Trip Report Last Minute Unbirthday Madness

Hi! Ritualistic planner here, just booked a very spur of the moment trip to Disney World for a long weekend and I'm dying inside!!!

Background : My partner and I are approaching our 27th birthdays (I'm April 6th and he's April 8th) and we have been feeling down about the entire ordeal. I know, pity us. We live in Philly and I'm a little far from home; my family lives on Long Island and his live just over the Betsy Ross Bridge in Southern New Jersey. We were trying to plan to see my family the weekend before (since my birthday is on a Thursday this year, totally harshing my vibe) and we'd celebrate his the following weekend. I was getting pretty bummed by the lack of enthusiasm from the fam back home as there are a few birthdays in the family around that time (I have a twin sister, my aunt is also born on April 6th, a cousin on the 12th, my grandfather on the 1st) and it seems like everyone wants to get together on the Saturday I'd be there, which usually would sound swell but I really just wanted to have a low key adventure at the Long Island vineyards and drink my butt off on some dope wine. In more adult terms : We just wouldn't be able to really spend the time we wanted to spend with each other, with all of these other events going on at the same time. So Brandon, my partner, says to me "Well, what would you like to do for your birthday?" and I said, half jokingly, "I want to go to Disney World". He freaking said "OKAY". From there, we pounced as time was running short.

WHEN : March 31st - April 3rd (thus the Unbirthday, not trying to go to Disney the weekend before Easter)

WHERE : All-Star Movies

WHO : Me! Chelsea - self absorbed Disnut, the only one of my friends that even remotely enjoys Disney
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Brandon! One of many reasons I love him so dearly, he's not as fascinated by Disney culture as I am. But he tolerates it and I know his appreciation for the parks has grown since we met over 4 years ago.
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And because I love this picture of us :
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The theme of this trip is : Don't Sweat It. We've been to Disney twice together over the last four years and have had to put off this third visit because Brandon said so. He was Disney'd out and wanted to see other places, as did I. But in general, it's going to be a busier time than we're accustomed to and we have such a short amount of time to actually spend in the parks, we don't want to over do it and stress out about sacrificing fun for ADR's so I've made our itinerary fairly flexible.

To start, we are driving from Philly. We've driven down before and it's quite a long trip but we honestly enjoy it. We initially anticipated grabbing some cheap airfare out of Newark but the room at All-Star, although our least expensive option, was still a hefty pile of change so we decided to save $300 and use it towards gas and tolls and Sheetz!

I already have tickets because I was lucky enough to purchase 7-day No Expiration Park Hoppers for us a few years back before they terminated the No Expiration option. We are down to our final 2 days on this ticket so we're going to make them count.

Day 1 Arrive whenever! Driving overnight, we don't know how many stops we'll need to make or what sort of traffic we'll encounter due to evening road work. It's typically about 15 hours. We basically plan on arriving and crashing for a few hours. Friday will not be a park day, for sure.
Instead, that will be the evening for our fancy birthday dinner. I was thinking an evening on the Boardwalk for Flying Fish, AbracadaBar, Ample Hills, and maybe Jelly Rolls. I also have Touring Plans checking for any open California Grill reservations for me. I've never been and I'm really dying to try the food, the bar, and the fireworks. If I get a coveted reservation for Friday evening, I may have to change our plans.

Day 2 Rope Drop at DHS, FP's are Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, and ToT. Break for the afternoon at the pool. Evening at Magic Kingdom. No ADR, will just grab dinner at a QS like Columbia Harbour. DON'T SWEAT IT.

Day 3 Rope Drop at Epcot, sprint to Frozen. I have FP's set up for Soarin, Mission Space, and Spaceship Earth (Brandon loves it) but I'm most invested in floating around the World, trying all of the delightful treats they are serving for the Flower & Garden Festival. No ADR's here. We're snacking.
Sunday evening gets a little hairy. I currently have an ADR for Tiffin's with the anticipation that we'd go to AK for the evening and catch RoL. I've gotten the feeling from Brandon that AK is not his favorite and I might give him the option to return to any park of his choice that evening after we rest up at the hotel.

So, we have 30 days until we arrive. Time to start planning theme park outfits!
 

amjt660

Premium Member
Your pic in BOG is priceless and the one with you together is so gosh darn cute!!!
Short trip and short lead time to plan but you look like you have it all under control
Enjoy the trip and I look forward to hearing (and seeing) more!!

Max
 

cdeev8690

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Your pic in BOG is priceless and the one with you together is so gosh darn cute!!!
Short trip and short lead time to plan but you look like you have it all under control
Enjoy the trip and I look forward to hearing (and seeing) more!!

Max

Aw! Thank you so much! Not a lot of fritz involved in the planning this time around, I just want to actually treat a Disney trip like a real vacation. I don't want to lose my brain over two park days. I'm excited to do things differently this time around :cat:
 

amjt660

Premium Member
OK , come on , treat it like a real vacation???
I get what you mean - I usually need a few days to rest up and go back to work after a Disney trip.
But you will do some ADR and FP picks right, right, right??????? (panic setting in,,,,,)

JK

Have a great trip (no matter what style you choose it will be awesome)

Max
 

cdeev8690

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK , come on , treat it like a real vacation???
I get what you mean - I usually need a few days to rest up and go back to work after a Disney trip.
But you will do some ADR and FP picks right, right, right??????? (panic setting in,,,,,)

JK

Have a great trip (no matter what style you choose it will be awesome)

Max

Haha! Yes! I have the ADR all set for Flying Fish. I'm going to try to get an ADR for BOG one evening but won't hold my breath. Otherwise, lunches back in our room, granola bars/coffee in the morning, and QS.

And yes! FP's were all selected for DHS and Epcot which will be the two parks we are beginning our mornings that weekend. I'm looking forward to being able to select more for the evening park trips once we get through the initial three!
 

amjt660

Premium Member
Good luck with the BOG ADR
If it does not work out and you are in MK go up and ask if they have any available times.
In 2014 we walked up to our lunch ADR and joked with a CM about not being able to get a dinner reservation.
She sent me to the CM with the clipboard to ask about dinner.
He had one available (it was late - around 8:30) but we grabbed it and ate at BOG twice in one day!!

Again this was 2 years ago during Christmas so I do not know if it will work now but it is worth a shot.

Max
 

cdeev8690

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Heeeereeee weeee go!

Let's start off with the frightening nightmare of day that I had Wednesday of last week. I was horrifically sick and in bed. I still was not feeling my best on Thursday and we were toying around with the idea that we would either cancel the trip or delay it by a day. I decided to power through and take it hour by hour. This also meant that I was way behind on packing and getting my house in order so Thursday was stressful. I work from home so I was able to get everything done in-between phone calls and tasks but Brandon had to work all day in Princeton, NJ so he still had his own packing to do when he got back at 6PM.

The plan was to leave by 8 or 8:30 PM and we ended up getting on the road a little later than anticipated, 9 PM. We knew we'd need to stop eventually and hoped to at least get halfway through North Carolina before parking at a rest stop. We had the car loaded with Brandon's favorite snacks (I was fine with water and crackers) and we downloaded all of the episodes on the new hyped podcast "S-Town" which was pretty riveting and kept our attention/eyes open for hours. As expected, we stopped a little ways south of Raleigh and took a nap in the car for nearly two hours. We were back on the road around 5:45 AM and were ready to power through to Orlando! I also want to mention that the weather in the North East has been really wishy washy and we left Philadelphia in 45-50 degree weather and have not needed air conditioning in Brandon's car since last summer so naturally when we turned on the A/C for the first time, somewhere in Georgia, it was malfunctioning. We tinkered with the settings for about 15 minutes until it consistently pushed beautiful cold air out of the vents, cooling us down. The forecast indicated a high of 90 degrees each day of our visit. Let's add Spring Break Crowds and Flower & Garden Festival into the mix and you've got a party.

I had been waiting for that beautiful text message from Disney with my room number but the moment never arrived! I wasn't certain what our exact arrival time would be but I made it on the early side, just to give us plenty of wiggle room. At 10 AM, I got a text saying that the the room was not quite ready! No problem, we were still a few hours out. By 1 PM, we were an hour away and another text came through but this one said "Please see the front desk about your room assignment when you arrive at your Resort". Oh great!

Just shy of 2 PM, the moment arrived!

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"Where Dreams Come True" oh yes they do

We pulled into All-Star Movies at 2 PM and Brandon dropped me off at the lobby so I could work out the room situation. I walked right up to Internet Check-In and the lovely attendant was a little puzzled as to why I got that exact text from the Room Alerts as we were already assigned a room. She gave me the packet with the room number and Brandon and I drove over to Building 3 in the Mighty Ducks Section (rather fitting for him, the big Flyers/NHL fan). We unpacked all of our belongings, walked up to the 2nd floor, and down walkway until we got to 3838 to find out my cute pink MagicBand was not opening our door. I kept getting the red light of doom. We tried Brandon's, same outcome. I knew I could call the front desk but at that point, we had been traveling for 17+ hours and wanted to get out of the heat and into the bed for a well deserved nap, so I ran...literally ran...to the front desk. No time to waste! I got the same CM at the front desk who told me that Stitch must have been up to no good and resolved the issue with the MagicBands within minutes. There was also a manager there (some square in a suit) who helped me as well and kept me laughing and smiling while the CM worked on the Bands. Oddly enough, nobody apologized for the inconvenience, but I suppose they're done apologizing for Stitch's behavior.

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Now, we can fast forward through the epic nap that ensued. The two double beds are nothing to write home about but they sure beat the seats in Brandon's Ford Focus. When we finally woke from our comas, we got prepared for our dinner reservations. We cancelled our Flying Fish reservations and got an ADR at the newly opened Paddlefish in Disney Springs instead. We had an 8:15 ADR and got to the Springs around 7:30 for some window shopping. This is the first time we've been back there in over a year and the construction just exploded! It looks so so beautiful at night.

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We walked through Levi's and Uniqlo for a little while. Brandon forgot a hat at home and needed something to tame his beast during the hot days. We didn't have any luck at those stores. We did speak with a guy that does embroidery work at Levi's and he offered us his card. You can bring your personal denim products and he can create embroidery designs and complete the work for you over a weekend for you can ship things to him! We would love to use this service in the future, we just didn't have the time while we were there. It was getting closer to 8 PM so we walked over to Paddlefish and found a mobbed front lobby of families waiting eagerly for tables. We put our name in and took a seat towards the back deck and considered walking around to see the changes before our name was called by the hostess. We walked up the stairs to the second level and were seated at a table by the window which was really nice. Our server Jeremy, quickly came over to get drink orders and gave great recommendations. Brandon ordered a Jay Alai from the draft list and I ordered the Southern Sangria which was loaded up with bourbon. It was yummy but STRONG. For appetizers, we ordered the Crab Fries, which came with big lumps of crab meat on string fries and a spicy dressing along with a big bowl of New England Clam Chowder. We could have just lived with one appetizer, the fries, as we didn't expect the humongous serving sizes! New time, we'll order the lobster guacamole. It looked delicious at the other tables around us. But both were very yummy. For our entrees, Brandon ordered the fish special Oscar Sea Bass with asparagus and bearnaise sauce. I ordered the brown butter scallops over pureed cauliflower and crispy bacon brussel sprouts. They were iiiincredble! I highly recommend my dish. Brandon said his was delicious as well but was really jealous of my scallops. They were cooked perfectly, and the flavor of the overall dish was amazing. Our bill came out to $120 so keep in mind if this is not something that is in your budget. If you want a nice romantic fancy dinner, keep Paddlefish in mind. I have also heard that their brunch is fantastic!

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At the end of the meal, Jeremy came over and asked "Would you like a to-go cup for your water?" and he said it so matter of factly that I really though he meant my WATER. I looked at him with a confused look and we both gave each other a nod and i said "Yes". Next thing i know, he comes up with this plastic cup with a lid and I poured the remaining Southern Sangria into it and we departed! We walked over to Chapel Hats near The BOATHOUSE to see if they had anything Brandon wanted and he found a really nice Brixton hat which he ended up wearing every day for the remainder of our trip, including the drive home. All the while, I sipped carefully on my Souther Sangria trying to stay out of sight of security or party poopers. *DISCLAIMER* We were responsible, we were not drunk, we just wanted to finish my expensive drink without having to throw it down my throat before exiting the restaurant. We understand that this was illegal but WHATEVER I'M YOUNG AND I TURNED 27 TODAY. I DESERVE A LITTLE FUN IN DISNEY SPRINGS!

Anyway! After we took in all the sights and our sangria, we headed towards the buses back to ASM to call it a night. The following morning we would be rope dropping DHS and we knew we needed more recharging.

Day 2 coming up soon!!
 
Wow! I'm always impressed when people can drive all the way from the northeast to Orlando. I can hardly drive around the block without incident, so I don't ever see that in my future!

Your pictures from Paddlefish are awesome! I was one of the few that really liked Fulton's, but Paddlefish is great too!

I can't wait to read more!!
 

kaitertot5249

Well-Known Member
Great trip report so far! Sounds like you had an awesome experience at Paddlefish, my boyfriend loves seafood and I'm sure he would love this place. We never make it to Disney Springs when we're down there though. Maybe we should venture over there on our next trip. Especially if they give you your drinks to go :rolleyes:

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your time in WDW!
 

cdeev8690

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow! I'm always impressed when people can drive all the way from the northeast to Orlando. I can hardly drive around the block without incident, so I don't ever see that in my future!

Your pictures from Paddlefish are awesome! I was one of the few that really liked Fulton's, but Paddlefish is great too!

I can't wait to read more!!

It's not for the faint of heart! Haha - we actually have a lot of experience driving around the East Coast and sort of like going at our own pace. I only wish we had more wiggle room so we could have made some stops along the way. But it definitely worked out the way we did it!

Great trip report so far! Sounds like you had an awesome experience at Paddlefish, my boyfriend loves seafood and I'm sure he would love this place. We never make it to Disney Springs when we're down there though. Maybe we should venture over there on our next trip. Especially if they give you your drinks to go :rolleyes:

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your time in WDW!

Yes! They also have non-seafood dishes if you're not feeling fishy one particular evening. There's also a lounge with a limited menu so you may not even need reservations!
Disney Springs is a must-do these days. It's nice to take a little break from the park atmosphere for an afternoon or an evening especially if you are at WDW for an extended period of time. It's also the perfect destination if you're going to the Mickey's Halloween Party or Christmas Party and need something to do in the afternoon beforehand or, in my case, if you arrive at the resort late in the day and don't want to waste a park ticket, head over to the Springs! I can't guarantee the to-go cups for your drinks every time but if you're friendly to your server, you'll be surprised with lovely gestures :)


Getting started on Part 2 now! This is my first TR and it's a lot of work! Props to those who do this every time :cat:
 

cdeev8690

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, Part 1 : April 1st! Disney's Hollywood Studios

Can you believe that I've never been able to get Brandon up early enough for park opening during our previous trips? We've always tried to go during non-hectic seasons and weren't that uptight about crowds/queues but I promised him that it would be worth our while, during Spring Break Season, to get to the parks before they open. He was reluctant but it's my birthday and he couldn't say no.

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*Getting ready for my close up*

So, after getting a full night's rest the evening before, we were locked and loaded and at the bus stop before 8:30AM for a 9AM DHS opening. I am a little embarrassed to say that I didn't really know what to expect when we got off the bus at DHS. Would we be held at security? Would we be held at Echo Lake? We had arrived 10 minutes before officially opening and got through security, then enjoyed that magical moment of scanning our MagicBands and our fingers (does anyone else get a little panicked that the scanner will turn Blue instead of Green?). We walked through Hollywood Boulevard and then turned right towards RnRC and just marveled at how EMPTY it was. It was just as I remember the parks being years back during mid-late September. We knew it wouldn't last so we snapped some photos before running over to RnRC.

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Hello beautiful empty street!

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It's just laughable comparing this early morning scene to what was to come about an hour and a half later

After taking a sufficient amount of pictures, we jumped in line for RnRC which had a posted 45 minute wait time although Touring Plans said it would likely be 15 which was far more accurate. Once 9 AM rolled around, the queue went quickly and we were screaming our heads off in no time. Brandon and I are big thrill ride people which is hysterical considering my past FEAR of speed/drops/loops. My first roller coaster was The Hulk when I was 17 years old and I was nervous wreck waiting on the queue with my sister and our friends, who of course made us get into line for the first row. To their credit, they said "If you're going to get over your fear, better go big or go home". They were so right. I screamed, I laughed, my hair was a mess and I wanted more. RnRC is probably the best "thrill" ride that Disney has to offer, which makes it one of our favorites and must-dos for each trip despite how desolate DHS is right now.

We had FPs set up for Toy Story Mania, Star Tours and then Tower of Terror but still had some time before the TSM window opening after RnRC so we jumped on the Stand By queue for ToT as it said the wait was only 11 minutes. We love the nostalgic feeling of ToT because we avidly watch reruns of The Twilight Zone. We got right through the minimal line. Honestly, that feeling of free-falling through the air is the perfect way to get your day started. After walking through the gift shop, we stopped by the Joffrey's stand and got a donut (you can have donuts at 9:30 AM because you're in Disney) and an iced tea before we walked over to TSM for our first FP of the day.

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Hello beautiful :-*

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Going up?

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Brandon needed a picture of my Mickey Waffle and Bacon "Crossbones" hat bc we were already struggling without food in our stomachs and the morning had only just begun

I must be a because part of me was a little disappointed that I couldn't walk through the awesome parts of the TSM queue because we were in the FP queue. The Stand By wasn't long but we dedicated about an hour and 15 minutes to our last trip to waiting in line for this ride and we were not ready to be triggered by that again. Plus, I was ready to work out my entire body to try to beat Brandon!

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I love the details in Andy's Room

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At least I had better Accuracy than him

After we jumped off the ride, we had some time to kill before our Star Tours FP and, with that giant thread dedicated to the Farewell of TGMR, we decided to gamble the 35 minute wait time just to make sure we had one more opportunity to ride this attraction. While we were waiting on line, we got to talking about what our plan was for the following morning. I had originally made FP's for Epcot but we kept feeling like we really wanted to rope drop Magic Kingdom. So on a whim, during Spring Break, I cancelled my Fast Passes for Epcot and found three back-to-back FP's for Sunday morning in MK. This meant that we'd be going to Epcot later in the day and would not be able to do all the Flower & Garden activities we had originally planned but we just told ourselves that we'll come back for F&G another year. See! You can make and break plans last minute and it will work out! Your itinerary does not need to be set in stone. Go with your gut!

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IT ME!

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*ACTION!*

We made our Star Tours FP with moments to spare! Brandon isn't in love with this ride because it always seems to make him feel a little nauseous but I love it. We apparently picked the right time to go because once we got off, the FP for the new window was about 50 people deep just to scan their MBs!

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Again, there was some time before our ToT fastpass and we weren't sure if we were going to end up using it! But I knew I wanted to check out the Star Wars Launch Bay because I had read about the Visa Cardmember meet and greet! We waited behind this cute family, two parents and two little girls, and we got to talking about my Flounder purse and I asked if they knew who we would be meeting. I told them that I thought it might be Kylo Ren and then suddenly, Kylo Ren appears from around the corner and summons the family. It was very cute and it gave the girls a laugh. Brandon and I don't normally wait in line for characters, but this was pretty different and I wanted to interact with Kylo. I sold Brandon out as a Rebel Spy and Kylo tried to sway Brandon to come the dark side of the force with him, to which Brandon refused. He told us that we'd regret that decision haha. I don't have the photos from this because Disney charged $15 for them but they were cute on the app so I'll debate whether it's worth it for a little while longer.

After Launch Bay, we were getting a little hangry. We stopped by the Oasis Canteen for a root beer float and a regular root beer and took a seat around Echo Lake for a short breather.

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And then we decided we needed a break back at the hotel and skipped our ToT FP. But we snapped some more pictures before we left!

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*Go back and compare this photo to the earlier one lol*

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My new Singing in the Rain spot (and an orb)

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See ya DHS!

The second part of the day will be some time at the pool followed by an evening at the Magic Kingdom!
 
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