Hello!
I just got back (a few days ago) from WDW and wanted to share some of my thoughts, since I enjoyed reading all of your thoughts and tips before I left! I'm working on a full trip report (for my own personal enjoyment) and I'll post it on the trip reports board when it's done, but I wanted to share a few of the highlights in case any of you were interested!
FYI: This trip we took my two teenage sisters who had never been to WDW before. Also, I was the one who posted the day we were supposed to leave about our roads being closed in WY because of the snow! Fortunately, the roads finally did open up, and we were able to leave town!! We made it to WDW, which was all I cared about!
Okay, here are my thoughts:
Magical Express was AWESOME! I thought this was (surprisingly)extremely efficient and useful. We did not receive our tags before our trip. I did not mark my luggage in any way to help them locate it (just didn't have time in the panic of the weather before the trip). We arrived to MCO and were directed downstairs and there we found hundreds of people waiting. I thought it would be a nightmare and that we'd be there forever, but it only took about 5 minutes to get through the line. There we received our vouchers, gave them our baggage claim numbers (we kept the tickets for baggage claim) and described our luggage, then we were directed to the bus stop. Our bus arrived within 10 minutes and we were off. I think it took about an hour to reach the resort from the time we departed the plane. Our luggage arrived without a hitch...not sure how long it took as we went to the parks after checking into the hotel and the luggage was there when we came back. Checking in at the resort was just as easy and our luggage made it home safe and sound.
Crowds were horrible during our stay (6/5/05 to 06/11/05). I have gone previously in June, July, Feb. and Oct. This was BY FAR the busiest I've ever seen it! We followed the "best days" guide from the touringplans.com and that seemed to help, although it was still jam packed! We did hit it lucky a couple of days - once we walked onto Tower of Terror and one morning we walked onto Splash Mountain 3 times in a row! Mostly there were lines everywhere! We managed to avoid them using strategic planning and fast pass, but navigating through the crowds on the way to attractions was a little crazy. We couldn't keep our group of 4 together - instead we split up - my husband and I would each take a girl and we'd meet up at the destination. This seemed to work better than trying to stay together in those huge groups! We had a GREAT time, but I was amazed at the huge quantities of people!
Evening Extra Magic Hour sucked! I was hugely excited about this before leaving. Even after reading bad review of how busy these were, I thought it would be great, as we are night people and I thought it would awesome to stay in the parks so late. I was so totally wrong about this! The problem with EMH is that you are taking all the resort guests who were in other parks all day and bringing them into one park where only half (if you're lucky) of the rides are open and there are very limited places to eat. These things were a nightmare. We tried to do the Epcot one, and ride Soarin - there was an hour wait to stand in the line to get a FP ticket and within probably 1/2 hour, all the FP tickets were gone! Everything was packed - we tried to eat at Electric Umbrella and it took 1/2 hour to get our food! We also tried the MGM EMH, which was also insane. The huge drawback at this one is that none of the shows operate during this time, so there are very few things still open to do. We finally gave up and skipped EMH the rest of the trip.
Stich's Great Escape was awful. Sorry to be negative. I was REALLY looking forward to this and Stich is my WAY favorite character, but I thought this show was corny and lame!!!
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was AWESOME! This was the first upside-down coaster I've ever ridden on! I'm a bigtime chicken when it comes to rides, and I have always chickened out of riding this one! I finally tried it this time because my youngest sister (who is extremely cute and persuasive) said she'd only try it if I did. She said, "You can be selfish or you can be brave - hehehe". So, I couldn't really argue, and I didn't want her doomed to a life of being terrified by rides, so I went. I cried in the queue before getting on because I was so scared!!!! But after it took off, I totally LOVED it! I'm so glad I did it!
Tower of Terror was also fun! I'd never tried this one either, but after the adrenaline from RnR, I thought, why not (plus there was no wait and my sis was asking me to do this with her too). I thought this was extremely fun, too! I'm glad I had the courage to do it! My sister, however, was terrified on this one and came off shivering and crying. I guess it's really not for some people. (She has a huge fear of elevators, so you can see how this would be freaky - it was her idea to try it though, so we went with it!)
The Kitchen Sink was a really fun experience! With just 4 of us, (2 being teeny little teenage girls), we barely made a dent, but it was fun trying! After a while, we couldn't really tell what we were eating, we'd be like, I think that was peanut butter...or, hmmm...that had the texture of a pineapple. Haha! It was really fun!
The Boardwalk Villas were very nice! This was my first time to try a DVC resort (we rented points) and it was really fun! I think this is the only way to go, now! I loved the location and atmosphere of the Boardwalk!! And the pools were great too! Our room was by the quiet pool, so we swam there every night! It was great - we almost always had the pool to ourselves! The walls here seem thin, however. We could hear our neighbors a couple of nights. And the halls - oh my! I don't even know this Richyams guy they are always talking about on these boards, but I was thinking about him while walking through those halls! We timed it and it took 4 minutes to walk from the lobby to our room. It was insane! Some nights, we'd have to run as we just were getting too bored from the long walk! It was in an airconditioned building however, so I guess I'll stop complaining!
Well...those are just a few things that really stood out for me on this trip! We did loads of other fun things and ate at some REALLY great places! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
I just got back (a few days ago) from WDW and wanted to share some of my thoughts, since I enjoyed reading all of your thoughts and tips before I left! I'm working on a full trip report (for my own personal enjoyment) and I'll post it on the trip reports board when it's done, but I wanted to share a few of the highlights in case any of you were interested!
FYI: This trip we took my two teenage sisters who had never been to WDW before. Also, I was the one who posted the day we were supposed to leave about our roads being closed in WY because of the snow! Fortunately, the roads finally did open up, and we were able to leave town!! We made it to WDW, which was all I cared about!
Okay, here are my thoughts:
Magical Express was AWESOME! I thought this was (surprisingly)extremely efficient and useful. We did not receive our tags before our trip. I did not mark my luggage in any way to help them locate it (just didn't have time in the panic of the weather before the trip). We arrived to MCO and were directed downstairs and there we found hundreds of people waiting. I thought it would be a nightmare and that we'd be there forever, but it only took about 5 minutes to get through the line. There we received our vouchers, gave them our baggage claim numbers (we kept the tickets for baggage claim) and described our luggage, then we were directed to the bus stop. Our bus arrived within 10 minutes and we were off. I think it took about an hour to reach the resort from the time we departed the plane. Our luggage arrived without a hitch...not sure how long it took as we went to the parks after checking into the hotel and the luggage was there when we came back. Checking in at the resort was just as easy and our luggage made it home safe and sound.
Crowds were horrible during our stay (6/5/05 to 06/11/05). I have gone previously in June, July, Feb. and Oct. This was BY FAR the busiest I've ever seen it! We followed the "best days" guide from the touringplans.com and that seemed to help, although it was still jam packed! We did hit it lucky a couple of days - once we walked onto Tower of Terror and one morning we walked onto Splash Mountain 3 times in a row! Mostly there were lines everywhere! We managed to avoid them using strategic planning and fast pass, but navigating through the crowds on the way to attractions was a little crazy. We couldn't keep our group of 4 together - instead we split up - my husband and I would each take a girl and we'd meet up at the destination. This seemed to work better than trying to stay together in those huge groups! We had a GREAT time, but I was amazed at the huge quantities of people!
Evening Extra Magic Hour sucked! I was hugely excited about this before leaving. Even after reading bad review of how busy these were, I thought it would be great, as we are night people and I thought it would awesome to stay in the parks so late. I was so totally wrong about this! The problem with EMH is that you are taking all the resort guests who were in other parks all day and bringing them into one park where only half (if you're lucky) of the rides are open and there are very limited places to eat. These things were a nightmare. We tried to do the Epcot one, and ride Soarin - there was an hour wait to stand in the line to get a FP ticket and within probably 1/2 hour, all the FP tickets were gone! Everything was packed - we tried to eat at Electric Umbrella and it took 1/2 hour to get our food! We also tried the MGM EMH, which was also insane. The huge drawback at this one is that none of the shows operate during this time, so there are very few things still open to do. We finally gave up and skipped EMH the rest of the trip.
Stich's Great Escape was awful. Sorry to be negative. I was REALLY looking forward to this and Stich is my WAY favorite character, but I thought this show was corny and lame!!!
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was AWESOME! This was the first upside-down coaster I've ever ridden on! I'm a bigtime chicken when it comes to rides, and I have always chickened out of riding this one! I finally tried it this time because my youngest sister (who is extremely cute and persuasive) said she'd only try it if I did. She said, "You can be selfish or you can be brave - hehehe". So, I couldn't really argue, and I didn't want her doomed to a life of being terrified by rides, so I went. I cried in the queue before getting on because I was so scared!!!! But after it took off, I totally LOVED it! I'm so glad I did it!
Tower of Terror was also fun! I'd never tried this one either, but after the adrenaline from RnR, I thought, why not (plus there was no wait and my sis was asking me to do this with her too). I thought this was extremely fun, too! I'm glad I had the courage to do it! My sister, however, was terrified on this one and came off shivering and crying. I guess it's really not for some people. (She has a huge fear of elevators, so you can see how this would be freaky - it was her idea to try it though, so we went with it!)
The Kitchen Sink was a really fun experience! With just 4 of us, (2 being teeny little teenage girls), we barely made a dent, but it was fun trying! After a while, we couldn't really tell what we were eating, we'd be like, I think that was peanut butter...or, hmmm...that had the texture of a pineapple. Haha! It was really fun!
The Boardwalk Villas were very nice! This was my first time to try a DVC resort (we rented points) and it was really fun! I think this is the only way to go, now! I loved the location and atmosphere of the Boardwalk!! And the pools were great too! Our room was by the quiet pool, so we swam there every night! It was great - we almost always had the pool to ourselves! The walls here seem thin, however. We could hear our neighbors a couple of nights. And the halls - oh my! I don't even know this Richyams guy they are always talking about on these boards, but I was thinking about him while walking through those halls! We timed it and it took 4 minutes to walk from the lobby to our room. It was insane! Some nights, we'd have to run as we just were getting too bored from the long walk! It was in an airconditioned building however, so I guess I'll stop complaining!
Well...those are just a few things that really stood out for me on this trip! We did loads of other fun things and ate at some REALLY great places! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
