[newts]

I’ve been with my family a couple of times in the last 5 years. We have stayed at Allstar Music Resort and Boardwalk Hotel. One trip we were exclusively at Boardwalk and the other we split between the 2 with a Disney Cruise in between the 2 stays. Significant difference in price - Boardwalk hotel is “boardering” ridiculous now. But we far prefer that area due to the convenience.

The Boardwalk & neighboring hotels are <10 minute walk to Epcot, and a 15-20 minute or 5 minute boat taxi (free) to Hollywood Studio’s from the hotel. Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom are a 10-15 minute bus ride, frequent departure intervals from the hotel.

We would get park hopper passes and spend the days at Animal/Magic/Hollywood, and spend most of our evenings at Epcot. Epcot has fewer rides for the kids and much better food options so it made sense for us to spend our evenings there. You can also drink alcohol in the park which is nice change of pace.

The restaurants around Boardwalk Hotel and outside of the parks are pretty average, and pretty sub par around Allstar Music. Epcot I found the food to be better than other options in the other parks. With that said, I find the formal meals to be pretty crappy across all of Disney. A couple of times we ordered pizza and other take out from neighboring restaurants - delivered directly to the hotel lobby. This was a great option as it’s less expensive than Disney options and better quality.

Universal Studio’s is about a 30 minute taxi, which we did on both trips. 2 parks there with more rides that cater to older kids. We did these parks each in a day, which isn’t enough time but I’d struggle trying to spend 2 days there back-to-back.

One year we did one of the two Disney water parks. One of the 2 water parks is typically closed when it’s less seasonal. It was a bit cold but the kids really enjoyed it.

Both years we went at Christmas and the crowds were absolutely crazy. It takes very good planning and the ability to be quick on your feet to get the good rides in without having to spend 2 hours in line. I’m not sure how the new genie program works, but this is what is replacing the fastpass program.

As someone else also mentioned, the Disney Magic Express now ceases to exist and Mears (the tour bus company) is now facilitating bussing from ORD directly. Magic Express was always a nice touch, particularly with the luggage service - after you drop your bags off for your Calgary flight you next saw them in your room. Not anymore I guess.

One year, I made a very silly financial decision and decided to pay for private tour of all 4 parks. Basically front of the line service for up to 10 people at about $450 per hour, not including park passes, and not including tip. This was super interesting as you get picked up in an SUV by your tour guide, and you enter all of the parks through cast member entrances and ride access is often through a back door. We managed to get on to every single “busy” ride in a day over all 4 parks over one of the busiest days of the year (Christmas week). Pretty amazing actually, considering how much ground you have to cover. The only exception was Star Wars Rise of the Resistance, which had just opened. The only private access to that seemed to just be granted to high profile celebrities with Disney or ABC affiliation. Our guide told us that he had toured Neil Patrick Harris and his family the week before, and that NPH was the only one that he knew of that got access to that ride via a private tour. Our guide told us that Bob Iger had to authorize that one.

This experience was good to do once, but I wouldn’t repeat it. if we had not had lots of normal experiences in the parks I would feel that I’m missing a significant feel of the disney magic that you get by touring the park, waiting around and just soaking it in. You lose all of that when you’re coming into the park via service entrances and into the rides often via service and office corridors. And the cost is absolutely not justifiable unless you’ve got the money to burn. But it is something my family will remember forever.

Hoping that Disney Tokyo will one day be next for us. From what I hear the Disney Sea park at Disney Tokyo is the best out of all of the worldwide parks.