Trip Report Never Say Never!

Hello Disney friends, it’s time for another trip report

I was just in Disney with my younger daughter Aria from 7/31-8/7. A quick little recap, I am married and have two kids, Sage is 15 1/2 and Aria is almost 11. We’ve done many family trips throughout the years, our last being in March 2023. After that trip my husband decided he didn’t need to go any more but I’ve continued taking my kids. My ultimate plan was to take Sage in 2024, Aria in 2025, my mom and I wanted to do a Disney Cruise in 2026, and then I wanted to do a solo trip in 2027.

As some of you may remember, I ended up taking Sage in both 24 & 25. It’s a long story but basically, Aria was going through a really difficult behavior stretch and I was having trouble handling her on my own. After many warnings and lots of discussion, I decided it was not a good idea for us to travel alone together last year.

Since then, things have gotten slightly better, I really think she is just finally growing up and learning better self control.

After doing the cruise with my mom, I really didn’t feel comfortable planning a solo trip before taking Aria. I didn’t really have a plan in mind as to when I would take her, I just knew I would have to get a good deal. Obviously my grand plan didn’t include a cruise and a Disney trip in the same calendar year.

So when the Disney+ offers were released for the summer and All Star Sports was discounted to $99/night, I jumped on it. I knew I would never find a better deal.

So why is this trip report called Never Say Never? Because we’ve been here before. Aria’s first Disney trip, we stayed at Sports in September. That trip was difficult, we had a lot of problems with our room and the resort as a whole and the kids did not handle the summer heat & humidity well at all. After that trip, I swore I would never stay at Sports again and never go to Disney in the summer again.

And yet here we are. At All Star Sports. In the summer. Never say never


Before I officially get going, here are a few pictures from Aria’s previous 3 Disney trips.

September 2016, she had just turned one

January 2020, she was 4

March 2023, she was 7

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Day 1- Friday 7/31

Our flight departed at 7am, everything was smooth, no issues at the airport.

We landed at 9:23am

I took this picture of Aria in MCO and a nice stranger offered to take one of us together.

One amazing thing we were finally able to take advantage of is the luggage service provided by Bag Check. We applied 30 days ahead of our flight, received luggage tags in the mail and upon arriving to MCO, we were able to skip baggage claim and go right to the Mears bus.

Here is the list of resorts and airlines currently able to take advantage of this.

We did have one small delay on the tram. It stopped just after pulling out and we stayed in the same spot for about 10 minutes. It finally reversed and reset and we were on our way. I’ve never had that happen before. I thought for sure they were going to evac us out and bus us to the main part of the airport.

We arrived at Mears Connect at 10:08 and were on the bus by 10:15.

We were the only people on the bus but of course, we sat there for several minutes as others arrived. Then the bus went over to terminal C to pick up other passengers. It seemed to take forever but it really wasn’t that bad. We were driving under the Disney sign at 11:10 and pulling into Sports at 11:23. So it took exactly two hours from landing to arriving at the resort.

 

[cgersic]

It's been so fun watching the girls grow up in your reports, and I can't wait to hear how it went! Thanks for taking the time to report it

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I got a text at about 10 that our room was ready which of course was amazing that it was ready that early. I always do online check in so I can put in room requests. I never usually check the little box that says prioritize my room being ready over my requests. But this time I did. Aria and I were planning on taking advantage of the free water park entry and I knew it would be much easier to change and apply sunscreen in our room vs a bathroom.

My two room requests were king bed and first floor. We didn’t get either. We were on the third floor with two queens. We were in the Hoops section and for a standard location, it actually wasn’t bad at all. I never timed it, but our walk to the main building was maybe 5 minutes.

Two good things I will say about All Star Sports- I like the size of the resort. It’s small & compact and easy to navigate. And, I actually love the Surfs Up section. I love the theming and I love how the walkways look like a boardwalk.

I won’t keep you in suspense, our stay here was fine. We didn’t have any major issues. We ate at the food court several times and everything was good and exactly what you would expect. Our room was clean, beds were comfortable. Mousekeeping was acceptable but not great. I requested daily mousekeeping like I did when Sage and I stayed at AoA. While it wasn’t a problem at AoA, at Sports they acted like this was an insane request they never heard before. They did not come every day and in fact, they missed one of our scheduled days. Other than though, I felt like our stay was worth $99 a night. It just didn’t have the overall magical feel like some of the other resorts do.

We got changed and went down to the food court for a quick bite to eat before heading off to Blizzard Beach. I got the nachos and they were very good.

I didn’t take pictures of all our food court orders but Aria got the kids burger several times and loved it. I also got the chicken parm once and it was very good.

Off to Blizzard Beach!

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

This was my first time at Blizzard Beach! Sage and I have been to Typhoon Lagoon once so I was excited to check out the other water park option.

Sage is a bit more daring than Aria and did a lot of slides on her own. Aria wasn’t as excited for the slides so we decided to limit our time to the wave pool, the lazy river and one slide we could do together- Team Boat Springs, the family raft ride. I also promised her ice cream and/or Dole Whip

It was raining when we arrived but it cleared up quickly.

After securing towels and a locker, our first stop was the wave pool. Very fun and much more enjoyable than the one at Typhoon Lagoon

Next the Lazy River. We were able to secure a 2 person raft. We did a full loop around which took much longer than I was expecting. It was very crowded and we kept bumping into other people/ tubes. I also did not appreciate being absolutely pelted by the waterfall. Overall, not as relaxing as I was hoping for.

Aria loved these snowmen and was very disappointed that the gift shop didn’t have any Button merch.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

For those of you not familiar with Blizzard Beach, the majority of the slides begin at the top of Mount Gushmore. While you certainly can walk up all the stairs, there is a chairlift that takes you to the top. Aria and I waited maybe 20 minutes for the chairlift to get up to the slides.

When we got up there, the line for the family raft ride was insanely long. When we asked how long it would take, we were told 45-60 minutes. No thank you

While taking the chair lift up, Aria did see one slide that she was willing to do alone. It was next to the Ski Patrol Training Camp and it actually had two identical slides next to each other so 2 people could race at the same time. We opted to find that slide instead.

We walked all the way back down, found the slide and queued up. After a few minutes, we were told one side was closing so the line would take longer

We finally made it to the top and took turns going down. It was fun, but literally the only slide we did.

We then decided it was time for a treat- we split the strawberry shortcake sundae from IC Expeditions. So good!

We then walked over to the Frozen play area and OMG this area is so cute! My kids would have loved it when they were little. Aria was bummed she was too big for the slides here are they were much more her speed

We found a photpass person on our way out and that was it. Then end of our time at BB. In total, we were there about 3 hours and that was plenty for me.

I can say with absolute confidence that I am NOT a water park person at all I am fine taking my kids in the future but I can’t imagine ever willingly going again.

 

[Dave B]

I am absolutely loving your report, it is so cool that you take the time to do this with your girls, I am so glad Aria is having a great time, you can tell by her big smiles in each photo, I cannot wait to hear the rest!!!!

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I am absolutely loving your report, it is so cool that you take the time to do this with your girls, I am so glad Aria is having a great time, you can tell by her big smiles in each photo, I cannot wait to hear the rest!!!!

Thank you! She was actually so excited. Sage is definitely a Disney girl like her mom but Aria more just tolerates it. I was so surprised by how much she loved it while we were there. She was way more into it than I was expecting!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Loving all the smiles. I am so in agreement with you about waterparks, they are just not my thing but I tolerate them because my girls enjoy themselves

 

[cgersic]

Holy moly is Aria your twin!! That first picture at Blizzard Beach looks just like you!

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Day 2- Saturday 8/1

During the planning for this trip, I casually mentioned to Aria that the next time I do a solo trip, I really wanted to do the 4 park challenge. Shockingly, she thought this sounded so fun and insisted we attempt it.

So here we are- 4 park challenge day! The rules we assigned ourselves were:

• Selfie with the park icon
• 2 attractions
• 1 snack/food item that is unique to the park
• 1 character meet (must be different in each park)

The order we decided for the parks was

Animal Kingdom

Bus to DHS

Skyliner to Epcot

Monorail to MK

I pre-booked lightning lanes starting in DHS and also booked a single pass later in the day for Mine Train.

Park One!

First stop, Navi River Journey

Say what you want, I love this ride.

So peaceful

I didn’t realize Satuli wasn’t open for early entry so before breakfast, we went over to attraction 2, the Zootopia show. I love this so much more than Its Tough to be a Bug.

Then back to Satuli for breakfast- we split the
cinnamon french toast with blueberry cream cheese, sausage and a chai cold brew. Delish!

We decided our character here would be Moana. We were able to meet her very quickly since it was still so early.

Our meeting was… brief. Even Aria commented that it felt like we were being rushed.

Park to park buses don’t start until 10am so we still had about an hour. We decided we would also meet Nick and Judy.
One thing I realized on this trip is that the cast members specifically working with characters seem to be much more strict with their rules. I’m sure it’s an attempt to keep things moving smoothly. We got in line a few minutes prior to their start time and the cast members were loudly explaining the rules the entire time. Walk here, stand here, put your bags here etc. When it was our turn, I started to put my bag down and I was instantly reprimanded. Apparently I was supposed to greet the characters first, then put my bag down

But anyways, Nick and Judy were very cute and somehow spent more time interacting with us than Moana did despite the uh, language barrier

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

We still had a few minutes to kill so we poked around the stores.
OBSESSED WITH THESE! But I demonstrated good self control and neither came home with me.

We got out to the bus at about 9:45, one pulled up within a few minutes and we were on our way to DHS just prior to 10

Park Two!

Our first LL was for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Our 2nd was for Alien Swirling Saucers and our 3rd I booked as a throw away. So once we tapped into our first LL, my number one goal was to get Tiana’s at MK for later in the day. Aria was planning to do Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique on our MK day so we didn’t want to do Tiana’s on that day and risk her hair & makeup getting wet.

We tapped in MMRR right away and had no trouble booking Tiana’s!

I also changed our throw away 3rd LL to Soarin in Epcot.

It wasn’t quite time for our Alien LL so first our snack. I mobile ordered a lunchbox tart from Woody’s.

I have only eaten at this restaurant once before despite the fact that I always want to. There is just not enough seating no matter what time you go. After circling a few times, Aria and I were able to find a free 4 top table. We sat down and were sharing the snack as well as drinking the waters we had packed. I decided I wanted to get some ice for my water bottle so I went back up to the pickup window and left her alone for all of 30 seconds.

When I came back, two people were sitting at the table with her. I thought it was strange that they would just randomly sit down with a child but I sat back down and said to Aria, “are you sharing our table? That’s so nice!”

After we finished and got up and left, I asked Aria if they asked her if they could sit there. She said, no they asked the table next to me. What?!? Does anyone else think this is weird? I guess they asked the table next to us if they were using those two seats and the table said no so they just sat down. Please don’t do this. Please don’t sit with a random child without making sure their actual parent is present

Anyways on to attraction 2!

For our character, I decided to take advantage of the Visa card meet and greet. It was Stitch!

The positive- very short wait

The negative- weird box photographer. I hate these. Just put an actual person in there!

Onto Epcot!

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Park Three!

(Picture taken a little later since we arrived via Skyliner)

Aria wanted to do Gran Fiesta Tour in addition to our Soarin’ LL. We didn’t have a character in mind. For the food item, I was hoping to get something in Mexico.

So first, on the Skyliner I was checking wait times and saw that Remy was only 25 minutes I told Aria it made much more sense to wait for Remy then go over to Soarin instead of walking all the way over to Mexico. She initially agreed but once we got off the Skyliner, the wait jumped to 35 minutes and then 40 as we were walking over. She decided that was too long so we turned around and started walking to Mexico.

This decision actually worked in our favor because as we were walking over, we saw Asha with only one other family waiting. We were able to meet her super quick and instantly check off our character meet!

Attraction 1- Gran Fiesta Tour!

One of my biggest peeves with Epcot is the lack of mobile order locations. The lines at La Cantina and Choza were just way too long. So we opted to not get our food item there.

Then it was time for Soarin! My first time seeing the America version! We loved it, definitely more than the world version. But the OG Cali version is still the best.

We did a family vacay to the Grand Canyon last year so Aria loved seeing that part. We also loved the lighthouse scene and Alaska. My one complaint is I wish the Hawaii scene was more of a tropical, secluded beach and less of a city.

After Soarin’, we decided to eat in Sunshine Seasons. For our unique to Epcot food items, we got the Mickey shaped strawberry lemonade macaron and the Tropical Boba juice. Obviously we needed lunch as well so I got the Caprese sandwich which came with a side salad and Aria got the kids pizza which came with 2 sides and drink. I quickly took a picture before digging in and I also took a picture of our receipt. I’m including a stock photo of the sandwich since mine isn’t great.

I know Epcot has a lot of unique food choices but guys, don’t sleep on Sunshine Seasons! I was honestly so impressed with the amount and quality of food for the price we paid. My sandwich was huge, Aria didn’t finish her two sides, this easily could have been split between 3 people. All for $36!

On to Magic Kingdom!

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

We left Epcot via monorail then took the ferry boat over to MK

Park Four!

On the way over, I was looking at wait times and location/times for the various character meet and greets. We were super lucky to catch Mulan right on the Town Square Porch as we were walking in at 3pm!

She was so sweet and so funny and this was my favorite meet of the day. Somehow we started talking about training for battle and she asked us if we wanted to join her. I told her Aria could but that I was definitely beyond my battle prime She was like, oh that’s not true my Grandmother still trains with me

As an added bonus, as soon as we finished with Mulan, the parade was making its way down Main Street! So we were able to pull over in the shade and watch the parade with no waiting what so ever. It was pretty amazing.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

In addition to Tiana and Mine Train, I also booked Pirates because it was at an acceptable time and I knew we’d be able to squeeze it in. So Pirates, our bonus ride, was actually our first LL in MK.

We still had a little time until our Tiana LL so we snuck in a visit to the Tiki Room.

Then finally Tiana’s!

Literally THE SECOND we tapped in, a CM announced it was closing for weather. Like we hadn’t even passed the tapstyle yet. I quickly checked my app and saw that our LL was gone. I asked the CM if we could get the LL back to use later and he said that if we left the line, we would lose the LL. He said we could try to go to guest services but he couldn’t guarantee we would get it back

So of course we waited. And waited. We waited for a whole hour while it just rained buckets. Thankfully we were undercover.

After an hour we gave up and made our way to the blue umbrella in Adventureland. When I told them that the CM told us we would lose the LL if we left the line she was like, yeah that’s technically true but we can always help make it right. And she sure did, she gave us an anytime lightning lane specifically for Tiana to use any day that week

It was still raining and the outdoor rides were still closed so we opted for our MK snack, beignets of course.

As soon as we saw Mine Train reopened, we ran over there. I was so paranoid it would close again and I didn’t want to risk losing another LL. The LL was so long but it moved quickly and we were on in about 15 minutes.

This was Aria’s first big test. On her last trip when she was 7, she did not like big rides at all. She was definitely nervous but determined to ride and she did really good. She didn’t love it but was glad she did it.

At 6:30pm we officially finished our 4 park challenge!

It was so so fun. I actually loved doing a little bit at each park on our first day. I definitely think it’s something I will continue to do in the future.

 

[Dave B]

I love how you did it, for your solo trip, you should rife an E ticket in each park as the experience, we did that when we went and it was so much fun

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I love how you did it, for your solo trip, you should rife an E ticket in each park as the experience, we did that when we went and it was so much fun

I’ve been trying to think of what I could do for my solo trip! Definitely something like this, hitting up my favorite thrill rides. Obviously Aria chose most the attractions on our day.

 

[Dave B]

We did EE and FOP and Safari at AK, then we did ToT and Rock and Roll Roller Coaster at HS, then we did Guardians and Test Track, and Soaring single rider at EPCOT and then did Big Thunder and Space at MK and ended with Fireworks, it was a blast, but a long day, one of our best memories

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Day 3- Sunday 8/2

This was our full Epcot day!

We had lightning lanes booked for Figment, Soarin & Remy and were planning to rope drop Frozen. An important note that will come back around later- when I was packing my bag that morning, I checked the weather and there was a 50% chance of rain basically all day from 9-6. So I packed our ponchos, shoe covers and extra socks.

It’s been a while since we rope dropped Frozen as we’ve stayed at Skyliner resorts our last 2 stays so we normally rope drop Remy. I was surprised by how quiet and easy it was getting over there. It may have been because we arrived 8:10 so we could have missed the part where you are corralled like cattle. But we walked all the way over to Frozen almost completely alone.

I had to take a picture as I knew I would never see the Mexico pavilion like this again

There was a line when we arrived but when the ride opened at 8:30, we moved through pretty quickly and were on by 8:45.

I very much love the new animatronics!

We then went over to Figment to use our 9:15 LL. Yes, I knew we wouldn’t need a LL here but Aria requested it and I figured it was our best chance to start booking more as quickly as possible.

Aria was fairly certain she wanted to ride Test Track so after tapping in, I booked that. The first return time was 7pm but after modifying a bit, I got it down to 2:30!

After the Figment ride we of course had to meet him as well.

This is me once again asking Figment to please spray us with something other than skunk

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

We had some time before our Soarin’ LL so we went over to the Moana walkthrough. I love this area so much and because it was still early, we were pretty much the only ones in there.

We then went over to Soarin and after tapping in, I’m pretty sure I booked Spaceship Earth.

Aria couldn’t remember what Living with the Land was so I described it to her and despite my best efforts to make it sound fun, she was like yeah no thanks So no LwtL this trip!

When we were at Sunshine Seasons the day before, she saw a cookie that she really wanted but we didn’t get it since we were already getting the macaron. She asked if we could get it while we there and I caved. Despite the fact it was only 10:15am. She ate most of it but I did try a few bites and it was pretty basic. Do not recommend.

Also on Aria’s must do list that day was of course, meeting Minnie since she was wearing a Minnie dress.

So we went over to the Mickey and friends meet and greet in Commincore Hall. All the characters were going crazy over her dress and I think it was the most I saw her smile all day. She was loving it!

First up, Mickey!