clappyclaps
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2024
- Messages
- 1,481
Hi all, I've not long since got back from a family holiday to WDW and sadly I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I was hoping to (due to the circumstances, not the place) and I wanted to write up my experience – both as a cathartic exercise and to share it with people who might appreciate it! I've tried not to ramble on too much, and have just shared some pertinent thoughts and feedback on my stay and each park. Mostly food related or about new rides that weren't there last time I visited. I'm sure not everyone will agree with my thoughts on some of the rides or food but we're all different 
A few ride photos included to give you a laugh - I promise I didn't feel as terrified as I look! I've refrained from attaching photos of food and drink, I have more of those than I do of me...
Background
I live in the UK and my parents first took my brother and I to WDW back in 1997 when we were 8 and 10 respectively. We were all enchanted and were lucky enough to go back a couple more times in 1999 and 2003 (I think). My parents went back on their own in the early 2010s and I've been back a couple of times with partners (last time was 8/9 years ago). My brother hasn't been back since our last family trip. I'm now 37 and after having a fairly miserable start to the year, decided I wanted a holiday to cheer me up and I could think of no better place than WDW. My plan was to go on my own but after mentioning it to my family they decided they wanted to come too so we went back together, over 20 years after our last trip together.
About Me
I'm a lifetime lover of Disney and massive film geek in general, love rides and am also a huge foodie. Unfortunately my body doesn't like rides as much as I do and motion sickness that has plagued me since childhood has gradually gotten worse over the years, so I was relying on a never before tested combination of tablets and patches to get me on the rides.
Our Stay
We flew from Manchester, UK into MCO on 5th October with Virgin Atlantic. This is the first long haul flight I've done in years and I was pleasantly surprised with what Virgin offered – the food was really quite good (the smell of plane food used to make me nauseous), and getting an afternoon tea served on the flight was a nice perk, the scones were shockingly good! The flight was uneventful and we landed on time, progressed through the airport without issue – the only problem we had was with our hire car. We'd booked a fly drive through Virgin and apparently, we'd landed in the wrong terminal and our car was at a different terminal. Thankfully Hertz arranged for the car to be moved over and it didn't take too long before we were on our way.
We were staying for 12 nights in All-Star Sports, using a cast member discount from a family friend. I've stayed in all 3 of the All-Star resorts previously and while they might be basic and busy, when all you need is a bed, a shower and the Disney transportation, you can't fault them. One day I’d love to stay in a different, moderate or above hotel but the cost seems astronomical for the amount of time I’d spend in the room. The rooms we stayed in were also a lot more modern than those I'd stayed in previously, so I was quite impressed.
Just to note that halfway through our stay coincided with the arrival of Hurricane Milton, so we were confined to our hotel for 1.5 days. It was the first time we'd experienced a hurricane while in WDW so it was rather scary and definitely memorable!
Here are some of my thoughts on some of the rides and food I experienced in WDW:
Magic Kingdom
• Tron Lightcycle Run – uncomfortable but so much fun and surprisingly fast
• Cheeseburger spring rolls – delicious, Pepperoni spring rolls – nice but a bit dry, needed more sauce or cheese inside the roll itself
• Gaston's Tavern LeFou's Brew and Cinnamon Roll - LeFou's Brew was tasty but too cold when I had it first thing in the morning. Not a fan of the cinnamon roll at all, the top with the icing was nice but the rest of it was far too dry.
• Tiana's Bayou Adventure – I know this will be controversial, but I wasn't a fan of this now it's changed from Splash Mountain. I totally understand why it had to be changed, but I just found it quite dull. It probably didn't help that we only got to go on this once on the day of the hurricane when the weather was horrendous. What I was most annoyed about is the amount of ride vehicles that were sent through so close together, every hill/drop you were queued up behind 4 or 5 other vehicles, which kind of destroys the magic and fun.
• Until it's refurb, Splash Mountain was my favourite ride here but now it's undoubtedly Tron.
Animal Kingdom
• Pongu Pongu Lumpia & Night Blossom – the drink was lovely and the lumpia had great flavour, but the pastry/roll seemed a little soft and undercooked and stuck to the wrapping they were in
• Satu’Li Canteen Cheeseburger pods & Metkatina Mousse – the pods were tasty, very filling although the accompanying veggie chips weren't necessary. The mousse looks like a work of art and tasted nice, but it was far too sickly to eat more than half.
• Dinosaur – was so happy to be able to go on this one final time, I have fond memories of this ride from my childhood however this time round the jarring, bumpy nature of it completely triggered my motion sickness and left me feeling super nauseous afterwards.
• Expedition Everest – is still my favourite ride at AK. Flight of Passage is incredibly well done, but for me nothing can beat that backwards drop.
Epcot
• One of the reasons I wanted to go in October was to eat and drink my way around the Food and Wine Festival and this did not disappoint. Too many tasty dishes and drinks to name them all but some highlights include; tiramisu funnel cake, Brazilian cheese bread, chocolate pudding cake, Key Lime tart, potato & pea samosa, cheesesteak mac & cheese, mango sunrise margarita, pumpkin spice mule
• One slight criticism of the Food and Wine Festival is that some of the stalls offerings seemed a little off piste for the countries they were representing – best example would be Italy offering Italian style nachos and vanilla cheesecake. I know the food is ‘inspired' by the countries but the food snob in me expected a little more.
• L'Artisan des Glaces macaron ice cream sandwich – sounds like a perfect pairing and it tasted nice, but as the macaron was frozen it took longer to soften than the ice cream which wasn't ideal
• Space 220 – managed to get a restaurant reservation, it was the only 3 course meal we did all holiday and it was certainly worth it. From the overall space station experience to the fantastic food (I had calamari, filet mignon and Sol), it was a superb experience and worth every cent.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – due to this being a virtual queue and us not visiting Epcot until the evenings, getting on this was fairly difficult and I almost worried I wouldn't at some point after it broke down on our last day when we'd gone to Epcot first thing specifically to ride it. Fortunately I made it on and despite my motion sickness concerns, this is an epic ride. I'm so glad I got to ride it, the way the ride vehicles work is so impressively done and it is now hands down my favourite ride.
Hollywood Studios
• Hollywood Studios was always my favourite park and excluding the Food and Wine Festival offerings, it's the best park for snacks and food too. Some of my highlights include; carrot cake whoopie pie, Jack-Jack Cookie num nums, Totchos, Ronto wrap, ghost cream puff, Baseline Tap House's pretzel
• Galaxy's Edge – my first time experiencing the new Star Wars land and despite not being a huge fan of the films, they've really done a great job with this. The rides are great, Rise of the Resistance especially is epic and the mechanics of this are sublime. So good that I was almost tempted to buy and bring home a robot.
• MuppetVision 3D & Rock ‘n' Rollercoaster – considering recent news, I'm so glad I got to experience both of these for the last time. Might be controversial but I think both seemed a little tired, although MuppetVision will be missed!
• Tower of Terror – has always been my favourite ride, and while it's still up there, Cosmic Rewind has now beat it to first place. I just pray that they never overhaul it.
Other notable mentions in WDW have to go to Chef Art Smith's Homecoming and the wine slushies in Amorettes. Wine + slushie is always going to be a winner in my books and the food at Homecoming is something else. I had the Strawberry Lemonade Moonshine and the Country Fried Steak and it is hands down the best fried chicken meal I've ever eaten. I'm not usually a mash and gravy kinda girl but this had me converted.
As well as WDW, we also did Universal so I thought I'd do a brief write up on some of my thoughts on these too.
Universal Studios
• Didn't seem like much has changed here since the last time I visited ride-wise – the Gringotts ride is still my favourite and a really well made ride overall.
• Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It – braved this for the first time this trip after chickening out previously, I enjoyed it overall but that vertical lift is awful, I felt like I was slipping out of my seat.
• Halloween Horror Nights - I've never been to a HHN before and was super happy to finally get the chance to, however I wasn't that impressed. The effects, set and house designs are truly brilliant but they're spoilt by the overall experience – imo, too many people are let into the park and being crammed in like sardines in the scare zones takes away from the experience. I was incredibly disappointed to find out that when you go into the houses, you're basically just in a queue line walking through with people directly in front and behind. This completely ruined the experience for me, I was expecting to go in small groups with gaps in between and it’s a shame they don't do this. Also, not happy that some of the merchandise was out of stock by the time we arrived. Spent far too much time on the hunt for the elusive Stay Puft shoulder pals!
• Food & drink wise, I tried hot butterbeer for the first time and wasn't a fan, far too sweet. Frozen is definitely the best out of the three, tied with the ice cream. And the food at HHN was a little style over substance. Tried the Stay Puft S'more and the pizza skull and both didn't taste as good as they looked!
Islands of Adventure
• Hagrid's Magical Creatures – this wasn't here the last time I visited and it's an incredible ride. Quite long and full of surprises I wasn't expecting, definitely worth the long queue!
• Velocicoaster – really unhappy as I never got the chance to ride this as we only visited once and my family decided to go straight after lunch – even with my motion sickness treatments, risking a ride like this on a full stomach is a disaster waiting to happen.
• Water rides – imo IoA has the best water rides, Dudley Do-Right and Jurassic Park River Adventure are brilliant and I'm so glad JP hasn't had a Jurassic World makeover!
We also did Seaworld briefly however I don't want to elaborate on that without getting into potentially controversial territory. Needless to say we didn't enjoy it! Although I will never grow out of the joy of feeding the stingray, even if it's $9 a tray...
Overall I loved being back in Orlando and WDW again, and loved the rides and the food as much as I ever have. However the experience with my family left me feeling rather frazzled and generally feeling negative about it all. I'm fairly organised and had a good idea of what was there and what I wanted to do, whereas they were the exact opposite. They had no idea what they wanted to do and no real interest in anything, to the point where one comment I had was “why do we need to go on that ride again, we've already been on it once”. Also one family member hates queuing, to the point where they vocalise this regularly which, when 90% of your time in WDW is spent queuing, can get pretty tiresome. I felt like I spent the entire holiday dragging them around against their will. We went our separate ways one day and I can honestly say it was the best day I had all holiday – I rope dropped MK at the crack of dawn, managed tonnes of rides in a short period and then park hopped to all of the other parks on a snack hunt and it was so peaceful and enjoyable.
I hate to talk negatively about family, but after looking forward to this holiday so much, the experience was really spoilt for me. Needless to say I'm now planning on when I can go back (alone ofc) to make up for it!
Just as a side note to any motion sickness sufferers, especially those from the UK, I'd highly recommend the tablets and patches I used – Kwells tablets and MQ Motion Sickness patches (these are from Amazon). I've tried the tablets on their own over the years with limited effect at DLP, but paired with the patches they really seemed to work this time. I put on 2 patches each morning and then took a Kwells 20 minutes or so before the first ride, and then subsequent tablets later in the day, usually before going on a triggering ride. There were a couple of times when I suffered from motion sickness and this was always after not following the above (i.e. only wearing one patch, not putting fresh patches on each day or not taking a tablet first thing). After years of suffering and not enjoying rides as much as I used to, these were a life saver!
A few ride photos included to give you a laugh - I promise I didn't feel as terrified as I look! I've refrained from attaching photos of food and drink, I have more of those than I do of me...Background
I live in the UK and my parents first took my brother and I to WDW back in 1997 when we were 8 and 10 respectively. We were all enchanted and were lucky enough to go back a couple more times in 1999 and 2003 (I think). My parents went back on their own in the early 2010s and I've been back a couple of times with partners (last time was 8/9 years ago). My brother hasn't been back since our last family trip. I'm now 37 and after having a fairly miserable start to the year, decided I wanted a holiday to cheer me up and I could think of no better place than WDW. My plan was to go on my own but after mentioning it to my family they decided they wanted to come too so we went back together, over 20 years after our last trip together.
About Me
I'm a lifetime lover of Disney and massive film geek in general, love rides and am also a huge foodie. Unfortunately my body doesn't like rides as much as I do and motion sickness that has plagued me since childhood has gradually gotten worse over the years, so I was relying on a never before tested combination of tablets and patches to get me on the rides.
Our Stay
We flew from Manchester, UK into MCO on 5th October with Virgin Atlantic. This is the first long haul flight I've done in years and I was pleasantly surprised with what Virgin offered – the food was really quite good (the smell of plane food used to make me nauseous), and getting an afternoon tea served on the flight was a nice perk, the scones were shockingly good! The flight was uneventful and we landed on time, progressed through the airport without issue – the only problem we had was with our hire car. We'd booked a fly drive through Virgin and apparently, we'd landed in the wrong terminal and our car was at a different terminal. Thankfully Hertz arranged for the car to be moved over and it didn't take too long before we were on our way.
We were staying for 12 nights in All-Star Sports, using a cast member discount from a family friend. I've stayed in all 3 of the All-Star resorts previously and while they might be basic and busy, when all you need is a bed, a shower and the Disney transportation, you can't fault them. One day I’d love to stay in a different, moderate or above hotel but the cost seems astronomical for the amount of time I’d spend in the room. The rooms we stayed in were also a lot more modern than those I'd stayed in previously, so I was quite impressed.
Just to note that halfway through our stay coincided with the arrival of Hurricane Milton, so we were confined to our hotel for 1.5 days. It was the first time we'd experienced a hurricane while in WDW so it was rather scary and definitely memorable!
Here are some of my thoughts on some of the rides and food I experienced in WDW:
Magic Kingdom
• Tron Lightcycle Run – uncomfortable but so much fun and surprisingly fast
• Cheeseburger spring rolls – delicious, Pepperoni spring rolls – nice but a bit dry, needed more sauce or cheese inside the roll itself
• Gaston's Tavern LeFou's Brew and Cinnamon Roll - LeFou's Brew was tasty but too cold when I had it first thing in the morning. Not a fan of the cinnamon roll at all, the top with the icing was nice but the rest of it was far too dry.
• Tiana's Bayou Adventure – I know this will be controversial, but I wasn't a fan of this now it's changed from Splash Mountain. I totally understand why it had to be changed, but I just found it quite dull. It probably didn't help that we only got to go on this once on the day of the hurricane when the weather was horrendous. What I was most annoyed about is the amount of ride vehicles that were sent through so close together, every hill/drop you were queued up behind 4 or 5 other vehicles, which kind of destroys the magic and fun.
• Until it's refurb, Splash Mountain was my favourite ride here but now it's undoubtedly Tron.
Animal Kingdom
• Pongu Pongu Lumpia & Night Blossom – the drink was lovely and the lumpia had great flavour, but the pastry/roll seemed a little soft and undercooked and stuck to the wrapping they were in
• Satu’Li Canteen Cheeseburger pods & Metkatina Mousse – the pods were tasty, very filling although the accompanying veggie chips weren't necessary. The mousse looks like a work of art and tasted nice, but it was far too sickly to eat more than half.
• Dinosaur – was so happy to be able to go on this one final time, I have fond memories of this ride from my childhood however this time round the jarring, bumpy nature of it completely triggered my motion sickness and left me feeling super nauseous afterwards.
• Expedition Everest – is still my favourite ride at AK. Flight of Passage is incredibly well done, but for me nothing can beat that backwards drop.
Epcot
• One of the reasons I wanted to go in October was to eat and drink my way around the Food and Wine Festival and this did not disappoint. Too many tasty dishes and drinks to name them all but some highlights include; tiramisu funnel cake, Brazilian cheese bread, chocolate pudding cake, Key Lime tart, potato & pea samosa, cheesesteak mac & cheese, mango sunrise margarita, pumpkin spice mule
• One slight criticism of the Food and Wine Festival is that some of the stalls offerings seemed a little off piste for the countries they were representing – best example would be Italy offering Italian style nachos and vanilla cheesecake. I know the food is ‘inspired' by the countries but the food snob in me expected a little more.
• L'Artisan des Glaces macaron ice cream sandwich – sounds like a perfect pairing and it tasted nice, but as the macaron was frozen it took longer to soften than the ice cream which wasn't ideal
• Space 220 – managed to get a restaurant reservation, it was the only 3 course meal we did all holiday and it was certainly worth it. From the overall space station experience to the fantastic food (I had calamari, filet mignon and Sol), it was a superb experience and worth every cent.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – due to this being a virtual queue and us not visiting Epcot until the evenings, getting on this was fairly difficult and I almost worried I wouldn't at some point after it broke down on our last day when we'd gone to Epcot first thing specifically to ride it. Fortunately I made it on and despite my motion sickness concerns, this is an epic ride. I'm so glad I got to ride it, the way the ride vehicles work is so impressively done and it is now hands down my favourite ride.
Hollywood Studios
• Hollywood Studios was always my favourite park and excluding the Food and Wine Festival offerings, it's the best park for snacks and food too. Some of my highlights include; carrot cake whoopie pie, Jack-Jack Cookie num nums, Totchos, Ronto wrap, ghost cream puff, Baseline Tap House's pretzel
• Galaxy's Edge – my first time experiencing the new Star Wars land and despite not being a huge fan of the films, they've really done a great job with this. The rides are great, Rise of the Resistance especially is epic and the mechanics of this are sublime. So good that I was almost tempted to buy and bring home a robot.
• MuppetVision 3D & Rock ‘n' Rollercoaster – considering recent news, I'm so glad I got to experience both of these for the last time. Might be controversial but I think both seemed a little tired, although MuppetVision will be missed!
• Tower of Terror – has always been my favourite ride, and while it's still up there, Cosmic Rewind has now beat it to first place. I just pray that they never overhaul it.
Other notable mentions in WDW have to go to Chef Art Smith's Homecoming and the wine slushies in Amorettes. Wine + slushie is always going to be a winner in my books and the food at Homecoming is something else. I had the Strawberry Lemonade Moonshine and the Country Fried Steak and it is hands down the best fried chicken meal I've ever eaten. I'm not usually a mash and gravy kinda girl but this had me converted.
As well as WDW, we also did Universal so I thought I'd do a brief write up on some of my thoughts on these too.
Universal Studios
• Didn't seem like much has changed here since the last time I visited ride-wise – the Gringotts ride is still my favourite and a really well made ride overall.
• Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It – braved this for the first time this trip after chickening out previously, I enjoyed it overall but that vertical lift is awful, I felt like I was slipping out of my seat.
• Halloween Horror Nights - I've never been to a HHN before and was super happy to finally get the chance to, however I wasn't that impressed. The effects, set and house designs are truly brilliant but they're spoilt by the overall experience – imo, too many people are let into the park and being crammed in like sardines in the scare zones takes away from the experience. I was incredibly disappointed to find out that when you go into the houses, you're basically just in a queue line walking through with people directly in front and behind. This completely ruined the experience for me, I was expecting to go in small groups with gaps in between and it’s a shame they don't do this. Also, not happy that some of the merchandise was out of stock by the time we arrived. Spent far too much time on the hunt for the elusive Stay Puft shoulder pals!
• Food & drink wise, I tried hot butterbeer for the first time and wasn't a fan, far too sweet. Frozen is definitely the best out of the three, tied with the ice cream. And the food at HHN was a little style over substance. Tried the Stay Puft S'more and the pizza skull and both didn't taste as good as they looked!
Islands of Adventure
• Hagrid's Magical Creatures – this wasn't here the last time I visited and it's an incredible ride. Quite long and full of surprises I wasn't expecting, definitely worth the long queue!
• Velocicoaster – really unhappy as I never got the chance to ride this as we only visited once and my family decided to go straight after lunch – even with my motion sickness treatments, risking a ride like this on a full stomach is a disaster waiting to happen.
• Water rides – imo IoA has the best water rides, Dudley Do-Right and Jurassic Park River Adventure are brilliant and I'm so glad JP hasn't had a Jurassic World makeover!
We also did Seaworld briefly however I don't want to elaborate on that without getting into potentially controversial territory. Needless to say we didn't enjoy it! Although I will never grow out of the joy of feeding the stingray, even if it's $9 a tray...
Overall I loved being back in Orlando and WDW again, and loved the rides and the food as much as I ever have. However the experience with my family left me feeling rather frazzled and generally feeling negative about it all. I'm fairly organised and had a good idea of what was there and what I wanted to do, whereas they were the exact opposite. They had no idea what they wanted to do and no real interest in anything, to the point where one comment I had was “why do we need to go on that ride again, we've already been on it once”. Also one family member hates queuing, to the point where they vocalise this regularly which, when 90% of your time in WDW is spent queuing, can get pretty tiresome. I felt like I spent the entire holiday dragging them around against their will. We went our separate ways one day and I can honestly say it was the best day I had all holiday – I rope dropped MK at the crack of dawn, managed tonnes of rides in a short period and then park hopped to all of the other parks on a snack hunt and it was so peaceful and enjoyable.
I hate to talk negatively about family, but after looking forward to this holiday so much, the experience was really spoilt for me. Needless to say I'm now planning on when I can go back (alone ofc) to make up for it!
Just as a side note to any motion sickness sufferers, especially those from the UK, I'd highly recommend the tablets and patches I used – Kwells tablets and MQ Motion Sickness patches (these are from Amazon). I've tried the tablets on their own over the years with limited effect at DLP, but paired with the patches they really seemed to work this time. I put on 2 patches each morning and then took a Kwells 20 minutes or so before the first ride, and then subsequent tablets later in the day, usually before going on a triggering ride. There were a couple of times when I suffered from motion sickness and this was always after not following the above (i.e. only wearing one patch, not putting fresh patches on each day or not taking a tablet first thing). After years of suffering and not enjoying rides as much as I used to, these were a life saver!
