Disney World Review - 11/16 through 11/25

What We Did:

Wed night - arrived late, grabbed a late dinner at the hotel. Went to sleep.

Thursday - woke up, ate a bit of breakfast. A friend that was in town met us at the hotel and the plan was to bus to Winter Summerland and then to Disney Springs. Well, you can't take a bus directly to Winter Summerland, but you can to the water park next door, however, that water park was closed for the season. So, all piled into friend's car. First time ever playing mini-golf at Disney. It was fun, adult were $14 for one course and kids $12. We had a pass for four free rounds, so we did not play. It was themed well, but not sure if it would have been worth the $52 bucks plus tax if we had to pay for the four of us to play a round.

Left there and went to Disney Springs. First time there since the "re-imagining" from Downtown Disney. Parking garages are legit - they were needed. The new part looks nice. It's mainly shops. The older parts really haven't been touched… so it's a little strange looking. Did some eating and shopping here.

Went back to hotel and we all swam for a while in the heated main pool. This was the only time we swam. They also had some scavenger hunts going on for the kids, which was nice.

That night we did Hoop De Doo - will talk more about that under the eating section.

Friday we slept in late and had a late breakfast at 1900 Park Fare (will discuss below). Had a couple of hours to kill before we could go to the Christmas party, so walked around Grand Floridian looking at the Christmas decorations, took monorail to Contemporary, did same, then took monorail to Polynesian, did same. Then hung out in the lobby of the Poly for about an hour while I had some craft beers and my wife had some drink in a pineapple.

Took monorail to Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom. While the party starts at 7, you can get in stating at 4 with your Christmas Party ticket. They let us in at 3:45. Got a wristband (needed that for when the party started). Took some pictures and did fastpasses for Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear. Did a couple of other rides.

One of the highlights of the party is getting to take pictures with special characters you don't normally see. One of the most popular is the 7 dwarfs. They were supposed to start at 7, and by 5:45 the line was forming. So we went and got in it. They actually started at about 6:15, but it took 45 min for our chance. We then hit up a couple of snack stands (they have 5 snack stands for the Christmas party where each one gives out a free snack and drink). Headed to grab some dinner at Pecos Bill and noticed that the crowd for the parade (they do a special parade and fireworks for the party) was already starting to form. So I went and got a spot while the others went and ate (and they brought me back some). After parade ended, which was very nice, we did a princess and prince picture, and then went to get a spot for the fireworks, which was again nice. After fireworks, did some more rides until it ended at midnight.

Saturday was Animal Kingdom during the day. Did the Safari first, and spent most of the day wandering around, doing rides and characters and shows. AK does not currently have a parade. They were supposed to have the new nighttime show, Rivers of Light, up and going, but it is not. Instead, they have a thing at night where they do a light and projection show on the Tree of Life. It was pretty meh. Went back to hotel, and my wife's parents watched the kids, while wife and I, and sisters and brother in law, went to Magic Kingdom since they were open until 2 am, did a bunch of rides.

Sunday started at 4:45 am to the sounds of my 5 year old saying she felt hot. Ugh. Took her temp (we travel with kids meds and thermometer) and it was 103.5. Gave her some children's advil and she fell back asleep. Given the temp was so high, made decision to take her to urgent care. Went to front desk and found out there was one a few miles away, and they opened at 8 am. Went back to room, slept at bit, and at 7:30, me and her took a taxi to Centra Care. Got there, real nice people. Thankfully our health insurance worked there. Got seen, and they even can fill prescriptions there as well. She had a double ear infection but otherwise ok. Went to go pay, and the lady says, hey, we have a free shuttle, what hotel do you need to go to? NICE! A few min later shuttle brought us back to All Star Sports. I also found out that you can call them, and they will come pick you up from the hotel as well. Good to know. Kid proceeds to sleep most of the day. Wife and 8 year old and rest of group did their day as normal, which was breakfast at Chef Mickey, and a day at Magic Kingdom. By dinner time, she was ok enough that we were able to make our reservation at Ohana.

Monday was Hollywood Studios, otherwise known as the half-park. Large sections of this park are being rebuilt, which was the first obvious thing we saw. The second was, Star Wars is taking a huge role here. Every hour or so, there was a First Order March, followed by a stage show. We did all the rides and shows. Plan was to hit the 7 pm Fantasmic! Show. Walked over at 6:05, and they already only had standing room only seats left. Not with two kids! Left and grabbed some dinner, then went and waited for the Jingle Bam special show. This show was absolutely amazing. Very, Very good.

Tuesday was back to the Magic Kingdom. Did a bunch of rides and characters, and the highlight of the day (for my daughters, and for Disney's finances) was that we had reservations for Bibbidi Boppity Boutique, where the girls got princess makeovers. Luckily, my shopping-addicted wife has over time purchased many princess costumes for the kids, so we were able to get the "cheaper" package which was still $60 per kid. Also saw the regular fireworks this night.

I'll also this was the only day I felt the parks were really crowded. Most of the time, they were crowds, but the wait lines were manageable. Tuesday was packed - when People Mover has a 20 min wait, it's crowded.

Wednesday was Epcot. Did the Frozen ride (basically they took Malestrom and swapped out all the props, I was not impressed), met Anna and Elsa, and did a bunch of Future World stuff. Seas, Soarin, Test Track, Figment, etc. We did all our fastpasses and when we had an option to then get a 4th one, we got one for Illuminations - the nightly fireworks show. It wasn't really needed - there were plenty of good places to watch it - but it was nice to have. Walked up about 15 min before the show and got a spot. As far as the show….. eh. I've seen it a bunch of times and I'm ready for something new. They change up some of the stuff, but it's time for a new idea. If you have never seen it before, it is neat.

Thursday was our last day in a park and back to Epcot. Did the passport tour of the countries - buy each of the kids a passport, which they get stamped in each country. We did all the shows, stopped to see performers, had a very slow day. Did Soarin again. Did a bunch of characters.

Friday woke up, checked out, stowed our bags, and then went to Wilderness Lodge for breakfast. Got back to hotel and hung out until our bus came.

The combination of weather (which was amazing all week) and crowds (except for Tuesday, which felt packed, the crowds were very manageable) and the fact it's easy for me to take time off of work this time of year, make it a great time to attend, in my opinion. If you want minimal crowds, there are better times of year to go. But the whole deal works for us.

Transportation, Hotel, and Miscellaneous

Our original plan was to do what we always do - rent a car and drive. However about a month before our trip, my wife found an amazing deal on Frontier Airlines. Four of us, round trip, with pre-selected seats, and two checked bags - $580. I was a little nervous because I had never flown them before and read some horror stories.

Get to MSY airport, walk up to counter, and I start thinking, OMG this is Ghetto Air. All of the self-service kiosks are "out of service." A woman behind the counter says "I got ya baby, whatcha need". OK. "What's ya last name, sugah?" Give it to her. Never asks me or my wife for ID. Prints out our boarding passes. Takes our checked bags. "Head on ova to C-3, ok"? Yes, ok.

Get to the gates, obviously a lot of kids on this flight. Cool. Flight was uneventful. Seats were ok, not very comfortable, not uncomfortable. They sell everything on this flight, including drinks and snacks, or you can bring your own, so we bought a couple of bottles of water once we were past security and a bag of chips to share. In the 90 min flight, I think 10 min of is was hawking their credit card program. Flight itself was fine. Each of their planes is named and has a mascot, and when we de-planed, one of the otherwise not-fun flight attendents gave each of the kids a trading card with the mascot on it. That was nice. Each of us brought a backpack on the plane which we put under the seat. Other carryons you pay for.

Off the plane, onto the goofy skytram that MCO has, off of that, and then down to Disney's Magical Express. This is where you board a Disney bus to your resort. Also, they can send you special luggage tags that you put on your bags before you depart, and if you do this, you don't have to get your bags when you land. They "magically" appear in your hotel room about 3 hours after you land. Bus takes a while to leave and it can stop at 3 different resorts. Took about 20 min on the bus before it left, but we were the first stop. Bellman brought our two suitcases to our room right at the 3 hour mark.

Disney transportation has always impressed me, and this time was no different. The longest we ever waited for a bus was 15 min, which was twice, and when the line was so long that we could not fit on the first bus and had to wait for the next one. Never took more than two busses. All drivers except one were wonderfully nice and cheery, I think the one that was not, was just tired. Despite being very crowded busses at times, everyone was polite and helpful. Most of the time I stood but that was only so women can sit. (I'm southern like that).

Took a couple of boats and they were fine.

The only hiccup was the monorail service. Clearly, at times, they could have used additional cars on the track. We waited in one monorail line for 40 minutes, this was on Friday. We bussed to Magic Kingdom, to get on the monorail to Grand Floridian for breakfast. We ended up being 10 minutes late. It wasn't even that crowded in the line, so maybe some of the cars were out of service.

Took Magical Express back to the airport. Some airlines offer the ability for you to check your bags at the hotel and again, they magically appear on the plane. Frontier was not one of them. No worries. We were the last stop for pickup and rode straight to MCO. Did you know that MCO does not sell gum?!?! I mean the Disney properties don't, but I guess the power of the Mouse has reached to the airport. Check-in and flight from MCO was a much better experience, which makes me think it wasn't Frontier that sucks, just the MSY employees. As we are boarding the plane, my youngest looks at the cockpit and asks the flight attendant, "is that where the driver sits"? (This trip was her first ever plane ride). The pilot heard this and came out and invited them into the cockpit. They each got a picture in the pilot seat, wearing the pilot's hat. Very cool. Flight was fine, they hawked the credit card again.

We stayed at All Star Sports, When we go to Disney, we spend very little time in the rooms, so we pretty much always stay at a Value (although we do pay for a preferred room in order to be closer to the bus stop). The hotel is fine. The rooms are very basic. The only significant difference I can tell, is that the values have double beds whereas the rest have queen beds. As the kids get older, I'm guessing having more amenities and dining options that the moderate and deluxe hotels have will appeal, and we are strongly considering staying at a moderate at our next trip. We enjoy the ease of not having to drive to the property, so staying off site isn’t really for us.

Finally, some miscellaneous thoughts.

The weather was amazing. Highs stayed between 60 and 80 the entire time. Very comfortable.

Disney Cast Members come in two breeds. The vast majority of them, like 95 percent, are super cheery and helpful. 5 percent are complete pricks. There is no inbetween.

The cleanliness of the bathrooms, considering how many people use them, always amazes me. They are not Buc-ees level clean, but dang close.

As I posted in the Rant, there is no SEC Network in the rooms, which stunned me considering that SEC Network is run by ESPN, ESPN is owned by Disney, and we are in SEC Country. They did have it at ESPNZone. I was fine missing the Florida game (especially the way it went) but my FIL was pretty upset. He ended up going to ESPNZone to watch it.

Wi-fi is now everywhere - in the parks, the hotels, but it's not yet on the transportation. Bring external battery chargers - by 4 pm every day my phone was pretty much dying. The My Disney Experience app is awesome as far as wait times, tracking fastpasses, etc, but it eats up your battery. I was glad I had my power pack with me.

Against my strong, strong objections, we rented a stroller from Magic Strollers for my 5 year old. Looking back, we could have survived without it, but it was nice to be able to have her sit in it at times. She did a lot of walking, but she also slept in the stroller pretty much every day we were in the parks, for at least a few minutes. That nap helped her (and our sanity).

Whew! I've put this together over parts of three days. If you have any questions, let me know and I'm glad to respond.

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3 year old

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Cinderella dinner

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I assume she is old enough to know princesses. She is going to have a huge smile on her face, which will give you a huge smile.

Just pack your patience and plan on grabbing a bite to eat somewhere after

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I assume she is old enough to know princesses

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most definitely

I think we are doing Belle as well

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She is going to have a huge smile on her face, which will give you a huge smile.

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no doubt

Added to sticky...

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we went the condo route with a bedroom for everyone to keep our sanity.

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One of my best friends was there last week as well, he and his family have annual passes and everytime they go, they go the VRBO/AirbNb route. Annual passes have free parking so that helps, and they love having more space and all that comes with it.

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Anyone have a clue how crowded it's expected to be next week?

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You should be in pretty good shape. I like to look at Kenny the Pirate for crowd calendars. Here is Dec 4-10

LINK

Red is crowded, green not crowded, yellow is moderate. But there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1) The three days Magic Kingdom is red, these are the only three days the park is open late to the general public, which means the only three days you can catch the regular Wishes fireworks show. The other four days are days the park closes at 7 for the Christmas Party. (are y'all doing the christmas party).

2) The red days for the other three parks are the days when those parks have extra magic hours, which tend to be busier. Since you are staying off-site, you don't get extra magic hours, so I would probably avoid these parks on these days if you can (although honestly, the entire system won't be that packed, so it's not like you will have super insane crowds on those days - but the other parks won't be crowded at all).

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I think we are doing Belle as well

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AH! Forgot to write about Be Our Guest. Just edited the food post to include it. Thanks for reminding me!

Overall summary in two sentences or less? Go!

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Going in March. Had reservations for dinner at O'hana but ended up (by pure luck) getting a spot at Victoria & Alberts on the same night.

I was looking forward to that dinner as we have only had breakfast there, but we couldn't pass up the V&A.

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You can't pass up a V&A reservation.

Can you change something else to add Ohana back in on another day?

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Wasn't much different than six flags with better characters to fall back on to me.

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I'm about as far as you can be from a Disney fanboy, but this is just dumb.