Disney World! My Opinions

We recently spent 6 days in Disney World with the girls and our beloved friends. So much has changed since we went last (4 years ago) and I love the new additions! Oh and I had the wrong lens with me so my pictures are crappy. Oh well!

There a tons of Disney blogs out there so I won't go into too many details in this post. But I couldn't resist giving you all my opinions (do I ever resist that??) . And this will be a princess heavy post.

Here are my thoughts :
Rapunzel's tower and her whole little area is completely magical.

The princesses all got newly styled dresses. Some I loved like Snow White's.

And some I did not such as Ariel's. Hers has a bunch of tulle on the bottom that doesn't work for me.

We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort which is the newest of the value resorts (or Disney motels as Jim and I like to call them). It was awesome! We originally had an Ariel room which is a standard room. But the Ariel rooms are incredibly far from the main area of the resort and we couldn't imagine walking all the way there with two tired girls after a day at a park. So we asked if we could upgrade and move closer and they were able to give us a family suite for no extra cost. Not only were we closer but the suite was fantastic. It had two bathrooms, master bedroom, kitchenette, eating area, and a living room area. The table and couch turned into beds so the girls didn't have to share. The food is quick service but we enjoyed it a lot. So much better than the food at Pop Century, another value resort.

The lobby is filled with the initial drawings for some favorite movies and the chandelier is composed of signed sketches. Neat!

We used Magic Bands which are great! We could buy/charge anything to our room, it served as our room key, and our fast passes.

Speaking of fast passes. The new system is awful. I hated it. I longed for the days of walking past a ride, getting the fast pass right then and there, and then going on your way. Now you can do it up to 60 days in advance and the popular rides are all fast passed out in a flash. You can go to a kiosk for the fast passes in the parks but they aren't plentiful and there were long lines at them. So what is the difference? Instead of waiting on line for a ride we had to wait on line for fast passes. Bah.

LOVED Be Our Guest restaurant. I think if you can get in, which is tough, you should try. The food is whatever but it is so fun to eat in an exact replica of the rooms in the movie, including the dreaded West Wing complete with an enchanted rose!

The Dumbo ride had a cool feature. The wait time was 45 minutes but half of that time you are waiting in an indoor play area (think a McDonald's indoor play set on steroids). The kids can play while you wait with a pager, not much different than those you may get at restaurants. I guess Disney is finally realizing there will always be lines but at least they are trying to make it less awful to wait!

Did you know I think Epcot is dumb? Well I do, um, I did. But we went there at night and it was so much more fun! I wouldn't go there again during the day....my kids were not thrilled with the whole countries thing. But at night it had a different vibe. I recommend the grapefruit beer in Germany.

Of course we did the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique which is complete and utter nonsense that is delightful and magical! Yes it is a luxury but worth it in my opinion. We do the middle package which is perfect. It comes to around $55 each and the girls get their hair, makeup and nails done. They each received a little backpack with their leftover makeup and nail polish. But they felt so special!

We met Elsa and Anna. Elsa didn't look much like Elsa but Anna was perfect. Not only did she look like Anna but she had her character nailed! Ellie was starstruck.

Which brings me to Princess Fairytale Hall which has Cinderella's glass slipper. You wait here while you are waiting to see Elsa and Anna.

And as goofy as it sounds, I highly recommend the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at the Wilderness Campgrounds. It is a hokey, country themed dinner show. The food, fried chicken, ribs, corn, salad, and strawberry shortcake, was the best we had in Disney and the show was much better than I thought it would be. The performers were great! . The girls loved it too! Try to get seats on the floor if you have kids. You can see well from the balcony I imagine but the performers go into the dining room during the show to interact with patrons.

That's all for now! Hope you are feeling some warmer weather. We are up and down here in Jersey and I am just about out of my freaking mind with this winter.

Cheers!
Jenny

Days of Chalk and Chocolate