Highlights of our Trip - Easter + Spring Break

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Driving - We survived driving from NJ to Orlando. My husband drove straight through the night high on adrenaline. On the way back it was harder. We switched off twice and had to stop for some rest. We also stopped in MD where my in-laws live so we're not quite home yet. We had planned to do a night in Charleston but decided not to when we realized it was much better to drive while DS was asleep. I really liked having our car with us but I don't know that I want to do this drive again. 

Hotel - Our hotel was amazing. Four Seasons Orlando. Beautiful hotel, great food, amazing personalized hospitality compared to when I stayed at The Contemporary. The only advantage IMO that Disney deluxe hotels have is their locations are so much closer to the parks and it is easier to buy toddler-friendly meals at their quick service dining locations. 

Food - It is very hard to find a hot dog and fries at Epcot. That was DS's main meal. They sell hot dogs at a quick serve place between Mexico and China. They sell fries at the fish and chips place in UK. Pecos Bill in MK is bleh. My favorite new place to eat is The Hollywood Brown Derby in HS. Dinner at California Grill is always a special experience for us except DS was not having this either. I tried to bribe him to behave with a trip to the gift shop downstairs which sort-of worked. 

Number of Park Days - I booked 6 nights at the hotel and 5 day park-hoppers. This was too many park days. I should have booked 4 days of park-hoppers. It was hot and crowded in the middle of the day. DD and I would try to trek to the park early in the morning but that wore us out. We would head over in the evenings as a family but it was hard to push DS out the door even for a 5 pm shuttle bus. We never made it to Animal Kingdom. 

No Genie+ - We are "loose planners." We changed almost all of our meal plans once we got on site except for 2 reservations. This goes along with why I didn't buy Genie+. I couldn't start planning our day at 7 am when DS wasn't into the parks. We rode what we could trying to take advantage of lower crowds in the last hour before park closing. We watched shows which was good for DS. He really enjoyed the Disney Jr. Dance Party and Frozen Sing-a-long. DD really like Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad (35 min standby wait) so I returned with her at rope drop the next day to ride it again (10 min standby). Luckily my park reservations coincided with this plan. 

Park Hoppers - On day 2, we tried to "hop" to Hollywood Studios at 3:30 pm for a 5 pm dinner reservation without having gone to our reserved park of Magic Kingdom first. Two cast members said we had to go over to Magic Kingdom and tap in there and then we could return and tap in at HS. All park reservations were sold out. That makes no sense for HS to be suddenly available for park hopping just because we went and tapped in a few miles away. Thankfully a supervisor at guest services fixed this for us. The app was also very confusing. It showed "it's time to make your way to Hollywood Studios!" probably because I had the dinner reservation there and made no mention that I had to go to MK first. I understand those are the park hopper rules but they are a major cramp on our last-minute style. The next day, DD and I went to our reserved park and I asked if I could tap the other 2 family members in since we were already there. Nope again. We re-did our plans for the rest of the trip to line up with our park reservations and the park-hopper rules. 

Weather - I've decided I much prefer touring the parks in the winter due to the heat. Two days toward the end of our trip were cooler but this is unpredictable. However the kids really enjoyed the pool which wasn't possible on our past winter trips. 

Character Meals - I miss the hotel character meals. On past trips, I used those to break up the park days. I was only able to book 1 on this trip and it was on our last day. I hope they come back soon.

Future Plans - DS, age 4, really didn't care for WDW. I think I will return 2 more times before DD turns 10 and then we will phase out the back-to-back Disney trips and start exploring other places. 

[sent]

Ponchos - this was our first time getting caught in a torrential rain storm. About $50 for 2 adult and 2 kid ponchos when bought at a Disney gift shop. We had planned to close out Epcot and take the skyliner for a 9:20 pm reservation at Topolino’s. Torrential rain = no skyliner running. Everyone has to take a bus. There were sections of the sidewalk near the bus pickup that had like 6+ inches of water to wade through. We all got so soaked despite the ponchos so we cancelled Topolino's and went back to our hotel and ordered room service.

[erbear]

No offense but this sounds miserable. Did you have any fun?

[krystee]

We went at the same time, but just for one day outside of the parks and one inside. I do not do lines, so we did Genie+, but DS2 (4) could not grasp why we couldn’t go on Haunted Mansion next when that is all he wanted to do (but I wasn’t willing to wait 90 minutes for it when we could wait 10 minutes two hours later). I decided while he was screaming in another line because it wasn’t HM that Disney vacations are mostly fun and magical when you get home and forget how hot and sweaty and whiny and exhausting and crowded they were! I don’t think we’ll be back for quite awhile. We have done Disney a ton because H’s parents live right there and we loved it for a long time, but I have so much more fun on less structured adventures in nature or exploring cities now. I’m sad that I don’t feel the Disney magic much anymore, but I’m also glad to be seeing more new places.

[sent]

May 16, 2022 21:53:23 GMT -5 erbear said:

No offense but this sounds miserable. Did you have any fun?

Not sure why you think that, I did highlight things we enjoyed. Personally, the trip was a nice change of scenery but otherwise I felt like that meme that says something like "Vacation for parents is just taking care of the kids in a different place."

My kids had a lot fun. They loved the pool complex at Four Seasons. DD said there was an awesome lazy river. I apparently wasn't lazy enough to have a chance to experience it. DS did behave during our dinner at the Hollywood Derby and the food and drinks there were good so that was a nice experience even if they did give us a hard time about hopping to Hollywood Studios. I took each kid to the parks alone at some point and that was special for me. DD did the Easter egg hunt activity and enjoyed it. I had looked up the answers to give her hints so we didn't melt in the heat. The night that it poured, we had started that evening at the Riviera Hotel to feed DS at the quick serve restaurant before heading to Epcot on the Skyliner. They had the cutest things at their gift shop - I bought the kids matching outfits and DS picked out these little stuffed keychains of Mickey and Minnie as Topolino and Topolina. DD also picked up some delicious desserts from the bar/bakery place next to the gift shop that we enjoyed later. She was also into finding pressed pennies. DS and I did MK one night from 9 pm - 10:30 pm and those were some great memories for me. He fell asleep in his stroller after 10:30 pm as I strolled out of the park. The shuttle driver let me stroll DS right into the handicap lift on the shuttle so I didn't have to unbuckle him, great service again. We ordered room service a lot and that was nice for me because it was a really easy way to feed everyone and the food was delicious. 

It was definitely a "let me get reacquainted" kind of trip since I had the pre-COVID system figured out pretty well. I would have called us "light planners" pre-COVID. Post-COVID makes that hard especially with the park reservation system and the strict rules of having to check in at the reserved park in order to park hop. Now I have a better idea how to structure our future trips. We will likely return in November. 

[sent]

May 16, 2022 22:07:20 GMT -5 krystee said:

We went at the same time, but just for one day outside of the parks and one inside. I do not do lines, so we did Genie+, but DS2 (4) could not grasp why we couldn’t go on Haunted Mansion next when that is all he wanted to do (but I wasn’t willing to wait 90 minutes for it when we could wait 10 minutes two hours later). I decided while he was screaming in another line because it wasn’t HM that Disney vacations are mostly fun and magical when you get home and forget how hot and sweaty and whiny and exhausting and crowded they were! I don’t think we’ll be back for quite awhile. We have done Disney a ton because H’s parents live right there and we loved it for a long time, but I have so much more fun on less structured adventures in nature or exploring cities now. I’m sad that I don’t feel the Disney magic much anymore, but I’m also glad to be seeing more new places.

Yes, I totally feel the same way! Like I wrote above, I'm still planning a few more Disney trips since DD still loves it so we may as well get those trips in before she turns 10. But for the first time since I had kids, I've started thinking about other places to take them. The other day I heard that United started a new direct flight to The Azores in Portugal. The flight is under 5 hours. I was like "huh, I think I'd like to go there with the kids. That sounds like a manageable flight time with them to experience something totally new and we get to be in Europe, my husband's favorite place on Earth." This was a huge moment for me since for the last 6 years, I've been afraid to think about going anywhere international because of my past experience of getting deathly ill on vacation. This fear was part of the reason I kept wanting to return to Disney. But with my 4 year old DS also not into Disney that much, I'm feeling ok with starting to think about other vacations now that don't involve dragging a toddler out the door to be bound by a shuttle schedule.