First trip to Disney - April 15th to 23rd! Two kids, Poly stay

[Jen81NYC]

Hi all! We just got back from 8 nights at Disney World and since this board was so helpful with all my questions, I thought I’d post a detailed trip report for anyone who’s interested!

Who we are: Two adults (husband and me) and two boys—6.5 year old and the birthday boy, who turned 9 the first weekend of our trip. We live in New York City.

Trip background: this was originally a first trip to WDW planned for April 2020, which obviously didn’t work out! For April 2022, it was scheduled as a two-parter: a 3-night DCL for Easter weekend with extended family that the grandparents have been planning for a few years now and then our rescheduled first parks trip for the 5-6 days after the cruise. Unlike the April 2020 trip, this wasn’t a surprise trip. The kids have known about the cruise for about a year (first cruise for all of us!) and in Feb I told them we’d be going to the parks too. They’ve been *super* excited about the cruise but more guarded about the parks part—my 8yo said “I don’t want to get too excited in case it doesn’t work out” when I told him about our plans.

One week before the cruise: We learn that two of the cousins have tested positive. We’ve had the Covid port testing hanging over our heads this whole time and as feared, someone became positive less than 10 days before the cruise. The cruise thus gets postponed. This is my son’s birthday weekend and the boys are SO disappointed. As you can imagine, they haven’t had a proper bday celebration since 2019, unfortunately. Lots of tears all around. Husband and I mull over our options—we learn that the Poly, the hotel we’ve booked, still has availability that weekend. Although there are no park reservations left, we decide to keep our Thursday evening flight, check into the Poly early a few days early and do fun stuff around the hotel or Orlando area for my son’s birthday. My sons are still really bummed but we do our best to pump them up. I sign up for some dining alerts to try to snag ADRs as we obviously have nothing planned for Easter weekend.

Wednesday night (04/13) at 10:30pm, less than 24 hours before our flight: I receive an email Jet Blue has canceled our flight to Orlando and we aren’t rebooked on anything. It’s a holiday weekend and there’s no JB alternative online that I can see (and their website and app are broken) and it’s impossible to reach anyone live there.

This is already so long so I’ll pause here to make sure anyone is even interested in a long first trip report, lol. I’ll add more pics for other updates but I didn’t capture pics of my crestfallen kids or my midnight Jet blue meltdown!

 

[torontominnie]

Please go on! The start of your trip sounds like a nightmare, but I imagine it got better? We travel often with family and I know how hard it is to coordinate. It must have been very disappointing to have to delay the cruise!

 

[DeeBee3]

Yikes! What was the reason for the JetBlue cancel? We traveled down 4/8 from JFK and we were delayed 2 hours due to "weather around Orlando" - a total lie as I had been watching weather for days and it was beautiful down there and continued to be so for our whole trip.

 

[Mich123]

What a start, please keep reporting! Your poor kids, I hope it all worked out.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following along! What a rocky start to the trip... hopefully it will turn around!
Can't wait to read more!

 

[erinch]

Yikes! Keep going!

 

[Jen81NYC]

Trip report—continued!

At around 2am on Thursday (the day we’re supposed to leave!), after being on hold with JetBlue for 3 hours and counting, I start having a legit panic attack about the trip. I just couldn’t imagine the boys waking up in a few hours and us telling them that not only was the cruise canceled, the flight to Florida was now canceled too (and we had been assuring them for days that we’d do something just as fun that bday weekend to make up for no cruise!) We desperately look online and find a flight to Florida on Delta that leaves on Friday, the next day, and is nauseatingly expensive, but has 4 seats left. Although the parks trip was a splurge and we were already blowing past our intended splurge with the extra hotel days we added on, I now had zero faith in JetBlue. So we impulsively booked the Delta flight and I stayed on hold until 4:30am (!) with JetBlue to cancel our flight. 5.5 hour hold!! Never again. I haven’t flown since pre-pandemic and had no idea how unreliable JetBlue now is—extremely expensive and stressful lesson learned.

On Friday (4/15) we get to the airport and I notice my husband and I have two assigned seats but the kids remain unassigned. My husband volunteers to deal with the gate agent and get the kids’ seats. He deals with them for ages, well into boarding time, and then returns with 4 boarding passes—two for the kids, with properly assigned seats, and two for two completely different people, which he didn’t notice. Sigh. You had one job, husband and gate person!!
I start panicking because I get the sick sense that due to that mess up, my husband and I actually lost our assigned seats completely. Also it seems like a pretty big security risk to have given us two different people’s boarding passes! I have my one “rude traveler” moment I think ever and cut in front of the people at the gate desk and request that the mixup be fixed asap. Based on the silence and repeated clacking on the computer by the other gate agent who is looking into it, I can tell we did indeed lose our seats, ugh. That said, whether it was my “this mom is gonna lose it” look, my cute but freaked out- looking kids or my repeatedly reminding them that it was a huge security issue for them to have given us boarding passes for the wrong people, the new gate person finally got all four of us on the flight. We were given the very last row and were the last people to board. WHEW!!!

When we boarded the flight, the pilot casually mentioned there’d be some weather on the way and man, he wasn’t kidding! Worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced—saw two different flight attendants slam into the wall and the two glasses of water on my kid’s tray spilled all over him and then flew off his tray. Here are my kids before we took the worst thrill ride ever, lol

 

[Jen81NYC]

Yikes! What was the reason for the JetBlue cancel? We traveled down 4/8 from JFK and we were delayed 2 hours due to "weather around Orlando" - a total lie as I had been watching weather for days and it was beautiful down there and continued to be so for our whole trip.

No reason given! If there’s weather anywhere else, that then cascades to a whole slew of JetBlue cancellations, apparently. I had no idea, unfortunately. But i was so surprised at the radio silence from them after the cancelation email. The email simply said “Your upcoming flight has been cancelled. We apologize for the disruption.” And then vaguely said they were looking at other flight options and would update us later. Which never happened, or at least didn’t happen for the 6 hours following the cancelation! (Significant 6 hours when the cancelation occurs less than 24 hours before the scheduled departure!) Lesson learned!!

 

[grapefruitjellybean]

Sitting on the edge of my seat! Please keep me updated.

 

[Karlk]

Reading this just solidified my decision to drive next trip

 

[mattburmeister]

Dang, I really hope you found some magic once you got to Disney, this sounds hectic.

 

[browneyedgirl1683]

Fellow NYCer! That sounds like a nightmare. My DH has had some issued with JetBlue. I used to love them, but I think we are going to switch to Delta from now on. Can't wait to read what happens next.

 

[CalOilerGurl]

Please tell us it gets magical after you get there.....

 

[Jen81NYC]

Trip report continued--still at 04/15 departure day, sorry!! I promise it gets quicker from here, haha. Maybe.

Right when I buckled in for the noon flight, I got a text from Disney saying my room was assigned and ready--I had requested a Poly room in either the 1st or 3rd floor and our assigned room was...on the second floor. Of course! Since we were spending 8 nights there and have 2 active boys (and already one hiccup after another!), this text really stressed me out. I quickly called the number listed on the text and as the flight attendant glared at me to get off my phone, I rapidly babbled to the person who answered that I was about to take-off, was staying at Poly over week and I really wanted a room with some outdoor space if at all possible. She assured me she'd do what she could and I then paid $5 for wifi and obsessively refreshed my Disney app, lol. I know this likely wasn't rational because I'm sure we could have dealt with it at check-in but since our new flight's check-in was later than original flight and around 4pm on the Friday of a holiday weekend, I just really wanted confirmation sooner rather than later that it was changed. To their credit, Disney called me back while I was in flight to tell me that rooms on either 3rd floor or 1st floor were available and asked me for my preference. I said patio and she blocked it for me then and I felt instantly so much better! Whew!!

Arrival--we get to the airport, take ages to find the right Avis lot where our rental car is, take another extra 30 mins to get all our bags in because it had a weirdly small trunk and finally we were off! We didn't originally have a rental car scheduled but since this was a last minute weekend with no park tickets, we figured it would give us flexibility to visit other stuff around Orlando if need be. We got to Poly, unloaded bags, parked, and I instantly felt so much better. I had actually never heard of the Poly until I planned our original trip and our friend recommended it and didn't know what to expect but I loved it from the get go. The scent! The theming! The look! All up my alley. Our room was a standard room with patio in the Aotearoa longhouse and the monorail went behind it, which was super cool. The room was beautiful and clean and my mom had ordered a balloon gift for our arrival, which was a cute surprise.

First evening--The pools were closed due to lightning in the area, foiling our initial arrival plan. We had no dinner plans so after walking around for a bit, we put our name down for Ohana at 5:30pm and they texted us an hour later with a table (tip for anyone without an ADR btw!) Ohana meal was fine--everything tasted a bit too sickly sweet for our taste but the vibe and theming were great. Kids didn't like the food, including the bread, which surprised me. Afterwards, we had some pool time, watched the fireworks from the pool/beach area and crashed.

 

[Jen81NYC]

04/16, Saturday, first full resort day! My ADR alerts paid off and I had scored an 8:05am reservation at Topolino's. We got up, changed and took the rental to the Riviera. The Riviera hotel is beautiful (although I personally still prefer the Poly vibe). Breakfast here was fun--the characters and pastry basket were the highlights. The breakfast entrees were good and plated well but for me there was a bit of a disconnect between how they looked versus how they tasted. This could be me being a picky New Yorker though. We then took the Skyliner to the Epcot area, walked around the boardwalk (pretty quiet early in the morning) and saw where Beach & Yacht Club are located, then took the Skyliner back to have a chill pool day at the Poly. We hung out at the Poly pool for most of the day and around 5:30pm headed back out. First stop was Grand Floridian, to check out the resort and the Easter egg display. This resort is very nice but definitely too stuffy for us. This isn't meant to judge at all, btw, but I kept assessing resorts for any future trips and to also assure myself I picked the right resort for our family for this trip, haha. The chocolate Easter eggs were very cool and intricate and after popping into the gift shop, we hopped back on the monorail to the Contemporary, as we had a 7:20 ADR at California Grill for the official birthday meal for my older son.


Contemporary - As a kid, I remember being very wowed by this hotel! And I was very torn between staying there versus the Poly when I booked this trip. However, while I'm sure it's a great choice for many, visiting it made me extra confident in my Poly decision. It's nice but the Contemporary's main area reminds me a bit too much of like...a downtown Houston convention center or something like that. Sorry, Contemporary!! We walked around the gift shop and main floor for a bit, I bought some toys I thought would entertain the kids at dinner (haha, no, amateur mom mistake on my part, they just fought over them and I had to take it all away), and then checked into California Grill. California Grill was nice and we had a great table by the window. That said, while it was good, it also felt a bit off, restaurant-wise (similar to how Topolino's seemed a little off to me). The one exception was its Tomahawk steak, which was delicious but had an eye-popping cost. Fireworks before dessert were great and my 9yo overall felt it was a fab birthday meal, so that was a win! After dinner, we took the monorail back to Poly and crashed.

 

[Karlk]

That is awesome, me and old lady always say once you walk in the Polynesian and get that smell your officially on vacations and the stress ends. They have candles that smell like poly she hasn't broke down and bought one yet but it's coming

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Mich123]

So glad you made it! The Poly is just special. The resort days might just be a great silver lining. Not a cruise, but still super relaxing.

 

[jerrywilliams]

That's unlucky. Please keep on the story.

 

[Jen81NYC]

04/17, Sunday, second full non-parks day! This was my son's actual birthday and if we had gone on the planned cruise, would've been the Castaway Cay day so I really wanted a fun alternative plan. We planned a Typhoon Lagoon day because it was hot and muggy and as a birthday treat, we splurged on one of their cabanas, one of which luckily became available the day before. (TMI side note: while I assume cabanas aren't important to most people, I try to seek them out when possible because I've had skin cancer on my face and don't want to go through that again! Just wanted to mention that it was both a splurge and a safety issue for me).

We thought we'd get to the water park when it opened at 10am but of course the universe had other plans. A few months ago my husband badly broke his foot and had surgery and has only been out of a foot cast since early April. The walking of the day before plus new casual shoes must have re-injured his foot because when he woke up, his foot was swollen and red and he had a significant limp. I had another panicky moment when I saw him hobble around because we had 5 park days ahead of us and I knew he wouldn't want to ride an ECV. I forced him to go to the local urgent care and the kids and I hung out by the Poly lava pool in the morning and did some of Poly's cute Easter crafts and scavenger hunt. After a few hours he came back, thankfully without a fractured foot, and with some good foot meds and an order to only wear his best sneakers all the time. Whew!

We then headed to Typhoon Lagoon and got there a little after 1pm. When we checked into the cabana area, they confusedly checked the list and said that someone was in our cabana already and our names had been marked off as arriving at 9:45am. Hahaha, of course! If I was Jim from the office, this would've been the millionth "looks directly at the camera" moment. Eventually they got it sorted out and as we were getting settled in, the attendant took our food and drinks order. She said an adult had to be there when she brought back the beer so I stayed behind while my husband took the kids to the large wave pool. After 25 mins, food but no beer arrived and I started getting antsy (I wanted to enjoy the park too!) so attendant agreed to leave the beer in the cooler and I went to find my family.

I found my husband and 6yo walking back from the wave pool and he said the 9yo had run out of the pool so they followed him out and then they lost track of where he went. Hmm. We checked the restrooms and the cabana and he was nowhere to be seen. We went back to the wave pool and didn't see him there either and the waves were getting huge and I started getting alarmed. He's an okay swimmer but we live in the city and he hasn't swum in ages and even good swimmers can get in trouble in huge waves! It wasn't like him to run off like that and he has my cell memorized and knows to have a mom or employee call me if he's lost. I ran back for my phone (which I had left at the cabana because it's not waterproof) and nothing.

My husband and 6yo went back to the wave pool to keep the 6yo occupied and also look out for the 9yo and I walked around Typhoon Lagoon, getting more and more anxious. I went to the lost kids section and provided all his info and kicked myself for not having taken a clear pic of the kids and what they were wearing when we got to the water park (my 9yo wears glasses but didn't have them on at the pool and all my pics were of him with glasses, argh). While looking around, I passed the time time trying to figure out how much I can yell at a kid on his birthday once found. Finally, after an hour (!!) I saw my 9yo, 6yo, and husband walking back from the wave pool! Apparently missing 9yo had been in the wave pool the whole time (he had just left it briefly to get a life vest) and Dad and brother eyes didn't notice him even though they were in the same area, UGH. 9yo didn't even realize he was "lost" for an hour, oy. It was 3pm at this point and I was in a thoroughly sour mood, lol. I had some quick bites of the burgers we had ordered over an hour beforehand (which were pretty bad even if fresh tbh) and then 9yo and I rode a couple of the slides while husband and 6yo went back to the wave pool, because 6yo was obsessed with it. At 5pm, we got free mickey bars from the cabana attendant because I think she felt sorry for us and we decided to call it a day. I'm sure Typhoon Lagoon is a great water park but, unfortunately didn't get to really enjoy it--maybe another time! That night, we hung around the hotel, got some quick service at Capt Cooks, and decided to get to bed early in anticipation of our first park day.