Because of the construction and disrepair of the resort it offered a gift card of $75 a night as an incentive. This was not known to us at the time of our booking but was discovered by our travel agent, Nicole. This gave us an extra $375 that helped us out. It was used basically on souvenirs and clothing. We went sans dining plan this trip and we ate a LOT of quick service meals, which was the plan from the time we began our planning. I can truthfully say no dining plan has its benefits in the up front cost savings BUT, for me and my family we will go back to the dining plan for our next trip. Yes, Virginia there will be other trips (when has not been planned yet BUT there will be more...)
We visited all four parks in five days (two days at EPCOT) and visited the new Pandora at Animal Kingdom (more on that in another blog post) as well as viewing the new Happily Ever After (which I will talk about later on). Highlights of the trip for me had to be some of the photos I got this trip.
When you go to Walt Disney World you never expect to see people you know but on three separate occasions we had the fortune of running into friends from North Carolina this trip. On Sunday June 18 we saw friends from church and spent some time talking at Sleepy Hollow before we were to get on our first Fast Pass of the day the Haunted Mansion. We also came upon them later in the day as we were coming out of the Tiki Room. On the next day as we were in the World of Disney Store in Disney Springs we came across friends from my work. I can say those three instances were also highlights.
I said I would talk about Happily Ever After later, well it is later. For those of you wondering what I am talking about Happily Ever After is the new Magic Kingdom fireworks/castle projection show. Let me tell you it is a MUST SEE. The show is combined where the projections on the castle and music are synced with the fireworks. This is really cool and no matter how many words I use I cannot explain it so I won't try to spoil it. As awesome as the show is there are drawbacks in my opinion. To get the whole effect it seems to me that you must have a good view of not only the skies but the castle as well, and not only that you must be positioned to see the front of the castle. This was not the case with the previous fireworks show. So, you have thousands of people trying to watch the new show all bunched up trying to get the best view. This was a small problem with Wishes but with Happily Ever After it becomes a HUGE problem. There are no Fast Pass options and you find yourself crammed into an area that should have been roped off for limited seating with little help from Cast Members. Another problem is that there are inconsiderate people who visit WDW and feel that they are entitled to get a good spot despite showing up ten minutes before the show where others had their spots at least an hour before the show began. These people also seemed to be amateur videographers with their iPads held high in the air as they stood up once the show started with no regard for the people behind them sitting. My oldest and I stood up next to a railing making sure no one was being blocked by us. Of course the problem did not cease once the show was over as the mass of humanity that had been crammed from the castle all the way down Main Street USA decided to leave the park as the ah from the last firework was still floating down to the ground. My wife and I agree that there could be a major problem if this continues with a trample incident waiting to happen. We ducked into the Emporium gift shop to wait out the mass exit.
Despite the crowd however, our vacation was great. Here are a few of the shots I mentioned earlier.
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