Just Back - 12/12 to 12/18

m_adelaide

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 6, 2018
During our planning I found these quick "just back" threads to be very helpful, so here you go:

12/12 - Late flight, checked into Pop for one night. It is a huge place and pretty chaotic for 10pm. We were in building 6 so thankfully not too far of a walk from the lobby. The room was nice but very small. For our family of 4 it would not have been comfortable for a long stay.

12/13 - Uber to Yacht Club, dropped our bags and took the bus to MK for 9am opening. I posted room details on the YC/BC resort thread. Great day at MK with low crowds (party day) at 2/10 per Touring Plans. We picked up at least 10 extra FPs to avoid the 10-20 minute waits at most rides. We snacked at Gaston's and thought the cinnamon roll was very overrated. It was dry and the only flavor came from the icing which was red for the holidays, so good luck keeping that off everyone's clothes. Late lunch at BOG included one of each of the sandwiches (all pretty good), the pork dish, and a gray stuff cupcake. Dinner at CA Grill was fantastic. We ordered a sushi roll, the oak-fired filet of beef (amazing) and the bison. Great wine list. The deconstructed smores dish was delicious and we decided it was our favorite dessert of the whole trip.

12/14 - AK day. Crowd 5/10 per TP. Pandora was opened around 8:30. We had a FP for FoP later in the day, so we went straight to Na'vi instead and were riding at 8:35. There were a lot of people trying to get to FoP but it was pretty orderly in the crowd. At 9 we were at EE and our boys rode it 7 times in a row - one time was our first FP but the others were all standby with almost zero wait. Snacked on delicious cinnamon rolls and coffee at Kusafiri. Second FP at KS. We took bus to AK for a late lunch at Sanaa. Between the 4 of us we ate the bread service, tandoori chicken and the burger. All were delicious and we were stuffed. Third FP at FoP - amazing - and picked up an extra FP for another KS. We walked around Pandora as it got dark with Night Blossoms (kids loved them) and Hawk's Grog Ale (pretty good beer) from Pongu Pongu. Pandora at night is beautiful and should not be missed.

12/15 - Epcot with PPO breakfast at Garden Grill. Crowd 6/10. Breakfast was good and we were in the second group for Soarin because we waited for B1, then FP at SE, MS and TT. Picked up extra FP for character spot. We hit Mexico and Norway (school bread) before YC for some pool time. With some refreshing I got a FP for TSMM that evening, so we took the boat to HS. We did TSMM, Star Tours and Muppets. TSL at night is pretty cool and the lunch box tarts at Woody's are delicious! You must mobile order here or you'll wait in line for ages. We debated camping out for a good spot for JBJB, but decided instead to get in line for SDD right before the 8pm close with a 60 min posted wait. After 30 mins, the ride went down. We each got an anytime FP that included SDD that we used the next day.

12/16 - HS with EMM 8am opening. Crowd 8/10. TSL was crazy crowded at 8am. We rode TSMM first with a 20 minute wait. Considered AS2 but at 8:30am the wait was 60 minutes! We used our anytime FP for SDD instead. Even before 9am the waits at RR and ToT were 45 minutes. We used FP on Star Tours and RnR, and did some Star Wars character meets. We split a couple meals at Backlot and used our last FP at SDD. It's a cute and fun ride. We liked it much better than 7DMT but it still ranks below RnR and the mountains. The crowds were just too much and we walked back to YC for pool time. Dinner reservation at Tokyo Dining, which was surprisingly good. Illuminations was beautiful.

12/17 - MK with PPO breakfast at BOG. Crowd 10/10. Insanity. We checked in at the far left side with breakfast reservation crowd, but none of us were let into the park until the masses were let in at 8am. We had pre-ordered 4 meals so we were at our table by 8:10. They let us on 7DMT around 8:45 and we got in two rides before the RD crowd arrived. We rode BTMR with no wait, then rode it again...and the ride broke down with us on it! We were at the last turn before going back into the loading area. We sat there until a CM manually released the safety bars walked us out. We each got an anytime FP for our trouble, which we used at SM. By 11am it was getting so crowded we decided to say goodbye to MK. We hopped to Epcot for 4th FP at TT, then explored the countries and ate snacks at some of the holiday booths. Germany: Fondue good (supplemented with a pretzel from the beer car), yule log good. Morocco: Warm beignets (would have been great if actually warm). Canada: Salmon (OK, but small), Tourtiere (good). We took Uber to dinner at O'hana, then monorail back to Epcot for 5th FP at FEA and some beer/snacks in UK and France.

12/18 - AK. Crowd 9/10. Insanity. We entered the park around 8:45am and rode Na'vi with a 10 minute wait. When we exited, the Na'vi wait was already up to 60 minutes. The FoP wait was 225 minutes at 9:15am and people kept getting in line. Pure insanity. We used our first FP at FoP, then headed over to EE for second FP. It took us about 15 minutes to board EE even with a FP. No multiple EE rides for us on this day! Lunch at Satuli Canteen was very good for a QS meal. We had cheeseburger pods - only on the menu as a kids meal, but they will create an adult QS meal with 2 pods, chips and slaw - and 3 different bowls. We all preferred the chicken over the beef and liked the noodle base the least. Everything was fresh and hot. It was travel home day for us, so we left around noon.

Major takeaways:
  • During holiday season, only go to MK on a party day even though you're only in the park until 6pm. We had the best time on the 2/10 crowd level MK day. It's not empty for sure and there are waits, but it was easy to get extra FPs and it didn't feel like we were going to be trampled (contrast to our 10/10 day when I feared we wouldn't be able to walk up Main Street unharmed).
  • We skipped almost all nighttime shows. We prefer the get going early in the morning, so would not have been able to make it for 6 days if we stayed up late for shows. It was not worth having tired, cranky kids (and we saw many of them).
  • Park hoppers are a luxury, but so nice to have on days when you need some flexibility. We were able to change plans based on where we found the best extra FPs or where wait times appeared lower.
  • On the dining plan you're going to end up with a bunch of extra snack credits at the end, so go ahead and use them for bottled water or whatever else may be a "low value" snack credit. Otherwise you'll do what I did and pay $3.50 for each bottled water and then end up taking home 10 rice crispy mickey heads and bags of trail mix to not waste the snack credits. Also, if on the dining plan order whatever you want even if you aren't maxing out the value for your QS or TS meals. The money is already spent, so don't stress about whether you're getting the best deal out of it.
 
Sounds like a fun adventure,minus the crazy crowd times. Thx for sharing.
 
We snacked at Gaston's and thought the cinnamon roll was very overrated. It was dry and the only flavor came from the icing which was red for the holidays, so good luck keeping that off everyone's clothes.

We really liked this cinnamon roll, but I was doing stain removal on my daughters' dresses after we got home - that red got everywhere. :sad2:

We skipped almost all nighttime shows.

I'm not sure how old your kids are, but we skipped all the shows on our most recent trip too (my daughters are 2 and 4). I was disappointed to not see any of them, but I know we were better off for it.

On the dining plan you're going to end up with a bunch of extra snack credits at the end, so go ahead and use them for bottled water or whatever else may be a "low value" snack credit. Otherwise you'll do what I did and pay $3.50 for each bottled water and then end up taking home 10 rice crispy mickey heads and bags of trail mix to not waste the snack credits.

This happened to use last year! We thought we were being smart and saving the credits for more expensive snacks, but the joke was on us at the end of the trip.

This sounds like a great trip, thank you for sharing!
 

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