A little last minute trip! Fast Pass + wasn't so bad!
My boys and I, along with my mom, decided to do a little trip to Orlando while DH was away at his annual military training. The kids wanted to go back to Universal, so being the good mother that I am we booked a trip to Universal instead of my beloved Disney. Since we would be there for my birthday I did get them to compromise, and we ended up changing it to 3 nights in Disney, 4 nights in Universal.
We spent our 3 nights in Disney at Caribbean Beach Resort. It's our favorite moderate and did not disappoint. We had Ohana's for our usual first night dinner. A favorite of ours and always a wonderful meal followed by our traditional spin around the monorail. That seriously never gets old!!!
We also spent some time checking out Disney Springs. I actually think it is an improvement. It had basically become a glorified Disney shopping area. Honestly there wasn't anything unique I had found there that couldn't be found in the resorts or parks in years. At least now it's a real shopping/dining destination while in WDW. We had lunch one day at The Boathouse and it was one of the better meals of our trip. Service was top notch. We will be back!
I decided that I wanted to spend my birthday in Magic Kingdom. I did something I said I would never do. We went to Shades of Green to pick up our Universal military tickets and while there we bought one day tickets to MK....during one of the most expensive time periods no less. Back at the room we linked our tickets and made FP+ for MK just a day before visiting the park. I basically just booked what was available, but we were able to book more FP as the day went on in the park. I don't remember all the details, but here is a little rundown of what we accomplished one day in MK without prior FP+ selections.
We arrived just after opening, 9:15ish. Stayed in the park until around 1ish when we left due to the extreme heat and humidity. We came back to the park around 7, and stayed till closing at 12. In that time we were able to get the following FP's: Philharmagic, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear. We were also able to ride the following attractions without FP: Small World, Peter Pan, Mine Train (did this at the very end of the night and still had time to run to Buzz and TTA for a few last rides before park closing), Buzz for a second ride, TTA, Carousel of Progress, Stitich, Monsters Inc. We had lunch at Pecos Bills and dinner at Casey's Corner. We also had several snacks throughout the day. The kids got starbucks, I got a dole whip float, they had mickey ice cream bars at some point, we got ice cream in tomorrowland (free I might add-because it was my birthday :mickey:), and we got popcorn and drinks during the fireworks. We also watched the castle projection show (no clue what the name of this is these days) and Wishes. Did we do everything in the park? Hardly! But we did have a great time. I had a fantastic birthday! And we did much more than I ever imagined we could do without planning ahead.
It was actually very nice to have a somewhat laid back 3 days in Disney. We spent a lot of time at the pool. My 16 year old and I enjoyed spending the evenings on the hammocks on the beach at CBR. Not every day I get quality time with him. We had dinner at Grand Floridian Café one night, always a great meal. We visited Wilderness Lodge. Can't visit Disney without stopping by to see the lodge! All in all a very nice way to spend my birthday with some of my favorite people in my favorite place.
I'll try to post a trip report for the Universal part of our trip. But I'll also post another little Disney report about our extra night in Disney we ended up with. We had booked Kona Café for breakfast on the morning that we left Universal to head home. We ended up arriving early and took a spin on the monorail at which point we all decided we just weren't ready to leave. Even my kids, who claim they love Universal way more than Disney these days, said the following to me: "I was ready to go home when we left Universal, but now I want to stay one more night in Disney".
Just wanted to add that Ohana's was the only meal we booked ahead. All other Table Service meals were booked the day before, or day of. In the case of Grand Floridian Café, we booked it while on the monorail. When we arrived for our reservation it hadn't even loaded into the system yet. It popped up as the CM was taking my info. We were very lucky to be able to get all the places we wanted last minute.
