Disney World: First Trip of 2025
Well, the first month of 2025 came and went and with it, so did our first trip of the year. Now, everyone in your family and friends group will have a different opinion on what to do and where to go when you travel together. Some ideas work for the whole family while others will cater to a minority and that should be expected. The important part is that everyone gets a turn to go where they want to go once in awhile. Such is the case with our trip to Disney World at the end of January.
Misty and I have been Disney fans since we got married twenty five years ago. We used to buy an annual pass to Disneyland every year (despite living in Utah) and would plan two trips a year to make it pay for itself. In those days the crowds were nowhere near as large as they are now so, it was a lot of fun. We loved to visit the spooks in the Haunted Mansion and splash around with the Pirates of the Caribbean. Nowadays, though, it’s a lot harder for one of us to visit Disney than it used to be. I won’t get into the why’s and the how’s, that would just be ranting, but I will say that I am the one that has a harder time with it. I still enjoy the rides, but the crowds, lines and expenses disgust me. I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy. Regardless, this trip was a family trip for not just Misty and kids, but for our parents as well.
My parents and Misty’s parents have been on the road in their RV’s together for a few weeks and they thought it would be great for us to fly down and stay with them while they camped at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground. That would require us to either tent camp at their RV sites or split up and crash on the couches between the two motorhomes. No thanks. I didn’t want to couch surf and I didn’t want to spend a week sleeping in a tent in the middle of a city. If I’m going overlanding, that would be a different story, but not for this kind of trip. So, we rented a house nearby to make everyone happy. We chose a house because we had the four of us plus a friend of my daughter’s to accomodate. The house didn’t cost us any more than the hotels, which is unbelievable, and it gave us the ability to have our own food and drink with us, though we didn’t use it to the fullest extent. We spent most of our down time at the RV’s and cooked there so that we could all be together which worked out well.
We had five days to explore the parks of Disney World. That is just enough time to hit Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. The fifth day we would choose whichever park we felt like we didn’t get enough of, so it was a wild card right up to the end. We hit Magic Kingdom first, which is basically Disneyland with more elbow room. They have the same attractions with some differences. Pirates of the Caribbean has a much better line queue than Disneyland, but the ride is much shorter and only has a single, smaller drop. In our opinion, not as good as the original. The Haunted Mansion has a different look all together on the exterior, but similar on the inside. The differences on the inside do raise the bar, though. Our opinion, better than the original. Misty loves the classic attractions like the People Mover and the Carousel of Progress, which I agree bring a bit of nostalgia to the park despite the years of changes. This day was Sunday, so the crowds were pretty bad, but overall, not a bad day.
I don’t want to bore you with going through every day we were there, so, I’ll just give you our favorite things of the parks. Our second day saw us visiting Hollywood Studios. The one ride that everyone loves and is a must do is the Tower of Terror. When Disneyland rebranded their Hollywood Tower of Terror to The Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, I was truly bummed out. I loved the Tower of Terror. I loved the theme of the old fashioned hotel with it’s cob web covered sconces and tables. I almost didn’t want to ride it after the rebranding. I did, of course, and it is still fun, but still not the same. This makes visiting Hollywood Studios worth it to me. The other highlight for us in this park was Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad. The exterior and interior is very different in Disney World than Disneyland as it is designed after the TCL Chinese Theater in California. The Disneyland version is designed more toward a standard theater with old memorabilia from Mickey’s movies. The ride themselves are the same and represent the latest in technology. The visuals are unique as you are transported into a cartoon, basically. There is no visible track for the train to follow which keeps you guessing as to where you are going. It’s good fun. We didn’t even try to go into Galaxy’s Edge because the wait times were ridiculous. We’ve ridden Rise of the Resistance before and didn’t feel the need to wait for it. We did manage to grab a bite to eat at 50’s Prime Time Cafe. This is Momma’s kitchen and you had better be on your best behavior. Keep your elbows off the table, eat your vegetables and don’t tattle unless you want to be reprimanded by Momma’s staff.
Epcot is a favorite because there is a lot of food from different parts of the world and we noticed that the employee’s at these different vendors were all from the country they represented. Way cool. Most of the group was exited to experience Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, but it was down all day. Something had malfunctioned the night before and they were unable to get it up and running during our time there. We did get to experience the new Guardian’s of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and it did not disappoint. It was a newer and smoother version of Space Mountain if you ask me, but with the added excitement of the car you sit in shifting in the turns. It’s an experience you have to have on your own to fully understand. Of course, we couldn’t miss out on Soarin' either. It’s a fan favorite for almost everyone.
When it comes to Animal Kingdom there are two things that you must do. The first is Expedition Everest where you get to hunt for the Yeti. Or is he hunting you? This ride is awesome as you start out moving forward like most any roller coaster, but then they trick you when the rail appears to be bent and broken. Only way to go now is…backwards. This is such a good ride. The other experience you have to do is the Kilimanjaro Safari. This tour takes you through Disney’s version of the African back country where the animals roam free and your truck has plenty of viewing space. It’s kind of like a zoo, only you don’t have to walk anywhere and the animals might just come up to you. They kept their distance from us during our visit. The big cats are nocturnal, so you get to watch them sleep, but it’s still really cool and a favorite for everyone in our group. Avatar Flight of Passage is another highlight of Animal Kingdom, but again, the lines were longer than we wanted to wait for and by this point in the trip everyone was getting a bit worn out. That happens. Misty and I have agreed that four days is about the maximum we like to do at theme parks and I could tell the rest of the group was feeling it as well. So we opted to head back to Fort Wilderness and relax. We also had a dinner scheduled at the campground that I’ll get into in another blog post.
We spent the last day in Magic Kingdom to catch Tiana’s Bayou Adventure for the second time (worth it) and we wanted to ride the new Tron Lightcycle Run. We waited thirty minutes or so for Tron and to be honest, that is about the longest I would wait for it. Don’t get me wrong, it is a cool ride, but as I’m writing this the wait time is eighty minutes. It isn’t that cool, sorry. It is unique because you are actually sitting in the same position you would be in if you were riding a bullet bike rather than a typical side by side car, but I imagine this limits the speeds they were allowed to design the ride for. The good news was that this was the least busy day in all of the parks which made for a nice experience.
In the end we had a great week at Disney and an even better time hanging out with the family. We wish them well as they finish out their journey and head home in time for our next adventure. If you are a Disney fan and haven’t been to Disney World, you should absolutely go. You’ll have a good time comparing the two parks and it would be interesting to hear what your favorite parts of both of these parks are, so send us an email and let us know.
Be safe. Have fun. And get out there and find your own adventure.
Brandan