Character Dining
We went to Akershus in Epcot. We got an amazing meal, our server Thomas was AWESOME, and we got to meet and have lunch with five princesses, and didn’t have to wait in line anywhere (a normal character meeting in the park means a wait time of 10-40 minutes unless you use a Fast Pass). Our reservation was right there, and it’s right across from Elsa and Anna‘s house in Epcot, so we met them first, then scooted over to lunch, and then we fast passed over to the Frozen ride which is also within a 1 minute walk. It’s all basically in the same section of Epcot in Norway. I'd recommend doing the character dining if you want to meet a lot of characters and don't want to waste your time in lines. If you get the most expensive dining package, you can also book character dining using your credits. Our one meal at Akershus cost us $203.00 for two adults and one child with the gratuity. We met five princesses, had an amazing meal and dessert, and were beaming with joy.Staying Hydrated and Cool
You're always thirsty when you're walking in the heat. We brought a Camelbak to the park. My husband carried the thing all over the place, and it was well worth the investment. We filled it with water and ice probably eight times a day. Any restaurant in the park will help you to fill it with ice and cold water, and you can stop and wet your cooling towels at any of the outdoor beverage stations, because they have a bucket to catch the cold water from the ice. You can buy these towels in the park but they are $20-30. They're only $5-10 online, so buy them first. The Camelbak was the perfect way to stay cool, and we were able to get a drink when we were stuck in line while others were fidgeting with water bottles, backpacks, and strollers, we were still hands-free. By the end of our trip, we could press the button on the Camelback, and shoot it at our daughter and she would catch it in her mouth.So, I was concerned about wearing tennis shoes in the park, but my husband who grew up in Florida said it would be fine. I brought sandals, and I learned my lesson. My feet were so blistered after the first day that I switched to tennis shoes and had no problems afterward. We also brought ponchos and we did use them, and they were very lightweight. They were the disposable kind and worked well. In case you don’t know, it rains every day at Disney. It’s usually only for about 20 to 30 minutes, and it’s a great time to catch lunch. If you’re brave and want to wear a poncho, you can go get in line while it’s raining, while everyone else is catching lunch. We met a fantastic couple with three kids while we ate lunch at Pecos Bill’s, in the rain. It was a lovely hour between our fast passes, and we had a great time exchanging stories about where we were from and what we were getting up to.
Sunblock was definitely needed for the parks, and since you can't take a spray-on can on the plane, if you're primarily traveling with carry-on luggage, consider bringing your own tube of lotion sunblock. If you wear a nice floppy hat with a string to keep it on on the rides, you won't have to worry much about any burns. Re-apply every few hours. We used snack/drink stops for this.
Epcot's Cool Now
I can count on my hands that I’ve been to Disney World, Disneyland and Disneyland Paris for a combined 9 times. If you’re a kid who has been to Disney any number of times in the 90s, you’ll remember that Epcot was really a more adult park. It was the place the grown ups stopped to drink and just about the only cool thing in it was the carousel of progress. I don't even remember Figment because we rode the Epcot rides that little.When we booked our stay, I told my husband that our kid would probably be pretty bored at Epcot since she’s four. I remember that after I rode the Carousel of Progress I was bored out of my gourd while my family was drinking around the world. Boy was I wrong! They moved Anna and Elsa over to Epcot (see why you need a Park Hopper pass now?) and they have really attracted attention. We were in Epcot for approximately 4 hours and we wished we had stayed the whole day. The fountains were so much fun. We met Mulan, Donald Duck, Elsa, Anna, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, and Belle, and we had a great time there. My husband and kid were begging for us to stay a full day. I really flubbed on that one. I booked us back at Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Halloween Party, and really, neither of them wanted to be there. They both disliked it and wished to go back to Epcot. I should have caved, eaten the money, and gone back there. It’s not really an adult only park anymore, it still has the booze, but now it’s got much more family friendly attractions. And if you make it through the terrible finding Nemo ride, you’ll soon find that it’s actually a huge aquarium at the end. What a payoff! It's one of the biggest in the world. Definitely worth it. Also amazing is Soarin', so if you haven’t been at Epcot since the '90s, it’s time to revisit it. It’s getting better and better. We can’t wait to go back and try out Mission Space and the Test Track.
Fireworks
If you want to get a good viewing spot for the fireworks, please sit down one hour before they are scheduled to occur. I believe they happen at 8 or 9pm in all parks. The fireworks show is fantastic now but getting stuck behind a tree like we did was a total bummer. Now we would have been on time, but we got stuck on a broken-down Jungle Cruise boat and that actually was the most fortunate thing to happen to us on our trip and I’ll tell you why later in this post. The fireworks can be viewed from directly in front of the castle and have lots of projected images and loud music.Cast Members
Cast Members at Walt Disney World are ALWAYS happy to help, even if it’s something small. They also have their home towns on their name badges and that’s a great talking point if you’re well traveled. We met someone who lived near us when he was growing up and he asked about all the local landmarks and traditions.Hotel Experience
We picked the cheapest hotel - the budget All Star Animation - and we were promised by our phone rep that we would have a Toy Story room. When we got there, they told us the Toy Story rooms were all sold out and there was nothing we could do. We got a room in the 101 Dalmations building. The building we were in was not bad, and was still undergoing renovations. Our room had been recently renovated and consisted of a full bed and a murphy full bed. The room was small, but we hardly touched it, so I can't see it being a problem for short trips. We might want to go somewhere with more amenities/larger room sizes when we stay longer on our next trip. We did speak to a few other guests at our hotel who were given the same run-around as us. Promised the newly renovated building and given something else. One of them, in the Fantasia building, said their elevator walls were cardboard and it hardly moved when buttons were pressed. Ahh well, that's construction, and it has to happen sometime!The Pool
The pool was lovely, but it had no shallow entrance, so if you don't have your kid in a life jacket and they can't swim yet, you're carrying them. We used the pool for one hour during our stay. I hear there's laundry service down there for $3 a load and $1 for the detergent. Sounds good for next time! I'd like to pack less luggage.
The Food
The hotel food was great and was considered a Quick Service meal on our meal plan. We had Mickey Waffles in the morning and there was a choice between four different styles of restaurant meals in the lobby. In the center was a drinks dispenser where you filled your never-ending drinks. So, when they sell you that hotel reservation they'll tell you that you get a refillable Disney cup with your meal package. That cup is ONLY good in the hotel area. NOT in the parks.
Bus Services
Bus Services between parks were amazing. It was about a 10 minute ride to get anywhere and there were never any queues. Even the bus service from the hotel was wonderful. The drivers were lovely and they handled our luggage for us as well. A good experience, overall.
Wait Times (Rides and More)
Wait times for the rides are never as long as they say they are. I was worried that my child would be of this new generation who cannot entertain themselves. I remember swinging from the ride pens when I was a kid, waiting, waiting, and waiting to get on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I remember being bored, but also remember talking to hundreds of people and finding out all about them. We did NOT bring a device for our child to play on, even though some of the rides now include an interactive scavenger hunt (Peter Pan's Flight, for example), from an app on your phone. We decided we did not want to carry along any distractions for her, and we watched our daughter as she told stories, sang songs, and got to know other kids in the park. It made the wait times seem less, and she had more fun.
Actual wait times reflected on the rides were showing more minutes than they took to get on them. Keep in mind that the 30-40 minute wait times we saw were usually 10-20 minutes shorter than that by the time we got on the ride. This includes Fast Pass times.
Park Food (Meals VS Snacks)
Quick Service meals were like fast food, while full-service included a seating experience with a waiter or waitress (and gratuity). Snacks were pretzels, popcorn, slushes, ice creams, and of course, churros. There were more, and they were SO good!
Dance Parties and Character Meets
The characters are available during the dance parties but will not take selfies or sign autographs, usually. You can hang with them though and have mom and dad snap some candid pictures. Characters are also available at Character meet-up points via the schedule at the front of the park entrance (it's a little piece of paper the size of the maps, and it tells you where and when everyone will be). You can Fast Pass the characters, or you can wait in line or book character dining experiences. If you have a Visa Rewards credit card, you can get in to secret character meeting places. Ooooh! Check out their website for more information on that.Characters ALWAYS remain in character. If you ask Ariel about her great-aunt Judy, she's going to tell you she has only her Papa and sisters. If you ask Donald about Star Wars, he might know about it because it's part of the Disney Parks, but if you ask someone else, they may not.
Cast Members can speak to you about a variety of subjects as they are not in character EXCEPT in special areas like Galaxy's Edge where they double as characters when merchants and regular team members. If you ask a Star Wars Galaxy's Edge cast member about Mickey, you're going to hear, "Mikey who?" Yes, "Mikey."
Cast Members at Disney also have their home towns written on their badges and it's great when you run into someone from somewhere near your home town. Super fun to catch up!
Shops and Souvenirs
Of course the souvenirs were ungodly expensive at Disney, so set aside some of that gift card money for souvenir shopping. We were there 3 days and spent $300 on things to bring home. That included some $30 plush toys, a $25-30 flashing toy from the parade, and some t-shirts and pins.
Pin collecting is a huge thing at Disney now and I had no idea what this lanyard and pin set I bought was for until we left. We kept seeing people with the pins and we had no idea that you can trade cast members two pins a day! We're definitely going to bring our lanyards and pins back with us and give it a try next time. There's a pin trading post in Frontierland as well and they meet at certain times of the week. Some people collect $1500 worth of pins a week. No kidding. An employee told us about some of their regular customers. AMAZING.
Ride Experiences (And Problems)
We were fortunate enough to get stuck on our third ride the first day in the park. Fortunate? Why? I'll explain.
We went on Jungle Cruise and the ride got hung up so we waited from 8pm-9pm in the dark, and it was HOT without that boat moving. Our driver was amazing and funny and kept us laughing. When we got off the ride, Disney cast members were right at the exit scanning our Magic Bands to give us 3 extra fast passes. We thought this meant that we had to book 3 more rides in the app, and everything seemed to be sold out, so we booked nothing with them.
The next day, in Epcot, our daughter accidentally set off her Fast Pass on a simple experience, running through the doors at the Nemo ride. We hadn't fast passed this so we couldn't figure it out. Why would she have a pass for Turtle Talk with Crush? We asked the Cast Member there and she said, "Oh, did you have extra passes?" Yes, we told her, and she told us they're good for ANY ride in the parks at ANY time! WOAH! We went to Guest Services and had our pass that our daughter used put back on and we were able to ride rides we hadn't been able to book in advance, like Snow White's Mine Ride.
So, getting stuck worked in our favor after all. :)
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