Aloha - Welcome Home! - An End of February/Early March TR - Update 4/8 - Day 4 (MK)

Minniemoo15

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 27, 2016
Aloha! As the trip report title says, this was our umpteenth stay, but it was one of my favourites for many reasons. I grew up going pretty much every year with my parents and sisters. We always stayed at Caribbean Beach and that resort – especially the Jamaica area - will always hold a special place in my heart.

As a mother now myself, recreating the Disney magic with my own family is even more special. My husband was a former “I’ll go once for the kids” kind of guy, but is now perhaps the biggest fan in our house. I have two daughters – Catherine and Maeve. Catherine is your typical princess-obsessed 6 year old, while Maeve, 4, idolizes Buzz Lightyear. We are from Atlantic Canada and always travel down during our spring break - the first week of March. I love this time of year because the weather is lovely, Flower and Garden has started, but hardly anyone else is on Spring Break so it's not completely nuts in the parks yet.

We always travel with extended family... Disney + grandparents = the best! Our crew also usually includes my sisters and their families. This year there were 13 of us in total, coming from all parts of country to meet up in our favourite place on Earth.

This trip was extra special as it was our first as DVC members. Our home resort is the Polynesian, and while we had visited there before, we had never actually stayed there. We were REALLY hoping we would like it! We stayed for 10 nights in a Polynesian studio. Before this trip we have stayed at many different resorts, our favourite being Beach Club Villas. We knew the Poly would have a really high bar to meet to match our beloved Beach Club and I was slightly worried we would spend the trip lamenting the loss of Cape May Cafe and Stormalong Bay.

With all the uncertainty in the world, I'm happy to write my first trip report and relive the fantastic memories we made on this trip.
Coming up... Day 0 - messy weather, a mediocre meal, and the excitement of Disney Eve!

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Day 0 - Travel Day #1

This is a pretty boring day in terms of trip reporting, but I can assure you we were all bouncing off the walls this morning when we woke up. Catherine, who I usually have to drag out of bed, was up very early excitedly exclaiming “It’s DISNEY EVE!!!” I did all the last minute things that needed to be done. I changed our sheets (I love coming home from vacation to fresh sheets), took out the trash, lined up our luggage, and death-glared anyone who dared to use actual dishes for breakfast. Word soon got around that the dishwasher was off limits so everyone grabbed a cereal bar and chugged the last of the milk straight from the carton.

We all then headed off to our respective work, school and preschool sites. The plan was for my husband to pick the girls up after work, come get me, and then hit the road for the airport in Halifax, NS which was 4 hours away. There are closer airports to us, but this one offers direct flights and is usually cheaper. With kids, direct flights is worth the extra driving in my opinion.

We made it to Halifax pretty uneventfully, parked our car in long-term parking and checked in to the ALT hotel. This hotel is attached to the airport and is so lovely – we stay here every year. We hauled our luggage up to our room and the girls were delighted to see that we had a view of the planes taking off and landing.

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We headed into the airport for an unremarkable dinner of airport burgers. Catherine wasn't impressed afterwards when we walked past the lobster store - it's her favourite food in the world and she would have much preferred that over the lukewarm burger. The girl has expensive tastes.

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Finally we headed back to the hotel where the girls put on their Disney pajamas. I make them take a picture before they go to bed in this same spot every year. A look back at our last few Disney Eves...

2018...
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2019...
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And 2020!!
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My husband carted all our boots, winter coats, and that day’s clothing back to the car. I love staying at the ALT for that very reason - it makes our early morning flight such a breeze, and we can walk over in our shorts and flip flops!

We all went to bed fairly early dreaming of Disney and an early morning wake up call.
 
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Joining in! Love your tips on fresh sheets upon returning from vacation :) Your girls are super adorable - love the pics of each year in their Disney pj's <3 Can't wait to read more! Also thanks for posting your trip report. This is exactly what we needed to lift our spirits with a little bit of Disney!
 
Joining in! Love your tips on fresh sheets upon returning from vacation :) Your girls are super adorable - love the pics of each year in their Disney pj's <3 Can't wait to read more! Also thanks for posting your trip report. This is exactly what we needed to lift our spirits with a little bit of Disney!

Thank you for joining in ! Reliving the trip is lifting my spirits as well...nothing like a little Disney to take your mind off of the real world :earsboy:
 


Day 1 –

The alarm went off at 6am, but I had been up for hours. I couldn’t sleep not just because of anticipation, but also because there was a big storm coming. I was very worried about how it would affect our flights and was obsessively checking forecasts, flight statuses, etc. Luckily, it only seemed to be starting at noon and we were scheduled to leave at 8:30am so I thought we would be OK.

We were all up and beyond excited. Disney outfitted and ears on, we headed over to the airport.
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To our surprise, it was pretty quiet and we were able to print our baggage tags fairly easily. I love that Air Canada gives free seat selection when traveling with kids – so we had one of the first few rows of the plane. This obviously meant we would get more Disney time !

We got through security pretty easily and customs as well. Another bonus of Halifax is going through US pre-clearance and not having to do any of that when you land. More Disney time!

Just before boarding, they announced that they were oversold and offering money for people to change to tomorrow’s flight. Usually it is a couple hundred dollars that they give, but I was floored when I heard they were offering $2400 PER PERSON (for up to 2 people). $4800 was a lot of money to turn down, but with the storm coming I wasn’t going to risk not getting out the next day either. I could see my husband internally struggling to pass that up, but the girls and I were full on DISNEY and we were getting on that plane one way or another. Someone (very smart and now with a hefty amount of spending money) took them up on their offer. Soon we were on our way to sunny Orlando where I didn’t have to worry about snowfall totals, radar maps, or prolonged periods of freezing rain.

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We landed right around 11:45am and headed for the Magical Express. I love this part of the trip – you’re about to be wrapped in the Disney bubble and the whole vacation is ahead of you. First we made a stop to Orlando Stroller Rentals which was really convenient – it very close to the ME. Our stroller was waiting for us when we got there. Though the stroller was more noticeably worn than the Kingdom Strollers we have rented in the past, the convenience of pickup/dropoff would have me use them again. I still prefer pick up/drop off from the resorts (why, Disney, why?!!) but this was fine too.

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The Magical Express did have a bit of a wait – maybe 20-25 minutes and then we were finally on our way. We were staying at the Polynesian Villas in 2 connecting studios (with my parents). We had visited the Polynesian before, but never stayed there. As I said in intro, this was our new DVC home so we were really hoping we liked it.

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We pulled in and my family was waiting for us. The girls were SO excited especially to see their aunt, who lives across the country and that they hadn’t seen in months. It was the sweetest reunion. Immediately I fell in love with the Poly. I loved the music, the tiki torches, the waterfall, lush grounds, the smell...I loved it all!

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Our room wasn’t ready yet, but we did find out we got our requested building which I was happy about (Tokelau). We headed to Capt Cook’s for our first quick service meal of the day. At this point we were all pretty hungry. My husband got a burger and the girls got chicken nuggets/macaroni and cheese. Maeve proclaimed that the Chicken Nuggets were “bumpy” and she didn’t like them. She is admittedly my picky eater, but she wouldn’t eat the CHICKEN NUGGETS?! This was not a good sign.

I got the pulled pork nachos, because I obviously read the food blogs and was smart enough to know not to order a burger at Capt Cooks. These were delicious and immediately made my husband jealous. We picked up our refillable mugs and everyone was excited to see that they had new designs. We have a lot (A LOT) of the old style mugs in our cupboard at home. The CM was very nice and used a sharpie to write each of our initials on the cap so we would know who’s was who’s.

It was chilly by Florida standards, 18C, but we were determined to get in the pool. Seeing the castle while we swam was really such a sight and gave me goosebumps. I wish they had the pool open late enough to watch the fireworks from there.

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I had my first of many Dole Whips while the girls enjoyed the lawn play area. This was a really nice feature of the Poly and it kept the girls entertained throughout the week by building towers, twirling hoola hoops, and participating in the various Polynesian games/songs/activities led by the awesome CMs.
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We then got the notification that our room was ready. Upon walking in, I was so surprised at how BIG the rooms were. The balconies were also very spacious. I am used to the studios at AKL and BCV –these felt much larger in comparison. The connecting feature (with my parents) was wonderful – the girls were able to come and go between the two rooms but we each still had our own space. I also loved the two bathrooms in each studio. While my husband or I showered in the morning, the other could get the girls ready for the day in the other bathroom. I’m fairly certain this is why we were able to actually make rope drops for once!

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We enjoyed the view from our room and got ready for dinner. I had waffled on our arrival dinner plans so many times… initially we had The Wave booked, then Le Cellier, then Be Our Guest, and finally we landed on Whispering Canyon. It was a bit more of a hassle than I expected getting there. We left an hour early, but between both monorail and boat delays, we showed up 30 minutes late. They were great and accommodated us pretty much immediately once we got there.

Everyone really enjoyed their meal here. Our waiter was hilarious and had lots of antics up his sleeve. When he dropped a giant pile of straws on the table, Catherine's surprised face was priceless. Yelling out "WE NEED KETCHUP!!!" had everyone in stitches. The food wasn’t my favourite (just personal tastes– I’m not a huge ribs/meat person) but everyone else loved it. We took the boat back to the Contemporary and it was FREEZING. So so cold, even for us Canadians. We were all happy to hop on the warm monorail and back home to the Poly.

It was a full day, a busy day, but also a great day – we were finally back at Disney !
 

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Joining! Great start! I need some Disney right now. My Daughter and I stayed at Poly on our very first trip in 2011. We Loved it! Seams like a lifetime ago. Pork nachos and Tonga toast, YUM!
 


Yay - joining in! Your trip sounds fantastic so far - a nice escape from everything! Looking forward to more ::yes::

Thank you for joining in! It is hard to believe that this trip was just a little over 2 weeks ago. So much has changed since then. But I am enjoying writing the memories as an escape from it all .

Joining! Great start! I need some Disney right now. My Daughter and I stayed at Poly on our very first trip in 2011. We Loved it! Seams like a lifetime ago. Pork nachos and Tonga toast, YUM!
Hello! Those pork nachos were so delicious - what I wouldn't give for a plate of those right now!! We never did try Tonga Toast - another excuse to go back.

Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures .
Hi! Thanks so much for joining in!
 
Day 2

Today was an exciting day – my sister, brother in law, nieces and nephew were flying in from across the country. They were arriving around dinner time and staying at Caribbean Beach for the night, before joining us at the Poly for the rest of the trip.

It was another cool morning, but we enjoyed walking around the grounds and more fully exploring the resort. My husband discovered the Kona Café To-Go counter and really enjoyed their coffee there. Maeve announced that they had the “best yogurt in the world” – after her chicken nugget fiasco yesterday, I was relieved to know she could survive on Dannons for the week if she had to.

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My husband and I decided to take the monorail over to Magic Kingdom to activate our park tickets. As Canadians, we have to bring our passports so they can confirm we are in fact, Canadian residents. We don’t like carrying our passports around all day at a park, so we always prefer to head to a park entrance to do this before actually needing to use our tickets.

The activation was fairly painless – the Guest Relations line was pretty long (it was morning at MK, after all) – but a friendly CM told me I could also activate at the Will Call booth. The line here was short and the CM was able to activate all of our tickets – including for my sister and her family arriving that evening.

We then took the monorail alllllllll the way around to the Grand Floridian. We were still getting our bearings straight with the transportation system in the MK area. It probably would have been a lot faster to take the boat. Soon enough, though, we were at the Grand Floridian Cafe for our brunch reservation. I had heard so much about this restaurant being a hidden gem and I was really excited to try it out ourselves.
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We met up in the lobby with the rest of our family. We headed into the restaurant and were seated really quickly as it wasn’t busy at all. Our waitress was really fantastic. She brought out some biscuits with orange butter that were really good. The biscuits were warm and soft and the butter was tasty without being overpowering.

For brunch, I had ordered the chicken and waffles (again: food blog reader over here). This was the standout dish and became the envy of the entire table. It was so, so good. I thought the menu was very interesting and extremely varied. I never usually order dessert at a restaurant, but because we were on the dining plan – how could I say no? I ordered the Mickey Mouse Mousse and it came out looking so adorable.

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The waitress then noticed Catherine was wearing a birthday pin hidden in her sweatshirt and wished her a happy birthday . It was, in fact, NOT her birthday – she had swiped her cousin’s pin and decided to wear it unbeknownst to us. I explained the error to the waitress and we all had a good laugh about it.

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5 minutes later the waitress came back with a giant cupcake and sang Happy Birthday to Catherine. She winked and told her “our little secret, princess!” which made us all smile.

Bellies full, it was just around 1:00 and we were headed for Epcot for the afternoon. We walked back to the Poly, dropped some things off at the room.

We then continued walking to the TTC to get on the Epcot monorail. I was really loving how convenient the Poly was to so many things. In my 20+ trips, this was my first time taking the Epcot monorail. I thought the view was so neat. The monorail quickly became one of my favourite modes of transportation. Not having to fold the double stroller was such a huge win!

We had a few Fastpasses lined up. First was Spaceship Earth. We enjoyed our ride through time and then headed towards Soarin’ for our next Fastpass. I couldn’t believe the construction that was going on at Epcot and the areas boarded up. We had to do an awful lot of convincing to get Maeve on Soarin. She is pretty timid, and even though she had ridden it last year, she claimed she didn’t want to do it again. We kept everything upbeat “This is going to be so much FUN!!” and totally bribed her: “After this we are going to get some popcorn!” She ended up loving it, so our questionable parenting techniques paid off in the end.

We stopped for some snacks of Mickey Bars and popcorn – we had something like 80 snack credits to use on this trip. The Jamminators were playing and we always enjoy stopping to watch them. We then were at a bit of a loss what to do next. My sister and her family would be landing soon, so we didn’t really have time to go deep into the world showcase.

I checked the wait times on the app, and realized Figment was only 5 minutes. Would you believe we had never done this ride before? We hopped on and all found ourselves laughing and smiling the whole time. This will definitely be on our to-do list in the future! That song is so catchy…

Catherine was having a ball playing the computer games at the ride exit, while Maeve started her character meeting count. This year we collected our autographs on a wooden Mickey made by a local woodwork shop. I love how it turned out!
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You'll notice Maeve it wearing an "I'm Celebrating" button...apparently my girls are both button con-women. We are still trying to figure out what exactly she was celebrating and where she got that from...:confused3

By now we got a text from my sister that they had landed at MCO and were waiting for the Magical Express to take them to Caribbean Beach. We started to make our way over to the international gateway, stopping to say hello to one of our favourite friends on the way.
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We hopped on the Skyliner for our first ever ride. We absolutely loved it! It was so efficient and comfortable. My only negative was having to fold our double stroller. But it felt like a ride attraction and I prefer it over the bus any day!


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We hopped off at Riviera to explore it a bit. My parents were totally in love with it (especially my mother), but I wasn’t convinced. We only saw the outside grounds and we would go spend more time there later in the week so I was reserving my judgement until then.

We continued on walking to Caribbean Beach and went to the lobby to wait for the Magical Express to bring my sister and her family …. and waited, and waited, and waited… a really long time. The CMs were passing around trays of little miniature cupcakes so that was nice.

Finally they arrived and there were hugs and tears and cheers all around. My girls are very close with their cousins and living on opposite ends of the country is hard on everyone. We were so grateful to have this time together at Disney.


We had a very terrible quick service meal at Centretown Market (it was really – really bad). We explored Caribbean Beach a little bit and reminisced about all the times we stayed there growing up. By now my sister and her family were getting pretty tired so they headed to their room. My parents took Maeve back to the Poly, but my husband and I decided to head back to Epcot for one last ride. We took Catherine with us because that girl can party all night.

We were hoping to do Test Track, but when we got off the Skyliner it was 8:52 with a 9:00pm close. We knew we wouldn’t make it over there in time, so decided to do Soarin instead. We RAN as fast as we could, and as we headed in the Land building it was 8:58. There was no time for slow pokes so we kicked it into high gear. At 8:59 we were passing under the Soarin’ entrance. We tried to let out a cheer but we were all too winded! We had a great ride on Soarin – getting B1 without even having to ask.

The fireworks had just finished by the time we got off. I was really worried the monorail would be slammed and we would regret our last minute decision of extra park time. I was shocked, though, when we wandered up the ramp and saw that it was pretty much empty AND a monorail was pulling up. Our lucky day!

After a quick jaunt back to the Poly, we tucked in bed to get as much sleep as possible. We would be up with the sunRISE tomorrow for our chance at a boarding group!
 
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Day 3

Today was our Hollywood Studios day and we were up BRIGHT and early. We are not normally rope droppers – as hard as we try - but with Rise of Resistance boarding groups on the line we were up before the sun. Now, none of us are Star Wars Fans, but we all have pretty extreme cases of FOMO so we knew we would have to ride it. Before we left, I had done some practice runs with varying levels of success. I felt pretty good about our odds considering there were so many of us trying for a group. I also had a WDW planning friend, who I had met on another forum and was here at the same time, log on to my account and try for us from the comfort of her hotel room at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We sent a picture to our extended family back home (who often travel to Disney with us) proclaiming that we were up and on our way to the buses at 6:30am. They didn’t believe us and said they would need a time stamp or dated newspaper for proof. :laughing:

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We had as short wait for the bus and made it to the park a bit after 7:00am. I was impressed how smooth everything ran. We barely waited in bag check (and with our large group, this usually takes a while..) and then breezed through the tapstiles. I noticed that my Mickey turned purple instead of the usual green. The CM noticed my confusion and said “Welcome home, DVC member!”. I thought that was kind of neat and we enjoyed seeing our purple mickeys throughout the week….I am obviously easily impressed :upsidedow

We headed back to the Disney Jr area. I had read that this spot had fast data speeds and was sparsely populated. We didn’t want to rope drop anything (the lineups for anything worthwhile doing were pretty crazy) so we just relaxed back there. We fed the kids a questionably nutritious breakfast of chocolate chip cookies and popcorn. It was so eerie at 7:55am when the entire park became dead quiet. Our nerves were so high as we all logged on our phones, ready to go. At 8:00am on the dot we furiously tried to grab a group…experiencing complete frustration as the “join boarding group” button wouldn’t light up for any of us. However, within seconds, my friend texted me and told me she had got us a group! And not just any group, Group 11 – the second group of the day! If you are reading this…THANK YOU Erin!!! You were definitely the hero of the day and our family was so grateful to you!!! :jumping1:

At this point our boarding group was called pretty much immediately with a 1 hr return window. We had breakfast reservations for 8:30am at Hollywood & Vine, but knew that we wouldn’t be able to eat and get to ROTR in time. We definitely weren’t willing to miss our boarding group, so my sister went over to Hollywood & Vine to explain our situation. They told us that it was no problem – to come back any time before 10:45am and they would get us right in.

Side Rant: One thing that really bothered me about Hollywood Studios this year was the lack of things to do at park opening. This was particularly problematic for the kids. There were very very few things for them to do before 10am, and the couple of things they could do had massive lines. The shows didn’t start until 10am, most characters didn’t come out until 10am, there are no playground areas for them to entertain themselves (RIP Honey I Shrunk the Kids :sad1:)… it was rough.

We all headed over to SWGE and got Rider Swap set up. My sister M and my mother took the 4 youngest kids to meet Olaf, while the rest of us hopped in the queue. We were all so excited to experience this new ride. Even not being Star Wars fans, we totally loved it. It was all so immersive!! The only thing was that Catherine, who is my ride junkie daredevil, was completely freaked out. She doesn’t have any background in Star Wars so the guns, lasers, and Storm Troopers all felt way too real for her.

Lesson learned (no more Star Wars for her), we headed towards Olaf where the younger ones were just finishing up. My sister said the line was really long (obviously, because it was one of the only things open for kids under 40 inches :rolleyes2) but that it was a cute meet. We decided we wouldn’t have time to use the Rider Swap right now. The kids had given us a lot of patience while we adults did our thing, and we had promised them breakfast with their favourite Disney Jr characters.

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Ooops...wrong snowman.

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We headed back to Hollywood and Vine, where I reminded the CM of our story. She said “okay, that will be a 45-60 minute wait”. Wait…what?! I normally don’t get very pushy, but the kids were cranky, we were hungry, and just an hour ago they had promised we’d get “right in”. The CM was not overly friendly : “You are VERY late” despite my pleas. I told her we would be happy to separate into smaller groups. Nope. I brought up MDE and showed her how I could make a reservation for 13 people for just 10 minutes in the future – surely that must indicate we could get in quicker? Nope.

I headed back to our group pretty frustrated. My sister O, the one who had originally spoke to them, went back. Now, O is a lawyer and thrives in these situations. She’s always polite but she seems to know just what to say to make things go her way. Within 30 seconds, she gave us a thumbs up and told us to come right in. She's a wizard, that one. pixiedust:

Breakfast was .... good. The food was okay, but not nearly as yummy as other character breakfasts we have done in the past. We were all so hungry though that it didn’t really matter. The characters, on the other hand, were fantastic. They came around several times and paid such special attention to all of the kids, even the baby. By the end of our meal, we were one of the only tables left. The characters all came over together while Vamparina led us all in the most epic dance party. I wouldn’t go out of my way to do this again, but I am glad we did it as it was probably the highlight of the kids’ day.

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At this point it was almost 11am and we had missed our Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller FPs. We were planning to ride them later in the week though so no one was particularly bothered. We were all on a Disney Jr high, so we headed over to the dance party. This was fun and cute, though not as memorable as last year when our crew was picked to be a part of the show. Afterwards Maeve demanded that we get in line to meet Fancy Nancy and Vamparina. Ummm…we just spent 90 minutes with them (and $200) at breakfast?! “But I didn’t meet them HERE”. The line was crazy long (and we had JUST MET THEM) so I used my best parenting moves to shuffle her along, probably promises of popcorn. I’m thinking of starting a parenting blog to share all these great tips.

We then split up, with my sister M and BIL T going to use the ROTR Rider Swaps, while the rest of us went and did Muppets. Everyone enjoyed the show, then we all met up afterwards at TSMM, where we all had a FP. This one of our favourite rides – the whole family enjoys it and some of us (my husband) are more competitive than others. I meant to read a few of the cheats before we left so that I could finally beat him, but I forgot…not like I ever would have remembered them anyway even if I had.:confused3

We were all feeling pretty tired at this point from our FIRST EVER Rope Drop and ready to head back to the Poly. We had one last FastPass – Slinky Dog Dash. Now Maeve is the biggest Toy Story fan you have ever met. She idolizes Buzz Lightyear, owns every toy story toy you can imagine…Toy Story Land is her utopia. She also happens to be the world’s biggest ride chicken. She gets scared on the PeopleMover (I am not kidding) :laughing:. Last year she so badly wanted to do Slinky Dog Dash, but chickened out after seeing how big it was in person. This year was her year, though! She had pumped herself up and couldn’t wait to get on that thing even after seeing it again in person.

I had to burst her bubble though, because when we got off Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog Dash was down. We waited a few minutes hoping it would come back up, but it didn’t. My heart sank further when I saw it turn into an anytime for the day. Ordinarily that would be great, we could just go do other attractions and come back at our leisure. But we were heading back to the hotel for the afternoon with no plans to return – and no other Slinky Dog FP for the rest of our trip planned.

We appeased Maeve by hopping in the line to meet Woody/Jessie and I went to see Guest Relations to see if anything could be done.

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The GR tent outside Toy Story Land was swamped, but I just kept walking towards the park entrance until I came across one with no line. I walked up with 11 magic bands, looped together like a long paper chain. The CM burst out laughing and said “So you are the magic coordinator”. :laughing: (pretty much). I explained our scenario, our tired cranky kids (and adults) and asked if there was any way to move our Slinky Dog anytime to later in the week. This was absolutely no problem at all and within minutes she had us sorted out.

Now that we could leave, we headed for the buses and rode back to Poly. My sister M and her family checked in – her room was ready and was only a few doors down from us. I decided to take all the kids down to the pool while everyone else did a combination of napping/unpacking/reading/enjoying the silence.

The kids and I headed to the Oasis Pool. We ended up loving this area – it was quieter than the lava pool but still had nice features like the bubbling water, hot tub, grill and refillable mug station. I ended up not going in the water and just watched the kids from the side. It was still pretty chilly, though the sun was out and trying to warm us up.

After an afternoon of splashing, we headed back to our rooms to get ready for dinner. I was starting to not feel so hot. I tried my best to suck it up, but by the time we monorailed over to the Grand Floridian, I was really in bad shape. My husband pointed out that because it was cold temperature-wise, I had spent all afternoon in the direct sun trying to warm up. And because it was cold, I hadn’t drank any water to rehydrate. Somehow in 15C, I had gotten some form of heat stroke (a feat likely only Canadians can accomplish) :confused3

Luckily (?) there was a wait for our table at 1900 Park Fare, so I headed to the Grand Lobby and just sat down in the AC. My sweet husband keep bringing me glass after glass of water. After about 20 minutes and 32 glasses of water, I did feel quite a bit better and our table was called.

This was our first time doing this meal, but we absolutely loved it. The characters were hysterical. I will never forget Anastasia going up to my 2 year old nephew (who was a complete mess, face full of chocolate and grime) and saying “Oh. My. Gosh. WHAT a HEARTHROB!!” We all had a good laugh over that. The Stepmother wasn't there unfortunately, but Susie the mouse was there in her place.

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The food was also surprisingly good for a buffet. I could have eaten just the butternut squash ravioli and been happy. The kids were devouring their food – 3 and 4 plates each, even Maeve! I commented on how good they were eating, when my sister K pointed out “well – they haven’t eaten since breakfast at Hollywood and Vine this morning”. OOPS. Parenting fail.

It was fairly late by this point – after 9:00pm. We walked back to the Poly and all headed to bed pretty much right away. We had another full day planned tomorrow at Magic Kingdom, and we made a mental note as parents to feed our children 3 meals a day starting tomorrow.:thumbsup2
 
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

Today was our first Magic Kingdom day, and we were all up bright and early with excitement. The sun was finally starting to come out and it was going to be a warmer day. The plan was to go to MK for park open and stay through the parade.

I loved a lot of things about the Poly, but I think what I loved most was how quick and easy the monorail was. Before we had stayed there, I thought it was overrated – but it definitely is not. It’s so slick to push your double stroller on without folding. It comes every few minutes, so if you miss one it’s not a big deal. Perhaps the BEST part was the ability to go through security and bag check right at the resort. There was rarely ever a line and it made our mornings so much smoother.

So we hopped on the monorail and headed towards MK. I had hoped to catch the opening castle show, but getting a group of 13 people moving in the morning is no easy feat. We weren’t too far off, however, and were walking down Main Street just as the show as finishing up.

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We stopped for a few pictures along the way. The kids apparently had gotten used to their breakfast of champions (cookies) and started asking for some. My sister darted into the confectionary and came out with 5 way-too-sugary-for-9am-but-we’re-on-vacation Mickey cookies. The kids were pleased, and we adults tried to make the best course of action for the morning. We did as all great Disney Planners do, and rope dropped Dumbo. It is, for sure, a questionable choice – but it was a fun ride that we could all do together. Unsurprisingly, the wait was only 5 minutes when we showed up. We did it a couple of times before we decided to head to Under the Sea. We debated doing the Barnstromer, but we knew that some of the kids would be totally freaked and refuse to ride anything else afterwards. If I’m going to scare my kids, it’s going to be on a worthwhile FP like 7DMT and not a throwaway like Barnstormer.

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We had a fun ride Under the Sea – with Maeve, our ride chicken, panicking any time she saw Ursula. Afterwards we met up with my aunt and uncle, who had arrived the night before. They would be joining us for some meals and rides throughout the week but were staying at Pop Century and had their own plans too. After some hellos and hugs, we all headed towards 7DMT where we proceeded to scare the *#$( out of at least 2 of our kids. 1 is undecided if he loved it or hated it. Catherine, the ride junkie, adored it and wanted to go again. Unfortunately with a 75 minute wait, she’d have to wait for another time.

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At this point we all split up. Some of the adults took the kids to ride the carousel, while my sister K and I decided to go in search of some food blog snacks we had read about. My husband decided to join us – I’m not sure why – probably because snacks sounded more fun than being responsible for the kids. K wanted a Nutella and fruit waffle while I was dreaming about a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. I LOVE this snack, and staying at Beach Club for the past few years meant I could have one pretty much every day as a snack credit. While Poly has dole whips, they do not have chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.:worried:

I walked up to Sleepy Hallow and I think my exact words were “I’ll have a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich and I am SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!!” The poor CM had to break it to me that it was temporarily off the menu in place of the churro ice cream sandwich. I was crestfallen, but not defeated. I knew I could get one at Hollywood Studios in a few days. I got a Nutella fruit waffle as did my sister, and my husband got a funnel cake. The waffle was actually really good. I was only able to eat ½ so I brought the leftovers to our group to feed the birds (children).

We reconvened with everyone and after a snack buffet of Mickey Bars, Olaf Bars, ice cream sandwiches (not the coveted kind), popcorn and water bottles, we headed to our next FP – Enchanted Tales with Belle. I love this attraction – the special effects are so neat and it’s interactive. We noticed the FP line was really long when we got there. The CM told me there was a “problem with Maurice’s workshop” so it could be a 30-40 minute wait, even with a FP. He did say we could come back later, explain the situation and they would let us in. We planned to do that (spoiler alert: never made it back this trip).

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We split up again at this point with my parents taking baby L to explore Main Street, and the rest of us going to use our last planned FP of the morning – Tomorrowland Speedway. This one is not my favourite – at all – but the kids love it. We left with whiplash and high on fumes. Always fun, Tomorrowland Speedway!

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We had time for one more attraction before lunch, so we headed to Monster Inc. Laughfloor. I think this is one of the most underrated attractions at WDW. We find it absolutely hilarious and it changes every time we see it with fresh jokes and storylines.

We had lunch booked at Tony’s, so we headed over there and met up with my parents. I know this restaurant gets a lot of hate, but we actually really like it.:duck: Being on the dining plan, the Festival of Fantasy parade package is a great deal. You get an appetizer, main, dessert, and VIP parade ticket for one table service credit. This year we were seated in the glassed in part of the restaurant for the first time which was really lovely to people watch and enjoy the sun.

We all enjoyed our meals again – I pretty much always get the ravioli and you can’t go wrong. The fried mozzarella was everyone’s favourite appetizer. I was able to snag a 4th FP to meet Tink right after lunch (this is not easy to do when there are 13 of you!!). Since she is in the same building, that was super convenient. It was a fun meet, where Catherine showed Tink her “magic trick” – using a straw and the light up ice cube she had gotten at Tony’s. Tink was very enthusiastic and Catherine was so proud.


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She then declared that she wanted to meet “Magic Mickey”, so she could show her trick to the magician himself. We promised her we would meet him before our trip was over – but the parade was starting soon and we had to get over to the reserved area. Maeve and I stopped for a quick magic shot:

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My parents headed back to the hotel to rest before the parade – staying on site makes it so convenient for a big group to come and go as they please. I’m sure they must have brought at least one or two kids with them to nap. We got Mickey Bars for everyone and settled in to enjoy the parade. I just love this parade – it chokes me up every time and I get so grateful that I am HERE with all of the people that I love most in the world. It’s the epitome of Disney magic to me.

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The great part of the reserved area is that it’s right at the exit. So we hopped on the monorail and headed back to the Poly. We have a family goal to hit the pool every day while on vacation, so we headed down for a quick swim befor
e dinner.

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Day 4 cont...

Dinner plans were up in the air – we were just using a quick service credit. My sister, BIL, and their 3 kids decided to just stay at the Poly and eat at Capt Cook’s for a quiet night. My sister O decided to take Catherine back to the MK for a special evening just the two of them. I lined them up with some FPs, showed her how to mobile order, and they headed off.

My husband and myself decided to take Maeve on a special night of her own. We planned to go have dinner at Contempo Café then go watch the fireworks from the DVC lounge at BLT. My parents thought that sounded fun so were going to join us. I was really excited about getting to see Top of the World Lounge for the first time, as it would be the only opportunity for us to do so on this trip.

When we walked up to the monorail though, it was down and they weren’t sure when it would be back up. I know I just professed my love for the monorail a few paragraphs above, but I was bummed and undecided what we should do next. We debated ordering an Uber (can you get one with a car seat?), Minnie Van (did we really want to spend 35$ on a 5 minute ride?), taking the boat (did we have time?) and ultimately decided we would likely miss the fireworks from the lounge, which was the whole reason for going over there in the first place. So Maeve’s special night turned into Capt Cook’s dinner and fireworks on the Poly beach with her cousins, which was still pretty special after all.

Catherine was closing down MK and came into the room WELL after we were all asleep. I guess this is a preview of her teenage years to come. She had an absolute blast on her special night – she rode Big Thunder Mountain during the fireworks three times, made her aunt go on Splash Mountain in less than warm temperatures, and ran to be last in line for Magic Carpets. The absolute BEST part, though, was getting to meet “Magic Mickey” and showing him her magic trick. She acted out his reaction over and over and over throughout the trip and talked nonstop about that meet. My sister said it was truly the most magical moment. I was sad to hav
e missed it – but happy that Catherine had that moment with her aunt.

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