luv2sleep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Trip report: 1st timer traveling solo with a special needs kiddo. This is my first DIS trip report. It's not very long. There's not much about food in here because that's not really something I think about imuch. Sorry! We also didn't do the dinning plan. Just FYI in case you are looking for food reviews. Also, I'm not a huge picture taker so I'm sorry that there aren't any here. I'm posting from my phone because if I waited until I got home it'd never get done. I apologize in advance for any typos.
I'm 45 and my son is 6. This was our first visit to Disney World. We were there for 8 days, 7 nights. We are from California and we are DL vets. My son has some special needs. He has pretty severe sensory issues and severe anxiety. He was previously misdiagnosed with ADHD and is in the midst of a complete neurodevelopmental work up. He is currently not on medication. The medication had actually made his tantrums worse and made him aggressive and angry. I just stopped the meds. Every day is a challenge in our lives so a trip like this was a huge undertaking. I had to plan the trip with his needs and issues in mind. I've been planning it for about 1.5 years.
We had a fabulous trip! It was rocky at first because be completely melted down and tantrummed horribly our first full day here. I swear I almost packed up and left. I realized it was due to over excitement and hunger. After that things went smoothly. We took a direct flight from Los Angeles. When we got to the airport we took the ME bus to our resort and let Disney handle our bags. I did not rent a car. The process was incredibly seamless and easy. I'd definitely opt for that every time. We checked in and I purchased our tickets from concierge. I could have purchased them earlier but I wanted the convenience of doing it all at once and having everything loaded onto my KTTW card. Also until we arrived I wasn't sure how many days I wanted. Honestly the approximate extra $50 I probably paid in total (given the recent price increase and by purchasing from Disney) was worth the convenience. I am all about convenience. Our bags arrived about 4 hours after we checked in.
We are Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members and I booked our stay at the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary resort 7 months in advance (I don't own here). This is a fabulous resort. The rooms is spacious and beautiful, the grounds are nice and easy to navigate, the onsite dining options are great, there are 2 pools with slides, food, and hot tubs, and the very best things are being right at the monorail and walking distance to MK. The dedicated buses for this resort make bus transport seamless, quick, and easy also. We waited less than 10 minutes for buses to Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. The bus rides were 30 minutes tops. We also went to Downtown Disney and the bus system was quick and easy from there also. Taking the monorail to EPCOT took 15 minutes tops there and back. We walked to and from MK.
On our first night we arrived at 5:30. We ate dinner at the counter service restaurant here at the Contemporary called the Contempo Cafe on the 4th floor. We have eaten every breakfast there and almost every dinner. We've also had dinner at the Wave restaurant that is on the first floor. It's a table service venue. We walked in without a reservation. The wait was 35-45 min, an impossible time to wait with my hungry kid, so they let us have dinner in the lounge area. Other families were there also. We also ate dinner once at the counter service restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge and once at the table service restaurant La Hacienda in EPCOT for fireworks. I made a 180 day advanced reservation for that. I ate at Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge while my son visited the Simba's Cub House (kids club) and was able to walk-in for that without a reservation. Given how difficult it can be to manage my son at meal time and the possibility of a sudden tantrum preventing us from going, I opted to not pre book any other table service meals ahead of time besides La Hacienda. He is also not comfortable with characters (the large costumes scare him) so character meals were out anyway. We ate our lunches at whatever park or location we were at.
On our first night we ate dinner at the Contempo Cafe, rested and watched TV in the room, walked around the hotel and grounds, watched the MK fireworks from the Top of the World lounge at BLT, and hopped on the monorail to go to MK. We could have walked but we weren't in a hurry and my son loves the monorail. Well it started storming soon after we boarded and due to the lightening the decided to shut down the monorail. We were all let off and the Grand Floridian (lovely resort) and had to take a bus back our resort from there. That wait was long (about 45 min) because they had to call in extra buses to handle the sudden overflow of people. We were tired at that point and decided to just get ready for bed.
I purposefully kept us on Pacific time during this trip for several reasons. My son's meltdowns and issues are way worse when he's tired and his sleep is disrupted, he starts a new camp the day after we get back and I didn't want to add to the issues he's already going to have with that, and right before I left I was unexpectedly assigned a hearing at work that I have to appear and testify in the day after we get back. I cannot be tired or jet lagged when we get back. The biggest reason is my son though. Having him jet lagged and cranky would last almost he entire trip. His meltdowns and tantrums would be way worse than usual and we'd probably never leave the room. Staying on Pacific time worked wonderfully! He hardly had any issues since that first day. He went to bed at around 11pm and woke up at about 9-10am. We would then go have breakfast and leave for the parks.
My son is not into "the magic" per say but loves little things like tinkerbell and seeing characters from afar. He likes a few rides but nothing intense. He does not like fast rides. He likes some shows but not long ones. He hates the heat so I'm mindful of that. While he enjoys the general ambience and excitement of the parks, he's not an "oooh, ah, mommy look at this!" child. He's pretty reserved and takes it all in quietly.
On our second day I chose to take it easy and go to a water park. We went to Blizzard Beach and had a lot of fun. I could only talk him into one slide and that was next to the Ski Patrol Training Camp. I can't remember the name but you use an orange float to sit in and slide down. Very tame. Even really little kids were on it. Otherwise we spent our time at the wave pool, lazy river, and waking around and looking at the big water slides. He was not interested in the under 6 year/48" area. That night we roasted marshmallows at the beach at the resort, are dinner, and I unpacked. There was no movie outside that night due to rain.
On our third day we went to MK. Right after we got there I went to Guest Services and got our Guest Assistance Card (GAC). A note about the GAC: it is not a front of the line pass like many people assume it is. We were let in either the fast pass line or alternate entrance line. We waited anywhere from 10-20 minutes. For those who think we are taking advantage or that it's not fair, I live many of my 365 days of the year with extreme difficulty. I don't mean that to sound horrible and awful but it's true. I love my son and I'd do anything for him but my everyday life is really hard. I work full time also and am a solo parent through a horrible divorce. I sit at work wondering if I'm going to get an email or phone call from school or daycare with some complaint about my child. I don't sleep soundly because I wait for screaming in the middle of the night. Every day life and errands can be filled with sudden and unrelenting angry tantrums. My life is not easy. Disney gives me a few hours on vacation that make my life a little easier. I love them for it. I have no family help on a daily basis so this little gift from Disney means a lot. Many people have easy going children that can handle early morning wake ups, frantic touring paces, and longer lines without major tantrums lasting hours on end. I don't have that. I'd trade my life for that (keeping my little guy of course!) and not be eligible for a GAC, in a heartbeat. I don't think many would trade with me though. We have never used a GAC at DL because we just go and do it in small pieces for a few hours at a time over and over. WDW, however, is too far away and too much to tackle in such a short period of time. The GAC was a godsend. My son does not like many rides so it's not like we used it a lot. It helped though for the rides he did want to go on.
At MK my son was hot and wanted to leave after the first ride. MK and it's crowds didn't impress either of us. Most of the rides I love at DL were missing and located at other parks. We rode a few rides and ate a late lunch and left. We then went back to the hotel and swam. We went to EPCOT for dinner at La Hacienda for fireworks. My son gets upset with loud noises which is why I looked for a behind the glass venue that could muffle the sound a little. He loved these fireworks and so did I. Way better than Wishes (which we accidentally saw from MK later in the trip). The next thing we did was a huge mistake. I took him on Mission Space. I should have researched this better before arriving. We both panicked inside (me silently, of course) and him yelling that he wanted to get out. I thought it would be more like Star Tours. Wow I couldn't have been more wrong. Thankfully it was very short. What a disaster. After an hour we both recovered. We left after that and went back to the hotel. Never again.
On our fourth day we took the monorail to the Polynesian and walked around to see it before getting on the bus to Downtown Disney. Nice Resort! At Downtown Disney and played at Disney Quest. It was fun but I don't feel I have to do it again. At his age all he can do is video games. There are a few other fun things for older kids. After 2 hours of video games I had a headache. We ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express and went back to the resort. We met up with some friends who live locally, swam at our hotel, ate dinner, and made s'mores on the beach during the resort's campfire time. That was really fun. We then went back to MK that might around 9. We rode 2 rides, watched philharmagic, and watched the electrical parade. We caught a glimpse of Wishes accidentally when leaving philharmagic. After the parade we were done for the day.
On our fifth day we went to EPCOT. We rode Spaceship Earth and played the interactive games there. I never hear anyone talk about this attraction. We really enjoyed it! We went then to ride the Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo rides. My son loved those. We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons and went on to do the Agent P activity. This was a disappointment because it stopped functioning properly halfway through. I was able to convince my son that it was ok and that boy how fun that we got to do most of it. From a neurochemical standpoint he doesn't handle disappointment and frustration well (has to do with his pre adoption home environment and the trauma from that while his brain was developing) so I was worried about a big meltdown and thankfully there was none. Phew! We went on to walk through the rest of world showcase. I loved that! He did not. I had to convince him to walk through it with me. I got him gelato in Italy and me a mango infused iced tea in either China or Japan (sorry that I can't remember). They were both very good. After world showcase we hopped back on the monorail back to BLT. Another quick trip lasting 15 minutes. I had bed asking him all day to go on soarin'. He's been on it before several times at Disneyland and loved it. However, I think he associated it with Mission Space since we were in EPCOT. Oh well.
For dinner we took a boat form the contemporary to the Wilderness Lodge for counter service dinner. We walked around and noticed there was a kids club. My son wanted to go so I let him go in for 1.5 hours to play. We then saw the electrical water pageant from the beach. After that we went back to our hotel and watched the movie they were showing outside (Mulan). Then we were done for the day. The WL resort was very nice. I noticed a very peaceful atmosphere while there. They had bike trails which I think would be fun to ride on.
On our sixth day we went to Hollywood Studios. This was my favorite park. I loved the Hollywood theme. Felt like I was back home. Also some of my favorite rides are at this park. I convinced my son to ride Star Tours which went well. He's ridden it many times at DL. We also went on the Toy Story ride. We saw the Indiana Jones stunt show. I wish I had researched this one better. There was a lot of gun use which I don't like to expose him to. Also lots of explosions, etc. He enjoyed it though and was not scared for some reason. I loved it! Love the Indy movies. My son hasn't seen them yet. We went to Muppets 3D which we've seen before but this show was a little different. We also went through the aquarium and to Turtle Talk with Crush. Always cute but he didn't do and say a lot of the things that he does in DL so the existence was different. We ate lunch there (can't remember the name). My son played in Honey I Shrunk the Kids and loved that! We were there for a while.
I'd definitely say that we had more fun at HS than any of the others. Animal Kingdom was a close second. At both of these parks there's lots to do that we wanted to do besides just standing in line and waiting for a ride. I loved World Showcase at EPCOT but my son was bored. I know they have those stations where they can do a craft but given his fine motor skill issues he's not much into crafts. That night we ate dinner at The Wave at the Contemporary and just hung out in the room.
On our seventh day we went to Animal Kingdom. This park was amazing! I don't understand why people don't talk about it much. It's visually very interesting and appealing and the trees in Africa and Asia give a great deal of shade to keep you cool. Also the food offerings are really good. We rode the safari, walked along the various trails, rode the train to the conservation area and petting zoo, and my son played the midway games in Dino Land. He wasn't interested in any of the rides. We even did some of the wilderness explorer stuff and he got 3 badges. I loved the live music. Again, this park was great because there's so much more to do that we've never done before that did not involve standing around waiting to get on a ride.
After AK park we took a bus from AK park to AK Lodge. There we walked around and checked the place out. This is a phenomenally stunning resort! I'd say it's the nicest one I've seen. I own at Aulani and while it's beautiful I'd say AKL's lobby is the most visually impressive. Seeing animals right from the resort was cool too. My son was pleading to go to the kids club (Simba's Cub House) so I dropped him off. I took a walk to Kidani Village to check out. Took about 10 minutes. It's much smaller than Jambo house (the main lodge) and the pool was across the street from the lobby and rooms. The pool was smaller but the water play area looked really fun. Back at the village there were lots of animals to see from the savannah. I couldn't tell if there was a counter service place there to eat. That's something I need because, although it can save money, I don't go on vacation to cook. My home life is busy enough that when I go on vacation I want a true break from everything.
I took the shuttle van from Kidani back to Jambo house. I walked into Boma without a reservation and was seated quickly. I LOVED this place! I live a vegetarian lifestyle and was so impressed with all of the non meat offerings. Everything I had was so good! The desserts were just ok. I had a zebra dome finally but unfortunately I didn't like them for some reason. After that I sat in a chair outside near the pool area and read my book for a while. Very relaxing. I love reading and was glad to have my kindle with me. I then picked up my son (who had eaten dinner in the club) and we went back to the bus stop to wait. I'd been advised to take the bus to MK and then get to BLT from there. I picked my son up at 6:30 pm and we did not make it back to BLT until 8 pm. Wow. The rate limiting step was waiting for the bus to MK at AKL. Buses for every other venue came and went 2-3 times before ours came. We waited about 40 minutes for that bus. After that the ride was about 25 minutes and the walk from MK to BLT about 10. I have to say that put a damper on my AKL visit and made BLT look so much better because of the transportation ease to and from there as compared to what it's probably like at AKL.
After we got back we relaxed in the room and then went down to the lawn area to watch the nightly movie. It was Wreck It Ralph. One of our favorites! The fireworks from MK went off during the movie and my son loved seeing them from the distance. We saw them right from our lawn chairs! Very cool. Then the water pageant came by. We'd actually seen this several times by this point from BLT, the boat in the way back from the WL, and at the WL. Very cool. After the movie we went to bed.
A note about the clubs: I was a little nervous at first but once you see inside you see it's no big deal. Just a large room with a movie playing, lots of toys and things to entertain the kids, and some age appropriate video games. We've done Disney cruises and the youth staff were the same as the ones on the ships. Very friendly, caring, and engaging people. I had no worries at all. He had a great time. It was $11.50 per hour. I pay more than that for childcare at home. It's a great service and is open to kids 2-12 years old.
Well we are going home today. I asked for a late check out but they don't do that at the DVC villas. Oh well. We will keep a bag, eat, swim, shower and change here at the hotel by the pool. We will then get on the ME back to the airport. This has been a phenomenally awesome trip. I did not expect to have such a great time because I've been to DL before and while that's fun I couldn't imagine WDW being so much better. WDW is an entirely different experience though! So much to do at so many venues and these resorts are fantastic! I'm now struggling to figure out which I like better: the parks or the cruises? It's a tie I think with the parks probably coming out ahead given the variety of things to do. Can't wait to come back!
I'm 45 and my son is 6. This was our first visit to Disney World. We were there for 8 days, 7 nights. We are from California and we are DL vets. My son has some special needs. He has pretty severe sensory issues and severe anxiety. He was previously misdiagnosed with ADHD and is in the midst of a complete neurodevelopmental work up. He is currently not on medication. The medication had actually made his tantrums worse and made him aggressive and angry. I just stopped the meds. Every day is a challenge in our lives so a trip like this was a huge undertaking. I had to plan the trip with his needs and issues in mind. I've been planning it for about 1.5 years.
We had a fabulous trip! It was rocky at first because be completely melted down and tantrummed horribly our first full day here. I swear I almost packed up and left. I realized it was due to over excitement and hunger. After that things went smoothly. We took a direct flight from Los Angeles. When we got to the airport we took the ME bus to our resort and let Disney handle our bags. I did not rent a car. The process was incredibly seamless and easy. I'd definitely opt for that every time. We checked in and I purchased our tickets from concierge. I could have purchased them earlier but I wanted the convenience of doing it all at once and having everything loaded onto my KTTW card. Also until we arrived I wasn't sure how many days I wanted. Honestly the approximate extra $50 I probably paid in total (given the recent price increase and by purchasing from Disney) was worth the convenience. I am all about convenience. Our bags arrived about 4 hours after we checked in.
We are Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members and I booked our stay at the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary resort 7 months in advance (I don't own here). This is a fabulous resort. The rooms is spacious and beautiful, the grounds are nice and easy to navigate, the onsite dining options are great, there are 2 pools with slides, food, and hot tubs, and the very best things are being right at the monorail and walking distance to MK. The dedicated buses for this resort make bus transport seamless, quick, and easy also. We waited less than 10 minutes for buses to Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. The bus rides were 30 minutes tops. We also went to Downtown Disney and the bus system was quick and easy from there also. Taking the monorail to EPCOT took 15 minutes tops there and back. We walked to and from MK.
On our first night we arrived at 5:30. We ate dinner at the counter service restaurant here at the Contemporary called the Contempo Cafe on the 4th floor. We have eaten every breakfast there and almost every dinner. We've also had dinner at the Wave restaurant that is on the first floor. It's a table service venue. We walked in without a reservation. The wait was 35-45 min, an impossible time to wait with my hungry kid, so they let us have dinner in the lounge area. Other families were there also. We also ate dinner once at the counter service restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge and once at the table service restaurant La Hacienda in EPCOT for fireworks. I made a 180 day advanced reservation for that. I ate at Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge while my son visited the Simba's Cub House (kids club) and was able to walk-in for that without a reservation. Given how difficult it can be to manage my son at meal time and the possibility of a sudden tantrum preventing us from going, I opted to not pre book any other table service meals ahead of time besides La Hacienda. He is also not comfortable with characters (the large costumes scare him) so character meals were out anyway. We ate our lunches at whatever park or location we were at.
On our first night we ate dinner at the Contempo Cafe, rested and watched TV in the room, walked around the hotel and grounds, watched the MK fireworks from the Top of the World lounge at BLT, and hopped on the monorail to go to MK. We could have walked but we weren't in a hurry and my son loves the monorail. Well it started storming soon after we boarded and due to the lightening the decided to shut down the monorail. We were all let off and the Grand Floridian (lovely resort) and had to take a bus back our resort from there. That wait was long (about 45 min) because they had to call in extra buses to handle the sudden overflow of people. We were tired at that point and decided to just get ready for bed.
I purposefully kept us on Pacific time during this trip for several reasons. My son's meltdowns and issues are way worse when he's tired and his sleep is disrupted, he starts a new camp the day after we get back and I didn't want to add to the issues he's already going to have with that, and right before I left I was unexpectedly assigned a hearing at work that I have to appear and testify in the day after we get back. I cannot be tired or jet lagged when we get back. The biggest reason is my son though. Having him jet lagged and cranky would last almost he entire trip. His meltdowns and tantrums would be way worse than usual and we'd probably never leave the room. Staying on Pacific time worked wonderfully! He hardly had any issues since that first day. He went to bed at around 11pm and woke up at about 9-10am. We would then go have breakfast and leave for the parks.
My son is not into "the magic" per say but loves little things like tinkerbell and seeing characters from afar. He likes a few rides but nothing intense. He does not like fast rides. He likes some shows but not long ones. He hates the heat so I'm mindful of that. While he enjoys the general ambience and excitement of the parks, he's not an "oooh, ah, mommy look at this!" child. He's pretty reserved and takes it all in quietly.
On our second day I chose to take it easy and go to a water park. We went to Blizzard Beach and had a lot of fun. I could only talk him into one slide and that was next to the Ski Patrol Training Camp. I can't remember the name but you use an orange float to sit in and slide down. Very tame. Even really little kids were on it. Otherwise we spent our time at the wave pool, lazy river, and waking around and looking at the big water slides. He was not interested in the under 6 year/48" area. That night we roasted marshmallows at the beach at the resort, are dinner, and I unpacked. There was no movie outside that night due to rain.
On our third day we went to MK. Right after we got there I went to Guest Services and got our Guest Assistance Card (GAC). A note about the GAC: it is not a front of the line pass like many people assume it is. We were let in either the fast pass line or alternate entrance line. We waited anywhere from 10-20 minutes. For those who think we are taking advantage or that it's not fair, I live many of my 365 days of the year with extreme difficulty. I don't mean that to sound horrible and awful but it's true. I love my son and I'd do anything for him but my everyday life is really hard. I work full time also and am a solo parent through a horrible divorce. I sit at work wondering if I'm going to get an email or phone call from school or daycare with some complaint about my child. I don't sleep soundly because I wait for screaming in the middle of the night. Every day life and errands can be filled with sudden and unrelenting angry tantrums. My life is not easy. Disney gives me a few hours on vacation that make my life a little easier. I love them for it. I have no family help on a daily basis so this little gift from Disney means a lot. Many people have easy going children that can handle early morning wake ups, frantic touring paces, and longer lines without major tantrums lasting hours on end. I don't have that. I'd trade my life for that (keeping my little guy of course!) and not be eligible for a GAC, in a heartbeat. I don't think many would trade with me though. We have never used a GAC at DL because we just go and do it in small pieces for a few hours at a time over and over. WDW, however, is too far away and too much to tackle in such a short period of time. The GAC was a godsend. My son does not like many rides so it's not like we used it a lot. It helped though for the rides he did want to go on.
At MK my son was hot and wanted to leave after the first ride. MK and it's crowds didn't impress either of us. Most of the rides I love at DL were missing and located at other parks. We rode a few rides and ate a late lunch and left. We then went back to the hotel and swam. We went to EPCOT for dinner at La Hacienda for fireworks. My son gets upset with loud noises which is why I looked for a behind the glass venue that could muffle the sound a little. He loved these fireworks and so did I. Way better than Wishes (which we accidentally saw from MK later in the trip). The next thing we did was a huge mistake. I took him on Mission Space. I should have researched this better before arriving. We both panicked inside (me silently, of course) and him yelling that he wanted to get out. I thought it would be more like Star Tours. Wow I couldn't have been more wrong. Thankfully it was very short. What a disaster. After an hour we both recovered. We left after that and went back to the hotel. Never again.
On our fourth day we took the monorail to the Polynesian and walked around to see it before getting on the bus to Downtown Disney. Nice Resort! At Downtown Disney and played at Disney Quest. It was fun but I don't feel I have to do it again. At his age all he can do is video games. There are a few other fun things for older kids. After 2 hours of video games I had a headache. We ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express and went back to the resort. We met up with some friends who live locally, swam at our hotel, ate dinner, and made s'mores on the beach during the resort's campfire time. That was really fun. We then went back to MK that might around 9. We rode 2 rides, watched philharmagic, and watched the electrical parade. We caught a glimpse of Wishes accidentally when leaving philharmagic. After the parade we were done for the day.
On our fifth day we went to EPCOT. We rode Spaceship Earth and played the interactive games there. I never hear anyone talk about this attraction. We really enjoyed it! We went then to ride the Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo rides. My son loved those. We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons and went on to do the Agent P activity. This was a disappointment because it stopped functioning properly halfway through. I was able to convince my son that it was ok and that boy how fun that we got to do most of it. From a neurochemical standpoint he doesn't handle disappointment and frustration well (has to do with his pre adoption home environment and the trauma from that while his brain was developing) so I was worried about a big meltdown and thankfully there was none. Phew! We went on to walk through the rest of world showcase. I loved that! He did not. I had to convince him to walk through it with me. I got him gelato in Italy and me a mango infused iced tea in either China or Japan (sorry that I can't remember). They were both very good. After world showcase we hopped back on the monorail back to BLT. Another quick trip lasting 15 minutes. I had bed asking him all day to go on soarin'. He's been on it before several times at Disneyland and loved it. However, I think he associated it with Mission Space since we were in EPCOT. Oh well.
For dinner we took a boat form the contemporary to the Wilderness Lodge for counter service dinner. We walked around and noticed there was a kids club. My son wanted to go so I let him go in for 1.5 hours to play. We then saw the electrical water pageant from the beach. After that we went back to our hotel and watched the movie they were showing outside (Mulan). Then we were done for the day. The WL resort was very nice. I noticed a very peaceful atmosphere while there. They had bike trails which I think would be fun to ride on.
On our sixth day we went to Hollywood Studios. This was my favorite park. I loved the Hollywood theme. Felt like I was back home. Also some of my favorite rides are at this park. I convinced my son to ride Star Tours which went well. He's ridden it many times at DL. We also went on the Toy Story ride. We saw the Indiana Jones stunt show. I wish I had researched this one better. There was a lot of gun use which I don't like to expose him to. Also lots of explosions, etc. He enjoyed it though and was not scared for some reason. I loved it! Love the Indy movies. My son hasn't seen them yet. We went to Muppets 3D which we've seen before but this show was a little different. We also went through the aquarium and to Turtle Talk with Crush. Always cute but he didn't do and say a lot of the things that he does in DL so the existence was different. We ate lunch there (can't remember the name). My son played in Honey I Shrunk the Kids and loved that! We were there for a while.
I'd definitely say that we had more fun at HS than any of the others. Animal Kingdom was a close second. At both of these parks there's lots to do that we wanted to do besides just standing in line and waiting for a ride. I loved World Showcase at EPCOT but my son was bored. I know they have those stations where they can do a craft but given his fine motor skill issues he's not much into crafts. That night we ate dinner at The Wave at the Contemporary and just hung out in the room.
On our seventh day we went to Animal Kingdom. This park was amazing! I don't understand why people don't talk about it much. It's visually very interesting and appealing and the trees in Africa and Asia give a great deal of shade to keep you cool. Also the food offerings are really good. We rode the safari, walked along the various trails, rode the train to the conservation area and petting zoo, and my son played the midway games in Dino Land. He wasn't interested in any of the rides. We even did some of the wilderness explorer stuff and he got 3 badges. I loved the live music. Again, this park was great because there's so much more to do that we've never done before that did not involve standing around waiting to get on a ride.
After AK park we took a bus from AK park to AK Lodge. There we walked around and checked the place out. This is a phenomenally stunning resort! I'd say it's the nicest one I've seen. I own at Aulani and while it's beautiful I'd say AKL's lobby is the most visually impressive. Seeing animals right from the resort was cool too. My son was pleading to go to the kids club (Simba's Cub House) so I dropped him off. I took a walk to Kidani Village to check out. Took about 10 minutes. It's much smaller than Jambo house (the main lodge) and the pool was across the street from the lobby and rooms. The pool was smaller but the water play area looked really fun. Back at the village there were lots of animals to see from the savannah. I couldn't tell if there was a counter service place there to eat. That's something I need because, although it can save money, I don't go on vacation to cook. My home life is busy enough that when I go on vacation I want a true break from everything.
I took the shuttle van from Kidani back to Jambo house. I walked into Boma without a reservation and was seated quickly. I LOVED this place! I live a vegetarian lifestyle and was so impressed with all of the non meat offerings. Everything I had was so good! The desserts were just ok. I had a zebra dome finally but unfortunately I didn't like them for some reason. After that I sat in a chair outside near the pool area and read my book for a while. Very relaxing. I love reading and was glad to have my kindle with me. I then picked up my son (who had eaten dinner in the club) and we went back to the bus stop to wait. I'd been advised to take the bus to MK and then get to BLT from there. I picked my son up at 6:30 pm and we did not make it back to BLT until 8 pm. Wow. The rate limiting step was waiting for the bus to MK at AKL. Buses for every other venue came and went 2-3 times before ours came. We waited about 40 minutes for that bus. After that the ride was about 25 minutes and the walk from MK to BLT about 10. I have to say that put a damper on my AKL visit and made BLT look so much better because of the transportation ease to and from there as compared to what it's probably like at AKL.
After we got back we relaxed in the room and then went down to the lawn area to watch the nightly movie. It was Wreck It Ralph. One of our favorites! The fireworks from MK went off during the movie and my son loved seeing them from the distance. We saw them right from our lawn chairs! Very cool. Then the water pageant came by. We'd actually seen this several times by this point from BLT, the boat in the way back from the WL, and at the WL. Very cool. After the movie we went to bed.
A note about the clubs: I was a little nervous at first but once you see inside you see it's no big deal. Just a large room with a movie playing, lots of toys and things to entertain the kids, and some age appropriate video games. We've done Disney cruises and the youth staff were the same as the ones on the ships. Very friendly, caring, and engaging people. I had no worries at all. He had a great time. It was $11.50 per hour. I pay more than that for childcare at home. It's a great service and is open to kids 2-12 years old.
Well we are going home today. I asked for a late check out but they don't do that at the DVC villas. Oh well. We will keep a bag, eat, swim, shower and change here at the hotel by the pool. We will then get on the ME back to the airport. This has been a phenomenally awesome trip. I did not expect to have such a great time because I've been to DL before and while that's fun I couldn't imagine WDW being so much better. WDW is an entirely different experience though! So much to do at so many venues and these resorts are fantastic! I'm now struggling to figure out which I like better: the parks or the cruises? It's a tie I think with the parks probably coming out ahead given the variety of things to do. Can't wait to come back!
