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!
Here we are again, two trips down and still no blog post. Geez. I have been quite the slacker lately. I guess this will be another ‘hit the highlights’ post and I’ll try to do better next time. 🤞🏻
In January, the fam and I returned to Disney for the International Festival of the Arts at Epcot. The daughter had two days scheduled to work during the festival as a chalk artist on the bridge between World Celebration and World Showcase. This year, she was tasked with working on a reproduction of a Master with a Disney twist each day. She chose two August Macke paintings, Promenadeand Walking in the Park, with some color brightening and the addition of Hidden Mickeys. Each piece takes about three hours to complete and are about 3 feet by 4 feet in size. She works so hard on these pieces, as do all of the chalk artists, with hours of prep time and work on the ground to make these pieces come to life for park guests. Kudos to the entire chalk team! 🏆
Our weather this year was wacky with a capital ‘W’! It was so very cold initially with gloves, heavy coats, and hats each day. Then we were quickly approaching shorts weather not three days later. January is definitely a bizarre month for Orlando weather, each year stranger than the one before. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort for a couple of nights and then moved over to the Boardwalk Inn resort for the rest of the trip. The HVAC system in our room at Caribbean Beach didn’t know what to do with the cold weather… it was super hot in the room when we got there and we had to have maintenance come in to get it down to something tolerable. Then, of course, it was too cold in the room. I’m not sure which I liked less but being cold is just no bueno! The Boardwalk room didn’t have any issues like that, it was lovely and a nice, spacious corner room! 😍
Oh yeah, the temperatures! Guess who got lucky with a Lightning Lane MultiPass for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom on the first trip day? Yep, me! Well… not all lucky because that day might have hit 50 degrees for a high and we all had our winter coats on. When we rode the ride, of course we got completely soaked and were freezing for a good while afterward. I’m not sure that the hubs has forgiven me for that yet. You had to laugh though! I’ve never gotten that wet on the ride but we ended up in the front of the log and it was like the water was just coming straight for us every time. Yep, that’s me in the front! 😂
Other than the weather, it was a great trip! Fast forward to March… the fam plus a niece headed to Hilton Head for a few days at Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort. We’ve been there many times before and it is a great place for a spring break getaway. The weather here was much more cooperative, after a major storm the day we arrived. We had a great couple of days looking for shark teeth on the beach, trying out some local restaurants, and relaxing at the resort. Al’s Aloha Kitchen and their incredible acai bowls never disappoints!
I always feel like I could stay longer there but this year I was a little bit grateful that we didn’t have a longer trip. The pollen was atrocious for some reason! I guess all of the beautiful Live Oak trees decided it was time to spread their neon yellow cheer all over the island because, holy cow, was it everywhere! I had a runny nose and super itchy, red and goopy eyes the whole time we were gone. Not my idea of a fun time! At first I thought it was the sand that blew in my eyes when I might or might not have been crawling around on the beach looking for shark teeth. 🫣🤭But nope, pollen. So.much.pollen! You know who didn’t care about the pollen? This guy. He was eating the little flowery bits causing the pollen! 🤧
Our next journey will be back to Florida this summer to enjoy more time at Disney and stop over at Universal for a day at Epic Universe! I cannot wait to see this new theme park and live out my How to Train Your Dragon dreams!
xoxo, Amber
PS- This post is dedicated to the Oleman. We lost a beloved member of our family in February and will forever miss taking him along on our journeys and spending our days surrounded by his love. 💔
Since my last post, I have been back to Disney twice but have neglected to recap my adventures for my loyal readers! Alas, it is time to get the stories told!
The first trip was in late August. This one consisted of just the hubs and I and we took to the road to begin the adventure. When we arrived in Orlando, we spent two nights at one of my favorite places, the Cabins at Fort Wilderness. You’ll remember those from my last post. It was first time that the hubs enjoyed one of the new cabins and he liked it as much as the daughter and I did back in July. Those things are the best! 10 out of 10. After those two nights, we moved over to Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando to spend two more nights. On our last night, we drove up to Jekyll Island in Georgia for a little beach fun before heading home the next day. We were on the move for the whole trip but had a blast!
OK. So Disney first. We did all of the usual Disney things (and saw the renovated Country Bears Jamboree Show) but were also able to enjoy a special after hours event for Disney Vacation Club Members called Moonlight Magic. This one took place at Hollywood Studios from 9:30pm to 12:30am. All of the attractions were open, we got free snacks, there were special dance parties and characters, and even our own special showing of Fantasmic! So cool. These events are super hard to get signed up for nowadays but I’m so glad I secured a spot for us for this one.
Universal was a blast! Once we hopped over there, we really had a great time in the parks and at Hard Rock. We spent a decent amount of time in the pool there mid-afternoon each day until the rain kicked us out. Our room was as far away from the lobby as it could possibly be, literally at a stairwell, but that was PERFECT! We could go right down that stairwell and pop out at the pool entrance and at a sidewalk that connected directly to the walking path to the parks. Woot! I love it when we get those types of rooms.
We enjoyed a lot of time in the parks, riding the attractions, checking out the new Dreamworks Land, and giving me time to capture some great shots for future marketing. I had a training event at Universal while there so I was able to pick up some new knowledge and talk one-on-one with some of our sales staff in person which is always so valuable! We were also able to get amped up for Halloween Horror Nights by seeing some of the props that were out and ready for the event to officially start — right after we left, of course.
Up at Jekyll Island, we drove in just for the night to see what we could enjoy on our brief stopover. This island is super unique with Driftwood Beach at the north end and has been home to many TV shows and film productions. No shark teeth for me (darn it!) but this was an interesting place to visit and a new type of beach environment for me with the funky water color and driftwood.
The second trip was in mid-September. The hubs, the daughter, and I flew down to Orlando to visit Disney and Universal again for her annual birthday trip. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney and Sapphire Falls resort at Universal for this trip. The Front Desk at Animal Kingdom Lodge was able to snag us a partial savanna view for our ‘resort view’ room, which was super and unexpected. Nice birthday bonus!
We enjoyed some time at all four parks during our two nights there plus hit Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom on our last night. It was fantastic, as always! Maybe even better than our last one because we scored a super spot for the Boo to You parade on Main Street right across from Casey’s Corner. We had to grab it EARLY but it was worth it. That is our most favorite parade of all of them in the parks. I love seeing the Headless Horseman go by and the Haunted Mansion ghosts!
When we went over to Universal, our room took a while to be ready (because it was a huge Sapphire Suite!) so we spent the afternoon at the pool there. I really liked this pool as it had a neat raised up area across the middle of the pool to act like a bridge/path to get from one side of the pool to the other. The water across is very shallow so you can walk across the pool to find more seating, the restaurant, get to the water slide entrance, etc. Since our room wasn’t ready, we used the Fitness Center showers and changing areas which were very convenient for this purpose.
Once the room was ready, we got settled in. The daughter, being in college, had some school work to do so she got a big room service order for dinner and got to work. The hubs and I packed up and headed to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights. Truth be told, work or no, the daughter didn’t want anything to do with Halloween Horror Nights anyway. This was my first time at HHN so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I decided to splurge and get a RIP Tour for us so we could skip all the lines for the houses and get up close seating for the Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus show. This was EXCELLENT! I will be going to HHN next year and we will be doing a RIP Tour again for sure. There are two types, private and non-private. Non-private was what we did, with like 8-10 other people. Our guide was Jason from NJ and he was the best! We finished five of the ten houses in the first hour! We started at 6pm and were totally done by 9pm with all houses and Scare Zones done plus two decent breaks. Then Jason led us over to the show location and put us right in the second and third rows, super close to the stage. After the show was over, we were on our own to continue exploring and had the use of Express Pass for the attractions. Normally, the hubs goes alone and gets the Express Pass for the houses, gets started around 6pm, but doesn’t get finished until like 1am and doesn’t get to see the show (you need to line up early to get a spot). We were done and on the way back to the hotel by like 10:30pm. Amazing!
Let’s dip into the details on HHN. So ten houses and five Scare Zones. Food stands featuring event-themed items for purchase. Merchandise throughout the parks including the famous Tribute Store inside of Universal Studios. Most attractions remain open for the event. The Scare Zones are located in different places in the parks. They had a big one when you first entered the park where some Scare Actors ‘greeted’ the guests with chainsaws and some chasing. There was another themed like a medieval torture faire and one with characters from the Blumhouse films like M3GAN, Black Phone, The Purge, etc. I also enjoyed the zombies in the Swamp of the Undead and probably should’ve gone through it a second time. (Huge Walking Dead fan here.) The Scare Actors have the best costumes and makeup, really movie quality. I don’t know how they pull it off in the Orlando heat. The houses are either based on recent horror movies like A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Insidious: The Further, etc. or original content like Triplets of Terror, Slaughterhouse Cinema 2, and Goblin’s Fest. The houses are like big mazes with Scare Actors that come out at you when you going through, props, excellent sets, fog, sounds (or no sound, in the case of A Quiet Place), etc. You get very immersed in each house as you go through it. Movie quality for sure! Then we have Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus. This is best described as Cirque du Soleil meets a burlesque show. There is fire, acrobatics, aerials, stunts, dancing, and more. Definitely a must see for any HHN guest. By the way, guests are recommended to be 14 and up for this event by Universal. I did see smaller kids there, including the poor little boy crying his eyes out after going into the first Scare Zone, so keep that in mind. I also know of some younger teenagers who love scary movies that didn’t do so when the scary movie on the screen was now in person and in your face holding a chainsaw. The Scare Actors aren’t allowed to touch you, and you are forbidden from touching them, but they do get close.
Phew! That was a lot of recap! Two trips in the span of a couple of weeks might leave you thinking, how do you have enough to do each time? In reality though, we did completely different things on each trip and still left with a few things we didn’t get around to (here’s looking at you, Dead Coconut Club).
We’ll be back in Florida in January (that seems like forever!) but have some fun planned between now and then. Stay tuned!
The daughter and I packed up and headed south to Florida shortly after the 4th of July. This wasn’t our first trip to the “Most Hot and Humid Place on Earth in the summer” and it won’t be our last! This stay was split between time at the brand new Disney Vacation Club (DVC) Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and a beautiful one-bedroom villa at Disney’s Riviera resort. We flew down to Florida on Breeze Airways, our first time on that airline, nonstop from Richmond to Tampa. And yes, I am familiar with the geography of Florida and realize that Tampa is a solid hour to an hour and a half from Disney. I wanted to try this airline out and had some time to spare so Breeze and Tampa it was! I did discover that while Breeze was fine, flying into Tampa wasn’t really for me, especially after a pile of delays getting to Tampa (and an arrival that was well after midnight) then a rainy drive in the dark for an hour+ in a rental car. Ah, things sound so much better in my head sometimes…
We finally arrived at Fort Wilderness in the wee hours of the morning (like 2:30-3am I think) and checked into our incredible cabin. There have been wilderness cabins at Fort Wilderness for years and I have stayed in one of the original ones, but these new DVC cabins are replacing the original ones. During our trip, only one loop of the new cabins was open and we were so very lucky to get one of those. Let me tell you, these things are stunning. They fit so well into the vibe of the Fort and the outdoors from the look of the cabins, the incredible amount of windows, and all the furnishings and fixtures inside. The new cabins still have a queen bed and set of bunks in the bedroom but the old pull-out sofa has been replaced by a new queen-size Murphy bed that is a sofa by day and pull-down bed by night. So much more comfortable than the original pull-outs with the bars (anyone who has slept on a sofa bed knows exactly what I’m talking about!) The bathroom was relocated to the opposite end of the cabin and expanded for so much more room when getting ready in the morning. I LOVED the floor to ceiling windows in the living room/kitchen area and the high windows in the bedroom that could let the light in each day. I don’t think I would change a thing about these (except to add a washer/dryer) and can’t wait for all of the original cabins to be replaced!
One of our favorite things about staying at the Fort is renting a golf cart and just riding around. It’s fun to look at the campsites that others have decorated for their stays, to be able to head to Trail’s End and grab Mickey waffles in the morning, and to have our own private transport from the main bus stop back to our cabin each evening. At about $70/night after tax, these are well-worth the convenience and fun they provide!
Our park day was a bit limited on this trip, in part because of the heat/humidity and in part because the daughter was knee-deep in two summer college courses. We spent a good bit of the time in the cabin working (a travel agent’s work is never done!) and relaxing. It was simply divine! We did go to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios though during the trip and enjoyed our time in each, as always. Epcot provided delicious dinner at Via Napoli and Magic Kingdom offered up tasty delights at Crystal Palace. We ordered pizza in one evening from Giordano’s (our fave!) while at the cabin too and that was scrumptious as always.
We were able to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom and loved it! I was never a big fan of Splash Mountain but love the refreshed storyline and new audio-animatronics in this version. We didn’t even get that wet (bonus!)
Once we moved over to the Riviera resort (no more golf cart, boo!), it was a nice upgrade to be in a one-bedroom villa. I decided to split my stay because the one thing missing from the cabin was a washer and dryer and we really needed clean clothes with the heat. I am a laundry nut while on vacation and I really miss it when I don’t have that available. Once we moved over to Riviera, we really went into relax mode. We still hit the parks, as mentioned, but also enjoyed our time together and at Primo Piatto, the super quick service location at Riviera. That little spot puts out some amazing food on the go.
After a couple of days at Riviera, it was time to make the drive back to Tampa to fly home. Knowing that I-4W gets very congested, we decided to leave super early and make a pit stop at the Lakeland Antique Mall in Lakeland (imagine that). This was about 35-minutes or so from Disney (depending on traffic). I tell you, we almost needed pulled out of there. Everything under the sun can be found in that place, especially if you’re a gigantic Disney fan. So much memorabilia (for sale and just for show) plus your usual antiques are packed into every corner. If you’ve ever been to Roundup Rodeo BBQ in Hollywood Studios, you’ll remember the “paper” plates you’re given to eat on. These look like your typical paper plate but they’re actually ceramic. I LOVE those plates and they actually had a stack of them available to purchase. Of course, I came home with two, LOL.
After the antique mall, we hopped back in the car to Tampa. And of course, congestion had set in by then and we were in for a very long ride back to the airport. So much for just another 45 minutes or so! When we finally got back to Tampa, it was again pouring rain but luckily cleared in time for our flight to leave with only an hour or so delay.
Always a glutton for punishment, I’m headed back to Orlando later this month and again in September, so heat and humidity… here I come (again!)
My favorite festival at Epcot is the annual Festival of the Arts, held in mid-January to late February. It is my favorite for several reasons including the cooler weather, the more ‘inventive’ food offerings in the festival food stands, the paint-by-number mural, the life-size art backdrops for photos, meeting my favorite artists, and the artwork offered for sale, display, and being created in person on-site. My tippy top favorite reason though is that my daughter started as a single-day chalk artist at the festival last year and was invited back this year to chalk for two days in January! Let’s dive into the trip deets!
We flew in to Orlando late on a Friday night, gotta work around the college schedule! Our lodging for this trip was the incredible Disney’s Polynesian Village resort in a deluxe studio villa. We’ve stayed in these before, on their opening day as villas in fact, and a few times since. I love, love, love the views from the lake view villa rooms. We had the best view of Magic Kingdom and Cinderella Castle from our patio. This was super when it came to watching fireworks from the room. One thing that majorly stinks about lake view studio villas here? The Magic Kingdom Ferryboat! The Transportation and Ticket Center, aka the way you have to come into the Magic Kingdom if you’re staying off-site, is right beside the Polynesian resort. This is great for being able to run over and hop on the Epcot monorail line. This is the pits though if you’re in a lake view studio villa because you hear the darn Ferryboat horn every time the ferry comes and goes over to the park. It’s enough to drive you bonkers until you finally get used to it… you know, on your last night of the trip. LOL. You can also hear the train’s whistle from Magic Kingdom but I actually quite enjoy that sound. But the ferryboat, man… and the ferryboat’s man, giving the spiel over the boat’s PA system about going over to the park and all that. At least you don’t have to ride to the park on that behemoth yourself though!! From the Polynesian, you can take the resort monorail line or hop on the resort boat from the marina (much, much smaller than the ferryboat). Boat noise aside, the Polynesian is my fave and I always love my time there.
So January, right? It’s Florida though, so it’s always hot and sweaty, right? No! No! No! I tell clients all the time that you’re not guaranteed the hot sticky weather unless you’re traveling in mid to late April through about early October. Before and after that, you can have the heat but you can also have the cooler temperatures. On our trip, it was FREEZING! I have been to Disney umpteen times, all throughout the year and have never had it that cold. The air temps maxed in the 50s but it was windy and felt much colder than that. Once the sun went down, BRRRR! We had heavy coats and jeans on and were still cold. Many guests had hats, gloves, heavy coats, etc. on every day and I think I only saw somebody in the pool once, on our very last day when it started to warm up a bit. I’m usually quite hot and don’t think I had one drop of sweat the whole time. It was a short little burst of cold and then warmed back up some the day we left. Wouldn’t you know?! We even came back to the room shortly after dark one night because it was just too chilly to be comfortable.
While we were there, we hit all of the parks except Animal Kingdom. That one seems to get less love from us than it should but we were on a tight schedule so that had to be pushed aside. We had three full days plus an After Hours event at Magic Kingdom from 10pm-1am. While the tickets for the event were close to $175/each, it was worth every penny to have the park be super empty with attractions open (basically no waiting on anything), free snacks (popcorn, various ice cream novelties) and drinks (bottled sodas and water), a second set of fireworks, and — wait for it — Tron with a standby line! Tron is normally only available with the purchase of an Individual Lightning Lane timeslot at 7am for about $25/person or by booking a free Virtual Queue slot at 7am (books in seconds and you still end up having to wait a while in line). There is no regular/standby line to use for this attraction due to popularity. But during the After Hours event, there is no Individual Lightning Lane/Genie+ service available and the Virtual Queues don’t operate either! So the standby line is put into service and you can ride as much as you want! The wait for Tron for us said 20 minutes but we walked right on and through the queue, up to the main room where you board the lightcycles. We probably waited 5-10 minutes in there. While we only rode once (thanks motion sickness) we could’ve ridden at least once or twice more with , that same super short wait. We also rode pretty much everything else we wanted to ride: Pirates, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight (with maybe a 5 minute wait?), Buzz Lightyear (twice), Tron, Tomorrowland Speedway (the only people on the track!), and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We shopped, had snacks/drinks, and went at a nice pace. We rolled out of the park at just about 12:30am… with a flight at 10am and needing to leave for the airport at 7-7:30am, we had to get some rest!
Hollywood Studios was a blast, as always. We usually go in and head straight for Tower of Terror. I would ride that over and over if I could do it with a minimal wait. Those varying drop sequences are the best! We hit Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, went on Star Tours (hoping for a new clip in the ride but we always get the same few), had some lunch, enjoyed a bit of shopping, and then hopped on the Friendship Boat over to Epcot for the rest of the day.
Epcot is probably tied with Magic Kingdom for us as our favorite park. I love how it evolves throughout the year with each festival and its offerings. This was the first time we had been in Epcot since the area behind Spaceship Earth had reopened (in December) and it was a real delight to see what it had become. I love the new space being so full of trees and greenery, areas for sitting and relaxing, charging stations available, spots for character meets, the new Dreamer’s Point statue of Walt Disney, and the cool lighting that comes alive after dark to add a special touch to the area. I know there has been grumblings about how it took so long to morph the old area into this new space and that some people were expecting more but I think it is absolutely perfect. This area will continue to become just what Epcot needed, a place to relax and reflect and enjoy a bit of nature.
We tried out the new Moana water-themed walk through attraction and I really enjoyed that as well. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and definitely prefer to walk through when it isn’t very crowded but playing with the water features in this area was a lot of fun and made for many great photo ops. I can imagine small children really getting immersed in the experience and having a blast, making lots of fun memories. Definitely try it out, no matter how old you are!
Festival of the Arts was our reason for coming to Disney and we could have stayed for several more days just to soak more of the festival in. The kid chalked for two 3-hour morning shifts and the hubs and I explored the festival while she was making magic on the bridge to World Showcase. I tell you, I could keep going back to the paint-by-number mural over and over (ok, so I might have done it three or four times one day) because it is just super fun. I love watching the little squares fill in and the mural come to life.
I wish the food stands had more vegetarian food offerings (and less of the fake meat posing as something vegetarians want to eat) other that just desserts but they are some pretty darn beautiful little desserts! The visual appeal of the food during this festival is on point. Of course, watching the artists create new pieces during the festival and also sign their art for fans is a huge draw as well. Fan-girling over our fave artists and seeing all of the different styles of art is the best. We can’t wait for next January to head back and create some more art-filled memories! Here’s my favorite artist’s work!
Wowza! I was coming to write about my latest trip to Disney and realized my last entry was from July! That means I have neglected to fill you in on all of the excitement of the last six months!! I will hit the highlights from the fall and move on to my recent (January 2024) trip in the next post. Hold on to your hats! It was a busy six months…
In August, the hubs and I went to The Omni Homestead resort for a few days for an annual conference related to his job. This resort is full of Southern hospitality and not too terribly far from our home. If not for the winding roads and mountain climbs, it would be a lot closer. I had a great time relaxing by the pool while he toiled away and wouldn’t mind sneaking over for a quick getaway there again when the weather warms back up.
In September, the hubs, kid, and I went to Disney World for the kid’s birthday celebration. (I really do need to stop calling her a kid since she’ll be 20 this year…) We enjoyed a lovely stay at Disney’s Riviera resort, some park time, and the hubs went over to Universal for a Halloween Horror Nights evening out. Going to Halloween Horror Nights remains a “hard no” for me and the kid.
October and November were slow months for us, no big adventures. In December, we headed to Hilton Head, SC for our annual holiday getaway. We normally go there over Thanksgiving but switched it up to go right before Christmas. That was a nice change and helped get us all in the holiday spirit. Disney’s resort at Hilton Head is undergoing a huge renovation project and we were very fortunate to have been able to stay in a renovated room. The updates in the rooms are incredible and I can’t wait to stay there again!
Our last jaunt in 2023 was for New Years Eve. We headed up to the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland (not to be confused with the Inner Harbor in Baltimore) and spent a couple of nights enjoying that area, driving into DC to visit some of the Smithsonian museums, and watching the fireworks over the Potomac River as we welcomed 2024. There is also a traveling exhibit about the Titanic at the National Harbor which was a delight to check out before we headed home. Check out the third class menu (actual one!) from the doomed sailing.
Phew, that was a quick recap! I hope you had a great second half of 2023 and an even better 2024!
Type A Travel Mom 