Disney World For Newbies
Mr_Cosmic
Posts: 3,200
One of my 8 year old boys(we have twins) was granted a trip by Make-A-Wish. We will be going to Florida this spring to visit Disney/Universal/Sea World.
Just to be clear my son's condition is significant enough to be granted a wish but there are no immediate concerns...in other words, we expect many, many years with him.
I've never been to any of the parks and my wife was at Disney World 15 years ago in High School. We're more or less newbies and we're looking for tips and information from those who've gone. While she reads all the online guides I thought I'd hit up my fellow comic geeks!
What are the must see things? What should we avoid like the plague? What did your family learn the hard way so we don't have to? Anything you want to share about your trips to Disney, Universal, and Sea World's parks would be great.
Thanks!
Just to be clear my son's condition is significant enough to be granted a wish but there are no immediate concerns...in other words, we expect many, many years with him.
I've never been to any of the parks and my wife was at Disney World 15 years ago in High School. We're more or less newbies and we're looking for tips and information from those who've gone. While she reads all the online guides I thought I'd hit up my fellow comic geeks!
What are the must see things? What should we avoid like the plague? What did your family learn the hard way so we don't have to? Anything you want to share about your trips to Disney, Universal, and Sea World's parks would be great.
Thanks!
Comments
My family took me and my sister when I was 13/14. (I'm 27 now) In other words, FIRMLY ensconced in the "everything sucks and is totally lame" era of my life. So I remember very few things.
What I DO remember may not be as fun for a 8 year old so forgive me.
I remember LOVING Areosmith's rockin roller coaster. It's an indoor coaster and it's crazy awesome. I remember the zero grav feeling of the Tower of Terror and watching my cross necklace float up in front of my face as we dropped. I remember this bad ass ride where you could design a roller coaster and load it into an old air force simulator and "ride" the coaster you just designed. I remember an X-Games type of show featuring BMX, skateboard, etc. tricks and being happily surprised Disney had such a cool thing for such a "lame" place.
I remember the lines being crazy long and my parents ponying up for the "fast pass" for everything so we didn't have to stand in line very long.
I remember hating having my picture force-ably took with every "character" we met and doing it anyways because, I knew then, that it was for my parents, not me.
I remember HATING the Rain Forest cafe. It smelled WEIRD and wasn't very conducive to the eating experience as it made me nauseated.
I LOVED the animal kingdom. But not for anything other than the Zoo and the big ass tree. Oh, and the dinosaur stuff. I LOVED (love) dinosaurs.
I remember lots from Universal Studios too. But, since you didn't say you were going there, I'm going to assume this is just a Disney trip. But, on the off chance you ARE going, AVOID the King Kong ride. I was VERY disappointed...even as a kid.
Now, again, I was 13 and your child is 8...so maybe NO parallels, but in my experience (with my little cousins around that age) they all seem to be in a rush to grow up and idolize their older family. (IE: I remember my younger cousins trying desperately to spend time with me at family events because they thought I was cool and wanted to be like me. I wasn't cool and being a teenage angst ridden jackass wasn't and never will be worthy of misplaced idolization.)
But hey, maybe there's SOMETHING in here to help out.
EDIT: I see you DID mention Universal...ok then.
The Spider-Man ride was AWESOME. The Hulk coaster is just a roller coaster, but I loved it anyways. The Back to the Future ride (maybe that was Disney?) was "awesome in a lame cheesy way". The dueling dragons coasters were cool. (Side note, there's this ride where you get on a raft and paddle through this virtual reality river. I get motion sickness with modern games and that game made me nauseated as hell. So I recommend avoiding it for your kid if he might get sick. Doing ANYTHING you think he MIGHT enjoy that could get him sick for a bit would just ruin the rest of the experience. IE: Me going on the dueling dragon coaster immediately AFTER that ride.)
We will have the option of going to Universal and Sea World as well. So - if we go - no King Kong! I can understand why you'd be disappointed because it looks so cool in all their advertising.
Through his wish we'll have the fast passes to end all fast passes..no worries there.
I know Animal Kingdom is a must for us. My kids love that sort of thing and my wife remembers enjoying it when she was there.
She also enjoyed the Areoamith ride and maybe me, my wife and our 11 year old daughter will have a chance to check it out.
Rainforest Cafe - if it's the same thing that's at The Mall of Anerica we'll probably avoid it
At 13, I didn't find King Kong worth it short line OR long line. I just laughed...and so did my little sister..lol
Magic Kingdom:
Pirates of the Caribbean- family friendly, cool animatronics and effects.
Haunted Mansion- a classic, similarly family fun.
Thunder Mountain RR- a runaway train roller coaster.
Space Mountain- a great indoor coaster
Disney Philharmonic- 3D animated music show
Buzz Lightyears Star Command- arcade style shootemup cart ride
Monsters Inc Mike's Laff-fest- an interactive comedy show.
To be avoided:
Wheel of progress- hands down the most boring show/ride in the park
Animal Kingdom:
Dinosaurs- animatronic time travel show/ride.
The safari
Mt Everest- the closest thing to a thrill ride roller coaster in all of Disney (Aerosmith is a distant second IMO)
A Bugs Life 3D- hands down best 3D show in all the parks.
To be avoided: nothing really, it's a small park (largest in area but so much of it is the safari that the rest is likely to only take you a few hours)
Hollywood Studios: (My Favorite park)
Great American Movie ride: another show/ride. More low key than the rest but has some fun surprises
Backlot tour: A tour through some classic movie props, plus a stunt demonstration.
Star Tours: Star Wars virtual ride. A classic
Indiana Jones Stunt Show: A fun stunt show.
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: a pretty tame but really excellently themed free fall.
Aerosmith Rockin Roller Coaster: A fast twisting indoor coaster.
I believe there is a comic shop there now that sells marvel stuff exclusively too.
To be avoided: American Idol (if it's still there) and the Drew Carey sound show are just complete time sucks and there is so much other fun stuff to do, I didn't even mention the pixar section, that it's only good for resting a bit.
EPCOT:
Spaceship Earth: a show/ride going through the history of humankind.
Test track: a simulated run through an auto test track.
Soaring: a virtual hangliding tour of America (not to be missed).
To be avoided: The world concourse section of Epcot is huge and exposes you to tons of cultures from around the world, but kids tend to find it boring and there is a lot of walking, with almost no rides. I love it, but I'm an adult and I can imagine it being strenuous with children.
All of the rides are fairly tame and low key, except Everest and Rockin Roller Coaster, which are both still pretty light weight by thrill ride standards. It's a family park and everything is designed to be enjoyed by the whole family ages 5-99.
This is what the official guide from Disney concerning guests with handicaps looks like: (this is just Epcot)
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/media/wdw_nextgen/CoreCatalog/WaltDisneyWorld/en_us/PDF/epcot-guide-guest-disability-november-2012.pdf
It's show which rides can accommodate wheelchairs, which ones are accessible by wheelchair but can't accomodate one and so on.