Trip Report A 10th Anniversary Island Getaway (and birthday post script)

Who: just me & my husband this time! We left the kids at home with my parents.

What: a 3-night getaway

Where: a duo studio at the Island Tower

Why: our 10th anniversary!

When: April 16-19

Wed. April 16
Our flight left at 9:30am and we managed to sneak out of the house before anyone else woke up. It was so nice to be traveling without any strollers or toys or blankets, and to actually be able to sit next to my husband on the plane! We had time to grab some breakfast and then had a smooth flight to MCO.

We decided to rent a car this time, since we’d be ubering a lot otherwise. Picking up the rental was very quick, since my husband had done everything on the app. They just pointed us to the available cars and told us keys were on the dash.

We headed first to the Walmart near AKL, to pick up some drinks, sunscreen, and socks. (When packing, I realized I had thrown away a bunch of my favorite socks because they had holes in them.)

We passed this lovely sight at 1:53pm.

I was torn about whether we should visit Blizzard Beach, since the temperature was in the low 80s. We live in Houston, so that’s not usually swimming weather for us. My alternative idea (to kill time before our room was ready) was mini-golf, because we still had two free passes that were good from our last trip. I’d heard that the BB parking lot was reaching capacity on some days, so I said, “Let’s go see if we can even get in. Then we can decide if the weather is more appropriate for water slides or golfing.” Well, there was plenty of parking and it was roasting out there on the pavement, so my husband agreed to Blizzard Beach!

We entered shortly after 2pm.

But first, we needed some lunch. We got the flatbread and a kids chicken strips meal to share. I was pleasantly surprised by the pizza! The chicken was exactly what you’d expect.

Bellies filled, we went and got our swimsuits on, got sunscreened, and put our bags in a locker. We headed to the chairlift first, intending to ride Teamboat Springs. Both had a wait of 20-30 minutes, but it wasn’t bad waiting with just the 2 of us.

When we got to the front of the line for the slide, they asked us if we minded riding with someone else. But when they looked for another party of 2, no one spoke up, and we ended up with our own raft. We enjoyed our ride and talked about whether we could take all 3 of our kids on it next time.

When we exited, we hopped in the lazy river since the entrance was nearby. We rode around past a couple other entrances and got back out to go on Runoff Rapids. The conveyer belt to return tubes wasn’t working, so we had to wait in a short line to grab our tubes and then carry them up the stairs. This is when we realized how out of shape we are! My legs were burning. But once at the top, the wait was very quick.

We decided on at least one more ride - the Downhill Double Dipper. The conveyer belt here was having some issues too. We got about halfway through the line when some tubes started getting stuck and caused a huge backup with none coming out. We could see through the fence that they were starting to pile up and fall off the sides. No one came to help and finally a young teen crawled in and started passing the tubes out. I’m sure he wasn’t supposed to be in there, but I can’t blame him either!

While waiting, my husband checked his phone and saw our room was ready, so we decided this would be our final ride. I had left my phone in the locker, but I had actually received the “room ready” text at 3:30!

The slide is over quick but it’s very fast and fun. I had forgotten about the wall of water at the bottom…this was definitely the wettest we got! I also flew almost into the yellow barrier at the other end of the pool

With that, we gathered our things from the locker and got dried off to head to the Polynesian Island Tower!

 

[meggo819]

Saturday, April 19

For our final half-day at Animal Kingdom, I had thought we’d either rope drop or just do shows & walk through the trails. But when I mentioned this to my husband before the trip, he said he’d rather not get up that early and when I asked if he had any rides that were “must-do”, he mentioned the Safari and Everest. Ok, LLMP it was! I got this line-up booked and was satisfied that we’d be able to take our time getting checked out of the room and still do several rides.

We got everything packed up, I finished my bread pudding for breakfast , and we loaded our bags into the rental car. It was easy getting to AK, parking, and getting into the park. We got on the Safari shortly before 9. Highlights were the baby elephant and the lion, which looked to me like it was perched on its throne.

We walked the Gorilla Exploration Trail (unique attraction #54) and snapped a few more pix.

We then headed back across the center of the park. I took some time to see the cotton-top tamarins and the otters, while my husband got his Starbucks fix for the day.

It was time for our next Lightning Lane, so we headed to Dinosaur. Then the timing worked out that we were able to go directly to Everest for our final LL. We were done with both rides in about a half hour.

 

[meggo819]

Sat, Apr 19 cont.

We still had a bit of time before lunch, so we also walked the Maharajah trail (#55). We saw the baby tiger, which isn’t so baby-ish anymore, but he was just napping with his mom. Nothing too exciting.

Our lunch reservation was at Yak & Yeti. It was our first time here as well, and after sampling each others’, we thought both our meals were delicious! I chose the Korean beef wok and my husband had chicken tikka masala.

We also saw some kids meals arriving at the table next to us and realized they were some of kids’ favorites. So we may just have to return with them!

I hadn’t booked any additional lightning lanes as we used the earlier ones, because return times were too late for Navi and we weren’t interested in a water ride. Instead, I ended up booking one for the 1:30 show of Feathered Friends in Flight. As a bonus, we saw the birds from Winged Encounters fly over while waiting (counting as #56 and 57)!

I hadn’t seen this show in several years, back when it was a trainer host and another random goofy host. (Had to Google it, the second host was called Guano Joe). The two trainers this time were much more natural and funny in their banter back & forth. It was so natural, that we even wondered which parts were normally part of the show and which were actually mistakes. We suspect the crow stealing the female trainer’s “mic cord” was planned. But when they brought out parrots to fill time, I don’t think the plan was for one to bite the male trainer! But maybe I’m wrong, since the second lady who ended up working with the parrots was also wearing a mic and seemed prepared

With that, we decided it was time to head to the exit and back to MCO.

We did make one last stop, because we realized we hadn’t had any Mickey bars this trip! Actually, we prefer the Mickey ice cream sandwiches. So we grabbed a couple and ate while walking out of the park.

Our return trip was smooth and we made it home in time to say hello to the kids before it was their bedtime. I did miss them at times, but we also really enjoyed the alone time and the lower-stress touring! We’re excited that we now have less than 40 days before we all go back again as a family of 5.

 

[cgersic]

That last picture of the tree is just perfect! Thank you for taking the time to share this and hope you'll do more when you go back!

 

[meggo819]

That last picture of the tree is just perfect! Thank you for taking the time to share this and hope you'll do more when you go back!

Thank you! When I showed that one to my husband he thought it was one of those extras that get thrown in with Photopass sometimes

I’m hoping to keep doing reports since we’re going more often, so I can go back and remember the details later.

 

[meggo819]

Our June trip is a bit of a blur in my mind already, so rather than a full report, I’m going to add some thoughts here.

* We loved our Riviera standard-view studio! We were able to park near the East elevator and, as requested, we were on a higher floor. I enjoy this view more than “preferred” and I hope they never change the cheaper points!

* The food was also excellent at Riviera. I enjoyed the beef Bolognese enough to order it twice in our 4 nights there. The gelato cart was also great and our breakfast at Topolino’s was so delicious and fun.

* It was our oldest’s birthday during the trip and she was delighted by the TV saying happy birthday to her. We were also surprised by a small gift left by Mousekeeping! It contained some candy and a small bottle of water.

* We were lucky enough to get into the Moonlight Magic at Typhoon Lagoon (our first time trying). Our kids loved it, but we let the older two stay there with Dad much too late. I had taken the youngest back in the car and the other 3 planned to ride the bus back to Riviera. This was definitely my biggest complaint of the week. They were over an hour on the bus. First just sitting there at TL, then making two other stops at other resorts, even though Riviera was closest.

* Since we all enjoyed TL, we decided to also check out Blizzard Beach on the day we moved to Copper Creek and we loved it even more. The wave pool is definitely more suitable for kids and we liked that we could all go on the family slide together (as a family of 5).

 

[meggo819]

* The only significant rain we experienced was on Tuesday evening at Epcot. It started to rain just as we were about to enter Journey into Imagination. Despite the number of people taking refuge there, the wait was short and then we let the kids play for a while. When the rain let up a bit, we decided to make a run for The Land. We figured two rides, a movie, food, and restrooms all in one building should keep us busy for a while as it continued to storm.

* Our youngest is too short for Soarin’ so we went to set up a rider swap. They asked if we wanted to do internal or external…it turns out we could all wait in line together and then do the baby swap in a room right next to the ride. It worked out great since the wait was short and then we didn’t have to walk all the way out and back in. As a bonus, they let the 2 older kids ride both times!

* I had apparently forgotten that Sunshine Seasons doesn’t serve dinner. So I described Garden Grill’s menu to my husband and we decided to get on the waitlist after Soarin. We went to ride Living with the Land while waiting and almost immediately got the text that our table was ready! Garden Grill is a fun experience with the rotation and the characters. But while the food was good, I wouldn’t say it’s worth the price. Especially for our kids who only ate cornbread and mac & cheese. Oh and cupcakes! They couldn’t finish them, so we asked for some to-go containers just for the cupcakes and our waiter brought 3 paper cups with lids, and 2 extra cupcakes! So that was a nice surprise too.

 

[meggo819]

* We did take time to ride Living with the Land after dinner. We could still hear heavy rain outside while riding, but it was getting late, so we would have to get our exit over with soon. We assumed the Skyliner was not running, so we made our way as quickly as we could to the busses. It was still raining some, but it could have been so much worse.

At the bus stops, we headed toward #12 for Riviera and it was totally swamped with people. We started asking around and figured out that at least 2/3 of the people were trying to get to #13 for Pop (and presumably AoA?).

So we just had to get around some of those people to get into our line and then it wasn’t quite as bad. We waited probably 5-10 minutes before any Riviera busses came, but then we did make it onto the second bus. A couple of very kind preteens gave up their seats for me holding our youngest and for our other 2 kids to try to share a seat (which ended up not working well). It was unintentionally a very late night for the second night in a row. But thankfully, the next day was the day we were moving resorts and going to Blizzard Beach, so no reason to get up early!

 

[meggo819]

* I decided to do laundry at Riviera before we packed everything up to move. It took longer than I anticipated because there are only 3 washers, but 6 dryers. I don’t understand that at all but . Unfortunately, someone beat me there and took 2 of the 3 washers and I had to wait to get my second load in.

* We left our bags with bell services at Riviera while we went to Blizzard Beach, including one bag of food we had them hold in the freezer. It worked out great and we came back to gather everything and then moved it to Cooper Creek ourselves.

 

[meggo819]

• I thought the resort and grounds were beautiful, but this probably falls to the bottom ranking of the 4 DVC resorts we’ve tried so far. I had checked out Touring Plans and knew we’d likely get a ground floor room because of our room type. So we weren’t surprised by our patio, facing Boulder Ridge, but blocked by some large shrubs. Obviously not nearly as exciting as seeing Spaceship Earth!
• The parking situation was also quite a bit more annoying than Riviera. Since we drove this time, we were trying to avoid busses when possible. Several times, my husband ended up dropping the rest of us off at the entrance before parking the car. We did enjoy the ferry to Magic Kingdom though!
• My kids did enjoy the pool and splash area, maybe a bit more than Riviera. At Riviera, my oldest got stopped at the splash area and measured. She was told she could play, but couldn’t use the slides. This was a few days after I saw a grown man going down the slides repeatedly. No one stopped her at the WL splash area and she’s so close to 48” that I didn’t stop her either.

• Another side note on pool slides… at Riviera, we were told the kids had to remove their water shoes on all the slides. I pointed out that I read the splash area slide rules specifically looking for that before I let the kids play. The CM apologized that it wasn’t listed but said “shoes aren’t allowed on any body slides, to avoid twisted ankles and such”. Makes sense I guess. But then at Blizzard Beach’s Tikes Peak, I asked the life guard at the top of a kids’ body slide, and she said the water shoes were fine. It would just be nice to have some consistency instead of leaving us guessing about it.

 

[meggo819]

Some notes on rides…

• We took our youngest on her first roller coaster! She seemed slightly concerned while riding Barnstormer, but then said it was fun.
• Our 5 year old kept saying she didn’t like Guardians or Everest because they’re dark and go backwards. She still gave Everest another chance…proud of her for trying again.
• Our oldest continues to love every ride!
• I am so glad we made a point to visit the Boneyard at Animal Kingdom & Tom Sawyer Island. It was our kids’ first (and likely last) time at each and they all enjoyed both.

• When I counted it up, I was surprised to see that I managed 20 more unique attractions in my “ride challenge” I set for myself. That brings the total up to 77, but there are still 25 to go! I’ll have to see if I can pull off a solo trip before my AP expires, but I don’t even know if a day or 2 would be enough time. We’ll see!

 

[meggo819]

• As others have reported, it was HOT. Thankfully, we’re pretty used to it, but we also came prepared. We had a cooler backpack to bring in our own bottles of Propel and we each had a cooling towel. We had a fan for the stroller but our youngest never wanted it on. So the older kids were fighting over carrying the fan until we bought them each one of these misting fans. At that point, we moved the fan to the top of the stroller for the person pushing

• We bought Lightning Lane Multipass at Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and both days at Magic Kingdom. It was definitely worth the cost for us, given the weather, and we were able to book additional rides each day with little issue. I can’t justify in my mind the cost of any of the Single Pass options, so the only long lines we had were Tron, Guardians, Flight of Passage, and, to a lesser extent, 7 Dwarves. 7DMT was on the one day we actually managed to make it into a park during early entry! So I think it was less than a half hour.
• That reminds me of another random story. My husband waited in line with our older 2 kids for 7DMT and they were surprised when they let the 2 kids ride together in front of him. We had tried that on Barnstormer on another day and they said no because middle kid isn’t 7. Then another surprise when I used my baby swap with middle kid — when we pulled in to unload, they asked if we wanted to ride again! I think they gave some reason, but I didn’t understand what they said….we just said “sure!” We did have to go around and reload, but my girl LOVES this ride, so 3 in a row was a real treat.
• We ended our trip with some shopping on Main Street and ice cream from the Plaza. When we had made our purchases, it was about 3:10 and we found a surprisingly big gap on the curb to watch the parade. Some other kids did try to come crowd in, but my kids held their ground pretty well and enjoyed waving to all the characters. My youngest slept in the stroller through the whole thing!

 

[the_rich]

Oh no we are trying Olga’s for first time in June. You have me concerned

I've been there on both coasts and had a blast. Being able to sit probably helped. I would recommend the fuzzy tauntaun, very fun drink.