The one with the dusty, wrinkly, moldy-oldy 4 day park hopper ticket from 1992! August 2025 Trip Report

[MamaMouse0920]

It was a little before 7:30pm at this point.



On our way to pick up the fish & chips in the UK we passed The Mill Stage in Canada where there was a concert going on which was cool to see - they were playing 90s music (can't remember the song off the top of my head, but I know I was jamming along, being a 90s kid myself!) and if we had more time or if the kids weren't with us we for sure would have stuck around and enjoyed the music. Instead, we grabbed our fish & chips and made our way back to the playground since that's where the kids wanted to go. It once again was buggy (what is it with the Epcot playgrounds and gnats/no see ums?!) so we didn't stick around for super long.





A little after 8pm we made our way to Soarin', which was a 10 minute standby.



By the time we got off it was dark outside (around 8:35, based on timestamps) and we headed next door to see our favorite purple dragon.





By the time we were done (love Figment!!) it was 8:53 and the park was closing. At some point earlier in the night Matt had remarked that we hadn't heard anything from Walmart yet, despite our arrival window for the delivery being 9-11pm. I replied "yeah that's odd, but I suppose they call it a window for a reason, and previously we've just always had them show up right at the beginning of the window and not in the middle/end??". We slowly made our way toward the International Gateway to get on the Skyliner back to the resort, stopping occasionally at the kids requests.



As we got closer to the International Gateway there was a small opening in crowds (the view was obstructed by a large tree, so I get why no one staked out that spot ha!) so we quickly parked the stroller and let the kids watch the fireworks for a bit.


After 5-10 minutes of fireworks watching, I received the text that our order was on its way and would be delivered in 10 minutes. WHAT. Why would they give us such short notice?! So we once again found ourselves racing to the Skyliner (repeat of last year's arrival day, anyone?!) to try to beat the delivery driver.

We arrived only a few minutes later than the driver and I had the kids hop out of the stroller so Matt could load it up with our groceries instead of borrowing a cart from Bell Services. The kids and I walked to our room (not a far walk from the Skyliner since we were basically right next to the Big Blue Pool!) where they checked out the Cars characters near our door.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Eventually we went into our room where I got the kids showered/jammied/teeth brushed & into bed while Matt and I unloaded all the groceries & unpacked everything from the suitcases.





In the Walmart order I had ordered a 24pk of water bottles, extra plastic hangers to hang all of our clothes (the rooms don't give you nearly enough!), some fruits/veggies, easy 'to go' breakfast options (i.e muffins & yogurt pouches), some snacks (pretzels/goldfish/applesauce pouches) that sort of thing. In addition to the things I ordered, I also received a packet of tuna (what), a package of nutella cookies (yum but why), some hot dog buns (!?!?!?) and three. yes, THREE. gallons of fruit punch. Holy random We laughed about that frequently throughout the trip - hot dog buns, tuna, and 3 gallons of fruit punch. What in the world!

After the kids had dozed off I dug out the glittery dollar bill (don't come for me - the tooth fairy only brings $1 in our house!! she doesn't know or care about inflation okay ) I made sure to prepare/pack before we left since I knew that thing would be coming out on the trip. I usually use tacky spray which is TOO sticky but this time used a glue stick which wasn't sticky enough and subsequently lost half of the glitter - anyone have any happy mediums they can think of?!?!



After Matt and I finished unpacking and showering ourselves, we were in bed by 11pm and ready with our alarms set for 6am - the plan being to rope drop Epcot. All said and done it was a long but smooth travel day- we were off to an amazing start and couldn't wait for the next day - Grandma's big surprise finally coming to fruition after months of planning & secret keeping!!!!

TOTAL STEPS: 21,088 (9.6 miles)

Up next: Thursday, August 14th (Day 2)

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Following

 

[Jones1978]

get our poop in a group!

This is fantastic and will now be in my conversations as much as possible!!

 

[Stasieki]

Looks like a great start! Looking forward to following along.

 

[pwdebbie]

I am team fly (DS5 and I are prone to motion sickness so my desire to get there as quickly as possible supersedes anything and everything else!) but totally get your apprehensiveness! It's no picnic being stuck in a metal tube for hours on end but I distract myself and come prepared with hundreds of snacks & gum - sounds like your grandkids are older so should be easier to wrangle on the plane!!

Sorry to hear about your knee - I was SO happy with the amount of rides that either allowed us to just roll right through the queue or have us go through the exit (Tiana's) because my mom was struggling BIG time with the walk from room > Skyliner/bus > bus stops/Skyliner station > security > tapstiles > ECV rental station within the parks. Are you going to rent from a 3rd party or at the parks?? My mom said when she comes with us (next year most likely) she will be going the 3rd party route!!

That last trip, by the time I got from the bus to inside the park, I knew I was going to have to rent. I was the optimist who said, "I can do this," only to get into the park and acknowledge that I couldn't. I don't want to rent third party, but it is half the price of the park rentals. I don't like the idea of sitting all day, sitting in a scooter on the bus, on the boats, on the monorail, on the Skyliner, etc. and for that reason, I might just rent in the parks. I still have a few months to decide.

 

[Disney102015]

Excited to follow along with a new TR!!

Not wanting any leftovers, I made the kids a "snackies" dinner

Aww “snacky dinner” is a family favorite at my house too! My kids also like to eat snacky dinner on the living room floor, it just feels right!

We were flying Basic Economy so were in the waaaay back of the plane, row 35 or something similar

Ok, curious how you manage this with the kids on Delta! Do you book Basic but pay extra for seat assignments? I know Delta doesn’t officially guarantee they’ll seat your kids with you if you don’t pay for the assigned seating (which blows my mind - what stranger wants to sit with my 3 year old? and what an INSANE safety issue would this be in the event of an emergency?!) so we have flown Delta less and less since having kids. Upgrading from Basic to Main x 5 people really adds up!

Grandma's big surprise finally coming to fruition after months of planning & secret keeping!!!!

Ooo can’t wait to read about this!! So exciting!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

This is fantastic and will now be in my conversations as much as possible!!

It’s a favorite of mine too so much more fun than “get out s*** together”!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

That last trip, by the time I got from the bus to inside the park, I knew I was going to have to rent. I was the optimist who said, "I can do this," only to get into the park and acknowledge that I couldn't. I don't want to rent third party, but it is half the price of the park rentals. I don't like the idea of sitting all day, sitting in a scooter on the bus, on the boats, on the monorail, on the Skyliner, etc. and for that reason, I might just rent in the parks. I still have a few months to decide.

That’s exactly why my mom decided against 3rd party and only renting from within the parks- she was terrified of navigating bus/skyliner/monorail with the scooter (plus I think didn’t want to take up precious space within the hotel room + worry about charging the device if it ran out of battery in the parks etc.) but by the end of the trip & after watching others navigate the transportation system she was regretting her decision! We agreed that since she is of sound mind (LOL) and can actually effectively steer/drive/back up/etc. the scooter that her fears were actually way worse than reality. But obviously every scenario and person is totally different- whatever is best for you guys, roll with it!!!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Excited to follow along with a new TR!!


Aww “snacky dinner” is a family favorite at my house too! My kids also like to eat snacky dinner on the living room floor, it just feels right!

Ok, curious how you manage this with the kids on Delta! Do you book Basic but pay extra for seat assignments? I know Delta doesn’t officially guarantee they’ll seat your kids with you if you don’t pay for the assigned seating (which blows my mind - what stranger wants to sit with my 3 year old? and what an INSANE safety issue would this be in the event of an emergency?!) so we have flown Delta less and less since having kids. Upgrading from Basic to Main x 5 people really adds up!

Ooo can’t wait to read about this!! So exciting!

Snacky dinners are the best!!

We actually got INSANELY lucky on this trip - 99.99% of the time we’ve booked basic we’re not assigned seats together- literally all 4 of us apart, scattered throughout the plane. We then have to scramble to be the first in line to talk with the gate agents - explaining to them “listen bub. I don’t even want to sit by my kids, I can ASSURE you no poor stranger wants to either. How’s 2 & 2 sound? And they have (every single time, without fail) made it work. Now- I fully acknowledge that some poor grown *** adults have likely been split up as a result of that and do I feel bad?

…sure, maybe a little. But also like you said- NOBODY wants to sit by some strangers kid, and adults are more than capable of being split up. Kids? Not so much. I remind myself that kids (+ families, especially when flying to Orlando!!) have just as much a right to be on those planes as anyone else- and if Delta (or the Karen’s) don’t like it, then they should make their flights more affordable. Cause $250+ per person for a basic economy flight (x4, plus taxes & fees & baggage etc.) is absolutely atrocious.