Besties from the West do Disney! (January 21-25)

[midnight star]

Going to do my first real trip report! I'm excited! Hopefully I don't forget any details. We had such a fun trip! I'm sad it's over! Post Disney Depression is real lol I'm going to break it into sections so I can work on it a little at a time.

Background: I am a Disneyland Pro. I have a pass, and frequent the park multiple times a month. I have been wanting to go to WDW for quite some time now. Back in May 2019, I decided to actually make that happen. I officially booked this trip in August with my dad. However, he found out he wouldn't be able to make it. I decided to ask if one of my best friends wanted to come along. And she said yes! She was enticed a little bit more since her birthday happened to be during the trip.

Who we are:
Me- A (age 26)
Friend- C (age 26, turned 27 during the trip)
We met the summer after freshman year of college. We got assigned randomly to be roommates, and are now best friends. It's crazy to think we've known each other since we were 19...we've witnessed each other go through the ups and downs of college, graduating college, finding jobs in the real world, etc.



Hope everyone enjoys reading along!

 

[midnight star]

Sections for the trip report
Chapter One: Planning, Fastpass+ success, Last minute changes, waiting until the last minute to book flights

Chapter Two: Getting there via Red eye from Los Angeles

Chapter Three: Arrival Day, Magic Kingdom, Freezing cold weather

Chapter Four: Hollywood Studios Day, ROTR experience, ride breakdowns, more cold weather

Chapter Five: Epcot Day, Celeb Spotting, Florida rain, Migraines

Chapter Six: Animal Kingdom Day, NFL celeb spotting, Disney Springs, nicer weather, fastpass+ awesomeness

Chapter Seven: Returning home

 

[CML's mom]

Yay, sounds so fun! Celebrity sighting! Can't wait!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more. I like to see how DLers compare / contrast the parks . I still haven’t made it to DL but definitely one to ..... one day .

 

[midnight star]

Chapter One: Planning, Fastpass+ Success, Last minute changes, waiting until the last minute to book flights.
I’ve been to WDW twice before. I was 5 the first time, then again at 7. Of course, my parents planned and did everything. C had also been to WDW, but only Hollywood studios, and it was for half a day. She mainly went to Orlando to visit family members.

This was my first time planning everything. The trip was booked in a package via Dreams Unlimited. I’m very happy with them! Our travel agent was very helpful. I had a hard time choosing a hotel. My dad told me about Coronado Springs, since we had stayed there for both of our trips in the past. So I went with that one. I also chose the dining plan.

I chose the days following MLK day because I heard that, that particular weekend is normally slammed. I don't mind going to a crowded park, that comes with the territory of Disney trips, but I didn't want to be miserable the whole time. Plus, for work, most people don't choose to vacation in January, so it was easy to get the days approved.

Original Trip Details:
Coronado Springs (January 21-27)
Park days (January 21-26)> head home on the 27th

Dining Reservations: Being a DL person, I totally forgot that at WDW, you can make ADR's 180 in advance. Thankfully the travel agent reminded me. To me that seems a little crazy. I'm a big planner, but I have no idea what I want to eat that far in advance. I decided to book a lot of ADR's to keep our options open. I made reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table, Coral Reef Restaurant, Sci Fi Dine in, Tiffins Rivers of Light, and Be Our Guest.

 

[midnight star]

Fastpass+ Success:
This is where the biggest learning curve came into play. I have heard horror stories about WDW's fastpass+ system. On the DL board, there are quite a few posters who have stopped going to WDW because they simply don't enjoy the fastpass+ system. Throw in the fact that I would check the app periodically, and would notice FOP and SDMT always showing 100+ minutes waits on random weekdays. That didn't ease my anxiety.

I read up as much as I could on Fastpass+. Although I am not a huge fan of choosing rides in advance, I decided to make the best of it! And to our luck, we got all the rides we wanted!! Including FOP, SDMT, Slinky Dog (after the December 11 hour adjustment), and Frozen ever after.


November 22, 2019- Our fastpass day
I woke up at about 3:55am California time. I logged into MDE on my computer. Once 4am hit it kept saying my fastpass time wasn’t ready yet, even though it was. So then I did it from my phone, which worked. So I really didn’t pick my rides until about 4:05am. I chose my rides in this order: FOP, SDD (wasn't available), SDMT, FEA, Space Mountain, Big Thunder..then just filled in other rides.

January 21- Magic Kingdom

Big Thunder (10:55-11:55)
Space Mountain (12:15-1:15)
Seven Dwarves Mine Train (5:45-6:45)


January 22- Hollywood Studios

Star Tours (8:00-9:00)
Slinky Dog Dash (9:05-10:05)* we originally had Toy Story mania as our Tier one, but on Dec.11, the hours for HS changed to 7am..so I changed our Toy Story mania to SDD.*
Voyage of the Little Mermaid (10:30-10:45)


January 23- Epcot

Spaceship Earth (9:35-10:35)
Frozen Ever After (11:20-12:20)


January 24- Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest (9:00-10:00)
Dinosaur (10:10-11:10)
Avatar Flight Passage (2:25-3:25)


January 25- REST Day; potential day 2 of Hollywood Studios
Decided to do 2 days of HS due to the ROTR opening. C is a big star wars fan and wanted to try. Doing 2 days would increase our chances of getting on the ride

Slinky Dog Dash (2:30-3:30)

January 26- Magic Kingdom

Seven Dwarves Minute Train (10:00-11:00)

 

[midnight star]

December 2019: Annnndddd here comes the crazy part.

With all the holiday craziness, my friend and I both forgot we had to finish paying for the trip. We realized with the short notice that we probably wouldn’t be able to afford a full 7 day trip, so I contacted the travel agent again (she’s an angel), and she was able to shorten the trip and take away the dining plan so we could afford it better. So by shortening the trip to 4 days, taking the dining plan away, we were able to afford it better! Whew! We paid in full 24 hours before the final due date. Talk about cutting it close After that fiasco was done, I ordered our magic bands. I chose pink, C chose red.

I also went ahead and cancelled some of our ADR. I was a little sad to cancel Cinderella’s Royal Table, but knowing we were only going to have 4 park days, being tied down to multiple dining experiences may not be the best. We kept 2 though! Coral Reef since I enjoy looking at sealife and aquariums. And we kept Tiffins because it is on C’s birthday.

And finally, I cancelled our fastpass selections for Saturday and Sunday since we wouldn't be there those days. I was ok with that because they were repeat fastpasses.

 

[midnight star]

January 2020: Booking Flights and finalizing everything
Keeping the trend of doing everything at the last minute, C and I realized we had to still book our flights. We found a red eye that would leave on MLK day, and arrive Tuesday at 6:30am in Orlando. We knew it would be rough, but it was a good option given the time constraints. Our returning flight as at 6:30 am on Saturday the 25th (ugh!). We booked all of this on January 2.

So after all of these changes, here is how our itinerary looked!
January 20- Depart LAX on Delta Red eye flight at 10:55pm
January 21- Arrive in Orlando at 6:30am. Catch Disney Magical Express to Coronado Springs to drop off luggage; change clothes; eat breakfast; catch bus to Magic Kingdom.

January 21- Magic Kingdom
Big Thunder (10:55-11:55)
Space Mountain (12:15-1:15)
Seven Dwarves Mine Train (5:45-6:45)

January 22- Hollywood Studios
*only day to attempt to ride ROTR; plan to get there early to be inside and choose boarding group*
Star Tours (8:00-9:00)
Slinky Dog Dash (9:05-10:05)
Voyage of the Little Mermaid (10:30-10:45)

January 23- Epcot
Spaceship Earth (9:35-10:35)
Frozen Ever After (11:20-12:20)
Coral Reef Restaurant at 6:50pm

January 24- Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest (9:00-10:00)
Dinosaur (10:10-11:10)
Avatar Flight Passage (2:25-3:25)
Tiffins Rivers of Light package at 3:25pm

About a 2 weeks before leaving, our Magic Bands arrived! As well as our luggage tags, and magical extras coupons.

 

[midnight star]

Chapter Two: Getting There via Red Eye from Los Angeles
When we booked the flights to Orlando, we decided to book a nonstop flight. We wanted this because traveling in January means unpredictable weather. All of the lay overs on the way to Orlando were in Dallas, Chicago, or Atlanta. No way would we want to risk getting stuck there! The red eye flight on MLK day was good way to spend a full day in the park, and it was pretty cheap considering we booked it right before coming.

On January 20th (MLK day), my aunt drove C and I to LAX. We had no issues getting into the airport despite all of the construction. Security was also a breeze. We grabbed dinner and watched Netflix. Next thing you know, it was time to board!! Yay!!! We were in Basic Economy..or what one of my friends calls it "Broke Economy" Even though we boarded last, we had no issues finding places to put our carry ons, and we had our seats assigned 24 hours earlier. I will say, I was very happy with this Delta aircraft. All seats, no matter the class, had TV's. We had prepared by downloading movies to watch. Well to our surprise, the movies we downloaded were already included with the plane. We plugged our earbuds in and were all set.

Soon enough, we were off. I slept the entire flight and woke up about 40 minutes before landing. When I woke up, I didn't realize how hot I was. I had dressed very warm, assuming it was going to be cold on the plane, and I ended up sweating the last half hour of the flight. Whoops! C was in and out of sleep during the flight and was able to eat some snacks. Our flight ended up arriving about 40 minutes ahead of schedule!

Also, I can't figure out how to flip this right side up

 

[midnight star]

Chapter Three: Arrival Day, Magic Kingdom, Freezing cold weather
When we finally landed in Orlando, I sort of teared up. I couldn't believe we were finally here!! We made our way to Terminal B to catch the Disney Magic Express Bus! When we got down there, they immediately asked for our Magic Bands for scanning. Thankfully we put them on before exiting the plane. I will say, as someone who has never used a magic band, those things are so cool! But more on that later!

We were directed to the line for Coronado Springs. It was grouped with Animal Kingdom Lodge. After a few minutes of scanning in others, it was time to load the bus! When we got outside, the cold Orlando air (feels weird to type that), hit us! Holy cow was it cold!! C and I both looked at each other. Before leaving LA, we almost didn't bring our winter parkas, beanies, and gloves, because we thought we would look ridiculous. Well, standing in the cold before loading up the bus made us happy we brought them!



The bus ride to Coronado seemed to take forever, although it really wasn't that long. I think we were just excited. The driver announced when we would be driving through the big "Walt Disney World" sign. Of course we snapped a pic. We stopped at POP and AofA before arriving to our hotel. When we pulled into the Coronado springs parking lot, our mouths dropped open! It was so beautiful! The Gran Destino Tower was shining in the sun! It was almost like heaven was shining it's light on the hotel as we drove up lol. We got dropped off at a little bus port a little ways down from the main entrance.



The lobby of the Gran Destino Tower was so nice! Very calming and relaxing. The spanish touches to it reminded both of us of our homes back west. There was a short line to check in. The whole process was pretty smooth and quick. Prior to coming I did some sort of check in on MDE. So we basically only had to wait for our hotel room number to be ready. The CM's at the hotel let us know we could change in the bathrooms and leave our luggage until our room was ready. So we hurried and changed our clothes, dropped our bags off, and went downstairs to eat.

We ate at the El Mercado. It is basically the cafeteria. The food was pretty good! You could make your breakfast as light or heavy as you wanted. We finished eating and finally headed to Bus Stop #1 to head over to Magic Kingdom!! Yay!!

 

[midnight star]

Chapter Three cont.: Magic Kingdom and Freezing Cold Weather
While doing research on Coronado Springs, I read that their bus system is pretty bad. Especially if you stay at the tower. This is because there are 4 stops around the whole resort, and the tower is the last stop. That means people can be on the bus when it gets there. There is a chance that the bus can be full and you have to wait longer for another. We lucked out, and didn't have any issues with the buses. In fact, when we got picked up for Magic Kingdom, the bus was empty. Although maybe that was because everyone was waiting at bus stop 1 lol. Anyway, we all fit, so it worked out.

About 15 minutes later, we arrived at Magic Kingdom. We breezed through security, scanned in and did a fingerprint, and entered the park! First stop was to sign up for the DAS pass. I signed up at the Chamber of Commerce. The process was very smooth and the CM was nice. Next, C had to get sunglasses from one of the stores since she left hers at my house lol. After all of that, we made our way down main street. It was still freezing! It almost felt colder. But we didn't care! We were happy to be there!


Our first ride was Haunted Mansion! The wait said 15 minutes, but we walked right into the elevator room. It was cool, but I think I like the DL version more. Also, C and I thought it was a little weird how they snap your picture and it ends up in your photopass history. Someone explain how this works?? lol It still creeps me out just a little bit. Next up was Aladdin Flying Carpets. That was about 10 minutes! I remember doing this ride as a kid. It was cute, but the wind made us more cold lol.



Then it was time for to redeem our first fastpass! Big Thunder! I will say! I really liked WDW's version of Big Thunder. Yes DL's has the mine scene at the end, but I felt like this one was faster. After Big Thunder, we did several more rides. I don't remember the exact order of everything, but we did: Big Thunder again, Peter Pan, Winnie The Pooh, Small World, Carousel of Progress, Tea Cups, Space Mountain, Barnstormer, Pirates, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We also did Philharmagic and Tiki Room.

Around 2 pm. The jetlag/tiredness/cold weather really hit us. We became VERY sluggish. To the point where we decided to take a break and get some Starbucks. The line was long, but we were ok with it because we wanted to kill some time. After grabbing our midday fuel, we sat on the grassy area on Main street. The sun was beaming down and it felt great. We stayed in this spot for about 45 minutes lol!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip, especially the differences between DL and WDW. The time change must have been a bit of an adjustment.

You got really lucky with airfare at the last minute.

It was a good thing you brought your cold weather clothes. January in Florida can be unpredictable, but usually runs a bit colder than the rest of the winter.

 

[midnight star]

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip, especially the differences between DL and WDW. The time change must have been a bit of an adjustment.

You got really lucky with airfare at the last minute.

It was a good thing you brought your cold weather clothes. January in Florida can be unpredictable, but usually runs a bit colder than the rest of the winter.

Yeah the weather was so weird. The week before we got there it was in the 80’s and humid. Our week it was a cold front lol

 

[midnight star]

Chapter 3 cont.: Still at Magic Kingdom & Still freezing lol

As the sun began to set, the temperature decreased. And boy was it cold! We tried to find things activities inside to stay warm. So that is when we did Tiki Room and Philharmagic. After the shows, we had to find some dinner. We chose Village Haus. We both got the Tomato Basil soup, because we wanted to eat something warm. The food wasn't amazing, but we were glad to have a hot meal in our stomachs. We were surprised at how easy it was to find a table inside. We for sure thought more people would be hiding from the cold. We stayed inside at the table mainly to rest, but to also wait before the fireworks.


When it was time to go on Main Street, we were pretty zonked! Jet lag is real! i remember my face being numb and cold, at one point I was so tired, I did't even care anymore lol. On Main Street, we found a spot on the curb in front of the ice cream shop to sit until showtime. Again, we were shocked at how easy it was to find a spot to sit and wait when it was 30 minutes before the fireworks started. At DL, it's very common to see people camped out at 5pm for 9:30pm fireworks. There, 30 minutes before fireworks means you will be squeezed in somewhere. We had comfortable spots standing up, and didn't have a blocked view.

The fireworks were amazing! Loved the music! And it felt like they were bigger here. When the fireworks were over. We made a mad dash to the exit. We knew everyone would be leaving and the bus lines would be crazy. So we walked as fast as we could without stopping and made it to the stop for Coronado Springs. The bus was actually already there, and we got right on! Whew!



When we arrived to our hotel, we couldn't wait to get in bed! However, when we first saw it, we of course had to look around! It was so pretty! We had a view of the water, big fluffy pillows on the bed, and a fancy bathroom. We were so stoked that this was going to be our "home" for the next few days.

Also I suck, and didn't take pics of our room lol! But we had two Queen Beds, single sink, shower, toilet area that was separate from the shower, wardrobe, and a luggage rack.

When we got into bed. We both realized what the next day was....Hollywood Studios....which translates to Rise of the Resistance. I set my phone to 4:30 (ughhh), and then went to bed, hoping for a good day the next day...

 

[midnight star]

Some pictures from Magic Kingdom

 

[midnight star]

Chapter Four: Hollywood Studios Day, ROTR experience, ride breakdowns, more cold weather

*Phone alarm goes off at 4:30am* Ughhhhh!

When my alarm went off at 4:30am the next day, it felt like a truck had hit me. The jet lag and exhaustion from the day before was rearing its ugly head. I rolled out of bed..literally and almost hit the floor lol. But sort of caught myself, almost lost my footing, but grabbed onto a bed sheet. This is why it's not good to wake up before the sun. It's dangerous lol. I hurried and got dressed. C was slowly making her way out of bed as well. When I was done getting dressed, she went into the bathroom to get dressed. I checked the weather and cringed. It was 33 degrees! For those of you who live in cold climates, I don't know how you do it. If I had to consistently deal with this every winter, I would never leave the house. I called the Uber around 5:20, and it was only 4 minutes away. We walked to the lobby of the Tower and waited right by the door until our driver was outside.

When we got in the Uber, the driver was all "You must be doing the Star Wars ride"...She said she had been driving this early because it's been a great money maker since the ride opened. We arrived to HS at 5:35. I know technically we got there super early, but I heard about long security lines, long waits for Ubers, and traffic, so we wanted to be extra safe. Security was easy, and we got in a line. Did I mention it was cold?! Because it was COLD!!! Plus the wind was blowing!! Not fun! Everyone else in the line looked equally miserable lol, but everyone was overall in good spirits. Some of the CM's would walk by the lines and try and cheer us up!

They opened the gates to HS around 6:20. Apparently that's actually late. But when we got closer, we realized the tapping heads were down, and they had to use ipads. When I saw them using ipads, I was kind of glad we got there early to be up close. I was reading on the ROTR that further back in the big sea of people, there was a lot of cutting and frustration when the lines weren't moving at 6am like they normally would.

C and I huddled together in a gift shop near the front of Buena Vista street. We literally sat on the floor until it was time to get our BG. When 6:59 rolled around, I opened up the WDW app, and right at 7 I joined! And we got group 18!! Wahoo!! That was such a relief. It was kind of crazy how it got silent, then all of the cheers erupt as people got their groups. After that was done, it was time to join another line... Starbucks! The line wrapped all the way outside of the building. The CM held a little sign showing where the end of the line was. That ordeal was about 35 minutes.

Our fastpass for Star Tours wasn't until 8:05, so we decided to browse gift shops where it was warm until then. I thought it was interesting that the gift shops on Buena Vista street sold some of the creatures from SWGE. At DL, those are only available at the creature stall.

After doing some browsing, we made our way over to Star Tours. The entrance to that ride is pretty sweet. That AT-AT was awesome. We got a scene from the new movie. I haven't seen it, but C has so she was excited about that.

 

[midnight star]

Chapter Four (cont.) : Hollywood Studios Day, ROTR experience, ride breakdowns, more cold weather
After our Slinky Dog Fastpass switched to a multiple experience pass, I immediately checked the app to book another Tier 1. We lucked out and got a Toy Story Mania fastpass that would be valid in the next 40 minutes! yay! As a DLer, I tend to hear a lot of negative things about the fastpass+ system. And while I still prefer DL's system, I will say the fastpass+ system isn't all bad. I am glad that we had a chance to still get more throughout the day.

In the meantime, we decided to go over to Toy Story Land so we could get a return time for the Alien Saucer Ride and be in the area for Toy Story Mania. Plus we were hoping Slinky would come up. When we entered Toy Story Land, we saw Woody and Buzz taking pictures with guests. Toy Story Land was pretty cute, though smaller than I thought it would be. It's very colorful and looks like Andy's backyard.



The compactness of that land was felt when the line for Slinky was extended all the way down the main pathway. I couldn't believe how many people were standing in that line even though it had been down since opening. At this time, it was about 9:30am. So people had been waiting over 2 hours. I get that is a fun ride, but no way would I waste 2 hours of my time when there are other things to do. Especially when I checked the app, the longest wait was MFSR at 80 minutes. Everything else was 45 minutes and below.

Our time came for Toy Story Mania. It's basically the same ride like the one in DL, but the queue is so much cooler! The details with all of the toys and games in there amazed me! After we finished that, we went over to redeem our return time for the Alien Ride. While not the most exciting ride, it was pretty cute. If you've ever done Mater's Junkyard Jamboree at California Adventure, it's the same concept.

Much to our dismay, Slinky was STILL NOT RUNNING! UGH! And ROTR had delayed boarding! It was stuck on groups 10-11. So we decided to do the Walt Disney show to kill some time. While in the show, our boarding group was called! So we left there as soon as it was finished.

 

[DisSurfer878]

We're taking the same Delta flight from LAX in June (10:55-6:30)!

What time did you arrive to your resort if you remember? We're trying to get a baseline for how much time it will take

 

[rdkeim]

Enjoying your TR! Sorry you had to deal with the cold temps. Went once in Dec. and it was COLD. They totally missed the forecast so we were not prepared. Maybe it's better than hotter than H--L? Interested to read about your RotR experience! We're going to be there late March and I'm stressing about the boarding group process.

 

[midnight star]

We're taking the same Delta flight from LAX in June (10:55-6:30)!

What time did you arrive to your resort if you remember? We're trying to get a baseline for how much time it will take

Right before 8. I only know because I looked at our pic of the Disney world sign and that was taken at 7:29am lol. And we stopped at Pop century and art of animation before so we must’ve gotten to Coronado around 8. It might depend on how many stops the bus makes.

We were in line for the bus at 9am and arrived at magic kingdom at like 9:25ish