Warning, I tend to write out of order sometimes. Also, for my pixie dust folks, there WILL be complaining, so warned ye be says I. Finally, I didn't take many photos as I was the main one pushing the stroller and holding the baby. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we're +1 since February of 2023. Grayson was 20 months on this trip but he's big for his age so we were asked every day about his ticket. For those who aren't familiar, here's the crew rundown: Dave(me) 47 on the 19th, Amy age 43 but looks like 23, Ashley 24, Justin 23, Christopher 8, Jace 7 and Grayson under 2.
So, we went down for my 47th birthday. We lucked out and got an Airbnb at the Vista Del Lago community and it was literally a waterfront home. If you've been to that community, you know how rare it is to find a rental there. Every morning I had my coffee while enjoying the sunrise.
I highly advise staying off property for those whose pockets aren't super deep. I only paid 1300 for this 2k sq ft waterfront home. Sure, we might have to drive a whopping 10 minutes to get on property but it's waaay worth the savings.
I have to say that it's been a few years since we've been able to afford going to all of the parks. We were AP holders for a handful of years, up until 2019 when we paid $3700 for 4 adult APs and 1 child's AP. Jace was under 3 at that point. Fast forward to the end of 2022 when they started selling APs again and to get them again plus another child we were looking at almost 10k. Nah, I don't think so, Bob.
Anyways, we paid 3600 for (6) four day base tickets and that was WITH my employees discount through Nike. Not much of a discount since using Target red card via gift cards would have literally been almost the same. I know it's all about the deals the discount company works out with the company, but Universal gave a much better discount. We did 2 HHNs and only paid 82 a ticket for those.
I will say that we were selfishly hoping that people would cancel or postpone their trips since Milton hit just 2 days before we arrived but those hopes were dashed when we got there. Speaking of which, we lucked out because our host's next door neighbor lost their entire carport and part of their roof but there was no damage to our rental.
So, after leaving the house around 1:15am on Saturday morning, we arrived around 6:15pm. I fondly remember the drive taking around 11 hours with stops but with a little one and the traffic of people returning to Florida, it was much longer. Plus, I'm not find of long distance driving so I stopped twice early on for 30 minute power naps. After arriving and unpacking the car, we grabbed something to eat, got supplies from Walmart and hit Disney Springs for an hour or so. Man, it was packed.
I wont bore you guys with the standard details but I'll list the days and what we did and sprinkle in a picture or two.
13th: Magic Kingdom. Absolutely much busier than we expected but fun. Got to see a blogger in the parks for the first time. We got into line for the Peoplemover when we got there and I looked back and saw Ron on the Go about 8 people back. Neat, now if I could just see Adam or Tim I'd be thrilled. This was also Grayson's first time watching Happily Ever After. Watching his eyes light up made every ounce of sweat worth it. Also, this is the first time I've seen CoP since they updated the finale scene, so that was cool.
14th: Epcot. Busy but fun. The Moana water area was nice but crowded. Love me some Living with the Land.
15th: MNSSHP. Again, it was much busier than expected. Also, I don't like the new event corrals they have out front. This is because we usually bring a bag with our costumes and get a locker first thing after being let in at 4. Well, this new corral process makes that very difficult unless you're ALLL the way over to the right, especially when you're pushing a stroller. Now we get to the real issue. Not only was this process annoying, but so is going back out to get a locker when you've already gone into the park. You used to be able to just go back out and swing by the front path in front of the entrance and get a locker. Now, you have to literally get back in line and scan/finger again. Long story short, I had a standoff with a CM about this and I'll be contacting GE about his attitude. We got a ton of candy without even trying, so they're definitely giving out handfuls at each stop. Had a good time and Amy got a Lock popcorn bucket.
16th: Amy and the oldest 2 went to HHN. They said it was crazy busy but they managed to do 9 out of the 10 houses. Me and the youngest 3 hung out at the community playground for a while and then watched Disney movies at the house. Amy and the oldest had a great time.
17th: HHN. Since I haven't been to HHN since before Chris was born, Amy and I had a "date night" at HHN. Now comes where I complain about Universal. The houses were cool but we only got 7 done. Shortly before 11, we only had 4 houses done so I decided to get EPs. Well, I didn't realize that the stand by MIB only sells regular EPs and they can't tell if there are any HHN EPs available. So, after making our way to Guest Services all the way up front, I stood in a 30 minute line because they only had ONE person inside working the desk. And as it turns out, they only had one single pass available. Really....so at that point we decided to just go wait for Quiet Place and Insidious. We got them done with about 10 minutes left so we hit Ghostbusters on the way and that was it. We missed Goblins, Monsteras and the Triplets. On a side note, there's a Taco Bell a mile away that we went to after leaving HHN and my Lord, they are amazing. They had a line about 15 cars deep, including us and I'd say we only waited about 20 minutes and the food was correct and they had great attitudes about it. I wish our local fast food workers were like them.
18th: Hollywood Studios. Crowded but again, we had fun. The more we ride Runaway Railway, the more we love it. I almost rode Rise but Grayson isn't quite tall enough, so he and I walked around and he napped while everyone else rode it.
19th: AK. Not exactly my first choice for my birthday but it worked due to our evening TRex reservation at 8:45 since the park closed at 7. We had a good time except for Chris skinning his knee after tripping on that sunken sewer cover in Pandora and Grayson falling in his face in the Dino dog area literally right before we left. Also, it was nice to ride the Dino stuff before it's gone. On a side note, Grayson was cranky for a bit at the dig area so I took him to the stroller to see if he wanted to nap but he just wanted to cry. So as I'm standing there with that exhausted dad look, another dad walked up and said, "don't feel bad, my kid just
his pants". Man, that was some real sad to dad bonding right there. If that was you and you're reading this, thanks man. That was hilarious. Trex was good eating but my God was it expensive. I know it's a group of 7 but 202 bucks is intense. Glad I didn't get the steak. The service was great and they even brought me a birthday cupcake. And watching Grayson look around when the "storm" hit, that was worth every penny. After dinner we went and got our annual Christmas ornament and went back home.
20th: Beach day. I think the beach(Cocoa) is Jace's favorite part of the trip. The beach is all he was talking about before the trip. The weather was perfect and it was busier than normal but manageable. Of course Grayson had fun running away from the water and he ran me ragged. We had Olive Garden for dinner and then went back home and relaxed.
21st: MNSSHP. Our final park day and Halloween party. Originally we were supposed to go on the 20th but it sold out and the 21st was the only day that has tickets available so we extended our stay by one day. This party was much less crowded and we had a blast. Amy wanted a Winifred supper cup so I went and stood in line while they got changed for the party. We learned our lesson about the locker and just stuffed our costumes under the stroller. Guess I need to find a new costume because fewer and fewer people recognize Troy Polamalu. So, I ended up buying 2 sippers. Oh, I forgot to mention that I agree that Hatbox Ghost is a bit out of place at the hallway scene but nothing that really ruins the story, at least not for me.
Luckily for us, our host was really cool and told us to check out whenever we wanted on the 22nd. That's good because we didn't leave there until a little after 1 in the afternoon. We headed to Disney Springs to get our Sprinkles on and I grabbed some fudge from the Creaky Cauldron or whatever it's called. We hit the road around 3 and that's when it happened. While going through Ocala on 75, we had a piece of tire hit the bumper of the rental minivan. It wasn't until we stopped at the Gainesville rest area that we noticed the medium dent. Yep, for the first time ever, we had to claim damage on a rental. Good stuff. We got home a little after 6 am and went straight to sleep. Of course, I had to clean and empty the rental so I got up around 8:30 and had it turned in at 11. Now on to my thoughts.
First off, prices. , Disney. Spending as much on 4 day base tickets as I did for annual passes just 5 years ago is ridiculous. Also, they really need to start taking some of this money and put it into maintenance. I can't remember how many times rides were down for extended periods. As a matter of fact, on the 21st at the party, there were 5 or 6 rides down for the last 2 hours. Heck, Pirates even went from showing as "temporarily unavailable" to literally not even listed at all. Tf you doing with all of this upsell money, Disney? That being said, they still have some of the best frontline workers.
Now, I know that the new LL premier isn't for everyone but I really wish people would stop buying ALL versions of this crap. How people are willing to pay for something that was literally free a few years ago is beyond me.
Guess I'm becoming a grumpy old man, but overall I enjoyed the trip for sure. It was expensive but I can make more money but you only have one chance to make memories.
If you read all of this, my hat goes off to you. I used to write better trip reports but I've gotten lazy I suppose. Ty for reading and have a magical day!
So, we went down for my 47th birthday. We lucked out and got an Airbnb at the Vista Del Lago community and it was literally a waterfront home. If you've been to that community, you know how rare it is to find a rental there. Every morning I had my coffee while enjoying the sunrise.
I highly advise staying off property for those whose pockets aren't super deep. I only paid 1300 for this 2k sq ft waterfront home. Sure, we might have to drive a whopping 10 minutes to get on property but it's waaay worth the savings.
I have to say that it's been a few years since we've been able to afford going to all of the parks. We were AP holders for a handful of years, up until 2019 when we paid $3700 for 4 adult APs and 1 child's AP. Jace was under 3 at that point. Fast forward to the end of 2022 when they started selling APs again and to get them again plus another child we were looking at almost 10k. Nah, I don't think so, Bob.
Anyways, we paid 3600 for (6) four day base tickets and that was WITH my employees discount through Nike. Not much of a discount since using Target red card via gift cards would have literally been almost the same. I know it's all about the deals the discount company works out with the company, but Universal gave a much better discount. We did 2 HHNs and only paid 82 a ticket for those.
I will say that we were selfishly hoping that people would cancel or postpone their trips since Milton hit just 2 days before we arrived but those hopes were dashed when we got there. Speaking of which, we lucked out because our host's next door neighbor lost their entire carport and part of their roof but there was no damage to our rental.
So, after leaving the house around 1:15am on Saturday morning, we arrived around 6:15pm. I fondly remember the drive taking around 11 hours with stops but with a little one and the traffic of people returning to Florida, it was much longer. Plus, I'm not find of long distance driving so I stopped twice early on for 30 minute power naps. After arriving and unpacking the car, we grabbed something to eat, got supplies from Walmart and hit Disney Springs for an hour or so. Man, it was packed.
I wont bore you guys with the standard details but I'll list the days and what we did and sprinkle in a picture or two.
13th: Magic Kingdom. Absolutely much busier than we expected but fun. Got to see a blogger in the parks for the first time. We got into line for the Peoplemover when we got there and I looked back and saw Ron on the Go about 8 people back. Neat, now if I could just see Adam or Tim I'd be thrilled. This was also Grayson's first time watching Happily Ever After. Watching his eyes light up made every ounce of sweat worth it. Also, this is the first time I've seen CoP since they updated the finale scene, so that was cool.
14th: Epcot. Busy but fun. The Moana water area was nice but crowded. Love me some Living with the Land.
15th: MNSSHP. Again, it was much busier than expected. Also, I don't like the new event corrals they have out front. This is because we usually bring a bag with our costumes and get a locker first thing after being let in at 4. Well, this new corral process makes that very difficult unless you're ALLL the way over to the right, especially when you're pushing a stroller. Now we get to the real issue. Not only was this process annoying, but so is going back out to get a locker when you've already gone into the park. You used to be able to just go back out and swing by the front path in front of the entrance and get a locker. Now, you have to literally get back in line and scan/finger again. Long story short, I had a standoff with a CM about this and I'll be contacting GE about his attitude. We got a ton of candy without even trying, so they're definitely giving out handfuls at each stop. Had a good time and Amy got a Lock popcorn bucket.
16th: Amy and the oldest 2 went to HHN. They said it was crazy busy but they managed to do 9 out of the 10 houses. Me and the youngest 3 hung out at the community playground for a while and then watched Disney movies at the house. Amy and the oldest had a great time.
17th: HHN. Since I haven't been to HHN since before Chris was born, Amy and I had a "date night" at HHN. Now comes where I complain about Universal. The houses were cool but we only got 7 done. Shortly before 11, we only had 4 houses done so I decided to get EPs. Well, I didn't realize that the stand by MIB only sells regular EPs and they can't tell if there are any HHN EPs available. So, after making our way to Guest Services all the way up front, I stood in a 30 minute line because they only had ONE person inside working the desk. And as it turns out, they only had one single pass available. Really....so at that point we decided to just go wait for Quiet Place and Insidious. We got them done with about 10 minutes left so we hit Ghostbusters on the way and that was it. We missed Goblins, Monsteras and the Triplets. On a side note, there's a Taco Bell a mile away that we went to after leaving HHN and my Lord, they are amazing. They had a line about 15 cars deep, including us and I'd say we only waited about 20 minutes and the food was correct and they had great attitudes about it. I wish our local fast food workers were like them.
18th: Hollywood Studios. Crowded but again, we had fun. The more we ride Runaway Railway, the more we love it. I almost rode Rise but Grayson isn't quite tall enough, so he and I walked around and he napped while everyone else rode it.
19th: AK. Not exactly my first choice for my birthday but it worked due to our evening TRex reservation at 8:45 since the park closed at 7. We had a good time except for Chris skinning his knee after tripping on that sunken sewer cover in Pandora and Grayson falling in his face in the Dino dog area literally right before we left. Also, it was nice to ride the Dino stuff before it's gone. On a side note, Grayson was cranky for a bit at the dig area so I took him to the stroller to see if he wanted to nap but he just wanted to cry. So as I'm standing there with that exhausted dad look, another dad walked up and said, "don't feel bad, my kid just
his pants". Man, that was some real sad to dad bonding right there. If that was you and you're reading this, thanks man. That was hilarious. Trex was good eating but my God was it expensive. I know it's a group of 7 but 202 bucks is intense. Glad I didn't get the steak. The service was great and they even brought me a birthday cupcake. And watching Grayson look around when the "storm" hit, that was worth every penny. After dinner we went and got our annual Christmas ornament and went back home.20th: Beach day. I think the beach(Cocoa) is Jace's favorite part of the trip. The beach is all he was talking about before the trip. The weather was perfect and it was busier than normal but manageable. Of course Grayson had fun running away from the water and he ran me ragged. We had Olive Garden for dinner and then went back home and relaxed.
21st: MNSSHP. Our final park day and Halloween party. Originally we were supposed to go on the 20th but it sold out and the 21st was the only day that has tickets available so we extended our stay by one day. This party was much less crowded and we had a blast. Amy wanted a Winifred supper cup so I went and stood in line while they got changed for the party. We learned our lesson about the locker and just stuffed our costumes under the stroller. Guess I need to find a new costume because fewer and fewer people recognize Troy Polamalu. So, I ended up buying 2 sippers. Oh, I forgot to mention that I agree that Hatbox Ghost is a bit out of place at the hallway scene but nothing that really ruins the story, at least not for me.
Luckily for us, our host was really cool and told us to check out whenever we wanted on the 22nd. That's good because we didn't leave there until a little after 1 in the afternoon. We headed to Disney Springs to get our Sprinkles on and I grabbed some fudge from the Creaky Cauldron or whatever it's called. We hit the road around 3 and that's when it happened. While going through Ocala on 75, we had a piece of tire hit the bumper of the rental minivan. It wasn't until we stopped at the Gainesville rest area that we noticed the medium dent. Yep, for the first time ever, we had to claim damage on a rental. Good stuff. We got home a little after 6 am and went straight to sleep. Of course, I had to clean and empty the rental so I got up around 8:30 and had it turned in at 11. Now on to my thoughts.
First off, prices. , Disney. Spending as much on 4 day base tickets as I did for annual passes just 5 years ago is ridiculous. Also, they really need to start taking some of this money and put it into maintenance. I can't remember how many times rides were down for extended periods. As a matter of fact, on the 21st at the party, there were 5 or 6 rides down for the last 2 hours. Heck, Pirates even went from showing as "temporarily unavailable" to literally not even listed at all. Tf you doing with all of this upsell money, Disney? That being said, they still have some of the best frontline workers.
Now, I know that the new LL premier isn't for everyone but I really wish people would stop buying ALL versions of this crap. How people are willing to pay for something that was literally free a few years ago is beyond me.
Guess I'm becoming a grumpy old man, but overall I enjoyed the trip for sure. It was expensive but I can make more money but you only have one chance to make memories.
If you read all of this, my hat goes off to you. I used to write better trip reports but I've gotten lazy I suppose. Ty for reading and have a magical day!
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