Apologies if this should be on Trip Reports. Family of 4 with 9 and 12-yr old boys. We left 12/31 and got home 1/9, spending our 15th anniv at Magic Kingdom. Booked a package with Dining at POP, so easiest situation for MBs to deal with. Zero problems with MBs-only had to fix a couple of incorrect Table Service charges which took about 20 minutes total. Used them from Magic Express at airport until we got home. Loved POP; first time staying in Value...would do so again. Good: best bus service we've had in 7 trips. Never waited for more than 10 minutes for buses, and I didn't realize how close POP is to HS, AK, and EPCOT. Loved the CMs, and the pool, and the room didn't seem any different than the mods. Bad: ate only once at the Food Court and it was terrible. Willing to give it another chance since only got 4 meals there, but they were all bad. Also smelled like poop right by the Mowgli and Baloo statue. I think that happens around the pool somewhere at all the resorts...sewer? Could use all 3 FP+ the night we came in. Did pre-checkin and walked right up to room, dropped carryons in our room within about 10 minutes and were at HS by 7ish. Loved FP+ for first night late arrival - rode RnR (my personal favorite ride of all time), Star Tours and ToT; then had late-ish ADR. We couldn't have ridden anything without FP+ our first night. Unfortunately no one could stay up for late fireworks since we'd had to get up about 3 a.m. for our flight. We did REALLY early RD nearly every day - I was a bit obsessed about it. It did still work over those dates. Got to do the #1 headliners in each park 3 times each at RD. For us that was RnR, TT, Space Mountain, and Kilimanjaro Safari. Then used our 3 FP+s in the afternoons like most have said here for the other headliners or repeats of above. The bad: the on-the-fly changes worked about 1/2 the time in MDE. It was still slow and very unwieldy. We brought along a portable charger which was invaluable. Pretty much only worked using data on phone, hardly ever with wifi. For the first time ever, I was bored between about noon and 3. I know a lot of people like to go back to the hotel and swim, but it was about 40 degrees half the days we were there. 
. It doesn't work well for OUR family to try to get back to the hotel in the middle of the day. It did when they were little, but not anymore. We ended up doing Sorcerers and the Pirates Treasure hunt games at MK and the Perry the Platypus Adventures at EPCOT. We did take it slow, enjoy the magic, see the little touches, stop and smell the roses....but it just doesn't work very well for us anymore. It seemed like the entrances to parks went fine, but the FP+ lines were much, much slower than I remember. Several times we waited in 20-30-minute FP+ lines which was disappointing. Since we were at POP, we had no opportunity to pull paper FPs, and there were LOTS of people in FP lines using paper FPs at that time. I do realize that is ending probably this week at all the parks, but it may have made our FP+ experiences different with double-dipping still in effect. Witnessed a couple of poor families trying to eat at sit-down restaurants with no idea they needed ADRs. Had a fabulous meal at Liberty Tree Tavern - had never eaten there before. All in all it was a nice trip....but like many, I don't think we'll go again for 4 or 5 years unless we win Sweepstakes. or they drastically change the FP+ system. Just one normal little family's experiences. Thanks. Oh yeah - a little pixie dust: I was very first in line for Kiliminjaro Safaris (had to walk really fast), and a LOVELY CM took us on our own private, just our family, first ride of the day and answered tons of questions about the animals. It was so fun. Also we were there on some really cold days, so I don't know how much the weather influenced the crowds. YMMV.
. It doesn't work well for OUR family to try to get back to the hotel in the middle of the day. It did when they were little, but not anymore. We ended up doing Sorcerers and the Pirates Treasure hunt games at MK and the Perry the Platypus Adventures at EPCOT. We did take it slow, enjoy the magic, see the little touches, stop and smell the roses....but it just doesn't work very well for us anymore. It seemed like the entrances to parks went fine, but the FP+ lines were much, much slower than I remember. Several times we waited in 20-30-minute FP+ lines which was disappointing. Since we were at POP, we had no opportunity to pull paper FPs, and there were LOTS of people in FP lines using paper FPs at that time. I do realize that is ending probably this week at all the parks, but it may have made our FP+ experiences different with double-dipping still in effect. Witnessed a couple of poor families trying to eat at sit-down restaurants with no idea they needed ADRs. Had a fabulous meal at Liberty Tree Tavern - had never eaten there before. All in all it was a nice trip....but like many, I don't think we'll go again for 4 or 5 years unless we win Sweepstakes. or they drastically change the FP+ system. Just one normal little family's experiences. Thanks. Oh yeah - a little pixie dust: I was very first in line for Kiliminjaro Safaris (had to walk really fast), and a LOVELY CM took us on our own private, just our family, first ride of the day and answered tons of questions about the animals. It was so fun. Also we were there on some really cold days, so I don't know how much the weather influenced the crowds. YMMV.
