A Few Thoughts on a Recent Trip to Walt Disney World |

Generally, we here at KitK focus our tips and thoughts specifically on kosher food and where/when to get them at Disney locations. However, after a recent weeklong trip to WDW, we figured we would provide some general tips as well as some updates on the biggest Disney park in the world. Anything that applies to our existing posts will be updated there as well.

General Thoughts

There is no more off-season for the big rides – Many of the most active Disney bloggers have pointed out that with the expansion of the parks, especially with Galaxy Edge coming, there really is no off-season at the parks. Mid-June used to be a medium crowd time, and you really could get on any ride if you were willing to wait. However, we saw that the most popular rides (e.g. Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Coaster, Frozen Ever After) had waits of well over 2 hours once you hit midday even in 90+ heat
There are more character greetings than ever – if you are looking to meet someone, whether it’s your standard Mickey and Minnie or someone less common like Baymax or Joy (from Inside Out) there are lots of opportunities. Make you use the Disney website or app to see if you can meet your favorite in person.

Free ice water is a lifesaver – Disney has a policy that at any quick service location you can ask for free ice water, which is huge on a day where the heat index is over 100. We recommend two specific ways to take get your waters as fast as possible, so you aren’t waiting on a long line just for ice water. Find locations that have self serve fountain soda. We are not suggesting you take free soda. However if you look closely one of the sodas will also dispense water, and of course, there is an option for ice option as well. This enables you to get your ice water without waiting in line (assuming you have brought your own water bottles)
Use the mobile order line. This line is only for mobile orders but we found cast members were more than happy to provide us with ice water if we waited on that much shorter line
Use mobile ordering whenever possible, especially when getting only drinks – Using the Disney Experience app you can order, if the location participates, a significant amount of items ahead of time and wait on a shorter line to get them. So, if you are planning on getting just-drinks be sure to use mobile ordering to save time
Disney needs to include kosher options in its mobile ordering – we found that none of the quick service restaurants that have kosher food allowed you to order them through the app ahead of time. You will notice much of Disney’s food at the quick service locations is also made quick. Well, the kosher items are not since they need to be heated from their frozen state. If one were able to order ahead of time it would significantly reduce the time one has to wait for probably the longest item to make on the menu. Personally, we will be writing directly to Disney about this (and recommend everyone reading this does as well since they really do listen to feedback, especially if you write via snail mail)

Toy Story Land

It is HOT – As others have mentioned if you are going to Toy Story Land in the summer, make sure you stay cool because there is a distinct lack of shade throughout the land. They have added umbrellas to try and mitigate that situation, but it doesn’t help very much
It is crowded, but not terrible anymore – upon launch the new toy-sized land was so crowded you had to wait on line to even get it. Now, after a few months, it is much more manageable, but still, make sure to time those FastPasses right if you want to get on the big rides like Toy Story Mania or Slinky Dog
Lots of characters – if you want to meet anyone from the Woody family (Woody, Jesse, Bo-Peep) they are all here for a meet and greets. They even have the toy soldiers walking throughout the land.

Tusker House Remains a Favorite

When it comes to underrated character breakfasts at WDW you cannot beat Tusker House. We did a review of the breakfast in the past, and almost nothing has changed, which is a good thing. However, one thing that has changed is our crowd-pleasing Jungle Juice. In the past the Juice was made fresh on the spot, unfortunately, it is now made from a mix bearing a triangle K (consult your local rabbi on the reliability of the symbol).

Somehow Cinderella’s Royal Table Got Even Better

As we have detailed in the past we love CRT. And while the experience was almost exactly the same as it was in the past (although Jasmine was the live-action Jasmine so she was a little more covered up than in the past). The one change was how the meals themselves were handled. In the past, we were basically told we either had to order from the menu (cereal in our case) or use the kosher meals we ordered in advance, which is somewhat tricky when you have children who tend to change their minds or like to graze. This time, not only were we allowed to do cereal and/or use the kosher options, but our chef (Amy) and server (Tina) helped us with anything we needed. This included giving us huge bags of cereal rather than having to worry about little bowls for each person (there were 12 of us at the time), so we could take at our leisure. This is a must-do meal for anyone with someone who appreciates princesses.