6/3 - 6/10
Last minute trip to WDW. Wanted to surprise the kids with an end of school year trip and we all were excited to see Pandora. I usually book about 9-12 months out so this was something completely new. Booked about 2 weeks out this time. We used the military package so available rooms were slim pickings. Decided to splurge a bit and go with Grand Floridian since my first two choices (Cabins & Pop) were not available.
Left Central PA Friday June 3rd as soon as the kids got home from school. Drove around 9 hours and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Fayetteville, NC. Nice, cheap hotel. Got on the road early and arrived at WDW around 4 PM. This was our first time staying at a monorail resort so it was new and interesting driving through the MK gate and then making the left to drive by TTC, Poly, Shades of Green, Wedding Pavilion and then we saw the sign for Grand Floridian. Unfortunately there was no place to park so we drove around the lot for 15 minutes. I refused to valet and just decided to pull along a curb and leave the wife and kids in the vehicle running while I checked in. The parking issue would be a recurring theme....
Walking into the Grand Floridian it was really, really beautiful. Check in was a bit delayed as they were pretty busy. The CM that checked me in was very nice and once she was we were booked at a military rate she tried to upgrade me to a MK view or even a Club level room but both of those were booked solid for 2 days in the middle of our stay. I asked about the parking situation and she told me to check with the valet people but she thought they would let me park in the valet area if the self parking was closed. When I walked out I asked them about it and they kind of chuckled and told me over-flow parking was either at the DVC or the convention center. We loved the Grand Floridian but there parking situation is terrible IMO and they didn't seem overly concerned about it... so we left the car parked along the curb as about 5 others had done and walked into our room about 5 PM.
Room was very nice. We were in an outbuilding that was very close to the pool and boat dock as well as the quick service and Narcoosee's. Really I don't think any building would be much better than the others as the resort is mostly compact in layout. This was the largest and nicest room we have had at any WDW hotel. Nicer resort than Beach Club. Pools were really good but not quite as good as Beach Club.
Our first park morning was Sunday June 4th at AK. Park opened at 8 AM. We arrived and parked about 6:45. DW and kids got in line at around 7 AM while I hit up guest service to activate our military tickets. That was quick and easy. CM at window gave me 5 really nice "opening week" park maps with Pandora theming. They were much nicer than the park maps in the kiosk. Found the family and went through the tap style at around 7:15 (still 45 minutes before park opens). Followed the crowd to the left and queued up in front of Pandora entrance about 10-15 rows back. Around 7:35 the crowd was enormous, fully packed all the way back to the gates. The CM's started walking us in to Pandora. They were good about telling people to stay left for River Journey and right for Flight of Passage. This became a free for all with grown people running children over and single members pulling their 15 family members ahead of everyone into line. We were lined up just outside the entrance and walked at a good pace through the entire queue. The first time we stopped was at the merge point. The entire queue is just awesome and we actually wished we had more time in line to enjoy it. We had a little delay in the link room and then we were on the ride. I had read about it a bit and was nervous about the restraint. I am a bigger guy over 6 feet tall with long legs and I fit just fine. The ride was way beyond my expectation and probably my favorite ride at WDW. We all loved it and were just amazed.
We walked off about 8:25. Stopped in the Pandora shop to find out that the Banshee's had sold out a couple days before basically as we were driving to WDW. Checked the queue for River Journey which already was at 65 minutes around 8:30. Decided not to wait and headed out the back exit towards Africa. Did Safari with no wait and we were out by 9 AM. Sent the kids towards Kali and Everest. DW and I stopped in Harambe market and shared a pastry and a drink and looked through the shops. Met the kids at Everest around 9:30. Rode a few times with no wait. Headed toward Dinoland and rode Whirl and Dinosaur again with no wait. Used our FP for the first show of Nemo. Had lunch in the Dino place in our normal tables in the little airstream. DW and I decided to leave after that and go back to the room as the rest of our FP were for the evening and we had done everything we wanted to do that morning. Kids decided to stay and hit Kali and Everest as the waits were still less than 30 minutes. Even though it was only around Noon we had been there for over 5 hours and got a ton of stuff done.
That night we came back around 7:30 with plans to see Pandora at night, use our FP for a night time Safari and ride Everest at night (something we had never done). We accomplished all of those things and more. Loved the atmosphere at AK at night. Pandora all lit up was great. Honestly, just could not have had a better first day and we knew we had three more days at AK scheduled for this trip.
Last minute trip to WDW. Wanted to surprise the kids with an end of school year trip and we all were excited to see Pandora. I usually book about 9-12 months out so this was something completely new. Booked about 2 weeks out this time. We used the military package so available rooms were slim pickings. Decided to splurge a bit and go with Grand Floridian since my first two choices (Cabins & Pop) were not available.
Left Central PA Friday June 3rd as soon as the kids got home from school. Drove around 9 hours and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Fayetteville, NC. Nice, cheap hotel. Got on the road early and arrived at WDW around 4 PM. This was our first time staying at a monorail resort so it was new and interesting driving through the MK gate and then making the left to drive by TTC, Poly, Shades of Green, Wedding Pavilion and then we saw the sign for Grand Floridian. Unfortunately there was no place to park so we drove around the lot for 15 minutes. I refused to valet and just decided to pull along a curb and leave the wife and kids in the vehicle running while I checked in. The parking issue would be a recurring theme....
Walking into the Grand Floridian it was really, really beautiful. Check in was a bit delayed as they were pretty busy. The CM that checked me in was very nice and once she was we were booked at a military rate she tried to upgrade me to a MK view or even a Club level room but both of those were booked solid for 2 days in the middle of our stay. I asked about the parking situation and she told me to check with the valet people but she thought they would let me park in the valet area if the self parking was closed. When I walked out I asked them about it and they kind of chuckled and told me over-flow parking was either at the DVC or the convention center. We loved the Grand Floridian but there parking situation is terrible IMO and they didn't seem overly concerned about it... so we left the car parked along the curb as about 5 others had done and walked into our room about 5 PM.
Room was very nice. We were in an outbuilding that was very close to the pool and boat dock as well as the quick service and Narcoosee's. Really I don't think any building would be much better than the others as the resort is mostly compact in layout. This was the largest and nicest room we have had at any WDW hotel. Nicer resort than Beach Club. Pools were really good but not quite as good as Beach Club.
Our first park morning was Sunday June 4th at AK. Park opened at 8 AM. We arrived and parked about 6:45. DW and kids got in line at around 7 AM while I hit up guest service to activate our military tickets. That was quick and easy. CM at window gave me 5 really nice "opening week" park maps with Pandora theming. They were much nicer than the park maps in the kiosk. Found the family and went through the tap style at around 7:15 (still 45 minutes before park opens). Followed the crowd to the left and queued up in front of Pandora entrance about 10-15 rows back. Around 7:35 the crowd was enormous, fully packed all the way back to the gates. The CM's started walking us in to Pandora. They were good about telling people to stay left for River Journey and right for Flight of Passage. This became a free for all with grown people running children over and single members pulling their 15 family members ahead of everyone into line. We were lined up just outside the entrance and walked at a good pace through the entire queue. The first time we stopped was at the merge point. The entire queue is just awesome and we actually wished we had more time in line to enjoy it. We had a little delay in the link room and then we were on the ride. I had read about it a bit and was nervous about the restraint. I am a bigger guy over 6 feet tall with long legs and I fit just fine. The ride was way beyond my expectation and probably my favorite ride at WDW. We all loved it and were just amazed.
We walked off about 8:25. Stopped in the Pandora shop to find out that the Banshee's had sold out a couple days before basically as we were driving to WDW. Checked the queue for River Journey which already was at 65 minutes around 8:30. Decided not to wait and headed out the back exit towards Africa. Did Safari with no wait and we were out by 9 AM. Sent the kids towards Kali and Everest. DW and I stopped in Harambe market and shared a pastry and a drink and looked through the shops. Met the kids at Everest around 9:30. Rode a few times with no wait. Headed toward Dinoland and rode Whirl and Dinosaur again with no wait. Used our FP for the first show of Nemo. Had lunch in the Dino place in our normal tables in the little airstream. DW and I decided to leave after that and go back to the room as the rest of our FP were for the evening and we had done everything we wanted to do that morning. Kids decided to stay and hit Kali and Everest as the waits were still less than 30 minutes. Even though it was only around Noon we had been there for over 5 hours and got a ton of stuff done.
That night we came back around 7:30 with plans to see Pandora at night, use our FP for a night time Safari and ride Everest at night (something we had never done). We accomplished all of those things and more. Loved the atmosphere at AK at night. Pandora all lit up was great. Honestly, just could not have had a better first day and we knew we had three more days at AK scheduled for this trip.