Welcome to my latest trip report! To see what my family was up to in July 2016, check out my last Trip Report!
This trip took place May 16-20, 2018, and it was different in a multitude of ways. Since that last trip, I gave birth to my youngest kiddo. C is now 1.5 years old (and totally awesome). And I'm now pregnant with our third (I hit 33 weeks pregnant on Friday of our trip!). Plus, we brought along my father-in-law and mother-in-law, seniors visiting from India for six months. So what do you do when you've got six travelers in need of MagicBands? Rainbow bands, y'all!
My six-year-old (K) was pretty thrilled about this when we told her -- which we did not do until a month before we left. Too many variables that could've blown the trip, so we played it a little safe. We planned the trip just 62 days before it began, but I was able to nail down my Fastpass+ right at the sixty day mark. I covertly asked my kiddo what order she'd want to visit parks and which rides she'd love to ride if she could, blah, blah. She never caught on, and she gave me all the info I needed to plan!
So we started our trip bright and early on Wednesday, May 16, beginning our 9-ish hour drive from the Raleigh area at just after 5AM. (DD requested 2AM, but the grown-ups course-corrected her to a more reasonable hour.) We passed all the landmarks -- South of the Border being a kind of family joke from when I was a kid, so I always take a pic on the way by.
For this trip we opted to stay in an Art of Animation suite. Previously we had stayed in a Little Mermaid room here, we stayed at All-Star Sports in 2016, and we considered a Fort Wilderness Cabin this time. But the in-laws both have some difficulty walking/get tired very easily, and I knew that we could get closer to the food court and bus stops at AoA. (Fort Wilderness Cabins would've been good for us because the in-laws are... picky eaters. I can not overstate just how picky they are.)
ANYwho, we arrived at Art of Animation around 230, and we'd received our room ready text somewhere along I-4, so we went straight through the lobby and to our room.
Oh, wait! Before we passed through the lobby, we ran into this guy!
Yes! Captain Hook (and Donald Duck but I missed a pic of him) was in the house! My husband and toddler grabbed a pic with him while K kept him at arm's length.
Okay, after getting Hook'd in the lobby, we headed to the room. I didn't take too many pics of the room (hello, internet full of photos already), but I'm not a degenerate, so I did take a few.
We were in room 535 of Lion King building 10. For us, the location was perfect. We could walk to the main building in just a couple of minutes, making it easier for the seniors. Plus my little one loved the view:
This trip took place May 16-20, 2018, and it was different in a multitude of ways. Since that last trip, I gave birth to my youngest kiddo. C is now 1.5 years old (and totally awesome). And I'm now pregnant with our third (I hit 33 weeks pregnant on Friday of our trip!). Plus, we brought along my father-in-law and mother-in-law, seniors visiting from India for six months. So what do you do when you've got six travelers in need of MagicBands? Rainbow bands, y'all!
My six-year-old (K) was pretty thrilled about this when we told her -- which we did not do until a month before we left. Too many variables that could've blown the trip, so we played it a little safe. We planned the trip just 62 days before it began, but I was able to nail down my Fastpass+ right at the sixty day mark. I covertly asked my kiddo what order she'd want to visit parks and which rides she'd love to ride if she could, blah, blah. She never caught on, and she gave me all the info I needed to plan!
So we started our trip bright and early on Wednesday, May 16, beginning our 9-ish hour drive from the Raleigh area at just after 5AM. (DD requested 2AM, but the grown-ups course-corrected her to a more reasonable hour.) We passed all the landmarks -- South of the Border being a kind of family joke from when I was a kid, so I always take a pic on the way by.
For this trip we opted to stay in an Art of Animation suite. Previously we had stayed in a Little Mermaid room here, we stayed at All-Star Sports in 2016, and we considered a Fort Wilderness Cabin this time. But the in-laws both have some difficulty walking/get tired very easily, and I knew that we could get closer to the food court and bus stops at AoA. (Fort Wilderness Cabins would've been good for us because the in-laws are... picky eaters. I can not overstate just how picky they are.)
ANYwho, we arrived at Art of Animation around 230, and we'd received our room ready text somewhere along I-4, so we went straight through the lobby and to our room.
Oh, wait! Before we passed through the lobby, we ran into this guy!
Yes! Captain Hook (and Donald Duck but I missed a pic of him) was in the house! My husband and toddler grabbed a pic with him while K kept him at arm's length.
Okay, after getting Hook'd in the lobby, we headed to the room. I didn't take too many pics of the room (hello, internet full of photos already), but I'm not a degenerate, so I did take a few.
We were in room 535 of Lion King building 10. For us, the location was perfect. We could walk to the main building in just a couple of minutes, making it easier for the seniors. Plus my little one loved the view:
The first time my husband and I had the first seat in the first car and it was great. The second time, my in laws got to ride in the very front. We wanted to ride it again later in the trip but the waits were always too long.
