We decided on Tuesday afternoon to book a trip to Disney!! I never do anything spur of the moment and without thorough planning, so this was a stretch for me! However, it turned out great and we packed as much as we could into a few short days!
We drove down on Thursday and checked into our hotel, Pop Century. This is the first time we've stayed on property and we had to do a little roaming around to get the lay of the land and figure out how all the transportation stuff worked! After exploring some, we headed to Disney Springs(formerly Downtown Disney) in search of dinner! We had never been to either Downtown Disney or Disney Springs and were blown away with how much there was here! We did not have dinner reservations and put our name in at TREX and there was only about a 30 minute wait which we killed browsing the shops - S scored a hat that she wore all weekend! TREX was a fun restaurant and C was actually totally entertained by the fish tank next to his chair - I guess Disney makes us all feel a bit younger:) After dinner we walked around the rest of Disney Springs, the kids managed to talk us into dessert from Gideon's Bakehouse and then we retired to our room where we all actually slept really well - this is unusual for us for a first night away from home but both kids had their own air mattresses and sleeping bags on the floor which I think helped!
Friday we were up early to get breakfast at the eatery at the resort, get in the virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance ride at Hollywood Studios that day and order our mobile order lunch from Docking Bay 7. We took the Skyliner into Hollywood Studios and arrived about 8:30am(the official opening of the park was listed as 9am, but we'd been told that they were opening the parks early to stagger the crowds coming in). It had been eight years since we'd been to Hollywood Studios and it is so different now! It took a lot of map-looking to figure out the layout and where everything was(especially in the Star Wars area because nothing is labeled!). We went to Slinky Dog first, then Millennium Falcon, Toy Story Mania, the Alien Swirling Saucers(M and I let the kids take on this one without us... barf!), Star Tours and the Rise of the Resistance in the morning! We then headed in to pick up our mobile lunch order where they already had it on a tray and showed us to an empty table - talk about convenient and a time saver!! After lunch we wanted to give our bellies a chance to digest, so we went to see the Muppets 3D, rode Toy Story Mania for the second time, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, Rockin' Roller Coaster(I sat this one out, M rode once and was done, the kids rode twice), the Lightning McQueen show, took a quick ice cream/mask break because it was getting a little on the warm side at this point, Slinky Dog for a second time and Millennium Falcon for a second time. At this point, the only ride we had not done was Tower of Terror and S was the only one who had any desire to do it. So, we split up and I waited in line with her while the boys road Runaway Railway and Star Tours again. We then met back up, having rode every ride at Hollywood Studios at least once, the park was closing at 7pm and our dinner reservations were at 7:15pm at 50's Prime Time Cafe. This was really cute and different type of place and was set up as if you were eating dinner in a kitchen straight out of Leave it to Beaver! We finished dinner, the crowds were non-existent at this point because the park had been closed for over an hour, and there were no lines on the Skyliner to return to Pop Century! That part of staying on property was pretty great!
Saturday we were up early again and got breakfast at the resort before hopping on the bus for a day in Magic Kingdom. Again, we were there by 8:30am and went straight for Mine Train. We know our way around this park better since we've been here more recently and it hasn't changed near as much as Hollywood Studios, so we didn't have to use the map on our phones to navigate near as much! We rode Peter Pan, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. We had lunch reservations at Be Our Guest. What a huge, delicious meal!! We went to breakfast here once, but lunch is a completely different experience! After lunch we rode Dumbo, Barnstormer, Space Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Haunted House, Thunder Mountain again, the Ferry Boat and then made sure I got some pictures with us with the castle in the background. We had dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern where we again stuffed our faces with a lot of food. All of us love Splash Mountain the most and we were able to ride two more times after dinner before the park closed! What a full, exciting day! We did have to wait in a line to get a bus back to Pop Century since we were leaving when everyone else was, but it wasn't too bad!
This morning we were up again, ran through a lightning storm to breakfast at the resort and then packed up and drove home!
Thursday - Drive to Disney and Disney Springs
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The kids promised to keep up with their schoolwork while
we were travelling! For the most part, they got it all done:) |
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Exploring Pop Century Resort - I think they were all a bit
stir crazy after the drive! |
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| Disney Springs |
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C was completely enamored by the fish at TREX
in Disney Springs! |
Friday - Hollywood Studios
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| On the Skyliner from the resort to Hollywood Studios |
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S really wanted to ride Tower of Terror - but nobody
else did! I waited in line with her while the boys
did a couple of rides again! |
Saturday - Magic Kingdom
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Our captain on the Jungle Cruise was absolutely hilarious and
thoroughly entertained us! |
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We happened upon a pop up princess parade on
our way to lunch - it was neat to see, but none
of us really cared too much about seeing it:) |
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Be Our Guest lunch was sooo fancy - three course
meals all around! |
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C was loving the bubble makers that the kids in
line would use! He was constantly chasing
and popping them! LOL! |
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This was fun to receive... ugh! BUT,
the weather never turned bad and although it was
predicted that Disney would get about 2" of
rain, we only got sprinkled on
here and there throughout the day! |
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| M's favorite ride - the ferry boat! |
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C and a kid making bubbles for him to pop on the
ferry! |
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| Goodbye, Disney! |
Pictures taken with our memory maker photo pass:
