Here now - Shades of Green and 12 day June trip

[Cindylieu]

Today is our leaving day. I’ll give a brief summary of a very enjoyable trip...
June 4-15 with flights to/from Idaho on the entire first and last days. This was a multi-generational trip with a stay at Shades of Green (Dad is retired AirForce).

• We flew to MCO early in the day (arrived by 4pm) and are flying out late (leaving at 4pm), so our arrival and departure days can be relaxed. Good decision!
• Shades of Green is lovely, quiet, so well maintained! The rooms are as big as the Polynesian’s rooms and have a sofa! The grounds and pool are great. My daughter (15) felt like we were staying at a Disney Deluxe Hotel. Now that you have 60 day FP, there is NO reason to go anywhere else if SOG is an option for you. LOVE it!
• Uber is the answer to not having Magical Express. We Ubered to/from MCO and Universal - smooth and comfortable! Highly recommend. ($36-50 one way for Uber XL)
• June is indeed rainy and HOT; oppressively so at 2-6pm every day. Our solution: Table Service Dining daily at 2pm with a mandate to “EAT SLOWLY!!” 60-90 minutes in the A/C, a dose of Tylenol, and two mandatory glasses of water...ready to roll! Then off to a couple indoor rides or shows and by 6pm it was cooling off. (Daily afternoon rains and wind helped the cool-off process).
• Rain: daily showers every afternoon- ponchos people!

(To be continued...)

 

[Cindylieu]

• Our general schedule was two park days followed by one “rest” day. The rest days were for resort hopping and Disney Springs, sleeping in and swimming at the hotel, laundry and leisurely breakfast. Park days were from ROPE DROP to closing for me, a few would drop out along the way and head back to SOG. Park days, we walked 7-9 miles. Even on the rest days we walked 6-7 miles. My feet are now creaking and my big toes are partially numb. I’m sure I have some tendinitis and my nerves are compressed. Ibuprofen and rest will soon fix that.
• Bring a small pack of moleskin, ibuprofen, Tylenol, and sunscreen to the parks. They saved our bacon a couple times. (Also pixie-dusted a few random strangers with Tylenol and Moleskin)
• Ropedrop is the best time of day, followed closely by just after fireworks when everyone else is leaving. The worst time of day is 2-5pm when the heat is nearly intolerable and EVERYONE is in the parks. Find a way to avoid that time (hotel break or sit-down meal) and maximize the early/late hours. The parks are totally different without throngs of exhausted families.

(To be continued...)

 

[Cindylieu]

• Fastpass and a park plan are the only way for me. I had a previously determined park strategy for every day. We arrived before rope drop and grabbed maps. While we waited for ropedrop, I sat down and circled our chosen rides, FPS, and our ADR location. I wrote on the map the order of attack (#1,#2,etc). Then we just followed the plan. By 3-4pm the plan was done for the day and we winged it with additional FP after that.
• 1-2 rides per hour is the max that can be accomplished in June. 2/hr at ropedrop, 1/hr after 11am. Trying for more than that is stressful and futile.
• Managing 5 people from 3 generations is hard. I learned the meaning of “pack your patience”. The hardest one to manage was my 69 year old father...totally different style from me. He didn’t really believe me when I said that he was welcome to rest or leave early or skip rides....he grumped and groused the entire trip until the last 3 glorious days when he relaxed...left early, skipped rides, and no one was mad. Ahhhh!!!!! Finally!!
• Surprisingly, the lush and wooded Animal Kingdom is the place you can’t escape the heat...few indoor attractions and very humid due to all the plants.
• Surprisingly, the paved Epcot is the easiest place to escape the heat...so many indoor attractions!
• Parkhopping is nice but unnecessary...we parkhopped once. We only had 1 day at Epcot, so we used the shorter of our two AK days to hop back a see a few of the Epcot lands and aquarium that we had missed. Only 3 of the 5 of us parkhopped at all. Takes way too much time to go between parks. We only had parkhoppers because tithe military salute tickets include it.
• Memory Maker was fun! Military gets it for $99 and we split the cost with my parents. Totally worth it! I don’t think I would get it for the $170-200 though. FYI- military folks buy it on the first day at that price and it works immediately. Without a magic band (SOG doesn’t issue them or use them), you have to go to the front desk in the park for some of the ride pictures...might be worth it to have a couple magic bands for your party if you are planning to buy memory maker. I can explain in detail if anyone cares.

(To be continued...)

 

[Cindylieu]

• Rides were awesome and FastPass was AMAZING. Getting our 4th and onward FP as I stood in the lines worked wonders. Our last Magic Kingdom day we ended up with several “anytime” FPs because of weather and breakdowns. You can continue to make additional FP selections even while you hold 1+ anytime FPs!
• Food was yummy and twice what it should have cost- know that going in and it will reduce the stress. We spent $40-60 per person per day and ate way more than we normally do. In that regard, we beat the Dining Plan. We enjoyed snacks and did not consider price at our ADR. We usually had coffee and snacks from our stash every morning, a mid-morning snack, popcorn from the refillable bucket, an ADR, and and evening snack in the parks.
• Universal two-park in one day was fun for Harry Potter, but a “one and done” for all of us...even the teenager liked Disney more.
• And that is the gist of our trip! Hope this is helpful. Enjoy!

 

[JustMeFran]

Great break down! Sounds like you had a great time!
Thank you!

 

[Cindylieu]

Obligatory castle pic


Awesome family!


Character meal was fun


Em got picked for the wand ceremony at Universal


Poncho perfection!



Ponchos save the day!
($4 at walmart for heavy-duty, multi-use)


Disney Springs Ghiradelli Sundaes!


Wedding at the Grand Floridian (we didn’t crash the wedding...just snapped a pic)

 

[Cindylieu]

Love me some Walt


Grandpa’s favorite ride


Love me some Edna!


Be Our Guest lunch- a great choice and very filling for a much better price than dinner


Finally found his Mickey pretzel

 

[lynnzrae]

• Our general schedule was two park days followed by one “rest” day. The rest days were for resort hopping and Disney Springs, sleeping in and swimming at the hotel, laundry and leisurely breakfast. Park days were from ROPE DROP to closing for me, a few would drop out along the way and head back to SOG. Park days, we walked 7-9 miles. Even on the rest days we walked 6-7 miles. My feet are now creaking and my big toes are partially numb. I’m sure I have some tendinitis and my nerves are compressed. Ibuprofen and rest will soon fix that.
• Bring a small pack of moleskin, ibuprofen, Tylenol, and sunscreen to the parks. They saved our bacon a couple times. (Also pixie-dusted a few random strangers with Tylenol and Moleskin)
• Ropedrop is the best time of day, followed closely by just after fireworks when everyone else is leaving. The worst time of day is 2-5pm when the heat is nearly intolerable and EVERYONE is in the parks. Find a way to avoid that time (hotel break or sit-down meal) and maximize the early/late hours. The parks are totally different without throngs of exhausted families.

(To be continued...)

Glad you had a. Good trip. Looking forward to reading the rest. Please update on your experience on the one-day vs military ticket prioritizing and if you have advice and/or tips for me. Thank you!!!

 

[JKMastalski]

Glad you had a fun trip and loved Shades of Green. We have stayed there many times in September (DH is an Army Vet) and always had a great stay. We only stay deluxe on property, so Shades is just as comparable!

 

[Cindylieu]

Glad you had a. Good trip. Looking forward to reading the rest. Please update on your experience on the one-day vs military ticket prioritizing and if you have advice and/or tips for me. Thank you!!!

I remember the thread but can’t remember where it was,so here you go: I went to guest services at Disney Springs first thing. They confirmed that the one-day ticket was prioritized first. We scanned in on day 1 at Magic Kingdom with no issues. We park hopped only on one day of our trip and had no issues with it.
What tips were you wondering about? I’m happy to answer questions.

 

[SeeDisney]

The room size at Shades is amazingly so large! I love it there. how did you apply the good military discount on the memory maker?

 

[lynnzrae]

I remember the thread but can’t remember where it was,so here you go: I went to guest services at Disney Springs first thing. They confirmed that the one-day ticket was prioritized first. We scanned in on day 1 at Magic Kingdom with no issues. We park hopped only on one day of our trip and had no issues with it.
What tips were you wondering about? I’m happy to answer questions.

Awesome. Glad it was an easy experience. Our first day we start out at International Gateway, Epcot. Hopefully our experience will be just as smooth sailing.

 

[lynnzrae]

The room size at Shades is amazingly so large! I love it there. how did you apply the good military discount on the memory maker?

You add it when you get there you can get it at first services I believe.

 

[Cindylieu]

You add it when you get there you can get it at first services I believe.

This is correct. We arrived and went to guest services that night (Disney Springs). They sold Mom the memory maker for $99, she showed her military ID, and it went into effect immediately. We were all linked in MDE, so we could all see the pics and all claim them with our park tickets.

 

[mamamelody2]

Sounds like you had a great trip! Thanks for sharing!