We're back-a trip recap

[arch01]

I'm going to try to make this brief...we had a blast and I want to take DS again, DH isn't on the same page but we'll see what he thinks a few months out from this trip

For reference, DS is almost 5; we took him to celebrate his 5th birthday. He really enjoyed having the birthday pin but didn't care for the 1st visit pin.

We stayed at AoA in a Cars suite from 12/1-12/5; we drove down on 11/30 and stayed at the Holiday Inn Orlando/Celebration to save some money since we got to Orlando at about 10pm the first night. They had free breakfast, which was a perk. We had a room with bunk beds, which was nice so we could stay up and watch TV for a bit and DS could go to sleep. The room was REALLY small though, not a room we could have used for the entire trip. 

We did MK the first day after driving to AoA and parking. The bus was super easy, though packed. We never had a bad experience with the bus at the resort, though some people on the December FB page have had awful experiences. We decided to eat lunch in the park, we went to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. The food was fine, nothing special. It was tough to get a seat and the crowd level was only at 4/10 according to the Touring Plans app. Our TA planned our FP+ well; I had given her some input and she got us on the Buzz Lightyear ride (DS' favorite), Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (cute), and the Tomorrowland Speedway (another hit with DS). We met Pluto right when walking in, which got DS really excited to meet more characters. We also met Buzz; the lines were pretty short overall. DS also really enjoyed the Astro Orbiter. 

DH went to go walk around and DS and I got on Space Mountain, I got a FP pretty quickly after we used our first 3. DS loved that as well, though his love of coasters went downhill quickly after that. We headed back to the hotel since we had the party that night and all took a nap.

The party was nice, but not worth the money for us. We got back to MK at about 5 and walked around some; the lines for rides were long but we found hot chocolate and cookies pretty easily. We didn't do any rides except it's a small world due to some long waits, but at least walked around some. DH was exhausted and headed back to the hotel, DS and I stayed and watched the parade. I haven't been to Disney in about 15 years, and OMG I had forgotten how pushy people are when it comes to viewing spots for the parade. I was literally about to lift the rope to push DS under and get a spot when some lady sprinted up in front of me and asked the lady if she could have the spot. We ended up somewhere else, which turned out fine because the kids we were next to and DS played while we were all waiting. The parade was lovely, I loved the smells and the choreography. We ended up meeting Mickey after that and headed back.

HS was Day 2 and one of our shortest park days. We brought lunch into the park, which I highly recommend. Since we drove, I had gotten some really thick sliced deli meat and blocks of cheese; we made homemade lunchables and brought some other fruit and snacks. We saw Disney Jr Live (a huge hit with DS), rode the Toy Story ride (fun!), and I can't remember what our third FP was. We met a ton of characters and DS enjoyed meeting the Disney Jr characters. He didn't want to meet Sophia the First since he was getting tired/cranky, then we left and he wanted to go back. Not happening, kid. We enjoyed the afternoon at the pool this day, it was really nice out.

We had an ADR at CP on Day 3 at MK and LOVED it. We had Mickey confetti on the table and the server brought DS a cupcake and we sang happy birthday. Nothing like a cupcake and ice cream for breakfast! The food was really good; we saw 3 of the 4 characters and chose to skip Tigger since we knew we could see him later. We didn't know we should plan on 90 minutes, I had been told 45-60, but it definitely needed 90 to meet all the characters. That's a really long time for an anxious 4 year old who knows rides are out there. We did get in the park early, but not by much. The lines were really confusing, there were a lot of people there for rope drop and things weren't clearly marked for reservations. There was a small sign that we totally missed (as did a TON of other people), and almost screwed that up by scanning our magic bands at the main gates. Oh well. This is the day I seriously screwed up our FPs, when I figured out breakfast was going to take so long I started rearranging FPs. I didn't realize that the park was open so late and just saw 10:xx and picked that FP, not realizing it was PM, not AM. Whoops. We had a pretty packed morning with another round of the Astro Orbiter, the Buzz ride, the carousel, and Jungle Cruise. We left after the Jungle Cruise (DH and I were done with the crowds) and DS and I went back later and I scored a FP for the Winnie the Pooh ride. Unfortunately it went down as we were walking up so we got to use our FP on anything else we wanted-so that went to Big Thunder Mountain RR. DS didn't care for it, but I had fun I also scored a FP for 7DMT, which we both enjoyed.

Day 4 was Epcot and we all enjoyed the World Showcase. We got there before opening and they actually opened the park at about 8:40. We high tailed it to Test Track, which was a blast. We did Mission: Space (the less intense one) and Journey into Imagination. All were fun. We also did the Frozen ride, which we were lucky to do since it was down a majority of the day. DS met Anna and Elsa in a surprisingly short line (20 minutes). DS enjoyed getting his bear stamped even though we missed some countries.

Day 5 was AK, which was our least favorite park. I think part of that was because we were all tired, but also because DS has gone to the zoo pretty regularly and there aren't a ton of animals that he hasn't seen before. We all really, really enjoyed the Safari ride-I highly recommend this. It was a great way to see a lot of animals quickly and learn some fun facts about them. We all very much disliked It's Tough to Be a Bug and Dinosaur. I wish I had read up on AK a bit more and we would've done the Boneyard and affection section. We had lunch at Tusker House, which was very underwhelming. DS enjoyed the characters and they were much, much faster than they were at CP. The service was mediocre and the food was meh. I did have some good curry chicken, but other than that, it wasn't overly impressive. 

A few things I would've done differently:

-Scheduled our trip during free dining. We spent $275 on the 2 character meals, which was hard to stomach for us. I think that DS would've enjoyed meeting the princesses and some of the other characters had we done more character meals. 
-Scheduled a day off in the middle. Our feet could've used it and I think DS would've been in a better mood at AK had he had a day of down time without so much stimulation.
-Planned out character meet/greets better. I didn't know how interested he'd be in the princesses, so we skipped those FPs. Turns out he would've loved them. 
-Given DS a set amount of money at the beginning for his ice cream cravings. OMG that kid and ice cream. He was seriously asking for it at 10am each day. He did great the day that I gave him the money from MIL and knew that was the only snack money he had (we had a ton of other snacks, but of course they didn't compare to ice cream).
-Driven to each park except MK. The bus was SO packed that it was uncomfortable to stand, especially while hauling a bag with snacks/lunch and the stroller (we took the Bob).

Things I wouldn't have done differently:

-Taken food into the park for lunch 2 days (we did this at Epcot too). 
-Not cared about rope drop. It was nice to relax a couple mornings and not stress about getting up and moving for a specific bus. Yes we missed some opportunities, but it was really nice to relax.
-Taken breaks in the afternoon. 

And finally, we got a TON of compliments on our autograph canvases that I made. I've had 3 requests to have one made and DH and I are seriously considering opening up an Etsy shop to sell them. 

[Deleted]

Sounds like an AWESOME trip. I love the autograph canvases. Were they difficult to carry around the parks?

[arch01]

Dec 6, 2016 9:58:01 GMT -5 @savestheday said:

Sounds like an AWESOME trip. I love the autograph canvases. Were they difficult to carry around the parks?

Thanks!! They weren't hard at all, they fit perfectly in the back pocket of the Bob. They're 12x16 but I'm debating going down to 8x10s so they fit in backpacks easier. 

[Deleted]

Dec 6, 2016 10:19:47 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Dec 6, 2016 9:58:01 GMT -5 @savestheday said:

Sounds like an AWESOME trip. I love the autograph canvases. Were they difficult to carry around the parks?

Thanks!! They weren't hard at all, they fit perfectly in the back pocket of the Bob. They're 12x16 but I'm debating going down to 8x10s so they fit in backpacks easier. 

If you start an etsy store. I will totally be ordering one for our next trip since I SUCK at remembering to get autographs. 

[arch01]

Dec 6, 2016 10:21:54 GMT -5 @savestheday said:

Dec 6, 2016 10:19:47 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Thanks!! They weren't hard at all, they fit perfectly in the back pocket of the Bob. They're 12x16 but I'm debating going down to 8x10s so they fit in backpacks easier. 

If you start an etsy store. I will totally be ordering one for our next trip since I SUCK at remembering to get autographs. 

We are ironing out plans this weekend, I will post here when we figure it all out!!

[Deleted]

I love the canvases too and it sounds like you had a great trip!

[egishere]

Sounds like a great trip! We hated the buses at AoA-we did not have good luck with them at all. Love the autograph canvases!

[curbsideprophet]

Sounds like a great trip. The canvass turned out well.

[krystee]

We were there the same week, I think (though we did have free dining--it must have been start-date-dependent). Totally agree on driving everywhere but to MK, prioritizing morning rest over rope drop (we aimed for rope drop at MK one day, but it took us so freaking long to get there that we missed it by five minutes and the park already felt really crowded anyway), and taking occasional rests. Cute canvases!

ETA: I was wrong, our trip overlapped by only one day, so different weeks.

[bronxgirl]

I'm so happy for you guys!!