There may be snow on the ground here in the Finger Lakes, but we are NINE DAYS AWAY from a vacation over a year in the making! I know what the poet said about the "best-laid plans of mice and men," but I remain optimistic!
The intrepid travelers will be me and DH (42-year-old professionals from near Rochester, NY - which, although it doesn't sound too glamorous, still sounds far more glamorous than we actually are), our 11-year-old son, and 9-year-old daughter (who will turn 10 at WDW).
Here's the itinerary (all the better to make us laugh later about how nothing went according to plan):
Day 1 - Universal
We leave the house by 5am for the 1-hour drive to the airport, cruising in our flashy 2005 Honda Accord with rust accents, and will fly from Syracuse to Orlando, touching down around 10:30am. We'll take a towncar to Universal's Hard Rock Hotel for our first-ever visit to Universal. SO EXCITED!!! We're all huge Potter fans, so we can't wait! Thanks to the extra speed of the Unlimited Express Pass that comes with our hotel stay, we'll be able to tour half of Universal Orlando (with lunch at CityWalk or somewhere near the front entrance of Universal Orlando), and half of Islands of Adventure, taking the Hogwarts Express in between. We've also carved out a couple of hours for the kids to purchase and try out interactive wands. Dinner will be at Antojitos Authentic Mexican on CityWalk. The restaurant selection was mine: they had me at "tableside guacamole." (Seriously, were sexier words ever spoken?)
Day 2 - Universal
Today, we'll finish the two Universal parks, with lunch at the Three Broomsticks and dinner at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium (DH's dinner choice). I have to say, planning a touring itinerary between the hotel, two parks and CityWalk is a total breeze when you can walk just about anywhere in 15 minutes or less! [cue song from Annie, "I think we're gonna like it here!"]
Day 3 - Universal/Disney Springs
We've set aside this day to visit a water park - something we've never done on a vacation before. Having read the initial dismal reviews of Volcano Bay, the kids are hoping to go to Typhoon Lagoon, so that's what we'll probably do. We can Uber there and perhaps hop the bus over to Disney Springs for lunch or dinner at T-REX (kids' choice) afterwards. (We can do lunch OR dinner there, as I didn't make an ADR and will be relying on my Landry's Select card for priority seating.) If we still have some energy after all that, we may drop by Escape Game Orlando, a really highly-rated escape room place between DS and Universal. My family is a bit addicted to escape rooms and I have a discount code for this one, which typically has same-day availability, so we'll see.
Day 4 - SURPRISE!!! and Hollywood Studios
My kids think that today, we'll be spending a couple of last hours in the Universal parks, and then packing up and Ubering to the airport to fly home. What they DON'T know is that when I ask them to "check the room one last time to see if we left anything" (part of our usual routine when we go to check out of a hotel room) they're going to find MagicBands with their names on them, hidden in little gift bags! Then we'll be breaking the news to them that we're not going home -- we're headed to Disney for the next 5 nights! The kids have been to WDW 3 times in their lives, the most recent being in the fall of 2016, and I know they're dying to go back even though we've told them it's too expensive right now, so I'm hoping we'll get a big reaction. When it comes to keeping secrets like this, I'm a bit like Sue, the Saturday Night Live Character who "loves surprises." So whether or not the kids jump around and lose their minds when they find out, I know I will. http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/surprise-party/n12233?snl=1
So after we check out at Hard Rock and catch our Uber, our actual destination will be the Beach Club, where we'll stay 3 nights in a studio on rented points. We'll grab lunch somewhere (Hurricane Hanna's, perhaps) and walk to Hollywood Studios, where we have FP+ for Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror and Star Tours. My DH loves the Indy show, so we'll probably take that in (according to these forums, it will likely be our last chance ever), as well as Muppets, Walt Disney Presents, the Launch Bay, and Beauty and the Beast (the one show at HS we've never seen). Dinner is at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. I know the food doesn't get good ratings, but we've always wanted to eat here and never have, so we're going to give it a shot. After dinner, there won't be much left at HS that anybody wants to do (I tried to gauge the family's potential interest in the nighttime entertainment by showing them some of Fantasmic on Youtube once, but afterwards, they were like, "yes, it's great, but why bother, since we've seen it now")
so we'll either head back to the Beach Club to get settled and explore Stormalong Bay, or perhaps stroll over to Epcot.
Day 5 - Animal Kingdom
This is our AK day, but we'll take it slow in the morning, perhaps giving nearby Fantasia Gardens a try or lounging around the pool for a bit. After lunch (location TBD), we'll take the bus to AK, where we have afternoon/evening FP+ for Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safaris and Rivers of Light (the last of which is probably unnecessary, since WDW just added a second show that night). We'll tour the whole park, likely skipping the whole Conservation Station/train section, and choose one or two of the shows (Up!, Nemo, FOTLK) to see. Dinner will be at Yak & Yeti (again, no ADR needed, as it's another Landry's property). We'll head back to the Beach Club right after the first Rivers of Light finishes up, so we can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the next morning.
Day 6 - Epcot
Huzzah for 5-minute walks! We'll stroll over to Epcot's International Gateway in time to rope drop the park (EMH morning), and go straight to Frozen Ever After, followed by Test Track. Our FP+ for this day are Soarin', Mission:Space and Imagination. We've got a lunch ADR at Via Napoli (just for the pizza), and can spend the evening as we please -- strolling around World Showcase, sampling Flower & Garden booth items, doing Agent P's, etc. We may stay for Illuminations if we feel up to it or we could even hop to another park for the evening: otherwise, I suspect the kids may want more pool time at Stormalong Bay! We'll also pack up the room in anticipation of...
Day 7 - MK
We'll be up bright and early to finish packing up, check out and leave our bags with Bell Services for transfer to our final destination. Then we'll hop a bus to the MK in time to rope drop the EMH morning there. We have FP+ for 7DMT, Splash and Big Thunder, so we'll do the other biggies in Fantasyland at rope drop. By the time the 3pm parade starts streaming through Frontierland, we hope to have covered Fantasyland, most of Liberty Square, and Frontierland, and perhaps dipped our toes into Adventureland. Lunch will be at Pecos Bill (where I will choke back my tears at the lack of guacamole on the toppings bar) or Columbia Harbor House. After the parade, we'll go check in at the POLYNESIAN (BUCKET LIST CHECK!!!) for our final two nights in a studio on rented points. Dinner is at 'Ohana at 5pm, after which we can hang about the resort, or go to the MK or Epcot to finish out the night. I may even have a Lapu Lapu like I did last time we visited 'Ohana, although if we do that, you can bet that my post-trip report is going to get a little fuzzy about the rest of the evening's events.
Day 8 - MK (again)
Happy 10th birthday to my daughter! The morning is unplanned as I'd like her to be able to be the tour leader, but could be well spent finishing out Adventureland in the MK and revisiting some favorite attractions. We'll have a very late CS lunch (her choice of venue) in order to "save room" for her birthday surprise, the Happily Ever After Fireworks Dessert Party (Plaza Garden viewing). This will be a late night, as the MK is open until midnight and I have a feeling the kids will have a lot of "one last time" ride requests. Our FP+ for the evening are Space Mountain, Buzz and 7DMT. I'll probably also find a couple of minutes to go sit on the bench (built in to the Tomorrowland walkway) where my family watched the fireworks in 2005 on my Mom's last visit to WDW before her death, and shed a few happy-sad tears over the wonderful memories we made there. Stopping by "Mom's bench" and honoring her memory, even though I know her soul is someplace far better than Disney World, has become a vacation ritual for me.
Day 9 - Amother Mimosa, you say???
Today, we pack up our room at the Polynesian and leave our bags with Bell Services one last time, and for the saddest reason -- today, we head home. We have a 9:30am FP+ for Flight of Passage for this day, but where we'll go is anyone's guess. What I DO know is that at 12:30pm, we'll be sitting down to Brunch at the Top at the California Grill! (ANOTHER BUCKET LIST ITEM, WOOHOO)! There will be mimosas, sushi, charcuterie, cheese, and something with lobster -- which is to say, I'm going to have to wear something very stretchy because, like the Grinch's small heart, I am going to "grow three sizes that day."
Once they roll me out of the restaurant (perhaps literally), we'll have a little extra time to shop, lounge by the Poly pool or duck into the MK before the DME bus picks us up around 5pm. Our return flights depart at 8pm and we'll be landing about 11pm. That means we'll be arriving home near the stroke of midnight -- which is fitting, as that is the moment I'll have to slip out of my figurative ballgown and lay out my work clothes for the next morning, when I return to my usual schedule of cooking, cleaning, full-time-jobbing, and Mom-ing.
That's the plan, anyway! We'll see how it goes... comments and suggestions are welcome.
The intrepid travelers will be me and DH (42-year-old professionals from near Rochester, NY - which, although it doesn't sound too glamorous, still sounds far more glamorous than we actually are), our 11-year-old son, and 9-year-old daughter (who will turn 10 at WDW).
Here's the itinerary (all the better to make us laugh later about how nothing went according to plan):
Day 1 - Universal
We leave the house by 5am for the 1-hour drive to the airport, cruising in our flashy 2005 Honda Accord with rust accents, and will fly from Syracuse to Orlando, touching down around 10:30am. We'll take a towncar to Universal's Hard Rock Hotel for our first-ever visit to Universal. SO EXCITED!!! We're all huge Potter fans, so we can't wait! Thanks to the extra speed of the Unlimited Express Pass that comes with our hotel stay, we'll be able to tour half of Universal Orlando (with lunch at CityWalk or somewhere near the front entrance of Universal Orlando), and half of Islands of Adventure, taking the Hogwarts Express in between. We've also carved out a couple of hours for the kids to purchase and try out interactive wands. Dinner will be at Antojitos Authentic Mexican on CityWalk. The restaurant selection was mine: they had me at "tableside guacamole." (Seriously, were sexier words ever spoken?)
Day 2 - Universal
Today, we'll finish the two Universal parks, with lunch at the Three Broomsticks and dinner at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium (DH's dinner choice). I have to say, planning a touring itinerary between the hotel, two parks and CityWalk is a total breeze when you can walk just about anywhere in 15 minutes or less! [cue song from Annie, "I think we're gonna like it here!"]
Day 3 - Universal/Disney Springs
We've set aside this day to visit a water park - something we've never done on a vacation before. Having read the initial dismal reviews of Volcano Bay, the kids are hoping to go to Typhoon Lagoon, so that's what we'll probably do. We can Uber there and perhaps hop the bus over to Disney Springs for lunch or dinner at T-REX (kids' choice) afterwards. (We can do lunch OR dinner there, as I didn't make an ADR and will be relying on my Landry's Select card for priority seating.) If we still have some energy after all that, we may drop by Escape Game Orlando, a really highly-rated escape room place between DS and Universal. My family is a bit addicted to escape rooms and I have a discount code for this one, which typically has same-day availability, so we'll see.
Day 4 - SURPRISE!!! and Hollywood Studios
My kids think that today, we'll be spending a couple of last hours in the Universal parks, and then packing up and Ubering to the airport to fly home. What they DON'T know is that when I ask them to "check the room one last time to see if we left anything" (part of our usual routine when we go to check out of a hotel room) they're going to find MagicBands with their names on them, hidden in little gift bags! Then we'll be breaking the news to them that we're not going home -- we're headed to Disney for the next 5 nights! The kids have been to WDW 3 times in their lives, the most recent being in the fall of 2016, and I know they're dying to go back even though we've told them it's too expensive right now, so I'm hoping we'll get a big reaction. When it comes to keeping secrets like this, I'm a bit like Sue, the Saturday Night Live Character who "loves surprises." So whether or not the kids jump around and lose their minds when they find out, I know I will. http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/surprise-party/n12233?snl=1
So after we check out at Hard Rock and catch our Uber, our actual destination will be the Beach Club, where we'll stay 3 nights in a studio on rented points. We'll grab lunch somewhere (Hurricane Hanna's, perhaps) and walk to Hollywood Studios, where we have FP+ for Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror and Star Tours. My DH loves the Indy show, so we'll probably take that in (according to these forums, it will likely be our last chance ever), as well as Muppets, Walt Disney Presents, the Launch Bay, and Beauty and the Beast (the one show at HS we've never seen). Dinner is at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. I know the food doesn't get good ratings, but we've always wanted to eat here and never have, so we're going to give it a shot. After dinner, there won't be much left at HS that anybody wants to do (I tried to gauge the family's potential interest in the nighttime entertainment by showing them some of Fantasmic on Youtube once, but afterwards, they were like, "yes, it's great, but why bother, since we've seen it now")
so we'll either head back to the Beach Club to get settled and explore Stormalong Bay, or perhaps stroll over to Epcot.Day 5 - Animal Kingdom
This is our AK day, but we'll take it slow in the morning, perhaps giving nearby Fantasia Gardens a try or lounging around the pool for a bit. After lunch (location TBD), we'll take the bus to AK, where we have afternoon/evening FP+ for Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safaris and Rivers of Light (the last of which is probably unnecessary, since WDW just added a second show that night). We'll tour the whole park, likely skipping the whole Conservation Station/train section, and choose one or two of the shows (Up!, Nemo, FOTLK) to see. Dinner will be at Yak & Yeti (again, no ADR needed, as it's another Landry's property). We'll head back to the Beach Club right after the first Rivers of Light finishes up, so we can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the next morning.
Day 6 - Epcot
Huzzah for 5-minute walks! We'll stroll over to Epcot's International Gateway in time to rope drop the park (EMH morning), and go straight to Frozen Ever After, followed by Test Track. Our FP+ for this day are Soarin', Mission:Space and Imagination. We've got a lunch ADR at Via Napoli (just for the pizza), and can spend the evening as we please -- strolling around World Showcase, sampling Flower & Garden booth items, doing Agent P's, etc. We may stay for Illuminations if we feel up to it or we could even hop to another park for the evening: otherwise, I suspect the kids may want more pool time at Stormalong Bay! We'll also pack up the room in anticipation of...
Day 7 - MK
We'll be up bright and early to finish packing up, check out and leave our bags with Bell Services for transfer to our final destination. Then we'll hop a bus to the MK in time to rope drop the EMH morning there. We have FP+ for 7DMT, Splash and Big Thunder, so we'll do the other biggies in Fantasyland at rope drop. By the time the 3pm parade starts streaming through Frontierland, we hope to have covered Fantasyland, most of Liberty Square, and Frontierland, and perhaps dipped our toes into Adventureland. Lunch will be at Pecos Bill (where I will choke back my tears at the lack of guacamole on the toppings bar) or Columbia Harbor House. After the parade, we'll go check in at the POLYNESIAN (BUCKET LIST CHECK!!!) for our final two nights in a studio on rented points. Dinner is at 'Ohana at 5pm, after which we can hang about the resort, or go to the MK or Epcot to finish out the night. I may even have a Lapu Lapu like I did last time we visited 'Ohana, although if we do that, you can bet that my post-trip report is going to get a little fuzzy about the rest of the evening's events.
Day 8 - MK (again)
Happy 10th birthday to my daughter! The morning is unplanned as I'd like her to be able to be the tour leader, but could be well spent finishing out Adventureland in the MK and revisiting some favorite attractions. We'll have a very late CS lunch (her choice of venue) in order to "save room" for her birthday surprise, the Happily Ever After Fireworks Dessert Party (Plaza Garden viewing). This will be a late night, as the MK is open until midnight and I have a feeling the kids will have a lot of "one last time" ride requests. Our FP+ for the evening are Space Mountain, Buzz and 7DMT. I'll probably also find a couple of minutes to go sit on the bench (built in to the Tomorrowland walkway) where my family watched the fireworks in 2005 on my Mom's last visit to WDW before her death, and shed a few happy-sad tears over the wonderful memories we made there. Stopping by "Mom's bench" and honoring her memory, even though I know her soul is someplace far better than Disney World, has become a vacation ritual for me.
Day 9 - Amother Mimosa, you say???
Today, we pack up our room at the Polynesian and leave our bags with Bell Services one last time, and for the saddest reason -- today, we head home. We have a 9:30am FP+ for Flight of Passage for this day, but where we'll go is anyone's guess. What I DO know is that at 12:30pm, we'll be sitting down to Brunch at the Top at the California Grill! (ANOTHER BUCKET LIST ITEM, WOOHOO)! There will be mimosas, sushi, charcuterie, cheese, and something with lobster -- which is to say, I'm going to have to wear something very stretchy because, like the Grinch's small heart, I am going to "grow three sizes that day."
Once they roll me out of the restaurant (perhaps literally), we'll have a little extra time to shop, lounge by the Poly pool or duck into the MK before the DME bus picks us up around 5pm. Our return flights depart at 8pm and we'll be landing about 11pm. That means we'll be arriving home near the stroke of midnight -- which is fitting, as that is the moment I'll have to slip out of my figurative ballgown and lay out my work clothes for the next morning, when I return to my usual schedule of cooking, cleaning, full-time-jobbing, and Mom-ing.
That's the plan, anyway! We'll see how it goes... comments and suggestions are welcome.
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