halssister
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2010
- Messages
- 343
We got back last night from our first trip to Disney World, and I have to say that I finally "get it"! I'd never been a huge "Disney nut" and while I was excited about going on this vacation, I never totally understood how some people could make such a HUGE deal out of going to WDW, or even continued to return year after year (or more frequently!) 
Now I totally understand! We had such an amazing time, I couldn't get over how clean everything was, how nice everyone was, it was just like being in another world! I'm not going to ramble on with a detailed report here, but wanted to mention a few details that I think made our trip a success. The trip was myself, DH, and DS who has moderate autism and turned 9 last Monday while we were there. We drove almost 1200 miles, taking 3 shorter days to get there and 2 long days to get home, as there is no way DS would tolerate more than 9-10 hours in a car in one day (no driving straight through for us!)
We were worried about DS as he has severe anxiety and is afraid of any sort of transportation, so we planned on doing very few rides and using our car to get everywhere. Our "check engine" light came on about 20 miles from the park (ended up not being anything but at the time we were nervous!), so we decided to park the car and use the bus to get to the MK our first afternoon there. This was the BEST decision! We never drove the car again until we left to drive home on Friday. DS WAS afraid of the bus the first time, and he caused a minor scene (which we are used to) and had to sit on my lap for the first trip. But after that, he liked the bus, as long as we got there early enough to ensure he would get a seat sitting along the side of the bus facing sideways. Not sure why he insisted on that, but we went with it!
We also discovered that we could "do" a park in about 4-5 hours and then just go back to the resort (we stayed at POR, LOVED IT!) to swim and relax. The only time we returned to a park later that day was when we went back to Epcot, which turned out to be during a rainstorm and we got completely soaked! Otherwise, we did the EMH park and the crowds weren't bad at all. We didn't wait more than 10 minutes for anything. Granted, we rode very few rides and mostly watched shows. We rode Soarin' first thing, and DS cried the whole ride, but afterwards he kept talking about it and now says he wants to ride again
We went on Winnie the Pooh at MK but again, did it first thing before there was a line. The longest wait was for Lion King at AK, which was also the best show by far! DS actually got pulled to lead our section before the show, and we were amazed he actually went down to the front, but then he ran back to us before he did his part and they had to get somebody else instead 
Oh, we DID get a GAC and never took it out of our wallet. Except on the ride back from Epcot, so it could dry out since it was soaked through from the monsoon! It was very easy to get, and it made us feel good to know we had it just in case, but it wasn't needed as we did the popular stuff first and didn't do things if the lines were too long.
The biggest surprise was DS's favorite thing (besides swimming and eating pizza at the POR food court for dinner every day)! On our first day there, we wandered back to Mickey's Toontown Fair (I think it's called?) and into the area where the Princesses and Fairies were. We just saw "meet your favorite characters" and went back to see who they were, when we saw it was Princesses I said "Oh, it's just the Princesses". DS immediately said "I want to see the Princesses!" So we waited (maybe 15 min or so) and it turned out to be his favorite thing! We had to go back on our last day there so he could see them again. His favorite is (as he calls her) "Sleepy Beauty". I think he has a little crush. It was worth the trip alone just for that!
I guess my advice is just, plan but don't worry if things don't go as planned. Just have fun with whatever happens. There are a lot of things we didn't see or do that I would have liked, but that just means we need to go back again someday, right?
The fact that we drove 1200 miles for DS to spend an hour playing on slides at the Boneyard, similar to what he could get at a fast food play area, doesn't matter. What matters is that it was AWESOME! 
Now I totally understand! We had such an amazing time, I couldn't get over how clean everything was, how nice everyone was, it was just like being in another world! I'm not going to ramble on with a detailed report here, but wanted to mention a few details that I think made our trip a success. The trip was myself, DH, and DS who has moderate autism and turned 9 last Monday while we were there. We drove almost 1200 miles, taking 3 shorter days to get there and 2 long days to get home, as there is no way DS would tolerate more than 9-10 hours in a car in one day (no driving straight through for us!)
We were worried about DS as he has severe anxiety and is afraid of any sort of transportation, so we planned on doing very few rides and using our car to get everywhere. Our "check engine" light came on about 20 miles from the park (ended up not being anything but at the time we were nervous!), so we decided to park the car and use the bus to get to the MK our first afternoon there. This was the BEST decision! We never drove the car again until we left to drive home on Friday. DS WAS afraid of the bus the first time, and he caused a minor scene (which we are used to) and had to sit on my lap for the first trip. But after that, he liked the bus, as long as we got there early enough to ensure he would get a seat sitting along the side of the bus facing sideways. Not sure why he insisted on that, but we went with it!
We also discovered that we could "do" a park in about 4-5 hours and then just go back to the resort (we stayed at POR, LOVED IT!) to swim and relax. The only time we returned to a park later that day was when we went back to Epcot, which turned out to be during a rainstorm and we got completely soaked! Otherwise, we did the EMH park and the crowds weren't bad at all. We didn't wait more than 10 minutes for anything. Granted, we rode very few rides and mostly watched shows. We rode Soarin' first thing, and DS cried the whole ride, but afterwards he kept talking about it and now says he wants to ride again
We went on Winnie the Pooh at MK but again, did it first thing before there was a line. The longest wait was for Lion King at AK, which was also the best show by far! DS actually got pulled to lead our section before the show, and we were amazed he actually went down to the front, but then he ran back to us before he did his part and they had to get somebody else instead Oh, we DID get a GAC and never took it out of our wallet. Except on the ride back from Epcot, so it could dry out since it was soaked through from the monsoon! It was very easy to get, and it made us feel good to know we had it just in case, but it wasn't needed as we did the popular stuff first and didn't do things if the lines were too long.
The biggest surprise was DS's favorite thing (besides swimming and eating pizza at the POR food court for dinner every day)! On our first day there, we wandered back to Mickey's Toontown Fair (I think it's called?) and into the area where the Princesses and Fairies were. We just saw "meet your favorite characters" and went back to see who they were, when we saw it was Princesses I said "Oh, it's just the Princesses". DS immediately said "I want to see the Princesses!" So we waited (maybe 15 min or so) and it turned out to be his favorite thing! We had to go back on our last day there so he could see them again. His favorite is (as he calls her) "Sleepy Beauty". I think he has a little crush. It was worth the trip alone just for that!
I guess my advice is just, plan but don't worry if things don't go as planned. Just have fun with whatever happens. There are a lot of things we didn't see or do that I would have liked, but that just means we need to go back again someday, right?
The fact that we drove 1200 miles for DS to spend an hour playing on slides at the Boneyard, similar to what he could get at a fast food play area, doesn't matter. What matters is that it was AWESOME! 
I'm so glad you had a great trip! Finally after 5 years of whining, we are going back!! I would go every year if we could afford it, there is so much magic at Disney!
