We’re Going For the Record...A Record Number of Resort Changes! A June 2015 PTR - Updated 6/10

[hokieinpa]

I agree with you on HS - it can really be a one day park for us. Our boys are just not into many of the big shows - Frozen Sing Along, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. And they don't meet the height requirements for TOT and RnR so it doesn't leave much for us. They do really love the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground so we make sure to spend plenty of time there!

I think it's a great idea for you to split up for TOT/Disney Junior show - everyone will be happy with less standing around!

Sci Fi sounds like a fun experience! I would love to try that. I think everyone would love the movies and eating in a car!

We didn't make it to Fantasmic on our last trip. I'm thinking we will do the dining package next time to make sure we have seating without waiting in line.

Great plans! I like that you take long breaks - we do as well and it makes our evenings so much more enjoyable!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I love both Rock n' Roller Coaster AND Tower of Terror, so both of your plans sound great to me!

Sci-Fi! We're trying it for the first time this trip, too, and we're really looking forward it! I hope you enjoy it!

Mmmmm, a carrot cake cookie! Great choice!

 

[cstorm65]

OMG - I remember that last picture from your previous TR. SOOOOO cute!

Great picture! I didn't include this time that he also showed Jake, Sofia, and Handy Manny his injury as well!

Once again - great day 6 plans. Here is the trick to get your DW to do ToT. Have her hold her hands up in the air. Actually - have her grab your hand and hold it up. It is SO freaking fun - and this is coming from someone who also much prefers roller coasters to anything that drops. Once I learned this trick I just laugh my way through the entire ride. Don't ask me why it works, but it does.

I will have to try! (evil laugh!)

Amen to the long afternoon breaks. I am with you on that. I love my pool breaks in the summer!

Nothing better than filling up your mug and sitting by the pool while thousands of people are trying to navigate hot and crowded parks in the summers. Rope drop and then a break is great!

I agree with you on HS - it can really be a one day park for us. Our boys are just not into many of the big shows - Frozen Sing Along, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. And they don't meet the height requirements for TOT and RnR so it doesn't leave much for us. They do really love the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground so we make sure to spend plenty of time there!

DS loved the playground last time too, so we definitely plan to spend some time there. He also loves the Disney Junior Show, but we can certainly do it all in a day.

I think it's a great idea for you to split up for TOT/Disney Junior show - everyone will be happy with less standing around!

I know. I don't like missing the show every time, but I love Tower of Terror and it kind of stinks for DW and DS to have to wait around for me while I ride. This way at least they are doing something.

Sci Fi sounds like a fun experience! I would love to try that. I think everyone would love the movies and eating in a car!

We hope it is fun as well!

We didn't make it to Fantasmic on our last trip. I'm thinking we will do the dining package next time to make sure we have seating without waiting in line.

We have done the dining package twice in the past, but just didn't feel like it was much of a priority this time. Plus we wanted to try Sci-Fi, so if we go we will just deal with the line, or decide to sleep in the next day and do the 10:30 show, but that is a whole different animal with a 3 year old!

Great plans! I like that you take long breaks - we do as well and it makes our evenings so much more enjoyable!

So awesome. I love walking into the park at 5:00 while people are starting to pour out who are hot and tired and have been there all day and we are coming back refreshed. I don't like to rub it in or anything, but it does pay to plan!

I love both Rock n' Roller Coaster AND Tower of Terror, so both of your plans sound great to me!

Rock 'n Roller Coaster is probably DW's favorite ride, just because she loves going upside down! I love it too, but I am not sure overall I enjoy it more than some others. But yes, we certainly get our thrill rides in!!

Sci-Fi! We're trying it for the first time this trip, too, and we're really looking forward it! I hope you enjoy it!

Us too. I think we will and hopefully DS likes the experience.

Mmmmm, a carrot cake cookie! Great choice!

Can't leave Hollywood Studios without one!

 

[cstorm65]

Spring Break - Part 2

For this update I’ll head back to our spring break trip to South Texas and specifically our visit to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, TX. This zoo had good reviews online and so we thought it would be a nice day trip while visiting my grandparents.

We took the 30 minute drive to the zoo one morning and arrived just after they had opened, but could tell they weren’t all that crowded. I didn’t keep many detailed notes for this day, but do have a nice collection of pictures.

First off the gorilla’s were out and about when we arrived and were putting on a nice show:

DS loved watching this guy.

We then worked around to another area and came upon an animal I had never seen before and I can’t figure out now what this is! All I know it has the head of a dog and the body of a bear.

DS was also into the bears and wanted to watch them for a while.

Then we got a good look at this one:

And this one:

Then we came upon these guys, which DS calls a “Raff”!

We also got DS on this lion for a picture...of course it took some convincing that the lion wasn’t actually real!

He then wanted his mommy to ride the lion with him!

The lions were next up, but they were napping...do these things ever wake up?

Here are some of the other animals we saw:

And that about ended our day. The zoo was really well done, but it was not all that big. We had toured it all in about two and a half hours. We didn’t really see any restaurants there that we wanted to eat, so we left and found some lunch elsewhere. We actually had lunch at a little chain restaurant that DW or I had never had before, El Pollo Loco. I think it is mainly from the west coast and have only recently moved through Arizona, New Mexico, and into West Texas. It was really good. There food is all made with marinated, grilled chicken and is really good. So that was a nice surprise.

Overall it was a great day! I’ll do our last spring break update over our time in San Antonio at Sea World.
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Up Next: Day 7 Plans​

 

[MEK]

That looks like a lovely zoo and the animals were certainly up for being photographed. You got some great pics. And that's a lot of giraffes all together, but my fav is the tiger.

Too funny that Braxton didn't want to get on the lion.

Thanks for posting those great pics. Sounds like a great afternoon.

 

[KathyM2]

Love the Giraffe pics!! It looks like you were able to get really close to them!!

 

[cstorm65]

That looks like a lovely zoo and the animals were certainly up for being photographed. You got some great pics. And that's a lot of giraffes all together, but my fav is the tiger.

It was a pretty nice zoo. The only thing that was lacking was food options, but the exhibits were really well done. And most important DS loved it and my grandparents had a great time with us as well. It was just a great option for the day.

Too funny that Braxton didn't want to get on the lion.

He is pretty easily scared right now of some things. I am hoping he is ready to ride Seven Dwarves Mine Train next month, but not sure. Maybe we can trick him and tell him it's a choo choo.

Thanks for posting those great pics. Sounds like a great afternoon.

It was a great time!

Love the Giraffe pics!! It looks like you were able to get really close to them!!

Yes, their animal exhibits allowed you to get up pretty close. I'm guessing maybe because it is a relatively small zoo they don't have things spaced out as much, but we did enjoy that. We got a great look at all of the animals while there.

Thanks for reading!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 7 Plans

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. We have had three straight days of severe weather threats here in Oklahoma, but luckily there haven’t been many large tornados that have caused much damage. My team was supposed to have our state track championships this past Friday and Saturday, but they got moved due to all of the severe weather. So, we are heading to the state championships for the next two days. Hopefully it all goes well! With that I’ll get on to our plans for day 7 of our trip.

Today is a park hopping day for us and we will start our morning here...

...watching our favorite welcome show!

Our plan for this Magic Kingdom day is one we tried last summer and loved and it is just focus on the left side of the park at rope drop, which is an awesome way to beat the crowds as most of them are headed to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Of course this only works because we have another rope drop day for those areas. We will definitely hit one of DS’s favorites, the Magic Carpets of Aladdin while doing this side of the park. We will also get in a couple of rides here:

I have some FP’s for Big Thunder and Splash, but we’ll see if we need them or not depending on the crowds. We are also going to head out to the hub in time to see one of DS’s favorite Disney attractions:

He loves the Move It! Shake It!...Dance Party. Not sure what the name is now as they keep changing it, but he loves it!

For lunch we will probably hit up Columbia Harbour House again for DW and DS, but I think I’ll get my lunch and take it there with me from Sleepy Hollow. One of the Spicy Chicken Waffle Sandwiches from there is a must do for me on this trip. For the last two trips I have wanted one, but I could never seem to make it over there before they stop serving them at 4:30 or so. This year I will not be denied!

I have our final FP+’s of the day over in Tomorrowland at Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear before we leave for our break.

After our midday break we will head over for some Epcot time this evening. We have a dinner ADR at around 5 at a new restaurant to us, The Garden Grill. I’ve always heard mixed reviews about the food, but this is a character meal we think DS will really enjoy. He loves Mickey and friends, of course, and he also seems to like Chip and Dale, so it is right up his alley.

Our only other plans tonight are to spend some time in the back part of World Showcase. We really enjoy visiting Morocco and Japan and we also want to see the American Adventure show as DW and I haven’t seen it since our first trip in 2011. I’m really a sucker for that show and Hall of Presidents, so I definitely want to see those again.

We are then planning on watching IllumiNations tonight. We didn’t see it last year, but would like to see it again, especially since it appears to have a limited life expectancy if you believe the rumors. So that will about do it for this day.

Hope you all have a great week! Just 9 more school days for us here...we are getting closer!
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Up Next: Day 8 Plans​

 

[KathyM2]

Great MK and EP plans!! You have a great strategy for avoiding crowds and avoiding FL while everyone else goes there. I wish we had time to do that on our trip...there just never seems to be enough time lol. That waffle sounds great....you have a solid plan for making sure to get one in this time!! There's always so much good food around, and I want to try it all!! The character meal should be a lot of fun too!!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

It's amazing how quiet other sections of MK can be right after opening - I bet even more so now with 95% of the crowd going to 7DMT or A&E.

Those Sleepy Hallow waffles look so fantastic. I hope you enjoy it!

I love exploring World Showcase - especially in the evening!

 

[hokieinpa]

It looks like you found a great little zoo! Great preparation for AK!

Glad to hear everyone is ok with all that severe weather I've been hearing about on the news.

We love the MK Welcome Show. The train was down on our last trip so I'm excited to see it with the train pulling up.

It sounds like you have a great morning plan at MK. We always hit Fantasyland first but after reading lots of TRs, I think we'll be doing to same thing and going to AL/FL first. I hope you get your sandwich from Sleepy Hollow! I really want to try the nutella and fruit waffle!

Garden Grill sounds like a fun place. The menu looks good and the characters are fun. Great night in Epcot!

 

[KatMark]

I'm back and trying to get caught up (an impossible task!).

for an added day. Plans sound great...LOVE Kona breakfast. The Studios is a half day park at best for us.

And a spoiler alert...I did go to Via Napoli this trip. You'll have to wait for my thoughts until my TR, Jon.

 

[cstorm65]

Great MK and EP plans!! You have a great strategy for avoiding crowds and avoiding FL while everyone else goes there. I wish we had time to do that on our trip...there just never seems to be enough time lol. That waffle sounds great....you have a solid plan for making sure to get one in this time!! There's always so much good food around, and I want to try it all!! The character meal should be a lot of fun too!!

I totally understand wanting to try every little great snack. You just run out of time! I still have never tried several great snacks that we are going to try and make time for this trip.

It's amazing how quiet other sections of MK can be right after opening - I bet even more so now with 95% of the crowd going to 7DMT or A&E.

Very true. We love going straight to Dumbo/Barnstormer first too. You can ride those 2-3 times each before the line is even up to 10 minutes because everybody is going to those other two popular attractions.

Those Sleepy Hallow waffles look so fantastic. I hope you enjoy it!

Me too...I should not have started reading these before dinner due to the food content. It is making me hungry for chicken and waffles!

I love exploring World Showcase - especially in the evening!

Us too. I wish we could do it more, but DS is always tired by that point. We are planning on coming back this year after breaks to Epcot so hopefully that will get us some nighttime time in the World Showcase.

It looks like you found a great little zoo! Great preparation for AK!

It was a nice zoo for sure. Small, but well done and all of the animals were out and about.

Glad to hear everyone is ok with all that severe weather I've been hearing about on the news.

It was a crazy few days, although the entire spring so far has been less severe weather than normal. But the flooding rains on the other hand have been here like crazy. We've gotten over a food of rain in the last two weeks!

We love the MK Welcome Show. The train was down on our last trip so I'm excited to see it with the train pulling up.

DS LOVES the train! And that means he loves the welcome show. While the beginning of the show is going he is just staring to the right side waiting for that train.

It sounds like you have a great morning plan at MK. We always hit Fantasyland first but after reading lots of TRs, I think we'll be doing to same thing and going to AL/FL first. I hope you get your sandwich from Sleepy Hollow! I really want to try the nutella and fruit waffle!

I think I may have DW sold on ordering that waffle and me ordering the chicken and waffle one and we can share. The best of both worlds!

Garden Grill sounds like a fun place. The menu looks good and the characters are fun. Great night in Epcot!

I hope it is good. I think DS will love the characters.

I'm back and trying to get caught up (an impossible task!).

Was following your picture of the day throughout your trip. Looks like it was a great time!

for an added day. Plans sound great...LOVE Kona breakfast. The Studios is a half day park at best for us.

We have been trying to do Kona for breakfast for three trips and we are not changing those plans again! I want that coffee and tonga toast.

And a spoiler alert...I did go to Via Napoli this trip. You'll have to wait for my thoughts until my TR, Jon.

I can wait, but I don't know for how long!!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 8 Plans

Well, it is Friday! That is all I can say. It has not been a bad week, but man the end of school is so crazy. But now I only have 4 days left!! So it is almost summer!

On to our plans for Day 8. We are planning to head to rope drop here:

That is a flashback picture from DW and I’s first trip in 2011.

Our goal this morning is to head in and go straight to Test Track. One of use will ride now and grab a child swap pass for the other person to ride later in the day. We are also planning visiting one of DS’s favorite rides, Journey to Imagination. We also have a morning FP+ for Soarin’. We aren’t sure if DS will want to ride this. He will be 40 inches, but has just turned 3 years old, so we aren’t sure if this is a ride we should try with him. Any thoughts from those of you with little ones?

We also have a FP+ to visit some friends at the Character Spot. DS loves visiting with Goofy!

By 11:30 or so we plan on moving into the World Showcase and focusing on Mexico, Norway, China, and Germany. While we do that we will just have some lunch in the countries as we tour, which is sometimes the best thing to do in World Showcase!

We do plan on touring until 2 PM or so before heading out as we don’t have plans to head back to a park this evening. We have a special dinner in store and it is a first for us. We have a dinner ADR at Sanaa. It is an early dinner, around 5:00, so hopefully we will still get some great animal views. We are extremely excited about the bread service. Any thoughts on the dips to order, or should we just splurge and try them all for the extra $2?

This is really all we have planned for today. It is another easy night where we can relax and spend some time at the pool before heading to rope drop tomorrow.

I hope you all have a great weekend! We are bracing for severe weather here in Oklahoma tonight, so hopefully that all passes without anything major.
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Up Next: Spring Break Mini Report Part 3​

 

[hokieinpa]

We also have a morning FP+ for Soarin’. We aren’t sure if DS will want to ride this. He will be 40 inches, but has just turned 3 years old, so we aren’t sure if this is a ride we should try with him. Any thoughts from those of you with little ones?

My oldest was 4 on our last trip and he really enjoyed Soarin'. He is not a big thrill lover and he still had a great time - no fear or hesitation. He even rode it twice because we had a rider swap because of our younger 2 boys.

By 11:30 or so we plan on moving into the World Showcase and focusing on Mexico, Norway, China, and Germany. While we do that we will just have some lunch in the countries as we tour, which is sometimes the best thing to do in World Showcase!

That's a great way to enjoy the World Showcase! We love the QS in Mexico and sitting right by the water.


It sounds like a really nice, relaxing evening! It should be fun to explore AKL and see the animals!

I hope you all have a great weekend! We are bracing for severe weather here in Oklahoma tonight, so hopefully that all passes without anything major.
​

Hope everything passes by and all is well!

 

[KatMark]

I think it depends on your DS. I have seen lots of very young children on Soarin' and they loved it.

We are trying Saana for the first time in July. Hopefully, your review will be done before I go so I have some ideas.

A nice relaxing evening or two to swim is a good thing in the summer.

 

[KathyM2]

Great Epcot plans! And Sanaa...so jealous - I'm sure whatever you order it will be amazing!! Also jealous because you only have a few more days of school. My kids are in school until June 9 for DS, and June 25 for DD...crazy town. I wish they were out sooner.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Congratulations on being so close to the end of your school year!

I've read several recommendations to order all the dips at Sanaa - your favorite may end up being one you wouldn't have ordered!

 

[cstorm65]

My oldest was 4 on our last trip and he really enjoyed Soarin'. He is not a big thrill lover and he still had a great time - no fear or hesitation. He even rode it twice because we had a rider swap because of our younger 2 boys.

Sounds good. I think we are leaning toward trying Soarin' with him.

That's a great way to enjoy the World Showcase! We love the QS in Mexico and sitting right by the water.

Yes, could snack around the WS all night. Of course I might be full before we get to the 2nd country!

It sounds like a really nice, relaxing evening! It should be fun to explore AKL and see the animals!

We are lucky, being teachers, that we can take a long trip and have evenings like this and not have to rush to parks each night.

Hope everything passes by and all is well!

Thanks, there was nothing major that night!

I think it depends on your DS. I have seen lots of very young children on Soarin' and they loved it.

I have seen them too, so hopefully it works for us. We are doing MK on our first day and will do Barnstormer and stuff like that early to get him into the mood and then see where we are.

We are trying Saana for the first time in July. Hopefully, your review will be done before I go so I have some ideas.

I can certainly give you some highlights on what we ordered! I'm also pretty sure it's a Disney rule or something that you have to order the bread service!

A nice relaxing evening or two to swim is a good thing in the summer.

Yes, love that we get long trips since we are both teachers and can have free evenings.

Great Epcot plans! And Sanaa...so jealous - I'm sure whatever you order it will be amazing!! Also jealous because you only have a few more days of school. My kids are in school until June 9 for DS, and June 25 for DD...crazy town. I wish they were out sooner.

I know...we start school early, around August 15 to 20 each year, but we also get out earlier than about anywhere else in the country. That is really crazy that your DD has two weeks after your DS. My wife is actually kind of like that as she has 10 extra contract days at the end of the year since she is a school psychologist. That is why we can't just take off right as soon as school is out.

Congratulations on being so close to the end of your school year!

Now just two days left with kids and three overall!!

I've read several recommendations to order all the dips at Sanaa - your favorite may end up being one you wouldn't have ordered!

I've seen that too, so I think we will definitely be doing that. I also think we need to because I like spicy and DW does not, so we would have trouble picking just three anyway.

Thanks for reading you all!!

 

[cstorm65]

Spring Break - Part 3

I will take this opportunity to share about the final part of our spring break trip to south Texas. We are less than a month out from our Disney World trip, so we are getting excited, so I better get finished with my day to day plans also! I did want to share about our last experience over spring break though, Sea World San Antonio.

We visited on a Friday over our spring break, but I think a majority of Texas school spring breaks were the week before. We pulled in at 8:40 and I was surprised that there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. Only to check and realize that they didn’t open until 10. Uh-oh...I was in Disney World mode thinking it was a 9 AM opening. I knew they didn’t open until 10, but for whatever reason I didn’t even think about it when we woke up that morning and I just had in my mind that we had to be there at 9. So we had over an hour to kill before the park opened, so what did we do. Play with the new selfie stick of course:

Love DS’s silly face in that last one!

I wasn’t big on the selfie stick if it got in the way of other people doing things, but if we could stay out of the way it was a nice way to get some pictures with all three of us.

The park finally opened at 10:00 and we headed right to the kiddie area and DS wanted to ride the little coaster, Shamu Express. He rode with me and then told DW that he wanted to ride with her, so they went on again. This was about the only area of the park open at this time, so it was pretty crowded. The other areas of the park didn’t open until 11 AM. DW then took DS on the carousel.

While we waited for the other areas of the park to open we let DS play in the toddler play area.

By this time it was 11:00 and it had been a few hours since we had breakfast so we stopped at the Sea Star Market for a snack. We were on the all day dining plan with our hotel package we had booked and you got as many trips through the food lines as you wanted during the day. We both got a chicken salad sandwich with cookies and all three ate just a little bit for a snack.

I did the Steel Eel roller coaster which is a good coaster. It is over 200 feet tall and pretty fast. DW and DS watched and she said DS got to calling it a “fast choo choo train”! He would just stand there and watch it as it came over the first hill over and over.

We also visited the Penguin Exhibit, which was stinky, but interesting!

At noon we went to a show, “A Shamu Story”. DS loved his first show with Shamu and kept saying after it was over that he wanted to “do it again”!

We stopped for lunch next at Harbour Market, which is a newly renovated restaurant. I had the fish and chips and it was really tasty and DS loved his Mac and Cheese.

Next we headed back to the front of the park to see the dolphins and DS absolutely loved watching them play.

We also stopped in the big aquarium building where they have a bunch of fish and sharks. DS loved watching the sharks. Then we went to the other main show venue to watch “The Beluga Story” at 1:45 D.

DS fell asleep and took a nap for about an hour after the show was over, which we were hoping that he would do so we could make it through the day. He woke up just in time to see a show they have in their indoor theater, Pet’s Ahoy. It was a cute show where they have a bunch of different kinds of pets doing tricks and stuff. DS was still a little bit asleep, so he wasn’t too interested, but he would have loved it had he been all the way awake.

We did some other things and then headed to the main show in the Beluga Stadium, Azul, at around 4:30.

This is a really cool show with the dolphins and Beluga whales. DS kept saying after the show, “dolphins go fast and they jump”. He loved it.

We then finished our day by watching the main show with Shamu, “One Ocean”, at 5:30. DS was ready to see Shamu again.

One last picture before we left the park, which closed at 6 PM.

And that did it for our spring break trip. We drove home the next morning and tried to recover before heading back to school. I’ll get back on our Disney plans in a couple of days. Have a great week everyone!
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Up Next: Day 9 Plans​