Trip Report 10/16-10/22 Two Adults, One 3yo

KimWDW

Disney Obsessed!
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Mar 14, 2005
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Background: My husband and I have been to Disney several times, the last time was in 2000. This was my son's first trip. He's three.

IT WAS FANTASTIC! It surpassed all my expectations and I'm so pleased. We had a great time. All my worries about 3 being too young were unfounded. DS had a great time and was able to do so much.

Sunday: We flew on Song and it was fantastic because every seat has their own tv screen. My son got a kick out of changing channels and watching the cartoon network while my husband and I played the trivia game. We landed around 2:30, waited in the Magical Express line for five minutes, then waited only five minutes for the bus. There was no line to check-in at POP. Our room was in the 70's building and I was pleased with that location. Very close to the food court/transportation, yet also far enough away from the big pool and the accompanying noise. Our only complaint with POP is the noise at night. We heard every door slam, every toilet flush. Mainly because the AC unit is so quiet. At most hotels, the AC is so loud that it drowns out all the normal hotel activity noise, but not at POP. So, I would recommend bringing a white noise machine if you're a light sleeper. The overwhelming feeling at POP is happiness. Music everywhere, bright colors. My son LOVED the splashpad and kiddie pool. Great time. The food court food was average (like mall food) but it was quick and there were always plenty of tables.

Monday: Disney Studios. We got there at opening and met a few characters, then took turns riding the RnRC (no line). Then did Playhouse Disney (two thumbs up) and the Muppets (my son's favorite). DS fell asleep in the stroller after meeting Buzz & Woody and eating at Pizza Planet, so then DH & I took turns riding the TOT using the baby swap. The line was only 15 minutes, so we didn't even need to Fastpass. The park was pretty much empty until two. We left around then and went to Downtown Disney, shopped, and ate at the Rainforest Cafe (wonderful!!!).

Tuesday: Magic Kingdom. We got there at opening and walked on Pooh, Peter Pan, Small World, and Buzz. We fastpassed Space for later, then went to Toontown and met some characters. Ate in the Harbour House, then DS took a nap in the stroller and we did Space Mt, then walked to Splash to get fastpasses for that. When DS woke up, we did Splash (he loved it!), then FP'd the Jungle Cruise and did the Haunted Mansion, Pirates (no line!), the Tiki Room, then Jungle. It got extremely crowded in the afternoon and we went back to POP to swim. It was really hot, like 87 and humid.

Wednesday: EPCOT. Before our trip some people asked us why we were bothering to bring a 3yo to EPCOT. Well, he LOVED IT! Soarin' was his favorite ride, we rode it twice. He also loved Spaceship Earth, Journey into Imagination, and all the playstuff after the Imagination ride (especially jumping on the sounds on the ground). We got there at opening and he was delirious with all the characters coming off the double-decker bus. It's like the mother-load of characters. I jogged over to Soarin to FP it while DH stayed with DS with the characters. After the characters left, we did Figment (no line) and played with the stuff there. Then, we FP'd The Land, rode Soarin, had a snack, then rode The Land. Spaceship Earth had no line all day, my son would have ridden that ten times. We FP'd Test Track for later, then went to the countries. My son fell asleep in the stroller and we strolled around and my DH ate a lot from the Food Festival. My son woke up and we did Maelstrom and the Mexico boat ride. Then we took turns doing Test Track (not my son). The lines were really long in the afternoon, 70 minutes for Soarin and TT but with FP we didn't wait for anything. We ate dinner at the restaurant inside Mexico and my son loved watching the boat ride pass by and the Mariachi band play.

Thursday: Magic Kingdom again. Did the same gameplan as Tuesday and never waited for anything. Walked on everything in Fantasyland in the first hour. FP'd whatever we could. What shocks me is that Pirates never has a line and the Jungle Cruise has a 45 minute wait and requires FP. Weird. We watched the parade in Frontierland and my son loved that. We left soon after that because of the crowds and heat (plus, we already went on everything since we got there at opening).

Friday: We left our last day up to my son. He chose to go to Disney Studios again over everything else. I think he loved it so much because of all the characters there. He really loved meeting characters. We were the first ones there and when the characters came down the road to open the park, Tigger took my son's hand and walked down the street with my son. I nearly cried. It was really my high point of the trip.

Saturday: Left Pop. Magical Express worked great. Flew home. Boo hoo.

Overall: Great trip. The parks were really crowded in the afternoon and the heat and humidity was almost unbearable around 3pm, but if you get to the parks at opening you can get more done in the first two hours than the whole rest of the day and then you can swim when it gets too hot. The magic of Disney is alive and well and three is a great age. My son got to go on almost everything and wasn't scared of anything except The Great Movie Ride. It's also a magical age because he truly believes the characters are real. There's nothing like seeing his face light up when he sees a character and hear him yell, "Look! It's the real Buzz Lightyear!" I thought the parks were beautiful and clean, the CM's were all fantastic and friendly, and Disney is as great as it ever was.

It was a magical trip and I can't wait to go back. Hopefully, I'll talk DH into another trip next year.
 
Wow, what a great trip report! You did a great job of getting your enthusiasm and energy across. You really seemed to have the timing down perfect for maximum enjoyment for everyone in your party.
 
Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for posting.
 
What a great report! Sounds like one of those wonderful trips where everything went just right. Glad you all had a great time!
 

"Tuesday: Magic Kingdom. We got there at opening and walked on Pooh, Peter Pan, Small World, and Buzz. We fastpassed Space for later, then went to Toontown and met some characters. Ate in the Harbour House, then DS took a nap in the stroller and we did Space Mt, then walked to Splash to get fastpasses for that. When DS woke up, we did Splash (he loved it!), then FP'd the Jungle Cruise and did the Haunted Mansion, Pirates (no line!), the Tiki Room, then Jungle. It got extremely crowded in the afternoon and we went back to POP to swim."

We were there Tuesday and agree with all you wrote except the "got extremely crowded in the afternoon" part. Must've just been crowded in the section you were in at the time, because we were still walking on most rides (except for Indycars, Dumbo, and Astro, of course) and had "no crowds/no waits" (other than waiting to be let in) at Tiki Room and Philharmagic after the parade at 3-ish... JC was a 5-10 minute wait, Carpets was a 10 minute wait, many Fantasyland were walk-on (except for one, I can't remember-- think it was Peter Pan or Snow White), meeting Mickey in Toontown (for the second time in the day) was zero wait. From about 5:45 pm until 6:30 we road Buzz continually with zero wait 4 times, and there was essentially zero wait at Space Mountain (no line except right at the loading zone). It was, in a word, AWESOME :teeth: because I am not a crowd/line person :earboy2: I think it comes down to us going to the section where the small crowd that was there that day wasn't :) .

We were at EPCoT on Wednesday also-- we both picked the correct days last week for MK and EPCot, for sure :teeth:
 












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