Well hello! Super late trip report here! I wasn't going to do a TR, but I'm having withdrawals and the countdown to our next trip seems really long...So I want to relive this one with you guys! It was a quick trip, so it'll be a quick TR.
So, Introductions.
DH and I have been married 4.5 years, we have 2 DDs, both under the age of 3. They had some time with Gigi while we explored the World. Don't worry, we're taking them in December, keep an eye out for that TR. DH is a sports and recreation pastor at our church, and I stay home with our girlies. Oh, and plan fantasy trips to Disney, but who doesn't do that? That's how this trip was born, but more on that later.
Here are the basic:
June 1- Travel, Disney Springs, Dinner at O'hana
June 2- Magic Kingdom!
June 3- Sleep in, travel home
We are aiming for rest and luxury on this trip, and we got it! We also wanted to ride all the rides we couldn't bring the girls on. Done.
Day one- Travel/DS/O'hana
We got on the road early, around 7:30. The girl's were still asleep, so it as a good thing we had said our goodbyes the night before. I had run by Panera the day before and gotten a few bagels to take with us, we are them in the car and brought coffee from home. I use Young Living Essential Oils, so we brought along our USB diffuser and put a new combo in it. The hope was to create a scent memory of the trip
We live about 5 hours from WDW, so we were seeing this around 12:30
Ah, what a welcoming sign! We drove down Hotel Plaza Blvd and got even more excited when we saw this:
Let the vacation begin! We parked in the Lime garage, and made our way to the Springs. We hadn't been back since all the new stuff opened. It looks completely different (probably because it is) and it took us awhile to find our bearings. Luckily, the Welcome Center is pretty much right outside of the garage. We stopped there first, got a map, and talked with a CM. We had the dining plan and wanted to make sure we could use it to get lunch. Since we hadn't gone to the hotel and checked in yet, the CM had to call over and clear it with them. Apparently doing online check in doesn't suffice. I keep hearing mixed things about that. To be safe on our next trip, we've worked in time to check in at the hotel before heading to DS.
Doing Disney Springs first is one of our Disney traditions. From our honeymoon on, we've always made that our first stop, and we have always eaten at Earl of Sandwich first thing. This time, however, we wanted to try one of the new places, so we ended up at Blaze Pizza.
Um, Yum! This change of tradition did not disappoint. We each built our own, which means lots of pizza. Each was 6 huge slices. DH got basic pepperoni and I added mushrooms and black olives. I couldn't finish mine, DH took one piece, but I still ended up throwing some away. We would recommend Blaze, and we plan to return at some point. It was quick (duh, kinda their thing) and nice and cool inside. There was also patio seating that looked comfortable.
From lunch, we started shopping. We had been saving our pennies for a few months to be able to really enjoy all the new shops. We came away with a lot of great finds. We enjoyed looking in all the new stores, but we probably still spent most of our time in World of Disney. We also dropped by the new CocaCola store and rooftop bar. The original plan was to get a float tray, but we were wanting to save room for dinner, so we opted for splitting a frozen coke instead.
The rooftop is so nice! We loved taking in the views and taking a break from the heat. Its really shaded, and the breeze feels nice. We hit a few more stores, making sure to go by Stance on our way back to the car. DH has to wear dress socks with his dress shoes for work, so most of the staff find ways to make them fun. He ended up with a pair of Donald Duck socks.
Up Next: Checking in at the Grand Floridian! And dinner at O'hana! Oh my!
We left DS around 4 and headed to our home for the next two nights:
I was instantly in love. We had recently discovered renting DVC points, and after securing a reservation for BLT in December, decided to try our luck with Grand Floridian Villas. We parked and took our bag in. I made sure to get some pictures of the lobby...
I've been spoiled for life now. Sorry DH.
We had gotten our room number via text, so we went straight to our room. We had a standard view studio and we were placed on the third floor. The room was spacious, and had a small kitchenette (mini fridge, microwave, sink, and recourses). The villas also have a couch instead of a second bed. Also, a rain shower head. Seriously spoiled now.
This is the only picture I got inside the room. We spent most of our time on the balcony. Here's the view:
Watching the monorail go by was fun. The villas are kind of secluded. We had to take that covered path to get to the main building. I never remember being inconvenienced by it though. It may have been worse if we were planning on spending lots of time in the resorts quick service restaurant, that was quite a ways away.
One other thing I will say about the GF is that when we arrived, we were in athletic clothes and whatnot. We definitely felt underdressed walking around the resort. I later realized that it was nearing dinner, so most people were dressed up to get to their dinner destinations. We never felt like this again though, everyone was dressed down to go the parks during the day. The resort is seriously gorgeous. I felt like I was living a dream (I was) and I didn't want to wake up from it. GF was a bucket list item for us and I'm so glad we checked it off.
We settled into our room and got freshened up for dinner. We changed, so we fit in a little better We still had some time to kill, but it was well spent on the balcony
Continued in the next post...
We were still trying to kill some time, so we walked over to the main building a took a look around. Y'all. Even the elevators at GF are pretty. I was seriously swooning by this point. I also loved that there were all these little pockets to rest and be semi-alone in the main building. These pictures were taken off of one of the balconies on the second floor, behind one of the shops...
As you can tell, it was starting to look pretty stormy, so we started walking towards the poly, hoping to make it before the bottom fell out.
We saw the wedding chapel along the way
We also noticed the dedicated stones along the walkway, like outside of the MK. A lot of these were celebrating anniversaries. It was cool to look at them! We loved this walk, very peaceful and relaxing. Then the closer to the poly you get, the better it is. We could hear the Spirit of Aloha dinner show going on and there was a big white sand beach. So nice. Plus, you can't beat the Polynesian lobby!
We enjoyed looking around at the shops, and even took a quick stroll down to the beach. We had thought about getting a dole whip after dinner and grabbing a spot on the beach to watch Happily Ever After. We didn't end up doing that, you'll see why later. We had dinner reservations at 7:50, and checked in around 7:30. There were a ton of people in the waiting area, we figured it would be a long wait, but we were being lead in around 7:45. We've never eaten here before so we were super excited! I had gotten the reservations just 2 days before our trip. I checked availability 3 times a day for a week, I was so glad it had paid off! We walked in as the CM was explaining the restaurant to us, showing us the bread and the big open fire grill. They were doing an interactive element as we walked through, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries and hula dancing. This was the only time we saw this happening. We walked around the main dining area towards the front windows. I saw an open table right by the window but figured no way we were that lucky. But we were. This was the view from our table
Wow. It was amazing! I would have been happy no matter what at this point. They could have told me they ran out of food and we had to eat hotdogs and I would still be content with that view. Just to add to the blessing, they didn't run out of food. It was all so delicious. If you haven't eaten at O'hana, I highly recommend it. We started with bread, salad, noodles, wings, and potstickers. Then came the massive skewers of meat. Steak, chicken, and shrimp. Every single bite was amazing. I wish I had gotten more than one picture, but I was trying to be in the moment
We kept having to remind each other to slow down and savor. With 2 little ones, meals are usually us shoveling cold food in as we deal with them. It almost felt odd to not have another human to look after, and to be able to take my time, not worried about leaving before someone has a melt down. Eating out with kids is hard, y'all We enjoyed quiet conversation, and watched families playing in the huge pool. The entrance to the slide was right below our window, so that was fun to watch. Then the water pageant started. We had an okay view of that, I'm sure it looks cool from down on the beach. It was about this time that we realized we had a really good set up for seeing Happily Ever After from our current seats. We ended up timing it perfectly and our dessert was delivered right as the music started. It was magical.
I only got two pictures, again, we were trying to be in the moment. We put our phones up and just soaked it in. They piped in the music too. It really was amazing, probably one of my absolute favorite Disney memories!
After dinner, we rode the monorail back to GF and called it a night. We had to stop for a couple lobby pictures though!
Do we look 10lbs heavier? I feel like we gained at least that much. The orchestra was playing as we got back. It was a great ending to a great night!
Day 2- Magic Kingdom
We started our morning bright and early, just before 7 am. Of course, we enjoyed our breakfast on the balcony. Yum! We finished up and headed to the monorail. I loved that you go through security at the hotel now, so nice! MK had an extra magic hour this morning. We did end up having to go through a different line when we got to the front of the park. It was where the usual bag check is, so everyone was all confused, including us. The guy wasn't checking bags though, he was scanning magic bands. I figured he was making sure we were actually staying on property, but I thought it was an odd place to do this. I thought with the new welcome show and Main Street being open at 8 that they would let anyone in and check magic bands past Main Street. But this was the only time it was scanned, so I guess not. We were here at 7:40
They opened Main St right around 8 and we headed to Tomorrowland. Castle selfie taken from the bridge of Tomorrowland at 7:57!
This is pretty much when I stopped taking pictures. I put my phone up and we just had a great morning. We hit Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and the People Mover before heading up to Fantasyland. We did Barnstormer and Its a Small World, then Haunted Mansion. Next we did pirates, then went back up to use our FP on BTMR. Afterwards, we got our very first ever Dole Whips. We loved it! We now see what all the fuss is about. Then we used another FP for Jungle Cruise. We did a little shopping before heading out for lunch. We rode the monorail over to the Contemporary, we had 12:45 lunch reservations at The Wave.
I have to say, I'm not too hard to please, but I was unimpressed with The Wave. It was all but empty when we got there, maybe 10 other families in the entire place. Our waiter was great, very helpful. The selection at lunch wasn't fantastic though, and we both ended up getting a burger. It was okay, maybe just a notch or two above what you would find in the parks. We did get dessert included with the meal plan, which was nice. Most places you don't get the dessert anymore. We ordered the dessert and then waited probably 20 minutes. It was crazy. If we were bold people, we probably would have just left. We'd already paid. But we stuck it out. And then we were disappointed again, the dessert was just okay. Oh well, now we know!
We left lunch and headed back to the resort for some afternoon rest time. We both ended up taking hard naps. Like, we passed out quick and slept hard! When we finally woke up, it was raining. We debated some, checked the weather, then decided to go back to MK and see what happened.
Here was our view on the way back
Such a gross afternoon! We stopped at Starbucks and I got a hot latte to warm me up. Then we adorned our cheap ponchos and braved the rain. Main St was packed with people trying to take cover, or leaving. We fought our way though and made it to Adventureland. We went straight to the Enchanted Tiki Room and were sheltered at the entrance while we waited for the next showing. So, don't judge, but we had never done this! We always just wiz past it and haven't made the time to stop. We got in to the preshow after a lengthy wait, and then into the theater. We LOVED it! I can't believe we'd been skipping it all this time!
When we left here, it was still raining, so we just walked over to The Country Bear Jamboree. Heres a beautiful picture of us in our ponchos!
Once again, it was still raining when we got out, but it has slowed down a lot. Seven Dwarves was back open, which was good, since we had a FP for it. We rode in the rain, which was an interesting experience, then headed to tomorrowland to do Carousel of Progess and Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. By the time we got finished with those, it had pretty much stopped raining, so we pulled the ponchos off and headed to Cosmic Ray's for dinner. We had been here before, but never actually sat where you can hear Cosmic Ray perform. It was fun and added another element to our basic dinner. We'd do it again. At some point, we had gotten a 4th FP for Winnie the Pooh, so we went there afterwards. Then it was time to go get a spot for Happily Ever After. We made it to Main Street by 8:30 and got a pretty good spot close to the statue of Walt and Mickey. The castle looked amazing!
We loved HEA! I feel like I've said that a lot with this TR, but we really did have a great time. I'm not really sure where we went after HEA. I do remember fighting through crowds to go towards Adventureland, but I'm not really sure why. I do know I took this picture while siting outside of Gaston's Tavern:
I'm not sure what show we were missing, but it was a nice surprise to see while we sipped on our LeFou's Brew. I also know we rode Under the Sea with Little Mermaid. But really, I should have taken more pictures so I can remember more...
We did another first on this trip- we closed the park. Why in the world had we never done this before? We're weird I guess. I took this one last picture of the castle at 10:57
We heard the goodnight kiss as we got to the end of Main Street. We then got on the monorail and headed back. It was semi-crowded most of the time, then a lot of folks got off at the TTC. By the time we got to the poly, it was just us!
It felt a little weird being the only ones in the entire car/tram/whatever you can it. We got back to the room and crashed. What a day well spent, I'm so glad we braved the rain!
The next morning, we got up and ordered room service, two grand floridian breakfasts. We got ready and packed up while we waited. The breakfast was amazing! So much food, and presented in such a good way. I felt like a true VIP. I wish we had enjoyed it a little more, by then we were missing our girls and wanted to get home. We took one last picture and then headed home.
Well, that's it! I enjoyed getting to re-live this trip, even if it did only take me 2 days! Keep an eye out for a TR on our December trip, I promise to do a better job with that one!
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I wasn't going to do a TR, but I'm having withdrawals and the countdown to our next trip seems really long...So I want to relive this one with you guys! It was a quick trip, so it'll be a quick TR.
We still had some time to kill, but it was well spent on the balcony
