How much Christmas can we squeeze into 3 days? Nov/Dec 2015 TR *NEW TR Link 5/18!*

[DisMom1981]

Ahhhhh Pop. It is very basic- but with my parents staying in an adjoining room we get 2 bathrooms, an extra bed, a little extra space- can't beat the price although every time I say next time we will splurge on fancier accommodations......but we keep coming back lol

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

We were in the 60s section and a preferred pool view room. I had originally booked a preferred room but I got a PIN code in the mail for a 15% discount. It was only available for preferred pool view room (of course) but it still saved us $50 on each room for the trip!

Got to love saving money - plus that's basically a dole whip each!

You see the connecting doors open here. When we got to our room, I told my parents to go ahead and see if their bands opened the room that connected. It didn't hurt to try...and it worked! The room was all clean and ready to go - perfect!

The room was small and basic. We were not planning on any breaks except our MVMCP day so it was just perfect for our needs for this trip!

Pop is basic but I found it really comfortable. And it's bus services are some of the best on property!

 

[khertz]

Seems like a pretty smooth travel day so far, which is pretty amazing with 3 boys!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[missangelalexis]

Glad you made it to Pop without any issues! Loved the all the pictures

 

[missjackiemcg]

Yay for Pop Century and Birthday buttons and Giant cans of play doh, for that matter!!! I just love check-in day When my parents travel with us to WDW we always get connecting rooms at Pop, too. I would love to stay at AoA since they "sleep 5" but I really don't think that includes 4 adults!

 

[goodmorningirl]

I read your last trip report and I'm so excited you are doing another. Your kids are just too cute! Love the reveal video and can't wait to read more

 

[SnowBelleAlice]

Thanks so much for sharing your adventure. I'm following along!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Yay for a smooth arrival!

 

[Elevationist]

The lines for ME were PACKED!

Holy crap! You ain't lyin'! That's a lot of people!

I took a few minutes to snap some pictures of Classic Hall.

Awww, this gives me warm fuzzy memories of my week at Pop in 2014!

On the elevator, I got my first "Happy Birthday" from a CM. I'm going to be honest - I was told "Happy Birthday!" more on this trip than I could possibly imagined. And it made me smile each time!

Yaaassss!!! I love that it seems like CMs are trained to automatically say it when they see the button! I was loving it!

 

[hokieinpa]

Joining in...... what a great surprise for the boys! Love the pictures, there's nothing like landing at MCO and looking or the Magical Express signs knowing your adventure is just beginning. What airline did you guys take down? (I didn't see if there were TV seat screens like JetBlue has, I know those keep my kids from being restless on the plane, even though its a short flight from JFK-MCO, about 2 hours). Looking forward to reading more

Thanks for following along!

I agree - the excitement of landing at MCO and seeing those first mouse ears is unreal!

We fly Southwest. It's usually the cheapest option, especially with 2 free checked bags per person! They do have WiFi and some TV stations (including Disney Junior) that you can access through an app on your phone or tablet.

Ahhhhh Pop. It is very basic- but with my parents staying in an adjoining room we get 2 bathrooms, an extra bed, a little extra space- can't beat the price although every time I say next time we will splurge on fancier accommodations......but we keep coming back lol

We really enjoyed Pop! The two connecting rooms were really nice for our group. It was nice to not be crowded and one of the boys slept in my parents room. We're renting DVC points at AKL for our May trip so it will be nice to compare! I did love the bus service at Pop!

Got to love saving money - plus that's basically a dole whip each!

I like the way you think - I calculate savings in Mickey Bars and avocado margaritas!

Pop is basic but I found it really comfortable. And it's bus services are some of the best on property!

Pop was great! The connecting rooms were the perfect size for our group. And that bus service was great!

Seems like a pretty smooth travel day so far, which is pretty amazing with 3 boys!

You are so right! Fingers crossed, we've had great travel luck so far!

Aww, love POP! POP Waffles, and the fun decor - I think our elevator was behind the giant play dough. We also enjoyed waling up and down through the yo-yo. I'll always have fond memories of a mother-daughter trip at POP!

Pop was so much fun! We didn't get to explore as much as I had hoped but it was the perfect resort for this trip.

Glad you made it to Pop without any issues! Loved the all the pictures

Thanks! We were really lucky to have a fairly short wait since the line at ME were so long!

Yay for Pop Century and Birthday buttons and Giant cans of play doh, for that matter!!! I just love check-in day When my parents travel with us to WDW we always get connecting rooms at Pop, too. I would love to stay at AoA since they "sleep 5" but I really don't think that includes 4 adults!

Pop was the perfect place for this trip. And I was so happy to find out we had connecting rooms. It worked out so well for us to share both rooms. And check in day is full of so much excitement!

We stayed in the AOA Nemo Suites last year and it fit 2 adults and 3 kids well but I think more than that would be a tight squeeze!

I read your last trip report and I'm so excited you are doing another. Your kids are just too cute! Love the reveal video and can't wait to read more

Thanks for following along! We had such a great trip and the big surprise went just perfectly!

Thanks so much for sharing your adventure. I'm following along!

Yay, thanks for joining in!

Yay for a smooth arrival!

I agree 100%! It was a good travel day!

Holy crap! You ain't lyin'! That's a lot of people!

Right? I was shocked since it was basically empty last time.

Awww, this gives me warm fuzzy memories of my week at Pop in 2014!

Pop was very fun and perfect for what we needed for this trip!

Yaaassss!!! I love that it seems like CMs are trained to automatically say it when they see the button! I was loving it!

I loved it! Such much birthday happiness. Maybe I'll celebrate my birthday again in May? Are half-ish birthdays a thing?

 

[hokieinpa]

Downtown Disney...I mean Disney Springs


So how many times did we repeat this phrase in our few hours in the place formerly known at Downtown Disney? Many, many times. Especially since Nate could read the sign at the Pop bus stop. Whatever you do, don't dare make a mistake around a new reader. They will be all over you!

After checking out our rooms at Pop, we were headed to Disney Springs for the evening. I snapped a picture of the decorations at the bus stop.



A bus arrived pretty quickly, but it was very crowded. Luckily we found seats!



Does it look like that girl in the picture is about to hop the fence? Maybe she did, I have no memory of that happening!

So...if you remember back to my introductions, we had a few extra members that joined us for parts of this trip. My sister-in-law lives in Cocoa, about 30-45 minutes from Disney. We usually only see them 1-2 times a year (we visited them last summer) and she wanted to meet up with us since we were in the area. Fine, totally ok and understandable, right? What drove me crazy was that she called and asked to meet up with us that very morning. On the way to the airport. She wanted to meet us at Disney Springs to hang out and have dinner. Which would have been ok, except we had an ADR at TRex Cafe that night. I tried to explain to Jim that it might be hard to adjust the number on our reservation but he insisted it wouldn't be a big deal. His family plans absolutely nothing so this last minute addition was no big deal to him, but for me...



So I put on a happy face and all like,



because, Disney.



So we arrived at Disney Springs and met up with SIL and BIL. Oh, and they have BIL's cousin visiting them. Can we add her to the reservation too?



At this point, I was just like why not?



Moving on.

So we meet up at the bus stop and head in for some shopping and fun! I spotted our first PhotoPass photographer of the trip in front of this cute Frozen sign. I asked SIL if she wanted to hop in the picture.



Disney Springs was looking lovely. Much nicer than our last trip when there were green construction walls all around.



At this point, it was somewhat crowded. But not bad at all considering it was a Saturday afternoon after a major holiday.



Our first stop was to check in for a meeting with a very important guy. I was interested to see how the Santa situation worked out here with the pager. I walked up to check in and the wait was a solid 120 minutes!



I took this picture on our way out but the wait was the same. The CM gave me a pager and told me that we were free to go anywhere to shop and eat. When the pager went off, we would have 15 minutes to report back to get in line. Seemed easy enough!

Pager in hand, we headed straight for the whole real reason we were at Disney Springs.



Nate is a HUGE Lego fan. Fanatic. We have a ridiculous amount of Legos in this house. But I laid down the rules for the trip - no new sets! Nate and Colin could do the build your own minifigure deal (3 minifigures for $9.99) but that was it!



They got straight to work picking out the perfect pieces.

I took Jake over to visit some friends.





Once Nate and Colin had made final selections on their minifigures, Jim went to pay and we found this fun Lego Santa!



"I wonder if we can take him apart?"



Colin and I popped into World of Disney next to visit the bathroom. And also for me to take pictures of ceilings, apparently.







I figured that we had time for one more stop before our Santa pager was due to go off, so we headed for Once Upon a Toy.





More ceilings?

Nate was very excited to see this huge wall with Rey and Finn!



There was a huge scramble at this point because our Santa pager went off!! We gathered everyone together and headed over to get in line to see the big guy!


Next up - Santa and TRex

 

[missangelalexis]

120 minutes to meet Santa! Thank goodness for the pager system.

Love all the lego store pictures, I'm sure the boys had a blast.

Very curious to find out how dinner goes and if you were able to add the extra persons easily.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Joining in! You were lucky with Disney Springs, when we went on a Saturday in December, the crowds in front of the Lego store were so intense I didn't even attempt to take DS inside. He just got his first big boy (non Duplo) set so I'm sure it will be a must-do next trip though!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[KathyM2]

His family plans absolutely nothing so this last minute addition was no big deal to him, but for me...

OH MG..I would lose my mind!!! I can't wait to see how it all turned out with the ADR's...

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The non-planning last minute meet up would drive me nuts too. I'm interested to see if TRex was able to accommodate.

Crazy wait for Santa but I think it is great that they have that pager system.

 

[hokieinpa]

120 minutes to meet Santa! Thank goodness for the pager system.

Love all the lego store pictures, I'm sure the boys had a blast.

Very curious to find out how dinner goes and if you were able to add the extra persons easily.

The wait for Santa was a little crazy. The pager system was a lifesaver. It did make me said to hear several parents telling their kids "No, we can't meet Santa. Look at that wait!". My family had to stop me from running after them and telling them about the pager system. But that might have been a little weird...

The Lego Store is always a hit. I don't understand the fascination but it makes them happy!

Joining in! You were lucky with Disney Springs, when we went on a Saturday in December, the crowds in front of the Lego store were so intense I didn't even attempt to take DS inside. He just got his first big boy (non Duplo) set so I'm sure it will be a must-do next trip though!

Thanks for following along!

The crowds did get heavier as the night went on but it was not as busy as I expected, especially right after Thanksgiving.

And the Lego Store is a must now. I can't even imagine what the boys would do if I suggested skipping it one trip!

Oh my, 120 minute wait for Santa? At least you had plenty to do in the meantime. My DH won't even understand the concept of wait times, hopefully I'll be able to distract my "big kid" too, so that he doesn't get frustrated!

The wait for Santa was ridiculous! But the pager system was really amazing - like Dumbo with the play area except all of Disney Springs in the playground!

With FP+ planned and getting to each park early, the longest we've waited for anything has been 20 minutes. Maybe pack him snacks? That's what I do for the boys!

OH MG..I would lose my mind!!! I can't wait to see how it all turned out with the ADR's...

I'm glad someone feels my pain with the last minute planning! We've been married for 8 years and I still can't wrap my head around it!

The non-planning last minute meet up would drive me nuts too. I'm interested to see if TRex was able to accommodate.

Crazy wait for Santa but I think it is great that they have that pager system.

It's nice to be understood! You would think that I would be used to it by now but the lack of planning and last minute changes still baffle me!

The wait was so crazy! But the pager system was a lifesaver. It was nice to be able to do our shopping while we waited!

 

[Elevationist]

She wanted to meet us at Disney Springs to hang out and have dinner. Which would have been ok, except we had an ADR at TRex Cafe that night. I tried to explain to Jim that it might be hard to adjust the number on our reservation but he insisted it wouldn't be a big deal. His family plans absolutely nothing so this last minute addition was no big deal to him, but for me...

I'm face-palming so hard for you right now.

At this point, I was just like why not?

Ugh! Just reading this is tickling at the edges of my anxiety on your behalf! I'm eager to find out how it works out...

Our first stop was to check in for a meeting with a very important guy. I was interested to see how the Santa situation worked out here with the pager. I walked up to check in and the wait was a solid 120 minutes!

120 MINUTES FOR SANTA CLAUS?!?!? He better give giftboxes filled with $20s!!!

The CM gave me a pager and told me that we were free to go anywhere to shop and eat. When the pager went off, we would have 15 minutes to report back to get in line. Seemed easy enough!

OH! Well, that's not so bad then!!

Guuuurl, I see dat kyoot Dooney bag!

Colin and I popped into World of Disney next to visit the bathroom. And also for me to take pictures of ceilings, apparently.

You nut!!

 

[disneymommy13]

Following along, looks like a great start. We were there the weekend before Thanksgiving, but didn't have time for Disney Springs. I had read online about the Santa pager deal and I hated that we didn't get to see Santa on our trip. Your boys are so cute! Can't wait to read more about your trip.