A go with the flow trip! Yes. It can be done!

[bas71873]

Checking out of POFQ this morning after a near perfect mother/daughter week. If anyone has any questions, ask away while it’s fresh in my mind! We were POFQ, building 7, corner room 7223.

It’s different doing Disney with a 19yo vs. little kids and I’ll take the older all day long. I had not been to Disney in about 9 years (prior to that we came a lot). DD came summer 2021 with her bestie after graduation. So we have been there done that with all the “scheduling” of character dining & rides. This trip was just to take in all the “holiday” and for DD to spend time with her bestie who is working down here in the college program.

We flew in late Sunday night and stayed at the Hyatt in the airport. EASY! Then took a Lyft from MCO to POFQ and when we got to POFQ Monday morning around 830/900, our room was ready. We didn’t even go to the front desk! Our grocery delivery was ready so I called bell services and they delivered it quickly. We unpacked and got settled, checked out the resort grounds and then headed over to Disney Springs for the day!

My intent was a go with the flow trip and we did just that. We did 1 day at each park, NO hoppers. We did NOT do the Genie+ ride reservations, I just refused to spend money for that, and honestly, we didn’t need it. The ONLY park I even looked at Genie for consideration was HS, but we ended up doing everything we wanted to do just waiting in line. We never waited in a line more than an hour (I just checked the app for wait times and we would circle back when needed), so we were OK with that and the only rides we waited that long for were Slinky Dog at HS, Safari at AK and 7 Dwarves Mine Train at MK. Most of the wait times were inflated by about 10 to 15 minutes we found. Especially at MK!

We did take advantage of the early morning hours at AK & HS and that was super helpful. At AK we hit the Pandora ride first. At HS we hit Tower of Terror first. We weren’t going to do Fantasmic, but we got off RNRC for the fourth time that day and walked right in for the 7:30 show. Plenty of seating left!

We did MK on our MVMCP party day…slept in, got over to MK around 10 and then dodged the rain and storms until about 4:00. The BEST $10 I spent all week was on a locker at MK. The forecast was YUCK and I knew it was so I had thrown our raincoats in last minute. We took those, dry socks & sweatshirts and a few ponchos I had from home and when we got to MK we put it all in a locker and wore our raincoats during the day and we dodged some hard rain off and on for hours. We popped into Tony’s at 3:00 and grabbed lunch/dinner before the party and when we came out, the rain had stopped. We hit the lockers, changed socks, put the raincoats in and the sweatshirts on and headed over to Tomorrowland to get our party bands. I had ponchos in my bag and it did spit rain off and off during the party, but never enough or long enough to even get the ponchos out.

I did make a CP dining package for Epcot on Friday. And let me tell you, Epcot was my favorite day of the week. The girls wanted girl time, so I had the whole day all to myself and I LOVED IT!!!!! I wandered the world, listened to all the Epcot Storeytellers with the stories of Christmas, rode what I wanted to ride, wandered through the shops, ate, people watched. It was great!!! We met at Coral Reef at 4:15 for our CP dinner and then headed to the 7:00 show. It was beautiful. So glad I got to see it!

Crowds were manageable, even at the Cmas party. I noticed lots of service dogs. I mean a lot! All cute and wearing their Disney ears! Double strollers are hard to maneuver around (and seemed difficult for those doing the maneuvering!). We only had our room serviced twice and they didn’t do much. Trash, towels and coffee station refills. Not a big deal with only two of us and I just made the beds myself every morning. People were friendly, including cast members. The bathrooms weren’t as attended too as I remember them being. Mobile ordering is awesome!

POFQ is just beautiful. The boat to DS is relaxing. The busses were never an issue. We never waited long for a bus at all…coming nor going. Grocery delivery by Dumpling (Michelle) was great. We ate breakfast in the room and had park snacks to take. Mobile ordering was easy when we wanted to grab a bite to eat. Dole whips, churros and beignets were had! So thankful we had this trip.

 

[loves to dive]

Glad you had a good trip. We are a go with the flow family, have always done it, even when FP+ was around we didn't use it. We don't like being tied to ADRs or having to be anywhere at a certain time. Disclaimer, we have been going since 1983 when my son was just shy of 3. At least every other year up until about 10 years ago when I started going every year, he stuck to every other year until about 5 years ago when he started going at least once a year. There are some years I've been able to fit 2 or 3 trips in, some only one. We do always have park hoppers, I've had an AP on and off through the years as well. Even with having to make park reservations and 2 pm park hopping we find it pretty easy to go with the flow. I've been twice since Genie+ came into being and have not bought it either time. Like ya'll if we want to ride a ride, we just stand in line. I rarely even look at the app for wait times, we just wander around and if a ride is one we want to ride, we hop in line. Since I am able to hop, I usually do a different park in the afternoon/night after going back to the resort for some pool/rest time. We never make ADRs in advance, I've never had a problem finding somewhere to get an ADR day of, it might not be the "must do" restaurant and it might be in another park or at a resort or at an earlier or later time, but we always get one if we want one. Most of the time there is a festival at Epcot so we do a lot of our afternoon/evening meals just snacking around booths and supplement that with ADRs and lounges (Nomad Lounge and HBD Lounge are almost must dos for us).

 

[bas71873]

Glad you had a good trip. We are a go with the flow family, have always done it, even when FP+ was around we didn't use it. We don't like being tied to ADRs or having to be anywhere at a certain time. Disclaimer, we have been going since 1983 when my son was just shy of 3. At least every other year up until about 10 years ago when I started going every year, he stuck to every other year until about 5 years ago when he started going at least once a year. There are some years I've been able to fit 2 or 3 trips in, some only one. We do always have park hoppers, I've had an AP on and off through the years as well. Even with having to make park reservations and 2 pm park hopping we find it pretty easy to go with the flow. I've been twice since Genie+ came into being and have not bought it either time. Like ya'll if we want to ride a ride, we just stand in line. I rarely even look at the app for wait times, we just wander around and if a ride is one we want to ride, we hop in line. Since I am able to hop, I usually do a different park in the afternoon/night after going back to the resort for some pool/rest time. We never make ADRs in advance, I've never had a problem finding somewhere to get an ADR day of, it might not be the "must do" restaurant and it might be in another park or at a resort or at an earlier or later time, but we always get one if we want one. Most of the time there is a festival at Epcot so we do a lot of our afternoon/evening meals just snacking around booths and supplement that with ADRs and lounges (Nomad Lounge and HBD Lounge are almost must dos for us).

YES!!! We did a lot of snacking in lieu of actually sitting down and eating too! This will be our last Disney trip for a while….probably ‘til I’m a grandma. My husband hates Disney, doesn’t come with us anymore, and we are ready to do other things, but I’m thankful we squeezed in a holiday time trip. It’s been on the bucket list!

 

[loves to dive]

YES!!! We did a lot of snacking in lieu of actually sitting down and eating too! This will be our last Disney trip for a while….probably ‘til I’m a grandma. My husband hates Disney, doesn’t come with us anymore, and we are ready to do other things, but I’m thankful we squeezed in a holiday time trip. It’s been on the bucket list!

My hubby doesn't do disney. I either go solo or my son and now his family come with me. Hubby and I go out in our RV every now and again. He doesn't like to travel and prefers to eat at home. Pulling our own little house behind us works for him and I actually like going places solo.