Disney Review 4/7 - 4/13

[huskymom]

Sorry for the SUPER DETAILED report, but figure it could help someone!  We had a 6 night split stay at POP (1 night)/Beach Club 1 Bed Villa (5 nights). Two DDs - almost 8 and 10.5. Overall a great time- first few days were lower crowd levels and cool temps (highs in the low 70s!) but it definitely got hotter and busier as we got mid week closer to the holiday weekend. I was prepared for crazy crowds, long waits and to hate Genie+ but I was pleasantly surprised by how well we pulled it off - but I did a lot of research and if something had a long wait - we just didn’t do it.  We also took advantage of the early entry (EE) for resort guests for HS and MK which helped get some big rides done quickly.


Thursday 4/7 - Had a noon flight on SWA that kept getting pushed out and then back (as late as 5:45 at one point). Flight finally took off at 1:50. Arrived around 5:30 and we had a 6:25 dinner at Sanaa we were a little worried about making and our driver (used Tiffany Town Car) offered to stop at POP to drop our luggage and then bring us to AKL. Arrived just in time. Always have a great meal here. Had planned on eating by the pool but was very stormy (hence all the delays). Then right to bed bc we wanted to rope drop HS. I’m glad we only had one night here - the room was TINY, especially with the Murphy bed down. But I had booked BCV with a 2020 credit via David’s and couldn’t get the flights to line up when they opened (also had a SWA credit).



Friday 4/8 Hollywood Studios- left room at 6:20, arranged luggage transfer to BC, and got an Uber, arriving at HS by 6:50. Already quite a line. Exactly at 7 (to the second, had DH using a world clock on his phone to tell me when to refresh), I booked Slinky for 8:20. Score! Even being seconds off could make it hours later. From intel I had read online, I decided to wait until 7:17 to book Rise and new times did pop up around then and I booked 9:35. They opened the gates around 7:20 (7:30 EE) and we hit MMRR first. Then headed to MFSR. Both were good, I wouldn’t say amazing. Then we hit Slinky, waited for TSM (maybe 25 min?). Kids were hungry and I wish I had mobile ordered from Woody's earlier but by this point it was over an hour wait and had a long line. We got them some popcorn LOL. We then did Rise and it was great. Maybe not $60 great, but better than waiting 3 hours (line was usually 3+ hours!!). I had then picked up a RNRC LL but not until 12:30. Everything else seemed to be 1-2 hour wait at this point. We grabbed some pretzels and drinks at Baseline Tap House and then we had a 11:35 rez at OGA’s. Had some fun drinks and the kids got the jello with popping pearls and we did RNRC and then took the boat over to BC. Checked in and hit the pool for a bit (glad my kids don’t need constant supervision bc it’s chaotic!), and then hit Epcot for dinner (Teppan Edo- good but not as good as our local hibachi). At some point I was able to get a Remy ILL and we did that after dinner. It was cute, but it broke down and we sat on the ride for 10 min. They did let us ride again which was nice. Watched part of the fireworks but we were exhausted so headed back before they were done. The line for the skyliner to CBR was crazy!! It reached all the way to BC. Another tip I read was to book a late Spaceship Earth LL (like 7:45 or later) bc it always goes down and it did, so we got a “select experiences” anytime LL to use good through the next day. I think this worked for me on at least 3-4 days.



Sat 4/9 Magic Kingdom (Epcot evening)- planned to take the first bus to Mk but just missed it so we probably got there around 8:20 (8:30 EE) and had to wait 35 min to rope drop Space. This was the longest ride line we waited in at Disney though. I had booked a 10:25 Jungle Cruise and 11 am 7DMT. We did Pirates after Space, then JC, then used our anytime LL on BTMR. Hit 7DMT (I personally don’t feel it’s worth paying for but my youngest really wanted to do it). I had picked up Splash mt for my next LL so we did that, then some shopping on Main St before heading back for pool time. I had found some other key drop times for rides and booked Test Track and Soarin for the evening. We just ate and drank around the world at EPCOT for dinner. I got another anytime LL from SE closing again. However I did realize I had lost my wallet at some point (likely at MK when shopping) which put a damper on the evening. We then had a 8:50 Beaches and Cream reservation and got the Kitchen Sink. Couldn’t finish it but the kids loved it.



Sun 4/10 - Magic Kingdom evening - opted for a pool morning after 2 rope drop mornings which was great. Ordered breakfast from BC Marketplace and then headed to the pool around 10. Went to MK around 2 and I had been stacking LL all morning - Space, BTMR, Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World. We also did the SFR treehouse and then had dinner at Skipper’s - was really good. Grabbed another LL for Buzz and opted to head out just before the fireworks- it was so crowded I didn’t have it in me for the post-FW bus wait. I did stop to chat with Guest Relations though and after the guy looked through what must have been a ton of images of all the lost items, he located my wallet! What a relief…I was so stressed about checking into our next hotel at Universal and getting home with no ID.



Mon- 4/11 EPCOT/HS/EPCOT. We had a park rez for EPCOT but since we had already been 2 nights and hit most of the rides we wanted we decided to go back to HS so I stacked rides for that for times starting at 2 pm (If you don’t have a park reservation, you can book in another park but it will automatically change your LL time to after 2 pm). We did have to check into EPCOT in order to hop so we did breakfast at the Boulangerie in France. Waited almost an hour!!! (Longest line at Disney ha) but so worth it. We bought alllll the pastries. Then DH and the kids did the pool for a bit while I took the bus over to Disney Springs to get my wallet at Lost and Found. Headed back and we went over to HS at 2. We hadn’t been able to get a LL for Tower of Terror our first day, so I had booked that first, used another anytime LL for RNRC, then Toy Story Mania again, Star tTours and managed to find another Slinky! Not bad for 2.5 hours. Headed back to BC via skyliner (we loved riding this when convenient) and hit EPCOT for our Le Cellier dinner. Very good but $$. After we just walked around trying some drinks (boozy mango dole whip? Yes please) and caught the full fireworks facing straight on towards the screens (before we had watched near the bridge to France) and it was definitely a cooler view. Again, couldn’t believe the line for CBR skyliner - insanely long but was moving at least. But we had that short walk which was great!



Tuesday 4/12 - AK/HS - booked FOP for 8:30 and Safari for 9 right at 7 am. Didn’t rope drop bc early entry was 7 am but we ubered and got there around 8:20. Did FOP (one of my faves!), hit Starbucks, then did Safari. Thought about booking a LL for Na’vi next but available times were later than we wanted to stay so I booked a Tower of Terror for 7:45 pm since we had dinner at HS.

We did a few of the animal trails, got some food and drinks at Pongu Pongu in Pandora and then headed out via bus as it was HOT and crowded. Did the pool for a bit and then took the skyliner over to HS. I had also booked a Aliens swirling saucers for 5 pm but I definitely a ride we could have skipped. Had dinner at Sci Fi, more drinks at Baseline (DH is an IPA guy and found most offerings around Disney to be not great so he found some good ones here) and then another rez at OGAs I was going to drop, but decided to keep bc the kids loved the fizzy drinks. We then rode Tower of Terror again and I must have had another anytime LL bc we did RNRC again, then took the skyliner home right at park close. No wait though like we saw at EPCOT.



Wednesday 4/13 transfer to Universal - got up, packed and stored our luggage and headed to Riviera for Topolinos character breakfast. After our last trip 4 years ago which was very princess centric, this was a nice way to end the Disney part of our trip. It’s Minnie, Mickey, Donald and Daisy in their “artist” outfits and the food was great. It’s prefix pricing - and the only meal I had to pay adult price for my 10 year old thank goodness because she eats nothing. I was told you could order smaller sides of entrees so I got the avocado toast with a “side” of the sour cream waffles and it was all very good. We also walked around the resort to check it out and it’s beautiful- the pool area was very calm in comparison to BC, with plenty of open seating. We took the skyliner back to BC and got an Uber to Universal with our luggage.



SUMMARY Overall we loved Beach Club. We had a one bedroom so a kitchen and laundry was great. I think it’s best if you have older kids who are strong swimmers that you don’t need an eye on the entire time otherwise there would be no relaxing. The entrance to the waterslide is outside of the gated pool area and we were fine with them going up there alone but if they were younger it would have been a lot of back and forth for us.  We also found it hard to find seating at the pool after 11 am. 4 years ago we stayed at Polynesian which had a pool that was better for kids age 4 and 6, but now with older kids and the ease of getting to HS and EPCOT, BC was perfect. Riviera or Grand Floridian are next on my list if and when we go back.



The biggest downside to the trip was the cost. I don’t even want to add it all up bc I’m sure we could have gone on a very nice Caribbean or European trip for less. But this was a rebook of a trip we meant to take in 2020 so my motto was more like, fine, take all my money Disney, bc who knows when we’ll go back. I told myself to let go my annoyances at all the nickel and diming there is. Paying for fast passes, individual rides, magic bands, airport transfers, etc …the only real perks to staying on site is the 30 min early entry, being able to buy ILL at 7 am, and the extended evening hours which we didn’t even do bc it was just too late for us. And of course the location of BC which was amazing. Definitely would suggest the park hoppers if you stay here bc we did most evenings at EPCOT.



I’ll do the Universal part of our trip as a separate post.

[lauren170]

Apr 18, 2022 12:38:26 GMT -5 huskymom said:

Another tip I read was to book a late Spaceship Earth LL (like 7:45 or later) bc it always goes down and it did, so we got a “select experiences” anytime LL to use good through the next day. I think this worked for me on at least 3-4 days.

What!!!?? Wish I knew this when we went.

[daisyduck]

This was really interesting, thanks! I loved all the detail.

[sent]

Also love detailed posts like this. Thank you! Seems like you hit all the big kid highlights.

[nicolewi]

This is amazing! Thanks for all the details and tips.