Can We Even Spend a Whole Day at Hollywood Studios?
Early Morning Bliss
On day 2, I got up early to participate in my favorite Disney park practice. I love being up and walking around the resorts before anyone else is awake. I love taking photographs just before sunrise. The deep blue color of the Florida sky just before sunrise is unbelievable. The starbursts I can pull out of the lights around the properties bring a sense of fantasy and grandness to each photograph.
Even though the photography is great, I love soaking in the silence even more. I love being alone with my creative thoughts and not having to avoid the crowds. This time is an introvert’s dream!
Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is great for this practice. The fact that the resort is laid out around the lake with sprawling grounds and fun alcoves brings my creative, introverted brain plenty of pleasure.
Overall, I rate CB highly. I like the fact that the resort is spread out and has walking paths ribboned across the property. The downside of the spread out nature of this resort is that transportation can be really difficult. Custom House, which is the main building, is very far from any of the other buildings. There are also several stops using Disney bus transportation. These stops make commuting to the parks a painfully slow process.
I really like the beach areas and the pool is a really cool feature. I also really like the Caribbean Cay island area. It is a fun place to send your children to play, or to unwind at the end of the day. I cannot review CB without referencing the major elephant in the room. There are large-scale renovations going on at this resort which will drastically change your experience if you are visiting while they are taking place.
Currently, Disney is revamping the Old Port Royale area, adding Skyliner Gondolas, and constructing Disney’s Riviera Resort. These factors have a couple of practical implications. The first, and most significant, is that the dining situation at CB is not awesome. Disney has added a tented dining facility, one quick service window, and a couple of food trucks. I think the food trucks are a fun idea, but the rest of the options are best to be avoided. They get the job done, but Disney World offers so many great dining options that it makes very little sense to waste your money here.
The other practical implication is that there are large areas of the resort behind fences. This can make your walk less aesthetically pleasing and less efficient. This was not a huge issue for Sarah and I because we only stayed for one night, but I could see how it would be annoying for anyone staying for a longer period of time.
I tend to be “cup half-full” about renovations at Disney properties. This resort could be amazing when all the changes are completed. I really liked the resort while the renovations were going on, but I think it will be truly special once it is a completed property. Full resort review coming soon!
After I returned, Sarah was up and ready to go. We arranged our bags to be picked up by Bell Services at 7:40am. When we called the night before, they suggested we give them a 40-minute window to pick up the bags. They arrived at 7:45am, so I was incredibly impressed! Hot tip: if you want to resort hop but hate the idea of lugging your luggage, call Bell Services and they will get it for you! They even take it to your next resort!
Hurry Up to Chill
After they picked up our bags, we walked across the parking lot to our bus stop. We jumped on a bus and entered Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We got in line to enter the park roughly 10 minutes before they started allowing people in the park.
After we scanned our MagicBands, we participated in another practice that we have adopted. We rope dropped Starbucks! We noticed that there was no line, so we dove inside Trolley Car Cafe and ordered our gratuitous “we need to get the most money out of this snack credit as possible!” drinks.
Sarah’s drink of choice for the week and a half was a Venti White Mocha, no whipped cream, extra hot. My drink of choice was an abominable Trenta Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew. If calories counted at WDW, which they don’t, we would be off the charts for our visit.
This was the first time we encountered the issues associated with resort hopping on the
Disney Dining Plan. If you are crazy and want to put yourself through this torture, here is what you need to do.
Hot tip: in order to resort hop on the Disney Dining Plan, call in and check out of your resort every morning and use every mug, snack, and meal every day. Due to some solid work from an amazing Cast Member at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, we figured out that it helps the system to check out every morning. Each CM we talked to said we didn’t need to, but just ask them to do it anyways. Also, the dining plan does not transfer over to your next reservation until you use every aspect of it. If you have questions, please put them in the comments so we can help you!
Thanks to the incredible CM working at TCC, we did not have to pay cash for our drinks. She gave them to us for free! What great customer service! Spoiler alert: this is not the last time we would get free things during this trip!
After we got our drinks we, weirdly, decided not to rope drop an attraction. We would have needed to finish our gargantuan drinks before we got in line, so it made very little sense to make ourselves sick by chugging these calorie and caffeine monsters. Insted, we sat in the shade on Sunset Boulevard and enjoyed a beautiful Central Florida day. We took notes about our experiences at Pizzafari, Tusker House, and CB. You know, the flashy side of travel blogging!
After I was done with my drink, I decided I would try the single rider line for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. The line was longer than usual, but still took much less time than the normal wait. This single rider is possibly the worst at WDW. Due to there being an even number of seats in each row, there is rarely an opportunity to jump in. Being that I had plenty of time, I even got the chance to prop my camera up on a pole and take a long exposure of the attraction embarking upon its crazy ride around Los Angeles.
Ok, Business Time
After I was done, we journeyed over to Toy Story Mania to once again battle for Coleman home supremacy. Unsurprisingly, Sarah won. She always wins. I am not sure what the issue is, but I embarrass myself. One of these days, I will read an article about how to cheat and win. But for now, Sarah is the reigning champion.
As we exited the attraction, it started to rain. We decided to wait out the weather while watching the sneak peek of Coco. The sneak peek was fun. Now that we have seen the film, we are in love. The animation is unreal. The story is amazing. The emotions are too real.
It was still raining, so we decided to go to the next closest attraction. This happened to be Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Sarah and I are not fans of this show. It is just not good. I don’t have a problem with a lot of it, but it just feels half hearted. They skip a majority of the film, the puppetry is outdated, and they douse you with water (if that is a spoiler, you’re welcome!). We would have done better to sit outside in the rain.
After we exited the auditorium, I was craving a snack. The problem with the snack credits at WDW is that they have very little savory options. Other than at the Epcot food festivals, you have popcorn or a pretzel (that is an exaggeration, but they are very heavily in favor of sweet snacks). Fortunately, Sarah loves fake nacho cheese. We got a Mickey Pretzel and drowned our sorrows in processed cheese.
After our pretzel was finished, we walked over to Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage. We sang along to the songs and and my stomach decided it wanted to join in on the fun. Either I was still starving, or the processed cheese was winning. The good news was that we had a lunch reservation that we were both really excited about. I booked the Fantasmic! Dining Package at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano.
Sarah and I both love Italian food. We both especially love copious amounts of good Italian food. Mama Melrose’s delivered on both of these. We entered the dining room and it was like I was transported to an old Italian diner in LA. It was dark and cozy feeling and there were plenty of random items adorning the walls.
We were shocked when our server came to the table and informed us that the Fantasmic! Dining Package included appetizer, entree, and dessert for both of us. This was especially shocking when single-serving flatbreads were appetizers. Sarah ordered Crispy Calamari which came with an amazing citrus dipping sauce. I ordered the Pepperoni Flatbread which was great WDW pizza.
Being that we were already completely stuffed, we decided to save half of the appetizer course for later snacking. For our entrees, we ordered Oven-baked Chicken alla Parmigiana and Grilled Flat Iron Steak. Sarah liked the chicken dish, but I thought the flavor was lacking. We both enjoyed the steak dish. The steak was slightly tough, but the cheese pasta was amazing on the side.
We Need a Nap
We rolled out of the restaurant in desperate need of a nap. It is hard work eating that much food! We arrived at our next resort, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, and were ready to pass out. We quickly called Bell Services to see if our bags had arrived yet. Spoiler alert, they never arrived by the time we returned to our resort.
Hot tip: pack EVERYTHING you need for each day in your park touring bag if you are resort hopping. The inter-resort transport will happen, but expect it to take until 3-4pm.
Eventually, the bags did arrive and we were able to go out and explore the resort to take pictures. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my tripod in our park touring bag, so we had to wait. As we walked out, we tipped the man who delivered our bags and we wandered around the resort.
One thing we learned from this trip is that we really appreciate Moderate hotels. Sarah and I both agreed that the sprawling grounds and larger beds made these resorts an ideal fit.
We both took pictures and fell in love with the resort. The layout around the lake makes for a fun walk, the pool and recreation area is really fun, and the main building is well-themed and presents guests with several dining and entertainment options. The fact that the convention center is attached gives this resort a very different feel. More on the resort in Part 3!
By the time we returned to our room, it was dark and we were ready to go back to HS for Fantasmic! Unfortunately, we forgot our Dining Package Fantasmic! tickets in the room. The downside of our building at CS is that we did not have an elevator. I ran up 4 flights of stairs and grabbed our tickets. Then we both ran to the bus to catch it before it left.
Hollywood or Bust
We returned to HS and were not sure if we actually wanted to partake in any attractions or shows before Fantasmic! We had an awkward amount of time before Fantasmic!, so we just ate! Nothing like stuffing your face to pass the time! We also had a great view of Sunset Seasons Greetings!
Sarah and I split at Fajita Platter from Fairfax Fare and then Sarah got ice cream from Hollywood Scoops. We were definitely still full from lunch, so we unhealthily full by the time we were done eating Mexican food and ice cream. We hobbled up the hill to Fantasmic! And got our our seats 10 minutes before the show started.
Surprisingly, we still got amazing seats. I decided that, rather than taking pictures during the entire show, I would just sit back and enjoy. It had been a while since I had taken in a nighttime spectacular without taking photos. But don’t worry, here is a shot from one of my previous viewings!
We exited the park and went back to our room. We were going to need to be up early for a Magic Kingdom day the next morning. Those days are no-nonsense! We needed our beauty rest!
I believe there is decent evidence here to call it our favorite. We find ourselves mindlessly singing, “IN THE BIIIG BLUE WORLD!” and “GO WITH THE FLOOOOW!” all the time. We are slightly obsessed. I believe we are obsessed for good reason. I think this show is excellent. The costuming is fun, the story is engaging, and the songs are ridiculously catchy. My mark of a good show is that “stuck in your head” factor. Finding Nemo has that in excess.
) our very first visit together to a Disney park. We have wisened considerably since.
