An August Adventure with a Disney Sequel***UPDATED with UNIVERSAL***

[thornton0511]

Hello and welcome to my Trip Report! It has been about a year since my last TR here on the DIS, and even though it is now well past August I figured maybe sharing our most recent adventure would help me pass the time until our next one...

Since this is not my first rodeo I will skip the in depth intros, but please feel free to click on any previous TR's in my signature to get more familiar.



We are a family of 4. DH-38, DD-9, DS-14, and Me (Jenn)-34. We started taking trips to Disney in 2011 and haven't slowed down since. This would make number 5 to the world for us, and we have had one summer trip to DL as well. We love Disney and are not ashamed of it lol!

This particular adventure took place from August 13th-23rd....one week before school was to start . We had originally booked a bounce back free dining for Sept 2015 after falling in love with WDW after Labor Day in 2014, but it was not meant to be with DS starting 8th grade and playing football. By May we had completely rearranged our plans. With trips in May, June, Sept, and Dec we knew what to expect but summertime in August would be new and interesting for us But we like a challenge so no worries there!

Each time we go we try to find new experiences and things to do and this trip would be no different. This would include a deluxe resort split stay with a small detour to Universal right smack in the middle. And just for fun why not throw in a day at a Disney waterpark? It was shaping up to be quite an adventure for sure! If you are new to my reports I should tell you that nothing ever goes as planned with us and there are always surprises and mishaps around each corner....so consider yourself warned

Let the August Adventure begin!!
​

 

[thornton0511]

Table of Contents

Day One: Pre Arrival Stay at Hyatt-MCO

The Room

When Things Don’t Go As Planned Improvise As Best As You Can

Wilderness Lodge and a Bit of Pixie Dust​

First Mishap of Our Trip….It Was Bound to Happen at Some Point

Lunch at Lottawatta and More Blizzard Beach Fun

Welcome Home

Dinner at Roaring Forks and Relaxation WL Style

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Day Two: A Day at Magic Kingdom

An Evening of Rain and Dinner at Beaches and Cream

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Day Three: Easy Like Sunday Morning

An Afternoon Swim​

Dinner at Whispering Canyon Café

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Day Four: New Adventures Await! Check in to RPR and Early Entry to WWoHP​

Morning at Universal Studios​

Lunch at Three Broomsticks​

Our Room & Dinner at City Walk


​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

joining in!

 

[thornton0511]

joining in!

and thank you for joining in! Happy to have you here

 

[thornton0511]

Day One: Pre Arrival Stay at Hyatt- MCO

Typically our trips will start with flying out of Dallas at the booty crack of dawn , putting us at Disney by lunch time. This always works out ok because we usually spend the first day hanging out at the resort or at DTD. Since we were going to cram so much for this trip that meant the plan was to hit the ground running so a different plan of attack was needed. We had a free night reward for Hyatt so we thought arriving the day before the official start of our vacation would make this possible.


A few weeks before takeoff our MB’s had finally arrived and that meant vacation time was approaching fast. DD and myself chose to decorate our bands, but DS and DH opted out lol. Just a few days after our bands had arrived Disney had announced you could opt out of receiving multiple bands for split stays but it was too late to cancel our second batch. This is something we will definitely do for future trips however. One set of bands per trip is all we need!


Our drive to Dallas the morning of departure day was pretty uneventful. DH did get randomly selected to walk through the naked body scanner which I found humorous. I am always so happy to get though the security part of flying because I get so nervous thinking that I am going to mess up the process and get in trouble lol. Soon enough we were able to sit and relax while we waited for our plane to arrive. We have flown Southwest for the past few trips and have no complaints other than the whole not being able to preselect your seats thing. Obviously it would not be the end of the world if we didn’t get to sit together…I think I just like to plan too much. I logged in at exactly 24 hrs ahead of time for our departure flight and we still all got Group B. We still managed to all get seated together though so it wasn’t a big deal at all!


2.5 hours later we had arrived at MCO! First up a ride on the fake-o-rail. Never gets old.



Once we had made it to the other side DD and I waited while the boys went to collect our checked luggage. Since we were not checking in to Disney until tomorrow we had to get our bags ourselves…oh how Disney spoils us! Thankfully all of our bags had made the flight with us! So far so good with no trip mishaps. With our feet on the ground we had officially started our vacation…. even if we not technically leaving the airport today.



With luggage in tow we made our way up the escalator to the Hyatt. There is was just to the left as soon as we reached the top! And tomorrow we would just have to walk to the other side and down to get to DME. Could not be more convenient!



Up another set of escalators we went to check in. Since this was a free reward night we would be staying in a standard room with 2 queen beds. We did have the option to upgrade for a bit of money to a suite, but decided to just stick with a free night’s stay instead.



While DH checked us in I got sidetracked by the view of the fake-o-rail just below the lobby windows. I realized how content I would be to just pull up a chair and watch the trains go back and forth all day long… it doesn’t take much to entertain me obviously!

As fun as that would have been the family was ready to get our things up to the room and get lunch so I took my suitcase and followed suite up to our room.

(To be continued)​

 

[rachelrapunzel]

Joining in! Your report looks awesome! I went in August aswell and had so much fun! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[thornton0511]

Joining in! Your report looks awesome! I went in August aswell and had so much fun! Looking forward to reading more!

thanks for joining! Yay a fellow August WDW visitor! So glad you had a great time on your trip We enjoyed ours as well although I think weather wise and crowd wise it was very different than what we have been accustomed too, but hey it's Disney so anytime is really not a bad time right? Happy to have you follow along!!

 

[thornton0511]

The Room

Once we had gathered our stuff we proceeded up the elevator a few floors to find our room.



It was apparent by the room number at this point that our room was going to have an atrium view. This would be good for people watching. The hallway was very open and nice. It's also apparent from this picture my child is somewhere without a shoe



Along the way we found some abstract little benches



And some lovely fountains. I was impressed with the hotel so far and it seemed very nice.



The room itself was equally nice and had quite a bit of room for being just a standard.



Just to the left of the door was the bathroom



With a shower/tub combo to the left



And the toilet to the right. Who doesn’t love a TR with toilet pics? The bathroom was very spacious.



The main portion of the room included 2 queen beds and they were extremely comfortable and not once did we feel wall to wall crammed.



As you can see we had plenty of room to store our luggage and still have walking room. No tripping over suitcases in the middle of the night for us!



Our view of the atrium below was very cool and the family wasted no time checking it all out while I took pictures of the room.



Not too shabby eh? ​

 

[thornton0511]

When Things Don’t Go As Planned Improvise As Best As You Can

After getting settled a bit we decided it was time to head down for lunch.



There were so many choices!

Ultimately I was voted out and it looked as though Chili’s was going to be the choice for lunch today.



We split an array of appetizers and did a little people watching below. It was nice to just relax a bit and not have a time schedule today. We had originally thought it would be ideal for the kids to enjoy a little afternoon swimming on the rooftop pool, however the weather had a different plan as the bottom of the sky opened up in the form of a rainstorm.



So we improvised and decided instead to do a little exploring in all of the many many stores MCO has. The Disney stores (there were a total of 2) were very cool and almost felt like we were in WDW.



We were excited about the Universal Store since we would be making a trip there just a few days from today.



This would be the kids first time to Universal and we were all super stoked to be adding this new aspect to our normal Disney trip this year. The hubs and I had made a trip there without the kids in 2010 which was before our Disney trips began. WWoHP had just opened up that year and it was a super cool experience.

After going to just about every store MCO had to offer we had run out of things to do and the rain was not letting up at all. In fact it was getting worse. On the bright side I was extremely glad that we had chosen a morning flight to Orlando instead of an afternoon or evening. I would not have enjoyed trying to land in this storm. The kids had gotten bored and were finding ways to entertain their selves…



We decided at this point to go back to our room and lounge around. Maybe the storm would pass and the kids could get an evening swim in.



Once we got back to the room my radar app pretty much all but squashed our idea for an evening swim. This plan totally made sense when I planned it. Unfortunately planning an entire day around airport fun does not last as long as it needs too when you are counting on outdoor activities, like swimming, and not accounting for bad weather. It’s central Florida in the summer…I should have known better.



The rest of the afternoon was spent people watching from our balcony, electronics, and TV watching. As for DH and myself we took an afternoon vacation nap and I caught up on emails and work. Not exactly minute by minute exhilarating fun, but hey, on the bright side we had dodged flying in a storm and we were definitely going to be rested for the excitement of Disney tomorrow morning. We ended going back down for dinner and some more store window shopping. Apparently dinner was seeming forgettable seeing how I don’t have one single picture to go along with it lol. I think we ended up getting a selection of fast food from the middle food court area.

I do remember at some point we walked down to DME to find out exactly how getting a bus was going to work tomorrow. I had done about as much research on their policy as I possibly could and the end result had been conflicting reports. I was happy to hear that they are not too concerned about the flight portion of you reservation and as long as you take a bus to the resort you are checking into ON check in day, you can take any bus at any time within that 24 day period. This was great news for us because our plan for tomorrow was to be checked out of the Hyatt and on a Mickey bus in time to get checked into our first Disney resort and on a bus for rope drop. Sounds like a busy morning right? This is how we roll.​

 

[Stargazer9]

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more! The Hyatt looks great, good idea!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

It was apparent by the room number at this point that our room was going to have an atrium view. This would be good for people watching.

oooh, fun!!! I love people watching.

This was great news for us because our plan for tomorrow was to be checked out of the Hyatt and on a Mickey bus in time to get checked into our first Disney resort and on a bus for rope drop. Sounds like a busy morning right? This is how we roll.

Wow that's ambitious!

 

[BellaBaby]

Hi Jenn! Glad to see you've started a new TR! I think I've read most of your past ones. DH and I did a late August adults only trip in 2014 and the crowds were non existent. I wish the kids could go then, but that's when school starts of course! I'm just starting to plan our June trip and booked the Contemporary for the first 4 nights. First time staying there. So excited! Got a great deal on Orbitz; they are offering any additional 15% off Disney's spring rates. First time booking with them, but everything went smoothly and the resv. was easily linked up with MDE. Looking forward to hearing about your trip!!

 

[DisneyJo]

What a shame the swimming was rained out!

 

[Mersmom98]

Looking forward to reading your trip report! We are fellow Texans and were there August 16-22 at the Polynesian so it'll be kinda like reliving our trip as well.

 

[thornton0511]

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more! The Hyatt looks great, good idea!

So glad to have you join!

 

[thornton0511]

oooh, fun!!! I love people watching.

Wow that's ambitious!

We love people watching too! Haha yeah that plan was a bit ambitious I will admit

 

[thornton0511]

Hi Jenn! Glad to see you've started a new TR! I think I've read most of your past ones. DH and I did a late August adults only trip in 2014 and the crowds were non existent. I wish the kids could go then, but that's when school starts of course! I'm just starting to plan our June trip and booked the Contemporary for the first 4 nights. First time staying there. So excited! Got a great deal on Orbitz; they are offering any additional 15% off Disney's spring rates. First time booking with them, but everything went smoothly and the resv. was easily linked up with MDE. Looking forward to hearing about your trip!!

Hey BelleBaby so glad you found me! It has been quite a while since I have been a regular on the boards and I wasn't sure if anyone was still here that was around a year ago lol! So glad you are still here. Yeah our kids started back the last week in August so this trip had us literally returning the day before school started which is crazy! We definitely noticed a difference in crowds this week as opposed to prior trips when we have taken the kids out of school. Definitely manageable but not like we are used to lol...we have been spoiled! Oh wow you are going to stay at the Contemporary, how cool is that?! Sounds like you got a really great deal too This was our first time to not booked directly through Disney and we went through a travel agency for the first time for the Disney portion and book through cheap tickets for the Universal part. I was weary at first but it all went fine and I let them know ahead of time I wanted full control of my trip lol!!

 

[thornton0511]

What a shame the swimming was rained out!

lol right?! Honestly though I should have known that was a possibility but man it was a pretty intense rainstorm

 

[thornton0511]

Looking forward to reading your trip report! We are fellow Texans and were there August 16-22 at the Polynesian so it'll be kinda like reliving our trip as well.

Oh wow that's awesome that you guys were there at the same time! aboard! Glad to have you here! We are from East Texas. So nice to see a fellow Texan here

 

[thornton0511]

Wilderness Lodge and a Bit of Pixie Dust

After getting a good night’s sleep we had no issues getting up super early this morning. Today we were Disney bound and it was going to be full of new experiences for us! We were going to be checking into Wilderness Lodge for the first time ever, and also spending the day at Blizzard Beach, also a first for us.



We had managed to check out of the Hyatt and make our way down to DME to be on our bus by 6am. The plan was to check in, leave our luggage (expecting our room to not be ready this early in the morning) and be on a bus to BB before rope drop at 9am. We had 3 hours to make all of this possible.

There were only a handful of people getting on DME this early in the morning and thankfully we did not have to wait long for our bus to get going. We arrived at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge at 7am.



We had a very sweet CM checking us in this morning. She handed DH and I our anniversary buttons (our 15 year wedding anniversary had been 2 days ago) and gave the kids lots of goodies including a lot of stickers. She asked if this was our first time staying at WL and we told her yes. While she was checking us in she mentioned that they did not have a standard room available yet (which we had prepared for), but then she did something that we were not expecting…..she upgraded us to a wood view that had a room already available. Woohoo for Disney Magic and Pixie Dust!! We were so grateful for the upgrade. I love Disney so much! After thanking her for being awesome we headed up the elevator to find our room.



As soon as we got in our room I was impressed. I loved the wooden floors in the entry way.



The beds seemed very nice and I love that Disney seems to be moving away from the old comforters and to more of a white overlay and leaving the details on the throw at the end of the beds. It’s a very clean look.



The details on the headboards with the wood carvings were amazing and I loved that the light switches for the lighting above the beds were on each side of the posts. Very cool Disney!

The real excitement however was making our way over to the balcony to see exactly what our woods view was going to be…



Definitely beat the heck out of a parking lot view for sure!

We didn’t have too much time to waste if we wanted to make it to the waterpark for rope drop so we dropped our suitcases, rechecked our beach bag to make sure we had everything we needed, and headed out.

Our walk through the halls was quite winding, but we eventually found our way back to the elevator and made our way down. I was still on such a Disney high just trying to let it all soak in. I had wanted to stay at WL since 2011 when I starting planning our first trip ever, and after seeing in it person in 2013, when we had dinner at WCC, I definitely knew at some point in my life I had to make this happen. I just could not believe it was real and I could call this place home for the next few days!



We made our way out to the bus stop,



Where again I could not get over how amazing this resort was, and waited for an Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach bus to arrive. We were making really good time and did not have to wait too long for a bus. Then we were on our way! I was a bit nervous because this was all new to us. I had a plan in place, and you can study park maps and watch you tube park walkthroughs all day long, but that still doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be clueless when you actually get there. I was really hoping it was going to be as easy as I planned it to be. No turning back now! ​