1/11/25-1/25/25: 2 weeks, 5 people, a million “it’s cold”s: our freezing but amazing trip: COMPLETED

[disneydreamer1980]

After several years on the boards and a million trips, I’ve decided to write my first trip report!
We’ve been home almost two weeks now, and I’m missing Disney. So what better way to get a little Disney fix than by reliving my trip?!!

WHO:

Me, mom of 5, wife, former RN current stay at home mom, and Disney addict. There are literally no pics of me because A: I hate pics of me and B:I’m the one always taking the pictures. I was raised by DVC parents (who bought in as soon as points were sold) visiting yearly and loving it. We would take huge family trips, with my immediate family my grandparents, aunt and cousins all coming along and I have so many amazing memories at the parks. My favorite park is either Epcot or MK. Favorite ride, Spaceship Earth. Fave character: Donald Duck. I’m the one who makes Disney trips happen.

DH: Financer of trip, fun loving Dad, best guy around. He lets me plan everything and just goes along with it, never complaining and always has fun. His famous line is “I’ll do whatever you tell me to do” lol. He has no favorite parks or characters, he says he loves them all. Pic below is with my DD in the WL elevator, wearing my other DDs ears.




DD Emma: in above pic with DH. She loves Disney world, the thrill rides are her favorite. DHS is her favorite park, the Nightmare before Xmas characters are her favorites. Favorite ride is Rockn Roller Coaster (she’s not happy they’re getting rid of it). She’s a typical teen, loves her phone and her friends. Doesn’t get along with her little brother lol.

DD Isabella: She’s no as into Disney as me (not many are lol) but she still has a lot of fun there. She was my other DDs ride/vacation buddy, even though at home they tend to ignore each other. With 5 siblings in total (2 didn’t want to come on this trip-can you imagine?!) they form little cliques and these two weren’t in one, but they get along well anyway. She starts college in the fall and loves video games.




And my youngest and the fifth person on this trip, my DS.




He’s the youngest of 5 and the only boy, so he’s very spoiled lol. He loves Disney, his fave park is DHS and Test Track is his favorite ride (he wasn’t happy it was closed during this trip). He’s an active, silly, happy kid who loves every minute of our trips. He’s a fourth grader and is growing up way too fast.

What: a very cold 14 night trip to WDW.

When: Sat January 11- Sat January 25, 2025

Where: first night at POR
Next 13 nights at Boulder Ridge/Wilderness Lodge

Did we have fun? What did we eat? Did we freeze to death??? Stay tuned to find out lol

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Saturday January 11,2025: Arrival Day

We woke up around 7, had coffee and made sure we had everything packed. Two of our DDs were staying home because they didn’t want to go (crazy I know- turning down a free 2 week Disney trip!) so I also had to make sure things were good in the house for them while we were gone. We took a pic of our luggage (something I always do before traveling just in case we lose luggage or something) and piled into our mini van for the drive to the airport.




We left around 10. We were flying out of Reagan in DC at 2pm. It was less than half the price of flying out of BWI, which was closer, but we figured the little bit of a drive was worth the huge savings. We arrived around 11, DH and the kids unloaded the van at the terminal and I then went to park in the long term parking while DH checked in the luggage. I parked the minivan and then took the shuttle back to the terminal where I met my family. They were sitting around on benches while DS Gabe was running around. I told him to stop and he said he was running because he was hungry (lol yeah ok) so we went to the Dunkin Donuts in the airport. The girls got iced coffees and Gabe and I got juice, and we split some munchkins. The coffee was awful, bitter and gross but the munchkins were good. First food of the trip!! We still had a lot of time so we hung out in there for a bit, watching the airplanes on the runway through the glass walls. It was really cool to watch them.





We finished up at the Dunkin and headed through security. We were through in less than 10 minutes. The airport was not busy at all. We headed to our gate where we sat and waited. We played Disney I-Spy (card game) and a memory card game while we waited. We boarded the plane at 1:30 pm. It was Southwest so we didn’t have assigned seats. We were in the first boarding group and were able to get seats together with no difficulty. I sat in a row with DD Isabella and Gabe and DH sat across from us with my other DD Emma.




The plane took off at 2:00. This takeoff was the scariest, most turbulent I’ve ever experienced (and I’ve been on hundreds of flights in my life). There was a winter storm along the east coast and im guessing this is why but the plane was shaking and bobbing up and down like crazy and we were coming up out of our seats just like on Tower of Terror. It was crazy. It got better but the turbulence lasted the whole flight, the seatbelt sign was never turned off all flight.


They still were able to pass out drinks and snacks, and the flight made good time. Was supposed to land at 4:30 but we landed at 4:10. We disembarked and took the mini monorail to get our luggage.


It was still Christmas in MCO!



We lugged our bags over to the Mears area






We boarded the van at 5:40, stuffed in there with another family who was going to Saratoga Springs. But we were headed to POR for the night!

 

[hardcorestitch]

Can't wait to see your run into the hallowed grounds of the Magic Kingdom! Arriving at MCO for Disney is night and day compared to sadly departing from MCO and hearing the Orlando Mayor on the knock-off PeopleMover.

We cannot forget however that the airport you guys flew out of is under the microscope of the aviation world due to the collision with the Black Hawk that killed 67. Condolences to those innocent lives who were on that AA flight that left Wichita for the Potomac River.

 

[jo-jo]

I’m hoping you didn’t freeze to death or else this TR won’t be finished.

And your children that didn’t want to come……..well, that just left more money for extra Mickey bars for you.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Can't wait to see your run into the hallowed grounds of the Magic Kingdom! Arriving at MCO for Disney is night and day compared to sadly departing from MCO and hearing the Orlando Mayor on the knock-off PeopleMover.

We cannot forget however that the airport you guys flew out of is under the microscope of the aviation world due to the collision with the Black Hawk that killed 67. Condolences to those innocent lives who were on that AA flight that left Wichita for the Potomac River.

Yes it’s very sad. We had just landed at that same airport 4 days before the crash. And yes leaving has a whole different energy than arriving, that’s for sure

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Arrival day part 2

We drove under the WDW arch at 6pm on the dot. We were dropped off before the Saratoga Springs family. I had checked in online so I got out room number on the plane. Our stuff was unloaded, and a Bell services worker drove us and our stuff on a golf cart to our room in Alligator Bayou. It was sooo far from the lobby area but we could handle that for one night. It was also on the second floor-with no elevator. DH helped the Bell Services guy take our stuff up.

We dropped our bags and checked out the room. It was a 5 person sleeper. It was so cute.


The curtain room divider was so cute. And see the hidden snake in the bench/kids bed? Too cute.

We were hungry so we decided to walk to the food court, checkout the resort and eat.




We had never visited this resort before, it’s beautiful.

We headed into the foodcourt. Girls both had a burger with fries that they up charged to Mexican street corn fries. They both loved those fries.



DH had a burger and normal fries, Gabe had the kids tenders and I had the Mojo chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans meal. Those green beans were so good!

For dessert, DH had a sundae



Girls both had banana caramel cheesecake which they both loved and both voted best food of the trip



Gabe had the Mickey celebration cupcake




I was full from dinner and didn’t get dessert.

Stuffed, we walked back to our room at 8:40pm. We got ready for bed and all laid in bed by 9:15 watching Wreck it Ralph together and fell asleep. It was a long day and we were excited. We had our whole trip ahead of us!!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Sunday 1/12/2025
First full day

We woke up around 9 (sleeping in is a theme for this trip lol), had some Joffreys coffee made in our in room coffee maker and packed up the little bit of stuff we’d taken out the night before. We gathered all of our stuff together and called Bell Services.

Yeah-we overpack. But 5 people over 2 weeks plus Southwest’s generous bag policy makes for a lot of work for the poor Bell Services CM (don’t worry, he was tipped well). He gave us a tag to retrieve our bags at WL and DH helped him carry everything down (having no elevator sucked). We checked out online,said goodbye to our room (#3442 Alligator Bayou). We enjoyed checking out the resort in the daylight on the way to the boat dock.





Such a pretty resort. The theming is really on point. We arrived at the boat dock.




We boarded after a 10 minute wait and we were on our way to POFQ!



We walked to the foodcourt, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way.


At this point something in Gabes shoe was poking his foot, so we stopped in this really pretty area near a fountain while DH fixed his shoe. The weather was a tad chilly but was nice in the sun and it was nice to sit and take everything in.

(Contd on next post, met my pic limit)

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We then made it to the foodcourt. We hadn’t eaten yet and we were starving.




Isabella and I both ordered chicken parm with Alfredo sauce and a bread stick. Was surprisingly good.


Excuse the partially eaten pics lol.

Gabe got the same but with red sauce.


DH got pizza and Emma got a grilled chicken sandwich with a thick chunk of mozzarella that she loved.

There were marathon runners EVERYWHERE. This was marathon weekend and you could really tell. The foodcourt was packed with them.

While they stayed at the table, finishing their food, I ran over to get some beignets. They’re sold in a different area, adjacent to the foodcourt. It was a long line, but they were worth it. We got a 6 pack to split, with chocolate and caramel dips. Believe me, this pic doesn’t do them justice. For some reason this is my only pic of them lol.



After eating, the boys went into the arcade and the girls went into the gift shop. They were looking for ears, didn’t find any they wanted here. After we were done we met them in the arcade.



We checked out the main building area for a little bit




After exploring a little bit we headed off to the bus stop for our first park of the trip-can you guess which one?

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Sun 1/12/25
First full day continued


We headed to the bus stop. When we got there, there was a bus there waiting. But it was heading to Hollywood Studios.


We were waiting for a bus to….Magic Kingdom!!!

We boarded the first bus ride of our trip, and it has no character wrap, it just said “Disney Transport”. This was a theme for a whole trip. Somehow over 14 days worth of bus rides we only got 2 cool character wrapped busses. It was a running joke throughout our trip.

We arrived at MK!! It was still all decked out for Christmas, which was a little strange this late in January.






After soaking in just being in MK we went into some shops on Main Street, looking for ears.


The girls each bought a pair.

We then headed to the train station. We hadn’t ridden the train in years. I’m not sure Gabe had ever ridden it. The kids wanted their first ride to be Seven Dwarves mine train so we decided to take the train to Fantasyland.



I had forgotten how pretty the view is from up here.

Continues in next post, hit my pic limit

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We hung out a bit, checking out the antique machines they have there




Then we saw the train had come and we got on. Off to Fantasyland!



We passed Big Thunder Mtn along the way and were sad that we would t get to ride it this trip.


The train ride was very nice! We’ll have to not neglect it anymore. We arrived in Fantasyland and headed to 7DMT. We all rode and it was fun as usual.




After that we saw the Teacups had a very short line so we headed there. I sat out because even though I was taking Bonine every day this was still too much for my motion sickness.





While they rode that I used my magic band to interact with the Cheshire Cat gold statue.


That was cute and we always tried to stop when we passed one all trip.

They got off the teacups and we headed over to Pooh.

Cute as always.

We decided to head over to Tomorrowland. We visited one of my favorite attractions, Carousel of progress! I love that show.
After that, they all rode space mountain while I sat out and got a slushie.

Next we all rode Buzz. I had the lowest points for our group, as per usual. After they all gloated and picked on me for a few minutes, Emma and Gabe decided to ride Astro Orbiters. It was being closed the next day for renovations I think and they wanted to ride before it did.

Next, came People Mover. Always a favorite.

Such a nice relaxing ride. After enjoying the People Mover we got a walk up reservation for…Liberty Tree Tavern! A lot of our plans changed on the fly and this was a place I was not expecting to eat at, but the kids really wanted it. Where were they when I was booking places 2 months ago?! We had about an hour to wait so we decided to head over to Liberty Square, for one haunted ride before dinner!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We headed over to Liberty square. We passed the castle for the first time this trip!






Eventually we made it to Liberty Square.








We headed back to the Haunted Mansion!




Awesome ride as always. Afterwards we check out the land a little bit, waiting on our dinner.




Finally we were called in. We were starving. The best part of the meal in my opinion is the rolls and that toffee cake!!


Sorry for the blurry pic, I’m not the best photographer as I’m sure you know by now lol.

After dinner we were stuffed. The fireworks were about to start soon and we wanted to get out of there before the mass exodus after the show. So we headed for the exit just as fireworks were starting.



We exited and headed straight across from the exit to the boat dock.

 

[jo-jo]

About 4 years ago the QS at BLT had a chicken with Alfredo sauce dish..we were disappointed it's no long available.


ok,dummy me......the side by side picture of castle and your son/castle. I didn't realize they were two pictures, I thought "how cool is that, how did they do the reflection."

 

[disneydreamer1980]

About 4 years ago the QS at BLT had a chicken with Alfredo sauce dish..we were disappointed it's no long available.


ok,dummy me......the side by side picture of castle and your son/castle. I didn't realize they were two pictures, I thought "how cool is that, how did they do the reflection."

That chicken parm with the Alfredo was really good! The breadstick was good too, and the price wasn’t bad

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Sun 1/12/25 continued

When I left off we were exiting the park with fireworks going off overhead, trying to beat the crowds and looking forward to checking out our new-to-us resort.

We walked to the boat dock, which was conveniently right across from where we exited the park and a boat to Wilderness Lodge was there waiting.






We boarded the boat and watched the fireworks during the short ride to the resort.



We got off the boat and started towards the Boulder Ridge building. We’d already checked in online and had gotten our room assignment hours ago. I was hoping for room 4531 but we were assigned 4539 which was good too. We were squeezing into a studio this trip, which the kids were t entirely happy about but ended up working out fine.





We were happy to get to our room and check it out. It was so well themed! We loved it.
For some reason Emma thought the Murphy bed was a sopha bed and she started taking off the cushions before I told her to just pull it down, lol.



For some reason it’s always so exciting to come into the room for the first time and see that towel mouse on the bed!

We called down to Bell Services and they quickly brought up all of our stuff. After settling in a bit, Emma wanted to visit the gift shop. So we walked down to check it out and see that beautiful lobby for the first time this trip.

Continues in next post

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/12/25 continued

Before Emma, Gabe and I walked down to the store, we heard the electrical water pageant music and realized we could watch it from our balcony!


Not the best pic (it’s a still from a video) but we had a pretty good view.

After the water show we headed down. Emma loves to shop, so she’d been wanting to check out our resort store. We went down to the Boulder ridge lobby and crossed over to the main building.




This was the view directly inside the side door we enter the lobby by. Luckily it was right near the store so we didn’t have far to walk. For some reason I didn’t take any lobby pics this day but we did ooh and ahh over it a bit.
We didn’t buy anything except for some breakfast items for the room for the next day. We would be ordering groceries soon but didn’t have anything for the next morning so I spent a small fortune on some gift shop food, then we headed back over to BR.
We checked out the Boulder Ridge lobby a bit. It’s absolutely beautiful and smells sooooo good! As soon as we got home I researched online the company that makes that smell and bought a candle lol.


And there was an authentic piece of Walt Disneys personal little train! I was so excited to be sleeping under the same roof as this lol.


This was the coziest, most beautiful building. I was so happy to be there.
Emma and Gabe found the game table and played there for a little while. They never hang out together so this was special.



After a bit, we headed back to those beautiful elevators (yes, even the elevators are amazing) and headed up to the room.


We were in bed by 11. It was a long day but we got quite a bit done. The park wasn’t very crowded at all and the lines were pretty good. It was an amazing first full day! We still had almost 2 weeks left!

 

[jo-jo]

How did you manage 5 in a studio for two week? Did you eat in the room any? What did you do with luggage?

But so cool with fireworks from the boat!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

How did you manage 5 in a studio for two week? Did you eat in the room any? What did you do with luggage?

But so cool with fireworks from the boat!

We actually managed pretty well. We usually only stay in studios at Poly because there’s no other viable option (until recently) and poly studios are bigger than BR so we were originally a little worried but it wasnt too bad. It was actually nice sometimes to be so close and be able to lay in bed and watch a movie together at night, (it was kind of like a sleepover party lol)because at home we don’t get to see the older kids as much as we’d like to. We didn’t tell the kids we had a studio until we got there so we didn’t have to hear them whine any longer than necessary, but they dealt with it well. The only issue was the one bathroom. We kept some luggage under the bed and some by the door in the little hall area. DH and I lived out of our suitcases and the kids unpacked. I expected us to get on each others nerves a lot but that surprisingly didn’t really happen. As for eating in the room, mostly just some breakfasts and some snacks for the evenings. We ate 2 meals out a day.

 

[jo-jo]

We've only stayed with more than 2 in a studio once and that was only for 10 hours. DS and DDIL was flying in night before due to cost, so slept in our room before their resort stay started.

Looking forward to more TR.

 

[Sarahh1027]

Following along! Loving your report so far

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Mon 1/13/25 Day 2

We woke up at 8:30. I had my coffee on the balcony. It was a little chilly and gray out.

We all ate some expensive gift shop cereal and took our time getting ready (so much for rope dropping-which was the original plan). We went down to the Boulder ridge lobby and had to wait because Emma forgot her magic band in the room.



She came back down with it and we were off to the bus stop. The bus stop was so close to our building, it was very nice. We got to the stop at 10:35 and the bus didn’t come til 10:58. It was another plain bus. The bus stopped at the Contemporary before arriving at Animal Kingdom at 11:25.


Christmas decorations were still up here and even stranger, Christmas music was playing. At MK the day before, the decorations were up still but the music was normal. It felt strange listening to Xmas music halfway through January but whatever. We checked out some animals along the way to Africa.


We arrived at Africa, awaiting checkin for our lunch ADR.


We checked in to Tusker House and waited outside by the bar to be called.


We were very hungry and were looking forward to this meal!
Continued next post