Trip Report First Return Since the VID, What Happened Here?!?!

Who: Me (39), Wife (35)
Where: Drury (Disney Springs)
How Long: 3 Park Days
Occupation: Teachers from New England
Occasion: School Break / Conference
Key Notes: Children left at home, two boys (4 and 2).

As I sit in MCO, dreadfully early (as always), I’m pondering my initial post Disney thoughts on what is our first return to the parks since 2019.

My wife and I are big fans of the mouse, obviously since I’m on a Disney forum. We were engaged here, honeymooned here, had AP’s at one point, many many visits always staying on property.

We saw a window to come back down with an education conference in the area and double dipped with Disney. Mentally a very challenging trip for us as we left the kids at home and were constantly seeing those magical moments. A pending June 2025 trip is happening with the grandparents insisting a final trip for them as they’re getting up there in age.

We consume a lot of Disney media across YouTube and socials so we have been inundated with the negative perspective regarding crowds and cost. Fresh off a trip, Disney is different. Edit: a great deal of what I wrote got deleted and I’ll try my best to summarize.

We are planners and are not opposed to a good spread sheet but Disney has gotten to the point where spontaneous things are almost non existent. Sitting on a phone all day isn’t fun.

Most of this thread will be photographs as I’m a photographer by trade. Here’s a picture of my tripod all set up and me desperately trying to not stick out like a sore thumb! It isn’t easy. I did have an awesome chat with security once I was set up, he was also a photographer and it was nice to have an engaging chat and not have it be an inquiry into what I was doing.

 

[ddbowdoin]

Here’s my wife and I at the spot where we got engaged 15 years ago. The swing benches outside Beach Club. Always a special place for us. We always try to sneak over to them during an Epcot visit to relive the memory.

 

[fractal]

Looking forward to this and your photos!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Looking forward to your lovely photos.

 

[ddbowdoin]

Day One: The Landing

The anticipation of departure crept in the night before. We put the kids to bed and looked over the luggage one last time. "wow, is this happening" is something we both muttered. With two kids under 4, life isn't cheap these days. The double daycare laps the mortgage by a lot, so a Disney trip at this point for us is very much a luxury. But with a few family illnesses and passings of some people we knew, life is too short to keep kicking the can down the road.
The flight from Boston to Orlando is smooth, just under 3 hours and we always have great luck with JetBlue. We landed around 7PM, picked up the rental car and quickly shot over to our hotel. MCO has always been a great experience for us, especially compared to Boston. It's less traffic and less stress in general, everything seems newer and more spread out. Zero people in line at Enterprise, it isn't the cheapest option and we saw some folks waiting in some long lines at other vendors trying to maybe save a few bucks. One of the best parts landing is a) seeing Disney's presence in the airport and b) maybe some of the heat creeping into the arrival ramp. It's like 20 degrees in Boston now and we met a beautiful 65 degrees at night, felt amazing!

The Hotel : Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando - Disney Springs Area

Sorry for the lack of images here. The Drury from what we understand is a fairly new hotel, like just over a year old. The rates were reasonable, probably sitting right at 200 a night.

Pros: very clean and modern, as it should be given its age. The breakfast starts at 6 and was actually very good, very diverse offerings and hearty, saved us a ton of money versus eating in the parks. It is a 12 minute walk to Disney Springs, very nice little perk there. The room is a nice size for 2 adults, we had the king offering. I have to assume a double bed situation could easily handle a family of 4.
Theoretical Pros: we did not take advantage of the shuttle as we had a rental car. The schedule looked decent but I wasn't sure if it was a direct shuttle or if it stopped at other hotels. As it was a Drury branded bus, something tells me no. But I can't confirm that.
Cons: 25 dollars a day to park at the hotel, it is what it is but kind of stinks to have to fork over parking fees when the hotel sits on a pretty large footprint. Parking is very ample there.

This was an interesting experience for us as we have always been an on property family. The only time we stayed off property was our first trip together, back in 2008 fresh out of college when we just started dating and were definitely broke! In the past we have stayed at the Poly, Beach Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness, S&D, rented DVC points at BC, etc so the idea of booking into a nearby hotel without theming was a hard pill to swallow from an anticipation perspective but the cost savings were there. I thought I could get into the S&D for about 250 a night but with race weekend and school break up in the north it wasn't happening, they had rooms at nearly 600 a night.

Parked the car, threw our stuff into the room and freshened up quickly and bam... we walked right to DS. I hadn't been since 2012 so it was an eye opening experience. Despite going to WDW several times I never really saw the appeal of DS, I immediately just wanted to hit a park and start the adventure. I think this was partially due to the fact that we historically flew in first thing in the AM, so we would take advantage of baggage holding or early check in and be inside a gate by 11AM. Given the late landing it made sense to visit DS and I am glad I did. It just started everything off on a good foot!

Part Two to Follow: Disney Springs!

 

[ddbowdoin]

First Up : The Polite Pig

We are sharers for sure, so we knew we would be hitting a few spots tonight and went lighter across the board. We ended up splitting an Acadia Hazy IPA (7/10) and a Brisket Plate. The food was ok, nothing amazing but also nothing bad. The meat was a touch dry. The service was amazing though, pleasant and to the point, fast. A nice appetizer to the start of the night.

Next Up: Gideons

My very first visit, unreal it took me this long! My wife has been in the past and always raved about it so I was excited to finally have a crack at it. I am not the biggest sweets guy, more so for health reasons and a lack of self control, but man oh man are these good! We went with 4 cookies (classic chocolate chip, peanut butter chip, pistachio toffee chip, and a coffee cake crumble). Absolutely fantastic, not news here as it seems universally loved. The theming is amazing, its on point with everything they're trying to do. The staff were super friendly, the line wasn't too bad at 9PM and it was a smooth experience. We ended up packing a cookie per day in the parks to have a little snack when waiting in a queue.

 

[ddbowdoin]

To finish up the night we dropped into Homecoming. Glad we made this call, late night 10PM reservation... way way later than we normally eat but hey, its vacation! We went with another split: chicken sandwich with their bbq chips and a Hummingbird cake. The sandwich is 10/10... its so juicy and tender and a good portion at 20 dollars. I almost went with the full chicken plate but given the time and the 35 dollar price tag, I passed. I normally am not a fan of chips with a sandwich, I always opt for fries, but I decided to allow myself to trust the chef and the menu and it was worth it. Great crisp on the chips, the spice was just right, and the sauce was a nice addition. I was hungry so I left the camera in the bag for this dish!

Hummingbird cake, surprised I only gave it a 6/10. My wife makes a much better version and as northerners this isn't a common dish up here. It is a huge portion! It was still good but there was something missing. Perhaps I am biased given my wifes baking skills!

 

[ddbowdoin]

I absolutely loved the theming inside Gideons and I clearly get why they’re such a popular spot with people!

 

[ddbowdoin]

Day Two: Lets Get Up Early

The alarm cracked at 5:30 AM. Which, as a father of two young lads, isn't out of the ordinary. I haven't slept past 8AM in 4 years. But it's a Disney vacation, we are ready to go! The reality is sinking in. I am a terrible packer and as a passionate golfer I kind of just always dress like I'm off to the first tee. My wife knows this and as a result she's forced me (or reminded me!) to pack some Disney wear. In the suitcase are a few 12 plus year old T shirts and various EPCOT things. I knew as some point I'd bend the knee and buy a spirit jersey or something. This definitely happened. Also of note, do not wear brand new sneakers... despite how comfy this pair of New Balances were I got nailed on one of my feet with a healthy blister.

Spoiler: We walked 39,000 steps today.

Before we hit a gate, we dropped into the VQ at Cosmic Rewind in Epcot knowing we'd be hopping. Our group was somewhat early so we expected to be hopping over on a slightly different schedule than we would normally park hop.

First stop, DHS. My wife did a small solo trip last year so she had a lay of the lands in the park, since I haven't seen Galaxies Edge yet or experienced Genie Plus / LL. We were about the first guests at the DHS lot, parked row 1, and rope dropped into Galaxies Edge for my first Rise experience. I was absolutely amazed by the theming of the area. I have always been a fan of SW and only recently has that obsession become amplified as I've been introducing the series of my sons. It just hits all the mark for me. Given that we were there fairly early we were quickly in the queue awaiting the 8AM star of the attraction. Luckily, according to my wife, all the animatronics were working and we didn't get the B version. I could have spent all day walking around GE and photographing it at different times of day. I'll post pictures in the next post and continue what was to be a day of park hopping... 4 times, between DHS and Epcot with 4 modes of transportation!

 

[cgersic]

Off to a great start!! Hoping we get to see some of your night photos in Galaxy's Edge, it's so photogenic there at night!

 

[ddbowdoin]

Unfortunately we only snagged pictures of Galaxy Edge during the day! It was a whirlwind of the day.

Off to a great start!! Hoping we get to see some of your night photos in Galaxy's Edge, it's so photogenic there at night!

 

[ddbowdoin]

Luckily we scored a lunch time spot at Olga's. It is awesome and the drinks, despite being premade are actually refreshing. It is, however, very expensive and for us typically trying to manage a reasonable budget is likely a one and done for us. I am glad we did it though. We had a visit by some storm troopers and the experience is absolutely a must if you're a big SW fan. The only downside is that as a party of 2 we had a to share a high top table and the party next to us was getting pretty deep in the drinks and were insanely loud.

 

[ddbowdoin]

 

[ddbowdoin]

 

[fractal]

View attachment 770463

View attachment 770464View attachment 770465

Where is the first photo from?

 

[ddbowdoin]

Where is the first photo from?

It’s inside Smugglers Run.

 

[mpaulam]

Following along!

 

[ddbowdoin]

More views inside Olga’s

 

[ddbowdoin]

Likely lost in translation here given cell phone viewing but these are multi image panorama images made on a medium format digital camera. The original files when combined about 2.5 GB’s per image and would print 180 plus inches on the long edge of the print. The detail here is obscene! Unfortunately I think there is so much compression loading here that you lose a lot of that quality.

 

[ddbowdoin]

Ok back to the report!

We went full send on day one, really… it took a lot out of me physically as it’s winter back home and my legs aren’t in that shape. If it were summer, despite the heat, it would have been better as I play almost 100 rounds of golf a year and am a golf coach at school. 39K legs wrecked my feet!

We drove from Drury to DHS / Walked to Epcot / Hopped back to DHS via Skyliner / Hopped back to Epcot with the rental car! What a day.

Highlights : the immersive nature of GE, Ronto Wraps always hit, Joffreys Coffee being somewhat mediocre but hitting when I needed it, respectable 200K plus score on Midway Mania.

Lowlights: crowds…. Holy smokes. Two things hit and made for tough times, RR closed and Slinky Dog was down for sometime so the masses didn’t have many places to go. We saw Tower hit 120 minutes and since we had a VQ at Cosmic for roughly 12 we knew we were hopping anyway.

Super happy with guest relations, they made sure to remind me to bring a printed receipt from Olga’s over to Epcot since we were absolutely going to miss our boarding group.

The weather was amazing , 70 and sunny. Really makes me rethink all these past summer trips I’ve done. Way more manageable.

As this was a short trip of 3 park days, we avoided all table service meals (until the last day and those details will come later). As such, we split a lot of quick eats. We stopped in at Mexico and split a trios tacos and empanadas that hit the spot. Amazing? No, but it had some fiber in the beans. A note, can we get some vegetables in Disney? Sheesh, it ain’t easy.

A sad reality for this 39 year old dad… I can’t do the cool rides anymore. Day 3 of the trip my wife bought a LL for cosmic by herself and I walked around and made pictures. As I’ve never been on it I gave it a good effort. Sea bands, water, and Dramamine and nope. My wife knew it too. As soon as the ride started I was yelling and having a good time and then like 20 seconds into the ride I went completely silent. Came off the ride sweating profusely and felt terrible for about 3 hours afterwards. It’s an awesome ride but I can’t do it anymore, I’m so ed.