Hello from the Nashville airport. I’m about to board a flight for my favorite place…
I was originally supposed to leave tomorrow morning with my BFF and her friend. But then we had a winter weather warning and they changed their flights to Tuesday. I didn’t change but definitely felt a lot of FOMO as they left without me. And then we only had an inch of snow. But my DH started making comments about how the roads might refreeze in the night and it might be hard to make my morning flight. SO! I called the southwest 1800 number and asked if they would pretty please change my flight with no upcharge to Wednesday (today). The first person said no. But then I called again and CJ from Chicago was so kind and made an exception and here I am!
My flight leaves at 420 and lands just after 7 in Orlando. We’ll be at POFQ tonight and then start our originally planned trip at AoA tomorrow. We want to focus on Festival of the Arts.
The things that are new and different for me this trip:
I’ve never stayed at POFQ or AoA.
We have the dining plan for a portion of the trip. I’m going to have to eat and drink a lot to make my money’s worth.
We will likely split up in the afternoons so I’ll have some solo time.
It would make my trip to run into some of the other liners in the world this weekend. We shall see!
Would love to hear your Festival Favorites, food or otherwise. Hopefully even though it’s the last days of the festival, we’ll still get to see and do and try what we want.
I made it! In an uber heading to the resort. I’ll likely have gumbo or jambalaya from the food court for dinner and see if I feel up to going to DS. My friends are at DS now but finishing up there so I’d be on my own.
Epcot tomorrow! Hope to run into the Nashvillians! Anything I do before one pm is bonus time. Woo hoo!
Sorry for falling off so quickly! Turns out I’m not a great reporter in the moment. But today was fabulous!
We transferred to AoA and were bumped up from a cars suite to a finding Nemo suite. We’re in building 5 and it is a very short walk to the lobby/ food court in one direction and the skyliner in the other direction.
I like this room and resort! There are three adults in my party so the three sleeping surfaces are ideal. And two bathrooms are also a plus. It’s been clean and quiet and comfortable. I am sleeping closest to our room door and I can hear people in the hallway occasionally, but that happens at deluxe resorts also.
Our day at Epcot was a lot of fun. We didn’t purchase LLMP because we wanted to focus on activities and the festival over rides. In fact, the only rides we went on were Figment and GOTG.
We slowly walked around and spent time at Communicore Hall, painted rhe mural, visited the manatees, did the animation academy, ate too many snacks, shopped, and then took an early afternoon rest. This evening we watched the Broadway performance (amazing!) and as a highlight of the day, I had a liner meet with 4 of the Nashvillians. Such lovely and kind people! And I hope it’s the first of more time with them!
After that, I faded quickly. But I was hungry. So after luminous, I walked to beaches and cream and had my favorite chili cheese tots and a hot fudge sundae. Then I made it to the skyliner just before it closed and rode back to the resort.
Sorry I fell off again! It’s been a busy two days!
Friday highlights-
Started at AK with LLs lined up for Everest, safari, and Navi. We ended up getting coffee at creature comforts and then doing standby at Navi so there would be time to drink said coffee. Then switched Navi for ITTBAB for a tap and go and started booking at HS. We also had an ILL for FOP. After riding it, we got the kids French toast meal at Satuuli canteen. It’s so good!
We leisurely rode our AK rides, said hello to Bakso, and were on a bus to HS by 11. It was lovely.
At HS, I used my first quick service dining credit at Docking Bay 7 for lunch. I’ll do a separate post about how we did as far as food costs / dp costs.
Then we rode RNRC, ToT, MMRR with lightning lanes. SDD had been down a lot in the morning so didn’t drop at 1;17 or 3:47. We had a TSM LL but as soon as we hopped in line the whole ride was evacuated for a safety issue. The park was feeling very crowded at this point. So we left, right after the unfortunate lack of drop at 3:47. All in all a good day though!
Our evening was spent at DS where we ate at Polite Pig (QS 2), and shopped a bit.
On to Saturday! Starting at Epcot, I rope dropped Les Halles for a bacon egg and cheese croissant (snack #1). There are lots of people who rope drop Les Halles, surprisingly. It was delicious!
We rode several rides, including GOTG (Conga), and had lunch at Teppan Edo (TS #1). It was fun and delicious but not sure I need to do it again. While eating, I caught the 1:17 drop for both SDD and TSM at HS so we scooted over there on a friendship boat, spent about 45 minutes riding those two rides and hopped on a skyliner back to AoA.
Saturday evening!
After a rest at our resort we headed to MK for park #3 of the day. We had a ILL for 7DMT and three LLs set up and were ready to book another but the LL system went down from about 7:00-8:45ish! There was no booking availability and cast members could not see what we had when we tapped.
FYI- this could be very useful if it ever happens to you. Cast members were letting anyone enter through the LL line and not able to check. We rode our LLs and 7DMT and then were about to try to go through other random LL lines to see how many rides we could get through when the system came back up. Oh well. We did go back and ride 7DMT a second time so that was a pretty nice bonus. And a stop at a guest services umbrella on the way out netted us two MEPs for the next day.
We got up super early after our late night and drove a very roundabout way (due to the race) to Grand Floridian for a breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. This was our TS #2 and was really good.
We rode the monorail to MK and spent a short while using our multi experience passes, seeing the country bears, and riding Tron. Then, boat back to GF and off to the airport.
This has been one of my favorite trips. My pals and I had a similar rhythm and we were always ready to go early (unlike when I travel with my family). Our room was spacious and having two bathrooms was lovely. The weather, though cool at times, was mostly comfortable. A++ and would highly recommend!
We had a split stay and “for research” tried the table service dining plan for 2 of the 3 nights. I spent a lot of time researching how to maximize the plan, and therefore we were able to come out ahead of the cost. That being said, I don’t think I would get the dining plan again nor recommend that most people get it either. I don’t typically eat like we ate or order drinks like we did in order to maximize it. It feels like a lot of food! Our group also typically prefers to eat one table service and one quick service kids meal per day, but we like places like Via Napoli, Beaches and Cream, and Hollywood Brown Derby. I also like to drink a little bit on my Disney trips, but usually make my own cocktails with lemonade and little airplane bottles of vodka that I bring in my carry-on.
A
L
B
S1
9.74
6.75
6.75
S2
9.29
6.75
4.99
QS1
33.79
28.79
15.69
QS2
29
31
35
TS1
64
64
62
TS2
77.5
70
73
total (pre-tax)
223.32
207.29
197.43
total cost of plan
192
192
192
The most expensive snacks were mine. The bacon, egg, and cheese croissant at Les Halles and a Brownie Sundae at Plaza. Our most expensive quick service overall was Polite Pig. The food there was phenomenal but we disliked having to hover and pounce for a table. The alcoholic beverages really boost the cost of the quick service meals in particular.
At Docking bay 7, my food was $16 and the drink was $17.50. Our Table Service meals were Teppan Edo and 1900 Park Fare Breakfast. We also enjoyed having our resort mug, which we used for coffee in the morning and then a coke or two during our afternoon rest.
It’s very hard for me to reason buying the dining plan. It worked out great for us when the kids were really little and enjoyed character meals , but once they turned that adult Disney age of 10, the cost was no longer worth it
