Balancing Parks, Rest and Birthdays! A July 2023 Trip Report

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Hello Friends!!!

This is a long overdue trip report and hopefully it isn't too late, where no one cares anymore.

Who:
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This is our little family. Well, the girls aren't so little anymore!

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First up is me, Ariella. I am the planner of all Disney trips and basically keep this family fedd and in the places they need to be.
Favorite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain or Pirates
Favorite Snack: Orange Float or anything from the Carmel Shop in Germany
Favorite Dinner: Sannaa (Bread Service all the way!!)

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This is Andy, my partner in crime. He loves disney as much as us. And his favorite pass time is trying to embaress his teenage girls whenever possible. (Here he is trying to convince Dopey to ask the evil queen on a date.
Favorite Ride: Guardians of the Galaxy
Favorite Snack: Egg Rolls
Favorite Dinner: Homecomin'

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Next up is Morgan, she is our oldest. She is reserved but thoughtful. She loves Marching Band and Anime. (And Loki) Morgan is now 15 soon to be 16. She is not looking forward to learning how to drive. Possibly the only 15 year only to do not want to drive.
Favorite Ride: Rock n Rollercoast
Favorite Snack: Soft Pretzel
Favorite Dinner: Morimoto Asia

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Last but not least is Gwen. Gwen turned 13 on this trip. I still don't know how this is possible, but it is true! She is in 8th grade and getting started with her last middle school play. And running for Student Council this year, which took us by suprise.
Favorite Ride: Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway
Favorite Snack: Churros
Favorite Dinner: Beaches and Cream - Specifically the grilled cheese.

What: We have been to Disney many times and since we were going over the summer, we hoped to balance park days and rest / pool days. Life has been pretty stressful, so we were also really hoping to actually rest on this trip. Which isn't always easy to do in Disney World! But I think we did a pretty good job of that.

Where: We stayed at Caribbean Beach for this trip. I was able to take advantage the dinning promo that they had, and we got $75 a night for our stay. We love Caribbean Beach for it's use of the Skyliner and the pool is pretty great. And we knew we wanted to spend some time at the pools.

When: This trip was planned for July, Morgan is in Marching Band and they start band camp in August and is pretty much most of August, so for a summer vacation, July is it! BUT that worked out as that means it was a good excuse to do a trip over mine and Gwen's birthdays! We left Saturday, July 15th and came back Monday, July 24th. Gwen's birthday is the 19th and I am the 21st. So, we were able to celebrate both in one trip. It also meant that we have all now been in Disney World on our birthdays!

So, please follow along if you want to read about many yummy meals, fun in the parks and how we tried to relax while on a Disney vacation!

 

[Araminta18]

Yay! Joining in!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Travel Day

Our flight was scheduled for 11:04 AM. In an effort to make this trip "relaxing" I booked us a late morning flight. (We are usually a first flight kind of family.)

So, we were able to wake up fairly normal time and get ready to go. We were all ready to go with at least half an hour and were all sitting around just waiting to go. We had already kind of wished we had taken an earlier flight.
Packed and Ready to Go
We were packed and ready to go!

Around 8:0 AM we left for the airport
Travel Day Plans
This was our basic plans for the trip, get to Disney and have a nice dinner. Seems simple enough, right? right?

I made Andy and Gwen do a jump shot to try and do a transition video. Morgan wanted to nothing to do with it. Spoiler Alert, it came out terrible....

Almost as soon as we got in the car, we got an alert that our flight was delayed. We were now to leave at 11:41. Only half an hour later, so we just headed to the airport.

Once we got to the long term parking, we got ANOTHER alert that our flight was delayed even more, now we weren’t leaving till 1:30 PM

Just a few minutes later we got ANOTHER alert saying our flight was back to only being delayed till 11:41.

And then a few minutes later, we got ANOTHER alert saying out flight was delayed to 1:09 PM

We had no idea what was going on, but we were already at the airport, so we said we would just make the best of it... Sigh.

We were able to get our bags checked and headed to Security by 9:00 AM
Thankfull, we didn't have anny issues checking out bags and headed to TSA-Pre Check.
Goodbye Check in.

It only took us 10 minutes to get through Security and headed to “lunch”. Highly recommend TSA pre-check! We fly out of philly and the security there can be nightmare-ish. But pre-check is pretty painless.

Andy ran into an old co-worker in line. They chatted a bit.

Airport Art
We passed by some art work by local artists on our way to "lunch"
Airport Art: Crochet Flowers

Airport Art

We always like to go to Chickie & Pete's before our trips if we have time. It was in our terminal but all the way on the other side. But we had TIME! So, we headed over.

By 9:30 AM we were sitting at Chickie & Pete’s for “lunch”
Start of Trip Cheers
We had our traditional Cheers to another vacation!
I ordered a Blue Moon with a splash of OJ. (that makes it ok for breakfast, right? Andy had a Diet Coke and both girls just had water.

I ordered The mayfair
Chickie and Pete's
Scrambles eggs, cherry peppers, onions, and our cheese sauce served on a steak roll
As folks in Philly say, a Breakfast Hoagie.

Blue Moon Beer
And my beer! Breakfast of champions!

Andy was going to share with me, but my sandwich was full of onions and onions and Andy don't get along. So, he went with a Chicken Sandwich.
Chickie and Pete's Classic Chicken Sandwich
that extra piece of chicken was IN the sandwich, It was a ton of chicken!

Gwen went with "those fries they have here"
Crab Fries
"those fries" are Crab Fries CHICKIE’S & PETE’S® FAMOUS CRABFRIES® with two sides of our cheese sauce
Basically Old Bay Seasoning on fries with cheese sauce, they are delish! We all picked at these as it was huge!

Morgan went with mozzarella Sticks
Mozzarella Sticks
Nothing was breakfast about most of our food but we hoped to be ON a plane during lunch.

We tried to make the most of the wait. We enjoyed our food and just talked about the trip and the plans for the week.

We spent about an hour at the restaurant, before we decided to move on. So, around 10:30 AM we left Chickie & Pete’s to find our gate.

Since we weren't in a rush, we really noticed stuff in the airport.

Like this bird display over the check in area.
Airport Birds

More Airport birds

Lego Vending Machine
A lego vending machine? Who is building 500 piece lego sets IN the airport?!?

Liberty Bell
A fake Liberty Bell, cause it's Philly!

We also found reading area in airport with short stories.
Book area at Airport
There was a machine that printed out receipts like paper with short stories, 1 minute long to read, 3 minutes and 5 minutes long.
Short Stories
So, of course we printed out all 3!

And more art work:
More Airport Art

More Airpport Art

We made it to our gate around 11:00 AM. At gate, Andy and I sat at Yards.
Summer Crush Beer
Andy and I sat in the Yards table area, and I ordered another beer. While the girls found a seat in the waiting area and played some video game.

Yards is a local brewery.
Yards Beer Menu
And since it was vacation, well, why not!

About 20 minutes later, Our Plane arrived!!!

We figured, ok this won’t be so bad. We watched as everyone slowly got off the plane.

Puppy from Plane

Including this cute dog.

But then the gate attendants announced that they weren’t boarding us yet, because, we were waiting for our pilot and crew to land from a DIFFERENT flight, deboard that plane and come over here! So our plane just sat and waited the same as everyone else.

We sat and sat some more. I texted with my sisters, mostly about how I had 2 beers before noon. Vacation had officially begun! But we also talked about BOMA dinner, as I have been saying that my one sister and her husband need to stay at AKL. And my other sister and her family are Vegan and I always think that BOMA would be a good dinner for them.

At noon, I got email that our groceries had been delivered. Even if we hadn’t left New Jersey Yet!

Our last alert was that our plane was delayed till 1:09, but at 1:14 PM, we got another alert that our flight was now delayed till 1:25 PM. Shocker since it was past our time...

And then at 1:30 PM: We got another alert that our flight was now delayed till 1:45 PM UGH!!!! By now, we all agreed first flight out ALWAYS!!!!

Finally at 1:45 we were on the plane
FINALLY on the plane

Once we were on the plane, I decided to try and make a second dinning reservation for dinner, as we were going to be cutting it too close for our 6:05 reservation. I was able to grab a 7:50 reservation. Which at the time felt late, but it worked out. BUT I didn’t cancel the 6:05 one. (more to come on that)

View from Plane
We took off and it felt good to FINALLY be in the air!!!

I received an email with our Dining Promo Gift Card, whiles we were in the air (around 2:30). I had booked during the promo and we had $75 per night on the card. So, a total: $675 to spend on meals.
The “card” was just an email with a QR code to scan. So, each time we used it, the server would need to take my phone to scan at a register.

And I also received and email at the same time that our room was ready. Didn’t see it till we landed obviously.
We were in Room 4210 - 1st Floor Jamaica Building 4200

We ended up circling somewhere before Orlando due to weather. And i wanted to cry at this point. What in the world else can we have happen to delay us!

We finally were given the all clear to head into Orlando. We of course, waited on the tarmac for a gate to pull into.

Once we were off the plane, it was CRAZY busy in the terminal. I assume it was people waiting for delayed flights due to the weather that made us circle in the air. There was just people everywhere waiting for flights! When I saw all of that, I was just grateful we had landed!

It was about 5:15 PM when we got on the Pho-Monorail.
Finally in Florida
We are always glad to hear Mayor Buddy Dwyre welcome us to Orlando!
Pho-Monorail

Finally in Orlando
Gwen loves the little alien guy in the airport. We were so glad to just finally be in Florida.

Took bathroom break.

New BOMA reservation
I called the dining phone number to cancel the original BOMA reservation. It was within an hour of the reservation and figured they would five me a hard time. BUT it ended up being automated and was able to cancel without talking to anyone!

I did need our reservation # to punch in, so I made Morgan have a screenshot of it, so I could type it in I thought for sure I was going to have to talk my way out of the cancellation fee. But it was easy and painless.

By 5:30 PM we had made it to baggage claims and were waiting for bags to come out.
Severe Weather Warning
This was the alert they had up at all of the bag areas!

Our bags came out fairly quickly, which is a first for us. I feel like our bags are always the last. And one time it was literally the last bag.

We decided to just do an uber this trip. This was our first time doing this in Orlando. And I wasn't sure how easy or hard it would be. It wasn't hard to find out but man we walked outside to find him and reality hit us HARD!!!! It was muggy, there was cars everywhere honking and just loud. It was fine... but it made me really miss magical express!

At 5:45 PM we were in Uber to Disney World
Uber Driver
Our Uber driver had a thick accent and was kind of hard to understand but very nice. He had an ipad playing Mickey Mouse Club at first, but changed it to Rock Videos after and started blasting Bon Jovi.
Bon Jovi in Uber
Which Andy and I enjoyed... but Morgan and Gwen meh...

At 6:09 PM: We were finally driving under Disney World Sign
Walt Disney World
Andy took a picture for me without me having to ask! It felt good to be back!!!

When we pulled up to the gate at Caribbean Beach, the security guard directed the uber driver to the Jamaica round about to drop us off. Which was really nice, as we didn’t have to walk all the way from the main building! It was perfect.

Our room for the trip

Gwen's Trundle Bed

The room is clean and I personally like the wood floors. Gwen was happy to have a trundle bed this trip.

We were in Jamaica, Building 42, Room 4210. We were super close to the main Skyliner hub and not too far from the bus stop for Jamaica. It ended up being a perfect location for us.

It was about 6:15 when we got there. So, we had enough time to unpacked and called to have our Garden Grocer order delivered. They charged us $6 to have the groceries delivered. Which was well worth it, as the poor CM delivered the stuff as it was pouring buckets of rain!

Up next dinner and some animals!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Yay! Joining in!

So glad you are here!!!

 

[Araminta18]

Our flight was scheduled for 11:04 AM. In an effort to make this trip "relaxing" I booked us a late morning flight. (We are usually a first flight kind of family.)

I've started doing this too! Getting to be too old for those 3 am wake up calls.

This was our basic plans for the trip, get to Disney and have a nice dinner. Seems simple enough, right? right?

Can I just say I love how you do this plan for each day? I just have my google doc!

It only took us 10 minutes to get through Security and headed to “lunch”. Highly recommend TSA pre-check! We fly out of philly and the security there can be nightmare-ish. But pre-check is pretty painless.

TSA Precheck is the BEST! We *finally* got it this summer (dunno what took us so long) and man, it is the BEST. I love it.

A lego vending machine? Who is building 500 piece lego sets IN the airport?!?

Are you me? I had this same reaction when I saw a lego airport vending machine the first time. Like...why?!

I did need our reservation # to punch in, so I made Morgan have a screenshot of it, so I could type it in I thought for sure I was going to have to talk my way out of the cancellation fee. But it was easy and painless.

That's awesome that it was automated - I feel like some things Disney does so well and makes so easy, and then others they just make flipping hard, and you never know which thing will be which.

We decided to just do an uber this trip. This was our first time doing this in Orlando. And I wasn't sure how easy or hard it would be. It wasn't hard to find out but man we walked outside to find him and reality hit us HARD!!!! It was muggy, there was cars everywhere honking and just loud. It was fine... but it made me really miss magical express!

Oh I feel this so much. When we went in August it was so bonkers hot and muggy and gross...the magical express being gone is such a bummer.

When we pulled up to the gate at Caribbean Beach, the security guard directed the uber driver to the Jamaica round about to drop us off. Which was really nice, as we didn’t have to walk all the way from the main building! It was perfect.

That is awesome! We did that with our uber one night at Art of Animation and it is sooooooo nice to just be right there at your building instead of having to do the long walk.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

That is awesome! We did that with our uber one night at Art of Animation and it is sooooooo nice to just be right there at your building instead of having to do the long walk.

We were able to do this most times and made things so nice. We really didn't "feel" the size of the hotel because we were able to do this.

Oh I feel this so much. When we went in August it was so bonkers hot and muggy and gross...the magical express being gone is such a bummer.

In reality it was fine. I just miss being in the bubble right away. Why they didn't start charging is beyond me. Sigh..

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m joining in! I’m sorry about all the delays, ugh! I would need a few beers waiting on the ever changing time lol
We take Lyft all the time now. I really do miss ME but Lyft is usually quick.
That area is very chaotic!
The room looks nice and I’m glad you had a good location!

 

[SEAGULL59]

Welcome back!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I’m so sorry to hear about everything! I haven’t seen you on Instagram either and I’m happy to hear you are all ok

 

[rdkeim]

Following!

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following!
Off to a great start - can't wait to read more!

 

[Newsies]

Hi Ariella!!! So great to see another TR from you, yours are always great So excited to follow along!

Morgan is now 15 soon to be 16. She is not looking forward to learning how to drive. Possibly the only 15 year only to do not want to drive.

This was totally me I was terrified to drive at 16 and didn't get behind the wheel all by myself until I was 24!

There was a machine that printed out receipts like paper with short stories, 1 minute long to read, 3 minutes and 5 minutes long.
Short Stories
So, of course we printed out all 3!

This is so cool!! I've never heard of or seen anything like this!

What a crazy, epic, long travel day! Can't wait to hear about Boma and the rest of your trip!

 

[VAtink]

Oh yay, I love reading your reports! Joining in, can't wait to read more!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Hi Ariella - I’m excited to join in! I loved reading your past reports and am thrilled you’re doing another! (Also, what happened to your kids - how did they get so grown up?!)

Ugh, what a terrible travel day! Despite the early hour, you’ve reaffirmed my decision to always take the first morning flight to Disney World.

(Interestingly, one of my worst travel days was when I was traveling home from the Philadelphia airport - maybe it’s something about that airport? )

At least you had Pre-Check (it is the best!) and were able to cancel your early Boma reservation without incurring a fee. Your room looks great, too!

 

[vamassey1]

What a stressful travel day. I had delays flying out on my last trip. I made it really hard for the person picking me up in Orlando. It did work on in the end.

Hopefully dinner goes better for you.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

The room looks nice and I’m glad you had a good location!

Jamacia was great. We weren't too far from the main area, but we barely went there. Ha!

Welcome back!

Thanks! It feels good to be back.

I’m so sorry to hear about everything! I haven’t seen you on Instagram either and I’m happy to hear you are all ok

I had big plans for my instagram account. I will get back to that next. .... hopefully.

Following!

Thanks for following along!

Following!
Off to a great start - can't wait to read more!

Thanks. Welcome!!!

Hi Ariella!!! So great to see another TR from you, yours are always great So excited to follow along!

Thanks for following along.

This is so cool!! I've never heard of or seen anything like this!

It was cute. And we probably would never have noticed it.

This was totally me I was terrified to drive at 16 and didn't get behind the wheel all by myself until I was 24!

She will get there. I said she could not learn to drive but she would have to live in a major city. And she doesn't want to do that either.

Oh yay, I love reading your reports! Joining in, can't wait to read more!

Thanks for coming over! I am behind on everyone elses trip reports. I will get back eventually.

(Also, what happened to your kids - how did they get so grown up?!)

I know!!!

Ugh, what a terrible travel day! Despite the early hour, you’ve reaffirmed my decision to always take the first morning flight to Disney World

I really regretted picking that flight. But you just never know...

(Interestingly, one of my worst travel days was when I was traveling home from the Philadelphia airport - maybe it’s something about that airport? )

Philly really isn't a great airport. We have flown many times with no problems, but I would never rave about it. We are only 15 minutes from it, so it doesn't make sense to drive to a different one.

Hopefully dinner goes better for you.

Thanks. It def made us even happier that we were finally there!

 

[suse66]

First up is me, Ariella. I am the planner of all Disney trips and basically keep this family fedd and in the places they need to be.
Favorite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain or Pirates
Favorite Snack: Orange Float or anything from the Carmel Shop in Germany
Favorite Dinner: Sannaa (Bread Service all the way!!)

Sounds like mom life! Totally on the same page with the caramel shop and Sanaa bread service!

This is Andy, my partner in crime. He loves disney as much as us. And his favorite pass time is trying to embaress his teenage girls whenever possible. (Here he is trying to convince Dopey to ask the evil queen on a date.
Favorite Ride: Guardians of the Galaxy
Favorite Snack: Egg Rolls
Favorite Dinner: Homecomin'

Love that interaction with Dopey! Too funny!

Next up is Morgan, she is our oldest. She is reserved but thoughtful. She loves Marching Band and Anime. (And Loki) Morgan is now 15 soon to be 16. She is not looking forward to learning how to drive. Possibly the only 15 year only to do not want to drive.
Favorite Ride: Rock n Rollercoast
Favorite Snack: Soft Pretzel
Favorite Dinner: Morimoto Asia

Well as a mom to two 21 year olds who are just thinking about driving, I totally understand how Morgan feels.

Last but not least is Gwen. Gwen turned 13 on this trip. I still don't know how this is possible, but it is true! She is in 8th grade and getting started with her last middle school play. And running for Student Council this year, which took us by suprise.
Favorite Ride: Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway
Favorite Snack: Churros
Favorite Dinner: Beaches and Cream - Specifically the grilled cheese.

How is Gwen 13??? Hope she loves student council!

Where: We stayed at Caribbean Beach for this trip. I was able to take advantage the dinning promo that they had, and we got $75 a night for our stay. We love Caribbean Beach for it's use of the Skyliner and the pool is pretty great. And we knew we wanted to spend some time at the pools.

I feel Caribbean Beach has really stepped up its game. I was there resort hopping for dinner at Banana Cabana and was really impressed with the resort.

We had no idea what was going on, but we were already at the airport, so we said we would just make the best of it... Sigh.

Ugh!!

At 6:09 PM: We were finally driving under Disney World Sign

That is a LONG travel day!

When we pulled up to the gate at Caribbean Beach, the security guard directed the uber driver to the Jamaica round about to drop us off. Which was really nice, as we didn’t have to walk all the way from the main building! It was perfect.

Yay! Your room looks lovely.

 

[keh422]

I'm behind (on pretty much everything), but I'm excited to read all about this trip! We were at Disneyland for the first time while you were starting your trip. Your travel day sounds incredibly frustrating, but I'm glad you were able to salvage your dinner plans.

 

[Paulaparm]

I've been waiting for this! Glad to see you got it started. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[amazingact21]

I'm here! So happy to see you've started this report. I love reading about your family's trips. Even though I'm baffled that your girls are so grown up now.

Ugh, that was a rough travel day! How frustrating that they kept texting you with flight time changes. Just pick a time and stick with it! Or at least just keep pushing it back. But that back and forth was ridiculous.
Pre-noon beers don't count on vacation. Or when you're at the airport for hours on end.

I definitely heard the "Hi, I'm Mayor Buddy Dyer" spewl in my head.

Looking forward to hearing how your Boma dinner went.