Hey y'all! Decided to do a mini TR from our recent stay at WDW. It was a short 4-night trip. We normally go for 8-11 nights so this felt so short and dh & I both agreed that we'd barely settled in when it was time to pack up and come home. This was a trip to see our dd17 perform in the CP at Epcot. It also was our first DVC stay and last trip down as a family before dd19 heads down for her DCP. Lots of emos for sure!
We typically do not go to a park on arrival or departure day but since this was such a short trip, we did both. Our plane left Denver at 6:05am (I got up at 2am) and landed at MCO at 11:30, rented our car and headed straight for MK. It wasn't raining when we parked or boarded the ferry but about half-way across the lagoon, it began steadily raining. We were only planning to be there for 4-5 hours and didn't want to dig through suitcases for ponchos so we'd left those. We got absolutely soaked but that cleared the parks nicely for a few hours until the party crowds began showing up.
DD19 stayed with a CM friend for the party. Crowds sounded like they were fairly low (party was not sold out) and she got evac'ed off Space. Highlight of the night I think!
Left there at 7 to head to AKL to check in. This is our first time at AKL. I'd never had much interest in staying there before due to how far out it feels but having a car made that no big deal. I loved AKL! We all did. What an amazing resort!! We loved seeing the animals from the windows and going to the savanna overlook during the day and night. So, so cool! We all agreed we would stay there again in a heartbeat!
AK was the next park day and we began that day with rain. Lots of rain. We got soaked again right off the bat. Thankfully, by late morning, the rain seemed to have mostly stopped. Crowds were low for us and we had a great day there.
We went to Ale & Compass for breakfast on Saturday morning. THis was the day of the CP we were there to see. Some of you may remember that I was having trouble getting reservations for a CP package so we would all have guaranteed seats. I had been able to get 4 but never could get the other 3 I needed. I had called so many times and checked online and basically given up. Well, when we checked in at the breakfast, I explained the situation to the CM. She said to talk to our server but they may be able to add 3 more CP packages for us. And sure enough, they could! Our server was amazing (Dayna) and the breakfast was so good! Such a good value too, not only for a CP package, but just for an onsite TS breakfast. Everything was really, really good!
We had a great day at Epcot and got to enjoy the CP with Gary Sinise narrating. He does an awesome job telling the story about the birth of Christ and sharing the wonderful message of Christmas. The choirs, orchestra and singers were all so lovely. We were pretty far back but I could pick my girl easily. This is an event I'd definitely love to do annually. We chatted with several people in line and most were locals who said they come every year as a part of their Christmas tradition. Very jealous of that!
Next day was MK again but this time for a full day. Weather was great! Crowds were higher than the previous Thursday but thinking the rain was responsible for that. My dd19 really wanted her grandparents to see BOG since she will be working there. I went up to the check-in podium at about 4:30 and explained what we were wanting and asked if we could just peek inside the door really fast. A coordinator came over (one my dd will be working with!) and listened and told us to hold on. She went and got a CM who is on an ICP from Japan and she said she would give us a tour! So, she took all 8 of us in and showed us each room, telling us little details about it. Then she took us to meet the Beast! We've never done dinner there so that was a first and such a nice treat.
Last day was at DHS. We'd hoped to get there early enough to get in a BG for RotR but several factors kept us from getting there as early as we needed to. I think the BG's were all filled by 7:35 and we got there at 7:45 but since we needed to leave at 1 to head to the airport, we'd have needed to be there much earlier and that just wasn't happening. So, we didn't get to ride RotR. We did get to ride MFSR with a 2-hour wait! That is crazy to me and it's hard to believe people wait longer than that. That is the first time we've ever waited that long and I don't regret it but I wouldn't do it again. DHS was so busy and it was hard to get much done there.
We left there at 1, headed to the Poly to pick up dd17 (she'd been at MK with her choir group), and then went to MCO. Our flight left on time but must have been weather issues cause we got diverted adding an hour to our already long 4-hour flight
Got home to 17 degree temps. We were all in capris, shorts and tees lol! Seemed forever ago that we'd been in 83 degrees.
Overall, it was a great trip!!
ETA: I cannot get that one pic to go the right way to save my life!