Im pretty new to these boards, and Im not going to do a huge review with lots of links, but I thought Id give just a rough overview of our trip from April 4 through April 10 (just got back last night, wanted to get it down before I forgot everything!).
We made our reservations in February using the 4/3 deal (it actually worked out to be 4/2 for us, though, because of our schedule with my DSD). We stayed at Pop Century and had the quick service dining plan. There was me, my DH (first timer), my DSD (10, turned 11 today!), and my DD (2). The girls were both first timers, too. I had been to the World 3 times as a teenager and college student with my parents and brother.
We flew Southwest on Saturday April 4 and arrived in Orlando at 7:30pm. Our experience with Southwest was great, and wed definitely fly them again. I checked in the day before and got A boarding passes. We had no problem all sitting together.
We took DME from the Airport to Pop, but we never received our yellow tags, so we just took our luggage from baggage ourselves, which was nice since it was almost 9pm when we got to Pop and didnt have to worry about having our bags until much later at night or in the morning.
Check in at Pop took about 20 minutes, and we were in our room and passed out by a little after 10pm. Our room was just as expected small, but nice, clean and well taken care of by Mousekeeping. We had no problems with our room at all the entire stay, and we were left towel animals and extra towels each day. We never had problems at the Pop food court and got our food quickly and easily. Pop was great for our purposes to sleep and wash and eat breakfast! Oh, and the Concierge helped me get checked in with Southwest and we got A16 A19 boarding passes the night before our departure flight. That was great!
The following is a summary of our misadventures of the parks what we learned and what we wont do again! Here goes:
We did Epcot on Sunday April 5. It was 87 degrees and muggy. I used the Unofficial Guide and Birnbaum to come up with plans, which worked out mostly well, sometimes. I found that there werent a lot of helpful hints for staying together as a family, while taking into account we have a tween and a toddler, not children closer in age. But, that said, we were able to get to Mission Space, Test Track, Soarin, Maelstrom, Living with the Land, The Seas with Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush using fast passes and the baby swap when required. Our 10 year old was very happy to get to go on the big rides twice! The 2 year old slept in the stroller, so we didnt need to go back to the hotel as planned. The girls got photos with Belle, the Beast, and the crew from Aladdin in the world showcase, which was awesome.
We used the pool at POP only once on Monday night, which was nice. Also nice my margarita from the Pop pool bar!
Monday 4/6 we went to Magic Kingdom. I had plans for this day, too, but they kind of went out the window when we got there and things were SO crowded and we found no line at Big Thunder Mountain when we got there. Even with the crowds, we were able to do BTM, Splash Mountain (fast passes), Dumbo, Cinderellas Carousel, Magic Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise (this was our longest wait all week 60 minutes), Its a small world, Haunted Mansion (I was worried about DD2, but she did great!), Hall of Presidents, and Country Bear Jamboree. It rained on us in the midday, and got FREEZING cold. But, we endured and stayed to watch Spectromagic Parade from Liberty Square, which was a great viewing point.
Tuesday 4/7 it was still cold and we went to Seaworld. We took the bus to Downtown Disney, then hopped on the Lynx 50. No problems getting there or getting home. But, Seaworld is definitely not the well-oiled Machine of Disney. We did see Believe (Shamu) which was wonderful, but our whole day kind of got screwed up because our lunch took over 2 hours due to incompetence at the counter service restaurant and long long lines. So, next time I think well save Seaworld for a much less crowded time so we can enjoy all the shows and hopefully not be frustrated by the staff there!
Wednesday 4/8 we went to DHS. We got fast passes for Tower of Terror first thing, and then we went to see shows for the kids Playhouse Disney, HSM3, Little Mermaid. We then went to see Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater for photos (love the Photo Pass cant wait to get the pictures back!). We didnt do Toy Story mania by mid morning the line was already over 2 hours with no fast passes left! Crazy! Lunch took forever (though not as long as Seaworld!) because of the crowds (we actually heard that on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday they had to stop letting people in around 10:30 am at the parks because of being at capacity!). But, after lunch we did Tower of Terror. We couldnt get on Rock n Roller Coaster because it was a two hour wait all day, and by the time our Tower of Terror fast pass time came, the fast passes for RNRC were gone. So, that was a bummer. DD2 and I saw the last show of Beauty and the Beast, and DSD10 and my DH saw Indiana Jones. We were ready to go home after that day!
Thursday 4/9 we went to Animal Kingdom. We had reservations at Tusker House for the character breakfast at 8:30. That was great. I finally figured out the fast passes by then so before we went in for breakfast, I ran to the safari entrance and got fast passes for about 9am. After breakfast during our Safari fast pass window, we got fast passes for Expedition Everest for about 10:30. Then, while I was waiting in line to see Lilo and Stitch, DH got fast passes for Dinosaur for about 12 noon. So, we had the entire day of big rides taken care of by mid-morning. We could then leisurely tour the park. We did the Festival of the Lion King, then got photos and autographs with the characters in Camp Mickey. We were able to do all three of our fast passes during the early afternoon hours (with baby swap, so DSD got to do all three rides twice each!), and got to hang out in Dino Land USA to do rides for my DD2. All in all, we had a great day, topped off by dinner at the Rainforest café right in the park.
Friday 4/10 was our departure day, but not until 9:45 that night. So, Thursday night I called luggage services and arranged for them to get our bags and hold them in the luggage room at POP until our DME left at 6:45pm. We got to Magic Kingdom by 8:30am, and went straight to Space Mountain. We had no line and did the baby swap no problem done by 9am! We then did all the rides we hadnt gotten to on Monday Tea Cups, Barnstormer, Peter Pan, Philharmagic, Pooh, Ariels grotto, Dumbo (again!), Big Thunder Mountain (with fast passes again!), Stitch in Tomorrowland, Swiss Family Treehouse, the Liberty Belle river boat, the 4pm show at the Castle. We then had enough time to use up our snack credits at the Main Street Bakery and get personalized mouse ears before leaving at 5:30 to get back to Pop for DD2 to eat dinner and get on DME.
We had a great vacation and are EXHAUSTED! Thank goodness we have 2 days to recover before going back to work. Let me know if you have any questions!
We made our reservations in February using the 4/3 deal (it actually worked out to be 4/2 for us, though, because of our schedule with my DSD). We stayed at Pop Century and had the quick service dining plan. There was me, my DH (first timer), my DSD (10, turned 11 today!), and my DD (2). The girls were both first timers, too. I had been to the World 3 times as a teenager and college student with my parents and brother.
We flew Southwest on Saturday April 4 and arrived in Orlando at 7:30pm. Our experience with Southwest was great, and wed definitely fly them again. I checked in the day before and got A boarding passes. We had no problem all sitting together.
We took DME from the Airport to Pop, but we never received our yellow tags, so we just took our luggage from baggage ourselves, which was nice since it was almost 9pm when we got to Pop and didnt have to worry about having our bags until much later at night or in the morning.
Check in at Pop took about 20 minutes, and we were in our room and passed out by a little after 10pm. Our room was just as expected small, but nice, clean and well taken care of by Mousekeeping. We had no problems with our room at all the entire stay, and we were left towel animals and extra towels each day. We never had problems at the Pop food court and got our food quickly and easily. Pop was great for our purposes to sleep and wash and eat breakfast! Oh, and the Concierge helped me get checked in with Southwest and we got A16 A19 boarding passes the night before our departure flight. That was great!
The following is a summary of our misadventures of the parks what we learned and what we wont do again! Here goes:
We did Epcot on Sunday April 5. It was 87 degrees and muggy. I used the Unofficial Guide and Birnbaum to come up with plans, which worked out mostly well, sometimes. I found that there werent a lot of helpful hints for staying together as a family, while taking into account we have a tween and a toddler, not children closer in age. But, that said, we were able to get to Mission Space, Test Track, Soarin, Maelstrom, Living with the Land, The Seas with Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush using fast passes and the baby swap when required. Our 10 year old was very happy to get to go on the big rides twice! The 2 year old slept in the stroller, so we didnt need to go back to the hotel as planned. The girls got photos with Belle, the Beast, and the crew from Aladdin in the world showcase, which was awesome.
We used the pool at POP only once on Monday night, which was nice. Also nice my margarita from the Pop pool bar!
Monday 4/6 we went to Magic Kingdom. I had plans for this day, too, but they kind of went out the window when we got there and things were SO crowded and we found no line at Big Thunder Mountain when we got there. Even with the crowds, we were able to do BTM, Splash Mountain (fast passes), Dumbo, Cinderellas Carousel, Magic Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise (this was our longest wait all week 60 minutes), Its a small world, Haunted Mansion (I was worried about DD2, but she did great!), Hall of Presidents, and Country Bear Jamboree. It rained on us in the midday, and got FREEZING cold. But, we endured and stayed to watch Spectromagic Parade from Liberty Square, which was a great viewing point.
Tuesday 4/7 it was still cold and we went to Seaworld. We took the bus to Downtown Disney, then hopped on the Lynx 50. No problems getting there or getting home. But, Seaworld is definitely not the well-oiled Machine of Disney. We did see Believe (Shamu) which was wonderful, but our whole day kind of got screwed up because our lunch took over 2 hours due to incompetence at the counter service restaurant and long long lines. So, next time I think well save Seaworld for a much less crowded time so we can enjoy all the shows and hopefully not be frustrated by the staff there!
Wednesday 4/8 we went to DHS. We got fast passes for Tower of Terror first thing, and then we went to see shows for the kids Playhouse Disney, HSM3, Little Mermaid. We then went to see Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater for photos (love the Photo Pass cant wait to get the pictures back!). We didnt do Toy Story mania by mid morning the line was already over 2 hours with no fast passes left! Crazy! Lunch took forever (though not as long as Seaworld!) because of the crowds (we actually heard that on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday they had to stop letting people in around 10:30 am at the parks because of being at capacity!). But, after lunch we did Tower of Terror. We couldnt get on Rock n Roller Coaster because it was a two hour wait all day, and by the time our Tower of Terror fast pass time came, the fast passes for RNRC were gone. So, that was a bummer. DD2 and I saw the last show of Beauty and the Beast, and DSD10 and my DH saw Indiana Jones. We were ready to go home after that day!
Thursday 4/9 we went to Animal Kingdom. We had reservations at Tusker House for the character breakfast at 8:30. That was great. I finally figured out the fast passes by then so before we went in for breakfast, I ran to the safari entrance and got fast passes for about 9am. After breakfast during our Safari fast pass window, we got fast passes for Expedition Everest for about 10:30. Then, while I was waiting in line to see Lilo and Stitch, DH got fast passes for Dinosaur for about 12 noon. So, we had the entire day of big rides taken care of by mid-morning. We could then leisurely tour the park. We did the Festival of the Lion King, then got photos and autographs with the characters in Camp Mickey. We were able to do all three of our fast passes during the early afternoon hours (with baby swap, so DSD got to do all three rides twice each!), and got to hang out in Dino Land USA to do rides for my DD2. All in all, we had a great day, topped off by dinner at the Rainforest café right in the park.
Friday 4/10 was our departure day, but not until 9:45 that night. So, Thursday night I called luggage services and arranged for them to get our bags and hold them in the luggage room at POP until our DME left at 6:45pm. We got to Magic Kingdom by 8:30am, and went straight to Space Mountain. We had no line and did the baby swap no problem done by 9am! We then did all the rides we hadnt gotten to on Monday Tea Cups, Barnstormer, Peter Pan, Philharmagic, Pooh, Ariels grotto, Dumbo (again!), Big Thunder Mountain (with fast passes again!), Stitch in Tomorrowland, Swiss Family Treehouse, the Liberty Belle river boat, the 4pm show at the Castle. We then had enough time to use up our snack credits at the Main Street Bakery and get personalized mouse ears before leaving at 5:30 to get back to Pop for DD2 to eat dinner and get on DME.
We had a great vacation and are EXHAUSTED! Thank goodness we have 2 days to recover before going back to work. Let me know if you have any questions!
