WDW (& USO) Trip Report from a West Coast DL family

[MonocularVision]

My family and I took our first ever trip to Walt Disney World & Universal Orlando from January 5th through January 14th. We spent five days exploring WDW and two and half days at Universal and had a blast. I thought it might be fun to give my thoughts and review coming from a lifelong Disneyland fan and someone who has never made it to WDW. I plan on reviewing each day as a separate message all in this thread so I don’t spam the Disneyland board with information about that “other” park.

Thursday, January 5th: Arrival, Resort & Disney Springs
Our plane arrived around 4pm local time. We picked up our rental without issue and used Apple Maps to make our way to the resort area. We stopped at a Publix on the way to pick up some breakfast items along with bottled water for park visits. We arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort around 6 to check-in. Unfortunately, we hit our first snag right away. We had reserved two rooms (there are 6 of us with me, my wife, my two adult sons and my two younger teenage daughters), but our request for connected rooms had not been honored. Instead, our two rooms were separated by another room. They did not have anything available for us that was already connected, but they did manage to find something for us for the next day. We weren’t entirely sure if we wanted to deal with the hassle of packing everything back up our very first park morning, but the CM was helpful and said they’d arrange it and we could let them know later if we wanted to do it.

The rooms were fine. CBR is a “moderate” resort, but IMHO, the rooms felt more “value” in my experience with hotels. Things felt a bit dated. The AC was pretty loud in one room. But it was clean and things all seemed to work. We had planned on visiting Disney Springs to eat dinner at Rainforest Cafe (we had made reservations), mostly because we used to eat there on arrival day at Downtown Disney before it was closed. After unloading, we got back into the rental and headed over to Disney Springs.

All I can say is: wow. Disney Springs was much like Downtown Disney but gigantic and a lot more variety. We actually would have liked to spend more time there but we were there mainly to eat. The parking situation was fine, but we ended up in a garage that was literally on the opposite side of Rainforest Cafe so it was quite a hike over there. Rainforest Cafe was Rainforest Cafe. It isn’t the greatest food, but you don’t eat there for the food, you eat there for the ambience. And wow, does the outside of the Rainforest Cafe in Disney Springs deliver. Instead of temple theme at Downtown Disney, it’s volcano themed and every so often it spews a huge fireball that you can feel on the ground level. We had no idea and the first “eruption” was pretty surprising. Our server was amazing and did a great job with everything.

After dinner, we decided to go ahead and purchase MagicBands+. We had debated before hand, considering we all have Apple Watches and they basically act as Magic Bands everywhere at WDW except for the room key. The CM at check-in basically told us to open our rooms with the app, and didn’t assign us any keys. I’m kind of glad she didn’t because we ended up really enjoying MB. I especially enjoyed being able to scan from either arm using my Apple Watch . We bought them at the Pin Trader where they had a gigantic collection. We figured we’d be able to use them at Disneyland and we got a 10% discount thanks to our Disney Visa, but I think it still would have been cheaper to get them ahead of time. We ended up with

• Me: The “Disney Dad”
• Wife: Snow White Limited Edition
• Son 1: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Son 2: WDW 50th Anniversary
• Daughter 1: Spiderman
• Daughter 2: Cheshire Cat

After our purchases, we walked all the way back to the car and headed back to the resort. We went to bed with the plan on hitting Magic Kingdom the next day and enjoying Early Entry privileges.

Magic Kingdom review up next!

 

[ironband74]

Looking forward to this!

 

[mouschievous]

I'm excited to read your report. We're a west coast DL family who made our first WDW journey in Jan 2021, so I'm really curious to hear your thoughts.

 

[MonocularVision]

Friday, January 6th: Magic Kingdom
As mentioned previously, we didn’t get connecting rooms, and we had to make our decision on whether we wanted to go through the hassle of changing. After sleeping on it, I realized how much of a downer the previous night had been with constant knocking on doors and generally feeling like our family had been separated in two. So we woke up pretty early, and we all repacked our stuff, and moved it into the rental car. I realized shortly after 7am that I had forgotten to secure our Seven Dwarves ILL and our first LL choice for Genie+. I managed to secure the ILL and a Jungle Cruise LL for early afternoon.

We had been planning on splurging on a Minnie Van if only because we wanted to be there extra early to make good use of Early entry. Well, even with repacking, thanks to the Minnie Van we managed to get into the parks by 8:45 which was 15 minutes before opening, so it wasn’t a total wash. I must say that the girl driving us was absolutely awesome and talked a little bit about what we might want to check out in the Magic Kingdom as Disneyland regulars.

First impressions of the park: my younger adult son put it best when he said he felt like he was a tiny person walking down Main Street. I have no idea if the buildings are higher or just further apart, but I had the same exact feeling. We laughed, saying that we felt like children because the proportions of everything seemed so much larger. It felt familiar but different at the same time. It was kind of neat but also mildly disturbing, like how in dreams familiar places aren’t quite right.

Tomorrowland
We decided to spend the morning in Tomorrowland, considering most of it was open for Early Entry. First stop was Space Mountain. I’ve posted elsewhere about my Space Mountain feelings, but I have to say that I was extremely disappointed. I had been excited about a new experience, but I felt like the combination of the worse ride system and no magic made the ride seem boring. I had thought we might want to ride it again later to try the other track, but after riding it, most of us were definitely one-and-done. We had planned on hitting the People Mover after, but it had yet to open so we hit Carousel of Progress instead. It was pretty much as I had remembered, although the “future” room is laughably out-of-date. They make a big deal about VR and voice assistants, but you’ll note there are no smartphones to be seen.

After Carousel, we saw that the People Mover was open, so we hopped on that. From what I remember, it is a different system than what we had at Disneyland, but it was still fun and brought back memories. The kids were largely unimpressed, but what are you gonna do. Next up was Monsters Inc: Laugh Floor which, for me, was probably the surprise hit of the park. Of course, I’m a huge Mike Wazowski fan (as evidenced by my avatar pic) and a sucker for the interactive shows, but it was really well done and made us all laugh. Next up we decided to try Buzz, even after hearing it was inferior and guess what? It was inferior. Still, fun to see a different queue and the ride has a few different scenes that were fun.

At this point, my youngest daughter realized her MagicBand was missing. This would become a theme of the trip. My wife checked at Carousel of Progress while I checked at the People Mover. Thankfully it was found at Carousel! With that crisis averted, we headed to Adventureland to hit our Jungle Cruise LL.

Adventureland / Frontierland
Not gonna lie: Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite rides at DL. I’m a sucker for dumb jokes and puns, so I’m here for the Dad Jokes. Because of the LL, we didn’t get to check out most of the queue, but the ride was pretty similar, just a bit longer with an extra scene that takes you into what seems to be a temple of some sort. It wasn’t really compelling, and I’m not sure I understand why Jungle Cruise is such a high demand LL at Magic Kingdom.

At some point, I had grabbed a LL for Big Thunder (my wife’s favorite), so after JC, we slowly made our way over there. Again, the strangeness of seeing familiar sites but in different places was slightly unnerving. BTTR was mostly the same, but some of it was reversed and it didn’t have the added effects, specifically the ones in the dynamite room. The queue though is much more elaborate and I sort of wish we had been able to wait in it. After BTTR, we walked through Frontierland, stopping to watch the Country Bear Jamboree. Like the People Mover and Carousel, I wanted my kids to be able to experience things that had one been at DL. It was fun to watch and my kids thought it was pretty funny at times. Glad we checked it out.

Fantasyland
At this point, we were approaching our reservation for Be Our Guest. My cousin had recommended the Princess lunch in the castle instead, but my girls were pretty set on Be Our Guest. It was a pretty good lunch, but also the most expensive lunch I had ever had. It did come with bread though, so keep hope alive. I ended up with the escargot and some piece of beef, and rather than getting to choose our dessert, we all got a plate with a macaron, the Grey Stuff, and some chocolate ball thing. It was good, but nothing amazing. Oh, we also had requested and got the West Wing at my daughters’ request, but personally, I think I would have rather sat in the main hall.

The timing was perfect as after our lunch was finished, our ILL for Seven Dwarves was up. It’s a really fun, family friendly ride that I recommend. Personally, felt like it’s probably time for it to join the normal Genie+ list, but Disney’s gonna Disney.

At some point, I had gotten a LL for Splash Mountain, so we headed back to Frontierland to ride on that. This is a ride I can definitely say is better at WDW for a few reasons. First, the inside portions are longer and the animatronics are in better shape. Second, the ride vehicle itself is way better as a two-by-two seater instead of the long log at DL. And finally, we didn’t get soaked. No idea if that was a weather thing (although it was a nice mid-70’s) or not, but it was nice to ride it and not be completely soaked. Especially the feet. The ride vehicle seems to protect your feet from getting soaked, which is important at a park where you walk around all day.

Because we wanted to be able to check-in to our new room earlier, we decided to hit the Hall of Presidents (love it), and then do some shopping on Main Street before heading back to the hotel. We left it open to folks on whether they wanted to head back for the evening. My wife, my younger adult son and myself were the only takers. We ordered the pizza from the Centertown Market at CBR which was… eh, but at $40 to feed the family, a nice reprieve for my wallet. I realized at this point that I was missing my MagicBand (sensing the theme?). I traced back my steps of unloading the rental car, but couldn't find it. I gave the front desk a call and let them know it was missing, and also disabled it in the app. After this, settling-in and eating, we took the bus back to Magic Kingdom to close out the park.

During our break, I had snagged a couple more LL’s: one for Pooh and one for Haunted Mansion (my son’s favorite ride). I really liked the Pooh ride, and it is also way better than the DL version. Longer with better effects. On our way to HM, we walked through Fantasyland proper. As my wife put it: it looked like some weird carnival. At DL, each ride at Fantasyland has its own theme for the entrance and blends in. At WDW, they all have this weird similar theme that just seemed cheap to us. Again, I'd probably chalk it up to unfamiliarity, but it was really odd seeing the entrances to Pier Pan and It's A Small World with similarly themed, large signs.

As for Haunted Mansion: I really liked it, although I prefer the outside of the DL version. The ride is a little longer with an extra M.C .Esher-style room with stairs that I thought was cool. Other than that, it is pretty much the same, minus the Hatbox ghost. I’d call it a tie between the two parks. Although I definitely prefer the Holiday overlay and they don’t get it at WDW.

We ended up staying past close as my wife was taking pictures with her fancy camera. She sells her photography on Etsy and wanted to add some shots from WDW to compliment her Disneyland collection. It’s great taking pictures at night as things close because there are very few folks there. I checked out her photos yesterday and she got some stunners.

Overall thoughts on the park: I’d like to give it another shot, but overall I felt a little disappointed. It felt like a spread-out Disneyland, only unfamiliar with some subpar experiences. I had tried refreshing a ton to get a Peter Pan LL, but was never able to successfully snag one. We’ll probably be back this year though as I absolutely have to ride the TRON ride, as TRON is one of my favorite and most influential movies for me.

Next up, EPCOT!

 

[ComeToSocialize]

Friday, January 6th: Magic Kingdom

First impressions of the park: my younger adult son put it best when he said he felt like he was a tiny person walking down Main Street. I have no idea if the buildings are higher or just further apart, but I had the same exact feeling.

I’m not sure I understand why Jungle Cruise is such a high demand LL at Magic Kingdom.

On our way to HM, we walked through Fantasyland proper. As my wife put it: it looked like some weird carnival. At DL, each ride at Fantasyland has its own theme for the entrance and blends in. At WDW, they all have this weird similar theme that just seemed cheap to us. Again, I'd probably chalk it up to unfamiliarity, but it was really odd seeing the entrances to Pier Pan and It's A Small World with similarly themed, large signs.

Overall thoughts on the park: I’d like to give it another shot, but overall I felt a little disappointed. It felt like a spread-out Disneyland, only unfamiliar with some subpar experiences.

Next up, EPCOT!

Man, this hits my opinion on the Magic Kingdom so perfectly. On the one hand, it's bigger! More space, you can see the castle from a mile away. But despite the size, there's less to do and seems like fewer small details that make Disneyland special.

I totally agree on the theme of Fantasyland being confusing. The Bavarian village theme of DL is just so much more appealing than the Medieval Faire theme of MK. Small world being indoors is a drag. Dumbo being off in a different section takes away much of the ambiance. The teacups being covered is a necessity with the weather, but having them covered and off to the side also subtracts from the ambiance. Fantasyland just doesn't feel right at MK. In DL, when there are 10 attractions within a 50 yard walk of the carousel: Snow white, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Mr Toad, Alice, Dumbo, Casey Jr, Storybook boats, Teacups. At MK, there's no central area like that, it's all spread out. So maybe the crowding is better, but it doesn't feel as vibrant and exciting.

The New Fantasyland expansion with Mine Train and Little Mermaid doesn't really help, as while those are cool attractions, they don't really fit cohesively (it feels like a different land).

Liberty Square doesn't hold a candle to New Orleans Square either... I love just hanging out in New Orleans square and people watching / watching the boats. My favorite thing about Liberty square is pointing out the poop trails on the ground to whoever I am with

Combine that with the individual attractions in MK generally being inferior (other than Splash) and DL is just superior!

 

[KPeterso]

Enjoying your report. I feel a lot like you about MK. I personally often feel like I could skip it completely. It just does not sit with me the way Disneyland does. When I went in March 2021, I seriously considered skipping MK, but since my beloved Disneyland was coming up on a year closed, I needed a little of the Disneyland-like vibe from MK. I far prefer AK and Epcot to MK. And I have warmed up a lot to Hollywood Studios in the last few years.

 

[mouschievous]

Enjoying your report. I feel a lot like you about MK. I personally often feel like I could skip it completely. It just does not sit with me the way Disneyland does. When I went in March 2021, I seriously considered skipping MK, but since my beloved Disneyland was coming up on a year closed, I needed a little of the Disneyland-like vibe from MK. I far prefer AK and Epcot to MK. And I have warmed up a lot to Hollywood Studios in the last few years.

I feel like this, too. We made our first trip to WDW in January and I was so disappointed by MK, to the point that after our MK day I was questioning whether we should have even come. Thankfully, the other 3 parks saved it for me, but I think in the future MK would be a very targeted, strategic park for me, with a focus on the things we can't do at DL (mostly Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, I really loved that one)

 

[GoldeneyezCA]

I posted a Dec 2022 trip report in the WDW Trip Report forum and said something similar. For us, MK‘s fireworks and signature dining are highlights. Otherwise, MK feels like DL without the soul and charm. AK, Epcot, and WWHOP at Universal (especially Hagrid’s Motorbikes and Diagon Alley) are worth the trip to Orlando, but we’ll likely only visit MK in the future to ride Tron!

 

[BrianL]

Friday, January 6th: Magic Kingdom
As mentioned previously, we didn’t get connecting rooms, and we had to make our decision on whether we wanted to go through the hassle of changing. After sleeping on it, I realized how much of a downer the previous night had been with constant knocking on doors and generally feeling like our family had been separated in two. So we woke up pretty early, and we all repacked our stuff, and moved it into the rental car. I realized shortly after 7am that I had forgotten to secure our Seven Dwarves ILL and our first LL choice for Genie+. I managed to secure the ILL and a Jungle Cruise LL for early afternoon.

We had been planning on splurging on a Minnie Van if only because we wanted to be there extra early to make good use of Early entry. Well, even with repacking, thanks to the Minnie Van we managed to get into the parks by 8:45 which was 15 minutes before opening, so it wasn’t a total wash. I must say that the girl driving us was absolutely awesome and talked a little bit about what we might want to check out in the Magic Kingdom as Disneyland regulars.

First impressions of the park: my younger adult son put it best when he said he felt like he was a tiny person walking down Main Street. I have no idea if the buildings are higher or just further apart, but I had the same exact feeling. We laughed, saying that we felt like children because the proportions of everything seemed so much larger. It felt familiar but different at the same time. It was kind of neat but also mildly disturbing, like how in dreams familiar places aren’t quite right.

Tomorrowland
We decided to spend the morning in Tomorrowland, considering most of it was open for Early Entry. First stop was Space Mountain. I’ve posted elsewhere about my Space Mountain feelings, but I have to say that I was extremely disappointed. I had been excited about a new experience, but I felt like the combination of the worse ride system and no magic made the ride seem boring. I had thought we might want to ride it again later to try the other track, but after riding it, most of us were definitely one-and-done. We had planned on hitting the People Mover after, but it had yet to open so we hit Carousel of Progress instead. It was pretty much as I had remembered, although the “future” room is laughably out-of-date. They make a big deal about VR and voice assistants, but you’ll note there are no smartphones to be seen.

After Carousel, we saw that the People Mover was open, so we hopped on that. From what I remember, it is a different system than what we had at Disneyland, but it was still fun and brought back memories. The kids were largely unimpressed, but what are you gonna do. Next up was Monsters Inc: Laugh Floor which, for me, was probably the surprise hit of the park. Of course, I’m a huge Mike Wazowski fan (as evidenced by my avatar pic) and a sucker for the interactive shows, but it was really well done and made us all laugh. Next up we decided to try Buzz, even after hearing it was inferior and guess what? It was inferior. Still, fun to see a different queue and the ride has a few different scenes that were fun.

At this point, my youngest daughter realized her MagicBand was missing. This would become a theme of the trip. My wife checked at Carousel of Progress while I checked at the People Mover. Thankfully it was found at Carousel! With that crisis averted, we headed to Adventureland to hit our Jungle Cruise LL.

Adventureland / Frontierland
Not gonna lie: Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite rides at DL. I’m a sucker for dumb jokes and puns, so I’m here for the Dad Jokes. Because of the LL, we didn’t get to check out most of the queue, but the ride was pretty similar, just a bit longer with an extra scene that takes you into what seems to be a temple of some sort. It wasn’t really compelling, and I’m not sure I understand why Jungle Cruise is such a high demand LL at Magic Kingdom.

At some point, I had grabbed a LL for Big Thunder (my wife’s favorite), so after JC, we slowly made our way over there. Again, the strangeness of seeing familiar sites but in different places was slightly unnerving. BTTR was mostly the same, but some of it was reversed and it didn’t have the added effects, specifically the ones in the dynamite room. The queue though is much more elaborate and I sort of wish we had been able to wait in it. After BTTR, we walked through Frontierland, stopping to watch the Country Bear Jamboree. Like the People Mover and Carousel, I wanted my kids to be able to experience things that had one been at DL. It was fun to watch and my kids thought it was pretty funny at times. Glad we checked it out.

Fantasyland
At this point, we were approaching our reservation for Be Our Guest. My cousin had recommended the Princess lunch in the castle instead, but my girls were pretty set on Be Our Guest. It was a pretty good lunch, but also the most expensive lunch I had ever had. It did come with bread though, so keep hope alive. I ended up with the escargot and some piece of beef, and rather than getting to choose our dessert, we all got a plate with a macaron, the Grey Stuff, and some chocolate ball thing. It was good, but nothing amazing. Oh, we also had requested and got the West Wing at my daughters’ request, but personally, I think I would have rather sat in the main hall.

The timing was perfect as after our lunch was finished, our ILL for Seven Dwarves was up. It’s a really fun, family friendly ride that I recommend. Personally, felt like it’s probably time for it to join the normal Genie+ list, but Disney’s gonna Disney.

At some point, I had gotten a LL for Splash Mountain, so we headed back to Frontierland to ride on that. This is a ride I can definitely say is better at WDW for a few reasons. First, the inside portions are longer and the animatronics are in better shape. Second, the ride vehicle itself is way better as a two-by-two seater instead of the long log at DL. And finally, we didn’t get soaked. No idea if that was a weather thing (although it was a nice mid-70’s) or not, but it was nice to ride it and not be completely soaked. Especially the feet. The ride vehicle seems to protect your feet from getting soaked, which is important at a park where you walk around all day.

Because we wanted to be able to check-in to our new room earlier, we decided to hit the Hall of Presidents (love it), and then do some shopping on Main Street before heading back to the hotel. We left it open to folks on whether they wanted to head back for the evening. My wife, my younger adult son and myself were the only takers. We ordered the pizza from the Centertown Market at CBR which was… eh, but at $40 to feed the family, a nice reprieve for my wallet. I realized at this point that I was missing my MagicBand (sensing the theme?). I traced back my steps of unloading the rental car, but couldn't find it. I gave the front desk a call and let them know it was missing, and also disabled it in the app. After this, settling-in and eating, we took the bus back to Magic Kingdom to close out the park.

During our break, I had snagged a couple more LL’s: one for Pooh and one for Haunted Mansion (my son’s favorite ride). I really liked the Pooh ride, and it is also way better than the DL version. Longer with better effects. On our way to HM, we walked through Fantasyland proper. As my wife put it: it looked like some weird carnival. At DL, each ride at Fantasyland has its own theme for the entrance and blends in. At WDW, they all have this weird similar theme that just seemed cheap to us. Again, I'd probably chalk it up to unfamiliarity, but it was really odd seeing the entrances to Pier Pan and It's A Small World with similarly themed, large signs.

As for Haunted Mansion: I really liked it, although I prefer the outside of the DL version. The ride is a little longer with an extra M.C .Esher-style room with stairs that I thought was cool. Other than that, it is pretty much the same, minus the Hatbox ghost. I’d call it a tie between the two parks. Although I definitely prefer the Holiday overlay and they don’t get it at WDW.

We ended up staying past close as my wife was taking pictures with her fancy camera. She sells her photography on Etsy and wanted to add some shots from WDW to compliment her Disneyland collection. It’s great taking pictures at night as things close because there are very few folks there. I checked out her photos yesterday and she got some stunners.

Overall thoughts on the park: I’d like to give it another shot, but overall I felt a little disappointed. It felt like a spread-out Disneyland, only unfamiliar with some subpar experiences. I had tried refreshing a ton to get a Peter Pan LL, but was never able to successfully snag one. We’ll probably be back this year though as I absolutely have to ride the TRON ride, as TRON is one of my favorite and most influential movies for me.

Next up, EPCOT!

BOG always gives the same desert to everybody - you get all three items.

MK HM is getting Hatbox Ghost, which will put it well ahead of the DL version. I actually like the house better at MK, but I wish you could see it better. It is cool to walk in the actual front door at DL.

Some of why MK Fantasyland is the way that is is is because of the heat. The queus had to be covered, hence why IASW is pushed back into a building. At DL with SoCal weather you can just have those uncovered chain-mazes, but it would be murder in Orlando in the summer.

I do think 7DMT will become part of regular Genie+once TRON opens as it will surely take the ILL$ spot. With Splash closing (and yeah, MK version is way better and the boats don't take on water!), they will need the bandwidth.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Really loving this perspective having done the opposite last year

 

[MonocularVision]

Saturday, January 7th: EPCOT
I’ll start by saying that I have always equated Walt Disney World with the iconic Spaceship Earth ride (the gigantic silver ball) at EPCOT. So out of all the parks, I was most excited about visiting EPCOT, regardless of its actual offerings. We were also excited about our first ride on the Skyliner. Our new rooms were in building 56 (in the Aruba neighborhood) which was maybe a 2 minute walk to the Riviera Skyliner station. Our main focus of the day was the Ratatouille ride and the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. Our plan of attack was to shoot for the VQ for Guardians and rope-drop Ratatouille since the Skyliner entrance at EPCOT is very close and we had Early Entry. We got BG 6 and in a panic, I ended up getting Ratatouille as our first Genie+ pick. I later realized I should have probably shot for something else like Frozen or Test Track since we were rope dropping Remi’s.

Before leaving, we received a call from the Front desk that my Magic Band had been found! I made a quick trip to the front desk (not a short walk), and picked it up. The CM at the front desk said that if it hadn’t been found, I should just come see him and he’d let me go pick one up at the store and credit my account. That was pretty cool!

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
After boarding the Skyliner (which was seriously one of the highlights of the trip… I don’t know why we love gondolas so much), we got to EPCOT right around 9am, which was 30 minutes before Early Entry opening. There was already a pretty decent line, but we thought we’d be ok, which we were. After entering, we went right for Remy’s and waited for exactly 12 minutes before we got on. It was a pretty fun dark ride that uses a trackless system. The only bummer for me is that it uses 3D glasses, which I hate. In case it wasn’t obvious from my avatar and username, I only have one functioning eye so 3D movies and rides usually mean I put some ill-fitting glasses over my prescription glasses and experience a darkened 2D image. Yay.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
We were off with about 10 minutes until opening, so we started making our way to Guardians since we expected our BG to be called pretty quickly. Again, we experienced the incredible size of the WDW Resort in our walk. It felt like we walked from one end of CA to the other end of DL. We stopped along the way at a shop to browse the merchandise and our BG was called. We continued along, scanned our BG groups and experienced one of the most fun thrill rides I have ever experienced. I don’t think I stopped smiling from the very first launch to the end. Just an incredibly fun coaster that is, in my opinion, the best Disney coaster I’ve ever ridden. The kids were in love as well. My wife…. Eh, she wasn’t quite expecting to be thrilled so much (she loves every ride at DL except Incredicoaster and Guardians), so we’ll say she didn’t have as good of a time as everyone else.

Lunch: Connections Cafe
After the ride, it was a little after 11 and folks were already saying they were hungry so we checked out the menu at Connections Cafe quick service. We were pleasantly surprised by the offering and the food. We’ve heard such terrible things about QS at WDW, but this place at least wasn’t bad. We hit the shop nearby (I think it might also be called Connections) for a bit of browsing and then headed to the thing I had been most excited about: The Gigantic Silver Ball.

Spaceship Earth
Before riding though, we decided to take a few of the Photopass shots at the EPCOT entrance. We took the Tiny World and Super Zoom Magic Shot offered, which are pretty fun. We also saw a regular photographer to do a “normal” shot. With some family shots in hand, we got into the line for Spaceship Earth and barely waited in any line. My impression: it was pretty great. While it’s obviously a bit dated, the scenes were still fun to watch and that general feeling of traveling up a bit sphere is cool. The special effects they have near the end were more impressive than I expected as well. Sadly enough, the feature for getting your picture didn’t seem to be working at all for anyone. After leaving, it was at this point that I realized…. my MagicBand had fallen off again. Feels at this point that there is just a design flaw with these things. I have no problems with my Apple Watch with a similar band.

Mission: Space
While we were still close enough, we decided to try out Mission Space. Knowing that the “orange” version might be too much for us, we all did the blue version, which was still a fun experience. But after riding it, I knew immediately I’d have to do the orange one as well. I can’t remember if we had a LL for this ride. In fact, I’m having a hard time remembering the exact order of how/when I got various LL. I think two hours after opening, I was still able to get my first LL for Frozen and then a couple hours after that I refreshed my way into Test Track, so I don’t think we had a LL for Mission Space, but regardless there was essentially no line for the blue side, so we had walked right on.

Test Track
Afterwards, we walked over to the other side of whatever gigantic construction project they have going on to ride “The Seas” but it was closed by the time we got there. We waited a while, but it didn’t reopen, and in fact it never reopened that day. Rejected, we headed back to Test Track to use the LL, but on the way I stopped at Guest Services and whaddya know, they have my MagicBand! Test Track ended up being more fun than I imagined, especially with how folks compare it to RSR. It was a little more thrilling, but obviously not as well themed. My kids designed the absolute most ridiculous cars they could. I should post the pics.

The Figment Abomination
I don’t even remember the name of the actual ride. All I can say is…what the hell, Disney. How does this thing stay open? I cannot believe this was really a ride that the Disney company ever opened.

Living with the Land / Soarin’
We weren’t planning on riding Soarin’, but because EPCOT doesn’t have a huge number of attractions, I managed to pick up a LL, so we thought we’d check out the two rides in this area of the park. Living with the Land is … in fact a ride they offer. I’m not sure what much else to say. And Soarin’ was obviously identical ride wise, but the entrance and queue was fun to see. The overall theming of the gigantic hangar makes more sense at CA though.

Mission Space (again)
We had a bit more time before Frozen became available so we decided that three of us would go on the orange mission. I think I had snagged a LL, but it wasn’t necessary as the orange line had shrunk by the time we rode it. Unfortunately, in the video / pre-show area, we ended up just standing and standing and standing for a very long time. Then, when we were finally let in, we were seated into the ship, it was closed… and then we say there for a very long time. At this point, I felt I had made a truly terrible mistake. I kept joking with my son about the switches and pretending to preparing for launch, but I was mostly doing it to avoid a near panic attack. Finally, it started up and while the g-forces are pretty high, I was happy to find that I couldn’t even tell it was simulated using spinning. If you keep your head forward as instructed, it really does feel like you’re taking off and not that you are spinning in a circle. Ultimately, glad I experienced it and might try it again some time.

Frozen
I didn’t realize until after that this was a retheme of an existing ride, but I was very pleasantly surprised! There’s sort of a twist to this log ride half-way through that really surprised me, so make sure to check it out. We bought a bunch of European chocolate in the shop afterwards, which we ended up eating the rest of the trip. We also picked up some Chinese food nearby QS style and again, it wasn’t too bad. Two for Two on QS at the parks at this point. I should also mention that the original LL I had picked up for Remy's was unfortunately timed at essentially the same time as this one, so we ended up having to pass on it.

My wife wanted to take some pics at night so the four kids headed back to the room via Skyliner while we stuck around a bit longer for pics. We wanted to be heading out right before the show started though so we wouldn’t get caught in a mass exodus and possible line to the Skyliner. I got some ice cream in the France section and my wife got an Ice Cream martini. I really enjoyed my ice cream but the Ice Cream Martini ended up being, and I kid you not, ice cream scooped into a martini glass with pure vodka poured on top. She wasn’t a real big fan.

Overall, I enjoyed EPCOT. We learned partway through the day that we could have also purchased an ILL for Guardians in addition to using the VQ so we could ride it twice. Our 5th day reservation was EPCOT, but we weren’t sure if that’s the park we’d want to come back to even though we had a Space 220 restaurant reservation, but figured if we did, we’d definitely hit the ride twice.

Ok, Day 2 in the parks done, tomorrow is California Adventure Hollywood Studios!

 

[BrianL]

If you walked from Ratatouille to Cosmic Reqind, you probably walked more than the full length from the back of CA to the back of DL. Epcot is HUGE!

Figment used to be better when it first opened. It's been through a couple of changes over the years, including a version without Figment. It's too bad it's not like the original anymore. I still don't hate it, but mostly because it has Eric idle in it.

 

[Kerr84]

Saturday, January 7th: EPCOT
I’ll start by saying that I have always equated Walt Disney World with the iconic Spaceship Earth ride (the gigantic silver ball) at EPCOT. So out of all the parks, I was most excited about visiting EPCOT, regardless of its actual offerings. We were also excited about our first ride on the Skyliner. Our new rooms were in building 56 (in the Aruba neighborhood) which was maybe a 2 minute walk to the Riviera Skyliner station. Our main focus of the day was the Ratatouille ride and the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. Our plan of attack was to shoot for the VQ for Guardians and rope-drop Ratatouille since the Skyliner entrance at EPCOT is very close and we had Early Entry. We got BG 6 and in a panic, I ended up getting Ratatouille as our first Genie+ pick. I later realized I should have probably shot for something else like Frozen or Test Track since we were rope dropping Remi’s.

Before leaving, we received a call from the Front desk that my Magic Band had been found! I made a quick trip to the front desk (not a short walk), and picked it up. The CM at the front desk said that if it hadn’t been found, I should just come see him and he’d let me go pick one up at the store and credit my account. That was pretty cool!

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
After boarding the Skyliner (which was seriously one of the highlights of the trip… I don’t know why we love gondolas so much), we got to EPCOT right around 9am, which was 30 minutes before Early Entry opening. There was already a pretty decent line, but we thought we’d be ok, which we were. After entering, we went right for Remy’s and waited for exactly 12 minutes before we got on. It was a pretty fun dark ride that uses a trackless system. The only bummer for me is that it uses 3D glasses, which I hate. In case it wasn’t obvious from my avatar and username, I only have one functioning eye so 3D movies and rides usually mean I put some ill-fitting glasses over my prescription glasses and experience a darkened 2D image. Yay.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
We were off with about 10 minutes until opening, so we started making our way to Guardians since we expected our BG to be called pretty quickly. Again, we experienced the incredible size of the WDW Resort in our walk. It felt like we walked from one end of CA to the other end of DL. We stopped along the way at a shop to browse the merchandise and our BG was called. We continued along, scanned our BG groups and experienced one of the most fun thrill rides I have ever experienced. I don’t think I stopped smiling from the very first launch to the end. Just an incredibly fun coaster that is, in my opinion, the best Disney coaster I’ve ever ridden. The kids were in love as well. My wife…. Eh, she wasn’t quite expecting to be thrilled so much (she loves every ride at DL except Incredicoaster and Guardians), so we’ll say she didn’t have as good of a time as everyone else.

Lunch: Connections Cafe
After the ride, it was a little after 11 and folks were already saying they were hungry so we checked out the menu at Connections Cafe quick service. We were pleasantly surprised by the offering and the food. We’ve heard such terrible things about QS at WDW, but this place at least wasn’t bad. We hit the shop nearby (I think it might also be called Connections) for a bit of browsing and then headed to the thing I had been most excited about: The Gigantic Silver Ball.

Spaceship Earth
Before riding though, we decided to take a few of the Photopass shots at the EPCOT entrance. We took the Tiny World and Super Zoom Magic Shot offered, which are pretty fun. We also saw a regular photographer to do a “normal” shot. With some family shots in hand, we got into the line for Spaceship Earth and barely waited in any line. My impression: it was pretty great. While it’s obviously a bit dated, the scenes were still fun to watch and that general feeling of traveling up a bit sphere is cool. The special effects they have near the end were more impressive than I expected as well. Sadly enough, the feature for getting your picture didn’t seem to be working at all for anyone. After leaving, it was at this point that I realized…. my MagicBand had fallen off again. Feels at this point that there is just a design flaw with these things. I have no problems with my Apple Watch with a similar band.

Mission: Space
While we were still close enough, we decided to try out Mission Space. Knowing that the “orange” version might be too much for us, we all did the blue version, which was still a fun experience. But after riding it, I knew immediately I’d have to do the orange one as well. I can’t remember if we had a LL for this ride. In fact, I’m having a hard time remembering the exact order of how/when I got various LL. I think two hours after opening, I was still able to get my first LL for Frozen and then a couple hours after that I refreshed my way into Test Track, so I don’t think we had a LL for Mission Space, but regardless there was essentially no line for the blue side, so we had walked right on.

Test Track
Afterwards, we walked over to the other side of whatever gigantic construction project they have going on to ride “The Seas” but it was closed by the time we got there. We waited a while, but it didn’t reopen, and in fact it never reopened that day. Rejected, we headed back to Test Track to use the LL, but on the way I stopped at Guest Services and whaddya know, they have my MagicBand! Test Track ended up being more fun than I imagined, especially with how folks compare it to RSR. It was a little more thrilling, but obviously not as well themed. My kids designed the absolute most ridiculous cars they could. I should post the pics.

The Figment Abomination
I don’t even remember the name of the actual ride. All I can say is…what the hell, Disney. How does this thing stay open? I cannot believe this was really a ride that the Disney company ever opened.

Living with the Land / Soarin’
We weren’t planning on riding Soarin’, but because EPCOT doesn’t have a huge number of attractions, I managed to pick up a LL, so we thought we’d check out the two rides in this area of the park. Living with the Land is … in fact a ride they offer. I’m not sure what much else to say. And Soarin’ was obviously identical ride wise, but the entrance and queue was fun to see. The overall theming of the gigantic hangar makes more sense at CA though.

Mission Space (again)
We had a bit more time before Frozen became available so we decided that three of us would go on the orange mission. I think I had snagged a LL, but it wasn’t necessary as the orange line had shrunk by the time we rode it. Unfortunately, in the video / pre-show area, we ended up just standing and standing and standing for a very long time. Then, when we were finally let in, we were seated into the ship, it was closed… and then we say there for a very long time. At this point, I felt I had made a truly terrible mistake. I kept joking with my son about the switches and pretending to preparing for launch, but I was mostly doing it to avoid a near panic attack. Finally, it started up and while the g-forces are pretty high, I was happy to find that I couldn’t even tell it was simulated using spinning. If you keep your head forward as instructed, it really does feel like you’re taking off and not that you are spinning in a circle. Ultimately, glad I experienced it and might try it again some time.

Frozen
I didn’t realize until after that this was a retheme of an existing ride, but I was very pleasantly surprised! There’s sort of a twist to this log ride half-way through that really surprised me, so make sure to check it out. We bought a bunch of European chocolate in the shop afterwards, which we ended up eating the rest of the trip. We also picked up some Chinese food nearby QS style and again, it wasn’t too bad. Two for Two on QS at the parks at this point. I should also mention that the original LL I had picked up for Remy's was unfortunately timed at essentially the same time as this one, so we ended up having to pass on it.

My wife wanted to take some pics at night so the four kids headed back to the room via Skyliner while we stuck around a bit longer for pics. We wanted to be heading out right before the show started though so we wouldn’t get caught in a mass exodus and possible line to the Skyliner. I got some ice cream in the France section and my wife got an Ice Cream martini. I really enjoyed my ice cream but the Ice Cream Martini ended up being, and I kid you not, ice cream scooped into a martini glass with pure vodka poured on top. She wasn’t a real big fan.

Overall, I enjoyed EPCOT. We learned partway through the day that we could have also purchased an ILL for Guardians in addition to using the VQ so we could ride it twice. Our 5th day reservation was EPCOT, but we weren’t sure if that’s the park we’d want to come back to even though we had a Space 220 restaurant reservation, but figured if we did, we’d definitely hit the ride twice.

Ok, Day 2 in the parks done, tomorrow is California Adventure Hollywood Studios!

You are cracking me up! I'm enjoying reading your report. Figment is really terrible, but so nostalgic! And Living with the Land is always a favorite for us!

 

[irlandaise]

The Figment Abomination
I don’t even remember the name of the actual ride. All I can say is…what the hell, Disney. How does this thing stay open? I cannot believe this was really a ride that the Disney company ever opened.

As long as you're only dissing the ride and not Figment himself, we're good.

 

[Lisa24jks]

As long as you're only dissing the ride and not Figment himself, we're good.

I've been trying this week (since the return of his popcorn buckets) to figure out what the DLR equivalent of Figment would be. As in "a thing that is near and dear to people who have that as their home park, but people from the opposite coast don't quite understand".

Like, DLR is my home park, and I've only been to WDW once when I was 12, so I don't remember Figment or have any attachment to that character at all. So I don't want to hijack MonocularVision's fantastic post, but I am wondering, what is the DLR thing that we're all attached to that makes WDW people go "huh???".

 

[BrianL]

I've been trying this week (since the return of his popcorn buckets) to figure out what the DLR equivalent of Figment would be. As in "a thing that is near and dear to people who have that as their home park, but people from the opposite coast don't quite understand".

Like, DLR is my home park, and I've only been to WDW once when I was 12, so I don't remember Figment or have any attachment to that character at all. So I don't want to hijack MonocularVision's fantastic post, but I am wondering, what is the DLR thing that we're all attached to that makes WDW people go "huh???".

I've noticed that Oswald seems pretty big at DLR but not so mcuh at WDW - that may be a good choice.

 

[chezcurrie]

The figment abomination. I die. On my Oct trip with my sis I was soooo excited to go on that ride. She played along having been on it before and the look I gave her afterward caused her to burst into laughing tears. So so wrong. LOL

Can’t wait for your Space 220 review - it was a highlight of our trip. And agree on Guardians, OMG that ride is fantastic!!!!

 

[Lisa24jks]

I've noticed that Oswald seems pretty big at DLR but not so mcuh at WDW - that may be a good choice.

Good point. I think us DLR people cling to a lot of the history and vintage things in ways that WDW people might not and some of us (not me) love to point out that this is the park that Walt walked in when the DLR vs WDW argument comes up. So, it's not that WDW people don't appreciate that history - many of them do - they just don't cling to it in the way that a lot of DLR people do.

 

[irlandaise]

I've been trying this week (since the return of his popcorn buckets) to figure out what the DLR equivalent of Figment would be. As in "a thing that is near and dear to people who have that as their home park, but people from the opposite coast don't quite understand".

Like, DLR is my home park, and I've only been to WDW once when I was 12, so I don't remember Figment or have any attachment to that character at all. So I don't want to hijack MonocularVision's fantastic post, but I am wondering, what is the DLR thing that we're all attached to that makes WDW people go "huh???".

Hah, good point! We do have our local favorites.

As for me, I'm a native Californian and have been going to Disneyland for more than 60 years. I was well into my 30s before I ever visited WDW, shortly after Epcot opened. But I immediately took to Figment. I mean, how can you not love a purple dragon???

I often hear people mention Mr. Toad's Wild Ride as a nostalgic must-do at DLR, but many people still remember that from when it was at WDW, so it isn't quite the same situation as the WDW-only Figment and WDW regulars probably wouldn't go "Huh??" at it.

 

[Kerr84]

Hah, good point! We do have our local favorites.

As for me, I'm a native Californian and have been going to Disneyland for more than 60 years. I was well into my 30s before I ever visited WDW, shortly after Epcot opened. But I immediately took to Figment. I mean, how can you not love a purple dragon???

I often hear people mention Mr. Toad's Wild Ride as a nostalgic must-do at DLR, but many people still remember that from when it was at WDW, so it isn't quite the same situation as the WDW-only Figment and WDW regulars probably wouldn't go "Huh??" at it.

Mr. Toad’s is great even without nostalgia! Just ask my then 3 year old! Drive a car straight to hell? Sign her up!