Our plan on this day was to get to the bus stop earlyyyy. Mission accomplished, and we were off the bus at 7:15 a.m. for an 8:00 a.m. opening. Here you can see the crowd level at this point.
Tree of Life
Since I don’t ride Avatar: Flight of Passage, I went directly to Na’vi River Journey by myself. I was maybe 10-15 people deep in line at 7:30 a.m. They didn’t open the ride until 7:48 a.m.
Everyone else in our party went to Flight of Passage and were on and off the ride before 8:00 a.m.
While I was waiting for them to get off of the ride, I headed to Pongu Pongu Lounge to get a refreshing Night Blossom beverage.
This drink gets a 10/10 in our family! The flavors are wonderful, and it’s so refreshing on a hot day. I don’t love boba balls, by my daughter does! Also, this stand has some quick options for breakfast, but we did not try any of them.
Next we headed for the Kiliminjaro Safari. We were in line at 8:30 a.m. with a 30 minute posted wait time. Actual wait time was 23 minutes.
After exiting the Safari, we checked out Zuri Sweets Shop, which has some amazing desserts at the counter. Here are just the cupcakes!
We took a bathroom and snack break here, sitting in Harambe Market area. My daughters also took this time to take some photos with amazing back drops.
Next we went to Kali River Rapids. It was 9:50 a.m. with a 15 minute wait posted. After that, we headed to Expedition Everest which also had a 15 minute wait posted. We also watched It’s Tough to be a Bug and the Winged Encounters bird show.
We had dining reservations for lunch at Yak & Yeti and went there next. See my next post for a full review of one of our favorite places to eat!
The last thing we did was watch the Festival of the Lion King, which had just started showing!
It was so good to finally welcome this show back. You could tell the cast was so happy to perform again! Although it is altered slightly, it was still amazing!
After this show, we shopped and headed back to the resort to swim and rest.
We had mobile ordered our lunch from ABC Commissary, and our pick up time was 11:50-12:20. This is what you see once you place your order:
Once your arrival window opens, you can click a button that says Prepare My Order.
Once you arrive to pick up your food, you are greeted at the entrance by a cast member with an iPad. They check to make sure you are on the list to receive your food, and then you may enter. We were able to find a table easily, and it was definitely more quiet than we were used to in here!
My mom ordered the Mediterranean Salad with Chicken. $11.99–Chicken breast served over mixed greens with tomatoes, cucumber, pepperoncini, kalamata olives, and feta, tossed in a Mediterranean vinaigrette with hummus and grilled flatbread.
This was a nice, light, refreshing dish and a fairly large portion.
My sister-in-law ordered the Curry Rice Bowl with Shrimp. $13.99–sauteed shrimp and vegetables with red curry sauce, served with jasmine coconut rice.
I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich. $10.99–grilled sourdough toasted with buffalo chicken, Monterey, provolone, cheddar and cream cheese, served with a side of buffalo sauce and fries (you get a choice of sides.)
This was SO GOOD! My daughter split this with me and she also loved it. Think buffalo chicken dip inside a grilled cheese. Why haven’t I thought of this sooner??!! Here’s a close up of the inside:
My daughter ordered the Chicken Club $12.49. Marinated chicken breast served on a toasted brioche bun, topped with bacon, provolone, guacamole, ranch dressing, lettuce and tomato, served with choice of side.
This was also very good! Everyone loved their food and we will definitely come back here.
I like that the options are different than the normal quick service options. There’s also a lot of indoor seating to get out of the heat.
Today was the day…our first attempt at getting into the queue for Rise of the Resistance! If you know anything about this process, you know you have to be on My Disney Experience wherever you are to score a spot. All of my clients get detailed notes on how to get the best chance of securing a place in the virtual queue! If you do not have a spot, you do not ride! (There is a second chance at 1:00 p.m. as well, but you have to have a park reservation for that day, and you have to be in the park to actually get into the queue.)
So I arose at 6:45 a.m., logged onto the My Disney Experience app. This is what you see when you scroll down a little bit on the home page:
When you click on Check Status, it will take you to this screen:
When you click Join Virtual Queue, it takes you here:
On my daughter’s phone I used the time.is website to check the time down to the second. This is very important! These spots get taken within seconds and then they are totally booked.
And it’s a fail…I’m telling you, it’s difficult to get! You cannot wait until exactly 7:00:00. You have to hit the join at 6:59:59.
Hollywood Studios opened at 9:00 a.m. today. I could not get my crew moving! We didn’t leave the room until 9:30 a.m. This destroyed all of my plans for rope dropping since they open the gates at about 8:15 a.m. Luckily a bus came immediately, and we arrived at DHS at 9:55 a.m.
The night beforeitannounced that there would be no more masks while outdoors in common areas at Disney! So I was anxious to see how this was indicated in the parks.
Right before we got to security, they had cast members announcing NO MASKS! So it really was true.
I had to stop at Guest Services to pick up my physical Annual Pass card, and my family headed to Alien Swirling Saucers because it had the lowest posted wait time of 30 minutes. My plan was to meet them there.
Wait times were already rising…BECAUSE WE DIDN’T ROPE DROP! So we went to Toy Story Midway Mania, which had a 40 minute wait posted. This was fairly accurate. The queue for this started wayyyyyyyyy back near the old entrance for this ride. Here we are at the end of the ride. There are a few different “walls” here to get good IG pics!
At the end of this ride, we took some time to mobile order our lunch from ABC Commissary. I will have a whole separate post reviewing our experience and food here. Stay tuned! At this point, my sister-in-law and niece were just arriving at the park and were able to meet up with us for lunch, as they also placed a mobile order.
While at lunch, at 1:00 p.m., we again attempted to secure a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance. SUCCESS!!! We had about 2-3 hours to kill before our group would be called, so we forged on.
After lunch, we got in line for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway which had a 45 minute wait posted. This was accurate.
The crew, with the exception of my mom and I, headed to Star Tours which had a 25 minute wait posted. We just sat on a bench and people watched.
Next we headed into Galaxy’s Edge to look around. Our boarding group was called at 3:15 p.m. We got in line at 3:25 p.m. and were off the ride at 4:10 p.m. We still had to go through the entire queue, it wasn’t a Fastpass situation.
At this point we decided to take one more ride on Toy Story Midway Mania (20 minute posted wait) and then head back to the resort to relax and swim. Overall, it was a great day, but there was so much we didn’t get to do yet.
Welcome to my latest Disney World trip report! This one was a girls only trip that included my mom, my two daughters, my sister-in-law, and my niece. We originally were supposed to take this vacation in May 2020, but we know what happened there…
We were arriving on Friday, and sis-in-law on Saturday.
Our drive to the Philadelphia Airport was quite eventful. Usually I take 76 to the Blue Route and for some reason Waze had other ideas. We went over the river and through the woods, and made it to our parking reservation right on time. We would have been late for sure if we would have gone our usual route! All I could see on those routes was red, red, red. We used Park N Jet on this trip. It was a Groupon and a great value. This is who we typically use so I wasn’t worried. The parking lot was PACKED! They were turning people away if they didn’t have a reservation.
We arrived at the airport around 3:30 p.m. and our flight was to leave at 5:12 p.m. Thankfully, security was a breeze with not too long of a wait. We had not even boarded our flight from Philadelphia, when I received this text. Our room was ready! (Be sure you do online check in in My Disney Experience and you can completely skip the front desk!)
Our flight was on Frontier, and it was packed full! It took forever to board and we actually got off the ground about a half hour late. However, we somehow arrived on time in Orlando, but then had to sit on the runway for 15 minutes. Just a reminder that Disney’s Magical Express no longer handles your luggage. You are responsible for getting it from Baggage Claim, then toting it with you to the Magical Express line. Sometimes this requires you to go from Terminal A to Terminal B.
This is a tradition pic! Every year, we have a picture of Devon trying to touch the sign, or running and jumping trying to touch the sign (down by the Magical Express). This year she didn’t have to jump!
I had been hearing and reading about realllllllly long wait times for Magical Express. This is due in part to less buses running, seating every other row, etc. I was super pleasantly surprised when we arrived and this was the line! THERE WAS NO LINE! This was about 9:00 p.m. on Friday night. I was fully prepared to call for an Uber/Lyft.
Look how empty!
I do want to say, my sis-in-law arrived on Saturday morning and the line was very long. They got a Lyft!
We boarded at 9:10 p.m.
As stated in my previous post from my trip in November, they are assigning seats. They are seating only every other row (at the time of this trip). We did tip the driver once we got off.
We arrived at Old Key West at 9:45 p.m. We were the first stop! They were going to 4 other resorts after our stop. The Bell Services desk is located right at the drop off outside of the lobby. We never even stepped foot inside the lobby!
We had placed an order with Dizzy Dolphin Delivery several weeks ahead of time and it was awaiting us at Bell Services. This resort is huge! Like 5 bus stops huge. So we were extremely thankful that one of the bellman drove us to our room in this golf cart! He also carried everything up to our room for us. We tipped him well!
We were in Room 2420, which was located on the second floor at the Peninsular Road area bus stop. I put in a request for this building because of it’s location. The bus stop at Peninsular Road is the first bus stop. I didn’t want to chance not having a seat by being directly at the Hospitality House. That is the last stop. We did experience passing by a few stops on a few different occasions with the driver letting them know they will have to catch the next bus.
The Deluxe Studios are about 390 square feet, with 2 queen beds. This is the only DVC resort studio that has 2 regular beds. (Not a sofa bed, not a pull down)
It features a table with two chairs and a tiny tv (this is my only complaint!) in the bedroom area.
Between the bedroom area and the bathroom is a little kitchenette area. Here you can find a microwave, toaster, fridge, coffee pot, sink, etc. Some paper products are provided in the room and are individually sealed. There’s also a roll of paper towels under the sink.
The bathroom is on the smaller side, so we just had to stagger our “get ready” times with four females in the room!
There’s a closet with extra bedding, a vacuum, safe, and ironing board.
I had mentioned we ordered from Dizzy Dolphin. I just wanted to mention that they were great! I received a text from them when the goodies were delivered to the resort. It stated very specifically where our items could be located by Bell Services. Everything was packaged with the greatest care and we were extremely pleased.
Besides the muffins pictured above, we also ordered Panera bagels and cream cheese,
these amazing trays from Publix, which come in various sizes, as well as a few other grocery type items.
We had these for breakfast, snacks in the room, and even packed some for snacks in the park. It was perfect for a later evening arrival. We were all starving!
Up next, our first park day…Disney’s Hollywood Studios!
Posted at 9:46 am by taryngirl, on December 1, 2020
11/14/2020
Recapping a little bit from my previous post, Disney After Covid (which focused mostly on safety and Covid procedures)…
I was presented an amazing opportunity to visit both Disney World and Universal Orlando. I am a Disney Vacation Club member and had several points available to use thanks to a canceled trip back in May, I’m an Annual Passholder, and had a free flight thanks to Southwest Airlines points. That covered the Disney portion of my trip. Universal Orlando invited me to stay on property and experience the parks for a few days, so I could see how they are keeping guests safe while still having loads of fun!
My travel day started off with a 2:50 a.m. alarm to wake up. (I am NOT a morning person unless I’m traveling!). My cousin Alex was my travel partner. We left around 3:40 a.m., and drove to the Philadelphia Airport, arriving around 5:10 a.m. at our parking lot. We went with Smart Park on this trip. I really just look around to see who is cheapest! Upon arriving at the parking lot, we were picked up in a shuttle with two other travel parties. We felt very safe. Everyone was wearing masks and the driver was wearing gloves.
Once at the airport, security was a breeze. Everything is still normal…shoes and coats off, everything on the belt and through the scanner. Everyone in the seating area was social distancing. Our flight was scheduled for 7:05 a.m. and we landed and had our luggage by 9:45 a.m. A note about Disney’s Magical Express…it is not the same! They no longer send you yellow tags in the mail or get your luggage and deliver it to the resort. YOU must get your own luggage from Baggage Claim and take it to the Magical Express with you. We flew Southwest, so our terminal was the A Terminal. We had to get our luggage from there and head over to the B Terminal to get on the Magical Express.
A fun thing I overheard at the Magical Express desk while we were heading to check in…they were expecting 6,458 passengers on the Magical Express on this particular day. The supervisor I guess?? was filling in the workers behind the desk so they knew what to expect. We got in line at 9:57 a.m. Be aware that they are using assigned seating from back to front, and using only every other row. The person checking us in told us where to sit. We were on the bus by 10:08 a.m. and departed at 10:20 a.m.
We arrived at Bay Lake Tower at 10:48 a.m. and were the first stop. We may have actually been the only stop as it seems everyone got off here… We headed into the lobby. We wanted to check our luggage with Bell Services and head to Epcot. We also wanted to change into our shorts because it was hot!
This is one thing I did comment on the survey they gave me. Because there is no luggage delivery anymore, Bell Services is CRAZY! Be prepared for longer than usual waits to actually check the luggage with them.
Bell Services line
We finished changing and got organized, checked our luggage, and then were at the bus stop at 11:35 a.m. There is no monorail to Epcot at the moment. The bus arrived at 11:45 a.m., and we made it to Epcot at 11:55 a.m. We were hungry for lunch and decided to start with some food booths! We decided to go counter-clockwise starting in Canada because we knew we wanted to eat something from there!
One of my favorite restaurants is Le Cellier (in Canada), but it’s on the pricey side. The items at this food booth are some of my favorites!
These did not disappoint and were tasty as usual. I absolutely LOVE the soup with the pretzel bread dipper! We continued on and our next stop was the World Showplace Events Pavilion, located between Canada and the UK. I have never seen this open for this particular event, but they do have other events there. I was interested to check it out, and it housed several food booths!
The Liquid Nitro Cake Pops came highly recommended to me from friends who had already been there, so of course I had to try one! I went with the Twix version.
This was really good and different! By this point I was already full, but I still had some items on my list that I wanted to try. Here are some pics from along our way.
FranceView from between France and MoroccoMorocco
Our next stop was in Germany at the little caramel store, Karamell-Kuche. This is a must do for me every trip! It has some of the best snacks. There were some new offerings this trip, possibly just seasonal? I had to have the Gingerbread Salted Caramel Buttercream Cookie Sandwich!
IT WAS AMAZING! My favorite snack from anywhere in the world. And possibly the single best thing I have ever tasted! The cookie was soft, but had a crispyish layer outside. It was perfect. The buttercream and caramel was so good together! I wished I would have bought more to bring home. We found a table next to Mexico in the area where the band usually performs so we could stand and eat our snacks.
What you can see in this picture is the line just to get inside the Mexico pavilion. The man holding the sign actually had to cut off the line because it was too long. The wait from here was about a half hour. I think they cut it off because they didn’t want too big of a crowd blocking the sidewalk.
While we were standing there, some cast members came rushing by telling everyone to get to the side, and that a horse and carriage were coming. We had no idea what was going on! All of a sudden, this went by:
It was brief, but exciting to see! We decided that they do not announce times for these little cavalcades because they don’t want people gathering and lining up. We were just out of Mexico when this one came by:
Short and sweet! It was nice to see the characters out and about since there are no real meet and greet experiences at the moment.
Next up will be the rest of our day at Epcot with dinner at Coral Reef!
Posted at 8:08 pm by taryngirl, on November 23, 2020
11/14/20
An opportunity arose for me to do a quick trip to Florida to visit both Disney World and Universal Orlando, and I couldn’t resist! Several things fell into place…I had DVC points to use from a canceled trip in May, my Annual Pass was expiring on November 17th, and Universal Orlando offered me an amazing deal that I couldn’t pass up! Throw in the free flight I was able to get with my Southwest points, and that was just the cherry on top. I was excited to check out how things are running post-Covid since I have clients scheduled to travel within the next couple of months.
This post is going to deal with everything specific to Disney World and the protocols in place at the resorts, the parks and the restaurants, as far as my personal trip is concerned. My cousin Alex traveled with me.
We started off with a a 7:00 a.m. flight on Southwest from the Philadelphia Airport. We booked offsite airport parking at Smart Park. Starting there, the attendant at the booth was wearing a mask. The shuttle bus driver was wearing gloves and a mask. There were two other parties on the shuttle with us.
Once at the airport, we did the self-service check in. The workers behind the counters were wearing masks. All security workers were also wearing masks. They still are doing regular security. Shoes off, coats off, and everything goes on the belt through the scanner. Once we got to our gate, people were definitely social distancing and not sitting next to one another. There were constant announcements about mandatory mask wearing, and what types of masks were permitted. They did have some available if needed. Southwest is currently not utilizing the middle seats on their planes, unless there are family members that sit right next to each other. They are seating every row.
As always (pre-Covid I did these things!), I had my Clorox wipes to wipe down my seat, tray, etc., and my hand sanitizer. The only beverage available on the flight was water, and they had prepackaged snacks.
In summary, I felt super safe in the airport and on the flight! Everyone was being respectful, wearing masks and social distancing.
Once in Orlando, we were using Disney’s Magical Express transportation from the airport to our resort. This service has changed! They no longer send you the yellow tags in the mail to attach to your luggage. You are responsible for getting your own luggage from baggage claim and taking it with you to the Magical Express bus!They do not deliver the luggage to your room anymore! Since we flew on Southwest, we arrived on the A side. The Magical Express is located on the B side. This means that we had to go to baggage claim on the A side, then go back up and across the entire airport to the B side and downstairs to the Magical Express location. (They also are not doing airline check in at the resorts. So you also bring your luggage with you when leaving the resort and getting on the Magical Express.)
Here you can see the plexiglass up at the counters, as well as some signage.
The lanes are numbered and the cast member will tell you which lane to enter. There are signs all along the lanes with these social distance markers.
The cast member scanning our bands to enter the bus assigned us specific seat numbers. He had a map of the bus with a dry erase marker, and was marking off the seats he assigned. They are utilizing only every other row and are filling the bus from back to front. We were first in line so got the very last seats! (As a side not, there was a girl next to us who was assigned to another bus. She asked if she could sit near the front, and the cast member told her she could sit on a bench until the bus filled up and then could sit in the front. She didn’t like that answer and proceeded to the bus.)
The Magical Express delivered us to Bay Lake Tower with our luggage. The lobby is small and it was chaotic! This was mostly due to Bell Services and luggage. People who did not have a room ready or were checking out but not yet leaving the resort had to check their luggage with Bell Services. Our room was not ready (as indicated by the text we had received while at the airport). So our plan was to check our luggage with Bell Services and then head to Epcot. A note! The monorail to Epcot was not running at the time so we had to take a bus.
We waited for a bus and once it arrived, the bus driver assigned us seats using a seat number. He was wearing a mask.
There are dividers up between seat numbers.
Standing is not permitted so the handles were zip tied up.
None of our buses were ever even nearly full. I felt very safe on the Disney bus transportation!
Once we arrived at Epcot, signs were everywhere!
Everyone has to pass through a temperature screening.
They used handheld thermometers.
Everyone also has to pass through security which is very different! They no longer go through your bags. You walk through a metal detector with your bag on you.
These signs on the ground are EVERYWHERE! Spaced 6 feet apart! Every ride, every kiosk, every store check out, EVERYWHERE!
Up next are attraction queues. The above signs are all along the ground/floor. Also, they are not using every seat/row! This is Journey Into Imagination with Figment. They did only one row per car. This was the same for Pirates, Mine Train and Small World as well.
You know the fun area once you exit the Figment ride? It’s CLOSED! It was so quiet. Normally it’s chaotic with people everywhere. We found this to be a trend for every interactive attraction. (At the end of Spaceship Earth, all activities closed. Pretty much any interactive piece at any attraction is inaccessible.)
This is the queue for Living with the Land. Barriers are up between the rows of the queue.
On the boats, you can see the dividers up between seats. They also were not seating every row on this ride, but there was no line so they were spacing us out.
Here you can see Soarin’.
These signs are all around the popular photo taking areas. There are also cast members carrying handheld signs that say this same thing. They were approaching people who were removing masks for pictures.
Moving onto dining now…
This is Coral Reef Restaurant, which is a table service location. Everything is one way in, one way out. Every dining location, shopping location, etc. Doors are specifically marked ENTER or EXIT only. They have limited indoor seating and are not using every table. If you want a table service meal, it’s very important that you have a reservation! I saw them turning people away if they didn’t have a reservation.
Another very important note, all quick service locations are MOBILE ORDER ONLY! This includes resorts and parks. Even if you only want a muffin or an orange juice. It’s all on the My Disney Experience app, or you scan a bar code located at the location.
There is no grab and go section that is self-serve at the moment. Drinks are not self-serve either. Once you scan the QR code, it takes you right to the menu for the dining location. Here you choose your pick up time. You do not have to be AT the location to order. You can be in your room, somewhere around the resort, in a ride line, etc.
After that, the menu will pop up and you can scroll through and click on what you would like. You pay right through the app with either you credit card on file or you can add a different card.
Once you arrive at the location you can click that you are here and they will begin preparing your food. Just a note…we found that it took a good 10 minutes or longer for the food to be ready once we clicked we are here. So we began clicking it as we were walking on our way before we got there. Once the food is ready for pick up, the notification changes and it tells you what number table to go to to pick it up. They have multiple stations so people aren’t picking up at the same station at the same time. They are marked with big numbers on the floor.
After you pick up your food, if you ordered a drink, you move to a different station, and someone will get it for you. This is the Contempo Cafe drink station area:
The food is served in bags that are sealed, and packaging that is sealed. I removed my sticker before I remembered to take a picture!
Next up is the resorts. This was in our Villa at Bay Lake Tower.
You will notice that they are back to individual serving sizes of the toiletry items.
The remotes are packaged in plastic stating that they have been sanitized.
One last picture I took was at the monorail located inside the Contemporary Resort.
We did have our temperature screening and security done here on our way to the Magic Kingdom. This allowed us to bypass those things at the Magic Kingdom.
Overall, we felt very safe during our entire stay. There are hand sanitizer stations everywhere for use at your discretion. No one is spraying it on you. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone was complying with the mask mandate and social distancing. The only time you could remove your mask was if you were stationary off to the side eating or drinking. If a cast member saw someone walking and eating or drinking, they did remind them of the rule.
Capacity at the moment is maybe 1/4 of what it is normally. So there were so many less people. Many of the ride queues went way out onto the walkways. Adding to capacity will definitely affect this. What seems like a crowded area really isn’t, because the line is continuously moving. It will be interesting to see what happens once they expand the capacity!
Posted at 11:21 am by taryngirl, on October 29, 2020
March 10, 2020
Call us crazy, but everything fell into place perfectly for a day trip to Disney! Super cheap flights on Frontier Airlines out of Philadelphia, an existing Annual Pass for the Disney parks, a fun group of agents that also can fly by the seat of their travel pants, great weather, and MY BIRTHDAY! all led to the booking of a quick day trip. I drove to our office which is kind of close to the airport, and we all drove to the airport in one car.
My flight was $60 total, but had I booked sooner, it would have been cheaper! Our flight down was 5:50 a.m., which had us landing at 8:30 a.m. (Traveling is probably the only reason I ever set my alarm!)
I also want to note, it was around this time that Covid was starting to explode around the country. There weren’t restrictions in place yet for anything, so we felt completely safe going.
We met up with a few other agents at the airport, and upon landing in Orlando, we rented a car to drive directly to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Because we had an Annual Pass, parking was free at the theme park.
Our goal as soon as we got there was to meet up with a few agents that live in Florida. One of the main reasons we were taking this trip was to check out the new Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway attraction that had replaced The Great Movie Ride. Everyone was hungry so the first thing we did was find some food!
The Baseline Taphouse is one of my favorite places to grab a snack and just sit. The outdoor seating atmosphere is really neat. It was close to opening time there, so we grabbed a seat and waited, then ordered this!
I have to add this because it was so funny to me! My daughter was messaging me on Snapchat and wanted to know everything I was doing. She does not look thrilled that she was missing this trip!
This is my true partner and crime! This is the last day I’ve seen her because of the virus and quarantining, etc.
It was finally time to check out the ride! I was a little bit cautious, because to me, The Great Movie Ride was iconic for this park. I don’t like change, so I didn’t know how to feel!
My opinion…it was fantastic! I was pleasantly surprised! It was so much fun!
We also decided to meet Darth Vader since there was little to no wait time.
From there, we headed out to Epcot to check out the Flower and Garden Festival. On the way out of Hollywood Studios, this sign was already out.
Posted at 12:10 pm by taryngirl, on September 21, 2020
1/29/20
From Disney Springs, we took the bus to the Grand Floridian and then the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I think it’s super important to know your options for transportation ahead of time.Sometimes there is more than one option, sometimes things are not operating, etc. Also, don’t underestimate how long it will actually take you!
This is the view of the train station from just inside the entrance gates.Getting ready to walk down Main Street U.S.A.One of my favorite sites!Main Street Philharmonic Band
I can honestly say in all of my trips to Magic Kingdom, I have never seen the Main Street Philharmonic band performing! This was quite a treat. Maybe because we always hit rope drop at Magic Kingdom, and they don’t perform until the afternoon? We are usually heading back to room at this time or busy on rides. This was a pleasant surprise!
If you have Snapchat, be sure to check out your place on the map if you have your location turned on!
We had a FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so headed there first thing. That’s my favorite ride in Magic Kingdom! From there we headed to Country Bear Jamboree since we had to wait a little bit for our next FP+ at Pirates of the Caribbean.
Country Bear Jamboree–corny, but classic Disney!Dance party in the street!
When we exited the show, these characters were all out on the street having a dance party! I have never seen this happening, but have seen just random bear characters walking down the street.
Our next stop was the Enchanted Tiki Room. Also a Disney classic! A great spot during a rain shower or a super hot day!
Have I mentioned that I LOVE my iPhone 11? These pics were taken in very dark conditions with no flash. From there we headed to our Pirates of the Caribbean FP+. After leaving Pirates, we made our way toward Tomorrowland. The Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party was going on.
We had a FP+ at Peter Pan, so I think we rode on the People Mover then made our way to Fantasyland. After Peter Pan, we went to the Haunted Mansion. I just LOVE how my pictures turned out here!
After that, it was time to make our way to a spot to watch the Happily Ever After fireworks. Of course we had to walk past the Tangled bathrooms! This area is so gorgeous at night!
Our view for the fireworks!
Fireworks tip…to start, people seem to stay on the sidewalks and out of the streets. You CAN stand in the street. My tip is to stand either to the right or left of the castle on the street about mid-hub. Make yourself big, because people will start filling in and you don’t want to be squished! (Although with Covid right now we don’t really have to worry about this…but when things return to normal!). If you know you want to go to a ride in Tomorrowland, stand to the right. If you want to go to Adventureland stand to the left. It’s a complete mob scene right when they are over. We tend to stand still for a little bit until the crowd starts to disperse.
After this amazing display, we did head back to our resort. We were checking out from All Star Movies and heading to the Contemporary Club Level! <—————–Up Next!
Posted at 12:38 pm by taryngirl, on October 9, 2019
Combining from my June and September 2019 cruises!
Palo is a specialty restaurant serving brunch on sea days, and nightly dinners for guests ages 18 and older only. You must have reservations to dine here, and those can be made online during your check-in process for the cruise itself. I’m not going to lie…these reservations sell out quickly and are hard to get! But are TOTALLY worth it! (If you cannot make a reservation online, upon embarking, you can head directly to Palo and try to make reservations then. I’ve done this twice successfully.). There is a dress code, as this is more upscale than the main dining rooms. Be sure to check that when you are packing for the cruise!
The view!
Included are mimosas or a glass of champagne.
After being led to our table, the waiter explained the dining process. There is a menu to order from, as well as a “buffet” style set up. The meal is slowwwwww. You are not rushed and can spend as much time as you need.
Here’s my first plate from the buffet section:
The cinnamon roll was SO GOOD! Warm and gooey. And the parmesan cheese…I couldn’t get enough of it!
The first table…filled with delicious fruit, breads and pastries. The almond croissant was one of my favorites!
The next table was full of seafood offerings, caviar, vegetables, and more!
The third table had a variety of cheeses, olives, meats, etc.
You may make as many trips up to these tables as you wish!
Here is the menu we ordered from for made to order items:
Heirloom Tomato and Basil Soup:
Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast: This is my favorite food on any of the Disney Cruise ships! It’s SO GOOD! And the Risotto is perfect with this. This is 80% why I schedule this brunch on every cruise.
Celery Soup:
Roasted Red Snapper Filet:
Lasagna Bolognaise: I also was able to taste this. It was good but I feel like since we were one of the last tables for the day, it was sitting for awhile maybe?? It’s a good shareable option though!
The dessert table:
I love that the portions are small so we can try a bunch of different things!
June cruise:
Our waiter also brought us several of these lava cakes to share. They were good but we were SO FULL!
September cruise:
(Apparently I have my favorites!)
It was my niece’s graduation celebration on this cruise and they brought here this:
If I didn’t comment on the food, that means it was someone else’s but I just took a picture to share!
This is hands down one of my favorite parts of the cruise! It’s $40 per person, and that is charged to your stateroom account. I highly suggest trying it at least once!
Arrival at this resort was very easy. There is a guard to enter the parking lot. We parked at lobby area to unload and to check in. Parking spots for those staying in the Inn building are underneath this building.
Here is the check-in desk. (I was able to get pictures of a nearly deserted lobby when my daughter and I woke up super early to walk on the beach.)
These are the doors to exit out the back of the property. This can lead to the pool or beach, or the Villa buildings. Above the doors you can see the Green Cabin Room where they serve cocktails and lighter snacks. This was closed for a private event the night that we were here.
More of the waiting area and Island Grove Packing Company, which is the shop. They also have DVD movies here that you can borrow, which we did because it rained during the afternoon!
This is a fun area for the kids! There are video games, tablets, tv, and smaller chairs.
This little area dedicated to Disney Vacation Club (we are members) is nice!
Inside the glass containers are shells past guests have found on the beach. You can write on them and stick them in the jars!
Looking up from the lobby.
From the 3rd floor balcony.
They have this fun photo opp. near the entrance to the restaurant. (I told my kids to act like they were on the beach…apparently this is what they do??!!)
This sign was also posted in the lobby. And it is in fact true! We ended up with a few bites from our morning walk on the beach but didn’t see them until the next day.
Another thing I LOVE about this resort, is how it caters to families! This area is through the lobby and on the way to the spa. It has a lending library, where you can take/leave a book, puzzles, and tables with game boards on them. To play the games, just visit the front desk for the pieces!
I worked on a puzzle, while my family played Jenga and made some new friends. There were several other families hanging out in this area.
Inside the shop, and in the quick service food area, they had boards like this for pin trading like you can do in the parks!
Also snapped a quick pic of the Little Mermaid Dooney & Bourke that were available here.
Onto the beach! There are chair/umbrella rentals, as well as some water sport rentals.
We spent most of our time during this trip at the pool.
It has a really fun slide that is the same as the one at Old Key West!
I’ll say it again…WE LOVE IT HERE! And I can’t wait to get back with some family and friends!
Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures 