WDW trip review!

[devonpow]

Sorry in advance for length - I’m wordy and detailed lol.

We did a quick, 3 night trip from 4/21-4/24. There were 5 of us - DS1 turned 15 while we were there, DS2 is 10. My sister (who lives out of state from us) decided to join us too which was fun. This was a combo birthday trip for DS1, a “we had to cancel everything for these kids for 2 years, we have lost our minds, F everything” trip, plus DH got a new position we were celebrating.

Day 1: arrival day. We stayed at the Polynesian (our favorite). I used a Disney travel agent for the first time ever because I lost the ability to deal with life during Covid, lol. It was a lot more convenient/helpful than I expected! She couldn’t help with dining reservations (apparently a rule with Disney at the time wanting guests to sign off on the Covid protocol as reservations are made?We weren’t hugely concerned with meals this time so it didn’t matter). She arranged a car service for our airport pick up/departure which was awesome and so easy. We don’t check bags, and our jet blue flight was shockingly on time so we were at the Poly by 2. The online check in was super easy and I had our room number sent to us before we arrived. We stayed in a Club Level room which was great! We were met at the car by a cast member who escorted us to our room and showed us everything (so I didn’t try out unlocking the doors with our app). The Club Rooms were very newly re done and much much better than when we stayed at the Poly a few years ago. I LOVED having the lounge with breakfast and snacks/drinks all day. Being able to grab breakfast there was a huge plus (plus free drinks all day was awesome) . Also they had a private concierge lounge for us which was very helpful a few times.

We mobile ordered Capt. Cooks for a late lunch and ate outside. Then we just hung out a bit on grounds, went to the Grand Floridian for magic bands (my boys wanted plain ones and the Poly didn’t have any), had a snack in the lounge etc. The kids didn’t want to do the pool for some reason. We had dinner at Kona and met my sister there - she was staying at Pop Century and would Uber to us most of the time. Kona was decent. Post dinner kids went back to the room and DH, my sister, and I went to the Grog Grotto (we had put our names down before dinner so it worked out perfectly). It was super fun and had delicious drinks. Maybe too strong on top of the drinks I had at dinner lol

Day 1: Magic Kingdom. Genie plus was stressing me out because I had never done it and didn’t quite understand it. I’m a planner so the 7 AM day of thing drove me nuts. I went to the concierge the night before to make sure everyone was linked on the app correctly etc and to go over it again. I woke up early and bought genie plus (super easy, but HATE having to pay for it) and right at 7 booked my first one. My kids are big into roller coasters and they picked space mountain as the priority, so I got that for 9 AM. I also bought a lightning lane for 7 dwarves. Again, hated paying for it, but I hate long lines a bit more lol

While I was booking the 7 Dwarves lightning lane the app changed the time on me and it ended up being booked for during our dinner reservation time. I went to the concierge lounge (they said the time switch thing happens a lot) and they easily switched it to an earlier time for me (6 pm, so still not super early - that ride booked crazy fast) so that was a nice perk having them right there to help. We ate a quick breakfast in the lounge, met my sister and hopped on the monorail.

The park opened at 8:30 for resort guests but we were a bit slow getting going and didn’t walk in until 8:50 ish. The early resort entrance area is going into Tomorrowland so we walked onto Buzz Lightyear to start. Then we went on the People Mover (we are big into classic Disney rides as you will see ), then onto Space Mountain for our 1st genie plus. As soon as we tapped in I made a new genie reservation for Haunted Mansion at 11.

We then did Dumbo and Little Mermaid, plus grabbed a snack, before Haunted Mansion. When we tapped in there I got another Genie plus for Big Thunder Mountain at 3:30. After Haunted we put a mobile order in for Pecos Bills in about an hour, then headed to Pirates. This was our first “long” line - about 40 minutes. Picked up lunch and sat for a while after - mobile ordering was super easy and it was ready about 5 minutes after I checked in that we were there.

After lunch DH went back to the hotel to do some work. The rest of us did Country Bear Jamboree (lol), the Jungle Cruise (loooong line because it was breaking down - ended up being an hour), Swiss Family treehouse, ice cream break, the carousel, then back to Big Thunder. After that (it was about 4) there weren’t any good genie plus’ left, so we didn’t book anything (I had forgotten I could book 2 hours after the last one so could have tried earlier - oh well). They were all bad times/rides we didn’t care about etc. So we got 3 good picks from genie plus - not terrible, but I think I could have done better if I checked more.

We headed to Main Street and did some shopping, then met DH and did 7 Dwarves with our lightning lane purchase. Walked onto Small World after, then did the treehouse again while waiting for our table to be ready. Had dinner at Jungle Navigation. After dinner we made the kids do the Tiki Room (they weren’t thrilled - but we love the nostalgia!) then DH took the kids back while my sister and I stayed. It was fireworks time so we walked onto Pirates and then Haunted Mansion, then headed back to the monorail to beat the crowds before the park closed - - we only had to wait about 5 minutes.,We spent about 13 hours in the park and my watch claimed I did around 18,000 steps

I didn’t feel it was overly crowded at all. The longest line for us was Jungle Cruise - everything else was super easy. The only rides we didn’t do but would have were Splash Mountain(the kids don’t love it so wasn’t a priority) and Peter Pan (only my sister and I cared and not nearly enough to wait 70 minutes). Genie Plus was pretty effective, but I really don’t like that you need to pay for it.


Day 2
This was our super special day. We signed up for a VIP tour which was AMAZING. A huge, huge splurge obviously. We have a friend who had done it previously so knew what was entailed and just decided to do it as a once in a lifetime Disney thing. It was DS1’s birthday and he really wanted all the Star Wars stuff plus loves Pandora and I knew we couldn’t fit it in/do it all ourselves easily/I wanted a stress free day. Plus with Covid I liked the idea of really shortening our time in indoor lines.

Our guide picked us up at our resort at 9 (you get 7 hours and decide when you start and where you meet) She was AWESOME. So fun and knowledgeable. We went over our priorities/what we hoped to get out of the day (rides and parks, obviously, but also stuff like DS2 is super into hidden Mickeys and Disney trivia so she pointed out all that stuff all day). We got into the SUV and drove to Hollywood Studios.

For the VIP tour you go in cast entrances to make things faster. So we drove to a back area of HS and they had someone waiting there with a big tray of snacks for us in case we needed anything. All through the day our guide had water bottles and snacks available which was awesome (We weren’t allowed to take any photos in backlot/cast member areas). We had a private security check there and then we entered the park through a cast member entrance that was right next to the Aerosmith coaster. DH and DS1 went on that while the rest of us waited. For the tour you basically do all lighting lanes - a few rides had an area to even skip the lightning lane/go in back entrances, and a few places had back exits to use that get you in and out more quickly as well. There are a few secret entrances to rides where they bring celebrities/people who don’t want to see anyone ell else that she pointed out to us. The guide walks you on to all of the rides - she came on some of the rides with us and for others waited for us outside the ride after getting us on. We loved our guide so much and she was really fun/we enjoyed when she accompanied us on the rides. She also was great about things like telling us exactly where to stand for certain experiences etc. You can repeat rides as many times as you want except for Rise of the Resistance - that was the only ride or experience with restrictions on it (we could only ride it once).

After Aerosmith we went on Runaway Railroad (I didn’t even know this ride existed but our guide told us it was worth it - it was so cute and DS2 loved it. Lots of hidden mickeys and trivia so right up his alley), then headed to Rise of the Resistance. It was amazing!! Loved it so much. Wandered about Star Wars a bit, did Smugglers Run, then headed to Toy Story land and did Slinky dog. While we were on that our guide bought us churros Then onto Toy Story Mania, then back to Slinky Dog for a repeat. Then onto Tower of Terror and left via a back cast exit right there.

Back into the car and we headed to Animal Kingdom. Drove to another back entrance and came into the park next to the safari ride. Had a quick hot dog lunch right there then headed onto the safari ride. While we were on the safari our guide moved the car to where we would be leaving from later. After the safari we did Expedition Everest, then Dinosaur (I’m very “meh” on this ride but DS2 really wanted to) and then to Flights of Passage. When we got off that our guide had ice cream sandwiches, popcorn , and drinks for all of us

We headed out the back entrance of Pandora and back into the car and she drove us to Epcot. We came in a back entrance right next to Ratatouille. We are not big Epcot fans but DS2 REALLY wanted to do this ride since he loves the movie. So we figured we would take advantage of the end of the tour to be dropped off there and skip the line for it. Our guide got us on Ratatouille and then left - the tour is 7 hours total. I really, really enjoyed it. We hit 3 parks and a lot of major rides (did 13 rides total with her), got great trivia and inside info, got to see special back areas etc. It was really great. It made it more bearable to fit in a few rides that only 1 person really wanted to do, etc. It’s going to be hard to do parks in a “regular” way from now on!

At this point it was 4 pm. We grabbed some drinks and snacks and then DS2 wanted to go on Mission space. So we did that then walked back to the skyliner (no wait) and headed back to Hollywood Studios. Once there we went back to Star Wars land to do some shopping and look around/hang out more. It is so cool and well done. We went into Oga’s for a drink ( we didn’t have a reservation but it was only a 20 minute wait to stand at the bar). DH loved it! My sister and I got fun themed cocktails - mine had some foam that made my lips numb for about 10 minutes lol - and DH got some themed Star Wars beer. Then we did Smugglers Run again (only a 35 minute wait) and went to dinner at Mama Melrose. After dinner it was about 9 pm and we headed out - we managed to walk onto Runaway Railroad for a last ride on our way out. We took the Skyliner to Pop Century (no wait for Skyliner) to drop my sister off then called an Uber for ourselves to get back to the Polynesian. Uber from resort to resort was very easy the whole trip. Got back to our resort around 9:45 PM. Total steps according to my watch - 20,370


Today we got a late check out so slept in and had brunch at Kona. Did the monorail loop and popped into Contemporary and Grand Floridian to do some shopping. Got some Dole Whip back at the resort and then headed to the airport (I wrote this up on the plane to re live the trip - I’m sad it’s over!)

All in all it was a great trip. Short, but we did almost everything we wanted. The app and genie plus were very user friendly and the extra cost for everything was my only complaint. We had amazing weather and crowds weren’t too bad. The Polynesian was great - I’ll definitely do club level again because the perks were a huge plus for us. The VIP tour was incredible. Obviously a once in a lifetime thing (although I did tell DH I want to do it again for my 50th lol) and stupid pricey, but in order to do all we did we would have needed at least another day or two in the parks, and as we know hotel/tickets/lightning lanes/food really add up. I loved the Skyliner and it was so easy and quick. I really hate the buses, so I’m all about monorail/boats/Skyliner when possible.

I hope this helps others with planning!

[meganew]

This sounds amazing! The VIP tour sounds incredible. We got back from our trip earlier this month and I'm still having post-vacation blues. Lol.

[eddy]

Thank you for the write up! My boys are the same age as your kids so I was especially happy to ready what they loved!!! We are going in November.

[huskymom]

Sounds like a great time!! We also debated the VIP tour at both Disney and Universal but since we had 5 day Disney hoppers and 3 day park to park at universal we thought we would be okay…and it was, but for a short trip I think we will do this some time!

I also had that same fizzy drink at Oga’s and the bartender kept laughing at me bc I was like what is wrong with my face???

[nicolewi]

Wow, that VIP tour sounds completely amazing. Thanks for Genie Plus info as well. I hate the whole idea of it. Frankly, all the extra charges for everything and the inconvenience of having to get up early and do these stressful ride planning things at 7 am is influencing how I feel about planning another trip.

[picksthemusic]

Thanks for the write up! I don't know that we'll do a VIP tour any time soon, but it's nice to know how you enjoyed it!