Over Thanksgiving, the fam and I went to Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort to relax and recharge. My sister and nieces came along to share the fun. As always, we had a blast and found some shark teeth to bring home!
Last week, we headed down to Disney World for the daughter’s BF’s first trip! We stayed at Coronado Springs resort at Disney and had a comfy room in the Casitas section of the resort. Most of our time was spent in the parks, trying to cram in as much as we could for his first WDW adventure! We hit all four parks plus the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party in Magic Kingdom. Let’s hit the highlights!
There were several new things on this trip for us… lunch at Rix Sports Bar and Grill and dinner at Three Bridges Bar & Grill, both at Coronado Springs. Three Bridges is located in the center of the lake at the resort and dinner there was lovely being on the water and having a great view of the Gran Destino tower part of the resort. Rix was surprisingly good, can’t believe we had never tried that before! We also met the Mandalorian and Grogu at Hollywood Studios — so much fun! Grogu was super cute and very realistic plus Mando stayed perfectly in character.
Also new to us was the Zootopia: Better Zoogether show at Animal Kingdom. This show replaced the It’s Tough to be a Bug show that closed earlier this year. I loved it! Still great effects and the queue to wait for the show has lots of fun things to look at including this cute “Pawdora” jewelry display featuring some of the friends from Zootopia! Here’s a tip, watch Zootopia 2 before this show so you don’t have any spoilers.
Zootopia show posterPawdora display at the Zootopia show queue
In Epcot, there was a Scentsy display of a handful of larger than life snowglobes that featured fun holiday scenes with accompanying scents that you could experience by getting close to the displays. My fave was Christmas Cottage, scented like oranges, raspberries, cloves, and spice. So nice! These were new this year as well. We also got to see the Living with the Land ride transformed into its holiday version, Glimmering Greenhouses. This attraction gets super busy at night when the lights are really showing off all of the displays inside.
Glimmering GreenhousesScentsy snowglobe in Epcot
While in Animal Kingdom, we were lucky enough to see the Merry Menagerie of puppets in Discovery Island. I’ve seen these before but they get better every year! And the interaction with guests is fun to experience and watch!
Merry Menagerie animal puppets in Animal Kingdom
We took a very early ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris and were rewarded with some of the best animal sighting we’ve had in awhile. I don’t think there were any animals that we didn’t get to see! Everyone was out and even frolicking in some cases! The giraffes were super close to the safari trucks too and that’s always such a treat! And the baby elephant, eek!
Rhinos at Kilimanjaro SafarisElephants at Kilimanjaro SafarisA giraffe at Kilimanjaro Safaris
At the Very Merry Christmas Party, we collected all of the free cookies and drinks that were available for party guests plus the fun collectible ornament. We brought most of them home to enjoy later but this chocolate and mint covered marshmallow didn’t make it to the end of the party for me! Delish! The parade was better than I remember and the fireworks — incredible! I have always been a huge fan of the Not So Scary Halloween Party but the Christmas party gave it a run for its money this year!
Toy soldiers during the Very Merry Christmas PartyCinderella Castle projections during the party fireworksChocolate and mint covered marshmallow Mickey
All-in-all, we had a great time. And despite being exhausted from all the walking (over thirty miles in the four days!), lots of wonderful memories were made. Happy Holidays!
In late June, the fam and I hit the road to Orlando to enjoy a week at Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. Our plan was two nights at Disney’s Boardwalk resort, two nights at Disney’s Polynesian Village resort, and two nights at Helios Grand at Universal. Adding those three hotels to the hotel for the drive to Florida and the hotel for the drive back home to Virginia, five hotels in a week was A LOT. We’re experts at switching hotels and keeping things moving though, so we managed the transitions with relative ease. It’s funny though, our challenge became finding laundry facilities at the different stops to keep our clothes clean and fresh. Florida in June is no joke when it comes to heat and humidity and, as a result of those two fun things, sweat. Lots of sweat. We also had pool time and went to Volcano Bay at Universal, so wet bathing suits needed attention as well. I’m happy to report that we succeeded in finding laundry rooms at each spot and did the needful. Adulting is hard!
The hotels… all three were exactly what we needed for that portion of the trip! Boardwalk was the perfect location to start our trip, since our first Disney day was at Epcot and the second was at Hollywood Studios. Both of these are right near Boardwalk, with Epcot being a super short walk to the park and Hollywood Studios being a quick boat ride over. Our third Disney day was Animal Kingdom, then the move to the Polynesian Village resort, and the evening at Magic Kingdom. The last Disney day was spent oh so happily in the pool at the Polynesian and exploring the resort.
We stayed in the new Island Tower at the Polynesian resort, which is to the far left of the resort and very close to the Wedding Pavilion and the Grand Floridian resort. This resort was built in the area that the Spirit of Aloha luau show used to occupy. We’ve stayed at the Polynesian several times but staying in the Tower was **chef’s kiss**. LOVED the room, the Tower, the vibe of the building and the area, and the new Cove pool beside the tower. The original Polynesian resort features rooms in several longhouses but the tower has all of the rooms in the one big, you guessed it, tower. You can’t access any of the rooms or floors of the tower without staying there, which is HUGE for guests. There are four incredible terraces (two on the front and two on the back) that are large open air spaces for guests to relax and enjoy spectacular views. The two on the front of the tower face Magic Kingdom and the Seven Seas Lagoon area and the two on the back face — well construction right now. They face Disney’s Palm golf course and some road construction. The highlight is that you can also see the monorail track and watch those go by quite frequently. Terrace pics are below. Definitely a highlight of staying in the tower!
Boardwalk is always so fun and being that close to Epcot is an absolute treat for us since we tend to spent a decent amount of time there. The headboard of the Murphy bed had Max and Goofy, our favorite father/son duo! Our room had a boardwalk view so we were able to sit out and watch the fireworks from Luminous at Epcot one evening. It was the first time we had a boardwalk view there (we have been there many times but with other views from our room) and it was neat to watch all the folks enjoying the boardwalk activities at night. There are street performers, surrey bikes for rent, carnival games, musical acts, etc. and lots of guests come over to experience something a little different on their trips. Epcot was fantabulous as always and dinner at Via Napoli was as delicious as we come to expect. We hit all of our favorite rides and attractions plus grabbed dessert to go from Karamell Kuche in Germany (oh that caramel…) before heading back for the evening.
Hollywood Studios always means Star Wars fun for us but we also wanted to see the updated Little Mermaid musical show and the new Villains show. I have to say that the Little Mermaid show has always been a fave of mine but it is so well done now… majorly impressed with the updates. I wasn’t sure what to expect on the Villains show and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. The storyline isn’t the strongest but the effects and stars of the show did a great job. I’m excited to see how it evolves. We also stopped by the Frozen Sing Along show and the Arendelle historians were super funny, more funny than usual I think. Lots of laughs from us for sure! Dinner was at Hollywood & Vine with Minnie and friends and quite yummy. They were offering a discount for annual passholders that we had to take advantage of, us an seemingly everyone else in there! I heard all of the other tables around us saying they were AP holders as well. Too much savings to resist for us I guess!
We didn’t spent a ton of time in Animal Kingdom but had a great spot to watch Festival of the Lion King and a blast on Flight of Passage. We split up for lunch with the fam having Satu’li Canteen and me heading over for some classic American goodness at Pizzafari. It was nice to take a walk around the park and see some old faves since we don’t typically spend a lot of time there. Animal Kingdom is a beautiful place to spend the day! Our room was ready over at the Polynesian, so we left the park and got set up in our new room. The hubs had a concert at House of Blues at Disney Springs to attend, so the daughter and I headed out to Magic Kingdom for dinner and a little more fun. Crystal Palace hit the spot with their delish buffet plus Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. We took one last ride on the Rivers of America on the Liberty Belle Riverboat (it closed permanently on July 7th) and hopped on Haunted Mansion (our fave ride!) for a journey through the darkness. It was almost time for Happily Ever After fireworks after that and the mob scene had plugged up all of the Castle hub area, the side bridges, and all the way down Main Street USA, so we hopped on the boat back to our resort. While onboard, the fireworks started and we were able to watch them (with the music piped in while we were parked at the Grand Floridian resort boat dock) from the water. What a lovely way to end the night!
The next day was our pool day. No parks, just chlorine and sunscreen. The new Cove pool beside the Island Tower was a great way to relax and refresh. Pretty basic pool but with a cute little Moana themed waterplay area for the littles. We got a lunch snack from the Wailulu Bar and Grill at the tower and then ordered in dinner from Giordano’s pizza delivery. I LOVE Giordano’s and try to get it on most of our trips. Always so good! We ended the night with drinks from the main pool bar and our tower terrace exploration.
It was moving time again the next morning so we packed up and headed to Helios Grand to check in. The room wasn’t ready so we hopped on a bus to Volcano Bay for some waterpark fun. The wave pool occupied a good bit of the day before we switched to the lazy river and then the pool. Unfortunately, the Fearless river was closed when we made our way around to it but there was a vicious thunderstorm on the way anyway, so we ended up leaving the park shortly thereafter. Back to Helios, the rain was going crazy and we got soaked trying to get our bags from our van to the hotel. Since we were still in our bathing suits, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been if we were fully dressed.
Dinner that night was at Flora Taverna, a restaurant in Helios. This restaurant was SO good. I’ve been kind of meh about food in Orlando in general lately but Flora Taverna turned that right around! The service and the food was incredible, so much so that we had breakfast there the morning we left to go home. Expensive but worth every penny!
Helios was such a cool hotel! It even had a tablet in the room that you could control the curtains and lights with! Tablets are becoming more the norm for room service, looking at room charges, etc. but this one controlled the tv, the lights and lamps in all the rooms, the curtains, and you could even make requests for more amenities with it!
Helios is located right at the rear of Epic Universe park and has its own private guest entrance into the park near Dark Universe. For us, that was perfection! Resort guests also get an hour early entry so we headed into the park and spent time in Dark Universe before heading to Super Mario World before the crowds. It was neat to see the park again so soon after our last visit and to see how many things had changed. There were new food stands, new merch, other stores that hadn’t opened yet, better processes for getting on attractions (no more virtual queue for Battle of the Ministry in Harry Potter!), and more. We spent a very full day in the park and ended with the fountain show at closing. Everything was perfect (except the huge thunderstorm but weather is what weather is) even though we didn’t get everything done that we were trying to. Lunch was at The Atlantic restaurant, another one that was new and incredibly good. Reservations required and worth the park time to enjoy the food there. It is hard to be a vegetarian when you don’t eat fake meat or mushrooms, dining options have just migrated to basically those two things as the vegetarian menu ‘option’ but The Atlantic had the most amazing romanesco dish… still thinking about that thing. Back to Epic though, I think the best there is two days but at least a day and a half. It is so hard to try to cram everything into one day. We go back again this fall but will have Express Passes this time, hopefully helping us get a little done for our day at Epic.
The drive back home was definitely interesting for us. So much traffic on I-95, which isn’t unusual but never welcome, and then the hubs got hit with apparently food poisoning so I ended up driving the last five hours or so home the next day. At least we take backroads and more local routes for that portion! Next time, we’re flying to Orlando so they won’t be subjected to my driving and musical accompaniment!
Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe… the newest theme park to open in Orlando in over 25 years! The daughter and I hopped on a flight earlier this month to head down to see if this new park would live up to the hype. The park officially opens on May 22nd, in just a few short days, but they have had preview days available for guests for several weeks. I knew we had to get there and experience as much as we could while the park was still in ‘technical rehearsal’ and before the crowds really poured in. We had two days at Epic and tried to pack in as much as we could. Let’s discuss!
We stayed at Stella Nova, one of the three new hotels right near Universal’s Epic Universe park. This park is part of what they’re calling the “South Campus” about a 15-minute drive from the original parks and resorts, now called the “North Campus”. Stella Nova, Terra Luna, and Helios Grande are the three new resorts that are located steps from Epic Universe. Stella is right across the road, maybe a 5-minute bus ride or you can walk fairly easily. Terra Luna is slightly farther, on the other side of Stella Nova. Helios actually is located at the rear of the park and has an entrance directly into it, for maximum wow factor.
Stella Nova was the perfect property for this trip. Super convenient to the park and didn’t feel overly crowded during our stay. The room had a great view of the park (you can see the Helios hotel to the left and then park goes to its right) and met our needs for the three nights of the visit. And yes, we did stop on the 3rd floor to see the famed “star ceiling” in the hall and it was quite striking! We quite enjoyed the food court for breakfast each day with the best Belgian waffle I’ve had in a long time and breakfast potatoes that were plentiful and delish!
Before I jump in to the details on Epic, I wanted to point out that the Coke Freestyle machines are super convenient when you purchase one of Universal’s refillable cups, as they can be used throughout the parks. Bonus, they don’t leak like Disney’s tend to do. I love a good Freestyle machine too since you can get a lot more variety and also have flavored waters and lemonades to choose from when you’re burnt out on soda. I also love that these are purchased for daily use, so if you decide you don’t want to reactivate it the next day, you can use it just for ice and water from the machines for free! You can’t beat fresh water and ice for free in a cup that doesn’t leak and is easy to carry! Universal for the win! Plus, three of the Worlds at Epic Universe have special drinks in their Freestyle machines that are unique to that area. Bonus!
When talking about Epic Universe, many people have had a hard time understanding that it is an entire new theme park. This isn’t a new land or section in an existing park, this is a whole new one! It has five Worlds: Celestial Park, How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic, Dark Universe, and Super Nintendo World. You enter a portal when you go into each World, with Celestial Park running up the middle of the park and being the “hub” to the “spokes” of the other four Worlds. This park is huge and really puts the “park” back into the “theme park” concept. Celestial Park is filled with fountains that have water shows and musical scores to accompany them throughout the day. Trees, seating nooks, little gardens, and even a large fountain with surrounding terraced ground seating fill this area. I was impressed by the beauty and thought that went into creating all the little places to tuck away and take a breath from the typical “go, go, go” theme park touring style. There are many food kiosks, for lack of a better word, throughout this section too. Some are more like huts and others larger in size with a variety of snacks and grab-and-go items to enjoy. Frosty Moon is an ice cream shop and it has crazy good ice cream with two unique toppings of your choosing. Don’t miss that one! There are also Coke Freestyle machines throughout and these have the Celestial Spritz exclusive flavor included. I tried this one and wasn’t a fan, a little too orange for me. Pizza Moon was a good food stop here, quick service style where you go in, find a table, and then place your order using a QR code and the Universal Orlando mobile app. These restaurants also have the Freestyle machines inside (bonus again!) The pizza at this joint is quite unique so try something new on your stop!
As far as attractions, there are two. Stardust Racers is the main attraction and this is a dueling coaster, unlike any other! Two tracks ride side-by-side, over and under each other, on the smoothest ride you’ve ever had on a coaster! We have the less intense “yellow” side and the more intense “green” but both will definitely have you holding on tight! I loved this ride and can’t wait to go back on it again, maybe with enough nerve to try the green side although two times on the yellow was quite the experience!
Celestial Park’s second attraction is the Constellation Carousel. This ride is not one to miss! At first I thought, carousel, meh. Then I saw it in person! Truly a sight to behold, this carousel has animals from the constellations that you ride but they don’t go in the traditional boring circular fashion. These actually rise and fall and move in all directions, along with lovely music, in such a graceful way. The animals are lighted and, while we rode it twice, we missed going back at night to see it in all the glistening glory. Each ride seems to have a different movement pattern and music, so you won’t necessarily have the same experience twice! I really liked that the animals held two guests and have actual seat belts, great for the littles. There are also your typical chariot-style animals that are easier to load into that seat two plus a child, all with seat belts. I rode both styles and enjoyed them equally. Pro tip, watch where the animal is mounted to the floor. Look for the ones that are located inside of the circular floor pieces, those move more!
Moving right along, How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk, is a HTTYD’s fan dream come true! As you enter this portal, you feel like you’ve entered Berk and expect to see dragons and vikings all around! You’ll have three rides here, an incredible show, characters walking around, and the opportunity to meet Toothless, the star of the HTTYD franchise. Prepare for LONG waits to meet him though, but it is worth it! The rides are Hiccup’s Wing Gliders coaster, a chance to fly your own dragon on Dragon Racer Rally, and Fyre Drill where you can practice your aim and likely will be soaked as the reward! There’s also the Viking Training Academy play area for the little ones. Lots of snacks and drinks in this area too plus the Freestyle flavor here is Dragon Splash (I did drink a good bit of this one, lol). We spent hours and hours in this World as we are huge HTTYD fans and couldn’t get enough. Even after that, we still didn’t get to do everything!
Next up, Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic. There’s one ride and one show here, neither of which we did. Truth be told, I’m not a huge HP fan so I have a harder time getting into these lands than some others. I will say that the theme throughout this World is incredible and you really do feel like you’ve been transported to Paris. We tried to see the show but waited a very long time and then it ended up being cancelled. Not wanting to wait another 45 minutes, we decided to bail. The ride here was running on a virtual queue during our visit, which was ridiculously hard to get, and I failed at it all of times that I tried. It didn’t help that the ride didn’t open until 3pm each day so space was super, super limited. You were able to walk into a large part of the initial queue without having ride access, so the daughter and I did that. It looks really cool but, unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience. I do know that since we got back, the ride dropped the virtual queue process but the wait times were running in the three to five hour range! I can tell you that I would not have waited that long for any ride, insanity! There are all kinds of shops and snacks in this area too plus new wands and opportunities to cast spells throughout. If you are a HP fan, you will want to spend a good bit of time here!
Dark Universe is the next portal and an absolute piece of art. We had such a good time in here although we tried not to do everything so we could experience more of this area with the hubs when we go back in June. He’s a gigantic horror fan and this section will blow his mind! We did watch the Burning Blade Tavern’s windmill burst into flames a few times (that alone is mind blowing!) and watched several guests getting spun around on the Curse of the Werewolf roller coaster. Not sure that that one will be on our list next time either though for the vomit factor! Monsters Unchained is the main attraction here and OMG was it incredible. I don’t want to say too much because I haven’t shared the deets with the hubs either but this one is a do not miss for sure. The outer building, the queue, the ride itself… all perfection. This will be scary for the little ones so they should skip. You can even get a monster makeover (for a fee) here too and those were looking mighty fine! You’ll have roaming characters here too to interact with, so don’t miss out! Dark Universe has the Coke Freestyle Screaming Berry drink and I failed to try it but will try some next time!
Super Nintendo World is the last of the portals and it lives up to all the hype and then some. We did Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Hollywood last year but it is much smaller than the Orlando version with fewer rides and overall footprint. Orlando also has Donkey Kong Country with the Minecart Madness ride and yes, your cart will jump the broken tracks for some added excitement here! They have two more rides, Mario Kart and Yoshi’s Adventure. Yoshi’s is more for the smaller set but adults will find it a nice relaxing ride with great views of the land. Mario Kart is interactive and gets some big lines but worth it. There is also special food and snacks in this land along with numerous character meets. A huge draw here is the interactive games that you can play if you purchase a Power-Up band. We’re talking punching blocks, collecting coins, etc. just like in the games. I haven’t done this yet but saw so many guests having the time of their lives doing so… one day that will be me having that fun with them!
There is so much to do and see in Epic Universe that you will easily spend a day there. We had two days and still have plenty left to enjoy. These attractions also have staying power in that you won’t feel like they’re “one and dones” meaning you will find yourself wanting to ride some of them over and over. (Unless you’re the daughter who says two times on Stardust Racers pushed her motion sickness to the limit, despite the Dramamine.) I can’t wait to finish exploring Dark Universe and to get back to Berk. I will definitely be on Stardust Racers again and Mario is calling my name to return to Super Nintendo World. I’m sure I’ll get back into the Ministry to see more Harry Potter goodies too and I know that carousel is on the to-do list for next time. If you’re trying to cram it all into one day, you have the option of Universal’s Express Pass service too. That’s an add-on that is fairly pricey but will allow you to use the Express Pass lines at most attractions (Minecart Madness, Battle of the Ministry HP ride, and Dragon Racer’s Rally are all excluded) to use the much shorter access lines. It is only valid for one use per participating attraction though, so keep that in mind. I was very glad to have visited during the previews so the lines were shorter and the park overall had plenty of room to move around and explore. I am hoping that my return next month will be similar but… not sure yet how that’s going to work out. Fingers crossed!
Type A Travel Mom 