We arrived at the airport in Austin at 3:15am for our 6am flight to MCO. TSA took less than 10 minutes. I was traveling with DS9. This was his first time to fly. He was a champ. Flew southwest. Got the early bird and was happy with my A boarding group.
We arrived at MCO to meet up with my sister who flew in from Dallas at the exact same time. This was her very first trip to Disney!
I hired a car service called Gear Fusion. www.GearFusion.com
They were $120 ROUND TRIP, which couldn’t be beat in my eyes. Todd and his wife, Markaela run it. They are primarily Spanish speakers, but speak English just fine. They have been in the charter business for decades, previously in Vegas. One of their associates picked us up from MCO. Rita. She was a delight.
Our resort for the next 5 nights would be Port Orleans Riverside in a Royal Room. Having previously only stayed at the Poly, and the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, this was a step out of my comfort zone.
Since it was a “sister” trip, with DS, I thought we could try a new place!
Pros: BEAUTIFUL grounds. Great cast members.
Can visit POFQ and use their pool. Boat to Disney Springs was fun. If we requested anything from housekeeping, like more blankets or coffee, they arrived in less than 30 minutes.
Cons: 4 resort bus stops. Everything is so spread out it took us forever to walk where we needed to be at the resort. Buses were always standing room only at our stop and we were the last to get dropped off at night. Housekeeping only came 2 times during our stay.
Take away—- will not stay again. Will most likely go back to Fort Wilderness with the golf cart! Or stay in a monorail resort. My sister thought we wasted so much time timing and being on Disney transportation and she’s not wrong.
Saturday :
Disney Springs was beautiful while we were there. We ate at Chef Art Smith’s Homecoming. We both got salads and they were amazing. My sister has a gluten allergy. She was surprised at how attentive the wait staff was and how accommodating they could be.
We also rented a surrey bike from our resort. That was entirely to much fun! I highly recommend.
Dinner our first night was at Steakhouse 71. It was our favorite meal of our trip. We had a fabulous waiter. They accommodated my sisters gluten allergy amazingly at this meal.
Sunday:
Breakfast at Ohana. I haven’t done that since I was DS9’s age. It was fun! Very allergy friendly. Brought my sister out her own skillet of gluten friendly options. Character interactions were great!
First park day. EPCOT. Cloudy day. Woke up and thanks to BG1, I got BG4, and purchased the ILL for Rise. We got to ride it twice before lunch. It was amazing. I hated to start my sister off in that ride as it doesn’t go up from there in the ride department! She was in shock about how much detail was put into everything. DS9 has a DAS pass so we were able to pre book our two rides before hand and book as we needed the day off. I also felt like there were many more Memory Maker photographers around since our June trip!
We had lunch at Regal Eagle, went back the resort, napped, and came back for an 8pm dinner at Akershues. My sister again for a whole skillet of allergy friendly food, just for her, along with dessert. The character interacting was great!
Monday:
Second Park Day: Animal Kingdom
Booked an 8am Tusker house reservation. In doing so, we were LITERALLY the first people let into the parks that day. It was an amazing feeling. The security guard that took our picture was a great sport!
Tusker house did not disappoint. Another morning of great character interaction and the food is always great there!
We got to ride everything we wanted to ride. There were relatively low waits that day. The Lion King show blew us away. I was so happy to see audience participation and the tumble monkey back. It was such a beautiful show. My sister even got teary eyed.
Dinosaur went down as we were getting into the ride vehicle. It didn’t come back up while we were in the park that day. They issued us a ride anytime, that excluded the top tier rides.
We went back to the resort for a nap and to EPCOT that evening for dinner at San Angel. Food and Margaritas were great! We had an 8pm resi and got to watch the fireworks/water show right after. I didn’t hate it!
Tuesday
Park day 3: Hollywood Studios.
That was my birthday! Hence the trip! And I have to say, HS is my least favorite park. We arrived a little later as we were getting pretty tired. We had a lunch resi at the Brown Derby. DAS pre pass got us a slinky dog and Toy Story Mania. That helped immensely as while we were at lunch, Rise, RnRC, and Slinky were down. They all eventually came back up. My sister and I were never into Star Wars, but we immensely appreciate the theming that goes into that part of the park. She said she literally felt like she was on another planet.
We went back to the hotel at 3:30 that day and got rested up for Story Book Dining at the Wilderness Lodge. We waited entirely too long for the evil queen. We had be done with our meal and we ready to go for about 30 min before she came back out. Other than that, it was a great character meal!
Wednesday
4th park day- Magic Kingdom
By this point in our trip, we were EXHAUSTED. But since it was our last full day, we all powered through. We had an early resi at Topolinos. We took a Minnie van. I know I’m going against the crowd in saying this, but the food is not my favorite here. The characters were cute!
We rode the bus from Riviera to MK. Stroller in. Super low waits on everything that day. DS9 wanted Space Mountain right out of the gate, and the DAS wait was only 15 min, so that was perfect for us. We then hit all the rides in Tomorrowland and storybook circus area. We had lunch at Be Our Guest. Not my fave but my sister is obsessed with Beauty and the Beast, so that was for her. She loved it!
We went back to the resort,
Got some rest and got ready for our Fireworks dessert party. We did the pre show. I haven’t watched the fireworks since 2018. DH hates how “people-y” it gets and so we would watch them from the beach at Fort Wilderness on our other trips. I was excited to try out this party. I had heard great things from a friend of mine that had just done it. We were checked in and seated. Had about an hour before we moved to the grassy area. They brought my sister out an entire platter of gluten free options. I thought she as going to cry at how much she had been catered to this whole trip. She and her husband travel all over the world and she said she’s never seen anything like how they cater to people with food allergies.
We were then escorted to the grassy area and took a seat and waited like everyone else. We had plenty of room to stretch our while we were waiting. The ECV area was roped off in front of us, and there weren’t many people in there. I kindly asked a cast member if we were able to move in there when the show started, she told me no, which was totally fine, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Then another cast member unlocked the gate and let our little party of 3 in! What an awesome pixie dust on our last night!
The fireworks and projections were great! Still a big fan of Happily Ever After! But it was beautiful! What a treat!
When they were over, I still had a DAS pass for Pirates so we raced to Adventureland. Finally got my dole whip 10 min before they closed! After pirates, we rode Space Mountain one last time!
Gear Fusion picked us up the next morning and off to the airport we went. It was a “Highlights Reel” trip for my sister. And I am happy to report, she has drank the “Kool Aide” and will stay at a monorail loop resort next time!