This is the big family trip that has been in the works for a year. My baby is turning 21 and wants to celebrate with everyone at our happy place! Unfortunately my oldest went and got promoted to Department Head at work and can’t spare the days off. I know, I know. You think you raised them right…
So it’s me, dh, ds30, his fiancé, ds25 and ds21. We all have annual passes and are staying at All-Star Sports in three rooms. Arriving tomorrow and going to TL where I rented a cabana. Easier to keep track of all these peeps I figured. Tomorrow is ds’s actual bday and we have ressies at Splitsville in Disney Springs that evening. Monday is Epcot, Tuesday is breakfast at Crystal Palace and MK, Wednesday is HS with lunch at the bbq joint and we end things at AK. It’s forecast to be humid and stormy and miserable but what can you do. We’ve had a terrible two weeks leading into this adventure (two ER visits, a big job change for dh and iffy test results) so I am ready to escape for a while.
We are on the road. The kids are in another car and left much earlier than us. In fact, it’s scary how dh and I slept through their packing up at 3am. Getting old sucks! So does this traffic. The kids are going to arrive at TL soon, can they check in to the Beachcomber thing or do I have to be there? Guess we will soon find out.
We finally made it yesterday afternoon and went straight to TL to meet up with the kids. Getting the beachcomber shack was the best! We plan on keeping in touch with our go to guy Derrick (not necessarily with his blessing but that’s what ‘ya get when you share your phone # Derrick! Cat pics and memes from weirdos lol.)
We went on Miss Adventure Falls, ate some donuts, did some shopping and left about 40 minutes till closing. It did shower but no lightening so everything stayed open. Even our short time there was fun, but I wouldn’t have gone if it wasn’t free.
We arrived at 2:30 and left at 5:30. The kids were there around 1:00 even though they arrived to the resort much earlier. They took the bus to TL and it stopped at DS and made them get on another bus and all that was more than an hour!
We are home and I have access to a keyboard so let the trip report truly begin! It’s me, dh, three of our four boys and a fiancé. Arrival day was a bit chaotic with the kids arriving on property first, checking into the beachcomber shack at TL and ordering lunch. Which is what I wanted to do but traffic delayed dh and I and after we finally arrived NO ONE could tell us where our shack was. I asked which way we should go at the tapstiles and the CM said, “We’ll, there is only one way in.” Ok, helpful. After another 15 minutes of struggling to find someone who knew something we found the shack and caught up with the kids on the lazy river.
I had seen videos of Miss Adventures Falls and thought it was tame enough for me. The kids had already ridden it and agreed. We were wrong lol. Getting into the raft was hilarious for all watching, with dh flopping in like a fish at an odd angle and just insisting it was okay to ride the whole ride like that. Once we made it up the conveyor belt and hit the water, the raft started spinning like the Tea Cups At Sea! Round and round and round. I resisted closing my eyes and instead focused on ds’s face in front of me. Still round and round and round. We made it to the end and I revived myself with those awesome mini donuts and a slushie back at the shack.
One of the three rooms I reserved at ASS was ready while everyone was still on the road so the kids settled into that one. Another one came up while we were at TL. In a completely different building! The first one was in 9 and the second one was in Bldg 1! We tried to check in online to the third one and the app couldn’t handle it. I was pretty peeved, because I spent 45 minutes on hold with Disney the night before making sure we were marked as “traveling together” and putting the room charge credit card on all three rooms. We went to the check in desk after TL closed at 6 and the third room was still not ready! Plus she didn’t want to move us because one room had already been opened. We wound up getting another room in 9, somewhat near the older kids and waited for the third room. Well, they gave us one in 9 but claimed no card was attached to it. I tried to deal with it over the phone but the cm insisted since ds24’s name was on the room he had to show the card…in person. Yes, I let that cm have it since I made all three reservations and had put my name on all of them to avoid this kind of ridiculousness (if we had been able to check in online, no one would have seen ds in person, why now?). Anywho, he took the card on the phone but charged the entire stay (minus deposit) right then. That’s not a problem, but also not the procedure. I have both portfolios and ours is charged for the room each day as always. Only ds’s room is charged all at once. Next time it’s a multi-room suite for our big travel parties until Disney can figure out that people actually do get more than one room in the real world.
Day one was Epcot. Our kids typically sleep in so dh and I got up and got going early. We took a bus to HS and took the skyliner to Epcot from there. Right as we stepped off the skyliner it began pouring rain. We thought it would subside and just hoofed it to France for Remy. I believe we were the only two idiots with no ponchos or umbrella lol. Remy was a bit of a wait but sheltered for the most part. Once again we got a bonus single rider.
I upgraded to an IPhone 16 Pro before the trip, I think it took some good in ride pics. After Remy we walked the World Showcase finding the Remy Scavenger Hunt items and Pluto’s Pumpkins.
We caught up with the kids. My youngest didn’t want to go on Guardians so he joined us on the hunt. Found one Dory pumpkin outside of The Seas and went inside to cool off and visit fishies.
Tuesday was a Halloween party night so we went to MK that day. We started off with a breakfast at Crystal Palace, a request by ds21 the bday boy. It was already hot and humid so a sit down breakfast was a welcome treat. It’s a buffet with Winnie the Pooh and friends. The food was awesome with so much variety! Savory stuff, sweet stuff, fruit galore, salmon, shrimp and even chicken strips! The characters were cute and just interactive enough.
We headed over to Tomorrow Land and stopped to get one of those weird circle photopass pics but the camera broke so the cm reluctantly took this pic instead.
Wednesday was Hollywood Studios. We headed in on our own and let the kids sleep in. We had a Woody’s BBQ res at noon and would meet up then. Dh happened to spot the talking Mickey popcorn bucket so we snagged one. It is pretty glitchy but still cute. We grabbed much needed Starbucks and hit Frozen Ever After. You know, I always made fun of the peeps who stopped at Starbucks in the parks and now they are my people! I also said I would never ride the Skyliner if it didn’t have a.c. I am a convert to both lol.
We went back to the hotel after some shopping and had a break. We had decided to go back to MK at night.
We should have known something was up when the line at the MK bus was super long. People there said they had been waiting 30 mins already and we waited an additional half hour. Something about a wreck but busses to other parks were still coming so idk. We finally got on a standing room only and made it to the park. Which also had ridiculously long lines for security and entry for so late in the day. People were already waiting for the parade, so much so that an announcement came over and said there were no more spaces for that showing. We couldn’t go anywhere! Made our way to Adventureland and rode pirates with the kids. (35 minute wait, even with everyone watching the parade!). I dropped my water bottle right as I was climbing in…right into the water. It’s part of the ride now.
I started realizing that when the parade was over those crowds would be merging with the already huge general crowd so we decided to leave before the fireworks.
Literally. I have never been in crowds like that at Disney ever. You couldn’t move! We stood in the mosh pit and watched fireworks (still in Adventureland mind you) and somehow inched our way free. Our prize was this…
This was the sea of humanity behind me for the busses. Again, busses for every other resort came and went and no Sports. Over an hour. For standing room only. We all said never again to MK at night! Here’s the theory. There were Halloween parties on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of the week we were there. If you wanted to see the new nighttime parade you could only do so on Monday and Wednesday. That is crazy and no wonder the park was so packed. Boo to YOU, Disney!!
I’m afraid of this very thing for our trip! Xmas parties are Tues, Wednesday, and Friday of Thanksgiving week. That means Saturday night’s starlight parade and FWs will be insane.
Maybe we could skip FW’s and just go to 10pm starlight parade, but we will be fighting a sea of exiting humanity leaving at 9.30 post FWs.
I am a big fan of the pre / post dessert parties for the fireworks just for this reason. It’s pricey, but the alternative is mayhem and possibly tears…
I think there was a discussion somewhere about whether you could see the parade from the dessert party viewing garden (wouldn’t work from the eating area)…
