jbrinkm
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2015
This was my family's first trip to "the World" - DH, myself, DD age 8 and DS age 6. We squeezed our trip into 4 days, arriving late Monday and leaving early Saturday. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside, Alligator section, although we were hardly in the hotel room at all. We wore ourselves out but had a BLAST!
Before we went, I wouldn't have categorized ourselves as a Disney family, per say... we just really wanted warm weather and lots of rides. DD is not much into princesses (I was much more sentimental about remembering the movies and songs from growing up and my young adult years!). However, there was just *something* magical about being there
And we were surprised at how much variety in interests "Disney" covers - from Star Wars to Dinosaurs to Indiana Jones to Toy Story, etc. etc. Our kids are also pretty adventurous, so they were the PERFECT age to go - not too old for the fun, little-kid rides, but also enthusiastic riders of the roller coasters.
We arrived at the hotel around 10:30pm on Monday. Magical Express took longer than we thought but the airport experience was very smooth and friendly. After arriving, I got kids in bed while DH went to talk to front desk about our luggage arrival and arrange for hold until morning if it arrived after we went to bed. We were up until midnight and then put Do Not Disturb sign on the door, however, they rang the room and woke us up at 1am. NOT the best way to start our trip. We really liked our room, however, and our GardenGrocer delivery had arrived smoothly, so we were excited to get going the next day.
Tuesday was Magic Kingdom day. I used TouringPlans to map out our plans for the week, and followed the plan pretty closely at MK. We woke up at 7:30 and went to the bus at 8:15am. We planned on arriving for rope drop but were too tired after the late night. We arrived just after 9am (also not expecting how long the bus took) and went left into Adventureland. We rode Carpets of Aladdin and Jungle Cruise with no wait. Then went to Pirates of the Caribbean but it was closed, so we headed to Tomorrowland and went straight to Space Mountain, which only had a 10 minute wait. So we rode it twice! Then to Barnstormer, which frustratingly, had a longer wait than Space Mountain. Although at this point, it was getting really hot and it was around 10:30, so the park was starting to get a little more crowded. After Barnstormer, we still had a few minutes before our BOG reservation, so we hopped onto the Mad Tea Party (glad we did it before lunch). Then over to Beast's Castle, which was AMAZING! Wow. Both food and décor - phenomenal!
The next glitch we ran into was paying for the extra items we had pre-ordered (we used the meal plan but kids wanted extra cupcakes and we had to try the soup). Although I had set up a card and pin online, because I did quick check in at the hotel, my band was not connected to my credit card for room charges. Nowhere, in everything I read, did I realize that this would happen, and we didn't have the credit card with us. DH tried to use his Google Pay from the phone, but the reader wouldn't take that either. So they charged the main items and said they would run the card later for the remainder of the items. Then I spent the rest of the meal on the phone trying to get my card activated on my account. I was able to do it but only because I have all of my credit card information memorized. Then I was rushing the rest of that wonderful food because the rest of my family had finished. However, that charge never showed up on the bill! So apparently (inadvertently) we got free items added to our meal.
After BOG we went to Micky's Philharmagic which was great because it was REALLY hot out. Apparently we were there during a November heat wave and had 90's and humid the whole time we were there - not fun! Then we walked over to Tom Sawyer's island. We saw a live baby alligator under the boardwalk path along the river and got made fun of because we thought it was fake. The island might have been more fun if it wasn't so hot and the kids weren't too excited to get to the next roller coaster. Then we were finally in the FastPass window for Splash Mountain, so we did that and then swung through Pirate's Adventure (which the kids' veto'd in favor of getting ice cream and going on Aladdin's carpet again. Then we sat down for the parade and finished our ice cream, and ran straight for Pirates of the Caribbean when it finished (now open again after being closed most of the day). This was probably the biggest wait of our day, around 25 minutes without FastPass. I realized during the wait that when DH bumped my phone and it hit the ground during the parade that it compoletely broke the screen so I was without a phone for the rest of the trip. That was a big bummer, especially because we were following the plan steps on the app on my phone.
Then we used our second FastPass on Big Thunder Mountain and headed over to our 4pm dinner at the Crystal Palace. The great thing about 11am lunch and 4pm dinner is that we didn't wait at all for our tables. Crystal Palace was enjoyable. The kids liked the characters and we all found at least one thing we liked at the buffet. The food was so-so but I felt like it was a good value on the dining plan. Then we went to It's A Small World, the Haunted Mansion (which we had just watched as a family a week earlier, so that was fun) and finished up with our last FP - Seven Dwarves. The sky was just getting dark as we waited for Haunted Mansion and was dark when we came out - that was fun! And then we rode 7DMT in the dark - also super cool! We left the park around 6:30pm and took the monorail over to Epcot.
Tuesday night Epcot was one of the low points. Because we got last minute reservations for Wishes dessert party Thursday and Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic package on Wednesday, we had to choose between Tuesday and Friday Epcot/Illuminations night. I don't know if Friday would have been any better, but Tuesday was EMH and Food & Wine Festival. IT WAS SO CROWDED I could hardly think. We thought Food and Wine would be more crowded on Friday and EMH would draw more crowds on the Future World side, but we were wrong! We could hardly walk. We pushed our way through to Mexico Pavilion and sat on the ride just to take a breather. Then we tried to find food but couldn't process what the booths were offering, plus people were already lining up for the Illuminations, so we just plopped down near Canada and DH scouted food for us while we sat. DS had a meltdown at this point and drunk people stood and talked loudly in front of us during fireworks, so only DD had a good time this evening ("I LOVE LOVE LOVED the fireworks, Mommy!").
We got home late and slept in a little the next morning, arriving back at Epcot around 9:30 for our first FastPass at Mission:Space. Then we went straight over to our second FastPass at Soarin' and then the kids had a BLAST at Club Cool drinking all of the free sodas. Then we did our third FastPass for Spaceship Earth and went back over to Sunshine Seasons for a really great lunch. We checked immediately after Spaceship Earth for Test Track FastPass and again just after lunch because the waits were over an hour. We were going to get in the line anyway and I checked one last time, and VOILA - there was a FastPass available. So we turned around and did Nemo and Turtle Talk (SO funny!) and then used our FP for TestTrack. We immediately had to call an Uber to get us over to Hollywood Studios in time for our 4:30 dinner.
We missed a lot of Epcot, both the shows in Future World and most of World Showcase. I would really like to be able to go back to experience it again.
We definitely made use of our Park Hopper passes! We had the Fantasmic package dinner at Hollywood and Vine (ok food, on par with Crystal Palace). Then we checked FastPass and got the Indiana Jones show at 6:00. It ended at 6:35 and we walked over to Fantasmic at 6:45 for 7pm show. Fantasmic was very impressive! We got the kids to bed "early" that night around 8:30pm.
The next morning we were all dragging and had to use Uber again to get to our Tusker House breakfast at Animal Kingdom. We arrived at the gate at 8:25am for an 8:20am reservation and they wouldn't let us through! The gate people kept saying that they were opening in a few minutes and we could just go then. Luckily another family arrived just after and we both vocally argued that we were late for our breakfasts and they let us through. We got to Tusker House around 8:40 but they were super nice and the breakfast was amazing. We popped straight over to Kilimanjaro Safaris but because of our late arrival to breakfast and the early park opening, still had to wait around 25 minutes. It was nice, but we have a great zoo and the animals were pretty hidden because of the heat. We were glad to see elephants (DS - "Mommy, that is the first time I've ever seen real elephants!"). Our zoo had them when DD was little but then they were relocated for space issues.
Animal Kingdom was crowded, hot and confusing. After the safari, we did our first FP - Expedition Everest (which may have been our family favorite roller coaster), walked Maharaja Jungle Trek, spent 30 minutes putting stuff in the locker for a very short Kali River Rapids (2nd FP) and then luckily found a little kiosk with pretzels and macaroni which we counted as lunch. We were so happy to just sit in the shade for a few minutes. Then we watched It's Tough to Be A Bug, which was super cute, and headed over to Dinoland. The kids played in the Boneyard and had a blast while we waited for Dinosaur FastPass. We did Triceratops Spin when the line went down and then rode Dinosaur (one of my favorites!). Then checked lines and ran back to Everest for 2nd ride, only waited about 20 minutes.
Then we got on the shuttle and went to Boma for dinner. Boma was an unbelievable experience - amazing food, beautiful setting, just an absolutely perfect dinner.
After Boma, we hopped back over to Magic Kingdom for our dessert party. Because most of the park was already starting to line up for the electrical parade and fireworks, we hit Monsters Inc Laugh Floor with no wait and then hopped in the Toy Story ride with no wait before heading to Wishes party at 7:20. We really enjoyed the desserts and had a decent view of the show/fireworks. Then DH scored Speedway FastPasses so we ran there, then did Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Winnie the Pooh (all of these that we skipped on Tuesday). At 9pm when the rides ended, we made our way to the front while watching the the electrical parade through a much less dense crowd. It was a beautiful night but my DD lost her MagicBand and we ended up staying an hour later getting her a replacement one.
We got home so late that we knew we wouldn't make rope drop, so we just got to Hollywood Studios in time for Sci-Fi Breakfast at 9:30am. The night before, I cancelled our T-Rex reservation for 3pm and picked up at the last minute, a FP for Tower of Terror.
The SciFi breakfast was one of the best meals we ate the entire time, but it was so much food that we barely made a dent. Also, the kids just wanted to zone out to the screen instead of actually eating. We did our FP for Star Tours right after breakfast, loved it! Then the touring plan online started messing up so we went to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid and moved over to Disney Jr. right afterwards. While we were sitting in Disney Jr., I realized that we were about to miss our Toy Story FastPass, so we bolted out the doors and RAN to the FastPass line. We were late but he let us in because we were close (and he thought we were coming in with the group in front of us!). Then we went to Lights, Motors, Action!DH and kids watched and loved - I spent the whole time figuring out the rest of the day. I let the kids play at Honey I Shrunk the kids while DH got lunch. DS had another meltdown and we spent another 20 minutes in the playground while he calmed down. Then we went back and did Tower of Terror, Disney Jr. (round 2) and got another FastPass for the Great Movie Ride. Then we just missed Starring Rolls (closed at 4pm) so we got snacks at Starbucks and headed back to the hotel.
We swam and did the water slide, then ate dinner and used the rest of the snack credits at Riverside Mill Food Court and went to bed.
The vacation was amazing but the trip back was exhausting - we had to get up at 6am to do all of the bag check and check ins for the Magic Express. I'm not sure I would do that service again.
The kids are asking if we can go back again next week, and I have to say, I'm inclined to agree (or, maybe we can wait until next year...)!
Before we went, I wouldn't have categorized ourselves as a Disney family, per say... we just really wanted warm weather and lots of rides. DD is not much into princesses (I was much more sentimental about remembering the movies and songs from growing up and my young adult years!). However, there was just *something* magical about being there
And we were surprised at how much variety in interests "Disney" covers - from Star Wars to Dinosaurs to Indiana Jones to Toy Story, etc. etc. Our kids are also pretty adventurous, so they were the PERFECT age to go - not too old for the fun, little-kid rides, but also enthusiastic riders of the roller coasters.We arrived at the hotel around 10:30pm on Monday. Magical Express took longer than we thought but the airport experience was very smooth and friendly. After arriving, I got kids in bed while DH went to talk to front desk about our luggage arrival and arrange for hold until morning if it arrived after we went to bed. We were up until midnight and then put Do Not Disturb sign on the door, however, they rang the room and woke us up at 1am. NOT the best way to start our trip. We really liked our room, however, and our GardenGrocer delivery had arrived smoothly, so we were excited to get going the next day.
Tuesday was Magic Kingdom day. I used TouringPlans to map out our plans for the week, and followed the plan pretty closely at MK. We woke up at 7:30 and went to the bus at 8:15am. We planned on arriving for rope drop but were too tired after the late night. We arrived just after 9am (also not expecting how long the bus took) and went left into Adventureland. We rode Carpets of Aladdin and Jungle Cruise with no wait. Then went to Pirates of the Caribbean but it was closed, so we headed to Tomorrowland and went straight to Space Mountain, which only had a 10 minute wait. So we rode it twice! Then to Barnstormer, which frustratingly, had a longer wait than Space Mountain. Although at this point, it was getting really hot and it was around 10:30, so the park was starting to get a little more crowded. After Barnstormer, we still had a few minutes before our BOG reservation, so we hopped onto the Mad Tea Party (glad we did it before lunch). Then over to Beast's Castle, which was AMAZING! Wow. Both food and décor - phenomenal!
The next glitch we ran into was paying for the extra items we had pre-ordered (we used the meal plan but kids wanted extra cupcakes and we had to try the soup). Although I had set up a card and pin online, because I did quick check in at the hotel, my band was not connected to my credit card for room charges. Nowhere, in everything I read, did I realize that this would happen, and we didn't have the credit card with us. DH tried to use his Google Pay from the phone, but the reader wouldn't take that either. So they charged the main items and said they would run the card later for the remainder of the items. Then I spent the rest of the meal on the phone trying to get my card activated on my account. I was able to do it but only because I have all of my credit card information memorized. Then I was rushing the rest of that wonderful food because the rest of my family had finished. However, that charge never showed up on the bill! So apparently (inadvertently) we got free items added to our meal.
After BOG we went to Micky's Philharmagic which was great because it was REALLY hot out. Apparently we were there during a November heat wave and had 90's and humid the whole time we were there - not fun! Then we walked over to Tom Sawyer's island. We saw a live baby alligator under the boardwalk path along the river and got made fun of because we thought it was fake. The island might have been more fun if it wasn't so hot and the kids weren't too excited to get to the next roller coaster. Then we were finally in the FastPass window for Splash Mountain, so we did that and then swung through Pirate's Adventure (which the kids' veto'd in favor of getting ice cream and going on Aladdin's carpet again. Then we sat down for the parade and finished our ice cream, and ran straight for Pirates of the Caribbean when it finished (now open again after being closed most of the day). This was probably the biggest wait of our day, around 25 minutes without FastPass. I realized during the wait that when DH bumped my phone and it hit the ground during the parade that it compoletely broke the screen so I was without a phone for the rest of the trip. That was a big bummer, especially because we were following the plan steps on the app on my phone.
Then we used our second FastPass on Big Thunder Mountain and headed over to our 4pm dinner at the Crystal Palace. The great thing about 11am lunch and 4pm dinner is that we didn't wait at all for our tables. Crystal Palace was enjoyable. The kids liked the characters and we all found at least one thing we liked at the buffet. The food was so-so but I felt like it was a good value on the dining plan. Then we went to It's A Small World, the Haunted Mansion (which we had just watched as a family a week earlier, so that was fun) and finished up with our last FP - Seven Dwarves. The sky was just getting dark as we waited for Haunted Mansion and was dark when we came out - that was fun! And then we rode 7DMT in the dark - also super cool! We left the park around 6:30pm and took the monorail over to Epcot.
Tuesday night Epcot was one of the low points. Because we got last minute reservations for Wishes dessert party Thursday and Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic package on Wednesday, we had to choose between Tuesday and Friday Epcot/Illuminations night. I don't know if Friday would have been any better, but Tuesday was EMH and Food & Wine Festival. IT WAS SO CROWDED I could hardly think. We thought Food and Wine would be more crowded on Friday and EMH would draw more crowds on the Future World side, but we were wrong! We could hardly walk. We pushed our way through to Mexico Pavilion and sat on the ride just to take a breather. Then we tried to find food but couldn't process what the booths were offering, plus people were already lining up for the Illuminations, so we just plopped down near Canada and DH scouted food for us while we sat. DS had a meltdown at this point and drunk people stood and talked loudly in front of us during fireworks, so only DD had a good time this evening ("I LOVE LOVE LOVED the fireworks, Mommy!").
We got home late and slept in a little the next morning, arriving back at Epcot around 9:30 for our first FastPass at Mission:Space. Then we went straight over to our second FastPass at Soarin' and then the kids had a BLAST at Club Cool drinking all of the free sodas. Then we did our third FastPass for Spaceship Earth and went back over to Sunshine Seasons for a really great lunch. We checked immediately after Spaceship Earth for Test Track FastPass and again just after lunch because the waits were over an hour. We were going to get in the line anyway and I checked one last time, and VOILA - there was a FastPass available. So we turned around and did Nemo and Turtle Talk (SO funny!) and then used our FP for TestTrack. We immediately had to call an Uber to get us over to Hollywood Studios in time for our 4:30 dinner.
We missed a lot of Epcot, both the shows in Future World and most of World Showcase. I would really like to be able to go back to experience it again.
We definitely made use of our Park Hopper passes! We had the Fantasmic package dinner at Hollywood and Vine (ok food, on par with Crystal Palace). Then we checked FastPass and got the Indiana Jones show at 6:00. It ended at 6:35 and we walked over to Fantasmic at 6:45 for 7pm show. Fantasmic was very impressive! We got the kids to bed "early" that night around 8:30pm.
The next morning we were all dragging and had to use Uber again to get to our Tusker House breakfast at Animal Kingdom. We arrived at the gate at 8:25am for an 8:20am reservation and they wouldn't let us through! The gate people kept saying that they were opening in a few minutes and we could just go then. Luckily another family arrived just after and we both vocally argued that we were late for our breakfasts and they let us through. We got to Tusker House around 8:40 but they were super nice and the breakfast was amazing. We popped straight over to Kilimanjaro Safaris but because of our late arrival to breakfast and the early park opening, still had to wait around 25 minutes. It was nice, but we have a great zoo and the animals were pretty hidden because of the heat. We were glad to see elephants (DS - "Mommy, that is the first time I've ever seen real elephants!"). Our zoo had them when DD was little but then they were relocated for space issues.
Animal Kingdom was crowded, hot and confusing. After the safari, we did our first FP - Expedition Everest (which may have been our family favorite roller coaster), walked Maharaja Jungle Trek, spent 30 minutes putting stuff in the locker for a very short Kali River Rapids (2nd FP) and then luckily found a little kiosk with pretzels and macaroni which we counted as lunch. We were so happy to just sit in the shade for a few minutes. Then we watched It's Tough to Be A Bug, which was super cute, and headed over to Dinoland. The kids played in the Boneyard and had a blast while we waited for Dinosaur FastPass. We did Triceratops Spin when the line went down and then rode Dinosaur (one of my favorites!). Then checked lines and ran back to Everest for 2nd ride, only waited about 20 minutes.
Then we got on the shuttle and went to Boma for dinner. Boma was an unbelievable experience - amazing food, beautiful setting, just an absolutely perfect dinner.
After Boma, we hopped back over to Magic Kingdom for our dessert party. Because most of the park was already starting to line up for the electrical parade and fireworks, we hit Monsters Inc Laugh Floor with no wait and then hopped in the Toy Story ride with no wait before heading to Wishes party at 7:20. We really enjoyed the desserts and had a decent view of the show/fireworks. Then DH scored Speedway FastPasses so we ran there, then did Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Winnie the Pooh (all of these that we skipped on Tuesday). At 9pm when the rides ended, we made our way to the front while watching the the electrical parade through a much less dense crowd. It was a beautiful night but my DD lost her MagicBand and we ended up staying an hour later getting her a replacement one.
We got home so late that we knew we wouldn't make rope drop, so we just got to Hollywood Studios in time for Sci-Fi Breakfast at 9:30am. The night before, I cancelled our T-Rex reservation for 3pm and picked up at the last minute, a FP for Tower of Terror.
The SciFi breakfast was one of the best meals we ate the entire time, but it was so much food that we barely made a dent. Also, the kids just wanted to zone out to the screen instead of actually eating. We did our FP for Star Tours right after breakfast, loved it! Then the touring plan online started messing up so we went to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid and moved over to Disney Jr. right afterwards. While we were sitting in Disney Jr., I realized that we were about to miss our Toy Story FastPass, so we bolted out the doors and RAN to the FastPass line. We were late but he let us in because we were close (and he thought we were coming in with the group in front of us!). Then we went to Lights, Motors, Action!DH and kids watched and loved - I spent the whole time figuring out the rest of the day. I let the kids play at Honey I Shrunk the kids while DH got lunch. DS had another meltdown and we spent another 20 minutes in the playground while he calmed down. Then we went back and did Tower of Terror, Disney Jr. (round 2) and got another FastPass for the Great Movie Ride. Then we just missed Starring Rolls (closed at 4pm) so we got snacks at Starbucks and headed back to the hotel.
We swam and did the water slide, then ate dinner and used the rest of the snack credits at Riverside Mill Food Court and went to bed.
The vacation was amazing but the trip back was exhausting - we had to get up at 6am to do all of the bag check and check ins for the Magic Express. I'm not sure I would do that service again.
The kids are asking if we can go back again next week, and I have to say, I'm inclined to agree (or, maybe we can wait until next year...)!
