Last week was my 8 year old’s winter break, so we spent a weekend in Palm Coast, followed by 3 nights in Orlando. We stayed at the Art of Animation resort, which, like many other Disney resorts currently, is running the 35% off special on most room types. We reserved a Finding Nemo Family Suite, and visited Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Universal Studios.
Before You Go:
Orlando isn’t a last minute type of destination, especially now. Many of Disney’s resorts remain closed or open on a limited basis. All Disney parks are still operating on a 35% capacity limitation, which means often times, you have to purchase tickets online in advance to guarantee entry, and some of the parks tickets do sell out weeks in advance. We visited at a low season time – Monday to Wednesday in the middle of February, but Hollywood Studios was at capacity for all of the days. Fortunately it wasn’t a park we had planned on visiting so it didn’t affect our plans.
Universal Studios and Island of Adventure parks did not have a clearly stated capacity limit, and advanced purchase or registration was not required, however, there was a sign stating that they could turn you away if crowd becomes an issue. We chose to go to Universal Studios on Tuesday, imagining it to be somewhat uncrowded, but boy were we wrong. This was by far the most crowded Universal Studios I’ve ever seen. I believe this was because Disney was sold out (due to the 35% capacity limit), so I’m guessing all of the people that couldn’t get in Disney came to Universal Studios. This would mean Universal Studios is putting money and greed above health and lives, and I didn’t appreciate that.
Staying at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort:
After comparing many Disney resorts, we decided to stay at the Art of Animation. This resort is convenient – it provides free transportation to and from the airport with the Disney Magic Express, it is on the Disney skyliner system (which takes you to Epcot and Hollywood Studios), and it has Disney buses to all of the parks (the buses do not go to Epcot on low seasons). The grounds are beautiful, and heavily themed for Disney, with characters from Cars, Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and Lion King. Our Finding Nemo Family Suite comes with 1 Queen bedroom with en-suite bathroom, an open living room area, a dining room area, and another full bathroom. The living room sofa can be converted to a queen size bed, and the dining room table can be converted into a queen size bed as well. The room is BEAUTIFUL, with ceiling lights made of “water bubbles”, bed lamps made of sea corals, floors, doors and walls all being blue and all the dressers are decorated as well. It really makes you feel like you are living “under the sea”. Since my kids are only 8 and 10, they “soaked” it all up and felt like it was all magical. I absolutely recommend this resort if your children are still 10 and under.
There were some surprises we encountered however. First of, since we arrived in February during their 35% capacity limitation, I assumed the lines in the morning to ride the skyliner would not be long. We were absolutely wrong. The lines wrapped around the whole resort so much so that it took us several minutes to find the end of the line. Typically, Finding Nemo rooms are closer to the skyliner stop, but with how long the line was, you’d actually be closer to the end of the line if you stayed in Cars. Also, I didn’t expect to have to make a transfer when riding the Skyliner to the parks. After waiting for 25 minutes to get on the skyliner, we had to get off at the next stop, then switch to the Epcot line (the park we were visiting that day), then wait another 15 minutes, then get on the new Skyliner, make a stop at the Disney Yacht Club, then finally arrive at the park. So obviously if we stayed at Disney Yacht Club, it would have saved a lot of that Skyliner traveling. However if you were waiting to get on a Skyliner in the morning from the Yacht Club, I would imagine it would take a long time because they can only get on if someone gets off at the Yacht Club, and I don’t see why anyone would ride from the central station to the Yacht Club that early in the morning.
The next surprise comes from the dining. Due to COVID, most of the dining options on any Disney resorts, parks, and shops have the mobile order feature. What I didn’t realize was that a lot of these places ONLY allow mobile order, which means you can’t walk up to the counter and place an order. I do enjoy the convenience of mobile ordering, but quite a few times I forgot that option and had walked up to the counter, only to be told no, then had to quickly put in my order through the phone and wait.
Walt Disney World: Epcot
Epcot is one of the biggest Disney Parks in the world. I do not recommend Epcot if your children are very little, or if you do not want a vacation to feel like a school field trip. Epcot focuses more on Science, Technology, Education and International culture, than say, thrill or kid rides. I explained to my kids before going in so they knew what to expect and enjoyed learning about history of technology (Spaceship Earth), or the history of farming (Living with the Land), or about our imagination (Journey Into Imagination with Figament). The Seas with Nemo & Friends finishes in a giant aquarium, and Soarin’ Around the World gives children a real good chance of seeing what some of the world famous sites look like. We also enjoyed Frozen Ever After and Gran Fiesta Tour. A few other major attractions that we didn’t get to see include Mission: Space (we felt that the Green mission sounded a little boring and the Orange mission might be too much, and the line was long), and the Test Track, which has the single longest waiting time of every attraction in the park, and it breaks down often, so we didn’t want to risk it.
There is no longer any meet and greet with princesses close up but they still ride through the park all the time so it’s easy to catch a glimpse of them.
Epcot also has a World Showcase area featuring 11 countries. For many visitors, this is the best part of Epcot. It’s great to walk from country to country, marvel at the different architectures, food, drinks, and culture. There are so many little food stands around this area that it would be criminal not to try something. We tried many foods from several different countries, and I was impressed by how authentic everything was.
It is important to note that if you arrive at the park by skyliner, you will enter into the World Showcase first. If you arrive by any other transportation, you will be at the front entrance near the big ball (Spaceship Earth).
Universal Studios Orlando
I’m not sure if I could ever forgive Universal Studios for the crowd they allowed in the middle of Covid season. The lines were INCREDIBLY long, there was crowd EVERYWHERE that it was virtually impossible to social distance, and like Disney, all shows are cancelled, so everyone has nothing to-do other than standing in lines. This was a miserable experience, but we made the best of it.
Universal Studios is an impressive park, especially if you are into simulation, 3D/4D rides/shows, or anything from Harry Potter. The two newest rides: Fast & Furious – Supercharged, and Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, required “virtual line” through their app almost the entire day (except for the first half hour and last half hour of the park opening), at least for the time we were there. This sounds like a great thing, but in reality, it was quite awful, because the virtual line never worked. The app would tell you that they would release slots at set times like 10am, noon, 2pm, 4pm, etc, but despite the fact both Teddy and I would be refreshing and trying to snatch a ticket minutes before those set times all the way to minutes past, none of us could snatch any, all day. This meant that we had no way of getting on those rides. No way at all. They do not let you wait in line, and I can’t help but to scratch my head at what kind of people were able to snatch these tickets. My only guess is they were small groups of 1 or 2 people. My best advise is to snatch them at park opening when they had more virtual tickets to give out. I didn’t know it was going to be like this so I didn’t try when the park first opened as I wasn’t sure what kind of day we were going to have. I simply thought I could “get in” on the virtual line any time, and it would let me know when I’m at the “front of the line” kind of like how the virtual wait works on Yelp!
We managed to get in on the Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, right before the park closed. It was still a very long wait, especially since there was no clear organization of how everyone could form a line in multiple waiting areas, so even when we were first in line in one room, we became last in line in the next room as the open space didn’t keep any type of organization. Even though I’m a huge fan of Jimmy Fallon, I’m not sure if it was worth what we went through. Don’t get me wrong – the ride was amazing, and lived up to what I had expected, but at the end of the day, it had much similarities to most of the other simulation rides in the park, and we were tired and exhausted, that we just didn’t really need any more frustration.
If anyone is a Harry Potter fan, then the Leaky Cauldron is a must go-to for your lunch spot. Currently they accept mobile order only so start ordering when you are waiting in line. The menu has an impressive amount of items that are influenced by the book, including Toad in the Hole, Gillywater, Butterbeer, etc. There are also interesting draught beer options such as Wizard’s Brew, and Dragon Scale, as well as common pub brews like Amstel Light and Heineken. Note: the serving sizes are pretty small, so order a few plates to share and try. You definitely don’t want to put in a second order and wait when you have rides to go to!
As a fan of Jason Bourne’s series, I was also hoping to get in on The Bourne Stuntacular show, but each time we went, the next show was either already filled up, or cancelled. Frustration once again.
If you get in the park during the first hour, you should always go for one of the most popular rides first. We did Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, which did have a much worse line throughout the day after we rode it. My kids just started getting into Harry Potter, so this was perfect. Next we did Men In Black, a very fun interactive ride where you shoot the aliens and get scored for your efforts as you go through the ride. However, this was a mistake as far as planning because it did not have a long wait time all day, and delayed us from getting on other rides, which saw longer and longer lines. Transformers: The Ride 3D, which was great but the wait was VERY long. Shrek 4-D was a generic 4-D ride where your seat vibrates a LOT as you watch the movie. The Simpson’s Ride had moderate wait times throughout the day and the simulation was fun and exciting, although it was more dizzying than Soarin‘ from the day before. We enjoyed some Duff Beer and hot dogs right outside of the Simpson’s Ride which was a great addition to the overall experience.
We chose not to do Despicable Me due to long wait times – I’ve done it in the past and it is a really fun ride. We also skipped Revenge of the Mummy because I think it could give my kids nightmares. Our visit was also during Mardi Gras, so the park had lots colorful floats and beads and foods and beverages from around the world.
The most frustrating part of the day was our one attempt at visiting the restroom. For starters, Universal Orlando doesn’t seem to have nearly as many restrooms as Disney World parks. After walking to the nearest restroom, we were told that the restroom is closed and we needed to walk to the next one. Then after coming to the next one, we were told that now this one is closed and we needed to walk back to the last one. We were assured that the last one is now open. After walking back to the last one, lo’ and behold, it’s still closed. We (along with several others) were told now to walk to the next one – all the way inside Harry Potter, which is the other end of the park. I understand that during COVID, there’s many cleaning protocols they have to follow, but I don’t think it’s acceptable to make visitors hunt for bathrooms all around the park. All of the workers had walkie-talkies on them so it’s not like they couldn’t communicate with one another in real time. It was the hunt for the bathroom that made us miss the Bourne Stuntacular show.
Walt Disney World: Animal Kingdom
For Day 3, we visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom. If you are staying at a Disney Resort, there will likely be a bus that can take you to the park, but it’s also free to drive yourself and park your own car, and most likely it would be faster than riding the bus. You just have to show them proof that you are staying at a Disney resort in order to park for free. I simply showed them my Disney app which had our resort stay on it and he politely waved us in.
For the first ride of the day, we chose Kilimanjaro Safari because we’ve been told that the animals are most active in the morning. This was everyone’s first time to Animal Kingdom and we weren’t sure what to expect but we were so impressed with all the different animals we got to see and how close we were able to get to them. The line was also very short in the morning and it really felt like a great way to start the day.
After the safari, we walked towards Pandora, the World of Avatar, and noticed that Avatar Flight of Passage had a close to 2 hour wait, but Na’vi River Journey was only 35 minutes, so that’s where we went next. Na’vi River Journey was a beautiful ride especially if you enjoy the world of Avatar, but outside of beauty, it delivered little else. If you have never been on this ride before, then I would definitely recommend it, but it’s one of those once and done type of rides.
Next up, Expedition Everest. This is a mountain rollercoaster through the icy tops of Mount Everest. As far as thrill level, this is not nearly as scary as Rip Ride Rockit but there is still some good turns and drops. About half of the ride is riding backwards on the track, in the dark. I assumed this would make it scarier, but it was surprisingly fun and felt great. Expedition is the tallest and most expensive man made mountain Disney has built so far.
Next we rode the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, the only way to visit Animal Kingdom’s conservation station and see the behind-the-scenes of the animals. The conservation station also has a petting zoo, a shop, an art workshop, and a discovery trail. At the art workshop, they taught us how to draw Scar from the Lion King step-by-step (and provided all of the materials). Note that the only way to visit Rafiki’s Planet Watch is by taking the Wildlife Express Train there and back, and there is no food carts or restaurants at Planet Watch.
Next up, Avatar Flight of Passage. This is a must-do if you’ve never done it before, although if you didn’t care for Soarin’ you probably wouldn’t care for this one either. It’s fun and beautiful and definitely the top two rides this week (the other being Soarin’).
This mostly rounded out our day since we did make many food stops and as this was day 3 of parks, we were all pretty tired. Had we had more energy, I would have wanted to see It’s Tough to Be a Bug, a 3D movie, but as this was our favorite park of the 3, I know we’ll be back, especially since we didn’t get to see any shows this time as all of the shows have been canceled due to COVID.
Final Thoughts…
This was a last minute vacation so planning wasn’t perfect but we all did have a great time. The biggest takeaway I have is that, visiting a park a day is very tiring and often times things will not go as planned. Attractions/shows/bathrooms close down randomly, and we must roll with it to enjoy the best of it, and try not to get stressed out. Take breaks whenever needed and try not to focus on what you are missing out. If you are planning on visiting 3 parks, I would recommend staying 4 days so you can recover for a day, either in between or on the last day. If you plan on visiting 4 parks, I would recommend staying 5 days. Also, if you want to visit during the pandemic, I would recommend not to visit Universal Orlando or Island of Adventure. The lines just weren’t worth it. If you do visit, I definitely don’t recommend the 2 park 1 day ticket, because the train to go between parks had wait lines upwards of 90 minutes. Also, pay close attention to where you parked your car, especially for Universal Orlando, where the parking garage is on the other side of the park, and you must walk through the CityWalk in between, which can be easy on your way in, but very confusing on your way out.