The Planning: I used the Dis boards considerably to plan for our trip. We selected Pop Century because it was cheap and cheaper because I used AAA ($88.00) to reserve it on-line. I called Disney up to check on our reservations before we left but they said since we booked it with a different agency we would have to make any changes with them and I didn't. We wanted the 50's building but I forgot to say we wanted a non-smoking room. I suppose if you don't say that you will get one. We switched to the 90's building which really didn't matter because we were there to see the parks and we had a car (National-Intermediate-Emerald Aisle-Entertainment discount-weekly rate with taxes $124. The rooms were new and there was absolutely no problem with the room. The air conditioner was good. To save more money we bought a cooler in Orlando for $16 to use for our drinks/snacks and some lunch items. As for our park ticket we bought 10-day/ park hopper/ no-expiration tickets using Maple Leaf. We saved a lot of money!!!
Day 1: We use American Airlines from Wichita, got economy seats and were able to sit in row 4. We got our printed our boarding passes from the internet. We just had carry ons and went straight to the gates. It took a total of 10 minutes to do all this and pass through security. Wichita has around 400,000 people so it's not that busy anyway. We flew through Dallas and had no problem connecting to our next flight. At Orlando we walked off the plan and went to Emerald Aisle, chose from any car and headed off to Pop Century. Smooth sailing until we get to the entrance of Disney World. There are no street signs only signs indicating which direction the resorts or parks are. Being that it had been five years since my last trip here I thought I had got lost and couldn't rely on a park map I had. There is no place to stop and ask for directions. It seemed like I was driving along for quite awhile before I saw a sign for Pop Century. But we did make it. (This would be an advantage for taking the Magic Express--although we still made better time with the car) We checked in with absolutely no wait (around 6:30 p.m) we changed our Maple Leaf paper tickets over to the plastic room keys (better remember that your tickets are your room keys!) We unloaded our stuff in our room and headed to Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Evening Hours. Our last experiences with the now defunct "limited after hours pass--sorry can't remember what it was called" were absolutely fantastic! However, the difference between those defunct passes that you paid $10 for and the new free Extra Magic Hours is that there is no limit to how many people can go. Well there can't be that many people that are staying on site, right? Well, here's my experience: We arrive with AAA parking passes which was great for the evening. We didn't have much of a walk to the monorails except that they were under construction so we took the ferry across. We arrived at the parks around 8:00 p.m. All fast passes were gone which I knew. I thought we had to get our bands before 8:00 but that wasn't so. They start distributing them at 8:00. We never had done the Jungle cruise and the line was only 30 minutes long which is short for this ride. After that we walked on to Pirates of the Carribean (one of my favorites) Too bad all rides at Magic Kingdom aren't as easy to get on to. We looked at the wait times for Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain about 30 minutes apiece. We decided to eat and try some rides again during the first parade. We ate at the only restaurant open in the area after nine--Pecos Bills. The food was better than I expected and the drinks were larger and cheaper than I expected. The parade started while we were eating. After we ate, we walked against the direction the parade was traveling to the Haunted Mansion. We walked on the first time and had a ten minute wait for the second time through. We went back to the Splash and Thunder and the parade was over. Both places were about 30 minutes again. We waited for Splash Mountain and it was great but my DS13 wanted to get wet and didn't. We looked at the line for Thunder mountain and it was 50 minutes but I think it was longer than that. We decided to get a place for Wishes. We sat down in front of the castle like most other people were doing. For some weird reason some preferred to stand the entire time but we positioned ourselves behind a lot of people that were sitting and had no problem view the fireworks. They were great! Next we went to Fantasmic. It would have been a ten minute wait but it was broken down. We shopped around until 11:00 p.m waiting for the crowd to leave. The crowd only grew. I could not believe it. We went back to Splash and Thunder. Splash was now 50 minutes and Thunder was the longest I had ever seen it. We rode one more ride than headed over to Space Mountain. The wait said 55 minutes but the lines were way outside the building. We headed over to Buzz light year and the lines were 25 minutes. It was late and we had a long day already so we left. Leaving and deciding to sleep in the next day was a great decision. What we learned: Never do EMH evening hours at Magic Kingdom--Go as early as you can in the mourning and use fastpasses and ride the major rides you want to go on first then Leave and come back for the parades and fireworks.
Day 2: We slept in until 10:00. Waiting in line in the heat again did not seem like a lot of fun. We skipped the parks and went to Disney Quest. Something my son really wanted to do. We hit the Pirates of the Carribean first and had about a 10 minute wait. (our longest of the day) We did the Cyber Rollercoaster next. These are the two best rides. The rollercoaster is the only one where someone might experience motion sickness. I don't like spinny rides and I was okay on it--It was short. My son really enjoyed creating his own coaster. You can purchase a video of you riding it. I should have but didn't--remember I'm going economically. We had another wait in line at the Buzz light year ride. It was fun too. I let my son lead my around and just did what he wanted to do. There were things I thought would be fun but he skipped them--fine with me--it's about him. We finished around 3:30 and had the rest of the day. Swimming!!!! Why waste a pass for the water parks? We decided to check the pools out at the different resorts. The pool by the 90's building was --well just a pool. We started at Carribean Beach Resort. I wondered if there would be a problem at the gate but absolutely not for this resort or any other resort that we went to. My DS was really impressed with the resort and asked why we weren't staying there. I responded because we were there for the parks and besides we were at Carribean beach. I will say that their Beach and all the following beaches were dirty and no one was swimming in them--except my son briefly. He really enjoyed the swimming area and didn't want to go. we swam and I let him swim alone while I hit the jacuzzi off and on. We built a sand castle on the beach too. (The theming at Carribean pool was much better than Pop Century) We heade to Coronado Springs next. DS was in heaven. The theming was twice that of the Carribean and the slide was three times as long. I could stay here. Again my son didn't want to leave. After 20 trips down the slide we finally left. This time we headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Wow! Awesome! The resort is beautifully themed and it looks new. The pool is not as exciting as the previous two but there are at least two jacuzzis which appeals to me. Just being at this resort made my son feel excited even though the pool wasn't a big deal. We swam some more than checked behind the resort where the animals are. We saw pelicans, zebras, giraffes, Wildebeast? and a few other animals. Very well themed. Okay were done for day 2 and reenergized and excited!
Day 3: Epcot the day after EMH evening and when it opened is our start time. We knew Soarin' would be the ride to hit first so we hit it first and got a fast pass too. No wait! I would say that this ride is good (7/10) but not worth a extrememly long line. Make it enjoyable and only do it once and make sure you get a fast pass if you are not the first to get on. Next we did Mission to Mars and again no wait! The best ride at Epcot according to my son. It is definitely unlike any ride I have ever experienced. A must do! P.S This is an intense ride but I don't see how it could make any experience motion sickness. The rest of the day was a sinch because of the fast pass! Our longest line was probably 20 minutes and only once like that. Wow! So much better than Magic Kingdom crowds. We left the park to eat sandwiches at the car--Better than park food with all the condiments. We came back and went to World Showcase to shop after the rides. It looked quite a bit busier when we left. We are done by 4:00, then head over to Downtown Disney to shop around and have some bites .We went back to Pop Century and chilled. This was another enjoyable day!
Day 4 MGM Studios. First thing in the A.M. Got a fast pass to the new stunt show first! Got a couple of signatures from characters and headed to TOT(8/10) and RNRC(9/10)the two best rides in the park. Did the Back lot Tours, the Great Move Experience and finally the Car Show(9/10). Arriving early and getting your fastpasses is the way to go. We are done by 1:00, have lunch then head over to Typhoon Lagoon. It was a bit overcast so maybe that explains why we were able to park up front and had next to no lines for any slide. The lazy river was next to emply and the Swim with the sharks was also only about a 10 minutes wait. If your kids like water, they will love this place. Probably the most enjoyable of all of disney's parks. Another relaxing day! My DW arrives in the evening via Magic Express. She swims again with DS while I do some grocery shopping.
Day 5 Animal Kingdom With my DS and my DW and her sister's family we plan on Animal kingdom. The problem with traveling with another family is that your daily routines and time schedule can really be different. We knew that and as early birds we get to the park first and ride and get extra fastpasses to Kilamanjaro Safaris, Kali River Ride and Dinosaur. While at Dinosaur our in laws finally show up. We are in contact by cell phone. We ride Dinosaur again with them and then get fast passes to the Safari which already has a 1:30 return time. So we do the walk through to the Apes section and then head over to it's tough to be a bug. The Tree of life is Awesome and we had a lot of fun pointing out all the different animals carved into the tree. We got more fastpasses to Kali river ride then did the Tiger walking tour. It was really cool! The tigers were all out and being frisky and playing. Next we did the Safari again with our in-laws. We had done this first thing in the mourning and it was great because there was a bird with a stick that would not move off the road. We were able to better spot the animals. Later we saw three cheetahs walking around--my DS's favorite animal. However the second safari was hot, fast and uneventful. The guide was not half as animated at the first one we had and he would "point" out the animals only after we passed them. Oh well, we still got to see some animals. Okay, fastpass the River and cool off then we head to the Lion King show. It's probably a great show for kids 10 and under but a little corny for teenagers and adults with the exception of the acrobatic part of the show. Hey, we did have fun and we had to wait more for our in-laws than on lines. We are now done with disney this year. See tips below:
1. Don't do Extra magic Hours in the evening until they change it!!! Which they will have to do. Who wants to stay up until 2:00 a.m riding rides that are 30 minutes to an hour long?
2. Hit the water parks and resort pools to cool off!!! It will make a bad day into a great day. It will also reenergize the "magic".
3. Arrive early and use Fastpasses--Be aware of the next time you can get a fast pass and be aware that you can use a fastpass anytime after the return time!
4. Split up if you have large parties but have a cell phone or walkie talkie to keep in contact. Have a couple of places to meet at different times (lunch, parade, fireworks, are good times to meet up) You can't visit while you are riding rides.
5. Know what rides everyone wants to ride and doesn't want to ride and make a plan.
6. Realize that little kids may say they want to ride but will change their minds once they get into a dark room, hear scary music, are waiting to long in line, are hungry, have to use the restroom etc. (this is why fast passes are great) I wouldn't do a ride without a fast pass unless you are prepared to do child swap
7. Realize not everything will go magically.
8. If you don't want to worry about any lines at all and you have teenagers then get EXPRESS PLUS passes to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios and skip Disney World all together with the exception maybe of a water park. You get a pass to every ride with next to no wait and no return times. The theming is better at those parks I think as well.
9. Don't try to cram everything in one day. If you can't see something than that will give you a reason to return in the future.
10. You shouldn't do more than one major park a day! (If you do have a park hopper pass you could use it to see an evening parade of fireworks or ride rides at a different park during those times but consider number 9 if you are considering purchasing the park hopper option)
Day 1: We use American Airlines from Wichita, got economy seats and were able to sit in row 4. We got our printed our boarding passes from the internet. We just had carry ons and went straight to the gates. It took a total of 10 minutes to do all this and pass through security. Wichita has around 400,000 people so it's not that busy anyway. We flew through Dallas and had no problem connecting to our next flight. At Orlando we walked off the plan and went to Emerald Aisle, chose from any car and headed off to Pop Century. Smooth sailing until we get to the entrance of Disney World. There are no street signs only signs indicating which direction the resorts or parks are. Being that it had been five years since my last trip here I thought I had got lost and couldn't rely on a park map I had. There is no place to stop and ask for directions. It seemed like I was driving along for quite awhile before I saw a sign for Pop Century. But we did make it. (This would be an advantage for taking the Magic Express--although we still made better time with the car) We checked in with absolutely no wait (around 6:30 p.m) we changed our Maple Leaf paper tickets over to the plastic room keys (better remember that your tickets are your room keys!) We unloaded our stuff in our room and headed to Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Evening Hours. Our last experiences with the now defunct "limited after hours pass--sorry can't remember what it was called" were absolutely fantastic! However, the difference between those defunct passes that you paid $10 for and the new free Extra Magic Hours is that there is no limit to how many people can go. Well there can't be that many people that are staying on site, right? Well, here's my experience: We arrive with AAA parking passes which was great for the evening. We didn't have much of a walk to the monorails except that they were under construction so we took the ferry across. We arrived at the parks around 8:00 p.m. All fast passes were gone which I knew. I thought we had to get our bands before 8:00 but that wasn't so. They start distributing them at 8:00. We never had done the Jungle cruise and the line was only 30 minutes long which is short for this ride. After that we walked on to Pirates of the Carribean (one of my favorites) Too bad all rides at Magic Kingdom aren't as easy to get on to. We looked at the wait times for Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain about 30 minutes apiece. We decided to eat and try some rides again during the first parade. We ate at the only restaurant open in the area after nine--Pecos Bills. The food was better than I expected and the drinks were larger and cheaper than I expected. The parade started while we were eating. After we ate, we walked against the direction the parade was traveling to the Haunted Mansion. We walked on the first time and had a ten minute wait for the second time through. We went back to the Splash and Thunder and the parade was over. Both places were about 30 minutes again. We waited for Splash Mountain and it was great but my DS13 wanted to get wet and didn't. We looked at the line for Thunder mountain and it was 50 minutes but I think it was longer than that. We decided to get a place for Wishes. We sat down in front of the castle like most other people were doing. For some weird reason some preferred to stand the entire time but we positioned ourselves behind a lot of people that were sitting and had no problem view the fireworks. They were great! Next we went to Fantasmic. It would have been a ten minute wait but it was broken down. We shopped around until 11:00 p.m waiting for the crowd to leave. The crowd only grew. I could not believe it. We went back to Splash and Thunder. Splash was now 50 minutes and Thunder was the longest I had ever seen it. We rode one more ride than headed over to Space Mountain. The wait said 55 minutes but the lines were way outside the building. We headed over to Buzz light year and the lines were 25 minutes. It was late and we had a long day already so we left. Leaving and deciding to sleep in the next day was a great decision. What we learned: Never do EMH evening hours at Magic Kingdom--Go as early as you can in the mourning and use fastpasses and ride the major rides you want to go on first then Leave and come back for the parades and fireworks.
Day 2: We slept in until 10:00. Waiting in line in the heat again did not seem like a lot of fun. We skipped the parks and went to Disney Quest. Something my son really wanted to do. We hit the Pirates of the Carribean first and had about a 10 minute wait. (our longest of the day) We did the Cyber Rollercoaster next. These are the two best rides. The rollercoaster is the only one where someone might experience motion sickness. I don't like spinny rides and I was okay on it--It was short. My son really enjoyed creating his own coaster. You can purchase a video of you riding it. I should have but didn't--remember I'm going economically. We had another wait in line at the Buzz light year ride. It was fun too. I let my son lead my around and just did what he wanted to do. There were things I thought would be fun but he skipped them--fine with me--it's about him. We finished around 3:30 and had the rest of the day. Swimming!!!! Why waste a pass for the water parks? We decided to check the pools out at the different resorts. The pool by the 90's building was --well just a pool. We started at Carribean Beach Resort. I wondered if there would be a problem at the gate but absolutely not for this resort or any other resort that we went to. My DS was really impressed with the resort and asked why we weren't staying there. I responded because we were there for the parks and besides we were at Carribean beach. I will say that their Beach and all the following beaches were dirty and no one was swimming in them--except my son briefly. He really enjoyed the swimming area and didn't want to go. we swam and I let him swim alone while I hit the jacuzzi off and on. We built a sand castle on the beach too. (The theming at Carribean pool was much better than Pop Century) We heade to Coronado Springs next. DS was in heaven. The theming was twice that of the Carribean and the slide was three times as long. I could stay here. Again my son didn't want to leave. After 20 trips down the slide we finally left. This time we headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Wow! Awesome! The resort is beautifully themed and it looks new. The pool is not as exciting as the previous two but there are at least two jacuzzis which appeals to me. Just being at this resort made my son feel excited even though the pool wasn't a big deal. We swam some more than checked behind the resort where the animals are. We saw pelicans, zebras, giraffes, Wildebeast? and a few other animals. Very well themed. Okay were done for day 2 and reenergized and excited!
Day 3: Epcot the day after EMH evening and when it opened is our start time. We knew Soarin' would be the ride to hit first so we hit it first and got a fast pass too. No wait! I would say that this ride is good (7/10) but not worth a extrememly long line. Make it enjoyable and only do it once and make sure you get a fast pass if you are not the first to get on. Next we did Mission to Mars and again no wait! The best ride at Epcot according to my son. It is definitely unlike any ride I have ever experienced. A must do! P.S This is an intense ride but I don't see how it could make any experience motion sickness. The rest of the day was a sinch because of the fast pass! Our longest line was probably 20 minutes and only once like that. Wow! So much better than Magic Kingdom crowds. We left the park to eat sandwiches at the car--Better than park food with all the condiments. We came back and went to World Showcase to shop after the rides. It looked quite a bit busier when we left. We are done by 4:00, then head over to Downtown Disney to shop around and have some bites .We went back to Pop Century and chilled. This was another enjoyable day!
Day 4 MGM Studios. First thing in the A.M. Got a fast pass to the new stunt show first! Got a couple of signatures from characters and headed to TOT(8/10) and RNRC(9/10)the two best rides in the park. Did the Back lot Tours, the Great Move Experience and finally the Car Show(9/10). Arriving early and getting your fastpasses is the way to go. We are done by 1:00, have lunch then head over to Typhoon Lagoon. It was a bit overcast so maybe that explains why we were able to park up front and had next to no lines for any slide. The lazy river was next to emply and the Swim with the sharks was also only about a 10 minutes wait. If your kids like water, they will love this place. Probably the most enjoyable of all of disney's parks. Another relaxing day! My DW arrives in the evening via Magic Express. She swims again with DS while I do some grocery shopping.
Day 5 Animal Kingdom With my DS and my DW and her sister's family we plan on Animal kingdom. The problem with traveling with another family is that your daily routines and time schedule can really be different. We knew that and as early birds we get to the park first and ride and get extra fastpasses to Kilamanjaro Safaris, Kali River Ride and Dinosaur. While at Dinosaur our in laws finally show up. We are in contact by cell phone. We ride Dinosaur again with them and then get fast passes to the Safari which already has a 1:30 return time. So we do the walk through to the Apes section and then head over to it's tough to be a bug. The Tree of life is Awesome and we had a lot of fun pointing out all the different animals carved into the tree. We got more fastpasses to Kali river ride then did the Tiger walking tour. It was really cool! The tigers were all out and being frisky and playing. Next we did the Safari again with our in-laws. We had done this first thing in the mourning and it was great because there was a bird with a stick that would not move off the road. We were able to better spot the animals. Later we saw three cheetahs walking around--my DS's favorite animal. However the second safari was hot, fast and uneventful. The guide was not half as animated at the first one we had and he would "point" out the animals only after we passed them. Oh well, we still got to see some animals. Okay, fastpass the River and cool off then we head to the Lion King show. It's probably a great show for kids 10 and under but a little corny for teenagers and adults with the exception of the acrobatic part of the show. Hey, we did have fun and we had to wait more for our in-laws than on lines. We are now done with disney this year. See tips below:
1. Don't do Extra magic Hours in the evening until they change it!!! Which they will have to do. Who wants to stay up until 2:00 a.m riding rides that are 30 minutes to an hour long?
2. Hit the water parks and resort pools to cool off!!! It will make a bad day into a great day. It will also reenergize the "magic".
3. Arrive early and use Fastpasses--Be aware of the next time you can get a fast pass and be aware that you can use a fastpass anytime after the return time!
4. Split up if you have large parties but have a cell phone or walkie talkie to keep in contact. Have a couple of places to meet at different times (lunch, parade, fireworks, are good times to meet up) You can't visit while you are riding rides.
5. Know what rides everyone wants to ride and doesn't want to ride and make a plan.
6. Realize that little kids may say they want to ride but will change their minds once they get into a dark room, hear scary music, are waiting to long in line, are hungry, have to use the restroom etc. (this is why fast passes are great) I wouldn't do a ride without a fast pass unless you are prepared to do child swap
7. Realize not everything will go magically.
8. If you don't want to worry about any lines at all and you have teenagers then get EXPRESS PLUS passes to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios and skip Disney World all together with the exception maybe of a water park. You get a pass to every ride with next to no wait and no return times. The theming is better at those parks I think as well.
9. Don't try to cram everything in one day. If you can't see something than that will give you a reason to return in the future.
10. You shouldn't do more than one major park a day! (If you do have a park hopper pass you could use it to see an evening parade of fireworks or ride rides at a different park during those times but consider number 9 if you are considering purchasing the park hopper option)
