02/03/2020
🌟Long Post Warning 🌟
Here is my full Disney trip review: 1/25-1/31
7 days of park hopper tickets, 6 nights.
Middle dining plan. Family of 3 (2 adults, 1 kid)
Resort: All Star Movies Preferred room- We loved all Star movies and would stay again mostly for the cost. We didn’t feel like we were in a “cheaper” hotel, and we loved the toy story area. The big characters were so fun, and it was super convenient walk from the buses and pool. Our one big regret/take away from this trip was that we didn’t enjoy the resort enough. I definitely thought mid day we would tucker out and head back to swim and rest but out of 7 days we only did that ONE time. We loved the parks so much we would keep saying “just one more thing...” and ended up staying until close lol. The food in the dining area was meh, just basic stuff. The muffins were amazing and the breakfast plates were pretty good too! We only swam on our first day there and I honestly wish we did more, I miss the resort already.
Transportation: Buses were usually great. I was worried but we really had amazing luck except our first morning (Sunday) all Star movies line to magic kingdom took us an hour to get through! Which made us very late for BOG.
The skyliner is amazing. We took it from HS to Riveria and we took it another time but I can’t remember.
The boat from HS to Boardwalk was smooth and prompt! Super easy.
The boat from MK to Wilderness lodge, however, took forever. We waited 45 mins for a boat to come after our storybook dinner to head back to MK on our last day. 😢 But... these things happen sometimes.
Memory maker: I was honestly on the fence about the memory maker and I’m so glad we did it. We have so many special shots from it that I’m so excited we have. Do it!
Park Hopper: 100000% would do every time. It gave us so much freedom to take advantage of those EMHs which helped us ride so many more rides!
Dining plan: 10000000% worth it ONLY when doing character meals. If we decide to skip the character meals, I wouldn’t do it. In fact, we wish we had more QS and snack credits 😂 We snacked a lot and ate a lot. However remember we spread our credits through 7 days, though they were allotted for 6. That’s probably why we went through them so quick. Any snack under 5-6 dollars we used a credit but we paid cash for other stuff. A tip: really do your research on QS meals before you go. The parks I knew where I wanted to dine had great value quick service meals but when we just stopped anywhere I felt like it was such a waste! We also ALWAYS got an alcoholic drink with each QS or TS meal so we definitely got our monies worth. Our table services meals were all around $150-230 and we did not pay that out of pocket. (I think it’s roughly $130 for 3 to dine? My math may be wrong there.)
Flights: I’m such a cheap traveler I literally waited until I found cheap flights or we were going to drive. We ended up flying out of Cleveland which is 3 hours away and saved a ton of money. Spirit, direct, for 3 - $225 TOTAL round trip. Add 2 bags each way at $160 total. We still saved a few hundred dollars plus the flight times were amazing. I booked these flights 2 weeks before our trip 😬
Mobile order: Literally the best thing in the entire app. I swear. There was such a long line at most QS places we went and mobile order had it ready right away. I’d press “I’m here prepare my food” as I was walking toward it and by the time I got inside it was ready every single time.
Bippidi boppidi boutique at MK: We did the basic package and I felt it was so worth it. My daughter loved it! ❤️
Saturday 1/25: We landed around 11:30 AM, took the magical express. The lines were super long but it went fast. Probably waited about 45 minutes to board the bus. We went to the hotel and our room was ready by 1:30 when we got there. My daughter wanted to swim so we did that and headed to MK around 5ish. This was not the best idea because it was getting dark and we hadn’t been there before so navigating at night was a little hard AND it was insanely packed. Wait times were crazy. I knew it would be because all crowd calendars said it would be. We used a few fast passes and watched the fireworks, got ice cream. It was honestly a little less than magical because we were all tired and nothing had short waits BUT THE FIREWORKS.. holy crap. My husband cried. For him to cry it means they’re something remarkable. ❤️
Food- We had Casey’s corner. Everyone recommended it but I wasn’t really thrilled. The buns to the hot dog were dry BUT we loved those little corn nugget things. In fact I’ve been craving them ever since. 😍 Id go back there for those again.
Sunday 1/26: We did magic kingdom again! We rode tons of rides and met characters. This day was such a blur but we did basically 9:30-8 in the Park! It was wonderful. I didn’t have great fast passes but toward evening time it really mellowed out and we got on rides with short waits. At this point we finally got in the swing of things. I don’t remember my fast passes for the first few days because they weren’t great ones and I edited them a lot. By day 3.5 of MK we had rode everything we wanted to though.
Food- Be Our Guest breakfast. While I know this is financially a good use of a QS credit, we all left still a little hungry. The food was average. But seeing the beasts castle was super cool.
Columbia Harbor House for dinner. The lobster roll was amazing. My husband ordered the chicken pot pie and said it was just okay. I loved that it was quiet in there. No wait with mobile order!
Monday 1/27: Epcot day!
We literally LOVED Epcot, even my daughter. Our FPs were Nemo, Spaceship earth, and Frozen. We did Nemo and spaceship earth then headed to world showcase. Spaceship earth was a great use for a fast pass because the wait was over an hour at that point. After we rode frozen at 12, we met Elsa and Anna. The wait was only about 30 minutes and went fast. Then we had lunch at Akershus. After that we hopped over to meet Mulan. After that my daughter passed out in the stroller and my husband and I walked around world showcase and ate some yummy snacks and drank! When Emma woke up we saw Soarin only had a 30 minute wait (around 8ish?) so we went and did that plus Figment. Soarin literally BLEW ME AWAY. I’ve never ridden something so breathtaking before, I actually cried. I cried also because my daughters reaction was just pure joy! It was amazing we even hopped back to Epcot to do it again the following night.
Food- Akershus lunch: We really loved Akershus! Service was amazing (as it was everywhere) and the food was super tasty. I got the stuffed pasta and my husband got the meatballs. Both were really good! The princesses seemed a little rushed but they were sweet. We would dine here again!
Tuesday 1/28: HS day (Galaxys edge)
We decided to break HS into 2 days and honestly I’m glad we did because we still didn’t even do everything we wanted there!! We woke up at 4:30, got in line for the bus by 5:40, got in line at the park by 6:10, got into the park by 6:30ish, and ended up at 7 getting boarding group 56. We were called to the ride by 11ish (that part is a little bit of a blur). I will say... I’m not a huge fan of the way they do this boarding group. I mean I get it, it’s probably better than a 3-4 hr que. but having to make a choice between getting up that early and riding the ride or sleeping in and not riding it was tough. On one hand we really wanted to do it (my daughter included) but waking her up so early led to her being absolutely miserable the entire day. She had moments of happiness but I really wish we hadn’t done it. The ride was AMAZING and seriously remarkable but I hope they figure out a different way to do this because it’s so hard for kids to get up early like that. I know the ride is more for adults but for us we had no choice either we all went or just my husband did. ☹️ We did a rider swap for RnR and I had real tears coming down my cheeks. My first real roller coaster in like 10 years 😂 We went back to the hotel around 5 and slept until 8. Realized we missed fantasmic so we decided to hop back to Epcot for fireworks and EMHs. These EMHs were amazing. We rode Soarin and frozen again with such short waits. I was glad we did go back to Epcot!
Food: Toppolinos at Riveria - After we checked in for our boarding group we took the skyliner for breakfast. The Riveria is pretty but the restaurant was AMAZING. We had such a nice server, the food was delicious. The characters were great. Mickey even came over several times to say hi again. I will gladly dine here again... it was wonderful! Seriously do it! One of my favorite meals the whole trip! I ordered the steak dish and my husband ordered more of a traditional breakfast dish. I can include any pictures anyone wants as I took pics of all of our food it’s just unorganized 😂
Docking Bay- DELICIOUS. My husbands favorite QS the whole week. He got the ribs and I got some steak thing and both were absolutely delicious.
Wednesday 1/29: Animal Kingdom day
Animal kingdom did not disappoint. I’m a huge avatar fan and I was completely blown away by Pandora and flight of passage. Our fast passes were: Safari, FOP and Everest. My daughter was measuring literally a quarter inch too short of 44” so we did a swap for FOP and Everest. We nailed it with those fast passes too, perfect choices for us. I actually cried during FOP it was just so beautiful... literally breathtaking. My favorite ride. My husband said it was underwhelming because he wore his glasses under the 3D ones and it was hard for him to enjoy it but I just think he’s a sore loser because he doesn’t like the movie Avatar and he knows it was amazing 😁🤪 Everest was AWESOME as well! It surpassed my expectations and I was freaking out mildly. Sorry to the random people having to sit next to me lol.
We went back to MK at night for CRT and EMHs. We were able to ride like 5 rides during EMHs it was amazing!! If you stay on sight definitely take advantage of these.
Food- Satuli Canteen was probably my favorite QS meal the whole trip. Huge portions, delicious food. My daughter loved her hot dog with the bun around it too! Don’t miss this one!
Cinderella’s Royal Table- It was pretty magical for my daughter. But I think I wouldn’t do it again unless she insisted. The food was good don’t get me wrong but nothing special. The characters were rushed. My daughter was so excited to meet jasmine for the first time and she came to our table and said “let’s take a picture” and left. It was pretty disappointing. The experience of dining in the castle is amazing for your first time though, I would still encourage everyone with a princess obsessed child to do it once at least!! I will add the Ariel from here was my favorite (we saw her 3 Times). She was so sweet with Emma and Emma really bonded with her. She even had the voice down and everything!!!
Thursday 1/30: Hollywood studios (Toy story focused)
We relaxed in the morning in our room then headed to a late breakfast at Trattoria el forno. Then went to toy story land. We had a SDD fast pass for 1:50 so we rode that first then did alien swirling saucers with a 30 min wait. ASS (haha) is really not worth the wait, it’s just like teacups and it’s short. We will skip it next time. Then we waited to meet Jessie which was about 20 mins. Our longest wait of the entire trip was meeting woody and bo peep which took an hour (I’d say that’s a great accomplishment though!) It went fast since my daughter could chill in the stroller. Buzz’s line went in like 15-20 mins as well. Toy story mania still had an hour wait so we said we will try later and we did, around 7:30 it was a 25 min wait and we did it: that was a fun ride!! We hopped around different parts of the park this day doing some shows and meeting characters too. We watched the Star Wars fireworks because by the time we were done with TSMania we couldn’t make fantasmic. I’m sad I missed it but next time!
Food: Bonvoyage breakfast- We absolutely loved this breakfast! Our server was so cool and the food was amazing. I did like my husbands more than mine but both were delicious. Characters were awesome. Flynn and Eric were some of my favorites from the whole trip.
Friday 1/31: my birthday! Magic kingdom day
Relaxed in the morning before heading over from 11-8. We knew it was our last chance to meet some of the characters and ride some rides so I had a great game plan that worked out almost perfect except we missed the parade, darn! We saw it the prior MK day and it was amazing so that’s okay. FPs were thunder mountain, space mountain (and we swapped), and 7DMT. My daughter loved both rides here so much and I loved space mountain! We wanted the fireworks and I cried, it went too fast. Even as I type this.. it just flew by!!
Food: Storybook dining at Artist Point: This was both my husband and I’s favorite and I honestly knew it would be but I was still blown away. The presentation, the food taste, the characters, the service. Everything was remarkable. A perfect birthday dinner and end to our trip! Grumpy was my husbands favorite character to meet 🤪
Things Id do differently next time:
- Longer trip. We packed so much in because we tried to do it all and I wish we had one more day to have just rested at the resort. I don’t think we needed a rest day to rest really (we are so go go go all the time!) but more to swim and play at the playground and enjoy that.
- book on the skyliner. It was so convenient. I will book something on the skyliner next time!
- NOT book early fast passes. All the experts say to book them early in the day so you can pick up more but honestly the days we had a fast pass at 9:30ish I felt like I was rushing my daughter in the morning. She likes to sleep in, as do we, so I don’t know why I thought vacation would be any different. Our MOST FUN days were 11-9 days, and we had the energy! We never wanted to leave for a break once we were in the park like I thought we would. So that’s my tip: book things based on YOUR family, not what you think is best for ride waits. I also found that nighttime was the lowest waits for rides versus 9AM. I think so many people try to rope drop now that you have to be some of the first to get to the park to make that method successful.
- Pack more veggies and fruits because my child ate like nothing but bread and sweats the whole trip 😂 I paid like $50 for her to eat 2 chicken nuggets at CRT.
- Not worry about outfits as my child wants to wear what she wants to wear when she wants to wear it. She was dressed in face paint and mismatched clothes for CRT when I really hoped she’d wear a princess dress but she just didn’t feel like it 😂
- Soak up every moment more. The first few days we were all so cranky and I feel like I didn’t plan those days well at all so I didn’t enjoy them as much as I should’ve, we all felt overwhelmed. I think I need to realize it’s okay to not have everything perfect and just go with the mood of my kiddo and us.
My favorite rides: Flight of passage, Soarin, Everest, Space Mountain and RoR. My favorite TS meal: Storybook dining. Favorite QS was Satuli Canteen. My favorite part in general was the MK fireworks.
My husbands favorite rides: RoR, Tower of Terror, RnR, Smugglers Run and Star Tours. His favorite TS meal: Storybook dining. Favorite QS meal: Docking Bay. My husbands favorite part was everything galaxies edge he has been a huge Star Wars fan his whole life and that was amazing. He was interrogated by Kylo Ren and it like made his life complete lol.
Emma’s favorite rides: Dinosaur, Slinky dog, Soarin, Thunder Mountain, 7DMT, Haunted Mansion. Her favorite things we did were the BBB, Storybook Dining, Bonvoyage breakfast and meeting all the characters. We counted her signature book: she met 40 characters! 😍 She literally loved each and every one!
