S/O first timer trip review

[kitty]

My in-laws are newly snowbirds and recently bought a condo in FL. We wanted to visit them for spring break and see their new place but they suggested that we split the week and do half of the time in Disney and half of the time with them. We bought tickets to fly into Orlando and then out of Ft. Myers.

We decided it would be fun to keep the Disney thing a surprise and told the kids we were just going to visit their grandparents for a week. They didn’t know enough about FL geography to realize Orlando was not a good airport to get to their grandparents. The flight attendant actually asked my 5yo on the plane if we were going to Disney and he responded very emphatically No! We are going to FLORIDA! Lol!

After we landed and picked up the rental car (Hertz Gold, very smooth), we told them we were heading to the in-laws when we were actually driving to the Polynesian. My DD didn’t completely get what was going on until we went under the arch but the expression on her face was priceless. We arrived right around 3pm so we were able to head to our room immediately. I had booked DD a mani with Mickey nail art at the Grand Floridian spa so we walked there on the path along the lagoon while DH and the boys unpacked.

We bought Genie+ for all 4 days because my DH will not wait in line. He is only ever willing to do a standby if it is 15 min or less.


Day 1 Saturday MK

We started with a quick service breakfast from Captain Cooks at the Poly and headed to the monorail. I booked Jungle Cruise at 7am and we got to MK basically right at 8:30. We walked right onto It’s a small world, then explored the Swiss Family Treehouse, and walked onto Magic carpets. Then it was time for our LL for Jungle Cruise (Genie+). I scanned in and then reserved Pirates next. We had some time to kill and by this point the standby lanes were all above my DH’s limit so we did the Tiki room and then went on Pirates (Genie+). It was getting hot so we ordered quick service lunch at Pecos Bill and found a nice shady spot to eat. After lunch, we watched the parade and then went to Country Bear Jamboree while waiting for our next LL. We headed over to a Tomorrowland for Buzz Lightyear (Genie+) which my older two loved.

The kids were getting tired and hot so we headed back to the hotel at 2pm and spent a little over an hour just resting but none of the kids fell asleep. We went back in the late afternoon for our next LL, Haunted Mansion (Genie+). We then walked onto Prince Charming Carousel and then the People Mover. I was randomly refreshing Dining Reservations on the App and scored a last minute table service dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern for 5:45. It was a thanksgiving feast served family style with toffee cake and ice cream for dessert. After dinner, we had one more LL - Little Mermaid (Genie+) and then went back to the hotel for the night at 7pm.

Day 2 Sunday AK

We decided to just get on the road early and find something to eat in the park. The front desk person told DH that it would probably be quickest to just drive to AK unless we hit the bus stop at just the right time so we just drove in since we had the rental car anyway. We arrived for the early opening and had breakfast at a random coffee and pastry kiosk while fending off the very aggressive squirrels! My kids had decided that Dinosaur was their priority so that was what we booked right at 7am. After breakfast we headed right to Dinosaur (Genie+) and then booked the Safari right after we swiped in. While waiting for our safari time, we went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek and then did the Safari (Genie+) which amazed the kids. For our next LL, we chose the Lion King show (Genie+). I was a little worried my DS1 would have sensory overload but as it turned out he ended up with an emergency bathroom situation right at the fire dancing time so he and I left and then met the others afterward.

Next we did Gorilla Falls, a quick service lunch Harambe Market, It’s tough to be a bug show (Genie+) and then Kali River Rapids (Genie+) with an ice cream break in between. We left around 3-3:30 to go back to Poly and swim. Before we left the pool, we mobile ordered dinner at the Kona Cafe to go and ate in the room. We ended up heading back to the lobby later with the kids in their PJs to get some Dole Whip but still had them in bed by 8 or 8:30.

Day 3 Monday Epcot

Since getting to the park early and eating there worked out well at AK we decided to try the same plan again at Epcot. At 7am, DH and I both had the App open. I was supposed to select Frozen with Genie+ and his task was to purchase LLs for Remy. He saw one around noon and clicked on it but didn’t realize until after he paid that it had switched to 5:55pm on the last screen. We were kind of annoyed because we had planned to do a repeat of the previous day where we left early and had some pool time but we decided to play it by ear. I figured if the kids weren’t going to make it would could just ask for them to cancel it and get our money back. I was also secretly hoping I could snag another last minute dining reservation at Epcot.

We got there and immediately ate breakfast at Sunshine Seasons grab n go. After breakfast we walked onto Spaceship Earth and then Soarin before heading to our reserved time for Frozen (Genie+). After we swiped in, I got Nemo as our next LL but this turned out to be a LOT of walking since we had to go back to where we had just been for Spaceship Earth/Soarin and then go back to the World Showcase because we had lunch reservations at Nine Dragons (which I really wasn’t impressed with at all). We wanted something close so we popped into the Reflections of China movie. Then we headed back out for our next LL Figment (Genie+) which none of us liked and then immediately reserved m Living with the Land (Genie+) which my DH loved.

We headed back up to the World Showcase, walked into Gran Fiesta and then wandered slowly clockwise toward France. We stopped for gelato in Italy and pastries in Turkey. I was working the App but was unable to find any dinner reservations early enough for my crew. In France, we randomly ran into two families from our neighborhood and took a group picture. They told us that Remy was down and I was afraid that we had hung around Epcot longer than we wanted for nothing. The cast member there told us that it had been down for an hour and in the past repairs had ranged from 45min-2 hours. We decided to get in line at the LL entrance anyway and give it 15-20 minutes or so. My kids were amusing themselves by pulling change out of the fountain and throwing it back in. Remy ended up opening back up at 6pm (our LL was for 5:55) which was super lucky so we got right on. Since I was unable to find a dinner reservation and the mobile ordering at Epcot was limited (a lot of the quick service here didn’t seem to offer mobile and they all had extremely long lines at this point). We ended up just heading back to the Poly and ordering dinner there from the monorail.

DH put the boys to bed while DD and I sneaked out to the Poly beach to watch the light show and the fireworks.

Day 4 Tuesday MK again

We had an ADR for breakfast at Ohana for 7:15 (no characters). After that we went back to the room and packed up since we were checking out that day. We brought all the luggage down to leave with Bell Services and then headed to the monorail. It took us longer to get into MK at this later time of day than it did on the previous days when we had gone earlier. There were more people waiting in line for the monorail, waiting in line to scan into the park, etc. and it was already super busy but the time we got into the park around 10. All of the standby times were already last DH’s limit so we couldn’t just walk onto anything while waiting for our first LL. I had originally thought it would be nice to cap off our trip with the Ohana breakfast but in retrospect it would have been better to do it on a day when we were going to a park with fewer rides and when we didn’t have to pack. We also had to leave early on Tuesday to drive to the ILs (3 hours) so between arriving late and leaving early we didn’t get to do much. We scanned into our first LL, Splash Mountain (Genie+) and by then a few other rides we wanted to chose next already had return times that were too late for our departure time. I had wanted to do the Seven Dwarves ride but somehow DH and I both didn’t realize it was a LL we would have had to purchase separately until later in the morning and by that point it was already sold out. We ended up choosing Barnstormer (Genie+) for our next ride and then headed to Tomorrowland and went on the Carousel of progress while mobile ordering quick service lunch at Cosmic Rays. We used our next Genie+ to re-ride Buzz Lightyear (Genie+) because DS1 really, really wanted to even though it meant we had to skip some other rides we hadn’t already done. I really wanted one more LL to cap off the day. The only thing we could get was Winnie the Pooh (Genie+) for 2:10 which my kids are a tad old for but we decided to ride it anyway. We then went to Main St and bought some t-shirts for souvenirs.

Our original plan was to leave MK at 3pm but since we couldn’t get another LL early enough and the standby lines were all long, we ended up leaving closer to 2:30 to head back to get our luggage and depart.

Things that went well:
I brought a small power bank for recharging our phones since we expected to need them quite a bit for Genie+, taking photos, and food ordering/reservations. This turned out to be a good call because we used it 2 of the 4 days.

We rented a stroller for the 5yo but my 8yo spent a decent amount of time in it as well and my 10yo was super jealous she was over the weight limit lol. We never would have made it without that stroller!

Things that could have been better:
I wish the Tip Board on the app had the rides grouped by what “land” of the park they were in (or at least specified it somewhere) rather than them all just being in alphabetical order. Since I had never been before I was constantly having to cross ref my Genie+ times with the map which made me slower on the draw and definitely lead to is not taking efficient paths through the parks in order to get to our Genie+ reservations.

We probably should have swapped Epcot and the second MK day since there was a lot we ran out of time to do in MK. We may have not been able to ride Remy but we would have probably gotten in at least 4 more rides in MK if we had arrived right at 8:30 and didn’t have to leave so early.

[nancybotwin]

Thanks for this review! It’s helpful to hear what worked and what didn’t for your crew -

[wesleycrusher]

Sounds great! And don't worry about what you didn't get to do- since your ILs are there, I'm sure you'll go back That's why we go to Disney so often- I have a bunch of family nearby.