The main thing of note to share from the past few days was our gig last night, which was our first public outing as the Neon Vortex, our 80s tribute band.
We had rehearsed on Wednesday and felt completely unready for public performance, mainly due to a lack of rehearsal time due to our collective busy lives. Anyway, that fear drove us all to do enough homework before last night for it to go off almost mistake free.
It was pleasing to see this new show go down so well with the audience and hopefully things can only get better from here on in.
Earlier in the week something a bit odd happened. I started to get alerts that my blog was getting large volumes of traffic. Now, those days are long gone so it felt weird and certainly unexpected and I wondered if someone had uncovered my secret scandalous life of drug abuse and crime, but no. After a bit of digging into the stats and the source of the traffic almost all of it was coming from Facebook but in Germany.
Of course I have legions of readers all over the world as you would expect but the sheer volume was off the scale of even the height of my relevance and readership.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, mainly as I stopped researching it as soon as I figured it out, it would appear that I am not the only one who can’t type kingdom. A typo decades ago on The Dis saw me create a username of mkingdon rather than mkingdom and here we are. Still, it made buying the domain cheaper and easier.
At some point during last week something happened in German politics which saw a group or party get banned or something and they were called Kingdom of Germany. I have no idea how, but it seemed folks searching for that somehow then led them to click through to my blog.
I can only chuckle at the bizarre and surreal experience my new German visitors had when trying to make sense of the absolute trivial nonsense I pump out here when they were looking for some insightful information on whatever these Kingdom folks said, did or had done to them.
I only hope they used Google translate on my posts to see what it was all about and suffered whatever Google made of my drivel. If any of my German friends have stuck around, literally all I can say to you is Ich mochte ein stuck shwarzwalderkirschtorte bitte.
Two years of German study in the mid 80s has not gone to waste.
Ironically, one of the songs we did last night was Nena’s “classic” Neunundneunzig Luft Ballon. We did however take the easy option and do the English version. It’s spooky how different themes collide or at least how I can desperately mash them together in an attempt to churn out a few hundred words every week.
At this point doing these posts is solely driven by my “completion complex” (not a euphemism). I’ve been posting nearly every week since 2009 and every cell in my body rejects the idea of stopping now, and of course once I pop my clogs, all this inane crap will be a fitting testament to my time on the planet. Take from that what you will.
There’s some cosmic irony to us all losing an hour’s sleep on Mother’s Day. As if it commemorates the plight of most mothers to never properly sleep ever again. Here’s wishing all mums a lovely day and we’ll be taking mine out for tea later as tradition dictates.
Don’t worry, I can’t do another post this week about the relatively simple decision and task of changing our holiday plans. All we have left to do now is wait, anticipate and turn up at the airport which is a pretty different experience to your typical Florida trip as we all know. Oh wait, there is an app I may need to download at some point that gives me vital information about the resort so I need to make plans to reserve several minutes to do that.
I am still getting drip-fed small crumbs of planning activity for Emily’s trip, though. They are doing the full Disney and Universal experience, so there’s a lot to think about. With a couple of first-timers tagging along, Emily feels the familiar pressure of being the planner, organiser, and expert for everyone.
We were never planning to do any parks had we stuck with Florida, so I had taken my eye off any park-related news since our last trip. It seems there will be a lot of stuff closed when she goes, which is less than ideal. Stuff like Big Thunder is down for lengthy refurb, It’s Tough To Be A Bug is no more, Buzz I think is going down for a massive upgrade, Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer’s Island are gone, Astro Orbiter is not back until “late summer”, Hall Of Presidents is down, (hopefully for at least another four years) Test Track is still down, and I even think the Walt Disney Railroad is closed. I’m sure there are more than I’ve mentioned, too.
One positive, certainly for Emily, is the re-opening of Voyage Of The Little Mermaid. It will be called The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. That has been sorely missed.
Whilst it’s of course unavoidable, having so much unavailable at once is not ideal even for a regular visitor, but for first-timers who may or may not ever return, it’s a bit of a body blow. That’s without even thinking about the whole question of value for money for your now very expensive park ticket.
They will of course have a great time regardless but it seems WDW is in another massive period of change and regeneration which is good to see I suppose. Not all change in the parks turns out well (are you listening Stitch’s Great Escape?) but it is inevitable.
Speaking of change. Some things never do. I often document the constant parade of tradespeople wandering around our house fixing stuff. If you remember back far enough we had a leaky shower about a year ago that only got finally resolved about a month back when we had to rip the whole base out and fit a new one having exhausted all other options.
Shortly afterwards, the shower in our en suite started playing up, so our plumber, once he’d returned from his round-the-world cruise, which we had funded, popped back to sort that. We’d also spotted, due to us being freezing cold every night, that a couple of radiators downstairs were only getting warm across a three-inch slither at the top, and they needed replacing. So he came to do all that on the same day a couple of weeks ago.
All was well, we were warmer and they even looked nicer as we’d moved from the standard white things to the anthracite column ones to better suit the period of the house.
Anyway, yesterday I made a rare visit to our downstairs loo which is in a room we don’t use that often. As I opened the door and walked in there was an unusual and unwelcome squelch. I looked behind me to see perfect footprints in the carpet.
Panic set in as this was the same room which suffered badly from all our roofing woes a couple of years ago so I was initially desperately looking upwards for signs of water ingress. With nothing to see my attention turned to other sources of water and I soon discovered that the pipe leading into the new readiator was leaking pretty badly.
An hour of trying to vax up the water from the carpet and fruitlessly tinerking with a spanner and some connections on the radiator saw little difference and I resorted to piling towels near the source of the leak and trying to get hold of our plumber. Being 5pm on a Saturday I was not hopeful.
To his enormous credit, he was with us within the hour, made what turned out to be some simple adjustments, fixed the issue and left us dry again and with no charge for his services. I may gold plate him. Perhaps that was a perk of our titanium reward card recognising our levels of spend with him in recent times?
Anyway, today I shall be vaxxing furiously again, trying to turn the sponge on our floor back into a carpet.
Of course, you will know that upon discovering the issue, seeing the state of the carpet and becoming instantly furstrated at my inability to fix the problem, I was in a right strop threatening to either move or torch the house to the ground. Turns out that may have been another slight over reaction as ten minutes of a spanner in the right hands was all that was needed, aside from maybe a new carpet if it cannot be saved.
There’s a lesson there somewhere that I absolutely will not learn.
OK, change of plan. Not only did I make zero notes for today, but when I came to the photos I also remembered that on about the third photo of the day, the little red battery thing was flashing and the thing died just after lunch. I took this as a sign from above that I really shouldn’t bother. It was not of course just a sign that I’m an idiot and had forgotten to charge the battery for about a week.
So I’ll share the photos I did take and just summarise today.
It was Magic Kingdom of course. I had bought Multi-Pass and I think this was the day it worked out the best. We literally walked from attraction to attraction without delay or with time to kill in between. The park wasn’t that busy which of course helped and we got pretty much everything done.
My excellent memory did recall that we definitely took Monorail Lime….
OK, I lie…
It was about this time that I saw the battery flashing thing.
After a morning of rides, we had lunch in Cosmic Rays. Still one of our favourites.
Once nice and full, sensibly we rode Space Mountain, which is more endurance test than attraction for me these days.
I don’t know who those are behind me but they learnt a few new words during that ride.
I got to ride Buzz with Dougie again, ensuring another victory. They all count.
And we took a lap around the park….
Before being foolish mortals.
And then the camera died….
I know we did Philharmagic, Small World and Big Thunder, ate at Liberty Tree followed by Tron and fireworks.
And we were done.
Thinking about the trip as a whole, we did a lot, which knackered out the oldies and pleased the ride-obsessed youngsters. I went into the trip hating Multi-Pass and left feeling pretty much the same way.
Don’t get me wrong, at times it really made a difference to our day with two youngsters not high on patience, and it saved us from long queues or upset kids. However, I still absolutely object to the obscene expense involved in using the theme parks. Parking and ticket prices are bad enough, but this addition of an expensive chargeable multi-pass adds up to a LOT of cash to splash for what is still an excellent experience, but the value for money question is much more debatable now.
Overall, Florida is a much more expensive trip these days. There are global/economic things at play with inflation etc, but supermarket prices are super high and eating out is no longer the “cheaper than the UK” experience it used to be. None of that is really anyone’s fault, but it all adds up to food for thought (pardon the pun) when considering returning.
I’m glad we got to take the boys at these lovely ages. I hope they always remember it and, maybe, in the future, read this drivel and look back fondly on it. I will.
With apologies for the less-than-perfect ending, I give my thanks to those loyally reading along. Your perseverance is a marvel!
What’s next? An update next week, of course, but I’m not too sure full detailed trip reports will feature as they have in the past. If the process is beginning to feel like a chore to me then it’s probably time for a rest of this exact format and look to do something else to capture the events of our holidays, should we have any. 🙂
I’ve done a lot in recent years, so maybe it’s just a bit of trippie fatigue. We shall see.
We did a decent job with the body clocks. Well, Louise and I did. I think Dougie made a very early appearance so Tom was in the pool at some unreasonable hour. It was 5.45pm for us and we finished unpacking and showered.
It looked like I was being a kind and wonderful husband by making Louise some coffee and toast and taking it upstairs to her while she got ready, but it was really just a selfish attempt to hurry things along and get us out of the house at an hour to benefit from the first day’s early rise.
I dressed in my smallest T-shirt knowing it may never fit again this trip.
At 7 a.m. on the dot, I was on the Disney app securing a virtual queue for Tiana. This was a pleasing start. Three days earlier in the UK, I had secured us Multipasses, hoping to make the first day go smoothly. As we were off-site, there were slim pickings in terms of times for our first of the day, so they pretty much only started from lunchtime.
We left the house at 8 am, which was right around the time I would have liked to have been waiting at the turnstiles to get into Magic Kingdom. It took 25 minutes to get there and we parked in Peter Pan 25. I had passed Rebecca the camera, not needing to explain what was required of her.
It felt a little cool this morning and we were surrounded by folks in several layers of fleece and long pants. The early start may have been catching up with some of us already.
We arrived at the tram stop as one was pulling away but that was because there was another right behind it. Tom, as would happen every day, got pulled for a manual bag check but we were getting closer!
The monorail looked stacked with a queue stretching right down the ramp, so we opted for the ferry. Of course, as we got very close to the entrance they closed the gate and it left. We could see another one coming in over the water.
We boarded after a few minutes and with being close to the front of the waiting guests we got a seat too. I hung over the side taking some more pictures.
These trips are often just a long stream of decisions about which line might move the quickest and typically me getting most of them wrong. Here was the next.
We were behind the usual collection of goons trying to use Blockbuster membership cards to get in, but finally, we made it.
I fired up the app looking for some guidance on which ride to head for first which wouldn’t have a long standby line. Three rides were currently down which was a bit shit and it proved to have a significant knock-on effect until our lightning lanes kicked in later.
Pirates, Jungle Cruise, and one other, which I forget were down. These big crowd soakers not being available meant that other rides were already mobbed. Buzz said it was ten minutes so we headed there and joined the queue which looked suspiciously longer than ten minutes.
The fact that we were queuing outside pointed towards a much longer wait and that we were able to see some local wildlife. Everyone thought this was a frog, but I toad them it wasn’t.
It took 45 minutes to get on the ride which was in danger of squashing the magical joy of that first-day arrival in Magic Kingdom. Still, everyone enjoyed the ride. We exited, immediately needing food. It was 10 am after all.
Options were slim I have to say. We settled on Friar’s Nook after seeing a longer queue at Gaston’s place for the Creme Brulee Croissant than we went through for Buzz. I mobile ordered and we made our way over. Tom and I waited whilst everyone else walked over to Pinocchio Haus to get a table. We waited for what felt like an age, but it was at least 20 minutes.
The boys had Hot Dogs and the adults all had these tot bowl things.
Our first LL was due now over at Barnstormer so we walked that way.
Thinking we might not fit in the same carriage, Louise and I sat this one out and had a tactical wee. Dougie absolutely loved what was his first rollercoaster ride.
Our virtual queue for Tiana was called. Louise volunteered to stay with Dougie and took him off for a walk to get him to have a nap. The rest of us walked up through Frontierland.
The wait in the virtual queue was about 40 minutes. It did feel odd that it wasn’t Splash Mountain, which was laced with so many memories for us, but it’s a good ride and Freddie loved it.
We were behind Go Pro guy….
.
As we left the ride, I did what I would do upon leaving and/or entering every attraction. I fired up the app to plan our next move or the move after the next three moves in most cases. I noticed that more rides were down and tried to take a picture of the app to show you all but, well…..
Second time lucky.
Obviously, this meant the wait times for anything still open were getting a bit silly.
We secured some of the Tiana “Beg Nets”, as Freddie called them and met up with Louise and a sleeping Dougie. Next, we used our LL for Big Thunder, with Louise and I riding second after sitting with Dougie.
Coffee was required now so we made our way right over to Tomorrowland and the Joffries there. This sort of summed up our experience today really.
That took half an hour only for me to then spill half of my (thankfully cold) coffee over myself when putting my straw in.
Dougie was back with us…
and Freddie was in heaven.
Because we are not stupid, Louise and I sat out with our coffees whilst everyone else rode Astro Orbiter. I took the chance to “fiddle with my fastpasses” in the app and managed to move some stuff around to better suit us. It is a full-time job these days.
Philharmagic next for everyone.
.
.
.
Look how fresh and happy Dougie is after a good nap. During this trip I had a couple of “million-dollar ideas” and I hereby copyright them.
The first was Disney adding the concept of “Nap Pods” into their parks. They would be similar to the sleep pods in Japan…
You hire one for a couple of hours. They are air-conditioned and soundproof and allow you to catch some sleep before emerging looking as happy as Dougie did.
The second idea was that Disney should sell (much cheaper) dummy magic bands that kids under 3 wear. They beep when scanned but obviously don’t need to work for real. Dougie felt so left out as we all scanned into parks and rides, constantly lifting up his naked wrist to the scanner.
We were first into the theatre and I can confirm we moved all the way to the end of our row to avoid the cast members having to harass us as they did all the idiots sitting down in the middle with a full theatre trying to get in. Both of the boys really enjoyed the show.
We walked straight over to Small World for our LL there.
It was a big hit with Dougie.
Safe to say Freddie enjoys the faster rides these days.
It was time now to make our way out of the park and over to Wilderness Lodge for our Whispering Canyon ADR. The park was rammed and I think we all were welcoming the prospect of some quiet time.
We caught the boat over….
It didn’t take us as long as I expected to get there and we were pretty early for our 5 pm reservation. So we chilled in the lobby for a bit. There are worse places to be.
The camera once again fell into tiny hands.
Freddie then had a go with impressive results.
Mainly….
I had checked in via the app and as soon as they opened at 5 we were seated. Everyone ordered the unlimited skillet apart from Louise who had the Nachos.
Dougie being told no, he can’t have the camera again….
The food was so delicious and we had far more than we should have, getting our skillet refilled a few times. Beyond the odd shout for ketchup, I have to say there are no signs of any of the “shenanigans” that made this place legendary in years gone by. Go for the food as it is delightful, but from our last few visits don’t expect the fun and interaction there may have been in the past. Tom made the most of the bottomless milkshakes on offer here and all up it was $236 including an already-added 18% tip. This was due to our party size.
We waddled back to the boat and sailed back to Magic Kingdom. Golden hour was upon us.
It was getting a little chilly again, so Ryan was raided for Louise’s cardigan and the boys felt the benefit.
The resort monorail and a tram got us back to the car.
The traffic was horrific trying to join the 192. It does appear to be broken. You know of course that around this time we would make our first visit to CVS for vital things we needed but did not bring. We were home by 8 and all soon very much asleep.
As first days go, not our best. We had fun of course, but with so many rides being down it really buggered up the park today and if this were our first experience of Magic Kingdom it would not have been a favourable one. Even getting food and drinks proved troublesome which we have never really seen before. The Multipass thing did save the day I suppose at vast expense, but it’s pretty poor for off-site guests as by three days out there isn’t much left for the headliners and everything else has very few early slots available. You need your first LL to be as soon as you get in the park so that you can use that to then free up the ability to book another tier 1 ride. It’s complicated, expensive and needs constant attention throughout the day. Disney, please change this.
Hello again, for yet another trip report. I have to admit that I have really wrestled with the dilemma of whether to do this one or not. Even on the holiday, finding time to write notes for each day proved to be a challenge and my motivation to then find time every week to craft a post about each day has been severely tested. Life is busy right now and it’s going to be a struggle but in the end, the capturing of what we did to look back on in years to come won out and with scant regard for what will be a thrown-together and low-quality effort, here we are.
The first thing to address and explain is the title. It will mean nothing to anybody not on the trip, so that sounds like a good choice for a title doesn’t it? But, I choose titles from things that mean something for each trip and this is what stood out this time.
Each morning as we left the villa community we had to pass through a gate which opened automatically as we approached. We told the boys that they had to command it to open and from way back in the rear of the SUV, two voices duly obliged. However, Dougie couldn’t quite manage the “Open Sesame” that Freddie was using to open the gate and instead, we got “Ump Me!” at full volume and it always made us smile.
The other theme of the trip was Freddie’s constant denial of needing a wee, which then often presented itself as a problem deep into a queue or halfway through an attraction. I shall save the most innovative solution to that problem somewhere in the very long wait for Smuggler’s Run, for later in the report.
The trip officially started the evening before our flight when we took some “by the door” pics of the boys…
And it continued at 4.30am, with Louise negating the need for the 5 am alarm I had set, with the hair dryer. She had it on, she didn’t hit me with it. I slowly gathered the will to rise and went down to let the dogs out before a quick shower and putting some clothes on. Most airlines insist I find.
As you do in the early hours pre-holiday flight, I undertook some routine household maintenance by pouring some drain unblocker down our shower as I noticed whilst showering that all of my hair must have been starting to block the drain.
We finished the packing without a jot of care for the weight of the cases, being Premium elites, and we loaded the cars and rolled off the drive by 6.10am. The traffic, especially around the unfit-for-purpose M60 was as bad as expected but we arrived at the airport an hour later. We dropped the cars off and left our keys at the overly complex key drop-off thing. The TUI check-in opened literally as we arrived at it, but the Premium desk was operating at less than a Premium speed and we waited a good fifteen minutes to get served.
After a trip to the oversize drop-off place with the car seats we went through security with little bother, other than Tom getting his usual extra special attention. This would continue at every theme park for the entire trip. Ryan the rucksack was diverted for an extra inspection but when the chap brought it forward and looked at the x-ray he said he had no idea why it had been held and handed him straight over.
We wandered through the shops mainly just following the signs for the super swanky lounge we had access to courtesy of our Premium status. We got to reception at 8.15 and we were kindly admitted a full fifteen minutes early simply because I am such a nice chap.
We were guided to some tables and then let loose on the breakfast buffet. That was more than fit for purpose, so I had two lots.
It was very lovely, despite an overly long wait to get a coffee from the self-serve machine as someone had seemingly volunteered to get one for the entire flight.
With food in our bellies, Freddie took it upon himself to use the camera, apologies for a rare appearance by yours truly.
There were less successful photos too.
Thankfully the camera was back in the hands of a professional before too long….
Whilst I had my traditional post-breakfast airport poo, with limited success, everyone else wandered the shops until I caught them up. With all the snacks and things bought we went back into the lounge for a bit and just had a drink.
Hopes that the boys would behave for the next nine hours were stretched….
But with time pressing on we moved down to the gate via the longest airport walk since the last time we walked to a gate at Manchester airport. I needed a third breakfast to replenish the calories. Gate 202 was not only in the next county, but also cramped and busy due to the ongoing works at the airport. We struggled to find a seat.
We boarded when called unusually, mainly as we were in Premium and were one of the first called onto the plane. We then spent about ten frustrating minutes standing on the stairs down to the plane.
Due to our later upgrade to Premium, we weren’t all sat together, with Louise sat with Freddie and I behind them.
The plane pushed back at 11.40, followed by a smooth take-off. As Louise and Freddie started to use their seat back TVs they turned in frustration that they couldn’t hear anything. A brief investigation found that Louise had plugged both their headphones into the power sockets.
Rebecca, Tom and Dougie were sat to the side of us, in the middle.
Drinks came first, along with a menu with a few choices for food.
I had Chicken with Jasmine rice which was very good.
About two hours in I watched the three available episodes of Two and a Half Men, again. After that, I swapped seats with Louise to play cards with Freddie. Louise, not being an anti-social freak like myself, made immediate friends with Gavin who I had been sitting next to for two hours, discovered he was TUI crew off on his holidays and then chatted to him for the rest of the flight.
After cards, Freddie watched Storks and I watched Oceans 12, again. Dougie had a sleep and was generally fantastically behaved despite all our fears in the build-up to the trip. He was intrigued by the seat belt and that pretty much kept him occupied for most of the flight.
Afternoon tea was a sandwich and scone.
After about eight and a half hours we landed.
I have not witnessed any human being more excited and more verbose than Freddie was on that descent into Melbourne. We chatted all the way down during which he asked me questions such as “Is it the clouds that move or the world?”. I somehow avoided displaying my stupidity by changing the subject.
As we were getting our stuff together to disembark, Freddie got hold of the camera and took yet more candid behind the scenes shots.
Once into the airport all of our cases were off very quickly but the two car seats took a frustrating age. After about fifteen minutes we were into and through immigration within a few minutes and off to pick up the car.
A painless experience other than me forgetting to take Tom to the counter with me to add him as the second driver, but we sorted that later in the holiday.
We walked out to the car park and picked up a stunning Jeep Wagoneer.
Here it is a few days later. It easily took all of us and our cases and was a fantastic drive too.
I connected Car Play and fired up the Waze app which was clearly broken as it said it would take two hours to get to the villa.
It took us along the 192 for 90% of the way and most of it was fine, but as we got to Kissimmee the traffic built up and we were crawling through endless traffic lights for what seemed like forever. We made a pit stop to get Louise a drink and it did take the full two hours and a bit more to get there. That last half hour was incredibly frustrating with the boys understandably keen to get to where we were going and there may have been a slight sulk overtaking me.
Traffic issues would be a theme of the trip. In all our years of visiting, we have never seen traffic like it. It’s probably been a couple of years since we stayed anywhere that needed regular use of the 192 and I4 but I don’t what happened in that time, but it was a nightmare.
Upon arrival. we went to the guard house first to get our dashboard pass thing and then drove over to the villa, feeling very happy to finally be there.
The cases were dumped and Rebecca and I drove to the Publix on the US27 to stock up.
There was mild panic as we checked out with three hundred dollars worth of groceries when my credit card was declined. Thankfully, my UK debit card, linked to my Apple wallet on my phone worked so we didn’t have to put it all back. I have no idea why that happened as we had no issues anywhere else all holiday apart from having to be dragged from the table at multiple meals to enter my pin into the payment thing.
Back home we had a sandwich and some crisps before falling into bed around 11pm.
If there were any justice in the world I would be sat here typing this today, about a stone lighter than I was last week. That is based purely on the amount of snot I have expelled from my body in the last seven days.
I know that sounds like a joke but honestly, I don’t know where it’s coming from. No end of blowing is enough (amirite guys?) and as soon as I empty about a pound of the stuff into a tissue my nose is totally blocked again. Surely all that mucus must weigh something?
For that reason, this week is one I wish not to repeat and of course, I am glad whatever germs are causing this will have passed (right?) before we get on the plane.
Emily has passed her first few days back in the UK wrestling with pretty dreadful jetlag and trying to get back to work whilst weeping at the cost of flights for next August. It comes to something when you have your fingers crossed hoping for something under £1k each. Apparently, her friend the teacher has a blue light card which can bestow glorious discounts on things like flights. If anyone has any experience of that please let me know. I’m also wondering right about now why Louise doesn’t have one???
A lot of our attention in the last few days of our countdown is on the seeming conveyor belt of hurricanes aimed directly for every single one of our holiday plans. Milton is looking like it will pass directy over the theme parks area right now, with of course a lot of time yet for that to change. We just have everything crossed that this will be the last for a while and the two weeks after next week will be natural disaster free.
I had a “last minute” review of our plan, as you do, mainly to see if I could somehow avoid the Saturday we currently have at Hollywood Studios. I do try to avoid the parks as much as possible at a weekend, especially DHS, but I have concluded there is no way to juggle it. It’ll have to be a case of buying the Multi-Pass thing and bearing with.
Demonstrating how close we are now to departure, I got the instructions through for our villa a few days ago which I thought was the last bit of admin required before we worry about checking in online. However, for reasons I cannot fathom, check-in seemed to open up on the 1st of October so I’ve done that too. Although it seems you can’t get your boarding passes by doing so, instead you get a “Confirmation of Check-in” thing and have to present that to the desk at the airport to get your boarding passes. That all seems a bit odd and potentially pointless. I’m pretty sure that was not the case when we flew with them back in May.
I have ticked off another couple of unpleasant milestones on my journey towards this holiday. Wednesday saw me tolerating a Motorway Awareness course. At close to 1am driving home from a gig, on an empty motorway I was pictured doing 58mph in a 50mph variable speed limit zone. Sure, that’s not legal but it doesn’t half stick in the craw when the photo they send you shows you alone in three lanes of motorway. Anyway, I am now suitably chastised, poorer and educated. Then on Friday I went to the dentist. Hardly life threatening but as you may have noticed, I don’t like folks messing with my teeth and once again it was unpleasant and expensive. Never a good combo.
So here we are at what is often in my view the hardest part of the countdown. We are impossibly close and yet somehow it seems impossibly far away at the same time. I just want next week to hurry up and be over whilst recognising that if that wish were granted the same may apply to the two weeks after it and that would not be a good thing at all. I have been instructed by Louise to “get my stuff out” which is not a euphemism but rather the job of dumping all the clothes I wish to take onto the bed so that packing may begin. That’s how close we are. I have to admit, that solitary Monday the 14th, the day before we go, is praying on my mind as a schoolboy error. Why I did not book it off work I have no idea. Now, it is festooned with meetings I cannot avoid and I shall have to endure it. The firstest of first-world problems.
See you back here this time next week for the pre-departure sign-off. It’ll be here before you know it….right???
I have very little to report on our trip this week as work has been stupidly intense and I’ve been down south for most of the week having to actually pretend I know what I’m doing.
Instead, I can share some stuff on Emily’s trip that started last Thursday. She flew Aer Lingus taking just under nine hours. She may be just short of 30 but yes I did spend a good amount of time in my hotel room tracking her flight until it landed.
After some kerfuffle with her Revolut card not working they took a Lyft from MCO to the All Stars in what was incredible heat.
They are delighted with their room, which is right by the bus stop and pool.
Friday was a special day being her boyfriend’s first ever experience of WDW and let’s just summarise things by saying he was absolutely blown away with the scale, quality and magic of it all.
Magic Kingdom was very quiet all day with the longest wait being 25 minutes for Haunted Mansion. They rope-dropped Tron and were one of the first to ride.
They had one of those special days with everything just going perfectly it seems.
Breakfast was from Sleepy Hollow..
Tiana was ridden, ticking off another first for them both.
After a stop at the Poly for some drinks on the beach, when Mikey nearly cried at the loveliness of it all they headed out to Olive Garden for tea.
22,000 steps, lots of rides and lovely food all made for a day that could not have gone any better they say.
The next day, yesterday, was Typhoon Lagoon and then Sickies for tea but I don’t have any photos or details of that yet as they are still asleep. 🙂
After almost a year of planning and counting down I am just so delighted that things have been so perfect so far. Living vicariously through Emily’s trip will hopefully cushion the blow of not being there for the next fortnight as I battle through the tribulations of working for a living.
In news closer to home, Louise is currently suffering from a perforated and infected ear drum which is incredibly painful. She is on the relevant meds of course, but let’s hope that doesn’t cause her any serious issues when we fly in 30 days. As someone who suffered very badly with ear pain on almost every flight when I was younger, I know just how unbearable that can be.
This bonus pseudo-trip report is your lot for this week. Depending on what Emily posts in the group chat in the coming days there may be some more next week!
Thanks for all the interest and feedback on the “big plan” post last week. As much as I really appreciate those who persisted with the non-Disney content I have been posting, it’s clear from the views and visitor numbers last week that most of you really have more interest in WDW, which I am totally on board with!
For those who asked about Emily’s trip, if you want to follow along with her, your best bet would be to follow her on Instagram here. She will without doubt be posting there throughout. She leaves on Thursday. She also does some blogging if you wanted to follow that too.
I was due to take her to the airport but as it often does, work has gotten in the way of things I want to do, insisting I am down south on that day, so she has a friend taking her instead. Sure she’s 29, sure she’s been to WDW countless times, sure she lived there, but there is still some low level of worry when waving your offspring off to travel that distance.
After all the fun and games of the planning, based on having secured everything with low deposits, we are now at the stage where the pain hits and to quote a WDW vlogger, “and now it’s time to pay the price”.
I have just paid off all the balances, including the theme park tickets, villa and car. I’m not gonna lie, parting with that level of pound notes hurts no matter what the reason. Still, of all things I could spend money on this is one of the better ones. On the plus side, it’s a real sign that this trip is almost here.
It may shock you to learn that nothing has changed in the plan since last week. We are probably getting too close now for that to happen. In a couple of weeks, I have two meals to book at Citywalk (they only seem to offer slots a month in advance). Those will be Toothsome and Cowfish.
I still have low-level anxiety/PTSD from our more recent WDW trips as the state of the parks in terms of crowds, wait times and general post-pandemic recovery are fresh in my mind. I don’t know if this is reality but the park activity I see on social media seems to vary between “there is literally only me in this theme park today” to “do not even try to enter Orlando as it is full”.
With a better “FastPass” system in place, I am hoping things will be better. We are also visiting outside of any UK school holidays and when I look at the various crowd-level tools online most seem to be scoring most of our time there around the 6 out of 10 mark with slightly busier times predicted towards the end of our trip as we get close to Halloween (the day itself, not the season which starts in early August at WDW of course).
With lower crowd levels the quandary of course is should I book the multi-pass thing three days in advance (being off-site scum) or wait and see how the park looks that morning? I suspect I shall play it safe and book it for our first MK day to remove any stress/waiting on that special first day and then see how it goes. The natural exception to that, I think, will be Hollywood Studios, and I’ll probably cave and book the multi-pass for that park without hesitation, having had horrifying experiences there on the last couple of trips.
For anyone who has been and done it with the new system, I would be keen to hear feedback and experiences of the new thing.
I am girding my loins now for the final push at work. I’ve got a daunting couple of weeks with many things in the diary that I would rather not do (I refer you to the section above about these trips costing a lot of money to understand why I have to do them), but if my many years on this spinning rock have taught me anything it is that I will always be fatter than I want to be and everything passes. Typically even the most horrifying things in your future are survivable.
I am being over dramatic as my “things” are just a couple of days at Head Office next week and then a work conference/event the weekend after. I am not pulling babies from burning buildings but imposter syndrome is a bugger.
This time next week it’ll be a month until we go and just another milestone on the countdown ticked off. Of course, that just means I have five weeks to lose four stone. Seems doable?
When it comes to Disney, especially with a trip on the cards, there is little I like to do more than to think about scenarios that may or may not happen that will have hardly any impact on my life in the long term. Things like not getting specific ADRs or the parks being too busy or that those FOMO perks that Disney gives to on-site guests will make our off-site trip a disaster. It’s all part of the fun. For example, it seems off-site scum can only start to book their Genie+ Lightning Lanes from park opening, not 7am like the honoured on-site types. A bit petty Disney if you ask me. If you’re going to do this, then you need to come up with some affordable accommodation options for larger parties.
The only thing I enjoy more is whinging about Genie+ but I guess I’m not alone there.
Another fun part of this countdown process is to make completely unsubstantiated guesses based on zero knowledge about what Disney may or may not do in the future.
Take for example….
Soon, in Summer 2024, the new version of Splash Mountain will open. Tiana’s ride (not the official title) will be welcome for a couple of reasons.
Having such a major ride down for so long just means there are fewer things to spread the people around and all the other attractions get busier. (This is the entire issue with Hollywood Studios right now. Not enough things for too many people to do, but that’s a whole other blog post.)
It may draw some folks away from the likes of Seven Dwarves at rope drop and give other folks a fairer chance to ride it without paying extra or waiting for 90 minutes.
Emily and I were pondering if Tiana’s ride would be added to the list of individual lightning lane attractions in Magic Kingdom. There is much to think about.
It seems that MK is currently the only park with more than one such attraction…
Epcot – Guardians
Hollywood Studios – Rise of the Resistance
Animal Kingdom – Flights of Passage
Magic Kingdom – Tron and Seven Dwarves
So adding a third would be bordering on a piss take in my view. The options seem to be to take that piss and add a third which would be punitive and very unpopular, leave Tiana’s ride as Splash was, as part of the (still paid for and shite) Genie+ service, or add it to the Individual LL list and drop one of the others.
Personally, I think they will leave Tiana as Splash was. If they were to make it one of the two, then which of the existing ones would they drop?
Tron is too new surely and Seven Dwarves is one of the most popular and slowest loading rides on property, so that could just be carnage.
As ever, this thought process will be a complete waste of time because the last time I correctly predicted what Disney would do next I had a fringe.
I’d be interested in your views of course.
Speaking of change and new rides. Due to some clickbait-style headline writing by some other Disney-related blog (not that you read any others of course), there were a couple of minutes late last week when it seemed like Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was going to be replaced by a Wreck-It Ralph attraction. A quick scan of the article once they had my very valuable click, confirmed that this was in Tokyo. Let’s hope that nonsense idea never darkens Florida’s door.
The other thing I have done in the last few days is begin to firm up some dining plans. We are months from ADR booking but I did try out the new system where you can put in a range of dates for a restaurant and see all the ADRs available. That is excellent!
My strategy for our eating on this trip is to focus on off-site places as much as possible with just a smattering of on-site ADRs. Sure, cost is a consideration. Feeding six folks multiple times a day on property is a pricey hobby, but we also love a lot of off-site places.
So I am adding an eatery of choice for each day and if it so happens that on one of those days we don’t want to leave the parks or that doesn’t fit with our plans, we will just try to find somewhere there and then via the app. We do want to try and get ADRs for a few such as Garden Grill, Rodeo Roundup, Space 220 (yeah right) and probably one character meal.
On that note, has anyone done BR77 Steakhouse on the 192. It’s a Brazillian Steakhouse type place it seems and I was thinking of giving it a try. Other than that, our list is the usual suspects.
All of this theme park talk ignores the fact that we are now just four weeks away from our absolutely no theme park trip at the end of May, to Delray Beach. When we called in to see my Mum last week she asked if we had the cases out yet. Even for me, five weeks out was a bit early, but it won’t be long.
The only prep required now for that one is to get some bloody weight off. My “Fat Elvis” period has been dragging on for a while now and it seems these days the only thing that can motivate me to get some lard off is a trip overseas. Let’s see how that goes over the coming weeks. The hardest part for me is starting. Once I begin to see any sort of result, I can stick at it, but as the years go by, it just becomes harder and harder to get the ball rolling.
If only everything in life were as easy as getting fat.
One of the criticisms of holidaying in the same place for a few decades, both spoken and probably mainly unspoken by folks I know, is “How can you keep going to the same place and doing the same things”.
Sure, I get that and there is some part of a trip to WDW specifically where that familiarity is part of the comfort and magical feelings that a certain type of traveller craves. A great deal of the joy and satisfaction I get is from showing this stuff to new people whether that be parents, kids or now grandkids.
My answer to that question is always the same. We do something different every time, mixed in with the warm glow of the familiar. We’ve done on-site, off-site, Vero, Naples, The Keys, Siesta Key and a load of other stuff I have no doubt forgotten. I guess the best answer is, that I’ve been going since 1980 and still haven’t come close to “doing everything” and never will.
Also of course things change regularly whether we may want it to or not. Parks get new stuff and indeed new parks happen too. We still, for example, haven’t done Aquatica, Volcano Bay or Legoland.
Anyway, flying that flag of trying something for the first time this week is Emily, who despite her very real fear of the whole event, has booked Halloween Horror Nights for her trip in September. There had been much debate, pondering and a little dithering, but my advice was you’d be daft not to. You never know if you’ll get the chance again and all things (within reason) should be tried once.
So good on Emily for giving it a shot. Technically we could also do it on our October trip but with a six-year-old and two-year-old with us that really isn’t practical and nobody is ready for the huge amount of screaming that would ensue from Louise for sure, but also me.
I have been to a Halloween event at DLP some years ago, which had some of the same elements I think, but from the vlogs I have seen of HHN, it was nowhere near as intense.
If the houses prove to be too terrifying I suggested there is always the option of taking the chance to do some rides whilst the queues are (I assume) short, so what is not to like.
For those with experience of this event, your comments, advice and feedback are welcome.
Having said that we always do something new, eateries aside, it feels like our October trip may not see that happen. This trip is a good old-fashioned WDW-only (probably) event and will be all about doing all the stuff we love with the boys.
Sure Tiana’s ride may be open by then so that will be a first and perhaps just once I will be one of those folks who return from WDW and say “I actually lost weight with all that walking”!
Really, who are these people and what are they (not) eating!?
But it feels right that this is how it may turn out. I know in reality it hasn’t been that long since we did the parks but it feels that way, and this trip, as is always the case when you take kids with you, will inevitably involve a load of firsts for them and I can’t wait.
Freddie is very much looking forward to being able to ride pretty much anything, certainly on Disney property. He is very tall for his age and the one in his sights is Rock n Rollercoaster as it is the only thing at WDW that goes upside down. Right now it is closed for refurbishment but it does seem to be promising to re-open in Summer 2024 so hopefully, we’ll be OK.
Rumours abound about whether the theming will change from Aerosmith to something else. I get that Aerosmith aren’t exactly relevant to anyone born in the last few decades so a change makes sense. I don’t know if they will move away from the band idea, but one rumour doing the rounds is that Queen will replace them.
For me, this makes no sense. They are no longer a band, mainly as the main man has been dead for decades and they are barely any more relevant to younger folks than Aerosmith. I do struggle to think of a band big enough to resonate with the older generations yet still be relevant to today’s music scene.
If anyone suggests Coldplay I will burn the ride down.
If any act makes any kind of sense it would be Taylor Swift. She is, love her or hate her, the biggest act on the planet right now, is young enough to have some career longevity to come and she already has a relationship with Disney, with her Eras tour thing showing on Disney+.
I’m not sure her music would have the same adrenaline-fueled effect that Walk This Way has as you are catapulted forward to start the ride, but it would permanently make the queues for the ride three hours as the Swifties descended upon it. Could they still call it Rock n Rollercoaster with a Swift theme? I don’t think so.
What say you? Can anyone see a B*Witched-themed ride working? I’d be interested in your suggestions so that I can let Bob Iger know. He’s a loyal reader as you know.
Another week gone and another week of seemingly endless posts on Facebook WDW groups of crowds that look biblical in proportion. Sure, it’s Spring Break, and for balance, there were some posts and blog posts about a really quiet week in the parks last month but overall, I have to say I am very trepidacious about our trip in October.
Nothing ruins a trip like overly busy parks and not being able to get on anything.
Having been out of the loop park-wise for some time, or at least it feels like I have, what is going on?
Is it social media over-egging the issue? Are we still in some kind of post-pandemic bounce back or have we reached a point where the existing parks just cannot accommodate the number of guests attending? Are there actually more guests and Genie+ (or some other factor) is playing a part in creating longer lines from that same number?
A minute’s worth of research suggests that the latter or something like it may be the case.
Thanks to queue-times.com for the graph.
Pre-pandemic attendance at MK was higher and this is replicated at all four parks, with only DHS almost back to pre-Covid attendance. Of course, we don’t yet have 2023 or 2024 data so that may show a sudden spike?
Are there still shortages of CMs? Are there other factors I am not considering (there definitely will be!).
So what is going so wrong in the parks that wait times of over an hour for most rides are the norm? Do Disney care? Is that bad for business or not?
I recognise I am asking lots of questions and not many answers. My opinion is tainted by my hatred of Genie+ I guess. Sure, I really resent the extra money it requires but it just doesn’t look to be working as well as the old system. We’ve had good days using it, with an afternoon/evening stacked with ride after ride despite the park being busy but is that causing a lot of pain in the standby lines? Why aren’t Disney offering virtual queues for all rides and attractions so guests can be free to roam the park spending money?
There has been a clamour for a fifth gate for almost as long as I can remember and with Universal taking the bull by the horns and opening new stuff, are we at a point where Disney need to or will respond?
Will they be reluctant to do so when seemingly at war with the state governor who seems to be intent on biting the hand that feeds him?
If overall attendance is still not back to 2019 levels will they want to create a fifth park or just continue to expand what they have? There has been talk of a significant MK expansion recently.
As well as offering more capacity it would also deliver a draw to get guests to return. Nothing mobilises the Disney faithful like a new thing. There are four-hour queues for a popcorn bucket. Add to that the benefit to guests of spreading themselves out over five parks and not four, and the whole experience may improve and return visits would increase perhaps.
If nothing else, the Disney vlogging community would definitely thank them!
Of course, that new park brings a lot of investment and cost to build and run it but I suspect Disney are not short of a few bob.
As we are now some 30 years since WDW opened a new park it feels like time to do so, and as ever the healthy competition of Universal being in Florida and doing just that may be the catalyst for Disney to finally announce this.
As you know, I have a direct line to Bob Iger, so I will be passing on my thoughts to him via this post. He is always the first to read them as you know.
Ultimately, I am looking to be reassured that we won’t be pissing away thousands of quid in October to stare at the app and not see a wait time under 90 minutes. If Bob could pull his finger out and announce and build that fifth gate by then that would be lovely.
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on social media this week about the 100th anniversary of Disney. As ever, I like to be at the forefront of these online trends and post about it many days after the event. It is this cutting-edge nature that sees my blog surge in popularity week after week.
Many of these posts seemed to be trying to summarise what Disney means to people, and the effect it has had on their lives. I’m genuinely at a loss as to where to start with that. But of course that will not stop me now from spending the rest of this post trying to do exactly that.
My first ten years on this planet were lived in a normal way, in terms of Disney. I’d watch the films and every bank holiday I would watch the Disney special that was inevitably on the telly, showing clips from all the classic films.
Our holidays were, I am lucky enough to say, regular and wonderful, with the destinations usually being somewhere Balearic.
Then one fateful day in the first half of 1980, our family went into Bolton town centre (when there was one) to go and book our next holiday.
For those under 30, this involved sitting in a shop and watching someone who worked there tap away at some pre-historic-looking green screen VDU if you were lucky. I genuinely can’t remember if by 1980 AT Mays in Bolton had those, but via whatever method our travel agent was looking at stuff, the phrase that would change my life forever was uttered.
“You know, for the same price as Mallorca, I can do you Miami.”
This was mainly due to a dollar rate of 2.20 to the pound. Now, this working-class Bolton family had barely heard of Miami, never mind ever dreamt of going there and I don’t think it took long for that decision to be made.
Of course, zero planning was done. I was nine. I do vividly remember the flight, and that all drinks were free, and I think my Mum probably had one too many Miami Whammies (I’ve no idea either but they were easy to drink it looked like).
Somewhere we still have photos of all the stewardesses on that flight, who to me, at nine and from a northern mill town (whippets optional) they all looked like film stars and I don’t mean Danny DeVito. Obviously, I’ve shared all this previously as I discovered a load of 1980 photos buried deep in a post from years ago.
The holiday itself was mostly like the others. We stayed in a hotel on Miami Beach, and I swam a lot and discovered American food and portion sizes and I have been fat ever since.
Then in the middle of the trip, we drove up to Orlando, stayed in a Howard Johnson (a hotel, not a person), and did Disney.
Now, at that time, Disney was just Magic Kingdom and a very small embryo of Disney Springs called The Disney Village.
Obviously, I fell in love. I turned 10 in America and I remember us going to a mall called Omni that had a merry-go-round in it which blew my mind and my Mum and Dad bought me a birthday cake there.
For years afterward, at family parties and get-togethers, my Dad would tell the same stories over and over about the size of a pizza we got and the number of slices of turkey he got on one particular sandwich, as well as phrases about people not being able to appreciate the scale of the park (there was just one as Epcot would open soon after).
“You get to the entrance and you’re still bloody miles from the turnstiles! You park up, get a tram and a monorail, and only then are you in”. They probably thought us all a bit weird.
I’ve carried on this tradition by regurgitating the same stories here for over a decade.
We even brought home a menu from a restaurant called Pumpernickels in Miami as nobody would believe us when we got home. I remember us being absolutely floored by there being two huge bowls on every table when you were seated, one full of coleslaw and one full of bread.
I have very limited but very vivid memories of this trip as it was a long, long time ago now, to the extent that I question whether they are accurate memories or just some sort of assumed thinking of something we did.
Now, clearly, all of this bred a love for Florida more generally, but the Northern Star in all this, and the tractor beam that has kept pulling us back there was WDW.
We went back several times during my childhood. I’m sad and sorry to say I cannot remember how many times. It’s a long time ago now and no notes were made, and all the photos were analogue.
Once I had my own family, it was my Dad again who re-ignited my passion for the place. He was about to retire and had an endowment policy burning a hole in his pocket. He declared he would be taking us all to Disney. That was him and my Mum, my brother, his wife and their two kids and us four.
I think he booked it over the phone with Travel City Direct, after scrolling through Teletext for hours, but I may be confusing that with other trips. It was £199 each for fly-drive and we had a huge, beautiful villa on Highlands Reserve. Our hire car was more of a bus, and we spent a lot of time one night being lost in Celebration I remember. It was Halloween and the place looked amazing.
Again, no planning was really done but we of course loved it.
The rest as they say is history with our own trips as a four, starting in 2001. An un-reported stay at the All Stars. From then on, pretty much every year we have been back in one way or another. Looking back now I really cannot fathom how we afforded it. Well, sometimes, we didn’t, but I don’t regret any of the trips, memories, experiences, and lovely times we had.
Some time around the time these trips of our own started I discovered the Disboards and then of course The Dibb. These were cutting-edge tools of their day and I learned so much from them and made some good friends too who we met many times over the years.
It is very hard to sum up what Disney has meant to us as I just do not have the writing ability to capture that. I suppose with recent events my Dad is in my thoughts. He loved the place and what he really got a thrill out of on the odd occasion it happened, was, during my Dibb days, we would get approached in a park by fellow Dibbers who recognised us. I think he was quite proud of that tiny bit of recognition, and he certainly enjoyed being in and reading the trip reports.
Now of course, we have started the next generation of trips with Freddie and Dougie, and I doubt they will be as obsessed as I am, and probably will not go as often, but I think, for those who get it, my girls have both summed up what I’m trying to say in different ways.
Firstly, here are the photos Emily posted on her Disney Instagram account last week (go follow her) showing how she feels Disney has touched her life. I think they do it perfectly.
Secondly, I’ll go back to our first trip with Freddie in 2019. It was our first morning and we were of course in Magic Kingdom. We had just entered the park and were standing at the hub looking up at the castle. There was a trolley show on, and I think one of the performers gave Freddie some attention whilst he watched from his stroller. I turned to see Rebecca in floods of tears, and she said…
“I get it now!”.
Of course, she had loved WDW before, but it hits differently as a parent and to see that realisation on her face and her reaction to seeing Freddie in that place, will probably tell you all I want to about 100 years of Disney without me trying to get the words out.
Cynics may say this is all manufactured schmaltz and others may say I should stop regurgitating the same content and photos and they are probably right, but beyond the schmaltz can be a form of magic, a generational bond, formed from memories and happy times that can help to get you through the less happy ones. Ultimately, if that makes you feel “better”, if it supports your mental state and improves your well being then it can’t be a bad thing. It’s better than doing drugs, although a lot more expensive.
When first-timers ask for advice on going to Florida, those of us who have been a few times will offer many different tips, but I think the most common recommendation I see given is, don’t try to do it all, and take some rest days. This was, is and always will be good advice.
These holidays can be tiring. The long-haul flight, the heat and the walking are a lot. It’s understandable that first-timers want to book everything, do every park and fill every day, but down that road, unhappiness lies.
This is all just a preamble to justify us having another rest morning. Yes, we were tired but we also wanted to make it all the way to the fireworks tonight as it would be the last day in the parks for Me, Louise and Mum this trip and for Mum maybe ever.
Sadly I missed the 7am virtual queue window due to actually getting some sleep and waking at 7.15. How foolish of me to do so when on holiday and Disney is absolutely correct to enforce a pre-7am wake-up on your holidays. Whilst others played in the pool there was an episode in our bathroom that was more biblical event than ablution. I felt both worse and better for it in equal measure.
After pool time, thoughts turned to it being food time and we opted for a good old-fashioned Dennys breakfast. This place has been a staple of our visits since I first went in 1980. We trusted Google Maps to guide us to one and we ended up at Lake Magic.
Being a Sunday it was busy and we waited about fifteen minutes for a table. Other smaller parties were seated more quickly.
I had a Grand Slamwich.
Louise had a South West Eggs Benedict
Tenders for Freddie
Rebecca, Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
Tom had a Crepe, which was brave in a public restroom.
Mum had a French Toast Slam. You can see I just told her off for thinking about touching her food before I had taken the photo.
Our server was delightful. So with a very good tip all that was $137. It was now 1pm and we were off to Magic Kingdom. I had to amend the first LL I had made earlier as we were behind schedule!
We parked in Scar 423 and got a tram in. We were lucky enough to get on a tram that was pretty full and therefore was just about to depart. However, we sat there for ten minutes (there is zero exaggeration in that number) as a guest couldn’t collapse their stroller and despite endless requests from the Cast Member at the back of the tram, would not stop trying and move away behind the yellow line. Finally, he managed it and everyone was so happy for him, honest.
Rebecca delayed us further with a wee at the TTC.
We monorailed…
and made it into Magic Kingdom.
On our way up Main Street, we took advantage of Photopass, which we hardly ever do. I was mindful that this may be Mum’s last time at MK and wanted to record the moment despite all of our aversions to being photographed.
We won’t be doing that again in a hurry.
Our first LL was Small World and we caught the end of a show as we passed the castle.
As we made our way to the ride, I spotted some work underway around the castle so felt the need to capture it.
Our first ride of the day happened…
Next, we headed to Big Thunder for the LL I had booked whilst everyone else wasn’t having to worry about stuff like that. It was a hot walk and we broke it up by watching some of the passing parade.
Freddie, Tom, Rebecca and I rode Big Thunder.
Look, after all these years I need to try and find new things to take photos of ok?
It was now time for our no-expense spared ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Louise and I watched Dougie whilst everyone else rode. Tom’s pose was intentional, Mum’s not so much.
Around this time I got a text to tell me that an ECV had become available for Mum. So that Louise and I could ride, Tom “volunteered” to walk back to the entrance to pick it up. As you can see he had a whale of a time riding it back.
Space Mountain now for those brave enough to ride it. I got allocated the back seat in the rocket and noticed a considerable difference in comfort levels compared to the front. It was almost tolerable. As we exited I made a LL for Buzz. Today, all the Genie+ LLs were pretty much available for “now”. The park wasn’t that busy and maybe Genie+ could have been avoided, but again, this was a last-day situation so maximising our ride activity was good. Before we went onto Buzz, the boys met him.
That took a while and by the time they were done, I had to change the LL for the ride, but again, it was immediately available. I rode with Freddie and somehow he got 112,000.
Next, we wandered over to Jungle Cruise. I had booked this LL at 8am this morning. If ever a ride’s popularity was inexplicable. I guess it’s more the slow loading of this one that causes the wait times. Tom didn’t ride, instead, he took Dougie off for a walk to get him to sleep.
We don’t ride this one very often so I did chuckle at the jokes a fair bit.
Another immediate LL for Pirates was secured.
Louise stayed off with the now-sleeping Douigie.
Having no ADR booked for dinner and wanting to stay in the park for fireworks I scanned the app for options. Pickings were slim and we ended up with The Liberty Tree Tavern. It has been many decades since we dined there and expectations were not that high.
We did Philharmagic first. I sat out with Dougie.
Upon arriving at the restaurant we were seated as soon as those weak bladdered amongst us had restroomed.
Freddie took up the camera.
It was a set menu which saved us from choosing and meant the food arrived quickly. It was a salad and bread to start then a Thanksgiving dinner. We ended with Ooey Gooey pudding and the whole thing was a lot better than we had expected. We all really enjoyed it.
The bill was an “on-site, theme park eatery” level of $312.
We left and made our way down to Main Street, stopping off in the Christmas Shop.
We took up our usual spot here…
Happily Ever After started at 9.20.
All I will say is that there were lots of tears by the end of it. This was a special place for my Dad and everyone was affected by watching the fireworks and especially the music of course. I miss him.
We left via the normal monorail and caught a tram back to the car. It was a quiet drive home.
There’s a saying or cliche about being a Grandparent, something along the lines of it being great that you can play with the kids but then get to hand them back for all the hard stuff. This of course is true to some extent but the real joy of having grandkids is hearing them being up and about around 3.30am and knowing you can roll over and go back to sleep as that is Rebecca and Tom’s problem!
With the time difference and their age this was to be expected of course and Louise and I only managed to sleep on for another couple of hours or so. Everyone was up and pottering around once 5.30am rolled around. There was breakfasting, showering and playing with toys.
Whilst everyone else had fun I was chained to the Disney app come 7am trying to get a virtual boarding group for Tron, as today, of course, would be spent at Magic Kingdom.
I got group 68 and celebrated, with no clue as to how long we may have to wait for that to roll around. With gritted teeth, I also bought us all Genie+. There would be very limited time in the parks this trip for Louise, Mum and I, so we could take no chances. $115 later, I felt somehow much less happy about the happiest place on earth.
Once preparations were complete…
We left the house around 7.40am. Dougie was, understandably, a bit all over the place and was a tad grumpy. He was no doubt very tired from yesterday and his body clock very broken.
At this time of day of course we parked very close to the entrance…
in Jafar 309. This of course meant a walk-in and no tram.
There’s never time to mess about with the ferry on a first morning, so we headed up the ramp.
I went live on Facebook to record the monorail journey in. Having been so often, it’s nice to capture the moments not seen as the big ones, such as seeing the castle for the first time….
Gratefully, and with a bit of faff for a couple in the party who didn’t have Magic Bands, we were in. Naturally, two people needed the loo, so the rest of us went into the Emporium to resolve the Magic Band issue.
We wandered about, asked three different cast members but still could not find any. All we had seen were the new interactive ones which we didn’t need or want, but after giving up on finding the other kind Tom and my Mum shelled out for a fandangled new one.
It takes something special to stop me dragging everyone to a ride the second we enter the park, and that special thing today was Dougie getting his long-awaited first haircut in Magic Kingdom. Everyone met back up outside the shop just before 9am, waiting for it to open.
Dougie wasn’t really in the mood for the experience. Jet lag and tiredness were kicking his ass, as they say, but he did well considering and got it done.
You will notice me in the mirror expertly undertaking a dual phone recording with both mine and Louise’s phone. I appreciate that isn’t the focus of this video, but I thought I should point it out.
Once he was done, we were privileged to have the Dapper Dans come into the shop and sing a couple of songs to Dougie and the other youngster having their first haircut. It was lovely, although Dougie cried through a good chunk of it.
We left the choice of first ride of the day/holiday to Freddie and he chose the “Buzz shooting one” so we headed there. I had a LL secured for Big Thunder from 10.35 so I allowed it as it slotted in with the plan.
Standby was only five minutes and everyone rode apart from Mum and Dougie who was now asleep. I rode alone and cannot explain why I chose to sit on the left-hand side of the car, meaning I was shooting with my weaker left hand. My score reflected this bad decision. We shall not dwell upon it.
We were making our way in the general direction of Big Thunder but stopped off at the Indy Speedway. I cannot remember the last time I rode this, although now I write that I suspect I did so with Freddie on one of his two trips to date. As we queued (Tom, Rebecca, Freddie and I) I suggested Tom ride with Freddie and I would, like I last did about twenty years ago, ride with Rebecca. At some point in the waiting process, Freddie decided that wasn’t a good idea and he would ride with me. He didn’t want to drive though so I did.
I can report the smell is still as it ever was…..
As we left the ride and glanced at the app, I saw that Big Thunder had been down and as that had happened after our window to ride had opened we now had a “free hit” LL for any ride we liked during the day. I booked another LL for it starting at 11.30.
You can see with the ease of booking that second LL that crowds were not heavy today and we could have probably done without Genie+, but with limited park time and a one year old with jet lag, it did a decent job today of making things very easy. I of course still resent, with every bone in my body, having to pay for it.
As it was now shortly after 10.30, clearly, it was lunchtime. Blame our body clocks, but we were starving.
As it involved no further onward travel we decided upon Cosmic Rays and we all ordered on the app before going in and finding a couple of tables.
Dougie had sensed incoming food and roused himself.
Louise and Mum had a chicken salad thing and the rest of us were normal and had burgers and tenders.
There was poor photography and it cost $115.00.
With calories topped up we walked up to Big Thunder, and as you can see crowds were light.
Because I am superb at the whole planning and LL thing (not) I had somehow got us one for Haunted Mansion at some point during the morning so we all rode that.
We had a good chuckle at Freddie in the buggy ahead of us when the hitchhiker appeared. He was genuinely looking around to see where it was. It’s lovely when the “magic” is real.
As we finally got up close to Big Thunder, I captured the current state of Splash, as was.
Our LL allowed to us bypass a very hot 30-minute standby line.
Freddie and Rebecca were in the front row and Freddie absolutely loved it.
We regrouped with Mum and Louise who did not ride and headed to the recently booked Pirates. We all rode this one.
Freddie persuaded his parents into a sword purchase in the gift shop. We were all shocked to see it was only $10. I know it’s plastic tat, but in Magic Kingdom, I would have predicted a price closer to $20+ for that.
Our time to Tron was approaching so we made our way to the other side of the park, stopping at the castle to take some pictures.
Is it now that I’m supposed to ask if someone can remove the people from the background?
And if someone can remove my paunch too that would be lovely…..
With perfect timing, as we got to the Lunching Pad, the app told us to make our way to Tron. We left Mum and Dougie in the shade and we did the fairly long walk to the queue and waited about 30 minutes.
I have little memory of the ride as it is quite short, but very fast and a great addition to the Magic Kingdom.
We had a handy LL for Space Mountain next door so we rode that, with Louise opting out as she is smarter than I. The ride was pure pain an endless clenching. I will never learn.
Back with the others we found a table and had a bit of rest time. During which, I walked all the way to Columbia House to get a strawberry yoghurt thing that was pretty much the only suitable food item available for Dougie in the park.
With Dougie fed and watered, we moved on to Pooh. With a large group, it is helpful if you can coordinate your restroom breaks!
In the gift shop, Mum bought Dougie an outfit as his birthday gift and his Mum and Dad got him a soft toy just because.
As Freddie had declared it his favourite ride, he Tom and I walked up to Big Thunder again for another ride. Everyone else strolled down to Main Street as we were about ready to head over to Whispering Canyon for our ADR.
We all met up again on some benches by City Hall and had a welcome ten-minute sit down before heading out to find the boat. We were very early for our reservation, but we were all very tired now and decided just to head over and relax there for a bit.
We found some couches in the lobby and I booked in, explaining how early we were but after ten minutes our thing buzzed and we were seated.
We all had the skillet apart from Louise who opted to have the Nachos appetiser as her main. The server was OK, but too rushed and didn’t listen really, as you can hear in this video.
The experience here is still not close to its heyday, pre-pandemic, but it is slowly getting there. The fun and interaction that used to happen just isn’t there now/yet.
Tom was devastated to learn that they couldn’t do milkshakes, but the food was delicious.
It seems I failed to capture the skillet.
The bill, with an already added 18% gratuity due to our party size was $217.00.
We left and walked back to catch the boat and timed it perfectly with just a little last-minute pacey walk to get on one just before it left. The tentative and ambitious plan to go back into MK and watch the fireworks was abandoned as expected due to tiredness.
We monorailed and then walked back to the car, calling, as tradition dictates at a pharmacy for something or other before crashing into bed just after 8pm. That’s a first day for you.
To be nothing if not consistent I was awake by 7am. This Disney-imposed alarm clock to book stuff was training my body nicely.
Louise had not slept at all and was not feeling fit to be up and out in a theme park anytime soon. Emily and I got ready and left her to recover some sleep and kitted out with Genie+ and a LL reservation for Splash Mountain at 1.05 on its final day, we set off.
We arrived and parked up in Simba 116 by 9am and used the car locator thing in the app as we had for most of the trip. A handy tool for tools who can’t remember where they parked.
The park looked busy but we saw that Big Thunder was only showing a 25-minute wait. Despite not believing that at all, we headed there anyway. Once we got close to Frontierland it quickly became clear what sort of day this would be in this neck of the park.
We fought our way through that and round to somewhere close to the entrance to Big Thunder and its 25-minute wait. Yeah….
Amazingly, we were on the ride in about half an hour.
Having obeyed the rule that a ride must be ridden upon entering the park before eating is allowed, we now sought out some food. Again, options were very limited and we ended up back at Sleepy Hollow.
I mobile ordered and we loitered in the vicinity. Having done that for a bit I looked at the app and realised I hadn’t clicked the “I’m Here” button, so I did that now like the idiot I am. After another ten-minute wait, our food was ready and then there was a ten-minute wait at the pick-up window. Emily had pounced on a table as one became free and I joined her now with the food.
As I got there there was a kerfuffle going on at the next table. Once it had all calmed down Emily filled me in. It seems that some weird lady, bedecked in her Disney nutcase outfit had walked into the seating area and declared loudly that due to medical conditions, she had to sit down so who could she join. Some helpful, and now regretful family had obliged. As she sat there an ECV user at the next table had reversed somewhere close to her and this lady had then kicked off as if someone had firebombed her house.
She was yelling at the whole party about irresponsible ECV users and how she could have been killed etc. I caught the tale end of the row and she was just bloody nasty and horrible. She stormed off much to the relief of the poor family who had accommodated her and the young girl in the ECV was inconsolable. Some people are just horrible.
We started to eat as all this played out and therefore, alas, the camera was too late.
I had made a LL for Buzz despite the distractions going on around me and we headed there now. My tactic for today was to simply book whichever Genie+ LL was available soonest and see how that went. It was BUSY today.
The LL queue for Buzz was not short but we were soon on.
In front of us were a couple of young parents with four kids. It looked like they were under attack, with kids hanging around necks, being dragged along the floor and screaming and crying. I felt sorry for them and grateful it wasn’t me in equal measure.
I managed to secure my highest-ever score but have no idea how.
Emily could not compete on this occasion.
As we exited I booked a LL for Ariel and walked in that direction. We browsed a shop or two until our slot rolled around.
Once our slot opened we were on within minutes. I am far too mature to be making any jokes about Ariel’s slot opening up…..that would just be in poor taste.
The 12 o’clock parade had started minutes ago over in Frontierland so we walked down through the castle, to catch it around the hub…
You can see from the blur how fast we were travelling as I took that photo. With just Emily and I, we were in full-on theme park commando mode.
Whoosh…
We grabbed a spot up the side of the castle on one of the ramps.
As we waited for the parade to arrive we watched with amusement the endless number of Instagrammers posing for photos in front of the castle. Typically a young, pretty girl getting their less attractive friends to capture their “natural” poses in front of the castle.
The view from here is great, especially if your camera has a decent zoom.
Ariel appreciates a good fork…..
Peter was just showing off….
I didn’t know Harry Styles was a cast member….
As Mickey and Minnie passed us we escaped back up through the castle and headed for the LL I had booked for It’s A Small World. On the way, Louise messaged to say that she had just arrived on the bus and would be with us shortly.
After some recent social media hoohah about the boats on this ride we noted they were all scrubbed and shiny.
After meeting Louise, with perfect timing we headed for our LL for Splash and one last ride. The LL queue took about 30 minutes and it will not shock you to learn that we were all very thoughtful and a little upset about my Dad, with whom we had ridden this thing countless times. It being this ride’s last day, for some reason, brought back many memories and feelings.
The standby queue was horrific.
I went live on Facebook to share our last journey on this, Splash’s last day. Luckily we secured the front row for a clear view.
Emily cried all the way around and it took some effort not to join her.
Lunch now and we used the “what is closest” rule to select our eatery, and we entered Pecos Bill, which was a surprise to him.
Emily had previously enjoyed the best Impossible burger ever here on a previous trip so of course Disney had removed it from the menu now. She had to settle for just Chips and dip whilst Louise and I had nachos.
After enjoying those we walked down to Philharmagic which had no wait time posted.
After the show ended, it was coming up 3pm and time for the parade….again. We returned to the same spot as earlier, this time with Louise in tow.
More influencer gold was happening.
What do you mean you’ve had enough parade photos already???
Ariel sees me in the crowd and hopes I am single….
But then spots my wedding ring and her hopes are dashed….or maybe it was all just an act…
Alright love, don’t over do it.
Amidst all the influencer nonsense, one little chap there deserved to have his photo taken as much as he liked….
Again, once the last float had floated by, we escaped through the castle.
As it had just re-opened, we, well I, decided we would ride the train. We went to the station near The Barnstomeer but restrooms were required by weaker members of the group so I had a wander into the Big Top shop thing. It is a shadow of its former self and half-empty. This used to be a great place to see and buy a large range of merch.
The queue for the train was long and we had to wait for the second one before we could get on.
We did a full loop of the park plus one stop, getting off at Main Street.
We took a minute and watched the flag lowering ceremony.
Whilst enjoying these.
Our next LL was for Haunted Mansion at 6.20 so that was our next destination. One the way, to kill a little time until our slot rolled around we rode the Steamboat for the first time in about 20 years.
For anyone interested, I dug out the video of some of that 2001 ride.
Onto Haunted Mansion and a ten-minute wait for our LL booking.
There are a lot of contenders for “worst photo Craig ever took” but this will be top 5.
Maybe 6 now…
OK, 7….
Louise didn’t fancy Space Mountain so Emily and I went on whilst Louise wandered down to Main Street. It gets rougher every time, which seems to correspond with me getting older every time I ride.
We walked down to meet Louise on Main Street to say our goodbyes for this trip. We never know when we’ll be back….
Fighting back a few more tears we made our way out. It was a quiet walk to the resort monorail to start our journey over to O’hana.
Emily had stopped crying by the time we got there.
We checked in and were seated after a few minutes. We didn’t get a great table but food was imminent so that was all that mattered.
The food was certainly plentiful….
We ate far too much of it and at one point the fireworks happened at Magic Kingdom and the music was piped in. Our table location made it hard to appreciate that.
Mainly as Louise ordered a bottle of wine at a silly price, the bill was $320. Far too much for a meal for three people, and despite the volume of food I wouldn’t say we were blown away by it.
We paid, left and took the long way around the monorail all the way back to the TTC. A tram was waiting for us which was considerate and we found the car and undertook the sad drive back to the resort for the final time.
Louise and Emily went straight to the room leaving me to get some water from the shop. I got to the room to find them in the corridor as their magic bands wouldn’t open the door!
Packing would be left until the morning as bed was badly needed.
So we are back at WDW and the cruise is done. Not that my opinion matters but I realised I didn’t summarise our thoughts on our first cruise experience, so here goes.
It was very good.
Now, shall we move on? Oh, OK, some detail….
Well, many folks predicted we would fall in love with it and never want to do any other type of holiday again, and to be honest, we didn’t. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and there were some highlights and things we will never forget, but it did not grab us by the short and curlies.
The ship’s sheer size, scale and impressive nature were mind-blowing. It oozes quality and is relatively new, so everything is in pristine condition. The cast members were awesome and could not do enough for us and Cataway Cay was everything we hoped it would be. A real paradise destination. The entertainment was first class and our evenings in the piano bar were just lovely. We felt privileged to have been able to experience it all.
The bits that weren’t for us…
Sharing a table for all our evening meals. I know we sound anti-social and miserable, but that’s probably because we can be. I have to make small talk with people I don’t know or in some cases, really like at work all year so having to do so on holiday felt like hard work at times. Our table sharers were lovely of course and we had no problem with them at all, but the food on our holidays is very important to us and being able to relax in our own company and enjoy it is a big part of our trips.
Queues for food. We expected it and this had been a big reason we hadn’t cruised before. It wasn’t too bad at all, but it felt a bit “holiday camp” at breakfast and I am too weak and unfit to be fighting for my food.
The food. Honestly, everything we ate was lovely. However, the selection was limited and a bit repetitive over the course of the cruise. You know how much we base our trips around food, so a small menu of basically meat, chicken or a veggie option every night wasn’t perfect for us.
Now, of course, having done one, the next time would be much better as we would have some clue about what we were doing. Would we ever do so? I probably would as having just moaned about it above, I really do miss elements of it and would like to try it again. Louise is less keen and is very Disney’d out after a lot of recent trips so if we do a cruise again it would likely not be a Disney one. Although that worries me as all the other ships we saw looked like second-hand rust buckets compared to The Wish!
I am really glad we did it and feel lucky to have been able to, and if the chance presents itself I would definitely say try it.
Now, where were we?
Ah yes, in bed, having a lie in after a long tiring day yesterday. The plan said today was to be a day by Stormalong Bay, alas the weather prevented that being an option as it was bloody chilly. So we would need a plan B. Whilst Louise stayed in bed, Emily and I went down to the Marketplace and got a couple of breakfast sandwiches and a coffee each and had those in the seating area in the shop. We took breakfast back to the room for Louise who was now up and about.
We weren’t sure what to do and with precious time now left on our holiday we did not want to waste a day. Deciding against shopping, we opted for some mini golf and made a bee line for Fantasia Gardens which was handily placed just over the road.
A mixture of tiredness and incompetence saw us miss the entrance for that and have to carry on down the road for ages before finding somewhere to turn around. As the turning around place was Blizzard Beach we decided just to park up there and do the Winter Summerland course. It did not look too busy…
However, as we checked in we did see a fair few folks waiting to play so we had a wait of around half an hour.
We found ourselves a table to sit at and watched the ants carry huge chunks of food around whilst we chatted.
The game was great fun. It had been many years since we had played over in Florida and we were all glad we did.
Trivial things like who won or lost did not matter. What was important was having fun together and that is all I will say on the matter.
Once we were done and I had snapped my putter over my leg and thrown it in the bin, we drove over to the outlets that are Premium at Lake Buena Vista. As ever parking was harder than a moon landing but eventually we stumbled across a car pulling out and started in Gap, getting Dougie a cute Disney outfit. There weren’t too many shops in this part of the mall (we had parked over the road from what I consider the main bit) so we went over there and again luckily came across someone leaving and parked up.
For reasons nobody can explain Louise bought a handbag. It will look nice sat next to all the other new handbags stuffed into our wardrobe back home.
I was hangry at this point and food was required. I decided that we would go to Ford’s Garage, as I had heard many good reports about it.
I had booked us a table on their website as we pulled into the car park, but we would have been seated immediately anyway. I just couldn’t take that risk in my state of hunger.
We were not messing about here. We ordered an appetiser each, much to the incredulity of our server.
I had the pretzel rolls to start
Emily, the Fried Pickles
Louise, of course, Nachos
Then I had a Burnt Ends Sandwich
Emily the Veggie Burger
and Louise a Chipotle Chicken Sandwich, the most enjoyable part being Louise trying to say Chipotle when ordering it.
Apologies for the blur…
We were so full it hurt and we left short of $170 which included a large tip.
Our planned end to the day was over at Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks. We trammed in during the lovely dusk…
We had no intentions or plans to do anything but the fireworks so we just sat on a bench near the flag at the bottom of Main Street and people-watched. I wandered off over to Joffreys near Space Mountain to get some drinks and I would wager good money that was the longest queue of the whole trip.
Other than that we just watched Main Street be awesome as it went dark.
Our selected viewing spot was 99% due to its proximity to the exit and 1% due to the view, but it still wasn’t bad.
We saw a proposal….
and just enjoyed being here….and thought about those who couldn’t be.
I had a wander into the fire station on the way back from a wee….
And got ready for the show…
Emily is always in bits during these things but I admit that I too got the same way on this occasion, thinking about my Dad, and how much he loved the Magic Kingdom and the fireworks. I missed him a lot at this moment.
We were turned and headed for the exit on the b of the last Bang and were so quick off the mark we could get on the pleb monorail with no wait and did not have to resort to the resort one.
The journey out was subdued yet painless and after getting some water from the shop in the lobby at the hotel, we were tucked up in bed and asleep in no time.
There’s no such thing as too early when it comes to being awake, up and ready to get to the theme park on your first day to maximise that time difference. Unless it’s 2am. Then it stinks.
I managed to get back to sleep until 3.45 and that was it. Emily and Louise started getting ready around 5am and during that saga I was on the app booking expensive stuff in the hope of a decent day in the park. For reasons I cannot explain I was able to buy Genie+ at 6.15 and not 7am. Once 7am rolled around I booked our first LL. We were out the door by 7.20 and did the short drive to Magic Kingdom.
I know we’d been awake for hours now, but it was still pleasing to be at the TTC at such an early hour. As you can see, my post-wake-up exercise regime had already burned an impressive amount of calories.
Whether you were last here a few months ago or a few decades, there is something quite special about that moment when you get through the turnstiles and see this.
Prior to this, we had walked in from our very near the front parking space (Aladdin) and I had been pulled at security again, this time due to a glasses case and we had taken the monorail, which involved no queue. A good sign compared to last year.
We did the usual walk up Main Street, full of smiles, relief and anticipation for the holiday ahead and took a clumsy Facebook live video which you can probably still see on the Mkingdon Facebook page if you wish.
We were using our special on-site early entry access at this time. This is not something we have been able to do too often over the years as we are typically off-site idiots and treated accordingly by Disney. So I was pretty excited to get at least a dozen rides in during this half an hour special period.
My conclusion about Early Entry? It’s bobbins. Here’s how it went.
Because we had the audacity to wander up the castle and have a look around, there were huge crowds gathered at all the rope drop locations by the time we figured out this was a thing.
We joined the back of one of the rope drop crowds and waited about fifteen minutes for 8.30 to roll around. At that point, it quickly became apparent that only a handful of attractions were open and they all immediately gained huge queues as all the on-site folks piled onto them. The Seven Dwarves coaster for example saw its queue end somewhere around Dumbo within minutes of the rope drop. We walked down towards Haunted Mansion, seeing any ride that was open being attacked by a swarm of on-site early entry folks only to discover that it was not on the list of rides opening early and so we joined another rope drop crowd until 9am.
We were right up at the rope for this one, so we were within the first dozen or so folks to get onto the ride that day. Come on Disney. Either do Early Entry properly or don’t do it at all. This is a chocolate teapot for most people. It should be for an hour and all rides should be open. Unless I’m staying off-site then it shouldn’t exist at all. Capiche?
Having been on WDW property since around 7.30 and having conquered zero rides in early entry and one by 9.10, breakfast was the next priority. There was literally nowhere to get food anywhere in Frontierland or Fantasyland so we walked back to Sleepy Hollow and joined a very large queue there. Why have early entry and have nothing open?
We eventually got one of these each and a coffee.
I had made a 9.45 LL for Splash earlier so that was our destination now. It was a priority as we knew its days were numbered. Louise decided not to ride as she did not want to get wet in the current temperatures.
I took more photos than I normally might for posterity, which did nothing to improve their quality.
I was particularly proud of this one.
Now moist, we headed over to the Buzz LL I had booked since entering Splash. You just have to be constantly thinking about when and what you can book next to get any value out of the extra expense for Genie+.
I moan about this a lot, but again on this trip, we were beset with line ditherers. This is people approaching the LL entrance with no clue or concept as to what they were doing. They engage in endless conversations with the CM on duty about who knows what, causing us to stand and twiddle our thumbs waiting to get in.
You either have LL or you don’t. There is no conversation. Also, have your tickets out ready to scan, or FFS get a magic band. The number of people we stood behind whilst they searched desperately for their park ticket at the bottom of the largest bag on the planet was incredible. Just a little bit of thought and preparation means that everyone gets on stuff nice and quickly.
So yes, this happened now at Buzz.
Here he is recreating my expression whilst we waited for a family of 27 to try and scan their blockbuster video cards at the entrance to the ride.
All this vexed me enough to inspire my highest-ever score (I think).
Emily and Louise accepted defeat graciously. Emily and I walked over to Philharmagic now as Louise needed to evacuate and it was wise to be as far away from that as possible. We grabbed a water on the way and booked another LL, this time for Pirates for 12.15 and then sat on a bench waiting for Louise.
I like to get a lot of stuff done whenever we are in a park, but it is also nice to sit and people-watch at times. Just for a few minutes though and then we have to get back to it!
After Philharmagic it was parade time so we walked over to the Diamond Horseshoe to watch from there. I went live on Facebook again, so you can watch the parade if you wish.
We made the short trip across to Pirates next. You’ve probably already spotted that today has been a much easier and more pleasant experience than last January? The post-pandemic calm-down seems to be happening and whilst there are still lots of things “not quite right” yet, the signs of a return to what we all know and love are growing. One of those little things happened now.
As we were approaching the ride Emily got a tap on the shoulder and Captain Jack was there, asking her what “that thing in her nose was” (she has a piercing). Despite Emily going as red as a beetroot, this brief interaction and thirty-second chat were lovely. It just couldn’t happen last year (in my view) as things were so busy and of course, characters being out and about at that time wasn’t a thing. It put a smile on all our faces and was a really encouraging sign that the future may get close to the past.
Once we had ridden, getting much wetter than I can ever remember due to those canon shots, food was next on the agenda. I mobile ordered from Caseys as we walked in that direction and waited about five minutes for it to be ready once we got there. Louise went off to search for a table and found one over by the Plaza across the street.
Me – Corn Dog Nuggets
Louise – Chill Cheese Dog
Emily – Plant-based slaw dog
It was all very tasty. Over to Tomorrowland now and Laugh Floor. In between the LL bookings, we were able to mop up the show-type stuff, which typically were walk-ins, so this was working pretty well, with the exception that we shouldn’t have to pay extra for Genie+.
Emily considered Laugh Floor a success as once again we managed to avoid getting on camera.
Onto the People Mover now and the longest queue of our day at 20 minutes.
Everyone was grateful for the sit-down.
As ever I tried to capture the latest shots of Tron.
It feels like this has been in construction for about a decade now.
Of course, we now have an opening date which is awesome.
Continuing our tour of stuff that usually has no wait, we did Carousel Of Progress next and experienced a first. Due to technical issues, we had to watch the first scene twice.
See….
It extended the resting for us and I think I almost fell asleep at one point. I was able to do so as we had walked all the way to the end of the row, despite the attraction not being full and therefore I was at peace.
Earlier I had booked Space Mountain for 2.50 so Emily and I went on that next. Louise declined due to the rides increasing roughness or maybe that’s our increasing age.
I was convinced the seats had changed recently?
Regardless, the need to clench for the entire ride has not changed as you can see. I’m not sure what the chap behind me is sat on, but it seems I had a lucky escape.
At this point, we were done and headed for the exit around 3.15. We browsed some shops on Main Street and took the monorail over to the Poly.
We were hoping to get a drink and sit down for a bit. We tried Trader Sams’s but there was a three-hour wait to get in, so instead, we went outside onto the patio area and ordered some drinks. I was on the mocktails but the ladies had a number of harder options.
This was our view.
My pretend cocktail
and real ones
I think we had three, maybe four rounds of drinks. Perhaps it’s because I don’t drink much at home and I am out of touch but I do find the cost of drinking in WDW especially a bit crazy. Those rounds cost us $170!! We were to experience similar on the cruise later, but I’ll moan more about that at the relevant time.
We got the monorail and looped all the way around to the TTC.
After a cocktail-induced restroom for Louise, we walked out to the car. We had a reservation at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and those Nachos were calling. We were actually an hour early for our reservation but bless them they seated us within five minutes. We were served by the excellent Jo and started with the bread service and more drinks.
This was my lemonade.
We ordered two lots of Nachos, one with meat and one without between the three of us.
More cocktails….
and absolutely no room for dessert. We were ashamed of the lost opportunity to have cheesecake. The bill, including wine, cocktails and food was $110 including a good tip. We drove home, full and sleepy. I don’t know how the other dwarves got home though.
It won’t be too shocking to you to hear that Louise didn’t really sleep too well. She was up most of the night and I rose at my now regular time of around 6am.
We watched a bit of TV for a while and then got up, got ready and finished packing. I nipped down to Fuel again and got some coffee and breakfast. I had some overnight oats which I suspect are one of those things that are portrayed as healthy but probably have more calories in them than a Christmas dinner.
I had a look at our hotel bill on our TV and it was completely unfathomable. I am a man of moderate intelligence but the endless litany of debits and credits just made no sense whatsoever. I was in no mood to be picking over it, so I just clicked “Checkout” and thought any issues could be dealt with later.
We were out of the room a whole five minutes before the 11am deadline. By the time we arrived in the lobby I had already realised that I had left our keycard in the room and now had no means by which to get us out of the car park. So I had to go to reception and tell them this tale that they no doubt hear about 112 times a day.
Once in the car with all the luggage, with my freshly issued key card between my lips, I was delighted to see the barrier just rise automatically making my ten-minute wait in the queue at reception all the more worthwhile.
Of course, we needed an extra case as we couldn’t fit everything into the two we came with, so our first stop was Premium Outlet Malls to find one. We quickly found the Samsonite shop and discovered that the Premium in Premium Outlet Malls stands for the prices. $199 lighter, we left with an unremarkable averagely-sized case. Again, shopping around for a cheaper option was not something either of us felt like doing today.
Back at the car, we shoved the extra stuff currently loose in our trunk/boot into the case.
Our pre-airport meal was to be another visit to the Nachos capital of the world, the Cheesecake Factory. On the way, I stopped to fill the car up and a real sign of the economic times saw a $50 pre-payment not fill the tank from just under half full.
The place was empty but it was barely noon on a Monday.
Having learned our lesson on the last visit, we were just going to have some Nachos today, and possibly a slither of cheesecake too. We would play it by ear!
Isn’t that a magnificent sight? These were again all kinds of awesome and we cleared the lot.
With our return to the UK now imminent and a good deal of upset and unpleasantness in our immediate future, we battled on and got some cheesecake down us.
Mine was called an Old Basque for reasons that escaped me.
Louise had the Banana Cream Pie one. Can anyone say that without hearing Fozzy’s voice?
It was 1.15 now and having failed to fill the tank up on the first attempt, I stopped again for fuel and put another $10 in. The needle still didn’t look to be all the way to the top but that would have to do.
There was nothing left to do now and no time left to do it, so we headed for the airport. We arrived at 1.40 and returned the car with no fuss in car return B. I remembered to drop off the toll pass thing in one of the bins provided and we now had a bit of an adventure getting to the very newly opened Terminal C.
There’s a sign for Terminal C which says you can take the monorail and it will take five minutes or you can walk there in twenty. Unless you are running sub-four-minute miles this is nonsense. It is bloody miles to Terminal C. Even when you get off the monorail there was an enormous trek up and down multiple levels to get to the check-in area. I’m sure all this will improve over time but it was a real faff.
We waited about twenty minutes for check-in to open and we were headed home in Business Class. Aer Lingus invited me to bid for an upgrade before we left the UK and I did, bidding the lowest amount they would permit and we got it. We endured a large family group with many children making a load of noise as we waited. They were those parents who speak to their kids in a way that makes it clear they want everyone around to hear, and know what fun parents they are and how “entertaining” their kids are. Many of the party had those entirely amusing pink Stetsons on that you may see on a Blackpool hen do. Sure, I can be a snob when I want to be.
My tolerance for other people’s kids can be low at the best of times. Right now, it was not abundant.
Anyway, soon enough a camp man with an impressive tan opened up our check-in and we got a glimpse into what it is like to travel like wealthy people. I liked it. He really looked after us. He had a passing resemblance to Emperor Ming (ask your elderly relatives).
Security was empty and we were through to the new terminal. Most of it, not quite open.
I got changed into UK clothing in a loo before we checked into the Business Class lounge. That too was a bit makeshift, but we got free drinks and some seats in a quieter area behind some curtains.
To top the trip off we’d been hearing from Rebecca that Freddie was in the hospital! So we chatted to her to get updates and crossed our fingers that by the time we landed all would be better. In the weeks to come, he would be back in the hospital to undergo a scheduled operation to remove his tonsils as they were the root cause of an endless stream of infections and illnesses. Touch wood, he has been fine since!
We boarded at 5.30.
There was fizzy stuff and juice as we sat down and overall the experience was a good one. The food was a clear step up from the economy stuff. We had a very acceptable bit of steak.
The seat was able to go all the way down pretty much but neither of us managed much sleep as it just wasn’t that comfy, but that is churlish as the comfort levels compared to these night flights in economy was obviously much better.
The flight went pretty quickly thanks to a tail-wind and I have no clue what happened next as my notes finish there.
To say this was an odd trip would be an understatement. It was the first time Louise and I had been on our own and I have to say I really enjoyed the more relaxed, easier to plan and decide what to do element of that. Of course, I also enjoy the large family group trips too. They each have their merits. It was also just nice to have time for just us two.
Clearly though the trip was over-shadowed by firstly the hurricane and the now, in the context of later events, seemingly inconsequential disruption that brought upon us. Throughout the trip, we had the over-arching worry at all times about Mary and her respite care and of course, the worst happened so close to the end of the trip. Having cared for her at home for nine months prior to the trip, it was heartbreaking to lose her whilst away for just two weeks.
We returned home to arrangement-making, putting affairs in order and generally sorting stuff out for Mary. We weren’t to know that within two months my Dad would pass too. He had been a long-time prostate cancer sufferer and the bloody thing got him after 13 years, helped by Covid and a fall that meant he had to have a hip operation. He never came out of the hospital following that operation and his decline was shockingly quick. We are all still trying to process what we’ve been through this year.
It was that rapid decline of my Dad added to Mary’s passing that inspired us to return to Florida so quickly after this trip. We were very much in a “F*ck it, we have to do it whilst we are young and fit enough” mood, driven by what we had seen with our respective parents.
So almost immediately after getting this trip written up, we go again, this time with Emily along for the ride(s). Hopefully, we can enjoy a less stressful trip with no weather disruption and without the concern around Mary’s care and condition on our minds.
If you’ve not had more than enough already, it’ll be here for you to endure soon enough.
For someone who does not drink, last night’s efforts were a serious boozy binge and there was a headache and some toilet shenanigans of note after waking at 5.30 this morning.
This affliction did not stop me from prepping as best I could for the day ahead which was to be Magic Kingdom. When 7am rolled around I was on the app booking a LL for Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Genie+ for the day. Louise slept through all this, oblivious to the hard graft that goes into a successful theme park day. All this pre-planning and research are vital ingredients to getting stuff done and having some fun.
Let’s gloss over the fact that I hadn’t noticed that there was a Halloween party this evening at Magic Kingdom and we’d be thrown out at 6pm. When I did realise this, as we made our way into the park I even considered buying tickets for the after-hours party, but it was sold out.
Due to Louise being horribly hungover and still asleep we did not leave the room until 9.15. A short drive to Magic Kingdom saw us park in Simba 121 and there was genuine delight to see the trams were running.
I say running. The one that was there at that moment had broken down and nobody was allowed to board it. A replacement arrived shortly and the CMs were having nervous breakdowns trying to coral the growing crowds away from the broken tram and onto the working one without someone injuring themselves.
Security saw me get pulled again for a full sack, back and crack inspection. Turns out it was the umbrella I had in Ryan just in case you want to avoid delays at security. We were then quickly at the monorail and onto the park.
We entered the park and I was keen to get some rides done. Louise’s delicate state was dictating that we get some caffeine and food first which was absolutely not a problem at all, in any way, honestly.
Louise decided we’d go to Starbucks, which made sense as 80% of the people in the park were already in there.
I’ll put my grumpy mood down to my slightly hungover state.
It was now past 10am as hordes marauded up Main Street as we queued, inflating all the wait times that we would eventually have to endure. Dramatic, me? Never.
We had a booking for Buzz at 10.35 and we just about got there by then after shoving the slightly above average breakfast down our necks.
OK, so now we’re on a ride at last, the day can begin. Here we goooooooo….
It broke down one minute in.
We sat with impotent guns with the ride fully lit for some time before it got going again.
It was no surprise, with all the distractions, frustrations and mild hangovers that our scores were poor, but at least mine was less poor than Louise’s which is all that matters.
Somehow, amongst all that was going on, I had secured a slot on Pirates which was now due so we wandered over there. Yes, it’s on the other side of the park….what of it?
Then Lady Luck smiled upon us. Back at 7am I had booked Splash for 9am, foolishly expecting to be anywhere near a ride by then. We’d missed that of course but fortune smiled upon us, as it had been down at that time and we got a “push” notification from the app that we now had an anytime/any ride LL in our back pocket. We decided to use it on Splash, as was always intended. We sauntered right to the front of the substantial standby line.
We took in what we assumed would be our final ride on Splash in this format.
As we left the ride we found a quietish spot to phone my Mum & Dad to see how they were doing. Louise was needed on another chocolate hostage release so I chatted whilst she did that.
As we did, the parade started so I was able to share that with Mum & Dad via the magic of my iPhone and chubby fingers.
Once we were done chatting and parading we called Rebecca.
This took us to our time for Big Thunder, which ironically was what Louise called her restroom visit.
I do take some bizarre photos.
That’s a great photo of the back of someone’s head.
Snacks were needed so we got an ice-cream and some popcorn from the cart by Big Thunder.
We had three rides “stacked” now, the first being our begrudgingly paid for ride on Seven Dwarves.
I resent the extra cost but I suppose I resent the 70-minute standby wait we bypassed too. As good as the ride is, it’s not worth 70 minutes of your day.
Once again, you should appreciate my expert levels of photography.
I’m not even sure if this is from this ride?
Onto Space Mountain next for our LL booking there.
This ride has become a barometer of my advancing years. Each time I ride it, it hurts a little more. I had things clenched for longer than anything should ever be clenched.
As an antidote, we did Carousel Of Progress next. A ride much more accommodating to my slow deterioration. I have to admit that my eyes may have closed for a moment or two on our journey around the stages. I blame the alcohol.
The theatre was not full but you would expect nothing less than us taking a seat at the end of the row.
Our gentle journeying continued with a lap around the People Mover.
I took a lot of photos of Tron to keep you all updated with its progress. Of course, these photos are now many weeks old, but where else are you going to get more recent updates? So I will spare you most of them.
We were a little peckish by now so we looked for a suitable snack. As ever, that searched ended with the closest food we could find and we had a hot dog from Launching Pad. We shared a Chilli Dog. It was during the eating of this that Louise earned her nickname of the day. Mustard Tits.
Feeling better for having some unhealthy food inside of us we walked over to Laugh Floor.
The main criteria we were looking for at this stage was places to sit down. It was around this time that I was quite grateful that the Halloween party tickets had been sold out as we were flagging by now and would not have made a late stay in the park.
Philharmagic next and en route there was a huge Pooh. Not as huge as the one Louise unleashed near Splash Mountain earlier mind.
We were one of the last into the theatre and thus unable to set a good example by walking to the end of the row. There was significant tutting.
The new Coco section is a welcome injection of new blood into this show.
Now our LL for Haunted Mansion, booked some time ago was due. We bypassed a satisfyingly long queue and entered the stretching room. As we moved through to the doom buggies and boarded we were then held just at the end of the moving walkway to accommodate a wheelchair user boarding behind us.
It was 5.15 as we left the ride and we were done. We hadn’t completed the park, we were just done and out of energy. We tried to browse the shops along Main Street on our way out but they were just too busy. I’m not sure if these shops have more merchandise and less space these days or if crowds are just heavier, but I don’t remember them being so crammed in years gone by. Probably selective memory.
We gave up and headed out, taking the resort monorail over to the Contemporary. This was a tactical stop to facilitate a restroom stop for me. There is a higher standard of stall I find at these Deluxe resorts.
With my work completed, a quick bag search saw us back on the monorail and out to the tram to get back to our car. We may have been too tired for further theme park touring but we were very much still able to eat. Our choice tonight was Olive Garden at Lake Buena Vista. As we joined the I4 the traffic was backed up, wth signs warning of a crash further up. Luckily, the right-hand lane flowed fairly well for the one junction we needed to travel to come off at LBV.
There was no wait for a table and we were soon digging into the famous salad and bread sticks.
My obsession with steak on this trip continued accompanied by some Fettucine Alfredo.
Can you guess what Louise had? Her “usual” Four Cheese Ziti.
We foolishly ordered a dessert, sharing the powdered donuts with chocolate dipping sauce.
We did poorly at clearing the plate.
The bill was $75 with a good tip. We always enjoy our meals here, but I have to admit the last two or three times the experience hasn’t been the one cherished in our memories of past trips. It is still good food at a reasonable price but something isn’t quite what it was.
On our way home we called at Walgreens for medical supplies. For some reason, all its lights were out and it looked closed but having seen a couple of people enter and leave from our spot in the car park I went in and got what we needed.
We were home and in bed watching more news on Hurricane Ian before long. Sleep did not have trouble in finding us.
So it’s Tuesday January 18th now. The holiday is on its last legs and I now get to document that tricky travel home day. It shouldn’t take long.
I awoke at 7am, probably the latest I had slept all holiday. Alanis Morrissette has a song all about that. I did want to go back to sleep but could not, so instead, I checked us in for our flight home and rested in bed until about 8.30.
I showered, dressed and finished the packing with Emily up and about around 9am. With precision timing we walked out of the room at 10.58 no doubt much to the disappointment of the housekeeping staff. We met Rebecca, Tom and Freddie at the car and somehow got all the luggage to fit with room left for us all to sit down.
The first order of business was gas. With all the food we’d been eating it wasn’t that shocking, but I also needed to get some petrol into the car. I don’t know why but I detest filling the car up and last night had ignored the low fuel light which I now regretted as I had no idea if what we had left would get us to a gas station.
I fired up the in car sat nav and searched for gas stations, setting off to the nearest one which looked to be just a few minutes away. That journey was fraught but it looked like we were going to make it. As we approached our destination there was a distinct lack of gas station where the sat nav said there should be one. I swore quite a lot.
Cursing the in car sat nav and the relatives of everyone who was involved in its construction, we headed for another, a worrying distance away. We ended up down on the 192 and for the second time arrived at a piece of land that should contain a gas station but did not. Abandoning technology in favour of my eyes, I spotted one over the road and with everything crossed that the fumes in the tank would get us there, I headed that way.
We made it, I filled up and reflected on a needlessly stressful start to the day.
With that pressing need satisfied, we moved on to the next one which was of course food. I pointed the car towards Lake Buena Vista and another visit to The Cheesecake Factory. It took twenty minutes to battle a busy I4. We arrived at 12.05 and it was surprisingly busy for that time on a Tuesday. We were seated immediately though.
We of course started with Nachos.
Nachos are probably one of Louise’s favourite things on the planet and as if she had sensed their presence from across the Atlantic she called just as they arrived with absolutely no consideration for us being hungry.
I sneakily passed the phone to Emily so I could eat.
We were also presented with a lovely bread service. It didn’t last long enough to be photographed.
Freddie ordered Chicken Strips
With apparently much improved camera skills, Rebecca and I had the Fried Chicken Sandwich.
They did not persist for Tom’s Chicken and Avocado Sandwich.
Emily had the Impossible Burger.
Again, everything was superb.
As we were just finishing our meals, Rebecca cried out in pain, complaining of very strong shooting pains in her stomach. I briefly had visions of missed flights, hospitals and a grandchild born in the US, but thankfully, they passed before desserts arrived, as I was not missing my cheesecake for anything!
Emily and I shared a Tiramisu one.
The bill was $164 and I somehow expertly managed to spend every last dollar on my Caxton card. It’s a life skill.
Unavoidably we now had to head to the airport. We stopped at a nearby bin to dump all the “trash” accumulated in the car and then set the sat nav for MCO. Knowing this sat nav we would be in Key West by sun down.
We arrived at the airport safely and the car drop off was very simple. We also dropped off our toll tag thing which had worked a treat. Our bag drop experience was probably the easiest ever with no queue at all.
Security is always grim at MCO and it looked to be horrific, but once we had been through the passport check, we were through in fifteen minutes or so. We monorailed to the gate and found some seats. The queue for a Starbucks was worse than security but we got one eventually.
An announcement that boarding was starting at 4.30 was made, which was odd as we were not due to take off until around 6pm. We got to the gate and were surprised to be allowed on immediately with no queue at all. Once we were on the plane we realised why. The thing was empty. I would say there were twenty people on the flight.
Boarding was complete by 5pm and we were airborne by 5.30. This is the time you really just want to be home, but for me, this time, even more so even though I was dreading work and the scales.
The prospect of the cold, grey UK is never one I relish but clearly, this time, none of that mattered and I just needed to be home.
The flight (pardon the pun) flew by. This was easily the quickest and most pleasant journey home we have ever had. We all spread out of course, so had loads of room which made the whole thing very, very tolerable.
Despite still being full from our lunch, I demolished the food provided and soon enough we were on the ground in Manchester. Nothing of note happened on our arrival. Immigration was OK and our bags appeared fairly quickly as there weren’t many on the flight at all.
We drove home to find Louise had locked us out by putting the security bar on the front door so we had to knock her out of bed. We were home.
I have shared a lot of (negative) thoughts throughout the trip already, so there’s not a lot left to say here, however that probably won’t stop me doing so. I have to add for balance that real life, since returning has been stressful, odd, worrying and busy and this may have impacted upon my writing style/mood too. Because it has taken so long to write this thing, at times I honestly couldn’t remember how we really felt beyond the brief notes I made too, so perhaps I have done the odd disservice here and there.
We did enjoy lots of the trip of course and we will look back on it with fondness in the future I am sure, but it definitely was not the same as we have enjoyed in the past. As such we have no immediate plans to return, or have any idea when we might. This is driven a little by our recent experience but also by real life stuff such as Louise’s Mum’s condition and required care and the fact that Rebecca is literally just about to give birth and that new arrival will need to grow some before we could consider a trip to WDW with them.
It’s weird not to have that burning desire to return that I normally have once back in the UK. A tangible sign of my apathy is that, despite now being best friends with high profile Florida vloggers, I have not watched one vlog since our return. Of course, life has been busy, and a post trip slump can be normal, but to me that seems weird. I do think that many first timers now may get home and feel the same way and be back in Magaluf the next summer.
In recent days, I can almost sense the distant rumblings of interest in another trip stirring, but they are some way off yet. It feels like some time is needed for WDW to sort itself out a bit. Post COVID staffing levels will be a big factor and getting those back up to where they are required will help them to re-open everything which in turn will hopefully spread out the crowds and reduce waiting times. My mind has considered a Florida trip with no/less parks too. Strange times indeed.
So in summary, Genie+ is a shit show, or at least it felt that way due to the long wait times. Whether Genie+ is the cause of those, I don’t know, but WDW need to get to grips with the crowd levels and whatever is impacting the guest experience so badly. It was simply not as enjoyable to be in the parks this time compared to literally every other time. The two new/different things in the mix are the COVID impact and Genie+.
Aside from the operational impact of replacing FastPass with Genie, which doesn’t seem to have improved the experience, there is also the feeling of indignation of being forced to pay extra for things that were included in your ticket price. I was very offended by this and felt ripped off when shelling out for LL and/or Genie+. This is not something that will endear visitors to WDW for the long term and any short term uptick in profits will be countered by a longer term loss of loyalty. In case I have not been clear, Genie+ is an affront, ineffective and something that will discourage us from visiting WDW in the future.
Universal was good. We were, of course, spared most crowd issues and long wait times due to staying on site and we really enjoyed it. It remains an occasional thing for a couple of days rather than the main stay of our trip, but we loved our time there. We do it infrequently because the front of line is expensive. It feels WDW may be heading the same way.
A definite huge positive from the trip was our villa. The best we have stayed in by some distance and we will return without doubt.
So there we have it. A weird trip for lots of reasons. We will absolutely go again. It won’t be for a while I would think, and in that time I hope things settle down and we can return to an experience worthy of the increasingly huge investment needed to be there.
Thank you as always for coming with us on the trip via these posts. Your patience and endurance is astonishing and appreciated.
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