A Tropical Storm Can't Stop this Vacation!

[disneyfan314]

Hello everyone! I'm a long time lurker on the Disboards and have read so many posts that helped me when purchasing DVC as well as planning my Disney and Universal trips. I decided that it is time for me to give back and post my trip report from my family's WDW/Universal trip we just got back from in June. Here's my family: I'm Kesha (36), my husband Jeremy (36), and my daughters Alyssa (turned 14 on this trip!) and Anna (9).
As you may have guessed it from the title, our trip just so happened to correspond to the arrival of Tropical Storm Colin, which caused some worrying that our trip would be impacted, but I came here to the Disboards and saw many people posting their past experiences during tropical storms which alleviated my concerns. I just made sure to pack ponchos and waterproof shoes!

So here is my pre-trip itinerary:
Saturday, June 4th: Depart Houston Intercontinental at 12:58p, arrive at MCO at 4:23p. Pick up rental car and make a stop for groceries and head to Disney's Boardwalk.
Sunday, June 5th: Magic Kingdom
Monday, June 6th: Waterpark/MK at night
Tuesday, June 7th: Studios
Wednesday, June 8th: Animal Kingdom
Thursday, June 9th: Waterpark and/or relax in hotel (Whatever day!!!)
Friday, June 10th: Epcot
Saturday, June 11th: Sleep in, pack up, travel to Loews Royal Pacific Hotel
Sunday, June 12th: Universal's Island of Adventure
Monday, June 13th: Universal Studios
Tuesday, June 14th: Depart Orlando and head back home

Just a note about my itinerary before I jump into our trip, I went into this trip knowing that we were going to take it easy this time and not be commando park tourists. Yes, we planned to rope drop our park days, but the teenager was told she could sleep in whenever she wanted. And my husband and I already discussed that if one daughter was ready to go back to the hotel, that one of us would go with her. We did not have to stay together as a family the entire time. Looking back on our trip, I think this mindset was one of the best for our family. Everyone knew that we did not have to stick to the plan and it really worked for us! Now, we did follow the plan pretty well, except for the day Colin arrived, but just having that mindset helped our family get along.

On to departure day (or day 0 on our Disney countdown)! We are about 2.5 hours away from the closest airport so we left home around 8am and arrived to the airport a little before 11. I don't remember it taking too long to get through security. We then grabbed some lunch in the airport and waited for our flight. We finally boarded on time (YEA!) and did have a bumpy flight. My youngest daughter commented on how that was the roughest flight she had ever been on. We were told by the pilot that we were flying over land instead of the gulf to avoid storms. We landed at Orlando International Airport and after grabbing our luggage we went to claim our rental car. We rented from Alamo and they do make it so easy if you do all your stuff online ahead of time. We just walked right into their area of the parking garage and showed one of the workers my printout of my receipt and he told us which row of cars we could choose from. We picked something blue (because it's my youngest daughter's favorite color) and after showing my ID and credit card to the attendant at the exit of the garage, we were off!
We made a stop a Publix not far from Disney property to pick up snacks, drinks, and easy dinner items since we were going to have a kitchen in our 1 bedroom villa. We finally made it to the Boardwalk and were "Welcomed Home." This was our first trip as DVC members and our first time in what my daughters call the "fancy" hotels. Our previous trips were values and moderates, so we really felt like we had been upgraded! The hotel is beautiful both inside and out and I can't believe I don't have any pictures! Oh well! Oh, we did do online check-in, so I did get a text when our room was ready (which was while we were still in the airport). We went right to our room 2002 (which is the very LAST room at the end of the hall) and got in with our Magicbands with no problems. I did enjoy the convenience of this but I did feel like I was robbed a bit of the Disney magic you get when interacting with the Cast Members when you check in. We began to settle into our room, which we really liked. My hubby and I claimed the master bedroom with the king bed and our girls shared the pullout sofa bed in the living room. They said it was comfortable and had no complaints. We liked having the 2 bathrooms, but would have preferred a shower in the master bathroom instead of the tub. After getting all hot and sweaty in the parks each day, I wanted to shower and wash my hair instead of soaking in the tub. No one in our family used the tub the entire time. We really enjoyed having the kitchen too. We ate breakfast in our room every morning and dinner a few evenings too. After unpacking and discussing the next morning's plan (MK opening at 8AM!) we all tucked in and started dreaming of all the fun we were going to have!

Next post: I always get teary eyed when I see Cinderella's Castle for the first time!

 

[disneyfan314]

I Always Get Teary Eyed When I See Cinderella's Castle for the First Time

We woke up early this morning because Magic Kingdom was opening at 8AM and we are rope droppers. After grabbing a bite to eat in our room we headed to the bus stop which for us seemed so far away. Remember me telling you that our room was the VERY LAST ONE, which meant we had to walk all the way back up the hall, to the lobby and out the front doors to the Boardwalk bus stop. (Ok, I may be exaggerating a little on how far it was, especially since I'm sure we were farther away from bus stops when we stayed at the values and moderates, but it seemed far, especially on the way back!)

One thing new at the bus stop for us was that there is a monitor showing the estimated times that the next bus will arrive for all the parks/waterparks/DS. We actually liked that because you knew how long you would be waiting before getting a bus. (And you may remember that we did have a rental car, but I wanted no part of parking at the TTC and then taking a boat or monorail to the MK). We arrived at the MK in plenty of time to get through security and get in line at the turnstiles. We saw the Good Morning show and were let into the parks. If I remember correctly it was pretty close to 8 when we were let in. As we made it down Main Street, my daughters looked back at me because they know I always get teary eyed when I see Cinderella's Castle for the first time each trip. And of course, I was fighting back my tears. There is just something about that walk down Main Street toward Cinderella's Castle that just makes me feel happy and joyful and so glad that I am back at my happy place. And this is where my family parted. The youngest daughter and I were headed to Peter Pan and my oldest daughter and hubby were headed to either Space or Big Thunder Mountain (the oldest daughter didn't want to do the "kiddie rides" in Fantasyland). I guess I should let you know what our plans were today before I get too far into this. We had dining reservations at The Plaza at 11:10 and our fastpasses were: 10:35 BTMR, 11:35 Space Mt, 2:20 SDMT. Now, this is where I will get on my soap box and tell everyone that rope drop is the BEST way to get to ride a lot of things without long lines. My daughter and I were able to ride the following before our 11:10 lunch reservation: PP, Dumbo, IASM, JoLM, Pooh, Barnstormer, JC, PoTC, BTMR, HM, Tomorrowland Speedway (not in this order). I don't think we waited more that 15-20 minutes for anything, except the Speedway which had posted a 20 minute wait time, but they were only loading 5 cars at a time so the short line moved very slowly. I think we waited closer to 30 minutes for that. By the time we got off the speedway, they were opening up the second side to load. We enjoyed our duo touring and sometime closer to lunch our family joined back up and rode a few of these together. A few notable things from these rides; I loved the new queue for PP. They did such a good job with this! The new interactive screens found in IASM and HM are pretty cool. Our IASM screen had our names and on HM our screen with "hitch-hiking ghosts" at the end said "Texas or bust!"

We headed to The Plaza for our lunch reservation. It was the first time we had eaten there so I was excited to check it out. We checked in at the podium and were told we would be seated shortly. Luckily, we found a table with an umbrella nearby to wait cause it was starting to get hot. We probably waited about 5-10 minutes before we were seated. Once we were brought inside, I was surprised it took that long because the place wasn't very full. It was beautiful inside. We loved the fancy decor though the menu doesn't really match. I think we all had either cheeseburgers or sandwiches. Nothing impressive that I remember. It wasn't terrible, but it was counter service quality with table service prices. I don't think we would dine there again. I think this is teenager for " How many pictures am I going to have to pose for? I'm really over this!" (And it's only the first day, haha)

After lunch we headed over to Space Mountain for our FP. My oldest and hubby had already rode it once that morning and hubby warned me it was a rough ride since I have some neck issues. I didn't want to miss the ride through Space and was willing to take a chance. He took the back seat, thinking that was the roughest spot (and where he had rode earlier). It was my youngest daughter's first ride ever in Space since our last WDW trip she was still too short and then on our trip to DL, it was closed. We all had a great time and while it isn't the smoothest coaster at WDW it didn't bother my neck. We then headed to the CoP to soak up some AC. I do love the CoP, but it really needs an update to the last scene. It's a bit outdated. Unfortunately, the Peoplemover was closed and we couldn't ride it so I was a bit disappointed, but we moved on to Buzz Lightyear. I'm sorry, but after riding TSM in the Studios, this ride just is dull. They really need to do something to update this or just put something else there. We then headed back towards Fantasyland and I rode the Carousel with the youngest daughter while the oldest went on a search for frozen lemonade.

We all then headed over to Phillharmagic which I always love. I guess cause I grew up with all the movies featured in this film, it is nostalgic for me. I just smile and sing along to all the songs. By this time it was time for our SDMT FP, so we headed over. We were really excited for this since it would be our first time and I'm sad to say that it left me a little underwhelmed. The mine scene is great and we loved the dancing scene at the end, but all together it just fell flat for me. My husband said it was like they tried to copy BTMR, but put in Snow White and the Dwarfs and shortened it and I must agree. I feel like Disney could have really done better here. Here is a pic of the scene at the end.


After this, the oldest daughter and hubby were ready to head back to the hotel, but the youngest still had a couple of things she wanted to do, so we said goodbye and headed our separate ways. I honestly can't remember now what we did but, I do remember as we were heading out, we ran into the parade coming down Main Street, so we decided to stop and watch. As always, it was beautiful and we both really enjoyed it. It was then time for us to head out and take the bus back to the Boardwalk and rest for a bit. But only for a bit....because that youngest daughter had plans for our evening.

Next: Evening touring at Epcot

 

[KnK]

Great start....ready for more.

 

[awalker1015]

Following along!