Traci and I recently visited Disneyworld and I thought I’d pass along some observations to help those “older kids” particularily ones without younger kids, plan a trip to this destination. Since Disney guides are all over the web and in bookstores I won’t go into nearly as much detail as I did with my Tokyo travel blog but I’ll make my observations which may help you in the future…
I believe, the most important factor in enjoying Disneyworld is to pick a good time to go – meaning off season. While some of the rides were quite fun, I don’t think anything there is worth standing in line for much more than a half hour. We picked a time (1 ½ weeks after Christmas break ended), hoping the crowds would be smaller (and they were). Orlando attracts all sorts of people escaping the cold during January, but we figured the best way to minimize standing in line at Disneyworld was to focus on a time when kids were least likely to come – right after major holidays. While you're packing for your trip, either make sure you have a suitcase big enough so its half empty or (as I did) bring a light weight large duffel bag and throw it in your suitcase as you will likely find various souvenirs to bring home!
We flew into Orlando, and I booked a car service ahead of time on the Internet (American Luxury Transportation Services) – they charged $85 round trip (with a $5 off coupon on the internet) and had a driver waiting to pick us up at the baggage claim. It takes about 35 minutes or so to get to the Disneyworld complex from the airport. You can save both money and time by booking a ride in advance. I’d also strongly advise against renting a car unless you plan to leave the area a lot – For $50 a day you can rent a car just for the day from various rental agencies who have offices in the hotels (National Car Rental was in the Dolphin). With parking charges, valet tips and the general hassle – its not worth having a car especially when Disneyworld is covered with monorails, busses and ferries (all free!).
We decided to stay at the Swan Hotel in Orlando. We wanted to pick a nice hotel, decided to be closer to the Disney-MGM studios/Epcot complex rather than Magic Kingdom and liked to get Starwood points as the Swan/Dolphin hotel complex is actually operated by Westin hotels (but there is no Westin logo anywhere!) Their signature “Heavenly” beds are in the rooms and the hotel is very nice – they share a nice water complex. The whole area between Epcot and MGM contains the Disney Boardwalk (a collection of shops and restaurants), the Disney Resorts Yacht Club and Beach Club, and of course the Swan/Dolphin complex. It also offers a great place to jog during you vacation. Epcot is at one end of a giant man made lake/canal and the MGM-Disney Studio is at the other. The Dolphin/Swan complex is somewhere in the middle of the 1.4 mile body of water with the Boardwalk area closer to Epcot than the studios. Where ever you stay, make it a point to study the transportation routes to and from your hotel and figure out how far it is to walk – we figured out fairly late in our trip that the easiest and fastest way between our hotel and Epcot and MGM was to walk. We were out jogging one night and played “beat the boat” – the ferry moves very slow! The next day we walked and found out with the two intermediate stops made by the ferry, we could easily walk and beat the ferry.
Upon arriving at the Swan, we watched the disappointing last half of the Seahawks playoff loss to St. Louis, then ventured to Disney’s “Downtown” shopping/restaurant area – its easy from the Swan or Dolphin to hop on one of several Disney busses which depart every 15 minutes or so to different destinations such as the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney-MGM studios, the water parks and downtown Disney. We got onto the bus and went to Disney Downtown to eat. We ended up at one of Wolfgang Puck’s ubiquitous cafes and enjoyed a good dinner. After finishing dinner, I insisted on eating dessert at one of my all time favorite ice cream shops, Ghiradelli, where I enjoyed one of their classic hot fudge sundaes.
After satisfying our appetites, we walked to Disney’s Pleasure Island (also part of the downtown complex), bought $16 admission tickets and enjoyed the entertainment – first we stopped at the comedy club where several stand up comics work with the audience to put on a funny show. Next we checked out the nightclub 8 Trax and found the dance floor full of people, some dressed in 70s get ups enjoying music like Prince’s 1999. After leaving 8 Trax we went to the BET Soundstage club to see what was going on in hip-hop land. Nobody was on the large dance floor, and they had several TVs tuned to the second NFL playoff game with a handful of people in the club (Despite being Saturday night at 10 pm, it was off season…). We then stopped in on Disney’s Adventurer’s Club and found it quite busy although I’m not exactly sure what the attraction was all about. It was kind of a cigar bar with an 1900s British Explorer theme. Not finding it interesting, our last stop was at Mannequins Dance Palace where I was amazed at the unbelievable lighting/laser/sound system – it was truly impressive. Unfortunately only one person was dancing alone, and just a handful of people were admiring the visual display accompanying the techno-pop music. The Pleasure Island Jazz company was closed during this slow period so we just hopped on a Disney Bus and returned to the Swan.
On Sunday, Disney held their annual marathon and half marathons - I tried to enter but found it sold out almost 6 months in advance - if you want to run, enter early! Afterwards we saw people walking around with Mickey Mouse shaped finisher medals around their necks.
We decided to start the day by trying out one of Disney’s Waterparks, Blizzard Beach (again by taking the Disney bus from the Swan Hotel). Actually, the other Waterpark, Typhoon Lagoon was closed (they usually keep only 1 water park open during slow periods). It was a warm, sunny day and I wanted to avoid the 4 major themeparks during weekends to minimize lines. Blizzard beach was a fun park, I rode all of the rides except one – the 55 foot nearly straight down water slide from hell. Supposedly you get to 55 miles an hour all on the seat of your bathing trunks. I enjoyed several of the innertube rides the best – it is so smooth to glide along inside the tracks sitting on an inner tube. The white water rafting ride was also fun. I did ride the little brother to the 55 foot monster slide (nearly as tall but 2 landings interrupt the straight drop). All I can say is it’s quite thrilling but wear goggles if you wear contacts or you don’t want water splashing in your face as you rapidly slide to earth. For the water parks, rent a locker (you can also rent towels if you want) and leave everything in the locker – take only the key and “water shoes” or go barefoot. The whole park is basically a swimming pool, and you can walk barefoot everywhere – although the concrete gets really hot in the summer. The second piece of advice is if you want to use one of Disney’s deck loungers/chairs, get there first thing and call dibs on it because even though our park was probably only 25% of capacity – very few chairs/loungers were left and none were to be had on the artificial beach.
After leaving Blizzard beach, we returned to the Swan and walked to the Boardwalk complex which is right next to the Swan/Dolphin. We ate at a nice restaurant called Spoodles followed by desert at the Dolphin hotel ice cream shop before retiring for the evening.
Monday – our first adventure in a theme park. First, a few observations about Disneyworld parks: 1) Know what rides you want to go on before arriving at the park. I’m not going to list all the rides but I’ll suggest two web sites that rate the rides: http://www.mbsc.com/best-of-disney.htm and http://www.guide2wdw.com/. Even if the park was completely empty, there are rides/attractions that you would want to avoid (lousy ride, make you sick, gets you soaking wet). 2) If your staying at a Disney resort (or the Swan/Dolphin) you enter a park an hour early and stay 3 hours after closing by taking advantage of Disney’s policy – they rotate it so only one park is open early and one is open late and it changes daily. Also, only certain rides are available (usually the most crowded ones). 3) Especially if you are going at a busy time, you must understand the fast pass system – basically it lets you make an advance reservation on one ride during a set time. Ideally you use it to wait for one ride and get on two. This is especially handy on close together very popular rides such as Splash Mountain / Big Thunder Mountain at the Magic Kingdom, and Tower of Terror / Rock ‘n Roller coaster at MGM-Disney studios. 4) Its nice to get park hopper passes so you can go in and out of parks at will – on some days we went in and out of 5 parks in a single day. Certain big attractions like the parades and firework shows require you to leave and come back so that you can ride all the attractions you want to.
Anyway, we did ride some of the “oldies but goodies” Disney rides such as the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Carribean. We also left the park mid-day to tour a very nice Disney resort, the Grand Floridian and enjoy lunch there. You can jump on the Disney monorail and get to several hotels in a few minutes. I thought the best attractions at the Magic Kingdom are: 1) The Wishes Firework show which occurs each night at closing – it was simply the best choreographed, best organized and most beautiful fireworks show I’ve ever seen. It’s is something you must not miss! You can see the fireworks from most of the park, you just need to make sure you are in front of the Disney Castle as that’s where they launch the fireworks. We watched it from the bridge to Tomorrowland and had a great view. 2) The Spectromagic parade – Even though we had very light crowds, the parade route was COMPLETELY filled up an hour before parade time. This parade, which replaced the old Electric Light Parade, was amazing -- filled with lighted multi-color floats staffed by Disney characters. 3) As far as the best rides at the Magic Kingdom, its all about the Mountains (Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain). I thought that Space Mountain is getting quite dated, its become almost a C grade roller coaster in the dark. Big Thunder Mountain is a mild to moderate roller coaster with beautiful views and Splash Mountain is a nice log ride with colorful characters along the way. You don’t go to the Magic Kingdom for the world’s best thrill rides, but it still has its charm. After viewing the amazing Wishes fireworks show we returned to our hotel and walked down the Boardwalk to the ESPN club to enjoy a nice dinner of regular bar and grill type food.
Continued
