Disney World the Week After Thanksgiving Review (November 2018)

I love reading blogs with tips/reviews so here goes mine!

 We typically go to Disney in late January, end of April or first of May. However for our 2018 vacation we went November 24-December 1. We were told this was a slow week which we know Disney is always busy.

Saturday:
We arrived and checked in at AKL. I faxed in a room request the Monday before asking for a “partial savanna view or bunk beds if possible for the kids.” Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived early which was fine. So we took the bus to Disney Springs to walk around & eat at the Polite Pig which was amazing! We shared the double plate with us and the 3 kids that has several meats & sides on it & it used 2 quick service meals! It was great! We rode the bus back & our room was ready. To our surprise we had a full savanna view & bunk beds (pixie dust!). The kids swam that night at AKL’s pool!

We also learned with 3 kids (the girls are 5 & 4 and our son is 15months) we would not be riding the bus anymore which we always had done! Our son screamed and hated the bus. He didn’t understand why he could not get down & we had a double Joovy stroller & a single! So that was a lot to carry with the kids & strollers. We drove every day after that & they scanned our magic bands at the park entrances and we got there early (prior to park opening) & parked close enough we didn’t even have to ride the trams & fold up the strollers. Not having to wait on the buses at night was nice too!!

Sunday:
We went to Hollywood Studios & rope dropped Slinky Dog Dash! My husband & middle daughter & son waited where the rider swap waits & my oldest daughter & I hopped in line! We waited maybe 35min before riding and then my husband & middle child were able to go through the fastpass line with rider swap which was great! We then walked onto Toy Story Mania with very little wait. My oldest I took on Tower of Terror which was a bad decision because she hated it and didn’t want to ride anything else the rest of the trip even though she “thought” she wanted to ride it. My husband & I did rider swap on Rockin Roller Coaster which was amazing! We never have rode it before. We then took the boat to the Boardwalk for the Bon Voyage (very late 11:20) brunch. We LOVED the character interaction here, service was wonderful, & the food was great! While we waited for our table we let the kids run in the grass area there & they text us when our table was ready. The drinks (covered with the dining plan) was amazing as well. We LOVE the dining plan because the sit down meals gives us a “rest” time during the day which our kids enjoy! We then took the boat back to HS, met characters (Vampirina, Sophia, Doc McStuffins, Jessie & Woody, Daisy & Donald) and then watched Indiana Jones & Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We then stayed for Jingle Bell Jingle Bam! We thought it was not impressive, however the kids loved the snow falling during it & the showe on the Tower of Terror is cute! However, we should have opted for Fantasmic!

Monday:
We went to Epcot! We love Epcot & try not to rush through it. We rope dropped Soarin’ then ate breakfast in that food court area. Then went and rider swapped at Test Track (single rider line) & rode Mission:Space (rider swap as well). Then went to Frozen, Nemo & had lunch at Akershus which is strictly for the princesses the girls love. The food is not our favorite at all. I prefer Garden Grill’s food. It rained later that day so we saw Anna & Elsa & walked around the world showcase some & saw characters (Christmas Belle, Peri?? Noel, etc...) then took the monorail to the Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread House & get snacks & ate at the hotel that night d/t the rain.

Tuesday:
We stayed around the hotel, at Sanaa at Kidani Village for lunch, let the kids nap, then headed to the Christmas Party! We LOVED the Christmas Party. We arrive at 3:30. Got in at 5min til 4. Rode the Teacups & Dumbo then got in line to meet the 7 Dwarfs. They came out at 6:15. We then went towards Pecos Bills and grabbed cookies/drinks along the way. We ordered on the mobile app 2 burger meals from Pecos Bills & parked the stroller for the parade right outside & ate while we waited. There is a snack stand outside there with candied bacon on a stick which is amazing 😍. Then we had great seats at the front of the parade which the Christmas parade was AMAZING. Then we headed to meet the Genie & Jasmine, ride some rides which we could walk right on, and watched the fireworks at 10 & got a good standing area for that. We also met moana around 11 which there was a less than 5 minute wait at that point! We did more in 5-7 hours at the party than a full day at the park. It was amazing.

Wednesday:
We had breakfast at 1900 Park Fare which was ok. We prefer dinner here. Then, we went back to MK which was crazy busy! We should have realized this would be a busy day. The hours were like 9am-10pm with EMH til midnight so it was a full park day whereas a lot that week it closed at 6pm so of course, people wanted to go this day. We were only able to ride the rides we had fastpasses for and met the evil stepsisters of Cinderella. Jingle Cruise was so cute!! The girls also loved watching Elsa light up the castle!  We had dinner at Ohana at 8:30 which we thought was great food & the kids LOVED having a window seat & seeing the water parade & fireworks from our table. Then we went on back to the room after!

Thursday:
We went to Animal Kingdom & had breakfast at Tusker House which was good food & the characters were great! We had fastpasses for Flight of Passage which we rider swapped & took our 5 year old on. We LOVED this ride. It’s great & we have never watched Avatar related stuff. We ate at the quick service restaurant in the World of Avatar/Pandora and had the beef bowl with sweet potato hash & white sauce & it was good!! It was again, a very busy day at Disney. We rode the Safari & had a fastpass for the Lion King Show but you have to arrive early & we didn’t get there early enough for the pass so we went ahead & did other stuff before leaving. We drove to HS to try to catch Fantasmic! Since we didn’t get to see it the night at HS but it was cancelled due to technical difficulties after waiting 1.5 hours. So we went to the room. W changed resorts this night since we added on 2 nights to our stay. We changed to All Star Sports that night since we added on 2 additional nights at the end of our stay. It was nice & not a moderate or deluxe resort of course but just to sleep in for the price it’s fine! The kids loved playing in the Donald Duck tennis court grass area!

Friday:
We went back to MK & stayed til 3. We were able to ride a ton during EMH from 8-9 and even until lunch. Then it got kind of busy but not bad. The park closed around 6 so we hopped over to Epcot around 4 and had dinner at Spice Road Table on the patio at a table by the water. This was the best meal of our trip! The food was amazing, service was great, & if it would have been during Illuminations this seat would have been an amazing view! It really is a “hidden” gem of a restaurant!

Saturday:
Departure day 😭

We had cold & hot days. Packing in layers is a definite must this time of year! Christmas is beautiful! I really want to stay at Beach Club one summer & maybe the Wilderness Lodge one Christmas soon!

I would love to hear your Disney likes/dislikes and tips!! It helps so much having honest reviews!!

Late Disney Recap from May 2017

I wanted to post this Disney review even though it’s old just to save. 

This was wrote on 5/21/2017 from our trip. I need to post one from our November 2018 trip soon!!

Just finished up our family vacation at WDW! 

Stayed at Caribbean Beach & loved it (even with construction!) we requested a ground floor near transportation & got both! We were not in the rooms enough to notice the construction & ate at the parks so we didn't try the buffet's that CBR & food trucks they are using right now. However, they say the buffet is good!! It is huge and spread out! We were at Trinadad North! There is a bus that runs just around CBR. 

We started our trip at the AK & we didn't do park hoppers for the first time ever & really took our time at each park which turned out good! At the AK our girls loved meeting characters that aren't found at other parks (Rafiki, Pocahontas, etc...). We also took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch which we never paid attention to before & the girls loved that! We did leave the park to go to Boma & eat dinner which was amazing! 😍 we are usually not fans of buffet's at all but this food is great! We ate at the Quick service yak & yeti for lunch. The Kobe hotdog & burger was okay but the kids loved the snack fried rice and it pretty much is a meal! 

We went to the Magic Kingdom on day 2 & did dinner at CRT which was good food. We used the Disney Dining Plan (2 credits for this). The girls LOVED the princess interaction! My youngest LOVES princesses! I cant wait to post pics for you to see! We had a great time here however since our reservation was at 7:10 when we got done they had everything roped off for the new night show & we couldn't see the castle hardly at all. Everyone was packed like sardines inside the white lines everywhere & cast members were directing people through stores towards the exit. We ended up just going and doing the picture near Rapunzel's towel with the lanterns because the line was short & the girls couldn't see anything. We were sad to miss Happily Ever After and then they did another show later that night but the girls were asleep by then. We also did both girls a haircut (including the baby's 1st haircut) at Harmony Barber shop & got "Pixie Dust" for both girls (which is free) and they enjoyed that a lot! We highly recommend this as well. The Magic Kingdom is a lot to do in one day (impossible really with toddlers 😉). But we got a lot done! We did not have cash & at the barber shop you cannot tip on the magic band receipt 😫. Also at CRT  the waiter wouldn't let us tip. The receipt didn't print an option so he made out like since it was 2 TS's credit's he didnt take tips (which I found out is true, they include tip in the price). He was great!!  He also gave my youngest (2 years old) a whole meal without charging us for it! 

At Epcot we bought the passports for our girls to get stamped in the 11 countries which they loved!! We also did pick a pearl in Japan which is super cute! We ordered charms online on an Etsy shop another mom recommended while we were in line because the selection was slim there. We ate at Teppan Edo for supper which was fun! We also had several snacks during the Flower & Garden festival. The Pineapple Promenade has a spicy hotdog that has dried pineapple & a violet frozen dessert lemonade that is to die for! Both are snack credit's. The Fish & Chips in the UK was great last year but this year it almost tasted as though the grease was old they were cooked in. We also ate snacks at the French bakery which was delicious. 

Finally, we went to Hollywood Studios yesterday which was super packed (weekends always are more busy!) and our oldest signed up for Jedi training and at 4 years old she was terrified & didn't finish it. But also, she is not really Familiar with Star Wars so that doesn't help matters but it's free & with memory maker there are tons of pictures they take for you of this. We had ABC Commissary for lunch which was packed but this super sweet cast member named Hope that was working there helped this mama tote our trays to the table (which my husband was holding for us while we waited in line). She then proceeded to bring us 2 Mickey straws back to the table for the girls despite the business of the crowd there. We watched some shows and rode Toy Story Mania. But by this day the girls were exhausted and it was the hottest day. Fantasmic is our favorite night show but we opted to let them nap in the stroller while we walked around and then we headed to Disney Springs vs fighting the night time park crowd that we would face leaving after Fantasmic! Hollywood Studio's is not our favorite park & I was hoping it would be better this year since My oldest (4 years old) acted scared of rides and all this year but with the crowds & heat we didn't do much other than Aerial, Beauty & the Beast, Disney Jr Live, Meet & Greet with Doc McStuffins, toy story mania, and My husband rode the Star Wars ride which My oldest was signed up for but she was asleep and would have been scared he said. 

At Disney Springs we went to T-Rex build-a-bear & let the girls build a dinosaur which they loved. Then went to the big Disney store & Goofy's candy shop and used some snack credits on cupcakes & mickey shaped rice krispies. I also had been told to try the Sriracha Kettle Corn which isnt a snack credit but I should have bought more! It's addicting! So good!! We then ate af Chef Art's Homecoming which was okay. Everyone in reviews loves it but the fried chicken was not my favorite. Which being in middle Georgia we have lots of good fried chicken so Im not sure why I ordered that 😬. My husband had the shrimp & grits which he enjoyed & the mashed potatoes with gravy was good. We also had the Jasper Tray appetizer which was okay! The Pimento Cheese and homemade crackers was good! I definitely wish we would have tried the Polite Pig (also highly recommended and quick service) instead. 

Overall, we had a great trip! I highly recommend Kingdom Strollers for stroller rentals if you need one as well!