Florida Trip

[MoeTE87]

Hope you and the family are having a blast! That is pretty funny, I got the Grumpy one as well for myself!

[MoeTE87]

wtwo3 How's the week been so far down in Disney?

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by MoeTE87

wtwo3 How's the week been so far down in Disney?

The week has been super smooth... definitely my smoothest Disney experiences thus far. Also exhausting. We've covered about 50 miles of walking over the past 6 days.

[MoeTE87]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

The week has been super smooth... definitely my smoothest Disney experiences thus far. Also exhausting. We've covered about 50 miles of walking over the past 6 days.

That is great to hear! My daughter is very excited and has a countdown going! How do you like staying at Animal Kingdom?

I wouldn't doubt the amount of walking. It is safe to assume I will be walking over 10k-15k steps each day.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by MoeTE87

That is great to hear! My daughter is very excited and has a countdown going! How do you like staying at Animal Kingdom?

I wouldn't doubt the amount of walking. It is safe to assume I will be walking over 10k-15k steps each day.

Animal kingdom is really nice, but I don't have anything to compare it to other than the cheap hotels I used to stay at off property in the past. So compared to those it's super nice. The room themes are really well done. The only issue I'd say is that it's a bit far from most of the parks and the bus rides can be cumbersome especially at night leave the park when you're exhausted. But then again lugging around a stroller and a heavy diaper bag and a toddler that who doesn't like to sit in one place would probably make any situation cumbersome.

I'll write up a longer post about what I've learned when we get back home (flying back tomorrow). I felt we really optimized usage of the genie+. We barely stood in any lines all week and that greatly made for a smoother trip.

[Alfisti]

So once the holiday is over you can relax.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

So once the holiday is over you can relax.

Amen

[MoeTE87]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

Animal kingdom is really nice, but I don't have anything to compare it to other than the cheap hotels I used to stay at off property in the past. So compared to those it's super nice. The room themes are really well done. The only issue I'd say is that it's a bit far from most of the parks and the bus rides can be cumbersome especially at night leave the park when you're exhausted. But then again lugging around a stroller and a heavy diaper bag and a toddler that who doesn't like to sit in one place would probably make any situation cumbersome.

I'll write up a longer post about what I've learned when we get back home (flying back tomorrow). I felt we really optimized usage of the genie+. We barely stood in any lines all week and that greatly made for a smoother trip.

Looking forward to that post! Have a great last day!

Let me know any tips and tricks with the Genie+ and the other one that is needed to skip the lines. Wife is kinda worried we wont get it. lol

[bucketfoot]

Looking forward to the recap. We’re still here for 3 more nights. Best weather we’ve had for a WDW trip!

[wtwo3]

Finally back home after a whirlwind of a week. I have to say, this has been the smoothest and by far most enjoyable Disney trip I've ever taken. I went from dreading Disney due to past experiences there to actually enjoying it.

Before I get into the recap, here's some tips that really helped make this trip so much smoother than past experiences:

1) Hire a vacation planner. They're free to us (Disney pays them if we book through them) and often times they can handle a lot of the background details that would otherwise be cumbersome. I have to give a HUGE shoutout to our vacation planner - Annaliese from The Vacationeer. She was extremely helpful and patient in answering all of our questions. The icing on the cake was the gift basket she sent to our room full of gifts/toys for the kids.



2) Make sure to get your dining reservations in 2 months before your date of arrival. Lots of the premium dining experiences book up FAST. However if you're unable to get something, sometimes you can get lucky with same-day reservations - they often have cancellations as people book multiple reservations at the same time. TYPICALLY the premium dining options have significantly better quality food than the quick-service restaurants. That being said, I wouldn't do more than 1 premium dining option a day - they're time consuming and outrageously expensive.

3) Standby vs. Genie+ vs. Lightning Lane vs. virtual queue. Disney world makes this all very confusing. So here goes:
Standby: This is just the normal queue line for any given ride where you go and wait in line. These can range from 5 minutes to 2 hours depending on the ride and time of day.
Genie+: This is a service you have to purchase the morning of (technically you can make the purchase at midnight the day of the specific park you're visiting, but we didn't find this to be necessary). Usually these can range from $15-$20/person for the entire day. This gives you the option to get a Lightning lane (fast pass) for any ride that offers that option. There is an art to using it though and a few rules. What worked for us was - purchase the Genie+ before 7am the morning of the park visit, and then by 7am make our first ride selection. Assuming you're able to book Genie+ for that ride, it'll then assign you a time-window for when you can show up and ride, skipping the line (1 hour window). Once we'd check in to the ride, we'd immediately begin looking to book our next Genie+ for another ride. Using this method we were able to skip almost all lines. You just have to make sure you remember to stay on it and book the next as you use them (you can't have 2 simultaneous bookings - you have to book one ride at a time and can't book the 2nd ride until you've checked in to the first one).
Lightning Lane: This is the fast line which allows you to skip the long standby lines. There's 2 ways to get into this line - 1) by booking the Genie+ option or 2) by actually purchasing a lightning lane pass. We found that option 2 we had to use for the extremely popular rides (i.e. Tron & Guardians of the Galaxy) as the virtual queues for those rides would get booked up immediately.
Virtual Queue: A few select rides had a "virtual queue" - meaning the only way to ride those rides was to either get in the virtual queue or purchase a lightning lane pass. The issue with this virtual queue is that it gets booked up almost immediately - first opening is at 7am and the next opening is at 1pm. You have to have a quick trigger to book it, we were unsuccessful so we ended up purchasing the lightning lanes for those rides (Tron & Guardians of the Galaxy).

4) Make sure you wear comfortable shoes. I made the big mistake of going with a brand new pair of shoes which hadn't been broken in yet, and by day 2 my feet were in so much pain that I ended up switching to flip flops for the rest of the trip. We logged 59 miles of walking over 7 days, and that included 2 rest days. Each park day was easily 10-12 miles worth of walking.

5) Regarding small children - we were able to successfully get by not having to go back to the resort mid-day to take a nap break. My son (22 months) was able to nap in the stroller without issue. While his naps weren't as long as they usually would if he had a proper place to nap, he did fine for the trip. Going back to the resort to take a nap would have meant a 3-4 hour interruption in the day, and since we had limited time, we pushed through and it worked out for us.

6) Don't hesitate to put older children in a stroller. My daughter is 6 and hasn't used a stroller in about 3 years. However on the 3rd park day, she ran out of gas and shut down towards the end of the evening. Ended up vomiting and couldn't go any longer. We ended up having to put her in my son's stroller while I carried him. So on the final park day, we rented a stroller for her and that worked out much better.

7) Have a general awareness of ride preference/priority before each park day. How your day progresses will inevitably come down to which rides are busy and which ones you're able to book Genie+ for, but having knowledge of which rides are worth it or not will help you make quick decisions. Just because you can get into a ride immediately doesn't mean it's worth a cross-park walk.

8) Make good use of the Disney App. The Disney App will be your source of booking Genie+, and having the map with real-time wait times is a huge help. Sometimes your Genie+ booking won't be for another couple hours, so getting on rides with minimal waits to fill that time will come down to navigating the app successfully.

9) Disney is expensive... and having a smooth and pleasant experience at Disney is going to cost a pretty penny. If you're constantly worried about money, you won't have a good time. So make sure you have sufficient finances above and beyond just the cost of the flights/resort/park tickets. For 1 week, my family of 3 (my son doesn't count since he's less than 2 years old), we spent about $3k in food/miscellaneous purchases above the typical flight/resort/park tickets/airport transfers etc. All in this trip was roughly $12k.

If you guys have any other questions feel free to ask while it's still fresh in my mind. And with that - On to the daily recap:

Day 1: Arrival

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village. The rooms were huge - we had a large 2 bedroom, 3 full bath villa with living/dining/kitchen, and an in-unit washer/dryer. The resort itself felt very warm and "homey" - which I much preferred over something like the contemporary resort which felt a bit cold and sterile. They also did a really good job with the overall theme of it. The icing on the cake was the savannah view - we would wake up and see giraffes and zebras and other random animals essentially in our backyard.

Our first night we had dinner at "Boma - Flavors of Africa". This is a buffet style restaurant with "African Inspired" menu items. The food was great, but it's insanely expensive for a buffet. I wouldn't have gone there if it wasn't for the fact that it's right on property.

[wtwo3]

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

This was my first time ever at Animal Kingdom, and it was pretty enjoyable. They had a pretty good selection of rides.

Notable Rides:
Avatar - Flight of Passage: This ride was pretty fun, but ultimately just a 3D screen with moving seat. It's worth it if you can secure a Genie+ spot.

Kilimanjaro Safari: A fun little bus ride through the savannah with some impressive animals including giraffes, elephants, and even lions. Was pretty easy to get a Genie+ booking for it.

Na'vi River Journey: A dark boat ride through the world of Avatar. The visuals are pretty awesome with lots of glow in the dark props that makes it quite "magical".

Dinosaur: I love dinosaurs so this was a fun ride - but definitely a bit scary for youngsters. My daughter was terrified of the life-like dinosaurs that looked like they were trying to eat us. It's also really dark.

Dining:
That evening we had dinner at Tiffin restaurant. The food there was pretty delicious with an Indo-African inspired menu. Expensive, but worth it IMO.







Day 3: Epcot

Good old Epcot has been upgraded with the addition of Guardians of the Galaxy which in my opinion was the best ride in all of Disney World. And the world locations never get old.

Notable Rides:

Guardians of the Galaxy - Cosmic Rewind: Don't want to spoil it, but I absolutely loved it. We couldn't get into the virtual queue for it, so ended up buying lightning lanes (which were also going quick) - so make sure you book asap on the day of. It's an indoor rollercoaster but the combination of visuals and music and general speed make it a hit.

Soarin: This is a pretty old ride. It's turned into "Soarin over California" now (probably sponsored by California). It's still a fun ride but it's a "been there done that" type of situation. If you can get a Genie+ spot then it's worth checking out.

Spaceship Earth: Another Disney World staple - it's not anything exciting - basically tells human history with animatronic figures as you ride through the large golf ball. It tells a bit of a Euro-Centric history, but it's still a nice ride and relatively easy to get a Genie+ spot for.

Turtle Walk with Crush: This isn't a ride but a show/performance. Crush from Finding Nemo interacts with the audience and he's a fan favorite - the kid absolutely loved him and adults will find it entertaining as well.

Mission Space: This one has 2 options - the orange ride or the green ride. Don't do the orange ride - unless you're an astronaut or a fighter pilot or an F1 driver. Just don't.... you won't have a good time and it can potentially ruin the rest of your day. I didn't do it this trip, but on a previous Disney trip I did the orange ride and if it wasn't for the fact that I was a teenager who could easily bounce back from that experience, it would have ruined my day.


Dining:

We had a late lunch at Space 220. The food was ok, but the overall experience and ambiance was incredible. Highly recommended for the experience alone.

[wtwo3]

Day 4: Rest Day/Disney Springs

After 2 absolutely exhausting days a rest day was needed. We slept in a bit, did an early lunch at a restaurant on property called "Sanaa" which was an indian/african fusion restaurant. Food was really good but service was slowwww.

In the evening we ventured out to Disney Springs for some shopping and had dinner at T-Rex restaurant - a sort of Dinosaur themed Rainforest Cafe. The food was actually not bad, and the best thing of all - it was cheap! By far the cheapest meal of the trip.


Day 5: Magic Kingdom

This was the big day - what my daughter was looking forward to since we told her about Disney plans last November.

Notable Rides:

Tron: I have to say, the build-up to this ride is epic - the structures/ambiance coupled with the music just really pumps you up to get on. The ride itself is good but short. This is another ride where you have to either do virtual queue or pay for a lightning lane.

Space Mountain: Unfortunately we didn't get to ride it as it was towards the end of the day and the ride was shut down for maintenance during our time to get on - but it's an older coaster.

It's a small world: This is a classic ride - I almost feel no trip to Disney is complete without getting on this. Wait times even without signing up for Genie+ are usually pretty short.

Peter Pan: Another classic ride that's fun/quirky as you "glide" through the air

Haunted Mansion: Another ride that was closed due to maintenance when we wanted to get on, so we had to skip it. But it's a fun ride if you get the chance to get on.

Big Thunder Mountain: This is a pretty fun coaster

Pirates of the Caribbean: It's nothing special but for some reason I really enjoy this ride


Dining:

Cindarella's Royal Table for lunch. My daughter was absolutely ecstatic about this and mentioned this being her favorite part of the entire Disney experience. Once our table was ready, we first got to meet Cindarella before taking an elevator up to the dining area. During the meal they announced various different princesses who would come around and meet every guest and snap pictures. The food itself was good as well - It's expensive but a great experience.

For dinner we went to Be our Guest restaurant. This was hit or miss. The ambiance was really nice, but the food was just ok. I'd probably skip this next time.

[wtwo3]

Day 6: Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was probably my least favorite of the parks - and I think it's mainly because I'm not into Star Wars. If you're into Star Wars, I can imagine it's pretty incredible. The Star Wars area is really well done and makes you feel like you're on another planet.

Toy Story World is also really well done and really comes alive at night. Overall the themes are nice, but I felt the rides were a little lacking.

Notable Rides:

Star Wars, Rise of the Resistance: This was a pretty fun ride - and if you're into Star Wars, I'd imagine a huge treat. It's quite immersive.

Tower of Terror: Easily my favorite ride at Hollywood Studios. I also happen to love the old Twilight Zone show, so that helps

Millennium Falcon, Smugglers Run: This ride was a bit underwhelming - more or less just felt like we were playing a videogame.

Fantasmic: Ok so this isn't a ride, it's the show/theater that ends the day at the park. But I have to say it's a must watch. It's pretty spectacular and very well done.

Dining:

We had dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine in Theater. I have to say, while the ambiance was really cool and the food pretty good, the service was very iffy. The hostess was pretty rude and awkward - We honestly couldn't tell if it was part of some act or if she was actually just being rude. The other servers weren't very warm or friendly either. So that sort of dampened the mood with that meal.












Day 7: Rest Day

We decided to squeeze in another rest day before heading home so that we had time to do laundry and pack and just relax. That evening we had dinner at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. The food was pretty mediocre, but Mickey and all his friends came to each table so the kids had a blast. It was a nice little end to the trip.



And that's about it. Overall an excellent trip. Thanks everyone here for your advice and words of encouragement. We'll probably do Disney again in a few years once my son is older, but this time we'll be even more prepared.

[Alfisti]

Great write up and looks/sounds like the family had a blast

[MoeTE87]

Awesome write up! Lots of places you mentioned for dinner / food we have a reservation for so it's nice to see your take on each place.

We will be there in about 19 days. Hopefully with some great cool weather.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by MoeTE87

Awesome write up! Lots of places you mentioned for dinner / food we have a reservation for so it's nice to see your take on each place.

We will be there in about 19 days. Hopefully with some great cool weather.

Awesome! Excited to hear about your experience. Yeah the weather couldn't have been more perfect for us. A bit chilly in the early mornings and late evenings.... and perfect in the afternoons. So I'd wear a tshirt and jeans and a sweatshirt over it for when it got a little chilly.

[bucketfoot]

Overall it sounds like you were just able to kind of go with the flow and let Disney do what they do best.

Character meals are definitely something you go to for seeing the characters, not the food quality. But the enjoyment the kids get makes it worthwhile.

After our savanna view stay at Animal Kingdom, we’ve already decided we will need to modify our upcoming stay for our daughter’s wedding in November to also have a savanna view. That just makes the stay there.

We switched to the Grand Floridian half way through our trip and it’s a completely different feel. I liked the calmness at AKV but being right on the monorail line at VGF is a definite plus.

Our biggest surprise on this trip so far was dinner at Steakhouse 71. While the steaks weren’t as good as some of the higher end steakhouses, the value was much better. Basically under $40 for everything we ordered versus $50-60 at someplace like Le Cellier.

Overall glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. We most definitely have enjoyed ours and are already looking forward to coming back in November.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by bucketfoot

Overall it sounds like you were just able to kind of go with the flow and let Disney do what they do best.

Character meals are definitely something you go to for seeing the characters, not the food quality. But the enjoyment the kids get makes it worthwhile.

After our savanna view stay at Animal Kingdom, we’ve already decided we will need to modify our upcoming stay for our daughter’s wedding in November to also have a savanna view. That just makes the stay there.

We switched to the Grand Floridian half way through our trip and it’s a completely different feel. I liked the calmness at AKV but being right on the monorail line at VGF is a definite plus.

Our biggest surprise on this trip so far was dinner at Steakhouse 71. While the steaks weren’t as good as some of the higher end steakhouses, the value was much better. Basically under $40 for everything we ordered versus $50-60 at someplace like Le Cellier.

Overall glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. We most definitely have enjoyed ours and are already looking forward to coming back in November.

Wow coming back in November. I think we're Disney'd out for now. We're talking about possibly going back in 4-5 years once our son is old enough to enjoy it too.

[MoeTE87]

The wife and I are avid coffee drinkers. Is there a "must" place to go or several "must" places to go for great specialty coffee?

Our bands should be here by the weekend. My daughter is getting very excited! Seems like every morning she is wanting to watch Disney videos!

Ps: She loved your pictures that you shared above! Thank you!

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by MoeTE87

The wife and I are avid coffee drinkers. Is there a "must" place to go or several "must" places to go for great specialty coffee?

Our bands should be here by the weekend. My daughter is getting very excited! Seems like every morning she is wanting to watch Disney videos!

Ps: She loved your pictures that you shared above! Thank you!

We unfortunately didn't find any good "must" go to coffee places anywhere. Most of the coffee around the resort area was just your standard stuff - and in the parks you'd have either Starbucks or Joffrey coffee.

Glad you guys are getting excited!

[MoeTE87]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

We unfortunately didn't find any good "must" go to coffee places anywhere. Most of the coffee around the resort area was just your standard stuff - and in the parks you'd have either Starbucks or Joffrey coffee.

Glad you guys are getting excited!

Thank you for that. I saw there was a Starbucks and a Joffrey coffee there and figured both will be insanely packed. Will just have to look and see when we walk by. Might bring some Celsius's with us to walk around with.

If you had to pick and choose, which ride(s) would you go back and ride over and over again?

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by MoeTE87

Thank you for that. I saw there was a Starbucks and a Joffrey coffee there and figured both will be insanely packed. Will just have to look and see when we walk by. Might bring some Celsius's with us to walk around with.

If you had to pick and choose, which ride(s) would you go back and ride over and over again?

Starbucks is usually pretty packed.... Joffrey not as much so that should be more doable.

For rides, my absolute favorites were:

1) Guardians of the Galaxy in Epcot - only got to ride it once, but it was by far my favorite ride of the trip. I think the music on the ride made it that much better. It'll be really difficult to ride it more than once - if you get lucky with the virtual queue plus purchasing lightning lane passes, you COULD potentially get on twice. But definitely not something that can be done over and over again.

2) Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom - Underrated coaster IMO. Again we only rode it once, but if time permitted I wouldn't mind riding it again. Has some nice steep falls to get you that punch in the gut feeling.

3) Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios - An old classic, but such a fun ride - we got on twice and had a blast both times.

4) Fantasmic in Hollywood Studios - I know this isn't a ride, but if you are to catch any one show while you're at Disneyworld, I'd make it this one.

Those are the top ones IMO. I know I didn't include anything from Magic Kingdom. While it did have some good rides, there was nothing that I felt compelled by that I would say as a "must" do ride.