Disney: The End

We had spent 2 full days in the parks, accomplishing most of our priorities and feeling very satisfied with our half days in each park.  For our final park day, we had Early Entry starting at 8:30 a.m. until about 8:00 in the evening before we headed back to the airport for our late night flight.  I asked each person in the family their top priority for our last day...either something we didn't get to do or something they wanted to do again.  Staley wanted to do Tower of Terror.  Briggs wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash again.  Adelie wanted to ride the Little Mermaid ride again.  Zach, with the power of his new motion sickness bands, wanted to give Flight of Passage a try...and he really wanted to see the bird show.  And I wanted to accomplish the 4 Park Challenge:  Visiting all 4 theme parks in one day while doing at least one ride, eating at least one park-specific snack, and taking at least one picture by the park icon.

Although we were all a bit weary from our epic Disney day the previous day, I bounced everyone out of bed in time get ready, load our suitcases back into the car, and grab a snack to eat as we walked over to Early Entry at Hollywood Studios.  Park #1:  Picture-Check!

Staley and I headed to Tower of Terror, Adelie and Briggs lined up for Slinky Dog Dash, and after dropping the littles off in their line, Zach popped over to do Toy Story Mania.  Because most people at Hollywood Studios rope drop either Slinky Dog Dash or Rise of the Resistance, Staley and I were able to loop Tower of Terror twice with no wait.  Rides-Check!

Adelie and Briggs had the longest wait of the family for Slinky Dog Dash (which they apparently used to take LOTS of selfies on the family phone), so we all met up in Toy Story Land after our rides and walked over to Star Wars Land for our Hollywood Studios snack.  We shared 3 Ronto Wraps, which were really yummy.  The consensus among the kids was that the breakfast Ronto Wrap was better than the regular one, although I thought they were both delicious.  Snack-Check!

After our snack and a little stroll through Star Wars Land (Zach's favorite themed land at Disney), we hopped a bus and headed over to Animal Kingdom.  Park #2: Picture-Check!

On the way there, I was able to grab us some single Lightning Lane passes for Flight of Passage.  While we waited for our Lightning Lane time, we wandered around the Tree of Life, checking out some of the wildlife...both real and specifically Disney.

We walked through the Maharaja Jungle Trek and were able to see the new baby tiger, Bakso.  We had heard that he's not always out or visible, so we felt lucky as he was very visible and active...and super cute!

After our animal viewing, we headed over to catch the bird show.  It's always a highlight!  I'm glad we got to enjoy the full version since it's one of our favorite Animal Kingdom shows.

After our bird show, it was time to head over to Pandora for our Flight of Passage Lightning Lane.  Zach tried this ride on one of our early trips, and it made him really sick.  With the help of his new magical bands, he handled it just fine and loved it.  Briggs rode for the first time and, much in Briggs fashion, he was nervous before riding it and was declaring it his new favorite ride afterwards.  Flight of Passage for the family win!  Ride-Check!

After riding Flight of Passage, Zach and the kids checked out the Pandora gift shop while I went to get our Animal Kingdom snack of Pongu Lumpia (yummy pinapple-cream cheese spring rolls) and Night Blossom frozen apple/pear limeade drink with Boba Balls.  The Pongu Lumpia were good, but the Night Blossom might have been my highlight snack of the day.  Snack-Check!

After our snack, we popped back into the Pandora gift shop so Adelie could purchase a shoulder banshee with her souvenir money.  Then we hopped aboard a bus to make our way over to...

Magic Kingdom!  Park #3: Picture-Check!

We were planning to do Adelie's priority ride, Little Mermaid.  However, the line was 40 minutes long.  We offered that we could wait in line or she could choose a different priority for the day.  As Little Mermaid is a ride that, over all our years of Disney trips, we've rode more than any other ride, Adelie shifted her priority to doing the Moana water area at Epcot instead.  So instead, we went to the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor show (always a hoot!) and then rode the People Mover.  After that, since there was no line for the Tomorrowland Speedway, Adelie, Briggs, and I did that one too.  Rides-Check!

For our snack, I had landed on the Mickey Waffle from Sleepy Hollow Refreshments topped with Nutella and fresh fruit. It was really good!  However, on a whim, I also grabbed a Chesire Cat Tail from the Chesire Cafe as we were walking by as I'd read that they were good.  It was delicious!!  I had only gotten one, so everyone just got one bite, but it might have been the best snack of the day.  Snacks-Check!  (I had tried to take photos of our snacks, but usually they were already being eaten or cut up to be shared by the time I thought to photograph them, so no photo evidence of the yumminess we tried throughout the day.)

After our Magic Kingdom snack, we hopped the monorail over to our last park of the day, Epcot.  Park #4:  Picture-Check!

We headed over to the Moana water area again so we could fulfill Adelie's priority for the day.  Then we popped over to Soarin' as we noticed the wait time was low, so our last official ride of the trip was the family favorite, Soarin'.  Ride-Check!

After that, we were thinking about dinner so we headed into World Showcase and decided to eat at La Cantina de San Angel.  The food was really good, and I was proud of Adelie and Briggs for actually ordering Mexican food at a Mexican restaurant as they got the tacos rather than the chicken strips or mac and cheese.  Progress!  And then, out of necessity, we got the churros for dessert...if only to be able to see Adelie's 'churro face.'  (Random story...you can ask the girls about it.)  Snack-Check!

I did actually have a different snack picked out for Epcot, but by this time everyone in the family was full and had quite the multitude of sweet treats throughout the day, so we counted the churros as our Epcot snack.  We wandered back through World Showcase.  Briggs then asked if we had time to ride the Skyliner before heading to the airport.  I felt like we did (maybe not the consensus opinion), so we rode the Skyliner to the Caribbean Beach resort and back before walking back to our hotel/car and heading to the airport.

Our return flight left Orlando at 10:20 p.m.  The joy of the late night flight?  No lines at security, a mostly empty airport, and only a half-full flight.  We all had space to spread out, and we all slept on the flight.  We gained an hour on the way home, which was nice.  So we got to Chicago a little before midnight, and then the kids slept the entire ride home...which was good since they all had to go to school that day.

We were discussing how things have changed over the years since we first started taking the kids to Disney.  On the one hand, there was something so magical about doing everything for the first time and seeing everything new through the eyes of your child.  The excitement about seeing a parade.  Jumping up and down when meeting characters.  Getting so excited about every little ride or activity.  Autograph books and hugs and character meals and princess dresses.

On the other hand, it is so much easier now that the kids are older.  They are more independent.  They like the same rides as us.  No strollers.  No meltdowns.  No working around nap times or bedtime.  We can eat wherever and whenever we want.  We can get up early and stay up late.  We can walk over 15 miles every day and no one complains or needs to be carried.  A Disney vacation with older kids is just more relaxing...or at least as relaxing as a Disney vacation can be.

We like staying in our own place...although we might choose someplace just a little closer to the parks next time.  We like driving our own car...especially when we can avoid riding buses.  We like using mobile order and eating at quick service restaurants.  I had actually made 4 restaurant reservations prior to our trip.  They were all ones that I had to work a bit to get, and I was excited about them all.  However, I ended up cancelling all of them (except T-Rex) just so we could enjoy the freedom of eating when we wanted and not taking up our precious park time with long sit down or crazy expensive meals.

Our Disney experiences evolve with each trip we take.  I might have pushed my family a bit too hard with our marathon Disney day followed by Early Entry (or so I've been told), but there were also some things we really liked about our trip this time.  We really liked park hopping and condensing our park days.  We really liked trying some of the different snacks and treats.  We really liked the new rides we got to try and the new things we got to do.  We really liked doing more and more of the 'bigger' rides as a family.  And, of course, we all loved escaping the gray, cold, Illinois winter for the blue skies and sunshine of Florida.

We all got to do and try new things this trip.  Zach found some new freedoms with his magic motion bands.  I finally got to do Haunted Mansion and Rise of the Resistance and It's Tough to Be a Bug.  Are there still things we didn't get to do or see?  Absolutely.  But I love that we made the most of the time we had, and everyone got to experience those things that were most important to them.

It was a great trip!  And with the new ability to ride more rides and the ease of traveling with our older kids and the reduced park days and the fun rest days, Zach even joined in the "next time we go to Disney" conversation.  I guess that means it's time to start planning our next trip!

Disney: Epcot and Magic Kingdom

After our fun Disney park day, we enjoyed another rest day.  The rain had ceased, but the morning was a little cooler and overcast so the kids skipped their morning swim.  We slept in, went for runs, and enjoyed a big breakfast at home.  After that, we headed out for a few hours of divided family fun.

Zach dropped Briggs and I off at Disney Springs while he took the girls back to the outlet mall from the previous day so they could all do a little more shopping together.  They had seen a number of stores (including running shoe stores) that they felt needed to be checked out.  Staley found a cute Disney sweatshirt at the Character Warehouse that she bought with her souvenir money. 

Briggs had zero interest in going shopping again, so we took a bus from Disney Springs to Animal Kingdom Lodge, which was on my list of Disney resorts I really wanted to see.  It was beautiful!

We walked around the resort, checked out the animals on the resort savannah, and then grabbed some zebra domes (a snack that I had read were a must try) to enjoy with the family later in the evening.

Briggs had humored me with our Animal Kingdom Lodge stop, but what he really wanted to do with our day off was ride the Skyliner.  So after we finished our visit to Animal Kingdom Lodge, we took a bus to Hollywood Studios and then rode the Skyliner to Art of Animation.

Art of Animation is one of our favorite resorts to visit.  Briggs played on the Nemo playground for a bit and then made our way through the Cars area.

Briggs wanted pictures with a bunch of the cars, so we walked around and took lots of pictures before getting on a bus to head back to Disney Springs to meet Zach and the girls.

We got back to our Airbnb, the kids enjoyed a later afternoon/evening swim, we had a taco dinner, I did laundry, and then we watched 'Ratatouille' (to prepare us for our Epcot day the next day) and ate zebra domes.  They lived up to the hype.  So good!!  Then we packed up our stuff for our early morning check out the next day.

We love the space, freedom, privacy, and amenities (private pools, kitchens, multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, laundry) of staying in an Airbnb, but Disney has brought back some of their on-site perks for those staying in Disney resorts.  So for the last two days of our trip, we checked into a deluxe Disney resort for just one night so we could take advantage of Early Entry on Wednesday and Thursday and Extended Evening Hours on Wednesday night.  (You can take advantage of these perks on both your check in day and your check out day.)  We stayed at the Yacht Club so that we could be within walking distance of both Epcot and Hollywood Studios.  The room was nothing special, but the common areas were very upscale and nice with regally dressed gentlemen in sailing garb greeting us as we came and went.  Our kids referred to it as our "hoity-toity hotel."  Not really our scene, but sometimes it's fun to see how the other half lives.

We left our Airbnb by 7, parked in our hotel parking lot, and then walked on over for Early Entry at Epcot.  With both Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours, I did not buy a Lightning Lane Multi-pass for our day, although I did get single passes for the girls and I to ride the new Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster.  I had a great plan of being towards the front of the line for Remy's Ratatouille Adventure and then hitting Frozen before the park opened to regular guests.  That plan was almost immediately thwarted by Remy's being closed for Early Entry.

We just pivoted and instead lined up to start our day with Frozen.  (Getting up early to wait in a line just to wait in a line isn't Zach's favorite way to start his day, but he was a pretty good sport about it.) We rode Frozen with a short wait and then Zach grabbed a coffee on our way to ride Soarin' before the lines started to build.  It was nice to check off 2 of the high priority rides before the park was even opened to regular guests.

We all love Epcot.  With each trip we take, it becomes more and more the favorite park for at least some of us.  After this trip, Zach and I both decided that Epcot is our definitive favorite.  We love how it's big and spread out.  We love the countries.  We love all the things to walk around and see rather than just going from one ride to the next.  We love that it is not as people-y and line-y as Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.  It is a more laid back, spend the day exploring kind of park.

After riding Soarin', we hopped on Living with the Land, walked over for the Nemo ride, checked out the manatees in the Seas aquarium, and enjoyed Turtle Talk with Crush.

We then popped over to check out the new Moana water play area.  It was super cool!  There were tons of neat interactive water features, and the kids spent a lot of time playing and checking them all out.

After that, we headed back into World Showcase to walk through the countries.  Remy's Ratatouille Adventure had re-opened mid-morning, but the line was really long.  Since we wanted to ride it and didn't want to wait over an hour, we all jumped into the single rider line and had literally no wait to get on the ride.  Although single rider means you are generally split up from your group, Briggs and I ended up in the same ride vehicle as did Staley and Adelie.  It was perfect!

I was told by a frequent Disney visitor that I needed to try a Tokyo Sunset from the Japan pavilion as she declared it the best drink in the entire park.  So I did.  And it was!

And, of course, no visit to Epcot is ever complete without spending ample time watching the miniature trains in Germany.

We ate a yummy lunch at the Regal Eagle, and then it was about time for the girls and I to head over for our Guardians roller coaster.  We wandered back through the Moana water exhibit (it was a favorite!) on our way.  Zach and Briggs stayed in World Showcase and watched 'The American Adventure' show.

The new Guardians of the Galaxy coaster was amazing!  It combined a fun backstory and pre-show, screens, music, spinning, and a roller coaster.  It was a blast!  We all enjoyed it, although we were a bit wobbly getting off.  I'm happy to we decided to buy a Lightning Lane pass for the ride as the posted wait time was never less than an hour the whole day.

Epcot was just beautiful when we were there.  We had perfect weather, but they were also getting ready to start the Flower and Garden Festival the next week.  It was perfect timing as we were there before the festival (and, thus, the festival crowds), but still got to enjoy the flowers in bloom and fun Disney topiaries that were all around the park.

After Guardians, it was time to meet back up with Zach and Briggs to head over to Magic Kingdom.  Although we would have enjoyed more time to just walk around and explore at Epcot, we had hit all our priorities.  Staley was really wanting to be at Magic Kingdom in time for the Festival of Fantasy Parade, so we jumped on the monorail, got into the park, found a place to sit in the shade (score!), and grabbed some ice waters to drink while we relaxed and waited for the parade to come by.

The Festival of Fantasy Parade is one of our favorites.  I love that my kids still get excited about watching the Disney parades.  I know I still do!

Much like our Hollywood Studios day, we used the middle portion of our Magic Kingdom day to focus on low wait time rides and shows, waiting until evening and our Extended Evening Hours to take advantage of low wait times for the more popular rides.

While we were waiting for crowds to thin out, we rode the train (one of Briggs' top requests), watched the Country Bear Musical Jamboree, ate Dole Whip, rode the Liberty Square Riverboat, walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse, rode Pirates of the Carribean (where Briggs used his souvenir money to get a sword), and ate dinner at Columbia Harbor House.  It's one of our favorites with some good, healthy food options and scrumptious hush puppies.

Adelie really wanted to meet Ariel in her grotto, so Zach took Adelie and Staley to meet Ariel followed by the Dumbo ride while Briggs and I rode Goofy's Barnstormer together.  

 

As evening came, we started taking advantage of some lower wait times for other favorite rides like the Little Mermaid ride and It's a Small World.  I really wanted to ride Haunted Mansion as it's about the only ride at Magic Kingdom that I've never done, so we did that as a family...much to the chagrin of the youngest member of our party.  But he sort-of bravely handled it while insisting that he'll never do it again.  It was really cool and well-done, although I decided that I'm also less of a foreboding-house-of-ghosts fan and more of a happy- children-from-different-countries-singing-a-catchy-tune fan.

Although we do enjoy a good evening Disney fireworks and projection show, we decided to take advantage of low wait times during the fireworks to fit in some of our rides instead.  We lucked into a very low wait time right at the beginning of the fireworks at the reimagined Tiana's Bayou Adventure (previously Splash Mountain), which we all really enjoyed.  And as we took advantage of the end of the regular hours and commencement of Extended Evening Hours, we then started to enjoy some of the more popular rides.  

We rode Tiana's Bayou Adventure again right before the park closed to regular guests (as Tiana's was not available during Extended Evening Hours).  We then rode Peter Pan's Flight and Seven Dwarves Mine Train.  After that, the girls and I crossed into Tomorrowland to do Space Mountain and Tron Lightcycle Run while Briggs did Seven Dwarves Mine Train again and then he and Zach did Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.  

Tron is the newest ride at Magic Kingdom.  It was really cool, but it felt super short...I would have liked it better if it had lasted a little longer.  By the time we rode Tron, Adelie was too worn out to even really enjoy it.  (She didn't even want to be in the picture.)  It had been a long day!

By the time we got off our last rides, it was midnight and the end of our Extended Evening Hours.  The park was eerily uncrowded as we made our way to the bus stop and rode a bus back to our resort.  Staley and I did a quick streak-keeper mile around Lake Crescent while Zach and the littles got our luggage from the car and found our hotel room.  

It was a marathon day of Disney parks fun, as we were at Epcot before 8 in the morning and left Magic Kingdom after midnight.  As I have been told now (repeatedly) by my husband, a full day and late night in the park like this should NOT be followed by another morning of Early Entry.  Oops!!  Unfortunately for him, I did not get this memo until after these plans were already in motion...but it has been noted for our NEXT visit.  So we enjoyed a quality 6 hours of sleep in our fancy hotel before embarking on our final Disney day.  Stay tuned...