Periwinkler
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2015
When: Nov 29- Dec 3 2015 (the week after thanksgiving)
Stayed at: Port Orleans Riverside
Who: Myself (35), Husband (36), and our twin girls (5)
From: Ohio (drove there by car)
Disney dining plan?: No
-This was my kids first trip to disney... and my husband and I haven't been since we were little... so I consider all of us first-timers
Itinerary:
Sunday (got there at 3pm) - Hollywood Studios
Monday - Magic Kingdom
Tuesday - Animal Kingdom
Wednesday - Epcot
Thursday - [was supposed to be] Magic Kingdom leaving at 4pm to drive home
First... LOVED these boards and they gave me SO MUCH help in planning. I thought I would post a short trip report since we had such a great time and these boards were such an invaluable resource.
-Sunday we arrived at hollywood studios and immediately met Jake before our FP at voyage of the little mermaid. After mermaid show we ran to the frozen sing-a-long and just made it in (husband ran to rock 'n roller coaster while I did frozen fever with the kids). We loved frozen fever and what happens at the end. magical moment! Then we had a fast pass for Toy Story Midway Mania and this was one of our favorite rides of the trip!! So glad we got a fast pass for it. Then onto FP for star tours and a quick dinner. Here I realized the kids were worn down and we had to pick between osbourne lights and fantasmic because we weren't going to have happy kids if we did both. We did osbourne lights and they were sooooo pretty and fantastic. It was a mass of humanity though... sooooooo crowded!
FAVORITES: Toy Story Midway Mania, Osborne Lights, (rock 'n roller coaster for my husband)
-Monday - rope drop at Magic KIngdom... with EMH at 8am. That first hour or two we walked on most everything and it was awesome! Our whole morning we just got so much done. Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Barnstormer (2X), cinnamon rolls at gaston's tavern, Met Minnie & Daisy, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Little Mermaid Ride, Met Ariel (FP), It's a Small World, Peter Pan (FP), Carousel, Teacups, Met Merida, Ate at crystal palace and met pooh, tigger, eeyore, and piglet... and then caught marie the cat before leaving for an afternoon break/nap. I had a plan (thanks to these boards) and it allowed us to get SO MUCH done. The husband definitely appreciated my planning skills at this point because he saw how crowded it had become. After our break we grabbed dinner at our hotel and then headed back into the parks and met tinkerbell, rode the haunted mansion ride, rode splash mountain (2x), met Anna & Elsa (FP... which I snagged a month out by checking diligently every day!), fireworks.
FAVORITES: Barnstormer, Splash Mountain, Meeting princesses
-Tuesday - Animal Kingdom - We arrived not too long after park open and headed straight to dinoland to ride dinosaur. One of our 5 year olds LOVED it...the other was a bit scared (and would later ask EVERY time we came to a dark part on a ride if there were going to be dinosaurs... poor kid, lol!). Then we met pocahontas and headed to the lion king show (FP). We had a couple minutes to waste before lion king so the kids got their faces painted which they loved. Lion King show was awesome! After lion king we had a FP for the safari ride and then had reservations at tusker house and saw mickey, donald, daisy and goofy. After a delicious lunch we headed back to dinoland and rode triceratop spin while my husband ran to everest and rode it twice in a row with barely any wait!! AFter that the kids played in the dinoland play area and then we left early because we were all tired and the kids wanted to go for a swim this afternoon.
FAVORITES: Everest, Lion King Show
-Wednesday - Epcot - we arrived at rope drop and went straight to Test track because we couldn't get a fast pass for this. We all loved it! Then we headed across to Soarin (FP) which was probably my favorite ride of the whole trip. After that we did all the other rides in future world and I didn't really think any of them were that great. At lunch time we ate at the kringla bakery in norway which was pretty good. Then we caught mulan for a princess meet and walked the countries. We didn't do them justice though because the kids weren't really into it and the adults were tired. WE ended up back in future world because we snagged a 4th FP for test track and then met chip 'n dale and met goofy, mickey, and minnie again since the kids wanted to. Then we left for a reservation at the rainforest cafe in disney springs. I was ANNOYED at how far this was from the parking garage... and it was POURING rain. Ugh
FAVORITES: Soarin', Test Track (twice!), meeting characters
-Thursday - this was supposed to be magic kingdom but unfortunately one of my kids came down with a stomach bug in the middle of the night. We were all so bummed because this day promised to be awesome with the weather and the crowd levels and we had some great fast passes. It's such a bummer we had to end on such a low note
Lessons learned:
-Strollers were ESSENTIAL (and my kids are way past strollers otherwise)! We didn't use them the first shortened day and that was fine... but the rest of the time... oh my the kids NEEDED them. We would park them somewhere in a section we wanted to tour and then ride some rides and then pick them up on the way to the next section of the park. Seriously, they were life savers
-We preferred driving everywhere even though we were on disney property and had the busses... since we had our car, it was just easier and disney seriously has their parking situation figured out and organized!
-The hotel (riverside) didn't matter much in the end because we barely saw it. We never had time or energy to really tour the grounds. The room was nice and sufficient and we had all we needed there. The quick service location was important though because we ate there twice... and in my opinion it was not very good All our other dining experiences were good except this one.
-I think we were fine NOT getting park hoppers this time because we wanted to experience most everything the first time. Next time I'll definitely consider getting park hoppers though because I now know which rides/show we just aren't into and I could see us hopping around a bit next time.
-I liked having lunch reservations and then doing quick service dinners. LUnches were a nice break and on the day we didn't have a reservation... we all got hangry trying to figure out where to go and when.
Stayed at: Port Orleans Riverside
Who: Myself (35), Husband (36), and our twin girls (5)
From: Ohio (drove there by car)
Disney dining plan?: No
-This was my kids first trip to disney... and my husband and I haven't been since we were little... so I consider all of us first-timers
Itinerary:
Sunday (got there at 3pm) - Hollywood Studios
Monday - Magic Kingdom
Tuesday - Animal Kingdom
Wednesday - Epcot
Thursday - [was supposed to be] Magic Kingdom leaving at 4pm to drive home
First... LOVED these boards and they gave me SO MUCH help in planning. I thought I would post a short trip report since we had such a great time and these boards were such an invaluable resource.
-Sunday we arrived at hollywood studios and immediately met Jake before our FP at voyage of the little mermaid. After mermaid show we ran to the frozen sing-a-long and just made it in (husband ran to rock 'n roller coaster while I did frozen fever with the kids). We loved frozen fever and what happens at the end. magical moment! Then we had a fast pass for Toy Story Midway Mania and this was one of our favorite rides of the trip!! So glad we got a fast pass for it. Then onto FP for star tours and a quick dinner. Here I realized the kids were worn down and we had to pick between osbourne lights and fantasmic because we weren't going to have happy kids if we did both. We did osbourne lights and they were sooooo pretty and fantastic. It was a mass of humanity though... sooooooo crowded!
FAVORITES: Toy Story Midway Mania, Osborne Lights, (rock 'n roller coaster for my husband)
-Monday - rope drop at Magic KIngdom... with EMH at 8am. That first hour or two we walked on most everything and it was awesome! Our whole morning we just got so much done. Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Barnstormer (2X), cinnamon rolls at gaston's tavern, Met Minnie & Daisy, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Little Mermaid Ride, Met Ariel (FP), It's a Small World, Peter Pan (FP), Carousel, Teacups, Met Merida, Ate at crystal palace and met pooh, tigger, eeyore, and piglet... and then caught marie the cat before leaving for an afternoon break/nap. I had a plan (thanks to these boards) and it allowed us to get SO MUCH done. The husband definitely appreciated my planning skills at this point because he saw how crowded it had become. After our break we grabbed dinner at our hotel and then headed back into the parks and met tinkerbell, rode the haunted mansion ride, rode splash mountain (2x), met Anna & Elsa (FP... which I snagged a month out by checking diligently every day!), fireworks.
FAVORITES: Barnstormer, Splash Mountain, Meeting princesses
-Tuesday - Animal Kingdom - We arrived not too long after park open and headed straight to dinoland to ride dinosaur. One of our 5 year olds LOVED it...the other was a bit scared (and would later ask EVERY time we came to a dark part on a ride if there were going to be dinosaurs... poor kid, lol!). Then we met pocahontas and headed to the lion king show (FP). We had a couple minutes to waste before lion king so the kids got their faces painted which they loved. Lion King show was awesome! After lion king we had a FP for the safari ride and then had reservations at tusker house and saw mickey, donald, daisy and goofy. After a delicious lunch we headed back to dinoland and rode triceratop spin while my husband ran to everest and rode it twice in a row with barely any wait!! AFter that the kids played in the dinoland play area and then we left early because we were all tired and the kids wanted to go for a swim this afternoon.
FAVORITES: Everest, Lion King Show
-Wednesday - Epcot - we arrived at rope drop and went straight to Test track because we couldn't get a fast pass for this. We all loved it! Then we headed across to Soarin (FP) which was probably my favorite ride of the whole trip. After that we did all the other rides in future world and I didn't really think any of them were that great. At lunch time we ate at the kringla bakery in norway which was pretty good. Then we caught mulan for a princess meet and walked the countries. We didn't do them justice though because the kids weren't really into it and the adults were tired. WE ended up back in future world because we snagged a 4th FP for test track and then met chip 'n dale and met goofy, mickey, and minnie again since the kids wanted to. Then we left for a reservation at the rainforest cafe in disney springs. I was ANNOYED at how far this was from the parking garage... and it was POURING rain. Ugh
FAVORITES: Soarin', Test Track (twice!), meeting characters
-Thursday - this was supposed to be magic kingdom but unfortunately one of my kids came down with a stomach bug in the middle of the night. We were all so bummed because this day promised to be awesome with the weather and the crowd levels and we had some great fast passes. It's such a bummer we had to end on such a low note
Lessons learned:
-Strollers were ESSENTIAL (and my kids are way past strollers otherwise)! We didn't use them the first shortened day and that was fine... but the rest of the time... oh my the kids NEEDED them. We would park them somewhere in a section we wanted to tour and then ride some rides and then pick them up on the way to the next section of the park. Seriously, they were life savers
-We preferred driving everywhere even though we were on disney property and had the busses... since we had our car, it was just easier and disney seriously has their parking situation figured out and organized!
-The hotel (riverside) didn't matter much in the end because we barely saw it. We never had time or energy to really tour the grounds. The room was nice and sufficient and we had all we needed there. The quick service location was important though because we ate there twice... and in my opinion it was not very good
All our other dining experiences were good except this one.-I think we were fine NOT getting park hoppers this time because we wanted to experience most everything the first time. Next time I'll definitely consider getting park hoppers though because I now know which rides/show we just aren't into and I could see us hopping around a bit next time.
-I liked having lunch reservations and then doing quick service dinners. LUnches were a nice break and on the day we didn't have a reservation... we all got hangry trying to figure out where to go and when.
