Originally Posted By momof4boys Last month we took our first trip to WDW. We have been to DL a dozen times and think of it as our "magic" place- but this was Nathan's ( our youngest's )trip through Make-A-Wish. His first choice was a Disney Cruise but they would only approve a 3 night trip and they recommended WDW. They gave us 3 day parkhoppers to WDW, 2 day to US/IOA and tickets to Sea World. We then bought tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party on our own. We stayed at Give Kids the World- it is a resort just for families on wish trips. It was an absolutely incredible place run primarily by volunteers. First, let me say, the trip was absolutely incredible. The CMs were wonderful and most of them were very attentive to Nathan ( he had a button designating him as a "wish" child that he was supposed to wear at all times). Also, we knew going in that we are very biased towards Disneyland. It feels like "home" to us. We also knew that there was no way we could give WDW the time that it needed in only 3 1/2 days. First park we went to was Hollywood studios. Nathan's favorite ride ever is Toy Story Mania- we rode it last summer at DL and we loved it. I like that WDW has FP. We also thought the queue at WDW was much better. The older boys really liked Rock'n'Roller Coaster at ToT was much better at WDW. However, we think Fantasmic! is so much better at DL-but I do like having seats instead of sitting on the ground. I really liked the restaurant choices at Hollywood studios-50's Prime Time Cafe was a hoot. But something about the park as a whole just didn't seem very "Disneyish". Next day we went to MK. The castle was gorgeous and the area around the castle/hub was much nicer than at DL, IMHO. We were very disappointed with Peter Pan- the loading was much more efficient, however. Snow White is MUCH better at WDW but we really missed Alice and Matterhorn. On the tea cups, they didn't play " Very Merry Un-birthday" and that made us sad. Mickey's Philharmagic was very entertaining- I really wish they would add that at DL. Pooh was much better at WDW. Tiki room- UGH! First of all, we have a tradition of getting Dole Whip floats and eating them while watching the Tiki Room show. We were disappointed that there is no eating at WDW Tiki Room. But then the "under new management" show. This was horrible. It actually made me sad that they would do that to the Tiki Room. Small World is nicer at DL, but honestly, we don't care that much for it either place ( except at Christmas with all the lights on the topiaries). Pirates is much better at DL. We enjoyed the actual ride of HM about the same at both places but getting on to a doombuggy at WDW seemed to take forever! On Wed, we went to US/IOA and then on Thursday we had to do both AK and Epcot in one day. This was tough to do. We started out at AK. We went to the Lion King show based on the rave reviews we had seen on it. It was okay- maybe we just aren't "show" people. The safari was more entertaining than we expected. My kids aren't really animal people so they thought it would be boring. I guess it really depends on your driver-ours was good. I said it was like Jungle Cruise on land with real animals. The older kids loved EE ( Nathan can't ride intense rides) and rode it several times. Nathan insisted he would be fine on Dinosaur even though I had read it was very scary. I had read the track was similar to Indy ( which he rides)so I wasn't worried about speed or bumpiness. Really, we didn't think it was very scary. I think that is all we did at AK-we had ADRs at 1:00 at Epcot we had to make. The park really was beautiful. We really enjoyed Epcot. We really needed more time here. Soarin' made us homesick for DL. We didn't get to see all that we wanted to see. The older boys really enjoyed Mission Space- the intense version. My boys really enjoy those " educational " things but we had to leave a little early because there was a Christmas party back at our resort. We really want to go back to Epcot. Oops, just realized the time. I will have to complete our trip later.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo I look forward to reading more and I am glad you had a great time. Please write soon!
Originally Posted By momof4boys More about Epcot- In the 2008 Birnbaum guide we had read about Cranium Command and Body Wars. Both of these sounded interesting to us but we could not find them and they were not listed on the map. So either they are no longer there or we were going crazy. We absolutely loved Test Track. We weren't sure if it would be too intense for Nathan so I rode it with the 3 older while David waited with Nathan. I determined he would be fine- Nathan was VERY excited. The CM was very kind and instead of just letting David and Nathan ride it, he let us all ride it together. The boys loved this ride and we rode it several times. Then I remembered there was supposed to be a lounge for wish families at Test Track. We asked around and nobody seemed to know what we were talking about. Finally a CM called someone and they said that it was the GM lounge. They directed us where to go- we pushed a button on a speaker and they asked if we were GM employees. We said, no we're with Make a wish. They said, " Come on up." The lounge overlooks the inside of the ride. It was very cool to watch. Then when we left, the secretary gave us a pass for a special entrance onto Test Track. We got to go through a door that said, " Authorized Personnel Only". Nathan thought that was so cool. You could tell when we walked out of a door to get on the ride people were looking at us like, " Where did they come from?" We ate lunch at Biergarten. I really enjoyed the food- the boys did not. They weren't impressed with the entertainment either. My mother is German and I kept thinking about how much she would love it there. She would really like talking to the german employees. We spent quite a bit of time in the chocolate shop next to Biergarten. We did Spaceship Earth- I wasn't terribly impressed but the boys liked it and wanted to do it again but we were running out of time. I really wanted to do the Universe of Energy show ( a friend told me it was really good)but it was getting close to time for the Christmas party back at Give Kids the World and Nathan was getting very anxious that we would miss it. So I gave in and said, " Let's just leave." It wasn't worth making him anxious and miserable-it was his trip. We really would have liked to explore things more. I was very frustrated that day. I had researched and planned things very carefully as to what we would do what day. I remember thinking, " we should do US/IOA on Thursday since it closes at 6:00pm and the resort Christmas Party is that night, and go to AK/Epcot on Wednesday." But then I thought of something and realized that would not work. For the life of me, I can't remember what that "something" was so the entire day I kept thinking, " Why didn't I have us go to AK/Epcot on Wed. so we could stay there until it closes?" Part of Epcot didn't close until 9:00pm. We were disappointed that we didn't get to see the fireworks. Well, David and I were- the boys didn't really care. To make things worse, there really wasn't THAT much at the resort Christmas Party. there was cookie decorating ( which took 5 minutes) and Santa was there and the kids could pick out a gift from tables of toys. But that took about 15 minutes for the line. There was a little parade later, but the boys weren't interested. So we left Epcot early for 20 minutes of "party". But we didn't know what to expect. Live and learn. David wanted to go back to Epcot to see the fireworks but the boys were tired. That is my one regret from the trip is that I didn't arrange those days better- maybe I'd feel better if I could remember why I arranged it the way I did! Friday was our last full day- we had tickets to Mickey's Christmas Party and we wanted to stay late, so we slept in that day. We spent the day at the resort. there was so much to do- mini golf, arcade, movie theater, " Castle of Miracles" where there was all sorts of creative play things, swimming, ice cream parlor, train rides, playgrounds- and it was all free! We had ADRs for Liberty Tree Tavern at 4:10 and we weren't supposed to get into the park until 4:00. We planned to get there a little bit early to line up. We got there at 3:45 and they had already been letting people in. There wasn't any line! I have no idea what time they actually let people in who just had tickets for the party. We got our wristband and headed for LTT. We loved this place. We really liked the food- I guess we are simple people. The characters were very entertaining. It seemed like at other places, the characters would just visit our table to take the obligatory picture but not really interact with the boys. I assume it is because my boys are older. But the characters were really good here. The boys weren't really into the shows so we rode some rides- we liked Indy Speedway better than Autopia. Stitch- let's just say " UGH!" We really liked Monsters Inc. laugh floor and did that several times. We even liked the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. The boys like Space Mountain at DL MUCH better. Oh, I forgot that we rode Splash on Tuesday. We like the boats at WDW better. I like all of WDW's better but the rest like DL better. But the biggest disappointment was Buzz. We love this ride at DL and ride it over and over again. But it was HORRIBLE at WDW- you can't move the guns around, the targets are lame, you can't tell if you've shot something, etc. It was so bad, we only rode it 1x. We did catch the Christmas parade. We were over off of Main Street- I think across from the Hall of Presidents ( which we were very disappointed that it was closed. David remembers it from when he was a boy). We were able to walk right up and get a spot right in front. In fact we walked away and could walk right back to our spot. Now honestly, we didn't watch much of the parade. It just seemed low budget. In fact, I kept thinking, " Is this really THE Christmas Parade?" Maybe we just missed the good parts. We didn't stay for the entire thing. We ahd a great time on Goofy's Barnstormer. The CM was wonderful. There wasn't much of a line and she kept letting us ride over and over again. Whatever people got in line, she would put on the second train and just left us on! Every time we would pull in she would yell, " One more time?" and we would scream " YEAH!" We rode 8x in a row. A very magical memory for us! We also had great interaction with Mickey that night. I felt bad making so many people wait as he interacted with the boys. We have some great pictures! My favorite is the one of Nathan hugging Mickey. We made several copies and are sending them with the thank you notes we are sending to people who helped sponsor Nathan's wish trip ( they held a fundraiser in our town for Make a Wish and specifically Nathan's trip). I don't really see how they police the whole party thing. We had wristbands but you could see very few peoples' bands because they were bundled up. How do they ensure that people who are already in the park don't just stay there for the party? There was plenty of free cocoa and cookies around- Crystal Palace was empty. It was VERY cold and Nathan was getting tired. The other boys rode rides while I stayed warm with him in Crystal Palace. We managed to fairly easily get a good spot to watch the fireworks, which we all enjoyed. We left after that and we were afraid the monorail was going to be a madhouse as tons of people were leaving. I was shocked at how quick and efficient the monorail was. Before our trip, we had numerous people ( none of whom had been to DL) tell us that once we went to WDW we would prefer it to DL. Well, that didn't happen. We did enjoy WDW and hope to go back sometime- there is so much to see there. But we still prefer DL. Many of the rides we prefer at DL. Plus, I think we would need 2 weeks to do WDW like we like. We like to completely cover the parks-exploring every inch. Also, we really like to be able to walk everywhere. I hate using shuttles, etc. On our last day we like to ride all of our favorite rides one last time. This just isn't possible at WDW with everything so spread out. We had a wonderful trip and we loved WDW-but Disneyland is still our magical place.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb The Wonders of Life Pavilion, which housed Cranium Command and Body Wars closed sometime last year and had been seasonal for quite sometime before that. A shame really, Cranium Command was a great attraction. You didn't miss much with Body Wars IMO. I never once came off it with my tummy feeling 100%.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Momof4boys, thank you so much for sharing. I am glad to read your report and very much share your views. I adore DAK and Epcot, and to me, they are the only reasons I go to WDW except for Carousel of Progress, Country Bears and Hall of Presidents. I am also glad you liked Give Kids the World. Did Nathan and the boys enjoy? What were their thoughts?
Originally Posted By Mr X Glad you had a wonderful time (I can appreciate loving Disneyland even more, though...). Thanks for writing in such detail! I agree with Dave, it's be interesting to hear more about Give Kids the World, if you care to elaborate more.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo They are great. Do you guys remember the time we had a web fundraiser to purchase a unit there - that was awesome the way Disny geeks around the globe pulled together.
Originally Posted By danyoung A very nice trip report, Mom. And for the most part your observations about WDW vs. DL agree with mine. There are plenty of differences, but I still love both parks and can't wait for my next DL visit in NINE DAYS!!!
Originally Posted By momof4boys Give Kids the World is an absolutely incredible place. When we looked at it online ( gktw.org) the boys were afraid it was too babyish and were disappointed that we weren't staying on property. But I told them this was some place we couldn't pay to stay- a once in a lifetime opportunity. We are so glad we stayed there. Everything was geared towards younger children since so many wish kids who choose Disney are younger. When you check in they give the wish child a stuffed Mickey Mouse and the siblings a shamu. They really cater to the entire family- not just the wish child-they recognize that a life threatening illness affects the siblings also. It looks like a gated community. We stayed in a 2 bedroom/2bath villa with a full kitchen. There was a restaurant that served a buffet for breakfast and dinner. It was designed as a gingerbread house and the tables all had candy under plexiglass. There was a really cool 9 hole mini golf-very beautifully landscaped in a dino theme with surprises around every corner. There also was a carosel, arcade, movie theater, ice cream parlor ( that also served sandwiches at lunch time), 2 pools, a playground that was designed like a huge Candyland board, a very elaborate model train with interactive buttons, a train to ride around the village, pizza delivery. Oh, they also had this "Castle of Miracles" that had all sorts of imaginitive play areas and all the kids got to make a pillow with a machine similar to Build a Bear. Also, every wish child gets a gold star that they put their name on and put it in the treasure chest for the star fairy. The star fairy comes overnight and puts it on the ceiling of the castle of miracles. There is a star for every child who has ever stayed there ( and you get a "passport" to locate your star. There is also a small chapel. Every evening they would have some kind of activity. We did the life size Candyland game our first night there since we weren't going to the park and we did the Christmas party. We didn't go back for any of the other things but I think they were things like a Princess and Pirate party, family double dare, etc. In the mornings they had character meet and greets ( we never waited around for those) but one day it was Mickey and Minnie, one time it was Nick characters and another time it was Barney. Mayor Clayton and Miss Merry ( they are rabbits) are the mascots and you can sign up to have them come tuck you in at night- Nathan didn't want to do this. Everyone who stays there gets 3 day parkhoppers to WDW, 2 days US/IOA and 1 day Sea World. They also have discount tickets to some smaller activities if you ask. Every evening when we came back to our villa, there were surprises waiting for the kids. It varies greatly because it is all things they get donated. We got some stuffed animals, a GKTW Candyland game, some DVDs, Universal bags, etc. The place is run almost completely by volunteers. Our favorites were the breakfast volunteers because they seemed to all be retired people who volunteered there regularly. They insist on carrying your tray for you. Everything is geared to make you feel like royalty. Also, when you leave they give you a "world passport"- it basically is a pass to a long list of theme parks around the world that is good for 1 year. We LOVED Give Kids the World- even my older boys thought it was completely magical. We are allowed to go visit for the day anytime- we can go for a meal, ice cream, any of the activities. I think we are going to go visit when we go on a Disney Cruise in a year. I tear up just thinking about the place-just completely magical. We are going to try and get our church youth group to take a road trip and volunteer there for a week in a couple of years- we have to wait until Nathan is 12 to be old enough to volunteer. Well, that was probably a lot more detail than you wanted. Oh, and in case I didn't make it clear, everything there was completely free.
Originally Posted By avromark I saw pictures of it online and it seems too colourful. But you know Glad you had a positive experience though and got to enjoy the differences at WDW. Keep on truckin'
Originally Posted By Disneydanny atttt least with Small World at WDW they don't bombard you w/ Disney characters in the ride
Originally Posted By disney pete really enjoyed reading your comparisions we hope to get to DL one day so we can compare ourselves.
