19-Day WDW/Disney Fantasy/Back to WDW Trip

Jack & Monica

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Originally, I had planned on giving a detailed summary of our trip JAN 19-5 FEB. Because of a lack of personal time, I am going to give my perceptions of our trip. I will highlight things that stood out to us. Some of the observations will be on the food, startegies for attacking the parks (what worked and what didn't work), the shows at WDW, the Star Wars View experience, our day at Universal, I will post a cruise specific thread in the Disney Cruise Line area. I will make specific, objective (i hope) comments on Disney vs. Universal and DCL vs. other cruise lines. -*=-0987654321`

First the who/what/where:
Trip Participants: Me (DH), DW, DD13, and DMIL
Timeline: 1 night at Boulder Ridge (WL) 1 BR Villa; 7 night western caribbean sailing on the Disney Fantasy; back to WDW for 9 nights (Mother-in-law flew home on 27 JAN after the cruise) at BR.

Overall impressions:
Trip was wonderful.
Wilderness Lodge is my new favorite resort. We got a 1 BR Villa for just the 3 of us simply because it had a washer and dryer. My first priority for room placement at every resort is closeness to the bus pickup point. We had room 5519. WHAT A VIEW!!! I highly recommend this room. The room was right off of the elevator on the top floor. It is a corner room. It had two veranduhs. One faced northwest facing the Copper Creek Villas and the courtyard between. the other faced NE with a direct view of Bay Lake and the Boulder Ridge Pool below. One of my DD's favorite things was to watch for the Electric Water Pageant each night. We did use the boat transportation when we went to the Magic Kingdom which was a good 5-minute walk to the pier on Bay Lake. Housekeeping gave us ample packets of coffee, two laundry detergent packets, and dryer sheets each day (as we used them). Now that the construction is finished -- the place is beautiful.
Transportation: I know that many folks have had vastly different experiences with the transportation at WDW, all I can say is that with one exception, it worked as Disney advertized. The exception was a communication failure. Because i employ the strategy of using the Morning EMH, I wanted to know when the first bus/boat left each morning. I asked several cast members and the answer was consistently 1 hour before the park opens. Unfortunately this is not accurate. I know this because we got to the bus station for our first park day (Monday 29 JAN -- Animal Kingdom) at about 6:50. We did not get the bus to AK until about 7:15. We still made it to AK before rope drop, but I thought we were not off to a confidence inducing start! I later found out that the first bus actually arrived at 6:30 (90 minutes before the park opened). I found this out when I talked to a transportation cast member at the bus stop. (Disney has limited personnel assets that they try to place at the bus depots at each resort). It is not 100% but the cast members waiting in the morning at the resort bus stops are usually transportation folks. This info (90 min first bus) checked out for each of the later days of our trip). In fact, we spent 5 days at Disney Parks and usually park hopped. We waited longer than 20 mins 2 times and both of those times, it took 25 mins for our bus. All of the other times, we had very minimal waits.
The boat transportation worked even better. We took the boat a lot because at the end of every park day we ended it by stopping by MK to get our packs of Sorcerers of the MK cards. We never had to wait more than 10 mins for a boat back to WL. We found it much easier to get to the boat docks than to walk to our bus pick up point at MK. I was amazed at how many people stayed at the FW camp grounds. The boat for the Fort Wilderness Camp Grounds (which shares the dock with the WL boat) always had 2-3X the number of people on the WL boat.
Magical Express was absolutely flawless both coming and going. We were really lucky. We literally waited about 5 minutes both on our arrival and on our exit. I truly believe we just really go lucky. I have waited as much as 40 minutes in the past.
 
Strategies: Ever since Disney limited the fast passes to three at one park, I have stuck with the same overall strategy. We go to the park with EMH and follow this up with three fast passes. We intersperse the fast passes with rides that virtually have no wait times -- (like my DW's favorite ride -- It's a small world or one of my favorites like the muppets 3D. We then eat an early lunch (as soon as our favorite quick service restaurant opens up) usually around 11:00. This strategy gets us literally the ability to ride all of the best hot new rides as well as several of our sentimental favorites. While we are at lunch I check the fast pass situation (especially at MK). We then go to the MK and get a new set of sorcerers of the magic kingdom cards. We usually would eat an early dinner (4:30 or 5:00 at a table service restaurant).
Lesson Learned: Although I will use UBER when I have to go off property like going to Mass or going to Universal. I have learned that it is better to rely on Disney for on property transportation. Here is why. Because of our experience of missing the first bus for Animal Kingdom, I decided to use UBER for our next EMH day which was Thursday at EPCOT. We had used it flawlessly to get to Universal on Tuesday (more on that coming up). However on this day, the driver got to 1 minute out and could not figure out how to get to the resort. It was very frustrating watching my phone (the UBER AP provides a map with the driver and you marked on it). The driver kept circling the resort without entering the drive TO the resort. He eventually just gave up. We decided to just get on a bus and we raced to the bus stop just in time to see our bus pulling out of the resort. Fortunately, there was another bus (which I learned was the third bus for the morning that came 15 mins later). My lesson is that I will just use the Disney bus system. When I did this for all of the on-property activities (and there were a lot of them -- dinners, shopping, etc), it worked very well the rest of the vacation.
If you have to go off-property -- UBER is a great way to go -- It cost me $23 to go from WL to Universal.
 
General Impressions of Universal Studios. I have gone to WDW ofton. I do not go to Universal as frequently. I took my DD13 on a one day trip (2 parks -- on day). One of the things that struck me is that Disney and Universal are not exactly the same things. This is only my opinion here so please do not get too brutish if you disagree with me). Universal seems to go after a slightly different audience. There are a lot of excellent rollercoaster/adrenaline type rides that will appeal to young adults and speed junkies. Universal has unbelievably cornered the market on these type of rides. They also have some very good rides that appeal to everyone. The star of both parks however, are the Harry Potter Worlds split between IOA and US. My DD and I have spent time this year both reading and watching the series of books/movies. Universal has done a very very good job of recreating the JK Rowling Universe. My DD and I were the only ones to go to Universal; my DW decided to spend her day shopping at Disney Springs (UGH! LOL). I thought Minions, Escape from Gringotts, and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey were outstanding rides. I also was very impressed with the immersive feel of Diagon Alley. We ate at The three Broomsticks and the food was very good; however I will say -- I do not like Butterbeer. I have not researched this, but it tastes very similar to Cream Soda -- something I liked as a very young child. Overall, I would give Universal high marks. It delivers on what they advertise. I am very happy about this, because a strong Universal Experience will force Disney to continue to excel also.
I hesitate to make comparisons about Disney and Universal. They are not as similar as one may at first suppose. You can make comparisons of specific elements. The cast members at Disney are a complete level beyond the folks at universal. Many of them will not go out of there way to make contact with you. I do not think they are trained to do this however. Disney cast members are trained to greet you. Although the Universal Parks were clean, all of Disney is Danny Tanner clean (sorry for the Full House reference). For me Disney is the place to stay and enjoy a week long visit while ensuring that a one day or even a two day visit to Universal is definitely appealing. For me -- I like the food at Disney more, but only because there are more options. There are very good places at Universal. It is so varied that I like to just rate individual restaurants rather than rate something so complex as the food at either Disney or US.
Almost 19 years ago my wife and I were on what were becoming almost biannual pilgrimages to Disney when we decided to check out Universal Studios. Islands of Adventure was a new park. At that time I was floored by the power to awe that the Amazing Spiderman ride engendered. It had so many ground breaking effects. It was amazing. The ride still holds up today and remains one of my favorite rides. I bring this up because I have been asked what was my favorite ride on this vacation. The two best rides that I experienced were Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Flight of Passage. I believe i can be very objective when I state this -- Flight of Passage -- surpassed even the unabashed joy I felt when I first rode the Spiderman ride. I did not think that was possible. FOP is unbelievable. Forbidden Journey was great fun, and I would give it 5 stars, but it cannot be compared to the technological break through that is FOP. I can imagine what the next step is for Disney. Can you imagine going on FOP but wearing a Virtual Reality Helmet like you do in the Star Wars Secrets of the Empire experience at Disney Springs? It is coming, and it will be amazing.
 

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