Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

My wife, daughter, and I went to Walt Disney World over the winter break and I thought I'd write down my experience for future reference. We drove from my in-laws house to Atlanta, GA the day after Christmas. There was some pretty heavy traffic around Nashville, TN, and of course the traffic around Atlanta was pretty bad. Google estimated 7 hours for the trip and it took a little over 8. We stayed at the Embassy Suites right by Centennial Olympic Park. The next day we drove the rest of the way, which was estimated to be a little over 6 hours and took a little over 8. The traffic around Atlanta was a little heavy, but not too bad (it was a Saturday). The traffic in northern Florida was horrible. It was pretty well stop-and-go from I-10 to where I-75 splits off (a lot of traffic went to Tampa instead of Orlando). So we got to Port Orleans Riverside way later than I hoped. We liked the resort and the Tiana room. It was a good compromise between price and size. Sunday the 28th we...

We recently got back from a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida and I thought I'd share my experience for (mostly) my future reference. This part includes the Disney Dining Plan. I used our previous experience ( Disney Character Dining Review ) to help decide what character dining we did. With the regular dining plan, you get 1 sit down meal per person, per night. You can use these for character dining. So we went to the following: Tusker House Restaurant (Animal Kingdom) Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (Epcot) The Garden Grill Restaurant (Epcot) The Crystal Palace (Magic Kingdom) Hollywood & Vine (Hollywood Studios) Chef Mickey's (Contemporary Resort) The only one that was new was Hollywood & Vine. You could see characters from Disney Jr - Doc McStuffins, Jake (from Neverland Pirates), and Sofia The First - which you can't see at any other dining experience. But the lines for the buffet were huge - we almost missed seeing the characters. I don't know i...