We just got back last night from a 6-night stay and instead of a day-by-day breakdown, I just wanted to share some of the overall thoughts I had. I'll get my complaints out of the way early. There weren’t many.

The Bad.

Space 220. Just don’t. There’s a reason why this is a polarizing topic every time it comes up and frankly I don’t understand how anyone is in favor of this restaurant. Lunch took us over 2.5 hours and it was the most expensive and worst meal we had all week. The fixed price menu is nonsense, making me pay way too much money for some of the worst shrimp “tacos” and burger I’ve ever had. Two people in our party ordered a steak, both medium rare, and they came out like leather and were sent back. The steaks that returned were described as “fast food steaks.” The quality of the food and the speed of the service were just appalling. The elevator was the only neat part and that was over in 60 seconds. Just. Don’t. Go.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass. The new system is crap and I 100% believe it’s designed to be as infuriating as possible to make you splurge for the premier pass the next time around. It is complete BS that you can pay for a multi-pass and yet not be able to ride every ride. How the hell can you sell passes to rides that are completely unavailable to book?

Having to “burn” a ride just to get a shot at riding more than 1 tier 1 ride in a day is unfair and then when your burner ride is down, you are absolutely screwed. We paid for Epcot and had an early reservation for Spaceship Earth. It was down at the start and didn’t reopen until late afternoon. This means, we could only ride Remy, since we were unable to make a reservation for Frozen also. We ended up using LLMP to “skip” the lines at Nemo and Living with the Land and one ride at Remy and Soarin’. This was entirely unnecessary as they were both walk-ons anyway. We also got stuck on Living with the Land for over 40 minutes and had to be evac’d off. Combine this with the god awful lunch and the first half of our Epcot day was a total wash.

No cast compliments this trip. This is the first year we didn’t give out a single compliment. It wasn’t that anyone did a bad job or were mean or anything of that nature, it’s just that there was absolutely nothing worth complimenting. No one really went above and beyond in any capacity. I know it’s a job for them but it felt exactly like that. CMs were there to work and that’s that. Maybe I am expecting too much, but in past trips I can distinctly remember several CMs really going out of their way to make special moments happen.

And for the good stuff…

The Good.

All Star Sports. This is our third time staying here and honestly, I can’t picture us spending to stay anywhere else. We are parks open to close type people and in a place where you get taken through the ringer, the Disney value resorts are really that. The perks of staying in the bubble for only $140/night are unreal. It’s hard to find any hotel for that price let alone a Disney branded one. The rooms are cramped and the theming isn’t as great, but those are easy to look past if you want to spend as much time in the parks as you can.

Yak and Yeti. Ohana (for breakfast). Whispering Canyon. Olga’s Cantina. Easily the best food and drinks we’ve had there. Don’t sleep on Yak and Yeti. We were pleasantly surprised at just how good it was.

Cheeseburger egg rolls. Framboise from France. Grilled Cheese from Pop Eats. Carne Asada from Mexico. Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese from ABC commissary. Okay, I can keep naming foods here, but there are so many good options lately EXCEPT anything from Space 220. Really. Do. Not. Go.

Animal Kingdom. I really don’t understand how people see this as a half-day park. We were there almost until close and could have easily filled another day with things we missed out on doing. The theming throughout the park is just beautiful everywhere you look. Of all the parks, this feels the most complete and cohesive and I look forward to the changes being made to whatever that dinosaur carnival parking lot was supposed to be.

Cold weather. This one seems odd, but if you can visit Disney when temperatures hit 50 and below, you’ll have a great time. It rained all day during our magic kingdom day with a high of 45 and there was NO ONE there. We walked up to Happily Ever After at 7:55 and got a spot right in front of the castle. We have multiple pictures of us on main street with no one even in the background. It was unreal. Dress prepared and you’ll have the best time you’ll ever spend in Disney.

Trying new things. Disney was starting to feel like a checklist of rides and experiences we had to do to have a good time. This year, we made sure we did at least 2 new things in each park that we would have otherwise skipped in previous trips. It was a blast and felt like it reinvigorated the parks for us.

The Bubble. It’s really real. A full week with no outside distractions, politics, worries, anything at all really. I totally understand how people can become addicted to this place.

Finally.

If I can leave you with one piece of advice, it would be to not book a table at Space 220. You might be thinking, there's no way it's that bad. It is. It really, really is.