In late February, the itch to return to Walt Disney World came over me something fierce. I'm not sure if it was all of the talk about a potential early opening of Tiana's Bayou Adventure or the Flower and Garden Festival, or simply the desire to not be without a planned vacation for 4 months...(I know, I know...not a real problem). Whatever the case, I was able to convince Toby to make the trek down to Walt Disney World one more time (our family's fifth trip in less than 5 years).
Much like our fall Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party weekends we took in 2023 and 2022, this spring weekend would be just as quick, not leaving a lot of wiggle room for travel snafus or rest. Nevertheless, we persisted and managed to cram in an incredible amount of excitement in our whirlwind 61 hours at Walt Disney World Resort!
Friday, April 26:
As usual, we flew Allegiant Airlines out of Rockford Airport, catching the 7pm flight. Our anticipated arrival was 10:44pm, with yet another hour to the resort (after picking up our rental car), which meant a VERY late night (with a 7:30am early entry to Animal Kingdom the following day)...I made some hard choices and my kids dominated.
For this trip, we decided to be ultra-bougie since it was only a 3-night stay, and we splurged on reservations at the Grand Floridian (iykyk). Before you decide I've completely lost it, know that there are several options for staying at WDW's fanciest resorts. Namely, David's Vacation Club Rentals and DVC Rental Store. Both of these allow guests to rent DVC points and stay at some of the nicest facilities on property for a significantly reduced rate. If staying at a deluxe resort is out of your budget but on your bucket list, I'd highly recommend this route (I make ZERO commissions on those kinds of bookings, but I'm always going to be honest and help you make the most of your budget)!
Pictured: Augie staring at Cinderella's Castle across Bay Lake at the Grand Floridian around midnight.
Our flight landed early, and we hustled to the Hertz counter, but there's just no rushing a rental car line. Even with our hustle, we still didn't leave the airport until nearly 11pm. I was also a little panicked, because our room number hadn't become available on the MDE app yet. It was a moot point, as the room number popped up just as we took off for the resort. We pulled into the Grand Flo parking lot (self park, baby...no valet) around 11:45pm. We found our room (#5127 in Sago Cay), explored a bit, maybe shed a fear tears of gratitude, and hit the sack as the alarm was going to go off in a mere 6 hours!
Saturday, April 27: Animal Kingdom (7:30am early entry) & Hollywood Studios (10pm close)
DAK Must Dos: DAK May Dos:
Expedition Everest 1. It's Tough to Be a Bug
Festival of the Lion King 2. Dinosaur
Flight of Passage 3. Sa'Tuli Canteen
Na'Vi River Journey
Flame Tree BBQ
HW Must Dos: HS May Dos:
Rise of the Resistance 1. Tower of Terror
Slinky Dog Dash 2. Woody's Lunchbox
Toy Story Mania
Micky & Minnie's Runaway Railway
Fantasmic
Market
Milk Stand
Much like our October trip last fall, I made the decision to purchase Standby Skipper, allowing me to be on my phone less, and allow the Skipper to do the heavy lifting of securing my lightning lanes. Because this was going to be a flying trip, we decided to pay for Genie+ and individual lightning lanes, allowing us to ride all of our favorites and maximize our time.
So at 6:15am, I purchased Genie+, set Skipper to search for Na'Vi River Journey ASAP (a HUGE decision, as I felt I should've set it for Slinky Dog, but I was going to trust the Skipper and Thrill Data on this one). I hopped in the shower and got ready for that 6:59am rush to book our individual lightning lanes (ILL) for Rise of the Resistance (2:30pm) and Flight of Passage (FOP-8:30am).
Pictured: Harper and Augie ready to board Expedition Everest for the SECOND time during Early Entry at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
At this point, I was nervous about transportation, so we opted to drive our rental to Animal Kingdom. We were trying hard to hustle to get to DAK for the 7:30am early entry. It was pushing it, but we were able to tap in just after 7:30, when we hustled to Expedition Everest, as we had an 8am lightning lane for Na'Vi and an 8:30am ILL for FOP.
Here is how the day shook out:
7:45am: Expedition Everest (Early Entry)
7:55am: Expedition Everest (Early Entry)
8:06am: Dinosaur (Early Entry)
* 8:26am: Na’Vi River Journey (LL)
** 8:41am: Flight of Passage (ILL)
9:15am: Breakfast @ Kusafiri (overnight oats, honey pistachio croissant, colossal cinnamon roll & breakfast totchos)
10:00am: Festival of the Lion King
10:45am: Mobile order at Sa’Tuli Canteen (snack-cheeseburger steam pod children's meal)
11:00am-11:25am: Travel to Hollywood Studios
11:30am: Parking lot trams at Hollywood
* 12:00pm: Slinky Dog Dash (LL)
12:20pm: Market (snack-Jack Jack Num Num Cookie & watermelon lemonade slushie)
* 12:35pm: Toy Story Mania (LL)
1:06pm: Milk Stand (snack-blue milk)
1:20pm: Muppet Vision 3D
* 1:55pm: M&MRR (LL)
2:25pm: Hydraulics (snack-regular churros & spicy churros)
* 2:35pm: Star Tours (LL)
** 2:55pm: Rise (ILL)
* 3:30pm: Alien Swirling Saucers (LL 2x…half the party went to Andy’s to get totchos!)
4:05pm: For the First Time in Forever (4:30 show)
4:50pm-6:15pm: Mama Melrose (Dinner)
6:30pm: Vacation Fun
6:45-8:15pm: Shopping & People watching
8:20pm: Seated for Fantastic
9:00pm: Fantasmic
10:15pm: Back in hotel
Pictured: The Johnson family enjoying Disney's Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios
STATS:
7:15am depart hotel-10:15pm arrive back at hotel
15 hours away from the hotel
10.62 miles (24,016 steps)
16 rides and attractions
6 LL
2 ILL
3 EE
1 Mobile Order
1 Table Service
5 Snack Stops
Sunday, April 28: Magic Kingdom (early entry) & EPCOT (9pm close)
MK Must Dos: MK May Dos:
Big Thunder Mountain 1. Tomorrowland Speedway
Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Haunted Mansion
Space Mountain 3. People Mover
Seven Dwarves Mine Train 4. Enchanted Tiki Room
Tron 5. Carousel of Progress
Westward Ho 6. Astro Orbiter
7. Jungle Cruise
8. Sleepy Hollow Refreshments
9. Aloha Isle
EPCOT Must Dos: EPCOT May Dos:
Guardians of the Galaxy 1. Gran Fiesta Tour
Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. 2. Spaceship Earth
Soarin' 3. Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie
Test Track
Garden Rocks Concert
Food booths
We were EXHAUSTED after our massive 2-park day on Saturday, but there is no rest for the wicked on a flying weekend trip to Walt Disney World. We had our family priorities for these two MASSIVE parks and the day couldn't have been any better. Because we were doing MK and Epcot, and because the monorail stops at Grand Flo, we did not drive and solely relied on park transportation for this day. I bought Genie+ at 6:30am and set Skipper to an ASAP search for Big Thunder Mountain. At 7am I scored a Virtual Queue for Tron, as well as purchased an ILL for 7DMT and Guardians, not knowing if we'd be in Epcot when the 1pm VQ became available.
This is all we accomplished on this MASSIVE 2-park day:
8:36am: Space Mountain
* 9:15am: Big Thunder Mountain (LL)
9:30am: Westward Ho & Sleepy Hollow (Mobile Order) (Breakfast-candied bacon and a nutella fruit waffle)
* 10:00am: Pirates (LL)
10:35am: Popcorn & pin trading
10:40am: Small World
** 11:25am: 7DMT (ILL)
11:45am: Barnstormer
***12:00pm: Tron (Virtual Queue-Boarding Group 45)
1:00pm: Cosmic Ray’s Mobile Order (chicken tenders, cheeseburger, incredible patty melt)
1:30pm-2:15pm: Castle pictures & travel to Epcot
* 2:30pm: Soarin’
* 3:00pm: Test Track
** 3:30pm: Guardians (ILL)
4:15pm: Food booths (Brunchcot, Farmer's Feast, Citrus Blossom)
4:45pm: Gran Fiesta Tour
5:00pm: Kringla Og Bakeri (snacks)
* 5:15pm: Frozen Ever After
5:35pm: Food Booths (Lotus House)
5:45pm: Sommerfest Mobile Order
6pm: In line for Garden Rocks Concert
6:30pm: Seated for Garden Rocks Concert
6:45pm: Garden Rocks Concert
7:25pm: Food booths (Hanami)
7:35pm: Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie (snacks-macarons, dinde BLT, creme brûlée)
8:00pm: Remy LL drops and turns into multi-experience pass
8:25pm: Journey Into Imagination
8:37pm: Journey Of Water
* 9:30pm: Space Mountain
9:55pm: People Mover
STATS:
8:05am depart hotel-10:30pm arrive back at hotel
16 hours away from the hotel
11.65 miles (26,719 steps)
17 rides and attractions
6 LL
2 ILL
1 EE
1 VQ
3 Mobile Order
9 Snack Stops
Pictured: The Johnson family dominating Magic Kingdom and EPCOT
Monday, April 29:
Originally we had a dining reservation for breakfast at Kona at the Polynesian for 9:15am, but because checkout wasn't until 11am, and because our flight wasn't until 4pm, I knew that allowing the kids to sleep would be better than having breakfast at Kona Cafe. Instead, everyone slept until nearly 9:30am, and then we enjoyed exploring the Grand Floridian, since we had spent so little time there! We. explored the main building, grabbed a quick bite to eat at Gasparilla Island Grill, played Connect 4 on the beach, and generally wandered, daydreaming about coming back again some day
Pictured: The Johnson family thoroughly enjoying the grounds at the Grand Floridian
In sum, we made the most of this whirlwind weekend. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. The joy on my kids' faces, and the unique experience that Walt Disney World provides is unmatched. However, we are going to need a bit of a break, as I work through planning some major national park trips in the near future :)
Until next time...
Comments