18 days in the Making - A Veteran Disser's First Ever Trip Report

[mickeyfan0805]

The Universal Leg

Sunday was a complicated day. Moving camp, transitioning into a hotel, and picking up Mom from the Orlando Airport were all on the docket for the day. We left late morning with the intent of checking into the Orlando/Kissimmee KOA shortly after lunch. A quick stop just to ‘park’ the camper for a few nights. We got checked in, did a minimal set-up, went grocery shopping to replenish supplies in the camper for the later portion of the trip, and then grabbed our bags and headed towards the dark side (AKA – Universal Studios Orlando).

Anyone familiar with Universal knows that the three premium resorts come with the Unlimited Express Pass, which is essentially an unlimited FastPass for the vast majority of the rides. As a family of five, staying in these rooms is a great way to enjoy the parks with this benefit, so we left the camper to sit by its lonesome at the KOA while we checked in for the next three nights Universal’s Royal Pacific Hotel for the next three nights – and the fun ensued. Unfortunately, I was a bit harried that day, so no pics of the resort. We very much enjoyed the ambiance.

We had done Universal as our Spring Break trip this past April, and had such a good time that we updated to Annual Passes so that we could return for a few days this summer. It’s a little bit of everything…

Blues Brothers…




Harry Potter…







Jimmy Fallon…




Dinosaurs…




And even Bob Ross…





For those of you unfamiliar, their new ride this year is the VelociCoaster – what a rush! Repeatedly suspended upside down as though you are floating out of your seat…incredibly smooth…quite fast… It was just myself, DD15 and DS12, but we had a blast! It’s not a ride for the faint of heart, but it’s one of the best we’ve ridden. (We also love Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure, but we didn't get any pics of that!)




Not to be outdone, we did find a Mickey Pretzel while snacking one afternoon…




And after sharing great meals at Margaritaville, NBC Café, and an in-park favorite counter service Italian restaurant, we closed out our visit with a treat from VooDoo Donuts. I can tell you that they were quite a hit!





It was two days of constant action to kick off the theme park portion of the trip, and tomorrow it is time to move on to the piece de resistance – our 8-night stay at Fort Wilderness…

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Taking DD off to visit an area university tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and load tomorrow morning's post tonight...


Arriving at Walt Disney World Part 1

It was another complicated transition. I headed out of the hotel room at 5:45am to pick up the camper, move it to the fort, drop it in overflow, and then head back to pick up the family for the day (with the intent of setting everything up later that afternoon). Everything went smoothly, I arrived at the Fort just before 7a, at which time I walked into the Outpost and found the most helpful CM ready not only to greet me, but to help me select a ready and available site. BONUS!

By 7:30 I was set up and ready to go at site 925. A site with tons of space, and wide-open ground behind it. I was a very happy man!







Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s is a bit of a family tradition for us, and I was able to grab a reservation for our arrival morning.




As you will see in later days in the parks, character interactions look very different than they used to. At Chef Mickey’s, the practice is that they stand in the middle of the room and center their attention on one table at a time as pics are taken from your seats. Children sometimes stood a few feet away from the table, but no one sought to physically interact with the characters. I was pleasantly surprised with how diligent the guests were about not trying to push those boundaries.








As a huge Goofy fan – I got to jump in for that one…





The table service food was good, but we did very much miss the buffet. The selections are much more limited, and getting additional amounts is not always timely. We enjoyed ourselves, but we can’t wait to get back at a time when Chef Mickey’s returns to a bit more of what it used to be!

As a comparative (and a reminder of how old I’m getting), here’s a couple of pics of the girls our first visit to Chef Mickey’s back in 2007. DS, of course, wasn’t even around yet.







As a side note – we learned a cautionary tale about checking in for the meals. After waiting 40 minutes to be called (30+ minutes after our ADR time), I approached the booth wondering about the delay. They proceeded to inform me that they had supposedly texted me about a ready table some 25 minutes earlier, but we never came (and they never called out our names, as we were sitting right there the entire time). It is clear that they wrote down or texted the wrong number, as nothing ever came through. Most restaurants have a mobile check in option (there is a QR code as you approach the restaurant, but it also pops up as a notification from MDE), which I used exclusively for the rest of the trip, in an attempt to make sure we didn’t have that problem again.

On to part two...

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Arriving at Disney World Part 2

Knowing we were already set up at camp, we were able to proceed straight to Epcot. If you haven’t been to Epcot recently, the construction will blow your mind. Walls everywhere, the entirety of the central courtyard torn apart, MouseGear moved to a different building… I should have taken more pics, but it was much more disrupted than I had anticipated. I’m looking forward to what it will become, but Future World is but a shadow of its former self right now!

Nonetheless, our focus for today was Future World. So, it was off to do them all… Test Track, Mission Space, Spaceship Earth were all done with fairly short waits (a theme of the week), and then we headed to the other side where we made it into the Land Pavilion to do Soarin’ and Living with the Land just in time to dodge a passing storm. Then we were off to Figment (a family favorite), a break at the DVC lounge, and on down to Nemo and some time with the fishes...








As we wandered the aquarium, a nice CM shared with us that we should position ourselves near a certain viewing point for something unique soon to take place. We didn’t know what it was (figured it might be a special feeding or something), but we stood tight for a few minutes until a very special appearance popped up right in front of us…








One of the things I love most about Disney is that, despite the many times we’ve been there, we are still able to be surprised by some moment of special ‘magic.’

With Future World complete, and little interest in venturing into the World Showcase in the late afternoon heat, we headed back to the campground for dinner, rest, some quick shopping, and to pick up the golf cart that we had arranged with J&S Custom Carts – a great company to work with!






Then, time for sleep. A big day was in store for tomorrow!

 

[garneska]

Scuba Mickey that is so awesome.

 

[bama_ed]

New golf cart vendor to consider as well, Kris.

Boy those were lots of moving parts on the trailer day (KOA, DW at airport, check in at Universal) and then the check in day at the Fort (KOA, Fort, back to hotel, back to Fort). I'm glad they both came off without a hitch.

We stayed in 900 loop a few times and like both the loop itself and its position within the campground - convenient for a lot of things there in the center.

What day of the week did you check in at the Fort? I get the sense that there are empty campsite more often available for early arrivers when you show up Mon-Fri mornings. With the heavier weekend loads, a Saturday or Sunday morning early campsite, while still possible, is less likely.

Take a break and do the university errand tomorrow. We'll be hear waiting.

Ed

 

[cruising spud]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. We saw Scuba MIckey once-the kids were little, and we all loved it.

Could I ask-I have thought of doing Florida trip where we just go to Universal-how many days would you suggest?
Thank you.

 

[CBMom01]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. We saw Scuba MIckey once-the kids were little, and we all loved it.

Could I ask-I have thought of doing Florida trip where we just go to Universal-how many days would you suggest?
Thank you.

I know this wasn't directed at me, but my fiance and his kids went a few years ago and did 4 days when they were doing a buy 2 get 2 free promo. Universal does a very good job of making slightly longer stays worth your while. He said that 4 days was just right because by Day 4 they had fun but were ready to go.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

@bama_ed - We checked in on Wednesday morning, so the midweek arrival certainly helped. That said, the Fort was notably empty our entire stay. Multiple loops were closed, and many of those that were open had MANY empty spots. Our loop was easily below 50% all week.

@crusing spud - That's a tough question to answer because it depends on a lot of factors. The best I could say is this... If you stay in one of the Premier hotels and have the Unlimited Express Pass, you can easily cover all of the rides and more in 2 days. Without the pass, it would take a bit longer (how much would depend on the season). For us, even with the EP, 4 days was easily filled up when we went last spring, and 2 days passed way to quickly when we were there.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Disney Day 2 – Part 1

Our first full day on site was one of the most action-packed of the trip. Hollywood Studios has all of the ‘new’ since our last visit, so it was one we set as a morning park reservation on 3 of the 8 days we had lined up. The day started for me at 6:55am, prepping for the RotR Boarding Group lottery, and…




But more on that later.

We rope dropped the park and found them running rides (something we found regularly throughout our visit) well before the official park open time. With RotR later, our other new ride was Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. It’s very cute and very well done. It’s not a thrill ride by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a ton of fun, and we really enjoyed it.




After a quick ride on Toy Story Mania (another family favorite), it was time to head towards Galaxy’s Edge and the moment DS12 had been waiting for. While DW and DD’s went to shop for a bit, I took DS12 to Savi’s for the lightsaber experience. This was the first of many times we’d encounter the very different way in which characters are part of the experience during Covid times. While some are on cavalcades that come through the parks, many will simply be found in various locations as you wander. Here you can see Rey and Chewy having a chat on top of the garage…




We killed some time taking a few picks as we awaited our check-in time at Savi’s…






And then it was time. What a great experience! I won’t go into all of the details, but DS did the Droid Depot a few years back, and this experience blows that away. The Droid Depot is essential a quick assembly experience in an interesting room. Savi’s is an experience!

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Disney Day 2 - Part 2

The conclusion of our time at Savi’s ran right up to our boarding time for RotR. For those who have avoided seeing things about this ride, you might want to skim past this post. I won’t get into detail, but some pics might show things you don’t want to see.

On we went…




I know some have mixed reactions about this ride, but I love it. It is, by no means, the most thrilling ride ever – there are other rides for that. For me, is the show and experience that is so astounding in this ride. What they managed to do with visuals and storytelling is truly remarkable and I loved every second. In the end, we were able to ride this ride 3 times, and I saw new things each and every time!

A few selected images (more will come on later days)…










After a midday break, we returned for the evening and found it the perfect time to test out the Skyliner. We rode it out and back from the Hollywood Studios station (you have to get off and re-load for the return).








All in all, it didn’t really change my mind on it. It is quick and efficient, which is great, but you would not find me using it on a hot afternoon. The air flows through nicely when they are moving, but if you get a breakdown on a summer day, they will get hot in a hurry! The fear of a breakdown looms large for me while riding it.

The evening included Smuggler’s Run – a family favorite on which we are steadily improving as we rotate positions and get better at various things. As a family of five, we are pretty much assured the ‘good’ spots, while the single rider gets stuck as the last engineer.




By then, we were worn out, and it was time to call it a night!

 

[2goofycampers]

I am gonna move your TR to the main board so more people can view it. You are doing a great job!

 

[bama_ed]

I am gonna move your TR to the main board so more people can view it. You are doing a great job!

That's why she's the Sheriff of this here forum.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

I am gonna move your TR to the main board so more people can view it. You are doing a great job!

Fair enough. Thanks!

 

[cruising spud]

@crusing spud - That's a tough question to answer because it depends on a lot of factors. The best I could say is this... If you stay in one of the Premier hotels and have the Unlimited Express Pass, you can easily cover all of the rides and more in 2 days. Without the pass, it would take a bit longer (how much would depend on the season). For us, even with the EP, 4 days was easily filled up when we went last spring, and 2 days passed way to quickly when we were there.

 

[cruising spud]

@crusing spud - That's a tough question to answer because it depends on a lot of factors. The best I could say is this... If you stay in one of the Premier hotels and have the Unlimited Express Pass, you can easily cover all of the rides and more in 2 days. Without the pass, it would take a bit longer (how much would depend on the season). For us, even with the EP, 4 days was easily filled up when we went last spring, and 2 days passed way to quickly when we were there.

Thanks so much for the input.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Disney Day 3

It seemed odd that we were only a boat ride away from Magic Kingdom, and yet it took us three days to get there. Nonetheless, today was the day. We love all of the parks for their various offerings and charms, but we are a classic MK family. There’s something about the ambiance that just sets MK apart as the cornerstone of our Disney joys. With this in mind, after 2 years of not visiting, DW swore that she was going to kiss the ground when we entered MK. She made the comment multiple times. I wasn’t sure she’d follow-through but, sure enough…




For the record, she did have her mask on when she did this!

We arrived as the park opened and the first thing we noticed is the clean-up work they’ve done on the castle for the 50th. It really looks beautiful. The 50th placard is tasteful and blends in beautifully (not like the birthday cake fiasco of yesteryear), they’ve clearly cleaned up the paint and the glass, and the castle just seems to glisten that much more. Each of the five of us took notice.






After admiring the castle for a minute, it was off to conquer Tomorrowland and too much excitement to remember to take pictures! After Tomorrowland, and a bit of Fantasyland, it was time for lunch.

A recent family favorite is Tony’s Town Square Restaurant.






We had eaten there many years back and didn’t love it, but tried it again back in 2019 and it has quickly become a cornerstone for us. With a family of 5, many of whom are ‘finicky,’ the simple Italian offerings are ideal. When we were there 2 years ago, we happened to be seated right by the window facing the square and we got to spend 20 minutes watching Chicken Little and Abby Mallard playing hide and seek outside the window…




No such perfect seating this time, but good service, good food, and 5 satisfied bellies (which is not always easy to come by for our family!).

After lunch, we noticed some guests hanging out on the platform at the Main Street Station.




As I’ve noted before, character interactions looked quite different this time around, and you would frequently just see them hanging out, playing and interacting from various locations. While we’ve always loved character interactions, there was something enjoyable about being able to view it without having stand in a 45 minute line to take a picture.

Anyway, after a moment of waving and watching, it was time to follow Horace Greeley’s advice to ‘Go West, Young Man’ (and old man, and woman, and young women…).

A trip on the Jungle Cruise, with the obligatory picture of the 8th wonder of the world…




And then on to more, including a quick family shot at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad…




After more rides, it was time to return to camp for a late dinner and a bit of rest. Now 10 days into the trip, a bit of fatigue was setting in, so everyone was ready for a break before an early morning at Animal Kingdom.

DS12, however, took a little while to settle in, so out came the lightsaber to see how it looks in the dark of the camper…




Beds were calling – tomorrow’s another early day!

 

[Disneyloverliz]

Please tell me day 4 isn’t here yet! Not sure where else to look! Anxiously awaiting!

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Please tell me day 4 isn’t here yet! Not sure where else to look! Anxiously awaiting!

Here we go...

The next two days were very enjoyable, but didn’t have a whole lot of noteworthy picture or highlight moments, so I’ll post them both on the same day.

Disney Day 4

Day 4 began with the a rope drop at Animal Kingdom in an attempt to get a jump on the FoP line. The best laid plans…

I wish I’d thought to take a picture, but as we entered Pandora, the line for FoP snaked from the ride entrance, all the way down the path to the beginning of Africa and then back up. We were not expecting it to be so long, so fast. We jumped in as the line claimed a 60 minute way and, in the end, it turned out to be about 50. Not great for rope drop, but not the worst.

As a side note, I’ll share that I had ridden FoP once when it first opened, and never since. Prone to motion sickness, the ride knocked me down but good. In our recent travels to Universal (where so much is motion-simulated), I decided to attempt Dramamine. It’s been a game-changer. I can ride just about anything, now, without the slightest sense of discomfort. If you have such issues and haven’t given this a try, it’s definitely worth the experiment! We ended up riding FoP twice on this trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it both times.

A few shots of Pandora…






After FoP, we jumped on Navi and then headed over to the Safari. DW, DS12 and I enjoy this one. DD’s not so much, but they put up with us.






The circle continued as we headed over to Everest and Dinosaur (Kali would come later) and then out for a lunch reservation at Rainforest Café (again, didn’t remember to take pictures – told you I wasn’t great at this!). We retreated to the camper to avoid some afternoon storms and then headed over to spend the evening at Epcot in the World Showcase.

For the record, don’t plan to go to the World Showcase on a Saturday night during Food and Wine with the intent of ‘grabbing a variety of snacks’ to supplant dinner for a family of five. Lines at each of the food kiosks were extraordinarily long and we quickly abandoned that plan, we hit the spots we wanted to hit, and ordered take-out from Giordano’s for a very late dinner.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Disney Day 5

Dad was up first thing, again, to try to get another boarding pass for RotR. Success! I’m two for two…




We didn’t have to rush over, so we took our time in the morning and headed straight to RotR. I grabbed a couple more shots that I didn’t get last time…






Then it was off for another try at Smuggler’s Run. We noticed, as we looked at the top of the Millennium Falcon, that weeds seem to be able to grow on spaceships too…




Anyway, another run on MMRR (with a shot of Daisy – DW’s favorite)…






And, then it was home to avoid a few passing storms and on to Disney Springs for the evening. Ornaments for each of our collections, as well as pins, not to mention a signed Halloween themed print from the artist who happened to be there that night, all made it into our bags before we made it to our reservation at another family staple, T-Rex, for dinner.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Disney Day 6

Day 6 started at Magic Kingdom, much of which we’ve already documented, so this seems as good a time as any to review a few of the Covid and non-Covid related things that stood out about WDW as a whole while we were there.

First of all – Covid mitigation. For those who have concerns about Covid mitigation, I will say three things. First, we are a family of 5, all of whom are healthy and vaccinated, so we felt quite comfortable, despite the rise in FL numbers. Second, they are VERY strict about mask usage inside. The ‘starting point’ for masks at rides is a little inconsistent (sometimes it is when the line reaches the building, sometimes it is as soon as you are in the line), but there are generally signs telling you when you need them to be on. Third, they have completely abandoned any sense of physical distancing. Lines are not distanced, they are back to filling in empty seats with single riders, and we were frequently told to ‘fill in all the available space.’ If you feel you need personal space to be comfortable, you won’t find it here!

Second – staffing. Disney is doing their absolute best with what is still clearly a depleted workforce. We saw regular evidence of the fact that they are simply not able to keep up with the standards of cleanliness that we generally know. Food service was pretty good, but trash on the ground, dirty bathrooms, empty towel holders, and a number of other things showed that they are struggling. That will come in time, and we were in no way complaining, but there were many places where we could see tangible representations of the staffing shortages.

Third – walkthrough scanners. For those of you who have not been since they were put in place (which was the case for us), the walkthrough scanners that have replaced the bag checks very well may be the single-most park-wide improvement I’ve seen in the 14 years we’ve been going. In the 9 days we were there we never waited more than 5 seconds to walk through a scanner, and in the 20+ times we entered parks, only once did anyone get ‘pinged’ (and that resulted in a 30 second detour to have a waiting security CM look through the bag). What used to be one of my most dreaded portions of the day has become a pleasant and uninterrupted entry. It’s really a huge plus for the park experience!

Anyway, back to the day, the real tale of the morning was that we were seeing a huge disparity between our experience at MK and what was playing out at AK. All morning it seemed that the lines remained incredibly short at AK, all while we were dealing with some of the longest waits we’d seen so far at MK. So, we did a few of the rides we hadn’t yet done (we still had plenty of time left at MK later in the trip), had a quick lunch at Pinocchio’s (DW and DD15 were not happy with the change in the pizza there), and then we headed out to grab a bus to be at AK for the opening of the 2pm hopping time.

We got a bus quickly and walked up to the gate at 1:55 (at which time they were happy to let us in), and we headed straight to Pandora. It’s hard to read because of the LCD not registering well on the camera, but this is the standby time of 15 minutes for Flight of Passage at 2pm in the afternoon!




We were on and off well in advance of being able to make it to the next Lion King show.






I will say that this is one of the places in which our past experience came back to haunt us. Festival of the Lion King is a favorite for be DD15 and me. When this show was over, my immediate comment was that I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more if I didn’t know what was missing. The Covid presentation of this show is simply not up to par with what the original was, and I found it lacking for me. I hope and pray that it returns to its former glory in the months ahead!

No way we were going make the girls do the Safari again, so we headed towards Asia. We stopped at a great little picture spot off the path with the Tree of Life in the background.






We continued on for 3 consecutive rides on Everest (literally walking on to trains that weren’t even full each time), then DW, DD15 and DS12 did Dinosaur (that one kills my head), and then we headed home to get ready for a late reservation at Whispering Canyon Café.

After dinner, it was time for sleep. Tomorrow’s another big day with a LATE night…