I went to Disney World Dec 13th - 18th and had a blast. We stayed at Animal Kingdom and Port Orleans for the trip, and I think if I went back I'd just stick to Port Orleans since we enjoyed it much more.
Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom and had fast passes for flight of passage and navi adventure. I knew the navi adventure wasn't very well received but it was much worse than I thought it was gonna be. Without fast pass I was able to go on everest a few times with very short waits (10-30 minutes). We didn't book any dinner reservations but ate at the Yak and Yeti and had some primo ramen and sake
Friday we went to both universal studios parks and not a single wait was longer than 15 minutes. It was supposed to rain but sprinkled maybe twice?
Saturday we went to Hollywood studios and it still wasn't bad. We had fast passes for Tower of Terror and the Rock n Rolla coaster. We went on tower of terror 3 times throughout the day with a 15-20 minute wait, although we did end up waiting 2 hours for the slinky ride but that's only because the entire park seemed to be hanging out in the toy story land.
Sunday we did Epcot and had a fast pass for Soarin. tried to eat and drink something in each different themed area but the best was probably the brioche bun with chocolate ice cream and caramel drizzle put in a sandwich press in France. Epcot got super crowded around 9 PM so we ended up leaving without hitting up a couple of the areas.
Monday we had planned on just hanging out in Disney springs, but we know a couple people that work at Disney so we got into Magic Kingdom for free. We obviously didn't book fast passes and the waits were surprisingly very long for a Monday. We only waited for Thunder Mountain, went on a couple of the kid rides, ate some candied bacon and chicken skewers and then headed to Disney Springs after to Morimoto Asia for the a5 wagyu and peking duck. By far the best meal we had all trip even though all the meals were fantastic.
Even though not having the fast passes for Magic Kingdom on Monday made it nearly impossible to get on anything good we still got into the park for free and the fast pass kicked ass for everything we pre-planned. The only thing I would change is possibly taking a few more days to hang out in Disney Springs.
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Making a road trip down to Cleveland in March and I wish Cedar Point was open to hit up Steel Vengeance again :/
I love the Animal Kingdom Lodge because of how its sort of situated in a remote area of the grounds and its super quiet there, especially at night, and I love that. I love sitting out by that fire pit and just zoning out.
Other times I have gone down to Disney I mostly stayed at Pop Century which is a cool value resort, especially if you get a preferred room as its closer to the main building and all the park shuttles.
I tried an All Star resort once, and I wanted to kill myself. It was so drab and dreary.... not sure if they renovated it since then, but I still have no interest.
I would like to stay at the French Quarter at some point or even Coronado Springs, but that is a convention center hotel and I am not sure I want to deal with the extra foot traffic especially if there is a convention going on.
Has anyone stayed at one of the Universal properties? I stayed at Cabana Bay a couple years back and I loved it! It's probably my favorite value priced resort in Orlando. When I go back down to FL, I'll most likely stay at Cabana Bay and then just drive over to Disney.... park at Disney Springs for free and then take shuttles to the parks. :)