First WDW Visit

BeefSqueezins

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
We have checked out and our on our way back to beautiful and cooler South Carolina. My wife, 9 year old son and I had a wonderful time, despite the heat, sore feet, and enduring the never ending drone of crying and whining children.

Resort: We stayed at Pop Century. Never staying there before, I had requested a room in the 80’s. My wife and I both grew up in the 80’s and my son is a huge Michael Jackson fan. I quickly realized the 60’s is where you want to be. Much closer to the great hall and the busses. Not a big deal, but I’ll know for the future if I stay there again. Our room wasn’t any further than I would have wanted it to be. The room itself served its purpose. Nice sized bed and very comfortable. I loved the mattress and wish I could have taken it home. My son was amazed by the Murphy bed and got a kick out to the picture of Pluto sleeping.

When we got to the room after our first exhausting day at MK and Epcot, we found that our luggage that had been dropped off 14 hours earlier hadn’t made it to our room. I had to walk back to the front desk and explain the situation. I was exhausted, hot, gross, and my feet were killing me. All I wanted to do was take a shower and go to bed. I calmly talked to the desk about the whereabouts of my bags. They were in the closet across from the desk. They apologized and said they’d have them sent to our room immediately. An hour later, they finally show up. I picked up the welcome letter in the room from the VP of the resort and sent a carefully worded email to him about the situation and my dissapointment at this level of service on our first day. The next day he called me and apologized some more. He did make it right. I’m not going to go into what he did, but we were very happy with the outcome.

Parks: I loved MK. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. Seeing the castle in real life was fantastic. The characters, the CM’s, the sights, I loved every bit of it. It was a childhood dream come true to be there and I wasn’t disappointed. Our first ride was Space Mountain. That’s where I found out that the posted ride times are just a suggestion. We had a FP for it, but the standby line said 10 minutes. I thought we’d got through standby and then use the FP to ride again. We did, but the standby was actually 45 minutes. Cut her close. My favorite ride was Splash Mountain, which surprised me.

We all enjoyed DHS. I really liked the retro vibe. I wish I could have seen it in its heyday. The hike from the Pop Century bus to the gate is ridiculous though. Toy Story Land was very nice, but they need more of it. We never got on SDD, but I got a great picture of him coming down the hill. We loved Aerosmith and ToT. Great rides and the theming in ToT was great. I was able to sign up my son for Jedi Training. He got to go up against Darth Vader. Proud Dad moment for me and something all 3 of us will never forget.

AK was very nice. We got to ride EE twice and we had a FP for Pandora. We liked the safari ride too. I’ve been to Mombasa, Kenya. I never thought I would drink another Tusker beer again, but I had one. Tastes much better cold. The $10.59 was $9.59 more than I paid for one in Mombasa though. I was a little saddened to see that they were selling those carved wooden animals at the Mombasa Marketplace. I’ve seen first hand where they’re made, the children that make them and the working conditions. Then when I saw them charging $45 for a small wooden elephant, I felt a little sick.

We were all pretty “meh” about Epcot. Soarin’ is its only saving grace. We did really like the Animation Shorts Film Festival. The rest of it is like the Museum of Science and Industy in Chicago. They’ll have to put something really special in before I would feel compelled to go back to that park.

Food: We had Table Service meals at Coral Reef, Garden Grill, 50’s Prime Time Diner and Yak and Yeti. The food and service were all very good and I’m glad we went. I got the stuffed lobster at Coral Reef which was very good. It’s a little odd eating there in front of those fish. It’s like eating a steak outside a stockyard. My only disappointment was the pop tart at Woody’s Lunchbox. Not the best use of a snack credit.

Do yourself a favor and familiarize yourself with mobile ordering. You’ll save a lot of time in lines. We got our Dole Whips at Aloha Island in minutes using mobile ordering. It’s one of the best features of the app.

Rides: As I said before, I love thrill rides. There are very few at Disney that would qualify. But I wasn’t disappointed with that. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the family rides. Pirates, Splash Mountain, Toy Story Mania, and others were a lot of fun. The Land and Imagination with Figment can be torn down immediately in my opinion.

Shows: I’m glad we stopped and watched the shows we did. Absolutely wonderful. I really enjoyed Beauty and The Beast at HS and The Bugs Life at AK. One of our favorites was Hall of Presidents. Happily Ever After has ruined me for any local 4th of July fireworks show. I was completely blown away by it. My absolute favorite and would make a trip back to see it again.

Service: With the exception of the Pop Century luggage handlers, the rest of the CM’s get an A+. Friendly, happy, and just fun to talk to. Even the security guys checking bags were telling jokes. I told the CM by a fish exhibit at Epcot that I was disappointed that clown fish (we were standing by a tank of them) weren’t on the menu at Coral Reef. She replied, “Oh no, they’d taste funny.” Lol.

Now for the downside:

The most miserable children you’ll ever find on the planet are at Walt Disney World. The non stop whining and crying by small children could be heard everywhere in the park. The ones that irritated me the most were the kids in strollers that were pitching fits. I watched a little girl, about 4 or 5 have a level 10 tantrum because she couldn’t have her own Dole Whip. The only slightly more miserable people were the parents of these kids. They all looked drained of the will to live. I get it, the kids are hot, tired, overstimulated, and thier nap times are all messed up. I had thoughts of bringing my son when he was younger, when he would still believe it was actually Mickey Mouse and not a guy in a suit, but I’m so glad I waited.

Overall: I’m glad I went. It’s a bucket list item checked and I am blessed that I was able to share this experience with my wife and son. 20 years from now, my son will still remember it. I don’t know that I’m hooked on it, but I will come back again a few years after Star Wars Land opens up.
 
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While I don't agree with the way you spoke about children at WDW and their parents, this type of trip report is fun and interesting to read. So many of us here on the DIS Boards have been to WDW many times and we experience the parks and resorts in a different way than people who are making their first visit. Enjoyed these details.
 
Enjoyed your post! Just back myself and though I didn’t include the child aspect in my report, I too saw some of it.
In the Frozen line a mom was reprimanding her daughter, an early teen that she could just apologize and put the issue behind them. The young girl pouted and mom could not let it go. She literally started offering up a Cappuccino to her daughter to get her out of her pout. We watched in awe.. talk about manipulation.
Parenting styles vary for sure, lol.
Glad ur visit was a good one. Those memories last a lifetime!
 

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