koncra
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2020
Hello Friends! I've seen a lot of negativity lately around Disney trips and wanted to provide a full in depth review of our recent stay Feb 6-12. We are Canadian members and this is our third trip since COVID re-opening and second trip since Genie+/LL were introduced! We also brought along my wifes best friend(first time at WDW) this trip so there was 3 of us, all 26 years old. We did purchase Genie+ every day but we did not purchase any ILL throughout the trip.
Feb 5th: Drove from home(Toronto Canada) to Buffalo, NY for the night as our flight was 6AM the next morning. For anyone in a similar spot I highly recommend "ParkSleepFly" for your nightly accommodations as they include parking for the duration of your flight/trip and shuttle you to/from the airport all for really good rates(we paid $70USD for 1 night hotel rate, 6 nights parking, and the shuttle)
Feb 6th: As mentioned earlier we flew out early... as in wake up at 3:00 to get to the airport early. This was great because we landed in MCO at 9:00AM, it was not-so-great because we all had about 3ish hours of sleep and were very irritable for most of the day. This was our first trip since the Magical Express cancellation and we opted for a rental car because 1) we found a great rate(under $200 USD for the 6 days) and 2) we were staying at AKL and knew we would like to be able to have another transportation option outside of the busses. We picked up our rental car around 10:00ish and headed towards Disney. As we were leaving MCO we received our email from Disney stating our room was not yet ready so rather than rushing to get to AKL we stopped at the outlets on the way in for some quick shopping at the character warehouse. I will say it was the worst character warehouse trip we've had with very little selection and prices felt a lot higher than in previous trips. After the warehouse we made it to Jambo and checked in to our Value Studio. We own AKL but this was actually our first stay there and it was lovely. Our value studio (5016) had a great pool view and a very slight view of the savannah as well. Once checked in we changed into our park clothes and headed to Magic Kingdom. We spent a few hours there shopping and riding a few rides and then took a boat over to GFV for dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe... and that's where our amazing first day goes a bit sour. Honestly, the dinner we had at Grand Floridian Cafe was far and away my worst meal experience we've had on property, ever! Our server was quite slow and pretty rude, the food selection and quality was not good at all, and the pricing for portion size and quality was awful. We've always had great experiences with Disney Dining and this was just a big fat FAIL. After dinner we went back to MK for the fireworks and then head back to the resort for the night
Feb 7th: Day two we woke feeling well rested and it set the tone for a great day. We started the day at HS for rope drop... completing Mickey and Minnies and Smugglers Run by 10:00 and at that point we walked over to Ale and Compass for brunch. this was a much better meal experience with fresh food, awesome service, and we felt the value for money was pretty great after the DVC/AP Discount. After our meal we made our way to EPCOT to check out Festival of the arts and caught our first viewing of Harmonious(skipped it on our December trip) as well as stayed for the extra magic hours for Deluxe guests in which we were able to ride frozen(10 min) and Ratatouille(25 min)
Feb 8th: After our long day on day 2(I Rope drop 08:30am-Extra evening Hours 11:00PM) we opted for a slight sleep in on Day 3. We made an Ohana reservation for 10:00 and started our day that way, heading to Animal Kingdom afterward. Ohana was amazing as always and again, we find the breakfast buffets to be great value considering it keeps us full until Dinner for $19 each after discount. This day was probably the rainiest Florida day we've ever has, as it started raining around 10:30 AM and didn't stop until we were already back at the resort and asleep for the night. Regardless of the weather we had a great day. We took advantage of short wait times due to the rain and were able to do everything in AK other than FOP between 11:00am and 5:00pm when we returned to the resort. We then changed out of our wet clothes and drove over to disney springs for dinner at chicken guy and a stroll around the shops. We don't normally spend much time at Springs but as we were with a first timer we wanted her to at least see it. We spent a couple hours shopping before returning to Jambo House around 8:30 for a late night hot tub. Unfortunately there was a group of about 5-6 kids in the hot tub splashing around and cannonballing in with no parents around.
Feb 9th: Another day, another breakfast reservation. This one was pre-planned as it was our EPCOT reservation day which meant we couldn't enter the park until 10:30 anyways, so it was a good day for breakfast at Steakhouse 71. We parked at Contemporary for the reservation which meant we were able to take the monorail to EPCOT afterward which was a nice bonus. This was our second time at Steakhouse 71 and its just brilliant. Good service, great food, decent pricing by Disney standards. I opted for the steak and eggs which was delicious and my wife and her friend ordered the seasonal pancakes which they both enjoyed. The weather really started warming up by now which was welcome as we probably did not pack as many pants and sweaters as we should have. We did most of the lower tier attractions this day such as Spaceship earth, Living with the Land, Nemo, etc. We did an early dinner at Via Napoli in which we split a large Pizza for the three of us. Final bill came to $60 after tip which seems more than reasonable for three people to eat dinner at a theme park restaurant. After dinner we did a bit more of world showcase and festival of the arts before heading back to the resort where we dropped our friend off before my wife and I head back to MK for the Deluxe Extra Hours(we are park warriors lol) where we were able to get most everything done other than 7DMT which we just didn't want to wait the 45 mins for.
Feb 10th: Our penultimate park day started with HS rope dropping for Rise of the Resistance. We were in the park by 8:20(Early entry supposed to start at 8:30) and in line for the ride by 8:30. It was posted at 90 minutes already by this time but we only waited about 25 before making it to the pre-show area, which is the start of the attraction as far as I'm concerned. We then got some Ronto Wraps for breakfast, watched Indiana Jones and got in line for Mickey and Minnies. About 30 min in to our standby wait the ride went down. We waited another 5-10 mins or so but by this time we had to leave the parks as we had our COVID tests scheduled for our return to Canada. We did the ID Now NAAT test from Walgreens and had our results in under 3 hours. After a quick stop at Walgreens and dunkin donuts for some snacks we headed back to Jambo to get ready for our dinner at Be Our Guest. This was our first time eating Dinner/Prix Fix menu at Be Our Guest and we absolutely loved it. The atmosphere is second-to-none and the food was surprisingly very good(I've heard mixed reviews in the past). The only bad part about the meal was the bill, I think it was $215 for the three of us after tip and that's including the DVC discount and no alcoholic beverages. After dinner we went back to HS as we were able to snag a Slinky Dog LL and wanted to do the other Toy Story Land attractions as well before leaving HS for the last time this trip.
Feb 11th: Our final park day started early. We arrived at AK for 7:00 and were through the gates in line for FOP by 7:15. We waited about half an hour which was more than manageable. After riding it we went to starbucks for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. We spent the rest of our AK morning doing Rafikis Planet Watch/Animation Experience, The walking trails, Dinosaur and It's tough to be a bug before leaving the parks to get to our late lunch at Beaches and Cream. Beach club us such a beautiful resort and beaches and cream is one of the coolest(figuratively and literally... brrrr) on property. We enjoyed a nice lunch and ate approximately 1/8th of our desserts before taking the bus to Magic Kingdom to enjoy our last night. We rode a few rides and then decided it was time to get a good spot for the fireworks as we wanted to make sure we got a great view for out last night. I will say when I first saw Enchantment in December is was not a fan at all but now that I've seen it a handful of times its really starting to grow on me. Is it as good as happily ever after? No, not for me, but its still a great show. As luck would have it we were heading to Big Thunder for out final LL of the trip after fireworks when we noticed Splash Mountain had re-opened for the first time of the trip. We got in line, waited about half an hour and ended our trip with my favorite ride. It was truly a Magical Way to end the trip.
Feb 12: Travel Day - not much to report. Drove to the airport, flew home. LOL
Overall, the Magic is still very much there. Cast members are amazing, 50th Merch and Decorations are so fun, Food is really good, and the rides are still there. Yes it costs a bit more(or a lot more) but its still enjoyable even without dropping $30 on 7DMT or ROTR every day.
Feb 5th: Drove from home(Toronto Canada) to Buffalo, NY for the night as our flight was 6AM the next morning. For anyone in a similar spot I highly recommend "ParkSleepFly" for your nightly accommodations as they include parking for the duration of your flight/trip and shuttle you to/from the airport all for really good rates(we paid $70USD for 1 night hotel rate, 6 nights parking, and the shuttle)
Feb 6th: As mentioned earlier we flew out early... as in wake up at 3:00 to get to the airport early. This was great because we landed in MCO at 9:00AM, it was not-so-great because we all had about 3ish hours of sleep and were very irritable for most of the day. This was our first trip since the Magical Express cancellation and we opted for a rental car because 1) we found a great rate(under $200 USD for the 6 days) and 2) we were staying at AKL and knew we would like to be able to have another transportation option outside of the busses. We picked up our rental car around 10:00ish and headed towards Disney. As we were leaving MCO we received our email from Disney stating our room was not yet ready so rather than rushing to get to AKL we stopped at the outlets on the way in for some quick shopping at the character warehouse. I will say it was the worst character warehouse trip we've had with very little selection and prices felt a lot higher than in previous trips. After the warehouse we made it to Jambo and checked in to our Value Studio. We own AKL but this was actually our first stay there and it was lovely. Our value studio (5016) had a great pool view and a very slight view of the savannah as well. Once checked in we changed into our park clothes and headed to Magic Kingdom. We spent a few hours there shopping and riding a few rides and then took a boat over to GFV for dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe... and that's where our amazing first day goes a bit sour. Honestly, the dinner we had at Grand Floridian Cafe was far and away my worst meal experience we've had on property, ever! Our server was quite slow and pretty rude, the food selection and quality was not good at all, and the pricing for portion size and quality was awful. We've always had great experiences with Disney Dining and this was just a big fat FAIL. After dinner we went back to MK for the fireworks and then head back to the resort for the night
Feb 7th: Day two we woke feeling well rested and it set the tone for a great day. We started the day at HS for rope drop... completing Mickey and Minnies and Smugglers Run by 10:00 and at that point we walked over to Ale and Compass for brunch. this was a much better meal experience with fresh food, awesome service, and we felt the value for money was pretty great after the DVC/AP Discount. After our meal we made our way to EPCOT to check out Festival of the arts and caught our first viewing of Harmonious(skipped it on our December trip) as well as stayed for the extra magic hours for Deluxe guests in which we were able to ride frozen(10 min) and Ratatouille(25 min)
Feb 8th: After our long day on day 2(I Rope drop 08:30am-Extra evening Hours 11:00PM) we opted for a slight sleep in on Day 3. We made an Ohana reservation for 10:00 and started our day that way, heading to Animal Kingdom afterward. Ohana was amazing as always and again, we find the breakfast buffets to be great value considering it keeps us full until Dinner for $19 each after discount. This day was probably the rainiest Florida day we've ever has, as it started raining around 10:30 AM and didn't stop until we were already back at the resort and asleep for the night. Regardless of the weather we had a great day. We took advantage of short wait times due to the rain and were able to do everything in AK other than FOP between 11:00am and 5:00pm when we returned to the resort. We then changed out of our wet clothes and drove over to disney springs for dinner at chicken guy and a stroll around the shops. We don't normally spend much time at Springs but as we were with a first timer we wanted her to at least see it. We spent a couple hours shopping before returning to Jambo House around 8:30 for a late night hot tub. Unfortunately there was a group of about 5-6 kids in the hot tub splashing around and cannonballing in with no parents around.
Feb 9th: Another day, another breakfast reservation. This one was pre-planned as it was our EPCOT reservation day which meant we couldn't enter the park until 10:30 anyways, so it was a good day for breakfast at Steakhouse 71. We parked at Contemporary for the reservation which meant we were able to take the monorail to EPCOT afterward which was a nice bonus. This was our second time at Steakhouse 71 and its just brilliant. Good service, great food, decent pricing by Disney standards. I opted for the steak and eggs which was delicious and my wife and her friend ordered the seasonal pancakes which they both enjoyed. The weather really started warming up by now which was welcome as we probably did not pack as many pants and sweaters as we should have. We did most of the lower tier attractions this day such as Spaceship earth, Living with the Land, Nemo, etc. We did an early dinner at Via Napoli in which we split a large Pizza for the three of us. Final bill came to $60 after tip which seems more than reasonable for three people to eat dinner at a theme park restaurant. After dinner we did a bit more of world showcase and festival of the arts before heading back to the resort where we dropped our friend off before my wife and I head back to MK for the Deluxe Extra Hours(we are park warriors lol) where we were able to get most everything done other than 7DMT which we just didn't want to wait the 45 mins for.
Feb 10th: Our penultimate park day started with HS rope dropping for Rise of the Resistance. We were in the park by 8:20(Early entry supposed to start at 8:30) and in line for the ride by 8:30. It was posted at 90 minutes already by this time but we only waited about 25 before making it to the pre-show area, which is the start of the attraction as far as I'm concerned. We then got some Ronto Wraps for breakfast, watched Indiana Jones and got in line for Mickey and Minnies. About 30 min in to our standby wait the ride went down. We waited another 5-10 mins or so but by this time we had to leave the parks as we had our COVID tests scheduled for our return to Canada. We did the ID Now NAAT test from Walgreens and had our results in under 3 hours. After a quick stop at Walgreens and dunkin donuts for some snacks we headed back to Jambo to get ready for our dinner at Be Our Guest. This was our first time eating Dinner/Prix Fix menu at Be Our Guest and we absolutely loved it. The atmosphere is second-to-none and the food was surprisingly very good(I've heard mixed reviews in the past). The only bad part about the meal was the bill, I think it was $215 for the three of us after tip and that's including the DVC discount and no alcoholic beverages. After dinner we went back to HS as we were able to snag a Slinky Dog LL and wanted to do the other Toy Story Land attractions as well before leaving HS for the last time this trip.
Feb 11th: Our final park day started early. We arrived at AK for 7:00 and were through the gates in line for FOP by 7:15. We waited about half an hour which was more than manageable. After riding it we went to starbucks for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. We spent the rest of our AK morning doing Rafikis Planet Watch/Animation Experience, The walking trails, Dinosaur and It's tough to be a bug before leaving the parks to get to our late lunch at Beaches and Cream. Beach club us such a beautiful resort and beaches and cream is one of the coolest(figuratively and literally... brrrr) on property. We enjoyed a nice lunch and ate approximately 1/8th of our desserts before taking the bus to Magic Kingdom to enjoy our last night. We rode a few rides and then decided it was time to get a good spot for the fireworks as we wanted to make sure we got a great view for out last night. I will say when I first saw Enchantment in December is was not a fan at all but now that I've seen it a handful of times its really starting to grow on me. Is it as good as happily ever after? No, not for me, but its still a great show. As luck would have it we were heading to Big Thunder for out final LL of the trip after fireworks when we noticed Splash Mountain had re-opened for the first time of the trip. We got in line, waited about half an hour and ended our trip with my favorite ride. It was truly a Magical Way to end the trip.
Feb 12: Travel Day - not much to report. Drove to the airport, flew home. LOL
Overall, the Magic is still very much there. Cast members are amazing, 50th Merch and Decorations are so fun, Food is really good, and the rides are still there. Yes it costs a bit more(or a lot more) but its still enjoyable even without dropping $30 on 7DMT or ROTR every day.
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