Sailing the Skyliner: Life is the Bubbles on Spring Break - A March 2024 Trip Report

[jrmint427]

Saturday, March 9, 2024 – Travel Day 2​

Flight to Disney / Travel to Resort​

Our day was supposed to start at 4:00am, but it started much earlier. My MIL woke up to use the restroom and started to panic. She called for me and Pat saying, “It’s 4:30am already! We need to get up!” I, of course, woke up in a panic and wondered how it was possible we overslept after we had set multiple alarms. I reached for my phone… and saw it was only 2:00am. I was confused at first, but then we realized the coffee pot and clock out in the main room both said 4:30am. They were somehow 2.5 hours ahead of the actual time.

Thankfully, we went back to sleep for another couple of hours and laughed about it the next day. I might have been grumpier if we weren’t heading to Disney. I was in a great mood thanks to our upcoming trip! We got ready quickly and headed down to the lobby. The front desk recommended that we arrive 10-15 minutes early for the 5:00am shuttle so we showed up right at 4:45am… to find an over-packed lobby filled with so many people.

I squeezed my way to the front desk to ask if we were all going to fit on the 5:00am shuttle and the guy said we would not all fit, definitely not. The shuttle was only running every 30 minutes. We were already cutting it close with a 6:25am boarding time, and we weren’t sure what to expect with Spring Break crowds at the airport, even with an early flight. We made a quick decision to call an Uber, and not take any chances. The Uber was only a few minutes away. The shuttle pulled up while we were waiting, and everyone cleared out of the lobby to wait outside, though the line still fell back to the entrance of the hotel.



When our Uber came and we needed to exit, it felt similar to Disney at rope drop, everyone filling in around the front doors as they waited to get on the shuttle. I apologized as we tried to squeeze through, explaining that we were heading to an Uber and not competing for that shuttle, and a few people let us pass.

We were in the Uber at 4:57am and paid $30 with tip even though we were supposed to have had a free shuttle to the airport. It was only a 7-minute ride to get to the airport and we were through security by 5:28am, with very little wait. We had just enough time to grab some coffee and breakfast before our flight.

We picked up coffee and chocolate donut holes at Dunkin Donuts and then my MIL and I swung back to McDonald’s to get some breakfast sandwiches, hashbrowns and apple juice (which they didn’t have at DD). We also picked up a few waters for the flight, knowing we needed to stay hydrated this trip (I had issues with the heat during our last trip and was not going to let that happen again).



Our flight started boarding at 6:25am. We had stuck Apple AirTags in our luggage and had fun watching it make its way to our plane. We boarded at 6:40am.



We had 5 seats in a row, 3 near a window and 2 in the center of the plane. We asked the girls to agree who would have the window seat in each direction, and they agreed DD7 could have it on the way out and DD9 would have it on the way back.




Instead of tablets, I dug out my old Kindles and loaded them up with library and Kindle Unlimited books for the girls. This meant I had to buy myself a new Kindle so I could have one too These worked out great! They both read on the plane rides.



Once everyone was loaded onto the plane, they immediately announced that we were going to have a one-hour delay. They said we were going to taxi to a safe place to park for that hour. We were supposed to take off at 7:15am, but at 8:18am, they said it was going to be another hour. The people around us on the plane were surprisingly calm about this, maybe we were all in great moods because we were going to Disney? The pilots kept sounding optimistic, saying it was possible we could get out sooner, but then at 8:50am they said it was going to be another 30 minutes. The flight attendants were great and brought around snack and beverage service while we were parked during that second hour.

At 8:57am the pilots announced we would start taxiing to the runway; at 9:17am we were still on the tarmac, but we took off shortly after that, just over 2 hours later than planned. The girls and I were bummed this might cut into our swim time at the resort, but I reminded the girls we had time carved out to swim two other days this trip, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we had to skip it on our travel day. I also suggested we could decide between Gideon’s cookies (the reason we were going to head to Disney Springs early) or swim time once we got there.

We landed at 12:26pm, only 1.5 hours later than schedule, so they made up some time in the air. We were on our first ride (the faux monorail) at 12:53pm! The girls got a kick out of that this time around.



We made it to baggage claim at 1:00pm and… the belt was broken. We were all just going with the flow at this point, not stressing about the time (We Got No Troubles, Life is the Bubbles! We were almost going to be Under the Sea… in the Little Mermaid rooms).

The workers were trying to keep everyone calm while they worked on the belt, and I saw they started to pull bags out of the back room manually (which was going to take forever as only a couple bags were coming out at a time). However, we had all 4 of our bags by 1:09pm! Ours were some of the first brought out.

We were in an Uber by 1:15pm ($62 to Art of Animation with tip) and still feeling excited.

 

[mickey916]

Wow what a stressful travel day! Love how your family took it all in stride. Definitely a hurry up and wait kind of day. Hopefully you rewarded yourselves with some Gideon's and a swim in the pool!

 

[vamassey1]

I'm joining in. Sounds like a great trip.

I love that you started with the Disney 100 exhibit. That's the way to kick off a trip.

Sorry your travel day was a little stressful but you handled it great.

 

[jrmint427]

Wow what a stressful travel day! Love how your family took it all in stride. Definitely a hurry up and wait kind of day. Hopefully you rewarded yourselves with some Gideon's and a swim in the pool!

Hurry up and wait is right! We were definitely rewarded for our day

I'm joining in. Sounds like a great trip.

I love that you started with the Disney 100 exhibit. That's the way to kick off a trip.

Sorry your travel day was a little stressful but you handled it great.

Thanks for joining in! It set a high bar for future starts to our trips!

 

[jrmint427]

Arrival at Art of Animation​

My parents texted at 1:30pm while we were in the Uber to let us know they got their room! This was exciting because check-in was not until 3:00pm, so any time before that was a bonus. I was also thrilled to see they got room 7622 (Building 7, Ursula), which was one of the exact rooms I had requested. My mom also texted me a picture of their TV. March 9th was their 44th wedding anniversary, and I let Disney know in advance. Their TV said Happy Anniversary! My parents were surprised to see that since they hadn’t told Disney or our travel agent. Here are my parents 44 years ago:



We had a nice Uber driver who slowed down when we entered WDW property so Pat could take some pictures.



We were at the resort by 1:40pm, it was only a 25-minute drive. Almost immediately after we checked in at the security gate and shared our name, I got a text that our room was ready. It didn’t list our room number yet, but we figured we were going to be near my parents, and our driver offered to drop us off at the Little Mermaid section.

As we were exiting the car, I pulled up the app, which showed the button to unlock your room, but it was still not listing a room number. Where the room number was supposed to be, it just said “---“.

My parents came out to greet us while I called Disney. We decided to drop our luggage in their room while we waited for our room number, so we could all head to a late lunch. It was almost 2:00pm and we were hungry!

I could not find a direct number to the resort, so I had to go through a few menus to reach a person, who then transferred me to someone else. We had been there for over 20 minutes when I finally got a person on the phone, and then they couldn’t find our reservation! They asked if I had a different last name. While they were searching, I tried the app again, and we finally had a room number listed! It was 7620, just two rooms down from my parents. I let the CM on the phone know that I had received my room number and quickly hung up.

We did a quick tour of the room. It was fun to watch the girls’ reactions! DD9 immediately went to play with Hey Disney when we first walked in.



Yes, the rooms are small, but it was a little more space than I was picturing based on some reviews. I really liked the night lights above the beds, it was convenient in the evenings. I loved so many of the details in this room, but I especially loved the shower.



As a 5-year-old kid I would have been in awe to shower in Ariel’s grotto!



There was a shower curtain separating the sink area from the bedroom, which was helpful in the mornings when I was getting ready before the rest of the family, but it was still bright when the light was on.



My parents were supposed to get 2 queen beds (so the girls could sleepover in their room), but they got one king bed instead. We thought about asking to switch rooms, but we were hoping that the room in between us (which connected to our room) would be my MIL’s, and decided not to ask for a different room so we could keep the three rooms together. We got confirmation while we were at lunch at 2:47pm, that my MIL had room 7621, right between my parents' room and ours, and connecting with our room! It was exactly what we had asked for.

I requested these rooms because 1/ This building was the closest Little Mermaid building to the Skyliner and not the furthest from the buses, 2/ It was close to the Little Mermaid pool, but we preferred to be on the side facing Hourglass Lake in hopes of having less noise from the pool, and 3/ We wanted to be close to the stairs & elevator but not right next to them. I couldn’t believe we got exactly what we asked for!

And for those following my pre-trip report, we were not able to see Ursula from our room But we did get a laugh when the girls would talk about Ursula's butt every time we walked out to the stairs. She is impressive!



It was after 2:00pm, and we had a dinner reservation coming up at 6:30pm, so we rushed off to find a late lunch at Landscape of Flavors. We stopped for a few photos along the way.




The elephant boneyard was my favorite scene!

 

[mickey916]

Just curious: How did you make your room requests? Did you do it directly through the resort or use the Touring Plans hotel reservation request service? I never seem to get my requests but I always do it through Touring Plans.

 

[Mollydolly334]

WOW your plane was huge on the way down!! I’ve never had a plane that big flying from Chicago to Orlando!! What airline did you fly??

LOVE the Little Mermaid room- I bet your girls just loved it!! Can’t wait to check out this resort in May

 

[jrmint427]

Just curious: How did you make your room requests? Did you do it directly through the resort or use the Touring Plans hotel reservation request service? I never seem to get my requests but I always do it through Touring Plans.

We actually made the room requests both ways this time. We told our TA we wanted to be in the Ursula section (building 7) with our rooms close together and preferably two of them in connecting rooms, and she put that request into Disney. Then maybe a week before our trip I used Touring Plans to make a more detailed request, asking for specific rooms that were close to the elevator and I think I asked for 2 on the backside facing away from the pool, thinking the connection was to the rooms that faced the pool, but I was wrong. They thankfully understood what I was going for and gave us 3 rooms in a row on the backside.

I think it was the Touring Plans request that came through because they gave us the rooms we wanted on the floor I asked for (2nd floor), and I don't think I had even made a floor request through our TA.

WOW your plane was huge on the way down!! I’ve never had a plane that big flying from Chicago to Orlando!! What airline did you fly??

LOVE the Little Mermaid room- I bet your girls just loved it!! Can’t wait to check out this resort in May

Yes it was! We had the same size plane on the way back too, it was United. Maybe they were larger because it was Spring Break and they were anticipating higher demand?

The girls loved the room as much as I did! It was such a cute resort, I would stay there again.

 

[madeline07]

It's the best feeling ever when your room is ready early! Glad you got the rooms you wanted, can't wait to read about the rest of your day.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Did you fly Southwest? I heard of so many delays and even cancelled flights lately with them. I’m glad you made up time in the air. I detest when they load you onto the plane and you sit on it for hours, ugh
Lately my room requests with TP have not worked at all, they had in the past. I have not got any of my requests the last several trips.
I’m a little worried about our BC room coming up in April! I hope we get what I requested or close to it.
Andi and I have stayed in the LM rooms years ago and we loved the theming!

 

[erinch]

Caroline,,how are you requesting? Phoning in? What number?

 

[Keladry84]

Great trip report so far! Getting all three room requests makes for a good start to the trip!

 

[jrmint427]

It's the best feeling ever when your room is ready early! Glad you got the rooms you wanted, can't wait to read about the rest of your day.

It really is! I kept telling everyone not to expect our rooms to be ready early, but it was so convenient that they were. I was also so grateful to get the rooms we had asked for!

Did you fly Southwest? I heard of so many delays and even cancelled flights lately with them. I’m glad you made up time in the air. I detest when they load you onto the plane and you sit on it for hours, ugh

No, United. I think it could have been worse if we had flown Southwest, I also read about others being cancelled, so I feel lucky that we only had a minor delay and were still able to travel that day. I get why they didn't tell us about the delay until we were all loaded, but it was also a little annoying that they clearly knew about it and just wanted us all on board before sharing.

Lately my room requests with TP have not worked at all, they had in the past. I have not got any of my requests the last several trips.
I’m a little worried about our BC room coming up in April! I hope we get what I requested or close to it.
Andi and I have stayed in the LM rooms years ago and we loved the theming!

I'm sorry to hear that! I feel like it can be hit or miss and wish I knew more about how the request system works. I hope you get what you ask for too! Do you typically request specific rooms?

Great trip report so far! Getting all three room requests makes for a good start to the trip!

Thank you! I felt incredibly lucky to the rooms we requested and to have been assigned three rooms right in a row so we could all be together!

 

[jrmint427]

Landscape of Flavors​

We hadn't used the dining plan since 2017, so it took us a few minutes to figure out what to order. We picked out our refillable mugs first (pink lid for DD7, turquoise lid for me and DD9 and orange for Pat). This ended up being the only day we used them because of how far away the food court was from our rooms, so not a ton of value there, but they made for a nice souvenir.

My parents weren’t too hungry, so they split the Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry. That wasn’t on the online menu. It came with broccoli, red pepper and onion with jasmine rice. They had already made some progress on it by the time I made it to the table to take a picture. This was the first meal of the trip; I hadn't (re-)trained my family on the need for pictures first just yet They both said it was good.



The girls both ordered the mac n’ cheese, which came with two sides ($6.99). We only took one side at first, but thankfully the cashier said they could pick a second, so they ran back to grab chocolate chip cookies as their second side. Since their meals came with drinks and they were also going to get a fountain lemonade with their refillable mug, we had them grab water bottles as their drink.



Pat ordered the Ceasar Salad with Chicken ($11.79) and a BodyArmor Sports Drink Strawberry Banana smoothie ($4.99).



His mom ordered a turkey sandwich and I think they split both the sandwich and salad. I was rushing to get pictures before everyone dug into their food, so apologies this one is blurry. I got better about food pics as the trip went on!



Pat’s mom said both the salad and sandwich were great. Pat sad the salad was just okay, he liked the turkey sandwich better.

I was planning to get the Korean-style Impossible Burger because that was the only plant-based option on the online menu, but I saw they were offering an Impossible meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans ($13.29). That sounded better in the moment. They asked if I wanted mushroom gravy, and I did.



The Impossible meatloaf wasn’t amazing (I thought it was better at Liberty Tree Tavern), but it was really good. I also liked the mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. I’m not a big fan of green beans in general, so I only tried one and then shared those with the rest of my family. Mine also came with a drink so I got a Truly Wild Berry hard seltzer ($10.75), since I was also getting a soda with my refillable mug. I would never usually spend that on a hard seltzer, but the drink was "free" with the meal plan.



I also had my eye on the I’m Nemo Cheesecake (classic cheesecake coated in a shimmering blue ‘ocean’ glaze with graham cracker ‘sand’ and a white chocolate nemo). It was super cute, so I used our first snack credit on this ($6.29). I was mostly aiming to use our snack credits on items that cost $6 and up.



I was glad the girls enjoyed this – I reminded them that fish are friends, not food!




I cut this into 6 pieces to share (my dad doesn’t like cheesecake) and let the girls split the chocolate Nemo. It was the perfect dessert, the cheesecake was really good!

I’ll do a detailed breakdown of the dining plan at the end of this trip report, but I’m also going to track along the way to show the value we got from it. A little spoiler for you – it would have cost us more out of pocket than what we paid for the plan! BUT, we also ordered a lot more snacks, dessert and alcoholic drinks than we would have if we were not on the plan, in order to get that value.

Refillable mugs (4): $93.68 (we would not have bought them if not for the plan; we only used them once!)

4 QS meals, 2 drinks + 1 snack credit: $65.06 with tax

 

[jrmint427]

Swimming / Settling In / Disney Springs​

We finished lunch at 3:06pm and walked back to the room. We decided at lunch that we would fit in a quick swim before Disney Springs, which meant we were going to risk the possibility of not getting Gideon’s cookies depending on how long the wait was that evening. As much as I was hoping for some cookies, the girls really wanted to swim, and I was excited for them to check out the Big Blue Pool.

We changed and were walking to the Nemo pool by 3:38pm. When we got there no one was in the pool. We weren't exactly sure why, but the pool area was still very crowded, so we figured they would let people back in the pool soon. The splash pad was open, so the girls went there first. It was fun and the water felt nice, so I played with them for a few minutes. My dad was sitting with our stuff, so I went to swap him. I had brought my book and was excited just to relax and read.



We were only planning to swim until 4:30pm, so after ten minutes, I went to talk to a lifeguard to find out if the pool was going to open again soon. He shared that the pool was closed for a *mess* and it would probably be another ten minutes before we could get in. He recommended we head back to the Little Mermaid pool since we were short on time, so that is what we did. I told him we were hoping to hear the music under the water in the Big Blue Pool, and he said they don’t play the music anymore! He wasn’t sure why, but I felt better about bailing after learning that.

The Little Mermaid pool was really crowded! There weren’t many chairs available. I wasn’t sure if that was just because the Nemo pool was closed or if it is normally this crowded on a Saturday.



I also thought I had read that all Disney pools are all heated, but this one definitely was not. Or maybe the heat just wasn’t working. The water was pretty cold, but it was a hot day, so it wasn’t too bad. The theming was really fun at this pool! Ariel was hanging out directly behind us.

We went back to the room around 4:30pm as planned to shower and get ready for dinner. I unpacked a bit, organizing clothes for the week in the three drawers. We almost forgot we ordered a Walmart grocery delivery for 3:00pm! We intended to pick up our groceries at the front desk while we were at lunch, but now we were rushing to get to Disney Springs and didn’t have time to go back. Pat called the front desk to ask if they could deliver the grocery order to our room while we were at dinner, and they said yes (they didn’t mention it on the phone, but I knew to expect the $6 charge for having our groceries delivered, and we left a tip, which was worth it to save us the time and hassle).

As a side note, this is what we ordered: bottled water, bottles of Gatorade, Cheez-Its, granola bars, Pop-tarts, apples, bananas, applesauce packets, liquid hand soap (we prefer it over the bar soap in the room), gallon size zip lock bags, and Epsom salt. This order came in handy throughout the week. The groceries waiting for us when we got back from dinner that night.



We left the room at 5:30pm to make a 5:41 Disney Springs bus that I saw coming on the app. The walk to and from the bus stop took us ~8 minutes, give or take some time depending on how tired we were. We arrived at Disney Springs at 6:00pm. I was surprised we didn’t have to go through security when we arrived. Is that because we were coming from a Disney resort?

It was pretty crowded, which we expected since this was a Saturday night and during Spring Break.



We went straight to Gideon’s, still determined to see if we could get in the VQ line. We guessed the line would be 2.5-3 hours. We weren’t sure we wanted to stay out that late since we were going to be rope dropping Epcot the next morning but thought we would at least check and give it a try. They had the VQ open, but the wait time was 3 hours and 10 minutes! I asked if they thought that was going to be accurate, and the guy said that it can vary, but he did think it was going to be at least a 3-hour wait. That was going to put us past 9pm just to get into the line to go inside. They did say there was no harm if we didn’t show up when called, so I went ahead and gave my name and number just in case. Would we get our cookies?

We headed straight for our dinner reservation at Jaleo after that. On our way, we saw an M&M pop-up booth that was handing out peanut butter M&Ms. We stopped to pick some up and took a picture in their booth.



We made it to Jaleo and I checked in at 6:18pm for our 6:30pm reservation. I had booked this one through Open Table more than 60 days in advance. I let them know we were celebrating my parents’ 44th anniversary that night.



We were sat in just a couple of minutes. My first picture was at the table 4 minutes after we had checked in. We had good luck at most restaurants this trip, we rarely waited more than a couple of minutes from the time we checked in.

 

[mickey916]

Hey! I just read that book too! A real page turner!

 

[suse66]

The seventh room was “Innoventions”, and we spent 6 minutes there. I love this quote from Marty Sklar, “Walt Disney had one foot in the past, because he loved the nostalgia… and one foot in the future, because he loved the technologies that enabled him to constantly create ‘new’ magic…” This is something I love about Disney, the mix of nostalgia and imagining the future.

Exactly!

There was a teacup for us to take a picture in, and a ship from Peter Pan behind that.

Love this picture!

We had to get our pictures with the replica of the Partners statue.

Awesome!

We finished eating around 8:45pm and got ready for bed. I want to say we were all asleep by 10pm or so. We needed to be up at 4:00am to catch the 5:00am shuttle to the airport for our 7:15am flight to MCO.

Nothing like trying to sleep before a Disney flight!

Once everyone was loaded onto the plane, they immediately announced that we were going to have a one-hour delay. They said we were going to taxi to a safe place to park for that hour. We were supposed to take off at 7:15am, but at 8:18am, they said it was going to be another hour. The people around us on the plane were surprisingly calm about this, maybe we were all in great moods because we were going to Disney? The pilots kept sounding optimistic, saying it was possible we could get out sooner, but then at 8:50am they said it was going to be another 30 minutes. The flight attendants were great and brought around snack and beverage service while we were parked during that second hour.

Oh no!

We made it to baggage claim at 1:00pm and… the belt was broken. We were all just going with the flow at this point, not stressing about the time (We Got No Troubles, Life is the Bubbles! We were almost going to be Under the Sea… in the Little Mermaid rooms).

Yikes! Good thing you had a positive attitude!

My parents texted at 1:30pm while we were in the Uber to let us know they got their room! This was exciting because check-in was not until 3:00pm, so any time before that was a bonus. I was also thrilled to see they got room 7622 (Building 7, Ursula), which was one of the exact rooms I had requested. My mom also texted me a picture of their TV. March 9th was their 44th wedding anniversary, and I let Disney know in advance. Their TV said Happy Anniversary! My parents were surprised to see that since they hadn’t told Disney or our travel agent. Here are my parents 44 years ago:

So sweet! You look so much like your Dad!

I requested these rooms because 1/ This building was the closest Little Mermaid building to the Skyliner and not the furthest from the buses, 2/ It was close to the Little Mermaid pool, but we preferred to be on the side facing Hourglass Lake in hopes of having less noise from the pool, and 3/ We wanted to be close to the stairs & elevator but not right next to them. I couldn’t believe we got exactly what we asked for!

Yay!

It was after 2:00pm, and we had a dinner reservation coming up at 6:30pm, so we rushed off to find a late lunch at Landscape of Flavors. We stopped for a few photos along the way.

Cute!

We changed and were walking to the Nemo pool by 3:38pm. When we got there no one was in the pool. We weren't exactly sure why, but the pool area was still very crowded, so we figured they would let people back in the pool soon. The splash pad was open, so the girls went there first. It was fun and the water felt nice, so I played with them for a few minutes. My dad was sitting with our stuff, so I went to swap him. I had brought my book and was excited just to relax and read.

Is there anything better than being poolside with a great book?

As a side note, this is what we ordered: bottled water, bottles of Gatorade, Cheez-Its, granola bars, Pop-tarts, apples, bananas, applesauce packets, liquid hand soap (we prefer it over the bar soap in the room), gallon size zip lock bags, and Epsom salt. This order came in handy throughout the week. The groceries waiting for us when we got back from dinner that night.

Nice! I always do a grocery order too.

We left the room at 5:30pm to make a 5:41 Disney Springs bus that I saw coming on the app. The walk to and from the bus stop took us ~8 minutes, give or take some time depending on how tired we were. We arrived at Disney Springs at 6:00pm. I was surprised we didn’t have to go through security when we arrived. Is that because we were coming from a Disney resort?

No security coming off the buses.... I don't know why?

We headed straight for our dinner reservation at Jaleo after that. On our way, we saw an M&M pop-up booth that was handing out peanut butter M&Ms. We stopped to pick some up and took a picture in their booth.

Cute!

 

[vamassey1]

You're very lucky to get your room requests. I've used TP and have only gotten close once.

Rooms looks super cute. We stayed in a Nemo suite in 2022 but never got a chance to look around the resort. We missed so much, just too busy going to the parks.

Dinner looks good too. You really worked the dinning plan to your advantage.

Looking forward to your dinner review. We have never eaten there, and I hope you made it into Gideon's.

 

[Suejacken]

Friday, March 8, 2024​

Travel Day 1 / Disney100 Exhibition​

Travel days are usually boring, but this one was a little less so! We now live about 3 hours from the Chicago airport, which was the cheapest option for us to fly to Orlando. We planned to work and go to school this day, then to drive to Chicago in the evening so we could fly out early the next morning.

A few weeks before our trip, we were watching the Disney 100 documentary on Disney+ and they mentioned that the Disney100 exhibition was going to be traveling the world, with a stop in Chicago. DD7 immediately asked if we could go to see it. I looked up the dates and saw it would still be in Chicago while we were there, but not much longer. Pat and I quickly decided to go for it, so I bought tickets for 6:00pm on the evening we were getting into Chicago (March 8th) before we even got up from the couch.

This meant that we were going to need to take the girls out of school a little early so we could get on the road and make our appointment for the exhibit. I initially requested a half day off work and then changed that to the full day off, but Pat worked most of the day. His mom stayed with us the night before since she was going to fly out with us, and it was helpful to have her with us while we were packing. My parents were driving from elsewhere in the Midwest to meet us in Orlando.

We had a few early mornings coming up so I was hoping to sleep in, but I woke up at 6:00am and was so excited, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was supposed to get my hair cut the prior weekend but after getting sick the week before that, I moved it to our travel day since I was already off work. I wrapped my hair appointment up just 15 minutes before I needed to pick the girls up from school!

We had about one more hour to finish packing, and we got on the road at 2:15pm, 15 minutes later than we had planned.

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We listened to a Disney playlist I had made based on the Art of Animation soundtrack and then a couple of podcasts about the Flower & Garden Festival, which helped us decide what food items we wanted to try there. It rained the entire way to Chicago. I had planned an extra hour for our drive just in case of Chicago traffic and thought we would still be fine with a 45-minute head start, but I was wrong! The expected arrival time kept ticking up well past our appointment time of 6:00pm. I tried to not stress too much, knowing we could still enter later, but the exhibit was closing at 7:30pm so every minute we were late was a minute we were going to miss out on the experience.

We thankfully made up some time (Google kept offering alternative routes) and arrived at 6:05pm, only a few minutes late. We ran to the restrooms and then started our tour!

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Just like WDW, there was a pre- pre-show room counting down to the next show to start our experience.

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Our guide informed us that we were the last family to be entering for the day, so we had the pre-show room all to ourselves. It was a fun room with sparkling lights, which got us even more excited.

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DD9 enjoyed having the space to do cartwheels! Especially after spending nearly 4 hours in the car.

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Our guide explained that there were going to be 10 rooms with different themes, and recommended we pace ourselves since we were going to have about an hour and 15 minutes to cover all 10. Quick math meant we were going to have 7-8 minutes per room. We could have used a lot more time to take it all in, as we had to rush through some rooms to ensure we had time for the whole exhibit.

I’ll share more details on the exhibit in the next couple of posts, feel free to skip if you plan to go yourself and don’t want to see spoilers (you can go to the table of contents in the post above to skip ahead once I have more posted).

Has anyone else been to the Disney100 Exhibit?

I went to the exhibit when it opened here in Philly. I loved it

 

[jrmint427]

Hey! I just read that book too! A real page turner!

Yes, it was! It was a really great thriller. I made more progress on it during our Disney trip than I expected to!

So sweet! You look so much like your Dad!

Aw, thanks, I get that a lot!

Is there anything better than being poolside with a great book?

It's one of my favorite ways to relax on vacation. This ended up being an excellent poolside read! (It may or may not have gotten a bit wet from the pool later in the trip...)

Nice! I always do a grocery order too.

Do you have certain things you always put in the grocery order?

You're very lucky to get your room requests. I've used TP and have only gotten close once.

I'm seeing we were very lucky! It doesn't sound like TP works out for most people. I'm starting to wonder if it was coincidence and these were the rooms slotted for us anyway!

Rooms looks super cute. We stayed in a Nemo suite in 2022 but never got a chance to look around the resort. We missed so much, just too busy going to the parks.

I'd love to stay in a suite. That's the challenge with Disney resorts, taking advantage of them when you spend so much time at the parks! We actually explored AoA more on our trip in 2022 when we came to check it out than on this trip. But it was a lot of awesome things to look at on the way to and from the Skyliner and the bus.

Dinner looks good too. You really worked the dinning plan to your advantage.

We tried!

I went to the exhibit when it opened here in Philly. I loved it

How cool! I'm so glad we learned about it ahead of our trip, it was really neat.