Disney Express (2 Day, 4 Park Adventure) Trip Report ~ September 2021

[vleeth]

Hey everybody!

It's been years since I've done a trip report and we added a new member to our pack, so before I tell this story introductions are in order.

My name is Valerie, I love all thing Disney World and have been to Disney a dozen or so times. I'm a super part time Disney Vacation Planner. This picture is from our May 2021 trip to Sea World/Discovery Cove. It was my first time at Gideons. We didn't make it to Disney Springs this trip, but plan to in June 2022.



Here's a picture of Dave at Bahama Breeze on the May trip. We've been married for 19 years now and we both love to travel. He's not much on the planning part, but he's always up for a trip. He's been with me on all but 3 of my Disney trips. Dave's comments in this report will be in green.



Hope is 16 now. Can you believe it? I think she was 8 for the first trip report. She now attends an online public school and is taking dual enrollment classes. This really limits our ability to travel at off times of the year. A few years back Hope was diagnosed with Autism. Now her getting sick every trip makes sense. We have pulled back on how hard we tour and give her more time to decompress from the sensory overload. Hope's comments will be in orange.



Last but not least is Ric. We've been on several camping trips and 3 or 4 vacations together in the last few years, but this was his first EVER trip to Disney. I'm not sure how he's lived life this long without going, but he finally made it there. Ric's comments will be in blue.

 

[vleeth]

This page reserved for bookmarks

 

[Bama Mom]

Jumping in to follow along. It will be fun to see everyone's comments and input.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[vleeth]

I’ve used one before, they stay on just fine!

to you both. I'll have the backstory up before the end of the weekend!

 

[vleeth]

If you come here because it’s your happy place and you don’t want to read sad stuff…skip the next bit…I’ll put jumping smiley faces when it’s safe to read again.

For me the tale of how this trip came to be started back in August. A family member had cancer and it was looking like he wasn’t going to make it. This is a man I thought of as a second Dad. Even though it had been years since we had quality time together, we spent a lot of time together over the years and took a few trips (including Disney) together.

The only character he asked to take a picture with was Tinkerbell.



Then Dave joined in on the fun.



That's me and Hope in the white shirts.



After a long night of staying up with him and his daughters, he passed away on Aug 20th. The funeral was the 25th. Instead of having some down time to recover from the loss, we had a hurricane to prepare for. Ida hit South Louisiana on the 29th. Our home was spared, but we had many, very large trees that fell. The day after the hurricane we started cutting and moving the tree that was on the powerlines.



It was a mess. (Okay, it still is a mess.)



We were without power for almost a week. Every day we’d work on the trees and I’d say, “You know, I wouldn’t mind working in this heat if we were getting ready for a Disney Trip.”

The day these guys showed up was a happy day.



By September 7th, we had internet back and I was able to see the articles and bloggers talk about how low the crowd level was at Disney. I'd had a stressful few weeks and Disney was calling to me like a beacon.



That weekend Ric came over Friday night and we watched the Jungle Cruise for the first time. We talked about how corny the ride is. The next morning we were out sweating, still cutting the same tree we’d been working on for almost 2 weeks. We went inside for lunch and Dave sits down and says (Ad-libbing here)
You know, I saw where you don’t even need a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance.
Ugh, please stop, you’re making me want to go and we can’t go!
Why can’t we go?
You’re supposed to be the voice of reason. I mean, you can't just pack up and go. You have to plan.
I still have some vacation days to take
And Hope won’t want to be left behind and she’ll be too stressed to go with her college classes. We just can't do it.
So I call Hope out and she thinks it’s a great idea and wants to leave the next day. She was ahead in her classes because she continued to work when school was closed for the hurricane.
We looked into it and decided we could go on Wednesday…as in 4 DAYS later!!!
And so we did.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

After a long night of staying up with him and his daughters, he passed away on Aug 20th. The funeral was the 25th. Instead of having some down time to recover from the loss, we had a hurricane to prepare for. Ida hit South Louisiana on the 29th. Our home was spared, but we had many, very large trees that fell. The day after the hurricane we started cutting and moving the tree that was on the powerlines.

I am sorry to hear about your loss. It is never easy loosing someone and then having to deal with a hurricane right after! Yikes!

We looked into it and decided we could go on Wednesday…as in 4 DAYS later!!!
And so we did.

AMAZING!!!! I would love to be able to do that one time!

I can't wait to hear all about the trip!

 

[rdkeim]

Following! I would say you deserved a get away!

 

[vleeth]

I am sorry to hear about your loss. It is never easy loosing someone and then having to deal with a hurricane right after! Yikes!

AMAZING!!!! I would love to be able to do that one time!

I can't wait to hear all about the trip!

And thank you for your kind words. It was one heck of an adventure.

Following! I would say you deserved a get away!

and thank you. It was a great trip and just what I needed.

 

[vleeth]

The next 3 days were a whirlwind of planning and packing. But somehow, what usually takes months to plan out, was planned in 3 days. Not that I ever want to do that again, it was too stressful. But I’m so glad we did. It was a great trip.
I’m managed to throw together a plan to spend Thursday in Magic Kingdom, with a short hop over to Animal Kingdom because the part Ric was most looking forward to seeing was Pandora. On Friday we would get that Rise of the Resistance boarding group, head to Studios and then finish up the night at Epcot.

While deciding on which quick service places we would eat at, I checked out the menu for Everything Pop and boy was I in for a surprise. I had no clue the menu was still so limited. I checked Landscape of Flavors over at Art of Animation and it wasn’t any better. The logical plan was to not eat there.

These are screenshots from today. They've added a few options, but they still don't have a hot dog. That's even stranger now that they have the 50th Anniversary Chili Bowl




Shrimp and Grits, Chicken, Pot Roast, Pimento Burger, Chicken Bowl and Chili are new. We had very little to choose from. It wasn't a big deal at all, but for a longer trip, that would have been an issue.




I was able to snag a dinner reservation for arrival day at Beaches and Cream. The Mickey Kitchen Sink always looked so cute and it was going to be mine!



Then we got a message from American Airlines. Our flight had been canceled and now we weren’t going to be there in time for a 7PM reservation, so I canceled it. After a bit more poking around, I found a flight that would take us from NOLA to Chicago to Orlando and get us there earlier. We switched flights and I spend the next 2 days trying to get back that 7:00PM reservation. I was finally able to get a 7:20PM.

We decided to each take only a carry on and personal bag for the flight, so I was limited in the snacks I could bring. I still went way overboard.


This is only the stuff I purchased for the trip. There was also zip lock bags filled with nuts, m&m, sprees and some other candy that Dave had to have. I'm not sure why he always things he's going to starve at Disney. I feed him, I promise.

In our next installment...we actually leave for this trip!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I think the food at the values is probably the biggest downfall of them. But there is plenty of food to be had everywhere else!

 

[CruellaNY]

Joining in! I do the same "job" as you but super full time and love it

I am sorry that sad things brought about this trip, but if it brought you back to happy days it was the right thing to do and worth it. Look forward to reading more!

 

[footballmouse]

Spur of the moment, a great way to plan a trip!

 

[vleeth]

I think the food at the values is probably the biggest downfall of them. But there is plenty of food to be had everywhere else!

I don't usually have an issue finding something to eat, but this trip was really bad. We're staying at All Stars Movies next trip, so hopefully the add some decent stuff before we go.

Joining in! I do the same "job" as you but super full time and love it

I am sorry that sad things brought about this trip, but if it brought you back to happy days it was the right thing to do and worth it. Look forward to reading more!

I love talking to people about Disney, so it's great. I homeschooled my daughter for years and now that she's pretty much on her own I have extra time on my hands. Kudos for you doing this full time. I'm just in it to help pay for my vacations!

Life is good and I'm enjoying planning our next trips. We're going on a "Whiskey Tour: in Tennessee next week, a cruise in April and Disney in June.

Spur of the moment, a great way to plan a trip!

If you say so! I didn't like the stress. Of course, planning is part of the fun for me. I like to spend months before a Disney trip planning stuff, even if it gets changed 2 weeks before we leave.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

We're staying at All Stars Movies next trip, so hopefully the add some decent stuff before we go

Fingerscrossed!!!

 

[vleeth]

We left home on time…right at 5AM. Traffic wasn’t bad and before long we were parked at the credit card lot which is apparently not at the airport like Google maps would have you think. After wandering around trying to find the entrance to the airport, a security guard pulled up to tell us we were at the old airport and we needed to go to the new airport. He directed us to the shuttle. This would explain why the airport parking lot didn’t have many people walking around. There was a 15 min shuttle to the actual airport.

We should have researched the airport situation more and made it to the actual airport. Thankfully we left early, so it wasn’t an issue. Security was fast.

By 6:03 we were on shuttle and I was taking our first pictures of the trip.





Not sure why they're blurry.

As Ric said, security didn’t take long. There was one or two groups in front of us so we had a bit of a wait at the gate.



Our boarding time was 7:30AM and departure at 8:00.

On the airplane Hope pretty much slept through the first flight. Second one got her motion sick and the constant noise is sensory overload.

Dave napped too.





First flight was ahead of schedule, so we had more layover time, which made me feel better since I’m not familiar with the Chicago airport.

I wasn’t the least bit concerned since the gates were close and we had 45 mins originally, but being early gave us time for snacks.

We FINALLY landed at MCO and after a bathroom break walked up to the Magical Express desk for the first and last time in my like (at 3:24)



I was happy that we found the ME, cause that took a little min.



Our driver was great. He was very excited and telling everyone to have a magic day and you can’t have a bad day at Disney. We were starting our vacation right.

The driver’s excitement was fine, but he was too loud.



Took some silly pictures on the ME.



At 3:42 Disney texted our room number 2113. I looked up the room location and decided to ask at the front desk for a better location. I don’t mind being in the 50s section, but this was all the way in the back of the furthest 50s building.

At 3:55 we drove under the gates

Me and Hope went to the front desk and ask for a room closer to transportation, while Dave and Ric checked out the lobby. We got Ric a My First Visit Pin while we were there. Ric took this picture in the lobby.



We had a radio like that in the house when I was growing up.

At 4:16 we were assigned 5332. Building 5 is my favorite building at Pop. We went to the room and unpacked. Dave was in a hurry to head out. We had a 7:20 reservation for Beaches and Cream and need to stop at Guest Services at Epcot to renew Hope’s DAS pass. It was way early still, but he was insistent, so we left.

Dad was freaking out because there wasn’t enough beds in the room because he didn’t realize the bed pulled down. Ric pulled down the murphy bed and Dad was like, “oh.” It was funny.

Any guesses on how long the wait was at Guest Services or how long we waited for our Beaches and Cream reservation?

 

[CruellaNY]

Life is good and I'm enjoying planning our next trips. We're going on a "Whiskey Tour: in Tennessee next week, a cruise in April and Disney in June.

Nice! Everyone loves those whiskey tours lol. I'll be at Disney again in a few weeks for work and then in Dec. and March and Vegas in January and that's as far as we've gotten.

Not a bad arrival day so far! Normally I'd say the wait at GS was longer than for your reservation but something tells me it's the other way around.....

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Not sure why they're blurry.

It was too early for your phone as well! Ha.

Any guesses on how long the wait was at Guest Services or how long we waited for our Beaches and Cream reservation?

Hopefully it was quick on both fronts!

 

[vleeth]

Nice! Everyone loves those whiskey tours lol.

Well, Hope got sick so we didn't go. Tomorrow is Dave's birthday so we celebrated closer to home. We did a blind whiskey tasting at home.



And we went to a local distillery. There we did a tour and Dave did a tasting.







Anyone know how to get my pictures right side up?

 

[vleeth]

It was too early for your phone as well! Ha.

That must have been it!!