Happy Graduation to Her (May/June '21) - THE TRIP REPORT (10/17 FINALLY COMPLETE!)

[kittylady1972]

Still here, still no updates...I'm totally slacking. And NOW? I'm considering a brief trip in August. I have some DVC points I just NEED to use before December, but it's not a lot. It's enough for 2 or 3 nights in a studio and checking availability there are some dates in August and September that would work for me. Plus I have SWA points I can use for flights. It's just the rental car that I'll have to figure out.

Now the other thing is that we've talked about doing HHN in September as well with some friends, but that would be more at the end of the month likely.

Plus I want to plan a trip to Vegas in December.

So. Many. Things.

Right now though I am focused on August or September. This would likely be a no Disney park trip, but a trip to stay at Disney Resorts and maybe use our Universal passes if we want to spend some time out.

Now to check on rental car rates...which I know are going to make me CRINGE!

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok...probably about time I start this trip report dontchathink? I've got some time.
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So this was my daughter's high school graduation trip where she brought along her BFF and I brought my BFF as well. This was our May/June trip so we are just over two months out. Here was our plan:

MONDAY: We have a flight that leaves around 10:45am. My husband will likely drop all of us off at the airport that day. Arriving at MCO before 1pm (hopefully) we'll pick up our rental car and drive out to Hard Rock Hotel. Once there we will check in, get our Express Passes, and head over to the parks for a while. Still unsure if we'll sleep here for the night or head back to Bay Lake Tower to check in there. I do have a dinner reservation at Toothsome.

TUESDAY: This is our second Universal Day. We may need to arrive early to try to ride Hagrids at least. Beyond that is just bonus stuff...riding and enjoying our day at the parks. Now we did do a quick trip to these parks LAST March, just for the day, it was me and my daughter and her BFF so she has done a few things here already. Having the Express Passes will enable us to do so much more though. We'll likely call it a day around dinnertime, head to Bay Lake Tower, and I have dinner at The Wave for us.

WEDNESDAY: Wake up and head over to the Magic Kingdom. We can walk from our resort of course, or catch the monorail. We'll spend all day here for the most part, with lunch planned for Tony's if we are up for it. If not, we'll skip it and take a break at our hotel for a while. I would like to EITHER EPCOT OR HS that evening. We have dinner at La Hacienda OR Brown Derby...we will see how we feel. We can try to to a few things at HS or EPCOT in the last few hours.

THURSDAY: Our park reservation is at Animal Kingdom, so we'll head there in the morning. Planning to likely have lunch at Satuli. We'll hang for as long as it takes to knock out all the stuff we want to do, then head back to our resort. I do have dinner at The Plaza that night if we want to do that. We could also hop to EPCOT for the last few hours this evening after dinner.

FRIDAY: Park reservation for HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS. Arrive close to 8:30am. Either knock out ToT and RnRC first thing or hit the TSM area and do the rides there. We'll see how crowds build as that will determine how long we stay. We will take a break in the afternoon at our resort most likely, our last day to enjoy some pool time. That evening we'll have dinner with CHEF MICKEY. Really looking forward to trying this new experience. The menu sounds pretty good. Maybe head to MK that evening or EPCOT (though with the possibility of Friday night local crazies there, maybe we'll stick to MK).

SATURDAY: Our final day...always a sad one. We have MK in the morning so we'll head there first. We may just spend the entire day here OR we can head to HS in the afternoon for lunch at Brown Derby for SIX of us IF we haven't met up with @angryduck71 by now this is our last chance. We will leave around 3:30pm for the airport to catch our 5:45pm flight back home.

****************************

So here was day one. We got dropped off at the airport as planned...don't recall the time. I think we got there way way too early...but that gave us lots of time to chill at the airport. This was around 9am for our 10:45am flight:






Flight was uneventful since I don't remember anything about it. We picked up our rental car without a problem and headed to our resort...the Hard Rock at Universal.

We checked in but our room wasn't ready, so we picked up our Express Passes and then walked over to Universal. It's a nice short walk from the Hard Rock!

If I am recalling right, we decided to start right off with Rip Ride Rocket. The line was long...but not for us of course! I am sure we were hungry...but I can't recall where we ate though I'm sure we had to get some food. There were probably more rides too.

Eventually we ended up at Toothsome for dinner. I know we ordered a few appetizers mostly to share and they were good. My friend W LOVE this one that she ordered for herself:


Even though we had plenty of food, the girls still had to get desserts of course:



I think after this it was time to check into our room...but we did get a few photos here of course:



We decided to just take a break after this and hit the pool for a little bit since it was hot. Hard Rock's pool area with sand is really nice. The girls got in the water...and I ordered a drink:




Now I don't recall the name of this drink, but what I do recall was that it had a LOT of alcohol in it...according to the menu. Of course this meant it wasn't cheap. And let me tell you while it was good...I don't think there was too much in the way of alcohol in it.

After cooling off a bit, we returned to the room. I think we decided with about 2 hours left we maybe could hit the park and either try to ride Hagrids or Velocicoaster since we Express Passes wouldn't get us on those. We ended up at Velocicoaster:


I think we waited maybe about 30 minutes or so for this one...and it was worth every bit of it!





Off the coaster and the park was closed. We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready. We had plans to be up early the next morning with the goal to ride Hagrids now.

The girls went downstairs to get some snacks...and soon after I also headed downstairs where I found that they served ICE CREAM SUNDAES. I am an ice cream fiend. So I got a sundae that was way too big but I ate what I could of it before heading to bed.

 

[kittylady1972]

Day one was complete...but since I ran out of photos...here's the ice cream:

 

[kittylady1972]

Not that anybody who lives in this world should be surprised...but I am in the process of booking another trip.

During a pandemic.

Yes we are all vaccinated. I'm not totally sure how many are going right now but it seems 3 of us...DH, myself and my 17yo.

I just booked dinner for us at Toledo. We have missed it.

I have DVC points to burn...and this will use up not quite half of them.

We are going for only one night.

I am likely crazy.

We leave in just a few weeks.

I have yet to book flights...so we'll see. I wish I knew for sure that Spirit would get it's act together. Right now I can book a flight one way to FL on Spirit for about $10. Yes that's correct.

So hoping to get another installment of this report in soon for you!

 

[kittylady1972]

Girl's Grad Trip Day TWO

So we had a good plan for our first full day...and our goal was to ride Hagrid's for sure. I told the girls I wasn't worried about arriving at the park too early because even with early entry I wasn't sure Hagrid's would be open. They still wanted to make sure we had a good chance of getting there and riding so I think we were out of our hotel around 8:30am which wasn't bad. However we didn't really have food as we had plans to eaet something at Universal after riding Hagrids.

There was a LONG line to get into the front gates of IOA...so I thought we would do better entering via Universal and taking the train over. My DD was clearly hangry and it was hot and she wasn't thrilled with my trying to figure out the plan. We headed to the train which also had a line out the door...and even though we had Express Passes the line was down the street. She wasn't happy of course...and yet we waited anyway. Actually I think it was just a wait for the ride to officially open because eventually the line moved pretty quickly and we entered the Express Pass lines.



While on the train, we kept watching the wait times for Hagrids in case it went to a virtual queue. The wait wasn't terrible...until we saw this:



We were in the train with one other family, mom and son, and we started chatting about it as they were doing the same thing...watching the wait times. We chatted about the other rides, what they had done, they had done Velocicoaster too and LOVED it. I think they had done Hagrids and knew it was worth the wait...or maybe not. I feel like I was giving them all kinds of information, even talking about my last time and how my DD and I had waited over 2 hours to ride Hagrids the year before...only to exit before riding. My daughter thinks I'm crazy for striking up conversations with strangers...oh well.

The mom and son ended up in the long Hagrid's line with us and we had quite the wait. We debated getting some food for the line but never managed to do so. I think we waited close to an hour maybe, but of course everyone thought it was worth it when done.

We then were close to Hogwarts which is not a ride my DD and I wanted to do but my friend W and daughter's BFF were up for it so they did that while she and I grabbed something quick to eat and a drink I think.

Our goal once they were done was to find food. What a nightmare that would be.

It was just before 11am and all the quick service restaurants were mobile order and the lines even at the stands were long. My dd wanted a turkey leg so we found a restaurant in Jurassic area that served them, and we placed our mobile order and headed into the restaurant. They directed us to a seat and when we got to the table we put that table number in the mobile order app. It wasn't really that crowded initially but there were not a lot of people around with food.

After about 20 minutes we wondered if something was wrong. After 30 minutes I went up to the area where the prepared food and I heard other people complaining. The restaurant was getting full. There were very few people still with food. They were bringing out one order at a time and they were slow. It was crazy. We napped AT OUR TABLE. We were hungry and tired. And I think it was 45 minutes later or MORE when our food finally arrived. Ridiculous.

The food was good though at least and we took our time eating and just chilling out. Once done we headed out to figure out what to do next.

The girls wanted to do Velocicoaster again...so we headed there. I think we waited about 45 minutes or so for it. Then we tried to take a selfie with the coaster behind us. Here are some terrible selfie attempts:


I call this one DID IT TAKE?


I call this one I just give up.

I think my friend wanted to do Minions, but I can't handle that ride. We were going to wait and then decided to go do ET which I love. My DD said we should wait knowing my friend might want to do it too, but I said she had done it before and would be okay skipping it. I was wrong...when she emerged she wanted to ride ET so we did it again.

My other must do ride was Men in Black so we went to do that and the girls posed in front of a Class of 2021 background while near there:


I think we also hit one of the Harry Potter rides next...actually it was likely Gringotts and we probably got Butterbeer.




I think we were pretty much done after that, nothing the girls really wanted to do, so why not head to our next hotel (Bay Lake Tower) as our room was ready.

We took the boat back to Hard Rock Hotel and headed to Bay Lake but we were hungry again and decided to grab something on the way. So we found a ChickFilA near our destination, arrived there, placed a mobile order, and got our food to take back to our room.

Rest of the evening was chilling in the room:


My daughter's BFF really want to get some ears for her first trip, so at some point I think I wandered over to the store in the Contemporary and sent back a bunch of photos of what they had which was quite a lot. I think we returned later that evening to buy them.

Not much else for the evening. Chilled in the room, unpacked, and even saw some of the boat parade when we walked back from our shopping at Contemporary which I just LOVE to see.

 

[kittylady1972]

August Report Update:
Right now it looks like 4 of us for that trip. Told my daughter this weekend about our plans. We drop her off at college this week but she has all kinds of stuff planned while there.

Just found a rental car discount that expires today...was able to save some money on our car when I booked through this carrier. Yay.

Plans:
Depart early Sunday morning. Still have to book our flights...yes I may take a chance on Spirit hoping they will get their act together in 3 weeks.
Spend Sunday at Universal using our passes. We won't have Express so we'll do what we can do. Check into our resort (Wilderness Lodge) that afternoon. Hoping to have some pool time.
Dinner Sunday evening at Toledo.
Monday we will maybe do some more time at Universal or Disney Springs. We could bowl or play mini golf in Disney as well.

I am VERY tempted to consider another Disney 1-day pass just to do Food and Wine at EPCOT. Not sure I'll do that though.

We fly home Monday evening and I'll be back at work on Tuesday.

I'm also now considering another SINGLE day trip in September.

Yes I must be crazy.

 

[kittylady1972]

Perhaps one night will become two nights.

I clearly must be crazy. This would be a resort only weekend for us.

Yet flight discounts have me crazy.

Question is do I use all of my remaining points for a two night weekend this month OR do I stick to one night this time around and continue to look for additional potential single nights in October or November and do another one night trip at that time.

I just don't know but that's my current predicament.

 

[kittylady1972]

Trigger pulled. Now Spirit needs to get it's stuff together. Hopefully taking an early morning flight will reduce our chances of cancellations.

So...flight booked for 3 of us...leaving Saturday. Oldest son isn't sure if he has to work...so he will be on his own for deciding when/if he comes with us. Total out of pocket cost for those 3 tickets: $22

We will return on SWA on Monday...will book that flight soon. I have credit, a gift card, and points...so total out of pocket cost for my flight will be zero and for my son's flight whatever that nominal fee SWA charges to use points.

It looks like we may be able to book 2 nights at AK Savannah right now if we buy 2 one time DVC use points. Total out of pocket cost will be about $40 if we borrow those two points. If WL has Saturday available we'll try to book both nights there but it looks like it's N/A right now...and I wouldn't mind returning to AKL.

I rebooked our rental car to save a little bit...3 days of that is around $135 which isn't horrible.

We have Toothsome booked for a lunch and Toledo for dinner as of now. Nothing else but will keep checking.

Most likely won't do any Disney parks but that doesn't mean we won't do other Disney things (mini golf? watch some fireworks from afar?).

With this trip booked I will now do my best to NOT book anything else until December...when my next point allotment is available and I can book my big 50th birthday trip for March.

 

[dez1978]

Trigger pulled. Now Spirit needs to get it's stuff together. Hopefully taking an early morning flight will reduce our chances of cancellations.

So...flight booked for 3 of us...leaving Saturday. Oldest son isn't sure if he has to work...so he will be on his own for deciding when/if he comes with us. Total out of pocket cost for those 3 tickets: $22

We will return on SWA on Monday...will book that flight soon. I have credit, a gift card, and points...so total out of pocket cost for my flight will be zero and for my son's flight whatever that nominal fee SWA charges to use points.

It looks like we may be able to book 2 nights at AK Savannah right now if we buy 2 one time DVC use points. Total out of pocket cost will be about $40 if we borrow those two points. If WL has Saturday available we'll try to book both nights there but it looks like it's N/A right now...and I wouldn't mind returning to AKL.

I rebooked our rental car to save a little bit...3 days of that is around $135 which isn't horrible.

We have Toothsome booked for a lunch and Toledo for dinner as of now. Nothing else but will keep checking.

Most likely won't do any Disney parks but that doesn't mean we won't do other Disney things (mini golf? watch some fireworks from afar?).

With this trip booked I will now do my best to NOT book anything else until December...when my next point allotment is available and I can book my big 50th birthday trip for March.

How do you get the flights so cheap? I never manage that. Unless I use SWA points. But I'm about out of those

 

[kittylady1972]

Spirit flights from my area to MCO can sometimes be found ONLINE for 1 way at around $22. If you go to the airport to buy them (and I live very close so that's easy) you save between $20-$30 in fees. I can easily book RT tickets (no bags, no seat assignments) to MCO on any given week for $50 or less. YES I know it's Spirit and you are taking some chances with reliability and cancellations that SWA doesn't usually have of as much because they have a bigger fleet. So there is a risk but there is no rush for us...just hope we get out that day. SWA flights for me...cheapest I can get would be about $99 one way these days...or $200 or so RT which isn't horrible I guess. I miss the days of the under $150 RT fares on SWA though.

 

[dez1978]

Spirit flights from my area to MCO can sometimes be found ONLINE for 1 way at around $22. If you go to the airport to buy them (and I live very close so that's easy) you save between $20-$30 in fees. I can easily book RT tickets (no bags, no seat assignments) to MCO on any given week for $50 or less. YES I know it's Spirit and you are taking some chances with reliability and cancellations that SWA doesn't usually have of as much because they have a bigger fleet. So there is a risk but there is no rush for us...just hope we get out that day. SWA flights for me...cheapest I can get would be about $99 one way these days...or $200 or so RT which isn't horrible I guess. I miss the days of the under $150 RT fares on SWA though.

Unfortunately the closest airport for us is about 90 mins. Spirit did just start flying from there over the summer, but when I look at flights in december it doesn't show anything. I'm happy anymore for flights under 300/person RT at this point lol

 

[kittylady1972]

Update: Rooms were limited by the time I was able to book, so now we have a preferred studio at SSR booked. I'm good with being able to head over to Disney Springs easily...but I'll keep stalking DVC in case the 2 nights come up for either BR/CC or AKL.

I booked a breakfast/brunch for Sunday at Boathouse. Never been. Sounds good.

Still keeping other options open for food.

 

[kittylady1972]

August Trip Update 2: We leave in just less than two weeks for our Disney Resort Only (and probably some Universal parks) trip. My oldest son at age 21 has decided he'd rather work all weekend than go...so that's that. Therefore it will be me, DH and my 17yo on this trip.

Today during my DVC stalking I found there was an AK Savannah View Studio available...but I had to call up DVC to book it because it required two more points than I had available. When I called DVC she pulled up my current reservation and said ok you are currently at Animal Kingdom...which was what I had waitlisted but it was a Standard View room and not Savannah View. Anyway she was able to make the change for me so for $38 we are now in a Savannah View room at AK Jambo for the weekend. Looking forward to sitting on my balcony and viewing the animals!

We have a few meals booked right now including:
Sanaa (lunch)
Terralina Crafted Italian (Dinner)
Boathouse (lunch)
Toldeo (dinner)

Anyway I've considered cancelling but really I think we will really enjoy this little getaway. We won't be doing any Disney parks but we might do some time at the Universal Parks since our passes will be valid there.

Nice thing is we will return and just a few days later my daughter comes home for her first break from college. Dropping her off last week in West Virginia was not as easy as I thought but I know she'll have a good time there and so far she's enjoying herself.


Classes start this week for her and she will come home for weekends in Sept, October and then Thanksgiving Break so it won't be too bad. It's definitely different with her not being around here though.

 

[kittylady1972]

Girl's Grad Trip Day THREE - DISNEY!!!

So it was time for us to finally begin the Disney Park portion of our trip. This would be the first time my daughter's BFF had EVER stepped foot in the Walt Disney World parks...so exciting! I got the girls matching shirts and buttons to celebrate and the girls had their ears on and were ready to go.

We got out pretty early in the morning and made the walk over to Magic Kingdom...because where else would you visit for your very first Walt Disney World park right?

So here are the girls walking down Main Street:


And where would we go first? Well I let the girls (ok my daughter) determine what to do and so we went here first:


So fun! We were off just after 8am (ah the days when the MK would let you in the parks AND on the rides early...sigh miss those) and it was time to get some food. We decided to try out Gaston's:


The girls split the cinnamon bun and we had a bite or two of that...and my friend and I split the Gray Stuff cupcake and a Le Fou's Brew. The bun and cupcake were good...was not impressed with the frozen Le Fou's brew. that was a one and done for me for sure.

Finished with some food, it was time to get on a few rides. I think we headed over to do this one next:


That was followed by:


If I recall correctly we didn't wait too long for either of these so we were doing well.

Searching for the shortest lines at this point we waited a little bit of time for this one:

And of course we had to do this one..and check out the progress on the new coaster:


I know at some point I started insisted on riding the classics. I'm not sure if we did the Carousel of Progress at this point...but it was one we definitely accomplished during this trip. We then headed over here to do this one, a CLASSIC as well:

It was now after 11am and we did manage to take a ride on the Little Mermaid before heading out of the park. Lines were long, we had done quite a bit, we thought it would be a nice time for lunch and pool break.

 

[kittylady1972]

Girl's Grad Trip Day THREE - DISNEY!!! (CONTINUED)

Before leaving for this trip I did pay for the Photopass so the girls could get some photos done, especially knowing that they could do them without masks. We had a few done around the park like this one:


The girls had several others done, including these fun ones near Little Mermaid:


Closeup of their shirts and buttons:


More cute ones:


And of course as we left the park I had to get this one:


So next we hopped on the monorail on our way to get some food and my daughter's favorite spot:




Here are the girls waiting on our Contempo Cafe order. We had a nice lunch before heading back to our room, changing into bathing suits, and hitting the pool!


I don't recall how long we hung out at the pool before heading back to get changed. Pool photos were taken around 1:15pm and had some taken around 3pm also. I think I managed to get in a pool nap too. Dinner was for 4:30pm or so at the Brown Derby because Cobb Salad was the goal for my daughter and myself!

 

[kittylady1972]

So I promise to try to make some more May/June Grad Trip updates very soon.

In the meantime, last night I asked kid #3 if there were any restaurants he really wanted to do at Disney or Universal. I forget that my DH and my youngest son are big fans of breakfast, though I'm not a huge breakfast person. He mentioned how much he enjoyed our meal at Grand Floridian Cafe last time (breakfast) and so I have booked breakfast there now.

Other than that, I also mentioned to DH that we don't have to stick to the Disney restaurants. We can do the Universal restaurants as well, since we will likely spend some time there. DH mentioned wanting plenty of pool time (works for me) so there will be pool bar food and drinks too I'm sure. We have done Toothsome and Cowfish and enjoyed both. It's been a long time since we've eaten at Mythos so that might be an option as might other in the park and CityWalk restaurants. I think as long as we keep Toledo we'll be good because I really want to get back there. I'll be okay if we have to drop the Yachtsman Steakhouse (which I just booked for dinner) or Sanaa or Terralina Crafted Italian (currently booked lunches).

I'm trying not to break the bank here overall, just have a nice little getaway for the weekend before fall starts rolling in and we mostly stick to home.

My poor girlie at college seems a bit homesick. Yesterday they had a fun activity planned...ziplining...that the college sponsored for her. Unfortunately she said it was cold and rainy and they spent the whole time being cold and wet. Last night was supposed to be a big event for the freshman to introduce them to all kinds of fun college traditions...but it was an outdoor event also and was cancelled. I'm not sure she has anything going on today and tomorrow she starts classes. She finally spoke to another student who told her that she could change her schedule as needed and that the advisors were not the final say in what she could and couldn't take, which is something both DH and I have been telling her for weeks since we both WORKED at a college (that we also attended) so we MIGHT know how those things really work. We'll see if she manages to get her schedule changed though. Last night we went out and bought all kinds of fun stuff to send to her in care packages so we'll have to get those together at some point. Since she comes home in just 17 days (not that I'm counting) it may be something we sent a little bit later but we'll see.

In the meantime DH and I are both doing our best to work on our health and wellness, I'm trying to do better at eating and tracking things instead of shoving ALL THE FOODS in my mouth all the time. We will see how that goes too.

 

[CruellaNY]

Hello! Ok I read your last bunch of updates and didn't quote so I need to remember what I wanted to say lol.

First of all I know how hard it is to let your girl go I had the worst day when we dropped Ricky last year! I was so hysterical that on the way home Chris said we could listen to my music in the car and I could tell him all about the bands lol. I know I'll be better when we drop him next Saturday- or at least I think I will- but the important thing is that she's happy where she is!

Next kudos on being able to do those short trips! You get your fix but don't need to use lots of vaca days. Steve has suggested doing a 1 or 2 night trip before and I always say no because there's not enough time between travel and I hate travel days so the shortest we've done is 3 nights. Definitely try Mythos again it's my favorite! And The Palm at Hard Rock for dinner too; it's equivalent to a Disney signature.

We just ate at Toledo last Thursday for the first time and absolutely LOVED it

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Now to check on rental car rates...which I know are going to make me CRINGE!

They have gotten absolutely ridiculous!

 

[kittylady1972]

Hello! Ok I read your last bunch of updates and didn't quote so I need to remember what I wanted to say lol.

First of all I know how hard it is to let your girl go I had the worst day when we dropped Ricky last year! I was so hysterical that on the way home Chris said we could listen to my music in the car and I could tell him all about the bands lol. I know I'll be better when we drop him next Saturday- or at least I think I will- but the important thing is that she's happy where she is!

Next kudos on being able to do those short trips! You get your fix but don't need to use lots of vaca days. Steve has suggested doing a 1 or 2 night trip before and I always say no because there's not enough time between travel and I hate travel days so the shortest we've done is 3 nights. Definitely try Mythos again it's my favorite! And The Palm at Hard Rock for dinner too; it's equivalent to a Disney signature.

We just ate at Toledo last Thursday for the first time and absolutely LOVED it

Thanks for the college mom sympathy...overall I did okay. She will be home for the weekend in just 16 days...but who is counting? Plus at least she can video chat us which she did today on her first day of school...and took a first day of school photo and sent it to me too. Yes I'm sure she is adjusting and is happy.

Yeah I am good with the short trips but I will see once APs come back out if I end up with one...that could be dangerous! Our shortest trip was of course a single day...with my daughter and her BFF pre-pandemic when we flew down in the morning, spent the day at Universal, and flew back that night. I can see DH and I doing some weekend trips in the future too.

I'll keep The Palm in mind...though I did just book Big Fire at CityWalk. I'm doing my best not to break the bank on this trip because we have spent a lot of money over the last few weeks with vacations and dining out.

Glad you liked Toledo...it is the one restaurant we are looking forward to returning to visit. This will be our 3rd time there.

They have gotten absolutely ridiculous!

They really have but they are saying that people are starting to cancel their reservations suddenly so maybe they will drop again for a while? All I know is I just got a code recently to book at Budget...and it would have cost me about $100 which was the cheapest I've seen any rental...but remembering my last horrible experience with Budget I just couldn't pull the trigger to save me MAYBE $30?

 

[kittylady1972]

Girl's Grad Trip Day THREE - DISNEY!!! (CONTINUED)

So after a break at the pool we got ready for dinner at The Brown Derby and drove over to Hollywood Studios. I think we actually checked in a little early for our dinner. Our goal here (at least for me and DD) was Cobb Salad. I think 3 of us split that, and I think my daughter got soup and her BFF got something else also. Definitely enjoyed the salad though.

Done with dinner it was now after 5pm or so. I think we decided the first ride would be this one:



We also were able to ride Toy Story Mania and Slinky Dog dash before the park closed at 8pm.



And of course we still had some time...so we decided to try for a 3rd park in one day and headed over to EPCOT. We went directly here:


And after that we were also able to get in line for this:


And that was about it for us for our very first Disney Park Day. We left EPCOT and I forced a quick photo of course:


Up next: DAY FOUR and our SECOND Disney Day!