March Not-That-Madness - Our Surprisingly Smooth March 2022 Vacation! *NEW 4/3*

[keh422]

My goodness, you are so much fun. I'm trying to come out of lurkdom more, and I can't wait to follow along with your trip. We tried Genie+ back in November, and we never really felt like we completely got the hang of it, so I'm looking forward to reading about your experience with it.

 

[Jess_VacayMode]

I have enjoyed your past trip reports. Looking forward to this one.

 

[Edeyore]

Okay enough of the preamble. We want the trip report.

 

[Lilias]

We went the same week as you and had not the greatest time (but my expectations were on the ground like yours, so it was okay), so I'm very interested to see how you salvaged such an extremely hot, crowded, and stormy week! :O

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m joining in, love to hear about your spring break trip!

 

[Hubie]

Hopping on board. We're thinking about a cruise and WDW visit in November, but definitely will fly this time.

 

[Newsies]

My goodness, you are so much fun. I'm trying to come out of lurkdom more, and I can't wait to follow along with your trip. We tried Genie+ back in November, and we never really felt like we completely got the hang of it, so I'm looking forward to reading about your experience with it.

Thank you so very much for the kind words and for following along! Genie+ is definitely a learning curve, I heard it was pretty hard to navigate back in November and December!

I have enjoyed your past trip reports. Looking forward to this one.

Thank you so much, update coming soon!

Okay enough of the preamble. We want the trip report.

HA update coming soon Promise it's worth the wait!

We went the same week as you and had not the greatest time (but my expectations were on the ground like yours, so it was okay), so I'm very interested to see how you salvaged such an extremely hot, crowded, and stormy week! :O

Ah, so sorry to hear that you didn't have the best time There were definitely still some sore spots and frustration throughout WDW. We normally travel in the summer, so we didn't think it was that hot in comparison to our last trip (which was brutal), but the crowds and storms were definitely rough!

I’m joining in, love to hear about your spring break trip!

Hey there!! It's so nice to see you I'm so happy to have you here again and I can't wait to post again soon!

Hopping on board. We're thinking about a cruise and WDW visit in November, but definitely will fly this time.

Hey there, thanks for joining in! I appreciate you being here!

 

[SEAGULL59]

Following!!

 

[Newsies]

Travel Day(s): March 4-5, 2022
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To those of you who aren't familiar with our travel routine: we drive to WDW from NJ every year (mom does not fly). Typically, our drive begins at 11:00 on a Friday night, we stop in Georgia overnight on Saturday, and then on Sunday morning we finish the drive to the Parks. I will make this update as quick as possible so that we can get to our Disney days ASAP!

I had a half day of work that Friday, so I woke up at my normal time, made myself some coffee, and logged in to my computer (my office is still remote 3/5 days of the week). Longest. Half. Day. Ever. At some point during my work day, mom and Grace took our dog, Roxie, to her puppy boarding hotel for the week.

1:00 comes around and I log off for the day. At that point, dad still hasn't come home from his workday yet, so mom, Grace, and I went to get our nails done. This is my favorite pre-travel tradition ... I just love relaxing at the salon and knowing I have a full week off of work ahead of me at my happy place! I don't have any nail photos from the salon, but I got white nail polish (I'm kind of obsessed with it lately) that will pop up in photos throughout the report.

Dad's already home by the time we're back from the salon, so we spend a few hours just kind of watching various Disney YouTubers together. We watched a few reviews of Space 220, packed the truck a little bit, and then dad went up to get a few hours of sleep before starting the drive. Mom got pizza for dinner, I took a quick shower, I finished packing my things into the truck. I also somehow found my Apple Watch that's been lost for a year? So I charged that, got it all re-calibrated on my phone, and by 10:00, I was watching the Full House episode where they visit Disney World and had lit a Polynesian resort lobby scented candle.

Finally, around 11:00, dad wakes everybody else in the family up so we can start driving to our happy place. Our trip officially started when we headed out the door at 11:19 PM!

Our first stop of the night:

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A quick trip to Wawa for some coffee and road trip snacks! I got a bag of chips ahoy and we got back on the road.

We had a great night of driving with no traffic on the I95! We stopped for breakfast at 7:30 in the morning at the Rocky Mount NC Cracker Barrel. I got Blueberry pancakes and they were wonderful.

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While we were at the Cracker Barrel store, Grace and I saw these stuffed bees that looked so ridiculous that for $4.99 a bee, we had to each take one home:

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We had a really pleasant morning of driving-- the weather was nice (and the temperature was getting warmer!), we stopped to stretch our legs at the South Carolina welcome center, where it was already 70 degrees-- it was 28 degrees when we left NJ, so we enjoyed some of the sunshine and heat for a few minutes before starting the drive back up again.

We were ready for lunch when we reached Walterboro, so we stopped at Zaxby's. We don't have Zaxby's up north, so we make it a point to stop here for lunch on our drive down every year. Here are my wings and things:

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This whole plate hit the spot!

We had another seamless few hours of driving and listening to Y2K hits on the radio before we finally arrived at our final exit off I95 for the night -- Exit 3, Kingsland, GA!

We always stop at a motel in Kingsland on our drive down. On a good day of driving like this, we'll get there at 5:30 in the evening. Kingsland is the last exit in Georgia off of I95, so the next morning, we really just need to get through all of Florida -- 2.5 hours of driving and we're at the House of Mouse.

In recent years, we've gone back and forth between Fairfield Inn & Suites and Microtel, two motels that are across from each other. We had a reservation at Microtel this trip... and this is where we hit the only snafu of the trip.

In the past, I've said that they were both decent, but I preferred Fairfield Inn & Suites, as the rooms had been refurbished more recently and the hotel itself was generally cleaner. Of course, for just one night, we really just need a bed to crash on, so we'll typically go with the cheaper option, which is Microtel. But after this trip, we can firmly say... never again Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Kingsland.

After we got our room key, we grabbed our bags and headed to the room, which was on the first floor. Well, as soon as we opened the door, we were overcome with the strongest odor we've ever encountered. It smelled like someone got sick on one of the beds. And the smell was coming from inside the actual room, not the bathroom. Everyone could smell it, and we knew we couldn't stay in a room that smelled like this all night. We alerted the manager on duty, who promptly shrugged and said she could either Febreeze the room or give us a refund for the night, as the hotel was now completely booked and there were no other rooms to put us in.

After taking our refund, we sped across the street to Fairfield Inn & Suites, who miraculously had availability for us. It was a very nice, odorless room. We put our bags down and relaxed for maybe half an hour before we decided we were going to grab a quick dinner at Dairy Queen. I put in a mobile order and we all got some burgers and fries to tie off our evening!

I took a quick shower at 8:30 and went to sleep with my alarm set for 4:00 AM!

(Click here to continue!)​

 

[Newsies]

Following!!

Thanks for joining in, I really appreciate it!

 

[rdkeim]

I love reading about travel days! Pretty seamless drive so far but there always has to be at least 1 snafu. We've stayed at 1 Microtel and it just didn't have a good vibe. It was a 1 and done for us. Hope the rest of your road trip is smooth!

 

[viatabuna]

Love love travel days! Excited to read about the rest.

Also, my daughter is doing a production of Newsies Jr. at her middle school and we are SO EXCITED. I was OBSESSED with the 1992 film growing up but never listened to the Broadway recording until now - love that too. Just had to mention it!

 

[tara595]

Excited to read! Do you all take turns driving? I'm impressed with the all night drive!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more. I am going in May for my first Genie + trip. I go back and forth about dreading it and being excited .

 

[footballmouse]

 

[shortster]

Following! We’re headed to WDW very soon and I love hearing about those who have had enjoyable trips despite busy parks. We’re going in with adjusted expectations and eyes open about crowds, Genie+, etc. But it really makes me smile when I read trip reports like yours!

 

[Newsies]

I love reading about travel days! Pretty seamless drive so far but there always has to be at least 1 snafu. We've stayed at 1 Microtel and it just didn't have a good vibe. It was a 1 and done for us. Hope the rest of your road trip is smooth!

It was smooth sailing from here on out!

Love love travel days! Excited to read about the rest.

Also, my daughter is doing a production of Newsies Jr. at her middle school and we are SO EXCITED. I was OBSESSED with the 1992 film growing up but never listened to the Broadway recording until now - love that too. Just had to mention it!

I love writing about the travel days, thanks for joining in!

I am SO THRILLED to see another Newsies fan on the boards! I named myself in 2013 after the Broadway show, lol-- I was the opposite where I was obsessed with the Broadway show before I saw the movie!

Excited to read! Do you all take turns driving? I'm impressed with the all night drive!

Thanks for joining along! Mom and dad take turns driving-- Grace and I hate driving at home and get super anxious if we have to go on the highway for any reason, so it's better that the parents stay behind the wheel on our journey to and from Florida!

Following along. Looking forward to reading more. I am going in May for my first Genie + trip. I go back and forth about dreading it and being excited .

Thank you so much for following along! Genie+ is super easy to use and it got us some great ride selections during our trip! If you are rope-drop people, there's a huge benefit to using Genie+ IMO because the availability is so great in the morning.

Thanks for being here!

Following! We’re headed to WDW very soon and I love hearing about those who have had enjoyable trips despite busy parks. We’re going in with adjusted expectations and eyes open about crowds, Genie+, etc. But it really makes me smile when I read trip reports like yours!

Thank you so much for following along! You are going to have a blast on our upcoming trip Updating this TR soon!

 

[Newsies]

Epcot/Arrival Day: March 6, 2022
Early Morning at Epcot
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I woke up on my own at 3:30 AM, and since my alarm was set for 4:00 AM anyway, I decided to just get a head start on getting ready for the day.

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It took the family about an hour to get ready and we left Georgia at 5:00 in the morning.

We were across the state line in 5 minutes and we were on the road for about an hour until we made our first stop at our second favorite place in Florida...

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We are Buc-ee's FREAKS and we can't get enough of this place! Seriously... if you drive to WDW on I95 and haven't stopped at Buc-ee's yet, what are you waiting for? We look forward to our stopping at this gas station/convenience store mecca on our drive down every time. Clean restrooms, fun souvenirs, and great food! There's a Buc-ee's at St. Augustine and another one at Daytona Beach, today we stopped at St. Augustine.

I got the Buc-ee's Tour t-shirt pictured above and a bag of the teriyaki beef jerky for the road, and we all got some form of breakfast. For breakfast, I got an ice coffee and a brisket taco No photos sadly, but they were both great. Buc-ee's is known for their brisket and it never disappoints me. We were all very happy with our breakfast and then continued our last trek of the trip!

Soon enough it was 7:00 and the moment of truth: my first attempt EVER at booking Genie+/Lightning Lane selections.

I went to book the Individual Lightning Lane at Remy's Ratatouille Adventure first... I was able to secure an ILL reservation at 3:15 for us! It was a little bit later than what we hoped for, BUT we were definitely going to be in the park for dinner an hour after that, so it worked out.

Then I was able took book my first Genie+ Lightning Lane at 9:30 at Soarin' for us. This worked out beautifully: it was exactly what we wanted at the time we wanted. So Genie+ was starting off strong on Day 1 for us!

We drove and drove, getting hyped up by this 50th anniversary billboard and many like it:

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Finally... FINALLY... at 8:23 AM, we were greeted with the beacon of hope that is this newly-painted-blue sign:

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We arrived at our home for the week, Caribbean Beach Resort, closer to 8:30 and immediately dropped our luggage off at bell services. I quickly stopped at Calypso Trading Post (the store inside Port Royale, CBR's main building) to grab the white Magicband I had been eyeing up, and then we got back in the truck and parked closer to where the CBR Skyliner hub is. It was time for us to party in Epcot before our room was ready!

We took the Skyliner over to World Showcase and everything felt right in the world. Just... gliding over Walt Disney World with that beautiful Skyliner breeze, knowing we had a full week of fun in front of us at our favorite place in the World and we were headed to our favorite park. You can't beat it. (For some reason, DIS isn't showing me the full list of emojis to add, but pretend the "Cloud 9" guy is right here, smiling on his little pink cloud)

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We decided it would probably be best if we started making our way towards Future World for our Soarin' LL (it feels weird to type LL instead of FP+!)

As we walked past England, we saw a character attendant in the garden. And where there are character attendants, there are characters!

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We had a very lovely interaction with Alice. We are throwing a parTEA, staying away from insaniTEA, the usual stuff.

On our way over to the Land pavilion, we stopped to take this photo:

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Flower & Garden is my favorite festival right now and I absolutely adore this spot: it's so colorful and it smells so nice!

I'm kicking myself for not photographing this moment, but in the water to our left was a mama duck and 7 or 8 ducklings. They were just too cute! We stopped to watch them for a few minutes with some other guests, then continued our walk.

Mom, Grace, and I stopped to go through Bambi's Butterfly House. We love the Butterfly House! If you visit WDW during Flower & Garden, there's a little tent in between the Land Pavilion and the Imagination Pavilion. This tent houses a few different butterfly varieties, so you can take a nice stroll through the tent and admire many butterflies! It's just something fun to kill time when you're strolling through Epcot.

When we got to the Land pavilion, we were early for Soarin', so we went on Living With the Land. Our first ride of the trip was calm, relaxing, and educational as always!

Then it was time for us to scan in to Soarin' and book our next LL, which I promptly scheduled for the next available window at Spaceship Earth. We had a great time on Soarin' and we were able to immediately head on over to redeem our LL for Spaceship Earth afterwards!

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This is where we ran into trouble with Genie+: Epcot really only has so many attractions you can book with this program, so the only attractions that had immediate availability afterwards were Figment, Living with the Land, and Nemo and Friends, which we really didn't want to do. The only other rides we were really interested in doing that day were Test Track and Frozen, which both only had availability after 7:00 PM, so we stopped utilizing Genie+ LL that day fairly early. This wouldn't always be the case, and we used Genie+ plenty throughout the rest of the trip, but a busy Epcot Sunday was just a little bit of a bust.

In any case, after Spaceship Earth, we were itchin' to try some of the Flower & Garden Festival offerings, so we started walking back towards World Showcase. We stopped at our first booth of the trip, Pineapple Promenade.

Mom and I got the Dole Whip with Mango Cream Liqueur.

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Mom did not like this but I thought it was great. The dole whip was, as always, creamy pineapple deliciousness, and the mango cream liqueur blended well together with it after it had melted in the sun a bit. I would get this again!

Dad wanted to get the Impossible Korean Short Rib dish from Trowel and Trellis, so we stopped there next and got that. I had one bite of it and I thought it was fine, he thought it was one of the best things he had ever eaten. If you are a fan of Impossible meat or meat substitutes in general, you can't go wrong with this dish.

Then we saw our first 50th anniversary statue!

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We decided we'd go on one of my favorite rides, Gran Fiesta Tour!

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After Gran Fiesta Tour, we wanted some more snacks, so we grabbed School Bread and Frozen Viking Coffee from Kringla Bakery in Norway.

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The last time I had School Bread, the cult-classic roll filled with custard and topped with icing and toasted coconut, was back in 2018 and I wasn't a fan of it. This time, I didn't think it was that bad. I think there are better snacks in Epcot, but I can see why fans go crazy for this roll. It's very dense and heavy, but the cream is very tasty!

The Frozen Viking Coffee was incredible, one of the best boozy beverages I've ever had at Disney. It's an iced coffee fixed with Bailey's Irish Cream, Kamora Coffee Liqueur, Coffee-Chocolate Sauce, and these chocolate crunchies on top. It was SO chocolatey and delicious. Like a chocolate-coffee milkshake.

We ate our school bread as we made our way through World Showcase. Eventually, as we approached the American Adventure pavilion, mom announced that she wanted to head back to CBR for a quick break in the hopes that our room would be ready soon, so we made our way back to the Skyliner and flew back to CBR.

(Click here to continue!)​

 

[rdkeim]

You're off to a great start! You made the most of your arrival morning. Glad to read you had some success with Genie +. All your snacks/drinks look so good. Especially the Viking Coffee. I've made a mental note. Hope your room was ready and you were happy with it!

 

[Paulaparm]

That pineapple drink sounds wonderful!
I'm sorry we didn't stop at Buc-ee's. It's definitely on our list for next time!