Haven’t seen anybody talking about this, but we just left the parks after staying in the Grand Floridian. I had gotten a lightsaber, and my family got some sheep doorstops from the UK pavilion. I went into the gift shop in the Grand Floridian expecting to pay $100 to ship my items back, but was informed that they just moved to a new system. I wish I had taken a picture of the flier but basically:

- Their shipping is done entirely through Ricoh now

- You pick from a series of different size bags and receive the bag and a ziplock tag with a code in it from the gift shops (concierge might have them as well.) The bags range from “small” bags that are about the size of a large Disney plastic bag, all the way to their large bags which are enormous. We went with a medium bag and were able to fit an entire lightsaber and could have also put an entire carryon suitcase in there if we had wanted.

- You scan a QR code, enter your shipping info, make an itemized list of the contents of the bag, enter the code from your tag and then ziplock the bag shut. You pay online, with the medium bag being $45 and the large bag being $50. Can’t remember other prices

- You can put whatever you want in the bag, not just Disney merchandise. No receipts needed. It comes with a default $100 of insurance, but you can add more if you need to. Not sure about the cost of that as we didn’t need it.

- Once all is said and done we brought the bag to concierge and they were just as confused as we were. Sounds like they were told to be more or less hands off about the whole process aside from bringing the bag to their business center and shipping it out. They were told it’s supposed to be faster than the Disney shipping.

We’ll find out if everything arrives quickly and in good condition…

2 weeks at Animal Kingdom Lodge after a 20-year gap. I went with my wife and two kids for their first ever experience.

Waking up to animals outside the balcony each day was incredible. The kids filled up their autograph books with character dining events, and the Epcot fireworks were just as beautiful as I remember.

It brought back some great childhood memories for me, and seeing the smiles and excitement on my kids’ faces was amazing.

The only complaint I have is just how horrible Lightning Lanes were. Thankfully, we didn’t queue for more than 40 minutes for any ride during our stay, but the queue times certainly weren’t accurate.

Groups of Lightning Lane guests would pile up and just stop the standby queue dead for 10–15 minutes, which was mildly frustrating. When you’ve paid thousands to get there, the expectation to then spend hundreds more per day is a little sad in a way.

I guess you guys already know and experience this because it’s nothing new to you. But I still remember the days of collecting a paper ticket for free, with it telling you to come back at a certain time for quicker entry.

Anyway!

Animal Kingdom Lodge is incredible.

The staff are incredible.

The memories we made were lovely.

Boma was great.

Travel time from the resort to the parks was never more than 20 minutes (other than our Uber to Universal).

I just can’t work out how to access a “bounce-back” deal?

I got sat at the bar and my bartender was very personable and my Hibiscus Rum Punch Royale was delicious. The ambiance was fun and the little touches here and there made the experience better. I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews, but I think it’s worth checking out if you’re hesitant. I did not eat any of the snacks btw, so I can’t speak on the food.

Hey All - I ended up in town for a conference. Got there super early, and was done by 1:30. Here's what I did. It went really well. Took an uber to Disney Springs, ate a late lunch at Boathouse outside on the pier bar. Had the grouper. The sky fell out, so threw on a raincoat and went to Gideon's because I have never felt the urge to stand in the line, but there was no line due to rain. Cookie was raw. Then I stopped by the disney store to get some gifts for the kids back home. Took the bus back; switched to MK bus and then small boat to Wildnerless lodge for the Smore's Old Fashioned. By this time it was 8p, so I took the resort ferry to the Cosmo, then hopped two stops to Poly on the monorail. Got quickserve, watched the fireworks from the beach and walked to TTC to pick up the bus back to the dolphin. I brought a book and cleared a few chapters while on the busses.

The new resort looks like its coming along quick! Traders Sams (outdoor area) was closed for renovation. Bummer. The MNSHP swag is pretty good this year.

Hi! Officially visiting our favorite mouse in 17 days. LL opens up soon, and am curious what strategies you'd use based on this rough plan I have currently. Specifically, in MK Tues, I want to optimize LL and walking, so that we end up at B&B for 12:35 - do we start right direction or left?!

We are not super early risers, so I don't want to force rope dropping; that said, we will be aiming to arrive between 8-9am S - T, then later days W, Th. We have park hoppers, dining plan, and a 6 yo night owl. We'll be staying with family at Boardwalk Saturday night, then check into Beach Club Sunday for the rest of the trip.

Edit for clarity: The LL listed are our goals we want to accomplish, and everything else is a bonus. I know we have the tiers, so if you have recommendations on which group 1 LL to prioritize, group 2, etc. that is hugely helpful!

Hi all!!! Planning my family’s first Disney trip for January 2027 🥹

It will be me, my husband, our 2 year old, and a 3-4 month old infant. We are doing things on a budget, but I wanted to splurge on a character breakfast/brunch!!!!

The caveat, we are vegan. I know Disney generally accommodates this well, but wanted to hear from others who have dined at either and what your experience was? I’m ok with cross contamination, I just want to make sure we’re not paying over $100 pre tip just to eat fruit.

I know my toddler is technically free since she’s under 3, but girly has an appetite (which is why we ruled out Topolino’s, since we’d have to order her her own entree and wanted to save a bit).

Has anyone at DW parks seen the dachshund monorail sweatshirt lately? 😭 As a doxie mom I would really love to find it but seems like resellers have cleaned most of the gift shops out. 😞

I have checked Hollywood today and some of Epcot. Still have a couple park days left this week.

Hi, everyone! My husband surprised me with a trip to Epcot for our 10-year wedding anniversary. When we got married, we were too broke to take a Honeymoon, so this is truly special to me. This is his first time ever going to Disney!!

We are planning on going to the Boyz II Men concert on Nov. 2. How crazy is it to get a decent seat? Is it worth it to purchase a dining package? My husband is not a ride person, so we are prioritizing eating and the concert, rather than booking lightening lanes, etc. any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!

I'll preface this by saying I completely get this is not the best use of the plan money wise, but we have the free dining promotion:

We have an adult in our party who is a very picky eater and would prefer ordering kids meals at the quick service locations for our upcoming trip. Does anyone have experience redeeming their adult quick service credit for the kids meal option?

I'm also curious if they would be able to add on an additional drink like how with the meal plan you could normally add your adult entree and a specialty slushy or something. Would they be able to add the kids meal (which ik comes with a small drink) and then also a slushy and redeem for 1 adult meal credit?

Anyone have any experience attending while working for the government? Trying to figure out some contracting issues and needed help. Thanks!

We're looking to possibly do the "Up Close with Rhinos" and "Caring for Giants" experience at Animal Kingdom for our 5 year old. Has anyone done any of these? Is it worth it? Disney says no photography but will there be a cast member taking pictures? Thanks!

Just wanted to share a review for those who are curious!! I’ve been to Disney world dozens of times but just went to my first party. I went with one friend.

We did lots of research and knew we couldn’t do it all. Our priorities were: three specific food items on the Halloween menu (burger and chicken strips from cosmic ray’s + beignets); headless horseman and ideally the parade; unique/new ride experiences: refurbished thunder mountain, overlay space mountain, laugh floor treat stop, and haunted mansion with character in line; and ALL the treat stops! Since we’d never been to a party, we didn’t 100% know which ones had cool/unique experiences.

We arrived close to 4 but not right at 4. We got our bags and first piece of candy, which was pretty easy. We weren’t interested in pics with Jack and sally but definitely if anyone’s reading this and making plans, if you want to do pics with Jack and sally, get in that line ASAP.

The initial piece of candy is (spoiler alert!) a king size Twix bar that has “ghoulish green” cookie/wafer in the middle (tastes like a normal Twix). The rest of the candy is fun size or mini.

We planned on shopping for Halloween/party merch, visiting the newly reopened big top circus, and doing thunder mountain before 6:30. Unfortunately it was raining/lightning, so thunder mountain was closed. We did the other two items though! We stopped in Star traders for party merch since it was close to where we got our treat bag then went to big top circus. We swung by emporium as well and thought it wasn’t too crowded or anything (some research said emporium gets too crowded but we thought that wasn’t the case and emporium or Star traders is a fine option). We then went to cosmic ray’s to wait for the Halloween menu options to be available on mobile order but noticed they were already available in person so we got our food there then were ready to go pretty close to 7 pm for Halloween festivities!

We decided to prioritize treat stops and did all of them. We thought laugh floor was a bit underwhelming (normally we are huge fans) but didn’t stay a super long time so maybe it got better. We liked the two biggest name candy stops, the one near the center of the park with the villains (evil queen / maleficent) and the one with the three hitchhiking ghosts (our fav)! However we unexpectedly enjoyed walking through the tiki room and we absolutely LOVED the philharmagic stop - our legs were killing us at that point and we stopped to watch some shorts that were playing!

Unfortunately the ground was quite wet and we read that the headless horseman doesn’t come out when the ground was wet so we abandoned the idea of seeing the headless horseman and parade (we decided we will have to come back another time)! So after doing the treat trail we did our rides: thunder mountain, haunted mansion, and space mountain. Thunder and space were pretty much walk ons and haunted mansion was maybe like a 20 minute wait.

At this point we felt we did everything we really wanted except the headless horseman and decided to head back early, around 11 instead of midnight. We were super tired. I did a bit of a walking tour of all three All-Star resorts that morning and my friend who has an annual pass did Hollywood and Epcot for a bit. In hindsight we should have rested all morning!!

We got back to the hotel and counted our candy - we are big on numbers/stats and found it super interesting that there were a number of types of candies that one person had and the other didn’t get at all. We also were surprised in the difference in number of pieces - one person had 97 and one had 88. If I can ever figure out how, I can post a screenshot of the table we made with details that shows all the types of candy we got and the count.

Overall it was a success because we did everything we really wanted to do but we want to go back and do more photo pass stops, more shows / side events (pirates, circus, cadaver dans), and the headless horseman and parade! We will plan better in the future and hopefully be a lot less tired! We also thought we’d have more spare time & squeeze in more rides than we did. That was a bit of a surprise.

If you’re going, definitely come up with a strategy first! If you love rides it’s a great idea to do a bunch of rides and a little trick or treating at the end. If you prioritize shows / parade, that’s a whole different strategy, but still fun! Either way, since you have the option, I recommend at least doing some trick or treating so you leave with some candy! It’s one of the only times you get to leave a disney park with “free” stuff (obviously included in the ticket price! But might as well get it if it’s offered!)

Hi! Sorry if this is a stupid question, I don’t go to Disney very often and I don’t really know how it works.

I’m a big fan of Treasure Planet and one of my favorite Disney characters is Jim Hawkins from that movie. I googled and I guess they had him in Tomorrowland for a bit in 2020. I want to go back soon and I was wondering if there’s a chance he’ll ever return? It’d be magical to meet a favorite character, but I know that movie is definitely not high on the priority list. Maybe any special events?

After years of wanting to stay at Disney's Boardwalk Villas we finally were able to book a Garden/Water View Studio there for our 2027 Disney Trip.

What are some of the room requests you'll have made here?

Has anyone used Touringplans recently and do they still help you request a certain room or area, or is it better to contact Disney Guest Services directly?

When would you put in any of these suggested requests? Sooner the better or wait until a few weeks out?

Thanks Everyone!! I hope if you are responding you have an upcoming stay as well 😄

Not from Florida and will be staying off property later this year for a birthday trip. I’m looking for a local bakery that I could order a cake from and have delivered to our hotel

My preference would be that the bakery is able to deliver it to the hotel if possible. We are going to be slammed agenda wise and don’t know how feasible it will be to pick it up (plus I’d like to keep some of the “surprise” magic if possible since we’re flying in)

Any recommendations??

has anyone seen this in the parks lately ?? i’m going in a week and a half and desperately want to get one lol but have seen they’ve been sold out?? is it true 🤕

Hey y'all. The title is fairly self explanatory, but I bought a magicband+ on my last Disney trip in 2023 but have not use it again since then. I have another trip to Disney next week and dug the magicband+ out of storage while packing. I knew that since it had been so long since last using it, the battery would be pretty depleted but wanted to ask how long it should stay on the charger before attempting to try to re-pair with my phone. I plugged it in Sunday afternoon and the face lit up green to indicate charging but when I take it off the charger to attempt pairing, it doesn't turn on. I tried Sunday night, left it to charge overnight Sunday and all day Monday before re-attempting last night. Using the small button on the back doesn't do anything when trying to re-pair or to factory reset so I know that the watch is dead-dead and needs to stay on the charger extra long. I've got until Labor day (9/7) until I need it so I can keep charging if needed and I know that for tickets and maybe resort doors, the band should still work even dead but would like to use it and enjoy all its features.

TLDR: Magicband+ is completely depleted after not using for 3 years. How long should it take to recharge and turn back on so it can be re-paired with my phone?

Edit: Thanks to everyone for replying and confirming that the battery is pretty much kaput since it's been so long since last use. Kinda assumed it was a lost cause but I saw mixed replies about how long the battery could last completely drained so thought I'd see if anyone had similar experience and/or revival tips if possible. I will still probably take the band with me to the resort/park in case a cast member is feeling generous enough to help me out.

hi! traveling to disney world in November with my two 9 year old nephews, it’ll be there first trip to disney and we’re trying to make it special. we only have two full park days, the current plan is a Epcot/hollywood studios split day, they absolutely love Star wars so will try and get a good experience there. we were thinking the next day we’d just do magic kingdom and unfortunately skip animal kingdom but do guys think that’s its possivle to do both animal kingdom and magic kingdom in a day? the boys honestly arent very into classic disney at all so not sure how much time to a lot for what. or would animal kingdom be the move over mk? really sorry for the long post I just really want them to have a great time and I’m trying my best to do all the research possible. thanks for anyone who replies.

We are traveling at the end of the month to Orlando and have one day where we would like to do a Disney Park visit. My husband and I are not super familiar with Disney and researching can be overwhelming. Looking for people who have actually experienced the different parks.

We will be going on a Thursday. We will have an 11, 4 and 11 month old. Our kids “like” Disney movies but I wouldn’t say they are obsessed or even LOVE them. Our oldest will not ride a roller coaster most likely. Our 4 year old probably would he will be limited on what he could ride. My kids love Harry Potter, Mario, How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story, Little Mermaid, etc. my toddler still likes Minne/Mickey, Elmo, etc. I know that’s a mix of different parks. I have a hard time justifying the price if they don’t ride any rides. I’ve never been so I don’t know if there is other stuff to do.

Last year, we went to Sea World and they loved the animals. They didn’t ride rides at all except for the Sesame Street area.

Thoughts? Which park would make most sense? Best place to get tickets? I have done some researching on here but again looking for more personal advice.

Thanks!