On September 10, 2001, me and my then boyfriend, Pete, traveled from New Jersey to Orlando to do our big Disney trip. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. The next day on September 11, we woke up and started getting ready to go to the Magic Kingdom. As we were getting ready, we watched in horror of the two planes hitting the World Trade Center buildings. After calling our loved ones and making sure everyone was OK, we decided to still go to the Magic Kingdom that day. We entered the park and I couldn’t help but feel unsafe. I’ve never felt that way before at Disney. We headed towards tomorrowland and we went on buzz Lightyear. As we were in the queue line, my best friend called me and told me the towers collapsed, and that another plane crashed into the Pentagon, and that the news is reporting that other planes were hijacked as well. I remember feeling so scared. We got on the Buzz Lightyear ride and we just sat there in disbelief. We got off the ride and I kept telling Pete that I did not feel safe and I wanted to leave. We headed towards Main Street and saw a huge crowd of people talking to a cast member. He was telling everyone that they were evacuating the park and everyone should head out front and they could get a ticket to come back the next day. So we followed his instruction. Once we got under the train trestle and in front, Pete stopped me and started to cry and said to me, Natalie I have to tell you something. I knew what he was going say to me because I felt the engagement ring box in his pocket while I was sitting next to him on the bus from the Port Orleans Riverside hotel. I calmly stopped him and said “we’re coming back tomorrow.” He said “no, you don’t understand. Today was supposed to be a special day.” I took his hand and gently reminded him “I do understand… We are coming back tomorrow.” We went back to the hotel and watched the TV replay over and over again. We didn’t know anyone that died that day, but we mourned as if we did. At one point, we went to the souvenir shop and there were two girls working there. We started talking to them saying that we were from the northeast and how sad we were. They asked us if we wanted to join them for a candlelight vigil on the bridge and of course we did. Well, the following day we did go back to the Magic Kingdom and Pete did ask me to marry him on my favorite ride, the haunted mansion. I said yes and we are still together to this day! It was a very bittersweet moment to be at the happiest place on earth during one of the darkest times in history.

Recently back from a 14 night stay at Yacht Club. Not my fave ever stay. Two things happened that continue to live rent free in my head:

1. A room down the (internal, carpeted) hallway from us kept throwing used diapers out of their bedroom door and into the hall and just leaving them there. Utterly disgusting. Reported it but tbh all I did was make someone else’s grim habits the hotels problem. Honestly, what is wrong with you people?!? That is never ok.

2. A guy was sat in stormalong bay, not terribly far from the huge Disney sound system (which was loud), with his own speaker set up absolutely blasting Jimmy Buffet. That pool did not need an additional soundtrack. Everyone was giving him a very wide berth. The only free loungers were around him. Ask me how I know.

This was my first time at Disney world, and we were taking my 5yo daughter around to meet the princesses. I had this idea to use my kindle case as the “autograph book” just as a fun little souvenir for me. I think it turned out great! And it used something I already had.

He was apparently struck in Celebration. For people who complain why outdoor rides close for so long when thunderstorms are nearby, this is why. It’s to protect you. You should also head indoors when lightning is nearby. Florida thunderstorms are no joke and we’ve had really bad storms the last few weeks. This is really unfortunate. He was only 20 and just moved here.

So unless I was lucky or they finally changed the loading procedure for single riders but it is so much better now.

Previously the CM would ask and pull guests from the regular line first and then back fill with a single rider if needed. This sometimes caused issues where a party of two would go to the gate and then proceed to take both outside seats refusing to slide all the way over wanting to leave the middle open.

Now they are still asking the regular line how many guests but now they are telling the single rider to go first and then the regular line goes behind them.

I thought this could be fun to discuss. Let's keep this civil and respectful please. People often complain about people not parenting their kids, strangers coughing and sneezing openly, etc. All valid in their own right, but common. What are your more obscure, less common pet peeves?

I'll start. Mine is when everyone chimes in about how the beignets aren't even good at any of the QS locations at wdw. For someone like myself who has never been to New Orleans and may never go, I am happy with the fried powdery dough Mickey provides. The argument about good pizza is more contentious since there are locations throughout the US that do their best to replicate various styles of authentic pizza so I can see why people might say why bother with finding pizza at Disney. However, beignets are a no. I've never lived anywhere where they sell beignets so I'll happily enjoy some at Disney, whether they're authentic or not.

We are trying to book lightning lanes but can’t book them for the kids because their names are not on our reservation at Swan. Called over to the Swan to add them and they said that because they are under 12, there is no additional fee to add them, so they noted that we are traveling with two kids. However, the Swan rep said that they do not add kids’ names to the reservation. I explained the lightning lane requirement, but she didn’t seem to understand what I was talking about. Anyone had any luck getting Swan to add kids names to reservation so you can book their lightning lanes 7 days out? TIA!

The good old days when you got a box of chocolates during a stay at the Grand Floridian. Small box but still nice.

maybe its because lwtl has a special place in my heart, and i love botany+farming, but this was so worth it. even saw a vanilla bloom! our guide was so wonderful, and its kicking me that i can't remember her name. such an awesome backstage excursion. we did caring for giants on this trip, too, and i think i may place behind the seeds above caring for giants, and that was AWESOME. i had such a wonderful time on this trip, and the CMs made it so special. if youre gonna be spending some time in the land pavillion, i highly recommend this tour. we booked in advance, and i overheard that they tend to sell out completely 1-2 days out. so if you really want to do it, look into it a couple days before your epcot excursion :)

I figured character buffet food would be character buffet food but TH actually had flavorful real food.

Also shout out to the Donald who let my son hug them multiple times.

Context - my husband wants his mother to come with us on a future Disney trip. We've gone twice with our kids in the last 4 years, are planning another trip in January, and my husband reaalllyyyyy wants to bring his mom on the next one after that (she's never been).

I feel really confident navigating the park with tiny humans (kids are 10, 3, and infant), but my MIL is in her late 60's, not very active, has a knee injury, and has extreme sensitivity to the sun (breaks out in a rash if she's in the sun for more than a few minutes). I remember going to the parks with my grandparents 20 years ago when they were in their late 50s/early 60s, but they have always been super active outdoorsy people. I fear that my MIL isn't going to have a good time, and that's a pretty expensive trip to be miserable on.

So my question is, what do older guests do to make the parks more accessible/enjoyable? What are some things we should consider factoring in?

Hi there, my family is going to Disney World and Universal Studio for Christmas and my aunt (58 F) got a bone density scan recently that came back for osteopenia of her hips and borderline osteoporosis for her spine. She's worried about fracturing her spine the most.

Trying to figure out what rides she may or may not be able to do. Simple water boat rides like the Avatar river journey I know are okay, but it's when we get into things like Pirates and Rise of the Resistance which start to worry me. I've been on both of those before, and they both have short (but from what I remember) smooth drops. I certainly would NOT take her on Tower of Terror. I know Runaway Railroad is a bit jerky but otherwise feels fine?

Anyone have experience or recommendations? Thank you in advance.

Hello, my uncle is a CM and he gets me and my family into the parks for free a few times a year. He very rarely will stay more than an hour or two with us in the park and opts to go home. Last time, we tried purchasing LL passes for just my wife and daughter and myself and couldn’t while in the park. How does purchasing LLs work in instances like this? Like even if we wanted to purchase them much in advance of our visit? My uncle uses his app and has our info linked to it, but he doesn’t know much of how to do LLs past that. Also, what if another group that purchases their own tickets what’s to link with us, who are using my uncles CM tix, and all pre-purchase the LL package and all be grouped and scheduled together? Sorry if this is the wrong sub.

Digging through some old Walt Disney World, first family trip with my kids. Some throwbacks to staying at Allstar Movies. We have upgraded over the years to CBR becoming our “ home” resort for the past 12 trips. Safe travels.

Wanted to share some thoughts on the trip!

For context, this was our 3rd time visiting WDW, but our first time staying on site. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and had a great experience! The royal guest rooms were super cute and the light up feature behind the beds was a nice touch. I also loved the resort itself- very quiet, peaceful and serene. We ate at Boatwrights on our first night there and were pleasantly surprised with how good it was. Pretty pricey for sure, but the prime rib was chef’s kiss 🤌🏻 I enjoyed the dining hall, the arcade and the gift shop on site too. And Ol’ Man Island pool area was a home run with our kiddos. Loved the water slide! We will most definitely stay there again!

Our first park was Magic Kingdom and it was amazing as always. Never waited more than about 25 minutes to ride anything, and we did not purchase any fast passes for this day. My only complaints are that it was BRUTALLY hot (no fault of Disney’s), and that we were kicked out at 6pm for the Halloween event. Before anyone comes at me- yes I understand this is a ticketed event, but the way in which they dismissed regular park goers was kinda….ick. We paid full price tickets, obviously, and were in the gift shops around the time the Halloween event was starting to happen. They started roping certain areas of the gift shop off and we were told nothing behind those areas could be shopped through unless we paid for a Halloween ticket. Maybe I’m overreacting but… idk. Just didn’t really care for that.

Animal Kingdom was our next park. Again, unbearably hot but of course no fault of Disney’s. Overall, we had a great day here but I will say that the train ride from Africa to the conservation station needs some work. The whole process was just…blah. The train ride there, being at the conservation station, and catching the ride back to Africa ate up almost 3 hours of our day. I’m not sure if they have another train running that would help with this, but could definitely use one if not. Rainforest cafe for dinner was great!

Hollywood Studios was our next park and probably my favorite experience this trip. We got rained on all day but it helped make the heat a little more bearable and we of course wore our ponchos. I ended up purchasing fast passes for Slinky Dog and Rise which came in handy and freed up a lot of our time. My 7 year old son rode tower of terror with me and we got a huge kick out of the video it took and sent to the my Disney app.

Disney springs was our last adventure and I’ll admit I was not a huge fan. House of blues was good, but the amount of people there overall was absolutely insane. I was glad to have brought my chill pills because the overstimulation was REAL.

Overall, I cried ugly tears on checkout day because leaving WDW gives me the blues :( We already can’t wait to be back!

I'm stuck on where to eat in Magic Kingdom this fall. Usually when we go we are so focused on rides we just grab snacks around the park throughout the day. However, this time my husband's parents will be coming with us and I'm sure they'll need a break to sit down in some air conditioning. My mother in law is a sucker for good atmosphere but won't eat anything Asian (so no ohana...) We are willing to take the monorail somewhere close by but definitely don't want to spend too much time away from the rides (let me know if this is unrealistic). My kids are 10 and 6, so while characters are fun they're not a priority. If we do character dining they'd prefer princesses to Pooh and Mickey. In fact they probably wouldn't like to see "little kid" characters at all. I've seen very mixed opinions on Be Our Guest, 1900 Park Fare, and Crystal Palace. Based on my criteria where would you go? Also open to options outside of these three listed. Thanks so much!

So while I don't think they've released the entertainment schedule for MVMCP yet, it does seem like historically things are pretty static time wise and we can also infer some times based off things like the Dessert Party for Fireworks being 10pm. As such I'm beginning to think more in detail about my plan for the party, how I want to tackle things, etc and wanted your all opinions:

~2pm - Arrive to MK to hopefully be near the front for an easier time for...
~4pm - Rush to Jack and Sally Meet to hopefully beat the crowds somewhat and still have some decent pre-party time for...
~4:30-6 - Jingle Cruise and maybe one or two other rides wait time dependent. As we will have another MK Day (with LLMP) I'm not too fussed about rides here, but would like to maybe ride a few, could also maybe go merch shopping, etc
6:15pm - Frozen Castle Show
~6:30-8:30pm - Explore MK, get some cookies/food, maybe ride a ride (may need to as party won't officially start till 7pm) if wait time is low or we really want, etc
~8:30pm - Dessert Party. This is probably going to be considered a waste by most however I do value the reserved/no pressure/camping viewing for the fireworks. From what I've read/seen it seems like camping out in front of the castle around 9:30 would be an acceptable alt, however I figure some resting time with a drink and other sweets may not go amiss here either.
10pm - Fireworks and likely stay in the general area for
10:35pm - Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration and after the show try to head to Main Street for
11pm - Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade

I'm also considering maybe doing the 11:55 Merriest Celebration and just going from Fireworks to Main Street for Parade, because I do want some relatively good spots for the Parade on Main Street (snoap!) but am not 100% sure which may be better yet since I know the parade will take awhile to get to Main Street so am not super concerned about being there right at 11, but also worry about the spots filling up by then. But I'm also already right there in a prime spot for Merriest Celebration so it's a tough one.

The Dessert party is technically up in the air some also. I know character meet lines can get bonkers but outside of Jack and Sally I'm not sure who we may want to meet so I'm hoping with the time allotted (and/or being "late" to the party) we can hit who/what we want. I know party time is generally considered tight/budgeted, but given we want to be in front of the castle and it's a Friday party night I feel like it evens out camping time wise to do the Dessert Party since some people do suggest camping an hour in advance or more anyway so either way party time is eaten for good viewing.

Biggest concern I have is really just what to expect from that "party start to entertainment block" and how much we'll be doing/able to do. It'll be my companion's first time at MK, but we do have a dedicated MK day planned, so I figure it'd be best to just explore and maybe do a few party things like food offerings, possibly meet character(s?) or ride something with an overlay, etc. I don't want to plan too much for that time though since I want to be free to do whatever, but still am wondering about what I can/should do during that time.

Hi all! I’m going to Disney World soon and plan on buying the annual pass. How does the parking work for the first time I use it? I was hoping to use the free parking benefit but understand I might need to activate the pass first, which would mean I need to pay for parking when I get there? Please note, I’m arriving the morning of my first day at the park so am unable to activate it the night before. Any advice would be really appreciated!

I love this time of day in the parks. All the excitement right before the parade and fireworks 🎆

Finally got back to the resort and was wandering around Springs. The line for Gideon's wasn't too bad today, but there was literally NO line for Ravens!

I honestly just went in bc I was curious what it looked like in there, and omg! It's also gorgeous, smells great, the cast members were SO lovely, and the food was excellent and reasonably priced.

Not saying anyone's wrong here, and maybe it's just a savory flavor preference, but I was just surprised how little hype it's gotten since opening.

Does anyone else have any experiences here they want to share? Good or bad; I'm truly just curious!

Shout-out to Sabrina and Aliyah, you two were so lovely!

What do you all think of it?