Disney World – Trip Report

I’m not a Disney regular, and honestly I was a reluctant Disney guest at all. My wife and two kids (13 & 10) wanted to make the trip from Seattle because they insisted the kids were “the perfect age” for Disney World and we haven’t had this type of a vacation in a long time. They talked me into it with some compromises about what future vacations would look like, and I dove in to make the most of it. My biggest issues with Disney are the crowds and the value for your vacation $. I would rather travel somewhere new than revisit a theme park, but I do appreciate the appeal for Disney regulars. We arrived on Sunday January 28th and returned on Friday February 3rd, staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Jambo house the entire time. I sought out various french fries and drinks whenever it made sense, but I’ll be honest…there were too many and I had to skip quite a few.

First, let me walk you through the trip expenses. Disney World is not a budget destination, but I tried to find options that would provide a reasonable value for what we paid. Ultimately, this is more than I would have liked to have spent (even with a 20% promo on the hotel), and I’ll point out a few areas where I think it could have been cheaper.

Most of the cash went to Tickets, but that includes some extras that we paid for. We splurged on park hopper tickets, but it would have been a little cheaper to use single park tickets ($90 per person, so $360). However, we leveraged the park hopper functionality every day, so for us it was worth the upgrade. We also purchased Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes throughout the visit so that we could more efficiently ride the attractions that we wanted. This had a convenience “tax” of $801. The hotel came out to $1,985, but had we selected a Value or Moderate resort (or stayed offsite), we may have been able to save another $600 to $800 with a few trade-offs.

Some other call-outs are appropriate. We could have begged someone to drive us to the airport at 5am on a Sunday morning and pick us up at midnight on a Friday. That could have saved us about $200. We had one splurgy meal at Boma in Animal Kingdom, and we could have saved about $200 total by sticking more closely to cheaper food options. If I had a spine I could keep my kids from buying some souvenirs and other junk, so maybe that’s another $200 we could have saved. All together, had we pinched our pennies more this trip could be been closer to $6,000 instead of $8,500. I did use companion fares through Alaska Airlines for our flights which saved us some money, and we did not get sucked out of the rear exit rows. I’ll comment at the very end about some of those trade-offs and whether I thought they were worth it. By the way, “FARTS” stands for Festival of the Arts where there were a dozen or so culinary booths set up with some sample sizes of gourmet dishes.

Next, let’s talk about the attractions that we visited during the week. I set up a spreadsheet to track our ride ratings and presented the results as an average score, but over a column indicating the range of high to low scores.

We had three clear favorites. Expedition Everest, Slinky Dog Dash, and 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. I’d say that Cosmic Rewind was the best ride in all the parks, but Expedition Everest has the best fun/wait ratio (I didn’t scientifically track that). Tron and Space Mountain had the largest variance in scores. Tron scared the crap out of my daughter and she hated it. Everyone else liked it, even though it was too short for the cost/wait. Space Mountain is one of my personal favorites, but the ladies in the family don’t like it because the combination of darkness and bumpy ride drags it down. Some other scores were also impacted by the strong emotional reactions of my emerging diva children. We barely rode anything in Epcot due to time constraints and horrific wait times, but I would have liked to experience Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, and some of the older attractions. Oh well.

Let’s jump into the trip report!

Day 1 – Arrival (Sunday – Jan 28, 2024)

Landed around 3:30pm, took a Lyft to AKL, and checked into the room. Around 4pm we still had not been assigned a room number in the app, but the front desk got it squared away. We chose AKL because there was a 20% discount offer on Disney’s website and we thought we’d be able to take advantage of the 2 hour Extended Evening Hours during the trip as Deluxe Resort Guests. Also, while I maintained some sanity checks, I didn’t want to nickel and dime this vacation because the likelihood of us coming back anytime soon was low. So, I paid a little more for a nicer resort, but didn’t splurge for a Savanna view because we didn’t intend to be in the hotel very much at all.

The kids visited the pool, and I waited for a grocery order from Kroger. Simple stuff like string cheese, Cuties mandarins, fruit snacks, crackers, bottled water, etc. The delivery was late, but it was a smooth pick up from the bell hop once it arrived. The pool was nice, and not crowded. That might be because it was only about 65 degrees and everyone else thought it was freezing out. My kids were fine.

I had made dinner reservations at Sanaa for 6:40pm which ended up being my favorite meal of the whole trip. I ordered the fish (Sumaki Wa Kupaka), and my wife ordered the Butter Chicken with chickpea wat. Kids got naan cheese pizza and were happy with it. I read everyone’s advice and made sure to order the Indian style bread service which was divine. The kids loved it as well, although they were reluctant to try many of the chutneys. My fish was remarkably tender and seasoned perfectly. The butter chicken was delicious as well, although I didn’t love the chickpea wat (a bit sour, but muted by the tomatoes?). We were exhausted after dinner due to a long cross country flight (took off at 6:30am from Seattle). Everyone was asleep by 9pm, but the kids began feuding over a border dispute in the middle of their shared bed at about 2am. I had a hard time sleeping after that, and settled into my Genie+/VQ anxiety pattern. No fries or interesting drinks today.

Day 2 – Magic Kingdom & Epcot

I didn’t encourage this, but the kids insisted that we rope drop Magic Kingdom and leverage our 30 minute early entry. The problem with this is that Magic Kingdom adjusted the hours so that they opened at 8am instead of the previously scheduled 9am, so rope drop for us meant 7:30am (4:30am Seattle time). To their credit, they did wake up and get ready to make it to the gates by about 7:25am. There was already a significant crowd waiting to rush 7 Dwarfs, but we were optimistic that we’d get through.

Let me back up to something important. This was also our first attempt at getting a boarding group through the Virtual Queue system. I watched a lot of tip videos about how to navigate this, and I followed all the recommendations. We used our 5G connection instead of wifi, confirmed our group members, watched a world clock to get the timing right, and started refreshing at least 15 seconds before 7am. Despite all that, we couldn’t secure a spot for Tron that morning. I pivoted to purchasing an Individual Lightning Lane for it while my wife booked a Genie+ Lightning Lane through the app (we chose Jungle Cruise because I heard it tends to fill up).

This was an unusual day because Magic Kingdom was closing early at 4:30pm. My bet was that most people would avoid this park due to the early close, and that the crowd levels would be low. I was right, and WDW Passport said that it was a 2 out of 10 (everything else was a 9). Even though the crowds were low, I didn’t mind having Genie+. We rode a ton of rides and didn’t have to wait for anything. We rode Big Thunder Mountain 3 times, Space Mountain about the same, and only missed Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and a few other small things. One thing to note about our rope drop strategy is that we originally targeted 7 Dwarfs, but the cast members indicated that wait was close to 70 minutes once all of us rope dropers got settled. To make things worse, the ride broke down almost immediately. After waiting about 10-15 minutes I convinced my family that we should go ride Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, and other rides while there was zero wait. We could always wait in line for 7 Dwarfs later (which we did). We managed to get a 1pm VQ for Tron with a callback close to park close, so we ended up riding that twice as well. The ILL for Tron was a very quick boarding process, but the VQ boarding group was about a 45 minute wait start to finish.

Once we exited Tron for the second time we decided to head over to Epcot to get dinner and grab a VQ for GotG Cosmic Rewind at 6pm. Epcot was hosting Extended evening hours for Deluxe guests from 9pm to 11pm, and I assumed it would be easy to get due to the limited access. I was wrong, and I actually regret going to Epcot at all this night. It took about an hour to travel from MK to Epcot via the monorail because so many other people were doing the same thing. Also, despite the same refresh/VQ strategy, we were unable to get an assignment. That meant we arrived at Epcot with no boarding group for the marquee ride, no ILL, and no Lightning Lanes for anything we were interested in (Remy and Frozen were looooooong gone). The crowd level was a 9, and it felt like wall to wall people in the world showcase where I had hoped to grab some food from the Festival of the Arts booths. Ultimately, my son and I rode Mission: Space, and my wife rode Nemo. We got food from Connections for the kids and El Artista Hambriento (FARTS booth). The carne asada was extremely undercooked, and we were all in a bad mood due to the experience shock of moving from a slow MK to a packed Epcot. The kids insisted on going back early, so we didn’t even take advantage of the extended evening hours. Oh well.

Highlights:

• Tron was a great ride. It’s short, as others complain, but it’s a fun launch and especially engaging from the very front row.
• 7 Dwarfs Standby went faster than posted. Maybe 20 minutes instead of 45. Plus, a cast member randomly asked us if we’d like to ride again immediately after.
• I really enjoyed the Curry Brat Tots from Friar’s Nook. The apple slaw was tangy, and the chopped brat made it rich. Tots were a totally adequate vehicle to deliver that and the curry ketchup to your mouth. The kids liked the Waffle Sandwich with fruit and Nutella from Storybook Treats. The I Lava You Float from Sunshine Terrace was also a hit. At Epcot, the grilled pimento cheese sandwich with tomato soup was great.

Lowlights:

• Monorail transportation from MK to Epcot was truly awful. It was the longest line we waited in all day. I should have just given up then, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
• Virtual Queues were very frustrating. We did get the 1pm drop for Tron, but were completely unsuccessful for the 7am and 6pm queues for Tron/Guardians.
• Epcot was mostly unenjoyable. Part of that was the 30k+ steps we put in throughout the day due to low crowds at MK (Genie+ took us around the park quite a bit), but a lot of it was just people density and lack of available rides. We actually never rode Test Track, Remy, or Frozen during the entire trip.

Day 3 – Hollywood Studios & Epcot

I was up early again still dealing with some jetlag, but the rest of the family was sleeping in. I wandered the resort and saw some early morning animals, and then I worked on strategizing the day. I targeted a Lightning Lane for Slinky Dog Dash first, then purchased an ILL for Rise of the Resistance. After that I bought another ILL for GotG Cosmic Rewind because I wanted to make sure that we rode it. We also wanted to eat some more stuff from Festival of the Arts. So, the plan was to start at Hollywood Studios, make our way to Epcot late afternoon, then come back to Hollywood Studios to watch the Fantasmic show at 9:30pm. In case this wasn’t clear, I was committed to purchasing Genie+ every day during the trip.

Things went a little wrong early on because for the first couple hours of the day both Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash were broken. With Rock “N” Rollercoaster closed until the summer, there were very few places for people to go, so the line for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad was pretty long. It said 60 minutes we got there, and that’s about what it took. I enjoyed the storytelling of this ride, and the overall theming was cute, but the rest of my family was a little hard on it. While we were waiting in line Disney cancelled our Lightning Lane for Slinky and gave us an “any experience” pass which we decided to hold onto, assuming that Slinky Dog would eventually be back. This also opened up a regular lightning lane for us in Genie+ which we pivoted to Tower of Terror or Smuggler’s Run. We also rode Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, and returned to Slinky Dog before checking in for our ILL on Rise of the Resistance. All of those rides were super fun. Tower of Terror is a family favorite, although my daughter (our youngest) hates it and refused to ride it again. Toy Story Mania was a great competition between my son and I, and Slinky Dog was an immediate winner for everyone. I had forgotten how smooth and windy/bouncy that ride is. Rise of the Resistance is such a unique experience that everyone liked, but I was sad to see that General Akbar was broken in the first sequence, Kylo Ren was broken in the first bridge scene, and the cannons no longer move back and forth. I rode it when it was pretty new about 4 years ago, and it was better the first time. Still great, but certainly impaired. Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular was a nice break from other rides. Crowd levels were a 5, and once Rise and Slinky opened up it felt pretty manageable.

We generally ate protein bars, fruit, and other small snacks for breakfast. For lunch this day we stopped by Fairfax Fare for a waffle bowl with buffalo chicken, an Enchanted Rose dessert, and a Cup of Enchantment drink. The waffle bowl and the Enchanted Rose were great, but the Cup of Enchantment was meh. Tough to consume popping boba when the cup is full of ice. I think the kids ate a burger from Rosie’s All-American cafe, and I’m sure there were some standard fries.

Took the skyliner over to Epcot after riding Rise of the Resistance and thought we might sneak in another ride on the way. The showcase was still crowded, although crowd levels were reportedly a 4. We didn’t have time for Remy or Frozen (wait times well over an hour, and no lightning lanes available). We opted to explore some of the countries on the way up, so had some snacks in France, and poked our heads in Mexico which was weirdly busy. Then we just went up to Guardians. Guardians still had a wait after checking in for our ILL, but we were on the ride within about 20 minutes of tapping. My youngest was pretty nervous about Guardians and kept her eyes closed for most of it, but everyone else loved it. The song was “One Way or Another” and I was so impressed with the smoothness of the ride and how engaging and fun the story was. So well done. The kids needed dinner afterwards, so we got some stuff from Connections again while my wife and I ate some dishes from Festival of the Arts (FARTS). We wandered back towards the Skyliner while eating a few more dishes from FARTS, and thought we’d have plenty of time to get back into Hollywood Studios were the 9pm close.

Unfortunately, we got stuck in the skyliner for quite a while. We were suspended over the Caribbean Beach Resort for unknown reasons for at least 10 minutes, and this put us at the gates at 9:03pm. This turned out not to be a problem, and they let us in without any problems. We marched over to Fantasmic and had a great time watching the show. Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Highlights:

• Slinky, RotR, Smuggler’s Run, Cosmic Rewind, and Tower of Terror were all awesome rides. I liked Mickey and Minnie as well, but the rest of my crew were more indifferent.
• The mashed potato waffle bowl with buffalo chicken at Fairfax Fare was pretty damn good. I also really liked the Blue Milk in Galaxy’s Edge. Over at Epcot my favorite dish was the grilled pork belly with raclette cheese. The skirt steak sandwich was pretty impressive as well.

Lowlights:

• I suggested that we ride the Friendship Boat back to Hollywood Studios, but we did the skyliner instead. That was a mistake.

Day 4 – Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom

Today was Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to combine a shorter park day at Animal Kingdom with a later night over there. In a twist of fate, they added two hours to the park’s hours for everyone which meant that instead of extended hours from 9pm to 11pm, it was now 11pm to 1am. I didn’t think we could make it that late into the night, but the kids were really interested in trying.

I didn’t need any 7am Virtual Queue’s for this day, so I bought Genie+ and then booked a reasonable Lightning Lane for Navi’i River Journey. I also bought an Individual Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage. We slept in a bit and then headed to Animal Kingdom where we kicked things off in Asia by riding Expedition Everest 3 times in a row. There was essentially no wait, and it was a great use of time until I could book another lightning lane at 10am. We saw the Festival of the Lion King performance, and then headed over to a Kilimanjaro Safari Lightning Lane. The safari is really fun. Feels like an expedited trip through a zoo with a tour guide. We did Flight of Passage, got lunch at Satuli’i Canteen, and rode Navi’i River journey. Flight of Passage was a good ride, and I think that paying the $15 per person was worth skipping the 80 minute wait (up to 120 at some points of the day). River Journey was okay, but it didn’t look as vibrant as I remembered it. After that we headed over to Dinosaur, and then rode Expedition Everest one more time before heading back to the resort. I had started banking Lightning Lanes for later in the day to make sure that we could ride Peter Pan at Magic Kingdom. At 6pm we failed to secure a VQ for Tron, but we decided to just let it go. We had ridden it twice, and that was enough.

For food, the combo bowl at Satu’li Canteen was fantastic for a park meal. You could see and smell them grilling the skirt steak, and everything tasted very fresh. The cheeseburger pod was a miss, though. Interesting concept, but very dry and uninspired. The pineapple lumpia was one of my few “did not complete” meals because I found the textures really off-putting. The Night Blossom drink was super good! It’s a Slurpee texture with mango popping boba. That’s tough to screw up. For dinner we had reservations at Boma back at the resort. Boma is an African themed buffet where everything was above average, but I still didn’t think it justified the money. I paid $33 for my youngest to eat macaroni and cheese and a few desserts. My oldest was $56 for basically the same thing. I tried most of everything that they had which means that I used a lot of calories on soups and sides instead of the higher value carving station with their roasted sirloin. Again, the food wasn’t bad, but I preferred Sanaa from our first night.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom around 7:30pm where I took off with my son for Tomorrowland and my wife took my daughter to meet some princesses. She had a lightning lane for that, and I had a lightning lane for Space Mountain. Really didn’t need it, though. I took my son on the Astro Orbiter while the fireworks show was ending which provided a really cool perspective. We rode a lot of other things that night, including Peter Pan, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Haunted Mansion/Small World (we split up again), Big Thunder, and finished the night at 7 Dwarfs where the posted 45 minute wait was actually about 15-20. The last few rides were during the Extended Hours and it was interesting getting scanned in line to confirm that we were Deluxe resort guests. I saw several people turned away because they were in value or moderate hotels. We only lasted until midnight, but we got a lot of fun photos in a nearly empty park and enjoyed the extra time.

Highlights

• Expedition Everest is an awesome roller coaster. The theming, especially in the queue, is terrific. The fact that we could ride this again and again while people waited 2 hours to ride Flight of Passage was wild to me.
• Satu’li Canteen has awesome food. Would definitely dine here again if I was in the park. The pancake sandwich by Everest was also a damn good breakfast.
• Low crowds at Animal Kingdom (3) plus low crowds at Magic Kingdom (6) in the evening helped me enjoy the parks without the claustrophobia of other crowds.
• Going back to the resort after AK so that the kids could swim before dinner was a great change of pace.

Lowlights

• Not much to complain about, but I really felt the fatigue of being glued to the My Disney Experience app looking for Lightning Lanes and modifying stuff out into the evening.
• Flight of Passage was a nice ride, but the image didn’t feel very crisp, especially some of the more detailed stuff (the floating jellyfish are a good example)

Day 4 – Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom

We told the kids that this was a day to either repeat stuff that they loved, or fill in any gaps that we missed. They really wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash and Cosmic Rewind again, and I really wanted to take advantage of Animal Kingdom being open until 7pm (instead of 6pm) so that we could see the Pandora area lit up at night. Seemed like a lot to fit in, but we decided to take it slow and only do the stuff we really wanted to.

So, I got up early and attempted the Virtual Queue for Cosmic Rewind…and failed again. Whatever. My wife simultaneously went for a Lightning Lane to Slinky Dog and was successful. Then we purchased an individual Lightning Lane for Cosmic rewind in the early afternoon. Once again, by the time we were able to get another Lightning Lane available, but Frozen and Remy were gone. No one wanted to wait in those lines, so we decided that we just wouldn’t be doing those attractions. Oh well. Since we had let the kids sleep in, we didn’t get to Hollywood Studios until about 10am. We had a bit of time to kill before our Slinky Dog slot, so we waited in the Toy Story Mania line that said 45 minutes. It was actually about 10 minutes, so we did Alien Spinning Saucers as well. We requested back seats for Slinky Dog which was the pro move. We found some food at Woody’s Lunchbox (Totchos) and grabbed a Green Milk from Galaxy’s Edge. I also bought a Tenoo Swirl milk which was the blue milk with some raspberry sauce and Nerds candy. The Totchos were good, although they could have been much more generous with the chili. The Tenoo Swirl was my favorite of the milks, followed by the Blue Milk, and lastly the Green Milk. Then we took the skyliner to Epcot again.

We didn’t have a lot of time to kill before our ILL for Cosmic Rewind, so we walked up past the UK and Canada in the world showcase and checked in for the ride. This time there was almost zero wait to board. My daughter was much more emotionally prepared for the experience the second time around and thoroughly enjoyed it. They played “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” which is a great song, but a slower vibe than the previous track. This is arguably the best ride on the Disney properties right now. Better than Tron, in my opinion. We then walked down the East side of the showcase and stopped in several of the countries to explore. China was fun, Germany had a lot to offer with the Werther’s store, and my daughter got a henna design on her hand in Morocco. My son was disappointed there weren’t more Pokemon in Japan, and we finished with ice cream in France. Crazy lines for stuff once we hit Morocco and France. We also ate a lot of FARTS food as we rounded the showcase. The short rib near Germany was a standout, as was the empanada near Morocco. I liked the food near France, but the Creme de Brie was a bit chalky. I thought it was literally just melted brie in a small bread bowl, but it was actually a brie sauce.

We took a friendship boat back to Hollywood Studios so that we could ride a boat, but also so that we could also do the Tower of Terror ride one last time. I love this ride. My daughter hates it. She volunteered to wait outside so that we could ride it and she’d just eat a snack. We had a lightning lane, so it went very fast, and then I ordered a Lyft to take us over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for the last hour before they closed.

The sun was setting as we arrived, and as we got close to the tree on Discovery Island they were just starting a projector show against the trunk. We watched for a bit and were impressed with the video sequences, but we also wanted to see Pandora and take some pictures. We headed over there and were immediately surrounded by glowing plants and other details shimmering under black lights. It was amazing. Then we hauled ass through the park over the Asia where we could ride Expedition Everest for a 5th (and last) time. I had a Lightning Lane, but we probably didn’t need it. The park was pretty empty as we were walking out, and it was a terrific end to our visit.

Since it was only 7pm at this point, we all needed some dinner. The Mara in our resort looked like a reasonable option, but I discovered that there was a Portillo’s restaurant within delivery range through Door Dash, so I got an Italian Beef sandwich with some cheese fries instead. Excellent life choice. We don’t have Portillo’s in Washington, but it’s one of my favorite places in Chicago when I visit. The kids swam in the pool one more time, and then we went to bed.

Highlights:

• This was maybe my favorite day in the parks and it was also our shortest. It felt super low pressure, and we ended up visiting 3 parks. It didn’t feel super busy, though. Animal Kingdom was rated a 6, but we weren’t there very long. Hollywood Studios was a 5, and it felt like they were all in Toy Story Land. Epcot was also a 5, and they were all in France.
• Festival of the Arts was fun on this day. We touched it 3 out of the 4 days we were there, but this felt the most relaxed. My favorite dish was something I ate on Tuesday, but the short rib and empanada were awesome.
• The Werther’s store in Germany was delicious. The caramel butter bar might have been the favorite, but the caramel cookie cup was certainly a contender.
• Expedition Everest at night with zero crowds was stunning. So many string lights and shadows.

Lowlights:

• This wasn’t unique to this day, but there is some bad behavior in the parks with regards to strollers and scooters. People seem to think that having a scooter or stroller entitles them to the right of way and they can do whatever they want…it’s chaos, and some of the areas in the park are pretty constrained. Maybe worse than that are all the people that just stop with their massive group right in the middle of the path. I know I’m not the first person to call this out, but it sucks.
• Giving up on Remy and Frozen was a bummer, but we had all gotten to a mental place where we were no longer trying to check off all the boxes. It was totally fine.

Day 5 – Departure, but Mini Golf and Disney Springs first

Our flight home wasn’t until 8pm on this day, so we had some time to kill. I wasn’t sure if the kids would want another half day in a park or if we’d end up exploring other resorts. What ended up making the most sense was sleeping in, packing our bags, eating a small breakfast at The Mara, and then going mini golfing at the Fantasia Gardens course by the Swan and Dolphin. We received free admission for a round of golf there, so it seemed worth doing.

We took a bus to Hollywood Studios, then a boat to the Swan and Dolphin. In hindsight we should have just taken a Lyft, and in further hindsight we probably should have chosen the other course (Summer Winterland by Blizzard Beach). There was a 45 minute wait at Fantasia Gardens, which was manageable, but I think the other place would have been almost empty. We had a good time golfing and then we grabbed a Lyft over to Disney Springs for some food and shopping.

We got lunch at Chicken Guy, although I was much more interested in the Indian concept called Eet. The kids didn’t like the menu, so Chicken Guy was the compromise. It turned out to be much better than I thought it would be with a ton of interesting dipping sauces, well executed chicken tenders, and some pretty decent fried pickle chips. From there, I headed over to the Coca Cola rooftop bar where I ordered a flight of 16 Coke beverages from around the world. I wish that they actually provided different formulas of Coca Cola from around the world, but these were different flavors altogether. Most of them were mediocre, a few were genuinely terrible, and one or two were good. It was still a fun experience. I also ordered a flight of 3 mocktails which were great to look at, but not super deep in flavor. I recommend checking this out if you’re a fan of interesting beverages or have a burning desire to purchase Coca Cola branded housewares.

For the mocktails, they all disappointed a bit. The Arctic Fizz was okay. Sweet and creamy, but unremarkable. The Fanta Sea tasted like an Icee, but the problem is that they mix lemonade with Fanta…this makes the Fanta flat. The Mango Lime Kick was fun, but it was also impaired by Minute Maid Lemonade. I took notes on all the Around the World beverages, but it came down to most of them being either a little too dry or a little bit flat. I liked the Fanta Melon Frosty from Thailand and the Sprite Cucumber quite a bit. Beverly was pretty tough to drink (tasted like tonic water).

We also stopped by the big Disney Store, got a flight of Dole Whips at Swirls on the Water, and purchased some bath bombs at the Basin store. Then it was time to order a Lyft with a quick stop back at Animal Kingdom Lodge for our bags, and then to the airport. The flight was an hour faster than scheduled, so we landed at about 11pm PT, but it felt very very very very late.

Concluding Thoughts

1. Animal Kingdom Lodge was nice. The lobby was very pretty, but we didn’t have a lot of interaction with the animals. We just weren’t around that much. So, I think we could have stayed somewhere cheaper and had a great experience. I had heard complaints about transportation from AK to other parks, but the bus system was totally adequate. The longest it took us to get anywhere was 20 minutes, but most trips were closer to 15. For comparison, that’s about how long it took to skyliner from Hollywood Studios to Epcot. It’s not bad!
2. I personally didn’t love the Magic Band that I purchased. My wife did like having hers, but mostly for the novelty of interacting with statues in the parks. I paid for all of my food using the Magic Band which was somewhat convenient, but using a Magic Card would have been more than enough for me.
3. The Virtual Queue system is tough. I suspect that the 7am drops have become harder to get now that people don’t need reservations for the specific park. Maybe I’m wrong, but I did everything that people recommended and never got a 7am VQ. The 1pm seemed easier, but I also couldn’t get a 6pm. Purchasing the ILL’s is an okay alternative, but it still doesn’t seem quite “fair”.
4. The Genie+ system worked well for us, but I did feel like I was constantly on my phone looking for the next thing. Hard to resist the feeling of urgency around it. It does also create a bit of an elitist system, but it was to our advantage this time around. Since we won’t be back anytime soon, it helped us ride everything that we had prioritized.
5. My feet hurt. On Monday I did 32k steps. On Tuesday it was 27k. On Wednesday it was 31k, and on Thursday it was 26k. I had good shoes, but my body wasn’t conditioned for that much consistent time on my feet. I wish I had purchased Epsom salts early in the trip, or brought our massage gun to help with the tight leg muscles.
6. I’m still not a Disney convert, but I can better understand why some people come back so often. It’s basically a city built built of nostalgia, optimism, and dopamine. There are better rollercoaster parks out there. There are better food destinations in the world. But, there are very few places that can tap into the types of anchor memories and joy that Disney has a connection to.