MickeyHereWeCome!
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2004
- Messages
- 1,574
We just returned from our two week trip! I thought I'd share some thoughts on new experiences.
*We stayed at POP for the first 8 nights. We enjoyed our time there, but found ourselves waking to AOA for quite a few meals! The lobster mac n cheese now ranks with my favorite WDW meal!
*My son thoroughly enjoyed the Sorcerer game at MK. He became obsessed when he learned he could get new cards every day. He also tried the Phineas and Ferb game at Epcot. That was really neat! Be sure to sign up for that early, since the kiosk closes at 6 (you can still play once you are registered).
*We were able to ride everything we wanted by getting there before rope drop. We scheduled all of our FP's back-to-back starting at 10. This allowed us to ride anything we wanted before the crowds got terrible, allowing us to return to our resort for a break.
*My oldest and youngest spent a lot of time looking for characters this time. My son subscribed to an app to find out all of the times and locations for where to find various characters. He found out about a character palooza at HS, and was thrilled to meet some rare characters (favorite was the evil queen and robinhood) with no wait at all!
*We stayed at the Poly the night of the 4th! Best plan ever!! It was so nice to have that fabulous view from the beach (they kept the main part of the beach open for the fireworks) and not have to mess with the crowds! The 4th of July fireworks were excellent!! I do wish they had piped in the music a bit louder, since it was hard to hear.
*We stayed club level at WL and LOVED every minute! This may be our new favorite resort.
*We did a 3-way split stay. While it was a pain to move twice, we loved getting to experience some of the deluxe resorts.
*We did the Spirit of Aloha dinner show. The show was amazing and the food was excellent. I realize this was outdoors, but man was it HOT! The ceiling fan above us wasn't working properly, so that didn't help at all. Many of the open dining places are able to pipe in some a/c, so I expected some sort of relief, especially for the price.
*Amazon Now worked great! I'm so glad I read about that tip here.
*I've had an AP for a year and never had problems with my band working. I had so many problems with them this trip. I have a bunch, and some would work with my room and others wouldn't. Then, they wouldn't show an account for the resort charging (nobody else in my family had this problem). It was a pain to have to go to guest services frequently.
*We discovered the dole whip with rum in AK...enough said
*Rides seemed to shut down a lot during this trip. We were stuck on Pirates for about half an hour. 7D was evacuating a group going up the hill. It just seemed more frequent than I've seen in the past.
*LOVED Frozen Ever After! We had fast passes to ride it twice! Very cute!
*Also loved the new Soarin'! Being at the front of rope drop was essential to get here first. I loved Chip and Dale in the Garden Grill holding a sign that said "Soarin' Stampede...go, go, go". We were able to ride right away, and again with a 10 minute wait.
*The Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream was no match for our family of six Yum!
*Tusker House breakfast is still our favorite. I'm so glad they got rid of the mandatory picture with Donald. We had no line checking in or getting seated, which helped us get out in time for rope drop!
*Animal Kingdom at night was neat! We did the Twilight Safari, which was great. We were very disappointed in the Jungle Book show. We were bored
*Totally saved a ton using the TIW card! We were able to use it with two large group dinners, which paid of itself with just one of those meals.
*We bought Takeya water bottles, which really kept our ice water cold during the day. We had fun experimenting with how long ice would stay ice (lasted 24 hours here at home). We refilled at quick service places throughout the day. These definitely saved us money!
*I learned that you cannot dry shoes in the WDW dryers. The first part of our trip was for a jump rope competition, and it started pouring as we left competition one day....soaking shoes. I ended up spending well over an hour drying them with the blow dryer for competition the next day.
*All in all, it was a fabulous trip! I can't believe it's over. It was unfortunate that we had to deal with a pet issue here at home (had to have our dog put to sleep), which put a damper on some of our Disney happiness towards the end. I'm now in my Disney depression since we're not returning for several years. The AP was great while it lasted!! We were in the parks 25 days this year, so we definitely got our money's worth! We certainly went out with a bang, though!
Let me know if you have any questions I can answer with things still fresh on my mind!
*We stayed at POP for the first 8 nights. We enjoyed our time there, but found ourselves waking to AOA for quite a few meals! The lobster mac n cheese now ranks with my favorite WDW meal!
*My son thoroughly enjoyed the Sorcerer game at MK. He became obsessed when he learned he could get new cards every day. He also tried the Phineas and Ferb game at Epcot. That was really neat! Be sure to sign up for that early, since the kiosk closes at 6 (you can still play once you are registered).
*We were able to ride everything we wanted by getting there before rope drop. We scheduled all of our FP's back-to-back starting at 10. This allowed us to ride anything we wanted before the crowds got terrible, allowing us to return to our resort for a break.
*My oldest and youngest spent a lot of time looking for characters this time. My son subscribed to an app to find out all of the times and locations for where to find various characters. He found out about a character palooza at HS, and was thrilled to meet some rare characters (favorite was the evil queen and robinhood) with no wait at all!
*We stayed at the Poly the night of the 4th! Best plan ever!! It was so nice to have that fabulous view from the beach (they kept the main part of the beach open for the fireworks) and not have to mess with the crowds! The 4th of July fireworks were excellent!! I do wish they had piped in the music a bit louder, since it was hard to hear.
*We stayed club level at WL and LOVED every minute! This may be our new favorite resort.
*We did a 3-way split stay. While it was a pain to move twice, we loved getting to experience some of the deluxe resorts.
*We did the Spirit of Aloha dinner show. The show was amazing and the food was excellent. I realize this was outdoors, but man was it HOT! The ceiling fan above us wasn't working properly, so that didn't help at all. Many of the open dining places are able to pipe in some a/c, so I expected some sort of relief, especially for the price.
*Amazon Now worked great! I'm so glad I read about that tip here.
*I've had an AP for a year and never had problems with my band working. I had so many problems with them this trip. I have a bunch, and some would work with my room and others wouldn't. Then, they wouldn't show an account for the resort charging (nobody else in my family had this problem). It was a pain to have to go to guest services frequently.
*We discovered the dole whip with rum in AK...enough said
*Rides seemed to shut down a lot during this trip. We were stuck on Pirates for about half an hour. 7D was evacuating a group going up the hill. It just seemed more frequent than I've seen in the past.
*LOVED Frozen Ever After! We had fast passes to ride it twice! Very cute!
*Also loved the new Soarin'! Being at the front of rope drop was essential to get here first. I loved Chip and Dale in the Garden Grill holding a sign that said "Soarin' Stampede...go, go, go". We were able to ride right away, and again with a 10 minute wait.
*The Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream was no match for our family of six
Yum!*Tusker House breakfast is still our favorite. I'm so glad they got rid of the mandatory picture with Donald. We had no line checking in or getting seated, which helped us get out in time for rope drop!
*Animal Kingdom at night was neat! We did the Twilight Safari, which was great. We were very disappointed in the Jungle Book show. We were bored
*Totally saved a ton using the TIW card! We were able to use it with two large group dinners, which paid of itself with just one of those meals.
*We bought Takeya water bottles, which really kept our ice water cold during the day. We had fun experimenting with how long ice would stay ice (lasted 24 hours here at home). We refilled at quick service places throughout the day. These definitely saved us money!
*I learned that you cannot dry shoes in the WDW dryers
. The first part of our trip was for a jump rope competition, and it started pouring as we left competition one day....soaking shoes. I ended up spending well over an hour drying them with the blow dryer for competition the next day.*All in all, it was a fabulous trip! I can't believe it's over. It was unfortunate that we had to deal with a pet issue here at home (had to have our dog put to sleep), which put a damper on some of our Disney happiness towards the end. I'm now in my Disney depression since we're not returning for several years. The AP was great while it lasted!! We were in the parks 25 days this year, so we definitely got our money's worth! We certainly went out with a bang, though!
Let me know if you have any questions I can answer with things still fresh on my mind!
