Returned last Friday - The Good, Bad & Ugly

[Elsie]

The Good

• Virgin V-Room at Gatwick. A lovely way to start a holiday.
  Alamo OLCI and picking up the car from the garage, avoiding the queues and desk reps
  Almost everything in WDW. The staff, the way they do things, the good will in the parks esp Magic Kingdom
  The food! We lad lovely meals in Olive Garden, Perkins, Friendlies (my favorite), Cracker Barrel and Sweet Tomatoes.
  The Tower Of Terror! Rock 'N' Roller Coaster! Splash Mountain! Philharmagic! TTA!
  The Disney Fast Pass system. At least it gives you a chance of getting to ride popular attractions at busy times.
  The Kennedy Space Centre - spent a full weekend there. Awesome, esp seeing Atlantis.
  A day at Clearwater Beach inc riding The Sea Screamer and watching the sunset
  The driving - it's soooo easy in the USA
  Meeting the wonderful You Tuber SoloDisKyla and her son in both MK and for the fireworks in Epcot.
  The shopping. Loved the trips to Walmart, Target, Publix, Premium Outlets and The Florida Mall.
  Using the Magic Bands and Memory Maker. We got some great shots from photographers, rides and character meet & greets. You wouldn't believe how I excited I was to meet Tigger!
  Watching the Orlando Magic vs Cleveland Cavaliers at the Amway Centre. It's the best arena I've ever been in and a great experience!
  Spirit of the Swamp air boat ride; It's amazing and I'm still smiling!
  Happily Ever After in MK. O.M.G. The most amazing visual/audio/fireworks show I've witnessed. I'm a 6'1 big bloke with a Motorhead tattoo but I was crying my eyes out
  Paying extra for Premium Security on the way back into Gatwick - Skipped the whole immigration queue!

The Bad

• The Virgin PE experience. I’ve already commented on this here - but the headphone socket placement in the seat rendered the IFE system totally unusable.
  The crowd levels (due to Spring Break), were insane. Totally my fault that I had not researched this. There were hordes of matching T-Shirts college/sport/marching band/dance (and their associated families) swarming over the parks - esp at WDW. Never seen it that busy, even in August!
  With it being so busy, having to buy the very expensive Express Passes at Universal. We only had a couple of days to spend in US and IOA and needed to make the most of it and using the Express Pass was the only way we could do this. What made it more galling was the number of "Experience" groups being whisked in the back door of rides bypassing the queues. Universal is becoming a park for the rich only.
  Mobile Phone use in the parks! People should put their phones away and enjoy the parks! There is so much to see in the real world! You've spent so much money to get there and get in, stop staring at a screen you can look at when you're on the bog!
  The cost of food and drink in the parks. $12 for a hot dog and drink is scandalous - and having to wait 50 mins at Caseys Corner in MK for a hot dog is daft.
  The cost of parking. $25 a day is eye watering and feels like being robbed.
  Downtown Orlando - As a City Centre, there is nothing there! On a Saturday afternoon it was like a ghost town. Really weird compared to a European city centre.
  Not being able to fit (just) on Flight of Passage. The Cast Member did his best but the light was flickering, just couldn't get it to stay on. Nuts! However, out of the ride I was given 2 free FP's to use in the next 48 hours at any park. Bonus!
  Seven Dwarves Mine Train. I use one of the FP's from the FoP failure 7DMT as I've never been able to ride it - and the queue is always 2+hrs. Why?! The ride is terrible! You get a slow ride past the dwarves and that's it! Why people queue for 2+ hours for that is beyond me!
  But 7DMT is not as bad as Fast & Furious. This is, quite simply, the worst ride in Orlando. I'd rather be strapped into Small World boat for 24 hours that do F&F again. Do the queue. See the garage. Skip the ride. It's that bad.
  The jet lag that kicked in on Sunday

The Bad

• Well me, obviously!

I've got quite a few negatives on that list but we had an absolutely amazing time, especially in The Magic Kingdom. I'm acutely aware that at my age and size, each time I visit "The Happiest Place On Earth" could be my last. I know some of you could live in the World Showcase - I could in MK. I love it and appreciate it more every visit. It really is "My Happy Place".

I'd been to Florida 5 times with my wife and children but she's left me and my offspring are now adults. This trip was meant to be solo but my GF wanted to come for her first ever trip to the USA - and we had an amazing time. We only had to look after each other, so what we wanted, when we wanted and I loved showing her around the parks and seeing her face as she saw and experienced new things. I would have had a good time on my own - but she really made it special and one day we'll go back, although we'd do things differently next time such as having a villa so we can eat at home more to reduce food costs and have a pool.

Because it was her first time I wanted to show her as much as possible. However, we've spoken about it and (thankfully!), she agrees with me that The World Showcase is boring so it can be skipped next time, making Epcot a half day park. She also wasn't impressed by Animal Kingdom and would only want to see The Festival of the Lion King, ride Everest and FoP again. Again, with FP's this can be a half day park. Neither of us were impressed with Toy Story Land - and as I can't stand the Disneyfication of Star Wars, I don't want to visit Galaxies Edge and their First Order rubbish. Another half day visit for Indy, ToT and RnR. We know what we like, we know what we didn't like and we'll tailor a future trip to fit this!

Finally - My Fitbit stats for the trip. 109 miles?! No wonder we're tired!

[Mexy02]

Glad you had a great trip , I also could live in mk

[Gaz Lear]

Agree with most of your points. In regard to Casey’s if you use mobile ordering on the app you’ll wait no more than 5 minutes

[Gill H]

Glad you had a good time. I have answered on your PE thread as my experience in 2010 was awful too!

[scojos]

Sounds cool.
May i be nosy and ask what the issue with fop was? Im a busty bog girl and worried i ll be dissappointed...

[Elsie]

@gaz I think that might be true. More food was coming out of that window than the others which was annoying.

@iridesence Elsie? 😄 Its my online gaming name. Used to sign up to play games as 'Leicester City'. Some shortened to L.C. and it stuck so I started to go by the name of Elsie. Geddit?! Also fun as it confuses folk!

@Scojos My legs went in but there is a back restraint that no matter how hard I tried to move forward or the cast member pushed, it would NOT make the last click to make it go green. My GF is also a busty girl but she didnt have a problem and rode it successfully so don't worry about it! Im sure you'll be OK. I am a big bloke and only just didnt make it - but the payoff was 2 free Fast Passes so it wasnt all bad. I cant ride the HP rides at Universal either but those seats and restraints are smaller. If you can ride the HP stuff you should be OK for FOP. Hope it goes ok for you!

[novocastrian]

ref phones being used 24/7 in parks , thats the FP system for you, folk constantly checking whats the least waits etc, or ordering food, especially at busy times as you have seen

victim of its own 'success'...

[duchy]

Originally Posted by novocastrian

ref phones being used 24/7 in parks , thats the FP system for you, folk constantly checking whats the least waits etc, or ordering food, especially at busy times as you have seen

victim of its own 'success'...

See more...

MDE for booking more fastpasses on the day, mobile food ordering , photos, checking wait times , dining reservations etc.it would be very difficult to do Disney without a phone. It's not just social media it's a tool Disney very much expect guests to rely on ! My motto is "my mobile is my servant I am not its slave" but I wouldn't do WDW without it nowadays !

[novocastrian]

Originally Posted by duchy

MDE for booking more fastpasses on the day, mobile food ordering , photos, checking wait times , dining reservations etc.it would be very difficult to do Disney without a phone. It's not just social media it's a tool Disney very much expect guests to rely on ! My motto is "my mobile is my servant I am not its slave" but I wouldn't do WDW without it nowadays !

See more...

yep its essential now but as the OP states so many folk wandering about staring at phones not seeing the wood for the trees...

would be difficult to have a phone free holiday which is a shame imo

[cookiemonster]

Agree re Fast n Furious what a waste of time. The garage was nice for car fans. Luckily we visited off peak & literally walked in to ride. Wouldn’t queue for it.