HydroGuy
A Pirate's Life For Me
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
We went to WDW in mid-May and I am a little late in getting a post here. Life and work have been incredibly busy LOL. I am more of a DLR vet than a WDW vet though I feel pretty good about WDW knowledge after this last trip - my sixth.
o Our group had six people - me, my wife and four of our kids all young adult men. It was my DW's first trip to WDW and Florida. Her DS21 was also on his first trip. Both have been to DLR before. We had seven days with one rest day - so six park days. We hit each park at least once.
o FP+/MB/MDE - It had its advantages. This was our first trip since this had been implemented. I wrote up my thoughts on this right as we were leaving WDW. See Observations and Experiences on FP+/MB/MDE from our trip this week.
o As I discussed in the previous link, my DW got bit by a spider while at DHS on our third day at WDW. Here it is almost 7 weeks later and it still has not completely healed. She still has a small scab. And in the area around the bite about an inch in diameter she has lost feeling. We expect it to come back but not so far.
o It was much hotter than normal - I like May trips because on my previous two times in May the temperatures were pretty ideal. This time temperatures were 5-10 degrees F (3-6 C) higher than normal. Most days were low to mid 90's. And humidity was higher than normal too. It detracted from the trip. My DW really wilts in heat and humidity due to health issues and we had to be very careful to not stay out too long.
o Crowds were pretty darn low. We were able to ride Space Mtn standby mid-day on one day when the line was only 30 minutes long. We did this as we had a FP for Space Mtn and after getting off the ride everyone wanted to ride it again standby. So we did.
o We stayed at the Swan (my second time there) and it continues to be a good tradeoff for me. Yes it is not true Disney. But with a group of six I had to get two rooms. And that is just too expensive with the Disney hotels unless we went for one of the evolving Family suites - which I am sure would not give enough privacy to my DW who is just a really light sleeper. I do love the proximity to Epcot/DHS from the Swan. Even so, the travel from the parks to the Swan (or really any hotel at WDW) does take its toll - especially when it is so hot out. I found myself longing at times for the close hotel access at DLR - especially for my DW when she hit a wall at the parks.
o It kind of sucks that Swan and Dolphin do not allow grocery delivery any more. I spent a good 45 minutes getting my online order together at GardenGrocer only to find out they could not deliver to the Swan. We had to make a 20 minute grocery stop at Publix during our limo ride from MCO to the Swan on arrival. Kind of hectic and wish I could have avoided that.
o As a DLR vet, I like the MK but it is always the park I look forward to the least because of its similarity to DL. However, I found myself really enjoying MK on this trip more than I ever have.
o Space Mtn (as an experience) at MK has really improved in recent years based on what I remember from my first trip in 2006. DL's is still better in my mind but MK's has closed the gap. We have never taken time to do anything interactive in the queue but this time we did. Very cool.
o I scored a BOG lunch reservation for the whole crew. A very cool experience. We reserved our meals using MDE on the bus ride to MK that morning. Everything worked great. We had our MB's and the food was delivered to our table. Decent sandwiches and very immersive.
o We got to try several new restaurants. BOG I just mentioned. Also first time at Askerhaus at Epcot. Cute but probably not something we would do again. Shula's at the Dolphin which is something we will definitely do again. All the hype is justified. Everyone in the group said it was the best steak they have ever had. And pretty much the best everything. Columbia Harbor House at MK was nice. We usually do Flame Tree at AK but with the construction and closing of FT we ended up going to Yak and Yeti. That was a winner for us and a nice experience for lunch on a hot day. I swung by without an ADR and made an ADR around 11:50 for 12:30. Enough time for us to use our EE FPs
)) before lunch.
o We also hit some old favorites for meals. SciFi Dine-In, Brown Derby, Le Cellier, San Angel, Beaches & Cream.
o I think the evening castle projection show (Celebrate the Magic) is just so cool. We saw it once after missing the first few minutes (we were buying something on Main Street) then again all the way though. Kudos to Disney Imagineers for putting a show like this together.
o EMH - I always avoid EMH parks but this time we could not avoid an evening EMH at DHS based on our ADRs. In any case the park still never got very crowded. And there is so little to do there during EMH it is hardly worth it. We rode ToT then ST and (after 3 rides on RnR that day and 3 on ToT and 2 on ST) we just wanted to leave. So we only stayed for about 45 minutes. The rides were close to being walk ons during EMH but we had had our fill.
o Like some others on this forum, I miss Offkilter.
o I always love to stop and hear Mulch, Sweat and Shears - but this trip only got to hear them for a few minutes. The heat I mentioned earlier really drove us to leave parks earlier than we would have liked for afternoon breaks on some days. That made it too hard to catch a full set of MSS.
o I rode the new Seven Dwarves Mine Train 3 times. Once in the AM with the whole crew. Once at night with DW. And once at night solo. It is definitely a much better ride at night. The risk of course of using FP is that if you make a night time FP and the ride breaks down, you miss it. We had FPs for two different days. The first MK day we had it in the late morning. The second MK day we had it for the evening . I purposely did it that way to get a night experience in. I liked that approach when you have two days planned for MK.
o Even after almost 10 years, EE is just such an awesome ride. We rode it four times.
o Kali River Rapids is just too short of a ride. And with the heat it had by far the longest lines on our day at AK. We had FPs which made it worth it. Even so the line with FP is still a bit long. We found ourselves really wishing for Grizzly River Run at DCA/DLR as it is so much longer. And the FP line is so much faster.
o The interactive part of TT is cool, but I still liked the overall ride experience better on the old TT.
o As it was my DW's first time at WDW, her ride on Dinosaur was a hoot. She really freaked at the lunging dino when the ride photo was taken. Great shot!
o We used MemoryMaker and that is just such a cool use of technology. One of the advantages of MBs.
o MDE worked great for me (as discussed in my link at the top to a thread I wrote). I used it frequently without any problems except on occasion it was a little slow. No crashes or lockups. I used MDE on my iPhone 5s (using AT&T carrier).
o MBs were kind of a hit with our adult kids. We bought several BandIt packages including a Star Wars one at MK near Space Mtn. Even for young adult men they were really into the BandIts.
o The kids went to Disney Quest 3 times and to Blizzard Beach once. They had fun but it seems clear DQ is dying.
o Bought a new Anker Astro battery add-on for my iPhone just before this trip and that was a lifesaver on several days. It had so much juice the kids also used it to recharge. Highly recommended.
o Our group had six people - me, my wife and four of our kids all young adult men. It was my DW's first trip to WDW and Florida. Her DS21 was also on his first trip. Both have been to DLR before. We had seven days with one rest day - so six park days. We hit each park at least once.
o FP+/MB/MDE - It had its advantages. This was our first trip since this had been implemented. I wrote up my thoughts on this right as we were leaving WDW. See Observations and Experiences on FP+/MB/MDE from our trip this week.
o As I discussed in the previous link, my DW got bit by a spider while at DHS on our third day at WDW. Here it is almost 7 weeks later and it still has not completely healed. She still has a small scab. And in the area around the bite about an inch in diameter she has lost feeling. We expect it to come back but not so far.
o It was much hotter than normal - I like May trips because on my previous two times in May the temperatures were pretty ideal. This time temperatures were 5-10 degrees F (3-6 C) higher than normal. Most days were low to mid 90's. And humidity was higher than normal too. It detracted from the trip. My DW really wilts in heat and humidity due to health issues and we had to be very careful to not stay out too long.
o Crowds were pretty darn low. We were able to ride Space Mtn standby mid-day on one day when the line was only 30 minutes long. We did this as we had a FP for Space Mtn and after getting off the ride everyone wanted to ride it again standby. So we did.
o We stayed at the Swan (my second time there) and it continues to be a good tradeoff for me. Yes it is not true Disney. But with a group of six I had to get two rooms. And that is just too expensive with the Disney hotels unless we went for one of the evolving Family suites - which I am sure would not give enough privacy to my DW who is just a really light sleeper. I do love the proximity to Epcot/DHS from the Swan. Even so, the travel from the parks to the Swan (or really any hotel at WDW) does take its toll - especially when it is so hot out. I found myself longing at times for the close hotel access at DLR - especially for my DW when she hit a wall at the parks.
o It kind of sucks that Swan and Dolphin do not allow grocery delivery any more. I spent a good 45 minutes getting my online order together at GardenGrocer only to find out they could not deliver to the Swan. We had to make a 20 minute grocery stop at Publix during our limo ride from MCO to the Swan on arrival. Kind of hectic and wish I could have avoided that.
o As a DLR vet, I like the MK but it is always the park I look forward to the least because of its similarity to DL. However, I found myself really enjoying MK on this trip more than I ever have.
o Space Mtn (as an experience) at MK has really improved in recent years based on what I remember from my first trip in 2006. DL's is still better in my mind but MK's has closed the gap. We have never taken time to do anything interactive in the queue but this time we did. Very cool.
o I scored a BOG lunch reservation for the whole crew. A very cool experience. We reserved our meals using MDE on the bus ride to MK that morning. Everything worked great. We had our MB's and the food was delivered to our table.
Decent sandwiches and very immersive.o We got to try several new restaurants. BOG I just mentioned. Also first time at Askerhaus at Epcot. Cute but probably not something we would do again. Shula's at the Dolphin which is something we will definitely do again. All the hype is justified. Everyone in the group said it was the best steak they have ever had. And pretty much the best everything. Columbia Harbor House at MK was nice. We usually do Flame Tree at AK but with the construction and closing of FT we ended up going to Yak and Yeti. That was a winner for us and a nice experience for lunch on a hot day. I swung by without an ADR and made an ADR around 11:50 for 12:30. Enough time for us to use our EE FPs
)) before lunch.o We also hit some old favorites for meals. SciFi Dine-In, Brown Derby, Le Cellier, San Angel, Beaches & Cream.
o I think the evening castle projection show (Celebrate the Magic) is just so cool. We saw it once after missing the first few minutes (we were buying something on Main Street) then again all the way though. Kudos to Disney Imagineers for putting a show like this together.
o EMH - I always avoid EMH parks but this time we could not avoid an evening EMH at DHS based on our ADRs. In any case the park still never got very crowded. And there is so little to do there during EMH it is hardly worth it. We rode ToT then ST and (after 3 rides on RnR that day and 3 on ToT and 2 on ST) we just wanted to leave. So we only stayed for about 45 minutes. The rides were close to being walk ons during EMH but we had had our fill.
o Like some others on this forum, I miss Offkilter.
o I always love to stop and hear Mulch, Sweat and Shears - but this trip only got to hear them for a few minutes. The heat I mentioned earlier really drove us to leave parks earlier than we would have liked for afternoon breaks on some days. That made it too hard to catch a full set of MSS.
o I rode the new Seven Dwarves Mine Train 3 times. Once in the AM with the whole crew. Once at night with DW. And once at night solo. It is definitely a much better ride at night. The risk of course of using FP is that if you make a night time FP and the ride breaks down, you miss it. We had FPs for two different days. The first MK day we had it in the late morning. The second MK day we had it for the evening . I purposely did it that way to get a night experience in. I liked that approach when you have two days planned for MK.
o Even after almost 10 years, EE is just such an awesome ride. We rode it four times.
o Kali River Rapids is just too short of a ride. And with the heat it had by far the longest lines on our day at AK. We had FPs which made it worth it. Even so the line with FP is still a bit long. We found ourselves really wishing for Grizzly River Run at DCA/DLR as it is so much longer. And the FP line is so much faster.
o The interactive part of TT is cool, but I still liked the overall ride experience better on the old TT.
o As it was my DW's first time at WDW, her ride on Dinosaur was a hoot. She really freaked at the lunging dino when the ride photo was taken. Great shot!
o We used MemoryMaker and that is just such a cool use of technology. One of the advantages of MBs.
o MDE worked great for me (as discussed in my link at the top to a thread I wrote). I used it frequently without any problems except on occasion it was a little slow. No crashes or lockups. I used MDE on my iPhone 5s (using AT&T carrier).
o MBs were kind of a hit with our adult kids. We bought several BandIt packages including a Star Wars one at MK near Space Mtn. Even for young adult men they were really into the BandIts.
o The kids went to Disney Quest 3 times and to Blizzard Beach once. They had fun but it seems clear DQ is dying.
o Bought a new Anker Astro battery add-on for my iPhone just before this trip and that was a lifesaver on several days. It had so much juice the kids also used it to recharge. Highly recommended.
