Got back last night from what is likely our last trip to Orlando. My girls are 12 and 11 and while we still had a blast, want to do some different things for our next few vacations. That combined with the fact that I don't appear to handle the 'screen' rides very well (hadn't done many before this year); makes it kind of unlikely we'd be back, at least in a full-blown 'mostly parks' capacity. This time we again stayed at a vrbo townhouse in Windsor Hills (2 miles from Disney). A few notes/trip report:
Sunday- Magic Kingdom. Pres Day weekend. Crazy busy, to be expected. Had always been able to get '2nd tier' fastpasses late in the day to be able to ride most of what we wanted, but we didn't have much luck this time. Did manage to get them for Splash Mountain at 10 pm by searching for them 1 at a time. Never got to ride 7DMT this trip which was kind of sad because my kids love that ride. I just won't wait 2 hours for it. Maybe it's because we've been there 4 times now, but MK feels kind of 'tired' to me. While a must for the younger kids, I'm not really a fan of a ton of their rides overall. It does help that they have so many, so you can at least usually be doing something. I mentioned before but Be Our Guest is now a $60 3-course menu, for anyone over 9. I still love the restaurant but that may be too much for some folks. Walking through that place and seeing the 'snow' outside, seeing the rose, etc....will continue to be one of my favorite memories ever though.
Monday- my 11 year old did Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo in Downtown Disney. Definitely our last time doing that as she was already on the older side of the clientele but she still loved it. The new location down there is great....from the magic mirror in the changing room to the picture station afterwards....highly recommend to anyone with little girls. Was $109 for the package with the t-shirt/skirt. By the way, they did a great job with Downtown Disney in general. A few years ago parking was a pain, lots of construction; but now they have a few huge ramps (and free!), some great shopping/food options- i liked it down there. Did Ohana later that night for dinner. They tried to seat us just inside the door but we asked if there was anything closer to the windows to see the fireworks and they accommodated us. Glad we asked as it was cool to see from there; although they are still pretty far away. Great meal as usual. The appetizers make that meal, IMO....wings, potstickers and lo mein....hit the spot.
Tuesday- Animal Kingdom. To try to ride Flight of Passage, got there at 7:45 for a 9:00 opening. In line just before 8:00. When we got in line there were only about 8 lines formed for the middle turnstiles, with about 30 people at each. As we waited, they opened more lines on the sides, allowing people to run over there and still beat us in. I didn't really care for how they did that, but they started letting people in around 8:10. I told the kids we were just going to walk quickly over to Pandora, but so many people were running, we just joined in. A few hundred of people in front of us over there; and they opened Pandora around 8:30. We got on the ride at about 9:20. I think it may have been down for a part of that time though, as the line didn't move for a bit as we got pretty close to the front. It was our first time to Pandora and it's really beautiful. Took lots of pics. The Flight of Passage ride is pretty incredible. The 3D is just so much better than anything I have ever ridden. Unfortunately, I realized fairly quickly that motion sickness was going to get to me on this one. I closed my eyes for short stints and got through it, but it obviously took away from some of the enjoyment. It's not a rough ride, but the dives and sways during the flight simulation got to me. Regardless, i was so glad we got to do this and my whole family loved it. By 9:20, it was a 225 minute wait. As usual, we enjoyed AK's mixture of rides and animals. We never got to see Rivers of Light, and I did not ride Everest this time because I was still feeling a little off from FOP; but I had ridden that before. Had dinner at Yak & Yeti which we enjoyed.
Wednesday- started our Universal portion at the Universal Orlando park. Got to do Harry Potter Gringgots ride for the first time and thought it was really good. Actually no motion sickness there, or on the Mummy (daughters bailed on that one last second, and glad they did!). Had butterbeer for the first time. It's kind of a mix of butterscotch (not a fan), creme soda (kind of) and root beer maybe? Somehow i loved it. Great theming on the whole HP area as well as Gringgots. Went home and cleaned up for our dinner at California Grill. Such an awesome place; our 1st time. Great view of the fireworks from the observation deck; great food. Ended up at almost $300 for the 4 of us though! They have several signs about a strict dress code and maybe 75% of people looked good but they were not turning people away. Several shorts and t-shirt families, etc. Glad we got to experience this place once...highly recommend if you can snag a reservation. One note- self parking was pretty far away so thought I'd valet....family got out and they told me it was $33. I drove to self parking.
Thursday- Volcano Bay. Reserved a cabana in advance for $200. I think it's more during warmer months, but we had a great 85 degree day for it anyway. Really liked being able to get in ride lines from the tablet in the cabana, order whatever food we wanted, and have a place to put all of our stuff. We figured we drank $50 worth of the free water so that helped cut the cost.
They did a really good job with that park; and being able to get in line virtually and then just hang out in the wave pool or out in the sun is really cool. Lots of different slides for all thrill levels. If we ever go back to Orlando, this is probably the one thing we would still look to do, park-wise.
Friday- Islands of Adventure. First time for my family in this park, and first time for me in like 20 years. We skipped several high profile rides the kids didn't want to do (Hulk, Spiderman, Doomsday drop or whatever it's called) so we were able to get in everything else. Kong was really cool, still love the Jurassic park ride. My favorite might have actually been the Bluto Barges.....everyone got soaked. Wish we would have taken off our shoes and socks though! Spent quite a while squishing around after that. Hogwarts is super cool. Watched the light show right before close (less than 10 minutes). I had read that Forbidden Journey is particularly tough for motion sickness but i had to give it a shot. Awesome queue, really well done. The motion on the ride is unlike anything i have ever done.....it's almost like being in a boat on super choppy waters, but it throws you on your back more. I did OK with the non-screen parts of this, but ended up keeping my eyes closed for most of the screen parts as i could feel myself not liking those immediately. So, I didn't love it but could see how cool it was. My wife and older daughter loved it. My younger one was scared and screamed at the spiders and ghouls and stuff and ended up closing her eyes a lot too. Tried to have dinner on the Citywalk (also well done by the way) but it was Friday night and everything was packed. Did manage to sneak out mid-day and get a brownie milkshake from that Chocolate Emporium place (#### that's good).
Sorry this was a bit long, but wanted to recap it for not only myself but for anyone else who is may help. In the end, we had a great time but it did feel like too much time in the parks and in traffic (crazy on Hwy 4 basically 16 hours a day). Kids are enjoying lounging back at home today. I don't want to look at my credit card bill but our trips over the years gave us some of our most treasured memories so in the end it's all worth it. Next year though- Mexico.
