12 parks in 16 days! Trip Around the World!

Trip report from 12/19-1/6.

Day 1 - Away We Go
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

Enough talk. After over a year in planning, over five years since we last tried to do a similar trip, AND Kendall getting run over by a car in Zimbabwe in that time frame we are finally embarking on our adventure across the globe to do all 12 Disney Parks over Christmas break.

First thing’s first and we had to pick Lucy up from school. Given it’s the Thursday before Christmas break we weren’t too concerned about her missing half a day today and a full day Friday because as everyone knows, the week before Christmas break is spent watching Christmas movies and doing Christmas puzzles and worksheets.

After we picked her up, we went home and waited for our taxi. We had never ridden in a taxi in our town so we were already starting our journey with a brand new experience. Ride sharing does not exist in Ashland, KY and taxi’s are primarily used for medical transport so this was a somewhat bizarre experience for us. Traditionally, we typically just park our car at the airport when we fly out of our local airport because if we go out of Huntington it’s on Allegiant for a quick trip to Florida. This is obviously NOT a quick trip and as such we took a taxi for the first time ever as there are no ride sharing services in our area. It costs $10/day to park at our airport, and when you’re gone for nearly 20 days, it just makes financial sense to take a taxi for $82 dollars round trip.

I cannot even remotely convey the amount of joy I have when we have the ability to fly out of Huntington Tri-State Airport. The convenience of flying out of a small regional airport a mere 25 minutes from our house in which the security line if you have TSA precheck is nonexistent CANNOT be understated. It feels like your own private airport. From when the plane touches down to getting home it typically takes us about 45 minutes. When we fly out of Cincinatti or Columbus, it takes 45 minutes or more from the time we touchdown to just get to our car. Add a 2.5 hour drive after a long day of flying just puts a sour taste in the mouth after a vacation. We would love to fly out of HTS more often but it is incredibly cost prohibitive except when using Allegiant or redeeming award flights on American Airlines.

We arrived at the airport 1.5 hours early which for Huntington is just excessive, but we always budget for a flat tire, or some other bizarre occurrence. As always, the TSA precheck line had zero people in it, and from drop off to gate it wasn’t even 10 minutes. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet today, and unfortunately food options are super limited at HTS, in that outside of one vending machine there often are none. Thankfully today the small kiosk that sells pizza and some snacks was open, and Kendall and I split a small pizza while waiting for our flight.

HTS is a small regional airport with two gates. Back in its hey day it had a number of carriers, but these days it’s limited to American and Allegiant. It’s small and efficient and we love flying out of it when we can.

This is the entire terminal. Not the smallest commercial airport I’ve flown out of, but it’s up there.
Today is by far the most pedestrian of the flights we are taking on our trip, being a standard flight on Allegiant. No fancy lounge, no lie flat seat. Just an standard A320, with a seat with about 17 inches of width with no recline that feels like you’re sitting on a 2×4. You get what you pay for and for this flight of just over 1.5 hours it was just $402 dollars for 3 people including the 3 carry on bags so you can’t really complain on the cost front.

I love this airport!
Boarding and take off and were on time and our flight to Sanford was about as uneventful as it gets. We were seated in row 7, Seats D,E,F.

We never pay for seat selection so these were the Allegiant assigned seats. For a 1.5 hour flight it honestly doesn’t matter to us. The seats have the standard 17 inch width and 30 inches of pitch. This is one of the ONLY times in life being 5’3’’ comes in handy.

There are many disadvantages to being short such as a general disadvantage at the majority of sports or a lower lifetime income compared to your taller cohorts in the same field, but there is one advantage that far outweighs any disadvantage. I can fit comfortably in an Allegiant seat! It’s a pretty great trade off in my opinion.

We landed at 5:08PM two minutes earlier than our scheduled arrival time. Thankfully, my parents live in Orlando and as such they are our own personal uber, which definitely saves on cost. I texted them that we had landed, so they could be ready to pull the car around to pick us up and take us to the Disney’s Polynesian Resort where we were staying.

After we landed, we we were picked up, it was getting close to dinner time, so on the way to the Polynesian we stopped at Lucy’s favorite restaurant, Chick-fil-a. I had originally had ‘Ohana booked and timed the reservation for the Magic Kingdom fireworks, but it was pretty hectic couple of days leading up to this trip, so we decided having a quick dinner and early bed time was in our best interest. Just for the record, if you are foodie, THIS IS NOT THE BLOG FOR YOU. We do a wide variety of activities when we travel, but food has never been our priority, and the one area we can skimp on the budget. My food reviews will be composed of words like “Tasty”, “Yummy”, “Standard”, “Adequate”.

Upon arrival at Chick-fil-a we walked in and it was slammed. Chick-fil-a is always crowded but today was excessive in that when we walked in, there wasn’t a free table anywhere and people were even standing around waiting on tables. We didn’t quite know what was going on, until we saw Santa and a Santa Cow in the corner and realized why it was so crowded. Santa Cow and Santa made their rounds to the table like it was a character dining at Disney.

Lucy clearly is enjoying Santa Cow
Unlike Disney however, it was significantly cheaper. Like $250 dollars cheaper. The food was more than tasty, and tasted just like our Chick-fil-a at home.

 

[Rimmit]

Of note, while we were at Chick-fil-a at 6:34 PM I received a notification that our room was now ready.

Given check in time is 3:00 PM, a 3.5 hour delay I feel is pretty substantial. It did not matter to us as we were not yet there, but if I arrived at 3:00 PM I would be pretty annoyed, especially for the price you are paying for the room. We eventually arrived at the Polynesian at about 7:15 PM.

We had never stayed at the Polynesian before so this was a totally new experience for us. We checked in and then dropped our luggage off at the room before we decided to just explore the resort for a bit. For the future planners out there, we were in a Standard View Deluxe Studio in the Tokelau building. I am not going to give a full review, as that is not the purpose of these articles, but we enjoyed the room and would definitely book it again. The rooms in the DVC section of the Polynesian were impressively well designed.

They came with not one, not two, but three sinks, two bathrooms, one with a shower and one with a tub and toilet, a murphy bed, queen size bed, a wet bar, and a bed that pulled out from under the TV. The room was also beautifully lit and many of the switches even had dimmers. I am an absolute sucker for good lighting and I was impressed with the attention to detail. Lucy initially wanted to sleep in the little nook under the bed until she discovered the murphy bed.

We then left the room to explore the resort, take some pics and scout out a place to watch the Notre Dame game tomorrow.

We visited the gift shops as Lucy needed to buy a new autograph book as her previous one was out of pages. Then we proceeded to start walking to the brand new Polynesian Tower as it just opened up two days ago, and this thing is almost as controversial as the last election. On the way, Lucy did her typically Lucy thing of wanting to take pictures with everything she could find as we walked around.

The grounds look beautiful at night and the temperature was an absolutely perfect, especially after coming from 30F degree temps just hours earlier. After a short walk, we eventually made it to the brand new monstrosity that has caused more heartache among Disney fans than the first 10 minutes of UP, the infamous Island Tower.

The infamous Island Tower
It is a beautiful building, but I must agree with other bloggers that after seeing it in person it just feels out of place. If taken out of the context of being between the Grand Floridian and Polynesian it would be applauded for its design and modern aesthetic. Unfortunately, its main fault is existing between two resorts that are just not thematically coherent. I must say it is gorgeous on the inside, though, and I’m sure the fireworks views are spectacular from the higher floors.

If Disney ever did a themed Vegas mega resort, they could carbon copy this and just blow it up on a larger scale and it would fit right in. After looking around the new Island tower for a short bit we then walked back to our room at about 9:30 PM and called it a night.

Disney is an incredibly walking intensive vacation, and because of that I decided to track the number of steps I took on this trip.

Day 1, December 19th, 2024 Step Count

Total Trip Steps – 14,627

 

[Rimmit]

Day 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

I am a chronically early riser, and today was no different, and I woke up at 5:00AM. I originally had no intention of even having these articles up while we were traveling but I had nothing else to do that early so I just started writing. Today was going to be a pretty calm and slow paced day by our standards as our goal was to rest up for our 4 parks in 1 day gauntlet tomorrow.

I have previously been given feedback regarding my trip planning in that I plan things at a thousand miles a minute, so I decided to try and slow things down as best as I could for our current trip. In an attempt to at least incorporate some rest we only had two set things on our agenda today, ‘Ohana for breakfast at 9:45 AM with my parents and a 4:00 PM reservation at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue, which is a dinner show. We had never done the Hoop Dee Doo Revue before and so we were gonna check that off our list.

I eventually got out of bed and started my day off with a run. I always love running around Disney resorts, especially in the morning while the resort is quiet and most people are still starting their day. It’s definitely a nice change of pace from the treadmill or the scenery at home.

I return from my run and Lucy was already up and taking a bath. One of the beauties of having a room with a shower and bathtub in separate rooms was being able to shower even though Lucy was still bathing. We got dressed and headed to ‘Ohana about 9:40 AM and met my parents. There was no line at check in and not even two minutes later we were called to sit down. The waitress brought us to our table and dropped off our Pineapple-Coconut Breakfast bread. The bread was pretty yummy and between the five of us we ate all of it.

The menu at ‘Ohana was about what you’d expect for breakfast, but most importantly, they had Mickey Waffles. From a beverage side they also served unlimited POG juice, which is their famous mix of passion fruit, orange and guava juices.

We’ve been to a fair amount of character meals over the years, but without a doubt this was the most hectic. Within less than 60 seconds of sitting down we were approached by Pluto, and then Mickey and the Lilo all in rapid succession. There were a total of 3 characters that stopped by within the first 10 minutes. Typically, in our previous character meals, we have all the characters stop by over a 30-60 minute time span. This allows you to eat, talk, and let the kids (and adults) have some anticipation of meeting the characters.

They were coming so fast that Stitch was trying to stop by, but Mickey was still at our table which created a traffic jam, and to Lucy’s dismay he skipped our table temporarily. The characters then did their little parade to “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride” from the movie.

This was definitely different than the last time we did ‘Ohana for breakfast. Not sure when they changed it, but my guess is like many things at Disney, the kid parade was killed during Covid and they never bothered to bring it back. Previously, they lent the kids instruments like maracas, and they were part of the parade with the characters. This really added a lot more energy to the parade than just having 4 characters parade around the room. It was still fun with Stitch, Lilo, Mickey, and Pluto, but it just lacked the same level of energy and chaos it that can only be created by having a bunch of kids playing instruments in a completely random nature can create.

A couple minutes after the parade Stitch came back around, and Lucy finally got to meet Stitch.

The food was more than adequate, and in particular we really enjoyed the bread and the ham. It was served family style, but we didn’t need any seconds as we couldn’t even come close to finishing the first round of food.

Afterwards we hopped on the monorail and took a short ride to the Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread House Store. This is actually a life size gingerbread house that sells some sweets.

Lucy really wanted to buy something and ended up buying picking the chocolate chip cookie as it was one of the cheapest items on the menu.

Posing normally is not something she does well.
We then proceeded to ride the monorail back to the Polynesian.

One of benefits of having parents living in Orlando is they are your own personal uber. So we went off property for a short bit as Lucy out of nowhere had a sudden urge to get into pin trading. The pins at the stores at the Polynesian run from $12.99-16.99 for a single pin. Lucy will go broke real fast if she’s buying a couple pins to trade at minimum $12.99 a pop. So instead of paying those painful prices, we drove 12 minutes to the Mermaid Gift Shop in Kissimmee.

They had a pretty good collection of official Disney pins for significantly lower price.

Lucy debated what pins to get for way longer than it should have taken, but thankfully she ultimately settled on a set, and the total for it was just $24.99 for 10 pins or $2.49 a pin. To get 10 pins at the Polynesian would have been a minimum $129.99, so that was a savings of $104.99. Kendall then decided to hop onboard the pin trading train, and bought a set to trade herself as well. I resisted this newfound obsession that was brewing in my family. Overall, the costs savings was definitely well worth the short drive.

We then drove back to the Polynesian. Despite passing by this sign more times than I can count it never gets old.

This was also my first chance to see the Island Tower in all its glory in daylight. I must say, it truly just sticks out like a sore thumb.

We said good bye to my parents, and Kendall and Lucy started trading pins with the various pinboards around the resort. Given we were going to have a long night, or at least I was given Notre Dame plays at 8:00 PM, we headed back to to the room to rest for a bit.

 

[Rimmit]

The Hoop Dee Doo revue was at 4:00 PM, and the most efficient way to get from the Polynesian to the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness was to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom and then take the boat to Fort Wilderness. In theory, it should take about maximum of an hour to do that, but we left the room a little early at 2:05PM to give ourselves ample time. We also wanted some extra time so Kendall and Lucy could continue their newfound pin trading hobby at Fort Wilderness. Randomly, the sign at the dock for the boat that took us to Fort Wilderness still had Mickey’s Backyard BBQ.

While Disney is typically pretty slow to change out signs, this closed in 2018, so about 6 years ago. I find it mind boggling they still haven’t changed this sign out.

On the way to Fort Wilderness you can’t miss the cranes lining the sky.

We haven’t been to Fort Wilderness since we did Mickey’s Backyard BBQ in 2017. Sadly they destroyed that area where they used to host it in favor of yet ANOTHER DVC to was previously going to be called Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge, and then due to Covid they halted construction but have now restarted construction and it is now renamed Disney Lakeshore Lodge.

It is quite obvious at this point that Disney is becoming a timeshare company that runs theme parks rather than a theme park company that has time shares. The speed which they can put up whole towers compared to the time it takes for them to get rid of the EPCOT dirt pit truly shows the priorities of Disney, but that soapbox is for another time.

We arrived at 2:58PM and had an hour to burn, so we walked to the Settlement Trading Post. Kendall and Lucy traded some pins and played checker’s on the porch while I walked around taking some quick pictures of the area.

We checked in for the Hoop Dee Doo Revue, and let Lucy play on the playground near the theater until it was time to go see the show.

We had a Category 2 table, which meant we were seated on the sides of the theater. This was a dinner show, so our seats were just a typical table and chairs you’d find at any restaurant. The total price for 3 people was $185 which for Disney really isn’t bad for a meal and some entertainment.

We happened to have table 31, which was actually the first table on the edges from the stage, so our table was actually pretty good for being a 2nd tier seat and we had a very close view of the table.

When we sat down the salad, cole slaw, and corn bread were already at the table.

No one in my family eats coleslaw or cornbread, and Kendall is really the only one that eats salad, and so the 1st course was a bit of a bust to be honest, we knew the menu before hand so this was not a surprise.

The show started just prior to the second course being served and was composed of some fried chicken, ribs, beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. We all definitely enjoyed the main course. The ribs aren’t exactly fall off the bone, but they weren’t bad and I enjoyed them and even asked for seconds. Lucy and Kendall ate ample fried chicken.

Third course was dessert and was composed of Strawberry Shortcake. Yet another item that neither me nor Lucy eat. Thankfully, Kendall likes strawberry shortcake so at least someone had a bite and it wasn’t a total waste of food.

Show was pretty enjoyable but nothing spectacular. It was filled with lots of dad jokes and was pretty hokey. It was pretty high energy and it had the crowd into it for the vast majority of time. Kendall and I both felt it coulda just been a little shorter.

Overall, it was exactly what we expected in that it was a decent deal for price. We really Mickey’s Backyard BBQ better and really wish they’d bring it back. I’m pretty sure that ship has sailed sadly.

We the left the show and waited about 10 minutes for a boat to get us back to Magic Kingdom, and then monorail to get back to the Polynesian. Lots of people leaving due to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party starting, so once we got to Magic Kindom there was a small line at for the resort monorail.

On the way back, we passed the cranes again. The lighting definitely did them some favors, as I actually found them less obtrusive on the way back.

Eventually got back to room right at 7:00PM just in time for me to get to Tambu, the hotel bar, to watch the ND game. I would be content to just watch it in our room, but I don’t think I could stay calm enough to let Kendall and Lucy sleep, and given our goal is to get to Animal Kingdom tomorrow by 8:30 AM at the latest we need everyone to get a decent night’s sleep. Sadly, win or lose, I was not likely sleep well, as I’ll either be too traumatized to sleep or too hyped to sleep. I am sincerely hoping for the latter.

So I left the room to go watch the game and went to Tambu which is a small bar beside ‘Ohana. I have been traumatized by Notre Dame football for many years, and I thought for sure this year would be no different, but being a fan hope springs eternal.

There was no sound, and I was the only person who cared about the game so not exactly the most ideal watching environment. Through some miracle of God, Notre Dame actually beat Indiana 27-17 in a relatively drama free game. I was still too hyped to sleep well though, but I did eventually fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

Tomorrow is the first of many park days this trip and but out of all the park days it is the most intense as we will be doing all four parks in one day along with a VIP tour. Let’s do this!

Day 2, December 20th, 2024 Step Count – 15,544

Total Step Count – 30,171