Awesome campsite pic,
@Khokhonutt .
Of course we can't see to either side of the edges of your pic but what you showed us looks very dense, private, and not staring at the trailer on either side of you within easy view. And as a guy with a DW, a small camper (Aliner Expedition 2013), being close to the Comfort Station is a high priority for me.
I also like the last pic in front of Spaceship Earth.
But as much as I like pics, I like the day-by-day story so don't cut us short on that.
Glad you made it home fine.
Bama Ed
I do need to write a few things down before I forget.
Here's a slightly condensed version...
We arrived Sunday, had a great check in experience, got our site and went to setup. Once we are all settled in, we were getting close to our reservation at the Wailulu Bar & Grill at the Polynesian Tower. We caught the boat to MK, then the monorail to Poly. We stopped by their quick service, so we could get drink cups and try the POG Sprite we heard about. It's just outside the Wailulu restaurant and we enjoyed it. We also thoroughly enjoyed our dinner! After dinner, we caught a bus to Hollywood Studios, then rode the Skyliner to EPCOT. We basically walked through EPCOT, got pictures taken and rode Spaceship Earth, then caught the monorail back to Magic Kingdom. At MK, we rode the people mover, then found a spot to watch the fireworks. After our late arrival, we called that a good recovery for the day.
Monday, we rope dropped Hollywood Studios with our son. We rode the Star Wars rides, ate at Ronto Roasters (loved the breakfast wrap), rode Toy Story Midway Mania, then headed back to the campground to take care of the pups and grab lunch. Monday afternoon we went to Magic Kingdom, had drinks and a snack at the Beak & Barrel and had tickets to the after hours event. We rode pretty much all the rides we wanted to ride, but it was a late night. We really liked the after hours event, but if we do one again, we'll just do that and not pile it on to a regular park day ticket. We all found the Beak & Barrel to be a bit underwhelming, which was sad to me, because the Pirates ride is one of my favorites. It had great theming and the bartender was very fun, but we didn't see much at all in the way of other activity we'd heard about.
Tuesday, we went back to Hollywood Studios, after sleeping in a bit. Our son wanted to build a light saber and we had reservations for Oga's Cantina. Oga's for us was way more fun than Beak & Barrel. It really fit the Star Wars feel and the food and drinks we tried were very good. After taking some pictures, we headed back to the campground to tend to the pups and take a nap. Tuesday afternoon, we went to EPCOT. We mostly grazed on some of the festival food and caught a couple of rides. We actually dipped out before the fireworks, which is odd for us, but we were all beat from the late night before and we had another evening at EPCOT planned for later in the week.
Wednesday, we rope dropped Animal Kingdom. We rode Flight of Passage, the Safari, saw the Lion King show and the new Zootopia show. The Navi River ride was offline for a while and had a long line, so we saved it for later in the week. We had lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, before heading back to the campground. Wednesday afternoon, we were back at Hollywood Studios, one more time. We had reservations at the Sci-Fi Dine-In for the Fantasmic dinner package. We had never tried this restaurant and while it's kind of cool, it will be a one and done for us. The cars are not built for a fat boy, the food is good, but not great. That said, getting the dining package was great. Getting to show up late and get a good seat for Fantasmic was worth it for us.
Thursday morning we were back to MK, we hit a couple of our favorites again and a couple smaller attractions we missed the previous days. After a break we headed to EPCOT. We ate at the Space 220 lounge, then did the after hours party there. I will say, for all of the luke warm reviews I've seen for Space 220, we thoroughly enjoyed the lounge. The food was some of the best we had on the trip, the drinks were also very good and the experience was fun. It didn't hurt that we managed to schedule that meal during the only rain we had all week. You know I took credit for that timing.
The EPCOT after hours was fun and we rode a bunch of stuff. The only things we didn't particularly care for is the new fireworks show (give me Illuminations again, oh and Wishes, while we're at it) and the fact that they really spread out the "included" snacks at EPCOT. They seemed way more available at MK, but at EPCOT they were spread out with "convenient" paid locations. That said, the maple popcorn in Canada is awesome!
Friday morning we went back to MK one more time with a specific mission to ride our favorite 3 rides; Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Haunted Mansion. That accomplished, we did some souvenir shopping, then headed back to the campground. In the afternoon, we did something new. Normally we want to see the fireworks at MK as our last "thing". This time, though, they extended hours at Animal Kingdom to 8pm, so we formed a plan to see the Avatar/Pandora at night. We got a dinner reservation at the AK Lodge, which is very nice. We ate at Boma and had a great meal there. When we got back to AK, we had a fairly short line for Navi River Journey, then we got in the long line for Flight of Passage, right before park close. This was our plan, so we had plenty of time for it to get dark and boy was it worth it. Pandora at night is spectacular! It's a shame they don't have more late nights at AK.
Overall, we had a great time. I'm happy to say, I didn't regret not getting lightning lanes. Yes we waited in lines, but that's something I've done for many years. If you're crafty with watching the wait times, I didn't find any of our waits outrageous. Our biggest negative falls on people in general these days. I remember a time when just being at the parks was a happy thing. People around you tended to be happier, just being there. We didn't worry about lines or who got someplace first. We just enjoyed everything about the experience. This trip we were constantly getting run over, figuratively and literally. The me-first mentality, line cutting and people's general lack of parenting was at some times appalling. It wasn't everyone, we saw good examples, but the bad examples were hard to ignore. I will say, I think all of that contributed to our positive experience at the Fort. Could be the early mornings and late nights, but it was just nice to stroll through to our site each day and the cast members at the Fort were all great. For the most part all of the cast members we interacted with were great, but you could tell some in the parks were just tired and a bit beat down at times.
Anyway, that pretty much covers things, I think. Overall, we had a great vacation and are already planning future trips to the Fort. We're actually coming back in July. I decided to surprise my wife with a short trip for her birthday and our 35th anniversary. So, we'll be hanging around keeping an eye on things as we get closer to the summer.
