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

[jrmint427]

We took a rest every day and I think DD swam every day too! So frustrating about the room check or housekeeping. We never had an issue like that they always came back hours later if we were in the room at all!!

I'm sure your DD loved that! The kids always love hotel swimming pools best. I'm glad you never had an issue!

But argh on the room check! With my (hopefully?) napping child I hope they stick by my request to do our room checks in the morning/noon time. We plan to take daily afternoon breaks and I’d hate every nap to be interrupted by a room check. I would’ve been so frustrated with so many interruptions while trying to rest. Thank you for the reminder to throw the dead bolt!

I didn't even think about putting in a request! That is smart and I hope they honor your request. I'll definitely put in a request in advance next time if we plan any afternoon rest time. I should have had the dead bolt on too. It just never crossed my mind someone would actually just enter!

I don’t mind the fact that they check rooms - just don’t wake my sleeping child (or me!).

Exactly!

I keep hearing from people about the interrupting room checks. I guess I have just been lucky that they have never interrupted me. I did hear that you can talk to the front desk and schedule the room checks so maybe next time???

I didn't even think about doing that! But now that we know, we will definitely put in a request in the future for our room check to be in the morning.

Ive stayed at s bunch of different resorts at WDW, and the only time ive ever noticed or been around when they room checked was at AoA Lion King Suite and then it was twice in 1 week they caught me and we always do things basically the same, stopping back for refreshing/pool afternoons. Must be they didnt clean as often??

They didn't clean very often for us either, it wasn't every day but I couldn't figure out a pattern either.

Terrible luck with the room check. I've never been in the room when this was done but just because I said that I bet it happens to us.

I hope it doesn't! Other people had a good suggestion to talk to the front desk next time and schedule room checks for the morning for any days we plan to take a break. I will definitely do that next time.

What a frustrating experience with housekeeping/room checks! That would’ve irritated me, too. It shouldn’t require multiple times to understand “come back later.”

But yeah, I can definitely see how the Skyliner would make afternoon breaks easier! My family and I will definitely have to plan on another Skyliner resort the next time we go back!

Yes, it was the multiple times so close together that really got me! We will stay on a Skyliner resort next time too.

 

[jrmint427]

Real Life Update - Trip to Washington, D.C.

I don't do a ton of "real life" updates, but I'm realizing this trip report will take me awhile to get through (not just the writing, but the time spent editing photos!). So, I thought it would be fun to add this side trip in. I had a quick trip to Washington, D.C. this past week for work. We were in full day meetings for most of the time, but we got a little tourism in too as most of us were traveling from out of town.

This was as close as I got to the White House.




On our last day, we wrapped up a little early, so I went to the National Portrait Gallery with a couple of coworkers. I forgot that the museums in D.C. are free! It was really neat, we only had about an hour until dinner, but could have spent a lot more time there.



This portrait was intended to be viewed through the flash of a camera.



Dinner that night was right across the street at Zatinya, a José Andrés restaurant (who also created Jaleo). I felt the Disney connection and was excited when I realized where we were going! It felt very similar to Jaleo, except that it was Mediterranean tapas. Instead of the red vibe at Jaleo, everything was blue and white. I was thankful that almost all of the tapas ordered were vegetarian, so I was able to try a lot of different things.



After dinner we did a walking tour of the National Mall. We started at the Lincoln Memorial. It was under construction as they're building a museum underneath it.





Next, we went to the WWII Memorial.



This was the view of the Lincoln Memorial from the WWII Memorial:



We wrapped up at the Washington Monument.



It was a fun trip, but I missed my family and am glad to be home! Back to Disney content soon.

 

[jrmint427]

Hollywood Studios PhotoPass Pictures​

We were back in the park at 4:26pm and the Beauty & the Beast show we had come back for wasn’t starting until 5:00pm. I realized we hadn’t done the classic Hollywood Boulevard pictures yet that day, so we stopped for a photo shoot.



Grammas wore a Toy Story shirt with us in the morning, but had switched into her 1998 Mickey Fantasia shirt, which she got on a trip to WDW in 1998. We agreed this was a great option for our Fantasmic show that night. I had also put on my Maleficent earrings for the occasion. My parents were not into the themed shirts with the rest of us, but more or less agreed to color schemes each day.

We got a magic shot with our friend Olaf, who is one of DD9’s favorites, so she was really excited to see this one later on. DD7 looks so serious and was the only one not following our photographer’s instructions.



Our family of four was up next.



I loved some of the hugging pics a lot of the photographers suggested on this trip.



My favorite pictures are always the ones of just the girls.



We wrapped up and headed down Sunset Boulevard. It was 4:39pm, and we saw a PhotoPass photographer with no line, so I figured we had time for pictures with the Tower of Terror too.





I also asked for a picture with just me, Pat and his mom, since the three of us would be riding ToT together on our next HS park day. We have this same pic of the three of us from past trips, so I wanted to continue the tradition.



After torturing my family with too many pictures, it was time to head to the Beauty & the Beast show.

 

[jrmint427]

Beauty & the Beast​

We lined up for the show at 4:42pm. I was a little nervous since there was a long line just to get into the theater, but it moved quickly, and we were in our seats by 4:48pm. We had great seats, near the front on the left-hand side. This show is nostalgic for me, since it’s been running since my childhood. Looking back at pictures, I think we sat in similar seats when we saw it in 1995!



We also got to meet Belle on that trip.



I noticed this time that most of the chorus is not singing live. Only the main characters like Belle and Gaston had mics.






I felt bad she missed a lot of the show, but DD9 fell asleep on me early on. I thought about waking her but knew she probably needed the nap, so I let her sleep.




DD9 was bummed she missed the show, but I told her we could watch the video I took later.

We weren’t quite ready for dinner yet, but most of the shows had ended for the day. Ride lines were too long for us at this point. We decided to fit in a character meet next. Who do you think we were off to see?

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Your trip to D.C. looked fun - I’m glad you were able to get in some sight-seeing! I’d love to go back to D.C. in a few years when my girls are older.

I do enjoy the Beauty and the Beast show. You were killing it on the shows that day! It’s too bad your older daughter fell asleep - considering the noise, that pool girl must have been tired!

I’m guessing Olaf for your meet and greet… I know you’re Frozen fans, plus his line never tends to be too crazy.

 

[awrites]

Cool trip to DC! I’ve never been; need to fit it in sometime!

Very fun Photopass shots! It also looks like it was a fun time at the Beauty and the Beast show. Of course my daughter is much younger than yours, but I always let her sleep too if she happens to have a surprise nap! I also figure she needs it.

I’m guessing Olaf for the meet n greet!

 

[vamassey1]

Thanks for sharing your Washington DC trip. I've never been but it's on my wish list.

You're so lucky your family will stop for photos. I have such a hard time with DH and Danielle. She'll take some photos if she's looking really cute, otherwise no thank you. My other daughter Michelle is all about the photos. DH also won't follow the dress code.

Beauty and the Beast is another family favorite. I don't blame your daughter for catching some sleep while she can. Disney is very tiring. I noticed that Belle and Gaston where the only ones truly singing too. I was great to see the full cast performing again and the costumes looked new and brighter.

 

[suse66]

Overall, we all really enjoyed our food and the experience. It was fun to watch the movie clips (which cycled a few times while we were there, so the loop wasn’t very long, maybe 30 minutes or less?), and it was a unique way to enjoy a meal. My dad thought it was just okay, but the rest of us said we would go back.

DD7 said she didn’t like the movies because she thought it was going to be an actual movie, but it was just video clips, and most of them were “scary with monsters” but she does want to go back for the food. DD9 said she did like the movies. There were a few reviews that had me worried about the movie clips being too scary, but despite DD7’s assessment, they weren’t scary enough to make me wish we had skipped this. That said, if you have a younger child who is sensitive to scary content, I would look for a preview to decide if this is right for your family.

I like Sci Fi a lot but haven't been in years. It was always a must do for our boys on family trips. Maybe DH and I will go back there next spring break!

Did anyone check out the Northern Lights this weekend? We drove the girls out to a lookout point on Friday night where we could be away from any city lights. We couldn't see many colors with the naked eye (the sky looked only slightly red and purple at times) but we could see the light pillars as they moved. My iPhone camera picked up on more colors, it was really cool!

They were really stunning!

We left the park at 1:10pm, were on the Skyliner at 1:13pm with no wait, and in our room at 1:35pm. If you’re going to take an afternoon break, a Skyliner resort is the way to go!

Definitely!

I was super annoyed by the whole thing and frustrated that their multiple interruptions meant I did not get any sleep. I fully understand and support the reason for these safety checks, but there has to be a balance to respect privacy for 30-45 minutes, as it made me extremely uncomfortable that they entered the room while my child was undressed even after we had shouted through the door.

Oh my goodness, I would have been VERY unhappy about this! What a violation of your privacy! I get why they need to enter the rooms but please listen to what a guest is saying.

It was so easy to get to and from the park, I would absolutely plan another afternoon rest on an Epcot or HS day if we’re staying at a Skyliner resort. It was worth the short travel times (19-25 minutes) to get the 2.5-hour break at our resort. I would have preferred an actual nap, but it was also a lot of fun for the girls to have another swim day, which was one of their favorite parts of our trip. Getting a nap or rest in for the other adults probably helped with stamina that week too.

I love the ease of getting to and from Epcot or Studios when I was staying at CBR.

I don't do a ton of "real life" updates, but I'm realizing this trip report will take me awhile to get through (not just the writing, but the time spent editing photos!). So, I thought it would be fun to add this side trip in. I had a quick trip to Washington, D.C. this past week for work. We were in full day meetings for most of the time, but we got a little tourism in too as most of us were traveling from out of town.

I enjoy DC. We took our boys there for a spring break trip in 2014.

Next, we went to the WWII Memorial.

Beautiful photos!

I also asked for a picture with just me, Pat and his mom, since the three of us would be riding ToT together on our next HS park day. We have this same pic of the three of us from past trips, so I wanted to continue the tradition.

Love that tradition!

 

[SoloStitchGirl]

What a great trip! I'm planning on staying at Pop Century on my next trip, and the Skyliner definitely factored into that decision! What a great review of a Skyliner resort!

That housekeeping thing tho-- what a yikes! Did you have a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door?

 

[jrmint427]

Your trip to D.C. looked fun - I’m glad you were able to get in some sight-seeing! I’d love to go back to D.C. in a few years when my girls are older.

Thank you! I also want to go back with the girls are a little older, I'm wondering if 10 and 12 would be good ages to take them.

I do enjoy the Beauty and the Beast show. You were killing it on the shows that day! It’s too bad your older daughter fell asleep - considering the noise, that pool girl must have been tired!

We fit a lot in despite the crowds! I was a little sad she missed it, but figured the sleep was needed at that point.

I’m guessing Olaf for your meet and greet… I know you’re Frozen fans, plus his line never tends to be too crazy.

Great guess! Except his line was longer than normal this day. The spring break crowds increased wait times all around.

Cool trip to DC! I’ve never been; need to fit it in sometime!

Yes, I forgot how much there is to do there, I want to go back!

Very fun Photopass shots! It also looks like it was a fun time at the Beauty and the Beast show. Of course my daughter is much younger than yours, but I always let her sleep too if she happens to have a surprise nap! I also figure she needs it.

Thank you! I agree, our policy at Disney is to let the kids sleep whenever they need it. On past trips they could just nap in the stroller whenever they wanted, but this was one of the few times they fell asleep during the day this trip.

I’m guessing Olaf for the meet n greet!

Great guess!

You're so lucky your family will stop for photos. I have such a hard time with DH and Danielle. She'll take some photos if she's looking really cute, otherwise no thank you. My other daughter Michelle is all about the photos. DH also won't follow the dress code.

I know I am! I don't know if that will last as they get older, but they love having pictures taken at these ages. I'm also lucky that DH and his mom follow the dress code, my parents only semi-follow it haha. I guess I'll see if the kids are still into coordinating outfits as they get older.

Beauty and the Beast is another family favorite. I don't blame your daughter for catching some sleep while she can. Disney is very tiring. I noticed that Belle and Gaston where the only ones truly singing too. I was great to see the full cast performing again and the costumes looked new and brighter.

Me either! It's exhausting. This was the first time I noticed the ensemble wasn't actually singing, which is interesting.

I like Sci Fi a lot but haven't been in years. It was always a must do for our boys on family trips. Maybe DH and I will go back there next spring break!

You should look into it!

Oh my goodness, I would have been VERY unhappy about this! What a violation of your privacy! I get why they need to enter the rooms but please listen to what a guest is saying.

Ugh yes, it was a violation of privacy that just wasn't necessary.

I enjoy DC. We took our boys there for a spring break trip in 2014.

It is a great place to take kids! I can't wait to take mine.

What a great trip! I'm planning on staying at Pop Century on my next trip, and the Skyliner definitely factored into that decision! What a great review of a Skyliner resort!

Thank you for following along! DD9's favorite character is Stitch I hope you have a great time at Pop, we enjoyed the location but most especially the Skyliner!

That housekeeping thing tho-- what a yikes! Did you have a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door?

Ugh, they did not give us one to hang, which I realized after this incident. I wonder if they had those in other rooms? I did learn to keep the dead bolt on when we were not wanting to be disturbed after that.

 

[jrmint427]

Olaf​

As you all guessed, our next stop was to meet Olaf. The posted wait was 35 minutes, but TouringPlans said it would be 16 minutes. We were in line at 5:38pm and waited 25 minutes. I almost wished we had waited to use Genie+ to meet him on our next day, but we didn’t really have anything else to do at this time. We made it to the indoor line where we merged with the Genie+ line at 5:56pm (18 minutes) but waited another 7 minutes once inside.

Olaf was a really fun meet and ended up being DD9’s favorite meet.




I had put on my Olaf earrings and was excited to show him.



He loved them so much! This is where I wish we had an actual photographer rather than a camera box. Olaf gave me (or the earrings?) a big, loud smooch. It was very sweet, and the girls kept talking about it! But the camera didn’t catch that exact moment. I was glad he loved my earrings. Even though he can’t sign, it’s sweet that he was able to hold hands with the girls.





I don’t remember exactly what we talked about, but DD9 wanted me to tell him that he is her favorite character. Between that and my earrings, he was very sweet to us.

 

[jrmint427]

Woody’s Lunch Box​

We wrapped up with Olaf at 6:05pm and were ready for dinner. One of the girls’ few dining requests for this trip was to eat at Woody’s Lunch Box so I had planned that for dinner this evening. I think I tried to bring up Mobile Ordering while we were in line for Olaf, but I was having issues with the app. That happened a couple times on this trip before I finally got it to work later in the trip.

I think there was a line. I don’t remember exactly how long we waited, but we had our food about 27 minutes after we left Olaf. I was most excited to get the Plant-Based Totchos (“chili”, “cheese”, green onions, and corn chips served over potato barrels, $10.49).



They were just as good as I remembered. I didn’t think I was hungry enough to eat the whole thing, but I shared a little and ate most of it! I also got the Grown Ups Lemonade (cherry vodka, Minute Maid premium lemonade, and black cherry puree, $14). I have no idea how I missed a picture of that, but I did. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the lemonade and black cherry combination, but I loved it and would definitely order that drink again. Pat was wishing he had ordered one! This is an example of a time when I normally would not have ordered alcohol and only did so because it was included with my meal. I was thankful to be able to share it with others.

Pat ordered the smoked turkey sandwich with a side of tomato soup ($10.79) and a Diet Coke to drink ($4.49). Neither he nor his mom were very hungry, so they split that.



I think my parents split a turkey sandwich with potato barrels on the side.



The girls both had a grilled cheese sandwich with potato barrels and a cutie (orange), with Sprite to drink ($6.99 each).



We also ordered a Raspberry Pop Tart as a snack credit (Raspberry marmalade stuffed pastry coated in a strawberry fondant and crispy pearls, $4.79). They were out of the limited time option, which was a Lemon-Blueberry pop tart. I made a mental note to check back earlier in the day on our next HS day because I wanted to try that one.



All of the food was really good, and we took our time with the meal since we were just filling time until Fantasmic. While ordering dinner, my dad realized he had left his credit card at Sci-Fi earlier in the day. He and my mom ate quickly and then went to Sci-Fi to ask about the card.

They actually tried calling first, but couldn’t get through to the actual restaurant, and Disney couldn’t either, so the CM they spoke with told them to just go to the restaurant. When they got there, Sci-Fi said it was their policy for all items to be taken to guest services (lost and found) near the exit of the park. After all the walking the past two days, my parents didn’t want to walk to the front of the park unless their card was truly there, so Sci-Fi kindly called guest services to confirm they had the card, which they did. My parents then walked to the front of the park, showed ID, and my dad signed some papers to get it back.

Around 7:00pm my parents texted that they were heading to guest services at the front of the park for their card and asked where they should meet us afterwards. I said we’d head that way to meet them up there. I thought it would be a good opportunity to look for pin trading in the shops on the way to the front. We found one place to trade pins in a shop, and then my mom saw there was pin trading at guest services where they had picked up the credit card, so the girls traded pins there too. There was over an hour where I took no pictures, which is very unusual for me at Disney!

I think it was almost 7:30pm when we were finishing up the second pin trade, and realized we should probably go to find our Fantasmic seats (they weren’t going to be held after 8:00pm and the show started at 8:30pm). We also wanted to find bathrooms and ice cream before the show started.

We were in our Fantasmic seats at 7:40pm, very close to the front!

 

[bluecastle]

I am really enjoying your trip report! I only started it a few days ago and didn’t feel comfortable responding to posts from April.
Now that I’m caught up, maybe I will try the multi-quoting that everyone is so comfortable with.
It’s so wonderful to read trip reports with photos. I wrote a TR on a Disney group back in 2000 and didn’t have that option. So many words!! Haven’t written one since, but I find your report very inspiring. It is also very helpful. BTW, the WDW hotels do not have Do Not Disturb signs anymore. They stopped this when they instituted their “barging in” security protocol.
I especially love all your food and drink descriptions.
Thank you so much for the time and effort you are putting into this. I have a trip planned in November, so this is very helpful. My DGD will be 5 and it will be her 2nd trip. (We went when she was 3, the age of believing she was meeting the “real” Mickey Mouse!) I am looking forward to going through the Moana walk through with her. She loves water features! We spent a long time at the leaping fountains at Imagination last time. She made friends with some little boys and they really had a great time getting soaked and laughing and screaming. We are firm believers in leaving enough time in a trip for those kinds of moments.
Anyhow, thanks again!!

 

[awrites]

Love the Olaf meet! That’s a great story about the Olaf earrings, but yeah a real photographer would’ve been able/known to get a picture of that interaction! Still not a fan of the photo boxes, but I don’t see them going away.

Fabulous Woody’s Lunch Box review! I will definitely need to make sure my family hits it up the next time we go! The Pop Tarts always look so delicious.

 

[vamassey1]

He loved them so much! This is where I wish we had an actual photographer rather than a camera box. Olaf gave me (or the earrings?) a big, loud smooch. It was very sweet, and the girls kept talking about it! But the camera didn’t catch that exact moment. I was glad he loved my earrings. Even though he can’t sign, it’s sweet that he was able to hold hands with the girls.

You did get some good photos with the booth but the getting a photo of the smooch would be even better.

We also ordered a Raspberry Pop Tart as a snack credit (Raspberry marmalade stuffed pastry coated in a strawberry fondant and crispy pearls, $4.79).

This looks good.

They actually tried calling first, but couldn’t get through to the actual restaurant, and Disney couldn’t either, so the CM they spoke with told them to just go to the restaurant. When they got there, Sci-Fi said it was their policy for all items to be taken to guest services (lost and found) near the exit of the park. After all the walking the past two days, my parents didn’t want to walk to the front of the park unless their card was truly there, so Sci-Fi kindly called guest services to confirm they had the card, which they did. My parents then walked to the front of the park, showed ID, and my dad signed some papers to get it back.

I did the walk back and forth for a lost item before in Epcot, not fun. It was smart to call ahead to Guest Services first.

 

[jrmint427]

I am really enjoying your trip report! I only started it a few days ago and didn’t feel comfortable responding to posts from April.
Now that I’m caught up, maybe I will try the multi-quoting that everyone is so comfortable with.

Thank you for following along! It's never too late to post comments, I welcome them any time

Haven’t written one since, but I find your report very inspiring. It is also very helpful. BTW, the WDW hotels do not have Do Not Disturb signs anymore. They stopped this when they instituted their “barging in” security protocol.

Thank you! Oh that is good to know on the Do Not Disturb signs, that makes sense, I wasn't sure if our room was just missing one or not.

Thank you so much for the time and effort you are putting into this. I have a trip planned in November, so this is very helpful. My DGD will be 5 and it will be her 2nd trip. (We went when she was 3, the age of believing she was meeting the “real” Mickey Mouse!) I am looking forward to going through the Moana walk through with her.

That's so nice! I love writing trip reports, but also love this community, I learn so much from other trip reports too. Those are such magical ages for a Disney trip! We took both of our daughters right before they turned three too.

She made friends with some little boys and they really had a great time getting soaked and laughing and screaming. We are firm believers in leaving enough time in a trip for those kinds of moments.

Aww that is sweet! I agree with that too, it's easy to get into go-go-go mode at Disney, but important to slow down at times, especially when the kids find something entertaining or they want to explore more.

Love the Olaf meet! That’s a great story about the Olaf earrings, but yeah a real photographer would’ve been able/known to get a picture of that interaction! Still not a fan of the photo boxes, but I don’t see them going away.

Thank you! I agree, they've doubled down on the photo boxes so they're not going anywhere. It's better than nothing, but I do miss the photographers who catch those special moments in a meet.

Fabulous Woody’s Lunch Box review! I will definitely need to make sure my family hits it up the next time we go! The Pop Tarts always look so delicious.

Thank you! Yes, the pop tarts are the best

I did the walk back and forth for a lost item before in Epcot, not fun. It was smart to call ahead to Guest Services first.

Not fun at all, especially in a park as large as Epcot! Hope you were able to recover your item that time.

 

[jrmint427]

Fantasmic​

We arrived 50 minutes before show time, and the middle section that was saved for the Fantasmic Dining package was not very crowded yet. I noticed that most people were seated about halfway up the theater, with the first 5-10 rows still very open. I knew that was probably because you can get wet in the first several rows, but I might have forgotten to mention that to the rest of our group, and we grabbed seats in maybe the 4th or 5th row, right in the center of the theater. I thought that might be far enough to not get too wet, but I was wrong This was our amazing view:



Almost immediately after we sat down, I took the girls to the restroom in the back of the theater. When we got back, my parents went to find ice cream treats. I surprised myself by saying I didn’t want anything because I was too full, and I was the only one to skip out on ice cream that evening. My parents came back with treats at 8:05pm.






DD9 shared her Mickey bar with me, even offering a full ear! My mom got an ice cream sandwich and I took a few bites of hers too. I’m really not known for saying no to ice cream.

Around 8:20pm, 10 minutes before the show was about to start, a large group of kids sitting in the right side of the theater started the wave. It went all the way around and then the other side sent it back. And then it continued to go back and forth for probably a good 5+ minutes. It was an impressive wave! I found myself thinking, this is why I love Disney people. The crowd’s energy was great. At two minutes to show time, everyone had their cell phone flashlights out and waving.

The last time we saw Fantasmic was in 2019. I think it was closed during our 2022 trip. I really loved this new version that highlighted more of the Disney princesses. This solidified Fantasmic as my favorite night-time show. Our view couldn’t have been any better!





Mulan:



The Aladdin scene was one of my favorites, the stunts were impressive.



More pics in the next post!

 

[jrmint427]

Fantasmic, Part 2​

I hadn’t read about the new show in advance, so it was a pleasant surprise to see which princess stories were highlighted. Moana’s was really cool with the water features.



The pictures can’t do it justice, but we had a great view of the floats.





The only downside was that we got fairly wet. There was a lot of mist from the water, but it was thick enough and went long enough that I felt like we were getting very wet, even though it wasn’t water being directly sprayed at us. I shouted a quick apology down the line, and hoped no one was too upset about that. It was more water than I had expected. But we had such a great view!




Steamboat Willie was the best! I love the last scene where he brings out all the Disney characters together. It’s the perfect finale.

The show ended around 9:00pm. I suggested we sit awhile while the crowd cleared out. My memory of exiting this theater was standing for a long time while the line moved slowly. It was only day two, but my feet hurt already, and I wanted to limit standing time. We didn’t wait too long though, and we were ushered through a backstage exit area. The line did move slowly, and we made it back to the Skyliner at 9:21pm.

We waited 9 minutes to get on the Skyliner. The Skyliner line always seemed to move quickly no matter how long it was, and it was a much better experience than a bus where you might wait even longer and not be guaranteed a seat on the next bus that came. We were back to our resort at 9:42pm and back to our room at 9:50pm.

We broke into the Gideon’s cookies and cake for a few bites before bed. We tried the dark coffee cake cookie which is their coffee cake cookie with a chocolate base, served only in the evening, after sunset in fact.



It was really good, but even better saved for the next morning with coffee. I love the cinnamon-sugar crumbles on top. I also broke into the cake slice we bought. This is not a great picture, but it’s the only one I have.



This was the Coffee Toffee Double Frosted cake. I probably picked the wrong flavor, but I am not a convert to Gideon’s cakes just yet. This was good, but it was heavy on the coffee flavor and light on the toffee flavor (except in that frosting on the side), and I was hoping for more of a balance between the two. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to eat much of this cake before it became too hard to eat. The cake would have been better eaten fresh, but we were so full from other treats each day, much of this slice went to waste. The cookies lasted a lot longer. At the time of first drafting this, we had been home for two weeks and still had a lot of Gideon’s cookies cut up in our freezer. I enjoyed a bite or two of Gideon’s cookies each day and they still tasted just as good. I want to say they lasted until about a month after our trip.

I’m not sure what took us so long with bedtime; I probably set up another Epsom salt soak in the bathtub before bed. But my last note of the day was that it was 11:00pm before we were in bed, and at that time, only one of the kids had fallen asleep. We had one more early morning ahead of us!

Day 2 – Hollywood Studios Stats

Fitness Stats
Steps: 18,887
Miles: 7.52
Stand Hours: 17

Park/Crowd Stats
Crowd Prediction: 9/10
Crowd Actual: 10/10
4% of ride capacity unexpectedly offline

Ride/Genie+ Stats
Rides/Attractions/Shows: 9
Total time waiting in line: 133 minutes
Average wait time per ride/show: 16.6 minutes
Longest wait: 37 minutes to meet Goofy
Genie+: $32 per person (we didn’t buy)
ILL for RotR: $25 (we didn’t buy)

Dining Plan Running Total
$543.73 value vs. $1,746 paid

 

[disneyAndi14]

We loved Fantasmic this past trip. We got a fine mist spray and we were at least half way up in the center.
I’m glad your parents found there credit card.
The dreaded photo box pictures! Your pictures actually came out quite good with Olaf!
We love the vegetarian totchos and the raspberry pop tart at Woody’s lunchbox

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Fantasmic is my daughter’s favorite show. We watched it twice last trip. They also did the wave and chants both times we went. It’s such an amazing show.