Best cure for post-Disney depression? A trip report! Spring Break 2015

[awalker1015]

Hello and thanks for reading! We returned last week from the best Disney trip ever and we have all been feeling a little sad It will probably be 15-18 months before our next trip

A little about us:


Me - Amanda, 41 year old mother, wife and nurse manager. I am about to pursue another nursing degree, hence why we won't be back to Disney for a while. I love running and reading, neither of which I have the time for it seems. Sigh.
Favorite Park-MK
Favorite Ride-Tie between Expedition Everest and Splash Mountain

Mark -44 year old husband, dad and contractor by trade. This was his first Disney trip since he was 11 and thankfully he was hooked!
Favorite Park - MK
Favorite Ride-Tie between Star Tours and Expedition Everest

Cate - Newly 10 year old who loves animals, reading, and all things Disney. She also loves running, as do I, and my hope is one day we can do a Disney race together! She is in 4th grade and a quite sad about graduating to middle school this spring. Actually it has been a very emotional year for her as we journeyed the process of middle school admissions. All is well now and the trip was a well timed break from the stress!
Favorite Park-MK
Favorite Ride - Big Thunder Mtn

Ben - Newly 8 year old (today! ) who loves Minecraft, roblox, anything technical. Wants to be an Imagineer when he grows up. He also loves baseball and basketball, especially the Memphis Grizzlies and the STL Cardinals. He is in 2nd grade and is my fearless child. He will ride anything.
Favorite Park - Tie between HS and AK
Favorite Ride - RnRC

Our trip was 3/21-3/28/15. I started planning shortly after our first trip in October '13. The kids and I went with my mom to celebrate my 40th. We stayed at POR and had an awesome time, but were only there 3 days, not nearly enough time to do all we wanted. So Mark and I decided to plan a trip to celebrate their birthdays, which are March 30 and April 5. We surprised them on Christmas Eve with the announcement:

Compliments of Mel on the creative forum!

I am a planner and debated and switched resorts several times. I originally booked us at CBR. But around the holidays I started having second thoughts about the size of the resort. Debated renting DVC points, but ultimately decided to switch to POFQ, which ended up being a great choice. I booked a lot of ADRs for our week, most of which I ended up cancelling once I figured out our touring style as a family. And I made the requisite FP+ 60 days out. I was proud to get 7DMT and A&E the last day of our trip


Off to upload pictures and get this report going! Thanks for joining!

 

[awalker1015]

Arrival Day

Our flight to MCO was at 6:30a Saturday AM. When I booked the flight this seemed like a great idea. Until I realized this meant waking everyone around 3:30 to leave the house by 4:30. And get the car loaded, dog ready for the house sitter, etc. We have an 11 year old bluetick coonhound who is too old to board. I had hired a house sitter to stay here and look after Lucille and Gill the fish.

I was up right when my alarm went off, though I never really slept. Anytime I know I have to get up super early my body will never go into a deep sleep. DH doesn't have this problem. We all got up, kids had some cereal, DH walked and fed Lucille. I was piddling around cleaning and changing sheets when I realized it was already past the time we had planned to leave. Eek, now we were rushing. And this in when things get left behind. Like DH's phone, which we realized 5 minutes after we were headed to the airport.

We had a groupon for offsite parking, which was awesome. $42 for the week and they loaded all our bags, dropped us at the airport door, and we were at our gate 20 minutes later, Starbucks in hand.

We had A boarding on SWA and were able to sit together - me and kidson one row, DH across aisle.

 

[awalker1015]

Arrival Day Part 2

Arrived at MCO after an uneventful flight. It was around 9:30am and we hopped on the monorail to take us to baggage claim:

I had decided to get our own bags this time. Last trip they weren't delivered until after midnight.


Retrieved bags and headed to DME. It was nice and warm in Orlando, such a pleasant change from the miserable winter we had in Nashville. Got on the POFQ bus and 15 minutes later we were on our way!!

I was hoping for a front row seat to get a pic of the iconic front gate, but no such luck. Good news is, our resort was the first stop.

I had done online check in and had already received a text saying our room wasn't ready. No big deal. Kids were hungry and this was our first time at this resort. We stored our luggage, grabbed our pool bag and headed to check out our new digs for the week. I have to say, this resort is so lovely and relaxing. I loved POR, but the quaintness and small size of POFQ makes it very easy to love.



We wandered around the common areas then hit the food court. I have so say I am terrible about taking photos. I purchased Memory Maker this trip to save me some trouble. I will say I didn't get one photo of any food we ordered. Anyway, we hit Sassagoula Floatworks. Mark got a burger, Cate got mac and cheese, Ben got a kids pizza and I got an individual pizza. Mark loves his burger, but he was also really hungry. Cate said the mac and cheese was the best she every tried. Ben's pizza was about the size of a drink coaster, so he ended up sharing mine as well. Pizza was ok, nothing great.

After lunch we changed into swimsuits and hit the pool to wait on our room text. Mark promptly fell asleep. Kids loved the pool at POFQ though given my kids ages, I give POR a slight edge in the pool department as the slide is a little more fun. While everyone was napping/swimming I did a little work that I was unable to wrap up before leaving and had my first trip cocktail While I was enjoying it I got a text from a friend I had not seen in 20 years. She and her family live down there and we had made dinner plans that evening. Sadly, she was texting to say that one of her daughters had a stomach bug, which put a small wrench in our evening. We agreed just she and the other child would meet us in a few hours and we would try to plan another get together for the whole family later in the week. This meant that I needed to change our ADR from 8 to 6. I had booked us at Boatwrights that evening, merely for convenience sake. More on my feelings about that experience later...

Decided to get kids a snack and went to get our first order of beignets. I have heard people say they are ok, but nothing like Cafe du Monde. I mean would you seriously expect them to be? They were made to order and pretty good, though make sure not to inhale as you bite into one or you will asphyxiate.

While I was gone, the text came that our room was ready. 5342. Mark and I went to check it out. I must say, this is the perfect location. Bldg 5 is right by pool, lobby and bus stop. Our room faced the green where the movies are shown, so we didn't have the pool noise. 3rd floor was nice as well. I loved this building and will request it next trip. Views from our room:




Unbelievably, I didn't get one photo of our room, but it was pretty standard. I had requested a corner room which we didn't get, but no big deal. We got in before 2pm and had a great location. Once our bags were delivered and I got us unpacked, Cate and I took the short walk to the river to check out the view. So lovely and relaxing. We sat on a bench and watched the boats and carriages pass.



Up next - Dinner at Boatwrights

 

[awalker1015]

OK, so our dinner at Boatwrights.... When we decided to hook up with our old friends, we could not decide what to do. We debated DTD, but were worried with the construction, spring break and it being a Saturday it would be a zoo. I still stand by that decision. We didn't have park tickets for this day, otherwise Epcot would have been the obvious choice. So we decided to try Boatwrights. I had read some mixed reviews, but was hoping it would be one of those sleeper favorites. It wasn't. We were seated prompty and our server was great - very friendly. My friend has a shellfish allergy and the chef came out and spoke with her.

We ordered wine for the grownups and the kids' dinners. We also ordered the pimento cheese fritters. These were very good I must say, with a sweet, peppery relish accompanying them. For dinner my friend and I ordered the voodoo chicken and Mark ordered short ribs. Kids got 2 kids pizzas and mac and cheese. I posted the dining forum -kids pizza was the worst we had all week. Inedible cardboard with imitation-tasting cheese. The voodoo chicken had all the right flavors, but was tough and chewy from too much time under the heat lamp. Mark's short ribs had great flavor, but were ice cold. In retrospect we probably should have complained or at the least requested properly prepared dinners. However he was a restaurant manager for years and while you might think this would make him expect more, he NEVER sends food back or complains. Oh well, a $100+ lesson in mediocre food, one we would learn a few more times over the week.

It was 7:30 by now. Mark and I were EXHAUSTED. We had debated seeing Yeehaw Bob, but the lounge was already full and we didn't think we could stay awake the extra hour for the show to start. Bummer since this is the second trip we haven't seen him. Next trip!!

We decided to walk back to POFQ. Kids wanted to swim and my friend and I were still catching up. So we poured some wine into travelers and settled down at the pool to watch the kids swim. By 10pm we were back in our room, tucked into bed and so excited about our first full Disney day!

Up Next - Magic Kingdom RD and an evening at Epcot!

 

[Wendy5055]

You're off to a wonderful start! I'm looking forward to more.

 

[jchurch0409]

Joining in! to your son and Happy Late Birthday to your daughter!

 

[awalker1015]

Joining in! to your son and Happy Late Birthday to your daughter!

Thanks! We are still celebrating Thanks so much for reading!

You're off to a wonderful start! I'm looking forward to more.

Thank you and welcome!

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

Great trip report so far! Your kids are so cute!!!

 

[awalker1015]

Day 2 Part 1 - MAGIC KINGDOM!!

I know everyone;s touring style is different, but for us, MK is a must as the first park. Nothing says "Disney" more to us than starting out at MK!! It is my absolute favorite park. It conjures the best memories for me and I always get tearful at the RD ceremony! This was our first park day and I was SOOOO excited. Also praying DH got infected by the magic as well, as this will affect our future trips!

Woke at 6:30a - too excited knowing we were headed to MK soon. Mark woke soon after and we tuned into the news as we got ready. Kids were still out cold from a late swimming night, as well as a 3:30 am wake up call the day before! I had ordered groceries from Garden Grocer - cereal, milk, snacks, bottled water and wine . Kids woke up and ate breakfast in the room. By 7:45 we were headed to the bus stop. POFQ has a great bus system. There was only one time we waited longer than 10 minutes for a bus. Bus arrived shortly thereafter and headed straight to MK - no POR stops this trip. It really is a short ride to MK - less than 15 minutes later we were getting off the bus. In no time we were through security and the park gates (magic bands worked perfectly!)

This was spring break and I was expecting 7-10/10 crowds this week (thank you Josh from easywdw.com). The crowd at the entrance wasn't too bad.


20 minutes after arriving, the show started and before we knew it, the train rolled in with the characters and the gates were opening. Last time we went in 2013, A&E and 7DMT weren't open and therefore didn't factor in to touring. This time it seemed everyone was trying to go right. So we would go left. Our FPs fo these attractions were later in the week and I wasn't about to try to fight the crowds. We crossed into town square, turned the corner and there was the castle. Ahh.


Yes, this seems crowded, but once we got to Casey's the crowds dispersed nicely.


We went ahead and found a PP photographer to take our first pic and launch our MM. then we headed into Liberty Square and onto Frontierland. Our first ride of the trip? BTMRR!!

I love this ride - it isn't the most thrilling, but it is so fun, the queue is awesome and the detail within the ride itself is great. After that, there was no wait for Splash so we hit that next:


After this we decided to hit Haunted Mansion. Now Cate had an issue with this last trip - she was ok until we got in the stretch room then she fell apart and she and I had to leave via the chicken exit. She was embarrassed and had vowed she would get through it this time. I had tried to boost her up telling her it was more silly than scary - like Hotel Transylvania, one of her favorite movies. She agreed to give it a shot so we headed over. On the way we ran into these two:




Then a stop at the stockades - love how empty the parks are until later in the morning!



Then the Haunted Mansion. I was so proud of Cate. She stayed right next to me and I could feel her heart, which was RACING. But she made it through, even laughed a little and rode it again later in the week.

Next up - Adventureland where we rode Pirates and Aladdin:

Then we checked out the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, which was new to me. I have walked by it but never explored it. Pretty cool.

Next we had a little time to kill before our 11:45 ADR. We rode the Teacups and Dumbo. I still love this ride. It is just such a Disney icon.



Now it was time to wander over to Beast's castle for our BOG lunch res! Which I woke up at a god awful hour to book! We ate dinner there last trip, which was nice but I honestly liked lunch better. But before we approached the podium, we had to pay tribute to Gaston:


Next Up: BOG Lunch!

 

[awalker1015]

BOG Lunch 3/22/15

We arrived at podium right at 11:45a and were waved in. I had ordered in advance, but our order didn't seem to be there. No worries. Ordered again on the touch screen (no waiting) and went to find a table.

Ended up in the Rose Gallery, which was nice and cool after a warm morning in MK. Our food arrived within minutes. Mark ordered the roast beef sandwich, which he said was awesome. Cate ordered kids Turkey sandwich and Ben ordered grilled cheese with tomato soup. I had the Turkey sandwich with fries. Kids meals were great. My turkey sandwich was one of the better meals I had all week. The arugula made the dish, as did the warm baguette and the dijon Mayo was the perfect complement.This may sounds silly, but after numerous theme park meals over the week, I came to appreciate how nice it is to eat off real plates with real silverware. It's the little things...

All in all we would do BOG lunch again in a heartbeat. It was a really nice break from typical theme park fare.

After leaving BOG, we came upon a marching band and stepped aside to watch. We decided to go back to the hotel, change shoes and take a small break then hit Epcot for our first FPs of the trip! As we passed through Main Street on the way out, we came upon these guys. Love them!!! Sang along to Zip A Dee Do Dah the we hit the bus.


Next Up: Epcot!

 

[awalker1015]

OT, had to post. Ben is a cereal nut. Here is the cake Mark made him for his bday:

 

[awalker1015]

Epcot 3/22/15
After a brief rest and shoe change, we were back on the bus to Epcot! I love this park and was glad we would be there during F&G festival. I had a Soarin FP for 5:00, but needed two others. Not wild about the tier, but went ahead and picked Character Spot and Turtle Talk. Turtle Talk is so cute. I never get tired of that. I loave Soarin, but I would not complain a bit of they updated the film. Some Epcot pics:







After our FPs we headed to WS to walk around. Kids decided to do Agent P scavenger hunt in Mexico, so Mark and I enjoyed a margarita from Cava while they played. After that, the park was getting really crowded and kids were hungry so we grabbed dinner from the QS in Mexico, which wasn't half bad. We shared nachos, the beef tacos and empanadas. After a little exploring through WS, we headed out before Illuminations to beat the crowds. We had an early day coming up with an 8:05am Tusker House ADR.

 

[maggiepie87]

Following along! I was there the same time. I love how empty the parks are in the morning too ​

 

[KathyM2]

Following along too!! Sorry about your sub-par dinner the first night. I loved BOG for lunch too!!

 

[disneyguy4life]

I loved POR, but the quaintness and small size of POFQ makes it very easy to love.

Joining in... I love this area. I saw your pictures and it took me back to my trip from Sept 2014. I look forward to the rest of the TR.

 

[disneyguy4life]

So we decided to try Boatwrights

I am glad to know it. That should save me the trip next time my family goes to POR.

 

[Rosebud123]

Love your report! POFQ looks so pretty. I've always wanted to stay there.

 

[awalker1015]

Love your report! POFQ looks so pretty. I've always wanted to stay there.

It really is lovely. We would stay here again in heartbeat. Thanks for joining in!

Following along! I was there the same time. I love how empty the parks are in the morning too
​

Wasn't it a great week? Aside from a little rain it was perfect weather. Thanks for joining in!​

Following along too!! Sorry about your sub-par dinner the first night. I loved BOG for lunch too!!

It is ok - I was curious about Boatwrights before and now I know! Not to say I might not give it a second try in the future, but with so many options, I doubt it. Thanks for reading along!

Joining in... I love this area. I saw your pictures and it took me back to my trip from Sept 2014. I look forward to the rest of the TR.

I was so glad my whole family loved this place. We may try to swing deluxe when we go back in 2016. I have always wanted to stay at WL or Poly, but I would be fine with staying here again. Very relaxing. Thank you for reading

 

[awalker1015]

Next up: A Very Rainy Animal Kingdom Day!

 

[Stasieki]

Following along. Sounds like a great trip so far. I noticed your son's camp shirt. We are from the Nashville area too. Nice to see a neighbor here.