marcar12
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2012
We got home yesterday from a 6-day trip to Disney World (which included 1 day at Universal as well). We all had a wonderful time! Here are some thoughts that I took away from our trip...
If the forecast is showing temperatures above 85, take cooling towels and misting fans. These made a HUGE difference for us, and we would not have been able to enjoy the experience nearly as much without them.
We were able to walk into Hollywood Studios at 10:30am on a Wed and get 3 kids signed up for Jedi Training. No rope-dropping or meal reservations necessary. However, something to note was this ended up being a crowd level 2 on the Touring Plans historic crowds, so it was a low crowd day.
Mobile ordering is FABULOUS! We used it 4-5 times. We made our selections while waiting in line for a ride, then ordered the food while walking to the restaurant. When we got to the restaurant my husband went to the counter to pick up the food and my kids and I found a table to sit at. He was always back within 3 minutes with our food.
Going in mid-October was a great choice. A lot of people have warned us of how busy October can be, but if you go in with a plan and you avoid MK on days that is doesn’t have a MNSSHP, it doesn’t feel bad at all. Our 2 full MK days were both crowd level 2’s, as was our Hollywood Studios day (like I mentioned above.) Our 1 day at Universal felt busier than any of our Disney days.
We stayed at Bay Lake Towers in a 1-bedroom suite by renting DVC points, and were able to watch the fireworks shows from our hotel room. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this if you are able to stay in a hotel with this option!!!
On Saturday we slept in, went to Chef Mickey’s for brunch, went swimming, and then went to MK for 4-5 hours. It was a higher crowd day (7) due to there being no MNSSHP, and it being a Saturday. But we did our 3 Fast Passes, People Mover, met Buzz (12 min line), and then went to our dinner reservation at Tony’s. It went super smoothly and didn’t feel like high crowds to us at all!
Chef Mickeys was so much fun and delicious! Tony’s we were nervous about due to negative reviews, but we all ended up enjoying it very much! We also had a dinner on our arrival night at the Grand Floridian Café that was laid back and wonderful, and then dinner at 1900 Park Fare on our last day that made for a super fun and yummy way to end our vacation. I would highly recommend all of these locations.
Doing the half-day on Saturday was probably the best decision we made the whole trip and the biggest tip that I could offer anyone. My 9-year-old daughter said it was her favorite day of the whole vacation. We felt well-rested, got to still meet characters at our Chef Mickeys meal, going swimming was a blast, plus we still spent awhile in a park, and our feet weren’t aching at the end of the day since we spent a lot less time walking around. It was a true VACATION day. We all loved it, and then felt rejuvenated and ready for another full day of walking the following day.
Slinky Dog Dash was SO MUCH FUN. We didn’t have a FP for it, so we did Rider Switch. The line wasn’t too terrible. My husband took our 9 and 12-year-olds first, and I took our 5 and 2-year-olds to wait in line to meet Woody and Jessie. Both lines ended up taking us 50 minutes, so it worked out great (this was at approximately 4:45). Then I did the Rider Switch with the 5-year-old. It was my favorite roller-coaster that I went on the whole trip!
We took a Disney Character Encyclopedia for the characters to sign, rather than a typical autograph book. This ended up being a lot of fun, because the characters would sometimes comment on it and find other characters in the book to show us and talk about. Like Ariel... she told us we had the neatest thing in the world in our book, and she found Eric’s page and kissed it, leaving behind a lipstick kiss mark. Fun memory!
We did the Fantasmic Dessert “party” and really liked it! The kids loved their food and that they got the light-up cups and lanyard. My husband and I were grateful to have some food to munch on while we sat and waited for the show to start. And then we all LOVED the Fantasmic show. It was a favorite memory for all of us!
We all had a very magical time, and we are so excited to go back, but my husband and I decided aren’t going to return until the 2-year-old is at least 5. It will be so nice to not need Rider Switch on so many rides, and it will also be awesome to not have toddler meltdowns each day, haha! She took naps in the stroller pretty well, but it was still a lot of stimulation and constant go go go for someone her age. We are soooo glad we went… since the older 3 kids were at wonderful ages for it, and let’s be honest, the 2-year-old’s face when she saw certain characters was absolutely priceless…. But we will wait a few years to do it again in order to minimize stress on all of us the next time around.
TRANSPORTATION... We used the Magical Express to get to and from the airport, and had a great experience. Would definitely use it again.
We used Minnie Van to get from our resort to Hollywood Studios. WONDERFUL experience. Loved it! And we used Uber to get from our resort to Universal. The service was okay. On the way there the driver kept taking turns that increased our driving time. And the walk from the drop-off area to the entrance of the park is incredibly long. I was not mentally prepared for that.
SOME FAVORITES...
-One day when we had to leave MK at 6:00 for MNSSHP, we went back to our hotel for dinner and then went swimming in the dark. The pool was fairly empty and we had a blast! Such a relaxing end to the day.
-Our favorite rides were:
Husband—Star Tours, Rock N Roller Coaster, Splash Mountain
Me—Slinky Dog Dash, Splash Mountain
12-year-old DD—Splash Mountain
9-year-old DD—Under the Sea, Splash Mountain
5-year-old DS—Star Tours, Splash Mountain
2-year-old DD—Barnstormer
We are clearly a Splash Mountain family! We rode it 4 times!
Favorite character meets:
Chewbacca, Woody and Jessie, Merida, Tiana, Ariel, Chip and Dale, Donald Duck
THOUGHTS ON UNIVERSAL:
I seriously hated the walk from the Uber drop-off to the entrance. And then back to the Uber pick-up at the end of the night. So overwhelming and we got lost.
We loved Harry Potter World, and even more than that we loved the super hero parts of Islands of Adventure. Our 9-year-old said "I am so happy we went to Universal, because if we hadn't we never would have seen the superheroes riding through the streets on their motocycles, and I loved that!"
Our oldest got picked to have her wand specially chosen at Ollivander's, which was awesome. But unfortunately a lot of the spells didn’t work with our wand. We just bought the 1 wand and had all the kids take turns with it, which I would highly recommend doing.
Overall we liked the Disney experience, feeling, and set-up better than Universal... even my husband agreed with that and he loves thrill rides.
CONCLUSION:
We are all sad to be home, but so grateful for the amazing experiences and super sweet memories!
If the forecast is showing temperatures above 85, take cooling towels and misting fans. These made a HUGE difference for us, and we would not have been able to enjoy the experience nearly as much without them.
We were able to walk into Hollywood Studios at 10:30am on a Wed and get 3 kids signed up for Jedi Training. No rope-dropping or meal reservations necessary. However, something to note was this ended up being a crowd level 2 on the Touring Plans historic crowds, so it was a low crowd day.
Mobile ordering is FABULOUS! We used it 4-5 times. We made our selections while waiting in line for a ride, then ordered the food while walking to the restaurant. When we got to the restaurant my husband went to the counter to pick up the food and my kids and I found a table to sit at. He was always back within 3 minutes with our food.
Going in mid-October was a great choice. A lot of people have warned us of how busy October can be, but if you go in with a plan and you avoid MK on days that is doesn’t have a MNSSHP, it doesn’t feel bad at all. Our 2 full MK days were both crowd level 2’s, as was our Hollywood Studios day (like I mentioned above.) Our 1 day at Universal felt busier than any of our Disney days.
We stayed at Bay Lake Towers in a 1-bedroom suite by renting DVC points, and were able to watch the fireworks shows from our hotel room. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this if you are able to stay in a hotel with this option!!!
On Saturday we slept in, went to Chef Mickey’s for brunch, went swimming, and then went to MK for 4-5 hours. It was a higher crowd day (7) due to there being no MNSSHP, and it being a Saturday. But we did our 3 Fast Passes, People Mover, met Buzz (12 min line), and then went to our dinner reservation at Tony’s. It went super smoothly and didn’t feel like high crowds to us at all!
Chef Mickeys was so much fun and delicious! Tony’s we were nervous about due to negative reviews, but we all ended up enjoying it very much! We also had a dinner on our arrival night at the Grand Floridian Café that was laid back and wonderful, and then dinner at 1900 Park Fare on our last day that made for a super fun and yummy way to end our vacation. I would highly recommend all of these locations.
Doing the half-day on Saturday was probably the best decision we made the whole trip and the biggest tip that I could offer anyone. My 9-year-old daughter said it was her favorite day of the whole vacation. We felt well-rested, got to still meet characters at our Chef Mickeys meal, going swimming was a blast, plus we still spent awhile in a park, and our feet weren’t aching at the end of the day since we spent a lot less time walking around. It was a true VACATION day. We all loved it, and then felt rejuvenated and ready for another full day of walking the following day.
Slinky Dog Dash was SO MUCH FUN. We didn’t have a FP for it, so we did Rider Switch. The line wasn’t too terrible. My husband took our 9 and 12-year-olds first, and I took our 5 and 2-year-olds to wait in line to meet Woody and Jessie. Both lines ended up taking us 50 minutes, so it worked out great (this was at approximately 4:45). Then I did the Rider Switch with the 5-year-old. It was my favorite roller-coaster that I went on the whole trip!
We took a Disney Character Encyclopedia for the characters to sign, rather than a typical autograph book. This ended up being a lot of fun, because the characters would sometimes comment on it and find other characters in the book to show us and talk about. Like Ariel... she told us we had the neatest thing in the world in our book, and she found Eric’s page and kissed it, leaving behind a lipstick kiss mark. Fun memory!
We did the Fantasmic Dessert “party” and really liked it! The kids loved their food and that they got the light-up cups and lanyard. My husband and I were grateful to have some food to munch on while we sat and waited for the show to start. And then we all LOVED the Fantasmic show. It was a favorite memory for all of us!
We all had a very magical time, and we are so excited to go back, but my husband and I decided aren’t going to return until the 2-year-old is at least 5. It will be so nice to not need Rider Switch on so many rides, and it will also be awesome to not have toddler meltdowns each day, haha! She took naps in the stroller pretty well, but it was still a lot of stimulation and constant go go go for someone her age. We are soooo glad we went… since the older 3 kids were at wonderful ages for it, and let’s be honest, the 2-year-old’s face when she saw certain characters was absolutely priceless…. But we will wait a few years to do it again in order to minimize stress on all of us the next time around.
TRANSPORTATION... We used the Magical Express to get to and from the airport, and had a great experience. Would definitely use it again.
We used Minnie Van to get from our resort to Hollywood Studios. WONDERFUL experience. Loved it! And we used Uber to get from our resort to Universal. The service was okay. On the way there the driver kept taking turns that increased our driving time. And the walk from the drop-off area to the entrance of the park is incredibly long. I was not mentally prepared for that.
SOME FAVORITES...
-One day when we had to leave MK at 6:00 for MNSSHP, we went back to our hotel for dinner and then went swimming in the dark. The pool was fairly empty and we had a blast! Such a relaxing end to the day.
-Our favorite rides were:
Husband—Star Tours, Rock N Roller Coaster, Splash Mountain
Me—Slinky Dog Dash, Splash Mountain
12-year-old DD—Splash Mountain
9-year-old DD—Under the Sea, Splash Mountain
5-year-old DS—Star Tours, Splash Mountain
2-year-old DD—Barnstormer
We are clearly a Splash Mountain family! We rode it 4 times!
Favorite character meets:
Chewbacca, Woody and Jessie, Merida, Tiana, Ariel, Chip and Dale, Donald Duck
THOUGHTS ON UNIVERSAL:
I seriously hated the walk from the Uber drop-off to the entrance. And then back to the Uber pick-up at the end of the night. So overwhelming and we got lost.
We loved Harry Potter World, and even more than that we loved the super hero parts of Islands of Adventure. Our 9-year-old said "I am so happy we went to Universal, because if we hadn't we never would have seen the superheroes riding through the streets on their motocycles, and I loved that!"
Our oldest got picked to have her wand specially chosen at Ollivander's, which was awesome. But unfortunately a lot of the spells didn’t work with our wand. We just bought the 1 wand and had all the kids take turns with it, which I would highly recommend doing.
Overall we liked the Disney experience, feeling, and set-up better than Universal... even my husband agreed with that and he loves thrill rides.
CONCLUSION:
We are all sad to be home, but so grateful for the amazing experiences and super sweet memories!
