Disney World Reviews and Advice

For a while now, I have meant to publish a guide to Walt Disney World (WDW).  For a variety of reasons related to a recurring family reunion, I have spent at least 50 days at WDW in 10 trips over 25 years.  Over those years, I have learned a fair amount about surviving WDW.  Since we may not be going back for a while (the crowds are just too crazy, see below) I thought I would share some of my experience.  My thoughts, review, and tips on Disney World are below the fold.

General Advice

• If schools are out in a large part of the country, then WDW will be packed.  There are no exceptions. If kids are in school, then crowds will be much more manageable. Christmas, New Years, Summer, Spring Break, Presidents Day – they are all slammed.  Thanksgiving used to be the one exception to this rule, but Thanksgiving week is now packed as well.  Even the second week of November, which is only a holiday in New Jersey schools, is packed.  If you want to avoid crowds, you will either have to hope your school has a unique week of vacation that no one else has, or you will need to take your kids out of school.

• Learn to use the Fastpass system – its the greatest thing Disney has done in the parks since eliminating the E ticket.  The fastpass system gives you reservations on certain attractions and lets you avoid the lines. In each park, your first action upon entry is to find the most popular ride you really want to ride and go get a fastpass for it, then go do something else until your reservation comes up.  One big misconception – Disney has never enforced the expiration time on the fast pass.  For example, a pass might say it is good for entry on a ride from 10:05am to 11:05am.  They won't let you on until 10:05, but they will let you use the pass well after 11:05, in fact generally until the park closes

• Call the Disney restaurant reservation line and make dinner reservations several weeks in advance, at least, for busy weeks.  If you wait until you arrive, you will find very, very little available.  Disney World has one single reservation number for all its restaurants – the number is posted on their website.

• If you are there during the busiest weeks, you need to hit the park by opening time.  Yeah, I know it's vacation and you want to sleep in.  But you will be able to get more done in the first hour than you can in the next three. Also, on busy days, fastpasses quickly run out.  At the top attractions, by 10:00 AM the earliest fastpasses may be for 3:00pm or even later.  By 11:30am, they may well be gone entirely.  We often go to a park early, ride a few rides, gather up a few fastpasses, and then go back to the pool or to DisneyQuest for a while, returning in the late afternoon to use our fastpasses.

• Avoid parks with extra magic hours or extended hours.  "extra Magic Hours" are the Disney practice of allowing Disney hotel guests (only) to come to a park an hour early or stay a few hours late.  This used to be a good deal, but there are now so many Disney hotels that these guests can swamp a park. Most guests stay three or four days, and see a different park each day.  Lacking any other criteria for deciding which order to do the parks in, they will typically head disproportionately to the park with extra magic hours.  This means that on any given day the extra magic hours park is probably the busiest spot. Also, late night is not necessarily quiet any more at the parks.  It used to be that you could go after 9:00 to Magic Kingdom and have the place to yourself.  Recently, I found the park still packed as late as 11:00 PM during Thanksgiving week (the one exception is Spash Mountain -- if its cold out at night, you can ride it as often as you like).

• With the possible exception of the Rockin' Roller Coaster, all Disney thrill rides are tamer than their equivalents at other parks (like Six Flags).  This will disappoint thrill seekers and probably be a source of relief for others. Some rides make up for being a bit tamer with unique theming and atmosphere (e.g. Splash Mountain and Tower of Terror).  For example, Space Mountain is actually a very tame roller coaster, made slightly more exciting by being in the dark

• Study Disney ticket pricing.  Once you buy a three-day ticket, each incremental day is very cheap.  For example, going from a five to a six day pass cost me $2 per person. Also, I always buy the parkhopper option – you never know when you might go to MGM in the day and then want to go to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks at night or go eat in an Epcot restaurant.  Also, I always get the additional package of destinations thrown in. These include passes to the water parks, Disneyquest, and Pleasure Island.  Going to one of these locations even once pays for the added cost in the ticket.

• One day at Disney I had the opportunity to tag along with a friend who had hired a Disney guide for the day.  This is a very knowlegeable and professional Disney employee who will take up to 8 people around a park through the day for about $125 an hour(!)  I could never pay this much myself, but I will say for those who can afford it, it is an amazing experience.  The guide had a plan for the day to do the maximum amount of stuff.  He managed our fastpasses and got us premium seats at shows without the wait.  The best part was the stress reduction - you didn't have to worry about what to do next, it was all taken care of.  Highly recommended if you have the bucks to spend.

Where to stay and dine at Disney

• I can't offer a lot of help on the relative merits of hotels, as I have only stayed three places.  The “unofficial” guidebooks have pretty good advice on hotel cost-benefit tradeoffs.  It used to be there was a big advantage to staying in one of the three hotels (Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary) on the old monorail system.  However, most of the new parks are not on this system, so there is less benefit.  Of these three, the Polynesian has the best location because you can walk to the Epcot monorail and are on the Magic Kingdom monorail.  The Grand Floridian is nice, but pricey.  Its main advantage is that you get a great view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks without fighting the crowds in the park.  The GF, particularly at Christmastime, has my favorites hotel lobby in the world.  Its beautiful and busy, with a piano player and sometimes an orchestra playing.

• Disney Dining has gotten a lot better.  There are a number of premium restaurants we really enjoy. These include California Grill (Contemporary Hotel), Flying Fish (Boardwalk), Shula's and Blue Zoo (Swan), Citricos (Grand Floridian).  Note these are all $30 entree type places, but there are plenty of other good choices.  Wolfgang Pucks and Bongos in Downtown Disney are both good.  The California Grill has a great view, and is a fabulous spot to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks.

Disney/MGM Studios

This is probably the “hot” park at WDW because it has gotten more than its fair share of new attractions of late. The two thrill rides (RRC and TofT) have huge lines, but to some extent Disney has imitated Seaworld at MGM.  Seaworld can handle huge crowds without queues because they just send people from show to show in big stadiums.  This is a bit how MGM works.

• Rockin Roller Coaster:  In my mind, the best ride at WDW.  Great theming plus fun and exciting ride.  Roller coaster in the dark, with a nice zero to 60 in a couple of seconds acceleration (via an electro-magnetic catapult) and a loop and corkscrew.  Has speakers in the seat that blast Aerosmith music while you ride.

• Tower of Terror:  Also a very good ride, though short, with a nice theme and a random series of elevator free-fall drops.  Fastpasses for this and Rockin' Roller Coaster run out fast in the morning. 

• Indiana Jones Stunt Show and Lights-Camera-Action Car Stunt Show:  Each of these are about 30 minutes long and are outstanding.  Really amazing shows, the best at Disney right now.  Get fastpasses for the roller coaster and tower of terror early and then hit these shows in their early shows – the late shows overfill.

• Star Tours:  This is one of those simulator rides,, like BodyWars at Epcot, but themed Star Wars.  Used to be the big attraction at MGM but is now aging.  My kids still like it

• Great Movie ride:  Classic Disney animatronic ride.  Adults like it, but kids are sometimes bored because they don't recognized a lot of the movies.  My kids liked it, and I always enjoy it.  Disney does not really build many animatronic rides like it used to (Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, etc.)

• Beauty and the Beach show, Little Mermaid Ride:  These are good for the little ones.

• Muppet 3-D:  A fun show, but aging.  Not as good as newest Disney 4-D offerings

• Backlot tour:  Pretty fun, though I would like to see more of the legitimate backstage stuff, rather than the one really brief view we get.  Has a special effects show in the middle the kids liked.

• Fantasmic:  This is the evening fireworks / animatronic / live action / laser show at MGM.  I actually never saw it, but it gets great reviews.   I have seen people lining up hours before the start time.

Animal Kingdom

Intended as a cross between a zoo and a theme park, I don't think they do either well.  I have yet to meet anyone who is really enthusiastic about this park.

• Animals-  has animals, but if your kid wants to see the animals, its a long walk through big crowds for only a few. The safari ride is OK but the animals are in hiding a lot

• Everest-  new roller coaster, themed as an Everest ride with visits from a Yeti.  Again, basically a pretty tame roller coaster except for a twist – the coaster goes backward in the dark for a stretch.  The theming is very good on this one.  The fastpasses run out really early in the day, at least right now while it is new.  If you are faced with a 90 minute wait in the standby line, as we were, you might try the single rider line, where we got on in 20 minutes. 

• Kali River Rapids – basically one of those 12 people in a boat going down the river and getting soaked rides.  Good theming.  Be aware – you will get really, really wet, wetter than on similar rides I have been on

• Bugs Life-  this is my least favorite Disney 4-D offering, and it can scare kids

• Lion King show – a live action musical, this is a pretty good singing and dancing show

• Dinosaur - I really hate this ride.  In a car that runs around a really bumpy road in the dark with some flashing lights and a glimpse once in a while of an animatronic dinosaur.
  
  
• Primeval Whirl - For those that know roller coasters, this is what is called a "mouse" coaster.  There is no big drop, just lots of turning and spinning in a car.  Sort of the mad teacups go down a winding hill.

Epcot

Really two parks in one, there are Science-themed rides in the front and country pavilions in the rear.

• Soarin':  Right up there with Rockin' Roller Coaster as the best attraction at WDW.  Basically you are in a moving chair (like a ski lift chair with a seatbelt) that is put right up in front of an IMAX screen.  Very nice sense of flying with beautiful visuals without being scary or thrilling.  Just fun.  I would have said it was my favorite attraction but I found it to have a low repeat value – the second time was not nearly as cool as the first.

• Test Track:  Another of the top attractions at WDW.  Possibly the most technically complicated ride, which also means that it breaks down the most.  Not to be missed, though.

• Mission: Space: I have heard two schools of thought on this ride:  Some think it sucks, and some think it is OK.  The problem is that it is possibly too realistic. You are put into a really, really claustrophobic little vehicle and spun and thrown around.  Many people, even those with amusement park iron stomachs, get sick on this ride.  Including me.  I and most of my family hate it. 

• Spaceship Earth – another classic Disney animatronic ride, it's pretty good, sort of a time traveling Pirates of the Caribbean.  Its a good ride to save for later in the day – it typically has pretty short lines.

• Living with the Land – our kids hate this ride (BORING) but my wife and I like it.  There are always some really cool things growing in the greenhouses you tour

• Oceans – As a standalone aquarium, it would be weak, but its not a bad attraction to spend some time in, especially if the kids like sharks and such

• Honey I shrunk the Audience – still a very good 4-D movie experience

• Countries-  My wife and I love to walk around the lake and do the countries.  The rides in Mexico and Norway are very miss-able.  The two 360-degree movies at China and Canada are good, and the animatronic show at USA is very good and classic Disney.  We find the walk around the lake relaxing even without rides.  Try to find a schedule of performers.  Typically each country will have performers through the day (acrobats at China, drummers at Japan, story tellers at Italy, a Beatles impersonation band at UK, a rock band in kilts (!) at Canada).  We enjoy all of these.  I have eaten at all of the restaurants over time.  They are all weaker than Disney offerings outside of Epcot.  The show is fun in Germany, and the food is OK at Italy and France.  Japan is a good imitation Benihana's, complete with show by the chef at the table.  Morocco, which is the one restaurant no Disney visitor seems willing to try, is actually our favorite for dinner.  We actually had a Thanksgiving dinner there (everything else was full) and enjoyed that Pilgrim tradition of cous cous and belly dancing.

Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom has the most attractions but can also be the most frustratingly crowded, particularly in the late afternoon during and after the parade and fireworks.

• Space Mountain:  An aging ride, with a tame and jerky roller coaster made more fun by being in the dark.  People still flock to it, though, and my kids like it.  Most of my friends report their only fear on Space Mountain was either a) wrenching their neck or b) hitting their head on the ride scaffolding that seems to be whizzing by in the dark.  Lines get long here.

• Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin:  One of the hot newer rides, it combines a ride with a shooting gallery.  Simple and good fun.

• Speedway:  Kids still love this ride, which consists of gasoline engine cars on a track, but the lines are long

• Haunted Mansion:  Needs a facelift, but it's a Disney classic and still a must-do

• Pirates of the Caribbean: usually a nice short-line ride to be saved for later in the day when the big attractions are full, but on my last visit it was mobbed.  Disney added four Johnny Depp models to the ride, and everyone wanted to see them.  This is probably still my favorite animatronic ride.  It is very well done.  For long-time visitors, even better than the Johhny Depps is the new fake waterfall effect they added at the beginning.

• Splash Mountain: Along with the two other “mountain” rides has the longest lines in the park. This is my family's overall favorite at the Magic Kingdom.  Nice long ride, good themes, animatronics, and a thrill at the end.

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad:  A very tame roller coaster.  I think it's boring and painful to ride as it jerks around so much.  My kids only think it is OK

• Tom Sawyer Island:   A free play area that my kids really liked.  A nice break from the traditional theme park rides.

• Jungle Cruise:  Ridiculously long lines that move really slowly.  An original of the park, this is now a very weak ride.

• Dumbo/Aladdin carpets:  Parents with small kids know these rides, and know that the lines are always horrible and slow moving

• Pooh:  A nice ride for little kids, replaced the old Mister Toad's Wild Ride.  Very well done, but again the lines are crazy

• Peter Pan:  Still a good ride for kids, but the lines are crazy

• Philharmagic:  Excellent 4-D movie with a big theater so everyone in line usually gets in. 

• Hall of the Presidents:  Closed at my last visit, I don't know if it is forever or just temporary.  Part of a general Disney trend away from their traditional pure-animatronic rides and attractions.  I am told current younger generations are bored by these.

• Steam Railroad:  I actually love this – its relaxed and you can ride as long as you want.  Also, its the best way to get around the park when the parade has all the streets clogged

Water Parks

The two water parks right now are Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.  Typhoon Lagoon has a better wave pool but in all other respects Blizzard Beach is the better park.  Blizzard Beach has more, better, higher, and longer slides, and a better kids area.  We love the teamboat springs ride in particular, and the chairlift provides a nice alternative to stair climbing once in a while.  Beware that in winter, they always close one or the other of these parks, so check in advance.

Other

DisneyQuest:  For years we never went to DisneyQuest (in downtown Disney) because we thought it was just a big arcade.  It actually is a mini-theme park on its own, with 10 or so virtual games or attractions.  My kids loved it, but beware, you can get lines here, but not as bad as in the theme parks.  My daughter and her cousins particularly loved the part where you can design your own roller coaster on a computer, and then go ride it in a simulator.

Pleasure Island:  The dance halls are kind of fun if you want to leave the kids behind for a night, but the most fun place is the Adventurers club, which has live and animatronic shows in a bar setting.  They let the kids stay until about 9PM, and had a lot of fun little skits and sing-alongs.  We all loved it.

Hoop-de-doo Review.  We have seen this probably five times as for years, until my kids grew older, it was a family favorite.  This is a fun dinner show, though the location is a little awkward to reach over in the Fort Wilderness campground.  The dinner is family style fried chicken and ribs, if I remember right.  I must look particularly goofy since I got picked out of the audience at least three times out of five to be highlighted for embarrassment by the players.