Trip Report Let's try a live report this time! May 1-6

Since it took me almost 6 months to complete my last trip report, I thought I would attempt a live trip report this time. If it doesn't work out, it might take me a year to complete since we are staying twice as long as our last trip.

I am still currently at work but can't focus since I have Disney on my mind! I thought I would give a little background about this trip that we will be starting on Friday night. So my last trip was in September 2020 with my brother Patrick, his fiancé Taylar, my brother's best friend Nick, and his fiancé Taylea. My kids were pretty upset that I went without them so I promised them after "corona goes away" we would go again. Well we all know that isn't happening for a while plus I got a huge raise at work (which I am ignoring right now lol) so I figured let's give May a try! I booked the trip for our family of four but then my sister-in-law invited us to go to the Gulf Shores with them in July and my husband doesn't have enough PTO to take two weeks off so he decided he will stay home and I will just take the kids to Disney alone. When my mom heard about it, she volunteered to join us! She came with the kids and I on our short 2 night trip in February 2020 and had the most magical time. I explained to her that things will be really different this time but still magical! I thought we were all set on the cast of this trip, until Nick and Taylea decided to join us!
Who: Me, my two kiddos Joseph & Sadie, my mom/Gramma, Nick, and Taylea
Where: My mom, the kids, and I will be doing a split stay...1 night at Coronado Springs Resort (for our pool day) and the rest at Art of Animation Little Mermaid Room. The kids have no idea where we are staying....they have been calling it "Mommy's secret hotels". Nick & Taylea will be staying at All Star Movies.
When: My mom, the kids, and I will be landing at MCO tomorrow night around 11pm and leaving on Thursday morning. Nick and Taylea arrive Saturday morning and stay until the following Saturday.
Here is a picture of my mom, the kids, and I on our last trip in February 2020

Goal for tonight is to finish packing, give the kids a bath, and make a to-do list for my husband while we are gone. We'll probably finish Toy Story 3 tonight too. Another full day at work tomorrow and then heading straight to the airport!

 

[Cetta]

After lunch we swam some more of course!

took another break to have some adult beverages and not adult beverages

Swam more and then said goodbye to Coronado Springs to head to our second secret hotel. Kids had some fun at the empty bus stop until a “herd” of cheerleaders shows up as Joseph called them.

we took the bus to Hollywood studios so we could all take our first trip on the skyliner! I’ve been to Disney twice since it opened but never had a reason to ride it. We all LOVED it!

 

[Cetta]

While at the pool earlier we got our room ready text so we headed directly to our room after we arrived. The walk there is so full of details and the kids kept pointing out all the cool things around us! When we got to our room they were in awe! Yes they are a little small but there is just so many cute things! So glad we are staying here at least once. We called around 4:30 to have our bags and groceries delivered to our room. My mom stayed while I took the kids to the little mermaid pool. Not sure how they still had energy but they did!

we only swam for about an hour and then headed back to our room for dinner.

we had pepperoni and turkey sandwiches in our room. Did I mention these rooms are a little small? Well between the double stroller, luggage, and groceries, we are officially out of room. Can’t imagine what it will be like in here after I pick up the scooter I rented my mom. After dinner we watched Wishes on TV and Sadie fell asleep. It was pretty early so I let Joseph run around in the grass outside our room while I talked on the phone with my husband. Then Joseph got on the phone and told him every detail of the day. It was adorable! From the number of “lizards” we saw, to the Jaguar spitting on him on the slide, to the skyliner, he was a chatterbox on the phone. Since we were up so late on our travel day I made sure we were in bed by 8. Joseph fell asleep around 8:20. The fun has just begun!

 

[Songbird76]

My mom's shirt says "There is nowhere you could go that I won't be with you" my daughter and my mom are very close (actually think my daughter would pick my mom over me lol) and they both love Moana, so it was the perfect shirt for my mom.

Joseph is now 6.5 and Sadie is 4.5. Can't believe my baby girl goes to Kindergarten in August yikes!

Oh! Is that a quote from Moana? I have to admit, I've only seen it once and I fell asleep. My dad had just passed and I was stuck in Wyoming to deal with his estate and I had no drivers license myself (working on that) so I was stuck at my brother's house outside of town, and I was helping babysit my niece. I wasn't in a very good head space. So I missed a LOT of that movie, and have not been able to watch it again. I probably should now.

Great ages!!! My daughter had just turned 4 the first time we went and she remembers very little from that trip, but what she remembers is great.

 

[Ghostdog]

Sounds like an awesome trip so far; you do pool days like us! Reminds me of the days we’d spend hanging out swimming with our kiddos at WDW…fun times!!

 

[wishicouldgomoreoften]

Lovely smiles all around. Have fun.

 

[Cetta]

Well I wasn’t very “live” reporting yesterday. Just had too much fun and I didn’t realize how hard it would be to update when I have to keep the kids occupied lol
I woke up around 3:30 am with too much excitement to fall back asleep. Hung around the room and got ready around 5:30 then headed to guest services to update our magical express pick up time since I changed my flight home about 2 days before our trip. Then I met Kingdom Strollers by bell services to pick up gramma’s scooter! She was a little nervous about having a scooter until she talked to another grandma at the pool the other day. Just two grandmas bonding over their past surgeries lol. When I got back to the room they were slowly starting to stir. Everyone was up by 6:00 and starting to get dressed and eat breakfast. Joseph smashed 3 mini blueberry muffins in a matter of seconds and Sadie ate half a strawberry, 3 spoonfuls of cereal, and one bite of cupcake.

She’s my difficult child lol. At 6:57 I went out to the parking lot, turned off my Disney WiFi, and got the all ready to attempt to get a boarding pass. The adrenaline rush is real and my heart was beating super fast but I got it!

the other guy in the parking lot wasn’t so lucky. He told me he stopped to check his group members and lost out. I told him to not check on his members and just click through everything quickly again at 1pm. I hope he got it later.
We left the room around 7:40 and headed to the skyliner.

I had been hearing that there would be lines at the skyliner and it could take like 40 minutes to get to the gate of Hollywood studios. It did take us 40 minutes but that was from hotel room to first ride! We met nick and taylea right in front of runaway railroad and walked right on! Then we headed to what Joseph has been looking forward to the whole trip! Slinky dog!! We were on it by 9:02 and I rode with Sadie and my mom rode with Joseph.

sadie had never been on a roller coaster before and she was yelling “mommy!!!” The whole ride. I don’t think she liked it yet when she was talking to her dad later in the day and he asked what her favorite was she said “slinky dog, actually probably not, the frozen show”. Next we headed to smugglers run since it was only a 20 minute wait!

Joseph and Nick were pilots, taylea and I were gunners, and Sadie and gramma were engineers. Joseph got to put us into light speed!! He loved it! When that was complete we stopped to have a snack while we waited for our boarding group to be called.

 

[littleroo]

Looks like a wonderful trip so far! Your kids are adorable! Enjoy!!

 

[Cetta]

After snacking on some chips in the shade we were ready to be rebels!

this was the first ride of the day where Sadie got off happy and saying “that was awesome!” Joseph was speechless, trying to process it all. Joseph has been a Star Wars fan since he was born. I swear his second word was “Boba”. After surviving getting captured by the General Hux we went to Tatooine Traders so Joseph could make his very own lightsaber!

sadie saw a baby yoda purse/wristlet from across the store and ran to it! Mommy I want a purse to match yours! We checked out and then had to do a photo shoot to show dad.

 

[DryerLintFan]

Live trip reporting with kids is hard. It's rewarding though because you forget a lot less what happened and you capture more memories that way. When I do it though, I usually only update during down time. Like, on three monorail is enough time to put up a small post. If she's playing in the room or watching tv, post. When she's asleep at night and I still have an hour left in me, post. If I'm up early and can't get to sleep, post. If the report gets away from you, that's okay too. I guess my point is, nobody is expecting you to update is all day long every day. So just have fun with the babes, and if the trip report becomes not fun, you can always shelves it for a couple days, weeks, months, years, whatever. Please don't feel bad about not updating all day we just like sharing in the joy!!

It looks like you guys are having a wonderful time!!

 

[Katiekitten]

I'm sorry to hear about your flight delay, but I'm glad you made it. It looks like you are having a great time so far. Sadie's baby Yoda bag is so cute!

 

[amjt660]

Great start

Following along

Max

 

[Cetta]

Taylea and nick had gone to ride rockin roller coaster while we did the lightsaber. After our mini photo shoot we had Mickey ice cream bars and just chilled in the shade some more.

after that we went to muppets 3D and my mom and Joseph were cracking up!

Afterwards we met back up with nick and taylea and waited for our lunch ressie at Hollywood and Vine. I really enjoyed the laid back feel of the day. No rushing around! While waiting for our table is ready text there was a family complaining that they wanted a table and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get one. They were all like “where’s the manager?” “I want your names” ugh! I feel so bad for those cast members who have to deal with those kind of people.

sitting near the column was cute because the characters would hide behind it and play with the kids like that. The food was good and we all enjoyed having a break from the day in some a/c with food and great service! I decided this trip that we would have lunch ressies everyday so we could have time to relax without masks for a little while.

 

[Cetta]

After lunch we did toy story midway mania

I won with a whole 122,00! Sadie sat with nick and beat him! She was so excited and bragged about it the rest of the day! Nick then took Joseph to go ride slinky dog again and is ladies went to see frozen ever after sing along! Gosh that was just a great show!!! So funny and we were singing along! Nick and Joseph got on slinky dog as soon as it broke down but they waited it out!

 

[Cetta]

After the show we headed to Starbucks to get coffee and coffee mugs for mommy and I. The Pixar cavalcade came by while we were in line so I took Sadie and stepped out to watch.

Nick and Joseph met up with us right as we stepped out of Starbucks. We got the kids some cake pops and we got some photopass photos done. The kids did some poses alone and came out super cute! Then Joseph was all ready to go on tower of terror but as soon as we got in line he changed his mind lol. Nick and taylea headed to magic kingdom while the kids and I went to the lightening McQueen show thing and then headed back out to the skyliner.

 

[Cetta]

Joseph really wanted to go in the pool but by the time we got back to the room and into our suits it would have been late so I told them they could play in the splash pad area for 20 minutes. Joseph was upset and was stubborn for about half the time until he finally gave in and joined his sister. He doesn’t like not getting his way. Ugh! Sometimes I feel like he’s ungrateful but other times he shows the love and appreciation. I dunno...kids! Lol

 

[Cetta]

This morning we had a fairy godmother in training come to our room and make Sadie into a princess! It was such a cute experience and I’m so happy we did it for her. She is kinda shy but opened right up to her until the end when she didn’t want her to leave.

I thought we were leaving kind early for Epcot but boy was I wrong! We got to the skyliner around 9:40 for 11am opening and there was a small line but the line at the transfer station was insanely long and even longer when we finally got on it. We walked through the gates of Epcot at 11am and rushed over to frozen ever after to meet up with nick and taylea. That was a must do for Sadie and taylea so woohoo! Afterwards we headed to figment which the kids had never been on. We saw Joy on the way in

And Pooh on the way out.

 

[Cetta]

We stopped and took some butterfly pictures while my mom took a potty break. I did a homemade scavenger hunt for the kids which is what you see in their hands. It was just checking off the different topiaries they could find and they were all about it!

Over to Nemo and friends!

then we started walking over to our adr at teppan edo! We were about 5 minutes early so we went into the store and I found Aaron’s souvenir! A Godzilla magnet!! He’s gonna love it! Teppan Edo didn’t disappoint! Joseph ate just the steak, I had the filet and ate everything plus a strawberry pina colada, and Sadie ate an apples and cheese tray I had brought along because I knew she wouldn’t eat anything from there.

After lunch we went in a couple shops then split up. They decided to head back to the resort and we realized we were all hot and tired and decided to do the same but first....we stopped for some dole whips! I had coconut rum with mine but everyone else had the regular ones.

While we were enjoying our dessert the Mickey cavalcade went by!

almost didn’t make it back on the skyliner because the wind was blowing! I think we were one of the last dozen people off at art of animation. So thankful for that! We got back to the room, got on our swimsuits, abs headed to the little mermaid pool for like 45 minutes. I ordered dinner while there and Joseph helped me pick it up when we were all done. Now we’re getting ready for bed because we have magic kingdom tomorrow!!

 

[cgersic]

What a really great day!!! So much fun!

 

[Ghostdog]

I’m quite enjoying your TR; have a GREAT day today!

 

[Cetta]

Thank you everyone for tagging along on our trip! We are really having a blast and it’s so nice seeing all your comments! Happy May the fourth everyone! I knew Hollywood studios would be crazy today so that’s why we’re at magic kingdom!
This morning we woke up around 5:30 to get ready and eat breakfast in our room. We were at the bus stop for magic kingdom by 7:20 and in the gates by 8am.

We were greeted by Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto at the train station. Then headed to take a couple pictures with Cindy’s castle.

we headed straight to splash since the kids have never been on it.