One Jump Ahead of the Crowds

JAMIESMITH · Apr 11, 2016

I am freshly home from my third trip to Walt Disney World! This trip was different from the first two for a few different reasons. First, my husband wasn’t with us this time around. My cousin, Marie (mjohn9083 on the DISBoards), presented at a conference at the Hilton near Disney Springs this past week and invited my daughter and me to join her on a girls-only trip. This was my first time to visit Disney while staying at an off-site hotel. We added a night to the front and back of our trip at two different Disney resorts so that we could take advantage of Magic Express to and from the airport. This was my first split-stay experience. This was also my first time at Disney without the dining plan.

We took over 700 pictures including 200 that my seven-year-old took with her very first camera. We will also have photos and reviews of our meals. Thank you for reading along! If you haven’t seen it, you can find our pre-trip report here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/april-2016-girls-trip.3462326/ If you are interested, there are links to my two previous trip reports in my signature.

This is a picture of me (Jamie) and Madilyn from our 2012 trip:

And here is one of my cousin Marie with Marie Kitty on that same trip:

This is one of my daughter Madilyn from our 2015 trip:

We left our homes in Decatur, MS (my cousin and I live ¼ mile apart) around 11 PM on Friday, April 1st. Marie and I had both worked all day and my daughter, Madilyn had been to school. We tried to take a nap after we got home that day, but we were all too excited to sleep!

Duffy the Disney bear watched over our luggage during the drive!

The airport in Birmingham, AL is a three hour drive from home :drive:

, but it is the closest airport serviced by Southwest. Marie’s flight was paid for by her conference, but Madilyn and I were relying on Southwest Rapid Rewards points to cover our flights.

We stopped in Tuscaloosa, AL at IHOP for an extremely early breakfast. There were a lot of people there who were dressed up and presumably finishing their night of partying. A young couple a few tables over got into an argument. The man dumped his drink all over his date and then put her in a choke hold. Luckily, there were a couple of police officers eating who were able to arrest him and put a quick end to the altercation. Still, not what we were expecting! :eek:

After topping up with gas, we continued on to Birmingham. We locked my car up in the long term parking lot and took the shuttle to the terminal. We were much too early for our 5:30 AM flight. Maddy and Marie took a nap and I read a few chapters of Atlas Shrugged. I’m just not comfortable sleeping in an airport!

Indy car in the airport. How cool!

Getting through security was easy peasy!

I had done online check in early Friday morning so we were in the “A” boarding group and were easily able to find three seats together.

Our flight took off as scheduled and we watched the sun come up while we were in the air.

pepperandchips · Apr 13, 2016

Hey, I'm here! Great start! Can't wait to see the rest.

JAMIESMITH · Apr 27, 2016

pepperandchips said:
Hey, I'm here! Great start! Can't wait to see the rest.

I'm so glad you're here. I am working on an update right now!

JAMIESMITH · Apr 27, 2016

We rode the fake-o-rail to the other side of the airport and took the elevator down to the first level. We scanned our Magic Bands and were soon seated on a Magic Express bus headed for our first resort of the trip!

During the bus ride, I received a text message stating that our room was not yet ready. I also fired off a few quick messages to let my husband and my parents know that we had landed safely. We walked into the resort lobby around 9:15 am.

We went to the check-in counter to see if there were any rooms available for us. The lady we spoke with, Donna, offered us our choice of three rooms that were available: one on the second floor in building 4 in the Castias section, one on the first floor in building 6B of the Ranchos section, or one on the first floor in building 5 of the Castitas section. We took the last option. Donna was really friendly and we appreciated the choice of rooms. The only complaint I have is that we were told to take our luggage to the room, she never mentioned the option of having bell services take it for us.

I had been awake for about 28 hours at this point, but the walk to our room seemed so long! Once we made it, there was a cute little courtyard with a fountain just outside the entrance to our room.

We were happy to have a room that was ready and took a few minutes to unpack what we would need for our one night at Coronado Springs before changing into our swimsuits. We were hoping for a little time in the main pool before the rain set in for the day.

The rooms were lovely, but a little more cramped than the deluxe rooms we have become accustomed to. It was enough room for just the three of us, but I did discover on this trip that I am a bit of a deluxe snob!

JAMIESMITH · May 3, 2016

Since we were only staying at Coronado Springs for one night, we would only have our arrival day to spend time in the pool. The forecast called for rain in the afternoon so we headed for the pool as soon as we dropped our luggage off in our room.

There were very few people in the pool. It was cloudy and a little cool. We considered grabbing lunch at the pool bar, but realized that they were still serving breakfast so we decided to wait.

It is such a beautiful area!

We all enjoyed the pool slide, Maddy most of all!

After about an hour, we heard thunder and the lifeguards announce that the pool was closing due to the weather.

We went back to our room, dried off, and changed before heading to Pepper Market in search of something yummy for lunch.

We looked over the menu boards and decided that we would visit two separate stations with Marie and Madilyn ordering from one while I ordered from another. I was literally in line for twenty minutes (11:30-11:50) with only a half dozen people ahead of me and Marie didn’t fare much better. She did get out enough ahead of me to pay for her meal (and Maddy’s) and put their food down at a table. When I was still paying for my food, she went to the bar and ordered us a couple of frozen margaritas. Have I mentioned that Marie is my all time favorite travel companion?

My Market Nachos ($10.59) were really good and the jalapenos felt great on my sore throat! I am also a fan of any quick service with real dishes.

Marie was equally satisfied with her Crab Cake Sandwich ($14.99)

And of course the frozen margaritas hit the spot!

Maddy ate a lot of chicken nuggets this trip so this will be the first of many nugget photos!

The food quality here was excellent and we all left full, but the different ordering stations are a pain and would have been worse if Madilyn hadn’t wanted something from the same station as one of the grown-ups. The lines also moved painfully slow especially since there weren’t that many people ahead of us.

With full stomachs, we walked back to our room and took a much needed siesta!

abarriger · May 3, 2016

I'm following along! I LOVE your room view at CSR-- I am hoping to stay in that same area during my upcoming visit to CSR, and actually just configured my trip fax to request casitas! How was the location?

JAMIESMITH · May 3, 2016

abarriger said:
I'm following along! I LOVE your room view at CSR-- I am hoping to stay in that same area during my upcoming visit to CSR, and actually just configured my trip fax to request casitas! How was the location?

I liked how quiet the area was and the view was beautiful! I also really liked being on the ground floor. I'm used to running 5Ks and I do a lot of walking at work, but our room felt like it was a million miles from the lobby, but please keep in mind that I wasn't feeling my best. It wasn't too far from the main pool or from the closest bus stop.

I peeked at your PTR. Good luck with the proposal!

JAMIESMITH · May 5, 2016

We laid down for our nap at one o’clock and I woke up around four. Maddy and Marie were both still asleep. My throat was absolutely killing me so I took my phone with me and went in search of something to drink. I snapped a few photos as I was walking.

I stopped by Café Rix first and would probably have ordered a smoothie there had either of the people behind the counter ever offered to help me. I was the only customer there, but they never even acknowledged me!

I decided to walk back to Siesta’s pool bar and see if I would have better service there. I ended up ordering a strawberry slushee.

I found a hammock just outside our building and called my husband. We didn’t talk too long because he was still at work. When I went back into our room, Maddy and Marie were just waking up. We decided to use the MDE app to see what dinner reservations were available for the night. We decided on a place we had all really enjoyed when we were there in 2012. We took turns getting cleaned up and changed before dinner.

JAMIESMITH · May 6, 2016

Our last minute dinner reservation was at The Grand Floridian Café. There was a bus stop (#2, I think?) a short walk from our room. We waited there for a bus to Magic Kingdom. This was the only time during our trip that we would see the screens at a bus stop actually working. We only waited about five minutes before a bus pulled up.

Once we got off the bus at Magic Kingdom, we walked to the resort monorail.

We rode the monorail around to the Contemporary, where we sat for about ten minutes before moving again. I listened to a family behind us discussing their plans for the next day and was really appalled at their misuse of Fast Pass +. They were going to Epcot first thing in the morning to use all their Fast Passes before going back to the Contemporary for lunch at Chef Mickeys!

We passed through the TTC and the Polynesian before getting out at our dinner destination: The Grand Floridian.

There were some gorgeous eggs decorating the resort. I’m assuming these were left from Easter.

We were just a few minutes early, but were able to check-in for our meal at The Grand Floridian Cafe. We waited about ten minutes to be seated.

Our waitress was really nice. She brought out bread while we browsed the menu.

I ordered the shrimp and grits ($21). This was really flavorful and felt great on my throat.

Marie went with the artisan-made spinach-ricotta ravioli ($18). I tried a bite and it was also really good. I’m torn as to which was the better of the two dishes.

Maddy had another plate of chicken nuggets and fries as well as a cup of grapes.

The Grand Floridian Café was just as good as we remembered. We were very happy with our last minute reservation! Our waitress made sure that I got 10% off the bill since I paid with my Disney Visa.

We spent a little time looking around some of the shops in the Grand Floridian. Marie bought a really cute tank top that she wore later in the week. When we were done, we rode the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and were soon on a bus headed back to Coronado Springs.

I think this picture shows how worn out we were!

We wanted to get rested up for our first day in a park!

Victoriasmom98 · May 6, 2016

Sounds like fun so far!!! And your daughter is too adorable!!!!

JAMIESMITH · May 6, 2016

Victoriasmom98 said:
Sounds like fun so far!!! And your daughter is too adorable!!!!

Thank you!

heaven2dc · May 8, 2016

Joining in! The Coronado Springs Resort is such a pretty resort! We have never stayed there as we usually stay at the Boardwalk Villas but would love to try it sometime.

JAMIESMITH · May 8, 2016

heaven2dc said:
Joining in! The Coronado Springs Resort is such a pretty resort! We have never stayed there as we usually stay at the Boardwalk Villas but would love to try it sometime.

The location at BWV is definitely preferable, but we had better bus service at Coronado. We also really liked the pool at Coronado better than the creepy clown :crazy2:

JAMIESMITH · May 12, 2016

We had our alarms set for 6:30 Sunday morning and took our time getting ready for our first day in a park. We repacked all our luggage and called for bell services to pick it up and store it for the day. The bell man who came to our room was really nice and gave us a ride to the bus stop near the lobby.

We didn’t wait long at all for a bus to pick us up. The bus driver’s name was Marie and she did some awesome impressions to keep us entertained during the ride! The best was Roz from Monster’s, Inc. At first, I thought it was a recording! She also did a great impression of Donald Duck. We were also able to get a peek of the Avatarland construction.

We visited Guest Relations at the front of the park to get Disney Rewards cards. We both had some money accrued through our Disney Visas, but hadn’t thought to order Rewards cards before our trip. We waited about thirty minutes before we were allowed to scan our Magic Bands and head into the park.

We walked through the Oasis exhibits and ended up standing just behind the rope blocking the way to Africa. We chatted with a military dad from Georgia and his daughter who was Maddy’s age. The cast members blew bubbles and released some beautiful birds while we were waiting for the rope to drop. Once it did, the whole crowd headed for Kilimanjaro Safari. We were able to walk on the ride pretty quickly.

There was some kind of fabric fencing around some of the animals that hadn’t been there before. Our guide said it was to deter bees, but I don’t really get how that would work. It did somewhat interfere with the view of the elephants and the lions.

Maddy’s favorites!

JAMIESMITH · May 24, 2016

I’m sorry for the delay. Last week was insanely busy! My daughter did her first solo in her annual dance recital this weekend and we have been at rehearsals every night!

After our safari, we headed towards Expedition Everest. We did make a pit stop at the restrooms on the way. We waited in line for about twenty minutes. I’ve never had to wait so long for this ride, but it is quite possibly my favorite one in all of Disney World.

Maddy rode with Marie so I was able to snap a few pictures on the ride.

Maddy didn’t particularly like Expedition Everest on our last trip, but she enjoyed it much more this time! I had promised her a stuffed Yeti if she went on the ride so we picked one up in the gift shop on our way out.

We headed over to Dinoland. It wasn’t time for our Dinousaur fast pass so we got in line for Primevil Whirl. This is another ride we all really like so we were okay with the twenty minute posted wait.

Our fast pass window to Dinosaur opened up while we were on Primevil Whirl so we headed there next. We were glad to be able to bypass the stand by line!

Time travel seemed to make us very hungry! We headed over to one of my favorite quick service restaurants for some lunch.

JAMIESMITH · Jun 9, 2016

Flame Tree BBQ was closed for refurbishment when we visited last year, but I really enjoyed it back in 2012 and was very eager to go back there. We didn’t have to wait long. The line was short and moved very quickly. We also didn’t have any trouble finding a place to sit down with our food. It was a beautiful day to eat outside!

I ordered the ribs, which were delicious as were the baked beans. I didn’t really care for the cornbread, but it’s never been my favorite thing.

Marie got a bbq sandwich with a side of cornbread and she said it was all very good.

Madilyn ordered a hotdog and grapes which she ate very well.

Quick shot with Everest in the background.

After lunch, we took a leisurely walk through the Maharajah Jungle Trek which was a new experience for Marie. The bats weren’t out when we came through in January because it was too cold. We enjoyed seeing them this time.

We stopped for a sweet treat, which somehow we had not tried in any of our previous trips.

We decided to take the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch which was a first for all of us. We waited about five minutes for a train to arrive. The train itself was really neat, all the passengers ride on benches that are facing out the side of the cars instead of the front. We also enjoyed going by some of the buildings used to house and care for the animals.

Our real purpose was to try to meet some characters. We spent about fifteen minutes in line to meet Chip and Dale.

We took some group photos for the family in front of us and they kindly repaid the favor.

The line for Rafiki was much shorter. The same nice man took another group photo of us with him.

We didn’t see much else of interest and our fast pass window for Kali River Rapids was open so we took the train back to the main part of the park.

I don’t have any photos, but we rode Kali River Rapids and got pretty soaked! We then headed back to Expedition Everest to use up our last fast pass of the day. Madilyn rode with me this time. We walked through a few gift shops on our way out of the park, but didn’t buy anything. We had great timing and quickly caught a bus back to Coronado Springs.

JAMIESMITH · Jun 23, 2016

We got off the bus and spent a little time in the gift shop at Coronado Springs. My daughter picked out a few new charms for her bracelet. Marie bought it for her when she went in 2011 and we have added a few charms on every trip.

We picked up our luggage from bell services and spent about ten minutes waiting for a bus to Disney Springs. I had done my research before our trip and everything I came across said that we could carry our luggage onto the Disney busses. The driver didn’t have any objections so I can attest that it is true.

Once we got off the bus at the stop in Disney Springs, we headed for the bridge that goes over the road to some of the off property hotels. The elevators made transporting our luggage very easy! This was taken about midway across the bridge, where it makes an “L”.

We took the elevator back down to street level, and walked past the Hilton’s pool and into the lobby. Very convenient location, for an offsite hotel! Marie checked in and we were given a room on the 10th floor.

View from our window

And back towards the front entrance.

We left our luggage in the room and decided to head back to Disney Springs for dinner from my other favorite quick service, Earl of Sandwich. The line was really long. There was nowhere to sit inside and we were lucky to find a table outside.

I got the Original 1762, which was just as good as last time.

I don’t remember which sandwich Marie ordered, but here it is. This was a new place for Marie to try. She said that it was good, but not as good as Quiznos!

Maddy wanted a salad, which I ordered for her, but I ended up arguing with her because she didn’t eat much of it at all!

Since she didn’t eat well, I held her cookie hostage until the next morning.

We were all pretty tired and had big plans for Tuesday so we headed back to our room and turned in early!

JAMIESMITH · Jul 11, 2016

We woke up early the next morning to begin what would be a very long day. At 7:15, we were easily able to find a taxi at the front of our hotel and had the driver take us to The Contemporary so that we could walk to Magic Kingdom. Our driver was very nice and it only cost us $20. I know that this would add up over a longer trip, but since this was our only park day while staying at the Hilton, it was well worth it to us.

We walked over to Magic Kingdom, and got in the early breakfast reservation line. We were held there until 8:00.

Some day, I'm going to watch the opening ceremonies at Magic Kingdom!

Once we entered the park, we were directed through Cinderella’s Castle to Be Our Guest Restaurant for our 8:10 reservation. The park wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t crowded either. We snapped a good many pictures on our walk.

We had preordered our breakfast so we were able to find a table and get our drinks pretty quickly. We opted to seat in the West Wing. Madilyn and I ate lunch here on our last trip and we ate in the Ballroom that time. The West Wing is definitely my favorite! We watched the beast’s picture transform several times as thunder sounded in the room. It might be scary for little ones, but all the kids in the room were at least six or seven and handled it just fine.

Our food was served at 8:15, which we thought was pretty darn fast!

I ordered the meat and cheese tray. It was edible, but not quite as good as I expected. I realize that the premium we paid for breakfast here was mostly for the sake of getting into the park early, but the food really could be better.

Marie ordered the bacon and egg sandwich.

And Madilyn ordered bacon and eggs with fresh fruit.

The best part of the meal was the pastry tray that comes out to be shared by the table.

We waited until about 8:50 to head out into the park. We were held in a short line just outside the restaurant before we were allowed to go into the queue for Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train. And that’s where this trip title comes in, we really did get the jump on the crowds!

JAMIESMITH · Jul 11, 2016

We were able to walk straight on The Seven Dwarves’ Mine Train and we probably could have managed a second ride, but it’s honestly just not that great of a ride and once was enough for us. This was Marie’s first time to experience it, but she was no more impressed with it than I had been the year before.

We headed for Peter Pan’s Flight and were able to board that very quickly as well. None of us had been on this ride since 2012. I don’t think Madilyn remembered it from that trip so it seemed new to her.

I looked for Peter Pan outside, but didn’t see him. He will remain on my bucket list of characters to meet. We walked straight across and walked right onto It’s A Small World. It’s silly, but we always enjoy that ride. All of these pictures were taken by my daughter.

And then we headed over to another favorite, The Haunted Mansion. It was 9:30 at this point.

Marie is related to some Culpeppers so she took this picture for them.

And Maddy’s favorite stuffed animals are “Old Fred” and “New Fred” so I took this one for her.

Honestly, I was expecting for the crowds to have built up more than they had. I checked the wait times on My Disney Experience and saw that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad had a 15 minute wait and Splash Mountain had a 25 minute wait. We decided to take advantage and ride those now even though we had fastpasses for both in the afternoon. These are, in my opinion, the best two rides in Magic Kingdom.

Big Thunder Mountain may have actually had a shorter wait than what was posted.

The line for Splash Mountain took a little longer than we were expecting, but it wasn’t too bad.

We headed to Pirates of the Caribbean at 11:10. This was the point at which we felt like the crowds caught up to us. The wait was 35 minutes, but at least it was cool.

JAMIESMITH · Jul 28, 2016

After the longish wait for Pirates of the Caribbean, we decided to hone in on some less popular attractions. The wait for Magic Carpets with Aladdin was pretty long. We saw the Genie out, but his line was also really long and I was really hoping for Aladdin. We were able to walk right on the Riverboat Cruise, which was one of the things on my Disney bucket list at 11:25.

After our boat ride, we walked around the Haunted Mansion gift shop and then got in line to meet Tiana.

Waiting in line…

She was by far the best character we met during our trip! She had a couple of squirrels that kept running around her feet. She made sure to tell us that there are no rodents in her restaurant! She was also sure to remind us that Naveen doesn’t do the cooking there. We got some really good photos with her.

Marie spent a few minutes in the Tangled area charging her phone, while Maddy and I rode the carousel. I really want to love the carousel, but the one in our hometown is so much nicer!

Our breakfast had just about worn off by this point, but we didn’t want to eat a big lunch since we had plans for dinner so we headed to Main Street Bakery in search of a snack. There was a pretty long line and there was nowhere to sit so we took our drinks and sweet treats to the train station and ate on a bench. I know that I got a mocha frappe and a cookie. I think Maddy got a coke and a cookie. I can’t remember what Marie ordered. I don’t have any pictures of our snacks.

Once we were finished, we caught a train to Fantasyland. I love riding the old steam trains around the park!

At 1:00, we got in line to meet Donald and Goofy. I think we waited about twenty minutes. Goofy is my daughter’s favorite.

Then we got in line for Daisy and Minnie. The posted wait time was longer, but if anything we waited less here.

We walked around Big Top Souvenirs, but didn’t buy anything. We pretty much walked right on Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which was a new experience for Marie. Great, classic ride!

One Jump Ahead of the Crowds

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