Trip Report LIVE: April Showers bring Flower and Garden! (I Wanna Be Like You... )

... @Tuvalu , @Doc Disney , and @TrolleyFollower91 !

After reading all of your mother-daughter trip reports, I decided it was time to take one with my mom! We've traveled together before, but either with my kids, my best friend, my brother and his family or my aunt and uncle. This will be the first Disney trip with just the two of us. We both have annual passes and were discussing how nice it would be to see Flower and Garden someday. So, someday is coming up in April!

Where: All-Star Movies (need to save our pennies for more important things, like Nomad Lounge)

When: April 24-27

Who: me (Kristen) and mom (Celeste)

So far our plan is to hope for a FoP fastpass, drinks at Nomad and to have dinner at Boma one night. That's it! We're planning to wing it the rest of the trip! Pretty sure we're going to skip Hollywood Studios entirely, neither of us is a Star Wars fan and we don't do ToT or RnR.
Can't wait to get there! Any magic friends going to be there the same time??

 

[amjt660]

Sounds like a fun trip

Even though I do not fit the demographic I will follow!!

Max

 

[krisri18]

Sounds like a fun trip

Even though I do not fit the demographic I will follow!!

Max

Welcome aboard @amjt660 !

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I’ve been trying to convince my mama for ages to go with me!!! Sounds like an amazing trip

 

[Bullseye1967]

I am following. I hope you have a great time!!!

 

[MinnieM123]

What a wonderful idea! (My own mother passed away years ago, so I suggest to families that they enjoy all the time they have together now, while they still can.) Mother/daughter trips are the best.

 

[DryerLintFan]

This should be fun!!

 

[krisri18]

Alright Magic friends, I'm taking a poll: Should I change our resort reservation to Caribbean Beach for $50 more a night, downsides being the crazy construction and total lack of worthwhile dining, shopping, etc or suck it up and stay at Movies and book a dessert part for HEA? @sheriffwoody 's recent palmetto/roach nightmare has me rethinking Movies but the money saved by staying Value could be put to better use! We've never done a dessert party, mostly because of cost and the fact that I have a gluten allergy makes things complicated, but I'd love to see HEA without having to camp out for an hour only to have someone's iPad blocking my view.

 

[Bullseye1967]

Alright Magic friends, I'm taking a poll: Should I change our resort reservation to Caribbean Beach for $50 more a night, downsides being the crazy construction and total lack of worthwhile dining, shopping, etc or suck it up and stay at Movies and book a dessert part for HEA? @sheriffwoody 's recent palmetto/roach nightmare has me rethinking Movies but the money saved by staying Value could be put to better use! We've never done a dessert party, mostly because of cost and the fact that I have a gluten allergy makes things complicated, but I'd love to see HEA without having to camp out for an hour only to have someone's iPad blocking my view.

My opinion would be to spend the $ and do CB, but that said I was a member of Hotel Managers of Central Fl for many years and have done many trainings at Disney. They are the gold standard of pest control and apply the same standards at every resort on property. The Palmetto bug is a wood roach and is everywhere in the Orlando area. They are not dirty roaches like the German cockroach seeking food but they are everywhere. Hence the name Palmetto bug, they love trees. We used to see them dead all the time in our house ( we had good outside entry pest control ) and our border collies would bat them around like hockey pucks. Bugs are part of a tropical area. Scan some TRs of a gluten free member. I bet several have done desert parties. or make a post on just that. Our Vegan, Gluten free, and Allergy members offer tons of great advice when asked.

 

[DryerLintFan]

You didn't mention whether you're driving down or flying, but I've read a lot about CBR being a resort you'd want a car at. Personally I think the resort is gorgeous, but I'd stay put at the value.

The dessert party food offerings are terrible but the garden viewing area is amazing!! If you do the party, just remember that you don't have to get there right when the thing opens. Check out my trip report for pictures if you want, but even on crowd level thirteen days the viewing area has so much space to stretch out and run around and relax!!

 

[krisri18]

You didn't mention whether you're driving down or flying, but I've read a lot about CBR being a resort you'd want a car at. Personally I think the resort is gorgeous, but I'd stay put at the value.

The dessert party food offerings are terrible but the garden viewing area is amazing!! If you do the party, just remember that you don't have to get there right when the thing opens. Check out my trip report for pictures if you want, but even on crowd level thirteen days the viewing area has so much space to stretch out and run around and relax!!

We're flying, the drive from RI is more than my mom or I am willing to take on for such a short trip. We've stayed at CBR before together in 2015 with my kids and I stayed there last summer as part of a 3 resort split stay with my kids and boyfriend (the free gift card was definitely the reason). It's definitely beautiful, just not at it's shiniest right now with construction.
Thank you for the dessert party tip! Definitely wouldn't want to get there early, decide the food stunk and then feel like I wasted park time.

 

[krisri18]

My opinion would be to spend the $ and do CB, but that said I was a member of Hotel Managers of Central Fl for many years and have done many trainings at Disney. They are the gold standard of pest control and apply the same standards at every resort on property. The Palmetto bug is a wood roach and is everywhere in the Orlando area. They are not dirty roaches like the German cockroach seeking food but they are everywhere. Hence the name Palmetto bug, they love trees. We used to see them dead all the time in our house ( we had good outside entry pest control ) and our border collies would bat them around like hockey pucks. Bugs are part of a tropical area. Scan some TRs of a gluten free member. I bet several have done desert parties. or make a post on just that. Our Vegan, Gluten free, and Allergy members offer tons of great advice when asked.

I feel slightly better about the bug thing, although my squeamishness is nothing compared to Mom's! I've tried researching gluten free offerings at the dessert parties, not alot of information that is consistent but that's an excellent idea to ask the forums!

 

[Bullseye1967]

I feel slightly better about the bug thing, although my squeamishness is nothing compared to Mom's! I've tried researching gluten free offerings at the dessert parties, not alot of information that is consistent but that's an excellent idea to ask the forums!

Too lazy to look it up but I have seen gluten free and dessert parties in many posts.

 

[krisri18]

Too lazy to look it up but I have seen gluten free and dessert parties in many posts.

I'll be all over it at work tonight!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Alright Magic friends, I'm taking a poll: Should I change our resort reservation to Caribbean Beach for $50 more a night, downsides being the crazy construction and total lack of worthwhile dining, shopping, etc or suck it up and stay at Movies and book a dessert part for HEA? @sheriffwoody 's recent palmetto/roach nightmare has me rethinking Movies but the money saved by staying Value could be put to better use! We've never done a dessert party, mostly because of cost and the fact that I have a gluten allergy makes things complicated, but I'd love to see HEA without having to camp out for an hour only to have someone's iPad blocking my view.

I'm not sure how bad the construction is over there right now. I personally didn't love CB either, but I still like it better than AllStars. The dessert party is fine, but I see more value in a better room than the party.

You totally don't have to camp out to see HEA. Yes, you may have an ipad in your face, but there's so much to look at, you'll probably still be able to enjoy it. I could barely see the castle this last time and I still enjoyed watching it and bopping along to the music. I loved the viewing for the dessert party, but for the money we paid, it was a one-and-done.

You'll have fun either way! Don't worry too much about bugs...it'll be warmer then so they won't be trying to get inside as much!

 

[krisri18]

So to update our plans.... Today was fastpass day! Despite my setting alarm and being ready to go at 7am on the dot, I was still only able to get an evening time for Flight of Passage We'll make it work!

Tuesday April 24
Land around 3:45, hopefully to the resort by 5 ish and then straight to Epcot!
FPs for Soarin, Farm Ride and SE
Hoping to just enjoy Flower and Garden as that's the whole point of this trip!

Wednesday April 25
MK morning ? then head to AK
Lunch at Satu'li then drinks and churros at Nomad
FPs for FotLK, KS, and FoP
Late dinner at Boma

Thursday April 26
Epcot morning and early afternoon
Head to MK for FPs for 7D, HM and BTM
Then it's Fireworks Dessert Party with Plaza Garden Viewing!

Friday April 27
FPs at Epcot for TT, Pixar shorts and Figment
Hoping to end the trip with MK before having to take bus that shall not be named back to reality.

I offered to upgrade us to Caribbean Beach, but Mom decided she didn't need to upgrade to a construction zone and would rather see HEA unobstructed. We've never done a dessert party and it's cheaper to try it for the first time with just 2 of us than when we travel with the extended family.

 

[Megbutnotmegan]

On my last mother daughter trip, I took my mom to the HEA dessert party! She liked it so much she’s gone 2 more times and she’s taking my dad in 2 weeks! She’s a Plaza garden view addict

 

[krisri18]

On my last mother daughter trip, I took my mom to the HEA dessert party! She liked it so much she’s gone 2 more times and she’s taking my dad in 2 weeks! She’s a Plaza garden view addict

That's great! Mom's biggest concern is that she'll be unable to get up off the grass when it's time to stand up and go. She claims she's old. Lol

 

[ELeigh]

You didn't mention whether you're driving down or flying, but I've read a lot about CBR being a resort you'd want a car at. Personally I think the resort is gorgeous, but I'd stay put at the value.

The dessert party food offerings are terrible but the garden viewing area is amazing!! If you do the party, just remember that you don't have to get there right when the thing opens. Check out my trip report for pictures if you want, but even on crowd level thirteen days the viewing area has so much space to stretch out and run around and relax!!

Do you know how long the desserts are typically out? I am considering the dessert party mainly for the reason of saving park time not having to camp out for a fireworks spot but would want to get desserts for the kids .

 

[krisri18]

Do you know how long the desserts are typically out? I am considering the dessert party mainly for the reason of saving park time not having to camp out for a fireworks spot but would want to get desserts for the kids .

I'm not exactly sure. The reservation time for the night we booked the party is 7:45pm and the fireworks are at 8:55pm. So if you figure that they probably start kicking people out to head down to the garden viewing area, maybe an hour?