Hi! I always loved reading trip reports from others and always found useful information in them so I thought I would do a trip report from our June trip. Here we go…
We flew out of Denver at 7:00 a.m. with no issues with security lines or getting out on time. We arrived in Orlando at 12:30 p.m. and we had opted to use Disney’s baggage service so we headed straight to the Magical Express check in. There was a bus waiting when we arrived so we jumped right on and waited another 15 minutes or so before the bus left the airport. Then we were off to the Polynesian where we would stay for 6 nights before moving to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our final night.
We arrived at the Polynesian and went to the reservations desk to let them know we had arrived and to check on our room. We were pleasantly surprised to find out our room was ready and the nice cast member showed us around as she walked us over to the Hawaii building. Once we reached our building, we were greeted by the club level concierge cast members and they finished checking us in and going over our trip plans for the week. Once we were done with checking in, we went to our room to check it out. We reserved a standard club level room so our view was of the Oasis pool. I previously requested a 1st or 3rd floor room but was given a 2nd floor room which did not have a balcony. I was a little disappointed at first but it was so hot during our trip, we would have never used the balcony anyway. The room was a good size and perfect for two adults and one child. The beds were comfortable and the room was clean. We did not have any complaints about the room whatsoever. After checking out our room, we went to check out the lounge that is offered to the club level guests. This feature made our trip even more amazing and made it worth paying for the club level. The offerings were plentiful and always good. You could get drinks anytime of the day and there was always food of some kind out. It also was an amazing spot to watch the fireworks or just look out of the lagoon.
At this point it was around 4:00 and we had not received our luggage yet so we decided to hop on the monorail and check out the Contemporary and eat at the Contempo Cafe. The Contemporary was very nice and the Contempo Cafe was awesome for a quick service choice! (We did do the Dining Plan) And a great start to our trip. Once we finished eating, we hopped back on the monorail and headed back to the Polynesian to check on our luggage. It was around 5:30 at this point and our luggage had arrived. However, a big part of this trip was celebrating my daughter’s 7th birthday which was taking place during our trip. So I had ordered some items from Disney Floral to be delivered to our room. At this point, the items had not been delivered and since it was a surprise, I didn’t want to be in the room when they delivered it. So we went out exploring some more. However, on our way out, I stayed back and asked the concierge about the delivery time for the floral department and was extremely disappointed to hear that it could be anytime up to 9:00 p.m.! Seriously, who would ever want a gift delivered at 9:00 p.m.? On top of it, we had been up since 3:30 in the morning and had a early morning reservation the next day so we came up with a plan to just have the concierge hold the delivery for us if it came after 8:00 and off to bed we went after exploring for a bit.
Day 2…
Today was the first of our two Magic Kingdom days. We had a pre-rope drop reservation for the BBB at the castle. Our daughter decided she wanted to wear the Cinderella Wedding dress from the live action film so I pre-trip purchased it off of Ebay. She wore her dress into MK so she wouldn’t have to change once there. We were a good 30 minutes early but they were ready for us and took us back immediately. The transformation was amazing and our fairy godmother in training was fantastic. If anyone knows how to post photos on here, let me know and I will add some as I go along TIA! Since we started the BBB early, we finished just prior to 9:00 which was awesome since we were going straight over to meet Merida. Merida started meeting at 9:15 so we waited for about 15 minutes but then went right in to meet her with only 2 families in front of us. She was so much fun and definitely worth it if you can fit her in! On our way to use our fastpassses for Tiana and Rapunzel at Fairytale Hall, Alice and the Mad Hatter came out and came right up to my daughter and took her with them to their meet and greet spot. It was so fun and one of my daughter’s favorite memories! We had no wait with a fastpass to meet Tiana and Rapaunzel. They were both great and we were so happy that Tiana got moved into the hall with the other princesses. We rode It’s a small world next with a Fastpass with maybe a 2 minute wait. Then we decided to eat an early lunch at Columbia Harbor House which was fantastic! Tons of seating, air conditioning, the cast members were so nice and the food was some of our favorite! We would highly recommend this if you like seafood! After lunch, we used our last of our original three fast passes for Cinderella and Aurora. Again, there was absolutely no wait with a fastpass for them. My daughter’s favorite princesses are Belle and Aurora, so meeting Aurora for the first time was awesome! Also, on our way in to this meet and greet, we met an amazing cast member who let us in a few minutes earlier than our scheduled fast pass and made magic for my daughter by giving us anytime fastpasses so we could ride Peter Pan which didn’t have any fastpasses left so this was AWESOME! (Side note, my daughter and I made handwritten thank you cards prior to our trip to hand out to the cast members during our trip) So, of course this cast member, Joshua got one After meeting the princesses, we went straight to Peter Pan to use our anytime fastpasses and it was worth it because my family loved it! (This was a first for them because on other trips, the line was always too long) We did Enchanted Tales with Belle next which is one of our favorites and our daughter got picked to be Mrs. Potts. As always, we loved it! We rode the teacups next which is my daughter’s all time favorite ride. Then we moved on over to Tomorrowland where we used fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear twice and the Laugh Floor. Then I was able to get a fastpass for Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean so we did those next. Now it was time to go get a spot for the afternoon parade. We had already decided to find a spot in Frontierland thanks to the advice of others on this site and it worked out great. We were probably at our spot around 2:30 for the 3:00 parade. We had good shade and a ton of space plus a place to sit right in front of one of the stores. (Sorry I have no idea what the name was) After the parade, we started making our way over to the castle to check in for our reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table. This was a HUGE surprise for my daughter as she didn’t even know you could eat in the castle so this was amazing! The cast members working here on this night were not very nice and didn’t seem to really want to be there but other than that it was perfect. The food was good and the princesses were great. And it truly is a special memory to make! After dinner, we decided to do a little shopping on our way out and caught the tail end of the Move It, Shake It parade which was fun but really hot! Then we went back to the hotel and relaxed in the air conditioning and got rejuvenated for the next day’s adventures.
Sounds like a trip to heaven for your DD. Looking forward to the next installment.
BTW - to add a picture, click on the upload icon just above the box where you add your text. It will take you to a screen where you can select a file. It’s really easy to do in this forum.
Day 3…
This was our second day at Magic Kingdom and our daughter’s actual birthday We did rope drop and arrived about 1 hour early to park opening and it was already pretty busy. We love watching the opening show and it didn’t disappoint. Once inside, we went straight to the Main Street vehicles which was a first for us. We loved it! Our driver, Thomas was fantastic and received a thank you card from us for starting our morning off right and just being so kind. We then went back to the entrance to meet Tinker Bell and Mickey Mouse. We were blown away when the talking Mickey sang Happy Birthday to our daughter. It was definitely the highlight of our trip and made our daughter feel so special. We hurried over to meet Jasmine and Aladdin next but Aladdin wasn’t meeting at the time so we only saw Jasmine. After the meet and greet, we rode the Magic Carpets. We had an early lunch scheduled at BOG so we wandered back to Fantasyland and rode the Little Mermaid ride. Then it was time for lunch so we checked in maybe 10-15 minutes early for BOG and we did preorder so we were seated within 15 minutes after arriving. The delay was only due to the line to complete the check in process to confirm and pay for your order. The food was good and you can’t beat the atmosphere. Once we finished eating which was about 45 minutes max, we went over to meet Ariel with a fastpass. Next, we rode the teacups again Then we decided to call it a day since we accomplished so much the day before and to give our daughter some time in the pool. We spent about 2 hours at the pool which is very nice and didn’t feel overly crowded and the kids play area at the pool is awesome!! We then went back to our room to get ready for our surprise birthday dinner for our daughter. We had a 4:00 dinner reservation at 1900 Fare. This was such a fun and memorable experience from start to finish. Prior to the restaurant opening for dinner each night, Cinderella and Prince Charming do the princess promenade where they walk through the Grand Floridian until the reach the main lobby where they do the waltz and any child can join in. It was so much fun! Then we waited about 10 minutes after that for 1900 Fare to open and were seated right away after a family picture. Our server was excellent and the food was very good in our opinions. The characters which include Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, Drizella, Cinderella and Prince Charming were some of the best! We also preordered a birthday cake for our daughter and it was gorgeous! However, to be honest, it was not the best tasting but it was so pretty and my daughter felt like a true princess that it was worth it On our return trip home, we talked about our favorite memories/meals and this was at the top. After dinner, we decided to just relax the rest of the night and enjoy the hotel.
I forgot to update the Disney Floral gift from above. So, the concierge did put our gifts in our room on day two and I snuck back to our room ahead of my daughter and husband to hang a couple of the signs that I had ordered off of Etsy to add to the other gifts. However, when I arrived to our room, I found that all of the balloons were pretty much completely deflated. I was so sad and pretty speechless because these balloons were not cheap. But I had to finish setting up the room and went on with the surprise. And my daughter was so surprised and happy! After my daughter fell asleep, I sent an email to Disney Floral letting them know about the balloons and they wrote me back the next day letting us know that our daughter would have a special surprise waiting at the table for her at 1900 Fare and that they would be delivering a new set of balloons to our room. They definitely fixed the issue 100 times over and I am very thankful that they took it upon themselves to make it right.
I originally planned on doing an in room celebration but it included so many things that we already had/ didn’t need that I didn’t feel that it was worth the price for us. So, for anyone looking for a cheaper way here is what I did, I ordered a couple of different custom signs off of Etsy and brought suction cup hooks with us so I could hang them. Then I ordered only what I wanted from the Floral Department and also ordered some things from the Disney Parks app to be delivered to the hotel and I picked them up upon our arrival. And then when my daughter and husband decided to shop for a little bit in the hotel, I snuck back to our room and set it all up and she never had any idea that it was me It was a little strange that she got a double set of balloons but she just chalked it up to being extra special.
Also, I want to say thank you to BSwan26 for helping me figure out how to upload photos
This was the chocolate slipper that you can preorder at Cinderella’s Royal Table. It was really tasty and absolutely stunning! I think it cost $15.00 And definitely worth it!
…
