Sailing the Skyliner: Life is the Bubbles on Spring Break - A March 2024 Trip Report

[jrmint427]

Jaleo​

We had a wonderful meal at Jaleo in 2022 and were excited to go back. It was a great place to celebrate my parents’ wedding anniversary!




We were sat at a fun table that was glass on top of a working foosball table.



It was fun, but I had to be careful not to sit too close or I could get a poke in my stomach! The girls especially had fun playing with the table while we ate. Not long after we were sat, our server brought out a champagne toast for my parents to celebrate their anniversary. That was a nice touch!



We decided to start with a pitcher of the Sangria de Lujo tinto. It said it was prepared tableside (but I thought they all were), and was “a bold, fruity red wine sangria with our recipe of spiced wine, gin, brandy, citrus.”



I really liked this Sangria, even better than the Rose Sangria we ordered last time. My MIL ordered a beer while the four of us split the sangria. It was more than enough for each of us, I was feeling the drink by the end of our meal!

We planned to order tapas a couple at a time until we got full. We started with the Pan con Tomate, an item we ordered in 2022, and all really liked (toasted slices of crispy bread brushed with fresh tomato).



The tomato was almost jelly-like on the bread. It was as good as we remembered, and we almost ordered a second serving of it. Two minutes later we received the Ensalada de aguacate y mojo verde “Spanish Diner” (avocado, mojo verde and goat cheese salad). This was a new dish for us, and it tasted as good as it looks.



My parents don’t like avocado or goat cheese, but Pat and I love both and DD9 really liked this salad too. The avocado had a salty flavor, I could have eaten a whole second plate of it. A few minutes later, they brought out the Jamon Serrano (24-month cured Serrano ham). We ordered two of these for the four meat eaters at the table.



They really enjoyed it! This was the only meat dish we ordered all night. When the ham arrived, we put in an order for the Tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelet with potato and onions).



This was another dish we had the previous year that we loved (all except for my dad, who does not like eggs). More to come in the next post.

 

[vamassey1]

Food looks fabulous. I need to add this to my list to try in the future.

I meant to ask you what you were reading? I just finished a Lisa Jewell book, "The Family Remains".

 

[suse66]

Do you have certain things you always put in the grocery order?

Yes for sure. I love Chobani greek yogurt and it's not available in Canada so I always order that for breakfast. I usually grab english muffins, bananas, blueberries, grapes, a small mixed veggie tray, hummus, milk for coffee, a 4 or 6 pack of beer, sparkling water, almonds and pretzel crackers. Plus I have a Brita pitcher in my Owner's Locker and a Brita refillable water bottle. I bring my own coffee as I am VERY fussy about coffee. I usually come back to the room in the afternoon for a break and I like to have poolside snacks.

Plus the prices at Disney are high and even worse with the Canadian exchange rate of 35%. So having groceries in the room for coffee, breakfast and snacks helps defray some of the cost.

 

[jrmint427]

Food looks fabulous. I need to add this to my list to try in the future.

I meant to ask you what you were reading? I just finished a Lisa Jewell book, "The Family Remains".

The food was so good, I hope you try it! I was reading None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell. It's her latest book I think, and it was my favorite I've read of hers! I've read the Family Upstairs but still need to read The Family Remains, it's on my TBR.

Yes for sure. I love Chobani greek yogurt and it's not available in Canada so I always order that for breakfast. I usually grab english muffins, bananas, blueberries, grapes, a small mixed veggie tray, hummus, milk for coffee, a 4 or 6 pack of beer, sparkling water, almonds and pretzel crackers. Plus I have a Brita pitcher in my Owner's Locker and a Brita refillable water bottle. I bring my own coffee as I am VERY fussy about coffee. I usually come back to the room in the afternoon for a break and I like to have poolside snacks.

That sounds like a great list! We were really glad to have breakfast items each day, and definitely nice to have some relatively inexpensive snacks on hand (especially with that exchange rate!).

 

[awrites]

Belatedly joining in!

Disney100 looks so fun! Wish we could head to Chicago or KC to see. :/

The Little Mermaid room looks awesome! I’ll have to put AoA on our potential resort list for whenever we make it back.

Looks like your trip is off to an awesome start despite the initial flight delay!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Jaleo looks awesome so far! Andi and Ilucked out a few years ago and dined during the magical dining in late summer and we had a 5 course meal for only $35.00! It was really delicious and such a great deal!
We had the white sangria and loved it!
Your pictures are making me want to return one of these trips!
Great start to your trip!

 

[vamassey1]

! I was reading None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell. It's her latest book I think, and it was my favorite I

I have added it to my "want to read" list. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[jrmint427]

Belatedly joining in!

Disney100 looks so fun! Wish we could head to Chicago or KC to see. :/

The Little Mermaid room looks awesome! I’ll have to put AoA on our potential resort list for whenever we make it back.

Looks like your trip is off to an awesome start despite the initial flight delay!

Thanks for joining in! Disney100 is supposed to travel around for the next ~4 years so hopefully it will come somewhere near you!

The LM room was great for us, our whole family loved the theming at the resort and in the rooms.

Jaleo looks awesome so far! Andi and Ilucked out a few years ago and dined during the magical dining in late summer and we had a 5 course meal for only $35.00! It was really delicious and such a great deal!
We had the white sangria and loved it!
Your pictures are making me want to return one of these trips!
Great start to your trip!

What was magical dining? That is an amazing deal!!

 

[jrmint427]

Jaleo, Part 2​

Continuing our meal at Jaleo... we still think the Spanish omelet is one of the best values. It’s larger/heavier than some of the other items and only $12. This was one of my favorite items both years.



I think we put in the kids’ meals at the same time as the omelet and they came out a few minutes later. We ordered the kids grilled cheese, served with “Jose’s chips” which were actually fried potatoes.



Jaleo’s grilled cheese is perfection. All of the adults (except my dad) tried the grilled cheese and agreed it is the best we’ve ever had. Even the kids remembered how good it was from two years ago! As you can see, it comes without crust. I asked what cheese they use, and they said it’s Manchego cheese with goat cheese sprinkled on top of it. We have to try to re-create this at home, but I know it will never be as good!

We all liked the kids’ fried potatoes, so we ordered the Patatas bravas (fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and alioli) to avoid eating the girls' entire meals ourselves.



The tomato sauce was a little too spicy for me, but I really liked the aioli sauce with the potatoes.

Finally, my parents ordered an Ensalada verde (mixed greens with tomatoes, onions and olives with sherry dressing). I somehow missed a picture of that one, but it was really good too, especially the olives. You can see a little of it leftover here with our mostly eaten food.



We thought about ordering more but we were all getting full and figured we’d find dessert somewhere in the area. We still weren’t sure if we were going to make it to Gideon’s (it wasn’t even 7:30pm just yet and our return time was estimated to be 9:10pm), but I knew there was ice cream nearby too, along with many other options.



Our server asked if we wanted to order dessert. I mentioned that we were on the waiting list for some cookies, so we were going to pass. He then surprised us by bringing out Flan with a candle and seven spoons for us all to share! Another sweet anniversary surprise for my parents.



The flan was “a classic Spanish custard with ‘espuma’ of Catalan cream.” Flan is not my favorite dessert, but I liked the sauce on it. The girls helped my parents finish it.

The bathroom at Jaleo is one of my favorite bathrooms, so I wanted to stop by before we left.



Overall, it was a great meal, and a special way to celebrate my parents’ anniversary. I asked everyone what their favorite dish was afterwards:

My dad: Tomato bread
My mom: Jamon serrano
Pat’s mom: Tomato bread
Pat: Jamon serrano, but the fried potatoes and green salad my parents ordered were also really good and he said the kids’ grilled cheese was “insane”
Me: Avocado salad followed closely by the Spanish omelet
DD9: Fried potatoes
DD7: Fried potatoes and flan

Jaleo is included in the meal plan, but it would have cost 2 credits each, and considering that would just be the tasting menu for two of us adults (and I don’t eat meat or seafood), we decided it made more sense to pay for this meal out of pocket. The total for all seven of us was $229.01 (including tax and tip), which was only $32.72 per person including drinks. I think that is a great value, especially for table service at Disney.

 

[suse66]

Jaleo is included in the meal plan, but it would have cost 2 credits each, and considering that would just be the tasting menu for two of us adults (and I don’t eat meat or seafood), we decided it made more sense to pay for this meal out of pocket. The total for all seven of us was $229.01 (including tax and tip), which was only $32.72 per person including drinks. I think that is a great value, especially for table service at Disney.

What a fantastic meal and an awesome way to celebrate your parents anniversary. I agree that it is excellent value for all the delicious food you enjoyed.

I have been wanting to try Jaleo for years but reading this report definitely puts it on the list!

 

[disneyAndi14]

What was magical dining? That is an amazing deal!!

It is a promotional dining event late summer in Orlando, a bunch of restaurants participate and you get a 3-5 course dinner around 35.00, it really is a great deal! Our pitcher of Sangria cost more than our meal, haha
I know you don’t eat meat but the chicken croquettes at Jaleo are out of this world delicious

 

[vamassey1]

Your review has really helped me to want to eat here. I know it won't make the cut for later this month but someday it will.

 

[jrmint427]

What a fantastic meal and an awesome way to celebrate your parents anniversary. I agree that it is excellent value for all the delicious food you enjoyed.

I have been wanting to try Jaleo for years but reading this report definitely puts it on the list!

I'm so glad to hear that! I hope you love it when you go

It is a promotional dining event late summer in Orlando, a bunch of restaurants participate and you get a 3-5 course dinner around 35.00, it really is a great deal! Our pitcher of Sangria cost more than our meal, haha
I know you don’t eat meat but the chicken croquettes at Jaleo are out of this world delicious

Oh that is awesome that Jaleo participated! We had something like that in our old city, it was always a fun way to try more expensive restaurants. That sounds like a great deal! I will recommend those chicken croquettes to the rest of our group next time

Your review has really helped me to want to eat here. I know it won't make the cut for later this month but someday it will.

I hope you try it sometime soon and enjoy it!

 

[jrmint427]

Gideon’s​

The M&M store is right across from Jaleo, and the girls were begging to go there after dinner. They pointed out that we had received 20% off coupons at the pop-up M&M stand before dinner and thought we should use those coupons. It’s a really colorful store!



We were only in there for three minutes before I got THE text: “Your moment is here!” It was 7:46pm and already our turn to get in line at Gideon’s! The predicted 190-minute wait only took about 100 minutes. DD9 didn’t want to leave the M&M store so soon, and we knew there would be a wait outside of Gideon’s, so my dad offered to go with me to wait in line while the rest of our group stayed behind a little longer.

Thankfully they weren’t too far behind us. Last time we waited 20-25 minutes outside, this evening we only waited about 8 minutes before we entered the store. The rest of our group caught up to us right before we were going inside. The art on the menu card is always so cute!




I reviewed the cookies and planned to order 7 together with my MIL: 2 original chocolate chip, 1 peanut butter chocolate swirl, 1 peanut butter crunch, 1 cookies & cream, 1 triple chocolate and 1 dark coffee cake cookie. We also decided to order a slice of cake and went with the Coffee Toffee Crunch Cake. I wanted a cold brew but knew I did not want the caffeine that evening. I asked the cashier if the cold brew would keep okay overnight and she said yes, but recommended I order it with no ice, which is what I did. I ordered the Peanut Butter Cold Brew. The vibe in the shop is half of the fun.



The girls remembered the shop and had fun looking around too.




Our total was $63.90, my MIL got these treats for us.



My parents ordered the peanut butter chocolate swirl, chocolate chip, dark coffee cake and triple chocolate. It was a successful trip for us!



Pat and I each snuck a drink of the cold brew while it was fresh, but I was really looking forward to this being my coffee the next morning! I tasted the peanut butter stronger in this one than the one we ordered two years ago.



I’ll share pictures of the cookies later when we broke into them. The PB swirl was my mom’s favorite, and the triple chocolate was my dad's. DD7 said her favorite was the PB swirl and DD9 said either the PB swirl or the original chocolate chip. I think the cookies & cream was my MIL's favorite. I can't decide between the dark coffee cake, triple chocolate or original chocolate chip cookies. Pat's favorite was also the PB swirl.

The cake was only okay. It hardened pretty quickly before we got to eat much of it, which was sad. I'll have to give their cakes another chance, but only if we can eat it fairly quickly. The cookies kept much longer. I cut what was left into bite-size pieces when we got home and still have some in our freezer.

 

[jrmint427]

Legos and Home​

The last thing the girls wanted to do was to check out the Lego store. We agreed that would be our last stop, and then we all needed to get to bed. However, as we came up on the store, we saw there was a long line wrapped all the way around the building outside. It’s hard to see in this dark picture, but this is what we walked up on:



Disney Springs was a zoo! We told the girls we could still look at the Legos outside and take a few pictures before we left.



Olaf was one of DD9’s two favorite characters from this trip and her favorite character meet, so it was fun she got to see his Lego statue.



As I mentioned before, we all really got into Star Wars ahead of this trip, so those were some of our favorite Lego statues.





And of course, I had to say a quick hello to this guy as soon as the crowd broke up enough for me to jump in.



Like all of Disney, I think Disney Springs is really pretty at night.



We headed back to our bus at 8:25pm. We had a really long walk, as the Art of Animation bus was all the way at the far end of the U-shaped bus area, so it was one of the longest walks. There was an AoA bus at the stop, but also a long line already when we arrived. We got to the front of the line but there wasn’t going to be room for us to get on. Another bus driver was waiting to switch out with the driver of the next bus that was coming and told us it was only going to be another three minutes or so, because his shift was starting then. Another family decided to get off the first bus because it was standing room only. They wanted to wait for a seat on the next one.

The driver was nice and chatted with us while we waited. He seemed to be a fan of the Disney parks too and mentioned that his girlfriend or wife also loved Disney and the fact that he worked for the company. I would too! The drivers took a couple of minutes to switch off when the next bus arrived, and we left Disney Springs at 8:53pm. We saw Epcot fireworks on both our drive back and the walk to our room, which I always find magical. We were back at our resort at 9:10pm and back to our room by 9:18pm.

We nibbled on a little of the original chocolate chip cookie while getting the girls ready for bed. We dug in before I thought to get a picture.



These are so good! Thanks to melatonin, the girls were asleep around 10:00pm and I was asleep not too long after. We had early morning plans to rope drop Epcot!

Steps: 11,677
Miles: 4.71
Stand Hours: 15

 

[Mollydolly334]

So glad you got into Gideons and got to pick out some treats!!!! And Jaleo looked so delicious- is it sad that for me, the most tempting item looked like the grilled cheese??

 

[SimplyGoofy]

The front desk recommended that we arrive 10-15 minutes early for the 5:00am shuttle so we showed up right at 4:45am… to find an over-packed lobby filled with so many people.

Yikes! You 100% made the right call to take an Uber, but that’s disappointing that you didn’t get to take advantage of the free shuttle. Still, getting to the airport at a reasonable time and having time to get breakfast is worth the Uber cost.

We made it to baggage claim at 1:00pm and… the belt was broken.

Oh goodness, what bad luck! I’m glad it didn’t take too long for it to get going again.

Their TV said Happy Anniversary!

That’s so sweet! Disney is great about celebrations - I’m glad your parents got a nice surprise thanks to your thinking ahead.

But we did get a laugh when the girls would talk about Ursula's butt every time we walked out to the stairs. She is impressive!

That’s great that your room requests worked out so well! Three close rooms (the ones you wanted, no less!) is no small feat!

I think it was the Touring Plans request that came through because they gave us the rooms we wanted on the floor I asked for (2nd floor), and I don't think I had even made a floor request through our TA.

I put in room requests through our DVC rental reservations, but perhaps I should add requests through Touring Plans as well! I’ve read the Disney folks can see both requests - with your experience perhaps it would be worth the effort.

I told him we were hoping to hear the music under the water in the Big Blue Pool, and he said they don’t play the music anymore! He wasn’t sure why, but I felt better about bailing after learning that.

What?! That’s so disappointing! I feel like the music is a main draw of the Big Blue Pool. I must admit it was something I was looking forward to if we stayed at AoA someday!

Pat called the front desk to ask if they could deliver the grocery order to our room while we were at dinner, and they said yes (they didn’t mention it on the phone, but I knew to expect the $6 charge for having our groceries delivered, and we left a tip, which was worth it to save us the time and hassle).

In the grand scheme of things, $6 is practically free at Disney World. And honestly, bell services delivering your groceries is worth it for the convenience.

The bathroom at Jaleo is one of my favorite bathrooms, so I wanted to stop by before we left.

That’s an amazing bathroom! Wow!

Your meal at Jalen looked delicious. Disney Springs is never a big draw for me, but there are a ton of delicious restaurants there.

Pat and I each snuck a drink of the cold brew while it was fresh, but I was really looking forward to this being my coffee the next morning!

That cold brew is one of the main reasons I’d love to visit Gideons. I’m thrilled your spot was called earlier than expected so you were able to get your treats!

And of course, I had to say a quick hello to this guy as soon as the crowd broke up enough for me to jump in.

I LOVE that LEGO statue! I think he’s been there for a long time - I love that at least a few things don’t change.

Despite your initial delays, you had a great travel day. I can’t wait to see how your first park day unfolds!

 

[awrites]

The cake was only okay. It hardened pretty quickly before we got to eat much of it, which was sad. I'll have to give their cakes another chance, but only if we can eat it fairly quickly. The cookies kept much longer. I cut what was left into bite-size pieces when we got home and still have some in our freezer.

You’re making me glad we passed on the cake at Gideon’s, since we didn’t eat any of our goodies right away either! Sorry it wasn’t that great.

Disney Springs was a zoo! We told the girls we could still look at the Legos outside and take a few pictures before we left.

Even the outside sculptures (builds?) are very cool! Glad you got to enjoy those, at least! My DH and DD4 are Lego fans so I’m sorry we missed the Lego store entirely on our DS day. Next time!!!

 

[jrmint427]

So glad you got into Gideons and got to pick out some treats!!!! And Jaleo looked so delicious- is it sad that for me, the most tempting item looked like the grilled cheese??

Not sad at all! It was seriously the best grilled cheese I've ever had (and I thought that both years we went). I would order that from the kids meal even if we didn't have kids with us!

Yikes! You 100% made the right call to take an Uber, but that’s disappointing that you didn’t get to take advantage of the free shuttle. Still, getting to the airport at a reasonable time and having time to get breakfast is worth the Uber cost.

I agree, it was worth reducing our stress to ensure we got to the airport early and had time for breakfast. Especially with the two-hour delay, we would have had some cranky family members (not just the kids) if we hadn't had time for coffee and breakfast.

I put in room requests through our DVC rental reservations, but perhaps I should add requests through Touring Plans as well! I’ve read the Disney folks can see both requests - with your experience perhaps it would be worth the effort.

I would try to put it in both places! Maybe that helped us too, submitting through different channels.

What?! That’s so disappointing! I feel like the music is a main draw of the Big Blue Pool. I must admit it was something I was looking forward to if we stayed at AoA someday!

I know! I was really bummed, but after we learned that, we didn't make a point to go back to the Big Blue Pool and never ended up swimming there. I hope they bring it back someday!

In the grand scheme of things, $6 is practically free at Disney World. And honestly, bell services delivering your groceries is worth it for the convenience.

You are so right, the $6 + tip was more than worth the convenience. I was surprised they didn't give Pat a heads up about the cost, but it was so nice to come home to our groceries already delivered that evening.

Your meal at Jalen looked delicious. Disney Springs is never a big draw for me, but there are a ton of delicious restaurants there.

There are so many restaurant options there! We love Jaleo and Homecomin' so those are our go-tos, but there are so many other restaurants I want to try there... eventually.

I LOVE that LEGO statue! I think he’s been there for a long time - I love that at least a few things don’t change.

Yes he has! I've been visiting him every trip since 2012 He might be one of the few things that hasn't changed since then!

You’re making me glad we passed on the cake at Gideon’s, since we didn’t eat any of our goodies right away either! Sorry it wasn’t that great.

That was a good call! I know for next time; it was a huge slice so have a big group to share and plan to eat it right away

Even the outside sculptures (builds?) are very cool! Glad you got to enjoy those, at least! My DH and DD4 are Lego fans so I’m sorry we missed the Lego store entirely on our DS day. Next time!!!

Yes, there are so many awesome sculptures/builds/statues (what do you call them??) outside the Lego store. They are really impressive. Definitely head that way next time!

 

[jrmint427]

Sunday, March 10, 2024 – Epcot​

Epcot Rope Drop / Remy​

I woke up at 4:30am. My alarm was set for 6:15am but since I was up, I went ahead and bought Genie Plus ($21 + tax per person = $156.59 for our group of 7). I wasn’t too worried about it selling out this week, so I did not stay up until midnight each night to buy it, but since I was awake, I figured I might as well get a head start. I couldn’t get back to sleep after that, probably due to excitement and anticipation for our day. But thanks to the time change (this was Daylight Savings AND we lost an hour going from CST to EST the prior day), 4:30am felt like 2:30am to my body.

At 7:00am (5:00am for me) I grabbed a LL for Frozen Ever After and got a 2:15-3:15pm return window. Our plan was to try to rope drop both Remy & FEA, and if we were successful, I was going to change this to something else with an earlier return time. However, as I’ll share later, it turned out to be a good thing we had the LL in our back pocket.

I also got an ILL for Guardians at 1:10-2:10pm. There were earlier times available but since only Pat, his mom and I were going to be riding, I knew we were going to want to target the afternoon, after we completed some rides with the whole family.

We left our room at 7:08am. Based on where we were staying, I had read we were better off walking around Hourglass Lake toward Pop first, since the line would form out on the Pop side of the lake. This turned out to be unnecessary this particular morning, because there was no line at all for the Skyliner! We wondered if it was because it was a Sunday morning (or because of Daylight Savings?), but a CM said they expected the line to get much longer in another 10 minutes or so.

I was nervous about riding the Skyliner because of the height and how it swayed, but as you might have guessed from the title of my trip report, we ended up loving the Skyliner! It was so quick and convenient. I took a blurry early morning photo on our way to Epcot.



You can see the sun was coming up as we glided toward Epcot, it was already much lighter when we soared over France and saw our rope drop destination – Remy’s!



It took us 19 minutes to get from Art of Animation to Epcot. We arrived at 7:37am for 8:30am early entry. I recognize that this means we basically spent an hour waiting for Remy, but it was an hour outside of park hours, which allowed us to maximize our time while the park was open. You can see how long the line was outside of the park when we arrived.



We packed pop tarts and breakfast bars, which I pulled out while we were waiting in line. We didn’t have to wait too long before we were moving; we were through security by 7:43am and walking into the park. We got held up at another waiting point for 15 minutes or so, and at 7:59am, they let us move further into the park. Each time we moved again, it was a bit of chaos as people tried to squeeze further ahead in the “line” and we did our best to keep our group together. This was the line they held us in from about 8:00-8:15am.



At 8:16am they let us move toward the Remy queue, and that is when a lot of people behind us started to run and elbow their way forward. I know the CMs discourage running, but as I’ve seen others mention too, I wish Disney had a system that would help the crowd to move forward in a safer way at rope drop. I noticed a few people had to drop out of the line to park their strollers, and I was thankful to be past that stage! It took us 7 minutes to get from that spot above to the entrance of the Remy queue due to the crowds.



We entered the queue at 8:23am and only waited 12 minutes; we were on the ride at 8:35am, just 5 minutes after early entry began! I considered that a rope drop success.




We were excited to be boarding our rats!




I was a little nervous because my dad gets motion sick easily and didn’t ride this on our last trip. But I sent him a POV video to watch in advance and he thought he could do this one with his wrist bands to help with motion sickness. I was worried when the rat started to turn in circles at times, but thankfully, he was fine. DD9 also does not like 3D rides, so she kept her glasses off the whole time. She said she could still watch the movie parts and loved the ride though!

Remy’s ended up being down 25% of this day and averaged a 122-minute wait time throughout the day, so I was glad we rope dropped this ride.