ONE Disney Day: EPCOT Festival of the Arts First Timer FEBRUARY 2023 TR (7/12 Update)

[kittylady1972]

Wow - what a whirlwind trip but fun! Sadly I could never get my DH to do it but a little Disney is better than no Disney. Thanks for sharing!

I actually really enjoy the short trips, DH isn't a huge fan but he goes along with it.

We are now planning one for next month, was going to be one Universal day but now it's two Universal days but staying on Disney property so we'll likely sprinkle in SOME Disney.

Now that we have Disney APs it will be tempting NOT to activate them while there. However we have long trips planned for Sept and Oct so I really want to hold off and activate them in September so I can use them NEXT summer!

 

[kittylady1972]

I just realized it's been a while since I've done any TRs but I'm so bad at updating them. Case in point...at least this one I managed to update for the one day but not any of the other trips I mentioned.

MAY TRIP: We did 2 nights at Riviera Resort in a 1BR and my daughter and boyfriend joined us. We LOVE Riviera Resort...only wish we could have spent more time there. This trip was focused mostly on Universal, but we had no Express Passes so we did what we could, which was still quite a bit. We had great weather our first full day, but our second day we got in some morning time...and then tried to hit the Riviera Resort pool for afternoon. As we were getting lunch and eating by the pool, the skies opened up and everything was closed. We ended up retreating to our room and relaxing for a while which was fine because...we had SURPRISED the "kids" (age 21 and 20) with tickets to Disney After Hours at Hollywood Studios. BTW it KILLED my husband to keep this surprise, we did tell them a little early as we planned a meal at the park since we could enter at 7pm.

Disney After Hours at HS was AWESOME! Probably due to the rain (it was light when we arrived) we had very limited crowds even during the overlapping hours when regular park guests were still "legal" (7pm-9pm). We enjoyed a meal at Mama Melrose first and then hit the rides. We walked onto Star Tours, practically walked on to RotR, walked on to TSM, waited about 20 minutes for Slinky Dog, walked on to MMRR, walked on to Smuggler's Run (and rode it back to back), got our fill of popcorn and Mickey Ice Cream bars and water, and as a final act we rode Tower of Tower pretty much walk on first time and rode a second time right after. This time as we were in the load area we were the ONLY 4 people...and asked if we could sit anywhere. The CMs said sure, then other people walked up to be loaded...they held them to the next ride and let us all pick our own seats so we had the whole elevator to ourselves and we each sat in a corner. It was SO MUCH FUN! Definitely the highlight of the trip. Next day was a return to Universal, got in a few more rides, had a late lunch at Toothsome, then headed to the airport to go home.

That brings us to now...where I currently have 3 Disney trips and 2 Disney Cruises lines up from now until the end of the year!

August: What started as a 2-night Universal Only trip with another couple who are good friends was expanded (by me) into let's add 3 Disney nights before that (just the 2 of us)...and activate our annual passes finally! So we are staying 3 nights at the Polynesian, will do some Disney parks and some Resort time, then head to Universal where we have 3 days/2 nights there in Club Level room.

Sept: 12 days after our August trip, we'll go back to Disney, just the 2 of us. We have tickets to DVC Moonlight Magic event at Hollywood Studios, and the next day we plan to do Universal and hopefully Hollywood Horror Nights. My older son may come down for HHN. We have a room at SSR for our 3 nights.

Oct: 41/42 days later, we'll head back to Florida. This time to celebrate my daughter's 21st birthday, so she will be with us and probably my FIL and maybe other family members..not sure. We plan to do 1 or 2 Disney park days (Epcot for sure on her birthday for Food and Wine) and we are attending the WVU at UCF Football Game. Nothing booked for this yet except the room at SSR which may change.

Nov: 9 days after our return from the above, we'll head to San Juan where we are celebrating our 25 years of marriage (Oct) on the Disney Dream Southern Caribbean cruise, and then we'll get off that ship and get right back on and do a 3 night cruise from San Juan to Ft Lauderdale before flying home.

Now the only thing left is to find something to do in December, but I'm out of DVC points right now so have to decide what to do. Maybe squeeze in one more trip before our Universal passes expire in late December, and then to plan a trip in March of next year for my birthday!