Dude, we are ALL IN - the entire Trip Report.

[mitchsfan]

Background

Hello Humans,

We just got back from our 14-day, 2- year in the making, family vacation to Disney World. My name is Jim. I am the veteran of the group. This was my 10th trip to Disney in the past 28 years. Shockingly, I hated my first trip. Since then, I have just absolutely fallen in love with the whole Disney experience. I would like to move down to Florida in the years to come.

I am a married father of 4. We have a 17-year-old son (Jimmy aka Jr.), a 12-year-old daughter (Abby) and 7-year-old twins (Josey and Danny). My wife asked for one more and the good Lord said its Buy One Get One.

This is my wife, Sarah’s, 9th trip. We went for one day while on a family trip in our first year dating and since then we were hooked. We honeymooned in Disney 19 years ago and have tried to make it back every 2-3 years.



We were joined this year by Sarah’s nephew and his wife and two girls. This is the first time we have gone with another family and shared practically every second of every day with them in a house we rented.

Sarah’s nephew, Tim, is like a little brother to me and he is an amazing cousin to my 17 year old. It was his idea in the fall of 2019 to go to Disney World the following year. He asked if we were interested. We said, “Absolutely, lets go.” So we planned for August 2020. Everything was lining up perfectly. We had Chef Mickey’s, Ogas, and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets. But then Covid hit. The cons of going in August 2020 out weighed the pros, so we pushed it back a year. (Side note: one of the most disappointed feelings ever is watching your Countdown go from 50 something days to over 400). His family was flying down Sunday August 8- August 17th.

With us having 6 people in our immediate family, staying on property was pretty much out of the question. So we found a house, off property. It was a ranch style house with two master suites, a queen size room, and 2 rooms with 2 twin beds each. The house had 4 bathrooms and an inground pool that was utilized a lot at night. It was in the Indian Creek development and was only a 15-minute ride to and from the park each day. It was perfect for us!

The title of this trip report comes from a previous baseball trip Timmy and I took together. We were hanging by the bar one night and I had a crazy idea. Timmy looked at me and told me: “Uncle Jim, I am all in. Whatever you say, I’m all in!” That became his battle cry during the entire planning process. Anytime I asked for anyone’s opinion on anything involving this trip, he would just text: ALL IN!!

 

[mitchsfan]

Friday August 6 - Dad, what are you doing to me?

We were driving down from the Philadelphia region. It was scheduled for 15 hour trip but with stops and all, 18-19 is more common. So on Thursday August 5, I went to sleep around 4 pm. Woke up around 10-11 pm and was ready to go. Sarah was beginning to fall asleep and told me not to wake her until after 2 am. Around 1:20 am, I took a shower, went over to the wife and told her: Its time!

The car was packed already, so all we needed to do was put the kids and snacks in the car. The two oldest jumped right up, the youngest was quietly carried to the car. My last job was to get Josey into the car. I lifted her up and she woke up and looked at me and said, “Dad, what are you doing to me?” ‘Josey, we talked about this. We are leaving for Disney World.’ ‘But dad, why are you doing this to me?’ All I could do was laugh at her innocence and uncertainty.

My goal, all along was to be passed Washington DC before rush hour. We were past Richmond before rush hour. Traffic was a breeze. Stopped at each welcome center, but just kept moving right along. We were half way through South Carolina, with an arrival time of like 7 pm at the house. Life was good, movies playing in the back, no one was fighting. And then a storm came. A storm that the likes haven’t been seen since Noah had an ark came. I have been driving for 3 decades and I have never ever seen a storm like that. The wipers were going overtime and they could not catch up with the rain. It was a wall of rain. We went from 70 mph to literally 2 mph. I was white knuckling the wheel. It lasted for a good 45 minutes, stopped then came back for 30 minutes. In a matter of two hours, we went maybe 15 miles. Ugggghhhhh!

We all wanted to get out and move around. We wanted to eat, so we stopped at a local pizza shop in Georgia. Sarah said that the pizza got good reviews online.


My oldest said afterwards that he would have rather had the cardboard box that it came in. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t pizza. I am not looking for Chicago or NY style pizza, just good flavor pizza. After the pizza fiasco, arrival time was 10:30ish. We made it around 11ish. The kids were wired, but daddy was tired so we went to bed ready for day 2.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 2 – I didn’t lose a kid.

Day 2 was mostly swimming for the kids. The food we ordered from Walmart was delivered around 4 and we headed over to Disney Springs later that night. I was on vacation, so I didn’t remember what day of the week it was, but heading to Disney Springs on a Saturday may not have been our best idea. It was packed. Got some photos with the Legos. The little ones got ice cream, while Sarah and Jr. went to try Guy Fieri’s Chicken Guy. They liked it. I stayed with the three youngest while they ate their ice cream.



I am the planner of the group. I did it all. I planned every last minute of this trip. We had lunch reservations for Tusker House for 8/13 and I found a 4 person breakfast reservation at Chef Mickey for 8/9. I told Timmy since it was his daughters’ and wife’s first trips, he should take the Chef Mickey’s reservation. It would mean more to them. Even though there are no characters at the parks, he would get some of the true Disney experience. He said he would take it, but I kept myself on as one of the intended guest. I wasn’t sure if I deleted myself if I would delete the reservation.

As the kids ate their ice cream, I saw there were 2 reservations for Chef Mickeys at very close times for a party of 6. I tried to grab one but it would not let me until I cancelled Timmy’s reservation. Sarah and Jr were at Guy’s place so me - 3 kids and 3 ice creams - went looking for guest services . I went left……I should have went right. I got turnaround. Guest services was a hop skip and a jump from where we were at, but unfortunately I chose the wrong direction.

My phone was 12%. I was looking for guest services while pulling three kids with me. When the first text came from Sarah:

Sarah: Where you at?
Me: I am looking for guest services. Will call you back in a few minutes,
Sarah: Whats the matter? Did you lose someone?
Me: No, I didn’t lose anyone. I will call you back.

Now I found Guest Services. I’m in line. I’m next. I’m down to like 7%. Someone already snatched up one of the reservations. There is only one left for a party of 6.
Jr. was texting me now

Jr: What’s going on?
Me: I’m at 5%. Will meet you at Sprinkles. Just give me a few minutes.
Jr. Did you lose one of them?
Me: No, just meet me at Sprinkles.

I get called and someone had already snatched that other reservations. Guest Services told me that I could just walk up, but there are no guarantees. I leave there, with all 3 kids, and meet up with Sarah and Jr at Sprinkles.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 3 Anyone Bring an Ark?

As I said, I am the planner of this trip. I have experience and I also do research. My nephew was flying in today. His flight was the first one out of Philly. His arrival time was 8:24 am. With hearing the hundreds of complaints about rental car places in MCO, I suggested he rent from a place outside the airport. I would pick them up and drop the girls off at the house and we would go get the car. Everything worked perfect. Flight was on time. Dunkin Donuts coffee was hot – absolutely perfect. Everyone loved the house. Tim and I went to get the car. Now Tim did his homework too. He called about 3 different times to confirm the car and asked if he needed anything special if he was paying with a debit card. He was told just to bring the debit card. We get there around 11 am and he was told he needed a credit card. He doesn’t have one. So back to the drawing board, we went. We went to 2 different places, but both were wiped clean of inventory.

We finally found a place at the airport that had a car. So back to the airport, we went. Instead of starting our Disney vacation at 1, it was closer to 4:30.

After we got the car situated, we headed to Magic Kingdom. Your first time in Disney should be at the Magic Kingdom. I wanted the girls first mental picture to be the castle. Since we have the Photo Pass, we got some pictures in front of the castle and went left. A little drizzle started while we started making our way to Pirates. We got on Pirates and had a nice trip with Jack Sparrow.



When we came out, there was a monsoon. It must have followed us from SC. We hung out in the gift shop for sometime and then decided to make a mad dash to Peco Bills for dinner.

The entire Adventureland was submerged in water. There was a foot of water everywhere. We took off for Peco’s, but ended up with 10 pairs of soaking wet socks and shoes.

After Pecos, we hit Splash Mountain for the first, but definitely not the last, time on this trip. Sarah’s cousin recently passed away. One of the pictures on the memory board, was him making this pose on Splash Mountain. So Jr and I tried to recreate the pose.



Next we went to Haunted Mansion with a minimal wait time. Then headed over to Peter Pan and It’s a Small World. The little kids rode those 2 rides, while the older ones watched the fireworks.

It was a tiring, but successful first real day.

This was Sarah's favorite picture.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 4 - 45 years in the making.

I know, as a parent, that a Disney trip is mostly a young person’s trip. You watch the excitement through their eyes. As the planner, I asked a lot of questions about what the kids would want to do, where they wanted to eat, and what they would want to see…… Except for today that is!

I told them that there would be a very good chance that I would cry when I saw the Millenium Falcon for the first time. Growing up, it was Star Wars for my brother and I. That was it. We had GI Joes. We had wrestlers. But Star Wars was king in our world. We would rent the movies religiously. We had every figure, poster, and we can quote movie lines. When the movies were rereleased, we were in college. We went to see Star Wars, then the next week we saw Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back and then the following week we had a triple header, SW, ESB, and ROTJ.

When the trip was cancelled a year earlier, I was disappointed for the kids, but I was also disappointed that I had to wait another year to get into Galaxy’s Edge. So I was very excited for our first day in Hollywood Studios, even though we didn’t get Rise of the Resistance for today.

Tim and his family had Chef Mickey reservations so they were meeting us later at Hollywood Studios. The 6 of us got there and headed straight for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad. WHAT A RIDE! I was a fan of the Great Movie Ride and I did miss it on this trip, but what a fun ride MMRR is. We got a snack afterwards and then headed to Star Tours. We rode that and then went to see the Frozen Sing Along. YES, I WAS THAT GUY! We were sitting 3 rows from the stage to the left (away from where Elsa comes out). My oldest daughter looks at me and gives me the thumbs up.

Leading up to the trip, we would watch videos of rides and shows. The Frozen Sing Along was one of them and we got a kick out of the reactions to screaming PUDDLE. The spot came up and I let out ‘PUDDLE’. The female historian looks at me, mouth agape and acts like someone is holding her back and she starts telling me to GET OUT, GET OUT!!!! My daughter was dying laughing the whole time.

After Frozen, it was time to join the Resistance or the First Order. We came in through Toy Story Land. Honest to goodness, it took my breath away.


You actually feel like you are on Batuu. There were Stormtroopers looking down and Kylo Ren was by his ship. We were just walking around when we walked in the back of the Black Spire Out Post. So we got a Ronto Wrap. If they took the pork out, it would have been so much better. The cole slaw, sausage and the peppercorn sauce would be fine.

After that, we saw the Falcon. And I admit, I felt tears welling up. We got some pictures and headed to Ogas for our reservations. I ordered the Skyhopper and Sarah got the Bespin Fizz. The boys got the Hyperdrive Punch. Sarah liked her drink. I wasn’t fond of mine. But the experience of being there was incredible. I thought I was in Mos Eisley and we were looking for a pilot to get us to Alderaan.
Would I go back? Sure. If I got a reservation. Would I actively search for a reservations- nah?

Afterwards, we went and got some Blue Milk. I thought it tasted like a Slurpee while the wife thought it tasted like a Screwball from an ice cream truck. We rode Smugglers Run. I was the pilot on the left. My daughter was the pilot on the right. When it came time to jump to hyperdrive, I told her to move her hand and that I was going to do it. After that, everyone went to Toy Story Land, while Danny and I made a droid. He named him Harold. We got some Star Wars Photo Pass pictures. After that we went home and swam.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 5 IT’S COMING TO FRUITION

Today was my daughter’s birthday She was celebrating the big 1-2. So today was all about her. But first we got Rise of the Resistance . We were group 28. We started hitting JOIN at 6:59:58 and Timmy and I both scored it. INCREDIBLE! TREMENDOUS! Any other adjective you can think of. I wish they would let you ride twice. Once to take everything in, and then again in case you miss something. Words can’t justify how insanely crazy and good that ride and experience is.



When the Resistance was over, we headed to Toy Story Land. We had lunch at Woody’s Lunchbox. Sarah raved about the brisket sandwich, while the grilled cheese was very good too. We rode Toy Story Mania, watched the Frozen show again (yes, I did it again) and we rode Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad again. It was hot. All Abby wanted to do was go swimming, so we wrapped it up and went back to the house for swimming and birthday singing.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 6 ---Date Night with the Wing WoMan.

Today was our first day at Epcot. Today we were going to focus on the front of the park and just touch on the World Showcase. We rode Sapceship Earth first and headed over to Test Track. We hit Soarin for the first time, then Nemo. I carried around a second popcorn bucket so that I could get the buffalo and blue cheese, cheddar and sour cream and chive popcorn. I was so excited to try those three flavors. But alas they were not to be found. We found Winnie the Pooh though, and got a few selfies with him.



We wanted to get lunch so we headed to the Brew and Wings pavillon. Wow! Those wings were really good. I got the garlic parmesan and they were incredible. Sarah got the sesame wings and Jimmy got regular buffalo. They both really liked them. The beer flight and the hard cider flight were good. Not a fan of the blood orange beer, but overall a really good lunch. After lunch, we went to meet Anna and Elsa and we rode Frozen Ever After.


Then it was date night. Sarah and I came back to Epcot without the kids for some of the Food and Wine Festival. Sarah absolutely loved the filet from Canada and the gratin from Germany. We got the Tennessee Whiskey from the USA. We ended with egg rolls and Canto Loopy from China.

Before we headed home, we ran over and rode Soarin again.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 7 --- Epcot Round 2

Started day two at Epcot, with some pin trading. I bought pins off of Ebay for the kids to trade. The really enjoyed it. They traded every time they saw one. We hit Soarin again. Still a great ride even after all these years. We did Frozen again. Since it was closer to 1 pm, the wait was much less for Frozen. We started to walk around the World Showcase. We ate lunch at the takeout window in Italy. The pizza was good, but not great. Thought it was much better than Georgia though!

We stopped off in France and saw the Beauty and the Beast sing along. We then hit a road block. Jr wasn’t feeling well, so we crashed outside of France for awhile. Saw the Princess Cavalcade and tried the maple popcorn. Again, another disappointment! It wasn’t nearly as good as everyone said it was.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 8 The Best Day Evvvvvvvvvveeeeeerrrrr

So as I said before, we had lunch reservations at Tusker House. Out of the 10 of us, more than likely, 8 would never touch anything on the lunch menu. But the kids would love the character interaction. I continually called, but got no where with moving the reservations to breakfast. I kept checking with Guest Services and on Wednesday, they were able to move 2 of my 3 Tusker House reservations from lunch to breakfast. On Thursday, the third reservation was able to be moved. So when we got to Animal Kingdom we headed straight for Tusker House.

WHAT A GREAT BREAKFAST!!! 1000 times better than how I remembered from 7 years ago. The juice was amazing. The family style was so much more relaxing then the buffet style. If you want something else, you ask for it and then they bring it. They brought a second platter. Then the kids wanted more bacon. They brought a whole bowl of bacon!

Afterwards, we stayed in Africa and did the Safari and the Festival of the Lion King Show. We then hit the River Rapids and then Everest. Everest lived up to everyone’s expectation. It was the first roller coaster for the youngest and he killed it. Next we headed to Dinosaur and to Dino Spin. We thought we would end the day with It’s Tough to be a Bug’s Life.

As we were about to leave, someone suggested that we try Flight of Passage since it was only a 50 minute wait. Thank God they did. I have never seen an Avatar movie. I will never see an Avatar movie. But that ride was incredible! It became almost everyone’s favorite ride.

We headed home. We were taking the next day off, so we knew we could have a late night at the pool as long as everyone slept in the next morning.

Danny was soooo happy that him and Mickey had on matching outfits

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 9 - Off Day

A Disney free day is usually a good idea when you are down there. We just hung around the pool.





Around noon, Jr, Timmy and I went out to a Publix to pick up a few things. There was a wing and beer place next door, so we went in to clear our heads a little bit.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 10 - The 3rd best day this year at Hollywood Studios.

We were going back to Hollywood Studios to try to clear up some rides we missed the first two days. We went running to Slinky Dog Dash. The ride was fun. The little ones enjoyed it.


Some of us were excited that the Beauty and the Beast show was making its comeback today. So we went there and watched that. We then hit Rock n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. All those rides, I have ridden before. Sarah wanted to get over her fears, so she went with the older kids. She loved Aerosmith, but has vowed never ever to do Tower of Terror again.

We had lunch in the ABC Commissary. It was good. Nothing spectacular, but we all enjoyed it. After lunch we went back to Toy Story Mania. The wait time was only 25 minutes. Remember when the wait times were like 240-300 minutes? The kids rode the Alien Saucers. Afterwards we went to Galaxy’s Edge to ride Smugglers Run again. We hit Star Tours and Muppetvision on the way out.





I read later that this day was the 3rd lowest attended day at Hollywood Studios in this year. And Rise of the Resistance 1pm Boarding Pass did not get filled out till a few hours later. I checked my phone at 1:02 and thought ‘oh well I was late’. If I only tried!!!!!

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 11 – Is this how I die?

We wanted to finish at the Magic Kingdom. So we planned our last two days around the Magic Kingdom. We arrived and took the boat over to the Kingdom. We headed straight for the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train and rode that. Afterwards we rode the Tea Cups and Buzz Lightyear. We had lunch at Cosmic Rays. We then went to Monsters Laugh Floor (I love that show) and then we headed to Space Mountain.

My youngest knew it was a roller coaster. I think he felt that he couldn’t chicken out of this ride after chickening out of Tower of Terror the day before. He went through the entire line of Tower of Terror and then at the last second he said that he couldn’t do it. So for the whole time, he kept asking me questions about whether Space Mountain was like Everest or 7 Dwarfs or whatever other ride. You could tell he was beginning to psych himself out. We are about 20 people from the front of the ride when he looked at me and asked, “Dad, am I going to die on this?” Happy to say that he didn’t die on Space Mountain, but probably will not ride it again for a while. It freaked him out a little.



We then went to Dumbo and Barnstormers. That roller coaster was much more his speed. We rode Journey to the Little Mermaid. Timmy and I hit Gaston’s Tavern. The brew was different.


We got in line for the Carrousel, but it was not running. We jumped in to watch Mickey’s Philharmagic. Then we started walking over to Liberty Square and stopped at that little bridge. A clavacade came right by. We had the entire bridge to ourselves. We finished the day by riding Splash Mountain.

 

[mitchsfan]

Day 13 The Final Day

You should always end with the Magic Kingdom. So we took the Monorail this time instead of the boat. Abby wanted to try the Nutella waffle sandwich at Sleepy Hollow. That’s where we headed first. We cut across to ride Alladin’s Magic Carpet and then Jungle Cruise. The Jungle Cruise was such a disappointment. After a 45 minute wait, you couldn’t hear one thing the guide was saying. He was wearing his mask and was behind plexiglass. It was like Charlie Brown’s teacher. It was such a disappointment. I was the first spot next to him. I couldn’t imagine what the back was like.

Kids wanted to ride Splash one more time. So I went and got Peco Bills one last time. While sitting outside Peco Bills, we saw a character parade and a princess parade. We strolled over to the Haunted Mansion and then did the Hall of Presidents. We finished by doing some shopping and then headed home to finish any food in the fridge, swim and get some sleep.

Day 14 The Trip Home

We left about 4:30 am and were cruising. We hit about an hour and a half delay in North Carolina. We arrived back in New Jersey right around 11:30.

 

[mitchsfan]

Final Thoughts



Covid - Covid made us postpone the trip for a year. The cast members did a fabulous job of reminding people to wear their masks. I personally didn’t feel that I saw overly blatant disregard of the mask mandate. Disney had hand sanitizer stations before, during and at the end of all rides and shows. Some though were empty at a few rides.

Food and Wine Festival – It was good. I am not one to try new foods or drinks. So this wasn’t really my type of festival. Most of the food and drinks tried were big hits with those who tried them. I think the top 3 food items tried at the festival were the garlic parmesan wings, corned beef nachos and the filet from Canada.

Buckets – Our bucket was NOT a popcorn bucket being sold now. They didn’t care. Every refill was $2

Photo Pass - I am the type who sees the photographers and stops. And we did at almost every spot we saw photographers. I think the Photo Pass is worth it. Between the ten of us we must have over 300 photographs.

Ride Wait Times – DON’T BELIEVE THEM. Cut them in half. I think Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad and Jungle Cruise were the only two rides that held true to their times. Everything else was cut in half. Many of the rides were 20-25 minutes or less.

If you have any questions please ask away.

 

[Eastern]

wow, fun trip. Lots of good tips in this review

 

[SuperPreparo]

Fun report!! Sounds like you had a great trip!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

What a fun trip report and love the closing photo. Sounds like you guys had a blast! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Suejacken]

Great report. We live in Delaware County and we have 2 upcoming trips planned. My nephew and his wife are driving both times. I’m flying because I don’t think I could take that drive anymore. Glad you had a great trip

 

[snikki]

Great report. We’ve done the ride a few times from Jersey, right outside of Philly. We also did the early morning to get past DC before rush hour.

Did your nephew stay at the house with you guys or did he stay somewhere else?

Glad you guys had a great trip!