Hi everyone! I’m going to attempt to start a trip report but I warn you, I may be slow moving between kids & work.
We were in Disney from Saturday January 11th until Sunday January 19th. This trip was myself (Jillian), my husband Nick and our two girls, Sage age 9 and Aria age 4. Our last trip previous to this was in September 2016. Sage was 5 1/2 and Aria had just turned one. That trip was like the perfect storm of Disney trips, so many things went wrong. One of the worst parts of that trip was the weather. It was 95 degrees and so humid every day. Literally sun up to sun down, there was no break. It made the kids so tired and grumpy, our New England bodies just couldn’t handle the heat! We swore up and down we’d never go in the heat again. That is why for this trip, we purposely chose January. Average high 71, average low 49. PERFECT. So of course, guess what happens while we’re there? An actual heatwave. Like, record breaking temperatures. It was 85, sunny and humid every day except one (the high that day was 79!) As expected, the kids didn’t handle it well. We were so disappointed that we once again had to deal with the heat
Another unexpected obstacle- the crowds. This was by far the most crowded Disney trip we have ever taken. Prior to that 9/16 trip, we had been 12/14, 9/09, 1/08 and 4/07. I know everyone says now that there is no quiet time and based on our trip, I will 100% agree with that. The lines were the longest I’ve ever seen them. Small World was consistently at 60 minutes, we only got to ride because we were able to get a FP later in the day. We waited 35 minutes for Journey into Imagination! There were so many rides my kids would have loved to do more than once and we just couldn’t. We rarely waited in standby without a FP.
On that trip in 2016, we stayed at All Star Sports and didn’t like it all. In 2014 we stayed at Pop and that, we liked. After our troubles at Sports, we thought we might like to splurge for a moderate this time. But, our kids really wanted to do a few character meals. And with the rising costs of hotel, tickets, food etc, we decided not to upgrade our hotel this time around. We knew this might be our last trip where they were super into the characters so we decided splurging for those character meals was a better way to spend our money.
I knew I definitely wanted a renovated room so we chose All Star Movies only because it was cheaper than Pop. We did pay a little extra for a preferred room, more for the theming than the location. I knew my kids wouldn’t care for the Mighty Ducks or Love Bug sections.
I have literally been planning for this trip for years so back when the the deals were released for January 2019, I wrote down all the different options. There was a room discount and also Play Stay Dine. I priced both options out based on the approximate dates we would be there. The deal that was actually released for January 2020 was a little different. It was called the Kids Meal Deal and basically, if you bought the adult meal plan at full price, you got the kids meal plan for free. Since we were staying in a value, the room discount was not that much, a couple hundred over the course of the week. So I priced out the room discount plus paying for food out of pocket. I included some food from home, and sometimes sharing quick service, plus the character meals we wanted to do. Then I priced out the kids meal deal with the dining plans and actually, the prices were very similar. We decided the convenience of the meal plan was well worth it so we booked the kids meal deal offer.
Initially, I only booked the quick service version and figured I would pay out of pocket for our 2 character meals. About two weeks before our trip though, I decided to upgrade to the regular dining plan. After factoring in the cost for the two character meals I was going to pay out of pocket for, it really wasn’t that much of a difference. I had to scramble a bit to add the extra table service meals to our schedule but, I am so glad we made this change. The character meals we did were 100% the best part of our trip. It was so nice to have an hour each day to relax in the AC. And it was so nice to have the characters come to us without having to wait in a crazy long line. My kids are fairly picky eaters so it was great for them to be able pick little bits of what they liked. And we were really happy with the adult choices as well!
One final note before I dive in day by day- we actually really liked All Star Movies. The renovated rooms are really nice. We loved all the extra storage. Being able to slide our empty suitcases under the bed was awesome. We loved that we each had our own end table with outlets and USB ports. The door between the room and bathroom was great at night when adults wanted to shower while kids were sleeping. And I loved the coffee maker and little breakfast nook. We left Sports knowing we would never stay there again. But we were actually very pleased with Movies.
I will start our arrival day in a bit! For now, here are a few pictures from Disney on Ice we attended a few weeks before our trip
We were in Disney from Saturday January 11th until Sunday January 19th. This trip was myself (Jillian), my husband Nick and our two girls, Sage age 9 and Aria age 4. Our last trip previous to this was in September 2016. Sage was 5 1/2 and Aria had just turned one. That trip was like the perfect storm of Disney trips, so many things went wrong. One of the worst parts of that trip was the weather. It was 95 degrees and so humid every day. Literally sun up to sun down, there was no break. It made the kids so tired and grumpy, our New England bodies just couldn’t handle the heat! We swore up and down we’d never go in the heat again. That is why for this trip, we purposely chose January. Average high 71, average low 49. PERFECT. So of course, guess what happens while we’re there? An actual heatwave. Like, record breaking temperatures. It was 85, sunny and humid every day except one (the high that day was 79!) As expected, the kids didn’t handle it well. We were so disappointed that we once again had to deal with the heat
Another unexpected obstacle- the crowds. This was by far the most crowded Disney trip we have ever taken. Prior to that 9/16 trip, we had been 12/14, 9/09, 1/08 and 4/07. I know everyone says now that there is no quiet time and based on our trip, I will 100% agree with that. The lines were the longest I’ve ever seen them. Small World was consistently at 60 minutes, we only got to ride because we were able to get a FP later in the day. We waited 35 minutes for Journey into Imagination! There were so many rides my kids would have loved to do more than once and we just couldn’t. We rarely waited in standby without a FP.
On that trip in 2016, we stayed at All Star Sports and didn’t like it all. In 2014 we stayed at Pop and that, we liked. After our troubles at Sports, we thought we might like to splurge for a moderate this time. But, our kids really wanted to do a few character meals. And with the rising costs of hotel, tickets, food etc, we decided not to upgrade our hotel this time around. We knew this might be our last trip where they were super into the characters so we decided splurging for those character meals was a better way to spend our money.
I knew I definitely wanted a renovated room so we chose All Star Movies only because it was cheaper than Pop. We did pay a little extra for a preferred room, more for the theming than the location. I knew my kids wouldn’t care for the Mighty Ducks or Love Bug sections.
I have literally been planning for this trip for years so back when the the deals were released for January 2019, I wrote down all the different options. There was a room discount and also Play Stay Dine. I priced both options out based on the approximate dates we would be there. The deal that was actually released for January 2020 was a little different. It was called the Kids Meal Deal and basically, if you bought the adult meal plan at full price, you got the kids meal plan for free. Since we were staying in a value, the room discount was not that much, a couple hundred over the course of the week. So I priced out the room discount plus paying for food out of pocket. I included some food from home, and sometimes sharing quick service, plus the character meals we wanted to do. Then I priced out the kids meal deal with the dining plans and actually, the prices were very similar. We decided the convenience of the meal plan was well worth it so we booked the kids meal deal offer.
Initially, I only booked the quick service version and figured I would pay out of pocket for our 2 character meals. About two weeks before our trip though, I decided to upgrade to the regular dining plan. After factoring in the cost for the two character meals I was going to pay out of pocket for, it really wasn’t that much of a difference. I had to scramble a bit to add the extra table service meals to our schedule but, I am so glad we made this change. The character meals we did were 100% the best part of our trip. It was so nice to have an hour each day to relax in the AC. And it was so nice to have the characters come to us without having to wait in a crazy long line. My kids are fairly picky eaters so it was great for them to be able pick little bits of what they liked. And we were really happy with the adult choices as well!
One final note before I dive in day by day- we actually really liked All Star Movies. The renovated rooms are really nice. We loved all the extra storage. Being able to slide our empty suitcases under the bed was awesome. We loved that we each had our own end table with outlets and USB ports. The door between the room and bathroom was great at night when adults wanted to shower while kids were sleeping. And I loved the coffee maker and little breakfast nook. We left Sports knowing we would never stay there again. But we were actually very pleased with Movies.
I will start our arrival day in a bit! For now, here are a few pictures from Disney on Ice we attended a few weeks before our trip
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) so, bonus points for dad!
)
Sage was curious about Carousel of Progress but we knew we wouldn’t have time for that either. We are discussing all of this in the heat and sunshine and the kids are getting grumpier and grumpier and obviously frustrated that we don’t have time to do anything at the moment. We finally convince them that we should just go find a shady spot for the show and wait patiently. We get them some slushies on the way over and find a spot under some trees near one of the paths to Tomorrowland. They drink their slushies in the shade while we wait and despite having a decent view of the stage, they both insist on moving closer, in the direct sun, when it starts. We beg them to stay in the shady spot as we’re hoping to hold on to it for the parade as well but they refuse so off we go into the hot hot sun.
