Hello! It's been a long time since I have done a trip report, figured I'd give it a shot with the trip we just returned from today!
Background
We actually had a much longer trip in September of 2021 and it is abnormal for us to go this close to a recent trip. There were several factors at play that made us decide to go to Disney again, first off we had to use our rollover days from 2021 by the end of January (not the best policy but it is what it is), Typhoon Lagoon had reopened and we absolutely love Typhoon Lagoon, my daughter had Tuesday the 1st of February off from school for Lunar New Year so we were really targeting that last weekend of January for some long weekend trip somewhere, and finally we saw some fairly friendly room rates.
Where
We went back and forth about where to stay for so long I thought we would never agree and not make the trip. In September we stayed at Pop Century for the first time, and both of us were surprised by how much we enjoyed it so that was option one, we have a very strong desire to stay at either the Beach or Yacht Club, but have never pulled the trigger on that one, and finally Port Orleans French Quarter which is a resort that always looked nice that we had never done previously having stayed at Riverside. We ultimately decided on French Quarter, staying 4 nights Friday the 28th of January -Tuesday, February 1st.
Who
Me
My Wife Cara
Our Daughter Siobhan
Our original plan included 2 full days at Typhoon Lagoon, 1 day at Epcot, and our arrival day we would spend at Disney Springs. Typhoon Lagoon may be Cara's favorite place in all of WDW and she was incredibly excited to find out it had reopened. We also wanted to check out the Festival of the Arts which we had never experienced before. Well as time went by we changed things up and decided a second park day was the way to go, after a brief debate on whether this should be Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, or a second day at Epcot (my personal favorite) we decided on Magic Kingdom, knowing that Siobhan would like that best.
Day 1 - Sorry Blizzard We are Going to Disney World
We had a nice and early flight from LaGuardia to MCO at 7:30am, I scheduled a Lyft to pick us up at our apartment at 5:35am, but told my family it would be there a little earlier, if I gave them the exact time we wouldn't be ready and the Lyft would have left. At that time there is very little traffic, and we can get to LaGuardia in about 20 minutes. It appeared like we would get into MCO early as boarding went very smooth, but there was a slight delay getting our plane to takeoff, and we still managed to land at MCO early! but there was a delay getting the plane and jetway connected, so by the time we got all that straightened out we were a few minutes late. Oh well, we didn't have any real plans for the day until dinner. Before we departed I did a little investigating on what was going to be the best way for us to get from MCO to French Quarter, RIP Magical Express, the Mears shuttle was only about $8 dollars less than a Lyft so it was an easy decision to take a Lyft. It was about $35 dollars and saved A LOT of time compared to Magical Express, in all honesty if Magical express was miraculously back on our next trip we may opt for the Lyft still.
We got to Port Orleans French Quarter real quick, our room was not ready so we dropped our stuff with a super amazing Cast Member at bell services and decided to take the boat over to Disney Springs.
Boat travel at Disney is underrated, there is something peaceful about it. We got to Disney Springs and out first stop was Gideon's to get our name on the virtual queue. It was about a 2.5 hour wait on the virtual line, I figured we'd be in Disney Springs that long anyway so no big deal. I do really wish Gideon's had a window for people who just wanted cold brew though! we hadn't had our coffee yet that day and some peanut butter cold brew would have hit the spot. We had agreed that we would try to have lunch at the Polite Pig, we had been there only once before back in 2017 when Cara was pregnant with Siobhan!
Cheddar Sausage and Brussel Sprouts
Ribs and Cauliflower
Cara had the ribs, I had the cheddar sausage, Siobhan got a share plate and a bunch from both our plates but she mostly only ate the cauliflower. Cara also had a Grapefruit Margarita while I had an Old Fashioned and Siobhan had some Apple Juice. Everything was rather tasty, I enjoy this place, I am sure people from Texas or the Carolinas would disagree... It was quite busy but we were still able to get a table. Around this time we learned my Mom had just landed in Ocala, FL to judge a dog show, and she was going to make the drive out to join us at dinner! We decided to keep this a secret from Siobhan to see how she would react to Grandma being there. Sadly we don't have much family in NYC so Siobhan doesn't get to see her grandparents that often. With lunch done we decided we would head over to Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar to kill the rest of our Gideon's wait...
Background
We actually had a much longer trip in September of 2021 and it is abnormal for us to go this close to a recent trip. There were several factors at play that made us decide to go to Disney again, first off we had to use our rollover days from 2021 by the end of January (not the best policy but it is what it is), Typhoon Lagoon had reopened and we absolutely love Typhoon Lagoon, my daughter had Tuesday the 1st of February off from school for Lunar New Year so we were really targeting that last weekend of January for some long weekend trip somewhere, and finally we saw some fairly friendly room rates.
Where
We went back and forth about where to stay for so long I thought we would never agree and not make the trip. In September we stayed at Pop Century for the first time, and both of us were surprised by how much we enjoyed it so that was option one, we have a very strong desire to stay at either the Beach or Yacht Club, but have never pulled the trigger on that one, and finally Port Orleans French Quarter which is a resort that always looked nice that we had never done previously having stayed at Riverside. We ultimately decided on French Quarter, staying 4 nights Friday the 28th of January -Tuesday, February 1st.
Who
Me
My Wife Cara
Our Daughter Siobhan
Day 1 - Sorry Blizzard We are Going to Disney World
We had a nice and early flight from LaGuardia to MCO at 7:30am, I scheduled a Lyft to pick us up at our apartment at 5:35am, but told my family it would be there a little earlier, if I gave them the exact time we wouldn't be ready and the Lyft would have left. At that time there is very little traffic, and we can get to LaGuardia in about 20 minutes. It appeared like we would get into MCO early as boarding went very smooth, but there was a slight delay getting our plane to takeoff, and we still managed to land at MCO early! but there was a delay getting the plane and jetway connected, so by the time we got all that straightened out we were a few minutes late. Oh well, we didn't have any real plans for the day until dinner. Before we departed I did a little investigating on what was going to be the best way for us to get from MCO to French Quarter, RIP Magical Express, the Mears shuttle was only about $8 dollars less than a Lyft so it was an easy decision to take a Lyft. It was about $35 dollars and saved A LOT of time compared to Magical Express, in all honesty if Magical express was miraculously back on our next trip we may opt for the Lyft still.
We got to Port Orleans French Quarter real quick, our room was not ready so we dropped our stuff with a super amazing Cast Member at bell services and decided to take the boat over to Disney Springs.
Boat travel at Disney is underrated, there is something peaceful about it. We got to Disney Springs and out first stop was Gideon's to get our name on the virtual queue. It was about a 2.5 hour wait on the virtual line, I figured we'd be in Disney Springs that long anyway so no big deal. I do really wish Gideon's had a window for people who just wanted cold brew though! we hadn't had our coffee yet that day and some peanut butter cold brew would have hit the spot. We had agreed that we would try to have lunch at the Polite Pig, we had been there only once before back in 2017 when Cara was pregnant with Siobhan!
Cheddar Sausage and Brussel Sprouts
Ribs and Cauliflower
