Hayley’s pre-DCL Cruise WDW stay trip report - Episode 211

But for real this time! 

Mickey with Minis podcast outro music

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Hello there. Hello. How are ya? I'm good. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I'm good. I hope my air conditioner in the background isn't too loud here. We finally we had to bite the bullet and turn it back on. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, I'm in today. I know I'm under a blanket right now because it's so chilly upstairs, which is great.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah, it's really hot. It's just like very, very heavy and sticky.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

It's very muggy. I know. The pool was like bathwater today. It was very nice. Yes. It was lovely. Lovely. Well, we should jump right in because it is it's a post-trip day, and you know these tend to go along.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

And Haley, I feel like this trip was like six months ago. I can't believe we haven't gotten to a post, but we just we had so much. You got back, and then we know both were away, and then I was away, and so we just haven't had a chance to do this. I know it's a redebriefing right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Okay, so at the beginning of July, I went on a trip with my husband, uh, my kids who are eight, almost six, four, and eight months. And then in Disney World, we met up with um my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, their daughter, who is I think nine or ten, and then also um for the cruise portion with my mother-in-law and father-in-law. So we did five nights at the Grand Floridian, four nights cruising on the Disney Wish, and then two nights at the yacht club. Very nice. Today we're gonna recap the whole pre-cruise portion. So the five nights at the Grand Floridian and the park time.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, we gotta do this in pieces.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yes, or it will be like a four-hour episode, probably. Yes. So I'll start off with I made a huge travel mistake, which is I think I booked this flight while I was up pumping at like 2 a.m. with the baby. Um, I really thought I had booked our flight for um Friday. Was it Friday? Yeah. I thought I had booked our flight for Friday, and then shortly before the trip, I checked and I I was wrong about that. I had booked it for no, I thought I had booked our flight for Thursday. I had booked the flight for Friday. Um, and I really did not want to fly out that late. And then I couldn't change it to um fly out the day I thought we were flying, but I could change it to fly the day before. So that's how we ended up extending our trip a little bit. And we wound up flying on, I have written down Thursday, July 1st, but I think that is wrong. Yeah, Wednesday was July 1st. We flew Wednesday July 1st. Yeah. So what we ended up doing, so we had a credit on Breeze, and then we had points on JetBlue. We do this all the time. When you have to book five flights, um, you do whatever is cheapest. So I flew that morning um with Cooper and Grace and the baby. And then Nick flew that night. He had to work that day anyway, so he flew that night on points um with Emma and himself. So that's how we split it up.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

I I did not like fully realize that until you were like leaving. And I was like, what do you mean? You're flying with three kids, including a tiny baby.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Right. Yes. I know, I know. Um, yeah, so that's just kind of how it worked out. Um, and it was fine. We've done this before, and Cooper had the night flight with Nick. It was not great for Emma because she was very upset that morning that she was not coming with us. So I felt very bad about that. Um, but she she was fine. She rebounded and had a nice little daddy night flying with him. So she was fine once they got there. But we had a 6 a.m. flight from Providence. So Nick and Emma drove us down. Um, and it was pretty smooth getting there, except that I forgot or Nick forgot the Ergo. Um, and the baby does not love the Ergo, but I really do rely on it getting through an airport because I just find that I need both hands free. So it's way easier to have him in the ergo. So that was that was kind of a bummer right off the bat. I didn't think I would wear him a lot in the parks just because I knew it was gonna be so hot, but to get through the airport um with the baby without it was definitely a bummer. So the other thing that was annoying is when you fly these kind of discount airlines, it really makes a difference how much luggage you're bringing because you want to compare like apples to apples costs, right? And like we get all free luggage on Jet Blue, so I want to compare like the full cost, and I didn't know how much luggage we would have at the time I made the booking. Um, so I ended up needing to pay $50 extra to check another bag, which was fine, it was just really annoying.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Um probably still saved you money though.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

It did. In the end, it was still cheaper to split up and have them fly in points and us use the credit. But $50 for a bag is a lot of money. Um luckily when we went to check in, the baby was screaming and our bag was three pounds over the limit, and she looked at the crying baby and was like, it's fine, just go ahead. Just please, just please take that out of here. Um, so that was good. We were through security by 507. Um, we love flying through Providence, it's so much less chaotic than Boston. But the one thing I would say, if you're traveling with any sensory-sensitive friends, all of their toilets are covered in that plastic that like rotates when you get up and flush the toilet. Okay. And that was a big problem for some people. Big problem for some people in my party. So that was difficult. That got us off to a rough start. Um, we stopped by dunks to get food for everybody, and then we boarded. Honestly, the flight was super smooth. I was really nervous for it just because two kids and a baby and me is a lot. Um, it was it was totally easy. The kids were absolutely scandalized by the lack of TVs and the seatbacks, which was very funny.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

I just thought I'd swallowed, swallowed weird, and no, I'm coughing. Oh no, thank you, Audrey. Sorry, could you hear Audrey like to in the background asking me to take her to Michael's girl? All right, great. Okay, sorry. Continue. I'm I'm alive.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So the flight was very easy. Um, the kids were scandalized by the lack of televisions in the seatbacks, but she slept most of the flight, which was great. Um, Luke slept initially, and then he woke up and he was playing with the safety pamphlet and trying to wake up Grace, which was very funny. Um, I didn't know how I was gonna accomplish the bathroom without the ergo, but I just carried him to the bathroom and held him, and it wasn't great, but we made it work. So in a mosque with stranger. I didn't know. I just held him and it was totally fine. So um, one thing I I've talked, I think before about how I have some pretty serious OCD that I've been in therapy for. And one thing I did on the flight, I didn't check our altitude at all the whole flight. Oh my goodness, that is in progress. That was a really big win for me. Yes, usually I track our altitude the entire flight, and I went the entire flight without checking it. So that was great.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

She doesn't like watch TV or anything, she just leaves it on like the my flight screen and just keeps an eye on it the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Just keep an eye on it, just in case the pilots get like a little distracted. In case he does, they don't realize. I could just go knock on the door. Yes. So it was a great flight. Um, kids slept most of it. We landed at 8:37. Um, so super early. We had our bags by 9.20. Um, we were at Mir's by 9.25. I have to say, Mears was the area was a lot more organized than the last time we took Mir's. Um, we were in a different boarding area from the last time, and they had like um lanes for each resort. So last time we did it, it was like very chaotic. This was much better. Um, we were on the bus by 9.33 and we pulled away about 10 minutes later. However, it this was a long ride, and I might be done with Mears from here. We were the sixth stop. Yep. That's a lot. That's a lot of stops. We entered Disney property, like we went under the big um thing with Minnie and Mickey on it at 10:15, and we didn't get to our hotel for almost an hour after that. So that was a lot. That was a lot for the kids.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

And Cooper lost a tooth on the bus, which was very funny, very inconvenient, but also very exciting. Not big timing, but your last couple of mirrors experiences have had me warning folks off of them for the time being, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Um yeah, it's not great. Six stops is great. Too many stops.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

So um we got to the Grand Floridian. Obviously, our room wasn't ready, which we didn't expect that it would be. Um, we left all of our luggage with them, and then we headed to the Gasparilla Island Grill and got everybody some Mickey waffles to fill their bellies and start off the trip. So that was great. Um the Grand Floridian really won us over this trip. I was a little hesitant to stay there with kids because I've always thought of it as like you know, it's fancy. Fancy grown-up hotel. Fancy grown-up hotel. It worked out for us so well in so many different ways. We're actually talking about down the road selling our contracts and just buying a big Grand Floridian contract instead. Oh wow. That's that's how much we liked it. I mean, the Gasparilla Grill was just such a great fit for us because I mean Cooper lives on Mickey Waffles and Chicken Tenders, and they had all of that. And then they had also like Nick had a bowl a couple of times that he really loved. They had like a good variety for stuff other than that. It really was great. I can't like overstate how well the guest ruler grill worked out for us. Um, so that was awesome. So then the next thing we were gonna do was a bit of an adventure. Um, we decided since you get the free water park on check-in day, we would go to Blizzard Beach. Um, I actually got the river. I can't believe I did this either, and it was so tiring.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

And you were like, You have a hard time bathing your kids because you have water paranoia. Like, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

You went to a water park? I went to a water park. So we did take a I did decide if we're doing this, we're taking a minivan both ways because you do have to stop at, I think it's at Animal Kingdom and switch. It's at Animal Kingdom, yeah. I was like, that's not happening. So we were gonna take a minivan both ways. Um, I would not have tried to do it without help. Um, and I booked storybook nannies actually just the day before because I wasn't 100% sure we were gonna do this. Um, and they were able to accommodate us, which was great. Um, they actually had a nanny who was working at Blizzard Beach that morning and could just come meet up with us whenever we got there. So that was great. Um, so before before we flew down, I had like a pool bag packed with everybody's stuff for the water park. Um we got there um about 1220 and met up with a nanny, and she was fantastic. She helped us do you know get everyone in their swimsuits and get everybody sunscreened and truly could not, would not have done it without the extra set payments.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yes, the amount of like aerobic involved in getting three children into swim and then yourself into swimwear, like I just couldn't have done it.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

So it was actually really fun. We were there for about three hours. Um, my main complaint is that the maps were very, very hard to read. Um so you'd go up to a map and it would show like you are here, and then it would show where a slide was, but it didn't have like the elevation. So you were like, oh, so this slide's over there, but then you'd walk over there and it was like a mountain up to the slide. Oh the slide was up there, but you were at the bottom and it didn't say anything about like how to get there. So that was really confusing. Um, but that was fine. We figured it out. So the first thing we did was the wave pool. Really great wave pool. It's definitely not as intense as the one at Typhoon Lagoon, which is good, but I was still nervous. I was still like yelling at the kids to stay near me. Um so we did the wave pool for maybe like half hour, 45 minutes. They were pleased as punch. And then the baby was really tired. So I um just put, you know, towels under his bum and put him in the stroller with a fan. And then the nanny took him um and just like walked through all the gift shops and stuff to keep him in the air conditioning for a while, which was great. Um, I took the I took Cooper and Grace into the lazy river, um, which was very fun. It was hard for them to get into the rafts because they were just really big and tall. So we wound up, they just wound up swimming, and I went in a raft and it was fine. It was it was pretty crowded. It felt really crowded in the lazy river. We're kind of like bumping into people at all times. Um Grace does not like to go under a waterfall. So we were coming up to one and she kind of started freaking out. And I was like, dude, there's there's no exit.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Like, we're gonna have to do this.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

We're gonna have to do this. So she was kind of kicking against the current trying to get away. And I was like, this is inevitable. We just need to uh go go over the waterfall. So she did it and it was great. Um, and then we wanted to do, or I really wanted to do um the family raft ride, teamboat springs. Um, the best way to get up there is to take the ski lift, but the kids were scared of the ski lift.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

I don't see that happening for you.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

No, so we climbed and it took so long to get up there. I mean, from the top you can see um Expedition Everest and Pandora over at Animal Kingdom. Like, it's it's very high up. I don't want that.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

I don't want that at all.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

No, thank you. So as we climbed up there, I was like, you guys, we're doing this once and one time only. And also, like, usually if someone freaks out, I'll let them, you know, bail on a ride. I was like, once we get up there, everyone will be riding. I don't care how scared you are, we're all getting on the ride. Um, which was good because Grace did kind of freak out when we got to the top. And I was like, I warned you, if we got up here, you're riding the ride. Um we did it and it it was super fun. Um, it was it was hilarious. She was like screaming, but having a good time, and and it was it was fun. So um believe it or not, that all took up like almost an hour and a half to two hours already. Um, and I could kind of tell the kids were already getting tired because we had been up since like 3 30 in the morning. So I can't even believe. Yeah. So I said everybody could pick one more thing, and they actually both picked the wave pool. So I said, okay, we'll just do the wave pool. Um, so we met back up with the nanny. Probably I should have gotten like a locker to put a phone in because I had no way to contact her. We were just like, okay, around 2.30 we'll meet at this spot. Um, but like I had no way to like contact her and see where she was, which wasn't ideal. So probably next time I would like either bring a waterproof case for my phone or maybe get a locker locker. Yeah. But um, we did the wave pool for a while longer, and then everyone was done. Um, she helped us get everyone into dry clothes, which was great, and then walked us over to the minivan stop. So she was really a godsend. She was a huge help. Um, Kim from Storybook Nanny's A. So we took a minivan back. Um, in the meantime, Nick and Emma were back in at home and they caught the 4:30 blue apple bus to Logan. Their flight was unfortunately delayed many times. Um, I think they were supposed to take off around 7, and I think they took off at like 9:30. So they were delayed, they were delayed quite a bit. It was a late night for them. Um, we made it back to the Grand Floridian, headed straight to our room. Um, we had a, I think it was called a resort view room. It was beautiful. The view of the monorail, like reflecting in the water, was just gorgeous. Um, we were really, really happy with the room. Um, we were in Sago K or Sago Key. I'm not sure what you call it. Um great location. We were really close to the Gasparella Grill, not too far from the lobby, and literally right next to the walking path to Magic Kingdom, which will become relevant later. Nice. Called down for a crib, called down for our luggage. Um, very funny. When we first got there, Luke was not sitting up yet. And by the end of the trip, he was not only sitting up, but also standing. Thanks to the bars on the crib, he absolutely loved the crib. So that was very funny.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

He kept sending me videos of him like almost sitting up, almost crawling, almost pulling up, and then by the end, it was like, oh no, it's all over.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Oh no, he's standing out there now. Yes. Um, very funny. So um we tried to I tried to time our target order. I had a huge target order because it was everything we needed for five days in the park. So, like snacks for the kids, formula, diapers, wipes, everything we needed for the cruise. So, wine and beer for us, wine and beer for my in-laws. Um, we also got a little um extra stroller for the cruise, like a single stroller, a super cheap one. It was like a massive target order. So the kids really wanted to get McDonald's for dinner, which I was okay with. It kind of helps them settle in, I find like not too much change on day one. They kind of get a meal they're used to. So I tried to tie that with the target order, which was good. So we headed down to the lobby. Um, so this is my first time going to the perch in the Grand Floridian lobby. It gets two thumbs down from me, which bums me out. Honestly, I didn't love it at all. So they have two cocktails on the menu, one of which is coffee-based, so not something I would drink at all, plus a couple of beers and a couple of wines. There's zero ambiance, like it's in the middle of the line. It's super limited, and it's in the middle of the lobby. So I sat the kids down to get their McDonald's and was kind of like, Am I taking a table from them? Or are these just like open lobby tables? It's just not really clear. And the guy was like, No, no, no, it's fine, you can sit there. And I kind of felt bad, so I ordered a drink, but it took like a very, very long time to come, and it's just not a great setup. I feel like they didn't fully think through or kind of understand the logistics of like the lobby situation. I don't know, it's kind of a bummer.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

I also I feel like um a lobby bar is usually like the people who are going to a lobby bar, they're killing time before a room or a dinner reservation is ready. Yeah. Or they're travel agents, and they're like ready to party and don't want to leave us. It's not the place where you want to only have a French 75 on your menu. I just like I know it's the grand flow. We're trying to be classy up in here, but like that's not what a lobby bar is for, you know. No, no, it's definitely funny muscle. You just gotta embrace that you're a lobby bar and go with it.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Yeah, definitely. So that was kind of weird. Um, I went to ask Bell Services to help me with our groceries. They seemed very put off by that request. And I like I tipped the person very well. I don't know if that was a weird thing to ask them to help me with, but I had I had the double stroller and three kids and a massive target order. Um so I I do you think that was a weird thing to do to ask if they could help me? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

I think they I think that's just probably not. I'm not gonna say it's a weird thing. I'm just yeah I'm guessing it's pretty unusual. Like it's probably not typical.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah, and I had like two cases of water. I don't know. It was it was a huge order.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

So I don't know how you would have done it, frankly. But I couldn't have done it.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

No, I couldn't, I definitely couldn't have done it without help. We needed the whole um cart. So that was fine, but they did they did cut.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Not our like this past family trip, but the big one before that with the hurricane. Yes. I had to pick up a target order. Um, and I did it by myself, and I was also getting mom's wheelchair, and I wound up like absolutely loading everything into this wheelchair, but then I also had two cocktails, one for me and one for mom. So I'm like leaning over trying to drive this wheelchair covered in target stuff with my elbows while not spilling these back scratchers. So I mean I feel like I feel like mostly people are sorting their they're getting their target stuff back from themselves. But I don't think that you could have.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah. But I I did give a good tip 'cause like I appreciated he was. Going out of his way. So we got back to the room. I unpacked a little bit because you know I love to nest. I have to say, I have to pat myself on the back a little. I did a really killer job packing for this trip. Right. Um I had everything that we only needed for the cruise in one separate suitcase. So I just like slid that under the bed and didn't even think about it. Um everything was super organized. So that was good. Um, I popped Luke in the crib. He had so much fun in that crib. Like, I cannot overstate this. And it was fun for him. He's obsessed with his siblings, so they could like lay on the bed and look down on him and talk to him. And he just thought that was like the greatest thing ever. So he had so much fun. So he was in the crib. Grace and Cooper were still awake. We put on a World Cup game. I fell asleep by 6 45 before all of my children.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

I mean, was completely asleep. Um I'm not shocked by this. You did so like as somebody who in the last couple of episodes talked about my main trip. I did do Cadillac Mountain for sunrise at 3:30 in the morning, and then also later in the day chose to climb Cadillac Mountain. That was the wrong choice. You kind of did a theme park version of that, which is fly in at three o'clock in the morning and then go to a water park with three children for the day. I am not surprised that you were asleep real early.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

So I woke up around 9 and everyone was asleep, thank God. Um, I heard I did hear the fireworks around 10. Grace has like a really sweet memory. Um, when we stayed at Wilderness Lodge, uh, I think like a year or two ago, it was very sweet. We woke up, her and I were just getting to bed at the time the fireworks went off, and nobody else wanted to wake up. And her and I went and watched the fireworks on the balcony. It was like very cozy and cute. So she was like, Mama, can you wake me up for the fireworks? And I heard them going off at 10, and I was like, I'm sorry, my baby girl, I cannot. I'm so sorry. There was no way. There's no just no way. So Nick and Emma landed um at 12:30. We packed the bubble bum for her so they could take an Uber. They weren't in an Uber till 1:15, and they got to our room around 2. So that was a very, very, very late night for everybody. And then the baby woke up when they came in, and he wanted to hang out until 4 in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Stay hanging out with his sister.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Four o'clock in the morning. So that was a huge bummer. That was not great. Luckily, we had a pretty slow day planned for Friday. So we technically had a slit stay because we had added on this night at the beginning. Um, so the reservations like weren't linked. So housekeeping thought we were checking out, I guess. So they knocked on our door very, very early. I want to say around seven-ish. And I didn't get to the door quickly enough, I guess. So they just came right in, which was very weird. And I was like, hi, we're not leaving, we're staying here. Um, and they were like, Oh, okay, sorry, sorry, and they left. But then this was weird. A weird thing, um, by the last day of our trip, we had never gotten housekeeping service. And when I called to check on it, I was like, hey, just so you know, like we haven't gotten housekeeping yet. Could we possibly get one like for our last day? They said we had declined housekeeping on day one, but I didn't realize that was like our one shot, so that was kind of weird.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Oh, that's weird.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Yeah, so that was kind of bizarre, but it was fine. I went back to sleep and everybody slept until about nine, which was great. So um yeah, it was it was awesome. The baby stayed asleep, thank God. Um, so that was nice. So Nick actually had to work remotely this day, so I took the kids down to Gasfarilla Grill. Um, I took the stroller because I had the baby. Um, they were the uh Cooper and Grace were so excited to show Emma the view of the castle on the walkover, which was very sweet. Um, so that was cute. So I have a picture of all of them. Um we went and we we had breakfast there, and then we brought food back for Nick who was working. Um, a lot of the deluxe hotels have this cute thing where they have like a character of some kind on a little like picture or like a little stand, and you try to find it each day, and you get a button, and every day you find it, you get a sticker for the button.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

I actually think most of those. I don't think this is just deluxe.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Oh, okay, cool. Awesome. So this one was a penguin, it was one of the penguins from Mary Poppins. And we got a clue from the front desk, and we went and we found it, and it was down at the marina. So we headed down there um to look for it. We saw two weddings going on, which was very fun. The kids were very excited to see that. Um, so we found the penguin, we took a picture with it, and then we ran back to the front desk to get their sticker, and then um there's a photo pass spot upstairs in the Grand Floridian where they have Cinderella's glass slipper and like a cute little backdrop. So we did a bunch of pictures there, which was great. Um, I got probably my favorite picture of all four of them, which was really, really nice. Um, we stopped in the stores to kind of poke around. There was just like our last trip, there was dining plan confusion. If I tried to go place a mobile order, it showed me the balances for my current stay, but then I would get an alert at the top that said I couldn't place a mobile order until I finished the balances from my past day. Well, if I clicked the link on there, it showed me a completely different balance. What are we doing?

SPEAKER_02 29:02

What are we doing? And the balance.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

I know, and the balance was only the refillable mugs, which I had no intention of getting because we've gotten a million of them at home and we just didn't need more of them. So that was annoying. I did have to go to the front desk and they did the same thing as last time. They just rolled over anything that hadn't been used yet into the next day. Um, but just annoying to have to like go do that, you know, when this must happen off the school.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

I have to know enough to pay attention enough. Yes. Yeah to fix that so that you don't get kind of cheated out of money that you paid for meals. Right. Yeah, I don't know, man. I'm I have I have beef with the diamonds. That was annoying involved.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

The other thing that was a little bit annoying if you were mobile ordering at Gasparilla, um, any of your quick service meals do come with an alcoholic beverage. So usually what I'll do if it's like breakfast is I'll get something I want later and I'll pop it in my bag and then have it at the pool later or whatever. Um, but on the mobile order, the only alcohol options at Gasparilla were a beer or truly hard cider, which I don't like. Um, but if you went in person, they had like wine and prosecco, but none of that was on the mobile order. And I did ask one day, I said, hey, I mobile ordered and like I ordered this beer, but I don't really want that. Can I can I swap it for anything? And they said no. So that was kind of annoying if you if you wanted to mobile order, you were limited in what alcohol options.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Because usually you would get like the half, like the split of wine or like the the prosecle for later or yeah, save it for later.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah. So that was kind of annoying, but not not a huge deal, just annoying. So we went back to the room, we got Luke to sleep finally for a good nap. So I took um the three kids to the pool, and it was a little bit hard to balance um all three of them in the pool with just me, because Nick was working. But the um the quiet pool has like a very shallow area, which was really nice. So they kind of hung out in there, and there's like it's not a splash pad, but they have a little area that like shoots up little, you know, plumes of water, and they had fun with that. And I made everybody wear a life vest since there were three of them and one of me, and it's worked out fine, it was great.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

I think the thing is also that you kids definitely think that they know how to swim because they have a pool, and they don't, they don't so um Nick texted me when Luke woke up, so we headed back to the room then and hung out with him.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Um, he was team, no naps, man. He was like, I'm up for the day. I do not want to nap. I want to party. I'm so busy. Yeah. So that was fine. We hung out. We um were a little lazy in the room for a little bit. We watched some World Cup. It was really fun to have the World Cup going on because we always had something to watch when we were back in the room. Um, we had a 520 Narcuzis reservation, and of course, on the three-minute walkover, Luke finally fell asleep. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Um, dinner was great. Narcozis is always so good, but everyone was like, I got the steak, so uh I got the fillet, but they actually took it off the menu as a standalone item. It's on there as a surfing turf, but if you ask, they'll still give it to you as just the fillet. So that's good to know.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

And was the turf uh like a lobster tail?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yes, yeah, which I didn't want.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Which you wouldn't.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Yeah, okay. No, I wouldn't. Um so that was good. We and we split the calamari, which was amazing, and then Nick, I forget what he got. He got some kind of steak um with the blue crab creamed spinach, which was amazing. And I also had an old fashioned, which was great. Ooh. Everyone was definitely hitting a wall exhaustion-wise, and everyone was a little spicy. So we had initially said we'd go to the pool after dinner, um, and we were like, that's not happening. Everyone is going to bed.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

So my memory because I booked I booked the state rooms for everybody in your party. Yes. But I didn't book everything for everyone. So were little Randy and Amy there yet, or were they Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

So Nick's brother and sister-in-law and Aria landed um that morning and they went, I think they went to Disney Springs for the afternoon. Okay. Um, they had to, I think, activate their tickets and stuff like that. So they, and I think they ate at Disney Springs. I think they might have eaten at homecoming, but don't quote me on that. So we went back to the room, everyone was tired, we got everyone settled down. Here is something kind of bougie we did that I do not regret at all. We ordered rim service breakfast for the next day. Oh my god, this was amazing for us. So, so good. Um, it was $170, so probably less than like a sit-down breakfast would have cost for the six of us. Um, so I had eggs made to order with toast and coffee and a mimosa. Um, Nick had whatever he had with a mimosa. We got Mickey waffles for all the kids, and we were able to just eat in the room while everybody got ready. It was so worth it. It was so great.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

I honestly I I feel like breakfast is like my biggest vacation struggle. And it's because I like a real breakfast, I like a real breakfast. You know what I mean? I like I want to do it. I love a sit-down breakfast. I want eggs, I want to have Greek yogurt, I want like real food. And my kids wake up and they want real food right then. They don't want real food in an hour after I've like showered and done everything, they want it like right then. And I feel like finding a happy medium is really difficult. Yeah. It solves that problem.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

It was it was really great. Um so they knocked on our door while we were getting ready and we got everybody fed and got out the door, which was awesome. Um, we had a few hiccups this morning. Cooper, we couldn't find his magic band, so we had to go get a new one and then get it, you know, paired with his account. And we also had to pick up our second stroller, which was a rental. Um this was a rental from Scooter Bug, and this stroller was in rough shape. Um I thought it was the same type as the stroller we had, but it was an older model that had like no baggage space underneath, basically. Um, and then the the like clips on the side that keep the canopy up kept popping out. Um, so it was it was not a great stroller, but it was fine.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

So we were supposed to give them you should give them that feedback.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

I should. I didn't, but I you lost that directly again. Yeah, yeah. I did, yeah. So Nick's brother and sister-in-law and niece, um, they were already in Magic Kingdom by the time we sorted out all our problems and met up with them. So we were walking into Magic Kingdom about 8 50. Um, our first stop, since we had a little time to kill before meeting them, we went to the Christmas store to get our ornament. I didn't love all of the 2026 merchandise. I always love to get an ornament from each trip. So we got like a 4th of July ornament and had them um put the date on it, which was nice. So kind of funny, the woman who was checking out next to us, um, I think she wanted, so it's the 250th anniversary of the country. So she wanted that written on her ornament, and I guess they're not allowed to do that. I guess because there is so much 250th merch, they don't want to be like taking away from it. So they were like, I'm sorry, we can't do that. Like, we're not allowed to put 250th, but she was like giving them an extremely hard time, and I felt very bad. It was extremely awkward. Thanks. Um yeah, she she felt very strongly about her ornament saying 250th. So that's fine. Um, so we got a DAS for Big Thunder. Um, so I should mention here one of my kids has Das. Um, usually it's for the DAS holder plus is it plus three people?

SPEAKER_00 37:37

And we that's plus three, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

And but because we have so many miners, um, they've given us Das plus four, so our whole family can go. Um, and then I called before the trip, and I even though our DAS holder can only bring four people on with them at a time, you're able to add more people to their like DAS pool to pick from. So I added Randy and Amy and Aria to his pool so that if we wanted to do any of the repeat rides, um, we could choose from that whole group, which worked out really well. So we got a DAS for Big Thunder. Um, it was actually only a 15-minute posted wait at that time, so that was great. I had not ridden it since it's reopened. Um was it? I didn't think there were any like major changes, but it was so fun to be back on it again when they were like the wildest ride in the wilderness. Yes, it was fun. It definitely felt a little bit smoother, and I really liked the like rainbow effects in the caverns. That was pretty neat. Also, very exciting. Grace wrote it for the first time, which was awesome. She was so brave, she was so brave. Um, she really liked it. So then we had a lightning lane for Tiana's at 9 50. Grace was kind of freaking out, but she did do it, and I'm so proud of her. Nick and Cooper were in the front row. They took the splash like straight to the face. It was hilarious. They were completely they were completely soaked and nobody else was. So that was very funny. Um, Amy doesn't ride those two, so she actually sat in the critter co-op store with Emma and Luke and for with Aria for one of them. Aria didn't ride Big Thunder. Um, and they had little coloring tables set up, which was great for the kids to occupy themselves. Yeah, that was great. So we rode that and then we walked over to Tomorrowland to do Carousel of Progress since it was closing. Um, it closed, I think, the next day or the day after. I'm reopening with less casual misogyny.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

I am yes, yes, yes. And also, like, I've seen so many horrible janky videos of the animatronics just malfunctioning horribly. Like it needed to blow up. It's time. But this was my favorite ride as a child, and I am a little sad that I didn't get on it. That used to be my Hall of Presidents. You used to make us in the Hall of Presidents, and I was like, We're gonna go watch this woman do fake workout stuff in the 1800s. We're doing it, we're gonna watch them doing the laundry on the washboard. We're doing this thing. I always have that stupid show. I haven't done it recently because I've been so like go, go, go when I'm there. Yeah, and no one else liked it, so I just like I haven't pushed it, but like I'm really bummed that I didn't get the silly.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

It'll be exciting when it reopens. Yeah, I can't wait to see what they do. Yes, definitely, definitely. Nope. And then we hopped on the people mover, which was basically a walk-on, so that was great. Um, and then I had to hustle down to the Harmony Barber Shop with Grace to finally get her first haircut at almost six years old.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

That is how long it took. That's hysterical.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

I know her hair just grew out so perfectly, like it wasn't in her eyes.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

It all went and just had a blowout. I don't know. I know.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

So while we did that, everybody else tried to use our lightning lane on Buzz, but it was down. So they went and did the Speedway, and Cooper and Aria both got their little like licenses that you can print out. So those are very cute. Um, I did the haircut with Grace and I had Luke with me. Um, it was cute, but they definitely didn't make like quite the production with her that they had with our little kids when they did it. So I felt a little bad about that. Um it was just kind of like, okay, a quick trim and you're good. Um, one thing that was very funny, they give you like a toy to play with while you're gonna make a really big deal out of John's haircut either. Well, that's that's a bummer. That's a bummer. And they did give her all kinds of glitter, so that was nice. She was very covered in there. Um, very funny, they had they give you like a little toy to play with while you wait. And it was this like little spinning toy um that when it spins really fast, it's it lights up and it looks like Mickey's ears. Luke took this toy from Grace and was obsessed with it. He was like shouting at it and just like so excited. And I asked them, I was like, where can I get this toy? And they were like, Well, you can go to the emporium, but it was sold out last week. I was like, okay, we're going. And if we can't find it, I'm gonna come back and just like offer you cash for this used toy because he was so excited about it. But we found it. We found it in the emporium and I got it for him, and he was like so excited. It's very cute. So walking back to Tomorrowland, we caught a little bit of the parade, which was fun. Um, for her souvenir, Grace wanted one of those um fans that sprays water behind it. So we grabbed her one of those. Um, everyone was getting hungry, so we headed to Cosmic Rays. This was one of the few points in this early part of the trip that it felt crowded. It was packed in cosmic rays, like absolute bonkers in there. So we just grabbed a bunch of orders of chicken tenders and shared them, and it was fine.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Um I feel like Cosmic Rays is usually really overcrowded. But I think it's just because it's the only full service, quick service over there.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

If there's anything else, there's a lunching pad, but I feel like that's limited. Yeah. That's like your that's your if you're over there, that's what you're getting.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah, definitely. Um, and then we went to Seven Doors Mind Train. We had to set up a rider swap for this, and this was a little awkward because the cast member didn't like fully understand why we needed multiple swaps, because he was like, Oh, these two kids can just ride alone, like with a like in your cart. But the kids were definitely not gonna do that, you know. So we were like, that's not gonna work. We're gonna need to do like a triple rider swap. Um, and it was fine once we kind of explained that that wasn't gonna work, but he was definitely very confused about why we needed to do that.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Sometimes you're like you're in the park and you think like you work at Disney, but like this is a you know, this is a 20-year-old boy. Yes, yes, you know what I mean. It was a chicken boy. He doesn't know about the kids, you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

So then we bopped on over to the Pirate Tavern, um, which was great. We um Pirate Tavern, I miss you. So awesome. I love it. Nick and me and the kids were seated at a table, which was great. Um, unfortunately, we had two separate reservations, so we weren't with Randy and Amy and Aria. They had a standing spot nearby. Um, but it was great, it was awesome. And then after that, we had a lightning lane for pirates, but we could tell everyone was like dragging a little bit, so we decided to skip it. Um, Randy and Amy and Aria stayed. um back at the back at the park and Nick and me and the kids headed back. Then we hung out in the room for a while, cooled off, we watched soccer. The plan was to go have some well we were supposed to go back to Magic Kingdom and have dinner at Tony's um but we could tell everyone was just too tired. So we we canceled our reservation. And we wound up getting room service dinner, which was awesome. It was so great. I had a really good Caesar salad with salmon bougie. You were so bougie. I know it was probably I mean to be fair it was probably less than we would have spent at Tony's. But I had a Caesar salad with salmon which was just like exactly what I wanted. It was lovely. So we hung out in the room we watched some World Cup. I sat on the balcony for a while um and then the weather got kind of bad so we weren't going to be able to make it over to the pool. So we just kind of called it a night I realized I had not booked so we had a split stay right because we had the beginning of the trip and then the cruise and then two days at the output at the end. Yeah this was my day to make my lightning lanes for the second part of the trip and I completely completely forgot. Um it turned out fine because we ended up switching all our park days around at the end anyway. So it didn't really matter but I was like oh my god how did I do this? Um this was the night this so this was July 3rd but this was the first night of the July 4th fireworks at Magic Kingdom. So we were able to catch some of that from our balcony so that was cool we couldn't see like the castle but we could see the fireworks. It was so loud and we couldn't really figure out why but then would see a couple nights later we watched it from Randy and Amy's balcony and we could see them some of the fireworks were going off like from the lake. So that's why that's why it was so loud. So um we were asleep by 9 30 so that was great. Wow and yeah really we really took it pretty easy this first half of the trip like if we were tired we just called it a day and that's so nice when you have an annual pass because you're not like oh what is the cost of this half day spent back in the room you know what I mean or at the pool you're not worrying about it. So that was really nice. So um Sunday July 4th okay I have to say I made a major error booking our lightning lanes for this day. We're going to Hollywood studios if you're booking for a group and some people are splitting off to do something different I cannot emphasize enough book the whole group first and then modify the water down separately. I didn't do this I don't know why I had booked myself completely separately because I wanted to do the Muppets roller coaster and then we wound up needing to move everything around all morning and it was so annoying because every time I had to rebook Nick and the kids and then go back and try to line myself up with them because you can't you can't modify as a group if they weren't booked in the same transaction. Yeah. So that was annoying but it was fine. So I finished getting the kids ready while Nick took Cooper down to get waffles at Gasparilla Grill. I knew would feed everybody else later at um Woody's lunchbox but there wasn't anything Cooper was going to eat there. So I wanted to get him fed before we went this was the first time we needed to break down our our stroller from Scooter bug. So it was a baby jogger city tour two double stroller so many words to describe one thing. So many words and the day before we're on the monorails so we didn't need to break it down today we had to break it down and we couldn't figure it out so the bus driver actually were you on like a YouTube trying to figure this out I feel like I got panic texts as this was happening. So first the bus driver got off and tried to help us break it down and he's what you know about and he was like you know what there's no wheelchairs on this bus. I'm just gonna let you bring it on not broken down and you can figure it out later. And we're like oh my God God bless you thank you so much. And then on the ride to Hollywood studios Nick found a YouTube video and figured out how to break it down. So that could have been a real disaster but thank goodness he let us on the bus with a fully intact stroller. So we were there by about 8 30 um which was early entry we basically walked onto Minnie and Mickey's runaway railway which was great. We had matching 4th of July shirts for this day so we took some family picks in front of the theater which was really fun. We headed over to Woody's lunchbox. We just kind of got a whole bunch of things to share we got the tachos we got a grilled cheese and soup we got some fruit and just kind of shared everything. The baby fell asleep while we were eating and we were just at this point so desperate to like keep him asleep whenever possible. So um we had a Toy Story Mania Lightning lane and I just had everybody else go while I found like a quiet place to sit with Luke and just let him sleep. This was over by I don't know what the official name of the like area is but it's over by like where Edna Mode meets and it was really cute. There were uh Mike Wazowski was out meeting with kids Joy from Inside Out was out but she wasn't like meeting people she was like sitting at a table coloring with the kids it was very cute. Oh that's cute. Yeah it was really nice um so next we got a dash for Millennium Falcon. I had the early lightning lane for a rock and roller coaster and I wound up moving it to later and figured we'd just do it on our way out. So Grace, Amy and Aria went and did Alien Swirling Saucers while the rest of us headed to Galaxy's Edge. Emma did not want to ride Millennium Falcon so I waited while Nick and Cooper and Randy rode and then we got another dash for it. And then I went and rode with Cooper which was great. The new scenes were really cute. I guess if you're a I think if you're a um it's not a gunner it's not a pilot oh the engineers maybe they get to like choose something about where you're going or something like that. I didn't really catch it but they had they had some like extra thing to do. So we were both gunners um and it was fun it was great. It's one of Cooper's most favorite rides so that was nice. It's a we got a lightning lane for the Little Mermaid show um which was very cute. I didn't notice like a ton different from the last time I saw it but to be fair like you do shows like when was the last time you saw it do you think probably like 1998 or something like it's been it had been a really long time. I didn't remember like a ton being different or amazing but it was cute. The kids enjoyed it then we went outside of the Little Mermaid area and again I don't know what they're calling this new courtyard. I think it might be like the Walt Disney Studios lot or something like that. But it was 10 out of 10 amazing they had a bunch of characters walking around and then there was this little grassy area where Rapunzel was just like playing Duck Duck Goose with the kids. It was so cute. So Emma got to play Duck Duck Goose with Rapunzel. It was so fun Donald Duck was walking around I think there was another character walking around like huge upgrade I'm not sure what will happen when the actual building opens but for right now like the outdoor space was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

I think this is something that um Hollywood studios particularly in its MGM era did really well like spontaneous character interactions they're there their streetmosphere like they're part of it. It's not line up at a specific time and there's a meet and greet and then you're on your way I feel like they used to really kind of knock this out of the park and to be honest Universal knocks this out of the park. Yeah they're much much better at spontaneous character interactions so I feel like this is like a good a good area for Disney to kind of pick it up a notch yeah no it was great.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

So then we headed down toward rock and roller coaster I got ice cream for all of the kids while I went and did rock and roller coaster and Nick sat with them. I loved this absolutely loved everything the pre-show is almost verbatim the same as before but with muff with Muppets which was so funny. Kermit the Frog is like how about some backstage passes I just thought that was like so funny. Kermit it was like Kermit I think Kermit yes okay all right that was funny. And then Electric Mayhem is Aerosmith yes and then while you're in the line there's all these voiceovers um from Joe from Legal which is like a character that does all these like legal disclaimers about the ride which I was texting to Nick because it was like lawyer jokes and they were very funny. And then at the end of the ride the ride I know the ride itself is like kind of the same. I mean the all the like light up things you go through are a little bit different but you go through them so fast I couldn't even tell you what was different honestly. The big thing was when you pull back into the tunnel at the end um what are the two grouchy old guys that always give the like bad reviews it's like Statler and Waldorf or something. Yeah something like that. We actually got stuck in the tunnel for a few minutes so we got to hear like all of their jokes I feel like you would maybe almost miss it if you didn't get stuck. Oh but we got stuck so we got to hear like all of their jokes and it was very funny. I can't remember what the song was honestly yeah I can't remember so I don't know but it was it was a large are you okay who was that you're fine you're fine nothing's broken no nothing's broken I know it was an explosion okay all right sorry no that's okay that's okay um yeah so we left the park around 1 30 the kids were absolutely broken they were so tired um so we hopped on the bus we went back everybody went down for a nap which is always like an absolute miracle when everybody goes down at the same time um we woke up around 3 30 uh we had planned to go to the pool before the park but there was a huge thunderstorm happening so that did not work out um so I let everybody sleep a bit longer I could see people I went out and sat on the patio and I could see people walking to and from Magic Kingdom like in their ponchos. These people were absolutely nuts. I mean it was thundering and lightning like crazy. It was absolutely insane um it was like a really big storm. So that was very funny to watch um the kids didn't wake up till like five so everybody was well rested which was great. The rain started moving away um so I left Nick and the boys in the room to get ready and I took the girls they wanted to go find the little penguin thing again um so we went and did that there's also if you go up to the basin store um on the second floor of the like lobby building you can try the different all the different hand scrubs the different shower scrubs they have like little sinks so the girls thought they were like the fanciest doing that so that was really fun I wanted to take them to do that.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

It reminds me of um do you remember Saban? Yes yes when I lived in New York there was this place called Saban NYC that was an Israeli like bath product store and they had like it was the first time I had that experience like oh there's a sink you can try them all out before you buy them like yeah so fancy same idea so that they were very excited about that the Grand Florian lobby was absolutely hopping like the perch was hopping because everyone was hiding from the rain it was very funny. Which is why they need better drinks man give somebody a good GNT give them a tea for sure so now it was time for July 4th at the Magic Kingdom. So we took the monorail over we entered the Magic Kingdom at 645 oh boy oh boy Danielle the hub and main street were madhouses absolute wall to wall people so reputationally the worst times to be at Disney are between Christmas and New Year's yes uh Easter weekend and 4th of July I whether or not that's like actually true I don't know like I can look into that if you're someone who's interested in doing this but like the that those are the three that everyone's like past if we did not have the dessert party booked I would have turned around and walked out for sure.

SPEAKER_01 59:05

Okay. Um so we waited for we wanted to get castle photos so we got in line for a photo pass photographer and we waited about 20 minutes for the photos um yes it was it was a long wait but I really wanted to get them everyone was in their 4th of July clothes um I was prepared um everyone the kids were all in the red t-shirts from the morning and then I was in like a a matching tank top and the baby um he had I think hoop on his matching onesie but he was in a little um shirt that said like star spangled or something like that. It was very cute. I was prepared for the crowds I was not prepared for the absolute rave atmosphere around the castle. So they had a DJ so it was like the music was bumping right it was like a whole thing and there were stroll lights and every so often sparklers would go off and it was like absolute sensory overload. So I was prepared for crowds I was not prepared for that um so we had planned to do a ride first but after the wait for the photos we're like you know what let's just head straight to the dessert party um the baby fell asleep in the stroller on the walkover and they let us bring him in the in the stroller which was fantastic. Um the dessert party was amazing um we kind of raved about it on our family trip from March they've like majorly upgraded all the desserts each stand is themed for land so it's like adventureland, tomorrow land, fantasy land and all the desserts are themed. I don't think they had anything that was specific for like the fourth but everything was great. Like everything was absolutely awesome we had a great view we were right by like the windowsill so we could see out into the absolute insanity that was the hub. Wild um absolutely wild the only thing that was a bummer there was a huge line for the women's bathroom the men's bathroom was apparently overflowing so it was like not usable and then a small a small child puked all over the floor outside the women's bathroom oh my god so the bathrooms were like a whole scene it was not it was that great but other than that I like can't say enough good things about it it was so fun um the kids were all well rested and in good moods everyone was happy um so it was really fun and then we had to head over to the grass so they told us like we should head over by I think the fireworks were at nine they told us to head over by 840 um the walk over there was honestly scary it was so crowded I was very very that is not your thing it's not my thing and I think even if it even if it were like you I think you would have been like wait this is awful um we were trying to follow a cast member but like we kind of got separated because it was so crowded and it was very nerve wracking but the fireworks themselves we didn't end up with the best view because we got there kind of late which was fine we didn't really care. The view is just like amazing wherever you are because the fireworks are all around you. It's not like with happily ever after where they're just in front of you. It's like 360 fireworks. It's crazy. Oh wow um yeah and then we watched them from Randy and Amy's balcony the next night and it was kind of funny to see how your like perspective is skewed. It looked like the fireworks were going off like right behind the train station basically but that wasn't where they were at all they were going off like over on the lake. So it was very interesting. But yeah the the show was amazing um almost like moving at some points it was very like very nice. So I'm I'm super glad that we did it. It's not something I would like purposefully do again probably at Magic Kingdom but I'm really glad we did it. It was really fun we used the noise canceling headphones for Luke which were absolutely amazing. First of all he looks like a little alien which is hilarious and he took a bottle during the fireworks and like never once flinched. He was just like happy as a one so that was great.

unknown 1:03:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

After that we had um a buzz light year lightning lane so we popped over there um that was really cool the with the new things um you know it definitely yeah it looks kind of like bright and shiny and honestly once we were out of the hub the crowds were totally fine so it was really just the like immediate area once we got to Tomorrowland we felt totally fine. So um then we went we did small world at 10 o'clock which was great the kids were really into it um I have in my notes question mark Seven Dwarfs Mind Train. I don't know if we did it I don't know if we wrote it or didn't write it I have no idea I have no idea um and then we were heading over to Thunder. One thing that was really weird is that they still had the like rave dance parties happening so in Frontierland they were blasting Blink 1820 was just it was fun but it was also like very disconcerting. So that was funny. Okay um we did Thunder Mountain in the dark um our non-riders waited at the critter co-op again we did rider swap was perfect um it was not super crowded at this point but when we were walking out around 11 there were still major major lines for the monorail on the boat. Okay. So for the very first time we walked back from Magic Kingdom which we were like oh my god this is gonna be awful but it took exactly 15 minutes um it was very well lit and it let out right by our building so it was super convenient actually it was way way quicker than waiting for anything else so it was awesome. The plan for the next morning had been to go to Animal Kingdom get up early and do like an early entry and we wanted to be back around the time um Jan and Randy landed but we decided that's not gonna happen. So we just decided to skip parks the next day altogether um and do Animal Kingdom on the second half of the trip. So because we we just knew the early start was not going to happen and we wanted to be back you know before it was too late. So um we had one table service credit left from skipping Tony's dinner on the first night. So we had no problem getting 1900 Park Fair for breakfast the next morning. So we were psyched about that. This day was 20756 steps.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:04

So that is a really big day.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:07

A big big day so the next morning we slept in a little bit we got up around 830 um we started some laundry I have never been able to get this laundry viewer app to work for me. I don't know if you have but there's something that I've tried. I've tried it and it never works. It never shows me what's actually like happening in the machines so I just set timers on my phone to go back down. But um that was fine. So I got that going before breakfast. We had 1900 Park Fair at 10 um I'm not a huge fan of buffets generally but it was fine. It's kind of a funny mix of characters. It was Aladdin Cinderella it's a podge podge yeah yeah Aladdin Cinderella Mirabelle and Tiana so it was good. If you have your kids listening here's a little spoiler moment you might want to pause it or fast forward like 15 seconds but um grace had a moment where she was like oh wow is Cinderella not doing breakfast at the castle today like what's going on at the castle today with no Cinderella yeah and I was like yeah no no no breakfast at the castle today so that was that was funny closed today yep um so breakfast was good um nothing you know not like a huge standout breakfast but it was good um Jan and Randy got there they had like a 6 a.m flight so they were there early um we got them food from Gasparilla and went back up to our room to eat it um they had rented DVC points for their room so their room wasn't ready until later um and they were over in the room um I forgot the name of the building but it's the room with all the resort studios so okay we all got to the pool around 1215. This was the first time we went to the main pool um before we had just been going to the quiet pool. It was so so so hot this day and it was also kind of crowded at the pool. So that was not great. But um I did the slide once which was fun fun little kind of view from the top you can see the castle. And after a while in the pool Luke was kind of tired so I hopped out and got in the shade with him and they came around at some point the cast members with cold towels which felt very fancy. That was very fancy so then we headed back to the rim around three um there was a World Cup game we wanted to see at four and we had a five o'clock dinner reservation. So the plan was to go over to the contemporary and find somewhere to watch the game um I had read that the outer rim was somewhere you could watch it but unfortunately the monorail was closed for lightning. So we didn't really want to take the bus over to Magic Kingdom and walk. So we killed some time we went to Enchanted Rose and had a beverage which was lovely. We found an app on Nick's phone to watch the game so that was good. And then we tried to get a minivan over to the Contemporary but we could only get one the driver was very nice. He like heard us discussing what to do about the rest of our party because we needed two full minivans and he was like this is the end of my shift like I'll just run back and get them if they don't figure out something before I get back which was really really nice of him. But while we were on the ride over there with the first group the monorail opened back up and they were able to get over there. So that was great. So we went over to we had dinner at Steakhouse 71 um we had to never been there for dinner. We didn't like it we didn't like it at all no I got the fillet um we had two tables right next to each other which was great the service was very meh like our waiter was often nowhere to be found which was kind of weird um our food was super super salty my steak was overcooked um just not great and then weirdly they brought us like 20 minutes in they brought us this like very nice loaf of bread and I was like oh this is great like they're bringing us a loaf of bread and then we realized it was actually a loaf of bread that Randy had ordered from the other table um that actually cost money and then like we raised it to their attention but they like charged us for the bread which was weird and then I don't know if he ever got his bread so it was just it was just not great. It was it was just meh I would say it but meh and we were there almost um almost two hours which was a lot that's a lot for like a non-character dinner. Yeah um so it was just okay so we got back to the monorail a little after seven and then we weren't back to the Grand Floridian until 815 there was a stalled monorail in front of us oh so at every stop we sat for like 20 minutes and it was so hot and really weird like you know they have those long bench seats there was a woman sitting smack in the center and I guess like a husband and wife came on and were like oh do you mind like can you like slide down a little so we can sit together and she was like no so there was they were sitting on either end and there was this woman in the middle and there was all this open space that like no one could sit in.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:28

It was very I would 100% have snuggled right up to that lady. Yes yes it was I would have been like our legs are touching it's cool if you don't want to move that's totally fine but I am also going to sit right here.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:41

I'll just snuggle right up to you right here. So that was weird. And then we were packing up um because we were leaving for the cruise the next day and then Randy and Amy and Aria had a theme park view room so we walked down to their room to watch the fireworks which was really cool to see it from like another perspective because you could see the fireworks shooting off from like on the water. Yeah that's what you never would have guessed from being in the park which was very funny. So um the next day we got up at 615 finished packing um we were headed to the cruise so we sent um some luggage ahead to the yacht club and it's great it's just like a regular split stay you just tell them like we'll pick it up next Friday and so we sent the two the two strollers and two suitcases ahead so that was just like less stuff we had to have on the cruise. Then we went and we had an awesome breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I wanted to fill up all the kids before our busy morning and then I think we'll probably just break there right because after that we're headed to the bus for the cruise.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:53

So although can I just can we talk about Disney cruise line transpot for one moment because I had some hiccups in the last two weeks and I'm stressed out about it. Yeah what what was your communication experience like with DCL ground transport?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:10

So when you booked it we didn't get anything um and then I could see when I logged into my cruise account on the dashboard it said something about having booked transportation. It didn't say anything about from or to which I was a little worried about because I knew I was coming from the Grand Floridian and going back to the yacht club but there's no details on like the portal it's just like yes yes you have booked transportation and that's it. Okay. And then about 24 or so hours before pickup you get an email from them with your departure info which for us was like meet in the lobby by nine for a 945ish departure. And I think I think it was the same email that tells you if you want them to bring your bags to the ship for you they need to be ready by 7 a.m with all the tags on them. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:08

All right so I have had so like for instance so you guys I don't remember if this is how this worked with you but often what will happen is I'll have clients say yes add transportation from the get go right or at like an earlier check-in along it's like when they're booking their cruise they're like yes add ground transportation but they don't know what their plans are at that point. Right. You've looked so far out so I had a I had a good number of people that I needed to call back to DCL to change their ground transportation because the default is MCO to port and port to MCO. But if you end up adding a night beforehand or a handful of nights beforehand you have to call and change all of that and like I had cli I had clients I think two weeks ago or last week who all of their confirmation stuff said MCO to port to MCO yeah and I was like no I absolutely switched this and so I called to double check and no it was it was correct. They had added hotel for a couple nights on either end of their trip and so I had called at some point you know usually about a month at least in advance I'll I'll do a big batch. I usually try to save everybody and do a big batch and I had called and I had changed theirs in particular to all sport all-star sports and I knew I had done it because I make a note my little system whatever and when I called to be like hey he just got his confirmation 24 hours in advance 48 hours in advance and it's still showing MCO but they're going all-star sports and they're like oh no wait on the back end we see it all-star sports they're all set I then had another client this week who like kind of the same thing it say and actually made in the same phone call but theirs was incorrect and they didn't get their confirmation until they got it at like 1 30 in the morning the night before their so I got an email at like 1 30 in the morning which I saw when I woke up around six and then I hopped on the phone right I was literally on hold like in the gym I'm like in between sets to be like yes this is a confirmation because that's like squad oh my god but because they got their confirmation so late the variable in confirmation like in the is and for whatever reason like for them it wasn't correct but it was all one thing I'm just um now I'm like nervous about them.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:53

Yeah no ours was super smooth yeah no ours was very smooth thank goodness and it is sort of magical that they pick up your um luggage in your hotel room and then you don't see it again until you get to your room on the cruise which is really that and the port arrival time it's like that's half the point of doing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:16

Yeah super nice so thankfully these clients were also silver so they were able to get on early anyway besides Uber so it was fine. Yeah yeah good not ideal though I don't love I don't love it when that kind of thing happens to my people right of course so that was part one of the trip and we'll catch up with part two next time yeah we're talking about it I've heard so little about this trip before right now because we've been so I know I know I'm very happy to get all the details well um hey if you're listening to this and you're like hey I'd like to plan an absolutely bonkers like almost two week Disney plus cruise plus Disney vacation or if you want to do a cruise highly recommend I would be happy to uh help you with that it's Danielle Griggs G R I G G S at FantasticalVacations dot com and um yeah I'd love to help you out so reach on out see you real soon see you real soon