Just got back from our 12 day trip. Some thoughts and (no maybes) a detailed daily trip report

I thought about sharing our trip more live this time but chasing a DD6 and DD2 doesn’t make it easy. I will share some of our days in this thread and some pics. But here are some thoughts I had from this trip. We went down on the 9th with the in-laws in a motor coach (that right there is an RV, Clark). We went to Fort Wilderness and stayed for two nights and then went to the Poly for 2 nights and then on to Caribbean Beach for 6 nights and got back late last night. So here goes.

Fort Wilderness was great. I am not a camping kind of guy but Fort Wilderness had golf carts to rent to get you around and a ferry of course to MK. We had a spot in the 300 loop so we were close to the ferry area. For anyone considering it, I think staying in the 100-300 loops are the way to go but a golf cart is a necessity. No hop skips there. We actually Uber-ed to BnC and also to GF for a date night at Citricos and you could park your cart at the campsite entrance area which was nice. So overall, great place to be if you like to camp.

Poly was great as usual. We had requested a room in Samoa but got Fiji. No complaints since it was basically the same room. We had a nice marina view and it was short walk to the Ceremonial House. The Moana theming is awesome. Girls loved it and I am glad we were there. We pooled it one day there and had a Disney Springs shopping trip (It was cold on that day, Saturday the 12th). We got blessed with lots of great dining seating this trip. The Disney Gods were kind. We had a view at Citricos of Enchantment and Ohana gave us an awesome window seat there as well. So Poly is great and Moana theming is super.

Now to Caribbean Beach. The luggage transfer process was super easy. Much easier than I had thought. Basically, the bellman came to the room and gave us a claim and the transfer all happened to CBR. We went on to EPCOT for the day and that night about 10:00, we Skylinered our way from IG to CBR and luggage was there at the Old Port Royale. They then took us by van over to our room with our luggage. No handling it all which was awesome. I had requested Aruba 55 building and we got it. Other than a room at GDT at CS, I think this is the only other time I really got super close to my exact request. If you like the convenience of a Skyliner (and we do), Aruba 55 is right next to the Riviera Skyliner. Loved that. And it was as close to go to Primo Piatto for a mobile pick-up as Center Market was. So we had a choice there. A neighborhood pool was right beside us for a late evening dip or a short walk to the central pool there. I was not really that stoked about CBR but I am happy to say that I really liked it. Super convenient. Price point isn’t bad. It was about $550 cheaper per night than the Poly room. So I felt like it offered a lot. And let me tell you, Sebastians Bistro is only $29 per person for a pretty darn good family style meal. Super impressed with it. So I will give a thumbs up for CBR. I think they have done some nice refurbs to the Old Port and we enjoyed it.

Other non-resort thoughts…

Citricos was an absolutely fantastic meal. Perfect date night spot and if you can get to the back of it, a great view of Enchantment. No narrative/music but great view. I had an Old Fashioned that was excellent as well. They have a very good bar.

Cali Grill is always a favorite and we couldn’t have asked for a better seat. Excellent view and a solid meal. I would rather not have the abbreviated menu but it was a good meal nonetheless.

Space220 we got a seat almost dead in the middle against the “window”. My DD2 was tired but it was a neat theme. Food was OK. We got crab stuffed lobster which was good. But nothing super special. I do like the theming though. I really think it would make a fun sports bar with lots of bar food or tapas. Just a thought.

Harmonious was spectacular. Personally, I like it better than Enchantment. Very cool usage of fireworks and the tacos and Contact-esque circle are very cool. We loved it. Italy offers and excellent place to watch it by the way. Pretty much head on and centered. I will say that I wouldn’t get too nervous about vantage points. We walked around it after our Space220 meal one night and you can see it from the bridge into World Showcase pretty well. And then Japan deck is good and Italy was good. The terrain goes uphill so you can see over people although there were benches there at Italy so we just stood behind those that got there earlier than we did.

Genie+ opinion. We had no issue at all using any facet of Genie+. The wife and I got up at about 6:45 each morning, one of us grabbed the ILL$ and the other a LL. We then stacked every two hours after park open. No real secret to tell other than things can continue to appear from 7:07 to 7:14 each morning and then if you are diligent about refreshing, you can find things that pop up. I will say to make sure you try to get your second at exactly 2 hours after park open because if you wait, your next one will be two hours from this point. So if you forget and wait 5 minutes and 22 seconds after our 2 hour window, then your next one will be 5 min and 22 seconds after as well. Probably everyone knows that but we kind of thought it was funny it was down to the second. If you want to leisurely come into a park and then have your afternoon/evening stacked, I thought Genie+ was easy and worked well. Our DD6 rode 14 rides at MK one evening (included 2x for rider swap at SM and BTMRR and 7DMT) and we didn’t get to the park until after lunch. We still got LLs for HM, PotC and Peter Pan as well. So, if you are a rope dropper, then do it and use StandBy. But our leisure plan worked well.

Uber was our friend. Used it for MK, AK and CG from CBR. Picked up right at Aruba 55. Pricing seemed less than before even thought it was Spring Break.

EPCOT wasn’t that crowded yesterday (Sunday the 20th). We went in just to ride FEA and Remy and mess around before our 7:00pm flight. Wasn’t bad at all.

Not sure what else comes to mind yet. But had a blast. At lots of fun things and we parked it pretty much every day but had plenty of pool time which the girls (and I) loved. I will throw a few pics in this with this and then I will get my act together and go through each day. Trying to catch up at work at the same time. The late night return has my brain in a fog. Maybe that is normal :slight_smile:









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What a cute family! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips on locations.

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Great report and I especially appreciated your thoughts on “leisure” Genie and Citricos. Thank you so much!

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What a great report so far. Your girls have gotten so big since the last time we saw you all. They grow up so fast!

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Oh my goodness is she beautiful :heart:

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Those girls are adorable!

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They are growing wayyyyy too fast. I have politely asked them to slow it down. But like most things I ask, they aren’t listening.

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:joy: :rofl: :joy:

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Happy to hear you enjoyed Fort Wilderness! We’re headed there in April and it’s so hard to find recent info. We do have a golf cart rented :+1:

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Great pictures. Adorable family. You got some great ADRs. Were they closer to end of trip, or are you just really savvy? Oh wait. You are a Hokie, so you are savvy

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Omg the level of adorable in your family is off the charts!!!

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Haha, yeah we are Hokies right? We had the ADRs smattered throughout. Did the leading reservation for the trip. So we were pretty well loaded up.

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My brother is a hokie and an eagle scout and awesome :smiley:

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I love CBR! It’s a great location and a great resort! Glad you enjoyed it!!

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Adorable girls. They are quite skilled with their poses.

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My DD is a Hokie and also awesome :blush:. Obviously!

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OK, here goes the post-trip trip report.

Our first day we picked up my DD6 from school in the RV and began the journey to Orlando. And as someone noted in a prior post, my DD6 loves to pose. I can’t seem to convince her that she doesn’tneed to do that in every picture. But she thinks it is fun. And it probably is.



I followed the RV for the first 90 miles as we had to leave a car at an airport for our flight back. Our local airport cancelled several of their flights from CLT because of reported pilot/staffing issues. So that made it a little more challenging. We actually made it down there around midnight and there is an app that lets you know places you can park for the night. We found a nearby Cracker Barrel to Disney and parked for the evening.

So for Day 2, we then headed over to Fort Wilderness in the morning to check-in and get the day started. It was kind of a drizzly day but we did sneak in some pool time. And there are turkeys (other than my two daughters) cruising around the campground.





I would recommend requesting the 6 seater golf cart. They don’t have many but it was a big help for our family. Even if there is just four of you, the extra room is good for bags and strollers,etc…Or towels to wipe your wet seat off (hint hint) if it is raining. We then loaded up and headed over to Beach Club for our BnC reservation.





We then came back, drove around the campground a bit. Girls played on a playground next to our 300 loop and there was a cool dog park next door as well. The weather cleared up and we spent some time at the pool there to appease the girls. And then came back to clean up for our date night at Citricos. The grandparents had S’mores kits we purchased at the pool to let the girls have a later evening campfire s’more session.



Citrico’s was great. Loved it. Really like all of the tie-ins to Mary Poppins but it is done extremely well. We then made it back to the campground to get ready for a day at Magic Kingdom. I will try to start Day 3 later today.

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I love the look of that dessert! What is it?

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Blackberry Tartelette. It had the candied violet sauce. Pretty neat.

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I love your matching ruffle pants with your girlies! Soo cute! :two_hearts:

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