My first trip to Disney since the mid 1970's.
Family of 5 (kids - 14, 11, & 7)
Stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside via Southwest.
Trip included the free dining plan promotion. Had the 6 day park hopper tickets.
THE TRIP DOWN
Lesson #1. 2 hours sleep will not cut it for your first day.
Even though we had mostly already packed, we were out of town for a soccer tournament & got home around 9pm with a 7am flight the next day.
Southwest means you have to get up at midnight if you want to get the best boarding option. The lack of sleep made the first day in that blazing sun a tough one - for the adults that is - I don't think it bothered the kids a bit.
We had to check in our own bags on the return trip since Southwest doesn't participate in Magical Express.
I preordered a case of bottled water from Netgrocer. I called them after making the order to tell them it was for Disney. They said they'd have it there before we arrived - which they did. Smartest move of the whole trip.
We had no problems going thru that water in the week. Did I say the sun was blazing hot down there?
Magical Express worked smoothly. Our bags weren't at the hotel when we got there, but we packed two days worth in the carry-on's including bathing suits. The luggage was there when we returned from the parks that night.
THE HOTEL
The Port Orleans Riveside was very nice. I'd use it again w/o a second thought (expect that I like to try different things) Clean, picturesque, quiet & lots of friendly people. Sometimes late at night you make wrong turns walking around because everything looks the same. The double beds were a little small for me (6'4"). Coulda made some more room by splitting me & the Mrs with the kids rather than have 2 adults in 1 of those beds. The trundle was fine for my 7 year old daughter. Room came with a small fridge which was great for the bottled water.
The buffet breakfast had decent prices and the food was good.
We didn't spend too much time at the hotel. My opinion is that I'm there to see DisneyWorld, not the hotel. There isn't really anything about the hotel that screams 'Disney', except for the merchandise at the general store.
THE PARKS
We did Blizzard Beach the first day since the decision makers (aka the parents) were tired & it was already noon by the time we were ready to go.
We figured a water park would be easier on us.
Did I say it was hot down there? I'm no stranger to 90 plus degrees, but the humidity plus the heat was a bit much on the 1st day with little sleep.
Wear your hats/sunglasses & use plenty of lotion. BB was nice, but we had one of those sun induced headaches and weren't quite ready for being drenched in sweat so quickly. We let the kids have their fun but we didn't do much ourselves. Wish I felt better, if so I would've tried Summit Plummet. My oldest is the daredevil of the family - he loved it. I think he hit 52 mph.
Make sure you adjust you digital camera's exposure for all the sunlight. My initial pictures were washed out by all that light.
2nd day was the Magic Kingdom. My wife had arranged a character breakfast for her & my daughter at the castle. She loved it. My wife said the characters took time at each table to talk to you. This is one of those things you have to schedule 90 days in advance. Even though it's been around 30 years for me since my last visit, I remember some of the rides.
We hit most of the stuff there. Most of these rides are really very short.
Amazing to stand in line all that time for a 2-3 minute ride; especially for the old stuff. I though the Stitch ride/show was just OK. Loved the Buzz Lightyear shoot-em-up. It's a 'kiddie laser shoot' ride but lots of fun.
Big Thunder Mountain/Splash Mountain seem pretty tame by today's standards. Skipped Space Mountain due to motion sickness tendencies, but everyone else enjoyed it. I rate the Mickey 3D show as good, but behind the Bugs Life 3D show. Timekeeper was shut down. We did all the 'classic rides'. They seemed the same as I remembered them for long ago.
It's just cool to walk around the Magic Kingdom. The light parade & the fireworks are mandatory.
3rd day was Animal Kingdom. This was the least crowded of the parks.
We got there early to do the safari. Saw lots of animals, took lots of pictures. You get pretty close to alot of them. I recommend doing it early for the crowds & the heat. The animals weren't moving around much even in the morning - it's that hot. I loved walking around the place. Unfortunately the new Everest ride isn't open yet but you can see it under construction. Looks really cool even with the scaffolding all around it. It's big, makes Thunder Mountain look like a molehill. I loved the Bugs Life 3D show - though it was the best 3D show there. Dinosaur was a little too dark - I barely saw the big Dino at the end of the ride. The River Rapids ride wasn't that much. One small drop and one place where they spray water.
I wish we would've just walked around more & explored. Timing didn't work out to catch any shows there
We par hopped to Typhoon Lagoon - The wave pool was GREAT. 6 foot monster waves every 90 seconds. Tosses you around good. Didn't get to try the Crush n Gusher. The rest of the park was fun, but not as intense as Blizzard Beach. It's also a little confusing walking around. They do have a snorkling pool compete with small sharks/rays/fish. Wife really enjoyed that.
4th day was Epcot. Had to try Mission Space even with my weak stomach.
Took me an hour to get over the ride, but I'm still glad I tried it. Had to miss out on Test Track while I recovered. Evryone else loved it. Epcot is just beautiful to walk around. You also have some room to watch the light show, unlike Magic Kingdom which can be packed like sardines. Only got to a few of the worlds in the showcase, next time we'll spend more time there.
Soarin' was by far the most popular ride. Fastpass waits approached 4 hours.
Short ride (liek everything there) but a great ride. Try to be on the cars in the front row. They go higher than the 2nd row cars. I've been told the 2nd row cars can see the dangling feet of the riders in the 1st row. Not enough to spoil the ride but it gets in the way of the illusion - or so I'm told.
Living Seas was shut down - too bad. The 3D Honey I Shrunk the Kids show seems to be showing it's age. The light/fireworks show is another mandatory one.
5th day is MGM. My favorite park. Tower of Terror gets an A+. So cool to look at as you walk up to it. Skipped the Rock n Roll coaster for my stomach's sake, but the wife & kids liked it. Muppets 3D was good on the humor & just OK on the 3D. The Indy Stunt show was very good & the new Xtreme Stunt show was fantastic. Add it to the mandatory list - along with Fantasmic (which we saw the night before). The Great Movie Ride & Sounds Dangerous were just OK I thought. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was lots of fun. Wish I had time to give it a 2nd try. The Little Mermaid show was very good. The Star Wars ride was OK, another one that seems to be showing its age. We missed out on the car parade though.
6th day was back to the Magic Kingdom because we had reservations to the HoopDeDue Revue and the boat leaves from the MK. Fun show - since we skipped a previous dinner, we used those extra meal plans for the show.
Glad we did that. Went back to the MK after the dinner to catch the parade.
7th day we were leaving so we just went to Downtown Disney and took in the sights at the Marketplace. Nothing spectacular but a nice area.
We did a little bit of park hopping, but depending on how the buses run you can lose a chunk of time that way.
THE FOOD
Is the dining plan worth it? Well we had it for free so that's a no brainer, but if I had to pay for it? I figure the 5 of us spent about $200 per day on lunch/dinner/snacks. I think the meal plan would've cost me $900 if I bought it so it looks like I saved $300. But the meal plan includes appetizers & desserts. The Disney restaurants didn't skimp on food. We could've gotten by with just the entree.
If I had to pay for it I probably wouldn't order appetizers & desserts and wouldn't of bought as many snacks. Would that have covered the extra $300. It would be close. The meal plan covers tons of restaurants. If you have to eat in the park, ie. no rental car, it's probably an OK deal. Moreso if you think you may want all the food it gives you.
All in all I thought the restaurants were very good. Expensive, but that goes with the territory.
Do NOT book reservations the day you want to use them. Too hard to get one that way. At least one day ahead. We got lucky walking up a couple of times, but we were the exception.
THE BUSES
Generally good. They run from hotel to attraction. So if you want to go to another hotel you take the bus to the closest attraction and then take another bus to the hotel. We tried to do a dinner at Old Key West, so we needed to take a bus to Downtown Disney, then one to OKW.
But the dispatch system broke down that afternoon. We waited 40 minutes for a bus once getting to DD. We ended up missing our reservations (worked out OK since we used the time to see Fantasmic and used the extra meal plans for a dinner show)
Fom the POR, the bus that was slow was the Downtown Disney/Typhoon Lagoon bus. Guess that was because they are the 2 least visited attrcations compared to the rest.
FASTPASS
We have a son with Aspergers Syndrome (high function Austism) Because of this we had his doctor write us a letter which enabled us to get a disablilty pass. While I'd obviously trade in the pass for him not having to deal with this, the pass was worth it's weight in gold. It basically functions as an unlimited Fastpass that's immediately usable. Even rides w/o fastpass have a disability entrance. If you have a disabled member of your party look into it.
THE WEATHER
Hot & humid every day. Heat index of something like 105. Rained a grand total of 2 hours over 3 days. Every day was partly sunny. Katrina never impacted Orlando despite the weather forecasts which were expecting it to.
THE CROWDS
Several workers there remarked that the crowds were lass than the previous week due to school. That's why we scheduled our trip for that week. Only a few rides has waits over 30 minutes.
Family of 5 (kids - 14, 11, & 7)
Stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside via Southwest.
Trip included the free dining plan promotion. Had the 6 day park hopper tickets.
THE TRIP DOWN
Lesson #1. 2 hours sleep will not cut it for your first day.
Even though we had mostly already packed, we were out of town for a soccer tournament & got home around 9pm with a 7am flight the next day.
Southwest means you have to get up at midnight if you want to get the best boarding option. The lack of sleep made the first day in that blazing sun a tough one - for the adults that is - I don't think it bothered the kids a bit.
We had to check in our own bags on the return trip since Southwest doesn't participate in Magical Express.
I preordered a case of bottled water from Netgrocer. I called them after making the order to tell them it was for Disney. They said they'd have it there before we arrived - which they did. Smartest move of the whole trip.
We had no problems going thru that water in the week. Did I say the sun was blazing hot down there?
Magical Express worked smoothly. Our bags weren't at the hotel when we got there, but we packed two days worth in the carry-on's including bathing suits. The luggage was there when we returned from the parks that night.
THE HOTEL
The Port Orleans Riveside was very nice. I'd use it again w/o a second thought (expect that I like to try different things) Clean, picturesque, quiet & lots of friendly people. Sometimes late at night you make wrong turns walking around because everything looks the same. The double beds were a little small for me (6'4"). Coulda made some more room by splitting me & the Mrs with the kids rather than have 2 adults in 1 of those beds. The trundle was fine for my 7 year old daughter. Room came with a small fridge which was great for the bottled water.
The buffet breakfast had decent prices and the food was good.
We didn't spend too much time at the hotel. My opinion is that I'm there to see DisneyWorld, not the hotel. There isn't really anything about the hotel that screams 'Disney', except for the merchandise at the general store.
THE PARKS
We did Blizzard Beach the first day since the decision makers (aka the parents) were tired & it was already noon by the time we were ready to go.
We figured a water park would be easier on us.
Did I say it was hot down there? I'm no stranger to 90 plus degrees, but the humidity plus the heat was a bit much on the 1st day with little sleep.
Wear your hats/sunglasses & use plenty of lotion. BB was nice, but we had one of those sun induced headaches and weren't quite ready for being drenched in sweat so quickly. We let the kids have their fun but we didn't do much ourselves. Wish I felt better, if so I would've tried Summit Plummet. My oldest is the daredevil of the family - he loved it. I think he hit 52 mph.
Make sure you adjust you digital camera's exposure for all the sunlight. My initial pictures were washed out by all that light.
2nd day was the Magic Kingdom. My wife had arranged a character breakfast for her & my daughter at the castle. She loved it. My wife said the characters took time at each table to talk to you. This is one of those things you have to schedule 90 days in advance. Even though it's been around 30 years for me since my last visit, I remember some of the rides.
We hit most of the stuff there. Most of these rides are really very short.
Amazing to stand in line all that time for a 2-3 minute ride; especially for the old stuff. I though the Stitch ride/show was just OK. Loved the Buzz Lightyear shoot-em-up. It's a 'kiddie laser shoot' ride but lots of fun.
Big Thunder Mountain/Splash Mountain seem pretty tame by today's standards. Skipped Space Mountain due to motion sickness tendencies, but everyone else enjoyed it. I rate the Mickey 3D show as good, but behind the Bugs Life 3D show. Timekeeper was shut down. We did all the 'classic rides'. They seemed the same as I remembered them for long ago.
It's just cool to walk around the Magic Kingdom. The light parade & the fireworks are mandatory.
3rd day was Animal Kingdom. This was the least crowded of the parks.
We got there early to do the safari. Saw lots of animals, took lots of pictures. You get pretty close to alot of them. I recommend doing it early for the crowds & the heat. The animals weren't moving around much even in the morning - it's that hot. I loved walking around the place. Unfortunately the new Everest ride isn't open yet but you can see it under construction. Looks really cool even with the scaffolding all around it. It's big, makes Thunder Mountain look like a molehill. I loved the Bugs Life 3D show - though it was the best 3D show there. Dinosaur was a little too dark - I barely saw the big Dino at the end of the ride. The River Rapids ride wasn't that much. One small drop and one place where they spray water.
I wish we would've just walked around more & explored. Timing didn't work out to catch any shows there
We par hopped to Typhoon Lagoon - The wave pool was GREAT. 6 foot monster waves every 90 seconds. Tosses you around good. Didn't get to try the Crush n Gusher. The rest of the park was fun, but not as intense as Blizzard Beach. It's also a little confusing walking around. They do have a snorkling pool compete with small sharks/rays/fish. Wife really enjoyed that.
4th day was Epcot. Had to try Mission Space even with my weak stomach.
Took me an hour to get over the ride, but I'm still glad I tried it. Had to miss out on Test Track while I recovered. Evryone else loved it. Epcot is just beautiful to walk around. You also have some room to watch the light show, unlike Magic Kingdom which can be packed like sardines. Only got to a few of the worlds in the showcase, next time we'll spend more time there.
Soarin' was by far the most popular ride. Fastpass waits approached 4 hours.
Short ride (liek everything there) but a great ride. Try to be on the cars in the front row. They go higher than the 2nd row cars. I've been told the 2nd row cars can see the dangling feet of the riders in the 1st row. Not enough to spoil the ride but it gets in the way of the illusion - or so I'm told.
Living Seas was shut down - too bad. The 3D Honey I Shrunk the Kids show seems to be showing it's age. The light/fireworks show is another mandatory one.
5th day is MGM. My favorite park. Tower of Terror gets an A+. So cool to look at as you walk up to it. Skipped the Rock n Roll coaster for my stomach's sake, but the wife & kids liked it. Muppets 3D was good on the humor & just OK on the 3D. The Indy Stunt show was very good & the new Xtreme Stunt show was fantastic. Add it to the mandatory list - along with Fantasmic (which we saw the night before). The Great Movie Ride & Sounds Dangerous were just OK I thought. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was lots of fun. Wish I had time to give it a 2nd try. The Little Mermaid show was very good. The Star Wars ride was OK, another one that seems to be showing its age. We missed out on the car parade though.
6th day was back to the Magic Kingdom because we had reservations to the HoopDeDue Revue and the boat leaves from the MK. Fun show - since we skipped a previous dinner, we used those extra meal plans for the show.
Glad we did that. Went back to the MK after the dinner to catch the parade.
7th day we were leaving so we just went to Downtown Disney and took in the sights at the Marketplace. Nothing spectacular but a nice area.
We did a little bit of park hopping, but depending on how the buses run you can lose a chunk of time that way.
THE FOOD
Is the dining plan worth it? Well we had it for free so that's a no brainer, but if I had to pay for it? I figure the 5 of us spent about $200 per day on lunch/dinner/snacks. I think the meal plan would've cost me $900 if I bought it so it looks like I saved $300. But the meal plan includes appetizers & desserts. The Disney restaurants didn't skimp on food. We could've gotten by with just the entree.
If I had to pay for it I probably wouldn't order appetizers & desserts and wouldn't of bought as many snacks. Would that have covered the extra $300. It would be close. The meal plan covers tons of restaurants. If you have to eat in the park, ie. no rental car, it's probably an OK deal. Moreso if you think you may want all the food it gives you.
All in all I thought the restaurants were very good. Expensive, but that goes with the territory.
Do NOT book reservations the day you want to use them. Too hard to get one that way. At least one day ahead. We got lucky walking up a couple of times, but we were the exception.
THE BUSES
Generally good. They run from hotel to attraction. So if you want to go to another hotel you take the bus to the closest attraction and then take another bus to the hotel. We tried to do a dinner at Old Key West, so we needed to take a bus to Downtown Disney, then one to OKW.
But the dispatch system broke down that afternoon. We waited 40 minutes for a bus once getting to DD. We ended up missing our reservations (worked out OK since we used the time to see Fantasmic and used the extra meal plans for a dinner show)
Fom the POR, the bus that was slow was the Downtown Disney/Typhoon Lagoon bus. Guess that was because they are the 2 least visited attrcations compared to the rest.
FASTPASS
We have a son with Aspergers Syndrome (high function Austism) Because of this we had his doctor write us a letter which enabled us to get a disablilty pass. While I'd obviously trade in the pass for him not having to deal with this, the pass was worth it's weight in gold. It basically functions as an unlimited Fastpass that's immediately usable. Even rides w/o fastpass have a disability entrance. If you have a disabled member of your party look into it.
THE WEATHER
Hot & humid every day. Heat index of something like 105. Rained a grand total of 2 hours over 3 days. Every day was partly sunny. Katrina never impacted Orlando despite the weather forecasts which were expecting it to.
THE CROWDS
Several workers there remarked that the crowds were lass than the previous week due to school. That's why we scheduled our trip for that week. Only a few rides has waits over 30 minutes.
!!!
