Disney World Recap

I realized that I haven’t really talked about my Disney World adventure (aside from the Dining Plan review) on this blog yet… and well, that oversight must be rectified! If you have any specific questions about Disney World, please ask away and I’ll do my best to answer.

We Got To Disney World…

CB and I went to Disney World for 5 days between Christmas and New Year’s. It, was, in a word, FUN.

We took a red-eye from the California to Florida on Christmas Eve, and we were both so excited that we couldn’t sleep on the plane. We landed in Orlando at the crack of dawn on Christmas. Then we took the Magical Express (Disney’s bus line between airport and the Resort hotels) to our hotel. We were the only ones on the bus, which made it extra cool.

Our hotel was All-Stars Sports, a Value Resort (read: the cheapest). It was comfortable and roomy with two double beds, a big TV, and a small sitting area. The bathroom was a bit small, and thought the room itself was plenty big for the two of us, it would be tight for a family of 4. The bad thing about Value Resorts is that they are situated farther from the parks, but the bus rides are really convenient (they come around every 20 minutes), and it was a relief not having to worry about car rentals or directions or parking.

And Visited ALL the Parks…

We spent two days at Epcot (really a day and a half because we just had to take a nap after a night of not sleeping on the plane), and a day each at Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.

Magic Kingdom was absolutely magical. The Magic Kingdom is very similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, but it just seemed… even more magical. Cinderella’s Castle was bigger, and at night, the entire castle was aglow in lights. Then at night, it started “snowing” – small bubbles that floated down from the sky and made you feel as if you were in a winter (but still not too cold) wonderland. We saw so many shows and fireworks at all the parks, including Hollywood Studios, where we caught an extreme stunt show and saw the big fireworks show Fantasmic.

Animal Kingdom is what your zoo would be like if it had billions of dollars, hundreds of acres of land, and the Disney marketing machine at it’s disposal. It’s the park that is most unlike any of Disney’s other parks. It’s also the largest park in terms of sheer size. CB and I did pretty much everything in the park in one day, but a family with young children who really wants to see all the attractions might be better off spending 2 days here.

I loved the Kilamanjaro Safari ride – we saw real animals (rhinos, giraffes, ostriches) lounging about. The experience made me want to go on a real African safari (like Madame X did). Better start saving! We had buffet dinner at Tusker House – it was okay. Probably the least memorable meal of the trip, although the food was good enough. We also went on the Dinosaur ride – we were sent off to retrieve a dinosaur and of course run into all sorts of adventures on the ride. A nice lady just gave us her FastPasses because she couldn’t use them, and so we zipped through the lines in less than 10 minutes.

How to explain Epcot - it’s a huge park, made up of two areas FutureWorld and WorldShowcase. It was CB’s favorite park. The FutureWorld portion is devoted to space travel / technology themed rides. We went on the Test Track ride and Mission Space ride (where CB swears it’s at least 4 G’s). It’s so fun to just walk around and see the small buildings of each nation in WorldShowcase. The Mexico spot was house inside a giant pyramid, and we took a boat ride that featured Donald Duck as a singing caballero.

You can buy wine at Italy and France, beer in Germany, and sake in Japan. We saw many adults holding plastic wine glasses… the funny (though not unexpected) thing is, they were mostly the harried parents of young children. Disney offers something for everyone! Epcot also has the best restaurants of any of the parks. There are several excellent sit-down places, especially at the France, Italy, and Japan spots.

At night, over the large lake in the middle of the park, is a fireworks show called IllumiNations. On Christmas Day, we watched the fireworks from our table at a French bistro in “France.” Then CB whipped out a pair of beautiful brio earrings. It was a Christmas present – he had went back to the store by himself after we looked at it in the store because he saw how much I loved the earrings. There, you see, Disney World can be tres romantic!

For our last proper sit-down meal at Epcot, we went to Teppan-Edo. It was most entertaining meal I’ve had at Disney World. Our chef was a petite Japanese girl – she was hilarious. I ordered sirloin steak and shrimp – both were grilled to perfection. Then CB ordered a ginger chocolate carrot cake and I ordered green tea pudding. Both were good, but the green tea pudding was exceptionally rich and creamy. It was so so delicious that CB kept stealing bites.

Where We Ran Around Like Kids…

Disney World has a lot of romantic and picturesque spots, but aside from the romance, it’s just fun to act like kids for a while. We even took pictures with many Disney characters – Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck, Stitch, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Tigger.

Plus, if you are only in a party of 2, you can zip through everything quickly. It’s easier to get everyone up and ready and be the first ones in the park in the morning (when you can get through 2 rides in less than an hour), and for many attractions you’ll be sitting in front because a party of 2 is the easiest number to slot in different rides. We sat in the front on 5 or 6 rides and have skipped over 10+ people on a few rides because they all had larger parties and there were 2 seats open.

And For That We Paid A High, But Not Unreasonable, Price…

Aside from our package costs, we really didn’t buy anything else while at the park. We purchased 2 rain ponchos for $16 total our first day there because it was raining (it was an oversight on our part, we could’ve gotten the ponchos for much cheaper at home). Then in Italy, CB bought us two small chocolates for $2. We spent ~$70-$80 on tips (you have to tip, even at buffets).

We probably spent another $20-$25 on magazines, snacks, drinks for the trip and at the airport. So Disney World is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be unaffordable, especially if you consider that we went during THE most expensive time of the year (between Christmas & New Year’s) and our cost included $1,200+ in airfare for the two of us.

But It Was So Worth It…

If you go during less busy seasons, or if you live closer to Orlando, you can easily knock off $400-$800 per person. But I have to say that nobody does Christmas like Disney World does. The lights were amazing. The whole place was just infused with this sense of – cliche to say – holiday magic. Plus, Orlando in December is nice and cool, and there is no threat of hurricanes!

We took thousands (yes, literally!) of pictures during our 5 days there. Now we’re in the process of culling the pictures down to a more manageable 200 or so that we can put together in a photo album. One more thing – if you can avoid checking any luggage, do so! It was great breezing through check-in with only our carry-ons when there was a huge line for all the passengers checking luggage. For the 5 days, I basically lived in 3 pairs of pants and 2 jackets / sweatshirt.

Bottom-line, I had an absolutely wonderful time at Disney World.

We are already talking about going back! (In ten years, when hopefully we can afford to stay at a Deluxe hotel. CB likes the Contemporary Resort while I would love to check out the Wilderness Lodge).

A lot of people think of Disney World as primarily a family vacationing spot. It’s true, Disney really goes out of its ways to make things easier for parents and more memorable for young children, but Disney World is also a really good place for couples. It’s the perfect place for our first big vacation together. Once you’ve paid for the trip – especially if you buy the Dining Plan, you don’t have to worry about anything. You’ll eat pretty well and with A LOT of food. Everything is taken care off – transportation, meals, all the entertainment within the parks. Disney Resort is a well-oiled machine!

image source: babble.com

Related posts:

1. The Ordeal of My Disney World Vacation Planning
2. Disney Dining Plan @ Disney World
3. Disney World in December will be a Christmas to Remember