To give a rundown on my thoughts of the past few days for anybody who's interested.
This is going to be a long post as a forewarning.
Day 1 was Universal and day 2 was Typhoon Lagoon.
Cabana Bay has been good for the most part but the parking is awful and check in was a bit more stressful than it should be with the parking situation. Besides that, it's a good resort in terms of what it offers and scale and the location is actually pretty great with how easy it is to get to and onto the I4. Walking to the parks took 15mins tops and using my Fitbit, the walk to and from only accounted for about 15% of the total steps that day. The walkways were surpassingly nice too.
Sapphire Falls is so much bigger than pictures show and it looks perfectly at home besides the other high end hotels on property.
Volcano Bay is also going to be so much bigger than I thought. It's interesting being able to watch the construction and where you can see it when driving about. I think once it's complete, it's going to be the new resort icon.
I Drive although prettier than it was, is just hell on earth to drive through now. It was bad before and worse now. I was border line prepared to go to the Orlando Eye but as long as I can avoid it, I won't be down I Drive for the rest of the vacation.
Wet n Wild is looking in awful shape and it's actually pretty sad to see but I'll be making a final farewell visit at some point.
Universal was as good as ever and I appreciated the early access thanks to CBBR. The park was extra busy because of the Rock The Universe event but I managed to get a fair amount done.
Kong wasn't that good. It wasn't bad and kind of impressive but for the longest ride in the park, it felt like almost nothing happened and the lack of plot was terrible.
First time on Gringotts and I mentioned it in another post but I really enjoyed it. Far more than I would have expected.
I wasn't the biggest fan of FJ but everything seemed a lot sharper this visit.
Spider-Man was as awesome as ever. The ride is great but the queue is looking dated and the place needs a good clean. The office section was thick with dust.
Drinking in the parks is also awesome. Duff beer was actually pretty good and refreshingwhen it was so warm.
I took my wife on ET for the first time and she loved it. I would have wanted it to go as it seemed irrelevant but I think it's still a great good old fashioned ride that deserves its place in the park.
I had breakfast at Polynesion this morning and it looked like a great hotel. It seemed to have a far superior atmosphere than CBBR which thinking about doesn't really seem to have one. It's a nice hotel but I could never justify the cost. The bizarre thing about the reservation is that we showed up 5mins early and it was to the second when we got shown to our table even though Kona Cafe was mostly empty and nobody was waiting for a table.
Typhoon Lagoon was surpassingly quiet for a Sunday, I don't think any queue was beyond 10mins at any stage. It's feeling dated though. The slides up the back of the park all feel like they need replaced.
I had thought it was a little unbalanced that TL was getting a new ride and not BB but it seems completely justified now.
Magic Kingdom tomorrow for my wife's birthday. I'm curious to see how well the FP+ system works along with the reservations, magic bands and memory maker.
Edit: Something I noticed is that Universal seemed to be closing off screens when they noticed somebody trying to take a photo of their on ride photo. I noticed this happening 3x at Mummy.
I know that Nintendo is meant to be going into kids zone but I think it will be a logistical nightmare as that place is currently a haven for parents.
Here's some videos of my wife I thought I'd share.
This photo after the scare actors in Kong has pretty much cemented that we will not be able to visit HHN. Ever.
And again, drinking in the parks is awesome.