Disney Sandwich – Disney/Beach/Disney Trip Report

Disney Sandwich – Disney/Beach/Disney Trip Report
After 4 tries we finally are able to go on our Disney & beach vacation! This is our 6th trip to WDW. Originally, we had 1 week at Disney 1 week at the beach. End of Dec my DBIL calls and says want to go to Disney with us President’s Day weekend? Twist my arm, ok! Switched our Delta flights to a few days later and had to book at Dolphin as nothing else on property with 3 bed surfaces was available or in our budget for the very busy weekend. Here is a summary of our stay, resort comparisons, tips and fun pics.

Week 1 – Stays at Contemporary and Yacht Club
Arrived MCO at 2:30, no room text. This was our family’s first stay at CR, we got a GREAT Disney Visa rate and decided for a split stay w/YC. 4 nights at CR, 3 at YC. DME line looked long due to social distancing, but only took about 10 mins to check in. Our bus came 5 mins later. On the way to CR, we found out that we had more pixie dust sprinkled on us, upgraded from garden view to the tower Bay Lake view room 4721!

Room is great, it is far enough down so you can’t hear Chef Mickey’s very much, although I could hear the opening song at 7am from the bathroom as it was louder than the rest of the songs. Only issues, not enough storage in the bathroom and the sinks are very long and shallow. Too long at 1.5 feet and about 1” deep. Not great when you need to pour something down the drain, it goes all over the large sink. Pour it down the tub instead. Lovely view of the Electric Parade, times of the parade depend on when MK closes. MK closed at 7pm so the parade was 9pm daily and an added performance at 10pm on the weekends. Ask the front desk for the times when you visit. You will be able to hear the music with a Bay Lake view room when it starts. image

Park Day 1 - AK. It was a VERY windy day and only a high of 60 degrees so we didn’t RD as it was chilly (this is coming from someone who lives in MN!). Didn’t need to because it was not crowded at all. Got done w/all rides by 1:30 and hopped to MK. Bus from AK would not leave until 2:00. MK was not very crowded either and the windy/cold weather made it a ghost town come nightfall. We had Cinderella’s Royal Table tonight at park close and the dinner was delicious! My DS10 had chicken tenders and fries, the most expensive chicken tenders I have ever bought since he was charged an adult price. Cinderella came out 3 times during our dinner. We were near the kitchen and had a great view of her each time. She even was kind enough to record a hello to our friend’s daughters back home. image

Day 2 HS Successful BG 4 from the bathroom where I had the strongest wifi signal. Used the refresh method. HS was busy, but we were able to do everything we wanted to. We ate at 50s Dinner for the first time, it was sooo good! Definitely worth the hype on chat! One thing I didn’t notice before waiting in line for RnRC, the panels when you first enter the building can be personalized based on your magic band. We saw ‘Mindy Live’ poster while we were waiting in that room. The girls in line before us also had a personalized poster. So fun!

Day 3 MK It was a warmer day at MK and lower crowds. I got many compliments for my ‘Belle’ facemask. 7D was a consistent hour wait if you didn’t make RD. image

Day 4 Epcot Checking out of Contemporary and checking into Yacht Club. Bell Services got our luggage and away we went to Epcot. I brought an extra beach bag to pack all our food, that helped vs. using the paper bags from our Prime delivery, sturdier. CR doesn’t have the best organization for their buses. Where the lines form changes daily. Ask people what they are waiting for to ensure you get to the right line. Really missed the Epcot monorail… FARTs was great, it was our first time experiencing it. All the walls up make it a longer walk to get around though. I can’t wait until all of that construction is over. Took the Friendship Boats to Yacht Club, our room was 3016, garden view. LOVE all the storage at YC! And that you can put your suitcases under the bed. Our room was connected, and we could very clearly hear our neighbors on both sides. That surprised me since CR was so quiet. It also overlooked the Dolphin loading dock. You could hear the beeps of trucks backing up. I don’t recommend this room.

Day 5 Back to HS Got BG 25 today, wifi or LTE wasn’t as great in the room as I experienced at Contemporary, but a low BG anyway. We tried Sci-FI today for lunch, it was fun. My kids thought it was weird, but fun and good burgers.

Day 6 MK and HS Merida talked to me! I was wearing a t-shirt with all the Disney Princesses and she pointed to my shirt and said, I can see myself on your shirt. image

Day 7 Epcot and Headed to the Beach Part 1 of our Disney sandwich complete. Time to head to Hyatt Regency Clearwater for some beach time! It was also Super Bowl Sunday. Things got a little crazy at our hotel with all the parties once Tampa Bay won. The resort is wonderful, we had a room with a kitchen, was great to make food after a week of eating at Disney. Internet was strong for working and doing school in the hotel room. The beach sunsets were lovely. A highlight each night.
image

Disney Part 2 at Dolphin
Dolphin was good, but different than the other Disney resorts. Main differences – only 1 sink in the bathroom (but we also stayed deluxe), would allow more than 1 party into the elevators, no life guards at the pool other than monitoring the slide, pool chairs were moved around which made you closer to your neighbors than you may like, microwave could be used at ‘Fuel’ and spa was open. Fuel has whole pizzas for sale, but not on their menu for some reason. The pizzas were not great, but we were desperate one night before leaving for HS where the dinning options stop at 5pm.
Presidents Day Crowds were thick for covid. Very long lines at all parks. Headliners were an hour+ post RD. Went 3 for 3 on getting BGs for the trip. You definitely need to create your mobile orders in place well before you were hungry. (You can always move out the order if you need to.) If you want Woody’s Lunch Box, order early! Those windows go fast, fastest of all restaurants.

Back to Contemporary for 1 night, then home. Garden view room near the pool. We swam and ate Mickey waffles to end our 17 wonderful days in Florida. DME was 40 minutes late. Not the way we wanted our last DME to go. We still got to our gate in time to make our flight, but if this was non-Covid times, we may have missed our flight. They didn’t say why it was late when I called.
Overall, we had a wonderful trip and so glad that we were able to go. I miss the sunshine here in cold MN! Hope this report helps you plan your next trip.

23 Likes

So glad you were finally able to make the trip work! I love that you got a week to relax/work at the beach in between all the Disney fun. That sounds perfect to me!

I love that you got some personalized interactions with the princesses. That is such a rare treat these days! And the BGs too!

1 Like

Thanks @Cgerres!

Merida talking to me from the cavalcade would make my trip!

1 Like