That Walt Disney World trip I went on with the family...
Spent two days in Magic Kingdom, two days in Animal Kingdom, one day Epcot, and one day in Hollywood Studios.
Magic Kingdom
A little childhood history first...
I went to Magic Kingdom (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom ) as a kid eons ago (when there was ONLY one park, known then simply as "Walt Disney World"). It was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by orange groves and you had to pay for each ride using ticket books. I had the memories burnt into my head and now it had a reboot. Here's some of those memories:
Map circa 1976 full pic ->
https://rocketsciencemom.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/1976wdwparkmap.jpg
Vintage ticket book. The cherished “E-Ticket” was like the Willy Wonka gold ticket to a kid back then.
Everybody walking around with these plastic orange juice containers (straw missing in pic)
So first some retro footage to show how some things have changed and how some things have stayed the same
The Contemporary Resort was a bit too pricey for us back then. We actually stayed in the Hyatt or Hilton in Orlando...which as I recall was pretty damn nice (not sure what it looks like now). Back then Disney only had a handful of resort hotels and they were all located around the lake and I believe all of them were "Deluxe" so the prices were probably even relatively higher back then than now due to the insane demand. These days they have over 30 hotels spread out all over the place (
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/resorts/resortmain.htm ) for different budgets. Although I wouldn't want to stay in one of their "Value" ones (even if they are beautifully themed for kids) as you'd probably have people screaming down the hallways at night. We stayed at one of their more adult oriented Deluxe resorts and it was great.
LOL! The food place with the band is STILL there! Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
Yes, I was on the submarine ride..apparently they got rid of it 20 years ago.
Present Day...
Okay...so I was expecting a downer with the typical cranky "back in the old days..when I was a kid...things were much better" excuse. Actually I thought things were probably better THIS time around.
Magic Kingdom was immaculate. Considering it is approaching its 50th Anniversary (opened in 1971) the place didn't look worn at all. in fact it looks even nicer than when I first went when it was almost new. Things obviously have been moved around a bit. They have made the facades better as I remember some of the buildings being simple white boxes. FastPass (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastPass ) is the greatest thing ever. Booking your ride times definitely helps overcome any miserable line waiting experience that would sour your trip. The crowds were incredibly polite and I didn't see one person cut in line by jumping in and out of the Fast Pass line I had been warned to particularly watch out for the Brazilian/Argentine tour groups who seem to be notorious for behaving badly. Apparently it must have been off-season for them. Speaking of which the demographics of the visitors at the Magic Kingdom certainly wasn't the typical melting pot of the US...in fact
@Gomig-21 it looked like the crowd you'd see at a Fenway Park Red Sox game 25 years ago...I'll leave it at that.
So ticket prices I believe were in the ~$120 range (wife pre-bought them so I didn't see the exact numbers). Stayed at one of the Disney resort hotels so I got a complimentary bus ride right to the front gate..unfortunately that meant no cool monorail or steamboat ride from the massive parking lot for the kids. There's a few layers of security at the gates. They use your thumbprint to match you with your credit-card type ticket. Didn't do the MagicBands (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagicBands ) as we didn't buy a meal plan. BTW I didn't think the food in the park was outrageously expensive so this meal thing seemed unneeded. Plus we ate breakfast and dinner at the hotel (mostly room service..now THAT is what can add up quick). Bottled water was $3 which is the same my local amusement park charges. The hotel gave us water bottles daily as part of the room price (you can even ask for extra) so we had some in our pockets as we walked in the Disney gates. No need to go crazy and head out and buy a 40 pack at the local wholesale club for probably only $5.50.
Signed up for the Disney PhotoPass (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_PhotoPass ) which I think while pricey (~$200!) is a good investment (basically Disney has dozens of photographers standing in strategic photogenic locations near key attractions (or next to somebody in a Disney character outfit) in all their parks and you get an unlimited number of family pictures taken with quality cameras). They snap the pics and they are automatically uploaded to the Disney App (
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/my-disney-experience/mobile-apps/ ) on your phone (free WiFi and free cell phone charging areas too...nice!). Spending money on their photography service gives you an incentive to make sure to have plenty of pictures taken. So between rides we'd throw the kids at the photographers. We ended up with well over 100 cute pics.
You need the free Disney app to schedule your FastPass times. I think many didn't realize you can also order food on it so you don't have to wait in line. I passed many people patiently waiting in regular lines while I waltzed down the relatively empty mobile pre-order line.
to be continued...