Trip Report 9/26-10/4

First off, a huge thank you to the Liner Community – I can’t count how many tips I collected from you all that helped make our trip a success (despite the weather)!

So, to do my part, here’s my trip report:

Background: DW, DD4, DD1, and me. DM, who is a Florida resident, joined us off and on, and we spent some time offsite visiting with them. Ressie was for AoA in a Lion King suite. Package booked via TA with dining plan and MM.

Day 1: Arrived at MCO and xfer via DME. I had made online requests and faxed a room request (Bldg 6, 4th floor lake), but that all got goofed up somehow. They had us down for a first floor, but had a 4th floor courtyard (building 10) available, which worked out great. Right in the center, nice view of Simba & the boys on the log. Met up with my parents, and then headed via bus to DTD, with dinner at Splittsville. Great pizza! (Paid OOP, to save credits).

Day 2 (MK): Pre-RD ADR (8:25a) at CRT. DD4 wore her Cindy dress, DD1 went as Rapunzel. Arrived about 7:50 and put into line with all the early folks. Great photo op on the mostly empty main street…unfortunately due to the humidity, all the pics, from multiple locations, are smudged. :frowning:

CRT was awesome – DD4 really loved interacting with all the princesses. Had the Beef – excellent! DM had the crab, which would have been good if they had cooked the egg on top. Afterwards, rode the carousel, iasw, and then FP+ for Flight, followed by WtP. Took train back up front and went back to AoA for lunch and rest. Got back too late for parade, but did Speedway, Dumbo, Little Mermaid, and 7DMT for me and DW (FP+). Rain was minimal.

Day 3 was an offsite day – picked up the rental minivan and headed east to visit my parents.

Day 4 (AK/MK): Started the morning about 15 minutes into EMH at AK. Big crowds at the door! Walked the trail, then did the Safari (FP+), which was awesome, then took the train out to Rafiki’s, but only stayed a few minutes before heading back for FotLK (FP+). Then did M/G with Mickey & Minnie (FP+) before lunch at Yak & Yeti, which was fantastic. Then headed back and got a transfer bus to MK.

At MK in the afternoon we more or less got rained on. Did Philharmagic (and caught the gem – rock star!), and the rain started as we were getting on Aladdin. Sheltered a bit before heading over to our BOG ressie. While we were there, someone stole the umbrella from our stroller, and uncovered the strollers in the process, soaking them and causing us to walk back to the exit carrying the kids – not fun. Then had to wait 45 minutes for a bus before 3 showed up simultaneously.

Day 5 was another offsite day. Took a ride to Cocoa Beach, then came back in time to turn in the car. World Drive is easy to miss if you’re not ready for it, and there’s no place to turn around!

Day 6 we did RD at Epcot. Boogied to Test Track and got to ride before they closed it. Then did Nemo (FP+), Crush (FP+, although it wasn’t necessary), Figment, and then Soarin (FP+). DW caught the golf ball, once again winning the heart of DD4. Grabbed lunch, and then headed for the showcase. Took in the show in Canada, grabbed a snack in France (yum!) then got trapped in Japan during a torrential downpour. I swear, I can’t believe how much rain that place can get! Took advantage of a brief let up to sprint over to the American Adventure and took in the show (as boring ever). Afterward, headed back to the UK for dinner at R&C. Took the girls to see WtP & Tigger, and DD1 was all giggles! Pretty magical, for her and me! Headed back to France so DD4 could see Belle, then on to China (saw the movie), Morocco (Jasmine), and Norway. Wanted to ride Maelstrom, but I had failed to pursue a 4th FP in the rain, and losing light combined with a 50 minute wait meant I had to sadly skip it. Saw Donald in Mexico, and then headed for the exit, tired but pretty happy with our coverage for the day.

Day 7 was a resort day. Enjoyed the pool, walked over to Pop for lunch, and then headed to DTD for shopping and dinner at RR, one of the best meals of the trip!

Day 8 (HS/MK) was our last park day. Did RD at HS, but didn’t make the dash for TSM like I intended. Instead, we had a private Animation showing, then did DisJr and the Frozen sing-along, which was pretty fun. Went to Oaken’s, grabbed lunch at the commissary, then headed for the buses.

Our last half-day at MK included Barnstormer (DD4 having been emboldened by Test Track), M/G with Merida, another spin on Aladdin, a tour through the treehouse, and dinner at CP, with more grins from DD1 because of the characters (although I have to admit I wasn’t impressed with the food). We then did ETWB (FP+), which impressed the heck out of me with the effects involved. We then took one more trip on Little Mermaid, FP+ for Anna & Elsa, and took one more ride on the carousel. The rain began again, and we took that as cause to wrap up our vacation, and headed back to the hotel to get ready for Tragical Express the next morning.

Observations: Bus transportation really wasn’t bad, except for the one 45 minute wait. AoA did always seem to be at the end, though. The pre-RD CRT was awesome, and for the most part we had good food at all our of our ADR’s. Overall, we stuck to the major part of our TP about 80% of the time, and had good success. With judicious use of FP, we never waited in line more than 30 minutes. Liner tips added extra pixie dust! Our MM was nice to have, but because of the weather, I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of the pictures. Like everyone else who doesn’t spend every day in a park, we ended up with a lot of leftover snacks, which found us buying up things left and right on the last day. DD4 liked pin swapping.

So there it is! Likely will be several years before our next trip (when DD1 hits 4 or 5), but we definitely have lots of memories!

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A few extra thoughts: the every-other-day-park approach worked very well for our crew. Gave them a chance to recharge. Although we did the mid-day break the first day because we didn’t know how they’d handle it, we ended up going straight through thereafter. There were some major attractions we skipped because of our DD’s interests. Would have been nice to do a parade, but between the weather and the crowds, that was impractical. Likewise, fireworks would have fun, but too late at night of our little ones. We did HEAR them every night, and tried to see the Frozen ones from AoA, but never managed to get out there in time.

Our room was fantastic. Lots of space, and DD4 loved the pull-down bed. I actually think her bed was more comfortable then ours! AoA has a good food court, but we also liked the food at Pop, which is a VERY short walk across the bridge behind the Big Blue Pool.

We only packed for 4 days, and then did laundry one night. Laundry room was pretty packed, so plan ahead.

I’ll post some more thoughts if I can think of them. :smile:

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Great trip report! It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Thanks for taking to time to write about it for us.

Thanks for sharing! We stayed two nights at AOA LK last Jan., and we loved it, too (other 6 nights at Pop). My DD19 adored the pull down bed and she really loved having her own bathroom. Glad you had a great trip.

This is great! Thanks for the report! Sounds like lots of memories were made!

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences! What a great report! :smile:

Thank you for your report! It was great! I hope to do one for our anniversary trip in Dec.

Great trip report! Thank you for sharing.