After Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary in 2021, we opted to take a short break from visiting the Orlando resort. This came in the midst of moving to Southern California and living just a short walk away from Disneyland. Between the lack of growth at certain parks and the crowd levels bogging the experiences down, I had grown a little frustrated with WDW. There’s only so much money to go around. Despite many experts predicting this website would make millions, it does not! So when it came time to return to Walt Disney World earlier this year, Melissa and I were eager to go experience a few new things.

We set out from LAX, finding a great direct flight deal on Delta, and arrived in Orlando late one night. Since it was late, we decided to save some money and stay off property at the Red Lion Orlando Lake Buena Vista South. Is a seven word hotel name necessary? No, but the place was perfectly adequate and wouldn’t be a bad spot to stay if you’re looking for budget options.

Originally I had planned to just catch a Lyft to and from MCO (Orlando’s Airport) but after pricing it out, a rental car was about the same price for one night. It also added some convenience, as we wanted a late night meal and a few groceries the following day before going on property. I recommend looking into how cheap you can get a rental car that you can drop off near Magic Kingdom.

After a few hours of sleep, we were on our way. Not long after we bought some water and a few breakfast items for the week, we made it to Wilderness Lodge. Our trip covered a fairly ridiculous amount of hotels over the course of 9 nights. We were trying to cut costs while using a few DVC points and the Boulder Ridge Villas at Wilderness Lodge is where we ended up first. The hotel is beautiful and remains one of my favorite in all of Disney World. I want to stay there for a few nights when we don’t have big park plans to really enjoy the serene atmosphere. Our room was luckily ready! Online check-in is a very nice perk as far as that goes.

Part of the reason we were trying to save money on the hotels is because we wanted to take part in the Disney Dining Plan. We did this on 3 separate nights where we had a DVC reservation, including our first stay. Once we had that sucker activated we went immediately to Roaring Fork and shared this gigantic Bear Claw. I’m still not convinced that it was actually on the Dining Plan but they gave it to us as a snack. We’re a few months removed from eating this but I still might be full from it! It’s a great snack but definitely one to share as it’s incredibly sweet and just so much bread.

We dropped off the car and then were shuttled over to Epcot. Going to Epcot on a weekend is always a risk but I do think it’s the park both Melissa and I miss the most when we haven’t been to Disney World in a while. Animal Kingdom has usually been my favorite park of the four over the last decade but with walls down at Epcot, it’s time to rethink that.

The other reason we wanted to start at Epcot is because Festival of the Arts was going on. We love all of the art exhibits and the Disney on Broadway shows at night. The festival as a whole feels in tune with Epcot, both the old and new version. After failing miserably at getting a spot in the afternoon virtual queue for Cosmic Rewind (Saturday’s will get you!), we turned our attention to a few festival specific offerings.

One of those offerings was the Animation Academy at the America Gardens Theatre. These classes are especially cool because an actual Disney animator comes out to teach guest to draw a character, generally one they’ve worked with extensively. I’m a terrible artist and failed miserably, again. Maybe there was a theme to this day, with my failing drawing skills and virtual queue entering abilities! Melissa’s drawing of Goofy turned out much better than mine. That’s not the reason I, personally, go to those classes though. Hearing the animator talk about their career for half an hour without interruption is really unique and interesting. Some of them are better than others at talking about themselves but there’s always great stories that come out of the class at Festival of the Arts!

Had we done much? No. But is there ever a bad time to take a break in the Imagination Pavilion DVC Lounge? Not really! I was trying to hold off on eating much until dinner, wanting to be really hungry. But a sugary Bear Claw is probably not the best fuel to get through thousands of steps. Some chips tided me over. On the way out, we saw where the new Figment meet & greet is. Our dragon looks good posing with fans.

With attraction lines being very full, going for walkthrough attractions and wandering through pavilions was the best way to go about the day, knowing that we’d be back in the park. These laid back days are part of allure of Epcot and a week at Disney World in general.

Leaving the lounge, we were right by Journey of Water so it was time for our first new experience of the trip! I had steered clear of any Journey of Water photos and reviews ahead of our visit so experiencing the attraction for the first time blew me away!

This walkthrough explains the cycles and stages of water while loosely playing into the Moana theme. The interactivity is really well done and the information is clearly stated without belaboring the point. This is a best case scenario for this kind of attraction and it’s one of my favorite Epcot additions in… my lifetime?

That may be a little hyperbolic. It’s still just a walking attraction. But the fit is seamless and the visuals are phenomenal. We visited several other times during our week at Disney World and I remained really impressed with what Imagineering did in this space.

What made less sense to me are all of the changes to the central spine of Epcot, predominantly the space behind Spaceship Earth but before World Showcase. It’s not that the area is bad, it’s not! There are some absolutely beautiful spots and the added landscaping is appreciated. On the other hand, there are small sections that seem less functional and are puzzling from a design perspective. I might save my longform thoughts for its own post. For now, I see the space as a mixed bag but with the highlights outweighing the negatives.

We’ll call this next section ‘Dudes Playing Instruments’.

If you haven’t stopped to watch the mariachi band perform near the Mexico Pavilion, you should! They play a festive, and somewhat Coco inspired, set.

If I was going to do a draft of favorite Disney World buildings, this replica of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven would be the top of my list. It’s so beautiful and full of color, hovering above the pond. We had a long layover in Beijing once and I really regret not taking the time to go and see this building. Anyway, if you’re out there and want to do that draft, I’m so ready.

After taking our time through a few pavilions, it was time for dinner! We made our way to the Germany Pavilion for our early reservation at Biergarten.

The short form of the review is that I really enjoyed Biergarten’s festive atmosphere and live entertainment. On top of that, I thought the buffet was one of the better ones I’ve had at Disney World. Most of it was German food with some delicious options. I was also impressed that Biergarten could cater to so many different types of people. Maybe teens wouldn’t like it but every other age range would, at least as far as atmosphere goes.

If the first theme of the day was me failing, the second was much less self-deprecating – live entertainment! After watching the Oktoberfest crew give it there all in Biergarten, we stepped outside and found this band playing in the German Pavilion. This was Julia Scheeser and her band. She actually does voicework in Germany for different Disney princesses. The whole group was outstanding, playing a few originals mixed in with some Disney medleys sung in German. I think they’re back home now but it was refreshing to see some new and young talent performing!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the old standbys as much as anyone. But there’s so much nostalgia that comes in with live entertainment at Disney Parks. I think that can blind people like me from seeing the new groups around. Here’s hoping that other young bands and artists show up on the World Showcase Promenade and elsewhere in all of the resorts.

The evening was approaching its end and that meant Impressions de France was showing. It should be showing the entire day but I digress. Go see it in the France Pavilion. Not only is it fantastic, but it’s also the longest running daily screening of a film in the same theater. Ever! Forgive me, I don’t remember who I saw that tidbit from a few days ago but thought that was interesting. This may be a little hypocritical after my last paragraph about new entertainment, but I hope the 42-year-old Impressions de France plays for another 42 years and beyond.

We moseyed back to America Gardens Theatre because everyone wanted me to teach a class on animation after my amazing showing earlier in the day! Kidding. We went back to see Ashley Brown (the OG Broadway Mary Poppins) and L. Steven Taylor (Mufasa) perform their Disney on Broadway set. They were incredible!

With the Dining Plan, we had upgraded our Biergarten meal to get a seating package for the show. It’s no extra cost so there was no reason not to. That got us pretty close to the singers! The seating package isn’t necessary though, especially if you’re going for the last showing of the night. If you’re at Festival of the Arts, make a point of seeing these shows.

At that point in the night we had to decide between getting on a ride or watching the fireworks. Knowing we’d be back for the show on another night, we opted to ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. We hadn’t been on the attraction since Disney World’s 50th. Both of us liked it pretty well then but it’s fallen in our estimation since. This trip didn’t help in that regard, as the attraction is fine but far from amazing. There are too many screens and the story feels disorganized. It’s still worth doing and the last ride of the night is a good way to go as we waited for less than half an hour on a fairly busy day!

What Epcot lacks in attractions, it makes up for in night time views. We got off the attraction and started our walk around the park, moving from France to Morocco and so on. To come back around to this point, this is what I miss most about Epcot during time away from Disney World. Late night pictures at Disneyland are wonderful. Rushing around DisneySea after close for one last look is a shot of adrenaline. Nowhere gives the same feel as Epcot though. The pace is slow and the experience is so relaxed because of that. Here are a few favorites from around World Showcase that night.

It was getting late and I knew that I wanted a few photos as Wilderness Lodge, so we made our way toward the bus after that photo in Germany. Of course, I had to stop at the front of the park for a few more photos.

The quick bus ride to Wilderness Lodge brought me to the hotel’s lobby, which is also a wonder. Again, I need to book some time to just relax at the lobby in one of those rockers or spend some time by the pool. It’s the one resort in Walt Disney World we’ve stayed at where I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it offers.

In true Wandering in Disney fashion, this post has run long! So, much like we did with ourselves after taking those lobby photos, I’m going to put it to bed. In the next installment, I’ll start the next morning at Magic Kingdom!

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