When expectations are this high - can Mickey deliver?? :) Nov17 with 2 young kids! (Complete)

[Carla1183]

We are home!! Wanting to write all of this out before the memories fade away!

My pretrip report is here, short and sweet!

To intro for anyone not going back to the pre-trip report, kids are 4 and 6. Our first time to Disney with them. We told them way in advance, so we could show them lots of ride videos, introduce characters in movies and get them excited! I didn't regret it at all! They did a paper chain and counted the days. Their excitement and asking Alexa/Echo every day "How many days until the november 14th??" was so awesome!




Ordered our matching shirts on AliExpress way in advance, super cheap!
We flew Southwest, and I was nervous about not doing the Early Bird checkin but decided to risk it even though we were on 2 sets of confirmation check in numbers (2 tickets on $ 2 tickets on points!). The Family Boarding between groups A and B was perfect! We moved straight to the back of the plane and just had our seats all together. Kids happy with iPads, mommy happy with her novel!
Rented with dollar rental, and had booked it about 8 months before the trip. Which turned out to be SMART! The rates went sky high after the hurricane, the booking agent who gave us our car was in shock, said the current rate was 5x what we paid! No issues renting through them at MCO. Super easy walk to the counter, super quick to get us in a car. Carseats were a big debate for us - as our 4 year old should really still be harnessed, but we decided to let him do a booster for this trip so we could fly lighter. It worked out but also showed me he is definitely not ready to be unharnessed!

We then drove to Wyndham Bonnet Creek to check in. It's inside the big Disney gate, but not a Disney resort. It's gorgeous!! Check in was a breeze, we got up to our room and it was so nice having a kitchen, separate sleeping areas for parents/kids, laundry!

We picked up our stroller rental (Kingdom Strollers) and grocery delivery (Dizzy Dolphin) would highly recommend both! Had an awesome experience with them. We even added something the day-of to our Dizzy Dolphin order and they were so quick to communicate and got it added on!
We got fruit, breakfast sandwiches, stuff to make smoothies, waffles, turkey and bread for sandwiches, and some yogurt and cottage cheese. Prices were pretty reasonable and customer service was awesome!

I'll break the post up into days - so next up, park day 1...Epcot!

 

[Carla1183]

Park day 1 - Epcot!
We had FP for Frozen late in the day, and an Akershus brunch at 10:50, so we planned our day around that.

Since it's our first time, we of course had to open with meeting Mickey at the character spot. It was a lowish crowd day so we figured we could hit Soarin' after and we were right!
We aimed for rope drop but didn't actually get to the park until about 9:15.


Character meet line was quick, loved meeting everyone!! Soarin was only about 15 minute line when we got out. We learned that my 4 year old son loves simulator rides and my 6 year old daughter hates them! She sobbed the whole way through, poor thing!
After that it was about time to head over for our ADR at Akershus. We were glad we had the stroller for the times like this when we had to get across the park at a semi-reasonable pace! Akershus was great - waited less than 5 minutes after we checked in. Aurora was out on royal business, and Rapunzel was filling in - which for my kids was an upgrade! We got to meet Belle upfront, Cinderella, Ariel with legs (ha!), snow White, and Rapunzel. I was so impressed how in character they all were. My husband had never seen Tangled and asked me if Rapunzel in the movie is a little more 'real' of a person, I laughed because I hadn't caught on but he was so right, the girl playing her was a little bit sarcastic, sassy, etc as opposed to the demure and giggly Snow White/Cinderella. Which is accurate! We were glad we did brunch since the lunch/dinner menu looked a little adventurous for my crew. They loved all the fruit, yogurt, pastries from the cold bar, we had seconds of the eggs, and thanks to DIS we knew to ask for Mickey Waffles which were a big hit! I was nervous about us getting up to get breakfast when princesses were around but it turned out to be unfounded, we did miss one princess and before they left a manager came by every table to ask if we missed anyone and then sent that princess over! They spent plenty of time with us, my kids were a little shy so they didn't ask a lot of silly questions or anything. It was a great experience!

After lunch we met Anna and Elsa before set off on our World Showcase Tour. Anna was so sweet with my daugher! Told her she LOVED her dress and asked if they could go shopping together some time at Oaken's since they have the same taste. My daughter was so star struck by her, this was the highlight of her day!



We could have spent a whole second day doing World Showcase, I definitely felt rushed! We spent some time in China meeting Mulan, Snacks in Germany, Snacks in France, a few magic shots in France and then had to kind of hustle around to make it to the other side in time to do the Seas before our afternoon FPs.
We walked right on the Nemo ride (yay Touring Plans for being right on with wait times!!), and kids could have spent another hour playing at the shark area and the aquarium. We went on to do Turtle Talk, which was a big hit!! Definitely don't fast pass this, we were glad we didn't as its one big holding area for everyone. My often-shy daughter even asked Crush a question! "Why are you so good at swimming?" Super, super cute show. One of the highlights of Epcot for us!
Then we went across future world to do Mission Space. We did the easier one, even though kids are tall enough for Orange, but my daughter was so freaked out from Soarin' that even that was kind of a bust. She cried getting on and closed her eyes almost the whole ride. Then we went over to Spaceship Earth, which we had a FP for but definitely didn't need (but not like there was anything else we could have FP'd!). I was surprised but the kids LOVED it! Asked to ride it again immediately after! They were in awe that a computer used to fill a room and was now contained in the little mickey on their wrist!

Last we had to circle BACK to Norway for our 4:25 Frozen FP. I tried and tried to get one earlier and couldn't, but it worked out. The ride had been down a few times earlier in the day and the line was about 70 minutes. We were SO glad we had a FP. The ride was super cute, but I'll be honest - I'd never wait more than 20ish minutes for it!


We then finished out the day by grabbing a popcorn bucket and taking a few Photopass pics on the way out. If I had it to do over - I'd have planned a Table Service dinner in Epcot somewhere for about 6. we were wiped from our first day touring, and then had to figure out dinner. We decided to call ahead to Earl of Sandwich and DH just pulled up in valet area and I hopped and went and got it for us as takeout. Turned out to be a good decision as kids barely ate and then passed out at the hotel! The Thanksgiving sandwich at Earl of Sandwich was SO good!! My top 3 fave QS of the week for sure.



So day 1 done!! So far, so good! Touring Plans was scary accurate on all the wait times, we got to do everything we wanted, and everyone was sufficiently worn out!! Day 2 is Magic Kingdom with an 8am opening. I'll come back and do that one later, as I have a turkey that needs to go in the oven!!

 

[musika]

following, we are hoping to go in April with a 6yo DD and 2yo DS so interested to see how your days are structured! I am excited for the character meet and greets!

 

[Carla1183]

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom!


I'll have to reference back to our Touring Plan because we packed SO much into this day! MVMCP day at the park, but we weren't attending party, just taking advantage of the low crowds! The park opened at 8, not for EMH, but just their extended hours they added. My kids are early risers anyway so this was a bonus hour for us! I made Kodiak cake (protein filled!) pancakes the night before in our hotel and made smoothies and packed them in take n toss straw cups, which worked out great. Woke kids up, tossed them their ziploc packed outfits (GENIUS! whoever i picked that tip up from!) and they ate breakfast in the drive over. We left WBC about 7. We parked super close, hopped right on an almost empty monorail and got inside the gates at MK about 7:45.
Original plan was hang out back near train station and hit Mickey and Tink immediately as it opened. But with it being their first time ever, I decided it was worth it to push up on up to the castle and watch the opening show. It was cute, definitely got kids excited and I don't regret it!


Though by time we got back to the theater, there was some kind of issue with Tink and her line was closed, and the wait for Mickey ended up being about 20 minutes (the longest we'd stood in so far!) But he was worth it!! The family in front of us was from Germany and we all practiced saying "Hallo!"/hello in German with them, then my kids asked Mickey to Hot Dog dance with them and he did!


From there we went on to:
Winnie the Pooh (no FP, but line was short due to crowd level, we waited maybe 10 minutes? And the line is so fun with all the little activities kids would have been happy longer!),
Peter Pan with an 840 FP (definitely saved us time based on the line!),
walked onto Carousel,
walked onto Under the Sea Journey of Little Mermaid (got a little winded power walking through where the line WOULD be holy moly!),
walked onto Barnstormer (which my 4 year old LOVED!), then headed to Tomorrowland for
Buzz Lightyear with 10:15 FP, which we didn't need but used anyway
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor (our fave joke of the week is 'I can't hear you, my eyes are closed!!', Kids have been using it daily ever since!)
It's a Small World with about a 10-15 minute line
ALL that before lunch!! :O And genuinely, even though it looked like it on paper, we were not commando touring. We stopped and looked at things along the way, grabbed free water at Cosmic Ray's, had some snacks from our bag.




Lunch we hit up Coloumbia Harbor House, used the MDE Online ordering. My #1 tip from the whole trip is if you aren't doing the dining plan USE THE MOBILE ORDER option on the app!! The line for CHH was out the door and hubby cringed. I sent him/kids upstairs to a table and went straight to counter, grabbed my food that was already ready, and met them upstairs to much relief! No one seems to be using it (I think it was free dining when we were there so prob tons of people can't since they are on DDP, but we told 5 or 6 people about it while we were there and showed them how to use it, so I think people just dont know!) so there is literally zero line with it!
Hubby and I both had mixed baskets of fish, shrimp, chicken. The fish was good, the others were just ok. My kids are odd birds and don't love fried stuff, so I had to pick breading off shrimp and then they ate it happily haha! I know this is a favorite but we found it kind of forgettable. But I think we probably didn't order well.

From there we headed to Adventure land!
Big Thunder Mountain with a 12:25 FP (my son cried, but my daughter who is usually more timid LOVED it, and it started her on a trajectory to beg for roller coasters the rest of the week!)


Tom Sawyer Island - this was one of my fave memories so I figured it would be nostalgic for me, those things never live up for our kids right? Wrong! They were in HEAVEN, after me leading them around all morning being told "Just GO! We will follow you!" and letting them have the freedom to explore was amazing. Once they discovered the fort they got into some kind of imaginary world and didn't even know we were there. It was so fun to watch.
We wanted to see the 2p parade from Pecos Bill's, but they weren't ready to leave yet so I left them at 1:20 and went back to stake out a spot, telling husband to leave there no later than 1:45. By 1:30 when I got over there all of the shaded side (Pecos Bills side) was completely packed already! So I grabbed a spot right in the sun but right up against the rope near the bridge across from Pecos Bill's. Husband texted me about 1:50 and said my son had to use the bathroom and they barely missed the boat and would be late. I was a little bummed, but I promised myself I wouldn't get upset if real life came in the way of my "perfect plan". About the time they second float came by the kids came bouncing up to me to the rope!! It was a great parade, and I was glad we saw it! And truly, they could have played at Tom Sawyer's the rest of the afternoon and been completely happy!
We then circled around and rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin with no line. And while I was on the ride with the kids, I used the MDE app to order a couple of Dole Whips from Aloha Isle and picked up right after we got off! (did I mention the online ordering? because its amazing!!)

We then decided to haul allll the way back across the park to Tomorrowland because I picked up a 4th FP for Tomorrowland Speedway. On the way there we bumped into some kind of Winter/Christmas show with the Frozen cast on the castle stage. Not sure what it was, but we watched for few minutes. It was cute!
And we had a few minutes before the FP so we walked onto the Mad Tea Party.
I'd originally planned to skip Speedway bc lines always look longish and we can ride goKarts at home. It turned out to be one of the kids favorites! My 4 year old loved getting to be in control especially!

So it was now about 4, and we were all pretty wiped. We put kids in stroller and walked back down main, my husband popped into the confectionary for fudge. Suddenly the Move it Shake it Dance party parade comes down the street - I never see this talked about in Disney groups so I didn't really know much about it. A cast member knelt down and told me and kids (sitting on the curb) that if we followed the parade to the Hub the characters would come down off the floats and dance with the kids. I figured my kids were both too tired but sudden burst of Pixie energy lit up their eyes and they said "PLEASE?? Can we go??" So I literally ducked my head into the confectionary, told husband we were going to run to the hub and we'd be back, and abandoned him there! We pushed the stroller to about Caseys and then abandoned it too. took kids by hand and ran into the hub. It turned out to be one of my favorite moments of the entire trip! It seriously felt to me like the way sitcom families enjoy disney, remember the old Full House episodes? Kids danced with Judy Hopps, Nick Fox, Stitch, Mr Incredible, the Genie! It was so, so cool. My daughter was Judy Hopps for halloween 2 years ago so it was especially special for her! We were so glad we stumbled on it!!



So then we were really, really wiped! We had tentatively discussed going to Poly to eat and play on the beach, but we were just out of energy. So we ordered Flippers pizza delivered to our hotel. It was SO good!! Their breadsticks especially were really awesome.

All in all, a great day! We were so glad we went on a party day for our first MK day. We got in a ton of attractions without feeling overwhelmed and got to enjoy some things without shoulder to shoulder crowds!
Next up...Animal Kingdom

 

[Mskia]

I am really enjoying your trip report, and I am taking notes for my trip in January!

 

[Carla1183]

Day 3, Animal Kingdom!


Checking 15x like a maniac I had finally managed to get 2 sets of 2 FPs for FOP. So clearly the rest of our day was shuffled and arranged around those! They were at 10:10am and 4:25pm, so we basically planned to make a big circle around the park, meeting Pandora once in the morning and then again at the very end of our day.

Since we didn't have to RD FOP, which was going to be our other plan, we decided to hit the Safari first, with a 9a fast pass. We didn't get to the bag lines until about 9:05, so we didn't actually rope drop anything, haha! Thanks to DISboards I knew the far right was the way to go, and we walked past tons of people in long bag check lines to the 3 or 4 folding tables they had set up for additional bag checks on the far right and sailed through. They were making announcements telling people to go there and no one was listening!
The park felt PACKED to me. Especially compared to the low crowds we experienced at MK the day before, I felt like I was kind of suffocating from all the people. It was lighter once we got to africa, but not as light as I expected once the throngs moved on into Pandora. I had assumed the FP for Safaris would be a waste that early and it would be walk on, but it wasn't! It saved us probably 20+ minutes in line even that early that day! The Safari was fantastic! There was a new baby bongo who decided he had to cross the road when we approached, so we ended up hanging out there for a long time watching him, it was so cute! (and my kids are mildly obssessed with baby animals!). We saw tons of elephants, giraffes, warthogs, the lions were out sunbathing on the rocks. It gets overshadowed by some of the bigger experiences at the park, but I don't want to downplay how great of a job Disney has done making this such a neat experience!



We'd hoped to make it to the 10a Lion King show after our Safari, but between us getting in late and taking the extra time to watch the Bongos on the ride, we got out right at 9:55 and there was no way to make it. (This is where I had to swallow my pain about my 'perfect plan' and play it cool! We had a 90+ minute break in the afternoon where I hadn't decided if we'd do Maharajah jungle trek or Gorilla Trails, so I just plugged it in there!) We took a little break, danced with the drummers in Africa (and if my husband ever releases the video of me from that I will kill him!). I did find the lack of QS options open in Africa in the morning kind of frustrating. It took us a bit to even find someone to get water from, so just a heads up on that!* So after dancing a little with the drummers we walked over to Pandora for my husband/daughter to ride FOP at about 10:30.

In Pandora the line for FOP was already 150+ minutes...and throughout the day we watched on Lines app and MDE app and talked to CMs. It reached almost 5 hours at some point in the day!!! I think that was an exceptionally bad day for whatever reason, but beware! My daughter was a little freaked out after hating Soarin' so much but agreed to go. Unfortunately they had a rough experience. She hated it and closed her eyes most of the time. My husband is blind in one eye and this was one of the only 3D things I planned for that reason. We'd assumed he'd be able to see it in 2D with the glasses on, as he often can with 3D things but it was still somewhat blurry for him. (He also forgot to switch from his prescription sunglasses to glasses before they went, AND he gets motion sickness and forgot to take a pill before getting on like he did with Soarin'. So needless to say, it was miserable for the 2 of them!! Such a bummer, but glad we had a FP for them to find out instead of waiting 2 hours in line!)

While they were riding, my son and I wandered around Pandora, found a Photopass photog to play with a little, and then grabbed my early lunch at S'atuli Canteen. (The rest of the family is not adventurous eaters and wanted Flaming Tree!). My food was GREAT! I had the steak bowl with sweet potato/potato base, the creamy herb sauce, and when I picked up the food (again - Mobile Ordered on the MDE app! DO IT people!) I asked the guy if I could try the other 2 sauces and he seemed almost excited for me to try them all and got me little cups of each. It was plenty of food, though not enough to have shared. It was my 2nd fave QS meal of the week (after BOG), and I highly recommend it!

After that we started our big circle of the park walking over to DinoLand USA. We picked up Flame Tree BBQ on the way, Pulled Pork sandwiches and fries. (Again...and I will keep saying it until you guys listen...with Mobile Order! We showed people standing in line how to use it and their food was probably ready before they took 1 step forward in the line!). My husband really liked the Pulled Pork, I think it was probably his fave QS of the week! The kids ate in the stroller on the way over to Dinoland (we just left the tray and took the little paper plates). And then I played in the boneyard with them while he ate. The Boneyard was GREAT! Like Tom Sawyer, the kids loved having a little time to just have some freedom and run around with no direction. Hoping Toy Story land at HS has something similar because they really need it! I cringed when I first saw the digging pit thinking "SAND. My great enemy. Disney I will destroy you" Then I realized it was some kind of non-dusty gravel. THANK YOU DISNEY for knowing parents making us love you again and again! We could have played for hours but we gave the kids just an hour or so until it was time to go to 1p Nemo. i'd had Triceratop Spin penciled in here but the line was long, we didnt have a FP, and I gave kids the option and they opted for more play time.

The Nemo show was SO cute! It was the first time I think my kids have seen any musical theater really and it held their attention the whole time! The entrance/exit there is kind of a cluster mess, to the point that I thought we might not get into the show, but once we funnelled in we could see it was just a mix of people coming/going and the theater actually didn't fill up!

After that we followed the circle around to Asia to ride Everest. This is where I flat out lied to my kids. My son is iffy on rollercoasters but tall enough to ride (he's 4, but 44", 95th percentile!) he was a little scared on Big Thunder Mountain the day before but made it through. I straight up told him that because Everest is a mountain too, it's probably exactly the same rollercoaster. He was a little worried, but we had FPs so we were only in line for aboiut 5 minutes for him to think about it. As for the ride itself? He left pretty mad at me. It is SUCH a cool coaster, but it goes forward/backward. changes tracks, and has a giant scary yeti in a cave. Soooo maybe not for little kids who are scared of the dark, monsters, or rollercoasters. He was physically trembling when we got off. OOPS. My daughter (6) loved it! She started to freak about the yeti but my genius husband told her "Let's fight him off!!" and started throwing punches at it! She was super into it.


This was the point in the day where I originally had a long break, but we decided to plug in Lion King at 3p. We grabbed some Mickey ice creams and walked over to Africa. Waiting for the show we broke out the Sticker Puzzles I brought (like $5-$10 on Amazon, though I feel like they should cost more like $1, but were worth it!) - big time parenting hack! Other moms asked where we got them, they definitely helped pass the 20 minutes or so hanging out to get into the the theater.
The Lion King show was outstanding!! Do not miss! My daughter did a little theater camp this summer where she sang Just Can't Wait to be King, so it was especially fun for her, but we all really loved it. The acrobat monkeys were so amazing, the audience participation, the music/singing was so well done! At one point when a big animatronic elephant came in my 4 year old with his mouth hanging open literally let out a breathy "whoaa". It was magic!

We then had a little time to make it back around to Pandora for our last FPs for FOP. We happened to see Timon on the way there and stopped for pics. My biggest regret of the day was going to be not having time to trek all the way up to planet watch to meet Rafiki because my kids are HUGE Lion Guard fans and there is basically no Lion Guard in the parks at all. Timon sufficed! My daughter had just picked her one souvenier for the trip - a baby Simba in a swaddle (possibly the cutest stuffed animal I've ever seen) and Timon was so cute when she showed him to him! We also happened to get be in the line when Timon went to take his 'break' which was super quick, only about 10 minutes tops. During that time the photographer who was going to do the Timon shots was waiting too so I asked him if there was any chance he could do the Lion Guard magic shot for us, and he was happy to! So always ask!


Now my real review on FOP. My son loved Soarin', so even though my daughter poisoned the well telling him it was terrifying, I had hope we'd enjoy it. With a FP, the wait was 10 maybe 15 minutes? They measured my son 3 total times in line, he got the OK at the entrance, the OK midline, and then they ALMOST didn't let him on with the last measurement. So if your kid is a little shy of 44" know they are VERY strict with the height. Once it's your turn to ride there are 2 5-10 minute pre-video rooms. They give you your glasses (which seem unnecessarily HUGE. I could barely keep them on my adult face and my son had to tip his face up to have any change of them staying on!) and then into the room. The little bikes are easy to sit on, and I can see why they are strict on height because even one inch shorter my sons feet wouldnt have touched the floor. You sit like you are on a horse or bike and then plates come up to your calves and back to hold you in. It seems a little odd before the video comes on but when it does you are like instantly transported. Everyone in the room, including myself and my son seemed to have a giant goofy grin plastered on their face. Lots of wows, whoos, etc. Even glancing at him every couple of minutes to make sure he was doing ok didn't distract me from being totally immersed in the experience, even jumping a little when it swoops down and you feel like you're going to hit things. The ride was so, so cool. My fave of the week, my son's fave of the week. Wish we'd ridden twice and not wasted the other 2 FPs on my husband/daughter!
I tried to talk my son into a stuffed banshee as his souvenier but he was determined to have a bubble wand, which of course broke in 1 day. They are so cool out of the package, but don't expect them to be a lifetime memory!


Our FP for FOP were at 4:25, and we had gotten in line about 4:20. So afterward we booked it pretty much right to the exit and to the car to make it to our 6p ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We were glad we had a car and didn't have to mess with waiting for a bus!

Whispering Canyon was so fun! I didn't make a lot of table service reservations because I knew how tired we'd be at the end of the day, but this was so different than having to make the kids sit and eat at a regular place! We ordered the skillet, got to do the ketchup thing, stick horse races, hokey pokey, and our waitress was so funny. My son was all over the place (did I mention tired at teh end of the day!) and she came over and told him firmly to SIT DOWN. She could barely keep from laughing, he minded her immediately and every time she was going to walk by our table he'd go from wallowing all over to sitting up perfectly straight eating nicely. It was awesome and I wanted her to come home with us!


Overall it was an awesome day! I was iffy at first because of the crowds, but we could definitely have made this a 2 day park and added on some of the trails and PlanetWatch. There just wasn't enough time to fit it all in! My main tips are again - Mobile Order if you can, bring water, and if in doubt, wear shorts. A lot less of this park is indoor/shaded so we were hot! Bring sunglasses and hats. Decide your priorities, because there is just no way to do everything!
And our biggest lesson was how much we loved the table service, we both said next time we'd plan more of them at the end of our touring days!

*Note on waters - we brought the kids refillable Funtainer cups and just got free water from any QS or stand that had fountain drinks. It worked out really well! Most bigger QS restaurants with a counter to order from had trays of ice water cups ready to go sitting out, and we'd just go up past lines and grab 4, refill kids cups with 2 and drink the other 2. If we had it to do over we'd have 4 refillable cups - we figured we wouldn't want the weight of them in our backpack, but we ended up leaving all the waters in the strollers a lot anyway and easily could have left our bigger ones! We thought the water tasted fine, especially when cold from ice. We really never felt the need to buy water bottles!

 

[Carla1183]

Day 4 - Hollywood Studios!



We are not big into star wars, so when I made my Touring Plan I noticed we wouldn't need a full day here. I planned for us to start at 1pm and stay through Fantasmic. My husband and I both said if we had to do over we'd probably go at rope drop, swim in the afternoon, then go back for dinner and Fantasmic. I know everything will change when Toy Story Land opens, but for us there just was not enough to do in this park! It was probably a little bit of a combo of that, plus it being day 4, but I feel like we were all a little cranky this day!

So we swam at Wyndham Bonnet Creek in the morning. The pools are great! We brought our own cheap little blow up rings for the kids to float in the lazy river. They did that, swam in the zero entry pool, and played at one of the splash pads. I also made Mickey Waffles for breakfast in the Mickey Waffle Maker in the DISboards WBC Pay-it-Forward bin!! (So awesome!)

Then we went to lunch at 11:45 at Beaches and Cream. It was good, but I feel like for the price we could have done a lot better burger at a QS somewhere. But the waitstaff was great, my son was a little cranky and one of the waiters actually spoon fed him (he's 4!!) to convince him to eat!! My husband had the chicken fried steak, I had the tuna salad croissant, and my daughter had mac and cheese. We decided to skip ice cream because the kids were a little cranky and we figured more sugar wasn't going to make that better!
But we did love getting to see the boardwalk and the gorgeous Gingerbread Carousel. It smells so amazing!

Then onto HS for our 12:45-1:45 FP for Toy Story Mania. The ride was fun, (except for my husband who can't see 3d!) but I feel like it was pretty much a 3d version of the Buzz Lightyear one at MK? Kids liked it, but we wouldn't have stood in a long line for it.
We had a gap in time after that so we went to see Buzz and Woody. The line said 20 minutes but was probably closer to 30. It was the longest line we'd stood in on the trip so far, and we were so glad to have the sticker puzzles to break out!


The line was long, but I will say the characters took their time with us, and they were so funny! They danced with my daughter and my son kept telling Buzz "You are a TOY Buzz!!" and he was totally playing along. it was cute!



After that we hit the Frozen show with FPs. The kids liked it, but weren't nearly as into it as I expected! The snow did win them over though at the end
Then we went to the Little Mermaid show with our last FPs, it was cute, but maybe a little forgettable, especially compared to the Beauty and the Beast show we did next! We all really loved it, and my kids have been doing dance shows to mimic it ever since we got home! We did pick up last minute FPs for it just in case (since we went to the 5p show and it was the last one of the day).

We grabbed some hummus and veggies from a QS (which i was so happy to see!) and made our way through massive crowds on Sunset blvd (I hadn't realized it was dapper day and everyone must have been hopping over to HS for the Christmas stuff!), and headed over to the only show that starts after 5:30 pm - Indiana Jones. Unfortunately it was cancelled for the day so we suddenly found ourselves with 530-730 stretching in front of us before Fantasmic and nothing to do! The kids danced and played on the steps in front of Indiana for about 30 minutes (recreating dances from B&B!) and then we went to Backlot Express for dinner. Chicken and Waffles was just ok, mobile ordered once again which was nice, and just let kids play in one of the patio areas that was fairly empty.

Then we went over to meet Olaf, which was cute, but was the most rushed of any character meet I'd done, I felt like they shuffled us through really fast, one quick pic then get out! But kids were happy.


Last we headed over to Fantasmic! Now my kids are Descendants nuts - which is why we did this one. It was one of the few places to see Maleficent, which is as close as we could get to Descendants in the parks. We got there about 7:50 with 5th FPs we picked up at hte last minute. The main FP section was already full but the seats we got (Jafar section I think?) were still fine, we didn't have any trouble seeing. I had a big bag of random glow stuff we bought in an after Halloween bin, and the kids had fun passing out bracelets and necklaces to the kids around us!
The show was great!! I can see how it would be too scary for some younger kids. But since mine love villains, it was right up their alley. They were awed, and the only disappointment was from my son who wished Maleficent could have won, haha!




It was a good day, but probably our crankiest. We got some good sleep that night, because day 5 will be our last hurrah at MK!

 

[Wendie]

I am totally loving this and it's making me so excited for our trip!

I so didn't know that you could order food on the MDE app so I'll definitely have to look into that. Thanks for the tip!!!

 

[musika]

I'm loving your comments on what worked and what didn't for this age range! It's hard to get a sense of that from some reviews.

 

[Carla1183]

Day 5 - Final park day, Magic Kingdom Part 2


It was a Sunday, nonparty day, and the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so we knew we were headed in for bigger crowds for sure. We were really glad we knocked out so many rides and attractions on Thursday so we had a plan and weren't going to stress about lines.
We got to the park about 1 again, and again we said if we had it to do over and we wanted to stay for night time we'd do the midday break. Just because the afternoon crowds are so, so heavy! But we still had an awesome day.

Starting out, we paid for preferred parking. My husband had wanted to splurge on it one day, and this was the perfect day to do it! Getting their deep in the afternoon, on a heavy crowd day (I think Touring Plans rated it an 8?), and we parked super close to the Monorail. It was worth the extra $20 for that day!

We got there around 1 for our ADR at BOG at 1:45. We were slightly early, but not early enough to stand in line for anything so we went up to the window at 1:20 and asked and they seated us, no problem! We had preordered on the website (different than the MDE Mobile Ordering) and were so glad we did! the lines to order were super long and it felt like a win. I had always read they give you a plastic rose and send you to your table, but we didn't get one - turned out they used the RFID in our magic bands to find us, so magical!
After we paid for our food we showed kids all 3 rooms and asked where they wanted to sit, there were tables in all 3. They felt like the West Wing was a little spooky for them so we sat in the pretty Rose Gallery with the music box. They were enamored with the snow out of the window in the ballroom!
We ordered the french dip sandwich (which husband said was good, but smaller than he'd hoped), the braised pork (Which was amazing, we all ate off of it and husband wished he'd ordered it. The mashed potatos on it were so good too!), the french onion soup, the kids split a grilled shrimp meal with peach applesauces, and we got a side of fries to share. And a Masters Cupcake! It was my fave QS of the week, especially the pork!
No one liked the "grey stuff" on the cupcake except me, which was fine with me!


From there we went to our 230 FP with Ariel in the Grotto. This is the story we will be telling at my poor son's wedding rehearsal! While we were waiting out turn and she was with another family, my son tapped me and asked me if the shells were "real or pretend" (which he'd been asking about everything all week! He had to know, real or pretend for every little thing!) I told him they were pretend, just part of the decorations.
Well...it turned out he wasn't talking about the decor shells everywhere. He meant ARIELS purple shells. Like her top. And since I told him they were pretend he HAD to touch them. Too bad we can't share videos here because the snap chat of this is hilarious. Poor Ariel, we are so sorry! My husband pulled him aside afterward to talk and he said "Mommy said they were pretend so I wanted to see!" and it dawned on me that OHHH, he meant those shells. OOPS.


After that we went to meet Gaston. If you want to do this - block out some time! It was a full 30 minutes in line. My husband grabbed a HUGE cinnamon roll from his Tavern for us to eat while we waited, and kids played with their souveniers (baby Simba and baby Flower from Bambi, the little swaddled baby animals are SO cute!!). He was a great meet though, we were glad we did it! He told my son to put his hands over his shirt and walk around like that the rest of the day so no one could see his ugly (Beast) shirt! He also told my daughter in her Belle outfit that she was perfect, and kept calling my husband "tiny dad". It was great!


From there we went to ride Dumbo. I'd left this one for today since the waiting area has the playroom, but it was still a lot of line waiting so we probably should have done it during our low crowd day. Posted wait was 35 minutes but in total it was close to an hour, with maybe 15 minutes of that being in the playroom. Way not worth it, but at least we can say we rode it! (And anything else in the parks at that time of day would have been an hour wait anyway, so oh well!)


After Dumbo we used our 3:55 (at about 4:45) SDMT FPs. Such a cute ride! Perfect balance of roller coaster for my daughter but mild enough for my son. I don't think it'd be worth a 2+ hour wait, but with a FP it was definitely fun! The ride videos are so cute!

Then we used our Enchanted Tales with Belle 5:20 FP. This was so cute, don't miss it! I told my daughter to be talkative and outgoing in the room with the wardrobe and she got picked to be Chip But then they gave parts to all the kids (my son was a salt shaker) so don't stress about your little one being left out! My husband also got to be a guard, which was pretty cute. They gave him a hard time about his Gaston shirt.


Then we ate dinner at Pinnochio's Village Haus. I had chicken parm sandwich and everyone else had pizza. It was all just okay, we should have gone on to Frontierland and eaten and Sleepy Hollow on the way or Pecos Bills when we got there. But I'd wanted to hang in Fantasy Land and get the Tangled lantern shot. But unfortunately when we walked by the line for that was clearly going to be 30-45 minutes so we decided to pass on it. That was probably the only thing of the trip that I wanted and didn't get (not bad for my extremely high expectations after a year of planning!).
I definitely underestimated the length of lines for various photopass shoots and meet and greets!

By then the crowds were (finally!) thinning. We went over to Frontierland to ride Splash Mountain, which had just opened a day or 2 before from its long refurbishment. The Lines app/prediction was right, and the line was only about 15 minutes! I was relieved since I could never find a FP for it. The kids loved it, we almost should have ridden it again! We did wear our ponchos, but only bc we brought them and hadn't needed to use them all week haha!

While in line there I picked up a Pirates of the Carribean 4th FP. We rode that, and then got a Dole Whip Float, and then picked up a 5th FP for the Magic Carpet ride which my kids had liked the day before.

By then it was around 8:45 and we decided to go get settled for fireworks! We took the DISboard advice and went to the grass in front of Casey's. It was already super packed by 9, but the sidewalks were totally clear, everyone was only on the grass. We parked our stroller in the front left corner (if facing the castle), and sat on the sidewalk and played. I hope that wasn't a major jerk move, since it put us in front of all the grass sitters - but i figured if we didn't sit there someone was certainly going to. Eventually the sidewalks mostly filled in too.
I was surprised to see my kids were the only ones in the whole area not playing on smartphones! No judgment at all that late - I just started to feel like my kids were 'acting up' and then had to shake that off. We are at Disney World, and they weren't stepping on anyone or getting near others, if they wanted to sword fight with the glow wands we brought, why shouldn't they?



We LOVED the HEA show, The vantage point we had against the fence at the front of that grass area was perfect. The kids kind of sat or stood on the fence and leaned against us. The kids lit up over and over as another character they loved showed up. I teared up several times! My husband who had asked me earlier "is it just fireworks?" was blown away by the detail of the projections.

Almost immediately after, both kids fell asleep in the stroller while we decided our next move.


The park was open until midnight, and the hoards were moving toward the exit. So we decided to wander the park with our sleeping kids instead of standing in line for a ferry or monorail. Smart move! We got some more popcorn, window shopped a little, enjoyed the sidewalks in a fairly empty park. Grabbed a great magic castle photopass shot on the way out, and they magic'd tinkerbell into it for us later, which I hadn't expected. Perfect cherry on top of the perfect trip!!



A few final notes from our last day - we swam some more at WBC after checkout, which they were super accommodating about.
We accidentally left the kids souvenier animals in the hotel room, and had to go back after we were almost at the airport. Luckily we left early enough and their lost and found was super sweet and helpful and we got them back!
Rental car through Dollar was great, no problems!
MCO was a nightmare. You may have read they are making everyone remove everything edible from carry on bags now. With little kids we had granola bars and goldfish stashed everywhere! We ended up waiting 20-30 minutes from the time I got through security to the time my husband got through, because they got super backed up checking all of the food piece by piece. Glad they were keeping us safe, but next time we'll just fly snack free and buy some things at the airport on our way out.
Flying Southwest was a pleasure! Family boarding between groups A&B made it super easy for us, free checked bags made it super easy for us, we had a great experience for our kids first flights!

So first timers bullet points!
- USE MDE Online ordering if you aren't on the DDP!!!
- Touring Plans was so valuable if you are someone who likes to lay out your days like I do! It was pretty accurate, and easy to adjust when it wasn't!
- Memory Maker was SO worth it for us. We split it with 2 other families there at the same time as us, but it would have worth the full price for me.
- Great experiences with Dizzy Dolphin delivery and Kingdom Strollers
- Loved WBC and would likely stay there again, unless we look into DVC rental. I really really loved having the kitchen and separate bedroom.

We can't wait to go back!!

 

[elaine amj]

Loved your reviews and seeing WDW through your eyes You make me feel tempted to consider an offsite trip.

 

[mdsouth]

Lunch we hit up Coloumbia Harbor House, used the MDE Online ordering. My #1 tip from the whole trip is if you aren't doing the dining plan USE THE MOBILE ORDER option on the app!! The line for CHH was out the door and hubby cringed. I sent him/kids upstairs to a table and went straight to counter, grabbed my food that was already ready, and met them upstairs to much relief! No one seems to be using it (I think it was free dining when we were there so prob tons of people can't since they are on DDP, but we told 5 or 6 people about it while we were there and showed them how to use it, so I think people just dont know!) so there is literally zero line with it!

WOW! I had no idea that there was a mobile order app! Whenever I go back, I will definitely have to try it out! Thanks for the big tip! It was nice of you to share this news with other people you saw while on your vacation.

my early lunch at S'atuli Canteen. (The rest of the family is not adventurous eaters and wanted Flaming Tree!). My food was GREAT! I had the steak bowl with sweet potato/potato base, the creamy herb sauce, and when I picked up the food (again - Mobile Ordered on the MDE app! DO IT people!) I asked the guy if I could try the other 2 sauces and he seemed almost excited for me to try them all and got me little cups of each. It was plenty of food, though not enough to have shared. It was my 2nd fave QS meal of the week (after BOG), and I highly recommend it!

This sounds like me and my family, I like to try new places to eat but the rest of my family is pretty picky and boring foods they like to eat. I plan to just do mostly quick service meals on our next trip and have a few TB meals in the evening. Like you and your family discovered, it is nice to have a sit down meal all planned and ready to go in the evenings when you are ready to just sit a spell and chill and don't want to hassle with the crowds.

(He also forgot to switch from his prescription sunglasses to glasses before they went, AND he gets motion sickness and forgot to take a pill before getting on like he did with Soarin'. So needless to say, it was miserable for the 2 of them!! Such a bummer, but glad we had a FP for them to find out instead of waiting 2 hours in line!)

I am like your hubby, I have to take Dramamine before doing any major rides, even simulator rides. I, am a teacher too. I teach eighth grade Social Studies. So, I know how hard it was for you to plan to get away during the school year. What does your husband teach?

I have enjoyed reading your TR and sad that you only have one more day to share.

 

[Carla1183]

WOW! I had no idea that there was a mobile order app! Whenever I go back, I will definitely have to try it out! Thanks for the big tip! It was nice of you to share this news with other people you saw while on your vacation.

It's new in the last few months, so if 2014 was your last trip it will be new for yall!

My husband teaches high school math. Was hard to be away from his students but based on crowd levels we will definitely only do Disney again during school weeks!

 

[Stasieki]

Loving your report!

 

[musika]

Awesome TR! Looking back, would you rent the double stroller again? Which model did you get? We will be traveling with a 6 and 2 yr old.. Contemplating whether to bring our own single or rent a double while there.

 

[Carla1183]

Awesome TR! Looking back, would you rent the double stroller again? Which model did you get? We will be traveling with a 6 and 2 yr old.. Contemplating whether to bring our own single or rent a double while there.

YES, 100%. Granted, my kids are mostly on the same level so we almost never split up. So as long as yall are going to mostly stay in one area of the park together, get a double.
I know 6 is old, and people are grumpy about it, but any time we had to even just get like across a street when they were somewhat tired it was like dragging a sloth. And if we had a single, the whining from my 6 year old would have been out of control. No way we could have done as much as we did without the stroller - like when we finished in Future World and had to kind of book it to Norway at Epcot for our ADR, etc. My kids don't nap so it was a great little rest for them when we had to walk a ways. It also gave us plenty of room to stash hoodies, ponchos, watercups, shopping purchases, and the popcorn bucket!
We got the City Mini Double (not the GT) from Kingdom strollers. had a rain cover, which we never needed, and the little cooler which we didn't really need either. It was worth every penny - especially since we drove to the parks and had to walk to/from our car!

We also had a string of lights with letters, like this, from target. It was super helpful for finding ours in the stroller parking. We were blown away by how organized the stroller parking is everywhere!

 

[ADLFAN]

I love your coodinating outfits! Your attention to detail in your Trip Report is awesome, thanks for including so many helpful little bits of information.

 

[lynnirene]

This was a great report! Thanks for the mobile ordering tip. It hasn't been too long since I've been there, but long enough to be out of the loop on that, apparently! (I've been busy becoming a mom to my now-15mo)

This might be a silly question, but was it always clear where/when you needed to park the stroller? Was it always clear where strollers were/were not allowed? Do you have any specific tips about that, or any notes about any location? Thanks!

 

[floydfamily4]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us! My last trip (8 years ago) was with twin almost 5 year olds the week before Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. I think that is the best week to go! Unfortunately now they are in middle school we will have to wait until May to go back but your various tips will make it easier. Your family is beautiful and I am so glad you had a wonderful time!

 

[mdsouth]

Great TR! Sad it is over. I loved the story of your son checking out Ariel's "fake shells"! Too funny! And the photo of you and your hubby in front of the castle on your last evening is just a perfect memento to a wonderful vacation! Thanks for sharing!