WDW May 2017 Trip Report

This will be my trip report for May 9- May 13 2017. Along for the trip was me, (Dad), my beautiful wife, my three year old daughter, and my mother in law. We stayed at art of Animation in a Finding Nemo Suite (Finding Dory, according to my daughter). I planned the whole trip with ALOT of help from these forums, so I wanted to give a recount of our trip.

Tuesday May 9 – Day 1
Our flight out of Columbus was at 7AM. Plane ride was great, and we even got in early to Orlando. Took the Magical Express, and walked right on to the bus, and AoA was the first stop. Got the “room wasn’t ready” text so we donned our swim suits and headed to the big blue pool! The pool was great, zero entry, and my daughter LOVED it! She isn’t the greatest swimmer so I had to be with her the entire time, but she was singing all day long in the pool, and every once in awhile headed over to the splash pad.

After a couple of hours in the pool, we ate lunch at the resort, and I went to reception to check on our room. I requested a high level room, with a view of hour glass lake, they said they could get me in a room, if I forgo my request. My daughter still takes a nap, and I needed to get her to bed, so I ended up with a first floor room in building 4. It looked out onto the playground near the big blue pool. Not too much noise from the outside, but you could hear the doors being shut from the other rooms every once in awhile. The room was great, beds comfy, and the two bathrooms worked out great for getting ready in the morning. My daughter kept on saying “fish are friends, not food” every time she walked in the bathroom. Fish are friends is printed on the mirror in both bathrooms.

After her nap, we all got ready and headed to dinner at Ohana. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then jumped on the monorail to the Polynesian. This place was awesome (the hotel and restaurant). Next trip I take to the world, I am staying at the Poly. We had an ADR at 5:30 PM and arrived a little before, and were seated about 5:40pm. Our view at the table:

Dinner was great, my wife had a Mai Tai or two, while I had two or four glasses of wine. I am not a hug fan of coconut, and was a little iffy of the bread at first, but it was really good, couldn’t taste any coconut what so ever. The salad was great, and the dressing made this salad. Th noodles, wings and pot stickers were awesome. Everything that came out trumped the other. The steak was so tender, I could cut it with a butter knife and the chicken was very juicy. The only negative I have is the shrimp still had the shells on them, and I think they would taste even better if they deshelled them and then cooked them with the marinade. They were still great though. After we had enough meat and sides, they cleared our table and brought some warm towels to wash up. The highlight of the dinner was dessert. They brought two cupcakes with M&Ms for my daughter and also this masterpiece:

This.Was.Awesome! If you go here, make sure you save room for this. Totally worth it, and they could only serve this and I would be fine with the price. We had a great time, and I have vowed to have an OHana dinner at my house sometime in the near future.

After dinner we Ubered back to the hotel, and headed to bed, our first day at the parks was going to be an early one.

Coming up on Day 2: Cinderella’s Royal Table, princesses, Touring Plans, princesses, Cosmic Rays, and more princesses…

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Great first day, looking forward to more of trip report.

Great first day! It seems no matter where I stay I find myself at the Poly at least once a trip.

Awesome 1st day…Looking forward to more…:grin:

Wednesday May 10 – Day 2

We had an ADR for 7:55 AM at Cinderella’s Royal Table. The night before I asked at the front desk about transportation to the park and they stated “buses start running one hour before park opening”. When I told them I had a 7:55 AM reservation, they stated they have early morning buses that start running at 6:30 AM.

We were all showered, dressed and at the bus stop by 6:45AM. We were the second family in line, and the other family told us they had an ADR at Crystal Palace. They stated they ate at CRT the day before and got there too early with the 6:30 AM bus and decide to sleep in “a little”. The bus came right before 7AM and we were at the front gate through security and waiting at the tunnel by 7:30AM with about 50 other people. At 7:45 they let every one through, we skipped the first couple phototographers and grabbed this photo near the castle:

We were checking into the castle right at 7:55AM and were the third family in line. Met Cinderella (Daughter was very shy and hid behind me on the pictures) and were seated right away. The castle was great, my daughter was in awe. We saw Snow White, Auroa, Ariel, and Jasmine. Food and princesses came out fast, but the princesses spent as much time as needed at the table. The food was good. I got the beef enderloin and egg and it was good, not a huge portion, but pair it with the pastry dish and a couple cups of coffee and it will get you through until lunch(I like to eat too). My wife got the traditional breakfast and I also ate some of hers. My daughter got the Royal kids breakfast and ate very little, she was too busy getting her autographs and talking about the princesses. She always needs either me or my wife there with her, but she loved it.

We were done around 8:30 and were an hour ahead of the touring plan I put together. I decided to make an audible and head out of the castle and watch the welcome show which was scheduled for our second day at MK. The show was great and we decide to start our touring plan. First up was Under the Sea, but it happened to be down, so we’d decided to meet Aerial at her Grotto (also schedule for the second day). Wait was minimal, and the meet and greet was great. We headed over to its a small world and walked right on, followed by our fast pass to meet Rapunzel and Tiana. They were great, and Tiana was spot on. Daughter was still being shy, and wouldn’t hug the characters but was still excited to meet them. After the meet and greet Under the Sea was open, so we rode that. It stalled a couple of times, and at the wrong times ( dark part with ersalla) and it freaked my daughter out a little, but she powered through it.

At this time we were way ahead of schedule and decided to take a break and wait for the 10:30 Royal friendship faire. Well, that didn’t work too well, as they didn’t do the entire show, instead just a quick 3 minute song and dance. We headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle for a Fastpass, and it was a great experience. Every kid gets a chance for a part and even if they don’t want one they can still get a picture with Belle at the end.

After ETwB we headed back to AoA for lunch and a nap.

More day 2 coming later…

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An hour ahead of your plan? Wow! That is amazing!

Day 2 continued

After a nap and a couple snacks we headed back to MK. Got to the park around 4:30 and got in line to see Tinker bell which was only about a 10 minute wait. Tinker bell was great, very talkative and had great interaction with everyone she saw. After this we had a fastpass for 7DMt, but unfortunately it was down. They gave us an anytime fastpass for the rest of the day, unfortunately, we didn’t need it, as 7DMT never came back online before we left and we didn’t need it for any other attractions. So we headed to Cosmic Rays for dinner.

Cosmic Rays was good, but there was no kids hamburger meal, had to order my daughter a plain adult cheeseburger, really wish they had a kids burger meal, other than that, it was good to sit in the AC for a while. There were several birthdays being celebrated here, and cast members were singing their birthday songs.

After dinner we headed over and rode the people mover, which was a nice way to let the food digest as we rode around Tommorow Land. After the people mover we headed to the Tea cups. My daughter loved the ride, and we were able to walk right on for a second ride. After this, we went over and rode Goofy’s Barnstormer, daughter also loved this ride!

After the Barnstormer, we went to see Daisy and Minnie, but the line was shut down due to too many people in the queue and the attraction closing at 7:30pm. So, I told my daughter we would meet them when we came back on Friday.

We headed over to the Magic Carpet rides and rode this ride (this was scheduled for day 2, but glad we got it in, as it was down on Friday when we were scheduled to go.). After the carpet rides, we got a dole whip and enjoyed watching the people. The dole whip was good, but I would rather have a soft serve swirl (I know people love them, so don’t flame me on this).

After watching people for a while, we left the parks before the fireworks, my daughter isn’t a big fan of loud noises, and it was getting late, so I wanted to avoid a melt down. Got back to the room, and everyone was out cold by 9:45!

Side note, when we got to the buses to go back to our hotel Pop Century’s bus just pulled up so we hoped on that, and a nice stroll over the bridge to AoA.

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Sounds like a magical day. Great pictures.

Love this trip report! Great pictures. Can’t wait to hear more!!! :slight_smile:

Sounds like so much fun! We’ll be going with my daughter & son, who will be 6 and then 4 at the time of our trip later this year, so I’m reading about princesses with much interest! :slight_smile:

We are doing a split stay trip, with part of our stay at the Finding Nemo family suites at AoA - thanks for the tip that we could get a Pop Century bus and walk to AoA if it was convenient. I hadn’t realized the two resorts were close enough to do that!

AoA is the other half of Pop Century - which is only half a century.

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Sorry for the delayed update to the trip report, re-entry has been rough. Now on to Day three…
Thursday May 11th Day 3–

Today is Hollywood Studios. Woke up around 6 (who can sleep in at Disney, when there is so much excitement and fun to be had?). Grabbed a quick bite to eat at the food court, and headed to the bus stops. If there is one thing you can count on at AoA bus stops is that there is always a Hollywood Studios bus and there it was just waiting for us to board. Got to DHS right at rope drop and just strolled through. Today we were taking it easy and were planning on staying a half day here. Headed over to see Olaf and we had to wait as he doesn’t start greeting guests until 9:15, not to bad, as there were only about 5 families ahead of us. Saw Olaf, and got his drawing on a beach ball (he doesn’t do autographs,so a CM hands these out to people if you ask). After this we headed over to Voyage of the little mermaid, which was a great show, daughter didn’t want to go in, as she thought it was too dark. Hit all the songs and was out in about 15 minutes.

We had a FPP for Toy Story from 9:20-1020, so we headed over and the queue for FPP went quickly, my DD rode with me while my wife and MIL rode behind us. I came out on top and thought this ride was great. Fun interaction and just an overall fantastic fun ride. After Toy Story we headed over to Frozen Sing Along. Got there right around 10:20, for the 10:30 show and still got in. I don’t think there is a bad seat in the theatre. The two storytellers were great with some timely satire and funny jokes to keep the dilate entertained. I was a little disappointed as I thought the singing would be live with the characters, but it wasn’t. I will tell you the finale was great and my daughter LOVED when they re-sung (is that a word?) Let it Go at the end and all the snow started falling. The finale and the two storytellers made the show worth it.

After the Fozen sing along we had an ADR at Hollywood and Vine at 11:20 and still had about 20 minutes to burn. Looked at the wait time for Mickey and Minnie and saw it was only a 10 minute wait so we headed to see them. After a short wait we were meeting Minnie and onward to meet Mickey. Both characters were great with interactions, it was something I am glad we got to fit in.

Got to Hollywood and Vine right before 11:20 and only had to wait a couple of minutes before we were seated. The food was ok, nothing to right home about, but the service, and especially our server were great. This was also a turning point for my daughter to opening up with the characters, as she would never hug them, but one interaction with Doc McStuffins was all it took:

After lunch we sat on the patio of Hollywood and Vine for a little just relaxing contemplating our next move, I asked my daughter if she wanted to go swimming or go see Pluto, and she said Pluto, so we headed over to the meet and greet section to see Pluto, and what do you know, another great interaction:

She said she wanted to see the rest of the characters, so we met with Jake:

And then finished up with Sophia and Doc. After all this the sun was beating down and it was pushing 95 degrees so we decided to head back to AOA.

Coming up, Swimming the rest of the day, and should we do EPCOT or not?

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What great pictures! I’d say DD is hooked!! Sorry reentry has been tough!

Sounds like another fun day! I love the photo where your daughter is hugging Doc McStuffins and you look so happy - like “Yes! It’s happening!”! Your family will probably always remember the thrill that came along with this photo because it caught you at exactly the right moment! :smile:

Sounds like you had a great trip! Can’t wait to hear more about it. DH and I moved to Columbus a few years ago and are going to have to fly to WDW for our next trip for the first time - glad to hear it all went smoothly for you.