We are back from a week at Disney World. It was a very enjoyable trip all in all. Weather was nice for us cold blooded PNW types can't take the heat so mid 70s was perfect for us. Even the couple of 80s weren't too bad without the humidity.
We had some issues with our room at Riviera as they didn't get my requests and we honestly got one of the worst rooms. 3rd floor by the garbage bins. We got to hear the trucks every morning and weren't high enough to see fireworks. Oh well, wasn't that big of a deal all in all and they gave us some room credit. Love the staff at Riviera as they are all so friendly, especially at Primo Piatto. We only hit 2 days of Skyliner outage so it wasn't too big of a deal. The bus to/from HS is actually faster than the Skyliner, especially at night when Epcot is closing and you have a wheelchair.
Our parks days usually included a break in the middle of the day. My wife doesn't sleep well so we never got there too early but the crowds were pretty moderate and with her
DAS and
Genie+, we rode all we wanted without too much hassle and didn't over do it. When I was here last in October I really over did it and took a week to recover!
I found that Genie+ Lightning Lanes were pretty open in the first half of the day. I often had issues trying to get them later in the day to fit our schedule. Things did bump up some on the weekend and certain areas were always crowded (looking at you Mexico) but it was nothing like holiday traffic. MK seemed to have the most LLs open. Remy and Frozen tended to go by 1pm, same with FoP and the major HS rides.
There were plenty of Figment popcorn buckets when we were there. The mobile ordering made it all a simple process to get and there were times all the way into the evening. Everyone seemed to have one around their neck but still plenty to go around. We loved looking at all the artwork for FARTS and bought a few small pieces. Tempting on the larger ones but we spent more than enough on regular merch. It was nice that we happened to be there when they gave out the AP magnets as my wife is a big Dumbo fan. Not overly impressed with the 2023 stuff so far but the Disney 100 items are nice and we picked up a few items.
We did the Hollywood Studios after hours. The crowds were low, we rode all we wanted but it was poorly organized with the snacks. They were supposed to have everything at all the locations but we found most places just had drinks/water and popcorn. Only a few places had ice cream and the staff didn't know where to point us. I would have liked to see more in the hub area around MMRR but they were only popcorn. We had to go back into TSL to get what we wanted. A minor quibble and a fun evening.
We had tickets for the MK after hours party but didn't go as it was our last night and we were too tired to deal with a late night and spent most the day doing Epcot and MK before the party so we headed back to the resort. We were told we can use the ticket funds for other events so we'll use them for Halloween or something else when we return.
We skipped a VIP tour due to friends not being able to attend and the price increase from $425 to $600 an hour. Even with our splitting it was just too much an increase and with the after hour parties, it really wasn't worth it. We had a blast last year with it but it was a good time to skip it.
We renewed our APs when we first arrived and that was fairly painless, other than getting Photo pass setup on the right one. They ended up giving us a 30 day pass as it got linked to the wrong one. We also still have some AP vouchers I got from Sam's Club that I'm saving for a rainy day (old plat passes) and that caused havoc with our park passes but GS got it sorted out. Just beware if you still have these hanging around.
).
(our first trip back since 2020). It's just such a natural week for us to go - kids are off of school, it's still unbearably cold in our part of GA and the sun and warmth is all I want. We are in SW Florida at my mom's right now and even here, in a pretty un-tourist-y part of things, it is unquestionably crazier than I've ever seen it this week. Trying to keep my expectations realistic for our arrival tomorrow.
