Photo taken at Animal Kingdom in front of the Expedition Everest ride...it was an AWESOME roller coaster! Friends Amee, James, and Jake went with us. Amee broke her foot just in time for the trip. The wheel chair wasn't all bad though...it definitely helped us jump ahead a bit in some of the lines!The Disney trip was fun, but highly exhausting. In case we do this again in the future, I'm going to jot a few words of advice to myself:
1. Even if it is a little more expensive, it is worth it to stay in a more up-scale hotel. We stayed at Pop Century this time around, which is Disney's version of the Super 8 hotel. It was nice and clean...and it was brand new. But it was miles away from the parks, leaving buses as the only transportation option. Pick someplace you can also access by boat and/or monorail...this gives a lot more reasonable options to take breaks during the day. Wilderness Lodge also had some awesome looking hot tubs, which we definitely would have taken advantage of during the cooler weather this week.
2. Meal plans are not a great deal. They seem like a great deal...but there were times when I ate way too much or way too little food, just to make my food plan work out right. We had the basic meal plan, which included a sit-down meal, a quick service meal, and a snack each day for each family member. We would have liked to have more flexibility in our daily eatery.
3. Make dinner reservations 6 months in advance, and its a good idea to make reservations at more than one location...you can always cancel the reservations you won't be using later. Otherwise, you make a reservation at MGM, and later find out that the "Extra Magic Hours" that day will be over at Animal Kingdom. The dinner reservation causes you to miss out on the extra time with the animals and lighter crowds. We did try to plan around Extra Magic hours before we got there...but the thing is, they randomly change which parks will have the EMH's at the last minute. This was something that really caused some last-minute scurrying, because a family can accomplish in 3 hours of Extra Magic time what it normally takes 8 hours to accomplish standing in over-crowded lines.
4. The restaurants at the resorts seem to have significantly better service than the restaurants in the parks. Not sure why that is...but I suspect it has to do with the size of the captive audiences they get who must pay the 18% gratuity, even if you only get mediocre service.
5. Plan extra days to relax at the beach or stay at the hotel. You need the rest!
6. Be sure to visit Universal Studios...much fun to be had there without all the "disney magic" hoopla.
7. Definitely bring a stroller for young kids that are really a little too big to ride. The days we took a stroller for Emery (age 5 1/2) made a huge difference. Her little legs just didn't have endless hours of walking and line standing stamina that adult legs can tolerate.
Favorite Rides:
- Soarin' at Epcot
- Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom
- Toy Story and Tower of Terror at MGM
- Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom
Favorite Shows:
- "Turtle Talk" at Animal Kingdom was incredibly fun. You feel like you are watching Crush (from the Finding Nemo) movie on a giant TV screen, but he really interacts with everyone in the room. The kids LOVED it!
- Beauty and the Beast at Animal Kingdom
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