Saturday Nov 2
You wouldn’t know it from the kids’ whining, but our flight, hotel checkin, dinner and pool time couldn’t have gone more smoothly. We’re across from my parents this year which is helpful. We also already have two character photos before even getting into the parks.
Sunday Nov 3
I may have been too ambitions with planning today. We did smugglers run and star tours twice each before my parents even got to the park. Used our lightning lanes for Mickey and Minnie, had lunch, used Swirling Saucers LL and saw the Muppets. By this point, Glenn wanted to go back to the hotel, but I still had three LLs including Rise of the Resistance, so we had to wait until then. Well, then half the ride broke down, so we were skipped to the storm trooper room which was really lame considering it really only works as an immersive experience. Plus, it was expensive. Then I ended up taking Glenn back to the hotel so he could go swimming while Owen, Bryan and my parents stayed and had dinner.
Monday Nov 4
Since we had LL reservations for Remmy and Frozen this week, we decided to rope drop Soarin’ which turned out to be a great idea since it’s Glenn’s second favorite ride now. Having him meet the height requirement for a bunch of new rides really helped this trip. We also did imagination and Moana’s water thing before my parents arrived. We did Nemo with them and Glenn played on the playground. We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons and then headed to Remmy. Glenn really liked the Ratatouille ride too. Of course, we went back to the room for swimming and then back to EPCOT for dinner at San Angel Inn. Probably the best meal of the trip. The dessert sounded meh to me, but it was delicious. Maybe even better than the pyramid thing. The park was unusually crowded, so note to self, don’t schedule an EPCOT day when Boys II Men are performing.
Tuesday Nov 5
Our first magic kingdom day. Glenn and I went on the People Mover while Bryan and Owen rope dropped Space Mountain. Another unusually crowded day, I guess because of Election Day. We did Carousel of Progress which is Glenn’s absolute favorite, which was my favorite at his age too. We met up with my parents for our Pirate and Haunted Mansion LL and then has lunch at Skipper. My parents and Glenn did Jungle Cruise while Bryan, Owen and I did Tiana’s Splash Mountain makeover. It was pretty good. We all headed to Mine Train for our last LL of the day before going back to the hotel for swimming.
Wednesday Nov 6
We got wet. Really, really wet. It wasn’t raining all day, but when it did, it was that super heavy, can’t escape getting soaked wet. But what was great was that it kept the crowds down at Animal Kingdom. We went on everything by the middle of the day and, you guessed it, still had time to go swimming before dinner at Beaches and Cream. I’m really glad Glenn got to play on the playground too.
Thursday Nov 7
We rope dropped Soarin’ again since Glenn loved it so much. We had time to kill before our first LL, so we did the green side of Mission Space which I hadn’t actually done before. There’s a playground where the ride lets out and Glenn did not want to leave, which as it turns out, was OK because Spaceship Earth was down. My parents stayed with him while we did Guardians. We had lunch at Norway and Glenn was really into the princesses which was a pleasant surprise. The food was OK, a far cry from what it used to be before the character dining. We did the Frozen ride after and then went back for Spaceship Earth which was clearly still having issues because it stopped a bunch of times. Then of course, back to the hotel for swimming.
Friday Nov 8
We started at Buzz Lightyear. The Magic Kingdom opened real early because it was a party day and it was way more empty than Tuesday. We did the speedway, tea cups, monsters inc laugh floor, barnstormer before our Tron LL. My parents took Glenn on the Carousel of Progress and then the People Mover opened again after been closed a couple days. We went on too and it we got stuck on it for a bit and then it was closed again once we were all off. Guess it wasn’t fixed after all. We had lunch at the Crystal Palace which always has pretty good food. Glenn loves the characters too. We did Peter Pan and had some time to kill before Small World so we did Enchanted Tales with Belle which turned out to be a good decision because Glenn was picked to be The Beast and it was adorable. We did Small World and then took the monorail over to EPCOT because Glenn decided he wanted to do Soarin’ again and I was able to get LL for it. At least we actually used our park hoppers once. And then, swimming.
Saturday Nov 9
Back to Hollywood studios for our last day where Rise of the Resistance and Rockin’ Rollercoaster were closed most of the morning. Owen wanted to do RR, so he and Bryan waited for Slinky instead and then I got them LL for it after then used their Slinky LL. Glenn and I did Smuggler’s and he was disappointed he couldn’t reach the buttons as an engineer. We met Mickey and saw the Frozen show. Met up with Grandma and Grandpa for Midway Mania. Did Star Tours a couple more times and had lunch at SciFi. Glenn was pretty grumpy, so we skipped alien ss and headed back for swimming while Bryan and Owen stayed. We went to the playground at the Swan before dinner. Some crazy lady was letting her kids play near the water past the ropes. I was debating saying something to her, but the woman next to us said she already did and she didn’t care. So we tattled on her to the employees at the bar because the one little girl was dipping her cup in the water. Even if there weren’t any animals in there, she easily could have fallen in. The employees took is very seriously and called security, by then the kid wasn’t in the water, but they want back later. Luckily the older woman with them had more sense and made the kids stay back. Anyway, dinner at Il Mulino took forever and Glenn didn’t wait, so I had to go back to the room with him before my food came and Bryan brought it back for me. It wasn’t very good anyway.
But overall, our best trip with Glenn. We did everything we wanted to do. Having our LL reserved before the trip and not having to do it while getting the kids ready or carrying Glenn in a line made it way less stressful. And no one got sick. Hurray!
