Our First Family WDW Trip - NO LINES!!

[lisaross]

HI Everyone!

Just got back last night from our 1st Disney Family Vacation


Started out planning this trip in October! Decided to surprise my family for my husband's 40th b-day - the surprise only last for about 2 months until i could not hold it in and tell the family. Booked our Airline tickets in November - and bought 7 day park hopper tickets! I found these boards in December i think and wow you all helped me plan and plan a great trip!

I found out about the free dining so i got that with 1 day park tickets for all. I bought the kids glow sticks, bought the collapsable hamper which was so so great - i brought my own coffee for the room - bought the mole skin for our feet (no one got any blisters) bought the raincoats disney stickers and coloring books for the kids - all our Disney tee-shirts, ponchos and fans, misters, flash lights (for the scary rides) and so much more i can't think of that I bought months ahead of time and just kept throwing in the closet.

A few weeks before our day of departure, my husband looses his job - lots of you may of read my posts on the budget board - i was so so stressed over this - but we decided to go on our trip since it was already planned and paid for and the kids just could not wait. so we decided to go and just not buy too many extras. and guess what i think we spent a total of $100.00 in disney - obviously being on the dining plan we spent 0 on food. Well actually 3.00 on milk for the room - so the kids could eat cereal quick in the morning i brought some from home. The kids got light sabers that the both wanted - spent about $10.00 each in the game room - they got hair cuts and pixie dust confetti on there heads from the barber shop in the MK (very cool!!) i got a necklace with the disney charms to attach (got goofy, mickey, eyore and donalds) the kids favorite characters - and 2 magnets!!

OK so here we go August 27th - Sept 4th - Carribean Beach Resort

Me - 38
Husband - 39 (turning 40 this month)
Son - 6
Son - 4

SUNDAY: Wake up about 5am and off to the airport at 6am. Catch our 8:40am flight out of JFK and arrive in Orlando about 11:30am - straight to Magical Express - check-in about 5 minute wait if that much then on to the line to wait for our bus - about 10-15 minute wait for our bus and off to the CBR. Arrive and check-in takes about 5 minutes our preferred room is ready and we are in Martinike bldg 25!

We are at the pool by 1pm and swim have lunch and go to DTD for dinner at Wolf Gang Pucks - walk around a bit. No wait for the Restaurant - actually seemed quite empty i was surprised being its free dining!!! Head back to the hotel for showers and sleep.................

MONDAY: Get a 7am wake up call - out of the room by about 8:15am and head to EPCOT - have to say the bus service was great - waits going to the Cparks were 5-10 minutes and the same leaving the parks. Get to EPCOT about 9am and go quickly to SOARIN - hey wait time is posted 10 minutes so we get on line - maybe the wait was 5 minutes and we get the first row - this ride was so amazing -- my 4 year old cried for about 15 seconds then enjoyed it! so next we head to Test Trac again wait time posted 10 minutes waited about 5! The park was empty the entire day - by the time we left at about 5pm i think the posted time for Soarin was 20 minutes! We had lunch at Garden Grill - the kids really enjoyed it - we did most of FW today - then we headed back to CBR for a swim and CS dinner!

TUESDAY: -We headed to MK for opening so the kids could see the opening parade - zoomed straight to Buzz light - No wait - rode 2x then went over to Fantasy land - again 5 minute waits for everthing including Splash Mountain/Space Mountain all the big rides. We finished 3/4 of the park - everything except for Adventure land by about 4pm - we even rode more then once on lots of rides - saw the shows, parade, had lunch at Tony's (which was ok nothing i'd go back to) It was so great just watching the faces on my kids......we headed back to the hotel for a quick swim and then decided to go to MGM to see fantasmic since hurricane Ernesto was coming tomorrow (Wednesday ) which was our mgm day but i did not want to miss Fantasmic so we got to MGM about 6pm and went on Tower of Terror -again 10 minute wait. Then we went over to Fantasmic about 7:15 and got seats and my husband got us cs dinner we ate waiting for the show to begin - What a great show glad we went to see it. I'm also glad i had the hopper tickets because i really thought we would not be hopping - i was wrong.

i'll write more later

lisa

 

[mikymouse]

Lisa, I am so glad you enjoyed your vaction and writing your trip report. Isn't it just great to see the joy on the children's faces! I am sorry to here about your DH's job but so glad that you decieded to keep your date with the mouse. Looking forward to more.

 

[bbump]

Your itinerary sounds just like ours!
We were at EPCOT on Mon 8/28 and also ate lunch at Garden Grill (this was our favorite character meal of the week, because we didn't feel rushed)

We went to MK on Tues 8/29
and went to MGM on Ernesto Day 8/30, we did alot in the morning and had a late lunch and the rest of the day was a wash out.
The park was absolutely dead.

Thursday was our last park day 8/30 and we went to Animal Kingdom, this seemed to be the busiest park of the week for us but mostly due to Expedition Everest.
looking forward to hearing more of your trip report.
I will be posting my diverse report as soon as I can get caught up with my work. (We went with another family who had 3 kids, it was so much fun)

Thanks again for posting.

 

[lisaross]

Wednesday is our MGM day (by the way i planned which parks which days by the unofficial guide to Disney) So today hurricane ernesto sprinkles us with rain on and off - we get to the park about 9:30 and today is the wiggles concert thinking this park might be croweded because of this - but people are calling us into the first showing of wiggles - my 6 year old was like Wiggles if for babies - but we all went in anyway - it was a 30 minute show and they were lots of fun to watch - the park again empty - we walked on everything - had lunch at Sci-Fi - was good but too dark it made me real tied. But then got a second wind and we all went to Tower of Terror again then into Beauty and the Beast - that was a GREAT show. after this show it was about 4pm and pouring outside - so we did a few more things and then headed back to the hotel. I think we got mostly everything in we wanted - the lights car show - i loved the 3D muppet show the star wars ride - back to the hotel dnr and i think to bed i cannot remember. I am glad that i went to see Fantasmic the night before because it was rained out!

Thursday - we got up early to get to MK for the Early Morning Hours - again empty did Buzz, the transit cars - space mountain then headed to Fantasy land to re-do some rides and then hit Adventure land again 5-10 minute waits. Had lunch at Crystal Palace - it was an enjoyable lunch - characters came over several times and they sang happy b-day to my husband and gave him a b-day card (i guess they saw him wearing his b-day pin). Originally we were going to eat dinner at a CS at the hotel. but decided in the morning the make reservations at Epcot for Biergarden for dnr - so we headed back to the hotel after finishing up Adventureland and a few more rides , went back to the hotel - had a swim played in the park a bit and off to Epcot - had another enjoyable dnr and finished dnr and went right out to see the Illuminations show - again no big crowds - great show had some ice-cream and back to the hotel.

Friday - our Animal Kingdom day - this was my least favorite park BUT i loved Dinasour it was really scary.........but my kids went on it - we went 2x in a row! Went on the Safari ride - not very impressed - my husband and older son went on Mt. Everest - it started to rain we had lunch saw some shows on we saw the 1st showing of Lion King - empty it was a great show as well. um i think we missed alot of things at this park - we also rode the rapids - 2x in a row it was lots of fun - i was in the wet seat - again 5 minute wait. We watched the parade - did a bit of shopping saw the indiana jones show and we left about 5:30pm - went back to our hotel - kids were nutty i was cranky we ate dnr in our room from the food court.

Saturday - my older son and i hung by the pool in the afternoon and i got my laundry done - and my husband and younger son went back to MGM to see some more shows and go on Tower of Terror again - my husband said it was a bit more crowded then the past days, but still no real waits! At about 4pm we all headed to MK for the boys to go to the barber shop - it was quite a wait, then we headed on the Monorial to Chef mickey's this was the best character meal - lots of fun good food great pictures - i can see why so many do this on there first night! then back to MK - this was our first time in the evening and it was more crowded we got on Splash Mountain Thunderrailroad which is great at night we lined up for the electric parade but it started raining - it was postponed then eventually cancelled - we started walking back to main street and it was just drizzling and then stopped raining so we sat on a bench and waited for Wishes - wow am i glad we did - the park emptied out - we got a great seat on the floor in front of the Castle - this was hands down the Best Fire work show i thought! I felt bad my older son fell asleep for it. This was a ruff night leaving the park both kids were asleep b4 we got to the bus - we waited for the 2nd bus so we could get seats i was so so tied!

Sunday - we headed back to Epcot - the lines were a bit longer today - about 20-60 minute waits so we used fast pass for Soarin and TEst Trac - we had lunch in the countries 2 of us ate in China and the other 2 Mexico. the kids stopped at some of the kid cot places - rode the ride in Mexico again and then back to the FW side - again it started to rain late afternoon so we did some indoor stuff innovations - the cool ctr and we had reservations for 6p at Coral Reef but went in about 5:20 and they seated us within 10 minutes. Food here was ok - i was not that impressed - it was cool to see the divers swimming - the Chocolate dome cake was the Best dessert i had in Disney.

We then headed back to the hotel being exausted - it was still drizzling so we were not able to go to the pools so we hit the bed!

Monday - our last morning in Disney - finished packing - we had bk-fast at an outside table soaking in the view - i had the luggage picked up and drove with the guy to get our boarding passes then met my husband and kids in the gameroom - the kids love the game room - then we headed to the pool for about an hour - it was a nice sunny moring - had a quick lunch by the pool - got some snacks to bring home since we had about 6 snack credits left over and 2 CS - got some sandwichs to go. changed our cloths and off to meet the Magical express Bus. We had a wonderful vacation. The kids want to live in Disney. I love staying on the property the bus system was great everyone in disney were great - we all enjoyed the much needed vacation! Will definitly go back in 2-3 years!

Lisa

 

[shellbelle]

Sounds like a great trip. Love hearing about the short lines!

 

[mikymouse]

Lisa, It sounds like you had a great time. My kids fell asleep during wishes too and thank god we had the umbrella stroller for that moment alone... they were worth it. Did you have strollers? What would you repeat, try next time??? We are definately going back to Chef Mickeys, just for the fun factor. I am thinking of buying a Mickey Waffle maker just to hold us over till the next time.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Lisa, so glad you had a great trip despite your dh's job situation. What a great way to escape the stress!

 

[lisaross]

we had two umbrella strollers. We brought one everyday for our 4 year old and we brought the other on the 3 nights we went to the park late for our 6 year old.

I would definitly do Chef Mickey's again and probably Garden Grill. We did Chef Mickey's for dnr and Garden Grill for lunch!

I loved Soarin - thought it was one of my favorite rides, also liked Dinosaur in AK went on Tower of Terror - not sure i'd do it again - loved Thunder Mountain railroad - especially at night - and Space Mountain - i really enjoyed most of the rides in Fantasy land as well! My favorite show was Beauty and the Beast - my husbands favoite 3D was Mickeys Philamagic my 6 year olds favorite was Expedition Everest and my 4 year olds favorite was Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

So happy to hear you were able to salvage this trip and have a great time in spite of the events leading up to it.