DisneyNewbie76
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2016
First of all, a little background to this trip as it ended up being put together in about 3-4 weeks:
On December 3rdI got a mailer from Sheraton for a discounted stay at Vistana Villages provided we sit through a 90 minute Vacation Club type presentation. My wife called that same day we got the letter and found out Christmas week was still available for a very decent price. We booked it that night, and in the next week also found cheap rates for a rental car, and what I felt was relatively cheap airfare for that time of year. (We live in NY.) We were flying in on Christmas Day and flying out that Saturday evening. We also purchased our tickets (3 day Park Hopper) through the Discount Ticket Broker at the Sheraton, who would refund us $200 on the ticket price at checkout and completion of the sales presentation. (My family consists of myself, my wife, and our 8 year old daughter. This was going to be our third trip to Disney, but the first to include anything but the Magic Kingdom as our earlier trips were just 1 day trips.)
Day 1:
12/25/2018…Flew out of LaGuardia on Delta. Landed at MCO around 10:30 am. Picked up the rental car and drove straight to the hotel to see if any rooms were available. They were not, so we changed in to shorts and t-shirts and drove over to Disney Springs. Back in NYC I bought my daughter a Pin Trading Starter Set and a few extra pins so when we got to Disney I could introduce myself and my daughter to the (what I found out would be) expensive hobby of Pin Trading. The first store we hit up was World of Disney and my daughter went straight for the first CM she saw with a lanyard. No pictures were taken but much to my surprise the first pin she traded for was gone two trades later. (I guess my daughter has no sense of sentimentality.) We ended up walking around all of Disney Springs, which for that time of year felt to us like a heavy shopping day at Woodbury Commons, busy but not overly crowded. We ate at T-Rex, did the Stitch Hunt through some of the stores, and walked through the Christmas Tree Trail. The longest line we encountered so far was the line of cars exiting the Lime Garage, and we ended up leaving around 5pm.
Day 2:
12/26/18: Having only booked our Fast Passes three weeks ahead our selections were very limited. On the first day of our ticket we went to MK and hit up Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Haunted Mansion. This was the first year my daughter was tall enough to ride all the rides at Disney. Between Space Mountain and Big Thunder we had enough time to wait in line at the Speedway. I let my daughter steer but I ended up having to press the gas pedal. Thank God that ride is on a rail as we would have been all over the place. Still a fun time. For lunch we met up with another family from NYC that we found out would be down there at the same time. Their daughter goes to school with mine so we thought it would be very fun for them to hang out. Though we did not get a dining plan for this trip, or make any reservations, we ended up sharing a table at the Sci Fi Drive in at Hollywood Studios. Good food, great service, and I loved the kitschy theme. After lunch we ended up following their recommendations for Hollywood Studios and joined them on Star Tours and then a quick trip to Toy Story Land for Toy Story Mania.
Day 3:
12/27/18: Today was Animal Kingdom. My wife wanted to do the Safari, but we weren’t able to get a fast pass for it. Our Fast Passes for the day ended up being Everest, Lion King Show, and Na’vi River Journey. However, Everest was in the morning, and the other two were for the late evening. So as soon as we got to Animal Kingdom about 8:30 it was a mad rush to Africa, and the 35 minute wait for the Safari. I loved seeing all the animals, but if you have a great local zoo you could probably skip this. As we exited we stopped at the souvenir store there so I could pick up my PinQuest lanyard. (Long Story short: After walking back and forth, it was completed.) Onwards to Everest, where the only thing I knew about this ride, was that part of it went backwards. I sat with my daughter, who loved it, but hated the first big drop. My wife also rode but hated me afterwards as she doesn’t like roller coasters with big drops. I loved Everest because there are portions of it in complete darkness. After Everest we went over to It’s Tough to be a Bug. A fun little show but make sure your child does not sit in your lap to get the full effect of the show. My daughter sat in mine and got mad that she missed some of the effects. After wasting a couple hours in the Boneyard and playing the Carnival type games in Dino Land we realized that we still had hours to go before our next Fast Pass. We decided to eat, but then my wife decided to just see if we could get in early to the River Journey and Lion King show. For both events, through the sheer accommodation and nice CMs at the FP queue, we were able to get in early. The River Journey, though very beautiful and well done, was very short in time. If I had known I would have timed it but it seemed to last only about 90 seconds-2 minutes. The Lion King show lasted about 30 minutes and hit all the well known songs from it. My daughter and I were picked from the crowd to walk around the stage playing hand held shakers and dancing around. After this we were exhausted and headed to the hotel, stopping at the Benihana on I Drive for dinner.
Day 4:
12/28/18: We got a late start at the Park today because this morning was our Sales Presentation. We ended up not buying in, and parked at Epcot, getting there around 1pm. We walked around the World Showcase and then took the Monorail to MK to go see Tinker, Buzz Lightyear, and ride Winnie The Pooh. Here is where I relate the one problem I encountered this trip, which ended up being good in the end. The Disney App, due to technical difficulties or overuse by the sheer number of people, would not correctly identify what Fast Passes we had. When we selected Tinker Bell, we saw on the App three different times listed, along with our other selections. So in the end it ended up being all good. Keep the Fast Pass selections on your phone and show them at the FP entrance. They will let you in even if your Magic Band doesn’t register it. Today we also ended up doing the People Mover and Jungle Cruise before back over to the Yacht Club to meet our friends again for what I thought would be a nice dinner. Instead we ended up walking over to the Boardwalk, and then hopping a boat to Epcot to complete the night. We took their recommendations and followed them to Test Track. While in line a random woman came up to us and gave us her fast pass card good for one ride. I guess she was leaving and felt like giving it away. Though I had an idea of what Test Track was like, in the end I had no idea how thrilling this ride actually is. My wife, who hates thrill rides, loved it. After Test Track we hit up Soarin’. For my first time I was scared to death. I’m not too good with heights. After this ride we said goodbye to our friends and went back to our car and headed to the hotel.
Day 5:
12/29/18: Check out of the hotel day. After check out we headed over to the Outlets on Vineland. I wish I had visited this place before going over to Disney. The Disney Character Store had some awesome deals and sales going on. I picked up 3 magnets, 1 autograph book, and 8 Disney Pins, all for under $20. If there was one piece of advice I could give people it would be to hit up stores like this before getting to Disney. Also, the local Walmart has a Disney section that you can pick up cheap souvenirs and/or Disney trinkets. We even found Disney Goldfish there. After we left the outlets my wife wanted to see the Ocean so we drove to Daytona Beach, had a late lunch, and then returned to MCO for our flight home.
On December 3rdI got a mailer from Sheraton for a discounted stay at Vistana Villages provided we sit through a 90 minute Vacation Club type presentation. My wife called that same day we got the letter and found out Christmas week was still available for a very decent price. We booked it that night, and in the next week also found cheap rates for a rental car, and what I felt was relatively cheap airfare for that time of year. (We live in NY.) We were flying in on Christmas Day and flying out that Saturday evening. We also purchased our tickets (3 day Park Hopper) through the Discount Ticket Broker at the Sheraton, who would refund us $200 on the ticket price at checkout and completion of the sales presentation. (My family consists of myself, my wife, and our 8 year old daughter. This was going to be our third trip to Disney, but the first to include anything but the Magic Kingdom as our earlier trips were just 1 day trips.)
Day 1:
12/25/2018…Flew out of LaGuardia on Delta. Landed at MCO around 10:30 am. Picked up the rental car and drove straight to the hotel to see if any rooms were available. They were not, so we changed in to shorts and t-shirts and drove over to Disney Springs. Back in NYC I bought my daughter a Pin Trading Starter Set and a few extra pins so when we got to Disney I could introduce myself and my daughter to the (what I found out would be) expensive hobby of Pin Trading. The first store we hit up was World of Disney and my daughter went straight for the first CM she saw with a lanyard. No pictures were taken but much to my surprise the first pin she traded for was gone two trades later. (I guess my daughter has no sense of sentimentality.) We ended up walking around all of Disney Springs, which for that time of year felt to us like a heavy shopping day at Woodbury Commons, busy but not overly crowded. We ate at T-Rex, did the Stitch Hunt through some of the stores, and walked through the Christmas Tree Trail. The longest line we encountered so far was the line of cars exiting the Lime Garage, and we ended up leaving around 5pm.
Day 2:
12/26/18: Having only booked our Fast Passes three weeks ahead our selections were very limited. On the first day of our ticket we went to MK and hit up Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Haunted Mansion. This was the first year my daughter was tall enough to ride all the rides at Disney. Between Space Mountain and Big Thunder we had enough time to wait in line at the Speedway. I let my daughter steer but I ended up having to press the gas pedal. Thank God that ride is on a rail as we would have been all over the place. Still a fun time. For lunch we met up with another family from NYC that we found out would be down there at the same time. Their daughter goes to school with mine so we thought it would be very fun for them to hang out. Though we did not get a dining plan for this trip, or make any reservations, we ended up sharing a table at the Sci Fi Drive in at Hollywood Studios. Good food, great service, and I loved the kitschy theme. After lunch we ended up following their recommendations for Hollywood Studios and joined them on Star Tours and then a quick trip to Toy Story Land for Toy Story Mania.
Day 3:
12/27/18: Today was Animal Kingdom. My wife wanted to do the Safari, but we weren’t able to get a fast pass for it. Our Fast Passes for the day ended up being Everest, Lion King Show, and Na’vi River Journey. However, Everest was in the morning, and the other two were for the late evening. So as soon as we got to Animal Kingdom about 8:30 it was a mad rush to Africa, and the 35 minute wait for the Safari. I loved seeing all the animals, but if you have a great local zoo you could probably skip this. As we exited we stopped at the souvenir store there so I could pick up my PinQuest lanyard. (Long Story short: After walking back and forth, it was completed.) Onwards to Everest, where the only thing I knew about this ride, was that part of it went backwards. I sat with my daughter, who loved it, but hated the first big drop. My wife also rode but hated me afterwards as she doesn’t like roller coasters with big drops. I loved Everest because there are portions of it in complete darkness. After Everest we went over to It’s Tough to be a Bug. A fun little show but make sure your child does not sit in your lap to get the full effect of the show. My daughter sat in mine and got mad that she missed some of the effects. After wasting a couple hours in the Boneyard and playing the Carnival type games in Dino Land we realized that we still had hours to go before our next Fast Pass. We decided to eat, but then my wife decided to just see if we could get in early to the River Journey and Lion King show. For both events, through the sheer accommodation and nice CMs at the FP queue, we were able to get in early. The River Journey, though very beautiful and well done, was very short in time. If I had known I would have timed it but it seemed to last only about 90 seconds-2 minutes. The Lion King show lasted about 30 minutes and hit all the well known songs from it. My daughter and I were picked from the crowd to walk around the stage playing hand held shakers and dancing around. After this we were exhausted and headed to the hotel, stopping at the Benihana on I Drive for dinner.
Day 4:
12/28/18: We got a late start at the Park today because this morning was our Sales Presentation. We ended up not buying in, and parked at Epcot, getting there around 1pm. We walked around the World Showcase and then took the Monorail to MK to go see Tinker, Buzz Lightyear, and ride Winnie The Pooh. Here is where I relate the one problem I encountered this trip, which ended up being good in the end. The Disney App, due to technical difficulties or overuse by the sheer number of people, would not correctly identify what Fast Passes we had. When we selected Tinker Bell, we saw on the App three different times listed, along with our other selections. So in the end it ended up being all good. Keep the Fast Pass selections on your phone and show them at the FP entrance. They will let you in even if your Magic Band doesn’t register it. Today we also ended up doing the People Mover and Jungle Cruise before back over to the Yacht Club to meet our friends again for what I thought would be a nice dinner. Instead we ended up walking over to the Boardwalk, and then hopping a boat to Epcot to complete the night. We took their recommendations and followed them to Test Track. While in line a random woman came up to us and gave us her fast pass card good for one ride. I guess she was leaving and felt like giving it away. Though I had an idea of what Test Track was like, in the end I had no idea how thrilling this ride actually is. My wife, who hates thrill rides, loved it. After Test Track we hit up Soarin’. For my first time I was scared to death. I’m not too good with heights. After this ride we said goodbye to our friends and went back to our car and headed to the hotel.
Day 5:
12/29/18: Check out of the hotel day. After check out we headed over to the Outlets on Vineland. I wish I had visited this place before going over to Disney. The Disney Character Store had some awesome deals and sales going on. I picked up 3 magnets, 1 autograph book, and 8 Disney Pins, all for under $20. If there was one piece of advice I could give people it would be to hit up stores like this before getting to Disney. Also, the local Walmart has a Disney section that you can pick up cheap souvenirs and/or Disney trinkets. We even found Disney Goldfish there. After we left the outlets my wife wanted to see the Ocean so we drove to Daytona Beach, had a late lunch, and then returned to MCO for our flight home.
