Disney trip report

[steamboat185]

We are here this week, arrived May 6th leaving May 13th. We are staying at the Polynesian in DVC rented points. We are in Pago Pago which I was bummed about at first, but it is super close to the transportation center.

Sunday we did Genie Plus and visited MK. We were able to get BG2 for Tron and ride Peter Pan 2x, Small World, Buzz 2x, teacups, carousel, Pirates, Barnstormers, dumbo, the train, and the Speedway. We went back to the hotel for about 2 hours stacking some lightening lanes and then headed over to Ak. At Ak we did Everest, the safari, the river rapids, Navi River, are at the Nomad lounge, and then did flight of passage right as the park was closing.

Monday we rope dropped HS with Genie plus and were able to get into Rise by 7:48 (at 8 am opening was listed) we were done with the ride by 8:06. We hit smugglers run, aliens swirling saucers, slinky dog, Toy Story mania, then back to the saucers. We headed to Indiana Jones, then went to muppets, runway railroad, and star tours. We grabbed lunch at 12:45 at Roundup Rodeo BBQ (not great, but fun). We took the skyliner over to Epcot and checked in so we could get the 6pm drop for Guardians and started stacking some lightening lanes. We hung out at the Polynesian for a bit and the kids napped. Around 6:50 we headed back to Epcot and did Soarin, Remy, and then Frozen (Frozen was supposed to be first but it was down). On the way out we did Guardians (awesome).

Yesterday we did the Genie again and headed back to MK. We did rope drop and almost everything was down including the monorail. We did Astro Orbiter (which broke immediately and then went back up after a few) and then hit up Buzz. We walked over to Jungle cruise at 9 since we couldn’t get a decent lighting lane and waited 40 minutes. We then hit Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, enchanted tales with Bell, got some hot dogs with mobile ordering, did Pooh, and the little mermaid. I missed the 7am Tron drop, but was able to get the 1pm drop (the 7am drop is gone in 2-3 seconds, but the 1pm drop lasts for several minutes to an hour). We left and went back to the hotel from 2-6:30ish. We stacked a few rides and hit Buzz, Tron and Space mountain. Our Tron and Space Mountain times overlapped and the Space mountain cast members told us while you can’t check in more than 5 minutes early you can show up anytime after your lightening lane window with no trouble (she said up to 5 hours just FYI).

The plan for the next few days is to take it easy and not get genie plus. It was crazy we were able to get all of the new and bigger attractions done in 2 days. We have guardians again today and will hit some of the smaller rides. The only big ride we haven’t done is Seven Dwarfs and it has just been broken ALOT and we don’t want to wait!

[steamboat185]

This is our first trip since 2019 and we aren’t big Disney people. The kids are 6 and 9. The little one had never done a roller coaster before this trip and her 2nd ride at Disney was Tron. We were super worried we’d be on our phones constantly, but it hasn’t really been bad and we’ve used about 6 lightening lanes a day (not sure all were needed, but since we bought it we used it). We learned a lot by watching ear scouts on YouTube and by reading the touringplans forum, especially the La Cava board.

Edit Saturday night we went to Artist Point and the Storybook dinner with the Evil Queen and it was great. The food was actually really good and the whole thing was really well done. I’m vegetarian and they gave me great apps and special desserts and there was vegetarian friendly mains.

[nancybotwin]

We just got back from a trip at the Poly. I’m so enjoying reading about your trip. Hope the rest is fun!

[steamboat185]

Wednesday we had planned to hit up AK, but the night before we all decided we wanted to ride Guardians again. We woke up at 7 and got a boarding group for Guardians. We waited a few seconds to try to get one for the afternoon. We had been told you could check in anytime after the group was called, but didn’t want to push it by too many hours. We then went back to sleep until our 8:50 reservation at Kona Cafe. The food was pretty good and the server was great. We hit the Lava pool after breakfast. We weren’t really impressed by the pool it was really small and crowded considering the crowd level were 3-5 all week. The kids were hungry so we mobile order from Captain Cooks all mobile orders were awesome. In the afternoon we headed to Epcot we hit Guardians and all the lower level rides. Epcot was empty. There was basically no wait at any food booth or any ride except Remy and Test Track.

Thursday we had reservations for HS, but decided to rope drop AK and hit Flights of Passage again. We got the first bus and were in line by 8:00 for an 8:30 opening we were definitely in the front of the crowd. We were on the ride by 8:46 after we hit up the Navi river, watched Lion King, Kali, Everest, and Dinosaur. We finished the park with an ice cream and were back at Poly by 1:15 (we had a bit of a wait for the bus). We went swimming for a bit and then headed over to HS for a 4:30 reservation at Oga’s, which we really enjoyed. We went over to Millennium Falcon and when we came out we had the only rain of the trip, but it was impressive. When it let up a bit we walked over to Muppets and then checked into Sci-Fi dinner, which was pretty fun. Post dinner we headed back to the Poly and finally saw the fireworks.

Friday we grabbed a boarding a group for Guardians again (it was a big hit). We packed up the room and headed over to Beach club for our last night. We loved Storm-a-long bay and were very glad the kids were bigger and can swim since the pool is really oddly shaped and has a several areas that are 4-8 feet deep. We ordered some lunch from a server and got our room early around 1:50. We quickly showered and headed over to Epcot to do Guardians again and then when to the Space 220 lounge. The lounge was really fun. All the good parts of Space 220 without the 80 dollar pp meal. After that we walked around, grabbed some food/drinks from various booths and finally watching the fireworks inside a park.

Saturday we grabbed some breakfast from the Boardwalk deli and then hit the pool until it was time to leave around 1:45.

Overall it was a good trip. We definitely couldn’t do Disney super often, but it was fun. We ordered groceries and beer from Target/ Whole Foods on our arrival day and were able to have most breakfasts in the room. We also brought some mandarin oranges and other small snacks for the kids (or us) in the park and some chips, other snacks, and juice for the room. This kept us way under our food budget. We were expecting around 75-100 pp per day and we were under 50, but we aren’t huge eaters. We only carried a fanny pack and a water bottle into the parks. While it didn’t look super cool we were able to fit everything we needed (and some stuff we didn’t including bandaids and ponchos) and it was super easy to take on rides and swap between users. We also didn’t get sweaty with the fanny pack like we do with a backpack, which was nice. We didn’t really use the rental car, but we got a great rate and it did make moving hotels easier as well as grabbing groceries. We didn’t love the Poly it was just ok. It was easy for transportation, but the pool was small and it didn’t feel like it was worth the price. The building seemed sort of run down, super loud, and there was no real place to sit or hangout anywhere outside your room if you wanted shade/ac. I can’t imagine how crazy it will be once the new dvc building are opened. We really liked the Beach club and wish we could have stayed longer. We’re finishing the week with just under 65 miles walked.