP+ queue to FP+ queue.
So just abandon the wife and toddler in the splash pad and enjoy your day. Or leave the toddler back in California.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Restaurants...
Tiffins, Sanaa (with bread service) and Biergarten were my personal favourites. Plus Satu'li Cantina. But it's not like I really tried remotely a fraction of the places at WDW. Tiffins with Rivers of Light dining package, to prevent locking in an evening FP was very worth it IMO.
If you are trying to save on an out of pocket meal, Via Napoli I think has a huge shareable pizza (maybe like 40$ or something), but I hear your party of five could easily split it. You really won't get away with a table service for under 10$ a head anywhere else
Tiffins, Sanaa (with bread service) and Biergarten were my personal favourites. Plus Satu'li Cantina. But it's not like I really tried remotely a fraction of the places at WDW. Tiffins with Rivers of Light dining package, to prevent locking in an evening FP was very worth it IMO.
If you are trying to save on an out of pocket meal, Via Napoli I think has a huge shareable pizza (maybe like 40$ or something), but I hear your party of five could easily split it. You really won't get away with a table service for under 10$ a head anywhere else
Little Green Men
Well-Known Member
Definitely see Happily Ever After at MK, Illuminations at Epcot, and Rivers of Light at DAK. The Star Wars fireworks are OK at DHS too, but nothing too special.
Hahah. Definitely helps! Thanks for the food recommendations. All of that sounds great! I think ill probably do a few table service meals and the rest of my time be snacking through the parks. Particularly Epcot.
Thanks for the ride comparisons. I'm totally cool skipping Tiki room, Mermaid, Buzz, Tomorrowland Speedway, MILF, Toy Story, Star Tours, Fantasmic, all of the DHS shows except for maybe Indy, the Dinorama flat rides and Soarin. I might do a few of them if I have time but they are low priority. Hmmm that doesn't leave much to do at DHS huh? TOT, exploring Hollywoodland, RnR and probably sci fi dine in. With that said Ill probably want to do TOT and RnR at least 2 times each but then again who knows whats possible with my 2 yr old son. I need to be prepared for the fact that things aren't going to go exactly how I want them to. Do you think i should pair DHS with my chill day of exploring the MK resorts? I know I'll end up using the park hopper to go back to DHS a night or two to ride TOT again.
Anything in Future World that I should skip?
Definitely want to do 7 Dwarfs, POTC, HM, Splash, BTM, COP, CBJ, Space, Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, and People Mover at MK. I would like to compare the train too. Jungle Cruise only if I have time. I heard theirs goes through some sort of cave? Riding the Rocket Jets up high sounds kind of fun too. Id like to compare IASW's. Is Pan worth doing?
Ill probably do ITTBAB since they closed it here. Is it inside the tree of life?
So Im thinking 1 day for MK, 1 day for Epcot, 1 day for AK, half day DHS/ Resort Hopping day and 1 day for whatever park(s) I want to go back to. Not sure where the park hopping really comes into play other than my TOT example? Realistically, park hopping only makes sense on the DHS half day and maybe the miscellaneous day. Either way, adding the park hopper option is so cheap that its worth having the option.
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Little Green Men
Well-Known Member
Lumpias (like a sweet pastry with pineapple and cream cheese filling) and the Night Blossom drink in Pandora are great too. I wouldn't skip any of the rides in Future World, but Journey into Imagination may be skippable. Nemo is too, but definitely see the aquarium inside the Seas pavilion. Yes ITTBAB is at the bottom of the tree of life.
SDMT and Frozen are difficult to get in the advance visit window. However, if your party is small or you break into a group of 2 you can refresh constantly enough to pretty much get any attraction you want within a few hours or in many cases even less... except FOP.
Arrive 90 minutes early for FOP OR make it your last ride. Under no circumstance should you get in line at any other point in time. Especially do not stroll up 30 minutes before park opening and get in line for FOP. You'll wait 2-3 hours and waste the morning when the lines are shorter elsewhere.
However, if you do arrive before park opening, but like in the 20-60 minutes before time slot, just stroll over to the other Pandora attraction for a walk on and then continue about your day at other attractions. Come back to FOP at closing.
I feel guilty as I did one of my MK days solo this past June and I felt like I was cheating the system. FP+ practically lets you chain whatever the hell you want. I think my 5th FP of the day at like 11AM was on Pooh, I rang the FP through and booked Seven Dwarfs Mine train for 5 minutes later while still in the Pooh queue. The entire day was like that, I literally just waltzed from FP+ queue to FP+ queue.
So just abandon the wife and toddler in the splash pad and enjoy your day. Or leave the toddler back in California.
Lol Well it sounds like ditching them would certainly make it easier but I think with 5-6 days I should get to do everything I want to, no?
Thanks for the FOP! It’s definitely a Top 5 thing I want to do at WDW and I’d like to it without eating up a half day so your tips will come in handy.
GiveMeTheMusic
Well-Known Member
small world is bizarre in a fun way, with the facade inside the building. The ride is nice - no characters! Peter Pan is hot garbage at WDW. It looks like it hasn't been touched up in decades.