This is my first post on wdwinfo for an awfully long time, so a brief re-introduction. I first started with the site around ’97-’98 if my memory serves, and ran the brief-but-hugely-entertaining Disney trivia forum. Since then I’ve gone through high school/college/graduation/marriage etc etc that doesn’t really need to be rehashed, other than to say that many years have passed.
My Wyoming-born-and-raised wife had never visited Disney World prior to this trip, and we’d been planning to rectify that situation for a couple years. Finally, it seemed like the time was right this January to pull the trigger, so we booked an 8 day trip before she needed to return to school. She’s in the 3rd year of a ph.D program, and I work in non-profits, so we decided we were going to try Disney at its most basic level: no frills, no excess, just a ton of time in the parks. We would stay at the cheapest on-site resort and eat only at quick-service restaurants.
Fortunately, I still kept in touch with one of the few people I know who preceded me on the site, who fortunately runs a travel agency now. We were booked at the All Star Sports with an 8 day hopper.
Planning wise, we did very little prior to the trip. She was finishing up her term at school, and I was dealing with a hectic month of vacation callouts and holiday issues. Mainly I was relying on what had been a huge knowledge of Disney and background (from my years of being a trivia maven), and also from my previous trips (the last being mid-summer in 2005). However, it was clear that we were planning a very different sort of trip from that which we’d experienced before. Having made every subsequent trip with my parents, we’d varied from a quick 4 night trip at the All Star to long, multi-resort vacations at AKL/Dolphin or Caribbean Beach/Beach Club. Fending for yourself tends to change the priorities.
We took off from Boston’s Logan Airport (after going through security twice; Logan was designed for a far different world) early on Monday the 3rd, landed at 70⁰ MCO around noon, and had a painless trip aboard Disney’s Magical Express. This is a vast improvement over the previous fend-for-your-self setup of previous vacations, and introduces you to the WDW experience as soon as possible. Or at least as much as possible given the circumstances. The driver even slowed down entering the WDW gateway so the packed bus could get an opening shot on their cameraphones.
Checked into the All Star Sports with a room in Tennis, which we initially figured would be a bit too far of a hike from the central plaza, having hoped for Touchdown or Surf’s Up in our general trip planning. We were, as it turned out, completely mistaken: Tennis is a godsend. I don’t know if it’ll make much of a difference during peak times, but in the offseason it was quiet enough to be soothing and also close enough to be convenient. I couldn’t recommend a location at Sports more conducive to an adult couple, which was driven home in our subsequent locations. But more on that later.
It was around 1:30PM on our first day, and we dropped everything to head for the Magic Kingdom. Now, the running theme of the vacation, especially the early part, was my inability to understand what offseason truly means at a place like Disney World. Every trip I had taken prior was either during a school break or in the dead of summer, so I had become used to waiting in substantial lines, or at least having to be clever enough to avoid said lines. So when we happily skipped into Magic Kingdom and saw a 45 minute Jungle Cruise line, in January, we were… confused. Part of this was undoubtedly due to the regrettable refurbishment of Splash Mountain, but it still was a tough pill to swallow. I spent a good deal of the rest of Day 1 searching for information on what I believed would be our savior: E-Ride Night. At least until I saw it was discontinued the month after my previous trip, 5+ years hence. Our lack of planning had clearly missed a few things.
I won’t go into the day-to-day of our 8 days at WDW, but there were many notes/comments. In no particular order:
- Favorite parks, in order: 1). Epcot, 2). DAK, 3). MK, 4). MGM.
- Rough beginning itinerary: Day 1 MK, Day 2 DAK/MGM, Day 3 Epcot. I’ll arrange my notes in this order for clarity.
MK
- It’s amazing to see the focus placed on PotC after the movies. I noticed a bit of an uptick during my 2005 trip, but before that PotC was often a ghost town. It was nice to see a classic become popular again.
- Much work being done on MK, from the second you enter to nearly every corner of the park.
- Brazilians. Tons and tons of Brazilians. Playing Spot the Soccer Jersey became a fun pastime.
- Contempo Café at the Contemporary: where did this come from? Given the sparse options inside MK (The Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Shop and El Pirata… being closed), it was definitely our favorite place to eat in that area. I had a quite excellent steak flatbread with caramelized onions.
- Stich’s Great Escape is actually more disappointing than the hugely confusing and weird Alien Encounter. However, I was thrilled that they kept Skippy around, easily my favorite Disney character. For no reason other than overall cuteness I guess.
- Same goes for the meh Laugh Factory. Might be fun for kids, but my stodgyness bristles at thinking I’ll be put on camera.
- Tomorrowland still looks gorgeous, just as it did my first trip following New Tomorrowland. They nailed the retro-futuristic aesthetic perfectly.
- Dole Whips are so excellent, even when it’s in the 50s out. These need a wider distribution.
- Big Thunder returning to Super Headliner status with the closure of Splash is very odd. It’s a fun ride, but not to the level of Space and Splash.
- Finally, am I crazy, or in the past were you able to take a bus to any Disney resort from the TTC even well after MK had closed?
DAK
- I have always had a soft spot for DAK. Partially because we lucked into being there on the first public soft opening day, partially because the theming in Africa and Asia are the best I’ve ever seen from Disney. So even with the lack of attractions, it’s an excellent place in which to get lost. That’s why we spent 4 mornings at DAK: just enough time to get some serious rides on CTX (wait, ugh, Dinosaur), Kili and Everest.
- Speaking of Everest, Everest is great. The queue itself is better than many other rides, and is the perfect reason why you don’t need a preshow video. Good architecture and attention to detail is far better than exposition.
- Neither of us saw the Yeti the first two trips. Our lack of planning had failed to uncover the Disco Yeti thing, so that became a bit of a frustration. Still, the ride itself is top notch, with a properly excellent drop and some tight turns. It’s Big Thunder grown up.
- With the addition of Everest, Asia takes over the best themed crown from Africa. Which is incredible, because Harambe is about as beautiful as any place I’ve ever seen. My favorite: the 14th century wall tucked behind Tamu Tamu, then tucked behind the main seating area. So much effort, so little visibility.
- How great is it that you can very easily wait for the front or last row? The view from front row was incredible, peeking over the mountain to see much of WDW. And not having to wait much at all, compared to the insane lengths of front/back at a place like Six Flags.
- Made 4-5 trips on Kili, all with countless animal sightings. Shouldn’t be surprised at the whole Little Red storyline being dropped, since it never made much sense to begin with. For the record, I was there when Big Red was shot and Little Red captured by poachers. We had no idea what they were thinking at the time with the original version.
- Dinosaur has been largely defanged. The list of nonfunctional effects has become legendary at this point, but at least it’s still enjoyable. My wife, having not known how good CTX was, loved it.
- I was deeply disappointed that Tusker House became full-service, as the dining room was immaculately themed. Instead, we ate our meals at Flame Tree overlooking the water and Everest. Beautiful.
- Breakfasts were split between Kusafiri (excellent Apple Turnover) and Royal Anandapur Tea Company (Apple fritter, also excellent).
- Yak and Yeti quick service produced an ambient smell that the food could not match. Pass by, and continue on to Flame Tree.
- If DAK gets a South American or Australian land, or FINALLY pulls out Beastly, it’s ticketed for A-#1 spot on my list. What it does is nearly perfect, it just needs far more of it.
MGM
- Sigh, MGM. Where to begin. Apart from housing the greatest attraction ever made in the Tower of Terror, a park completely devoid of a unifying theme. It’s built to honor the golden age of movies, and the main 2 rides (TSM has the lines, but not the weight) are built to TV and music. That the entire left part of the pack is an unthemed mess without any wienie attractions is depressing, but at least speaks to a huge area that can be plussed. It needs the 1.2 billion that DCA just received, post-haste, and a strong dose of direction.
- Tower of Terror can’t even really be compared to any other ride, simply out of fairness. It is the end-all, be-all of good old fashioned storytelling and theming. It has everything one would want from a modern ride: atmosphere, subtlety, detail, and major thrills. My only complaint is, after 150 ToT trips, that the movie slows down the re-ride potential. And I miss the lap bars/plainly textured wall pre-drop.
- RnR is still pretty mediocre, and the lack of any idea on single-rider time wait is frustrating. We waited 45 minutes for a headbanging back-row seat. On the plus side, we fastpassed into the front row (also no wait for the front vs. anything else, thank you Disney), and the launch there makes the ride worth it. Or, almost.
- Toy Story Mania: where capacity goes to die. 85 minutes in January, really? Never dropping below 55 during the day? It’s a fun ride, no doubt, but definitely not worth that for adults. I’ve heard Disneyland’s is down to 20-25 now, which would be reasonable.
- Pizza Planet is shameful. Do it right, or don’t do it at all.
- Dump the Hat. Either Grauman’s is the park’s logo, or it isn’t, and the hat doesn’t make any more sense than the water tower. And it’s worth noting that if the hat is the centerpiece, it’s the only one encapsulating a store, rather than something interesting.
Epcot
- Ah, Epcot, where we spend most of our vacation time. We learned by day 4 that, given our quick-service proclivities on this trip, that we were going to need an Epcot Food Slingshot, sort of like how they use the moon as a slingshot to Mars in Mission Space. Every day from the 4th day on we were in Epcot at least once, ranging from 7 hours to the time it takes to walk from the front, to our food of choice, to the gateway.
- So, this means we ate at: Yakitori (multiple times; the Beef Udon is superlative, and my wife loved the Curry Udon), the Fish and Chip shop in England, the Patisserie (slightly overrated in our mind, especially for the 30 min line), Sommerfest, La Cantina (whoa, that got huge/weird), Sunshine Seasons, and a few others I’m sure I’ve forgotten.
- Except for our favorite of course,Norway’s Kringla Bakerie og Kafé. I somehow had missed this in all my previous trips, but it was the food highlight. The Lefse was very good, the Schoolbread was to die for, and the Ham/Apple/Cheese sandwich was huge and delicious. And at prices I’d be thrilled to pay up in downtown Boston. We went at least 5 times, and I only wish I could’ve gone on previous trips.
- This was my first trip on Soarin’, and I was fully underwhelmed. It seems like the type of ride that should be a much better ride’s pre-show. We fastpassed it the first time, and after I got used to 1). Actually seeing people in The Land, 2). Seeing an entire wall blown out where Soarin’ resides, we entered the soulless, unthemed queue (the fastpass queue is especially dire, since you’re surrounded by high walls on each side), down the unthemed merged line, to the unthemed video, and into the unthemed ride itself. Which was just surprisingly uninteresting, reminding me of a seated Circlevision. It’s worth noting that you could wander onto Timekeeper whenever you wanted, without waiting for 45 minutes in January. Overall, it struck me as incompetent more than outright cheap (though that was also present). It was a ride far less fulfilling and interesting than the Everest queue. No offense to Soarin’ lovers.
- I still have a soft spot for Test Track, even with its faults. Still thrilling, still weird, probably in need of an update. Definitely many screens/effects not quite working, but none to really be detrimental. The single rider line has become weird, as you’re just pushed through the 3rd preshow room, which often doesn’t even show the video. It was actually more orderly when they used to bring you around the side door through the emergency exit.
- Mission Space has become rather funny with the green/orange split, turning ORANGE TEAM MORE INTENSE TRAINING’s awkward phrasing into a persistent inside joke for us. As a Horizons lover MS is not the level I would’ve liked to see from a replacement ride, but it’s enjoyable and slightly cheesy. Why couldn’t they have built this instead of Wonders of Life, exactly?
- Spaceship Earth keeps getting better with age. The reveal of the Earth at the top will always be breathtaking.
- The Land is far better without the individual guides. I think it was better laid out and easier to collect the information in the current setup. I did find it funny that the Land’s line exploded, like Star Tours, with the addition of fastpass, but it appears to have settled back to reasonable levels.
- The new Sunshine Seasons is excellent. We always used to avoid it to eat in World Showcase, but the selection and ample seating make it very tempting. And the dessert is excellent.
- The new Living Seas is adorable, and a nice replacement for a ride that had clearly lost its focus. In the last trip the pre-preshow was no longer working, the hydrolators were boarded up, so you just awkwardly stumbled onto the peoplemover before hitting Seabase Alpha. Even if the new ride has zero educational value, TLS had passed all hope. The Manatees and Cuttlefish made this a multiple-time experience for us.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back with thoughts on the rest of the world, and the fun (?) story of how this 8 day vacation became 10 days unexpectedly.
Sean O
My Wyoming-born-and-raised wife had never visited Disney World prior to this trip, and we’d been planning to rectify that situation for a couple years. Finally, it seemed like the time was right this January to pull the trigger, so we booked an 8 day trip before she needed to return to school. She’s in the 3rd year of a ph.D program, and I work in non-profits, so we decided we were going to try Disney at its most basic level: no frills, no excess, just a ton of time in the parks. We would stay at the cheapest on-site resort and eat only at quick-service restaurants.
Fortunately, I still kept in touch with one of the few people I know who preceded me on the site, who fortunately runs a travel agency now. We were booked at the All Star Sports with an 8 day hopper.
Planning wise, we did very little prior to the trip. She was finishing up her term at school, and I was dealing with a hectic month of vacation callouts and holiday issues. Mainly I was relying on what had been a huge knowledge of Disney and background (from my years of being a trivia maven), and also from my previous trips (the last being mid-summer in 2005). However, it was clear that we were planning a very different sort of trip from that which we’d experienced before. Having made every subsequent trip with my parents, we’d varied from a quick 4 night trip at the All Star to long, multi-resort vacations at AKL/Dolphin or Caribbean Beach/Beach Club. Fending for yourself tends to change the priorities.
We took off from Boston’s Logan Airport (after going through security twice; Logan was designed for a far different world) early on Monday the 3rd, landed at 70⁰ MCO around noon, and had a painless trip aboard Disney’s Magical Express. This is a vast improvement over the previous fend-for-your-self setup of previous vacations, and introduces you to the WDW experience as soon as possible. Or at least as much as possible given the circumstances. The driver even slowed down entering the WDW gateway so the packed bus could get an opening shot on their cameraphones.
Checked into the All Star Sports with a room in Tennis, which we initially figured would be a bit too far of a hike from the central plaza, having hoped for Touchdown or Surf’s Up in our general trip planning. We were, as it turned out, completely mistaken: Tennis is a godsend. I don’t know if it’ll make much of a difference during peak times, but in the offseason it was quiet enough to be soothing and also close enough to be convenient. I couldn’t recommend a location at Sports more conducive to an adult couple, which was driven home in our subsequent locations. But more on that later.
It was around 1:30PM on our first day, and we dropped everything to head for the Magic Kingdom. Now, the running theme of the vacation, especially the early part, was my inability to understand what offseason truly means at a place like Disney World. Every trip I had taken prior was either during a school break or in the dead of summer, so I had become used to waiting in substantial lines, or at least having to be clever enough to avoid said lines. So when we happily skipped into Magic Kingdom and saw a 45 minute Jungle Cruise line, in January, we were… confused. Part of this was undoubtedly due to the regrettable refurbishment of Splash Mountain, but it still was a tough pill to swallow. I spent a good deal of the rest of Day 1 searching for information on what I believed would be our savior: E-Ride Night. At least until I saw it was discontinued the month after my previous trip, 5+ years hence. Our lack of planning had clearly missed a few things.
I won’t go into the day-to-day of our 8 days at WDW, but there were many notes/comments. In no particular order:
- Favorite parks, in order: 1). Epcot, 2). DAK, 3). MK, 4). MGM.
- Rough beginning itinerary: Day 1 MK, Day 2 DAK/MGM, Day 3 Epcot. I’ll arrange my notes in this order for clarity.
MK
- It’s amazing to see the focus placed on PotC after the movies. I noticed a bit of an uptick during my 2005 trip, but before that PotC was often a ghost town. It was nice to see a classic become popular again.
- Much work being done on MK, from the second you enter to nearly every corner of the park.
- Brazilians. Tons and tons of Brazilians. Playing Spot the Soccer Jersey became a fun pastime.
- Contempo Café at the Contemporary: where did this come from? Given the sparse options inside MK (The Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Shop and El Pirata… being closed), it was definitely our favorite place to eat in that area. I had a quite excellent steak flatbread with caramelized onions.
- Stich’s Great Escape is actually more disappointing than the hugely confusing and weird Alien Encounter. However, I was thrilled that they kept Skippy around, easily my favorite Disney character. For no reason other than overall cuteness I guess.
- Same goes for the meh Laugh Factory. Might be fun for kids, but my stodgyness bristles at thinking I’ll be put on camera.
- Tomorrowland still looks gorgeous, just as it did my first trip following New Tomorrowland. They nailed the retro-futuristic aesthetic perfectly.
- Dole Whips are so excellent, even when it’s in the 50s out. These need a wider distribution.
- Big Thunder returning to Super Headliner status with the closure of Splash is very odd. It’s a fun ride, but not to the level of Space and Splash.
- Finally, am I crazy, or in the past were you able to take a bus to any Disney resort from the TTC even well after MK had closed?
DAK
- I have always had a soft spot for DAK. Partially because we lucked into being there on the first public soft opening day, partially because the theming in Africa and Asia are the best I’ve ever seen from Disney. So even with the lack of attractions, it’s an excellent place in which to get lost. That’s why we spent 4 mornings at DAK: just enough time to get some serious rides on CTX (wait, ugh, Dinosaur), Kili and Everest.
- Speaking of Everest, Everest is great. The queue itself is better than many other rides, and is the perfect reason why you don’t need a preshow video. Good architecture and attention to detail is far better than exposition.
- Neither of us saw the Yeti the first two trips. Our lack of planning had failed to uncover the Disco Yeti thing, so that became a bit of a frustration. Still, the ride itself is top notch, with a properly excellent drop and some tight turns. It’s Big Thunder grown up.
- With the addition of Everest, Asia takes over the best themed crown from Africa. Which is incredible, because Harambe is about as beautiful as any place I’ve ever seen. My favorite: the 14th century wall tucked behind Tamu Tamu, then tucked behind the main seating area. So much effort, so little visibility.
- How great is it that you can very easily wait for the front or last row? The view from front row was incredible, peeking over the mountain to see much of WDW. And not having to wait much at all, compared to the insane lengths of front/back at a place like Six Flags.
- Made 4-5 trips on Kili, all with countless animal sightings. Shouldn’t be surprised at the whole Little Red storyline being dropped, since it never made much sense to begin with. For the record, I was there when Big Red was shot and Little Red captured by poachers. We had no idea what they were thinking at the time with the original version.
- Dinosaur has been largely defanged. The list of nonfunctional effects has become legendary at this point, but at least it’s still enjoyable. My wife, having not known how good CTX was, loved it.
- I was deeply disappointed that Tusker House became full-service, as the dining room was immaculately themed. Instead, we ate our meals at Flame Tree overlooking the water and Everest. Beautiful.
- Breakfasts were split between Kusafiri (excellent Apple Turnover) and Royal Anandapur Tea Company (Apple fritter, also excellent).
- Yak and Yeti quick service produced an ambient smell that the food could not match. Pass by, and continue on to Flame Tree.
- If DAK gets a South American or Australian land, or FINALLY pulls out Beastly, it’s ticketed for A-#1 spot on my list. What it does is nearly perfect, it just needs far more of it.
MGM
- Sigh, MGM. Where to begin. Apart from housing the greatest attraction ever made in the Tower of Terror, a park completely devoid of a unifying theme. It’s built to honor the golden age of movies, and the main 2 rides (TSM has the lines, but not the weight) are built to TV and music. That the entire left part of the pack is an unthemed mess without any wienie attractions is depressing, but at least speaks to a huge area that can be plussed. It needs the 1.2 billion that DCA just received, post-haste, and a strong dose of direction.
- Tower of Terror can’t even really be compared to any other ride, simply out of fairness. It is the end-all, be-all of good old fashioned storytelling and theming. It has everything one would want from a modern ride: atmosphere, subtlety, detail, and major thrills. My only complaint is, after 150 ToT trips, that the movie slows down the re-ride potential. And I miss the lap bars/plainly textured wall pre-drop.
- RnR is still pretty mediocre, and the lack of any idea on single-rider time wait is frustrating. We waited 45 minutes for a headbanging back-row seat. On the plus side, we fastpassed into the front row (also no wait for the front vs. anything else, thank you Disney), and the launch there makes the ride worth it. Or, almost.
- Toy Story Mania: where capacity goes to die. 85 minutes in January, really? Never dropping below 55 during the day? It’s a fun ride, no doubt, but definitely not worth that for adults. I’ve heard Disneyland’s is down to 20-25 now, which would be reasonable.
- Pizza Planet is shameful. Do it right, or don’t do it at all.
- Dump the Hat. Either Grauman’s is the park’s logo, or it isn’t, and the hat doesn’t make any more sense than the water tower. And it’s worth noting that if the hat is the centerpiece, it’s the only one encapsulating a store, rather than something interesting.
Epcot
- Ah, Epcot, where we spend most of our vacation time. We learned by day 4 that, given our quick-service proclivities on this trip, that we were going to need an Epcot Food Slingshot, sort of like how they use the moon as a slingshot to Mars in Mission Space. Every day from the 4th day on we were in Epcot at least once, ranging from 7 hours to the time it takes to walk from the front, to our food of choice, to the gateway.
- So, this means we ate at: Yakitori (multiple times; the Beef Udon is superlative, and my wife loved the Curry Udon), the Fish and Chip shop in England, the Patisserie (slightly overrated in our mind, especially for the 30 min line), Sommerfest, La Cantina (whoa, that got huge/weird), Sunshine Seasons, and a few others I’m sure I’ve forgotten.
- Except for our favorite of course,Norway’s Kringla Bakerie og Kafé. I somehow had missed this in all my previous trips, but it was the food highlight. The Lefse was very good, the Schoolbread was to die for, and the Ham/Apple/Cheese sandwich was huge and delicious. And at prices I’d be thrilled to pay up in downtown Boston. We went at least 5 times, and I only wish I could’ve gone on previous trips.
- This was my first trip on Soarin’, and I was fully underwhelmed. It seems like the type of ride that should be a much better ride’s pre-show. We fastpassed it the first time, and after I got used to 1). Actually seeing people in The Land, 2). Seeing an entire wall blown out where Soarin’ resides, we entered the soulless, unthemed queue (the fastpass queue is especially dire, since you’re surrounded by high walls on each side), down the unthemed merged line, to the unthemed video, and into the unthemed ride itself. Which was just surprisingly uninteresting, reminding me of a seated Circlevision. It’s worth noting that you could wander onto Timekeeper whenever you wanted, without waiting for 45 minutes in January. Overall, it struck me as incompetent more than outright cheap (though that was also present). It was a ride far less fulfilling and interesting than the Everest queue. No offense to Soarin’ lovers.
- I still have a soft spot for Test Track, even with its faults. Still thrilling, still weird, probably in need of an update. Definitely many screens/effects not quite working, but none to really be detrimental. The single rider line has become weird, as you’re just pushed through the 3rd preshow room, which often doesn’t even show the video. It was actually more orderly when they used to bring you around the side door through the emergency exit.
- Mission Space has become rather funny with the green/orange split, turning ORANGE TEAM MORE INTENSE TRAINING’s awkward phrasing into a persistent inside joke for us. As a Horizons lover MS is not the level I would’ve liked to see from a replacement ride, but it’s enjoyable and slightly cheesy. Why couldn’t they have built this instead of Wonders of Life, exactly?
- Spaceship Earth keeps getting better with age. The reveal of the Earth at the top will always be breathtaking.
- The Land is far better without the individual guides. I think it was better laid out and easier to collect the information in the current setup. I did find it funny that the Land’s line exploded, like Star Tours, with the addition of fastpass, but it appears to have settled back to reasonable levels.
- The new Sunshine Seasons is excellent. We always used to avoid it to eat in World Showcase, but the selection and ample seating make it very tempting. And the dessert is excellent.
- The new Living Seas is adorable, and a nice replacement for a ride that had clearly lost its focus. In the last trip the pre-preshow was no longer working, the hydrolators were boarded up, so you just awkwardly stumbled onto the peoplemover before hitting Seabase Alpha. Even if the new ride has zero educational value, TLS had passed all hope. The Manatees and Cuttlefish made this a multiple-time experience for us.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back with thoughts on the rest of the world, and the fun (?) story of how this 8 day vacation became 10 days unexpectedly.
Sean O
