re: Disney World Trip Review

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but I couldn't help but notice how old some of the stuff felt like in Epcot. Some areas of the park are starting to show serious age.

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Good observation.

After Animal Kingdom opened, Disney went through a period - a decade or so - where none of the parks really got any major facelifts/improvements. Eventually Magic Kingdom got New Fantasyland and Mine Train, Animal Kingdom got Pandora, and the Studios got Toy Story Land and is getting Star Wars Galaxy Edge (and Studios had some small changes as well).

But Epcot wasn't touched for a long, long, LONG time (unless you count the Nemo / Frozen overlays). There are starting to fix that with some new rides and some plans to reboot the entire rest of the front of the park, but it will take time.

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Disney has completely eliminated any advantage to staying off grounds with the fast pass system. Staying on grounds lets you book fast passes at 60 days out versus 30 if you don't stay at Disney. I think you would have a hard time getting fast passes for anything if you weren't able to book at the 60 day window which would put you in substantial lines to do anything worthwhile.

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Very dependent on when you travel. The busier the parks, the more this is true. My wife took a school group there the week before Easter, and on that Monday, she had three morning fastpasses pre-booked, and after those were used, she ended up getting EIGHT additional fastpasses for that day via the app. That's pretty rare though.

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I also couldn't believe how much the Disney Springs area has built up. Place was slammed packed Saturday night. We ate at the boathouse and it was an awesome restaurant.

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It has blown up for sure... it's almost too big for me now.