ilovetotravel1977
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 8, 2016
Hi all! Just back from our trip! What a week we had. Got so much done. I will list out our experiences in the usual categories as it might help some with their trip.
We were a group of 7: DD14, DN14, Parents (70 & 72), SIS, BIL, and me. We had 5-day base tickets and did two days at HS, one at MK, one at EP, and one at AK. Stayed at POP in 50s section, building 1 on 3rd floor. Skyliner was THE best. We did Early Entry every day and stayed until close.
Westjet Flights - Flights and airports (YHZ-YYZ-MCO) were uneventful. Coming home was a hot mess. We only had an 80 minute connection in YYZ and the Customs hall wasn't very organized and it was busy. We missed our connecting flight at YYZ, but got on one at 10pm. Signage and directions at YYZ was the pits. I didn't get asked for the notarized letter nor attestation form as I did that on the app at check-in.
Christmas party (Thursday night) - Even though it was sold out, it was definitely way less busy than our day at MK the day prior. At 9pm, we found a spot at the rail in the middle in front of the castle for the stage show at 9:30. Stayed there for the 10pm fireworks and it was an amazing spot. Tinkerbell flew over our heads. Came back to the same area across the street for the 11pm parade. Amazing. The trick for the parades is to hang around the cast members keeping the walkways open until the parade is coming near. Then when they close it off, go right to the front.
Candlelight Processional - we opted to try for the day-of $40 tickets at Regal Eagle Smokehouse. No problem with that. We got there about 11:40am and there was no line. The food was so good and we could hardly finish everything on our tray. We picked the 7pm show and it was fantastic. We got in the ticket line around 6:15pm and had seats on the aisle in the middle. Whoopi Goldberg was our narrator, although she really didn't do anything amazing. Not sure it would have mattered who it was as the focus was really the music and ambiance.
Souvenirs - we found that there were no little trinket-type souvenirs this time. In 2018, we got a bunch of foam character heads on chains for zip pulls, 5 for $2 or something. Nothing like that now. DD14 got some Fabletics leggings 50% off, a couple of t-shirts, sweatshirt, magnet, pins, and as a Xmas gift she got a Bambi Loungefly mini backpack ($75). It's so beautiful. https://www.shopdisney.com/bambi-loungefly-mini-backpack-420142691216.html
One of the t-shirts I bought was Aristocrats from AK: https://www.shopdisney.com/the-aris...ductSearch=1&plpPosition=2&searchType=regular
Gift Cards / Money - I brought $800 CDN ($600 US approx) in cards and $155 US cash for DD14 and I. We came home with $3 LOL. That included $86 for CLP tickets, $85 balance on the room. We brought a box of cereal for breakfast in the room. We would buy one of those 1.5 sandwiches/fruit cup/bananas from the food court for lunch each day instead of trying to fight crowds at the parks. We would just sit on a bench and eat and then be off again. We didn't go crazy buying snacks and Dole whips, so if you like to do that, bring more money LOL. I think if I had another $100 US we would have been able to splurge a bit more on the specialty snacks, etc.
Transportation - We tried Florida Towncar this trip. There were 7 of us with a carry on and backpack each. Return cost from MCO-Pop Century was $175+ 20% tip. You pay at drop-off at the resort and they give you a receipt for your return showing it was all paid.
Rides - We got boarding group #19 for Guardians of the Galaxy pretty much right at 7am. It was a different ride, but in a good way. We all loved it. My sister who is prone to motion sickness was fine on it. We got to ride Rise of the Resistance three times in one day. Such a great ride! We didn't bother with Genie+ and we rode pretty much everything with reasonable standby times. Three rides were down (Frozen, RnR, ToT), but that has no bearing on Genie+. We utilized Early Entry every day. At Toy Story Land, we did all four rides in 2 hours. Got out of that part of the park by 11am. The new Fantasmic! show was really good too. We ended up sitting quite close to the bottom and all the way over to the left on the aisle. Seats were great. Don't get deterred if you are on the far sides.
I think that is all of the major things. Feel free to ask any questions!
We were a group of 7: DD14, DN14, Parents (70 & 72), SIS, BIL, and me. We had 5-day base tickets and did two days at HS, one at MK, one at EP, and one at AK. Stayed at POP in 50s section, building 1 on 3rd floor. Skyliner was THE best. We did Early Entry every day and stayed until close.
Westjet Flights - Flights and airports (YHZ-YYZ-MCO) were uneventful. Coming home was a hot mess. We only had an 80 minute connection in YYZ and the Customs hall wasn't very organized and it was busy. We missed our connecting flight at YYZ, but got on one at 10pm. Signage and directions at YYZ was the pits. I didn't get asked for the notarized letter nor attestation form as I did that on the app at check-in.
Christmas party (Thursday night) - Even though it was sold out, it was definitely way less busy than our day at MK the day prior. At 9pm, we found a spot at the rail in the middle in front of the castle for the stage show at 9:30. Stayed there for the 10pm fireworks and it was an amazing spot. Tinkerbell flew over our heads. Came back to the same area across the street for the 11pm parade. Amazing. The trick for the parades is to hang around the cast members keeping the walkways open until the parade is coming near. Then when they close it off, go right to the front.
Candlelight Processional - we opted to try for the day-of $40 tickets at Regal Eagle Smokehouse. No problem with that. We got there about 11:40am and there was no line. The food was so good and we could hardly finish everything on our tray. We picked the 7pm show and it was fantastic. We got in the ticket line around 6:15pm and had seats on the aisle in the middle. Whoopi Goldberg was our narrator, although she really didn't do anything amazing. Not sure it would have mattered who it was as the focus was really the music and ambiance.
Souvenirs - we found that there were no little trinket-type souvenirs this time. In 2018, we got a bunch of foam character heads on chains for zip pulls, 5 for $2 or something. Nothing like that now. DD14 got some Fabletics leggings 50% off, a couple of t-shirts, sweatshirt, magnet, pins, and as a Xmas gift she got a Bambi Loungefly mini backpack ($75). It's so beautiful. https://www.shopdisney.com/bambi-loungefly-mini-backpack-420142691216.html
One of the t-shirts I bought was Aristocrats from AK: https://www.shopdisney.com/the-aris...ductSearch=1&plpPosition=2&searchType=regular
Gift Cards / Money - I brought $800 CDN ($600 US approx) in cards and $155 US cash for DD14 and I. We came home with $3 LOL. That included $86 for CLP tickets, $85 balance on the room. We brought a box of cereal for breakfast in the room. We would buy one of those 1.5 sandwiches/fruit cup/bananas from the food court for lunch each day instead of trying to fight crowds at the parks. We would just sit on a bench and eat and then be off again. We didn't go crazy buying snacks and Dole whips, so if you like to do that, bring more money LOL. I think if I had another $100 US we would have been able to splurge a bit more on the specialty snacks, etc.
Transportation - We tried Florida Towncar this trip. There were 7 of us with a carry on and backpack each. Return cost from MCO-Pop Century was $175+ 20% tip. You pay at drop-off at the resort and they give you a receipt for your return showing it was all paid.
Rides - We got boarding group #19 for Guardians of the Galaxy pretty much right at 7am. It was a different ride, but in a good way. We all loved it. My sister who is prone to motion sickness was fine on it. We got to ride Rise of the Resistance three times in one day. Such a great ride! We didn't bother with Genie+ and we rode pretty much everything with reasonable standby times. Three rides were down (Frozen, RnR, ToT), but that has no bearing on Genie+. We utilized Early Entry every day. At Toy Story Land, we did all four rides in 2 hours. Got out of that part of the park by 11am. The new Fantasmic! show was really good too. We ended up sitting quite close to the bottom and all the way over to the left on the aisle. Seats were great. Don't get deterred if you are on the far sides.
I think that is all of the major things. Feel free to ask any questions!
