Some thoughts on our long weekend trip Oct. 29 – Nov 1

[Mrs. Bradbury]

I think we’re going to cancel our end of January 2022 trip and wait to go back, at least for Epcot construction walls to come down, and for international cast members to come back, and for our choices – in food and merchandise – to return to more pre-pandemic levels. Also services to return to a pre-pandemic level of service. I miss having room service, daily maid service, etc., especially when room costs do not reflect their absence. We also did not buy as much as we would have, had we been able to send purchases back to our hotel.

We stayed at AKL Kidani Village and while I would love to stay at AKL the hotel, we weren’t crazy about Kidani Village, for two reasons. 1) we didn’t notice the first 2 nights because we were either dead to the world asleep or up and out of the room, but Sunday afternoon we had run out of steam and went back to the room for an early night. And then I realized that our room, in the right-hand wing of Kidani, not on the Savannah, was right across from the bus stops. Every single bus made that screeching noise when it kneeled and un-kneeled. It was awful but I didn’t say anything, because it was our last night there and also, I felt a little ridiculous saying anything since we hadn’t noticed the previous 2 nights. 2) Either we had the loudest families on earth staying near us, or the walls are really, really thin. We could hear conversations. The kicker was when a young child woke up around 5 AM on Monday (our day to sleep in!) and was banging on a door – not sure where, because no one was staying on either side of us – and a female voice yelled, “GO AWAY!” which caused more banging … to which the woman yelled some more …. which caused the child to yell …

We got a boarding group for Remy and the ride was cute, but something about it gave me a headache. I wear multifocal contacts, and I don’t know if that matters, but the glasses you have to wear made my eyes feel really weird, then the headache came. My daughter is prone to motion sickness and she had to close her eyes. We discussed that the way the ride is done, it’s cute enough without it being in 3D, so it’s a shame that there isn’t a non-3D choice, lol.

Epcot isn’t the same place without the international cast members. I don’t want to be waited on in Norway by someone from Ohio, no aspersions on Ohio. Their absence was really felt. Frozen was down for most of the day and we did not get to ride it.

We had a great day in the Magic Kingdom on Saturday. Walked over 12 miles. Rode everything we wanted to. Really don’t like Genie+ at all. We arrived at our bus stop just as a bus for MK was pulling away, which ruined our plan for going to 7 Dwarfs first and riding standby, so we bit the bullet and bought ILL for it. Which turned out to be a good idea, because the ride was down for the entire early opening and into the 9 AM hour. I would have hated to have been in that line, burning daylight as it were.

All in all, I’m glad our trip wasn’t longer because the shrunken menus and less merchandise available would have been a real drag after a week.

All cast members we encountered were wonderful, and I can’t wait to return when this is all over.

Feel free to ask me anything!

 

[JoanneAZ]

The multifocal lenses were most likely part of the headache. I won’t ride most 3D attractions because for me they trigger headaches, sometimes migraines. My eye doctor said it was because my eyes don’t focus together, one focuses and the other focuses far so both of my eyes are struggling to work together. The eye strain is what triggers the headache. The only 3D attraction I can ride is Midway Mania which doesn’t seem to give me a headache but I can only ride it once a day.

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

The multifocal lenses were most likely part of the headache. I won’t ride most 3D attractions because for me they trigger headaches, sometimes migraines. My eye doctor said it was because my eyes don’t focus together, one focuses and the other focuses far so both of my eyes are struggling to work together. The eye strain is what triggers the headache. The only 3D attraction I can ride is Midway Mania which doesn’t seem to give me a headache but I can only ride it once a day.

That makes perfect sense; thank you! And it's also concerning, since I normally don't have any issues riding anything. I've only had multifocal contacts for a few months so this was my first WDW trip wearing them.