Trip Report 2 Weeks, 3 Resorts, 12 People - A (Hopefully) Live Trip Report!

Hello everyone! You may remember me from my spontaneous spring break trip back in March. Well, I'm back again! And this time for much longer... two weeks!

For those of you who don't know me, I'm PUSH! I'm a teacher from Wisconsin. I just completed my 8th year teaching first grade, and I'm ready for a vacation. This school year was by far the toughest of my career, for many different reasons, so I'm ready to be back in the Disney bubble. I've been so busy with the end of the school year, that I didn't even think about starting a TR until today... and we fly out tomorrow morning!

As I type this, I still am unsure what this TR will look like. That really makes you want to keep reading, doesn't it?? 😂 I'm planning on posting live from my trip... I just don't know how much. If I post a lot and go pretty in-depth, I won't post a ton when I get back. However, if I don't post much while I'm down there, I'll do more when I get back. Regardless, I'll post in some capacity. We'll just go with the flow (which is NOT how I treat a Disney trip... I'm such a planner).

Here's a few details to start off... The first week is just my dad and me. We fly out of Madison tomorrow morning, and we should land at MCO early to mid afternoon. The second week, we'll be joined by a whole slew of people, who you can see listed below. The past few years, my dad and I have gone down ahead. We're the biggest Disney nerds, and we like the extended trips, whereas others get tired of it after about a week.

We are staying at 3 resorts, with 10 park days, 1 water park day, and 1 After Hours event. All the other details will come as we go. :)

📅 When: June 7-June 21st
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Who: Me, my parents, my brother, my SIL, my aunt & uncle, my cousin & her husband & their kid (1.5 years old), and my other cousin & her boyfriend
🌏 Where: 2 nights at Pop Century, 5 nights at Coronado Springs in the Gran Destino Tower, 7 nights at Riverside
❓ Why: Why not? 🤷‍♂️

Sit back, keep your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the thread, and enjoy whatever this trip report becomes!

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PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm still internetless (which is really annoying, because everything is tied to the internet these days). However, I just needed to report that one of the pairs of pants I got at the Nike outlet store was labeled incorrectly. The hanger said Large, but as I'm continuing to unpack and do laundry, I noticed the pants were actually XL. So they are too big. Luckily, the outlet closest to me had a Large in stock, so I'm going to exchange them there later this week.
 

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I have internet once again! That means I can share some thoughts in no random order... just as they come to my mind.
  • Best meal: Homecomin'. Third year in a row I've said this. It's a must-do every trip.
  • Worst meal: San Angel Inn. I truly believe it was due to my entree choice. The appetizer and margarita were delicious, and the ambience was great. I think if I got something else for my entree, I would have liked it.
  • Favorite moment: Snacking and drinking around the world. I'm starting to like the more leisurely activities.
  • LLs are nice, but it's also nice to have days without them where you don't feel like you have to run from one attraction to the next. I enjoy just wandering and doing the "lesser" attractions.
  • Every year, I'm enjoying trying different snacks and new restaurants (QS or TS), rather than riding rides that I've been on 100 times.
  • 12 people is a LOT to manage. We had multiple groups on different agendas, and it made planning difficult. I enjoyed my time with everyone, but I prefer less people and when everyone does the same thing.
  • Having a rental car is the way to go. Relying on Disney transportation is awful. Specifically the buses.
  • I love MK, but it needs an infusion of new. I think I said the same thing last year. I don't know if Cars Land is the way to do it. I'm excited about Villains Land, though. But as it stand now, it's the most "stale" park if you take our AK. But even AK has more modern ride technology with Pandora. Don't get me wrong, I love the classic attractions and MK is probably the best park at Disney, all things considered. But when you see things like Epic Universe pop up, and even rights like Guardians, Rise, etc... MK is lacking anything truly groundbreaking.
  • Epcot is still my favorite park, hands down. Yes, there are things to complain with the remodel of Future World. But there's a lot of good. The overall aesthetic is amazing. If they could just fix the lights in the ground and swap the planter for a fountain, things would be much better. But I still love the vibes, and World Showcase is still a lot of fun.
  • Hollywood Studios still needs more ride capacity. There's hardly anything for the little ones to ride. It has a lot of great rides, but it doesn't have the high-volume rides. You have to strategically plan when to do everything, otherwise you're not walking on anything other than Star Tours.
  • AK desperately needs more. I don't think Tropical Americas is enough to do it. It's a beautiful park, and I enjoy my time there, but if you want it to not be an afterthought, you have to do something more.
  • The wait times were not bad. I've noticed that the past few years. Early to mid June is a good time to go, aside from the heat. I think people wait until later summer, spring break, or the holidays now. It could also be there aren't any other events going on.
  • I think we're done with the After Hours. My dad and I both said we had fun, but we think we did it one too many times (this was our third, I believe).
  • Coronado is a great resort. We love it, especially staying in the Tower.
  • Pop Century is nice, but we are moderate people.
  • Riverside's rooms need upgrading, but the grounds are still beautiful.
  • I've decided my dream resort stay is Wilderness Lodge (I've never stayed in a deluxe).
  • Seeing Typhoon Lagoon was fun, even though I wasn't with someone who liked water attractions.
Those are just my thoughts as of now... I didn't take notes or anything. If I think of anything else, I'll post again. My next post will be my "stats" from the trip.
 

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here is my attraction count from the trip...

Magic Kingdom
Peter Pan: 2
Little Mermaid: 2
Buzz: 2
Peoplemover: 5
Space: 4
Haunted Mansion: 4
Country Bears: 3
Pirates: 4
Riverboat: 1
Tom Sawyer Island: 1
Treehouse: 1
Tiana: 3
Tron: 1
Magic Carpets: 1
PhilharMagic: 1
Small World: 2
Pooh: 1
Carousel of Progress: 1
Railroad: 1

Epcot
Nemo: 2
Spaceship Earth: 5
Gran Fiesta Tour: 4
Soarin: 4
Living with the Land: 4
Guardians: 4
Ratatouille: 3
Canada Film: 1
China Film: 1
American Adventure: 1
Figment: 2
Moana: 1
Frozen: 2
Impressions de France: 1
Luminous: 2
Club Cool: 3

Hollywood Studios
Tower of Terror: 4
Swirling Saucers: 1
Smuggler's Run: 2
Runaway Railway: 3
Rock N Rollercoaster: 3
One Man's Dream: 2
Star Tours: 1
Rise: 2
Slinky: 2
Little Mermaid Show: 1
Villains Show: 1

Animal Kingdom
Na'vi: 2
Dinosaur: 4
Everest: 4
Safari: 3
Kali: 2
Flight of Passage: 3
Maharajah Jungle Trek: 1
Lion King Show: 1

Also, I'm glad I did a live report... I don't remember what happened on each day of the trip at this point. They all blend together.
 

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So what are my next Disney plans, you may be wondering...

Well, there's a potential that I'm back to Disney World in December. I have some friends that are going, and there's a chance I might go with if they have an extra room. I don't know any other details that that. So don't get your hopes up for another TR, because there is nothing concrete!

Outside of that, my dad and I talked about doing Disneyland next summer. He went a few times when he was a kid. I've never been. My mom has no interest in going. My brother and SIL wouldn't be going, either. But I could see just my dad and I going. But again... nothing concrete.

And I guess that wraps up my trip report (unless I think of anything else). Thank you for following along, and for all the nice compliments throughout the way! I hope it was enjoyable to read. It's not quite as organized when I writing it live on my phone, but I think I still got the majority of my thoughts down at some point.
 

rshell68

Well-Known Member
My dad and I started off by heading back to Germany. We got a pretzel with cheese dip, and pretzel bread pudding. Pretzel - 3/5. Cheese dip - 2/5... it was cold, and I feel like it was supposed to be warmed up, but they ran out and we had to wait for them to bring more. Pretzel bread pudding- 5/5.
Tried the pretzel bread for the first time this trip-100% SOLD!! It was soo good!!
We went back to Epcot for Luminous. The gnats were bad. There was no breeze, so the smoke just lingered. However, I like that show more and more each time I watch it. I think it's climbed past Happily Ever After for me. Partially because of the reasons I listed last night. And like I said last week, the finale is amazing. The song, the fireworks. I love the grand finale, with all the white fireworks lighting up the sky. And the post show music. It's really well done.
I agree with you on Luminous! We lucked out on the 18th and got Fireworks Dining at Rose and Crown. The finale is awesome!

Not knowing your itinerary, we were at MK on the 17th in line for Pirates and there was a super large family group...I thought hmmm wonder if that is the PUSH gang LOL (of course after finally getting caught up on trip reports I can see it was not)
 

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