WanderlustNZ
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2012
After all the planning and all the fun, sadly the last day of my holiday is arrived. I can feel the post-holiday blues looming just around the corner, so I thought I'd scare them away by writing about some of my favourite moments to date. I will be writing everything on my blog (with heaps of pics), but that might take me a while to get started, so here's a quick summary.
It's my son's birthday today and he had a choice to go back to any place in Disney. Initially it looked like he was going to pick one of the water parks as they were clear hits with him, but no, my son chose... drum roll please...DisneyQuest.
Of all the fun rides to pick from, my son wants to go play computer games. I blame it on the fact that we only had an hour there the other day before going to La Nouba and it was just enough of a taste to leave him wanting more. But in a way, I'm happy. Because it doesn't open until 11:30 it means a late start. I can pack and type here on the DIS for a while, while my family have a nice sleep in. Plus I might leave my husband and son to it for an hour or so and go do some last minute souvenir shopping.
Anyway, looking back at my holiday, I can honestly say there was not a single thing we did that I would regret or change. Obviously, some things have been better than others, but there also hasn't been anything any of my family have hated (with the exception of my husband's contempt for the Small World ride )
I really do think all the obsessive planning has paid off. I have noticed frustrated people everywhere who obviously want to do things, but have not planned and missed out. Like the people last night who arrived a couple of minutes before the Electric Light parade, had no where to park up, and were angry their electric scooter didn't allow them into our Fastpass + area. Or the mum I saw asking about Jedi training at midday and was upset all times had been assigned.
As well as the planning, I contribute everything going so smoothly to the fairly low crowds, avoiding the parks during the busiest and hottest parts of the day, and our amazing luck with the weather. On our cruise we had 7 days of sunshine and the ocean was like a mill pond. All the staff kept commenting on how unheard of it was to have such amazing weather during hurricane season. They said that the cruise before us had 6 days of rain, one day of sun. Here at WDW, we had our first bout of rain yesterday, where it rained as we were leaving Animal Kingdom and again while we were having tea in Ohana. Apart from that, nothing but a few tiny spits here and there. We haven't even had the Florida afternoon thunderstorms. One day of rain during a 3 week holiday - I feel very lucky.
Favourite part of the whole holiday: our cruise on the Disney Fantasy. Every part of this cruise was professional and carefree. Even my husband loved it and has said he could happily do a Disney cruise again.
Favourite parts of the cruise:
1. Our Bernard's Tour of St Martin/Maarten. I was expecting St Martin to be our least favourite stop and St Thomas/St. John our favourite, but it was the other way around. We loved St Martin and thought the tour guide was excellent.
2. Palo. Wow. The dinner there was particularly amazing.
3. Animator's Palate. Not for the food, but the two shows.
4. My stateroom. I love love loved our room and didn't for a second regret not having a balcony. Besides getting a suite, I don't think there would be any room on the whole ship that I could have been happier in.
5. The three main shows in the theatre. I recommend sitting down the bottom near the front of the stage. It's so much fun having bubbles, streamers, confetti etc falling on your head which seems to happen in every show.
6. The Interactive detective painting game. My son loved this and it was great exercise trekking all over the ship.
7. The Art of the Theme Show ship tour. So interesting to hear all about the design elements and small touches that went into designing the ship. One example is how the imagineers had fun with the scenes in Skyline. If you look really closely the tiny people moving around the scenes are actually Star Wars characters.
Favourite non-cruise part of the holiday: Staying in the Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo). I love this hotel so much. We were upgraded from a pool view room to a savannah view and it has been just magical. I didn't think a view of animals would make me so happy, but I get so excited coming back to the room each day to see what is outside. Plus the whole resort is so beautifully designed. Also, despite online complaints, I don't find the transport system from here is that bad. Even though the Boardwalk (the other resort we stayed at) was a quick walk to Epcot, I prefer the transport system here at the Animal Kingdom. The many stops Boardwalk buses had to make annoyed me a bit. Also while our Boardwalk view was excellent (loved being able to watch Illuminations, Wishes, and street performers all at the same time from our balcony) nothing beats the view of the animals.
Best resort Transportation: In continuation of what I mentioned above, I thought it needed to be mentioned that the Universal transportation system puts the Disney one to shame. If you can't be bothered making the quick walk back to one of the hotels, the boats come really frequently and are specific to each resort i.e. no unnecessary stops. The Boardwalk/Beach Club/Swan/Dolphin boat to Hollywood Studios could learn a lot from Universal's system.
Best Ride: This is a tough one as there are so many great options. If I was pushed to decide, it would probably be a tie between Kilimanjaro Safari at AK and Transformers at Universal Studios. My husband would probably pick Big Thunder Mountain, and my son (who is still sleeping), seemed to like Space Mountain.
Best Park Experiences: As much as I liked the rides, nothing beat watching my son do Jedi Training and getting made up for the Pirates League. The whole experience of MNSSHP was excellent, and I also love the Wilderness Explorer programme at AK. It's a great way to make education fun for kids.
Best Dining Experience: Palo by a mile. But the ship excluded, my favourite meal so far has probably been at 50's Prime Time. Not for the food, but the ambience and the great job the server did of playing our 'cousin'. Such a laugh. Foodwise, probably Yak and Yeti or the Singapore booth at the F&W festival. Food full of spices and herbs such as coriander are under-represented here in Disney, so we get excited when we find it. Sanaa tonight, so that might end up being another favourite.
Best Park: I'm not sure I can really answer this one as they all have their pros and cons. At a push I would say AK as I love the theming. If it weren't such a HOT park, it would be my definite favourite, but there is just no breeze in that place. I also loved Blizzard Beach, which I wasn't expecting to love more than Typhoon lagoon, but I did. The lazy river was better, the family raft ride was better, and IMO, the wave pool was better (I like gentle rocking waves, not big crashing ones - my DH and DS would beg to differ). Also the slides at blizzard beach have machines that take the tubes to the top whereas as typhoon lagoon you have to carry them. (Tip: Don't do the three person hydro-coaster at Typhoon lagoon). The 3-people rafts don't have a bottom sheet where you sit and your backside feels the full brunt of the ride. My son and I ended up with big bruises on our backsides and my son was terrified the whole time that he was slipping through the hole in the tube. (I hope that isn't TMI).
Mention also needs to go to the Universal parks. When you stay onsite and get express passes, touring these parks is so relaxed and carefree. Nothing at Disney comes close and I really enjoyed this relaxed style of touring.
Best bargain: Photopass plus. Obviously I haven't received the CD yet, but so far I have been really happy with the system. Getting all our ride photos added to the pass without having to think twice has been great. We received fantastic printed pics at Pirates league and Tusker House without having to pay extra, plus it's been wonderful getting so many shots with all 3 of us in them. I went down to the lobby the other day and viewed all of our 150+ photos to date and are happy with over half of them. One photographer even took a series of 4 different magic shots for us which I loved.
Anyway, my son is now awake. Time to make a start to the day
It's my son's birthday today and he had a choice to go back to any place in Disney. Initially it looked like he was going to pick one of the water parks as they were clear hits with him, but no, my son chose... drum roll please...DisneyQuest.
Of all the fun rides to pick from, my son wants to go play computer games. I blame it on the fact that we only had an hour there the other day before going to La Nouba and it was just enough of a taste to leave him wanting more. But in a way, I'm happy. Because it doesn't open until 11:30 it means a late start. I can pack and type here on the DIS for a while, while my family have a nice sleep in. Plus I might leave my husband and son to it for an hour or so and go do some last minute souvenir shopping. Anyway, looking back at my holiday, I can honestly say there was not a single thing we did that I would regret or change. Obviously, some things have been better than others, but there also hasn't been anything any of my family have hated (with the exception of my husband's contempt for the Small World ride
)I really do think all the obsessive planning has paid off. I have noticed frustrated people everywhere who obviously want to do things, but have not planned and missed out. Like the people last night who arrived a couple of minutes before the Electric Light parade, had no where to park up, and were angry their electric scooter didn't allow them into our Fastpass + area. Or the mum I saw asking about Jedi training at midday and was upset all times had been assigned.
As well as the planning, I contribute everything going so smoothly to the fairly low crowds, avoiding the parks during the busiest and hottest parts of the day, and our amazing luck with the weather. On our cruise we had 7 days of sunshine and the ocean was like a mill pond. All the staff kept commenting on how unheard of it was to have such amazing weather during hurricane season. They said that the cruise before us had 6 days of rain, one day of sun. Here at WDW, we had our first bout of rain yesterday, where it rained as we were leaving Animal Kingdom and again while we were having tea in Ohana. Apart from that, nothing but a few tiny spits here and there. We haven't even had the Florida afternoon thunderstorms. One day of rain during a 3 week holiday - I feel very lucky.
Favourite part of the whole holiday: our cruise on the Disney Fantasy. Every part of this cruise was professional and carefree. Even my husband loved it and has said he could happily do a Disney cruise again.
Favourite parts of the cruise:
1. Our Bernard's Tour of St Martin/Maarten. I was expecting St Martin to be our least favourite stop and St Thomas/St. John our favourite, but it was the other way around. We loved St Martin and thought the tour guide was excellent.
2. Palo. Wow. The dinner there was particularly amazing.
3. Animator's Palate. Not for the food, but the two shows.
4. My stateroom. I love love loved our room and didn't for a second regret not having a balcony. Besides getting a suite, I don't think there would be any room on the whole ship that I could have been happier in.
5. The three main shows in the theatre. I recommend sitting down the bottom near the front of the stage. It's so much fun having bubbles, streamers, confetti etc falling on your head which seems to happen in every show.
6. The Interactive detective painting game. My son loved this and it was great exercise trekking all over the ship.
7. The Art of the Theme Show ship tour. So interesting to hear all about the design elements and small touches that went into designing the ship. One example is how the imagineers had fun with the scenes in Skyline. If you look really closely the tiny people moving around the scenes are actually Star Wars characters.
Favourite non-cruise part of the holiday: Staying in the Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo). I love this hotel so much. We were upgraded from a pool view room to a savannah view and it has been just magical. I didn't think a view of animals would make me so happy, but I get so excited coming back to the room each day to see what is outside. Plus the whole resort is so beautifully designed. Also, despite online complaints, I don't find the transport system from here is that bad. Even though the Boardwalk (the other resort we stayed at) was a quick walk to Epcot, I prefer the transport system here at the Animal Kingdom. The many stops Boardwalk buses had to make annoyed me a bit. Also while our Boardwalk view was excellent (loved being able to watch Illuminations, Wishes, and street performers all at the same time from our balcony) nothing beats the view of the animals.
Best resort Transportation: In continuation of what I mentioned above, I thought it needed to be mentioned that the Universal transportation system puts the Disney one to shame. If you can't be bothered making the quick walk back to one of the hotels, the boats come really frequently and are specific to each resort i.e. no unnecessary stops. The Boardwalk/Beach Club/Swan/Dolphin boat to Hollywood Studios could learn a lot from Universal's system.
Best Ride: This is a tough one as there are so many great options. If I was pushed to decide, it would probably be a tie between Kilimanjaro Safari at AK and Transformers at Universal Studios. My husband would probably pick Big Thunder Mountain, and my son (who is still sleeping), seemed to like Space Mountain.
Best Park Experiences: As much as I liked the rides, nothing beat watching my son do Jedi Training and getting made up for the Pirates League. The whole experience of MNSSHP was excellent, and I also love the Wilderness Explorer programme at AK. It's a great way to make education fun for kids.
Best Dining Experience: Palo by a mile. But the ship excluded, my favourite meal so far has probably been at 50's Prime Time. Not for the food, but the ambience and the great job the server did of playing our 'cousin'. Such a laugh. Foodwise, probably Yak and Yeti or the Singapore booth at the F&W festival. Food full of spices and herbs such as coriander are under-represented here in Disney, so we get excited when we find it. Sanaa tonight, so that might end up being another favourite.
Best Park: I'm not sure I can really answer this one as they all have their pros and cons. At a push I would say AK as I love the theming. If it weren't such a HOT park, it would be my definite favourite, but there is just no breeze in that place. I also loved Blizzard Beach, which I wasn't expecting to love more than Typhoon lagoon, but I did. The lazy river was better, the family raft ride was better, and IMO, the wave pool was better (I like gentle rocking waves, not big crashing ones - my DH and DS would beg to differ). Also the slides at blizzard beach have machines that take the tubes to the top whereas as typhoon lagoon you have to carry them. (Tip: Don't do the three person hydro-coaster at Typhoon lagoon). The 3-people rafts don't have a bottom sheet where you sit and your backside feels the full brunt of the ride. My son and I ended up with big bruises on our backsides and my son was terrified the whole time that he was slipping through the hole in the tube. (I hope that isn't TMI).
Mention also needs to go to the Universal parks. When you stay onsite and get express passes, touring these parks is so relaxed and carefree. Nothing at Disney comes close and I really enjoyed this relaxed style of touring.
Best bargain: Photopass plus. Obviously I haven't received the CD yet, but so far I have been really happy with the system. Getting all our ride photos added to the pass without having to think twice has been great. We received fantastic printed pics at Pirates league and Tusker House without having to pay extra, plus it's been wonderful getting so many shots with all 3 of us in them. I went down to the lobby the other day and viewed all of our 150+ photos to date and are happy with over half of them. One photographer even took a series of 4 different magic shots for us which I loved.
Anyway, my son is now awake. Time to make a start to the day
