HOT TAKE

Let’s get this out of the way:  I friggin’ love Walt Disney World!  We used to come here as kids almost every year when my Dad was in Orlando for a work convention and so my childhood memories are full of the Mouse.  In fact, Minnie Mouse was my imaginary friend when I was a child.  Like many families, as we got older, we stopped going to Disney after a while.  After about 20 years, my brother and I went back together as adults in 2011 and we fell in love all over again.  The smells, the fun, the nostalgia, and the fact that you are automatically transported to another world where all of your real life cares and worries melt away were major draws for us.  Since 2011, I went back alone with my brother two more times, once with 4 kids and fiancé (to get married!), once with 2 kids, husband and brother, and most recently, in January of 2022 alone with my brother again.  I have also done a few trips to Disneyland in California with and without kids during that time period.  

That said, this is not going to be a blog about Disney World.  There are so many good resources out there for Disney trips!  I like following news and updates on The Points Guy as well as Disney Tourist Blog.  There are exhaustive forums on DIS Boards for literally every question you could ever have about Disney World. This article is just my hot take on my recent trip to WDW with my brother in January of 2022.

On this trip, we visited all four parks.  We also stayed at the WDW Dolphin Hotel, which is on property, between Epcot and Hollywood Studios (HWS).  It is probably one of the best located hotels in WDW, especially if you plan to spend most of your time at Epcot and/or HWS.  The awesome thing about the Dolphin (and the Swan and Swan Reserve) is that they are Marriott Bonvoy hotels, so you can actually get points for staying here if you are into the points game.  They are also often less expensive than Disney hotels, but offer the same perks like early entry into the parks and use of WDW free transportation. 

Quite possibly my number one recommendation I can make for visiting the parks at any time of year, if rides are your priority, is getting to the parks at least a half hour before rope drop (opening time).  Often, parks open earlier than rope drop and you can take advantage of this.  You can also knock out several rides before the parks open to the general public.  Honestly, I feel like the parks only ever start getting full around 11am so you can really do a lot of damage by then.  I love all of the classic rides at WDW, but my favorite new rides this year were Ratatouille and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.  Both are trackless rides and were extremely well done.  So many giggles and squeals throughout both experiences!  Do not miss these rides!  You will not regret it!

The second highest recommendation I can make is plan your dining reservations 60+ days out if you can.  You will get the best availability and times, and if you wait, you may not get a reservation anywhere but Disney Springs these days considering how crowded the parks are.  The two highlights for me on this trip were Tiffin’s at Animal Kingdom for lunch and San Angel Inn for dinner in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot.  Tiffin’s was great for probably some of the highest quality food and service you will find on the entire property.  San Angel Inn had a great atmosphere, solid Mexican food and even more solid margaritas.  The margaritas are made at La Cava Del Tequila right next door.  This is a formerly under-the-radar little bar in the Mexico pavilion that we used to frequent in the early 2010’s that no one seemed to know about, but is now nearly impossible to get into with lines out the pavilion, due to the recent rise in popularity of tequila.  The margaritas are truly special and spectacular there.  

All in all this was a solid, very quick, 4-day WDW extravaganza. I cannot end this post, however, without stating how irritating the new Disney Genie + system is, and I am not alone in this opinion.  Disney technology has always been glitchy, and now they want their guests to use it even more?  It really doesn’t make much sense.  It was glitchy on our trip, on HWS day, the most stressful of all days, and forces people to spend more time on their phones than enjoying the parks.  I am not a fan.  My brother and I, in the early 2010’s, in the days of paper fast passes, didn’t even bring our phones to the parks!  We had a handy little point and shoot camera for pictures and that was it.  We were completely disconnected from the world.  Now, some of that magic is slipping away.  Of course, I tried to be on my phone as little as possible, hopping on the My Disney Experience App only when it was time to book my next ride reservation.  

While WDW has lost a little magic with their insistence on app usage, I still find visiting the Disney parks so special.  Nostalgia is a major part of it, but, for the most part, and with a little planning, WDW is still a place you can go to forget about the real world for a little while.