I was at Disney for five days. It was my first time to ever go, so don't take this as travel advice. However, people seem to want to know how it went...
A. I had a really good time. I get it more than I did beforehand and would definitely go back. My daughter is six years old so it's the sweet spot for age. She loved the princesses and she loved all the rollercoasters. No ride scared her. She wanted to do them all, so that was helpful, as well. Also I had DAS assistance and I paid for genie plus so between those two things, there were essentially no wait times in line. I did the virtual queue for Guardians twice and waited about 30 minutes both times. Outside of that, no wait was more than 10-15 minutes minutes that I recall. Also, I had a good tour guide (a subscriber but I won't dox her) who goes often and that helped tremendously.
B. We did Epcot Tuesday, Animal Kingdom Wednesday and then park hopped to Magic Kingdom that afternoon and did the after-hours until 1 a.m. at MK as well. We did Hollywood Studios Thursday, MK Friday and Epcot Saturday before leaving. The crowds on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were awful. I thought Saturday the crowd was light.
C. Top five rides (not necessarily in order but sort of): 1. Guardians, 2. Flight of Passage, 3. Everest 4. Space Mountain 5. Tower of Terror/Test Track. My daughter has a top 4 of Guardians, Space Mountain, Tower and Mine Train. I thought Smugglers Run was highly overrated. I'm not a Star Wars person so maybe that played a role but I thought it kind of sucked. I like Rise of the Resistance.
Not rides but highly recommend Festival of the Lion King and Enchanted Tales with Belle. Definitely the latter. It was cute and an easy way for the kid to see Belle.
D. Park rankings: 1. Epcot 2. Animal Kingdom 3. Magic Kingdom 4. Hollywood Studios
Epcot with the countries and two of my six favorite rides plus a couple other ones I thought were cute or good wins fairly easily. AK at second is controversial I know, but it has two of my favorite rides and I like animals. Not having a fireworks show deducts some points but overall a really solid grade for the smallest park. I didn't go as a kid so I don't have the MK nostalgia that most of you do. It was good and I really liked it and we did the pre-fireworks dessert party on Friday. That was cool. Bippity Boppity is overrated and meh. CA enjoyed it but I think that's a leave it. Hollywood Studios just didn't do it for me relative to the other ones. Toy Story Land is neat at night and there are good rides. Maybe my expectations were too high and it just didn't meet them. It wasn't bad, but I left expecting a little more. I wouldn't want to skip it though.
E. We celebrated CA's birthday at California Grill and it was very good. We had an 8:15 dinner and could watch the MK fireworks from the restaurant. The three-course deal was all good and I was pleased with it, though it got overshadowed quickly by Topolini's Terrace the next night. It was truly fantastic. Roasted octopus, black truffle burrata, romaine insalata, bouillabaisse and a couple desserts. It was elite. Inside the parks: Tusker House had a character breakfast that had actually good food. No issues there at all. Recommend highly. Royal Table is crap food but an easy way to see four or five princesses. I thought 50s Prime Cafe was pretty meh. The food wasn't bad, but overall it didn't do much for me.
We stayed at Beach Club. I've stayed nowhere else so I can't really compare, but it had a great pool and Beaches and Cream is right there. Also it's fewer five minutes walking to Epcot or to the the skyliner to get to Hollywood Studios. Great location.
Anyway... those are my quick thoughts. I appreciate everyone who gave me suggestions.
A. I had a really good time. I get it more than I did beforehand and would definitely go back. My daughter is six years old so it's the sweet spot for age. She loved the princesses and she loved all the rollercoasters. No ride scared her. She wanted to do them all, so that was helpful, as well. Also I had DAS assistance and I paid for genie plus so between those two things, there were essentially no wait times in line. I did the virtual queue for Guardians twice and waited about 30 minutes both times. Outside of that, no wait was more than 10-15 minutes minutes that I recall. Also, I had a good tour guide (a subscriber but I won't dox her) who goes often and that helped tremendously.
B. We did Epcot Tuesday, Animal Kingdom Wednesday and then park hopped to Magic Kingdom that afternoon and did the after-hours until 1 a.m. at MK as well. We did Hollywood Studios Thursday, MK Friday and Epcot Saturday before leaving. The crowds on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were awful. I thought Saturday the crowd was light.
C. Top five rides (not necessarily in order but sort of): 1. Guardians, 2. Flight of Passage, 3. Everest 4. Space Mountain 5. Tower of Terror/Test Track. My daughter has a top 4 of Guardians, Space Mountain, Tower and Mine Train. I thought Smugglers Run was highly overrated. I'm not a Star Wars person so maybe that played a role but I thought it kind of sucked. I like Rise of the Resistance.
Not rides but highly recommend Festival of the Lion King and Enchanted Tales with Belle. Definitely the latter. It was cute and an easy way for the kid to see Belle.
D. Park rankings: 1. Epcot 2. Animal Kingdom 3. Magic Kingdom 4. Hollywood Studios
Epcot with the countries and two of my six favorite rides plus a couple other ones I thought were cute or good wins fairly easily. AK at second is controversial I know, but it has two of my favorite rides and I like animals. Not having a fireworks show deducts some points but overall a really solid grade for the smallest park. I didn't go as a kid so I don't have the MK nostalgia that most of you do. It was good and I really liked it and we did the pre-fireworks dessert party on Friday. That was cool. Bippity Boppity is overrated and meh. CA enjoyed it but I think that's a leave it. Hollywood Studios just didn't do it for me relative to the other ones. Toy Story Land is neat at night and there are good rides. Maybe my expectations were too high and it just didn't meet them. It wasn't bad, but I left expecting a little more. I wouldn't want to skip it though.
E. We celebrated CA's birthday at California Grill and it was very good. We had an 8:15 dinner and could watch the MK fireworks from the restaurant. The three-course deal was all good and I was pleased with it, though it got overshadowed quickly by Topolini's Terrace the next night. It was truly fantastic. Roasted octopus, black truffle burrata, romaine insalata, bouillabaisse and a couple desserts. It was elite. Inside the parks: Tusker House had a character breakfast that had actually good food. No issues there at all. Recommend highly. Royal Table is crap food but an easy way to see four or five princesses. I thought 50s Prime Cafe was pretty meh. The food wasn't bad, but overall it didn't do much for me.
We stayed at Beach Club. I've stayed nowhere else so I can't really compare, but it had a great pool and Beaches and Cream is right there. Also it's fewer five minutes walking to Epcot or to the the skyliner to get to Hollywood Studios. Great location.
Anyway... those are my quick thoughts. I appreciate everyone who gave me suggestions.
