MandiC
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2013
- Messages
- 1,116
This was MY very first trip to Disney, at almost 30 years old it was about time 
my husband had been on a family trip when he was a preteen and it was our older two children's first trip at ages 7 and 9 (we left our 2 and 4 year old at home for this trip).
I planned and planned but still felt underprepared but away we went!
The flight itself was fine, we took off just a few minutes late and still arrived on time, slight turbulence but nothing too terrible. We flew Southwest and I was pleased with how nice their service was compared to a previous trip we took with US Airways. No baggage fees and snacks on board being big ones for me, not to mention we paid less for the tickets and got a direct flight.
So we arrive at MCO and I'm going to admit right here I am NOT good with maps. We ended up on the wrong side of the airport on level 1...so back up to level 3 to the correct side of the airport and back down to level one and the walk all the way down the length of the building to get to Magical Express. Needless to say I was not a fan of the Orlando airport from the start, it's marked but not in any way that sticks out to someone who has never been there before. I was fully expecting with how big Disney is for the area to have some obvious signage leading the way but there was no such signs.
We waited in the Magical Express line for about 15 minutes before we could board a bus and then waited some additional time on the bus. I am assuming to load everyone up and give some extra time for anyone else to come. Our flight arrived a little after 1pm and we didn't get to our resort until 3pm or so. Definitely wasn't quick but it was stress-free as far as no baggage claim to worry about.
The ME bus to Port Orleans first stops at one or two other resorts...I already forget but once we got to our resort we went in to check in. Pretty simple process since I did the online check-in prior to arriving. We ended up in building 26 in Alligator Bayou at Port Orleans Riverside. I requested a room with the pull down bed because while we were only traveling with two kids I have stayed in hotels with them before and when they are in the same bed there are fights over covers and pillows and kicking and it's just no fun I also requested top floor and corner room, both of which we got. The extra light from the second window in the corner room was nice and the curtains blocked the light well when we didn't want it Building 26 isn't the most convenient as far as bus stops/the lobby go but it definitely isn't the least convenient either. Something that ended up being pretty nice was that we were pretty much equal distances from the South and West Depots. South is the main depot by the lobby and we used that most mornings but when we were heading back to our room and on a packed bus and the driver decided to stop at the west depot first we could get off there and walk back to our room without the extra time on the bus.
That first night we went to Downtown Disney to look around, SO much to see and at night with the sparkling trees it really is quite magical
It was pretty cold for Florida the day we flew in but it was better than Wisconsin weather. We ate at Planet Hollywood, no reservations needed and were seated immediately. The food was good, and we had a coupon so that was nice too We went back to our room and our bags were 'magically' there, got organized and ready for the next day and called it a night. I found the rooms to be quiet and I am usually a light sleeper however my husband did say one night he heard our neighbors coming in at 2am being quite loud and he said he could hear almost every word they were saying....so maybe I was just extra exhausted.
Saturday February 1...thank goodness the weather was more like we pictured! We went to Epcot on our first day in the parks. My first goal was to look for breakfast so I asked a CM where Sunshine Seasons was and they pointed me to the Land building. This is where me being a first timer shows we got there and the line for Soarin was short so we rode that right away then went and ate a Cinnamon Roll each. Soarin was a hit for our whole family. Living with the Land...not so much. It was interesting, but indeed boring. We didn't bother with the other ride in the building. Then we tried to finish up that side of Future World. Our video game loving 9 year old loved Innoventions, we discovered the Disney card character meet wasn't until afternoon with was a disappointment since I knew we'd be busy with the Showcase by then. Captain EO left me pretty unimpressed overall. Spaceship Earth was a neat ride. We started the showcase with Mexico and their counter service restaurant...yummy! It was however extremely busy, hard to find a spot to sit and eat. The mariachi band was wonderful and the ride inside the Mexico building was cute. We really enjoyed looking around all the countries in the World Showcase, even those without rides and the kids seemed to enjoy it to an extent also (I think making passport books ahead of time helped!). Maelstrom in Norway ended up being one of our Epcot favorites. We were all disappointed in the wait for Anna and Elsa. 3 hours the first time I checked...the least amount of time ended up being an hour and a half but alas we had dinner reservations...pretty disappointing for my Frozen loving little girls though. We made it to Japan that first afternoon, the singers in American Adventure were wonderful and the pick a pearl in Japan was something my girls really enjoyed. Our dinner for the night was at Akershus. We arrived 15 minutes early for our reservation but didn't end up even being allowed into the restaurant until 15 minutes after our reservation which was odd to us. Picture with Belle and we were seated. The food was okay, I enjoyed mine, my husband and kids not so much. The kids ordered pizza and I did try it...it tasted like they used the sauce from spagettios so I can't say I blame them too much. It was nice to get so many princess autographs and pictures in one sitting though! IllumiNations was WONDERFUL, I highly recommend it.
Sunday, February 2- after a late night in Epcot it was ROUGH waking up early for our 8:20am reservation at Cinderella's Table but we managed. Unfortunately one of the biggest reasons I made that reservation was for the must have pictures of empty Main Street and in front of the castle, wouldn't you know it was SO foggy you could barely see the outline of the castle standing right in front of it. Major bummer for me. Children do not get a choice for food, they get a basic meal which I can't even remember what but it isn't too much and my kids didn't care for it. I ordered the filet and eggs which was okay...can't remember what my husband got. Overall, I was disappointed in the experience. The princesses were mostly the same as the ones we saw the night before, the food was pretty lacking and the special 'wishing star' ceremony was just a recorded message. I don't even think half the tables around us even heard it over the dining room noise. For two table service credits I cannot say I recommend this one. For one it would be a must simply due to the location but for two credits...eh, not worth it for us. We did Frontierland and Adventureland, and then lunch at Pecos but had to go back to the hotel because my husband forgot his wallet and we had dinner reservations at the California Grill which we decided rather than using two table service credits we would just pay using our Disney rewards. It took an hour and a half to quick run back to our room this was the first, but not last, time we were extremely frustrated with Disney transportation. Big Thunder Mountain was our favorite of the day and we got an extra long Jungle Cruise due to some technical difficulties. We headed to the Contemporary and were seated for dinner fairly quickly. The sake martini was excellent by the way We actually had a really great seat for the fireworks right from our table and enjoyed it. We didn't go all out for dinner, once again the kids wanted pizza...this time they loved it thank goodness! I had the chicken which was actually REALLY good. While talking about the California Grill, the Contemporary definitely had the best selection in charms for charm bracelets than any other store anywhere on Disney property we went. I had told my girls to wait because we were so early in the trip and I was sure we'd see more somewhere else. There were extra magic hours at Magic Kingdom that night but we went back to our resort after dinner...which was probably a good thing because I waited at the bus stop a full 40 minutes before we even got on a bus. Lesson of the evening, if the driver will at all let you on, GO. We waited 20 minutes for the first bus which was packed full, the driver stopped us at our family and then 2 young ladies from behind us asked if there was room for 2 more...I said if there is room for two more my husband needs to go with our daughter cause by this point she was in tears she had to go to the bathroom so bad, so my husband and daughter got on...and then the two young ladies pushed past me and my other daughter and got on 
so we waited 20 more minutes for another bus. Needless to say we were beyond exhausted by the time we got back to our room and a little irritated that two young ladies who looked to be early 20s would feel the need to get back to their room before children who were waiting in line before them...(there was another family with young children behind us and ahead of them)
Monday February 3 was our second (and last) Epcot day. We did Soarin right away since we wanted to use a snack credit for breakfast again. Then we did the other side of Future World. LOVED Test Track. Mission: Space however...ugh. I do get motion sickness but not very easily, that is the ONLY ride we went on during our trip that I had any motion sickness on. Our 9 year old actually threw up after it. We did do the More Intense though, so, definitely disappointing for us. We then made the mistake of doing the Ellen's Energy experience...it's a moving experience...if you area already not feeling well from Mission:Space next door it is not a good combination. Finished off Future World with that side of Innoventions and then finished off the Showcase. We managed to finish everything we wanted by 3pm! It was a HOT day so we decided to head back to the resort for swimming before dinner. It ended up being a great idea, the kids loved it and they have so many activities at the main pool they were definitely never bored. I lounged and worked a little on touring plans for the next few days.
It was really hard to plan ahead having never been to Disney before BTW! Speaking of, FastPass+...great once you get the hang of it. On this day in particular I was extremely frustrated with it. When we got to Test Track the wait was only 25 minutes, so I decided to push our fast pass later. Not knowing how to do that I just canceled our FastPass+ reservations for the day, WRONG! Then you can't remake them so after Test Track I had to go sit in the FastPass+ line to figure it out. Which is funny since we didn't end up needing them that day anyways...live and learn. If you need to change a time/experience just change the time/experience...do not cancel them or the system thinks you are out of FastPasses for the day!
We headed back to Epcot that night for dinner at LeCellier. The pretzel bread is amazing, as was the tenderloin with mushroom sauce (and I'm not a big mushroom fan). I'm not sure it was worth 2 table credits...but definitely more so than Cinderella's Table. I was stuffed when we left and the 'candy bar' dessert they have was just about the most amazing thing ever too. We skipped IllumiNations that night which in hindsight I kind of regret but we had another early breakfast the next morning so off we went...
my husband had been on a family trip when he was a preteen and it was our older two children's first trip at ages 7 and 9 (we left our 2 and 4 year old at home for this trip). I planned and planned but still felt underprepared but away we went!
The flight itself was fine, we took off just a few minutes late and still arrived on time, slight turbulence but nothing too terrible. We flew Southwest and I was pleased with how nice their service was compared to a previous trip we took with US Airways. No baggage fees and snacks on board being big ones for me, not to mention we paid less for the tickets and got a direct flight.
So we arrive at MCO and I'm going to admit right here I am NOT good with maps. We ended up on the wrong side of the airport on level 1...so back up to level 3 to the correct side of the airport and back down to level one and the walk all the way down the length of the building to get to Magical Express. Needless to say I was not a fan of the Orlando airport from the start, it's marked but not in any way that sticks out to someone who has never been there before. I was fully expecting with how big Disney is for the area to have some obvious signage leading the way but there was no such signs.
We waited in the Magical Express line for about 15 minutes before we could board a bus and then waited some additional time on the bus. I am assuming to load everyone up and give some extra time for anyone else to come. Our flight arrived a little after 1pm and we didn't get to our resort until 3pm or so. Definitely wasn't quick but it was stress-free as far as no baggage claim to worry about.
The ME bus to Port Orleans first stops at one or two other resorts...I already forget but once we got to our resort we went in to check in. Pretty simple process since I did the online check-in prior to arriving. We ended up in building 26 in Alligator Bayou at Port Orleans Riverside. I requested a room with the pull down bed because while we were only traveling with two kids I have stayed in hotels with them before and when they are in the same bed there are fights over covers and pillows and kicking and it's just no fun
I also requested top floor and corner room, both of which we got. The extra light from the second window in the corner room was nice and the curtains blocked the light well when we didn't want it Building 26 isn't the most convenient as far as bus stops/the lobby go but it definitely isn't the least convenient either. Something that ended up being pretty nice was that we were pretty much equal distances from the South and West Depots. South is the main depot by the lobby and we used that most mornings but when we were heading back to our room and on a packed bus and the driver decided to stop at the west depot first we could get off there and walk back to our room without the extra time on the bus. That first night we went to Downtown Disney to look around, SO much to see and at night with the sparkling trees it really is quite magical
It was pretty cold for Florida the day we flew in but it was better than Wisconsin weather. We ate at Planet Hollywood, no reservations needed and were seated immediately. The food was good, and we had a coupon so that was nice too We went back to our room and our bags were 'magically' there, got organized and ready for the next day and called it a night. I found the rooms to be quiet and I am usually a light sleeper however my husband did say one night he heard our neighbors coming in at 2am being quite loud and he said he could hear almost every word they were saying....so maybe I was just extra exhausted. Saturday February 1...thank goodness the weather was more like we pictured! We went to Epcot on our first day in the parks. My first goal was to look for breakfast so I asked a CM where Sunshine Seasons was and they pointed me to the Land building. This is where me being a first timer shows
we got there and the line for Soarin was short so we rode that right away then went and ate a Cinnamon Roll each. Soarin was a hit for our whole family. Living with the Land...not so much. It was interesting, but indeed boring. We didn't bother with the other ride in the building. Then we tried to finish up that side of Future World. Our video game loving 9 year old loved Innoventions, we discovered the Disney card character meet wasn't until afternoon with was a disappointment since I knew we'd be busy with the Showcase by then. Captain EO left me pretty unimpressed overall. Spaceship Earth was a neat ride. We started the showcase with Mexico and their counter service restaurant...yummy! It was however extremely busy, hard to find a spot to sit and eat. The mariachi band was wonderful and the ride inside the Mexico building was cute. We really enjoyed looking around all the countries in the World Showcase, even those without rides and the kids seemed to enjoy it to an extent also (I think making passport books ahead of time helped!). Maelstrom in Norway ended up being one of our Epcot favorites. We were all disappointed in the wait for Anna and Elsa. 3 hours the first time I checked...the least amount of time ended up being an hour and a half but alas we had dinner reservations...pretty disappointing for my Frozen loving little girls though. We made it to Japan that first afternoon, the singers in American Adventure were wonderful and the pick a pearl in Japan was something my girls really enjoyed. Our dinner for the night was at Akershus. We arrived 15 minutes early for our reservation but didn't end up even being allowed into the restaurant until 15 minutes after our reservation which was odd to us. Picture with Belle and we were seated. The food was okay, I enjoyed mine, my husband and kids not so much. The kids ordered pizza and I did try it...it tasted like they used the sauce from spagettios so I can't say I blame them too much. It was nice to get so many princess autographs and pictures in one sitting though! IllumiNations was WONDERFUL, I highly recommend it. Sunday, February 2- after a late night in Epcot it was ROUGH waking up early for our 8:20am reservation at Cinderella's Table but we managed. Unfortunately one of the biggest reasons I made that reservation was for the must have pictures of empty Main Street and in front of the castle, wouldn't you know it was SO foggy you could barely see the outline of the castle standing right in front of it. Major bummer for me. Children do not get a choice for food, they get a basic meal which I can't even remember what but it isn't too much and my kids didn't care for it. I ordered the filet and eggs which was okay...can't remember what my husband got. Overall, I was disappointed in the experience. The princesses were mostly the same as the ones we saw the night before, the food was pretty lacking and the special 'wishing star' ceremony was just a recorded message. I don't even think half the tables around us even heard it over the dining room noise. For two table service credits I cannot say I recommend this one. For one it would be a must simply due to the location but for two credits...eh, not worth it for us. We did Frontierland and Adventureland, and then lunch at Pecos but had to go back to the hotel because my husband forgot his wallet and we had dinner reservations at the California Grill which we decided rather than using two table service credits we would just pay using our Disney rewards. It took an hour and a half to quick run back to our room
this was the first, but not last, time we were extremely frustrated with Disney transportation. Big Thunder Mountain was our favorite of the day and we got an extra long Jungle Cruise due to some technical difficulties. We headed to the Contemporary and were seated for dinner fairly quickly. The sake martini was excellent by the way We actually had a really great seat for the fireworks right from our table and enjoyed it. We didn't go all out for dinner, once again the kids wanted pizza...this time they loved it thank goodness! I had the chicken which was actually REALLY good. While talking about the California Grill, the Contemporary definitely had the best selection in charms for charm bracelets than any other store anywhere on Disney property we went. I had told my girls to wait because we were so early in the trip and I was sure we'd see more somewhere else. There were extra magic hours at Magic Kingdom that night but we went back to our resort after dinner...which was probably a good thing because I waited at the bus stop a full 40 minutes before we even got on a bus. Lesson of the evening, if the driver will at all let you on, GO. We waited 20 minutes for the first bus which was packed full, the driver stopped us at our family and then 2 young ladies from behind us asked if there was room for 2 more...I said if there is room for two more my husband needs to go with our daughter cause by this point she was in tears she had to go to the bathroom so bad, so my husband and daughter got on...and then the two young ladies pushed past me and my other daughter and got on so we waited 20 more minutes for another bus. Needless to say we were beyond exhausted by the time we got back to our room and a little irritated that two young ladies who looked to be early 20s would feel the need to get back to their room before children who were waiting in line before them...(there was another family with young children behind us and ahead of them)Monday February 3 was our second (and last) Epcot day. We did Soarin right away since we wanted to use a snack credit for breakfast again. Then we did the other side of Future World. LOVED Test Track. Mission: Space however...ugh. I do get motion sickness but not very easily, that is the ONLY ride we went on during our trip that I had any motion sickness on. Our 9 year old actually threw up after it. We did do the More Intense though, so, definitely disappointing for us. We then made the mistake of doing the Ellen's Energy experience...it's a moving experience...if you area already not feeling well from Mission:Space next door it is not a good combination. Finished off Future World with that side of Innoventions and then finished off the Showcase. We managed to finish everything we wanted by 3pm! It was a HOT day so we decided to head back to the resort for swimming before dinner. It ended up being a great idea, the kids loved it and they have so many activities at the main pool they were definitely never bored. I lounged and worked a little on touring plans for the next few days.
It was really hard to plan ahead having never been to Disney before BTW! Speaking of, FastPass+...great once you get the hang of it. On this day in particular I was extremely frustrated with it. When we got to Test Track the wait was only 25 minutes, so I decided to push our fast pass later. Not knowing how to do that I just canceled our FastPass+ reservations for the day, WRONG! Then you can't remake them so after Test Track I had to go sit in the FastPass+ line to figure it out. Which is funny since we didn't end up needing them that day anyways...live and learn. If you need to change a time/experience just change the time/experience...do not cancel them or the system thinks you are out of FastPasses for the day!
We headed back to Epcot that night for dinner at LeCellier. The pretzel bread is amazing, as was the tenderloin with mushroom sauce (and I'm not a big mushroom fan). I'm not sure it was worth 2 table credits...but definitely more so than Cinderella's Table. I was stuffed when we left and the 'candy bar' dessert they have was just about the most amazing thing ever too. We skipped IllumiNations that night which in hindsight I kind of regret but we had another early breakfast the next morning so off we went...
