A long time ago in a world before the shutdowns…. Julia, Hope and I would fly out to WDW a few days ahead of Ross. One… because this is what his schedule allowed and two... because the girls and I did things at WDW that my dear hubby would not really enjoy. Things like shopping, resort hopping and touring… well it just doesn’t enthrall my Ross, so he never had a problem to let the girls and I indulge in a girls only pre-trip. However, post closures, this has never been an option… until now. Julia, Hope and I really wanted to see Festival of the Arts, but Ross could care less. Even the food options did not impress him. The wonderful hubby he is told us to go and enjoy a few days without him.
So we did…..
Day 1- February 1, 2025
I opened my eyes at 2:30 AM and was happy to find out that my girls were waking up as well. We all showered and got ready to go. The drive to Newark was calm and uneventful thank goodness. It was a FREEZING COLD morning! We took the park and ride shuttle over to Terminal A where we shed all of our winter gear and stuffed it all into two bags and checked them along with our other luggage.
On the way to our gate, Hope had to stop in and check out the Lego Store where she made a Instagram video. FYI… she wants to be an influencer.
If you want to follow her she is Hopester024
We arrived in time to get some breakfast stuff for the flight.
Hope and Julia got Dunkin, but since I never have anything good from this place, they always seem to mess up my order or the coffee just does not taste good, I opted for Starbucks. I am usually much more Dunkin girl and not Starbucks, but I find at the airport, they’re more consistent.
We headed it for our gate, used the restrooms and got Hope some lemonade. I paid seven dollars for a bottle of Dole lemonade!! I think it was more than my latte!
Summer penguin made the trip along with us again…. She has traveled a lot of miles with us!!
I originally booked the 6 PM flight out of Newark. I had to help Ross that morning, and I had no idea if I would be done in time. The way things ended up going though, we were able to get most of the work done on Friday, so I was clear to go early Saturday morning. I called Jet Blue did a same day switch and managed to get on the 7:45am flight out of Newark to Orlando. The only problem was the flight was almost completely booked. The only seats remaining were the emergency exit row seats and one regular seat that happened to be in front of the emergency exit seats. So Julia and I took the emergency exit seats and I was able to get Hope right in front of us in a regular seat. I didn’t feel comfortable having her sit in the emergency seats because you have to be willing and able to help out just in case of an emergency. And while I’m sure, my dear girl is willing, I’m not sure if she would be able to help out in an emergency.
The flight took a little longer than I’m used to, but I think it was because the wind was against us the whole way. Nonetheless, it was a great flight.
We had the plane with touch screens and even though there was no Star Wars, I found a movie I used to love and hadn’t seen in ages. Want to guess?
And soon we went from 20° with cloudy skies and nasty rain to about 70° with no rain in sight. We landed at MCO Terminal C… I love Terminal C! I’m sad to hear that JetBlue may be leaving and moving back to A/B after this year. I’m hoping it’s not true.
Mickey & Minnie greeted us!
We got our bags and took a Lyft right to Pop Century.
I had to finish off paying off paying our bill and they were able to get us in a 50 section but not a ground floor. I didn’t mind. I could’ve waited for a ground floor, but decided to take what’s ever was available right then and there.
We headed to our room, unpacked our things and got settled in. We rested for a few minutes and changed. Then we had to decide what to do. I never really made solid plans because I was not really sure if we would be able to switch our flight.
We headed it for our gate, used the restrooms and got Hope some lemonade. I paid seven dollars for a bottle of Dole lemonade!! I think it was more than my latte!
Summer penguin made the trip along with us again…. She has traveled a lot of miles with us!!
I originally booked the 6 PM flight out of Newark. I had to help Ross that morning, and I had no idea if I would be done in time. The way things ended up going though, we were able to get most of the work done on Friday, so I was clear to go early Saturday morning. I called Jet Blue did a same day switch and managed to get on the 7:45am flight out of Newark to Orlando. The only problem was the flight was almost completely booked. The only seats remaining were the emergency exit row seats and one regular seat that happened to be in front of the emergency exit seats. So Julia and I took the emergency exit seats and I was able to get Hope right in front of us in a regular seat. I didn’t feel comfortable having her sit in the emergency seats because you have to be willing and able to help out just in case of an emergency. And while I’m sure, my dear girl is willing, I’m not sure if she would be able to help out in an emergency.
The flight took a little longer than I’m used to, but I think it was because the wind was against us the whole way. Nonetheless, it was a great flight.
We decided to head down to Disney Springs and get a Blaze Pizza to start our vacation. Is there any other way to start out or Disney trip?
Once our bellies were full, we walked around Disney Springs for a while. Checking out some of the shops that we usually don’t make time for. I have to be honest, I failed taking pictures today. I really wasn’t snapping away, but just enjoying the day with my girls. And I have to admit, missing my hubby.
It was nice walking around Disney Springs not being in any particular rush, but oh my, it was CRAZY busy! I mean, truly crazy busy. Julia and I made the mistake of thinking we could get Gideon's cookies, absolutely not! Although we did manage to get the card that showed the flavors and I was very excited to have to see the Eternal Flame because I missed it last year. We knew we would be back!
Hope wanted to see the Lego Store, but that line was just as long if not even longer than Gideons! So we moved on again. Even the restrooms had a line that would make you want to purchase a lightning lane for. We wandered through a couple more stores that didn’t have lines to enter, including world of Disney.
Then we tried to decide what our plan would be. The girls really didn’t feel like going to a park yet, and everyone thought it was a good idea to try something new. Something Ross would not be so keen about. So we walked over to the rideshare area and got a lift to…
The Vineland Outlets specifically for…
I’m not sure what we were thinking, because the outlets were just as busy as Disney Springs and yes, there was a line to get into the Character Warehouse, but it moved pretty quickly. I would say we waited about 20 minutes and then we’re inside. It was insane! You can barely walk without Bumping into another person. We grabbed the shopping basket and started to search through sizes. There are definitely some hidden gems, you just have to be lucky enough to either be extra small or triple extra large. lol
Luckily, Hope is an extra small,l so she was able to pick up a couple of tops. I managed to get one of the Merry Menagerie Penguins stuffy ($8) and Julia found a Ramen Noodle Bowl set I think in the style of Baymax. ($12)
I didn’t even think of taking a photo in the store. That’s how crazy crowded it was. I actually held Hope’s hand most of the time because I was afraid we may get separated.
After that, we walked around out with a little bit. Julia got a couple of treats.
Then we made our way back to one of the entrances and called a lift back to Disney Springs.
Once we were back at DS, we walked around a bit. It was still hopping busy!
We were hungry, but couldn’t decide where we wanted to eat. Julia had an idea. She had been wanting to visit Wilderness Lodge for a while… we missed it in December, so we hopped on a bus and off we go. Once there, we headed for Roaring Fork…
It was really good! We mobile ordered and found a place to relax while our food was being prepared. I got a kid’s cheeseburger and asked if I could add lettuce and tomato, since it wasn’t an option on the mobile order. No problem!
Hope got mac & Cheese while Julia got a pulled pork sandwich.
Even though I had only gotten to sleep a few hours earlier, my eyes opened at 5:30 AM. No alarm needed. Oddly enough, I felt so well rested. It’s been so stressful at home with my mom, it felt good to just be free of all of it for a little bit. I know that sounds horrible, but it’s been just so overwhelming lately. I need a break like this to break free from it every once in a while, and get recharged.
My phone was set and I was ready to go at 6:59 AM. Unfortunately, to my dismay, something glitched and I did not get the VQ for Guardians. I was on my data and not Disney Wi-Fi, but it had been very weird. Ever since we got here, both Wi-Fi and data access has been very sketchy. I was sad, but honestly, not as devastated as I may have been a few trips ago. I knew I had a shot at 1 o’clock, so I set my alarm for 12:55PM. And yes, I probably would’ve bought the LL, had it been available, but it was sold out.
I realized when we were here yesterday, after our arrival, that it was a cheer competition weekend. We had seen a crazy number of cheerleaders everywhere we went. I wonder if that was reason why everything seemed so crowded, and in this case, LL’s sold out. I had heard even the premier pass, which I would never buy, way too expensive, was sold out for yesterday.
I got up around 7:30 and started getting ready for the day. The girls woke up soon after and started to get ready as well. I spoke to Ross for a little bit. He teased me saying that since he was not with us, that we should’ve been at the park at 5 AM this morning for rope drop. I had to laugh and can see that that was no longer me either. I told him we were content with shutting everything down.
While the girls got ready, I walked over to the food court to get some most needed coffee.
The food court was still under renovation. Although the gift shop was pretty much complete, the ice cream - mobile order area was still behind walls.
I had a “Ross return” moment. Let me explain…. On our last trip I had purchased a backpack. At the airport, the zipper got snagged on the very long tag that I neglected to cut off. Two employees at an airport restaurant had to help Ross and me cut and rip the zipper free, since I had our boarding passes and all our ID inside the bag! They succeeded, but the bag was damaged a bit.
I loved the bag and still used it with the broken zipper, but I took a chance and brought it down to POP’s gift shop on my way back from getting coffee. Since they still had the backpack for sale, I explained what happened and asked if I could exchange it. They were so sweet! The young lady got a manager – because I didn’t have a receipt, and the manager said no problem! And this time, the sales lady cut the tag off for me. I gave her a cast compliment on the APP.
When I got back to the room, mousekeeping was there cleaning and my girls were no were to be seen! My heart jumped…. Then I realized that I was in the wrong building! Lol My girls enjoyed that one…
When I returned to the correct room, the girls were ready to go and off we go…
When we got there, we didn’t make it past the first gift shop before Hope rushed to buy the scavenger hunt… Figment’s Brush With The Masters.
Julia decided to get one for herself too because she thought it looked cute. We picked out the “prize” then and there, so we didn’t have to worry if they did not finish them. Julia picked out Figment and Hope picked out Minnie mouse.
Julia was proudly wearing her animator's ears. Unfortunately, they were heavy and gave her a headache, so she couldn't wear them for too long. She got a lot of compliments from people which made her happy!
We made our way to France. It was almost noon, and we were all hungry and decided to get crêpes. Hope got her usual red berry with vanilla ice cream.
I got a ham and cheese crêpe and Julia got the hazelnut with bananas. Julia and I split ours, so we could have some savory and sweet.
This is the first time that I ever had a savory one and I have to say it was really good. The only problem is that I was stuffed when we were done. It would be a while before I could try any of the food studios.
