We must be crazy! A last minute, fly-by the-seat-of-our-pants trip to WDW. *Updated 3/18

[Lisa Lisa]

Hi, just found your TR. I've daydreamed about dropping what I was doing and just heading to WDW on a whim... How fun!!!! Looking forward to following along with the rest of your TR

I highly recommend it! Thanks for reading!

Enjoyed reading your trip report so far! Thanks for the detailed report with pictures and including the ups and downs of your trip. I'm a major planner so its interesting to read what a last minute would look/feel like. Something I hope to do when my kiddos are a bit older!

Thank you! I agree -- this is definitely an approach that works better with older kids. I wouldn't have tried this when DD was little!

 

[Lisa Lisa]

DAY 3: Sunday, February 14, 2016
Animal Kingdom Day, part 1 of 2

Wow... Time flies when you're working like a dog and not having any fun at all! Now where was I??

Oh yes. We crashed hard after our long day at MK and took our time getting going on Sunday morning. This time we decided to grab breakfast at Cafe Rix. They had some pastries as well as yogurt, fruit, a small selection of cereals and a handful of other grab-and-go items. Pretty basic, but that's all we were looking for. We sat in the Rix Lounge to eat and then headed straight to bus stop #2 to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom.

Due to our leisurely pace, we arrived at AK at around 9:45 -- a bit risky in retrospect since the crowd calendar predicted a 10 for that day. The park didn't feel crowded at all for the first couple of hours, though. We took our time walking through the animal exhibits since our first FP wasn't until 12:10.

We started heading over to DinoLand USA a little after 12:00. Initially I had all three of us down for Dinosaur, but I don't really care for rides that involve motion simulation (motion sickness + claustrophobia = blech). I checked the app to see what other FPs were available, and DD and I decided to switch to Primeval Whirl. That ride was surprisingly fun! I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but DD and I were giggling the whole time. We met up with DH near Dinosaur (which he thought was just okay), and then decided to find a place to eat lunch. We had seen most of what was available at that point, and we all agreed to try the Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafes. DH went with the Teriyaki Beef Bowl (which he enjoyed), DD tried the Honey Chicken bowl (which she devoured), and I ordered the Korean Stir-Fry Barbecue Chicken (which was a bit of a disappointment as it didn't taste anything like Korean BBQ). We also shared an order of chicken fried rice, which was very tasty.

We still had some time before our FP window opened for Kilimanjaro Safaris, so we decided to see It's Tough to Be a Bug. Or I should say, DH and I decided to see it. DD was resistant. We skipped this show when we visited AK in 2008 because DD was sensitive to sudden noises and movements, and we didn't think she could handle it. I was very curious to see what it was all about, though, so we insisted that DD give it a try. The standby line was only about 20 minutes, and the line is actually not a bad one to wait in. The verdict? We all thought it was hilarious!

After leaving the show it was finally time to head over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. I say "finally" because all three of us had loved it in 2008 and had been eagerly anticipating it all day. I was really glad we had FPs, because the standby line was very long for most of the day. We enjoyed it just as much this time -- possibly even a little more since they took out the storyline about the elephant poaching. I think maybe they did that initially to make people aware of the issue, but I thought it took away from an incredible experience.

After KS, we decided to take the train over to Rafiki's Planet Watch where we spent about an hour. Afterward, we still had some time to kill before our third and final FP of the day, so we walked around checking out things we hadn't already seen. We eventually made our way back to DinoLand and decided to ride Primeval Whirl again with DH. Then it was time to use our last FP at Expedition Everest. This one had actually started as a FP for Festival of the Lion King. Try as I might before we left home, I was not able to get any combination of FPs that included both Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest -- and KS was a must. Not long after arriving at AK, I decided to check to see whether I could switch the last FP to Everest, and lo and behold it was available! At that point, I wasn't even sure whether DD would be up for EE, but based on our experiences with the coasters at MK, I suspected she might be willing to give it a try. Once again, she proved up to the task and ended up loving it!

In line for Primeval Whirl

There are so many funny things about this photo!

We had reservations for dinner at Rainforest Cafe at 8:00, but by 5:00 we were finished with everything we wanted to do at AK. We decided to catch a bus to Disney Springs so we could do some shopping. We were looking forward to taking our time and really checking it out since the previous day we had basically eaten and run. The plan at that time was to return to AK for dinner, but would that actually happen? Stay tuned for the rest of Day 3!

Next up: Fun at Disney Springs followed by dinner... somewhere...

 

[Lisa Lisa]

DAY 3: Sunday, February 14, 2016
Animal Kingdom Day, part 2 of 2

While we walked toward the exit, we strategized a bit about the transportation to Disney Springs. We decided that we would take a bus to either AKL or a resort close to DS. As we approached the bus depot, an AKL bus was pulling in -- perfect! I made the mistake of asking the bus driver as we were boarding whether that was a good bus for us if our ultimate destination was DS. The driver told us that we would be better off taking the bus to Saratoga Springs. Against our better judgement, we followed his advice and headed over to the the SS line, where we waited. And waited. We must have just missed the previous bus, because we ended up waiting for about 20 minutes. I was really annoyed with the AKL driver for discouraging us from riding his bus!!

No shortage of stuff to do here!

Apparently you can walk from Saratoga Springs to DS, but we decided to take the bus. I think we got to DS about an hour after we walked out of AK -- quite a schlep! We were happy to finally be there, though, and started to walk around and check things out. We had told DD that she could pick out one souvenir (we were kind and didn't count the sweatpants we had bought her on day 1), and she was on a mission to find something. We spent a fair amount of time in World of Disney, which apparently is the largest Disney store in North America. My understanding is that it was the largest Disney store in the world until the Shanghai location opened. In any case, that is one big store! I think we were all a little overwhelmed, and we ended up leaving empty handed.

As we continued to walk around, we talked about whether we wanted to go back to AK for our Rainforest Cafe reservation. On the one hand, we liked the idea of having a guaranteed sit-down dinner; but on the other, we really weren't loving the idea of having to deal with the buses again to get there. We also were a little nervous about missing the last bus from AK to Coronado Springs. AK was closing at 8:00 p.m. that day, and apparently the buses stop running about an hour after park closing. In the end, we decided to find somewhere to eat at DS -- even though that meant we'd be hit with $30 in cancellation fees. It was still pretty early at this point, so we popped into a couple of restaurants to see if we could get a reservation for later in the evening. What were we thinking?? We stopped in the RC and were told that the wait was FOUR HOURS. Yikes! A couple of places told us they were full for the night. So we kept shopping and figured we'd come up with something when the time came. As it began to get dark, musicians started to play in a couple of different areas. It was fun to get to listen to live music as we strolled around!

By about 7:30 we were getting hungry, and it was at that time that we came across the Food Truck Park in the West Side area. We checked out all the options and ended up ordering from three different trucks! DH went with the Butter Chicken at Namaste Cafe. In a surprise move, DD chose the shrimp and lobster mac and cheese from the Superstar Catering truck (and inhaled it). I struggled with my decision but ended up going with the chicken breast gyro from the World Showcase of Flavors truck. I have to say that the food trucks are a real value for WDW, and this was our least expensive meal of the trip! I also liked the fact that we could pay with our MagicBands, making the whole experience seamless. We found a small table where we could stand and eat, and enjoyed the live music for a little while before continuing on. Here is a link to all of the (many) dining options at Disney Springs:

https://www.disneysprings.com/dining/

After eating, we stopped in a few more stores. We had been told that there was a Marvel store, and DD was excited because she has recently become obsessed with Marvel movies in general and Loki in particular. When we finally found the store, it was a bit of a disappointment. We were surprised that it wasn't bigger given the popularity of the movies. There wasn't much Marvel merchandise at World of Disney, either. We were getting tired and DD still hadn't found her souvenir, so we ended up going back to World of Disney for one last look. DD walked straight to the stuffed animals, grabbed a Bullseye Pillow Pet, and said she was ready to check out. Well alrighty then! Apparently she had been considering it earlier but wasn't ready to commit at that time. With the last item checked off our To Do list, we decided it was time to head back to Coronado Springs and get some much needed rest.

Up Next: Time to go home. Or is it??

 

[Ensusieasm]

DAY 1: Friday, February 12
Resort Day, part 2 of 2

When I left off, we had just headed back to our room to shower and get dressed for dinner. We had our suitcase at this point, and I took a few minutes and unpacked for all of us. (I always unpack for all of us, otherwise two of the three of us would live out of their suitcases for the whole trip!) DD had packed the shorts that were in her carry-on, two pairs of longer Bermuda shorts, and a pair of jeans. First she tried on the Bermuda shorts. Too small. Way, way too small. Then she tried the jeans. Also too small. That one baffled me as she had just worn them a few weeks prior. The bottom line (see what I did there?) is that she'd had one heck of a growth spurt and none of her bottoms fit. For the short term, I told her to put the sweater leggings back on and we’d buy her something later.

Once we were all ready, we walked over to the bus stop closest to our building, which was stop #4. There were screens with the wait times for all of the parks and Disney Springs, which was a nice touch. Apparently they were installed relatively recently. We waited about 15 minutes for a bus to HS.

Up until we got off the bus, I was sure that we could eat at one of the full service restaurants at HS without having to pay for park admission. Why was I sure? Because of a single experience eight years ago, at the Rainforest Café in AK. If you can get into one full-service restaurant located in a park without paying park admission, you can get into all of them, right? Obviously I was seriously mistaken. Once we were at the park, it became obvious that the only way in was through the main entrance. Unwilling to give up the dream, I asked one of the CMs at the entrance if there was a way to get into Mama Melrose’s without park admission. Not surprisingly, the answer was an emphatic "no." The CM pointed us toward guest services, but the line was really long (I’m still curious as to why). So I called Disney Dining to see if they could help. The very nice CM tried to switch our reservation to a restaurant (any restaurant) at Disney Springs, but there was no availability at all. Not really surprising since it was the Friday of Presidents’ Day weekend. The CM did waive the $10/person cancellation fee, though, which we appreciated.

So now it was almost 8:00, and we were outside of HS hungry and with no plan. Surprisingly, DD was pretty chill about the whole thing – a relief because she was not always great at rolling with the punches when she was younger. At that point, our options were to go to Disney Springs and try to find something to eat there or to head back to CSR. Since getting to DS would have required taking a bus to a resort and then a second bus to DS, we opted to return to CSR. Just as we were getting in line for the bus, the fireworks started. What a great show! We would probably have seen more if we had been inside the park, but we weren’t complaining. The show was almost over by the time the bus arrived, and we saw the grand finale as we were pulling away. Talk about a great silver lining!

When we arrived at CSR, we got off the bus at stop #1 and made our way to the Pepper Market. The food there was nothing special, but we were so hungry at that point that it didn’t matter! I will say that they had a decent number of choices, although I think the description of PM as a “food court” was a little generous. As soon as we finished dinner, we headed to Panchito’s Gifts & Sundries. DD tried on the sweatpants that I had scouted earlier in the day, and thankfully the small size fit her. You’ll be seeing a lot of those sweatpants in the coming days!

Pepper Market "food court" (Photo credit: WDW web site)

Pepper Market seating area (Photo credit: WDW web site)

Panchito's Gifts & Sundries (Photo credit: WDW web site)

So, did I have any regrets at this point in the trip? Indeed I did. I wished we had bought 3-day tickets and gone to HS on day 1. It was nice to relax by the pool and explore the resort, but for such a short trip we should have made more of an attempt to maximize our time – to get the most bang for the buck. What held me back was that the cost of 2-day tickets was $192/person and the cost of 3-day tickets was a whopping $275/person. You don’t really get a price break until you go to 4+ days. In retrospect, it’s clear that we should have paid the additional $249 for the extra day. All in all it was a very good day, though, and we still had a lot of fun ahead of us!

ETA: DH just told me that he has no regrets about day 1 -- except for the whole HS/Mama Melrose's debacle. He enjoyed our relaxing first day and would do it the same way again.

Up next: Magic Kingdom!

Not a mistake, I think more like a meant to be because you saw awesome fireworks for free!