It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow! Our Year of Disney Begins: May 2018 Trip Report-UPDATED 8-19-18

[Daisy1940]

Introductions:


Me: 33
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom (changes every trip)
Favorite Rides: Haunted Mansion, PeopleMover, Soarin’
Favorite Characters: Daisy Duck, Belle, Rapunzel
Favorite Movie: Beauty and the Beast


S: 33
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Rides: Peter Pan, Soarin’
Favorite Characters: Baloo
Favorite Movie: The Lion King


J: 2 (almost 3)
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Rides: Tomorrowland Speedway, 7Dwarfs Mine Train, Monorail
Favorite Characters: Lightening McQueen, Mickey Mouse
Favorite Movie: Cars 1, 2, and 3


B: 7 months

I should warn you that this trip report won't have any pictures. This is for two reasons: 1. We are TERRIBLE picture takers so I don't really have many pictures from this trip. 2. We don’t post pictures of our kids online and we both try to limit our online presence. But, I wanted to write this trip report because I LOVE reading other people’s trip reports here on the DIS and have learned so much from the people on this great community. So, if pictures in trip reports are your thing, this trip report probably won’t be much fun for you. But, if you (like me) enjoy reading what other people do at Disney and picking up tips, tricks, and new info along the way—this trip report is for you! Fair warning: I am very wordy and will include a ton of detail in these posts (I already have several days written).


Quick Trip Info:

Dates: May 11-20
Lodging: Wyndham Bonnet Creek (referred to as WBC in trip report)

Our touring style is to rope drop (haven’t missed a rope drop yet!) with a very planned out morning until time to leave the park around 1:00-2:00 for naps. Then we generally have a loose plan for the evening but give ourselves flexibility. We have found that we do better with a plan even if we don’t follow it (which you’ll see we don’t usually follow our plan). When we don’t have a plan, we end up just wondering around without doing very much. Overall, I think this works for us, but on this trip, we could have used a better plan for World Showcase. We both really wanted to do the shows and entertainment and museums in WS but we ended up not really going into any of the pavilions. On our next trip we are going to devote an afternoon to WS. We’ve done this on past trips and we were able to enjoy WS a lot more that way.

This is the first trip I have used Touring Plans for and I love their system. Previously I have just made my own plans based on average wait times and predicted crowd levels from different websites. I will say that my own plans are probably more accurate for our walking speed and touring style, but I loved playing around with different plans in the TP system.

I will include our touring plan for each day in case anyone would like to see a comparison of what we planned versus what we actually did. For the most part we ended up doing more than what was on the plan. And we did deviate a good bit from the plan based on what we felt like doing, wait times, etc. I actually had printed our plans for the day before the trip but you’ll see we switched thing up a lot so we ended up not using the printed plans after the first day. But to make things easier I would rearrange things on the actual Touring Plans app/website the night before a park based on what we had been able to previously do at that park, changes we made to dining and fast passes, things we wanted to change on the plan, etc. So, this trip was more planned to the minute than previous trips, but we also deviated from the plan a lot more than we have in the past.

 

[Daisy1940]

Reserved for trip links

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

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[jchurch0409]

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[Daisy1940]

How We Became Disney Addicts (Quick past trip recaps):

We have travelled to WDW several times over the past two years. Our first trip was May 2016 when J was a few weeks shy of 1. I had a work conference at WDW and since J was still nursing, he and S came with me. We decided to go a few days early since I could get the conference hotel rate and so we made it our summer vacation. Neither of us had gone to WDW since we were kids and didn’t plan on going until J was older. I had been trying to get S to go on vacation there for years but we figured it was more of a kid vacation so we would wait until we had kids to go. Before kids our vacations were always trips to the west coast for wine vacations and we cruised a good bit as well. For that first trip we really didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t start planning until about 3 months out. I quickly discovered the DIS boards and realized I was in over my head! I had no idea how far in advance WDW planning was required. But, I took everything in by lurking these boards and we had a great time that trip and learned so much! I remember on our first park day that trip as we were leaving Animal Kingdom I said to S that I wanted to be people that came to WDW every year while our kids were young. He gave me a resounding NO…Famous last words!

Enter late August 2016, we had been planning on going to Asheville, NC in October and it was time to start planning what we wanted to do, book a hotel, etc. We love Asheville and had gone twice in the past two years (before J was born) and were looking forward to another long weekend there. After a few nights of discussing all the things we wanted to do, we quickly realized Asheville with a kid was not going to be for us (no breweries, no nice dinners, etc.). S looked at me and said, what about going back to Disney? Before he could take it back I said “YES!!” I knew after our first trip he had enjoyed himself but he was still thinking we would wait until J was late 2 or 3 before we went back. I was hoping it would be sooner, but I thought when he was older would be better too. But, Disney is great with kids. We both found it really easy to navigate the parks and we loved being about to eat in a nice restaurant and not be the only people with a child and worried people were giving us the stink eye. So, WDW here we come! One thing S did not enjoy on our first trip was staying in a hotel room with J. I had mentioned to him that we should look into renting time share points and he loved that idea. When I was a kid we had a time share and that is how we always vacationed and loved the space. I had read great things about Wyndham Bonnet Creek (WBC) here on the boards and booked that. The pictures on their website didn’t look great so S was a little apprehensive (and I was too honestly) but the rate was great through a third party and we figure it was close to the parks and had great reviews here so it was worth a try. We quickly booked dining and fast passes and had an even better trip this time since we had figured out our touring style on that first trip and learned what worked and didn’t work for us.

After that October 2016 trip we were definitely hooked and began planning our summer vacation for May 2017 right after the new year. We have been wanting to go to Virginia and DC for years and thought this would be a good time to go before we added another child to our family (we had just found out we were expecting another baby!). But, once again, as we were planning and making a list of everything we want to do, a history focused, city vacation was beginning to sound like a nightmare and once again we became WDW bound! We knew we would stay a WBC again because it had been so great. We booked a two bedroom and I threw out the idea of inviting my in laws to join us for a few days and my family for a few days. My in laws were so excited and my Dad was too. They each just said to plan as usual and they wanted to just do whatever we planned which made things easy for me. We picked things that we thought they would enjoy and J really enjoyed having his grandparents around that trip. (Maybe when I finish this trip report I’ll do a separate one for that trip as I still remember enough about the details to make a full report. I’ll see how this one goes and play it by ear).

 

[Daisy1940]

How We Became Annual Passholders (Pre-trip Planning):
As I said, in January 2017 we learned we were expecting another little one and found out it was a girl! She was born in Sept 2017 so we took a bit of time off from travel. We knew we wanted to do Disney again for our May 2018 vacation because it is just SO EASY with little ones! I really can’t stress this enough! People ask us how we go so often and wonder why/how we go with a kid/kids so young and both S and I always just tell them it is because Disney makes it so easy with little ones. We like to sit and dine at actual restaurants on vacation and there is nowhere else you can do that with young kids and not be out of place.

Early in our planning we started talking about if we were going to take more than one trip this year and if so, we knew we wanted to buy annual passes because it would have saved us a ton of money (our three previous trips were all within one calendar year). We decided to plan our trip for May 12-20 so that we could go again toward the beginning of May in 2019 and annual passes would save a bit of money. (Sidenote: We try to travel in May for work reasons and because we like to go before school is out for the summer so that rates and crowds are lower.) We figured we could take another trip in the fall or right before Christmas as well and annual passes were a no-brainer.

Which leads us to our Year of Disney:
May 11-20, 2018: Myself, S (husband), J (son), B (daughter) staying at WBC
October 11-17, 2018: Myself, S (husband), J (son), B (daughter) staying at WBC
December 15-22, 2018: Myself, S (husband), J (son), B (daughter) staying at WBC
May 4-12, 2018: Myself, S (husband), J (son), B (daughter) Plus: my grandmother (GG), dad (D), stepmom (A), sister1 (Sis1), and sister2 (Sis2) staying at Westgate Town Center

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

All your trips are making me jealous!

 

[Daisy1940]

Following!

Welcome! Glad to have you following.

 

[Daisy1940]

Following!

Thank you for following!

 

[Daisy1940]

All your trips are making me jealous!

We kept adding on trips this year after getting annual passes-Disney really reels you in with those!

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 1: Travel Day: Friday, May 11
We woke up at our normal time around 7:00. S went to work as usual while I finished packing and got the house ready to leave. After a quick breakfast I started cleaning the house, washing dishes and such so that I would not come home to a mess. I had done most of the packing yesterday but there were a few things we couldn’t pack until the day of so I got all of that in bags. Around 10:00 I decided to drive the dogs to the kennel and came back home for more clean-up. As I was cleaning out the fridge I realized that our eggs expired that day. Not wanting to waste 18 eggs, I mixed them up and baked them to freeze—nothing like making more work for yourself as you are trying to leave for Disney!

I made lunch for J and myself and did last minute dishes and emptied the trash. S was leaving work at 1:15 and I wanted to be on the road by 2:00 so I loaded up the car, which surprisingly only took 15 minutes. We had SO MUCH STUFF! Traveling with two kids under 3 is no joke. S called at 1:20 and was leaving work so I ran around doing all the last minute stuff so that we were ready to walk out the door. S got home around 1:45 and quickly changed and we were out the door at 1:57—woohoo! Right on time.

On the road we realized we never got cash for the trip and needed it for tolls on the turnpike so we stopped at the bank then grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-A. An hour after leaving our driveway we were on the road and headed toward Atlanta to stop at Total Wine. A bit less than two hours later we made it to Total Wine where we picked up wine for the trip and liquor to restock our bar. While S and J were shopping I nursed and changed B. When the boys were finished shopping, we now had two boxes we had to fit in the car so we had a bit of rearranging to do in the parking lot. We were back on the road after about 45 minutes for the stop.

Atlanta traffic took a bit over an hour since we were in rush hour, but we knew we would be hitting the city at a bad time (is there ever a good time to drive through Atlanta though? ). We stopped for dinner in Macon and continued on to Valdosta where we stopped for the night at Country Inns around 9:30.

We made a hotel reservation while on the road about 1 ½ hours north of Valdosta because we weren’t sure where we would stop. Our goal was Valdosta but we were hoping we might make it a bit further and we probably could have, but around 8 the kids were coming apart so we thought stopping in Valdosta would be our best bet. We scored the last room available at the hotel. Shortly after making the reservation B fell asleep and J quieted down but Valdosta was fine. We had packed an overnight bag so we only had to carry in a few items so we settled into the room quickly. We were all asleep by 10:30.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 2 Part 1: Arrival Day and Magic Kingdom: Saturday, May 12
Around 7:00 Saturday we woke up, got ready for the day and packed the room up. We went to the free breakfast at the hotel and ate and hit the road around 9:00, which was our goal. We hit a bit of a snag when S got off I75 onto I10. For some reason he was thinking we needed to get on I10 and I didn’t stop him in time (because I didn’t think he would be exiting) so we pulled up directions back to I75 and the detour only added about 10 minutes to the drive so it wasn’t so bad.

When we got to the turnpike we hit a wall of traffic and quickly pulled up the maps on our phones and saw that traffic was completely stalled. Luckily the traffic standstill was backed up to the first exit, which is right where we were and we were able to quickly exit and head further south on I75. The detour was a bit longer, but definitely shorter than the turnpike which was an estimated hour-plus holdup. We finally arrived in Orlando around 1:00 and we needed something quick to eat and never saw any fast food on our way in so we grabbed lunch at the Speedway outside of the Boardwalk and went to WBC.

Once we got to WBC, I went in to check in and waited a bit in a long check-in line. The previous times we have stayed here we arrived later in the day so I’ve never waited. At first our room wasn’t ready, but right at the end of checking in the clerk checked again and the room was registered as clean and ready so she gave us our keys for our two-bedroom in tower 2. When we got to the room we discovered that it was still being cleaned. I’m not sure how it was listed as clean in their system but we were told it would be another 30 minutes so we went to the tower 2 lobby and ate lunch there. Our Walmart grocery pick-up was scheduled for 2:00-3:00 and at this point we were starting to cut things close because we had a haircut scheduled for J at the Harmony Barber Shop in Magic Kingdom for 4:00 and were told to be there at 3:45. We decided to just go ahead and completely empty the car so we could immediately throw our stuff in the room when it was ready.

Around 2:15 we were able to get into our room so we quickly emptied the luggage carts. After texting Walmart to let them know we were on our way for our pick up, S and J left while I stayed and unpacked with B. I’ve never unpacked so quickly in my life! I needed to set up the pack and play for B and we had brought a travel cot for J since we were afraid he would roll out of the bed. I put B’s pack and play in the bathroom in the master bedroom and decided we would use the hall bathroom for the week. This sort of worked although we realized after the first night that showering with J in the hall bath was a disaster so we ended up rolling the pack and play out of that bathroom each night for J’s shower. I unpacked all of our clothes, the groceries we had brought with us, various supplies, etc. Meanwhile, S and J had to run into Walmart quickly for a mini screwdriver (I had forgotten to pack ours and needed one to change the stroller fan batteries) and hand soap. After they ran in and grabbed those items they did curbside pick up for the groceries. We’ve never used this before and overall S liked the pickup process although he said it did take a bit for them to bring out the groceries.

By 3:15 the boys were back. I met them at the car and S threw the groceries in the wheeled cart we had brought and ran them up to the room and unpacked them while I stayed in the car and nursed B. At this point we were running WAY late! We still needed to drive to the TTC, go through security, activate our annual passes, catch the monorail to the MK, get through the gates and to Harmony Barber Shop in about 30 minutes-YIKES!

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 2, Part 2: Arrival Day and Magic Kingdom: Saturday, May 12

We left WBC around 3:20 and booked it to the TTC. I can’t remember where we parked but it was late in the day so on Saturday so it was pretty far back somewhere in a villains lot. We do not use the parking lot trams generally as we find it a pain to unload and fold the stroller and we are really fast walkers so we just hightailed it to security. Unfortunately, we hit the longest security line of the trip here. (Sidenote: There were a lot of people not listening to the security attendants telling people to form two lines, open all pockets, etc. Ugh! This is a theme of the trip and the biggest aggravation for us—people who do not listen and/or who are too self-absorbed to care about those around them. I mean, we are all in a public space together, please be considerate of those around you. Okay, rant over!) We made it through security and went to the ticket center to activate our annual passes. This process was much quicker than I anticipated (about 5 minutes) which was good because we were now really late! I was trying not to panic and I knew it really wouldn’t be too big of a deal if we were late to our appointment but I really, really hate being late!

We caught our first monorail of the trip and we were soon on our way! When we first saw Cinderella’s castle we were all pretty excited, even J recognized it which made me really happy. We scanned our bands and walked to Harmony and arrive exactly at 4:00-yes! We got our name on the list and went to wait outside and listened to the Dapper Dans and were called in about 10 minutes later. We have gotten J’s hair cut here three times now and they are the best haircuts and for the same price as back home! This really is such a neat experience and worth the time it takes. We did his first hair cut here in May 2016 and did a walk up back in Oct 2016. The stylists are all so patient with kids and do a fantastic job.

After J’s hair cut it was time for our first fast pass of the day and the whole reason we decided to come down on Friday rather than drive down on Saturday as we originally planned: Talking Mickey!! This was the last day for talking Mickey and we have loved this on our previous trips so when it was announced that he was leaving Town Square we knew we wanted to see him if we could make it work. It was awesome to start our vacation with Mickey because he is J’s absolute favorite. We watch a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey and the Roadster Racers in our house and J is Mickey obsessed. The wait wasn’t too bad (it seems like we always wait about 30 minutes even with fast pass) and we chatted with a CM who was from near us so that was fun and helped pass the time. Our visit with Mickey was great! You could tell there was a bit of melancholy about talking Mickey leaving as we saw several cast members trying to say goodbye and there appeared to be others like us who had come to say goodbye and experience this one last time. J was completely star-struck and couldn’t really do or say much-it was precious. Mickey was really great with him and tried to get him to open up but he was completely overtaken with excitement that he just froze up. Mickey tried to hug him and J turned around and just backed into Mickey’s hug. We were cracking up and I’m not sure Mickey knew what to do with that!

After our meet with Mickey, we headed toward Liberty Square to get our annual pass magic bands. We had old magic bands but I was afraid the long-range RFID batteries might be dead and had read that the liberty square guest services would give you a magic band. I really wanted to make sure I got ride photos on our last fast pass for today so stopping by guest services was a high priority. We caught the tail-end of the Muppet’s Presents Great Moments in History which was fun because I love the muppets and J is into them recently as well because of the muppet baby reboot on Disney Junior. After the show finished, we got our new magic bands (purple for me, red for S). I had planned for dinner at Casey’s but S wasn’t feeling it so we searched the app for something else and settled on Pinocchio’s which worked out well because we needed to be in Fantasyland for our next FP.

We got to Pinocchio’s and S said he didn’t even realize that was a restaurant. We passed by here dozen’s of times and he never noticed it and just thought it was part of a ride building. We have never been here and we were both surprised how big the restaurant is-it does not look as big from the outside of the building. We really thought the theming in here was great. J can’t have wheat and usually just shares meals with us but we decided to get an allergy menu and order him his own kids meal. S got a chicken sandwich, I ordered the caprese flatbread, and we ordered J gluten-free mac and cheese because he loves pasta. We were warned it could take up to 30-minutes for an allergy meal so we found a seat in the room that overlooks small world and S went and filled his drink.

About 15 minutes later our buzzer went off that our food was ready. We somehow ended up with a regular mac and cheese and a gluten free one. J’s meal was really hot so he couldn’t eat his for awhile. He enjoyed his apple sauce packet and the danimals thing. He kept asking for a smoothie (still not sure how he knows what a smoothie is because we do not ever drink them) and I tried convincing him that the danimals was a smoothie. He wanted the iced fruit beverage in the special cup which I was not going to get him because I knew he would fill up on that. We tried to get him to eat his mac and cheese but I think he maybe ate 3 bites after a lot coaxing. Oh well, we learned our lesson to not order him a kids meal as we had plenty of stuff to supplement him sharing meals with us and it is so hit or miss what he will eat anyway. S enjoyed his sandwich and I liked my flatbread and we shared both mac and cheeses. We both ate way more than usual because our lunch had been really light and we had been rushing around for hours. Overall, we liked Pinocchio’s and would definitely eat here again-the low crowd was much better than Pecos Bill or Casey’s.

Next, we were off to catch the tail-end of our second fast pass, Peter Pan (I think this was around 5:50). We had a great first ride of the trip through Neverland. J wasn’t too thrilled with the dark but he got over it quickly. B enjoyed her first ride ever. I think this was a great ride to start with as it is S’s favorite and it is such a classic Disney ride.

Once we left Neverland it was time for our last fast pass on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. J had been talking about riding a roller coaster for months thanks to the constant WDW commercials on Disney Junior. We’d been measuring him for a month and knew it would be close. He’s been measuring right at 38” but we knew their measuring stick may not match ours. I love roller coasters so S let me have the first ride with J while he stayed with B (we probably could have gotten rider swaps for double rides but didn’t since we both had fast pass). J liked the videos that were playing with the safety messages with the seven dwarves even though he has no idea who they are. J never was measured, which I thought was strange. We were on the ride in about 10 minutes-not bad! J loved the ride which was awesome! He had a straight face the entire time so I wasn’t sure what he was thinking about it but when we got off the ride he said “I liked that ride.” I asked if he wanted to ride it again with Daddy and he said yes, so off S and J went on their ride through the mines.

Our trip was off to a great start! We left the park around 7:00 and headed back to WBC for the night and to get ready to for our next day at Magic Kingdom. Once back at the room we looked at FP availability for our last day (which was day 8 so we couldn’t pre-schedule FP since we have annual passes and there is a 7 day FP limit). We had a Boma breakfast booked and decided to go to Animal Kingdom afterwards and end our day at DHS since we had dinner reservations at Brown Derby.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 3, Part 1: First Full Park Day: Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs: Sunday, May 13 (Mother’s Day)

We had a bit of a slow (for us) start. We woke up around 6:45 and made coffee, got ready, ate breakfast. S gave me a card and gift for Mother’s Day, which I wasn’t expecting because a few days before the trip he gave me an apple watch for Mother’s Day/Anniversary gift. The gift was a Pandora charm--Mrs. Potts with Chip! This was perfect for Mother’s Day and for me because Beauty and the Beast of one of my favorite movies. I added it to my bracelet and we left our room at 8:00. We were aiming for 7:45 so that we could catch the opening show so we were rushing!

We got to the parking lot and to the TTC bag check by 8:30. The monorail wasn’t running so we rushed on to the waiting boat and waited (and waited and waited some more) for 15 minutes. We were both a bit panicked since we really wanted to see the opening show and still had to get through the turnstiles and down main street. We positioned ourselves close to the exit and enjoyed the ride. Somehow we didn’t notice that we were behind an ECV so once the boat was docked and everyone started unloading, we were moving slow. We made it to the turnstiles and got through the gates and were handed a flower for Mother’s Day (they did this last year too and it is such a great touch!). We raced up Main Street and made it just as the welcome show was starting so S grabbed J out of the stroller so he could watch while I changed B’s diaper. As soon as it was over we quickly popped J into the stroller and took off with the crowd for Tomorrowland. We got to Buzzlightyear Space Ranger and walked straight on. S and J rode together while I had B. Something was wrong with my gun though because I only scored 7000 points and it would just randomly add 100 points as a time even when I wasn’t touching the gun (I had given up because I knew something was off with it and wanted to see what would happen). We looked at our pictures and headed out.

Our next planned stop with Winnie the Pooh but I check the app and it was down so we did the PeopleMover (one of our favorites!) since B needed to nurse and this is a great ride for that. After PM, I checked and Pooh was still down. The Speedway caught J’s eye (he LOVES cars) so S and J hopped in line. It was posted at 15 minutes but it ended up being about 30 minutes. While they did this, I finished nursing B, got sunscreen on both of us, made a bathroom stop, and called my mom to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. We had a nice chat and then I went to watch the boys and caught them right as they were loading their car. They had a nice (and fume-y!) ride. Afterward the boys made a bathroom stop while I checked wait times on the app. When they were done the boys got sunscreen and we were off to fantasyland.

At this point, Pooh was up but the wait was an hour so we skipped it and went to the next item on our list: Enchanted Tales with Belle. We had never done this before but about a month before the trip S and J were watching attraction videos on youtube and S decided he wanted to do it on our trip (of course I said YES, ME TOO!). We waited about 10 minutes in the cottage queue and then the show started. Around this time B fell asleep in the carrier which was perfect. The show was really cute and I thought the animatronics were great. J would not participate and even though Beauty and the Beast was his favorite movie from a year to a year and a half old, he hasn’t seen it in a long time so he didn’t really recognize Belle and wouldn’t have his picture taken with her. This is probably a lot cuter when you have a child you know participating, but we were glad we did it and it is nice and air conditioned so I see why this has long lines during the day!

Next up on the plan was my favorite ride-Haunted Mansion! We headed on over and walked straight through the queue. Once we finished, we were ahead of our Touring Plan so we had some time to kill before our lunch reservation. We left our stroller in Liberty Square since we had lunch reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern and we walked over to fantasyland to ride Under the Sea. Once we got there, we found a posted 20 minute wait-perfect! Except as soon as we got in line we knew this would NOT be 20 minutes so we quickly got out of line and went to Storybook circus to ride Barnstormer. J enjoyed SDMT so much last night that we thought this would be fun for him and the wait was only posted at 15 minutes. At this point we knew we would be rushing to get to lunch but since B couldn’t ride, the boys went ahead and got in line with the plan for me to go ahead and grab everything we needed for lunch from the stroller and check in for lunch. I had some time to kill so I popped in Big Top Treat to look around (somehow we have never been in here!). I called my mother-in-law while shopping and wished her a happy Mother’s Day and chatted for a bit.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 3, Part 2: First Full Park Day: Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs: Sunday, May 13 (Mother’s Day)

After I got off the phone with my mother-in-law, I quickly walked over to our stroller which we had left parked in Liberty Square and grabbed a few things we needed for lunch (J’s cup and some snacks for him to supplement lunch) and checked in at LTT. There was a bit of a wait which was good because S and J were running a bit behind and I needed to nurse B. Our reservation was at 11:35 and they arrived around 11:45. J needed a restroom break so they visited the smallest bathroom in the (Disney)world. We were called to our table while they were upstairs but found us when they were finished.

I’m not doing a dining review so I’ll put quick dining reviews into this trip report.

LTT review: Overall we really enjoy LTT. We ate here with my dad last May and it was a great, inexpensive lunch option. We like table service as a way to get out of the heat without dealing with the crowds at the quick service locations. We were seated in the George Washington room this trip and each ordered an adult beverage. I had a rose (can’t remember the winery) and S got a beer. We skipped appetizers and S ordered the fish and chips while I got the cheeseburger. This certainly isn’t adventurous but J eats burgers and fries pretty consistently and I was sharing with him (we had decided against ordering him a kids meal since he barely touched his last night). This is a good burger but they changed the bun from last year and it isn’t as good now. It is only a few bucks more than QS burgers and you don’t have to fight for a table so this is definitely worth the extra expense. Service was sort of slow this day but we had been rushing all morning and didn’t mind too much although J was pretty antsy after awhile. We were a bit self-conscious about it until a girl about 8 years old at the next table over had a total meltdown and the father pointed at J and said she needed to act as good as that toddler—hahaha! Even with the slow service, I really wanted the ooey gooey toffee cake so I ordered it and our check. Luckily it came quick and J enjoyed eating the ice cream (he is wheat/gluten free). The total came to $75 after our annual pass discount plus tax and tip-Not bad for two entrees, one desert, and two adult beverages.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 3, Part 3: First Full Park Day: Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs: Sunday, May 13 (Mother’s Day)

By this time it was around 1:00 and toward the end of our Jungle Cruise fastpass. We grabbed our stroller and quickly watched a very aggressive goose who was entertaining the crowds sitting and eating outside of the market in Liberty Square then headed toward Adentureland. I had planned to hit JC at the end of our FP window and had Pirates of the Caribbean scheduled for directly after. We had a bit of a wait for JC even with FP. Usually the FP line is straight to the boats but they had the left hand queue in use for FP which I thought was odd--maybe they are scheduling more FPs now. We had a good skipper and J thought he was really going through the jungle and seeing real animals. One thing that annoyed me was the family next to us was a mom, dad, son about 8, and a daughter around 1 ½. The son was holding the baby and could not controller her so she was all over me and B the whole ride. The parents were completely oblivious that the boy was struggling with the toddler the whole ride-ugh! Just another example of the self-absorption that people have while on vacation I guess. This was a running theme through the trip.

After our trip through the jungle we grabbed a drink at our stroller then went to Pirates of the Caribbean. We had a minimal wait here and had a great ride. I had forgotten how much I enjoy this ride. In fact, we all liked it so much we ended up riding it a lot more than originally planned this trip.

After PotC, the plan was for the kids to take a stroller nap while we rode Splash and BTMM (I had scheduled us each a FP for 2:00 and we were going to get rider swaps). The goal was for the kids to nap while we rode to kill time before the parade then watch the parade and either do some more ride in Magic Kingdom then head to EPCOT for dinner or go ahead and go to EPCOT after the parade. I didn’t have the parade planned for any other day this trip since I figured the first day was our best bet for riding the vacation high before tiredness set in and we would all need an afternoon break.

It was getting hot and crowded and S wasn’t feeling it and didn’t want to stay for our last fastpasses and the parade. J had been dying to ride the train, so we decided to catch the Frontierland station and ride to the front of the park and go ahead and head out for the day. We just missed a train so we waited about 10 minutes for the next one. This was a bit tricky because we needed to take our stroller on the train with us since we weren’t riding the whole loop and leaving the park. We had to fold the stroller and wait with the folded double stroller, several bags, baby, and excited toddler. While waiting we decided to go to Disney Springs tonight rather than Tuesday like we had planned. Originally, I had Homecomin’ reserved for dinner Tuesday but cancelled it a few weeks before the trip so we were flexible for when we would go to DS and EPCOT for the evenings.

We had a great train ride and took the monorail to the TTC and walked to our car. S headed towards villains but I knew we had parked in Simba that morning so I quickly stopped him and insisted we ask the parking lot attendant which way to Simba since S didn’t believe me that he was going the wrong way (he has a terrible sense of direction at Disney for some reason). I was not about to walk any more than we had to. The attendant had heard the whole interaction and just giggled and remarked that I was right and to listen to the lady, which cracked us up. This sounds like it was disagreement but it wasn’t. We were laughing about it the whole time because S’s terrible sense of Disney direction is a constant source of entertainment for us at this point. He isn’t usually too bad at directions but Disney just gets him confused and every time he thinks he has it figured out but he is always turned around (this wouldn’t be the last time this happened this trip).

On our way back to the room, we discussed plans for the evening and the next day (Hollywood Studios) and decided to cancel our Brown Derby lunch reservation. The forecast had very heavy rains and J hadn’t been the best at lunch so we weren’t sure how he would do or if we would even still be at the park at lunch. This was disappointing because we love Brown Derby lunch but this ended up being the right call.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 3, Part 4: First Full Park Day: Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs: Sunday, May 13 (Mother’s Day)

After a break at the room, we headed to Disney Springs for dinner and shopping. We found a parking spot pretty easily which was a big win since we usually have trouble finding one and have to drive around a while. First we went to Uniqlo where I get two new tshirts and S got himself and J hats that were on clearance since the hat he had brought was dark denim and rain was on the forecast (he didn’t want is getting wet and dying his skin-haha!). These hats really came in handy all week and I swiped J’s for myself since I had packed him several but hadn’t brought a hat for myself. Next we went in new store across from Uniqulo that had various Disney kids clothes and such and then went to World of Disney. We usually shop there for a good bit but half the store was closed and we weren’t feeling looking around so we did a quick loop around and were out of the store in less than 5 minutes.

We were getting hungry but couldn’t decide where to eat. S had wanted to try the poutine after hearing about it before the trip so we got the classic poutine to share while we figured out what we wanted to eat. I wanted to try Blaze but S was feeling BBQ and wanted the Polite Pig. We ended up walking around a bit trying to decide what to get but it started raining so I just made the call to get Polite Pig since it was close to where we were. We ended up sharing a pulled pork plate and a veggie plate. We got mac and cheese, baked beans, brussel sprouts, and potato salad. It was okay but nothing special since we are born-and-bread southerners so this just wasn’t all it is cracked up to be. Our total ended up being $40 for dinner. I would recommend this for someone who can’t get good BBQ where they live but probably not a great place for anyone from the deep south.

The kids were getting restless and ready for bed and I wanted a cupcake so while the guys finished dinner I ran over to Sprinkles. The line was SO LONG but I really wanted a strawberry cupcake so I stayed in it. After about 25 minutes I finally had my cupcakes and quickly got out of there without checking the box. I’m sure you can see where this is going. At the car I opened the box to swipe some frosting and saw that they gave me a coconut cupcake instead of strawberry-ugh! I had been waiting a year for one of these (there isn’t a bakery in my city that does a good strawberry cake) so I was so disappointed. S suggested I take a picture of the box with my receipt just in case we made it back to DS this trip and I could get them to give me the correct cupcake. We didn’t have any plans to return but I thought this was a good idea just in case so I did this back at the room.

Back at the room we quickly all took baths and showers and we got the kids into bed. By then, the EPCOT fireworks were starting so S went down the hall to see how well you could see them from the window outside the elevators of our building (our room was on the wrong side of the building-we were in WBC building two, floor 8 for anyone wondering). Turns out the view was awesome so he came and got me really quick and we carried the monitors with us and watched the fireworks. We were only a few doors down and our monitors reached us still so we felt okay doing this while the kids were asleep. After fireworks S watched sports while I packed the park bad for the next day. Afterwards I ate my caramel chocolate cupcake (so good!) and we enjoyed a glass of wine then were off to bed.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 3, Part 4: First Full Park Day: Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs: Sunday, May 13 (Mother’s Day)


Day 1 Recap:
Original Plan (times from Touring Plans):
Castle Welcome Show
9:08 Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
9:22 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
9:42 Enchanted Tales with Belle
10:23 Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid
10:46 The Haunted Mansion
11:20 Liberty Tree Tavern (reservation 11:35am)
12:23 Jungle Cruise (FP 12:05-1:05)
1:10 Pirates of the Caribbean (FP 1:05-2:05)
2:10 Splash Mountain/Big Thunder Mtn RR (FP 2:10-3:10)
2:46 Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
3:36 It's a small world
4:11 Dumbo the Flying Elephant
4:32 The Barnstormer
Monorail to EPCOT for dinner


Actual:
Castle Welcome Show
Buzz Lightyear
PeopleMover
Tomorrowland Speedway
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Haunted Mansion
Barnstormer
lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
Jungle Cruise (with FP)
Pirates of the Caribbean (with FP)
Train (Frontierland to Main Street then leave park)
Break at room
Evening at Disney Springs

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The gift was a Pandora charm--Mrs. Potts with Chip!

That is so sweet. I love that charm.

Sounds like a fun but busy day!

I would have been annoyed on Jungle Cruise as well. Not just because of the inconvience of having an unknown child on me all the time but where is the safety in having your one child hold the other child on a boat ride where he can't control it?

 

[Daisy1940]

That is so sweet. I love that charm.

Sounds like a fun but busy day!

I would have been annoyed on Jungle Cruise as well. Not just because of the inconvience of having an unknown child on me all the time but where is the safety in having your one child hold the other child on a boat ride where he can't control it?

I had visions of the baby girl going overboard while the parents sat there oblivious. The poor cast member had to break character a few times to remind them sit still but the parents didn't seem to notice at all.

The charm is so cute, it is definitely one of my favorites