mrsap
May the 4th Be With You!
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2012
MomTo3PrincessesInNJ said:So we’re back from our first family vacation and it was amazing! Even with US Air being the worst airline EVER, and coming back to the airport to find our car battery dead, this was still the best 6 days we could have ever imagined!
I am going to work on my Photopass+ CD tonight and tomorrow and I’ll upload some when I am done.
I’ll try to recap each day quickly, but first a things:
It was COLD!!! We thought we'd be fine with long sleeve t shirts and light jackets, WRONG! Bring lots of layering clothes. And jackets. And maybe hats & gloves, too! It would get warm in the middle of the day, but the nights were very cold.
I have to say the Deluxe dining plan was WAY TOO MUCH food and not worth the cost for us. This made me really sad because I thought it was a good deal, but after eating a character buffet almost every morning (which will always be a must-do for us because standing in line at a park is a waste of time IMO), then having an app/entre/dessert for lunch and dinner, it was just too much. My H and I are BIG eaters, and we couldn’t keep up. It literally felt like we were constantly eating. We often skipped the appetizer and dessert, which didn’t make the cost worth it. Not to mention that with all that food we had no desire for snacks, so we ended up only using our snack credits for drinks while we were in the park, and when we checked out yesterday we still had 2 meals and 17 (!!!) snack credits left, so we used the snack credits on treats to bring home for friends. We also wasted a lot of time sitting down to eat in the afternoon. I think doing a sit down breakfast and dinner with a counter service lunch would have worked better for us, especially since we returned to the resort for naps every day.
Which brings me to our resort – AoA is amazing! It’s gorgeous and perfect for younger kids. We loved the suite, especially because we had our own bedroom/bathroom! The only negative I have to say about the resort is the food service. No matter when we went – line or no line- everything took FOREVER. It was painfully slow. And there was no information posted about the dining plan and other guests kept getting the wrong stuff with their meals, which held up the whole line at check out. It was a mess. The food was good, but we ended up purposely NOT eating there because it was such a hassle.
So here’s a quick recap:
Arrival, Monday. After our flight was delayed and we switched planes at the gate, we finally arrived at MCO. We were greeted by our driver from Happy Limo and taken to our stretch Lincoln Navigator! We were given a complementary upgrade from the limo we paid for – awesome! Cate did pretty good on the plane, but I couldn’t imagine having to sit with her on a crowded bus for another 30+ minutes, so I’m so glad we decided to go with a car service. I highly recommend Happy Limo, they rolled out red carpet for the girls and all, it was so cute! We got to AoA around 11a and were able to get right into our room. We were on the ground floor facing the pool. The windows do not have screens so we didn’t feel comfortable leaving them open, which was a shame because the weather was gorgeous while we were there. Also, the pool area is VERY noisy. There are activities all day and loud music all the time. Luckily when we came back for naps the girls were so tired they didn’t seem to notice.
We went to Hollywood Studios after we had lunch at Landscape of Flavors. The food was good, the service was slow. We met with our family and rode some rides then had lunch at Sci Fi. Sad to say, this was one of the worst meals we had. Nobody in our party of 10 was happy with their whole meal. My app and dessert were great, my entre was not. After lunch we rode more rides then headed over to F! around 5:30. They already let the line in, and there were tons of seats, so I’m glad we didn’t waste time standing in line. The show was great, the girls loved it. After F! we went to dinner at 50’s Prime Time. Everyone loved their food and the theming was great. After dinner we headed out. Our day started at 3:45a, so we were beat.
Day 2, Tuesday: Breakfast at Chef Mickey. Everyone loved it and the character interaction was good. The weather this day wasn’t great – showers on & off, but we headed over to MK anyway. We had a great day. There weren’t a lot of people in the park so we walked on to almost every ride and when we used the FastPass it was even faster. We have lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern. Another not so great experience. H didn’t eat at all because he was still full from breakfast, and I had the Pilgrims feast, which was served luke-warm. Everyone in our party got the toffee cake for dessert and loved it. Next time this will be a dessert only stop! After lunch we went back to the resort for a nap and met our party for dinner at the Cape May Café Clam Bake. This was a great meal because everyone in the party of 10 loves seafood – right down to my 18 month old! After dinner we went back to MK for more rides and fireworks and then we went back to the resort.
Day 3, Wednesday. Breakfast at Akershus. GREAT meal, GREAT character interaction, overall one of our favs. The waitress refilled one platter with just bacon & potatoes when we requested, so the guys were happy! The girls were in awe of the princess… it was priceless! I hate to say it, but I preferred this meal to our Cindy’s Royal table breakfast. After breakfast we grabbed a Soarin’ fastpass, rode the boat thing in the Land, hit up Mission: Space (hated it, but my husband and DD7 thought it was great, haha), went to Soarin’ and then to the Food & Wine Festival for lunch. I had the cheese fondue from the cheese booth (not a fan), the lobster cuddler and lobster roll from Hops & Barley (loved them both!), and ended my lunch cheddar cheese soup and steak from Canada (loved again). We went back for our daily naps then back to Epcot for dinner at Biergarten. This was one of the best meals and experiences of the whole trip. Everyone loved the food and the entertainment was great. We stayed for Illuminations then went back to the resort.
Day 4, Thursday. Breakfast at O’hana. The food was great, loved the service, and the girls were excited to see Lilo, Stitch and Mickey. This day H & my oldest DD went to Universal, so I had the little girls and we went to MK to ride some rides. My 3 year old could have stayed in the Storybook Circus the whole week. Between Dumbo and the Goofy rollercoaster and the closeness of the tea cups and carousel, she was in heaven. We went back to the resort and had lunch (another terribly long and drawn out wait) and then they napped.
H & DD came back from Universal and then we got them ready for our appointment at the BBB! My oldest was great, but my 3 year old decided she didn’t want to do it – fine, no problem, but then she started bawling when we were walking out and said she wanted her hair done, but we had dinner at 1900 Park Fare in 30 mins! So, a fairy godmother called the Grand Floridian and explained our situation, and they said to take our time and they will seat us when we arrived – awesome service!!! Dinner at 1900 was good. Not a huge buffet, but the character interaction was worth the trip. The girls LOVED Prince Charming! After dinner we went back to the resort, then me at my older DD went to MK and stayed until 1a! Oh, did I mention that WE WERE LET INTO THE NEW FANTASY LAND EXPANSION?!?!?!Well, we were. My Disney Dream come true! It was really dark, and late, but I didn’t care. We went on the Little Mermaid ride and into Belle’s cottage. DD was chosen to be the beast so she got to dance with Belle --- she was in heaven! At the end she got a signed book mark from Belle and a photopass card with the pictures of her & Belle on it. It was so cool!
Day 5, Friday. Breakfast at Tusker House. Another great character buffet. Animal Kingdom was good – Expedition Everest was so cool, and we all enjoyed the safari ride. We were only at AK for 5 hours and skipped our ressie at Rainforest (we weren’t hungry). Went to the hotel for naps, then to Hollywood Studios for our dinner at Hollywood and Vine. We wanted to see the Osborne lights before going to the Xmas party and this was the only way to make it work. The food wasn’t delicious, but it was far from terrible – in our group of 10, this was ranked ABOVE Liberty Tree & Sci Fi. To each their own. We made it to the lights after another stop in Tower of Terror – they were beautiful! We stayed for about 30 mins then went to the MK for MVMCP. The party was a lot of fun. The parade was the best part – and the Holiday Wishes show was awesome. The park cleared out after the fireworks, which was great. We walked onto all the rides we wanted to – and then went into the new Fantasy Land AGAIN!
This time Belle’s cottage wasn’t working, but we did the Ariel ride again and looked around. We stayed until close since it was our last night.
Day 6, Saturday. Breakfast at Cindy’s Royal Table. The food wasn’t bad, but not as great as I expected for the price. I had the stuffed French toast, which wasn’t French toast at all, it was like a bread pudding. And it had raisins, which I don’t really like. But I ate it all. H ordered 2 meals, and ate them both (traditional and steak & eggs). The girls got to see Jasmine, which was exciting. We had already seen Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora and Snow White at Akershus. After breakfast we went to the Town Hall to see Rapunzel then went to our resort to check out.
The only princess we didn’t see was Tiana – and we were in line for her, but they cut us off and we never made it back to see her.
All in all, the trip was pretty much the best vacation we could have had. There were some hiccups with our flights, and the airline damaged my very expensive stroller, but that couldn’t ruin my amazing vacation! We are already planning out 2014 vacation
I will try to catch up with everything I missed tonight after the girls go to sleep... today we are unpacking, ugh.
So great to hear you had a great time!!! Thanks for sharing your trip with us!!!
Can I ask, how did you like the food & character interaction at Chef Mickeys? I've read mixed reviews. Thanks!
I am hoping to get my last minute items this week and to get the house nice and clean. I hate coming home to a mess. I can't believe I have been counting down for 8 months and it is finally almost time to leave!
Have a great trip!!!
That's great news!
Congrats!
