A Sibling end of August mini trip

[Becky2005]

Hello everyone. This is for a quick trip my siblings and I took at the end of August.

Our mini sibling trip to Disney Springs/Magic Kingdom August 2024.​

Cast of Characters:

My sister who is the oldest and she finds Disney OK

My brother who doesn’t care for Disney much but puts up with it

Me who is the youngest and the Disney person of the family

Our Plans: 1 Disney Spring day and 1 Magic Kingdom day.

This was a quick trip which was basically a bribe from my brother. He was going down to Florida to go see a NASCAR race and didn’t want to go by himself. Since he was driving down and already had a timeshare he figured he could just have me tag along. He threw in we could do a day at Disney (i.e. his bribe for me to go!). We then ended up inviting my sister (who lives in another state), so she flew in and then we drove down.

It was a long drive down as it takes us 2 days. My sister & I took turns driving there and back as we figured we would let my brother drive throughout Florida! This was actually a good test as we are planning a big family trip in 2025. My sister was planning on driving and although she is coming from a different state, she definitely feels it would make more sense to fly at this point due to all who is in her family.

My brother has a couple of timeshares, the one we were staying at this time was in Titusville so it was a bit of a drive. However, he has another one close to Disney World and he thought he could book in person for our 2025 trip plus he knew they sometimes had discounted park tickets.

 

[Becky2005]

Disney Springs Adventure​

Let the first part of our Disney adventure began with the long drive (it was at least an hour if not more just due to traffic – so much traffic!). I should also add, we tend to get lost in our family so that’s always fun. To be fair, this was on a Saturday morning

Our first stop was my brother’s close to Disney timeshare which ended up being an interesting experience. We missed the main entrance gate but didn’t realize it at first so we couldn’t even find the Welcome Center. They did let us in but then we drove around the resort several times trying to figure it out. We stayed there in 2021 and all of us remember it being *right there* as you entered. We saw signs for it but we basically kept going around in circles. Finally, we found it although we had to park a bit weird and just walk through a gate that connected it but we made it. Turns out he has to do the reservations online and the Disney tickets wouldn’t be discounted, so forget that idea.

We ended up going to an unplanned Wal-Mart stop (a running theme throughout this trip!) because my brother was told to get a Minnie shirt for his wife and a Darth Vader shirt for his son, so we were on a quest to find those. We had no luck at Wal-Mart finding what we needed.

Our next stop was Shades of Green. My sister has access and wanted to get Kennedy Space Center tickets which were cheaper there. The Magic Kingdom tickets were not cheaper there plus we would have had to make reservations then, so we choose not to get them there. Took us a bit to find it but it was easy to follow the signs once we got close. We got our tickets and also did a little shopping as my brother was still looking for the shirts for his family. I did pick up a postcard for a friend who I have a trip in 2026 planned with (it will be her first time), so I like to send her little pixie dust sprinkles along the way. I planned to mail it out on Main Street to her.

At this point, we debated if we wanted to eat there or head to Disney Springs. I have done a ton of research but am no expert on Disney Springs and we are picky eaters (my brother has some dietary issues, so we were also taking that into consideration). He said a burger would be good so we decided to eat at D-Luxe Burger.

 

[Becky2005]

Disney Springs Adventure Continues​

We were using the Google Maps on the phone to get from one place to the next and I will tell you, signage for Disney Springs at least the way we went was not good. We were following it just fine and then *poof* no more signs. It felt like you had to guess and it would have been so easy to miss how to get there. We practically ended up out of Disney Springs. We found the garages but then it was a mess for us involving a few u-turns (but since they have lanes dedicated to that I guess it is expected?!?). Luckily, in my brain all I could think of was the Lime garage and I knew based on the map it should be close to where we want to be. We *finally* got into the garage and goodness gracious trying to find a spot was a stressful, interesting event.

It was then I told my siblings *THIS* is why I choose to stay on-site and just let Disney deal with the driving. LOL! It is also why we were smart enough to make my brother drive during all of this.

Once we got parked and actually to Disney Springs everything was fine. It took us a little bit to find the restaurant but we did. We all thought it was really good and would go there again. We all got the bacon cheeseburger but with different toppings.

It worked out really well that the ticket center was literally right as we walked out of the restaurant and we got our tickets for Tuesday. Before we left home, my sister & I had a debate on which day to go. I won the debate. LOL! We choose a party night. She didn’t want to go then because obviously it closes early. I know my siblings and no way would they have lasted a normal park day plus the hour+ drive time back to the timeshare! They are not thrill riders so we weren’t going to be doing the bigger rides. I did bring my magic band but we also all got cards to use.

 

[Becky2005]

Disney Springs Adventure Concludes
​

After we got our tickets, I did go to guest services because even though I knew it was 99.9% not going to happen, I need to re-arrange my onsite reservations for 2025 as my husband has decided to come with us but he will need accessible accommodations and things are just a bit complicated. I figured we were going to be there anyway and figured if there was a slim chance I could I would much rather talk face to face to someone. Bummer but not surprised.

It was then shopping time! We still needed to find the shirts for my brother’s family. My daughter also asked me to look for something that we were pretty sure was park specific but gave World of Disney a try. We didn’t find what we wanted there. We did find a couple shirts but of course, not in the correct size (isn’t that how it always goes?).

I don’t remember all the stores but I do remember we went to the Co-op because we were on our way to the Star Wars store and I told them we should go in (they weren’t so sure at first) but alas, we found a shirt for my sister-in-law. Then we went to the Star Wars Trading Post and found one for my nephew.

By this time, we were ready to go. It wasn’t a long day exactly but felt like a long day plus we had to be back to the timeshare in time for my brother to watch the NASCAR race on TV (we had gone in person to the night before race).

We did have a day in-between our Disney Springs and Magic Kingdom that we spent at the Kennedy Space Center.

Next up: Our Magic Kingdom Day

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day has arrived!​

I thought for sure Magic Kingdom would change its opening time but alas it didn’t, so Early Entry was 8:30 and park opening was 9:00. I know they now let everyone on Main Street early, no matter if you have Early Entry or not. My goal was to be at Magic Kingdom around 8ish with the plans to rope drop Pirates (Jungle Cruise was down). My brother doesn’t do coasters so we didn’t have to worry about a lot of the big rides.

We got to the parking lot at 7:45 am and for the first time I used the car locator feature on the app. Not sure how I feel about it but I will say at least for us, there really were no markings around. The app told us we were in Aladdin but no big signs on the poles or anything obvious for that. I did take some pictures of landmarks to help us just in case & eventually on the ground I did find “Jafar” in a row so at least I knew I could find that section. It would definitely be easy to lose your car!

Our first hiccup is that a monorail was being taken out of service or something. Basically, it would be 10 minutes before the monorail was up & running, so they were directing everyone to the Ferry. It was a pleasant ride. We did finally get in. I had brought my Magic Band so was using that. One of my siblings had a bit of trouble getting the card to work and dealing with the finger scan. Coordination is not strong in our family.

I made them get a Castle photo because to me that is the iconic thing to do when visiting Magic Kingdom. They turned out OK. I didn’t purchase Memory Maker (although I love photos & its my thing) because I wasn’t sure how many photos we would even get. I still have to decide if I’m downloading some of them as we didn’t get many.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day Rope Drop!​

We do get over to Adventureland rope drop where we wait. We were toward the front & I’m trying to explain why even though we are waiting it’s better to get there earlier than later, etc… Mostly, trying to explain things for next year’s large family trip. I don’t think it was going all that well on my end.

We finally get going and wouldn’t you know it!!!! Pirates is down! I’m a bit discombobulated now because frankly, I didn’t really have a plan for after that but told them we should go to Haunted Mansion as that should still be a low wait.

It was still listed as the 13 minute wait. Hurray! Our biggest issue with this trip is we were a group of 3 and all of us are on the larger size! We were constantly having to decide how we were splitting up.

As a side note, I was also checking out how things would or would not work for my husband and making mental notes. It’s one thing to read things, another to see it in action (at least for me). When we got off the walkway had been slowed *way* down and that was good to see how slow it could go. I think he may be able to handle that, I thought for sure it would need to be stopped 100% for him.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day Fantasyland!​

Next up, my sister decided we *had* to go on It’s a Small World right then!!! It was her must do & the way she was practically running to it was a bit much even for me! I kept telling her we would definitely get to ride it. You would have thought they were going to shut it down for the rest of the day or something. My biggest thing was I did not want to wait more than 5 – 10 minutes for it. Once we arrived, there was no reason to have been in a hurry.

Since we were already in Fantasyland, up next was the Teacups. I do not do the Teacups. I sat out that ride and just enjoyed the atmosphere.

We were thinking about doing the Winnie the Pooh ride but it had a higher wait time (I think 30 - 40 minutes) and although I would have liked to ride, I didn’t want to spend that much time waiting for it.

At some point we did see Philharmagic which I think was around this time because we were in the area. I don't remember backtracking for it.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day Back to Adventureland!​

Pirates was back up and a fairly low wait time so we headed back over that way. Now, this *is* a boat ride which water is involved and there were signs up saying you could get wet in several places that I saw. I don’t remember this happening before but at some point, I got what felt like a cannon of water hit me (It was definitely a very short burst of concentration of water that hit me from the side!) I don’t remember that particular feature but whatever it was, *I* got the brunt of the water sitting on the right side of the boat. I thought it was funny because it surprised me as it seemed to have come out of nowhere.

My sister on the other hand, who was in the middle was so shocked to get a little of the water on her. She didn’t expect to get wet at all. Which is probably what made it funnier to me because I thought it was obvious you could get wet on the ride. My brother who was on the other side of her, I don’t even think knew what was going on and he didn’t get wet at all.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day Frontierland!​

At some point I saw the Cavalcade of Characters was going to be happening and I had never seen them. I really had no idea exactly what we would be seeing so hard to explain to my siblings what exactly it was other than a parade. We were right at the start and I’m so glad we watched it. It was super short but loved all the characters they had. I don’t remember them all but I do remember Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, Marie and Max. I had to fumble quickly to get a picture of him for my daughter. I do remember being surprised by how short it was but I thought it was just perfect.

Off to Country Bears New Musical Jamboree at this point. The first time I saw the Country Bears was last year on a trip with my youngest who is 20. We both came out of the theater going “what did we just see?!?” he couldn’t believe that was Disney and thought it was something on the level of Chuck E Cheese and we both felt we were missing something. I’m assuming the nostalgia factor but me even being older knowing a lot of the references had the same feeling as him. I definitely would have skipped it from now on at that point. I was so curious to see the new show! I am on team new show! I liked it so much better! My sister came out saying her grandson would enjoy it. I wouldn’t put it as a must do for me but I also would enjoy it if I went again vs. just going nope, not doing that again.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day Where are we again? I have no idea!​

I truly don’t remember the order we necessarily did the rest of the items in, so this will be more a general rundown.

We did decide to take a loop around on the train as my brother is a big train person. I know we got on in Frontierland because we were watching Tiana’s que that not surprising was up & down several times. Luckily, that wasn’t something we were trying to get on. I do know it looked like they emptied the que when we were getting on the train. As we were on the train, it dawned on me we should probably do Carousel of Progress because that closes & becomes a TOT station, so thought they might close it early. We definitely wanted to see the show.

We got off the train at Storybook Circus and did the back walkway to Tomorrowland. We did COP and we thought about doing Buzz but that was too long of a line for us. We ended up on the People Mover.

We were thinking it was time for lunch, so we decided we would do Cosmic Rays and in the process decided to go on the People Mover again to mobile order. I did a bit of an oops here but realized it. I was so focused on doing the mobile order that all of a sudden I realize we are going through a dark part and I have my phone out. I quickly, flipped my phone upside down on my leg to not ruin the dark part for others but by the time I realized we were about ½ way through. Oops.

It was definitely a gremlin hour for us and we were a bit snippy at each other by then (a *tad* bit hangry). It was a bit crowded and took us a bit to find a decent place to sit. It all worked out and I got to see Sonny Eclipse so that made it fun.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day trying to avoid storm clouds at Liberty Square​

After lunch, it looked like rain clouds were going to roll in and we had decided it was time for Hall of Presidents. Once again, my sister has decided she needs super speed to get there and trust me I am the slowest of them all but we definitely are not marathon runners in our family. LOL! She was trying to beat the storm clouds. When we got there, it was going to be 15 minutes before the next show but we were fine with that! 15 minutes to hang in A/C and avoid any rain. Works for us. There was a great Cast Member in there coming to talk to us and asking us trivia. My sister was tempted to ask him if he had been a history teacher.

It was not raining when we got done & I don't remember if it had rained while we were in there.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day we seem to be having trouble reading again!​

We wanted to go to Ariel’s ride and this was the biggest mess up in the most hysterical way of the day. To be fair, the Disney tired was hitting and on the app, I saw a 5 minute wait for Under the Sea but somehow, I saw the rocks which my brain went “that’s Ariel’s ride” but I saw the sign that said 25 minutes. Now, I just assumed the wait time had jumped but we were getting toward the end of the day.

In the way back of my head, I do think that it looked “off” but I did not register it. Very few people in front of us and we just walked through the que. Until they asked how many and all 3 of us went and realized we were meeting Ariel!!!! OOPS!!!! We had gone into her Grotto instead.

Now, I’m the Disney person, so I didn’t mind meeting Ariel at all and I made my sister come see her too but my brother refused. I told her we were surprised to see her and she went with it for “Oh were you confused and wanted to see my friend Sebastian”. AND to top it off! The pictures didn’t even turn out and didn’t end up in my account! There is one but it is of me walking up to her & basically not a good picture at all. We were dying! My sister said poor Ariel probably thought what dorks! It was totally our fault for NOT READING things. It was plain as day that we were going into her Grotto & the wait time was in a flower. We *did* go on her ride next which was definitely a much quicker wait. Although, I’m not convinced we actually waited 25 minutes to meet her.

 

[Becky2005]

Magic Kingdom Day winding down​

At this point we were just trying to decide what we wanted to do. The Pooh Ride was still too long of a wait that I wanted to deal with so we never did go on that.

I think someone (not me) wanted to ride the People Mover again, so we went back over to Tomorrowland. I know we did Buzz Lightyear since that was a low wait at that point.

It had to be around 4ish during out last ride on the People Mover because you could see all the people flooding in for the party. There were in line for something near Tomorrowland (perhaps Stitch?), I have no idea but it was a *very* long line and I knew it was something party related but could never figure out what.

I also wanted to mail out a postcard from Main Street. It took me a while to figure out where the mailbox was. I knew it existed. Then I didn't even realize I could have gone into the store by where Mickey meets to get it stamped Main Street USA and a Mickey Stamp. At least I saw about it in a video after we got back. Oh well. She got the card and at the end of the day that is all that matters.

At that point, we decided to take another train ride. I think we were going to do something else but the train was going to be closing at 5, which meant it wasn’t going to be running after the last ride around. We decided at that point we were done and it was time to leave.

We had a long drive back and the park was going to close soon to us anyway. We left the parking lot around 5:30 pm.

 

[Becky2005]

My final thoughts:

Going on a park day is a good strategy, even though we weren’t park hopping it worked, we were definitely tired by the end of the day.

I personally would not ride the people mover 3x almost in a row. I don’t know why but by the time we were done with it the third time it was almost as if it was giving me slight motion sickness.

I will definitely try to read better to make sure I know what I’m in line for! Although, for me personally, I was just fine with it and considered it a bonus even if I did not feel very smart and completely awkward. I will say I don’t like the photo boxes. I *barely* remembered to scan my Magic Band on the way out and it was just because I happened to see a spot to do so. I don’t know if I was supposed to scan more than one picture and that’s why I only got the weird one or how that works. It was already so weird that we were just trying to get out of there!

Staying off-site vs. on-site, I’m definitely an on-site gal. This was the first time we stayed *way* off-site and the drive was rough. I would not want to do that regularly. Last time I went with my siblings, we also stayed off site but it was about 10 minutes away.

Now off to plan the next trip which will be August 2025!