Trip Report Busy Spring Break Trip Report: Trying to stay ahead of the crowds

So the players are myself (35 year old, attorney, mom), my husband (39 year old Realtor), my daughter, Dakota (5 years old), and my Mom will join us for a bit at the end. We just got back from 2 half days and 2 full days in Disney World. So ... a short trip compared to a lot of you. We were last there in September and stayed at Port Orleans-Riverside in the Royal Rooms and loved it, so we booked it again because it was the best deal at the time and we knew what we were getting.

The trip started with an non-Disney stop in Gainesville, FL, about 2 hours north of Disney. My daughter had a check-up with her surgeon at UF-Shands on Tuesday morning, March 25th. It went perfectly and she got a perfect bill of health, so we were off on the road by about 11 am, on our way to Disney!!

When we arrived, we checked in easily and our room was ready. Our arm bands were synced and worked perfectly! We put down our things and then went to the food court at Riverside to eat lunch. Dakota and I shared a pasta which they make for you to order. It was pretty good (would have been better if I didn't have a 5 year old dictating what I could put in it)!

Then off to Hollywood Studios by bus! While walking to bus stop we saw the bus was there waiting, and we jogged to it, and just made it. Perfect timing! A good omen to start the trip! When we arrive at HS, we could tell the crowd was going to be massive this week (we got spoiled going in September just 6 months ago). But we had our fast pass +, reservations and a plan. We first went to Muppets, which only had a 15 minute wait. Then we thought about going on the Great Movie Ride, but the wait was 45 minutes, so instead we did the Back Lot Tour, which we hadn't done in probably 15 years. It was ok - fairly boring since it's no longer a working studio, but the fire part was still cool and it was a good warm up for my daughter. When we got off that, we had a little time to kill so we walked through the Art Studio by Little Mermaid and admired the Kincaids (I would later get a 1000 piece puzzle of the Beauty and the Beast Kincaid, which I plan to complete and frame). Then our first fast pass plus to Little Mermaid! Dakota LOVED that show, and I agree -- it's very well done and fun! The fast pass was timed perfectly to walk right out of Little Mermaid and across to Playhouse Disney and us our 2nd fast pass there! Another great show ... my only complaint on this one is that it's a little harsh on Mommy and Daddy's legs to sit on the floor with a 5 year old on top of your lap ... legs definitely fell asleep!!! As we got out of Playhouse Disney, it was perfect timing to head to our third and final fast pass at Toy Story! Needless to say, we all love that ride! My husband kicked my butt. Oh well ... next time! He figured some kind of bonus out or something because he quadrupled my score and almost got the high score of the day. Next time I will do research on this!
So then it was off to our reservations at the Sci-Fi Dinner theater. We had never been there before but it looked cool! Not a great start because they were running about 1/2 hour behind and were still taking 6:40 reservations when it hit the time fro our 7:05 reservation. My husband hates to wait when we have reservations ... so he started to get annoyed, but I told him it was going to be like this the whole trip so he would have to get used to it. finally around 7:35 or so, they sat us. We got the second row in a car, but the car was in the front row of the drive in theater. It was a great atmosphere! Really cool looking inside! My daughter did not like when the scary movies came on, so she wasn't thrilled with the place, but she would just duck down when those clips came on ... they were interspersed with cartoons and commercials so she was chill most of the time. I had read that the milkshakes were great,so my husband and I each ordered one, with an extra cup for Dakota. And they were fantastic! Set off my burger perfectly! My husband said the NY strip steak was just ok ... I told him he should probably not order steak from a place when most of the menu is hamburger, hot dogs, and other such food. My daughter had the chicken fingers. All in all, a great experience!
We were exhausted by this time, so we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

 

[sissa216]

Great report so far! I'm glad that you were still able to have a good time despite the crowds. With a good plan and proper expectations, it can still be fun!
My son LOVES Disney Junior Live on Stage- and that is my only complaint as well, having to sit on the ground. I think we watched it 4 times last visit! I love to see how excited he gets

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Sounds like a great trip so far! Congrats on your daughters clean bill of health. Wow your husbands sounds like he's great at Toy Story Mania! We enjoy SciFi as well. I do agree with you about the steak thing. Good to hear the shakes are tasty. Looking forward to more!

 

[jjbuster2]

We were there too! Crazy crowds and Sci-Fi does seem to have that problem...
We had a reservation for Wednesday March 26 at 4:35 pm. After arriving early and waiting 20 minutes I noticed that people who were walk-ups were being told it was a 20 minute wait so I went up and asked. They said they were behind on reservations and still working on the 4:25's and 4:30's so we opted for the the 'saucer table' instead of waiting even longer for a car. We also ate at Boma, Rainforest Cafe, San Angel, and The Plaza and this was the only reservation with that kind of delay.

 

[JenTen1585]

Great report so far! I'm glad that you were still able to have a good time despite the crowds. With a good plan and proper expectations, it can still be fun!
My son LOVES Disney Junior Live on Stage- and that is my only complaint as well, having to sit on the ground. I think we watched it 4 times last visit! I love to see how excited he gets

Thanks!! My legs about fell off after 1 time! 4 times takes endurance, LOL! But it's worth it to see the joy on their faces as they catch the little gold pieces of paper falling from the sky!!

 

[JenTen1585]

We were there too! Crazy crowds and Sci-Fi does seem to have that problem...
We had a reservation for Wednesday March 26 at 4:35 pm. After arriving early and waiting 20 minutes I noticed that people who were walk-ups were being told it was a 20 minute wait so I went up and asked. They said they were behind on reservations and still working on the 4:25's and 4:30's so we opted for the the 'saucer table' instead of waiting even longer for a car. We also ate at Boma, Rainforest Cafe, San Angel, and The Plaza and this was the only reservation with that kind of delay.

What's weird too is that when we got in, there were a lot of empty seats. The only thing I can figure is that they must be understaffed. But the waiter was really good once we got seated and the food came quickly!

 

[JenTen1585]

So onto Day 2. Wednesday, March 26th, we started bright and early for opening at Magic Kingdom. No extra magic hours that morning. I just love when the train pulls up and seeing all the characters ... such a great way to start the day!!!! We booked it to Story Time with Belle, waited about 10 minutes and then got right in. That show is adorable and fun but I wouldn't want to wait for hours for it!! My daughter is too intimidated to participate but she still loves watching and meeting Belle at the end! Next we used our fast pass for the Ariel ride, which is cute! Then we did Goofy's little roller coaster (what's it called again? the name just flew out of my head).
Now we made a little mistake of sorts and had reservations at Chef Mickey's at 11am at the Contemporary (that's all we could get when we booked it) so at this point we had to start making our way back out of the park to the monorail, so I really didn't get to take advantage of the morning light crowds as much as we normally do.
But my daughter actually rode the monorail for the first time (we have always stayed on property at non-monorail resorts since her birth so we just haven't had the occasion)! She thought that was a fun ride in and of itself!
When we arrived at the contemporary, I went to the gift shop and got an alex and ani bracelet with a mickey ears on it (which I read in a trip report here that we could get at that shop! Thanks guys!)! It's so cute! We also got a charm bracelet for Dakota. Then off to Chef Mickey's! What a great experience! It doesn't feel all that loud or crowded, the breakfast was great, and the characters were so much fun!!! And that meant we could skip the long character rides for the main characters for the rest of the trip! YAY! LOVED spinning the napkin!!
So then we took the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and we headed to our first fast pass of the afternoon at Jungle Cruise. Now while we were sitting at Chef Mickey's my husband was somehow able to change all our fast pass reservations so that we got 3 more fastpasses after the 1 we had already used for Ariel in the morning for a total of 4 for the day! I have NO idea how he did it, and neither did he, because we tried different ways to fake out the system and repeat it for the rest of the trip, and it never worked again. So it was one time Disney magic.
Anyways, onto Jungle Cruise where we had a very witty/pun loving boat driver! So fun! Then we used our fast pass for Pirates of the Carribean. Next we hit Carousel of Progress with no wait - YAY!!! LOVE that show!!!!!
Then we used our bonus magic fast pass for Buzz Lightyear! When we got out of Buzz Lightyear, the line for the People Mover was about 15 minutes, which we waited in and did. By the time we came out of the People Mover it was about 3:30pm and we checked the wait times and EVERYTHING was over an hour. So we decided to bail for the day.
The problem was, we had reservations at Tony's at the park that night and we didn't feel like coming back and weren't optimistic about the wait times going down ... so my husband called and the person suggested a way to get around the 24 hour rule. They can't cancel the reservation without penalty, but they can change it to another day! So they moved it to an hour later the next day, and then we could cancel it without charge! Disney magic!!!
So we decided to go to a little nicer dinner at Wilderness Lodge Artist's Point instead and then end the night with movie on the lawn at our hotel since our daughter had been interested in that since we arrived.

 

[FlaggNL]

Thanks for the sharing

 

[Weather_Lady]

Thanks for sharing -- that's a great little trick about how to cancel a reservation if you get in a bind at the last minute, too.

 

[JenTen1585]

Sorry for taking so long! I hate coming back to work and real life after vacation!
So to continue on ... we decided to go to dinner at Wilderness Lodge Artist's Point. My husband and I had ate there about 15 years ago, when we were first dating. The atmosphere at the Wilderness Lodge is really cool so I like visiting there! Our waiter was the best waiter we would have the whole trip!! He called himself Dizzy Izzie and he was knowledgeable and AWESOME! He took great pride in knowing the wines and foods and had great recommendations. He went out of his way to make each of his tables feel special. He recommended the Boom Boom Shiraz and my husband loved it! Then I had the salmon which was very good, and my husband had the weird game platter (that's what I call it, not what it's actually called, LOL!) He had buffalo, boar and venison. Weirdo! But he liked it very much and it was fun for him. We got to look outside from our table so our daughter enjoyed it (and the macaroni and cheese). So then after playing in their little water feature for a bit, we headed back to our hotel. It was a little chilly but Dakota wanted to see Tangled on the lawn, so we laid down towels and watched for about a half hour before we got too cold and tired, and headed to bed!
We decided since we didn't quite accomplish everything we wanted at Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, we were going to get ambitious. We were going to go to Magic Kingdom first for the extra magic hours on Thursday, then still try to make it back to Epcot early enough that the line wasn't too bad for Test Track. We weren't quite sure how long it would take to get from park to park, but by God, if we could get a few more rides done, we were going to do it ... and we hadn't rode Small World yet ... so it had to be done.

 

[JenTen1585]

So we wake up bright and early and get to Magic Kingdom for Early Magic Hours opening. We got to see the adorable opening show again!!! YAY!!! Then we booked it through the gates and headed to Small World! We were the first ones on the ride for the day! We felt very special =)! Then we went to the carousel ... a classic favorite of my daughter's. Then to Winnie the Pooh ... we looked at Peter Pan but it already had a 30 minute line!!! In EMH! I really don't get the appeal of Peter Pan ... why the long wait?? I never find it worth it. Anyways, after Winnie the Pooh, we started speed walking back towards the exit. It was about 8:45am at this point. We though that it might take us about 15-20 minutes to get from Magic Kingdom to Epcot. UH......No. Try again. We just missed the monorail to the ticket center so had to wait 8 minutes for the next one. Then once we got to the ticket center, we missed the monorail to Epcot so had to wait another 8 minutes for that one. Then we rode to Epcot and had to go through bag check again and through the entrance ... by the time we got through all that, it was about 9:35 and we started booking it to meet my mom at Test Track. We did not have fast passes for Test Track, because we had them for Soarin later in the day. But Test Track is one of our favorite rides. So despite the 60 minute wait when we got there, we waited in line. This is the only ride we would wait more than 20 minutes for the whole busy stay. It was soooo worth it though. I love that ride, and my daughter, surprisingly, loves it!!!
So next we had a fast pass to Spaceship Earth! Gosh I love that ride!!! I love all the animatronics and the education in it .... This ride is just EPCOT to me and has so many memories!! My daughter finds it to be dark and scary, but likes the computer part at the end.
So after SE, it was time for our reservation at Norway's Princess Lunch! This was Dakota's 3rd time at the lunch but she loves it soooo much, and looks forward to it every year! She is just enchanted by the princesses! And the lunch is YUMMY, so we always like it! I like to do one character lunch with the classic characters, and one princess lunch, and then I don't have to wait in any character meet and greet lines. Totally worth it to me!!
After lunch, we went on the boat ride in Mexico. What an adorable ride! There's never any line and it's one of my favorite things to do in EPCOT! The Norway ride is still too scary for Dakota so we nixed that this trip.
At this point, we were tired, so we decided to head back to our hotel for a rest.
We took the bus back and spent some time in the arcade at Riverside. We got some drinks and ate some candy while watching a little TV, then headed back on the bus to EPCOT for our next fast pass at Soarin! We went on Soarin! LOVE, LOVE that ride!!!!! I know they could change the movie, but I just love the wind and the smells and the feeling! Then we went on the Living with the Land Boat Ride.
OH! In my trip report I talked about a little bit of a fast pass cheat I was planning. My mom was not staying on property, and did not get a magic band. She has a yearly weekday pass, so I think she could have now, but she didn't. So what we did is we had my mom wear my daughter magic band and just carried my daughter through the fast pass line. We did this on 6 rides and never got questioned once. A little risky ... but it worked.
So moving on ... after the Living with the Land Boat ride we used fast passes for Nemo (didn't really need them, there was only a 5 minute wait). Then we went to Turtle Talk with Crush ... always fun! Nemo is another of my daughter's favorite rides!
Then it was time for our reservation at Chefs de France in France. I liked this restaurant ok ... very busy and loud ... the food was good, but nothing spectacular and it was expensive .... I would say good, but not great!
After dinner, or actually at dinner, my daughter fell asleep, so we headed back to the hotel! Another great day!

 

[JenTen1585]

Finally, last day, we did a half day at Animal Kingdom. We checked out of the hotel, loaded our bags in the car, and got there at opening ... no opening ceremony at Animal Kingdom =(. We had fast passes for the safari first thing (again, really didn't need them as the park just opened so the standby line was only 10 minutes when we got there). That's one thing I learned, you really should book all fast passes for later in the day because in the morning you can get a lot done anyways. After the Safari, we all rode the pteradactyl dumboesqe ride, and then my daughter and mom went to the boneyard while my husband and I rode Dinosaur. We had our choice of Everest or Dinosaur, but we missed Dinosaur last trip so we decided to go that way. Then we met back up and headed to our fast pass for the Nemo show. That show is seriously the most adorable show! I feel like I am watching a broadway play!!! After Nemo, and an absolute refusal by my daughter to go to the Bug's Life show (according to her it's scary, smelly and wet), we headed to lunch at the Pizza Safari. We then took the bus back to our hotel, and got in the car for our four hour drive home.
We had a great time, but it felt like a whirlwind ... exhausting and fun! Bye for now Disney! Till next time ....

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Thanks!! My legs about fell off after 1 time! 4 times takes endurance, LOL! But it's worth it to see the joy on their faces as they catch the little gold pieces of paper falling from the sky!!

My daughter brings home handfuls of "treasure" every trip.