If you follow my personal Facebook or Instagram, you’ve seen several of my photos from our trip to Orlando. Of not, you can see a selection of them below. I’m not going to bore you with a day by day synopsis of my trip. I do have a few thoughts.
I am not a very patient person, so a trip that involves standing in a lot of lines is not great for me. Luckily, being January. the lines were not nearly as long at the parks as they could have been. They were longer than we’ve had in past January trips. We had one ride at each park we didn’t ride because we didn’t think it was worth waiting. 7 Dwarf Mine Train at Magic Kingdom was never below 90 minutes. Avatar at Animal Kingdom was never lower than 120 minutes and Slinky Dog at Hollywood studios was never lower than 75 minutes. There were other things to do that we considered better than waiting in lines. The Fast Pass system is different now and we were behind schedule on it, so it was harder for us to get passes for better rides. I hate the fast pass line when I’m in standby, but love it when I’m in the fast pass line. It is all about me. I also get irritated with the people who don’t notice the line is moving, especially when we are not yet to the merge with the fast passers. The faster you get to the merge, the faster you get past the fast passers. Now, with cell phones everywhere, it is more common for people to be staring at their phones and miss the fact that the line is moving. I think way too much about the lines.
Speaking of cell phones, there are way too many people stopping at messing up the lines taking multiple selfies. There are too many people taking pictures and videos of the rides instead of enjoying them. There is no need for a flash being used on the Kong ride so you can get a really good picture to post. My daughter got irritated with me mentioning it, but I do think you lose something from the experience when you watch it through your phone.
If you have several people in your party, please don’t walk in a line blocking the entire walkway, especially if you are really slow.
I always kind of liked Universal more than Disney and, now, with Harry Potter World, it is even better. If I had to choose one, I would go back to Universal. Also, butterbeer is delicious.
Customer service at Disney is still very good. I’m pretty sure I screwed up using the app and messed up a fast pass. They didn’t ask questions when we asked for help. They just added the fast pass back to the app so we could ride the ride.
It was nice to see my kids be kids again. Harry Potter World especially brought out the kids in them. They were very excited to get interactive wands and do the spells at the magic locations. It’s a little sad to be back to school and work.
I hope this isn’t the last big trip we get to take as a family. I know it will get harder as the kids get older.
I really enjoyed this city. Our hotel was within easy walking distance of palaces, temples and other tourist friendly sites. We were blocks away from a traditional market street filled with foods and local crafts. The subway was clean and modern. The people from the hosting agency were friendly and helpful. The only negative was that the trip was too short for me to fully adjust to the time change.
This is by far the best conference trip so far. Finland comes close mainly because it was the only one our son attended, but Zambia was fantastic. The hotel was next to Victoria Falls. We could walk out the hotel gate, cross the street and be at the entrance to the falls. Entry was included in the hotel fee. The hotel grounds had zebras, alpacas, giraffes and baboons wandering around. The social program at the end of the conference was walking with lions and cheetahs. We went on a safari. The people hosting were great. The only thing I didn’t like was the stress of haggling at the craft market.
We follow the best trip with the worst trip. The hotel location was terrible. The only thing within walking distance was a mall. There were no decent sidewalks, so walking around was hard. I was sick most of the time and then had an injury to deal with. The hosts were friendly enough, but we have clearly moved in to “we are hosting a conference and the conference is all that matters” territory with the group. They didn’t seem to care if we had a good experience in the country and seem to be discouraging family from accompanying the attendees. Very disappointing.
Like India, the hotel location wasn’t great. Mainly malls in the area, but nice sidewalks and crosswalks and some decent parks and restaurants around as well. It was extremely hot, so we walked around until lunch and then went back to the hotel to cool off and wait for my wife to be done for the day before going out again. The hosts were friendly and did drive us around the day before the conference started so we could see the area outside the city. We also had the option of using the driver to go to the mall, but opted to walk instead. Still not as welcoming as previous countries, but better than India.