Disney World Trip Report: Jan 16-22

[stackingtens]

I wrote this up for a record for my kids and for my travel agent, so it is SO long and still probably doesn't include everything... but posting here in case it's helpful to someone!


Trip: 6 days, 5 nights, 5 day park tickets (1 park per day)

1 night Pop Century, 5 nights Wilderness Lodge

Room 1: Me, DH, DS age 6, DD age 3

Room 2: MIL, Niece age 11, Nephew age 10

January 2019



Day 1: Travel



Flights were on time out of our small local airport, with a layover in Atlanta. We had time in Atlanta to grab a quick dinner and relax for a bit. Flight out of Atlanta was a little delayed off the ground due to a weird issue (a truck broke down near the plane so plane couldn’t taxi). Got to Orlando pretty close to on time- headed right to the Magical Express lines. We waited about 20-30 minutes for our Magical Express bus and arrived at our resort around 9 pm.



I had planned to do an Amazon Prime Now order for delivery tonight, but by the time we got off the plane and I could enter the order, they were out of delivery windows. Good thing, because I then discovered that I failed to pack my daughter socks, so I threw them on the order and placed it for the next evening, at our second resort.



First night was at Pop Century since we were arriving so late (rest of trip was at Wilderness Lodge, but it was too $$ to add on this night… a late change to the trip based on flight availability). Had to spend a little time in the lobby instead of going straight to our rooms, although they were ready. First, had to get distilled water for my MIL (called in advance-all resorts now have it in gift shops) for her breathing machine. Then, stopped by desk to see if we could get our rooms closer so we could help MIL and kids get situated and get packed for our resort change in the morning, etc. They got us in adjacent buildings, which helped. I grabbed “First Visit” buttons for the kids, figured out where to drop our luggage in the morning, then we headed out to our rooms.



I think Pop seemed like an awesome Value resort, though DD (3) was afraid of the oversized stuff, like the giant Mickey and the giant toy bike, etc. around the property. It freaked her out, but it had also been a very long travel day. The fold down bed was a novelty for the kids, and necessary for room space, but I will say I felt like the beds were really high off the ground! Hard for my 3 year old-we had her share with my husband so he could prop her into the bed safely (versus having the kids share).



I loved the bathroom set up, however. Tons of cubbies-so even just for one night, I staged their outfits for the next day in cubbies, had our toiletries all out and easy to access, etc. I could totally see this working well for a longer stay.



Day 2: Epcot/Transfer to Wilderness Lodge



Got up the next morning, dropped our luggage off for our transfer and went to grab breakfast. One hiccup-MIL’s checked bag via Magical Express was never delivered the night before. They found it in the morning and were able to include it on the luggage transfer, but a good reminder that with a later evening arrival, the bag might not show up! Then, at breakfast was our next hiccup-our meal plans wouldn’t work, neither did the credit card on our magic bands, so I had to use a physical card. We dealt with this most of the day until I was able to get it all resolved.



Headed to the bus stops and the line for Magic Kingdom was UNREAL…. But we were headed to Epcot. They had EMH at Epcot that day (so I was surprised that lines weren’t longer), but due to our slower morning post-travel, we weren’t at bus stop until about 8:20. We were still on the next bus (short line!) and got there quickly.



Walked in and Pluto was to the right of the entrance with like 6 people in line, so we ran over for our first character meet and greet.

Then headed right to Living on the Land-great slow first ride for everyone, walked right on.

Next, SpaceShip Earth FastPass, everyone rode.

Then, we ended up with a little more time than I had planned for so, we walked over to Figment.

Kids were hungry, so we tried to grab a snack right when the stands opened at 9, but dining plan and cards wouldn’t work again. Nice vendors gave us a pretzel and ice cream bar for free, to tide kids over. We headed to our next FastPass- The Seas with Nemo-so we wouldn’t miss it. This ride was kinda annoying. It took at least 6 stops and restarts for us to get past the first two displays of the ride… I assume this is a problem of the constant loading nature of the ride-if people have trouble getting on or off they have to stop the cars. But it was majorly distracting by the 4th or 5th time. We did Turtle Talk on our way out, which was super cute.

Next, I headed to guest relations and kids went to the coke tasting place. Guest relations solved most of our problems (apparently our two different resort stay was preventing our dining plan from activating), and we got credited for the $ we spent at breakfast when we got back to the resort. We had one more hiccup at lunch but we got it all figured out eventually.

Headed to Electric Umbrella to eat quickly, as our window between resolving the dining issue and our TestTrack FP was getting tight. Everyone ate well and enjoyed their food, then we scooted over to TestTrack. Everyone but grandma went and loved the car designing piece. My DD thought the ride was “too fast” but everyone else got a huge kick out of it.

After TestTrack, headed over to the Disney Visa Meet and Greet and got to meet Goofy and Mickey, then watched the Pixar Shorts films. DD was TERRIFIED of the 4D effects, apparently… we did not expect that! The older kids LOVED these, though. Then we headed into the World Showcase.

Walked around, got ice cream in France, shopped, traded pins at a store in Germany, saw a few characters, headed over to Gran Fiesta and rode that. Then I sent the older group to Mission Space, so my husband took them there (rode both levels, back to back), and MIL and I took DD. We tried to walk onto Frozen Ever After but could never get FPs, so we met Elsa and Anna, walked around, met Daisy Duck (DD freaked out-haha). I was able to snag FPs for Soarin during this time as well, so we finished the circle and MIL and DD sat at Electric Umbrella and played silly putty, while the rest of us went to Soarin’ (loved it!) and then got to stop at the Character Spot on the way back and meet BayMax, which was a hit.

Dinner was kinda late (6:50 pm) at Akershus, which was a blast. We were greeted by Belle upon arrival, seated and the kids all loved their (VERY FILLING) dinners. The kids also loved my glowing cocktail. And they loved the princesses! After dinner, we headed to the bus and to Wilderness Lodge.

First impression of WL was amazing-kids were amazed at the size/scale of the lobby and loved the totem poles. We had bunk bed rooms which were awesome. Our walk to the lobby wasn’t bad and I’m glad it wasn’t further. Bellhop was amazing-they brought all our luggage up, waited on our Amazon Prime Now delivery and brought that up for us. But, since it was a late night, we got settled and went right to bed. I went to the lobby to get the final bits of our dining issues resolved and all was good.



Crowds at Epcot were low and amazing and unfortunately got our hopes up for the rest of our trip… weather was perfect too!



Day 3: Magic Kingdom-Goal for today was just Fantasyland


Got up, ate a snack from the room, got on the bus to Magic Kingdom around 7:45/8 am (EMH at 8 am, park opened at 9). Got through security and headed to Barnstormer and Dumbo. Rode both with everyone but MIL. My littlest LOVED Barnstormer. Got Cheshire cat tails for breakfast in the park.

We had our first FP for everyone for Pooh but it must have gone down, because we received an alert that we had a “any ride FP” (well, not any ride-didn’t work for SDMT, for example). We decided to head right to Space Mountain even though we weren’t planning other things in Tomorrowland, BUT we also didn’t have a FP for this on this trip. SO glad this happened-the older three LOVED Space Mountain. Walked right past a 90+ minute wait, boarded immediately, and they talked about it the whole trip.

Came back and headed to Teacups-I didn’t ride this (I don’t do spinning)... but DD tried to ride and wasn’t a fan. Headed to Under the Sea ride next, this was cute and fast. Had a little Disney magic here- since we didn’t use DD or MIL’s free FPs (rescheduled from Pooh), I planned to send the two of them in to meet Ariel (as the standby line was 45+ minutes). The cast member basically said, take everyone, go now! So we got to walk right in and see Ariel. This was a huge, huge hit and the first character my youngest would talk to and sit next to. My niece was in love as well. Super cute environment too.

Next was Enchanted Tales with Belle, FP. Didn’t know what this was, actually, and DD didn’t like how it started (mirror), but it was super cute. My nephew was the Beast and DS was Chip and my niece was an accessory plate. We loved watching it and the pictures from it are precious. Headed right from here to lunch reservations at Be Our Guest. This environment was a huge huge hit. Food was good, rooms were amazing.

After lunch was Carousel (probably one of our longest lines), then our SDMT FP (super fun, DD did not ride). She needed a nap, so I pushed her around and sent the rest to Mickey’s Philharmagic. While they were there, I snagged a Small World FP for everyone and we rode that (MIL loved this). (Also there was person with pin trading outside the Small World). Then we grabbed ice cream bars and went to snag seats for the parade. It was HOT at this point, and we were HOT waiting on the parade. Husband went to grab cups of ice for the kids. Parade was amazing, however, and kids loved it. Snagged a Laugh Floor FP while waiting, so we ran over there to do that right after the parade. This was super fun and my husband and DD ended up on screen (she was on his lap, they called them a “two headed monster”), so that was a huge laugh. Had to hustle out of there, however, to catch the boat back to Wilderness Lodge. We had an early dinner at Artist Point for the new Storybook Dining (Snow White, etc.), so we hustled back.

Kids loved the boat. Artist Point was themed perfectly for the characters. Loved the communal appetizers and desserts and kids all loved their food. Dopey and Grumpy came by-kids loved them (well, DD was scared but that was typical). Snow White was sweet as could be. We got to see and talk to the queen on our way out-she was awesome.

After dinner, kids did pin trading in the lobby, then we got our swimming stuff together and let MIL have a break. We also grabbed our mugs during this, as we still hadn’t had a chance at the resort, with our dining plan working, to get them! We took the kids to swim in the awesome (warm) pool, then shivered when we got out at 50 degrees. Kids all watched the MK fireworks from the balcony of our rooms (amazing!- and our rooms were one door apart). Then bed!



Crowds were okay today, definitely busier than the day before. Weather was great, again.



Day 4: Animal Kingdom


Same morning as Day 3, got there during EMH, headed to Dinosaur with the big kids. Two of the three were scared of the dinos… oops. Took DD to Triceratop Spin (rode 2-3x) while big kids did Primevil Whirl with my husband. Headed to our Expedition Everest FP… big kids LOVED this ride. Grabbed Mickey pretzels after, then headed over to Gorilla trails to walk. Could tell park was a lot busier today. We had a Safari FP coming up that was tight to our Tusker House reservation, so we got there right on time after Gorilla Trails. Still had a long-ish wait to get on a truck (made us 10 mins late for lunch but it was okay). The Gorilla Trails were fun, but the Safari… that was amazing. Saw so so so many animals. Kids were amazed.

Hustled out of the Safari to Tusker House… Safari stand by line was over 2 hours. Somehow in that 2 minute walk, DD fell asleep in the stroller. She slept through ALL of Tusker house.

Tusker House was fun-food was good, kids tried new things, they loved the kid special drinks. Characters were a hit. THe waiter didn’t charge us for DD’s meal since she slept the whole time, so we had one table service to use up later in the week.

Next, walked a few more animal trails on the way to Avatar, then took some Avatar pictures. It was CROWDED. This was the first time we decided to try to use our FPs to get all the big kids on a ride twice. I knew MIL and DD wouldn’t ride FOP, so we did a rider swap for DD and she, Grandma and I waited outside while my husband and the three big kids went. I fed DD with snacks. All of a sudden, niece showed up. She bailed on the ride because she really needed a bathroom-oops. So, when the boys came out, I went back with niece, husband and nephew (DS did not want to ride again). We used the Rider Swap plus the remaining FP on DD and MIL’s bands. Awesome ride.

Snagged a FP for two for Mickey and Minnie (and Minnie is all DD cared about), so I left with DD while the older kids shopped and got popsicles. DD was still bashful but talked about meeting Minnie for days.

It was hot and crowded and I realized at this point that kids weren’t going to make a long day. I had more things I wanted to do, but I knew we had to make some choices. So, we headed to UP: A Great Bird Adventure because MIL loves birds. This is NOT my kind of show, but I’m glad we did it. Kids liked the UP theming.

I was hoping we could make it for the Lion King show, but kids were struggling. We grabbed Dole Whips (with coconut rum, yum), then walked back through. Did a family picture at the tree, and headed back to the hotel. Worked out for the best-we swam for awhile, got food at Geyser Point and picnicked in the rooms. Pin traded in the lobby. Watched fireworks and went to bed.



Hottest day, busy (9) crowds. No chance for any other FPs, especially for a group our size. Will put Navii and Lion King on our must-do’s next time.



Day 5: Hollywood Studios



After yesterday, we pre-planned a mid-day break today, as we wanted to stay up for Fantasmic and I wasn’t sure it was possible. We had EMH again today, but also had PPO dining at Hollywood and Vine. We also didn’t have FPs for Tower of Terror and the kids kept talking about it, so I sent my husband and the three oldest extra early so they could rope drop at EMH for Tower of Terror. My DS was terrified, apparently… haha. They tried to head to Slinky Dog after and line was already 90+ minutes. Instead, they got signed up for Jedi Training, and we arrived around then, 8:30, and we headed for breakfast. It was chilly today, and the morning was quite a shock!

Breakfast was fine-our table sucked (at entrance to bathrooms, hard to get out to take pictures with characters, always people around the table, etc). Food was fine though I’m not convinced about using table service for breakfasts in the future. Breakfast buffets are eh to me in comparison to the delicious food we had at our dinners. But the Disney Junior characters were very exciting to the kids.

Wait times around the park were already crazy, so I had a feeling there would be no getting on feature rides again with additional FPs. We had some time to kill, so we headed to the Star Wars launch bay and were able to meet BB8 and Kylo Ren with reasonable waits. Both were a hit, but BB8 especially. Headed to Toy Story Land for our Toy Story Mania FP. Had a few starts/stops again, but one it was going, this was super fun.

Didn’t see much else of TSL, a lot due to the crowds. Decided to wait to meet Buzz Lightyear on the way out. Big kids had to head to Jedi Training, so MIL and I took DD to the Disney Junior Dance Party. Took DD a bit to get into it, but she loved dancing with Doc McStuffins. I didn’t like, however, how they built up the arrival of Roadster Racers but then only Mickey showed up. We needed to sneak out a second early to get to Jedi Training for the show, and we pushed it waiting on Minnie, then no Minnie.

Jedi Training was super fun for the big kids. After that we did FP for Star Tours, always a hit for big kids. We grabbed snacks for lunch and big kids headed Rock n Roller Coaster FP and we split up and myself, MIL and DD did FP for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. I loved this. DD loved most of it except for Ursula.

We met back up at Star Wars Launch Bay-I didn’t realize there was Visa card meet and greet here too, but it was Kylo Ren, who we’d already met that morning, so that was kinda a bummer. DS and husband went to meet Chewbacca.

At this point, we decided to bus back to hotel for naps/downtime. We were cold, too. I decided to grab a snack or meal in the hotel for kids to snack on, and had a little Disney magic. A family was checking out and they bought me four full meals, beers included, to use up their plan. The kids munched on those and then rested for 90 minutes and DD slept (we saved the beers for later that night). MIL and I took oldest three back to the park after a bit, grabbing blankets, etc. for Fantasmic. I was hoping to get us back in time for Indiana Jones (I actually did get a FP for 5 for this…) but this was our longest wait for a bus the whole trip, so we missed it. Got back to park and headed to MuppetVision. Kids were a little cranky to miss Indiana Jones, but got over it. Saw Olaf after this with a very short line. Husband and DD got back and also saw Olaf, and then I did get Frozen Sing A Long FPs, so we grabbed a quick snack and all went there. It was nice to be in the warm theater (though we lost a magic band in the waiting area-luckily a cast member had it!) and I thought this was adorable. The hosts were hilarious. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Next, we grabbed some dinner (we were so cooooold but all we had was quick service and it was all outdoor dining… we ate somewhere with pizzas that had heaters in the roof, at least). Then headed into Fantasmic. We had priority seats due to our breakfast dining that morning. Seats were great. We were cold. But show was amazing. Headed back to hotel for pin trading and bed.



Cold and crowded, and a long day, but kids loved this park the best of all of them.



Day 6: Magic Kingdom-Rest of park



No EMH today but we had a breakfast reservation for Crystal Palace, so we got there around 8:15 am for our 8:30 reservation. Took the boat over despite the cold… and ended up on an enclosed boat which was awesome. Breakfast food was a decent buffet again, but two breakfasts in a row made this breakfast less exciting in terms of quality eats for a table service credit. But Winnie the Pooh and friends were a hit.



Left here and headed to the Aladdin magic carpet ride which my two rode at least 3 times, since park was not crowded yet. During our first ride, Aladdin and Jasmine showed up and talked to everyone in the carts, then escorted the group over to their meeting place for pictures, etc. Kids thought that was really exciting.



Did a quick run on Swiss Family Treehouse after, waiting on our Jungle Cruise FP. Jungle Cruise was fun, but maybe less exciting having done the real safari earlier in the week-haha. Headed to Pirates next-standby was about 15-20 minutes but I think we waited less than that. Older kids went and liked it okay. Then they decided they wanted to do Splash Mountain despite the 40 degree weather, and even my youngest wanted to do it. Standby was about 10-15 minutes so we jumped in line and they loved it. As a result, DD wanted to join in for Big Thunder Mountain too, where we headed next with FPs… but she said it was too fast afterwards.



We were hungry next and the crowds had picked up. I will say one thing I need to do a better job of next time is snacks… I feel like our snack credits weren’t maximized and I didn’t know where to go with them. Ended up at Casey’s trying to get some fries with toppings for people to share-line was long, and it wasn’t clear to me what actually worked as a snack. Happened to be on Main St. right when the Move It, Shake It Dance Party was coming through, so we sat and ate what I grabbed and watched the characters go by.



We had some time to kill before our next FP at Buzz Lightyear-first we tried to go see Mickey and Minnie/Tinkerbell as the wait times posted were 10-25 minutes… but when we got there it was 45-55 so we headed to Tomorrowland. Then we tried to do Carousel of Progress, but it shut down while we were waiting to load and they told us to come back later. After that FP (everyone rode), my youngest took a nap and I took the older three up to Astro Orbiter. THe lack of efficiency for this ride was annoying to me, and it was one of our longer waits of the trip. Youngest was still asleep, so I swapped and sat with her while everyone else did PeopleMover (also a longer wait, which seemed weird to me). We couldn’t get any FPs for the whole group at this point, so I grabbed anything I could. I ended up taking DD and my MIL to meet Tinkerbell with a FP for her, and my husband took the older kids to Haunted Mansion standby (~30 min wait). We finished first, so we headed to the Liberty Square Riverboat while they finished up.



At this point, refreshing for FPs was resulting in nothing, and honestly, we had done/seen just about everything on my list… so we left. We didn’t tell the kids where we were headed, though, so we took the to the monorail stop (they had been asking about it all trip). We took the monorail to The Contemporary and ate dinner at their Quick Service restaurant. They liked seeing another hotel. Afterwards, we took the boat from Contemporary to Wilderness Lodge (this was our longest wait for a boat and we were COLD), but the kids enjoyed the boat so much. We then loaded all the kids into MILs room for down time while my husband and I spent our remaining credits on snacks for the airplane, etc. Fireworks, packing and bed.



This was another chilly and crowded day… I wish we had skipped the breakfast in the morning and done a nice last day dinner instead, mostly just because I wanted one great meal. And we were too cold to stay at MK for the fireworks show, so we never got to see it in person. Being cold for Fantasmic was enough for everyone the night before. My husband and I did consider heading back ourselves for some evening rides/fireworks/etc. But we were cold and tired too.



Overall, we had a great trip and kids made a ton of great memories, especially getting to do this with their MIL and cousins!
  

We loved Wilderness Lodge. Theming was a hit for my MIL and husband, kids were amazed by it all, pool was fun, our views were awesome, the geyser was a fun novelty, it was easy to get around, etc. And we loved the short bus rides and the boat option. It will be hard to stay somewhere else! 

[bronxgirl]

Sounds like a really fun trip!

[nicolewi]

I loved your report! Sounds like you guys did a lot, despite cutting a couple days short.

I only recently heard that Dole Whips with rum exist. That sounds fantastic!

How did your 3 & 6 year olds do with Fantasmic (other than the cold)? I watched the show online and thought my 4 and 6 year olds would be scared. I still have a H&V dinner with Fantasmic viewing, and also a Cape May reservation. I'm still debating which to keep. They love seafood and we want to see the Star Wars fireworks, so I was leaning towards dropping H&V now...but still torn. I don't know how much hassle it would be to run from one show to the other.

[abs]

Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for the great review!

[stackingtens]

Feb 6, 2019 0:09:03 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

I loved your report! Sounds like you guys did a lot, despite cutting a couple days short.

I only recently heard that Dole Whips with rum exist. That sounds fantastic!

How did your 3 & 6 year olds do with Fantasmic (other than the cold)? I watched the show online and thought my 4 and 6 year olds would be scared. I still have a H&V dinner with Fantasmic viewing, and also a Cape May reservation. I'm still debating which to keep. They love seafood and we want to see the Star Wars fireworks, so I was leaning towards dropping H&V now...but still torn. I don't know how much hassle it would be to run from one show to the other.

6 year old loved it.  3 year old was scared of most things, especially when there were villains.  She sat on my husband's lap and covered her eyes during those parts... but then she loved seeing the boats and other characters that she loves, so she found parts she enjoyed.

[cincodemayo]

Sounds like a great trip!

Now I have to go back to eat dinner with the Dwarves and Snow White. I looked at the menu and YUM!

[stackingtens]

Feb 6, 2019 14:27:44 GMT -5 cincodemayo said:

Sounds like a great trip!

Now I have to go back to eat dinner with the Dwarves and Snow White. I looked at the menu and YUM!

It was delicious and Dopey/Grumpy were super fun.  The queen was an awesome character interaction too-she glared at Snow White as she moved around the room, etc.  And the dessert theming was so so perfect for the place.

[sent]

The Artist Pointe dinner started like the day after we left. We will definitely be doing this dinner next time. Wow, sounds like an awesome but chilly trip! Your kids even did Splash Mountain in the cold!

[wesleycrusher]

I just started reading but we experienced the same issues with the meal plan when we added a room-only night onto the beginning of our trip last year. It wasn't a huge deal, just took some time to figure out, but you would think it would be mentioned to save people the confusion!

[stackingtens]

Feb 7, 2019 11:28:18 GMT -5 wesleycrusher said:

I just started reading but we experienced the same issues with the meal plan when we added a room-only night onto the beginning of our trip last year. It wasn't a huge deal, just took some time to figure out, but you would think it would be mentioned to save people the confusion!

Yes, it was so weird.  I guess I assumed the dining plan was linked to our park days, but it basically was set up to activate once we showed up at our second resort, which was late the next night.  Thankfully they reimbursed me for the $ we spend out of pocket while it got figured out!

[stackingtens]

Feb 6, 2019 18:47:25 GMT -5 sent said:

The Artist Pointe dinner started like the day after we left. We will definitely be doing this dinner next time. Wow, sounds like an awesome but chilly trip! Your kids even did Splash Mountain in the cold!

Yes definitely do it next time!  Thankfully we didn't get very wet on Splash Mountain, and it was nice to have a short line-haha!  The first 3 days were perfect temps, so I'm glad we got those... the last two days were COLD. 

[countthestars]

We loved the Storybook dinner at Artist's Point as well!

[wesleycrusher]

Feb 8, 2019 14:06:36 GMT -5 stackingtens said:

Feb 7, 2019 11:28:18 GMT -5 wesleycrusher said:

I just started reading but we experienced the same issues with the meal plan when we added a room-only night onto the beginning of our trip last year. It wasn't a huge deal, just took some time to figure out, but you would think it would be mentioned to save people the confusion!

Yes, it was so weird.  I guess I assumed the dining plan was linked to our park days, but it basically was set up to activate once we showed up at our second resort, which was late the next night.  Thankfully they reimbursed me for the $ we spend out of pocket while it got figured out!

To be fair, when I checked in, they did tell me to stop down in the morning to re-check-in (we stayed in the same room) but I completely forgot with the rush to get to AK rope-drop.  I didn't think it would be a big deal.  But I don't think I would have forgotten if they said I would need to do it to use the dining plan, so they should have stated that!  

When I went to the front desk to have it fixed and officially check-in, the guy just voided out our purchases of snacks and didn't charge out meal plan, so we actually came out ahead. I guess the hassle was worth it in that sense.