Taking on Disney: One nap at a time (November 2017)

[Shrfleen]

Hello everyone and welcome to my trip report! Here is a little bit of information about my travel party and trip information. You can check out my pre trip report here.


Who?

Sarah, Veronica, Peggy, D (9 years old), Shauna, K (22 months), Kristi and special appearance by Grandma Great and Grandpa Great.

Why?

My sister (Sarah) and mother (Veronica) went last September (you can check out that trip report here ) Everyone saw how much fun we had, so we all decided to go this year.

When?

November 12th-November 18th 2017


Where?

Disney’s Wilderness Lodge - Standard View (and boy did they deliver)


Join me as I look back on this wonderful vacation!

Chapter links:
Day 1

• Arrival
• Resort Hopping
• Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Day 2

• The Wave-1900 Park Fare- Shopping

Day 3

• Epcot- Part 1
• Epcot- Part 2

Day 4

• Magic Kingdom- Part 1
• Magic Kingdom- Part 2

Day 5

• Animal Kingdom- Part 1
• Animal Kingdom- Part 2

Day 6

• Hollywood Studios- Part 1
• Hollywood Studios - Part 2

Day 7

• Disney Springs and Goodbye Disney

Wrap Up/ Thoughts

 

[chs27]

Fantastic! Great introduction!

 

[Shrfleen]

Day 1: Part 1 -- Arrival


Following a late night out at my cousin’s wedding we all got into bed as early as we could. It was just Sarah, Mom and myself flying out but we had a 2:30 AM wake up call, followed by a to drive to the Indianapolis airport for our 6 AM flight on Southwest. A few days before our trip, I was checking out prices to make sure it did not go down and saw the flight was completely sold out...a 6 AM flight on a Sunday, sold out. We opted to purchase early check in for $15/ticket. It was a great idea! We were the last people in boarding group A on a full flight!


Once we arrived at the airport, we parked and made our way to the Southwest check in counter to check in our bags. The line was long at 4 AM and continued to grow as we made our way through the line. Usually, security at Indianapolis is easy breezy...not today. There was a long 30 minute line (we are usually in and out in 10 minutes) A large group of high school students and people who were on a special charter flight caused the backup because their tickets were not scanning correctly. We made it through we about an hour to spare before boarding. It was a pretty smooth flight. We made it into Orlando a little early. We exited the plane and hiked our way to the Magic Express. We were greeted by this…

Lots of people in my opinion for 8 AM on a Sunday. I've seen photos of a near empty check in area so I was hopefully. We made it through the line in about 10 minutes and were on the bus in another 5. Once they opened up another check in line it went pretty quickly. Wilderness Lodge was the first stop, yippie! We checked our carry ons with Bell Service and grabbed something quick for breakfast at Roaring Fork. We did not notify Disney we wanted early check in so after breakfast we boated over to the Contemporary to begin our resort hopping.

 

[paradesintherain]

Oh I just stumbled upon your report! I'm so glad you started it and I can't wait to read all about your trip!

We opted to purchase early check in for $15/ticket. It was a great idea! We were the last people in boarding group A on a full flight!

Early Bird is the best! So nice not to worry about checking in 24 hrs in advance.

Holy moly that is a lot of people! At least it sounds like it went quickly.

We did not notify Disney we wanted early check in so after breakfast we boated over to the Contemporary to begin our resort hopping.

Aren't the boats just the best? They may be a little slower (though idk if they are), but they're so relaxing!

 

[Shrfleen]

Day 1: Part 2- Resort Hopping


We made our way to The Contemporary via boat. We went in to check on the status of the gingerbread house. It was completed and looked awesome and smelled delicious.

We got our pressed pennies from The Contemporary and looked around the shops before making our way to the security check in for the monorail. We waited a few minutes for the next monoral and we were on to The Grand Floridian. We skipped The Polynesian, because we visited on our last trip. I have never stepped foot in The Grand Floridian, it was gorgeous. We did some shopping and looked at the beautiful gingerbread house.

It was around noon and we had to make our way back to The Wilderness Lodge for Sarah and Mom to go on a DVC tour of Copper Creek. We had a snack and chilled out in the lobby. I had the delicious magic cookie bar from Roaring Fork. Right before they needed to go to their meeting, we got a room ready text. We were on the 6th floor with a magical view of the Magic Kingdom. I roamed around the resort and watched the geyser go off and then headed back to the room for a nap before we headed to MK for Mickey’s Merry Christmas Party.

 

[Shrfleen]

Oh I just stumbled upon your report! I'm so glad you started it and I can't wait to read all about your trip!

Aren't the boats just the best? They may be a little slower (though idk if they are), but they're so relaxing!

We loved the boats on our last trip, hardly anyone used them. This trip was a different story, we almost always had a full boat.

 

[Shrfleen]

Day 1: Part 3- Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party


We made our way to the Magic Kingdom around 4:00pm to get our first cookie and some photopass photos. After our first cookie stop and pictures we made our way to use our Fastpass at The Jingle Cruise. Our Skipper was named Jake and he was very entertaining! If you see Skipper Jake make sure try to get on his boat! Following our adventure, we made our way to wait in line for Nick and Judy. Stopped by to grab some corn dog nuggets from Casey’s (yum corn dog nuggets) the time was about 5pm when we got in line. They were scheduled to make their appearance at 6:15pm. I had to exit the line pretty close to the time but lucky I was able to get back in with Sarah. The photopass people saw we had matching shirts and she had let them know I was returning. We got our pictures and pre signed cards are were off to see the line for Donald and Scrooge and the Seven Dwarfs.

Both of those lines were longer than when we wanted to wait at this time so we made our way to some cookie stops and waited in line for Cinderella/Prince Charming and Elena then we hopped right next door to Rapunzel/Flynn Rider and Princess Tiana/Naveen. At this time it was firework time. We thought we could wait for Aurora and Snow White and their princes but the line never seemed to go down, so we made our way to the Seven Dwarfs. We waited about hour.

Afterward we made our way to Main Street to stake out a spot for the 2nd parade. We were a little bit further down Main Street than I liked but we made it work. We were both tired out and did not stay for the last stage show as we had planned. We did a bit looking around and got some food from Starbucks and made our way to the boat.

The boat was packed! Last year hardly anyone used the boat but this year it was the to go to transportation for Wilderness Lodge guest. Overall, it was a good party. Busier than we expected but we were able to accomplish almost all we wanted to. We we just add the characters we didn’t get to meet to our list for next year.


Tomorrow we planned a breakfast at The Wave, some down time and dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Can’t wait to let you know how those meals turned out!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Love your report so far, following! Also, you take terrific pictures, keep 'em coming - that gingerbread house looks gorgeous!

 

[Shrfleen]

Fantastic! Great introduction!

Thank you!

Love your report so far, following! Also, you take terrific pictures, keep 'em coming - that gingerbread house looks gorgeous!

Thank you! Thanks for joining in. I will have a lot of photos in this trip report

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following along!

 

[Shrfleen]

Following along!

Thanks for following along.

 

[Shrfleen]

Day 2 - A pretty chill day

We started our day with a breakfast at The Wave. We made our way over to The Contemporary bright and early. It wasn't extremely busy. We choose the buffets and our server offered us the french toast to try as well. They had a wide variety of foods and the sweet potato pancakes were delicious! The french toast was good too! Our server was very kind and on top of things, we made sure to leave him a nice tip. After our journey to The Contemporary we made our way back to the Wilderness Lodge for some pool time. We had an early reservation for dinner at 1900 Park Fare. I ended up taking a nap. I usually don't nap but there is something about Disney that just makes you a bit sleepy.

We were going to take a Minnie Van from the Wilderness Lodge to the Grand Floridian for our reservation but the app was strange, it look like 10 minutes for us to get a notification that the driver was like 30 minutes out. So we rushed over to the boat to The Contemporary, while we were there, we were lucky enough to move our reservation back 15 minutes. We made it to the Grand Floridian with a little time to spare. The food was delicious. The strawberry soup was amazing. All of the food was excellent! My favorite character interactions were with Lady Tremaine and Drizella. Lady Tremaine kept on asking my mom which one was her favorite and she kept it going well beyond our interaction. Drizella asked if I had heard any good gossip and I responded yes. Cinderella had actually told us at the Christmas party her step sisters were nice recently and actually gave her a hug! I told that to Drizell and she wasn't very pleased. She said she's not really mean just really really honest. It was great!

We made our way to Basin White after dinner. I have never been but heard they have nice products. I bought two very cute Christmas themed soaps. (I will have a picture of them at the end of my report) We were able to get a Minnie Van back to the Wilderness Lodge with only about a five minute wait. It was very quick and easy and we didn't have to have our bags searched for the fourth time this trip. We waited in the lobby for the rest of the family to make their arrival from the Magic Express. They were starving when they arrived so we made our way to Roaring Fork for food and a quick lesson in the Disney Dining Plan.

That is the end of day 2! It was a pretty low key day but tomorrow we were headed to our first full park day at Epcot with the whole family!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Low key days are my favorite, LOVE the pic of you with the step sister!

 

[paradesintherain]

A low-key day centered around food and resorts is my kind of day! Excited for your first full park day!

 

[Shrfleen]

Day 3: Epcot Part 1
Welcome back! Today we made our way to Epcot for our first park day with the whole family. This was the first day everyone had to wake up bright and early! We made our way down to the bus stop to get on the first bus to Epcot. We had a pre park breakfast at The Garden Grill. Different than before they had us wait at the entrance of Epcot and then let us in a right at 8 AM. This was for all dining reservations and tours. Last time we were allowed to wait outside Spaceship Earth and allowed to make our in about 10 minutes early. We power walked our way to The Garden Grill and were one of the first people there. They were able to combine our 2 separate reservations and we all set together. The food was really good! We finished right before park opening.

Peggy, Kristi, Mom and D all rushed down to ride Soarin’ as we got some pressed pennies with K. The five minute wait at Living with the Land was nice. I really enjoy this ride and so did the kids. It is just a nice peaceful way to spend the day. We then made our way over to meet Joy and Sadness. The wait wasn’t to bad. Sadness was only a little sad today. K fell asleep waiting in line so we made our way to Journey Into Imagination with Figment while he napped outside. D rode the ride twice and seemed to really like it. We rode The Seas with Nemo & Friends and watched Turtle Talk with Crush. We then made our way back to the front of the park to hop on Spaceship Earth. It was quite a fun ride and D thought it was was going to drop her. (that was an ongoing theme of the rides) She was amazed that the ride was inside the ball.

Following Spaceship Earth we made the trek back to the bus stop. For break time and naps. After our break at the Wilderness Lodge we would hit up the World Showcase.

 

[Shrfleen]

Day 3: Epcot- Part 2


After our break we made our way back to Epcot to check out the World Showcase. We started with Mexico and worked our way around. We rode Grand Fiesta Tour, hunted down more pressed pennies, shopped and snacked around. We were suppose to ride Frozen Ever After but it was down so we moved dinner up.

It wasn’t very busy in Liberty Inn and we were able to get our food quickly. It was pretty good. The sun was setting and the wind coming off the water made it a bit chilly. Once the sun went down it seemed the colder weather scared everyone away. We continued our journey. We stopped off in Japan to do Pick A Pearl. D got a 7 ½ pearl, Sarah got a grey pearl and I got a basic peal. We then made our way to Morocco for pressed pennies and Sarah and D stumbled upon a completely empty line for Princess Jasmine! They were both pretty shocked. I finally got to eat at the bakery in France. My creme brulee was delicious.

We saw Frozen was back up and running so we made our way over. The line for fast passes was pretty long because of the closing but we wanted to ride it so we waited. Another ride where D thought she was going to be dropped. (She thought ever ride was going to be like Tower of Terror) We all survived lol I’m not sure if K enjoyed the ride but looking at the picture from the ride, he seemed like he was pretty ok with it. Haha

Tomorrow we were off to the Magic Kingdom for a full day of fun!

 

[paradesintherain]

They're so precious!

Mmm, someday I really need to try this.

(She thought ever ride was going to be like Tower of Terror)

I wish!

That face! I laughed out loud at that!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Thanks so much for sharing, love your Epcot day!!!

 

[Shrfleen]

They're so precious!

Mmm, someday I really need to try this.

The only way K would not run away at the bus stop was if he took a walk with someone, otherwise anytime you let go of his hand he was off to the races haha

The school bread was delicious!

 

[Shrfleen]

Day 4: The Magic Kingdom- Part 1


Our day started early with a 8 AM breakfast at Crystal Palace. The Pooh stuffed french toast, I could eat that all day everyday. The buffet had a wide variety of options and we filled our plates and our tummies. We were the first family to open the restaurant and we were given a certificate for it! It was a very neat surprise, I didn’t know they did that. Following breakfast, we made our way to ride the magic carpets, watched the Tiki Room and tried to get on Jungle Cruise but the line was too long and D had her Pirate’s League makeover. During Tiki Room, K was very excited and then he fell asleep.

While Kristi and Sarah took D to Pirate’s League we made our way over to watch the Country Bears Jamboree with K but he was still knocked out so we did a bit of shopping, stopped Liver Lips for an autograph for the kids books and watched the Muppets Moments in History. Two things I love greatly, Muppets and History. Today’s story was the Declaration of Independence. K woke up during the show and afterward we made it into the Jamboree.

We got the call D was done with her makeover so we all met up to head over to Fantasyland. We used our anytime fast passes from the DVC tour on It’s a Small World. The goodbyes were working but not for everyone in our group. Next we rode Peter Pan’s Flight. I rode with D and we both really liked it. She thought flying over the scene of the movie was awesome. We made our way over to Prince Charming's Carousel. For some reason, we waited what felt like an additional 10 minutes to start. I actually got on a horse and boy was it uncomfortable. Following our adventure on the carousel we made our way to Be Our Guest for our lunch. We have never been to lunch but the turkey sandwich was good. Sarah liked her ham sandwich, D not so much. I started to feel a bit ill after lunch. It must have been the excitement,weather and the fact that we didn’t have our break yet, so I headed back to the room for a nap. They rode Under the Sea and tried to watch Enchanted Tales with Belle but it was at a 40 minute wait. So they all headed back for break. We took a break from about 3pm to 6pm that day. A bit later than our usual breaks.