Spring Break Dream: April 10th - 15th (Completed)

kyirish25

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
1,187
The Who:
Me: Cher (37)
DH: Doug (36)
DS: Doug (10)
IL's: Doug & Rose (early 60's)

SCAN0003.jpg


The What:
Easter and Spring Break Vacation

The Where:
Pop Century
Disney Dream

The When:
April 5th - 15th

Please join us as we begin this DREAM vacation!

Links
April 5th - Travel, Pop & Hollywood
April 6th - Magical Day
April 7th - Epcot
April 8th - Easter
April 9th - ER, HS & MK
April 10th - Cruise Day
April 11th - Castaway Cay
April 12th - Nassau
April 13th - Sea Day
April 14th - Castaway Cay
April 15th - Departure
 
I'm new to writing trip reports so I hope I can hold some interest. So many from our cruise is writing them I felt instead of clogging up their reports with "we did that too" or "this is what we did instead" I would just write me own.

Thursday, April 5th

Beep, beep, beep....yes that is the alarm clock going off at 4:30am. Any other day and I would have hit snooze but not today, we are going to Disney World! We take showers, pack last minutes things and load the car all in record time. We pull out of the driveway at 5:00am!

The drive is only 7.5 hours and with leaving this early in the morning we avoid any traffic issues in the cities along the way. I had bought Krispy Kreme donuts and we ate those for breakfast along the way and only made gas & bathroom stops at 7:45am and 10:00am.

Here is what we see at 12:30pm
P1000361.jpg


We follow the signs to
P1000372.jpg


The check-in line was really long and even with doing online check-in we had to wait about 20 minutes. We were assigned to preferred room 0432 in the 70's building.
P1000369.jpg


P1000370.jpg


P1000365.jpg


This was a great location as it was very close to the main building but not directly at the pool where the noise tends to be rowdy late into the night.

After dropping off the luggage we went over to Everything Pop to grab some lunch and purchase our refillable drink mugs. We have the Tables in Wonderland card so it is very nice to be able to get 20% off food at the value resorts quick service.

With full bellies it is time to hit the parks. We jump back in the car and drive over to Hollywood Studios. Mistake on driving as we are parked in the very last row of the furthest back parking lot. Oh well, stretch those legs out some and burn off those calories.

First stop is to see if there are any FP's left? We know Toy Story is out of the question so we head to Rock N Rollercoaster and just as I'm walking up they run out of FP's and the standby line is 120 minutes. Next stop.....
P1000373.jpg


We grab some FP's and then get into the standby line. The posted wait time is 45 minutes but we were hitting the lobby is about 20 minutes.
P1000376.jpg


We all LOVE this ride and have the best time watching those around us who are riding for the first time. IL's won't ride ToT or RnR but we always use their passes for extra FP's and DH & I will take turns sitting a ride out while having Dougie get another ride.

We decide to walk over and see how bad the wait for Toy Story is. The posted time is 60 minutes which isn't bad at all and if it goes as fast as ToT had we will be through in no time. Plus it is a nice air conditioned line to wait in.

P1000378.jpg


P1000383.jpg


My score as I rode by myself
P1000384.jpg


Next we head over and walk straight onto the Great Movie Ride. We still have some time before our dinner ADR so we head back to Star Tours. The posted wait time said 10 minutes so we jump into the line. 15 minutes later and still nowhere near getting on we get out of line so we won't be late for dinner.

ADR - Brown Derby at 5:50pm
The food and wine were wonderful and the service was okay. We skipped dessert as nothing sounded that good.

Time to use the ToT fast passes. 1st round the 3 of us go and the 2nd round just DH & Dougie go.
P1000397.jpg


P1000394.jpg


We decide to skip Fantasmic and take another spin on Toy Story. The wait was still posted at 60 minutes and took exactly that to get through. Now it is time for something sweet. We grab some goodies from the Villian store and eat while we walk out to the car. We wanted to get a head start on the crowds as Fantasmic was just about to end.

We get back to the room around 10:00pm. It has been a long but fun day! Can't wait until tomorrow as we are headed to Magic Kingdom.
 

The Who:
Me: Cher (37)
DH: Doug (36)
DS: Doug (10)
IL's: Doug & Rose (early 60's)

SCAN0003.jpg


The What:
Easter and Spring Break Vacation

The Where:
Pop Century
Disney Dream

The When:
April 5th - 15th

Please join us as we begin this DREAM vacation!

Links
April 5th - Travel, Pop & Hollywood
April 6th - Magical Day
April 7th - Epcot & Sorcerer's
April 8th - Easter, Animals, & Shopping
April 9th - Celebration, Hollywood & Sorcerer's
April 10th - Cruise Time
April 11th - Castaway Cay
April 12th - Nassau
April 13th - Sea Day
April 14th - Castaway Cay
April 15th - Back to reality
(( This day you should have skipped...Looks horrible)
 
We have the Tables in Wonderland card so it is very nice to be able to get 20% off food at the value resorts quick service.

For Realz? You can use those for quick service ?? I thought it was only table service. Do tell !! They didn't take TIW at Yak and Yeti. We use ours a good bit, but this time we didn't use it much because we didn't drink as much. I am trying to cut back and I feel sooo much better. I used to have one or two glasses of wine a day and now it is just one or two a week. It is amazing how much better I feel.

This, of course, didn't apply on the cruise ...... I needed some blood in my alcohol stream when we got back. :rotfl:
 
For Realz? You can use those for quick service ?? I thought it was only table service. Do tell !! They didn't take TIW at Yak and Yeti. We use ours a good bit, but this time we didn't use it much because we didn't drink as much. I am trying to cut back and I feel sooo much better. I used to have one or two glasses of wine a day and now it is just one or two a week. It is amazing how much better I feel.

This, of course, didn't apply on the cruise ...... I needed some blood in my alcohol stream when we got back. :rotfl:

TIW is valid at resort counter service IF the resort does not have a sit down option. So it works at all the value resorts (Movies, Music, Sports & Pop). It won't work at counter service at other resorts or the parks.

I always have trouble remembering which places take it out not, especially at Epcot and DTD.

Vacation = min of bottle of wine per day (we carried on 5 bottles and then did the 5 night package for dinner. Not a drop left to carry off.)
Normal = one glass to unwind from the day
 
I'm in! I don't frequent the WDW part of the boards so it's fun to get a glimpse of that part of your trip. :)
 
Friday, April 6th

We woke up around 7am and grabbed breakfast at Everything Pop before getting on the bus over to Magic Kingdom. The park had been open since 7am and it was now around 8:30am with tons of people walking down Main Street.

P1000400.jpg


We headed straight for our favorite MK ride, Space Mountain. We grabbed fast passes and then got in the standby line which had about a 15 minute wait.

P1000401.jpg


We then hopped over to take a spin with Buzz Lightyear. Dougie chose to ride by himself and for the first time ever I had the high score of the family.
P1000403.jpg


It was now time for our Space Mountain fast passes so we walked back over and rode that again. Our next tradition is to grab a Blue Raspberry Icee to drink while making the trek over to Splash Mountain. However, they are no longer open in the morning so we had to do without.

Off to take a 50' plunge down the Briar Patch. We grab fast passes and then got in the standby line.
P1000411.jpg


P1000419.jpg


Not yet time for the fast passes so we go ride Pirates.
P1000421.jpg


Now time for our Splash fast passes so we grab a Jungle Cruise pass before heading back over.
P1000426.jpg


My favorite picture of the vacation. The 3 Doug's.
P1000430.jpg


Nearing time for our Jungle Cruise passes we head back to that area and let Dougie try out his skills at being a captain. Please don't let him drive as he ran into everything.
P1000431.jpg


P1000439.jpg


The storm clouds are rolling in but we decide to ride Haunted Mansion before lunch.
P1000441.jpg


Lunch was at Columbia Harbor House. We had an entire section of the 2nd floor to ourselves even though the 1st floor was a zoo. We took our time eating and planned out the remainder of the afternoon. Mickey's Philharmagic was the last ride before we worked our way back down Main Street stopping for some sweets from the Bakery and Confectionary. We were back to the room around 2pm to rest for a bit.
P1000444.jpg


Next we headed to Fantasia Mini Golf
P1000446.jpg


Just the boys played while I kept score and took pictures.
P1000452.jpg


Doug adding up the score card and realizing he won. Look at that smirk!
P1000453.jpg


P1000454.jpg


It was now time for dinner. We headed over to Wilderness Lodge and got ready for a fun time at Whispering Canyon. We had the best server! He went by Geppetto and kept us on our toes. After dinner IL's decided to call it a night so Doug, Dougie and I took a boat back over Magic Kingdom.

P1000469.jpg


We wanted to try out the new Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom game so we stopped off at the fire station to pick up a map, cards and get the training. The task kept us on Main Street. It was so cool using the cards to interact and defeat the villains.
P1000470.jpg


After playing that for awhile we couldn't leave without another ride on Space Mountain. After that we caught a bus back to Pop around 9:30pm. We called it a night around 11pm.

Tomorrow we will head to Epcot.
 
I love the second floor of the Columbia House!

I can't wait to read more! We are headed for the Dream in a couple months with the same 5 night itinerary.

Would you be willing to scan/share your Navigators?
 
Saturday, April 7th

Even with the late night we were still up at 7:00am. We grabbed breakfast at Everything Pop and got to Epcot for park opening.
P1000498.jpg


IL's took all the passes and went to get FP's for Soarin' while me and the boys went and walked straight onto Test Track. They didn't even have us stop to view the movie or anything. When we got off we met IL's and jumped back onto Test Track with FIL. This time we did have to stop but made it all the way to the outside area of the movie room. After watching the little movie I noticed a little girls t-shirt that looked like a DISign shirt with her name made out of characters. Then I took a closer look at the entire family and realized they were from our cruise group, it was jecskc. I introduced myself and we chatted as we quickly went through the rest of the line.

P1000471.jpg


We then headed over to Mission Space and rode on the orange side.
P1000473.jpg


Who shall we see when getting off....jecskc and family. This becomes a huge joke as we run into each other almost daily after this.

Next we head over towards Soarin but stop off to look at the flowers and in the butterfly garden.
P1000479.jpg


P1000483.jpg


P1000487.jpg


P1000492.jpg


We ride Soarin and then do some shopping before lunch at LeCellier.

Dougie decides he wants to go over to MK and bring IL's with us so we can get more cards for the Sorcerer game. So we do this and fight off another villain before going back to the room to rest and get cleaned up for dinner.

Dinner tonight is at Flying Fish. This was the best meal of the vacation! Everything was prepared perfectly and tasted great.

The plan was to head over to Epcot for Illuminations but we were just too full and tired so we made it an early night and was in bed by 9:30pm.

Tomorrow is Easter.
 
Sunday, April 8th

The alarm woke us up at 6:30am this morning. We got fancied up and checked to see what the Easter bunny had brought us.
P1000517.jpg


P1000519.jpg


P1000523.jpg


P1000525.jpg


We drove over to Contemporary for our brunch at the Wave. It was a special buffet they had setup for Easter. It was nice and the food was good but very pricey given how little we ate.

After breakfast we walked over to MK to get more Sorcerer cards and have family pictures made in front of the castle. Why I didn't ask someone to take a few with my own camera. The ones from the photo pass are horrible, crooked and off center. Here is the one I took of just Dougie.
P1000528.jpg


It was now time for the mass services in the Fantasia ballroom so we walked back over to CR. The setup and service were very nice. I'm so glad Disney offers this on Easter and Christmas so you don't have to leave property.
P1000530.jpg


*Apologize for no photos for remainder of day.

We go back to Pop to change out of church clothes and decide where to go. We had originally planned on Blizzard Beach but it wasn't exactly hot and rather windy. We finally agree on Animal Kingdom.

It is mid-afternoon at this point so not sure how the crowds will be. We walk over to Everest and grad some FP's and get in the standby line as it is listed at 40 minutes. It only took half that time so still not time for FP's. We then ride Dinosaur which again only took about 15 minutes when the wait time was listed at 30 minutes. Next was the Safari where we walked straight onto it. At this point we have rode what we came to ride. I gave our FP's to another family that was just entering as we were exiting. We got back to the room around 3:30pm.

After resting for awhile we go over to Downtown Disney to let Dougie use his gift card that he got for Easter. Of course, now that it is his money to spend he doesn't find a thing he wants. I did see jecskc walking up ahead of us but I didn't yell or completely stalk them down.

Dinner tonight was at Portobello. This was our first time dining here. The food was pretty good but we all preferred Tutto Italia at Epcot. We made it back to the room around 9:00pm and in bed by 10:00pm.

Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios and anything else we want to do again.
 
Monday, April 9th

Knock, knock, knock.....is that someone knocking at the door? What time is it? Wait that is the connecting door, not the main door. Doug goes over and answers it to find his mom and disappears into their room. I know this is not good as it is only 5:30am but I stay put and wait for him to come back. I can hear lots of talking and people going in and out of the main door. When Doug gets back he tells me they took his dad to the hospital via ambulance. FIL has had lots of problems over the last 5 years (heart surgery, stroke, etc.). He was very light headed and nauseated and felt like he was going to pass out. They took no chances and went straight to the ER. Obviously there is no getting back to sleep with all this going on so I jump on our cruise meet board and ask for prayers.

We keep in contact with MIL and she says to keep our plans for the day as they have no idea how long they will be at the hospital but that they think FIL has an inner ear infection with vertigo but they are going to do a CT scan just to be safe.

We grab some breakfast at Everything Pop and head over to Hollywood Studios. The park has already been open for an hour so we skip Toy Story and grab a FP for RnR. We then are able to ride ToT twice before our FP time. We then use our RnR FP and grab another for later in the day. Next, we head over to the Animation building and get in the line for the drawing class. We didn't make that one but we waited until the next class. We got to draw Tinkerbell! This was a first and boy was she hard to draw.

It was now time for lunch at 50's Prime Time. We run into our new friends, jeskec and family in the waiting area but only get in a quick hello before getting seated. Our waitress was a dud, there was no fun banter at all. At least the fried chicken was still delicious.

After lunch, we went and used our FP for RnR and then took a last ride on ToT. IL's had finally made it back to the hotel and were going to rest for the afternoon and try to make it to dinner. The final diagnosis was inner ear infection and vertigo so given some antibiotics and told wouldn't be a problem to go on cruise. We also went back to the room so I could do some laundry and get us packed and ready for the cruise. I have to admit it was nice throwing in a load of laundry and then grabbing a lounger by the pool to work on the tan while reading on my Kindle. Very relaxing afternoon.

Dinner tonight was at O'hana. This was our first time having dinner there and it lived up to all the DIS hype. After dinner, we took a boat over to MK to get some more Sorcerer cards and play some more. This was very difficult to do as we were in Frontierland and everyone was lining up for the Electrical Parade. Luckily, the next mission sent us to Adventureland where it was very empty. We met lots of people in Tortuga that were trading cards so we were able to trade off lots of duplicates and only need 6 more cards to complete a set of 1-60. They say 61-70 are no longer being handed out and Ebay confirms this as they are going for over $100 per card :scared1: We take the boat back over to Polynesian and watch Wishes from the boat dock before going back to the room. We finally fall into bed around 11:30pm.

Such a long and stressful day but so thankful that FIL was okay and we were going to be boarding the Dream tomorrow!

*Sorry for no pictures today. I promise I took lots on the cruise.
 


GET UP TO A $1000 SHIPBOARD CREDIT AND AN EXCLUSIVE GIFT!

If you make your Disney Cruise Line reservation with Dreams Unlimited Travel you’ll receive these incredible shipboard credits to spend on your cruise!

















Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!

Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE













DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top