Trip Report UPDATED WITH PHOTOS! A Baby, A Birthday, A Broken Phone, and I Kissed Minnie and She Kissed Me Back!

Hello everyone! We just got back from our trip last night and had a wonderful time! As the title states, i broke my phone on the trip So I dont have too many photos to share, and am working on getting them, and some from my wife and sister.

Cast:
Steve (me,dad)
Megan (mom)
Jade (my sister)
Landon (son)
Declan (son)
Kinley (Daughter, 1st trip!)

We stayed in Caribbean Beach and had a great time! Weather was very hot for this time of year, in the 90s the whole week and no rain! Im probably gonna start off a little slow until i get my new phone and pictures together.

Tuesday May 5
We departed our home around 11am and headed to Ohare airport. We had a 2pm flight out with Frontier Airlines. Now if you read my pre trip report, i was a little apprehensive to fly with them considering all the negative reviews. However, it was the cheapest airline for all of us to fly, so we went with it. I was very satisfied with their service. Somehow, even though i paid for economy fare, i eneded up being upgraded to their classic plus fare, and got free checked bags and free carry ons as well! Score as that saved us over $200 if we would have had to pay for that all. We werent even planning on having carry ons because of the cost, but since it was free we went with it! Our initial flight in was delayed a good 20 minutes, no biggie.

Family Selfie (minus my wife who hates photos lol)

We arrived in Orlando around 5pm and quickly found DME. waited about 15 minutes before we were on the bus and headed home!

 

[Courtney6682]

We left POR on May 6th...can't wait to hear more!

 

[BJones82]

Excited to hear more, these trip reports keep me going while we are planning our next trip in October So long lol... Sucks to hear you broke your phone but hopefully that'll all get worked out soon!!

 

[Misterdcp]

I think early May is one of the most perfect times of the year for Disney. Weather is hot (not unbearable), much less rain than later in the summer, and it's pretty much the "transition" time for the parks, so you get later park hours and lesser lines. I can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[disneypearl]

Glad to hear you had a wonderful time and look forward to reading about it. We stayed at Caribbean Beach on our last trip and really enjoyed it. Sorry about your phone.

 

[mrdrift]

Great start to the report. Can't wait to read more of this trip report.

 

[ItlngrlBella]

How many of the kiddos are school age? I believe we are in the same district, KUSD - we took our daughter out for a week in 1st grade and it was no big deal - she's going into 4th and when she's in 5th we plan to go back. I'm wondering how KUSD is with that.

Sorry your phone broke but looking forward to your pics!

 

[stevehousse]

I think early May is one of the most perfect times of the year for Disney. Weather is hot (not unbearable), much less rain than later in the summer, and it's pretty much the "transition" time for the parks, so you get later park hours and lesser lines. I can't wait to hear about your trip!

We love going in early May! Every ride was 15 min wait or less. The longest line we had was 40 min for Hiro and Baymax.

Glad to hear you had a wonderful time and look forward to reading about it. We stayed at Caribbean Beach on our last trip and really enjoyed it. Sorry about your phone.

The phone situation sucked and I can't wait to tell about it! I feel so dumb...

How many of the kiddos are school age? I believe we are in the same district, KUSD - we took our daughter out for a week in 1st grade and it was no big deal - she's going into 4th and when she's in 5th we plan to go back. I'm wondering how KUSD is with that.

Sorry your phone broke but looking forward to your pics!

My oldest son is 6 and in Kindergarten. We had absolutely no problem getting his vacation request approved. Thanks for reading.

Good to hear that Frontier wasn't a nightmare! We have some airfare vouchers from them due to a cancelled flight in April. Planning to use the O'Hare location, in hopes that there is a little better staffing that Bloomington.

I was so surprised by them. It was awesome being upgraded and getting free bags! What a lifesaver! I would definitely fly with them again, especially for the price.

 

[stevehousse]

So we arrived at our resort and checked in. Got the pins for my kids and decided to walk over to Port Royale. We were starving. I got my boys chicken nuggets in the sand pails, I got some kind of special burger, my sister got a pizza, and my wife got a chili dog and fries. We filled our mugs and grabbed a table outside, enjoying the wonderful weather. Oh how I wish I lived in a warmer climate! I enjoyed my burger, however I wish it had more sauce on it as it was a little dry.

We finished and walked across the bridge to find our room. We were in building 42, a garden view. We found it and...the stupid bands wouldn't open the door frustrating...I ran back over to the port and went straight to the concierge desk for help. 2 minutes later I was done and on my way back. I texted the girls to open the door. Once I arrived they were settling in and taking photos of the room and the famous Mickey towel.

I was quite pleased with our room. I was worried it would be very small for all of us to fit in, but was the perfect size. Not big but not small either. The babies pack n play fit perfectly in corner of the room out of the way. We got settled in. The boys were tired and wanted to go to bed. However, our luggage did not arrive until just before midnight!!! We landed at 7pm...we unpacked and made ourselves comfortable.

A frustrating start, but that was the end of our bad luck for the trip. We would be starting our first park at Hollywood Studios the next day!

 

[popcenturylover]

Understand your frustration! We got to ASsports on May 2ND at about 9 & our room wasn't ready until about 1. Then when it was finally ready our MBs didn't work! We finally got it all worked out but, it was a bit frustrating!

 

[BJones82]

So we arrived at our resort and checked in. Got the pins for my kids and decided to walk over to Port Royale. We were starving. I got my boys chicken nuggets in the sand pails, I got some kind of special burger, my sister got a pizza, and my wife got a chili dog and fries. We filled our mugs and grabbed a table outside, enjoying the wonderful weather. Oh how I wish I lived in a warmer climate! I enjoyed my burger, however I wish it had more sauce on it as it was a little dry.

We finished and walked across the bridge to find our room. We were in building 42, a garden view. We found it and...the stupid bands wouldn't open the door frustrating...I ran back over to the port and went straight to the concierge desk for help. 2 minutes later I was done annd on my way back. I texted the girls to open the door. Once I arrived they were settling in and taking photos of the room and the famous Mickey towel.

I was quite pleased with our room. I was worried it would be very small for all of us to fit in, but was the perfect size. Not big but not small either. The babies pack n play fit perfectly in corner of the room out of the way. We got settled in. The boys were tired and wanted to go to bed. However, our luggage did not arrive until just before midnight!!! We landed at 7pm...we unpacked and made ourselves comfortable.

A frustrating start, but that was the end of our bad luck for the trip. We would be starting our first park at Hollywood Studios the next day!

The food sounds great but it is sad about the magic bands; glad to hear they got it worked out though!! Also the luggage arriving 5 hours after you arrived is frustrating too!! Especially after a long day of traveling (Any amount of time in an airport is a long day of traveling lol) But hopefully these bumps are it for the trip!!.... Oh wait you broke your phone lol.... Sounds like it should be an interesting report lol...

 

[stevehousse]

Wednesday May 6

We ended up waking a little later than we would have liked too. We got out to the buses at about 1030am, and 5 minutes later our bus arrived.

this baby is ready to go!

We had good luck with the buses this trip as we never waited more than 15 minutes for any bus to arrive either at our resort or parks! It was just before 11, so first thing first was to meet Hiro and Baymax. The que was full, so since we were not even in the room yet, Megan and my sister took the kids to meet Minnie Mouse really quick as yeah had just opened her line and there was no wait.

They rejoined us in line and Landon tells me that he gave Minnie Mouse a big kiss and she kissed him back! It was adorable!

We were waiting in line, I had the baby in her carrier on me facing forward. Declan was sitting on the ground messing with his shoes and took one off. I bent down to help him get fixed, and next thing you know I have some girls butt in my face and she ran into me and my baby with her butt!

"Excuse me! You need to watch it and be careful I said." 5 minutes later, we were having our first crazy guest confrontation! I don't know what it is about the studios but we always seem to get into trouble there! Lol

 

[stevehousse]

So it was our turn next to meet the characters. All of a sudden my wife gets a tap on the shoulders. It was this huge woman who starts rambling...
"I just want to make sure your baby is ok. My daughter said she accidentally ran into her and that you guys were rude to my daughter about it and now she is crying at Disney!"

" look lady all we said was she needed to be careful and she didn't even apologize for the insident." I said.

"Well the. Any is ok, there is no reason to be rude about it."

My wife chimed in. "No one was being rude, you need to leave us alone now, bye."

The lady started again. "Seriously..."

I stepped in again.

"Lady go back to your family, bye now!"

And the. The moment came that made my day! She waddled over and out of line and jumped into her scooter!!!

I turned to my wife and said. "I can't believe she actually got out of her scooter to come yell at us! I give her props! " LOL a family next to us stated giggling. The mom goes " I can't believe she did that. We saw the whole thing and the daughter didn't apologize at all!" It was a funny incident.

We met with Hiroand Baymax and my kids loved it! We made our way out of line and over to Tower of Terror for our first fps. Of course both my kids who said they would go on ended up chickening out. The wait was only 13 minutes when we got there, so we didn't even use our fps. I let Megan and my sister jade ride first and I grabbed a baby swap, however, it was a weird lanyard that the woman out front gave me. I've never seen this and it was the only ride that actually did this at all for parks for our trip.

They got back and I went to go on the ride with my sister now, using the baby swap. I gave the lady at the entrance outside the ride my lanyard, (it was a different cm) and she barks at me, "you are suppose to give this to the attendant inside and they give you the baby swap slip!" I said I was sorry but the lady who gave this to me didn't tell me to do anything like that. "Well that's how this ride works and I don't even know if I have any slips up here to give" rudely. She of course did and me and my sister were on our way! I just love this ride!

 

[stevehousse]

So i am going to take the time out to give a shout out to some awesome employees! I am terrible with names and didnt get any, lol, but to be honest, the nicest cms we met along the trip were several janitors (including a lovely lady at Epcot), a very upbeat and kindly lady who was working the bus stops at DTD, and our 2 servers at Ohana dinner.

continuing with the report...

 

[stevehousse]

So I finally had my ride on Tower and we had so much fun! I was very proud of my sister, who hadnt been on the ride since she was a kid and always referred to it as "Tower of Tears"!!! LOL The only ride in the park that had a long wait was Rockin Roller Coaster, so we decided to save it for later in the evening. We next headed over to Disney Jr Live as my kids enjoyed the show! They just love Jake!

We were starting to get hungry, so we headed over to Pizza Planet. I got the meatball sub which i usually get from there thats pretty decent, and they had the cutest worms in dirt seasonal cupcake that i got as well. We are also huge fans of the Cappuccino cupcake that they always have. I just wish i had my pictures We finished eating and sat for a few minutes enjoying the air conditioning. It was hot!

Our next FP was up so we went to Toy Story Midway Mania, meeting Phineus and Ferb, Lightening Mcqueen, and a Green Army Man along the way! We quickly got onto the ride and i was too salty my sister beat me! I am the reining champ of that ride in our home, and i lost! Too bogus! (i would redeem myself later in the trip).

The heat was starting to get to us, so we decided to head out of the park and go back to the resort to swim and relax a bit. We got back around 2-30-3pm. Megan and the baby napped and my sister and I took the boys to the pool. We had a good 2 hours to kill be fore we needed to head back to the Studios for dinner, Jedi Mickey's Buffet (or whatever its officially called )

We had too much fun at the pool! I was so proud of Declan for trying the "big boy" water slides at the main pool. He loved them, however he was afraid of the bucket of water that would dump on you at the kiddie splash pad area...

We left the pool around 445, and headed back to our room to all get ready for dinner and more rides!

 

[stevehousse]

I am too sad that my pictures are gone from my broken phone, because my daughter was wearing the cutest dress Megan had made for her that was Star Wars themed. She did a fantastic job on it! Myself and the boys all had Star Wars shirts too. We arrived back at the Studios a good 10-15 minutes before our reservation time. Got checked in and waited a good 5 minutes before we were buzzed.

We went and took a photo with Jedi Mickey, and then were shown to our table. The characters were cute dressed as their Star Wars counterparts. I was very excited to see that Goofy didnt have his silly boxers over his costume like i have seen in photos in the past! We kept taking turns going for rounds of food. The food was good but not great. My favorites were the thai salad, that came with a nice little kick, the polenta, and also the lobster mac n cheese! yum!

Overall, it was a cute experience, however, being on the dining plan, i would not do it again simply because it was a 2 credit meal, when it really should have just been one. It was super overpriced. If i had to pay out of pocket it would have cost just over $300 dollars!!! No thanks.

The desserts were excellent and the blue milk ice cream was really good.

We had the Fantasmic package so we were waiting for the 9pm show to start. We went to Star Tours, Muppets, and looked in a few shops killing time before heading over to the amphitheater. We we in the top section of the dining area, not too far away, but far away enough that we wouldnt get stuck in the huge crowd trying to exit later that night. I was actually smart and placed our strollers outside of TOT instead of the amphitheater, to also help with the crowds as we wanted to get out of there quick as we still had 2 more rides to do. Loved seeing Fantasmic again. I was really salty though because i had taken some great photos but my wife only took one crappy one with a blurry mickey!!!

RRC was up first. I am sad to inform, that the oldest son was literally a fingertip too short to ride! He was heartbroken and did cry a bout it, but hey, he has something new to look forward to on the next trip. My sister and I ended up riding (Megan didnt want to go on). I hadnt been on this the last few trips and wow is that start intense! The ride was a walk on, we had to wait about 3 minutes for the doors to open to let us into the studio. Once we got back we hurried along Sunset Blvd to our final ride of the night, The Great Movie Ride!!!

We rushed onto it, as it was the final ride of the night. There were people loaded onto the cars, as we filled in toward the back. And who do we happen to see at the front of the car...none other than the crazy scooter mom and the crybaby daughter! lol

We had great CMs for the ride and everyone really had a good time! Everyone in the car clapped once the ride was over! We then slowly headed toward the exit and made our way to the buses. The park did close at 10pm, however they had a 2nd Fantasmic show at 1030, so the bus crowd was not an issue at all. We got back to our room and the kids crashed, as we all did just a bit later.

 

[englanddg]

You didn't back the pictures up off of the original phone? A broken phone (through a drop) should still have the data intact...

 

[stevehousse]

You didn't back the pictures up off of the original phone? A broken phone (through a drop) should still have the data intact...

no i do no use the cloud at all (i find it sketchy) and the phone is broken due to water damage...

 

[englanddg]

no i do no use the cloud at all (i find it sketchy) and the phone is broken due to water damage...

Oh, that's sad.

You did try a direct connect with a cable to transfer off the phone? Was it a phone that has a Sim card? You could still get lucky in that case...

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Sorry about your photos!

Enjoying your recaps though! Love that you gave a shoutout to the CMs who you wouldn't necessarily think make magical moments on your vacation, yet those are the ones you remember. I swear the nicest people work at Disney.