August Trip Final Thoughts
It was hot. Very, very hot. And it was humid. Very, very humid. We have been in June, July and August before and I honestly do not remember it ever being quite as hot and humid as it was this trip.
It was also pretty crowded. Not just that the lines were longer, although I did notice lengthy waits on *some* things, but that the parks as a whole felt more crowded than I’ve experienced on my past couple of trips in August. Granted the last time I was in the parks was 2010, but just moving from place to place felt more crowded, the lines at bag checks felt longer and the lines at quick services were definitely far longer than I’ve stood in (the lines for the buses, oddly, felt shorter).
We took the opportunity of our sort of pre-Disney days to explore several Disney hotels, those visits, combined with visits in the past left me very confident that Jambo House was the hotel for me. Although after visiting Kidani Village I had to amend that thought. I really enjoyed that resort. I still love Jambo House, but I would say I’d really like my next stay to be Kidani Village.
Before we left for our trip, we ran the numbers several times for dining, estimating what we thought we’d like to eat etc and every time came out within $50 plus or minus of the Dining plan saving us money. We finally decided to go without the plan for this trip, keeping track of our expenses and planning to compare costs when we got home. We agreed to never order less than what we wanted or something less expensive just because of the sticker shock. We also would never order two desserts at each meal if they hadn’t already been paid for, so to speak, so we felt like it would keep us from eating things we didn’t really want. When I got home and ran the numbers (taking out alcohol, appetizers and tips since those would have been additional expenses either way) applying meal credits to everything we got that would have been covered and applying snack credits to the things we purchased for ourselves or for H that would have been covered by a snack credit, we came out saving $64 compared to the cost of the dining plan. We typically only ordered dessert with dinner and we usually only ordered one dessert and split it. Had we wanted two desserts at dinner and two desserts at lunches, we would not have come out ahead, but for the way that we eat, not using the dining plan (but using the Disney Visa discount at Boma, Sanaa and Biergarten, which is 10% off non alcohol purchases) worked for us.
I know that some people have run up against poor CM experiences, but we were blessed to meet several wonderful CMs and those that were not magical were at least good.
I don’t love Fastpass+. I don’t necessarily hate it, either, nor do I think it’s entirely to blame for longer lines. Like I said, I felt as though this trip was pretty crowded overall, and it felt like wait times were *generally* in line with the crowd levels. I also didn't notice a particularly long wait in any of the fastpass lines when we went through them (actually the only one that I noticed a wait on was Soarin' but that was true for the original fastpass line as well). I don’t love it, though, and I do miss the flexibility of the former system, as well as the opportunity to use it in more than one park and to get more than 3 (or 4) if you used it well.
I went into this trip knowing that things would be very, very different than the trips that I was used to since the last time I visited with a toddler I was 7 or 9 myself. I planned for a slower trip, less attractions, more experiences, etc. It still surprised me just how different the trip was. We did not get to many, many of the things that I had hoped to see this visit, even many of the things that I thought were going to be “musts”, and there were days we truly completed minimal “attractions”, but it was still a wonderful experience and SO much fun. I suppose we could have attempted to get up earlier and make it for rope drop, but we were there within an hour of rope drop most days and we stayed fairly late in the evening most days. If we had tried to get up earlier, it wouldn't haven't been as fun for us or for H, who is not a morning person, so we made a conscious choice to see the parks this way. My advice for anyone traveling for the first time with a toddler would be to take whatever you *think* you’ll accomplish with a 2 year old and take it down a notch even from there, but also to open yourself up to experiences you wouldn’t even have thought of prior to the trip because it just might be a magical moment in the eyes of your child.
