Now is the Best Time! Our 2024 Florida Road Trip (update 6/18)

[mickey916]

4/6 Picking Up Our Sons and Heading to Gatorland​

We got up early and checked out of our VRBO rental to pick up our sons at the Springhill Suites Airport. On the way, we stopped at The Salty Donut in Audubon Park for a ½ dozen donuts.

I intended to order six different donuts but lost track of them halfway through so I ended up with two butterbeer donuts (and missed getting the guava and cheese). Starting in the top left and going clockwise we ordered: Butterbeer, Peanut Butter Brownie, Butterbeer (#2), Chocolate Sheetcake, Key Lime Pie, and Coquito.

We shared all six of these. They were all very fresh and flavorful. We all liked the Peanut Butter Brownie the best but they were all very good.

After sharing our donuts in their hotel room, our sons checked out and we headed to Gatorland. My DS-27 has wanted to go there for a long time.

We arrived just before they opened and it was an absolute mob scene. This was the Saturday after Easter and I think everyone had decided to go there after their week in Disney. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was just to get in. There were two separate lines, one for those who already purchased tickets and one for those who needed to buy them. Since I assumed the pre-bought ticket line would move faster, I went on my phone and purchased the Greater Gator package for the four of us. My assumption was incorrect however, as they weren’t letting the pre-purchased ticket holders in a continuous line. We were held at the turnstile and only a handful of people would be let through and then we’d have to wait. The park opened at 10, we arrived at 9:45 and we didn’t get into the park until 11:00. Craziness.

Also, our purchase of the Greater Gator package was a mistake. In addition to admission, this package came with an alligator meet & greet, unlimited train rides and gator chow to feed the gators. Unfortunately, the line for alligator meet & greet was extremely long and all you got to do was pose behind an alligator while they took your picture, for which you would have to pay an additional $12 to purchase, so we skipped that. The lines for the train were incredibly long so we never even rode it once. It certainly wasn’t worth a 30-45 minute wait to ride. So, all we really got for our $41.99 per person, was admission and a $4.50 bag of gator chow each. If we had purchased just the ticket and the chow, it would have cost $39.49, not a huge difference fortunately.

With all that being said, we actually enjoyed the park. There was a lot more to it than we thought. We saw so many gators and we really enjoyed feeding them the gator chow.

We also saw tortoises

and flamingos.

It was incredible to watch two zookeepers cuddling the panthers. It was like they were playing with a big kitty.

We enjoyed the Jumparoo show but we expected to see them jump further out of the water. This was the highest jump we saw (check out those crowds in the background).

There were also lots of birds hanging with the gators. We learned that gators don’t usually eat birds because there’s not enough meat for them.

Speaking of eating, my DS-27 just had to get an order of deep fried gator bites. This line too was incredibly long. I think he waited 30 minutes in line for these.

They were okay. They mostly tasted like fried breading and were a little chewy. The dipping sauce was good though.

Overall, we enjoyed our day here and I think it’s a good filler activity for a travel day. Despite the crowds we were able to see everything we wanted to see and left the park at 2:30. From when we finally got in the park it was 3.5 hours to do everything. We probably won’t be in any rush to go again but it’s a good “once in a while” attraction.

Up next…checking into our hotel and heading to Disney Springs.

 

[Mom2m&k]

reading along from NH, and enjoying your report very much! Gator bites would not be my thing!

 

[mickey916]

reading along from NH, and enjoying your report very much! Gator bites would not be my thing!

Thanks for following along! We love NH! Gator bites aren't really my thing either. They are chewy and slightly fishy tasting.

 

[mickey916]

4/6 continued...Disney Springs & POFQ
​

After our time at Gatorland, we decided to check into our next hotel. Our plan was to go to Universal the next day so I originally booked Loews Royal Pacific to get the Express Passes. However, the cost for Saturday night for four people in one room was over $1000. Since we only had time for one day at Universal, I decided to save money and stay Saturday night at the Fairfield Inn & Suites near Universal and book the Royal Pacific on Sunday for “only” $635. This still enabled us to have the express pass for Sunday without the high cost of a Saturday night hotel room. Stay tuned to see if that was a wise plan or not….

Here’s the room we checked into at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Near Universal for $143 for four people:

The room was clean and comfortable. The only complaint we had was that the toilet didn’t really flush well. It was very slow. Not sure if that was specific to our room, or the resort in general. We would stay here again however. Can't beat the price and the proximity to Universal.

After freshening up in our room, we headed to Disney Springs.

Per our sons’ request, we had dinner reservations at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’. We arrived a little early and they seated us right away at an outside table.

Both boys ordered Art’s Famous Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and biscuits. DH and I decided to split two entrees, one of which was Art’s Famous fried chicken as well.

We all loved the chicken. It was just as delicious as we remembered. The breading is well seasoned and crispy, the chicken is moist, and the sides were very good as well.

The other entree my DH and I shared was the Braised Short Ribs.

This was phenomenal! The short rib was fork tender. It just melted in my mouth. The carrots and mashed potatoes were also delicious! I think we’ll have to get this and the chicken each time we go. Soooo very good!

We also ordered two sides of mac n cheese for the four of us to share.

We tried this before and found it to be a little dry. This time though it was creamy, cheesy perfection. So glad we got this too!

This was a great meal. My DS-25 told me the whole reason he wanted to join our trip was to go to Chef Art Smith’s and ‘Ohana, which is funny because he never really shows a lot of interest in food. He just loves those two Disney restaurants. So far he was not disappointed!

After dinner we walked around Disney Springs for a while and then decided it was time for dessert. We took the boat to POFQ for beignets. We ordered a plate of 6 and a plate of 3 to share, because 1.5 each seemed too few.

If you look closely we actually got a bonus one so we had 10 total which was much easier to split amongst the four of us.

We just love these beignets. Hot, fluffy, and sweet.

We then took the boat back to Disney Springs and drove back to the Fairfield Inn & Suites.

A perfect ending to a great first day of our family vacation.

Total steps: 19,185

Up next…getting up early, checking into Loews Royal Pacific for express passes and heading to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.

 

[suse66]

We were held at the turnstile and only a handful of people would be let through and then we’d have to wait. The park opened at 10, we arrived at 9:45 and we didn’t get into the park until 11:00. Craziness.

So busy!

With all that being said, we actually enjoyed the park. There was a lot more to it than we thought. We saw so many gators and we really enjoyed feeding them the gator chow.

How close would you have to be to feed them? Those gators would make me nervous!

There were also lots of birds hanging with the gators. We learned that gators don’t usually eat birds because there’s not enough meat for them.

The picture of the bird right on top of the alligator is really cool.

Overall, we enjoyed our day here and I think it’s a good filler activity for a travel day. Despite the crowds we were able to see everything we wanted to see and left the park at 2:30. From when we finally got in the park it was 3.5 hours to do everything. We probably won’t be in any rush to go again but it’s a good “once in a while” attraction.

I've never been there but then I rarely leave the Disney "bubble".

However, the cost for Saturday night for four people in one room was over $1000. Since we only had time for one day at Universal, I decided to save money and stay Saturday night at the Fairfield Inn & Suites near Universal and book the Royal Pacific on Sunday for “only” $635. This still enabled us to have the express pass for Sunday without the high cost of a Saturday night hotel room. Stay tuned to see if that was a wise plan or not….

Eeek...$1000? I know the express passes cost a lot on their own but that still seems a lot.

Per our sons’ request, we had dinner reservations at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’. We arrived a little early and they seated us right away at an outside table.

Homecomin' is great but the servings are massive!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We love the beignets and Homecomin is a really good choice.
I often book a premiere resort at Universal on a Sunday night so we can get the EP. It works well for us!

 

[mickey916]

So busy!

It was way busier than I expected!

How close would you have to be to feed them? Those gators would make me nervous!

Not close at all. They gave you a bag of big nuggets (like huge dog chow) and you throw them out to the gators. I felt bad because one time I accidentally bonked one off one of their heads. Nothing like apologizing to a gator. He didn't seem to notice though.

The picture of the bird right on top of the alligator is really cool.

It was kinda funny.

I've never been there but then I rarely leave the Disney "bubble".

When it's just me and DH we never leave the bubble. My DS-27 though is more of a Universal fan and Gatorland was his choice too. He always marches to his own beat. The rest of us prefer Disney.

Eeek...$1000? I know the express passes cost a lot on their own but that still seems a lot.

It was the Saturday of Easter week so I'm guessing that's why it was so high. I looked into just buying the passes separately but that was going to cost $1000 too for the four of us and then we'd still need to pay for a hotel room.

Homecomin' is great but the servings are massive!

They are! I had proposed to DH that we share the chicken meal but he also wanted to try the short rib. That meal wasn't as huge as the chicken meal so it worked out okay. Our sons took half their meals back to the room and ate it for breakfast the next morning, lol.

 

[mickey916]

We love the beignets and Homecomin is a really good choice.
I often book a premiere resort at Universal on a Sunday night so we can get the EP. It works well for us!

It worked well for us too. It was a super busy day so it really helped having the passes, especially since we were doing both parks in one day.

 

[mickey916]

4/7 Spending the Day at Universal
​

We woke up early and headed over to Royal Pacific to check in for our Express Passes. Early entry for Universal guests was 8:00 at IoA. We arrived at the hotel just a little before 8:00 am, foolishly thinking we could grab our Express Passes and head on over to the park. As we pulled up out front, the valet informed us it was very busy inside and would be about a 45 minute wait. I headed in to check in and DH and sons went to find a parking spot (and eat their leftovers from Chef Art Smith for breakfast). The valet wasn’t lying. There were at least 50 people ahead of me in line.

Eventually DH and sons came in to see how I was progressing and I suggested to the boys that they head over to IoA to take advantage of what was left of early entry while I tried to check in, not really thinking through the fact that they would need their room keys to get in for early entry. They walked over and texted me that they couldn’t get in but it was 8:50 at that point so they decided to just wait for regular entry at 9:00. I suggested they head for Hagrid’s since they couldn’t use an express pass there anyhow.

Right then I finally made it to the check in desk and, to my surprise, was told that our room was actually available. So DH and I brought the luggage to our room.

In hindsight it would have been a million times easier had we stayed there on Saturday night and we would’ve all been able to just head in for early entry. However, I’m still not convinced it was worth an additional $350 to stay on Saturday.

After bringing in our luggage we walked over to IoA. Since our sons had to put their phones in lockers at Hagrid, we had no idea where they were in line or how much longer a wait there would be. So, we spent our time exploring Hogsmeade. It was really nice to be able to stop and see all the details that we’ve never had time to notice before. It was another beautiful day.

We met up with the boys about 10:15 after they got off Hagrid’s motorbike, so they waited just under 75 minutes. Not bad. It was time for our mid-morning snack so of course we headed to Hog’s Head Pub for butterbeer.

I prefer the frozen, but in fairness I’ve never tried the hot.

So sweet and creamy!

My DS-25 prefers the regular.

DH and DS-27 ordered the hot butterbeer.

They love the hot butterbeer. Perhaps I should try it next time. I've only had frozen and regular.

My two sons and I headed next to the Velocicoaster (DH doesn’t ride coasters due to motion sickness). When we rode it in 2022 I was so focused on the track I never noticed the dinosaurs. This time I made sure to look around and see the theming. It goes by so fast it’s really hard to appreciate. We do love that coaster though. So fun and it’s great that the Express Passes work at that attraction!

We headed next to Seuss Landing and all four of us rode the High in the Sky Trolley and the Cat in the Hat. Since DH and I hadn’t had anything to eat, we opted to go for an early lunch at Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoopendous.

I ordered the Pizza Pasta: baked mac and cheese cavatappi with pepperoni and marinara.

This was actually surprisingly good. It definitely tasted like pizza. The cheese sauce was nice and creamy and there was a ton of pepperoni. Very good!

All three men ordered the Roast Beast sandwich: mushroom meatloaf, shaved ribeye, cheddar cheese, crispy onions, secret sauce on a pretzel bun, with curly fries.

All three of them loved this! They really enjoyed the little grilled cheese sandwich on top as well as the meatloaf and ribeye in the pretzel bun.

This was a very surprising and excellent meal at Universal. In addition to Mythos, where we ate in 2022, this is a great place for lunch. We loved it!

After lunch it was time to hit my sons’ favorite attractions in Universal - the wet ones! We changed into bathing suits and headed for Toon Lagoon. All four of us rode Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. This is such an excellent log flume ride, although I’m never entirely sure I’m going to be able to contort myself in and out of those logs! I always have to ride in the front as the shortest member of the family and that front spot is small!

Since we were already a bit wet, we headed over to Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat barges. This is the same type of ride as Kali River Rapids but so far superior. It’s really interesting and fun and we all got absolutely soaked!

Next up we rode the Jurassic Park River adventure. This is another greatly themed water ride that all four of us can ride.

After riding we changed back into regular clothes and the boys rode the Hulk Coaster. I remembered it banging my head a lot last time so I sat this one out with DH.

Having done all we wanted to do in IoA, we walked over to Universal Studios. My sons and I rode Rip Ride Rocket, which seemed much rougher than when we rode in 2022. We spent some time exploring Diagon Alley and my sons and I rode Gringott’s.

We explored some more and then my sons and I rode Revenge of the Mummy. Very cool ride! All four of us also rode the ET Adventure. As you may have noticed there’s not a lot that my DH can ride at Universal which is why we never go here when it’s just the two of us.

By this point it was getting close to our dinner reservation at Cowfish (another request of DS-27) so we headed over to City Walk.

Up next…Our second time trying CowFish, will it be the last?

 

[disneyAndi14]

Oh no we love Cow Fish I hope you didn’t have a bad meal!
I always feel bad for my daughter at Universal because I don’t do the big coasters! She does all of them alone. I will do Hagrid’s, Mummy, and Gringotts
It sounds like you accomplished a lot on your one day. EP is great for short trips!

 

[mickey916]

Oh no we love Cow Fish I hope you didn’t have a bad meal!
I always feel bad for my daughter at Universal because I don’t do the big coasters! She does all of them alone. I will do Hagrid’s, Mummy, and Gringotts
It sounds like you accomplished a lot on your one day. EP is great for short trips!

I'm about to post my review of Cow Fish next. (You may not want to read it, LOL). I love big coasters but since DH doesn't do them, usually my two sons ride together and I ride alone so I know how your daughter feels. For this trip I knew EP was a necessity. Our boys only had four days with us and wanted to do Gatorland, Universal, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. It was a lot to cram in but we really lucked out with beautiful weather and low crowds at MK and HS. I thought we were crazy to attempt all of that but it actually worked out extremely well.

 

[mickey916]

4/7 continued - Dinner at Cow Fish and a Rocket Launch
​

When we last visited Universal in May 2022, we dined at Cow Fish. My oldest son ordered sushi at the time and thought it was pretty good. DH, younger son and I ordered burgushi. We thought it was tasty but a very small portion for the price. Chalking it up to probably not ordering properly, we decided to give it another chance this year.

This trip, to start our meal, we shared the Crab Rangoon Dip: creamy crab rangoon with Parmesan panko crust, wonton crisps, sweet chili sauce and chives.

This was decent. We liked the wonton chips and the dip was fine, nothing memorable.

For our entrees this time around, DS-25 ordered the half pound version of the “Cowfish Has Officially Left the Building”, called “Single Hunka Love”: a half pound burger, creamy peanut butter, fried bananas, applewood smoked bacon, brioche bun. DH and I ordered one to share as well.

First of all, they forgot to include the fried bananas, which we had to ask our server to bring out for us. Also, the burger and the bun were really dry and the meat was under seasoned. It improved a little bit with the added bananas but overall was another disappointing burger on this vacation. Here’s a cross-section look at our poor dry burger with the added bananas.

The fries weren’t cooked well and were under seasoned also. This one was definitely a miss for us.

DH and I also shared the Chicken Bacon Avocado sandwich: grilled all natural chicken, applewood smoked bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato, wasabi mayo, brioche bun.

This too was not good. The chicken was extremely overcooked, dry and chewy. The fries were also under seasoned and the bun seemed stale. I don’t remember any wasabi mayo either.

DS-27 ordered the Flaming Salmon sushi roll.

He said it was good sushi but nothing out of the ordinary. Of the four of us, he enjoyed his meal the most.

Service at the Cowfish wasn’t great either. We barely saw our server. In fact we had eaten half of our burgers before we could ask about the bananas.

So, we’ve given Cowfish two tries and we all agree we don’t need to eat here again. It’s expensive and the food wasn’t anything great. We were regretting not booking Mythos instead.

After our meal, we headed to pick up dessert at Toothsome. Our plan was to get dessert and watch a SpaceX launch. Unfortunately the line at Toothsome was so long we were afraid we’d miss the launch so we decided to try back later.

Here’s some pictures from City Walk of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on April 7.

After the launch, DS-27 wanted one more ride on Velocicoaster so we headed back into IoA. Our plan was to ride the coaster then head back to Toothsome to get dessert. But, for some reason after Velocicoaster, DS-27 had a strong desire to ride the Flight of Hippogriff. Unfortunately even with Express Pass the wait took at least 45 minutes. By the time the boys got off the Hippogriff, the park was closed and we felt it was way too late for us to drink rich milkshakes from Toothsome…so no dessert for us. DS-25 says next time we’re getting dessert first. This is the second trip in a row that we ran out of time for Toothsome.

We headed back to Royal Pacific for our one night stay. Overall we thought the room at Royal Pacific was nice. We really spent so little time there that it was tough to judge. It was quiet, clean, spacious and comfortable and worth the cost for the Express Passes.

We could have used Express Passes the next day as well. However, our sons only had four days with us and they wanted to go to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios so we opted to just spend the one day at Universal.

Total Steps: 27,459

Up next…getting up early to make Early Entry at Magic Kingdom.

 

[mickey916]

4/8 Magic Kingdom with Our Boys
​

Since our time with the boys was so limited, I had decided to book our next night at the Pop Century resort so that we’d be eligible for early entry on Monday and Tuesday. About two weeks before our trip, Disney updated the park hours so early entry was now 7:30 instead of 8:30. We had to get all the way from the Royal Pacific to the Magic Kingdom so we got up early and headed out as quickly as we could. On the way I purchased Genie+, attempted to get a VQ for Tron, and booked a LL for Peter Pan.

To my shock and amazement I got Group 10 for Tron!

I have never done better than Group 50 for Tron or GotG! We arrived at the TTC just in time to miss the ferry (which happens to us practically every time). We prefer the open air of the ferry to the crowded monorail so we opted to wait.

We got through the turnstiles at 7:45, not bad considering we were coming all the way from Universal. The boys headed over to ride Space Mountain, which was a walk-on. As they rode, I checked the app. By 8:08 our group was being called for Tron.

So, as soon as they came off Space Mountain, we walked over to Tron. The line was completely empty.

As we got to the boarding station, there were four people already on the ride. We asked if we could wait for the next one to get the front row. This was my sons’ first time riding and I wanted them to get an unobstructed view. The CM let us wait for the next one.

The boys really enjoyed the ride but, like most people, they felt it was a little too short. Next we headed over to Buzz Lightyear which also had no wait. I lost miserably. After Buzz, the four of us rode the People Mover and then headed to Peter Pan for our first LL.

At this point we were all hungry so we picked up breakfast at Gaston’s Tavern. We shared two cinnamon rolls with extra icing.

We enjoy these every time! The one my boys shared was perfectly shaped and huge! Ours was a little squished but still really good! (Photos of the better one).

Since we were right near Little Mermaid, we rode that with no wait. Next we rode Haunted Mansion and Pirates with no waits. My sons and I then used a LL to ride Big Thunder Mountain RR. We took the train from Frontierland and picked up a snack at Casey’s Corner - we shared two orders of corn dog nuggets and fries with two sides of cheese sauce.

Sorry, we ate a few before I took a picture! These are so good! My boys are huge corn dog fans and had never tried these before. They are so tasty!

The fries were also well cooked and good, especially when dunked in cheese sauce!
After our snack, we used a LL to ride It’s a Small World.

We had accomplished a lot already by 12:30! After using a LL to ride Winnie the Pooh, we needed another snack. My DS-27 is a huge fan of the spring rolls so we picked up two orders, one cheeseburger and one pepperoni, and shared those.

Interior view of cheeseburger springroll.

Interior view of pepperoni.

These were very good as well, albeit expensive for what you get. DH and my boys all preferred the cheeseburger one but I preferred the pepperoni. DS-27 said his favorite though was the pastrami one served during the 50th celebration.

Next we headed back to Tomorrowland and used a LL for Buzz and the boys used LLs for Space Mt. While the boys were on Space Mountain, my DH noticed Bonnie, the sister of Nate from Paging Mr. Morrow on YouTube, walking through the area. We went over to say hello and introduce ourselves. She was so friendly and sweet, which is pretty nice for someone who is a sibling of a vlogger and not one herself. She was looking for Nate. Eventually we found him recording content around a corner and introduced ourselves to him as well. We didn’t think to ask for a photo, so we have no proof, lol. He was very nice as well.

Once our boys returned from Space Mountain we went to watch the Carousel of Progress.

This was the day of the total eclipse but we really couldn’t see anything other than the sky seemed a little less bright. We decided to go see Sunny Eclipse since we couldn’t see the actual eclipse and watched him for a little bit.

Next, DS-25 wanted to ride the Liberty Belle, mostly because he is a fan of steam whistles. After our journey through the Rivers of America, we used a LL for another visit to the Haunted Mansion. We then visited the Hall of Presidents and used a LL for Pirates of the Caribbean. DS-27 insisted we go to the Enchanted Tiki room next. After the show, it was 4:30 and we had a 6:00 ADR at ‘Ohana. We took one last train ride around the park, our 21st attraction of the day. We then boarded the boat to the Poly. Since we were a little early, we relaxed on the beach for a bit before checking in for dinner, which I’ll review in my next post.

This was such an incredible day at Magic Kingdom. The crowd level was predicted by Touring Plans to be a “5”. It ended up being a “2”. The weather was perfect, the crowds were low, and we were able to do everything we wanted to do at a relaxed pace with a combination of low standby times and Lightning Lanes. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day!

Up next…the real reason DS-25 came on the trip - dinner at ‘Ohana.

 

[mickey916]

4/8 continued....Dinner at 'Ohana
​

When we went on our family trip in May 2022, DS-25’s favorite meal was ‘Ohana. When we were planning this trip, DS-25 wasn’t sure he could get any time off of work. As soon as I told him I had an ‘Ohana reservation, he suddenly decided he could spare two vacation days. He’s already talking about joining us next year if I can get another ADR.

We checked in and were seated at a table near the windows. Our server brought out the salad and bread service.

The salad was fresh with a flavorful citrus vinaigrette. We all enjoyed it but we were careful not to fill up on it.

The pineapple bread with honey butter is absolutely delicious. We ate all of it!

Next our server brought out the skillet of sides, our favorite part.

We absolutely love the sweet sticky honey-coriander wings, ‘Ohana noodles, and potstickers. The broccoli was fine. I prefer when they have mixed vegetables or broccolini.

Our server also brought us the peel ‘n’ eat shrimp.

These are so delicious! DS-25 and I ate most of them. DS-27 didn’t love them and DH only eats shrimp when it’s in jambalaya. The shrimp is so fresh and nicely seasoned.

Our server brought out the chicken thighs and mentioned that it was sweet ‘n’ sour chicken. It’s now listed as chicken with guava pineapple glaze.

This was good but I prefer the chimichurri chicken they used to serve. Everyone else thought it was very good.

For the teriyaki beef, my DH asked if he could have a couple pieces well done, so he got a separate skillet. Here’s our skillet, after we ate a couple.

This is our least favorite part of the meal, due to its inconsistency. Some pieces are tender and delicious and some are super chewy. Someone once told me restaurants often mix in cheaper cuts of meat to stretch it when serving tips. I believe that is the case here. I’ve learned not to eat the chewy ones and just get another one. There’s so much else we love with this meal that I often skip the beef if I can’t find a good one. My DH enjoyed most of his well done tips but found he had chewy ones mixed in too.

Our server brought out another skillet of the wings, pot stickers and noodles without us even requesting it. We ate most of that one too!

Then, it was time for dessert, the other reason we love ‘Ohana, the bread pudding.

This was delicious as always!

Overall, this was another great meal at ‘Ohana. Service was excellent. The food was hot and fresh. We didn’t feel rushed. This is hands down our favorite restaurant. There’s a reason it’s always so hard to get an ADR here.

After our meal we discussed returning to Magic Kingdom but we had already seen and done everything we wanted to do so we walked over to the TTC and drove to the Pop Century resort. I had checked in online and we were assigned a room in the 90s building.

I was a little nervous about the smallness of this room with four adults and that the murphy bed might be uncomfortable. But, it was perfectly fine for us, especially for one night. Maybe if we were staying a whole week we’d find it cramped but we never spend any time in the room anyhow. This was our first stay in a value resort and we were pleasantly surprised. We would definitely stay at Pop Century again.

After bringing in our luggage, my sons and I decided to explore the resort and take a ride on the Skyliner. We made the mistake of getting off at the Riviera Resort just at the close of Epcot. It took us a long time to be able to get back on with all the gondolas being full from Epcot. Eventually the CM put us in an empty handicapped accessible one and we made our way back to Pop.

Overall, it was a perfect day.

Total steps: 30,009!

Up next…our last day with our sons at Hollywood Studios.

 

[mickey916]

4/9 Hollywood Studios with Our Sons​

Our morning began with a little Genie+ frustration. I had purchased Genie+ and right at 6:59:59 refreshed to get Slinky LL. For some reason it was only booking it for DH and me. I went back to try and fix it and it wouldn’t let me add the boys to our group. So, I went ahead and booked for the two of us but of course by then it was showing a 2:30 return time. I then tried to book for the boys and it showed a 5:30 return time. We were leaving the park at 5:00 to take them to the airport. I ended up chatting in the app with a CM who offered to book it for me with a 7:30 pm return time. I explained that wouldn’t work. After a time on “hold” the CM got back to me and was able to get an anytime LL for them that we could use on Slinky.

It was a very stressful start to the morning but it all worked out. Interesting though, the whole day every time I tried to book a LL I had to manually add the boys. I don’t know what the deal was but the app was obviously glitching. I don’t know if it was because they had regular tickets and we had APs but it didn’t happen at all the day before at MK.

Despite my Genie+ frustration slowing us down we made it to Hollywood Studios a half hour before early entry at 8:30. We immediately got in line for Tower of Terror and rode it as soon as the park opened. We then headed to MMRR and Toy Story Mania. At this point, it was a little past 9:00 so we ordered breakfast at Woody’s Lunchbox.

DS-27 and I each got the breakfast bowl: Hearty portion of Potato Barrels smothered in Smoked Brisket Country Gravy, Scrambled Eggs and a sprinkling of Green Onions. It was enormous! We easily could’ve shared one.

We both enjoyed this very much. The brisket in the gravy added a nice smoky flavor and the potato barrels retained their crispiness. It was very good! I shared some of mine with DH and DS-25 but they prefer a sweet breakfast.

They each ordered the raspberry lunch box tart.

They liked it but said it was basically a sugar cookie with a little bit of raspberry filling. They both thought it needed more filling and were expecting more of a pastry-like crust.

After we finished breakfast we noticed Slinky only had a 45 minute wait so we decided to hop in line. It ended up taking at least 45 minutes. We’re used to riding very intense coasters but Slinky is still a lot of fun.

After Slinky we explored Toy Story Land a little and then headed over to watch the Muppets. We all enjoy this show each time we see it.

After exploring Batuu for a bit, we ordered an early lunch from Ronto Roasters. We each got our own Ronto Wrap.

We loved these back in 2022 but this time they weren’t quite as good as we remembered. We couldn’t place our finger on it but maybe they needed more peppercorn sauce. Still a good option for a quick lunch.

After lunch we headed to Rise to use the ILL I had purchased for noon. For the most part everything was working properly except Lieutenant Bek was just a video screen on the transport. Also we spent a huge amount of time standing in one of the corridors. I half expected to be escorted out at that point. I am amazed at the intricacy of this ride each time I ride. Very fun even for someone who doesn’t know a lot about Star Wars.

After Rise we used a LL to ride Millennium Falcon. It was funny, we were placed with two young girls who ended up being our pilots. One of them looked to be about four years old, the other was probably 12-13. We were a little concerned it was going to be a bumpy ride. The two girls did incredible! Afterwards, my boys were laughing saying the four year old did better than they did when they were pilots. They weren’t wrong!

We explored Batuu some more and then headed to get a snack. We picked up a Jack Jack Num Num cookie (one of our favorites from 2022) and three Pineapple Coconut Slushies for DH, DS-25, and me.

Sadly this wasn’t good. It was hard as a rock and very stale. We were so disappointed. It’s usually one of our favorite cookies.

The pineapple coconut slushy was very good. It has a nice pineapple and coconut flavor. We really enjoy this drink but not as much as the one at Old Key West for some reason.

DS-27 wanted an ice cream and headed to Gerties but they were sold out of softserve. That was a little odd in the early afternoon. He then picked up a frozen coke at Peevy’s Polar Pipeline.

He thought this was refreshing but I think he really wished he had an ice cream instead.

Look! A hidden Mickey!

As we enjoyed our treats, we watched a family of ducks enjoying their day at the park.

We then used our stacked LL for another ride on Toy Story Mania and Slinky. DS-27 and I used a LL for Tower of Terror while DS-25 and DH watched Indy. They both felt the show needs an update.

At this point it was time for our early dinner ADR at Mama Melrose so we headed there.

Up next…trying the new menu at Mama Melrose.

 

[DJFan88]

Bummer about the Num Num cookie, i was thinking of getting one my next trip, but i better make sure they all look fresh

 

[mickey916]

Bummer about the Num Num cookie, i was thinking of getting one my next trip, but i better make sure they all look fresh

This was our third time getting one and it's the first time we got a stale one so the odds are in your favor. Hope you get a good one!

 

[mickey916]

Dinner at Mama Melrose & Saying Good-bye to our Sons
​

Since the boys were heading to the airport around 5-5:30, I reserved a 4:00 pm ADR at Mama Melrose. DH and I had eaten here previously but our sons had not.

We ordered the house garlic bread for the table as an appetizer.

While this was good, the bread was a little soggy. I think Mama should give Tony a call for his garlic bread recipe ‘cuz this one doesn’t come anywhere close to his.

My DH and I decided once again to share two entrees. We were both disappointed to see the shrimp (chicken) campanelle was no longer on the menu. So, we ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken as one of our entrees.

This was okay. The sauce was a little watery but it tasted fine. Again I think Mama needs to talk to Tony. My DS-25 also ordered this dish and thought it was fine.

The second entree we shared was the Rigatoni Bolognese.

This was also good but nothing memorable.

My DS-27 ordered the Braised Pork Osso Bucco: Creamy Polenta, Roasted Cipollini Onions, Sweet Peppers, Lemon Gremolata

He thought this was excellent, albeit a rather small portion. It looks much bigger in the photo. The meat was fork tender and very flavorful. He enjoyed it but it was gone rather quickly.

Overall Mama Melrose was fine. We actually preferred it the previous time we went with the previous menu. Probably not a place we will return to any time soon.

Our meal was pretty quick though, so I grabbed one last LL for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. We love looking for hidden mickeys and there’s a bunch on this ride. Here’s one of our favorites in a light fixture in the queue (it’s a profile one):

Can you see it?

After our ride on MMRR, we headed to the airport to drop off the boys. We then checked into our next hotel for six nights, the Residence Inn Flamingo Crossing. It was really nice to know we were staying in one place for a bit after being in three different hotels over the past three nights.

We love this hotel. It is clean, spacious, quiet, and comfortable. It is also a short, fairly easy, drive to any of the parks or Disney Springs.

Since we hadn’t had dessert and it was still early, we decided to go to Coronado Springs and check out the Dahlia Lounge in the Gran Destino Tower. We didn’t realize that Toledo isn’t open on Mondays or Tuesdays so we were quite surprised to find only one other party at the Dahlia Lounge on this Tuesday night.

We both ordered the Ponche de Frutas: Pomegranate Juice, Sweet-and-Sour, Pineapple, Blackberry, Lime, Soda Water.

DH absolutely loved this drink and mentioned we need to go there again on our next trip. I too thought it had terrific refreshing flavors.

For our dessert we ordered warm churros with chocolate sauce.

They were delicious! They were crispy on the outside with lots of cinnamon sugar and soft on the inside. They may have even been a little underdone but we really enjoyed them. The chocolate sauce had a nice bittersweet taste.

We really enjoyed our nighttime snack at the Dahlia Lounge and the views were excellent too!

After our snack, we headed back to the Residence Inn.

Total steps: 21871

Up next…back to just the two of us enjoying breakfast at Boma, Animal Kingdom, and Disney Springs.