So we are from Maine and have been dreaming of taking a trip back to the World. School ended and so we hopped on a plane and headed south! DH and DS16 decided to say back home for this one so it was myself DS13 and DD10. We arrived Saturday 6/12 and left late on Thursday 6/17.
I had originally received a pin code back in 2020 enticing us to book a trip and at the time I picked the dates without much thought. I picked a resort (YC) thinking I would most certainly not be going on this trip but didn’t want to loose the chance to cash in on the pin code deal. As the time got closer and things were looking brighter, my DH said why don’t you just go? We were all vaccinated except for DD10 and things were opening up around us here in Maine.
We looked though and realized that we had a lot of points that would give us an almost no cost package at the Dolphin with meal credits and an extra day from my original dates. Also we basically flew for free so we were definately going!
I booked us four day park hopper plus tickets (included water parks and more). The kids were already asking about pool time and definately wanted to go to a waterpark. I figured we would try to keep things low key and not go my usual comando touring style and instead go with the flow. We had to reserve our park days but lucked out with the system opening up a few times during our planning so we could book the parks we wanted. Also having a hunch this was going to happen I did book dining for us at the 60d point. Most of that changed along the way but I did keep the Sci Fi reservation.
Saturday morning we drove down to Boston and left our car at Park n Fly to be detailed while we were gone. We have used them before and have had good service. After our shuttle to the airport, we waited to board our 12:15pm Jet Blue flight. And waited. Our flight was delayed about 45min and then when we arrived at MCO there was severe weather that delayed our bags being taken off of the plane. We had to wait over an hour in baggage claim. I had never had that happen before!
We then called Uber and had no problems getting a ride and paid about $35.We actually ended up using Uber a fair amount over our trip especially with going to BB and never had a problem getting a ride.
Off to the Dolphin we went! It was now about 5pm. We loved the lobbies of both Swan and Dolphin (our driver accidentally dropped us at the Swan). Our room was nice and we were in the West tower of Dolphin which was very close to the Grotto pool. Key for us!
We unpacked and headed down to the pool. We easily found lounge chairs. The Cabana Bar had a nice menu. They made it super easy to order. Each chair had a tag to scan that linked to the menu to order. The staff brought our cool drinks and left them pool side for us! Then our food arrived. I had a tuna poke bowel that was delicious. Kids made pool friends and we swam the night away. Finally we got to bed to rest up for our early RD AK the next morning! I will post some picutures and continue on with our park days in a bit.