Trip report from a long time lurker, thanks for all of the great tips over the past several months of planning! Hoping to share a little experience back with the group!
The crew - me, DH, DD13, DS11, Dsis. 5day trip, our 4th to WDW. Staying at CBR in a 2 queen, pull down kid bed room. Used TP room request and got connecting rooms with Dsis, didn’t get any of the other requested items (building or floor #) but they obviously read the request since we’re in connected rooms and TP request is the only place we asked to be nearby each other. That was the most important part of our request, so no complaints here. Room is good, but would be tight with 2 tweens if we were hanging out in here. But, we’re either at the park, pool, or sleeping, so no problem!
HS opened at 8:00 today, as did the Skyliner. Come on Disney, why can’t you open it at least 30 min before park open ???!!! So, we took the bus instead, missed the 7:10 and 7:15 and then no HS buses. Grrrr! I shared our plight with bus drivers headed to other parks, they contacted dispatch. I also called the front desk and politely shared our problem. Finally, bus arrived at 7:50ish just as we were about to walk to the Skyliner. We were the only ones on that bus so I think one of my attempts for help may have worked.
Tapped into HS at 8:02 and got BBG 113. DSis insisted on bringing a bag so we ditched her, I’ve got 3 SW nerds so you gotta do what you gotta do. She got herself BBG 117, we decided not to worry about it since the group numbers overlap a bit when you’re called to ride.
Split up and the boys did RNR and the girls ST and ASS. We met up for TSM FP - I beat DH ;), then tapped to clear our LM FP, rode SDD with FP, ST again but with FP, lunch at SciFi, and finally ToT FP. We were in the park from 8-12:30 this morning.
We did score some bonus FP which really helped, even on the low crowd day. The bonus FP came from the hotel manager, he got in touch with me to follow up on my morning call about the lack of buses. He was very kind, even offered to text with me as I was in a line and couldn’t hear him well. I happened to see him later working around the resort with a garbage grabber - talk about a great manager, no job too small!
We spent the afternoon napping, swimming, and speculating as to whether or not our BBG would get called. Thanks to the TP ROTR data table, I felt pretty confident that we would get called. We have PH and it’s the 1st day of our trip, so we also weren’t going to sweat it if we didn’t!
BG were moving along well and MF lines were short, so we decided to head back to HS around 4:30. Skyliner is super quick and easy when it’s open. BTW - I have a moderate fear of heights and was fine on Skyliner.
We rode MF with about 25 min wait at 5:00. DH and I enjoyed beers while waiting in line, we were told that it’s no problem, just to finish before we saw “the boss”. Kids had lots of fun with the Disney play app in Galaxy’s edge both in lines and walking around the land. Our BBG (113) was called about 5:45 with a 1 hour return window. We waited to queue up until about 6:00 when DSis BBG was called so that we could all ride together. ROTR was great, took a little over an hour including wait and ride time. GE CMs were awesome in character, DD13 was a little sassy and they gave it right back to her!
Mobile ordered dinner from Woody’s lunchbox as we left ROTR. Food was ok. My crew was done so we punted on the plans to Skyliner to Epcot for EMH. Skylinered back to resort instead for bed. We didn’t arrive in FL until late last night and everyone did school/work yesterday so I was very pleased with our day. Sassy tweens have a lot in common with toddlers and keeping spirits high is important to me so I’m trying to head off the crankies by eating before the hangries set in and resting before the serious drama begins.
All in all >18,000 steps, about 7 park hours split between the morning and evening, 4 hour mid day break, and beautiful weather (75). Off to MK tomorrow morning and probably AK in the afternoon/evening!
