The boat still needs help, but family vacation is more important. Off we went to the House of Mouse.
I never intended to become a fan of Disney. My folks took me to Disneyland in California a few times, but I barely remember it. It wasn’t until I met and married my wife that I went to Walt Disney World (WDW) for the first time. One trip and I was a kid again and I was hooked.
Vacation at WDW has been an annual family tradition for about 10 years. We have enjoyed it enough to buy into Disney’s timeshare business, Disney Vacation Club (DVC), about 6 years ago and it has paid off. For this trip, we stayed at our home resort of Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Many people fly into Orland’s MCO airport, and that is a pretty good option. WDW has bus service to and from MCO and all over WDW, so a rental car isn’t needed. Our kids are not quite ready for flying, and the extra expense does add up. We prefer to drive it.
We got up at 3AM on Friday, with plans to be on the road no later that 4:30AM. I never sleep well the night before our drive, so I think I got about 3 hours. Still, I was up and going like any other morning. I got dressed and finished packing the last minute items.
The van was packed the night before, except for essentials for that morning. We got the last of the luggage and things loaded. My small fishing cooler was loaded with some drinks and a few things that had to stay cold along with a fresh load of ice. Finally, the sleepy kids were buckled in.
Off we went!
If you were to make the drive door to door, it is about 15 hours. That’s a bit much for the kids, so we stop in Lake City, FL on the way and finish up the drive the next day. After the customary Cracker Barrel breakfast, we hit the road again about 9:30AM Saturday.
About 3 hours later and we saw the WDW welcome sign. Animal Kingdom Lodge is a short drive from there and we were checking in in no time. I always enjoy being greeted at the gate with a “Welcome Home!”.
We had requested early check-in at 1PM, but the room wasn’t ready yet. Drat. The kids were restless, and we were getting hungry so we decided to go up to the hotel’s pool area and have lunch. After lunch we walked around a bit and enjoyed the weather. Our room was ready at about 4pm, which is normal check-in.
Dinner was at 6PM at Boma, which is a buffet style restaurant that has food inspired by Africa and uses quite a few African recipes and spices. We try to have dinner here at least once during a visit. Delicious. If you go, be sure to have the Zebra Domes, which is a chocolate custard dessert made with an African liqueur.
Sunday was Epcot day. We took the bus from our hotel at about 8AM. We wanted to be there when they opened at 9AM so we could rush over and ride Test Track without waiting a couple of hours in line. It was a 30 minute line, which isn’t bad.
Test Track is a simulated vehicle testing system where you design your car, then climb in and give it a drive to see how it works. They recently redesigned it to appear that you are in a computer simulation. The original was more representative of a real vehicle testing facility that was shrunk down into a small space.
We also made sure to do Soarin’, which is also very popular. That one was a FastPass for us. They recently updated it with new footage, some of which is computer animated. I personally prefer the original movie. The current one is still fun, though.
There were a few more things at the upper part of the park, then we started into the World Showcase. The Food and Wine Festival was in full swing, and I was tempted to sample as we moved along, but dinner was coming up and I wanted to leave room for it.
Speaking of dinner, there is a hidden gem in the Morocco pavilion. Marrakesh is a table-service restaurant that serves Mediterranean and North African food. My wife and my sister-in-law both swear by the lemon chicken. I enjoyed the marinated and spiced beef over couscous. The daughter had a beef kabob. The son, a grilled cheese. The place is usually not very busy. We made reservations anyway.
After dinner, we made our way around the rest of the World Showcase. This year, I didn’t try to drink my way around the world. In the past, I’ve enjoyed French wines, German Beer or Glühwein (only during Christmas season), English Beer, Japanese Sake, Mexican Beer, and US beer or wine. I was looking forward to sampling some of the different things from the Food and Wine Festival. This was not to be, mainly because the kids were melting down and it was time to go back to the hotel and rest.
As our bus driver mentioned on the way into the park, “EPCOT stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired”. This is true. It is the biggest of the WDW parks and according to my pedometer, we did about 10 miles of walking. I had some blisters form around and under some of my calluses.
The next day was Animal Kingdom. Our first FastPass was for the Kilimanjaro Safari, which is perhaps the most popular attraction at the park. You sit in a specially modified safari truck and drive around to various areas to see the wild animals. They have Elephants, Rhinos, Crocodiles, Zebras, Giraffes, Lions, and a host of other animals in loose pens. The truck drives next to, or sometimes through, these pens. More than once, we have had to stop because an animal was blocking the road.
Later we did the Expedition Everest roller coaster and spent some time at Donald’s Dino Bash, so the kids could play a bit. Then on to The Finding Nemo stage show.
The last attraction we did was in the new Pandora section of the park. This area is based on the Avatar movie, and its upcoming sequels. I’m not a fan of the movies, but the area was visually very interesting. We did the
Na’vi River Journey, which had a 2 hour wait. We had a FastPass. If I had waited 2 hours for it, I would have been majorly let down. Don’t get me wrong, it is interesting from a technical and artistic point of view, and I enjoyed it, but it was short and didn’t deliver much. I doubt I’d ride it again.
Dinner was at Tusker House, which is a buffet. They serve African-inspired dishes, along with American and European specialties. It was also the only character meal we did. This one has Safari Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy. Good food and something for the kids. Dinner success! In the past, we have gone there for breakfast which is also very good.
The next two days were at Magic Kingdom. They have made few changes since the new parts of Fantasyland. We rode the Seven Dwarves Mine Ride, which is a short but still very fun coaster. There were also some character meet and greets. My 4 year old son really enjoyed Tomorrowland Speedway, and we ended up going on it 3 times, once at night.
My daughter and I enjoy playing Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom (SOTMK), which is a free hidden adventure in the park. You start at the Firehouse near the park entrance to register and get a free pack of 5 random cards. They direct you to the nearest portal to begin playing. Once there, you hear the story of how Hades (from Disney’s Hercules movie) tried to steal the magic crystal protecting the Magic Kingdom. Merlin shattered the crystal and hide the pieces to keep them out of Hades hands. Your job is to keep Hades from getting the shards by finding and collecting them.
There are portals scattered all over Magic Kingdon, except for Tomorrowland. The adventure takes several portal visits for each shard, and you are opposed by Disney Villains, such as Cruella de Ville, Ursula, and others, until you face Hades himself. It is a cute story and a fun adventure through the park. We started on the lowest level, which can be defeated with a single card. It doesn’t matter which one. The middle and expert modes require you to use SOTMK cards with specific powers to defeat your opponents. There is some strategy involved.
In the middle mode, the Villains each have strengths and weaknesses that are known. If you play a card that equals their strength, they turn it back on you. If it is a weakness it does more “damage” to them.
In expert mode, everything has been randomized and you have to figure out what the strengths and weaknesses are. An expert game may take several hours to complete, due to your defeats and having to walk over to another portal, which may be 1000 feet or more away.
We did the Not So Scary Halloween Party, which had us up late to midnight Tuesday. That was a whole lot of fun, and worth the extra admission to attend it. The crowds were larger than I expected, but we were still able to ride just about anything we wanted with a 15 to 30 minute line. Often it was just walk up and walk on. The kids ended up a huge bag of candy each.
Our only problem on the trip happened Wednesday, which had extended park hours. Since were were up late the night before, we decided to go to the hotel pool for the morning, then head to Magic Kingdom in the afternoon and evening. We stayed until a little after 9PM and tried to leave while the 9PM show was going on.
Unfortunately, there was a large crowd that night and we got to Cinderella’s Castle right as the show was ending. We got caught up in the crowd trying to leave the park. There were so many people that Disney opened up paths through the back lot behind the scenes areas to handle the flow. They created paths to follow with orange cones.
As we crossed into the back lot, there was a concrete ramp leading to a storage shed. My wife was pushing the kids in the stroller and hit the edge of it, but went over it. I saw what happened, so I knew it was there and successfully navigated it. My sister-in-law behind me didn’t see it and got shoved a bit towards the ramp. Her foot caught the edge and over she went, wrenching her ankle.
Right away, a person called out “First Aid! First Aid! We need First Aid over here!” Within a minute Disney people swarmed around us. Two Reedy Creek Paramedics jumped into action to assess her injuries. A Disney security member got people standing in a line and facing away from her to block the view. The front-end manager, Trevor, came over right away to assess the situation and gather information.
Within 10 minutes the decision was made to take my sister-in-law over to the ER to get checked out. Reedy Creek took her and myself over to it, free of charge. Trevor gave me a taxi voucher for the trip back to the hotel. My kids ended up with a couple of stuffed animals and them and momma got a trip back to the hotel in a Minnie Van (Disney’s Lyft ride share cars). We even ended up with golden ticket FastPasses and an ECV for my sister-in-law to ride for the rest of our time there.
Disney made sure we were taken care of and it helped make a bad situation much better. Our remaining two days had a ECV, but the benefit of an ECV is that you get to go through the handicapped line at the attractions, which is often very short.
Thursday had us at my favorite park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It was formerly known as MGM Studios, and many people still refer to it as MGM. It was the first park at WDW I went to 10 years ago. This park has had major renovations happen to it over the years. The most recent was the razing of the back half of the park to add in Pixar Land and the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. Pixar Land was just opened a month or two before our trip.
Pixar Land was fun, but busy. The Slinky Dog coaster was great and I’m glad we had a FastPass for it. It was a 2 hour line. We also did the new Alien Saucers, which is fun. The food at Woody’s Lunch Box was tasty, but again, there was a sizable line and not enough room to sit and eat. It rained a bit during lunch, but more of a heavy mist.
We got to meet Chewbacca and Kylo Ren, and ride on Star Tours. My Star Wars fix was satisfied. I can’t wait for Galaxy’s Edge to open in 2019, but I think we will wait a year before we attend. That place is going to be crazy busy.
Our last day was spent at Magic Kingdom, were we picked up a few things were were not able to do the other two days. Magic Kingdom is at least two days of things to do, and we normally take it in three. We did have dinner at Be Our Guest, which is based on Beauty and the Beast and is set in Beast’s Castle. It is fine dining and was delicious (try the Grey Stuff). It better be for $70 for a 3 course meal! For us, it took two meals on our Dining Plan.
The following day, we packed up the van for the long drive home. Before we left, we had breakfast at the hotel. The kids had Mickey Waffles and bacon. We were on the road at 9:30AM and made it up to Chattanooga, TN by 8:30PM.
The last bit of the drive through the Smokey Mountains was beautiful. The leaves were in prime fall color and the views down into the valleys looked like something out of a painting. Too soon, were were out of the mountains and on our way through Kentucky and home.
A vacation at WDW is certainly not relaxing, well, at least not how we do it. There is so much to do in such a short amount of time, and we are go go go to try to do it all. Perhaps we will bundle our next trip with a cruise or something at the beach to have a little relaxation on the next trip.