Back from a 9 day trip (6/25- 7/4/22) where we stayed at Saratoga Springs in a 1BR villa. As I learned so much from other people's experiences, I am sharing a few insights from this trip.
First off, I used to be a pretty seasoned WDW planner but this was the first trip post COVID so I was very nervous about all the changes and my ability to adapt. Luckily my fears were unfounded and we had a wonderful trip.
My little family is me, my husband and two teen daughters. As such, we went to parks in the evening and spent morning at the resort at the pool. We planned two days at each park and three at MK (one was our arrival day so we only spent a few hours at MK that day). We did not have park hoppers. We had
Genie+ for length of stay and bought ILLs at all the parks except GOTG. We were able to get the VQ both days and the Extra EMH queue so we rode three times. Great ride!
Some observations:
- Genie+ can work well if you are going in the evening and start reserving times in the morning. We were able to ride everything we wanted with only a little bit of planning. The park that was the hardest was EPCOT because Test Track and Frozen were gone before you could reserve a spot at 10:30. Since we had not ridden Remy we had prioritized it on the first EPCOT day. On the second EPCOT day, I just reserved Test Track and we did not ride Remy again. Genie + is definitely expensive but does save a considerable amount of wait time. Also, it is a buffer in case rides go down. If the ride is down during your ride time, you get a pass to ride it anytime for the rest of the day. We had quite a few rides down, some mechanical and some weather related so this was extremely helpful. I would have been very annoyed if I waited 60 minutes for Remy and then the line was evacuated with no recourse for riding later.
- If you get Extra EMH, definitely try to use at Magic Kingdom. You will be able to go on multiple rides with little wait. I would not use this time at EPCOT again. Wait times still high and with fewer rides and more walking between rides, it just didn't work for us. (We did get the extra GOTH ride though so YMMV). Also, not being able to find a place to buy water was incredibly frustrating.
- Busses were very good. They came often and were usually not full.
- Food was excellent everywhere we went but prices were high. Sit down dinners for four were usually around $200. One dinner at California Grill was much more but I would do it again. we took advantage of snack carts for things like churros and spring rolls in the afternoons and avoided counter service meals at the Parks for the most part. They seemed crowded and finding seats looked like a challenge.
- SSR is a great resort. We have always stayed here but with the room renovations, it is really nice. Pools were not crowded so spending mornings at the pool was a good plan. Plus, you avoided the possibility of getting the afternoon rain.
- Cast members were very good. I saw some rude customers but not any rude CMs. We had one CM on Star Tours who was phenomenal. Recognized my daughter;s birthday and had the whole car sing Happy Birthday to her. We got to go to the Wookie Planet which was fun too. Love that ride and usually a walk-on.
All in all, it was a great trip. Kids want to go back next year but I think that with the current prices, we will give it two years., That will give me time to earn Reward dollars on the Disney Visa (we had $2,000 for this trip which helped with the sticker shock).
Thank you to everyone whose posts I have been reading for the past six months. You helped me tremendously.
Edited to add that "fiddle faddle" really did work. Once the really good rides/times were gone we would not reserve a ride and spend five minutes or so fiddle faddling and usually get a good option within the hour.