Details

Length

Six nights

Traveled with

Family, wife’s parents

Lodging

Disney’s Old Key West Resort

The trip

The family and I took a trip to Walt Disney World for a full week. January typically has some pretty low crowds and usually has cooler weather, so it’s a nice time to visit. The crowd levels were pretty good for us Monday through Friday. We went to Epcot on Wednesday afternoon and it was probably the least busy I’ve ever seen it. Epcot has a few special festivals each year, which bring some different scenery and some expanded food options. The arts festival started on Friday of that week, so we figured people were waiting to visit until then. We went back on Saturday before our flight, and we guessed right — it was extremely busy. Disney has magnets they give to annual pass holders at certain times of the year, and this festival is one of those times. We already have some magnets so we figured we should get some more. After waiting 30 minutes for bag check to get into the park, we waited another 10 just to get a magnet. We thought we’d grab some lunch and ride a few things before heading to the airport, but there were so many people that we walked around for a bit and left without riding anything. That was our sixth day at the parks, and everybody was a little tired, so we felt okay to take it a bit easy.

The other parts of the week went pretty well. Traveling with kids is always a little unpredictable, and we learned a lot about what did and didn’t work. It had been a year since our last trip, and we thought our oldest son, now three and a half, would like a new set of rides. We were almost right. He is now old enough to be scared of things he doesn’t like, and for now that includes dark rides, loud rides, and rides that go fast. We tried the Seven Dwarves Mine Train roller coaster, and that was a “big yikes”. We probably pushed him a little too far in the beginning, and we really dialed it down by the end of the week to make sure he was having fun on every ride, even if that was a limited selection. We had all of our FastPass selections picked at the beginning of the week, but by Wednesday I’d say almost half of our rides were different from what we expected. I think we did pretty well as we learned to go with the flow rather than stick to a strict schedule, which is what we’ve typically done at Disney.

With my wife’s parents along with us, my wife and I were able to visit Hollywood Studios by ourselves one morning to check out the new Star Wars rides. The park opened at 7 that day, and we wanted to be there, in line, ready to go. We got up at 5:30 and left a bit after 6:00. We got through the entrance gates by 6:30 and waited for the full park to open. The new Rise of the Resistance ride has a virtual queue that fills up pretty quickly right at park open. We did pretty good and got in boarding group 18 (out of 109 for the day). Now it was time for a ride. We followed the herd of people that looped around every nook and cranny like a real life snake game. At 7:30 we got a notification that our boarding group was ready; we could ride any time within the next two hours. At 8, we finally made it onto Smuggler’s Run.

My wife and I were both pilots; she could move left or right, and I could move up or down. There were obstacles to move around, but I found it difficult to know whether the ride wanted me to go above or below; there was a correct answer for each one, but half the time I chose wrong. One of the other riders had been on before, and she kept making comments about how the pilots weren’t doing great. It made for a pretty poor experience. I get that Disney was going for a unique experience, and I do think the story was good, but the interactive parts made me feel like I was riding it “wrong”. The other positions on the ride are all about pressing buttons when they light up. To me, that’s better because it’s binary; you either hit the button or not. There’s no guessing whether you need to fly just a little higher or lower, you get immediate feedback. I’m sure I’ll ride it again in the future, but it’s not something I want to wait in line for.

After that, we went right to Rise of the Resistance, with about a 30 minute line. Without trying to spoil too much, the experience is meant to feel like you’re part of a movie. The “ride” is split into multiple parts, and the first section involves walking. There are two parts in particular where you have a few moments to yourself when something is happening. Disney literally built in sections of the attraction for you to take pictures. They don’t even need to run their own advertisements for this, social media will take care of it. Anyway, the rest of the ride is fantastic. A few years ago I rode Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts at Universal Studios. For me, that set the bar for best overall attraction experience, more than anything Disney had done. Even after that opened, Disney created the Avatar rides, but those didn’t match the bar. I know Universal has a new Harry Potter ride that I’ve yet to experience, so maybe that’s better still, but with this experience Disney has finally taken the crown, at least in my eyes.

Traveling

A few quick notes on the actual travel logistics. I planned both of our flight times to be around nap time to make flights easier. Unfortunately our oldest is starting to transition away from naps altogether, and our youngest would rather scream than sleep. So, iPads for both of them, which can keep their attention right around the 2.5 hours of flying time we had. The flight back was at 7:15 pm and we were a little worried about naps during the day since we would be checked out of our resort by then. The good news is that naps weren’t an issue, but we still would have been better off with an early flight. Epcot was packed, and after five full days, we were all tired and ready to go home. The grandparents were staying an extra night, and luckily their room was ready early so we went to their resort to play for the afternoon.

Our room had two bedrooms and a kitchen, which is so helpful when traveling with the kids. One room had two queen beds, the other had a king bed. We chose the king bedroom because it was easier to get into the bathroom at the end of the day to take a shower after the kids were asleep. But that meant sharing a bed with our oldest, which we never do. Even with a king bed that was the wrong choice. The first night was rough and I ended up leaving to sleep on the couch. The rest of the week I slept on the pull out bed in the living room, which made it better for everybody. Our youngest’s sleep schedule was thrown way off, which is extra hard when sharing a room with his big brother and mom. I think we managed okay but we all could have used a bit more sleep all week. Every trip with the kids will be different so I don’t know how much of this will still be true next time.

Trips to Disney are quite different than my normal travel plan of “pack light”. We pack what we need to travel comfortably with the kids. We flew on Southwest, so we checked two bags for free. We needed two car seats for our rental car. We brought one on the plane for our youngest to sit in, which works well. We have a carrier with wheels that acts a bit like a stroller while going through the airport, so we don’t have to carry a kid all over. We planned on bringing another car seat to check, but we decided to avoid the hassle at the airport and pay for one at the car rental place. It’s stupid expensive and I don’t want to do it again, but it did make life easier at the airport. Our next flight should have our oldest in a booster seat, so that should be easier to get through the airport.

Packing

Our last January trip to Disney was cold and rainy. This was sunny and hot; near record high temps for most of the week at 85°. But the mornings were still a bit cool, and we like to be at the park early, so we didn’t want to just pack shorts and t-shirts. My plan was to wear mostly pants, with one pair of shorts in case, and either a lightweight long sleeve shirt or a short sleeve plus a layer to take off in the afternoon. It ended up being more warm than cool, but the clothes I packed handled everything pretty well. We were already checking luggage, so I could have brought more, but I still tried to pack pretty light. Here’s a list

• Outlier merino T
• Lightweight Disney cotton T
• Short sleeve polo
• Patagonia lightweight long sleeve
• Smartwool lightweight long sleeve merino
• Outlier hard shirt
• Proof nomad pants
• Outlier slim dungarees
• Outlier free ways shorts
• Swim suit
• Brooks running shoes
• Astral loyak shoes

I run on the cold side, so I mostly stuck to long sleeves and pants in the morning. It got a bit warm towards the middle of the day, but it was still pretty comfortable, and we usually left the park around 1:00 to go back to the room. Even with the warm afternoons and a chance to change, I think I only wore the shorts twice all week. I burn easily, so I also like long sleeves or collars to keep the sun off me and avoid having to put on sunscreen, so I did long sleeves on some of the afternoons too. On one of the slightly cooler days, I went all Outlier: slim dungarees, merino shirt, and hard shirt on top. It was incredibly comfortable. It warmed up as the sun came out, but there was a good breeze that went through the hard shirt and felt great. I also used the hard shirt on both travel days, to go between warm weather, hot airport, cold plane, cold windy weather. It will definitely be a travel staple.

The Proof pants are more lightweight than the Outlier ones, but they got a bit hotter; they are very stretchy so I don’t think they breathe quite as well. Still, they’re nice for plane travel and at Disney where I’m running around with the kids and squeezing into rides. I didn’t end up using the swim trunks. We planned on going swimming at least once since it was hot, but it just didn’t work out that way. I’m sure we’ll go swimming at least twice next time, so I’ll probably bring my swim suit again. But this could have been a good excuse to use the Outlier shorts for swimming so I didn’t have to pack more clothes.

I wore my running shoes almost all week. Last year it rained so much that we needed to switch to a dry pair every day, so I brought another pair just in case. It didn’t rain, so I didn’t truly need them. On the day we went to the Star Wars rides, I felt like I should get some use out of them since I brought them, so that’s what I wore. They are a more minimalist shoe, and after standing in lines for almost 3 hours my lower back was starting to get sore. It was better by the next day, but I think I need some more break in time if I want to go towards full minimalist shoes.

After that I started thinking about getting some new shoes. My Brooks are a few years old, and I really only wear them for working out. As I try to trim down the number of shoes I have, it would be nice to have shoes that work for Disney, but also look nice enough to wear to the office. I did a lot of research while at Disney and narrowed my first search down to another pair of Brooks, or some shoes from On. They are both lightweight, have a fairly minimal heel-to-toe drop, and aren’t super flashy. Two days after I got back, I went to try the On shoes, and ended up buying them. They’re very comfortable, and my wife gave me the thumbs up that they’d look fine in the office. I was interested in the navy color, but they didn’t have that available. I went with black to be versatile. I’m excited to try them out, and I’ll post some more after I get some use out of them.