Thanksgiving at Disney World Trip Report

[redheadk]

We spent Thanksgiving week at Disney World with my sister's family (2 adults, 3 kids). We had a great time overall but learned some things I wish I would have known!

Resort: Cabins at Fort Wilderness. This was really fun! We rented a golf cart for each cabin. We loved the space. The set up is pretty similar to a DVC one bedroom suite, though those have an extra bathroom sink (I think? it's been a while). The bedroom has a queen bed and bunk beds. There's a fold-out couch in the living room. I ended up sleeping on the bottom bunk because the queen bed is right up against the wall. I hated that. It was tough for my sister's family; they ended up putting one kid in the top bunk, dad in the bottom bunk, sis and another kid in the queen, and my teenage niece in the living room. This apparently doesn't bother a lot of people but I do not care to be squished between my husband and the wall with no where to put my phone. The big upsides are the outside space, feeling like you are somewhere outdoorsy and peaceful, and all the fun things to do on site. The kids really loved it.

Parks:

We booked Genie+ for our whole stay upfront, which is no longer an option. We were really glad to have it! It was so busy over a holiday week and the price for a day of Genie+ last week was $29pp. Yikes. If you use Genie+, my recommendation is to set up your "My Day" preferences the night before with only your top priority ride/s selected so they are at the top of your tip board. Once you book the Genie+ or ride the ride, redo your selections. This made it easy for us to refresh the page to get better times and to book quickly. If you want to book a Virtual Queue or one of the Individual Lightning Lanes (paid ones), it's helpful to have a partner who can book the Genie+ choice while you book the other. 

Day 1 (Monday): Epcot

This will be the longest because this was just our worst day. Hopefully this is helpful in your planning because we didn't do a great job on this one. 

We started off strong by scoring a lower number boarding group for Cosmic Rewind and a good time for Remi. This park was really tough with Genie+. We needed to use it because it was packed but the layout of Epcot is brutal with Genie+ since you are walking across the whole park constantly. At one point, the kids and dads found a grassy hill to just lay down on for a while. 

We started off kind of slow here. We didn't rope drop because DD and I didn't get in until 10 the night before due to her ballet rehearsal. We tried to figure out what to do at the start of our day but ended up making our way over to Remi. We tried to fit another ride in first but it just didn't work out timing wise. The kids ran around the hedge maze in the UK for a bit, which they liked, then we did the Beauty and the Beast Sing-a-long to kill time before we could tap in for Remi. It was really cute! We were glad we'd booked a Lightning Lane for it; the wait was over 2 hours for standby. We grabbed crepes from the crepe window, which was on DD's list of must-dos. Thank goodness we did because we never did make it back to any of the countries . 

From there we made our way over to ride Spaceship Earth but pivoted to Mission Space instead. Frankly, I don't like either ride but if you are going to pick one or the other, pick Spaceship Earth. Mission Space was terrible. It just doesn't hold up with the new technology. Half of us did Green (the low-key side) while the other half did Orange. The orange people felt awful coming off the ride and these are the people who will ride anything. It was time to head to lunch at Coral Reef so we made our way back there again. Lunch was actually great; everyone liked their meal and the kids loved watching the aquarium! It was the break we needed. While there, I refreshed the screen like crazy and we were able to grab a G+ for Test Track! It had been showing as unavailable for a while but we'd see one pop up every so often. We quickly realized that we needed to cancel our latest G+ so that we could book immediately if a time popped up. That strategy was successful but is obviously a gamble. We had a G+ for Soarin' so rode that while our Virtual Queue spot for Cosmic Rewind kept moving up earlier and earlier. There was a delay on Soarin' so we were really stressed. We got off Soarin' with 10 minutes to get to Cosmic Rewind. We sprinted across Epcot again only for Cosmic Rewind to be down when we arrived. We actually saw that it was down on the app but didn't want to chance it. It turns out that if it goes down during your return window, you can just come back at anytime during the day. There was no need to run over there. Womp womp. If this happens to you, I'd check with Guest Experience (blue umbrellas) before racing across the park. It was pretty warm and muggy so we all got a really cold drink and sat down for a while while the kids ran around the grassy hill by the quick service place. After that, it was time to ride Test Track. We all had a great time on this one! We did some shopping at whatever the giant store is in that area then made our way back to Cosmic Rewind. We waited about 45 minutes in line since it was really backed up from being down but it honestly wasn't too bad, the queue is super long so we were moving the whole time and there was some cool stuff to look at. After that, we were pretty much over it so headed back to the fort. We grabbed dinner at the quick service there, it was fine. 

Overall, it felt like we ran around a LOT but didn't get to do very much. We did get to do all the big things we wanted to do but even Living with the Land had a 45 minute wait and Epcot is a hard one to get around. 


Day 2 (Tuesday): Animal Kingdom

We got up at booked Flight of Passage (Individual Lighting Lane) and Expedition Everest right at 7am. 

Our goal was to make it for Early Entry but a bus never came. Super frustrating. There wasn't a projected time on the monitor or app. We did learn if this happens, the best way to handle it is to let another bus driver know. They will call the bus barn who has buses on standby in case this happens. Once we asked, a bus was there within 10 minutes. 

I like Touring Plans but my sister doesn't use it. She insisted we book our first Genie+ for Expedition Everest since it was a top choice for 2 of her kids. I get it but it was a mistake. We should have followed the Touring Plans suggestion and booked it for the Safari. Even with not arriving until 50 minutes after Early Entry (20 minutes after park opening), the wait time was under 20 minutes for quite a while. I did get to ride in the very front seat with my older niece, though, so that was awesome! I'd only ridden on it farther back; from the front car you can see MK and HS. After that, we got in line to ride the Safari. The line was insane, we waited over an hour. DD was so upset; she doesn't do big rollercoasters and I thought the non-riding group would do SOMETHING with the kids while we rode EE. Instead they just got breakfast, so she was there for hours without doing anything. No idea what my husband was thinking. We did have a great Safari, though, the animals were visible and really active! DD ended up a little spoiled that day since I felt so bad for her, with the music box popcorn bucket and a few other things she wanted. 

From there, we split up a bit. DH, DD, and I headed over to watch Feathered Friends in Flight, grabbing potstickers and seasoned fries (thumbs up!) and shave ice (eh) nearby but ended up leaving to go watch Lion King with the others expect I didn't realize the G+ time had changed while I was booking it. The line for standby was almost to Pandora and Cast Members were warning people in line that they were in line for the 12pm show, not the 11am show. We headed over to Satuli Canteen in Pandora for lunch (thumbs down). We wanted to explore the area but there were just too many people. Headed back to Lion King to watch that (great show, as always! DD fussed about doing this but enjoyed it) while my sis took her kids to see Mickey and Minnie. DD flat out refused to meet any characters on this trip. From there, it was time to ride Flight of Passage. We all LOVED it and it was worth the extra cost to not wait in the line. I grabbed a pineapple lumpia after the ride which was delicious!

From there, we rode Kali River Rapids using G+ at the kids insistence. DD and I wore ponchos. We actually got stuck on the ride at the top before the big fall for about 10-15 minutes. My BIL took a work call which was actually pretty funny! They got us moving again, thankfully, since there was really no way to evacuate from where we were. My younger niece and nephew got pretty wet on their backsides because they were leaning forward to hold the hand rail but the rest of us stayed pretty dry since we had our hands up. They changed shirts and we headed out of the park. 

DH grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for us back at our cabin while the rest of us took the kids swimming. 



TBC...

[Patsy Baloney]

Question about your genie strategy -

Did you have 2 people logged into the same Disney account to have 1 purchase lightning lane and 1 reserve your genie slot, or did you have 2 accounts going?

[redheadk]

Nov 27, 2022 15:13:06 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

Question about your genie strategy -

Did you have 2 people logged into the same Disney account to have 1 purchase lightning lane and 1 reserve your genie slot, or did you have 2 accounts going?

Every adult has their own account but we are all connected as Friends & Family. You do this in My Disney Experience online or in the app, when online choose "My Disney Experience" > Family and Friends to add people.

Before 7am, choose your day/park, who is in your party, and which rides/attractions you want at the top of your tip board in the App (Tip Board > My Day). Then you can book for everyone you are going to be with that day. You can deselect individuals when booking specific rides, which we did, too, but if it was for something that was really hard to get, we had our people "pre-selected" so we could book as fast as possible. You can go back into the app and rebuild your tip board as much as you want, including preselecting who you want to book experiences for that day. We did this when my family was purchasing ILL for Mine Train but my sister's was not because they did it a different day. I only had myself, DD, and DH in my "My Day" for the first booking then I redid it and added everyone after I grabbed what I needed. You can also book for everyone and then cancel for just some people if they don't want to ride something but want to keep their Genie+ booking availability open. 

For example, on Friday we went to Hollywood Studios. My sis, BIL, and I sat at their kitchen table together. I booked ILL for Rise for all 8 and my sis booked Slinky. My BIL was on standby in case someone's app froze again since both of those sell out so fast. 

It was a little intense but since we were there during such a busy time, go several years between trips, and only had one day in each park, we did our best to maximize our chances. It is complicated to explain but pretty easy to do all this if you are moderately tech savvy.

[Patsy Baloney]

Thanks, redheadk!

We’re headed there next week, and I’ve got our party all linked, but my H’s account is always screwy and is not linked right in the app. I think he has a bunch of different accounts. He can’t seem to figure out the log in information for what I have linked in the app for him. I may have him call and straighten it out, so he can be Genie Guy 2 and we don’t run the risk of the app glitching if we’re both signed in as me.

[redheadk]

Day 3 (Wednesday): Disney Springs and the resort

It was so nice to sleep in and not have the mad dash to book anything at 7am! We had a leisurely morning then drove to Disney Springs. We did a little shopping and had lunch at Homecomin' which everyone enjoyed. We split up by family and did a little more shopping before heading back to the fort to relax. The kids went swimming again and I did laundry. The fort has laundry rooms all over the place, ours was a very short walk which was so nice! DH, DD, and I chilled some more then took the boat over to MK to catch the monorail. We visited the Polynesian for dinner (just quick service and drinks at Trader Sam's outside), shopped in the stores (picking up some of our favorite Hawaiian cookies), and watched the fireworks from the beach. We then headed over to the Grand Floridian to see the giant gingerbread house which did not disappoint! DD and I each got a treat and I picked up a gingerbread shingle for my mom. We had fun comparing the Polynesian to resorts in Hawaii that we've visited and appreciated that they had actual Hawaiian stuff in the gift shops along with the disney stuff.


Day 4 (Thursday): Magic Kingdom!

We booked our Genie+ from our golf carts on the way to catch the boat which didn't go as smoothly as we hoped but it was fine. I booked ILL for Mine Train for my family and my sis booked Jingle Cruise for all because it sells out quickly. None of us care about dark rides so no worries about Peter Pan. I had read that the best strategy for MK is to book one you want that sells out quickly first but then just book first available for anything else you want to ride. This worked great and we were able to grab passes for times that were coming up for most everything throughout the day. In practice, it felt a little more like the old Fast Pass + system since we could do things by land mostly rather than running back and forth.

We had a PPO breakfast reservation at 8am at Cinderella's Royal Table. It was a little stressful to get there on time but we were some of the first to check in at CRT so everything worked out. DD is 10 so an adult when it comes to prix fixe menus. Meanwhile, my niece and nephew are 7 and eat her under the table. CRT was really accommodating and swapped DD's potatoes out for Mickey waffles so she had a huge plate of eggs, all bacon (no sausage), and 3 mickey waffles. The twins were able to choose eggs as one of their sides with their kid's mickey waffles with no issue. The cast member suggested it, actually, since she overheard my niece asking her dad about eggs. Most of us had the Steak & Eggs, while my DH had the Quiche, and my older niece had the Caramel Apple French Toast. Everyone was happy and it was nice to start out the day full! The only bummer is that there is no Photo Pass photographer for Cinderella and the lighting is so dim in there that it's tough to take a good pic. Oh well.

We walked out of CRT by 9am, just when the park was opening to everyone and immediately headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. My sis and DH don't do most rollercoasters so BIL and I took all the kids. We were done within 20 minutes so made our way to Splash Mountain. We waited about about 30 minutes here before riding. We have a great pic of my younger niece in the front row ducking during the splash so that her sister behind her got the water!

We spent the morning riding lots of things. Genie+ is so easy at MK because there are so many rides and the park is easy to navigate once you are familiar with it. We rode Jingle Cruise, tried to ride Pirates (kept going down so ended up leaving the line), got dole whips, split from sister's family, watched the parade from Liberty Square outside Ye Olde Christmas Shop, watched Hall of Presidents (a must do on DD's list, she's a weird kid), rode Mine Train, dh left to go take a nap, I took my nephew and DD to play at dumbo playground and ride it while younger niece went to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, met up with my BIL and older niece, watched Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, rode the people mover, met back up with younger niece, got in line for Space Mountain only for it to go down.

We had to leave to make our dinner reservation at Skippers Canteen at 4:15; DH met us there. Skippers Canteen was ok, I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there again but we decided late in the planning game to grab a dining reservation since we knew it would be a long day and 8 people is tough for reservations. After dinner, we rode Big Thunder Mountain again with a Genie+ (almost dark at this point, which was fun!), We split up by family again and my family rode Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear while my nieces and BIL rode Space Mountain. We all met back up at the Fireworks Dessert Party (desserts before firework, seating in the garden). We somehow ended up with front row spots for the kids and second row spots for us! The kids love the dessert buffet. I could take it or leave it but LOVE being in the garden for the fireworks so we were all happy. We waited a bit for the worst of the crowds to clear out then headed to catch the boat to the fort. 13.5 hours in the park but the kids did great.

Day 5 (Friday): Hollywood Studios

We were most worried about booking rides for this day since we didn't have a fall back day at this point. Happily, we scored ILL for Rise for 9am and Slinky for 9:05am. We rope dropped and half rode Rockin Rollercoaster while the other half rode Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway (both walk on since we were in line for each before the park opened). We had planned to ride Tower of Terror but it was down and cast members were not letting anyone line up for it. As we walked off our first rides, it came back up so we hoofed it to Tower and waited about 20 minutes to ride it. DH, sis, and nephew don't ride Tower so they walked on to Smugglers Run and looked around Star Wars land. We all met back up in Toy Story Land to ride Slinky then over to Star Wars for Rise. By 9:30, it was PACKED in both of those lands. We had a little time before our lunch reservations so watched the Frozen Singalong which had some great new jokes. We then split up, with half going to 50's Prime Time and half going to Mama Melrose. We met back up for the Indiana Jones show then over to Alien Swirling Saucers. That was terrible, much rougher than I remember and none of us liked it. We rode Smugglers Run, splitting up 4 and 4. This was a cool ride but the pilots on our ride were a really little kid and his dad. The little kid cried the whole time so the ride was extremely rough. If you haven't ridden it, there are 3 jobs: pilot, gunner, and engineer. Gunner and engineer are just pressing blinking buttons and would be best for kids. Assign someone who actually plays video games or drives to be the pilot. My boobs hurt after this. It's not a big deal because DD, niece, and I aren't Star Wars people and DH had already done it so offered the other dad first pick at the spots. The little guy was probably 5 and just overwhelmed. You kind of need to know right/left for pilot or be able to multitask if you are the up/down pilot. That plus being in the front with the giant screen was just a lot for him.

My BIL and nephew stayed after this to build a droid while DH and I took DD and my older niece to grab the Red Velvet Christmas Whoopie Pie for a snack then back to the cabin. We all rested because we were worn out. I did laundry again and DH picked up take out off site. We tried taking the kids to the campfire for s'mores but the store was totally sold out of smores stuff which was a huge bummer. We all turned in for the night since my sister's family had an early flight.

Day 6 (Saturday): Magic Kingdom

DH woke up feeling horrible so DD and I left him at the cabin while we went to MK to do a few things we'd missed. It was PACKED this day. I don't know if I was just over it or it was the crazy high humidity or what, but it got to me. We started out the day with Space Mountain, rode the Tea Cups, walked around a bit and mobile ordered lunch at Columbia Harbour House. We enjoyed the really quiet upstairs until a family with 3 screaming kids sat down right next to us, despite there being plenty of empty space upstairs. Obviously anyone can sit at a free table but DD and I were both over it at that point and even she asked me why they couldn't have picked any of the 30 tables that were not right next to anybody. We left and waited to tap into Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 5 minutes early. DD wanted that to be her last ride so we canceled our Genie + for Pirates and got floats/ice cream at Sunshine Terrace instead. We ate them near the castle then took the boat back to the fort and headed to the airport. (Side note: love the boat to/from the fort/MK! It is such a short walk and we never had to wait long.) We had lots of time and our flight was delayed an hour so we grabbed dinner at the sit down restaurant before our flight. Flight home was rough due to storms; only half the plane got beverage service. But we made it home and crashed into bed.

Overall, it was a fun trip. MK and HS were much better days for us. We all know our way around MK pretty well plus there are lots of rides that appeal to everyone. For HS, there are some things geared to younger kids we avoided so were able to make it a half day park, plus that park is also pretty easy to navigate. AK should have been a half day park but we got really slowed down by the crowds and it's not as easy to navigate. Epcot kind of sucked. Awesome rides but we were disappointed that we didn't make it to any countries beyond France. It was the most frustrating with G+ but the lines were also so long that not using it wasn't any better. 

If you have a Touring Plans subscription, I highly recommend following their suggestions. Except for our AK day, we booked our Genie+ in the order they suggest but prioritizing our must-dos. Build your day in the Trip Planner tool and choose optimize. We learned after AK that if TP says to ride a G+ ride at rope drop with a very short wait, trust it. We found TP to be accurate in their recommendations, barring rides being down. 

We all agreed we'd consider staying at the Fort again but the cabins worked better for my family than my sisters. Coming back each night and hopping on the golf cart to get back to the cabins was pretty fun and a good way to unwind. We had cabins next to each other which was awesome. People are pretty friendly at the fort!

[redheadk]

Also, the number of people we saw streaming into MK at 9:30pm was really surprising! Not sure if they were hopping or what but it was busier at night at that time than it was in the morning.

[redheadk]

Nov 27, 2022 17:27:03 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

Thanks, redheadk !

We’re headed there next week, and I’ve got our party all linked, but my H’s account is always screwy and is not linked right in the app. I think he has a bunch of different accounts. He can’t seem to figure out the log in information for what I have linked in the app for him. I may have him call and straighten it out, so he can be Genie Guy 2 and we don’t run the risk of the app glitching if we’re both signed in as me.

Oh yeah, definitely figure it out now! Especially since you want to be sure he has access to the tickets you actually have. 

[ssmjlm]

Thanks for the G+ info. We are hesitant to go back with the new system after being spoiled at Universal with express pass.

Maybe if we head back in a couple years I can just have the kid be the main genie person, lol.

[abs]

We were there at the same time! I’ll come back later with our trip review but agree with a lot of what you said. Genie+ to me is actually easier than the old system but takes some practice. We had park hoppers and I recommend that to take full advantage. Our best days were MK and Epcot. HS was the worst. We skipped AK this time.

[redheadk]

Nov 29, 2022 18:03:22 GMT -5 abs said:

We were there at the same time! I’ll come back later with our trip review but agree with a lot of what you said. Genie+ to me is actually easier than the old system but takes some practice. We had park hoppers and I recommend that to take full advantage. Our best days were MK and Epcot. HS was the worst. We skipped AK this time.

I think our Epcot day would have been better if we had done it later in our trip and rope dropped, plus it's just always tough managing the preferences of a big group. DD and I had to arrive a day later than everyone else we were with because of her ballet rehearsal (literally left her 4 hour rehearsal to go straight to IAH), so getting her up to rope drop after not arriving until 10pm wasn't happening. We just didn't have the hang of things quite yet for Epcot and that definitely affected our experience. Also, we hadn't really discussed everyone's "must dos" and "fillers" yet, which we found was helpful with a large group.

Sorry about your HS day We got pretty lucky with that one but we were also kind of over it at that point so did the highlights and got out of there.

I don't know that we'll choose to go at such a crowded time again. We've always gone during October and while it's not slow, this was something else. 

[eddy]

I second your AK suggestion to book Safari as your first genie+. It is a slow loading ride and so it gets backed up really quick. Everest was also a high priority ride but it took a really long time into the morning for it to even get up to 20 minute wait. It was walk on when we rode it at the beginning of the day.