“What’s Next?” October 2016 WDW/Universal Studios Trip Report - Updated 2/15

[Roxyfire]

Welcome to my first Walt Disney World trip report! I recently got back from a 10 day trip that included 7 nights at WDW and 2 nights at Universal. I’m a single mom so of course I brought along my 10 year old son Dylan. Here's us:

During our trip, we stayed at Coronado Springs Resort in a Business Class room. We also had the Free Dining promotion. Even with an unwanted visit from Hurricane Matthew, we had a fantastic time and made a lot of great memories! So let's get to the (brief) introductions!


About Me:

I’m in my 30s and a single mom. I work in the technology world. I recently received my Master’s degree and have been with my current company for about 3 years. This was the first year in a very long time I was able to go on a vacation and this was the first big vacation I have been able to plan for us. So this was kind of a big deal to me! I went to Walt Disney World a few times as a kid, once when I was just a baby so clearly I don’t remember too much. But what I do remember was that we had an incredible time. I had never been to Universal Orlando and as a huge Harry Potter fan, I was ready to see Wizarding World in person. A few factoids...

Favorite ride: Haunted Mansion
Favorite (Disney) movie: The Little Mermaid
Favorite (Disney) character:
Favorite park: Magic Kingdom

About Dylan:

Dylan is 10 years old and loves everything Star Wars and Avengers. He’s a little small for his age so I love that we can come to Walt Disney World and he can ride everything! Dylan is big into video games and entertainment in general. He had been on sort of a whirlwind trip to Orlando a couple years ago and really enjoyed it even though he only had one day in the Magic Kingdom. I knew he’d like getting to see a lot more including all the star wars stuff! On to the factoids...

Favorite ride: Space Mountain
Favorite movie: Monster’s Inc
Favorite character: Goofy
Favorite park: Magic Kingdom

So let’s get this going! Next update, Day 1!

 

[Melissa_E]

Great beginning, can't wait to read more.

 

[Roxyfire]

Great beginning, can't wait to read more.

Thanks! I've finally gotten a chance to offload my pics so more posts incoming.

 

[Roxyfire]

Saturday, Day 1: “I’m not gonna let a little rain ruin my vacation!”

I will state right now that I am in no way, shape or form a morning person. I’m not a roll out of the bed and go get the day kind of gal. I’m more of a hit the snooze as long as possible type of person. However, on vacation, that does not apply at all. I’m not sure if I really slept at all that night but it didn’t matter, we were going to Disney World!

To start us off, we had an fairly early flight from Midway Airport near Chicago to Orlando and landed about noon. We go to Midway Airport pretty frequently as my son flies Southwest to visit his father. Normally, I park right next to the terminal since I have to check him in for unaccompanied minor status. But of course this time we were doing the long term parking. Between that and all the delays from early this summer I didn’t want to leave anything to chance so we got there early. Maybe a little too early but running late is not worth the stress. We were up and going at 5 am, gave the keys to my mom and headed out the door. She had agreed to keep an eye on my cat, the one in my user icon. Maybe one day I can convince her to come along too!

By 9:00 we were on the plane and ready for our adventure!

The flight was really smooth and they even had some cute little plane-shaped, cinnamon graham cracker cookies for the snack. Other than it felt like it took for-ever it was a good flight. At some point while we were in the air, I must have gotten the room assignment text and email. Once I turned my phone back on, it was right there waiting for me! My only request was a room ready early and I got it. We were getting so close!

I think we landed around 12:30 Florida time and since we had the magical yellow tags, we made our way directly to the Disney Magical Express desk. It was a looooong walk and of course we passed all the shops on the way. Since we weren’t going to stop into Kennedy Space Center, we stopped into their shop and I picked up a NASA t-shirt for my boyfriend. I kept the hat for myself since he’s not really a hat guy. Of course we had to take a photo with the Astronaut suit.

Once we got downstairs there was a huge line. I hadn’t even thought about that so already I was a little bummed. Would this be a sign for the coming week? Had I picked the worst time to go? Overall, the line took about an hour. As I overheard a guy near me say, “Not exactly what I’d call express…” But I realize maybe since it was around noon and a ton of travellers came in, patience is probably needed. After a lot of agonizing waiting and some tummy grumbles, we were on the bus and headed to Coronado Springs! It seemed to take forever between the anticipation and the hunger. But finally we saw that sign and we were officially there.

(not my picture, thanks Google!)

We headed to Pepper Market first since we were pretty hungry after all that waiting. I grabbed our mugs and paid for those. Success! Magic bands good to go. We picked up a couple sandwiches from the deli, some bottled juices for the room, and 2 orders of churros. I wasn’t the biggest fan of my sandwich, the Italian. But my son liked the turkey and bacon he got. The churros were really good and we snacked on the second container that night.

After lunch, my son was ready to get moving again. I gave him the option of hanging by the pool or going to Hollywood Studios. He chose the pool, so off we went. Since it was my birthday, I got myself a margarita while he swam a bit and found the waterslide.

I went with Margarita el Girasol, described on the website as: Tequila, Agave Nectar, Triple Sec, Sour Mix, Pineapple & Mango. It was really great tasting and they didn't go light on the good stuff either. While I was enjoying my drink, something must’ve happened in the pool because they closed it not long after Dylan got a couple turns on the waterslide. Since I guessed it was, ahem, biological in nature, I suggested we head over to Hollywood Studios to use those fastpasses and he totally agreed!

We rushed back to the room and he changed back into his clothes from earlier and we headed toward the bus stop. We had some monumental luck because as we walked up, a Hollywood Studios bus was pulling in. We ran for it, and hopped on. After what seemed to be only about 5 minutes we were walking up to the entrance! I couldn’t believe how close we were.

After a quick picture with the Chinese Theater in the background...

We headed toward the Tower of Terror! My son absolutely loves drop rides and I tolerate them. I knew the queue was full of cool details and theming so even if I didn’t want to ride it after all, I’d be able to see all the cool stuff. I was pretty nervous boarding the ride and the CMs being in character totally creeped me out (in a good way). But I’m so glad I went. The visuals were really cool and definitely made up for the falls.

After that, we headed toward Star Tours. We had a bit of time left so we stepped into the cool air and watched The Path of the Jedi. We’re both huge Star Wars fans so of course this was nothing new but it was nice to see the footage in a different way. I thought it was a nice summary for someone would might not be as familiar with Star Wars. After that, we took a peek at Jedi Training and of course he was excited to try it himself. I told him we’d get a chance to sign up later in the week, or so I planned…

Once we got to Star Tours, we had a quick run through the fastpass line and boarded our vessel. I’d never done this ride, and as a theme for most of the trip, I found I didn’t remember many rides except Splash Mountain, the teacups, and some other rides/experiences that are now sadly gone. But it was a great time and very immersive. The Jakku scene was cool and I’m glad we got a chance to see it before they put it as a random scene. The vehicle reminded me a lot of Body Wars from back in the day. I wonder if it's similar or based on that.

After that we had about an hour and half until our Rock N’ Rollercoaster fastpass so we grabbed a snack from Backlot Express, the cherry slushy. This was a total miss unfortunately. Dylan thought it tasted like medicine so I ended up trying to drink it. Not my favorite, nor worthy of an iPhone bohek photo. By this point, storm clouds were forming so we booked it toward The Great Movie Ride while I tried to choke down my cough syrup flavored drink. Hey, at least it was cold…

We waited about 20 minutes in standby for Great Movie Ride, which I’m sure is not quite ideal but considering the rain started soon after we got in line, I felt like it was a good move. I just wasn't sure what we’d do after we left. All told, it was a really fun ride. I don’t know if I have ever been on this one, and if I had they probably changed it a lot anyway. Even Dylan thought it was kinda fun. My only complaint is that I had a hard time understanding the CMs who were speaking since my hearing isn’t so great. Once we got out, it was full on pouring and my Dark Sky app predicted it would for a while. Because Dylan basically said "I'm not going to let a little rain ruin our vacation!" I figured we should probably just buy some ponchos. So we dashed over to a shop and bought a couple. Which happened to be one of the better purchases for the week. We used those things a lot! After that little side trip it was time for our RnRC fastpass.

All I can say is, what a great coaster. As a teenager I loved Aerosmith so the music is all familiar to me. The first push surprised me a lot but after that it was a great experience. It did seem pretty short in comparison to some other coasters I'd been on, but still great, especially when using a fastpass. As we left the building, rain was still pouring down so we decided to leave the park, as did just about everyone else. I think they either delayed or cancelled the Star Wars Spectacular that night but I couldn't hear the announcement all that well. So, we headed back to CSR to try out the Business Class Lounge and hang out in the room. While it was still pretty early, I wanted to get plenty of rest ahead of our rope drop morning.

 

[Roxyfire]

Sunday, Day 2, Part 1: “First Stop, Space Mountain!”

Got up early to rope drop Magic Kingdom. Due to our extreme excitement we were both up and getting ready at 5:30 am. Which is definitely in bizarro-world territory for me. By 6 we were wandering toward CSR’s food court to see if they were open yet, which they weren’t. Oh, I forgot to mention I put in a small order to Amazon Now and tried to get it on Saturday. They couldn’t find it at the front desk so I checked with Bell Services early Sunday morning. The CMs at that desk told me to try the luggage room near the RAC. WIth a bit of waiting came success, they had my stuff! It was just some basic stuff I had forgotten and some SmartWater. But in case anyone wanted to know, that’s where they deliver Amazon Now at CSR, also no fee which is pretty neat.

Anyway, after that predawn side adventure, we went toward Pepper Market to see that it wasn’t open quite yet but Rix Cafe was. It’s a little grab and go area close to Pepper Market. They had the refillable mug stations, regular coffee, and hot chocolate so we were in luck. We then tried to grab some Pokemon on our way back to the room and the Coconino Cove lounge for a bit of breakfast. They had yogurt, milk, coffee, bagels, and muffins. I went for coffee and muffins. Dylan grabbed a bagel and milk.

After a quick meal we headed to the bus stop. I fully expected it to be super busy since we were heading to Magic Kingdom for rope drop. But, it really wasn’t. A bus pulled right up just about a minute after we walked up: Great bus karma! And we found seats, so not bad all in all. The ride was longer than I expected but we still made it to the parks around 8:15, I think. Still pretty early and we were close to the front of the pack.

I had set up a few custom touring plan to make it easier to hit all the necessary rides and “stay on task” if you want to put it that way. My son has ADHD and this helps him a lot and takes the arguing out of the equation. I already generally knew where we’d go and built in some time but the plans tended to work out really well. He was always asking “What’s next!” after each one, thus the title. It’s also a little fun because I’m such a fan of the West Wing and of course President Barlet asks that famous question a time or two. But anyway, after waiting at the entrance, we found a newly opened up tapstile, just as recommended, sorta watched the Welcome Show from the right side, and made our way to Space Mountain. When I was a kid, I remember wanting to go on this coaster but I was told it was closed that day. Whether true or untrue, it was open and we went twice in a row! Way better than the 75 minute line my son stood in a couple summers before. Mama don’t play around!

After that, we went through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, all the while crossing our progress off the list. We hit some of the rides that can build annoying lines through the day, such as Buzz Lightyear, Astro Orbiter, and Tomorrowland Speedway. We of course had to do the teacups and Dylan tolerated the Little Mermaid, which he said was actually pretty cool. Peter Pan was our first fastpass, right before lunch. Such a cool ride, makes me want to watch the movie again soon!

Up next in Part 2, I’ll go through our lunch at Be Our Guest and afternoon experiences.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Off to a good start, I travel with my daughter to WDW a lot, we always have a fun time. We have only stayed one night at CSR but we did like it. Love getting to MK at RD, you can really get many rides in before the lines start building. We also love PP and BOG so excited to hear about your experience.

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in too! I had to do a double take at your TR title (I'm so old that USO meant something else lol). We still haven't visit Universal Studios Orlando or even Hollywood which is closer to where we live so anxious to see how you and your son liked it. It's great using touring plans to help plan out the day - definitely saves on unnecessary walking back and forth across the park.

 

[Roxyfire]

Off to a good start, I travel with my daughter to WDW a lot, we always have a fun time. We have only stayed one night at CSR but we did like it. Love getting to MK at RD, you can really get many rides in before the lines start building. We also love PP and BOG so excited to hear about your experience.

It was pretty successful overall! I was shocked how easily my body let me wake up that early! CSR is really beautiful early in the morning and at night as well!

Joining in too! I had to do a double take at your TR title (I'm so old that USO meant something else lol). We still haven't visit Universal Studios Orlando or even Hollywood which is closer to where we live so anxious to see how you and your son liked it. It's great using touring plans to help plan out the day - definitely saves on unnecessary walking back and forth across the park.

Haha yeah I tended to think of it's real meaning at first as well! I've assimilated into DISBoard speak now! Universal is so fun and I wish I had researched their map just a bit better to guard against the extra walking.

 

[Roxyfire]

Day 2, Part 2: “Pick Me, Pick Me!”

Whew, it's been a busy week or so and I completely forgot about my updates! Also, Photobucket kept bugging out on my so I had to reupload everything to Flickr and relearn that platform. It's so frustrating! But, anyway here we are again ready to talk about Lunch and Afternoon at the Magic Kingdom. After Peter Pan we shopped a bit until it was time for lunch. I had put off buying a misting fan and totally regretted it. Man, it was super hot out there! So we ended up buying one of the Disney Parks fans. The battery wasn’t great but the water mist really helped. I wish it wasn’t as bulky so we could’ve used it more. Anyway, as we were checking out my son saw these:

​

sitting on the counter next to the register and asked “What are those things for???” Then, I had to explain how in my day we didn’t have phones with cameras...Kids these days, am I right? If anything I don’t miss those old film cameras at all. Now I know right away how bad my photos are!

Then we scurried along toward the Beast’s Castle for some lunch. We were a bit early but considering we would be having a big dinner, I was hoping we’d get our food on time or a little early. At least they let us in almost right away! Being the weirdo that I am, I preordered it two weeks ahead of time. That definitely did help us get through the line faster. I got the Slow Roasted Pork and Dylan got the Ham Sandwich, without the sauce. Here's a composite photo of our lunch:

Be Our Guest Lunch
​

For dessert, I had to have the master’s cupcake. Since Dylan isn’t a huge dessert fan, he went with the chocolate cream puff basically so I could try it. Nice guy, right?

Due to his medication he doesn’t have a super great appetite but he did enjoy the ham sandwich. I let him try some of mine and he actually liked it a bit more, even the green beans. It seemed like a pretty manageable portion so I think I’ll get that for him next time. The ham sandwich was pretty good too, and I can’t resist fries no matter what. I’m a casual home baker so I’m usually disappointed by most restaurant desserts. However, in this case, the Master’s Cupcake was pretty amazing. The chocolate was so incredibly flavorful and the cake was so moist. The frosting, of course, is just a cookies and cream but the texture was great. The cream puff, was alright. The pastry was good but I wasn’t a fan of the chocolate inside. Bummer, I wish I had tried the strawberry cupcake instead. There’s always next time, I guess!

After lunch we were headed toward our second Fastpass: Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We had walked past it a couple times and Dylan looked keen to give it a try. Now, I have to say he’s a thrill junkie. We go to Six Flags quite a lot on season passes and he rides every coaster there that he can. The only reason he hasn’t ridden stuff like Raging Bull or X-Flight is that he's not quite tall enough. So, after reading these boards and knowing it was kinda tame I figured he would be disappointed but who cares right, it’s just an average rollercoaster. So I didn’t say anything about it being super exciting, just that it looks cute and fun. After a quick wait in the FP+ line (standby was super long unfortunately for them) we got on. One, he was so impressed with how much time we saved doing fastpass so I think he was must more trusting of the process and the plan at that point. Two, he loved the ride. I know a lot of people on the DIS really rag on this coaster but it’s fun! He liked it so much we ended up riding it a couple more times later in the week.

Our third fastpass was Space Mountain at 3:30 (shocking right?) just in case we wouldn’t make rope drop for some reason. I think it's safe to say Space Mountain was really a big favorite. And nothing like walking on super quickly. Since we had a couple of hours at this point we just wandered around a bit. We hit Philharmagic, which was fun, bought some r2d2 ears, and went over to check out the Muppets History show since that was starting that day. There were tons of people lined up watching it. I’m not sure if they do different stories but we ended up seeing a story about Paul Revere twice during our stay.

Great Moments in History featuring the Muppets
​

We also started up a game of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom to burn a little time when some of the lines were longer. Dylan really enjoyed starting this game up and trying to find the different portals. And as a pokemon player I think collecting different cards and opening blind packs was fun for him too.

After our third and final fastpass at Space Mountain, we had time for one more attraction: Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor. I’m sure it’s not most people’s favorite but this was really fun for having very little wait and inside in the air conditioning. My son had seen it before and loves being the joker and center of attention so he tried his best to get picked to participate. Basically he was almost standing on his chair, shoving his hand in the air as high as it would go. Well, as his luck would have it, or maybe some pity, they picked him to be the little monster guy’s assistant and he did very well. All in all, very cute. He wanted to do it again right away but I was somehow getting hungry.

And with my grumbling tummy, it was time to head out for dinner. We exited the Magic Kingdom jumped on that hype-monorail straight to ‘Ohana. I’ll keep it brief since most people are experienced with ‘Ohana but I wanted to give a few notes:

First, our reservation was at 4:30 and we were seated almost right away. They gave us a pager but we really didn’t need it. It went off like 5 minutes after they gave it to us. Second, the waiter was attentive and polite, often refilling our drinks and making sure we had enough food. He also offered to bring my son some kids food and he declined but was glad for the option. Lastly, I did notice was that even though no reservations were available there were a lot of empty seats. I was pretty surprised by this as I’m sure others had booked free dining to start on Sept 30th/Oct 1st as well. It was nice that it wasn’t busy at all.

At any rate, the food was terrific, though the salad dressing wasn’t my thing. Overall the salad didn’t look wilted or anything it just didn’t taste good to me. In the future I think I’d probably just say no salad rather than waste the food. The meat was all great, the shrimp a little annoying to peel while warm. The potstickers, sauces, and bread pudding were the total standouts for me. My son loved the noodles, wings, and steak the best. Here's a composite photo of (some) of our dinner. Basically when I remembered to take a photo!

'Ohana Dinner​

Basically it was everything I thought it would be and more. We will definitely return next time. After dinner, we walked around the Great Ceremonial House and the resort a little bit. We really fell in love with the resort right there. Coronado Springs was great but the Polynesian seemed head and shoulders above. Of course ever since then, my son has been bugging me to book the Poly as our next resort, but we will get to that later on...

After that we headed back to the Magic Kingdom via Monorail to find a bus back to Coronado. We watched as lots of people with great costumes streamed out of their buses into the park for the night. The unfortunate bit was we waited quite a while. I assume we had just missed a bus when we walked up as we were the second family in line. It was close to 6:30 at this point and the bus went around each stop at Coronado picking up more and more party goers. The skies were looking a bit cloudy and I think it did rain quite a bit that night. I hope they were able to see the fireworks and parades. Once we got off the bus, a quick walk back to the room and I decided to take the time and book a bounceback reservation right then: Free Dining at POR.

With that sqaured away, we headed toward the pool. I'm pretty sure they were showing a movie but I never really noticed which one it was. After a night of swimming, drinks in the lounge, and a bit of online homework (meanest mom ever!) we got some much needed rest.

In the next update, I’ll write about our Epcot breakfast and morning experiences.

 

[pattyw]

Nice report so far! I love your cat! We used to have an all white cat- Sammy ( he passed quite a few years ago and I still miss him!) I love reading trip reports but I've never done one yet. I hope to! We were at Universal Sept 21-25- can't wait to hear about your experience there! We love WDW but Universal is starting to really grow on us!

 

[Roxyfire]

It's been a while since I updated but, better late that never right? I'm cuddled up on the couch with that girl on the left, watching some Fixer Upper (love them so much!), and drinking some decaf. Now, where were we? Oh right...

Monday, Day 3: “Where’s that Epcot bus?”

This was another early day with a pre-park-opening reservation at Garden Grill. After grabbing a bus quickly the previous day, I didn’t feel the need to get out there as early as recommended to get the bus. I did quickly regret this as it was about 7:15 and still no bus in sight! Our great bus luck had been put on hold as we saw a couple of every bus except the one we needed. At 7:30, the Epcot bus rolled up and we were on our way. I was always nervous about being the last bus stop before heading off to the parks. There’s always those horror stories about people crowding the bus, leaving nowhere to sit. But that wasn’t the case at all that early.

We had a nice ride with some families heading to Akershus which I really can’t spell or pronounce. Once we got there, we waited to get in so all was not lost, we’d make it to breakfast and Soarin’ on time! We had quite a hike toward and land and I was glad to see a few people ahead of us to lead the way. We waited only a few minutes before being seated and got some drinks, POG Juice and Coffee. I was so glad she was willing to bring me both!



In just a few minutes we got the Sticky Bun Bake and fruit salad, both very fresh and delicious. We mainly picked out the strawberries and I saved some other fruits back for my waffles. The main course was set out only a few minutes later. I got a little bit of everything except the eggs, I’m not a huge fan of plain scrambled eggs. My son tried some too and they were a little runny so he wasn’t a fan. But he loved the ham, bacon, and waffles. I jazzed up a waffle with the nutella and fruit and it was wonderful. The nutella even tasted great on the sticky bun bake as well.

The characters came around rather quickly and they signed for us and took photos. Pluto was able to make it around twice! We got in and out of there in about 45 mins total without really feeling rushed. Overall, it was also a great meal with fun character interaction. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but they were playful with my son and loved signing his autograph book. I was totally surprised my son even wanted to meet characters but it ended up being a pretty big highlight. It’s definitely on my list to do again. I’m not sure we’d rope drop it again, it was advantageous for sure but I can see pushing it back toward the last seating as well.

After Garden Grill, we headed downstairs and ended up being first in line for the day for Soarin, which was really fun. It was cool being in the glider on the top row. Next was really just a rapid fire of experiences: Baymax, Mickey Character Spot, and the Seas with Nemo. Afterward, we went to Turtle Talk and Crush talked to my son first, which he loved. The interaction there was fun and on the “try again” list as well. We had some time before our first fastpass at Spaceship Earth so we looked around the various aquariums. After a pitstop at Starbucks, we were ready to venture inside everyone’s favorite oversized golf ball.

Spaceship Earth was very amazing and informational and not dull at all. I loved the smell of the fire burning the best. I wish I had gone back a second time to better digest the information and scenes. After that were our other two fastpasses, Mission Space: Orange and Test Track. I gotta say, I was pretty nervous about getting sick on Mission Space but it went well and felt really cool. We walked around a bit, built a lightsaber, and watched the fountains until it was time for Test Track.

Test Track was ok. Dylan enjoyed the car building and testing aspect of it, but I don’t think we’d do that part again. It seemed to take forever and didn’t really do anything, of course. The ride was fun, but not really my thing. Way too jerky and uncomfortable. Not on my list of favorites at all. I think I’d go once with him next time but he can do single rider line after that. After our third fastpass, I was looking to find something, else, possibly another chance at Soarin’ late in the day. Instead, I found 2 fastpasses for Frozen Ever After at 7:40. Jackpot! I gave Dylan the bad news and he took it well. He could tolerate a bit of Frozen just for me, right? I guess so!

In part 2, we’ll go through our afternoon and evening in the World Showcase and dinner at Via Napoli.

 

[ArielSRL]

Joining in. I'll go back to read later tonight or this weekend!

 

[gracer9977]

Joining

 

[Roxyfire]

Joining in. I'll go back to read later tonight or this weekend!

I guess I should get back on the ball!

Joining

Thanks for joining in!

 

[ArielSRL]

I guess I should get back on the ball!



Thanks for joining in!

You know, I have to get to know one of my fellow June travelers!

 

[Roxyfire]

Monday Day 3, Part 2: “Let’s go to Japan!”

After the morning fastpasses I left a pretty big space to reride or explore the world showcase. Dylan wanted to go on Mission Space Orange again and since the line was pretty much non-existent, I said go for it. I waited in the games area and once he came out he played while I rested my feet and called my mom. She was increasingly concerned about the hurricane but I told her it wasn’t worth it to worry because we won’t know until it gets closer. We all know how that went, but at the time, it was anyone's guess!

After about 30 minutes of burning off some energy, we stopped over in the F&W Festival Center to see what was in there. I tried the Apple Pie cider, which was pretty good, and dylan had a brownie which also hit the spot. They were doing a live demo of some kind but we weren’t terribly interested in that and headed off toward the World Showcase instead. Along the path, we came across a cast member signing people up for the Agent P game. I steered Dylan right for it. He loves Phineas and Ferb so I figured he would at least enjoy finding some clues. We went toward Mexico first. After a quick encounter with some Vikings, we made it to the Mexico pavilion to rescue Perry the Platypus. The clues here were very well done, and the ride in the pavilion was fun albeit a little random. I loved riding the boat super close to the pyramid and drifting by and people had their dinner. It must be nice to eat in there as well. Seemed like great ambiance.

After Mexico, we headed toward Japan to try the clues there. After a pitstop to get a blue raspberry slushy, and a Pineapple sake for me, we soldiered on to see what else that Platypus had gotten up to. And maybe look at some Pokemon merch. As expected, we spent a decent amount of time exploring the pavilion to work on the clues and see what was in the shop. Thanks to some other DISers, I knew there wasn’t really anything special Pokemon wise there. Plus really didn’t want to lug extra things back home when we could just go to Toys R Us instead.

After finishing up the set of clues in the Japan pavilion, we headed towards our dinner reservation at Via Napoli. We were pretty starved by this point so we tried to check in a little early. I’m glad we tried because there were quite a few groups ahead of us trying to check in. They were still very polite and didn’t take long to seat us, only a few minutes. The restaurant smelled wonderful and I was really hungry. I was ready to get a sangria and pizza! Our waiter came over after a few agonizing minutes, explained their dining plan policy, and took our order. One Margherita Pizza for Dylan and Pepperoni for me. The sangria was nice and refreshing after a warm afternoon running around the world showcase.

The pizza came out fairly quickly and it was so so so good. I’ve been to Italy a few times and loved the pizza there as well. I think people go into it thinking it’ll be just like their local place and it’s totally not. Italians put less cheese and toppings and use a wood fired oven so there can be some darker spots on the crust. In my opinion, both were cooked perfectly and tasted wonderful. It really took me back! Dylan didn’t care too much for the basil but I thought it tasted great. For dessert I had to get the tiramisu and Dylan got the vanilla gelato. I also got a coffee to go with my coffee dessert. It’s only fitting...

This was one of the meals and restaurants I was most looking forward to and was not at all disappointed. Overall the whole meal and experience was very good. The wait staff was attentive and polite, but not chatty. This was not out of the ordinary for Italians, but I can see how it would be offputting for some. Yet another hit on the restaurant list and we will be back next time. After dinner it was getting close to our Frozen Ever After fast pass! I was so excited but Dylan was much less enthusiastic. We got into the line and noticed a rather upset woman talking to a cast member. The wait time was over 100 minutes and she seemed rather frustrated. I don’t blame her, especially since she seemed to have a couple of little girls with her. I wouldn’t wait for that but I also wouldn’t take it out on the front line cast member either.

Once we got into the line a little further it was still a pretty hefty wait, even for fast pass. I had the chance to refresh the MDE app and look for another fastpass. I snagged a 7:45 to 8:45 Soarin’ on the way toward the front of the line. Once we got up there, we had been slowly moving for about 20 minutes then the ride seemed to be having trouble.They let several boats go through empty before boarding the next one. We also ended up sitting in a row all by ourselves when we could’ve fit another 2 with us. Perhaps they need to manage the seats a little better too. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to wait in standby for this one.

I don’t think I ever rode the old Maelstrom ride so I didn’t know what to expect. The sets inside were beautiful and the animatronics really amazing. I knew they projected the faces onto the characters but it was still difficult to remember that. They really looked very real. Olaf was a highlight. The ice palace window could’ve had a bit more depth. I had no idea there would be a drop and it was a great, Dylan seemed to love that part. I think he appreciated the presence of Olaf, Kristof, and Sven. I’d definitely ride it again, but only with a fastpass or very late in the evening.

We headed toward the front for our last ride of the night, Soarin’. I asked Dylan if wanted to duck back over for Illuminations but he said no, he wanted to get back and try to hang out in the lounge for a few minutes. So after our repeat ride, this time on the bottom left, we went back toward the bus stop. All in all, a pretty productive day! A couple misses on not really exploring the world showcase too much and not getting to see Living with the Land but we can try again next time.

In my next update, we will be going back to Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!

 

[Roxyfire]

Updated just now to include a pic from Garden Grill!

 

[ArielSRL]

I finally made it back over here!

I recently received my Master’s degree

Congrats!

This was the first year in a very long time I was able to go on a vacation and this was the first big vacation I have been able to plan for us. So this was kind of a big deal to me!

Way to go, Mom!

I went to Walt Disney World a few times as a kid, once when I was just a baby so clearly I don’t remember too much. But what I do remember was that we had an incredible time.

Same experiences here!

I had never been to Universal Orlando and as a huge Harry Potter fan, I was ready to see Wizarding World in person.

I need to do this one day...but I'm waiting on my kids to get a tad older.

Dylan is 10 years old and loves everything Star Wars

Cannot wait for my boys to get into Star Wars. Dh and I are big fans.

I’m not sure if I really slept at all that night but it didn’t matter, we were going to Disney World!

Perfectly normal for the night before Disney!

Maybe a little too early but running late is not worth the stress.

Smart move!

By 9:00 we were on the plane and ready for our adventure!

Wahoo!

Overall, the line took about an hour.

Whoa....that's a long time!

He chose the pool, so off we went.

Isn't funny how they will pick the pool over a park???

Since it was my birthday, I got myself a margarita while he swam a bit and found the waterslide.

Well deserved!

I went with Margarita el Girasol, described on the website as: Tequila, Agave Nectar, Triple Sec, Sour Mix, Pineapple & Mango.

Sounds yummy!

Okay, I had to stop...but I'll be back to catch up later!