An (Essentially) First Time Trip: October 22-28, 2017

chescat

We're all mad here...
Joined
Nov 3, 2017
About Us
  • Two adults: I had been to Disney World multiple times as a kid in the 80s and 90s, while my husband had never been.
  • We stayed offsite and had our own car for transport (drove down from Illinois).
  • Parks visited: Epcot, Magic Kingdom (one regular day, one MNSSHP), Animal Kingdom
  • Other plans: Disney Springs for La Nouba show; Universal for two days after Disney
  • Reason for trip: We went to Disneyland on a whim in 2014 for one day while visiting friends in LA and had a great time (Magic Kingdom only). So, a few years later, we decided to take a trip to Disney World to sample the parks there and see if it might become a repeat destination for us.
Great Tips from the DIS

I'll preface this by saying that we made use of SO much great advice from these boards that it would be impossible to list it all. I've included a number in my individual park days below, and the ones that immediately follow were some of the more general tips that contributed to us having a much more wonderful experience than we may have had otherwise.
  • Free cups of ice water at any quick service: I drink a lot of water at home, so this saved me from either (a) spending a ton of extra money, or (b) getting dehydrated in the event I stubbornly refused to pay $3 for a bottle of water. This tip was definitely our most frequently used, and was so easy and painless to do. We also never found that the water tasted funny or sulphur-y.

  • Using the resort monorail when the express monorail line is long: We left MNSSHP with the swarm after fireworks. While the line for the express monorail was backed down the ramp, we walked to the resort monorail with just a few other people and got seats on the very next train. I'm pretty sure we were walking to our car in the time it would've taken us to get on a standing room only express monorail. (My husband sends massive regards to the board for this one as it saved his sanity!)

  • Going bagless: We loved skipping the bag lines at the parks, as well as having no bags to look after throughout the day. I don't typically carry much in my daily life anyway (small crossbody), so I found it fairly easy to pare down for the parks. I carried my phone, ID, cash, park ticket, gift card or credit card, sunglasses (when not wearing), and a couple of wet wipes for us to use before meals. For the ladies who have struggled to find cargo shorts with real pockets, I wore the Trekkie 2.0 shorts from Athleta, which were perfect. The pockets easily fit what I carried, and the fabric was super light and breathable, moisture-wicking, quick dry, etc.

  • Getting groceries: We stayed off-site with our own car, but it probably still wouldn't have occurred to me to do any shopping. It was an easy way to stock some fresh fruit and veggies to compensate for our not-always-ideal park meals.
Additional Tips from Us
  • Reviewing menus and there are too many things you want to try? Make some dishes at home! I did this with a number of items from both Disney restaurants and the Food & Wine Festival booths. I knew I wouldn't have the time or stomach capacity to try everything I wanted to try, so I made a number of items at home beforehand. It was a fun (and much cheaper!) way to maximize my options. Most even had straight-from-Disney recipes available online.

  • Try things for yourself! This applies not only to food and restaurants, but rides, shows, and anything else in and around the parks. I only made two ADRs for our weeklong trip, and ended up canceling one of them, which worked out great for us. We didn't bother with popular restaurants where the menu didn't personally appeal, and we didn't try to ride popular rides that weren't of interest (Test Track, 7DMT, etc). Likewise, even though many people write off Disney Springs as nothing more than a mall, once I found out they had a Cirque du Soleil show, it was a given that we'd be spending at least some time there. Taking online reviews and advice with a grain of salt left us free to enjoy the experiences we most wanted to experience, and to decide for ourselves what was “worth it.”
Epcot (Monday, October 23rd)
  • Time in Park: 9am-3:30pm
  • FP+: Spaceship: Earth, Soarin', Mission: Space, Journey into Imagination with Figment
  • Additional Rides/Shows: Living with the Land, Impressions de France
  • Entertainment: World Showcase
  • Food: Food & Wine Fest (lunch – roasted beet salad, duck bao bun, chicken korma, mango lassi, pistachio bundt cake), Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie (snack/early dinner), Starbucks (coffee), Club Cool (soda samples)
What we liked:
  • Soarin': This was our first experience with a simulator ride and we loved this one.

  • Spaceship: Earth and Living with the Land: We liked the educational aspects and slower pace of both of these rides. We were really impressed with the animatronics of the former, and we adore Judi Dench so we liked hearing her narration. For the latter, they had placards next to some of the plants showing where those items were being used in the Food & Wine Fest items, several of which we tried. It was fun to see some of our food coming straight from these greenhouses.

  • Impressions de France: This was a fantastic place to take an afternoon rest, as recommended on these boards. We enjoyed everything about this show (images, music, narration), and appreciated the chance to sit down and rest our weary feet (we skipped the films in the China and America pavilions because they didn't have seating).

  • Club Cool: Trying all the different sodas from around the world was a lot of fun, though they were out of the Beverly, which I'd been looking forward to sampling. Our unanimous favorite was the Inca Kola.

  • Short lines: Crowd levels were predicted to be moderate, and we didn't try to ride Frozen or Test Track, but the longest line we waited in all day was about 10 minutes for my husband's coffee at Starbucks. It was wonderful.
What we didn't fall in love with:
  • World Showcase: I remember being in awe of World Showcase as a kid, but a couple decades on I've now visited most of these countries, and have lived in several of them (as has my husband). We live in a smaller city, and even here you can get pretty much all of these cuisines, with the rest available within an hour or two's drive. It just didn't have the novelty or exotic feel I thought it might. I really, really wanted to love it, but overall it felt like little more than a themed mall to both of us.

  • Mission: Space: We both got off this ride scratching our heads. Each rider is given a role and responsibilities, but the controls didn't appear to actually do anything (the outcome of the “story” seemed to be exactly the same whether or not the riders do what they're supposed to do). We also didn't like how closed-in the ride compartment was; it felt cramped and uncomfortable.
Magic Kingdom (Tuesday, October 24th)
  • Time in Park: 9am-6pm
  • FP+: Peter Pan's Flight, Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Cruise
  • Additional Rides/Shows: Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World, Under the Sea with the Little Mermaid, Dumbo, PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress, Enchanted Tiki Room, Country Bear Jamboree, WDW Railroad
  • Entertainment: The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History, Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire, Festival of Fantasy Parade
  • Food: Columbia Harbour House (lunch), Be Our Guest (dinner), Cheshire Cafe (coffee), Liberty Square Market (snack)
What we liked:
  • The variety of rides: There was so much to see and do at this park! It was our longest park day, and we did a lot more than I thought we would. We didn't love every single ride we went on, but close! Favorites included Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid (holy Ursula animatronic!), and Carousel of Progress. My husband also fell in love with the Enchanted Tiki Room, which gave me the warm and fuzzies as that was a favorite of mine as a child. He even bought a Tiki Room t-shirt later that week at World of Disney. We aren't into thrill/coaster-like rides, so skipped the Mountains and 7DMT.

  • Columbia Harbour House: I can not thank this board enough for recommending this place (and the second floor in particular). I loved my broccoli peppercorn salad, and my husband really enjoyed the trio platter. The second floor was the perfect place to take a quiet break and do some people watching from the windows; great food and peaceful atmosphere.

  • Be Our Guest: Our reviews were sort of mixed on this one, but my husband loved it. This was his one must-do for MK (chosen from a park map before we knew anything at all about ADRs or what was popular). Again, massive thank you to these boards for cluing me into the fact that we needed an ADR for this place as I would never have thought to make one. The theming was fun, and my husband has declared ratatouille one of his new favorite foods. My steak was cooked well, but so incredibly salty that it bordered on inedible. I would've told our waiter, but he disappeared after we got our food and didn't come back except to offer dessert! My husband really enjoyed himself, though, and this particular experience was for him, so I can live with it. Meeting the Beast was also our only character interaction of the trip, which was brief, but cute.

  • Extra entertainment: I greatly underestimated how much my husband would enjoy this aspect of the parks, but he really liked the castle stage show and wanted to see the afternoon parade (which I'd planned to skip in favor of rides). Both were a lot of fun, as were the Muppets.
What we didn't fall in love with:
  • Country Bear Jamboree: I think I may have liked this better if I could've understood more of the show. I'm not sure if the audio quality is always this poor or if it was just a bad day, but I could only understand about half of what the characters were saying/singing.

  • Fruit options: This is a minor one, but a disappointment for me. After having an incredible fresh fruit plate at Disneyland in 2014, I was hoping for something similar from Liberty Square Marketplace. Alas, the fruit was just a handful of chunks in small cups and not particularly fresh.
MNSSHP (Thursday, October 26th)
  • Time in Park: 6:30pm-10:30pm
  • Rides/Shows: Haunted Mansion, Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Magic Carpets of Aladdin
  • Entertainment: Hocus Pocus show, Boo To You Halloween Parade, Hallowishes fireworks
  • Food: Liberty Square Market (snack)
What we liked:
  • Special entertainment: We both really enjoyed the parade and Hallowishes. I loved seeing all the villains in the parade (I tend to like Disney villains more than heroes), and the fireworks and castle projections were even better than we expected. The garden spot in front of Casey's was perfect for uncrowded viewing and having a chance to sit down (another great DIS Board tip!) The Hocus Pocus show was just so-so for me. I absolutely love the movie, but found the show to be too much of a repeat of the film when I was expecting something more unique. I did really like how they incorporated the other Disney villains, though. Overall, lots of fun from the special entertainment!

  • Dressing up: I was disappointed not to see more people in costume, but we had fun dressing as Alice and Indiana Jones (my husband got a huge kick out of another guest greeting him with a bow and “Good evening, Dr. Jones”). It was also enjoyable to see other guests' costumes.
What we didn't fall in love with:
  • Ride lines: We're not into characters, and I knew those had long lines. What I wasn't expecting was to have similar or longer waits for rides to what we experienced during a normal park day (with the exception of Haunted Mansion). My expectations may have been too high here, though. We ended up not going on many rides because we didn't want to wait in the lines.

  • Crowds: It wasn't just in the Hub as I've heard other people say. The entire park felt very crowded (moreso than on our normal park day). We were constantly weaving in and out of walkways full of people to get anywhere in the park, which was not fun. Given the crowds, and the extra expense of tickets, I'd give the party a miss if we were to come back again during this time of year.
Animal Kingdom (Friday, October 27th)
  • Time in Park: 10:30am-6pm
  • FP+: Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur, Finding Nemo the Musical
  • Additional Rides/Shows: Festival of the Lion King, Gorilla Falls Trek
  • Food: Satu'li Canteen (lunch), Harambe Market (dinner), Creature Comforts (coffee)
What we liked:
  • Flight of Passage: This ride completely lived up to the hype. We had a Fastpass, but my husband, who generally wanted to skip any ride with a line greater than 15-20 minutes, said he would absolutely wait three hours in line to ride this again. In my case, even though I'm usually afraid of rides with drops, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the simulator ride style actually made the drops kind of fun (it was less threatening somehow to be on a semi-stationary “vehicle” instead of a moving cart on a track). We both really enjoyed this ride and wanted to go again as soon as we got off.

  • Other rides: We liked every ride and show experience we tried at this park. I went to AK thinking we might not like it as much as the other parks (not fans of zoos), and it ended up probably being my favorite of the three. I liked interspersing fewer regular rides with the shows and treks/animal viewing. It broke up the day and gave it a much more relaxed feel. I liked the theming overall, and I especially liked a lot of the open habitats on the Safari ride, which set it apart a bit from your standard zoo (and I say that having been on an actual safari in Tanzania).

  • Finding Nemo the Musical: It was not only a great place to relax in the later afternoon (with more comfortable seats than FOTLK), but we thought the puppets were outstanding. My mouth literally dropped open when the performer rode onto stage with the manta ray puppet.

  • Food: We loved the availability of less standard fare here. The bowls at Satu'li Canteen were delicious (beef with potato hash and chimichurri sauce for my husband, and chicken with kale salad and creamy herb sauce for me). We also both really enjoyed the curry and gyros from Harambe Market. Nothing at all to complain about in the food department here.

  • Trees: We spent our sunniest park day at AK (MK and Epcot days were both overcast), and though I'd heard this park gets the hottest, we found the ample tree cover provided lots of shade and kept us cooler than we would've been at, say, Epcot on the same day. It also just made for a nicer atmosphere to be surrounded by so much foliage.
What we didn't fall in love with:
  • The layout: This is a bit of a stretch because we honestly loved this park so much, but I found myself getting much more confused trying to find my way around this park than I did at Epcot or MK. We kept getting turned around, and completely missed the turnoff for Pandora when we first entered the park (and didn't realize it until we found ourselves in Asia!)

  • Dirtiness of some of the animal habitats: I know there are a lot of animals and it's a big job to keep up with them, but some of the animal habitats were dirty beyond what I'd consider acceptable or hygienic for the animals. The main one that comes to mind was the flamingo pond on the Safari ride, which was just plain filthy. I genuinely felt bad for the birds.
Summary
  • My husband is a complete Disney convert. Before we'd even left to head back home, he was already talking about coming back for another trip (he's a homebody who grumbles about taking trips, so that's really saying something!) I had a great time and truly enjoyed what was on offer, but am still on the fence if the value is there for the money. I'm also mulling over if some of the fun might become not-so-fun if repeated too often.

  • The DIS Boards (as well as the various Disney blogs out there) were absolutely invaluable in making this a successful and enjoyable trip for us. I truly can't thank everyone here enough for all of the incredible advice. You saved us money, HOURS of time, and (what could have been) a lot of frustrating moments. Our trip sincerely would not have been the magical trip it was without you. Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for sharing your experiences with others so that we can also benefit from it.
Happy to answer questions about our trip if there are any, so please feel free to ask away!
 
Gee, are you my long lost sister???? LOL Honestly, everything you said I totally agree with. AK is our favorite park of all, and yes, we do get turned around but that's part of the fun:) We like to walk the paths and see the animals too.
I must confess I am a chicken to ride FOP. I used to ride Soarin, but was terrified all the time. Then I finally said, No, I'm not riding anymore. I am just as happy waiting for my husband to ride it, and he seems to love it. I was terrified the whole time. I am wondering if FOP will be worse? I don't like the feeling of falling or swooping down and over things. I will probably happily pass this one too.
I also wonder what all the fuss is about with world showcase? My husband and I just haven't been impressed, even though we try to be because everyone else raves about it. We like Living with the Land, Nemo, Spaceship Earth, but that is about it. Now at least I don't feel alone about not caring for WS, LOL. I always thought something was wrong with me. I have never, never read on here that anyone else was less than thrilled about it. You are the first brave one!
My husband, also, needs nudged to go anywhere. I have scheduled a trip this spring as a 50th anniversary surprise for him. Can't wait to spring it on him....
Anyway, thanks for the great report.
 
Gee, are you my long lost sister???? LOL Honestly, everything you said I totally agree with. AK is our favorite park of all, and yes, we do get turned around but that's part of the fun:) We like to walk the paths and see the animals too.
I must confess I am a chicken to ride FOP. I used to ride Soarin, but was terrified all the time. Then I finally said, No, I'm not riding anymore. I am just as happy waiting for my husband to ride it, and he seems to love it. I was terrified the whole time. I am wondering if FOP will be worse? I don't like the feeling of falling or swooping down and over things. I will probably happily pass this one too.
I also wonder what all the fuss is about with world showcase? My husband and I just haven't been impressed, even though we try to be because everyone else raves about it. We like Living with the Land, Nemo, Spaceship Earth, but that is about it. Now at least I don't feel alone about not caring for WS, LOL. I always thought something was wrong with me. I have never, never read on here that anyone else was less than thrilled about it. You are the first brave one!
My husband, also, needs nudged to go anywhere. I have scheduled a trip this spring as a 50th anniversary surprise for him. Can't wait to spring it on him....
Anyway, thanks for the great report.

How funny! I'm definitely with you on World Showcase. Going into the trip, I thought Epcot would hands down be our favorite park, and that we'd feel like we wasted a ticket on Animal Kingdom (we only went because my husband wanted to see Pandora). I could not have been more wrong! With World Showcase, I think we expected more museum-like exhibits or things of that nature, so were disappointed it was mostly just restaurants and shops. We can only eat so much! We'll definitely have to check out Nemo if we go back, though, as we didn't manage to fit that one in this time around. Thanks for the recommendation!

As for FOP, that's a tough call. It was an incredible ride, but I know where you're coming from. FOP definitely has bigger swoops and dives than Soarin'. My general thought is that it's good to try things once, but no ride is worth making you miserable. After all, if you're terrified the entire time, you probably aren't going to enjoy what the ride has to offer (regardless of whatever amazing reviews it gets). People love Space Mountain, for instance, but I've never been on it and never intend to be! It freaked me out just hearing people scream on it while I was riding the PeopleMover! Perhaps try watching a POV video of the ride online? It won't give you the sensation of the drops, of course, but might at least show you where and how long they are to help you determine if it might be manageable. If you do decide to try it, I really hope you enjoy it!

Congratulations on your 50th anniversary, too, wow!! Have an absolutely wonderful trip!
 


How funny! I'm definitely with you on World Showcase. Going into the trip, I thought Epcot would hands down be our favorite park, and that we'd feel like we wasted a ticket on Animal Kingdom (we only went because my husband wanted to see Pandora). I could not have been more wrong! With World Showcase, I think we expected more museum-like exhibits or things of that nature, so were disappointed it was mostly just restaurants and shops. We can only eat so much! We'll definitely have to check out Nemo if we go back, though, as we didn't manage to fit that one in this time around. Thanks for the recommendation!

As for FOP, that's a tough call. It was an incredible ride, but I know where you're coming from. FOP definitely has bigger swoops and dives than Soarin'. My general thought is that it's good to try things once, but no ride is worth making you miserable. After all, if you're terrified the entire time, you probably aren't going to enjoy what the ride has to offer (regardless of whatever amazing reviews it gets). People love Space Mountain, for instance, but I've never been on it and never intend to be! It freaked me out just hearing people scream on it while I was riding the PeopleMover! Perhaps try watching a POV video of the ride online? It won't give you the sensation of the drops, of course, but might at least show you where and how long they are to help you determine if it might be manageable. If you do decide to try it, I really hope you enjoy it!

Congratulations on your 50th anniversary, too, wow!! Have an absolutely wonderful trip!

Thanks, it's hard to believe it will be 50 years. I told him this am about the surprise, and he is thrilled, after he got over the surprise part - LOL
I never thought of checking out a ride video on FOP, so thanks for that, and I will try it!
 

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