Highs and not so highs July 22

[redredshopper]

We have recently returned from a 11 night trip which due to Tui canceling our Cyprus holiday turned into a bit of a bargain. We booked 1/7 and went 16/7, staying in Art of Animation.

Last time we went was 2019 staying at French Quarter with dining plan.

Highs
Guardians of the galaxy - what an amazing ride we managed to get on it 3 times and we all loved it.
First time seeing Galaxy Edge and doing Rise and smugglers run, Rise in particular is spectacular
Oga's canteen was looking for a Homecomin booking and saw this - it was fab what a great atmosphere and the CM's made the place.
Homecomin fabulous food as ever.
Food & Wine - never done a festival before and we loved it tried loads of different things - admittedly we would have loved it more with snack credits. Great atmosphere.
Weather - we have been several times in August and the humidity is a killer, July is hot but without the same level of humidity so the evenings were lovely.
Art of Animation - I'd read trip advisor and was panicking about thin walls and walking miles to our room. That wasn't the case and we really enjoying staying there it was lovely and clean and a nice change to have full on Disney theming.
Skyliner - major perk of staying at AOA, it was great made life so much easier to get about.
Early entry allowed to get a head start on the day - we made the most of this.
Melbourne airport - yes it takes over an hour by coach but it was the most welcoming place and totally stress free.

Not so highs
Housekeeping - value resort so basic service, bedding I think was only changed once and I think they only came in our room twice whilst we were there.
The removal of direct bus to Typhoon lagoon - very annoying having to transfer at Disney Springs.
The flight delay coming out - arrived over 4 hours late due to a fuel leak.
Lack of characters - hardly any round the parks where they were in the past.
No resort shopping transfer - can't remember what it was called but you can no longer purchase something and get it sent back to your resort - which put me off buying anything and carrying it.
Waiting for luggage at Manchester - long and boring.

We had a great time we left the parks each day around 1pm back for pool and a rest, we did all the rides several times and even managed a couple of trips to Typhoon Lagoon. We used Lyft/uber to get to supermarket/outlets and did manage to get some good deals. It was expensive especially not having any form of dining plan but for the price we paid we couldn't complain. Hoping to do Disneyland next year.