Duck143
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2008
I have never written a trip review, but I figured I could let you all know a bit about our family vacation and maybe something will help you plan your own trips. We just got back from our 10 day 7 – day ParkHopper trip to DisneyWorld. We rented a house off-site and it was less than 10 minutes into DisneyWorld, which was fabulous. Our family included myself, my husband and our 2 boys (2yo and 5yo) along with my brother and my parents.
We had a fantastic trip, but there were definitely some stressful moments, usually trying to meet reservation times (FP+ and Dining). Throughout our stay I definitely realized that almost everything takes much longer than you ever imagine it to. You have to factor in a lot of time to get into the parks, especially MK. I am going to write a ton of good things that happened and a few not so good ones too.
Here are some of the things that caused the most problems for keeping our schedule:
The monorail wasn’t operating into MK from the parking lots at all. One day we were able to take the monorail through the resorts to MK, but that only happened once and it was for a PPO breakfast. The other days we went to MK, every single person had to ride the ferry boat. The ferry takes a lot longer to load, travel and dock, so if you need to get into MK quickly, it probably won’t happen.
Getting into MK park: Bag Check took FOREVER at MK. The crowds are all jammed in a small area off the ferry boats in a few lines waiting for the bags to be checked. One day I was directed to the left side for additional bag check and once I got there, I was sent back to the original lines being told that the left area was for NO bags only. I was pretty frustrated at being sent over there just to be sent back. Then once through Bag Check, we were almost always asked to walk through Metal Detectors. You can’t push the stroller through, so someone has to wait with the child while one parent walks through and then the other parent has to get back in line to walk through once the first parent is cleared. Meanwhile there are people everywhere, so this is a very stressful process. Once past the detectors, you're off to another line to scan your MagicBand. The fingerprint system doesn’t work all that well, so people are constantly needing assistance, which sloooooowwwws down the entrance line. For the first 2 days getting into the park my fingerprint didn’t work for me and for my 5 yo son. I finally got them to reset the scan and it worked after that. I found that by the time I was walking on Main Street, I was so tense that it wasn't as 'Magical' as it should have felt.
EPCOT – Food and Wine Saturdays. If you have another park you can go to on a Saturday, I advise you do that. We went to HS this past Saturday and had a fantastic time. My parents went to EPCOT and it was a madhouse. Tons of groups drinking around the world and very long waits at the kiosks for bite sized food and drinks. We had dinner at Via Napoli at 7:30pm and we couldn’t get into the parking lot (after waiting 40 minutes to get to the parking lot gate). We were told to park at MK and take a bus (no thanks!). I called the dining phone number and explained that we weren’t able to make our ADR (BTW, I was crying because I had been looking forward to that ADR for 180 days!) She cancelled it for me with no fee for not showing up. We went to the Boardwalk and ate outside at Big River. We went back to Epcot on Monday and it was a completely different and thoroughly enjoyable experience.
FP+ were a huge help with lines. Make them as soon as you can. As soon as you scan your 3rd, go ahead and make a 4th. I was able to make a 4th and a 5th one day at Epcot and we were able to walk on Imagination and Living with the Land bypassing the lines. I got a FP+ for Illuminations one night when I knew we didn't want to go on any other rides. The FP area was really wonderful. Definitely worth grabbing if you can. RiderSwaps were a HUGE asset. Make sure you get a RS every single time you can, even if you don't have time to use it then, they're good at the attraction until the end of the month. I call my 2 yo our Golden Ticket to the rides. I was able to maximize FP+ and RS so everyone in our party got onto the rides without waiting in long lines.
We ate dinners at Ohana, T-Rex, Garden Grill, San Angel Inn, Jiko, Big River Grill (when we couldn’t get into Via Napoli), Mama Melrose Fantasmic Package, and ate around the world at Food and Wine. My parents ate at Narcoossee's, Chefs de France and Coral Reef. Ohana was hands down our favorite dinner, Jiko was also awesome, San Angel, Garden Grill and Mama Melrose were all really wonderful and T-Rex and Big River were great too. We really didn't have a bad meal. My parents took my boys to Coral Reef and they enjoyed watching the fish in the tank, but the food was only so-so.
We had breakfasts at Hollywood and Vine PPO, BOG PPO, TuskerHouse PPO and Whispering Canyon. TuskerHouse was the best breakfast we had, followed by Whispering Canyon, H&V and BOG. The character breakfasts were expensive, but I found them to worthwhile because we didn't have to wait in hours worth of lines while at the parks to get photos with the characters. They come over to your table and interact with the kids and let you take as many photos as you want.
I booked H&V at 8:15 am for the sole purpose of getting into HS early enough to get my 5yo son signed up for Jedi Training. It was the only thing he talked about for a year before our trip. This plan worked to perfection. We got into the park an hour before opening and walked over to the line to sign up for Jedi Training before checking into breakfast. We were about 8 in line and signed up in less then 10 minutes. We had our choice of any show time slot for the entire day. We went into breakfast, which was definitely a fun experience with the Disney Jr characters and the food wasn't half bad! We even let the kids finish breakfast with a little dish of softserve ice cream. They thought that was the greatest thing! By the time we finished breakfast and left the restaurant (9:20am), we saw kids crying in the street because they had cut off the line for Jedi signups because the shows were all full. If this is a MUST-DO for you, book a PPO for H&V.
PPO BOG 8am was impossible for us to get there on time and we were in the car early. I did enjoy it, but our pre-order didn't go through the day before (Sorry for the Paws error) so we had to wait to order once we got there. The breakfasts are huge since they come with fruit and pastry, so definitely shareable and no one will feel uncomfortable sharing, because of the cafeteria-type atmosphere in there. Seeing the castle was pretty cool, but don't be too disappointed if you can't score an ADR for this.
Please feel free to ask me any questions about the restaurants we went to.
The parks were a lot of fun for us and my boys, even though they were really crowded! The boys loved Hollywood Studios and seeing the Stormtroopers march down the main street every hour. They just got the biggest kick out of that. MK was crowded, but we were able to get photos in front of the castle and got on the rides that we wanted to ride. It's a bit difficult running from the different sections of the park for our FP+.
Animal Kingdom was great early in the day, but that park gets crowded quickly and the streets are way too narrow to accommodate the scooters, strollers and people. That park seems the most difficult to navigate quickly. We ended up only staying there until mid-afternoon before all of us just couldn't stand it anymore. We did pop in after Jiko to see the tree lit and the street parties. I definitely recommend everyone get over to AK (even for just an hour!) to see the nighttime attractions.
The Fantasmic Dining package was worth it if you can get an ADR. I booked the last 'lunch' time slot for Mama Melrose 4pm, but we actually weren't seated until closer to 5pm, which was great since I planned this meal as our dinner. The food was awesome and worth the price (I chose a tuna app and the steak dinner and then we got a plate of desserts to share)! The designated area for dining packages is right in the center of the stadium and didn't fill up until closer to show start time. We were at the end of a row, so we were able to exit quickly, grab our stroller and made it to watch the Star Wars FW's. All those folks who said it wasn't possible were wrong and we couldn't have been happier to view both shows the same night.
If you have a Disney Visa, use the perks!! We met Kylo Ren twice at HS, met Minnie and Pluto at Epcot and spent a few minutes at the Chase Lounge in America. These were all so fun and sort of made you feel like a VIP lol. You can also use your Chase to enter a spot to view Illuminations and get discounts on merchandise and some dining.
Lastly, Memory Maker is completely worth every penny. We have some of the best photos ever and didn't have to give any thought to whether we wanted to buy them, because we own every one. The Magic shots were so fun for us and for the kids. It was great to have our whole group in the photos without constantly pulling out our own cameras. Looking through the photos from the day was always the best way to end our days. We had over 600 photos taken during our stay, which is $.25 a shot!
If you're still reading, thank you! We really had a wonderful family trip to DisneyWorld. I enjoyed researching and planning, so I am now going through planning withdrawal. I can't believe the trip is over and I can honestly say that I can't wait until we set a date for our next trip!!!
We had a fantastic trip, but there were definitely some stressful moments, usually trying to meet reservation times (FP+ and Dining). Throughout our stay I definitely realized that almost everything takes much longer than you ever imagine it to. You have to factor in a lot of time to get into the parks, especially MK. I am going to write a ton of good things that happened and a few not so good ones too.
Here are some of the things that caused the most problems for keeping our schedule:
The monorail wasn’t operating into MK from the parking lots at all. One day we were able to take the monorail through the resorts to MK, but that only happened once and it was for a PPO breakfast. The other days we went to MK, every single person had to ride the ferry boat. The ferry takes a lot longer to load, travel and dock, so if you need to get into MK quickly, it probably won’t happen.
Getting into MK park: Bag Check took FOREVER at MK. The crowds are all jammed in a small area off the ferry boats in a few lines waiting for the bags to be checked. One day I was directed to the left side for additional bag check and once I got there, I was sent back to the original lines being told that the left area was for NO bags only. I was pretty frustrated at being sent over there just to be sent back. Then once through Bag Check, we were almost always asked to walk through Metal Detectors. You can’t push the stroller through, so someone has to wait with the child while one parent walks through and then the other parent has to get back in line to walk through once the first parent is cleared. Meanwhile there are people everywhere, so this is a very stressful process. Once past the detectors, you're off to another line to scan your MagicBand. The fingerprint system doesn’t work all that well, so people are constantly needing assistance, which sloooooowwwws down the entrance line. For the first 2 days getting into the park my fingerprint didn’t work for me and for my 5 yo son. I finally got them to reset the scan and it worked after that. I found that by the time I was walking on Main Street, I was so tense that it wasn't as 'Magical' as it should have felt.
EPCOT – Food and Wine Saturdays. If you have another park you can go to on a Saturday, I advise you do that. We went to HS this past Saturday and had a fantastic time. My parents went to EPCOT and it was a madhouse. Tons of groups drinking around the world and very long waits at the kiosks for bite sized food and drinks. We had dinner at Via Napoli at 7:30pm and we couldn’t get into the parking lot (after waiting 40 minutes to get to the parking lot gate). We were told to park at MK and take a bus (no thanks!). I called the dining phone number and explained that we weren’t able to make our ADR (BTW, I was crying because I had been looking forward to that ADR for 180 days!) She cancelled it for me with no fee for not showing up. We went to the Boardwalk and ate outside at Big River. We went back to Epcot on Monday and it was a completely different and thoroughly enjoyable experience.
FP+ were a huge help with lines. Make them as soon as you can. As soon as you scan your 3rd, go ahead and make a 4th. I was able to make a 4th and a 5th one day at Epcot and we were able to walk on Imagination and Living with the Land bypassing the lines. I got a FP+ for Illuminations one night when I knew we didn't want to go on any other rides. The FP area was really wonderful. Definitely worth grabbing if you can. RiderSwaps were a HUGE asset. Make sure you get a RS every single time you can, even if you don't have time to use it then, they're good at the attraction until the end of the month. I call my 2 yo our Golden Ticket to the rides. I was able to maximize FP+ and RS so everyone in our party got onto the rides without waiting in long lines.
We ate dinners at Ohana, T-Rex, Garden Grill, San Angel Inn, Jiko, Big River Grill (when we couldn’t get into Via Napoli), Mama Melrose Fantasmic Package, and ate around the world at Food and Wine. My parents ate at Narcoossee's, Chefs de France and Coral Reef. Ohana was hands down our favorite dinner, Jiko was also awesome, San Angel, Garden Grill and Mama Melrose were all really wonderful and T-Rex and Big River were great too. We really didn't have a bad meal. My parents took my boys to Coral Reef and they enjoyed watching the fish in the tank, but the food was only so-so.
We had breakfasts at Hollywood and Vine PPO, BOG PPO, TuskerHouse PPO and Whispering Canyon. TuskerHouse was the best breakfast we had, followed by Whispering Canyon, H&V and BOG. The character breakfasts were expensive, but I found them to worthwhile because we didn't have to wait in hours worth of lines while at the parks to get photos with the characters. They come over to your table and interact with the kids and let you take as many photos as you want.
I booked H&V at 8:15 am for the sole purpose of getting into HS early enough to get my 5yo son signed up for Jedi Training. It was the only thing he talked about for a year before our trip. This plan worked to perfection. We got into the park an hour before opening and walked over to the line to sign up for Jedi Training before checking into breakfast. We were about 8 in line and signed up in less then 10 minutes. We had our choice of any show time slot for the entire day. We went into breakfast, which was definitely a fun experience with the Disney Jr characters and the food wasn't half bad! We even let the kids finish breakfast with a little dish of softserve ice cream. They thought that was the greatest thing! By the time we finished breakfast and left the restaurant (9:20am), we saw kids crying in the street because they had cut off the line for Jedi signups because the shows were all full. If this is a MUST-DO for you, book a PPO for H&V.
PPO BOG 8am was impossible for us to get there on time and we were in the car early. I did enjoy it, but our pre-order didn't go through the day before (Sorry for the Paws error) so we had to wait to order once we got there. The breakfasts are huge since they come with fruit and pastry, so definitely shareable and no one will feel uncomfortable sharing, because of the cafeteria-type atmosphere in there. Seeing the castle was pretty cool, but don't be too disappointed if you can't score an ADR for this.
Please feel free to ask me any questions about the restaurants we went to.
The parks were a lot of fun for us and my boys, even though they were really crowded! The boys loved Hollywood Studios and seeing the Stormtroopers march down the main street every hour. They just got the biggest kick out of that. MK was crowded, but we were able to get photos in front of the castle and got on the rides that we wanted to ride. It's a bit difficult running from the different sections of the park for our FP+.
Animal Kingdom was great early in the day, but that park gets crowded quickly and the streets are way too narrow to accommodate the scooters, strollers and people. That park seems the most difficult to navigate quickly. We ended up only staying there until mid-afternoon before all of us just couldn't stand it anymore. We did pop in after Jiko to see the tree lit and the street parties. I definitely recommend everyone get over to AK (even for just an hour!) to see the nighttime attractions.
The Fantasmic Dining package was worth it if you can get an ADR. I booked the last 'lunch' time slot for Mama Melrose 4pm, but we actually weren't seated until closer to 5pm, which was great since I planned this meal as our dinner. The food was awesome and worth the price (I chose a tuna app and the steak dinner and then we got a plate of desserts to share)! The designated area for dining packages is right in the center of the stadium and didn't fill up until closer to show start time. We were at the end of a row, so we were able to exit quickly, grab our stroller and made it to watch the Star Wars FW's. All those folks who said it wasn't possible were wrong and we couldn't have been happier to view both shows the same night.
If you have a Disney Visa, use the perks!! We met Kylo Ren twice at HS, met Minnie and Pluto at Epcot and spent a few minutes at the Chase Lounge in America. These were all so fun and sort of made you feel like a VIP lol. You can also use your Chase to enter a spot to view Illuminations and get discounts on merchandise and some dining.
Lastly, Memory Maker is completely worth every penny. We have some of the best photos ever and didn't have to give any thought to whether we wanted to buy them, because we own every one. The Magic shots were so fun for us and for the kids. It was great to have our whole group in the photos without constantly pulling out our own cameras. Looking through the photos from the day was always the best way to end our days. We had over 600 photos taken during our stay, which is $.25 a shot!
If you're still reading, thank you! We really had a wonderful family trip to DisneyWorld. I enjoyed researching and planning, so I am now going through planning withdrawal. I can't believe the trip is over and I can honestly say that I can't wait until we set a date for our next trip!!!
Although they took away Star Wars fireworks for our Dec visit, I liked reading that you could see F! and the fireworks the same night. Good for you!
