Melissa<3Disney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2009
- Messages
- 531
We just got home on Saturday from the most magical Disney vacation ever. And that's saying a lot since my husband and I got engaged there in 2010. It was our just turned 2 year old's first Disney trip. He was absolutely amazed and loved all of it.
The weather was cold (40/50's in the morning 60's later in the day) the first half of our trip, and beautiful mid 70's the second half. The parks seemed a little busy the first few days (can't tell if that was a result of the pro bowl or because it was a weekend), but totally manageable. I hadn't been since the magicbands, fastpass+ and MDE were introduced, and I am so in love with them all. Even on busy days we rope dropped, used fastpasses, ate TS, got more fastpasses and rode everything we wanted to, some things multiple times! I love redeeming a fastpass and getting another one while in line. And even if something wasn't available at the time I want, I just kept checking and all but one time we were able to snag the times we wanted.
We did MK twice, 1/2 days at all the other parks and we rode and saw so much. My recently turned two year old did Barnstormer 4 times this trip and was so sad to not be tall enough for SDMT. Definitely rope drop. We were one of the first few people in line for an 8 am opening at MK on a Saturday and got so much done, while casually strolling down main street and watching the new Welcome show (which my toddler loved!).
We did our very first EMH at AK this trip, and while my kid did get to ride the dinosaur dumbo (I can't remember the name of the ride.) 5 times in a row, it seemed to make the park a little more crowded. Even so we were able to do the safari twice, Everest 2 times each, Primeval whirl, a couple of shows, eat lunch at Flametree and be out of the park by 1ish.
Arts Festival at EPCOT was nice. No food and wine, but I loved all the art touches throughout world showcase. We used snack credits on some of the food, and it was all pretty tasty (except the sipping chocolate WAY to rich and I love sweets). Frozen Ever After was really great. 80 minutes standby time, and while it was cute I would never wait that long for it.
Memory Maker was the best thing I purchased for this trip!! I can't rave about this enough. We had over 400 pictures with little to no effort searching for photopass photogs. We just stopped whenever we saw one along the way. My two year old was obsessed with meeting the characters and being able to capture those memories with all of us was just irreplaceable. Such a great deal. My son met over 25 different characters this trip, and I loved getting all of us in a lot of the photos.
The food was all pretty excellent this trip. Disney seems to really be stepping up their culinary game! We had TS at Skipper Canteen, BOG dinner, Ohana Breakfast and Dinner, Chef Mickeys Breakfast, Olivias, Cape May dinner. I know the dining plan is a hot topic of debate, but we LOVE it!! We kept track and came out $50 bucks ahead.
I think that's the main gist of it all!! We are dying to go back right now, I dreamed it would be magical, but everyone was so nice (even most of the guests I encountered). Lots of little magical moments from cast members sprinkled throughout. My son wakes up everyday and says he's going back to Disney! Let me know any questions!
The weather was cold (40/50's in the morning 60's later in the day) the first half of our trip, and beautiful mid 70's the second half. The parks seemed a little busy the first few days (can't tell if that was a result of the pro bowl or because it was a weekend), but totally manageable. I hadn't been since the magicbands, fastpass+ and MDE were introduced, and I am so in love with them all. Even on busy days we rope dropped, used fastpasses, ate TS, got more fastpasses and rode everything we wanted to, some things multiple times! I love redeeming a fastpass and getting another one while in line. And even if something wasn't available at the time I want, I just kept checking and all but one time we were able to snag the times we wanted.
We did MK twice, 1/2 days at all the other parks and we rode and saw so much. My recently turned two year old did Barnstormer 4 times this trip and was so sad to not be tall enough for SDMT. Definitely rope drop. We were one of the first few people in line for an 8 am opening at MK on a Saturday and got so much done, while casually strolling down main street and watching the new Welcome show (which my toddler loved!).
We did our very first EMH at AK this trip, and while my kid did get to ride the dinosaur dumbo (I can't remember the name of the ride.) 5 times in a row, it seemed to make the park a little more crowded. Even so we were able to do the safari twice, Everest 2 times each, Primeval whirl, a couple of shows, eat lunch at Flametree and be out of the park by 1ish.
Arts Festival at EPCOT was nice. No food and wine, but I loved all the art touches throughout world showcase. We used snack credits on some of the food, and it was all pretty tasty (except the sipping chocolate WAY to rich and I love sweets). Frozen Ever After was really great. 80 minutes standby time, and while it was cute I would never wait that long for it.
Memory Maker was the best thing I purchased for this trip!! I can't rave about this enough. We had over 400 pictures with little to no effort searching for photopass photogs. We just stopped whenever we saw one along the way. My two year old was obsessed with meeting the characters and being able to capture those memories with all of us was just irreplaceable. Such a great deal. My son met over 25 different characters this trip, and I loved getting all of us in a lot of the photos.
The food was all pretty excellent this trip. Disney seems to really be stepping up their culinary game! We had TS at Skipper Canteen, BOG dinner, Ohana Breakfast and Dinner, Chef Mickeys Breakfast, Olivias, Cape May dinner. I know the dining plan is a hot topic of debate, but we LOVE it!! We kept track and came out $50 bucks ahead.
I think that's the main gist of it all!! We are dying to go back right now, I dreamed it would be magical, but everyone was so nice (even most of the guests I encountered). Lots of little magical moments from cast members sprinkled throughout. My son wakes up everyday and says he's going back to Disney! Let me know any questions!
