koncra
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2020
Hi All,
Just returned home on Thursday from a lovely 4 night trip to experience Flower and Garden festival for the first time as well as to ride GOTG Cosmic rewind via our AP preview(White card member)
May 8) First day was a bit crazy as our flight departed YYZ(Toronto) at 0700AM and due to some pandemic related staffing issues the security lines are currently a nightmare. They are so backed up that they wont even allow you to enter the security lane until 2 hours before departure and that means you're only getting to your gate about 15 min before boarding. Once we got to MCO we ran into another issue as our bag carousel broke meaning another 1 hr delay while they moved all the baggage to another lane. As my wife waited for the baggage situation to sort itself out I picked up our rental car from HERTZ and then we made our way to Animal Kingdom while waiting for our first room(and our first home resort) AKL Kidani to be ready. Other than the hallways, we love this resort, although in a studio I would always chose Jambo over Kidani. Animal Kingdom was great with super low wait times and we got to do everything we wanted to do in just over 5 hours of park time. We then head back to the resort to check in and change before heading to Magic Kingdom for the evening. This was one of the best Genie+ days we've ever had. Highlights included Navi River Journey, Dinosaur, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain, and Haunted mansion all in the same day and we didn't enter our first park until close to noon.
May 9) We started our day back at MK for the morning where we shopped, rode more of our favorites and ate lunch at Sleepy Hollow while watching the festival of fantasy for the first time since it's re-opened. The corn dog was SO GOOD. We had to make a quick trip to the post office to sort out some package delivery issues so we did that in the afternoon and made a quick stop at the character warehouse outlet and were able to pick up some really good deals on Halloween and Christmas merch and décor. Once finished there we spent the evening at Hollywood Studios and even made a quick detour to EPCOT for the late night extra magic hours for deluxe guests. Pro Tip - If watching harmonious start heading towards Frozen right when the Tiana part starts... we've done this the last two trips and been able to walk on, yet by the time we left the ride it was back up to a 30-40 min wait.
May 10) This was the day we had been looking forward to for a long time! EPCOT morning with breakfast at La Creperie de Paris(Apple Crème Brule Crepe was phenomenal) and then it was time to head over for our GOTG preview! *slight spoilers ahead* This ride is WILD! I say its like if hyperspace mountain and flight of passage had a baby. Very intense, very fun, and the energy from everyone in the area was contagious. We spent the afternoon at Animal Kingdom getting a few more rides in on some of our fav rides(Navi & Dinosaur) before heading to our next stop on the split stay(and our other home) Poly, then spending the evening at Disney Springs because quite frankly we have a shopping addiction. Dinner was the never-disappointing Chicken Guy.
May 11) The final morning of our quick trip was utilized for some r&r at the pool with $16 cocktails. Once we were feeling rested we made our way to Hollywood Studios as I had grabbed a Slinky LL for 1pm. We rode it and a few more things like Runaway Railway & Midway Mania and then we decided to skyliner over to Epcot for our last chance at some delicious Flower and Garden festival food. Our big winners for the festival were the crab wontons from japan, the ham and cheese pretzel from germany, and the cookie batter worms and dirt from the booth near the old starbucks. We ended the trip in Magic Kingdom due to the extended evening hours for resort guests which had the park open until 1AM. This was great for getting in rides on Splash, Jungle Cruise, and 7DMT, but it made the 4am wakeup for our 8am flight come really quick.
Overall it was a wonderful trip and I can't wait to be back in September. We are truly spoiled to have DVC which has allowed us to do 5 trips between September 2021-September 2022
Thanks for reading!
Just returned home on Thursday from a lovely 4 night trip to experience Flower and Garden festival for the first time as well as to ride GOTG Cosmic rewind via our AP preview(White card member)
May 8) First day was a bit crazy as our flight departed YYZ(Toronto) at 0700AM and due to some pandemic related staffing issues the security lines are currently a nightmare. They are so backed up that they wont even allow you to enter the security lane until 2 hours before departure and that means you're only getting to your gate about 15 min before boarding. Once we got to MCO we ran into another issue as our bag carousel broke meaning another 1 hr delay while they moved all the baggage to another lane. As my wife waited for the baggage situation to sort itself out I picked up our rental car from HERTZ and then we made our way to Animal Kingdom while waiting for our first room(and our first home resort) AKL Kidani to be ready. Other than the hallways, we love this resort, although in a studio I would always chose Jambo over Kidani. Animal Kingdom was great with super low wait times and we got to do everything we wanted to do in just over 5 hours of park time. We then head back to the resort to check in and change before heading to Magic Kingdom for the evening. This was one of the best Genie+ days we've ever had. Highlights included Navi River Journey, Dinosaur, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain, and Haunted mansion all in the same day and we didn't enter our first park until close to noon.
May 9) We started our day back at MK for the morning where we shopped, rode more of our favorites and ate lunch at Sleepy Hollow while watching the festival of fantasy for the first time since it's re-opened. The corn dog was SO GOOD. We had to make a quick trip to the post office to sort out some package delivery issues so we did that in the afternoon and made a quick stop at the character warehouse outlet and were able to pick up some really good deals on Halloween and Christmas merch and décor. Once finished there we spent the evening at Hollywood Studios and even made a quick detour to EPCOT for the late night extra magic hours for deluxe guests. Pro Tip - If watching harmonious start heading towards Frozen right when the Tiana part starts... we've done this the last two trips and been able to walk on, yet by the time we left the ride it was back up to a 30-40 min wait.
May 10) This was the day we had been looking forward to for a long time! EPCOT morning with breakfast at La Creperie de Paris(Apple Crème Brule Crepe was phenomenal) and then it was time to head over for our GOTG preview! *slight spoilers ahead* This ride is WILD! I say its like if hyperspace mountain and flight of passage had a baby. Very intense, very fun, and the energy from everyone in the area was contagious. We spent the afternoon at Animal Kingdom getting a few more rides in on some of our fav rides(Navi & Dinosaur) before heading to our next stop on the split stay(and our other home) Poly, then spending the evening at Disney Springs because quite frankly we have a shopping addiction. Dinner was the never-disappointing Chicken Guy.
May 11) The final morning of our quick trip was utilized for some r&r at the pool with $16 cocktails. Once we were feeling rested we made our way to Hollywood Studios as I had grabbed a Slinky LL for 1pm. We rode it and a few more things like Runaway Railway & Midway Mania and then we decided to skyliner over to Epcot for our last chance at some delicious Flower and Garden festival food. Our big winners for the festival were the crab wontons from japan, the ham and cheese pretzel from germany, and the cookie batter worms and dirt from the booth near the old starbucks. We ended the trip in Magic Kingdom due to the extended evening hours for resort guests which had the park open until 1AM. This was great for getting in rides on Splash, Jungle Cruise, and 7DMT, but it made the 4am wakeup for our 8am flight come really quick.
Overall it was a wonderful trip and I can't wait to be back in September. We are truly spoiled to have DVC which has allowed us to do 5 trips between September 2021-September 2022
Thanks for reading!
