Trip Report Last trip after 3 years as a passholder

We've been APs for the past 3 years, and I've been lucky to get my money's worth out of those passes. 24 trips, over 60 days at the parks. Lots of fun and great memories. This is our last trip planned for our passes, and we're not going to renew. We're doing DCL for my daughters' spring break, and have other travel planned for the summer. Next opportunity is Thanksgiving. My plan is here.

Original plan was for me to pick my wife up at her office, but due to an event there this weekend, she could not leave her car there. Cost: 30 min. The drive down was uneventful, but we did need to stop once. Another 30 min added to our arrival time. We got to the Dolphin around 7:15 PM, but there was a decent line at check-in. We didn't get up to our room until 7:45. I had gotten fp+ for the illuminations viewing spot, but my daughters were tired. I do drop-off, pick-up & homework with them, so mom got some snuggle time to watch the opening ceremonies of the winter olympics as well as a nice view of Illuminations. My only pictures from that night are blurry pictures of St Mark's Campanile and Spaceship Earth. Should have brought the nice camera.

I went down to the illuminations spot on my own. I did overhear a dad with his child which gave me some advice. Past 8pm, kid wanted to ride the boat, dad wanted to walk because it would be faster. I thought, 'just wait for the boat.' It might be a little quicker to walk, but little legs tire out fast, and sometimes they completely run out of gas.

One of my favorite days at the parks over the past 3 years was a rope-drop to Illuminations day at Epcot in late October 2016. I can look up the exact day because the Epcot parking lot filled up. I was meeting friends who got redirected to the TTC. My daughters stayed with their daughters until the fireworks, showing them around 'their' park. Experiencing things on your own is different when you're used to experiencing the parks with your family, either all of us, me and my wife, or me and my daughters. However, I did get to stop off for beers at both the UK & Canada kiosks to enjoy while watching the fireworks. Walking back to the Swan was against the flow towards Epcot's main entrance, but not too bad. By the time I got back, daughters were asleep, and I had one secret mission to take care of.

The big surprise for my daughters was a character breakfast at Trattoria al Forno...

 

[winstongator]

They figured out we were doing breakfast on the Boardwalk, and guessed about every place besides Trattoria al Forno. They caught on who would be there based on the gift shop area at the front of the restaurant. Rapunzel is my older daughter's favorite princess and she loves Flynn Rider too. My girls loved the interaction with the characters and my wife thought Flynn had the best personality of any character we've met at the parks in the past 5 years. My older daughter went smolder-for-smolder with Flynn, and my younger one was wondering what was going on:

In terms of food and character interactions, this might be my favorite character meal. My daughters absolutely love Rapunzel in a way that is only rivaled (somewhat) by Belle and Moana. It was a great start to the day and I am really glad the service I used scored us the reservation only a week out.

When people talk about what method of transportation they like best, I always reply walking. It's the #1 reason I love the Epcot area resorts. Even though they're Epcot area, you're still close enough to walk to Hollywood Studios...

 

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My older daughter loves coasters, younger one thinks Frozen Ever After's drop is too steep. So we split up, me with the older daughter and my wife with the younger. It has been fun to experience the coasters for the first time with my daughter and see how much she enjoys them. Rock-n-Roller Coaster is her favorite, so that was our first fast pass. We have rope-dropped it multiple times, and this past spring break even rope-dropped that, then Star Tours, then back to the Poly for breakfast at 'Ohana. With the character meal first thing at Trattoria al Forno, we couldn't quite do that, so we used fast passes. Even though she loves it, she still looks surprised at the fast take off. This picture tells me I need a haircut.

As we did that Spring Break morning, we went to Star Tours next. My wife and younger daughter did Toy Story Midway Mania and the Frozen sing-along. TSMM is one of the few tier-one rides that she can enjoy, and with the one track down for the impending Toy Story Land opening, I'm glad I got them the fast pass.

It's about noon, in February and it's hot. I know it's Florida. I grew up here. I've had 90 degree Christmases, but some part of me was thinking warm, not flat out hot. We were debating the pool vs. a nap before heading to Epcot's Festival of the Arts. The heat pushed the pool ahead of the nap...

 

[winstongator]

On the way out of Hollywood Studios we got some nice pictures. One set in front of a Millennium Falcon picture at the future entrance of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge. Our photo pass photographer was giving some weird faces. I'm not sure what he was doing, but it was amusing. The baseline tap house looks like somewhere I'd enjoy, but it will be a little while before I get there. We also got some nice pics in front of the Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey & his brooms. No line at that photo pass stop, nor was there one at the SWGE entrance.

So here I put my money where my mouth is from the night before. My daughters (and wife) are hot, hungry and tired. Do I push a walk back, or do we take the boat? As I've aged, I have tried to take my own advice. We have a relaxing boat ride back to the Dolphin. Luckily, it was the first stop from HS. We get a snack in the room, get our suits on, and head down to the big shared Swolphin pool. It had a slide, but I didn't try it. One thing I forgot to mention from our walk from Trattoria al Forno to HS is that we walked through the Boardwalk resort and my kids got a nice preview of the pool, with its wooden coaster themed slide. I'm still partial to the Yacht & Beach Pirate slide, but it would be cool to stay at the Boardwalk sometime.

The pool mostly served to just cool us off a little. Getting out of the pool and being wet in the shade, I remembered it was February and felt a little chill. Back up to the room for a quick shower for me, bath for daughters. My daughters picked out their treats: older daughter chose Pop-artsicle from deconstructed dish, and younger chose the white chocolate figment puzzle at the painter's palate.

We walked over to Epcot and stopped in the gift shop at the international gateway to get the maps for the finding figment adventure. It took us a little while to find figment, and we were also getting the rubbings for the pages in the passport. We had the UK and Canada before we got to deconstructed dish. We got the deconstructed BLT and the pop-artsicle. We all got a little of the pop-artsicle, and that is one of my favorite cold sweet-but-not-too-sweet thirst quenchers. Then headed to the Odyssey center, where we spent a little time at the painter's palate for the AC and for my wife and I to enjoy our Pomegranate Mule and North Coast Brewing Scrimshaw Pilsner.

At that point, we weren't sure we could do the whole Figment adventure together, and in Mexico, we hit our speed bump for the day. Over the many days I've spent at Disney, there is always one speed bump. Try to go over it too fast and you could break something, but take your time and go over it slowly and you won't remember it. My daughters were bothering each other, so we split up the adventure. My older daughter and I got China, Italy and Japan, while my wife and younger daughter got Norway, Germany, and America...

 

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My daughter and I headed to China to look for Figment, and the imprint spot if we could. It took a while to find the painting with Figment, and I'd suggest paying attention to the frames. We spent some time admiring the acrobatics crew at China before heading out. Next we headed to Italy, but we stopped to get a gelato snack. Well, gelato for her, Chianti for me. I party fouled too and knocked mine over in the course of paying. The kind Italian cashier gave me a replacement. We snacked in place of lunch that day until our 7:10 reservation at Via Napoli.

I really like the Festival of the Arts. Had you asked me 3 or 4 years ago if I would want to spend time at Epcot for Food & Wine, Flower & Garden, or the Festival of the Arts, I would have been an emphatic NO. I loved my first taste of Food and Wine in 2016 even though that first night both my daughters refused to try what I was getting. We ended up spending a lot of time in October of that year at F&W (mostly thanks to Matthew) and tried well over half the booths. I enjoyed just checking out the booths with the variety of art. You had paintings of vintage disney characters, up to some contemporary Star Wars art. I dubbed the below picture, 'women of Star Wars' when I sent it to my wife. She hasn't seen Rogue One, so didn't recognize the bottom picture. Rogue One is one of my favorite SW installments, and Jyn one of my favorite characters.

I also managed to sneak a picture of the Earth float for Illuminations...

 

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On the way to Italy, we were discussing how Figment was hiding in classic paintings from the different countries. After we found him in Italy, and finished our gelato and Chianti, we headed to Japan. Japan was one my daughter wanted to check out for the Cute Culture exhibit. We first went looking for Figment. I saw a fan that waved me in the right direction. However, it was the oyster opening to find pearls that enthralled my daughter. She said, 'we have to get one of these for mommy!' As much as they might ask for toys for themselves, they are thoughtful when they see something they think either my wife or I would like. We spent a lot of time watching oysters get opened, one even had a double pearl. I liked the statues of samurai on horseback.

 

[winstongator]

We got my wife the pearl - I've got the video, and will upload it somewhere. My daughters watched so many open that they didn't need the training to be able to count to 3 in Japanese! Before that, we had checked out the Cute Culture exhibit which was a real let down. I was expecting things like the squishies that were also for sale in the House of Good Fortune shop in the China pavilion, or Hello Kitty, Keroppi, or other cartoon characters. It was mostly cute things tailored for adults. It wasn't bad, but just was not as endearing to my daughters as I had hoped or expected.

By the time we left it had already gotten dark and it was on to Via Napoli. My older daughter was tired, so she chilled in the waiting area. My younger daughter was wired, so went to the kid-cot spot and drew the flags of all the countries of the World Showcase. Via Napoli was crowded, and we got there right at our reservation time, so it took a little longer to get seated. The pizza was great though. My lunch of Pilsner and Chianti left my stomach hungry. I had also gotten a short run in before our breakfast, so 20,000 steps into the day with only one proper meal, I was ready for a Caesar salad and a whole small spicy sausage pizza.

I figured my kids were done after dinner, but we had to get to the redemption point to get their prize for the Figment adventure. We started down as a group, and then they wanted to stop at the toy train area in Germany. It is one of their favorite spots, and gave my wife and I a minute to talk on our own. Then I look up and see one of her former colleagues who lives in Orlando (and is a huge Disey-phile. All their Christmas cards are professional photos taken at Disney). He didn't recognize me with my longer hair, but immediately recognized my wife and they chatted for a while. We debated options for getting the Figment pins, and settled on my continuing walking down and getting it while they went back to the Dolphin. I figured I'd use my Illuminations FP+ which was right next to the shop where I redeemed the maps for the Figment pins. My wife ended up chatting a lot more with her friend and his wife, so she and my daughters ended up watching Illuminations from the America side of the lake, while I was in the FP+ viewing area on the Future World side.

After Illuminations, they caught a boat (again, parents taking our own advice) and I walked. I figured I'd wait for them at the Swan/Dolphin dock and we'd walk up to the room together. My older daughter caught me by surprise as they got off at the Boardwalk and then walked over! At this point my younger daughter was tired and wanted to be carried up to our room. It was a day full of fun, but I was ready to sleep in...

 

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Getting back to meeting my wife's colleague randomly. One of the great things about being a pass holder is that when friends or family have trips to WDW, we would just tag along. Also, we'd be able to tag park days on, and justify my driving down with my daughters when my wife had conferences. We had over 20 combined meetings with my parents, my wife's parents, my sisters-in-law, my brother, my sister, an uncle & cousins, friends in town here, and out of town friends. One of our best trips was a little over a year ago. My in-laws and friends from here in Jacksonville were all staying at the Dolphin, and we met my sister-in-law and other friends from Jacksonville. One of the days, we did breakfast at the patesserie in the France pavilion, rides at animal kingdom, then back to Epcot for some rides, pretzels in the Germany pavilion and lots of great pictures. I also got to do the Osborne lights right before they closed, Main St Electrical parade its last night, and Wishes from the Poly beach a few weeks before it ended. We made tons of great memories at WDW the past 3 years as pass holders, and I only feel a little cheesy saying that they are priceless.

Great times at the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights, Nov 2015.

 

[Pardonmypixiedust]

Very cool man! What's your favorite resort ?

*edit* following !

 

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Back to 2018: We slept in Sunday. Took our time getting ready and had breakfast in the room. Got the car and headed to Animal Kingdom. My wife and younger daughter missed their fp+ because we slept in. Wife wanted to do the Safari, but it was already at a long line. I'll note, the AK parking lot was filling up fast and it was only 9:30. I had an ace in the hole:

The baby tigers!

My older daughter and I used our Everest fp+ and younger daughter and wife headed to the tiger cubs. When we got to this vantage point, a few minutes later, my younger daughter popped up in that window you can see in this picture. It is really amazing that Animal Kingdom has these rare cubs. One fun thing was when the momma tiger smacked her cub hard and showed her teeth. Not sure what cubby did, but momma stopped that quick! We connected up for a short time with the tigers and then a quick lunch at the Yak & Yeti quick service. I have not had luck there and need to stop going. I have a problem with the meats there, but I'll spare the details. Our 2nd fp+ were Dinosaur for me and older daughter and the meet & greet at the adventurer's outpost for wife and younger.

I probably should have had my wife do Dinosaur as it is one of the rides she really enjoys. Something to remember for next time. After those 2 experiences, the kids got Mickey Ice Cream sandwiches, I got a capuccino, and we headed towards Pandora. I took a quick pit stop to hang out for a few minutes at the Nomad lounge. It is one of the still many places in WDW I haven't really done. We aren't huge drinkers, and the kids are usually early-ish to bed. Also our spring break trip to the Poly coincided with both my wife and I being ill, so we missed Trader Sam's. Even having visited as much as we have over the past 3 years, there are still things I haven't done - mostly restaurants we haven't eaten at and resorts we haven't stayed at.;

Our last experience, for a while, was Navi River Journey. A ride we could do as a family. We all love Pandora, it really feels like another world. I had read about how the sounds change when you cross the bridge from the Tiffins area to Pandora and it was neat to notice.

It was a fantastic trip. We did a lot more Saturday than I expected, so sleeping in and getting to AK a little late was no problem. It was a great finish to an exciting three years. I had been looking back on our past trips and it was almost exactly 3 years from our first trip as pass holders, so it also felt like a journey completed.

 

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One of the real benefits of the annual passes is I've never felt rushed. I always knew we'd be back. As a kid, one of the justifications I heard for waiting in line or staying later was, 'do you know how much this costs?' The AP isn't cheap, but there is a liberation in knowing that the cost to enter the parks one more day is zero. It took me a little while to appreciate how expensive the hotels can be. We started out trying to pack more food & drinks for the park, but, especially for short trips, only do breakfast from what we've brought.

Having the pass changed how I managed our visits to the parks. On a day when I had a detailed plan, we had one experience left to do, but my kids were exhausted. Just skip it. We had already had a great day, why risk ruining it for something we've either already done, or can do our next trip?

5 years ago, I would have never imagined that I would have averaged 2 trips a year to the parks without my wife, all but one having my daughters with me. It was the first trip that was just me and them that hooked me as a Disney lover. The drive home was when I first looked for Disney podcasts (Mousechat.net was my favorite for a long time). It wasn't the rides that trip it was the magic.

Downtown Disney was not a favored spot of mine. During the construction, when the parking situation was at its worst, I said to myself that we were never going there again. Never say never. A year passes, most of the construction finishes, it's now Disney Springs, and has become somewhere that I really enjoy visiting. It's also a nice spot to meet within the Disney World, but not requiring a ticket.

On this past trip, there were a lot of times we'd go by something and I'd remember the first time we visited it, or thought, that's the last time I'll do that for a while. The Doubletree was the hotel we stayed at for our first visit as pass holders 3 years ago, and I felt a little nostalgia as we drove by it on I-4. Hopefully it is not too long before we visit some of our favorite spots.

 

[winstongator]

Very cool man! What's your favorite resort ?

*edit* following !

For memories, and considering cost, Port Orleans Riverside. My wife and older daughter are partial to the Four Seasons - we stayed there for a work event of hers. It did have an awesome kids club and waterslide . The waterslide we did Marathon weekend 2017 when it was quite chilly. I also like the Dolphin to get deluxe location for a moderate price. The Polynesian is tough to beat though: quick monorail to both MK & Epcot, and my favorite theming.