Orlando Post-Trip Discussion: Overall Impressions

I have a lot of information to update on this blog but I think a summary post is in order. I can say with complete certainty that this year's Orlando trip was by far my most favorite vacation to-date. I think it was a combination of research and experience that really helped us to make the most of our time; while many individuals in my Disney September planning group on Facebook were complaining about crowds on various days, I was happily strolling along nearly empty walkways because I utilized several crowd calendars and a little intuition to put together a touring plan before traveling. If nothing else is taken from this blog, I hope that you'll appreciate this piece of advice: a complete touring plan will make a world of difference for your trip regardless of the time of year that you plan to visit. Even if you can only go to Orlando in the dead of summer when everyone else is there, you can utilize a touring plan to visit attractions during slow parts of the day to see and do everything on your list.

Our first day at Epcot during Food & Wine Festival; minimal crowds

In order to keep this post as concise as possible, I'll divide the trip among the major categories to give a brief summary of our impressions. The goal is to dedicate a post to more specific topics in the coming weeks but please feel free to post any questions or comments below if you'd like an answer sooner!

Time of Visit

We chose to vacation in September because there are historically very low crowds this time of year. Disney's free dining offer, in addition to seasonal events, have resulted in higher crowds the past few years. I don't have another September visit to compare, but I would say that the crowds seemed very similar to those I experienced on my trip the first week of May 2015. The parks weren't empty but I would say they were on the lower end of moderate. We are planning our next trip to Disney World for the first week of December 2017 to see if that famed 'slow week' will live up to the hype.

Hotels

Disney's Contemporary Resort: I had no idea how convenient a monorail resort would be until we took our first walk to Magic Kingdom on arrival day and timed ourselves - less than 10 minutes to the security checkpoint and that's while walking in Halloween costumes that nearly suffocated us! Patrick has requested to stay at a monorail resort for every trip in the future although I'm unsure we'll always be able to fork out the money for it. The resort definitely feels luxurious but staying there for a week allowed us to notice a few dated details that served as tiny reminders of this resort's history. For example, our bathroom had worn edges on the wallpaper that probably wouldn't have stood out to us if we hadn't been there for a full 7 days. We made excellent use of the pool area and loved that we could see Magic Kingdom's fireworks from the quiet pool! I would rate this resort 8/10, knocking off a star for price and another star for minor dated decor.

Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort: I'm not sure that we really gained anything by staying in the Family Suite. It was a bigger room but we didn't utilize the extra space at all and we found that the separate water closet was a bit of a hassle because there wasn't much space between the toilet and the door (had to step into the water closet and around the door in order to close it.) Also, the mattress was sagging in the middle and was pretty uncomfortable for this reason. We really enjoyed the lazy river but will definitely select a room on that side of the resort next time because the walk from the Cabana Courtyard was a longer distance than I had anticipated. 5/10

Dining

I was very impressed with nearly everything we ate on this trip. I won't go into details on each experience because there will undoubtedly be another post for that purpose but I will share our best and worst recommendations -

Best Disney: California Grill, Via Napoli, Kona Cafe

Best Universal: Mythos, Cowfish, Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen

Worst Disney: Tangierine Cafe

Worst Universal: Bayliner Diner

Special Events

There were three special events that we attended on this trip: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Food & Wine Festival, and Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. Of these three, we enjoyed Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party the most because it was a night dedicated to our favorite holiday and provided all attendees the opportunity to dress up, trick-or-treat, and watch event-specific parades, shows, and fireworks. It was a spooky good time! We also loved the Food & Wine Festival but we weren't especially impressed with a lot of the offerings and, compared to the Flower & Garden Festival in the spring, it seemed like it brought in a lot more crowds. For Epcot, specifically, I think I would choose to visit in early March or May to catch the Flower & Garden Festival because I prefer the food at those kiosks more and they are easily enjoyed any time of day or night because the crowds are lower. And rounding up the special events....well, we attended Universal's Halloween Horror Nights but they should really re-brand it as a frat party for Orlando's locals. While the houses and scare zones were pretty impressive, the event was too crowded and boozy. It's really not even worth attending unless you plan to purchase an Express Pass because the lines for the houses grow to 45+ minutes for most of the night and they all utilize the same scare tactics (fog machine + random props hanging from ceiling + too many scare actors jumping at the same intervals). We will definitely not return to this event in the future.

I hate to pick sides on the Disney vs. Universal debate but this trip cemented us as a Disney family. The layout of the parks, efficiency of the MagicBand and Fastpass, access to various modes of transportation, and plenty of resorts in every budget makes Disney World a destination that any family can aspire to visit. Universal charges a premium for many of the options that Disney offers for free and their resort options are pretty slim unless paying $250+/night is your preference. I'm glad they've recently opened Cabana Bay Beach Resort and Sapphire Falls to accommodate guests on a budget but even these options are typically more expensive than Disney's All-Star resorts. Also, perhaps it was because we spent a week at Disney World first but it seemed like the Universal employees were far less friendly than we had grown accustomed to witnessing from the Disney Cast Members. We haven't completely decided on our next Orlando trip but I think it's safe to say that we'll probably just take one day to drive over to Universal for Wizarding World of Harry Potter but we won't be staying onsite.

That's it for now - stick around for posts in the near future that will dive deeper into the specifics of our September 2016 Orlando trip!