Since the Disney trip got booked, my brain has once again resumed its obsession with all the things. It's not as bad as last year, mind you. I have a better idea of what to expect and don't have to worry so much about buying supplies and that sort of thing, since we already have a lot on hand from last year. I guess that's the good news about taking trips close together--we can reuse things and everything isn't so foreign. But it's still a lot, and I usually feel like my brain chills out a little when I write it all out here and can start organizing my thoughts a bit more. So here we go...
I actually sat down a couple weeks ago and read through my posts leading up to Disney last year. It was interesting to recall my fears, to realize what came to fruition and what didn't, and then realize that there were things I was worried about then that I hadn't been thinking about now, but actually need to worry about again, even though they never ended up happening last time--like COVID (or other illness) or even worse weather than we had (reminder: there was a hurricane there a month after we went). Some of the other concerns I had ended up being mostly okay, or at least not as bad as I had envisioned. For example:
- Food - The food thing was simultaneously better and worse than I feared. We were usually able to find something for Jacob to eat, and I think the things he had were mostly winners (aside from one of the pizzas, maybe). But we did have a few really frustrating times, like a lunch at EPCOT, the night that food delivery was a nightmare and I ended up eating an extraordinarily expensive Wawa pretzel for dinner, or the complete lack of options at Midway Airport on the way home. Eating in general was expensive, but probably not much worse than the meal plan would have been. For the most part I think we did OK, but those low points are still on my mind for this round.
- Park reservation system - Overall I think things worked out OK and I don't think we could have or would have changed anything, but it was definitely a bummer that the one day we picked to do Magic Kingdom had a massive thunderstorm right at fireworks time. Honestly, the weather as a whole was a challenge--though I would say we did make it work for the most part--so I don't think any shuffling of the days/reservations would have made much of a difference.
- Genie+ - I was overwhelmed by Genie+, and probably rightly so. But luckily the learning curve was quick and that actually ended up making so much of the trip more doable - from getting on all the rides we wanted to compressing our ride time to allow Craig and Jacob to go back to the resort early most days. I was really worried about fitting in rides, Genie+ or not, but in the end we did well--and only Carter and I really had to push ourselves to the brink of exhaustion to do it. But for us, it was worth it.
- Ride selection - I think we did a pretty fabulous job of covering the classics without making the kids crazy. I was worried about them getting annoyed by It's a Small World or the Hall of Presidents, and while things like that were likely not at the top of their lists, they did provide much-needed air conditioning. And I think we did well hitting up the vast majority of rides--all the must-dos, and most of the like-tos. And I think it sets us up really well for this return trip, for a few reasons that I'll get into later.
- Ride/activity tolerance - In the end I think Jacob was even less
tolerant of our level of activity than I anticipated, but we still
managed it well. No one ended up being completely destroyed by a ride
via motion sickness, but the heat and motion did combine to make things a
little harder for Craig in particular. The motion patches definitely
didn't work. While I was disappointed we couldn't do more as a family, I
think it taught me a valuable lesson about how we need to vacation, and
as long as the people who want to make the most of it do and the other
people don't feel like their preferences are being ignored, we're doing okay.
- Luggage/travel - I was really worried about travel delays and luggage issues and in the end those were minimal. I mean, the whole Southwest seating debacle was not ideal and we had one airport rush and another painful (but not too long) delay, but our carry-ons worked well and overall things were very acceptable.
- Screwing up the trip - After previous travel issues, I was very worried about ruining this one for Jacob in particular. All in all, things went fine, but...then again, here we are going back again. It's half because Jacob loved it, and half because he was unsatisfied with the experience. I'm still nervous about his wrath when things don't go well, but this trip will be set up to work with him much better. The only problem is that his expectations are now sky-high because he thinks this will go better, so I worry about what happens if it doesn't work out the way he expects, for whatever reason.
I think most of my worries were valid, but I also think we lucked out that they weren't too bad in the end. They could have been, though. And many of them will be on my mind again.
Part of me is so excited, and the other part of me is slightly terrified of having to figure everything out again. There was a sense of relief getting through the trip okay and knowing--well, thinking--that I was done with that stuff for a couple years, at least. And now, here we are a year later figuring it all out again, whether I did it well and need to remember how, or I never did completely figure out and need to do better, like shoes or the extreme heat, for example. The shoe thing ended up a mess. Carter and I both had blisters from wearing slides in wet weather (and then my one toe started rubbing weird in my sneakers, too), and it made all the walking much harder by the end. I need to do better this time. I will be taking a copious amount of band-aids and moleskin with us (and having it in my bag in the parks for the first sign of trouble), but seeing as I never found a full solution last time, I'm not sure if I can do it better this time. I have a pair of sandals (cheap but very highly rated Teva dupes) sitting in my Amazon cart currently, but what about Carter? And what about the heat? We were pretty miserable last time and I swore last year we'd never go back at this time of year again because it felt so limiting...and yet here we are going the exact same week because it's the one week that works with everyone's schedule. The water bottles, fans, and cooling towels only did so much and were a lot to carry. It just wasn't that enjoyable at times, and the rain made it harder. So how do I make it at least as good as last time, and hopefully make it better? I don't think the tiny misting fan in my Amazon cart is it, but it's a start.
Among the things we did well pretty well that I need to summon the ability to do again were our carry-ons and how to leave things back at home. Last year we just fit everything into our carry-ons, and now I have to worry about fitting everything again. And Jacob actually needs a new one since his crapped out with all of our spring travel. Even if it went fine last time, I will worry right up to the last minute about packing our carry-ons well and fitting everything in. I cringed a bit when I realized I'll have to redo my setup for keeping my outside plants watered and coordinate leaving a minimal amount of food in the house for the time we're gone. I would have probably needed to do those things for any vacation, but it might not have been for as long, nor would I have expected to be doing it among this complex of a trip again so soon. But here we are, and I guess a year was not quite enough time for me to feel ready to do it all over again.
While I'm still working through how to fix some of the things above, I'm also working on a list of other fun, random things to accomplish. Some are wrongs I'd like to right from our last trip, or things I never knew about that I want to see or do. For example, I want to get my blown glass ornament souvenir from Germany that I missed out on last time. I want to get more family pictures and recreate an old photo on the resort basketball court (we couldn't do it last time since it was closed). I'd like to ride the Contemporary route of the Monorail that I haven't done since I was a kid, and maybe even visit more resorts, perhaps en route to their gluten-free options. I didn't find out about the funky free samples in the Coca-Cola place at EPCOT until we were home, so I'd like to do that. I also never knew there's a brown path in Magic Kingdom in Liberty Square that represents sewage in the streets back in Colonial times, so I'd like to see that. We also breezed through a lot of the World Showcase last year for various reasons, so maybe we can do that better, too.
As far as rides go, there are a bunch that Carter and I really want to do again. Of course I'm also super excited to ride Tron since I didn't think I'd get to do that for a long time. It was so frustrating last year seeing it so close to completion, but knowing we couldn't ride it for a while, so I guess that's one big upside to going back now. Another benefit is that we can skip the rides we didn't love without much fear that something has changed, and make more time for any lesser priorities, like maybe Country Bear Jamboree or Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor that we skipped last time (or that darn Little Mermaid ride I've missed at least twice). We could also ride the train in Magic Kingdom that was shut down for construction when we need a walking break.
I just joined a Disney Photography page on Facebook to look for cool angles I could try this time, since I don't want a bunch of duplicate pictures. I use my pictures as reminders of all the things we did, but we will be at a lot of the same places so I want different ways to visually represent those things. And if I can get ideas for cool, artistic shots, even better. I never did get up close to the castle, and I can't wait to take Tron pictures, but I'm sure there are other spots I'm not aware of that I didn't get last time.
I want to try to be at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios at closing time, since we didn't do night at those parks last time. It won't really get dark enough by Animal Kingdom's 7pm closing time to see Pandora or the Tree of Life lit up, but maybe there will be just enough to get an idea. But Star Wars Land looks amazing at night and I'm sure some other Hollywood Studios elements like the Chinese theater or Tower of Terror will look extra cool in the dark. So hopefully we can get that experience this time. And yes, I will be back at EPCOT at night trying to get more Spaceship Earth photos, hopefully with slightly more phone battery than last time so I can wait for cool, different patterns and colors.
One downside to going back so soon is that it didn't leave enough time for some construction projects to get done. Splash Mountain closed in the spring, so its redo is still many months away from completion (although one of the new design elements, a tiara-topped water tower, is visible). The ride will be missed, especially in that heat. But even the new Moana walk-through at EPCOT, which was in progress last year, won't be open yet. It was fully surrounded by construction walls and just looked like a lot of dirt and framing last time, but I believe it's very close to done now. At the very least a monorail ride could be fun because it gives you a good view of the area, but it's a bummer that we still won't experience that in full. Even still, there's a handful of things it will be nice to accomplish sooner rather than the much later we previously expected.
There are so many things I'm looking forward to, but also so many things that I'm overwhelmed with thinking about again. I think this is enough for one post, but stay tuned for part two, because I have a whole other round of random thoughts to share...
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