Post-Trip Report: Mariah’s Delightful DVC Split Stay (April 2026)

[00:00:11] Welcome back to Where I Long To Be, a Magical Trip Report Podcast. My name is Virginia and I am your host. Today I am welcoming back Mariah to the show. Mariah and her family, including her husband Matt and kids Hallie and Brooks, who are seven and three, were traveling from Kentucky to Walt Disney World for a DVC Split Stay. First they planned to stay at the Grand Floridian and then they moved over to the Riviera, their home DVC resort. That's all you really need to know to get caught up.

[00:00:41] But before we get started, I sat down with Hallie for a mini interview. Here's Hallie. Hi Hallie. Hello Virginia. How are you doing today? Good. Are you still buzzing from your trip? Yep. So I understand you have some things to report on from your trip. All right. What were you going to report on specifically? Was it about food? Was it about rides? What was it? About rides. Okay. All right. What did you want to tell me?

[00:01:11] That my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom was probably Goofy's Barnstormer. Okay. How many times do you think you rode it? One. You only rode it once? You should have gone back to do it again. But you can save that for next time, right? Yeah. It'll give you something to look forward to. All right. So let's go through the parks that you visited to find out your favorite in each. So that was your favorite in Magic Kingdom. But what was your favorite in Epcot? Soaring.

[00:01:41] Soaring. What is your favorite part of Soaring? When you first get lift up in the air. Mm-hmm. My favorite part is when you go over the beach and you can smell the smells. In Africa, I just smell dirt when I smell it. Mm-hmm. And grass. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. I love those smells. So much fun. You can buy candles that match some of those smells if you want to smell those smells in your home.

[00:02:11] That'd be cool. Yeah. So something to add to your wish list maybe for upcoming holidays and birthdays and things. All right. What about Hollywood Studios? Mickey's and Minnie's Run a Railway. Yes. That one is so good. Where did you get to sit when you rode that? Were you right behind Goofy or- I was in the front.

[00:02:34] Okay. In the front. All right. That ride is so much fun. What is your favorite room that the ride goes through? In the dancing room with Daisy. Of course. Do you like to waltz or to conga? Conga. Me too. I always dance along and it really embarrasses my son Alex when I do that. He's a teenager. He gets pretty easily embarrassed. All right. Last but not least, what about Animal Kingdom?

[00:03:02] Did you get to ride Flat of Passage? No. No. We were bummed about that. That's something we're going to do next time. Yeah. Next time. What did you get to do? We did the safari. Tell her about the animals we saw on the safari. We saw elephants, rhinos, giraffes, and lions. What were the lions doing? They were on this big tall rock. All cuddled up together. It was the cutest thing. Were they sleeping? Yeah.

[00:03:31] Oh, I love that. I've seen one yawn before and it's pretty cool because they open their mouth so big. Well, what are you looking forward to most the next time you go? Is it something that you've done before or are you most looking forward to getting to try something that you didn't get to do this time? I'm looking forward to going to a new hotel. Okay. Did you see one that interested you or you're just game for anything? I'm just game for anything.

[00:04:01] I'm just game for anything. But did you enjoy the hotels that you were at this time? Yep. Which one did you like better? Because you stayed in two. You stayed in Grand Floridian and you stayed in the Riviera. I liked the Grand Floridian because we had the prettiest views on the balcony. Yeah. Was it warm enough that you got to use the pool? Yep. Okay. I love that pool. It has the teapot, right? Yeah.

[00:04:26] Yeah. That's so much fun. And I like they have another pool too that's a little bit quieter and I like that pool as well. All right. Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you, Hallie. It's been a pleasure talking to you too, Virginia. I hope you'll come back again sometime soon. Thank you, Hallie. You're welcome. Welcome back, Maria. Thank you so much, Virginia. Oh my gosh. How was your trip overall? It was amazing. We had so much fun. We got to do so many new things.

[00:04:54] We repeated a couple of our favorites. We had a really, really good time. Mm-hmm. You had the dining plan this go around, right? We did. Okay. So overall, do you think you'd get it again? I think we would. I think we would. I did lots of math and crunched all the numbers. It took me a week to like put in all the things that we had eaten and what we would have paid if we had paid cash and then factoring in tax on that as well.

[00:05:23] And I crunched all the numbers and we definitely saved a lot of money. It's a lot more food than we would normally have eaten. So you kind of have to take that into consideration as well. Mm-hmm. And I think they ran another promo where the kids eat free. Mm-hmm . Our kiddos definitely enjoyed having the dining plan. They loved the snacks. It was so much fun. Mm-hmm . They got to pick their own snacks. I didn't have to tell them, no, you have to share this. We got two of everything. Mm-hmm .

[00:05:50] Which as a mom to multiples, it's like the best part of the trip was not having to say no to that. So that was really fun. Uh-huh. Yeah, you have to enjoy it while you can because as we all know, age 10 is considered to be a Disney adult. Yes. And that is going to be right around the corner before you know it because it goes by so fast. I know. I know. It was really, we had a good age ranges to make that promo really work for us.

[00:06:16] I think we were the perfect family to make the dining plan really advantageous cost wise and convenience wise. It's certainly not going to be the right choice for every family, but for us, we both enjoy a cocktail. We have two kiddos that are really good eaters and really like to try new things. So no brainer. Do you feel like based on the amount of food that you got that, I know you saved money, so there was that.

[00:06:39] But did you feel like there was a lot of food left on the table at the end of each meal or was it kind of like there's more here so we're going to eat more. Yeah, but there was more so we ate more but also we wouldn't have gotten those snacks like we are not big snack eaters usually. So we got a lot more snacks than we normally would have and we probably we probably ate more meals together than we normally would have.

[00:07:03] We probably would have like not eaten a big meal or we would have just gone back to the room and you know ate something at the room or something like that. But having it allowed us to sit down and have another big meal and we really enjoyed it. So we only left three snack credits. That's the only thing we didn't use up and I meant to use them up. I had saved them to get some cookies to go so that I could have them at home and I just completely forgot like we left the hotel.

[00:07:28] I was in the car on the way to the airport and I was like I forgot the banana bread and the cookies like oh no. I would have used up those snack credits but right yeah I don't feel like we left anything on the table but we probably ate more than we should have. I mean that's true of most Disney vacations usually by the end I'm kind of like okay I'm ready to get back to like my normal habits of eating because it's just it's a lot. All right let's get into all of the fun.

[00:07:54] So you left on Monday April the 6th and you flew down from Nashville. How was your flight? Our flight was really good. We woke up at 4 a.m. We set our alarms for 4 45 and Matt and I were both awake at 4 a.m. We were so excited like we just decided to go ahead and get up. Left the house at 5 20 and we were really worried about security. Last time we talked we didn't know what the TSA situation was going to be. I was hearing you know not good things and but we we were able to get right through.

[00:08:25] We did the drop your bags off outside at the outside terminal and then Matt went park the car so that was really easy and we were through security by 6 40. Not bad whatsoever. We did get a text that our flight was delayed an hour and 20 minutes as soon as we got through security. So then we were like oh we're really early. Our flight was supposed to leave at 8 50 and then it was saying it was going to be delayed until like 10 10. And then we decided well we'll just go get a good breakfast.

[00:08:55] We went to a restaurant and sat down to eat breakfast and we got a text that our flight was back on schedule. So which very lucky. When you get those texts that your flight is delayed you still got to be careful because sometimes it does get back on track and you do not want to be too far away from the airport. Now when we got that next text coming through I thought oh no it's going to be delayed more and I was very surprised. It was pleasantly surprised.

[00:09:20] All right once you once you landed in Orlando you were using a private transfer from We Drive You Fly and I cannot recall if you had used that on your last trip. So this was the first time. Okay. How was that? It was great. It was awesome. Our driver Victor was texting me all throughout the day. He also noticed that our flight was delayed that morning and had messaged me and said okay is your flight still delayed? Are you back on schedule? I can't really tell.

[00:09:49] It actually got delayed again while we were boarding. We got a message that our flight was delayed until 4 10 p.m. So he messaged me like are you going to and I was like we are in the plane about to take off. I think we're going to be okay. So I don't know what was going on but he was very prompt and messaging us. And was so nice. He's a fun personality. Him and Matt were talking like the whole ride to the Grand Floridian. He was so nice. Helped us with our bags. Was a great really great experience.

[00:10:18] And the way back we had a different driver. Was also a good experience. We would definitely use them again. So what time did you actually end up pulling up to the Grand Floridian? Let's see. We got to baggage claim around 12 and we're in our car and on the road at 12 14. And we arrived to the Grand Floridian at 12 45. Okay. That's perfect. That's exactly what I would expect. It sounds like there was barely any traffic. No. All right.

[00:10:46] You had dinner that night at Wailulu Grill planned for the first time. But it sounds like you had plenty of time to do some other things. So what did you do with your time? Yeah. We dropped our bags off with valet and went to the gift shop to do our first little gift shop shopping. Brooks. This is his first trip where he's three. So now he needs a magic band. So it was like a really fun thing where we all got around Brooks while he picked out his magic band. And nobody was surprised. He picked out Spider-Man.

[00:11:15] So that was his magic band he picked out. And then we headed to the pool. And we... You know when you first get to a hotel that you've never been before. You kind of don't know where anything is. And we kind of just walked around trying to decide like what should we do? Should we try to go to the pool? Should we try not to? And no one is surprised that Matt found the lobby bar right off the bat. The perch. And he was like well while you figure out what we're going to do I'm going to get a drink. So he got a French... It was a Floridian 75.

[00:11:44] It's like a French 75. Right. And chatted it up with a bartender and really enjoyed the lobby bar. He really enjoyed that. He said that was one of the best drinks he got all trip. Oh wow. But then we did decide to go to the pool. We went to the beach pool. And it was crowded. It was really crowded. Of course at this time it's like 2 o'clock in the afternoon. So peak time the weather was really nice out. So we had trouble finding a spot to sit. We ended up walking around a couple of laps through.

[00:12:12] And then we found a spot that was actually a table with chairs. Which is perfect because we were hungry. We were ready to get some lunch. And so I checked the app. And our dining plan was already loaded ready to go. So we did the beach pool bar. With our first quick service credits. That was exciting. I got a banana cabana to drink. Which was really good. Kids got cheeseburgers. We got salads. That type of stuff. The kids swam. Hallie did the water slide for the first time.

[00:12:40] She really enjoyed the water slide. And she was like mom you gotta come down it. So then I did the water slide with her. And it was really fun. We both really enjoyed it. The last time we went Hallie was not about any water slides. So that was really fun to get to do that together. It started to clear out. And then the clouds started to come in. And we still hadn't gotten a text that our room was ready. And I wanted to mention this. That you know normally when you like check in. We did the mobile like online check in.

[00:13:09] So we were just kind of waiting for that text to let us know. We usually get a text that's like we see that you're here. Your room's not ready. It's still getting pixie dusted or whatever they say. We'll let you know when it's ready. And I had never gotten that text. And I thought you know what? I bet I don't have my location services turned back on for Disney. And I went to the check in just to check in. They were like oh yeah we didn't realize that you were here. Let me check the status of your room. And then I turned my location services back on for Disney.

[00:13:38] And we got a text within 20 minutes that our room was ready. So just a tip. If you're going to get there early and want to try to get your room early. Turn your location services on so they know that you're there. Yeah see I have the opposite issue where I will get notices from my phone. That's like Disney's been tracking your location for 180 days. Would you like to continue? And I'm like yeah they know where I am anyway. I had never turned them off intentionally. I didn't realize I didn't know where I was.

[00:14:08] But apparently sometime in the past year I had. But that was fine. We got a text around like 3 30 that our room was ready. So we got up to the room around 4. And this was a preferred view room. So tell me which building you were in. And what was your view of? Yeah so we got building 9. Which is Big Pine Key. 3rd floor. Our room number was 9313. And it was beautiful.

[00:14:36] It had a room of you overlooking the water. We could see the Polynesian Tower and the Pauly building. It was a great view. Really really pretty. Yeah I love Big Pine Key. Yeah the room was gorgeous. The resort is just so pretty. I mean the flowers were everywhere. It's so green. We were really impressed with the resort itself. How pretty it was. And the vibe. And we really enjoyed it. And I bet the layout worked really well for your family.

[00:15:05] Because those rooms are pretty spacious. Yes yes the room was great layout. This was a. Now I can't remember if it was a resort or deluxe. I know there's a difference with the DVC rooms. Of whether you get the resort studio. Or a deluxe studio. But this was one where it was two queen beds. Not one that pulls down. Which is good for us. Because we you know. We're going to need all the beds anyway. So we're going to keep it down. And it was you know. That was totally fine. It was really pretty. And it had one bathroom.

[00:15:35] With one area. One shower. So that worked. That worked well for us. Everything in Big Pine Key. I believe our resort rooms. Which all have that second bed. And I'm trying to remember. I know that in addition to that second bed. You also have the couch there. And I think the couch pulls out too. It does. So yeah. We didn't end up needing that. Yeah. Like but if you have two slightly older kids. That you want to be able to give their own sleeping space. That's nice. For us when we stayed there. It was nice.

[00:16:05] Because you know. Having easy access to the couch. To be able to sit on. In addition to a bed. That you don't have to keep putting up and down. I like. Now you trade off with that. Because it does not have. The traditional kitchenette. That a normal deluxe studio does. Right. So it's just kind of like a coffee maker. And a beverage cooler. And that's it. Yes. But you know. It's fine. Especially if you're only staying there. Night I believe. Or two nights at the most.

[00:16:35] And that is one of the reasons we decided. Not to do. Any grocery deliveries. Or anything like that. Because I knew I was only going to have a beverage cooler. So we didn't need to get milk or yogurt. Things like that. Which was fine. We had so much food with the dining plan. We didn't need to do anything in the room. Right. Yeah. Exactly. And probably so many snack credits. That like. It's not a very good use of a snack credit. But had you wanted like. Mm-hmm. A water or whatever. You can certainly use your snack credits for that.

[00:17:05] Right. Yep. All right. Okay. After you got settled in the room. What did you do next? Let's see. We showered. And got ready for dinner. We were planning to walk over to Pauley Tower. We were trying to figure out. Would it be better? Well. It started pouring raining. During this time. So we had planned to walk. But we were like. Ooh. We're going to get soaked. Trying to walk over there. Should we take the monorail? But we were going to have to walk from the monorail station at the Pauley. To the Pauley Tower.

[00:17:35] Or either. So we're trying to decide. What's the shorter distance? We ended up just deciding to walk from our room. To the Pauley Tower. Since Big Pine Key is kind of on that side. We walked through some of the buildings. And the overhangs as much as possible. But we got pretty wet. We had good use of our ponchos. For this trip. For sure. So the Pauley Tower was really pretty. I really enjoyed that. And we hung out in the lobby. Waiting for our table to be ready. At first. They walked us outside. And asked us to sit outside.

[00:18:05] And we were like. It is pouring. Sideways. At this point. So it's like coming in on the table. It was very cold. It was 50 degrees. And we were like. Is there any way we could sit inside? We will wait. I know that you all had probably a lot more people than tables inside. We're willing to wait if you want us to. And they're like. Oh yeah. No problem. We waited about 10 more minutes. And then we're able to sit inside. Right at a table next to the window. Which was much appreciated. Mm-hmm. And how did you like the meal here?

[00:18:35] We loved it. It was so good. I think it was one of my favorite meals. We had all week. Mm-hmm. The food was really good. We got pog juice. And Matt got an espresso martini. I got a Mai Tai. The food was really good. The short rib was phenomenal. I got the burger and sweet potato fries. Which were really good. Both the kids really enjoyed their meals. And they got. For one of their sides. They got a Dole Whip that had fruit.

[00:19:03] And little Mickey candies on it. And flowers. And Brooks talked about the ice cream with the flowers. Like all trip. He just thought that was so cool. That's so sweet. Now did it time out to be with the fireworks? Like you were hoping. It did. And it would have. But it was so cold and raining. We decided just to go on back to the room. So we kind of saw some of the fireworks on our walk back to the room.

[00:19:31] But it was a pretty cold, dreary walk back to the room. And we had not really. I had not really packed and planned for it to be cold while we were in Florida. When I looked at the weather, I was thinking, you know, like lows 65, high in the 80s. I packed one jacket for everybody. I did pack everyone a rain jacket. So I was wearing like a short sleeve dress to go to Wailulu.

[00:19:55] And it was we quickly had to reconfigure what we wore each day based on what we thought we were going to wear each day. Were purchases made of slightly warmer things? Purchases were made. Yes. Souvenirs were purchased. I got a really nice jacket. It has the Riviera on the back of it. I really like it, though. Hashtag worth it. Yes. Yes. All right. Let's get into Tuesday, April the 7th.

[00:20:25] This was a Magic Kingdom day. And the first thing I noted was that you were hoping to maybe get a preview for Buzz Lightyear opening a little bit early. So did that happen? It did. It did. Yay! Oh, yay. We were so excited. We were so excited. Yes. Yes, we did. We woke up and we had decided that we are usually a rope drop family. We will rope drop every single day.

[00:20:54] And Matt's one request this trip was, could we try to not be so stressful in our rope drop strategy? I know we like to get to the parks early, but does it have to be right at rope drop? We are just going to get the lightning lanes and maybe we don't have to do the stressful rope drop. So we slept in almost every morning and did not do the traditional rope drop that we normally do. So I was very proud of ourselves. So this morning we slept in until 7.30 and left the room.

[00:21:22] And we walked outside and realized that it was 65 degrees and raining. And we immediately turned back around to go get our jackets. I just was not prepared for the chill of the rain to be so substantial. I thought ponchos would be fine, but no, we actually needed real jackets. And we got in line for the monorail, hopped on at 8.13. And this was our first time figuring out where the monorail was at the Grand Floridian.

[00:21:51] I had read that the monorail from the Grand Floridian can be a little tricky in the mornings. If it's really full, there may not be a lot of spaces for people to get on to go to Magic Kingdom. But we didn't have any of that experience and it was a busy week. So we were really glad for that. We walked in and it was around 8.20. Early entry this day was 7.30. So we weren't even there like an hour after early entry had opened. And we went to Starbucks first.

[00:22:19] I took some pictures in front of the castle with the kids while Matt got our Starbucks ordered. Because it was chilly, so we wanted some hot coffee for that. And I did not think that it was crowded at all. I know I was really worried about, you hear these horror stories of spring break week, of Easter week. It's going to be 10 out of 10 crowds. And I don't know if it was the rain or what, but Main Street was not crowded. I got really good pictures in front of the castle with very few people in it. So we were really pleasantly surprised for sure.

[00:22:47] The crowd showed up eventually, but not that early in the morning. Yeah. So our first ride was Little Mermaid. And then we walked over to Barnstormer. And Brooks walked up to see if he was tall enough. And he was tall enough. So we were all excited. There was no line. It had actually just come back up. So we had been watching it go around without anyone on it, which let me know that they were testing it. And I was like, okay, let's head over there and we'll try to get on it before there's any line.

[00:23:15] Hallie got a little nervous right before we went to get on. And I think seeing her three-year-old little brother be like really excited to get on it. She was like, okay, if he can do it, I can do it. So I rode with Brooks and Matt and Hallie rode right behind us. And we all really loved that. That was my first time on Barnstormer. It was really fun. It's so quick, but it's really fun. Brooks thought it was really cute and he enjoyed it and he was very brave. So I was very proud of him. And then we headed over to Dumbo. That was our first lightning lane at 920.

[00:23:44] Scanned into that. So then I could start booking. And I really wanted to try to get buzz. So I kept like looking to see if it was open or what was going on. It wasn't showing open. It was like no lightning lane available, no standby wait, you know, still not available. But I had heard that it possibly would be opening up that day. So I kept checking and we decided to go over and do the carousel, which was a 20 minute wait and picked out our horses and enjoyed that.

[00:24:12] And then walked over and did Mickey PhilharMagic, which is one of our favorite shows. It's just so fun. Oh, me too. Just watching the kids like reach out, trying to grab the gems or grab Donald who's jumping out at them was just, that was really cute. Really, really enjoyed that. We did a bathroom break and then it started raining right as we got in line for Enchanted Tales with Belle. That starts at 1030 and we have done this. This will be our third trip while we've tried to rope drop Enchanted Tales with Belle.

[00:24:41] And we were successful this time. I was very glad we were actually able to do it. They started letting us in the queue at 1040 and it really started to pick up the rain right as we got under the cover. So that was good timing. We got to wait in the cover area. And as we were waiting, I was just scrolling and scrolling, trying to get another lightning lane. And I saw a Buzz Lightyear lightning lane pop up and I was like, oh my gosh. And I grabbed it immediately.

[00:25:09] And like I had been on the app for an hour trying to find it. And I got a return time of 530 to 630 p.m. So I was really, really excited. I started like jumping up and down in the lane, you know, in the lane. And everybody's like looking at me like, what are you doing? So then we went in and did Enchanted Tales with Belle, which is such a cute little show. We really enjoyed that. Hallie got chosen to be Mrs. Potts and Brooks was a shalt shaker.

[00:25:36] And then Hallie got a little nervous and she decided, I don't know that I want to be a peer. So Brooks happily took Mrs. Potts and the salt shaker. Oh, wow. He was just a star of the show. He was so cute up there. We had a really good time. Really, really enjoyed that. And that's a long, I mean, it's a good long 30 minute interaction with the characters. And it was really fun. I feel like that's a really good way to spend some time.

[00:26:02] I think sometimes that experience is a little underrated because it is, you know, a good long experience. You get to see Belle. The kids get to participate. Some of the adults get to participate. And it's just super cool. Like the magic that happens with the mirror and everything. It's just amazing. And I love the Lumiere animatronics. It's so cool. That was really, really cool.

[00:26:32] And I had not seen any spoilers. So I don't want to spoil it. But the very beginning part where they just have you in this room, even that part was really fun. I really enjoyed it a lot. It lived up to my expectations of three years trying to do this. I was glad we finally got to. Yeah, I would say if you have never done it before, make a point to do it. And don't just think, oh, it's a thing for kids and they get up and whatever. Like I've been in there on my solo trip. I've gone in there.

[00:26:58] And it's just fun to stand back and watch and enjoy how much fun everybody's having. And so it's definitely something that I would add to your list if you've never done it in particular. For sure. After that, we decided we were a little hungry. So we did a mobile order for Cosmic Rays, trying to find somewhere to get inside from the rain and the cold. And we got some chicken strips. And I got the chicken bacon ranch salad, which was really good. That was our first time eating inside Cosmic Rays. We got to see the sunny eclipse.

[00:27:28] Sunny eclipse. Yeah. Yeah. And we sat in that area. So that was fun. Hallie, we walked in and Hallie was like, there's a smell. And I was like, yes, it's known for the smell. Spot on. She's like, can we sit outside? I was like, it's boring. No, we're not sitting outside. So that was funny. I thought that was funny. Only Hallie would notice those things. So after that, we got in line for the people mover, which is another first thing that we've never done before. And that was one of the highlights of the trip.

[00:27:58] We ended up doing it again. I think this is the only attraction that we ended up repeating during the week. So that was really fun. It was a posted 25-minute wait I wrote down. We were in line at 11.57 and on at 12.05. So it wasn't even 10 minutes actual wait. No. Yeah. Well, now that you know that you enjoy it, the next time you do it, do it at a low wait time. You got to do the fingers then to indicate you'd like to go around a second time.

[00:28:27] I told Matt that. I was like, if it wasn't so crowded, we could do it again. Virginia's told me the trick. I always do it with a questioning face. Like, I'll look at the cast member like... Politely. Like, hmm, maybe. Can I? Yeah. Yeah. So that was really fun. We really, really enjoyed that part. And then we got in line for Pooh for our lightning lane. The standby was posted at 55 minutes. So the crowds had officially arrived by this point. This was around noon.

[00:28:56] So we had just a less than 10-minute wait in the lightning lane. So very, very grateful for that lightning lane. When we booked into that one, I had booked a Pirates for 8 p.m. for that. And we did a 1 p.m. snack break. We went to Storybook Treats and used some of our snack credits there, which was a really good value. Hallie got the Aurora Cone. And Brooks got the Rapunzel Sundae because he just loves ice cream with flowers. So he saw that and he was like, yes, that's for me.

[00:29:25] And I didn't have to feel sad that they only ate two bites each before they decided they were done with it. I, you know, didn't feel like I was wasting $8 on it. They really enjoyed it. And their two bites were worth that. So that was good. And then we decided we were probably ready for a break at that point. So we went back to the monorail. We took the monorail back to the resort around 1.20 and we're off at 1.40 back in the room for a nap. Brooks has decided that he does not need a nap anymore.

[00:29:54] Thank you very much. He's a big boy and does not need to fall asleep. But I really still like a nap. So the kids laid down and rested. We turned on a show and I fell asleep. But no one else did. We woke up around 4.30 and decided to walk around the resort and explore the resort a little bit. And the lobby is just so nice. We walked into the lobby and Hallie's really into photography. She got a digital camera for her birthday.

[00:30:23] And so she brought that with her and she was taking pictures of everything. And the piano player was playing the piano. And Matt went and got a drink at the lobby bar. So that was a really, really nice time to just spend some time in the lobby. Brooks went and got some souvenirs. He got a little set of cars from the movie Cars. And it was really fun. So he put those all in a baggie. And he carried that little baggie of cars around with him all week.

[00:30:52] We called him his emotional support cars because he just like had them with them everywhere we went. But it was such a good souvenir. Like he just whipped one out and would play with Lightning McQueen on the couch at the Grand Floridian while Matt and I enjoyed a cocktail. And Hallie took some pictures. So we really had a good time. Win-win. Absolutely. We tried to get at least one souvenir early in the week that they can kind of play with at restaurants. The novelty of it. And that was really good.

[00:31:18] And then we went up to take pictures in that little area where Cinderella's Slipper is. And they have a nice photography area with the photo pass. So that was good. We got some pictures. Brooks held up a little knight's sword. And Hallie got to take pictures with the Slipper. And it was a really, really cute little area. And then we had our 1900 Park Fair dinner. So we went back downstairs for that. This is a really great example of eating where you are staying.

[00:31:46] Because it's pouring outside still. But we're all under cover. We didn't have to go anywhere else. So that was really nice. This is our first time at 1900 Park Fair. And it was really nice. I thought the room was beautiful. The pictures on the wall and the room setup was really nice. Our waitress was really nice. She gave me a great recommendation for a drink. I got the pomegranate something. But it was my favorite drink all week long. It was really good.

[00:32:15] But our favorite experience was we got to meet several new characters. So we got to meet Mirabelle and Aladdin, which we had never gotten to meet before. So that was really fun. And let me tell you, Aladdin was so fun. He was such a great storyteller and asked really funny questions. And he, the girl, when we sat down, you have a little card and you get to write a wish on the card. So he had asked Hallie, all right, what'd you wish for? And Hallie had wished for a puppy.

[00:32:44] And he said, you want a puppy? And she said, yeah, but my dad doesn't want a puppy. And Matt's sitting next to Hallie. And Aladdin puts his arm around Hallie, looks around her and looks at Matt and goes, all right, Dad, what have we got to do to get this girl a puppy? So they had this whole conversation about why Matt didn't want a puppy. And by the end of it, Matt agreed to a puppy. So now, because of Aladdin, the Durham's are going to get a puppy soon. Oh, my goodness. I did not expect it to be going in that direction.

[00:33:15] No, no. I feel like you might be obligated to name this puppy something after the movie Aladdin. A boo or... Oh, that's a great idea. I don't know. Yeah. Genie or... I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. We'll definitely have to do something like that. I really enjoyed the Aladdin experience. That was one of my favorite things of the trip, for sure. What time did you say your Buzz Lightyear, Lightning Lane was for? Yeah, exactly. So dinner was at 520.

[00:33:44] Buzz was at 530 to 630. Okay. And it's a buffet. So it doesn't take a very long time. But I was like, I am not missing this Buzz Lightyear Lane. I know they have a grace period, but I'm not about to risk that. So we were finished at around six. And I think they do a wish ceremony or something. So we kind of waited for a few minutes, but that wasn't happening. So I was like, we got to go. The kids don't... They didn't know anything about it. So they weren't waiting for that.

[00:34:14] But we decided to go ahead and wrap it up. I want to mention that this is only worth one table service credit. So this is a really good value because they give you the actual bill. So they show you like what it would have cost. And I think Matt almost had a heart attack at the table when he saw the bill. He was like, this is what? I was like, we're not actually paying that. It was going to be $270 for the family of four of us. So this is our first time having to pay for Brooks as the three-year-old as an actual child,

[00:34:41] even though he only ate the strawberry soup. That's all he consumed, the whole meal. So we were very grateful for the dining plan this dinner for sure. I feel like... I don't know. It's never worked for me, but I'm sitting here. My wheels are turning and I'm like, should I go back and do some math now that I have a teenage son that eats as much as he does? Yes.

[00:35:06] Like, perhaps it would work in my favor because even if I'm not going to eat as much, he certainly can consume as much as it's... And then you could drink his drink allotment as well. So then you get two cocktails. That's true. All right. I'm going to have to noodle on this. We'll see. But we did make it back in time to Magic Kingdom to Buzz. The monorail is very nice, very quick. And so we scanned into Buzz at 640.

[00:35:33] So we were like five minutes late, but it turned me no problems whatsoever. The standby, I noticed, was over 60 minutes all day long. When they finally opened up the queue, that was around 10.30, 10.45 is when they opened up the ride for the day. The wait stayed at 60 minutes all day long. Yeah. That's... You know, people want to try the new version to see how it is. So what did you think about the upgrades? We loved it.

[00:36:02] I could immediately, when we first walked in the first room, just the visuals on the wall are so bright and new. You could definitely tell. And the ride vehicle was really fun. I loved that. I loved being able to hold the shooter in your hand. That was really good. And we really enjoyed it. Loved the new animatronics. Brooks loved it. He was so proud. I think he only got like a thousand points. But we're not going to tell him that. But he was really excited.

[00:36:28] Matt does want it known that he won with over 500,000 points. He got like galactic something or another in the car. He was very proud of himself. Okay. But we had a good time. Yeah. I rode... I think the one in Disneyland, it already has these upgrades. I think it's basically exactly the same. And I really liked being able to tell much more easily if I was making the targets or not. It was just much easier.

[00:36:54] But that being said, I felt like there were some differences in like what was worth whatever. And so I did not score as well as I would have hoped when I was over there. So I need to redeem myself when I'm back in Disney World. For sure. After that, Matt had a single pass for Tron. So it was kind of good that we were going to go back over in that area anyway. So we rode Buzz together as a family. And then Matt split off to do Tron.

[00:37:23] That was his first time getting to do Tron. That was his one thing he wanted to do on this trip. And he really enjoyed it. He said it was really fast, really fun. Wish it had lasted a little bit longer. But he was really glad that he got to do that. And then I took the kids back on the PeopleMover again. So that's what we did. My dad was overdoing that. And Space Mountain was down. So the lights were on. So we actually got to see that when we rode through.

[00:37:51] And I was like, why do people willingly get on this ride? Like people will choose to do this. I cannot. I don't understand. I'm telling you. But it was cool to see. I have ridden it in the light before where we had a situation where it was like we went up the hill. And I could tell based on how the lighting was. I was like, I think the lights are on. I think the lights are on. Oh my God. And so we went in and we rode it. And I've said this before. I'll say it again.

[00:38:17] I know it is not physically possible for me to like get my arms cut off if I raised to them. There is no way you're going to convince me to ever raise my arms on that ride. It just looks too close. And it's even scarier with the lights on. But that was cool. I thought that was fun. It's always scary with the lights on. People talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. But our second ride on the PeopleMover and we got to see Space Mountain with the lights on. I thought that was pretty cool. I was excited about that. But I told Matt about it and he was like, I have no idea what you're talking about.

[00:38:44] Like this is a Disney adult thing, not a normal people thing. But then we went over to Jungle Cruise and did that. I decided to go ahead and park the stroller kind of on the main thoroughfare there in front of Pecos Bills. Because we were planning on doing the Starlight Parade. And at this point it was like 730, about an hour before the parade was going to start. So I thought, oh, if I could go ahead and have the stroller over in that area. That way I don't have to try to move it through the crowds later.

[00:39:12] So I parked the stroller there and then we just walked over to Jungle Cruise. We hadn't done Jungle Cruise in several trips. And it was really fun. We had a great skipper. We had a great boat participation. So that was really fun. He had a lot of science jokes, which I really enjoyed. And so that was really fun. And then around 815. No, I bet it was probably about 8 o'clock. We made it back over to where our stroller was. And people started filtering in around 815.

[00:39:42] And because it's two shows, they had two Starlight Parades this night. They start kind of the opposite direction of what normally would start. And so they didn't come to our area until closer to like 850. And so we had plenty of time to kind of hang out there. We went and got a snack. Got a Mickey pretzel. Matt tried a churro. Matt got suckered in to getting Brooks the light-up bubble wand pirate sword.

[00:40:12] While we were waiting there, they kind of just like wheeled them out in front of everyone standing there with their children. I'm like, are you serious? Not just standing there with their children. Standing there with their children, they're probably tired and starting to maybe like get a little fussy. And they know what they're doing. For sure. For sure. So Matt took Brooks over to get one. In his defense, Brooks had been asking for a pirate sword all day long, except for we couldn't understand what he was saying. He was calling it a hybrid sword.

[00:40:41] I was like, a hybrid sword? What are you talking about? And then he pointed to it and he's like, that's what I'm talking about. I want one of those. It was more like a pirate sword. So he had wanted one all day long. He had told us several times none of us could figure out what he was saying. But it's really cute. He's played with it a lot. So it was worth it. Good. I caught the sweetest moment of the ground is wet. It's been raining all day. And Brooks and Hallie, we had a really good spot right on the rope to sit down.

[00:41:09] And so when it got close to time, I said, why don't y'all go ahead and kind of come down here and sit down and kind of make your spot. That Hallie laid down her jacket so Brooks could sit on the jacket so he didn't have to sit on the wet ground. And then she sat down and instead of sitting on the spot right beside her, he just sat in her lap. So I got this really sweet picture of Brooks sitting in Hallie's lap and they're watching the parade. It was really, really sweet. That's so sweet. I know. We loved the parade. It was amazing.

[00:41:37] The floats with all the lights and the music and everything that they're doing on the floats. It was it was really cool. We were very impressed. Now, I think this was too recently to have impacted you. But were Peter Pan and Wendy flying on their float? Or did that start up after you got back? That started up right after. Right after. Shoot. We got back. But I did see that. I was like, oh, that would have been cool. But we thought it was amazing just the way it was even when we saw it.

[00:42:06] We had a really pretty good spot for fireworks if we wanted to stay over in that area and kind of watch as we were walking out. But the kids decided that they really wanted to do Pirates instead of watching the fireworks. So we walked back through the cut through with a stroller to do Pirates of the Caribbean. And Hallie has talked about this several times since the ride. She really enjoyed that ride that time. So that was fun. I was glad we got to do that. And then we. That's another one you can get a candle of if you really like the scent. You know, I don't know that I noticed the scent on that one.

[00:42:36] But yeah, I'll have to keep that in mind for sure. Mariah, it is known for its scent. Like everybody's like. I didn't notice it. Pirate water. Because it smells like. I think it's bromine that's in the water. Okay. So, I mean, it has a very distinct smell. Distinct smell. When you notice it, you're just like, oh, that smells like Pirates of the Caribbean. And. Well, now I'll have to smell it to see if it does. In fact. During the pandemic, we were kind of obsessed with the scents of Disney here in our household.

[00:43:06] And so we would order the scented oils from the Magic Candle Company. But there's lots of brands that do this sort of thing. And I think it was called Pirate Life for their brand. And yeah, it smells like. Which sounds like a weird thing to make your home smell like. Now, it's not what you want your home to smell like all the time. But if you're wanting some nostalgia for Disney, it hits the spot. All right. Well, I've got two new candles I'm going to buy. I'm excited. I love candles. So this will be good.

[00:43:35] But we ended up calling it a night after that. We walked out of the park. And the fireworks were going off. And we got to go out like the back entrance. I was worried. I was like, how are we going to get out? I don't really know how this is going to work. But they directed us perfectly out that back entrance. And then we were trying to decide, should we do the monorail? Brooks had fallen asleep in the stroller. It was so cute. I put their little headphones on because they both don't like the sound of the fireworks. So I put those on. So Brooks was asleep. And so Matt said, let's just walk. It's a beautiful night.

[00:44:05] The rain had lifted. And we could see the fireworks going off. So we just took the walkway back to the Grand Floridian. And as you're walking, the Grand Floridians all lit up over the water. So that was really pretty. It only took about 20 minutes to walk back. So that was nice. Not a long walk. And for maybe newbies who don't know the back pathway that you're talking about, just so that we don't leave them wondering, Brian, can you describe how they direct you to get out at times like that when the fireworks are going off?

[00:44:35] Yeah. So we were over there next to Pirate. So we kind of took that right walkway. And then right when you're walking by, what is it, like the Palace, Crystal Palace area, there's a separate section. And they just directed, if you're leaving the park, come this way with little wands. And we walked behind all the shops of Main Street, which was really cool. Really cool. There was a couple of families in front of us. And they like got their phone out to take a picture. They're like, no pictures, no videos, please. So I was like, yeah, that's cool. Technically, you're backstage.

[00:45:05] We're backstage. We're very important. Yeah. So you cannot go back there unless they've opened it in their direct needs. You're not going to like accidentally wander there. But it is a nice shortcut. But if you're not planning to do any shopping, I will say if you wanted to shop on your way out during the fireworks, you know, go into Casey's and use that back entrance to the store. And then you can walk the entire length of Main Street through the stores and get your shopping done while you're at it. Yes. Yes. But we were very grateful for that little back walkway because I thought,

[00:45:34] no, we're going to get stuck here and we're not going to be able to get out before fireworks are out. But it worked out perfectly. Yeah. All right. So Wednesday, April the 8th. This was a day when you were changing resorts. So you were going to try to, you know, keep as much time as you could. It sounded like at the Grand Floridian really kind of get the last squeeze out of that orange by doing some pull time, maybe getting some lunch. I think you wanted to go over to the Polynesian for that before you headed over to the Riviera. So how did you spend your morning?

[00:46:04] Yes. So we slept in again until 720, which is very nice. Brooks woke up and he was immediately wanting to play with his little cars. So he did that. And then we decided that instead of going over to the Polynesian, it was still raining. And Matt said, could we just try to eat somewhere here? And so we got a reservation the night before for the Grand Floridian Cafe because I had seen that they have really good brunch. And so we ended up doing brunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe.

[00:46:33] We paid out of pocket for this one because I knew it wasn't going to be a very good use on the dining plan because it's not as expensive of a table service meal. And that was a good decision. I was glad that we did that. And so it was a great, great breakfast. I got the Pog French toast and it was divine. It was so good. Brooks got this Mickey pancake that was huge and had sprinkles on it. So he thought it was the best thing ever.

[00:47:03] We really, really enjoyed our breakfast there. And then after that, we went back to the room just to pack up. And we had thought about kind of hanging out and going to the Polynesian. But since it was still raining and kind of drizzling, we decided not to make that walk again. So we decided just to go ahead and call the minivan and head over to the Riviera. Okay. Heading over to the Riviera and you've stayed there before. You were there last go around.

[00:47:30] So this is a repeat trip for you. Yes. How did it feel to return home, so to speak? It was very nice. And that is our home resort. So we were excited to get back over to the Riviera. This was our first time using the minivan service. So that was really fun. I really enjoyed that. We had a great driver and we had all of our luggage. And we have a stroller that's the Tandem Double Stroller. It's like a mockingbird is the brand. You see them in the parks. A lot of people have them.

[00:48:00] But it is a very large stroller to try to fold with both seats on it. So I was really nervous about getting all of our luggage in the minivan with the stroller. And it was a squeeze. We had to take the seats off of the stroller and kind of put them separately. But everything fit. So I was happy to report that worked out well. But we got over to the Riviera around 11 and dropped our bags off at Bell Services and decided to go down to the Aventi room.

[00:48:29] Riviera has a really great craft area for the kids. And we have always wanted to paint a ceramic or do one of their mosaics or do something like that. But you have to do it early enough in your stay that they have time to dry and cure before you can take them home. And so previously, we've always done it like our checkout day or something like that and not been able to do it. So I was like, first day, we're going to go down there and do that. So it was raining. And so this is a perfect thing for us to do inside.

[00:48:58] And it wasn't busy. I was afraid like everybody's going to be down there. But there was maybe like one or two other families down there. So it was a really, really great way to spend the afternoon. I think Hallie painted a bunny and Brooks painted a seahorse. It took about maybe 30 to 45 minutes down there. And then they have some games and things like that that the kids can play. So Hallie and I played phase 10 and Brooks played with some tiles and was really good time, use of our time. The sun came out.

[00:49:28] And so that was really nice. We went and played out on the lawn and then the kids wanted to swim, obviously, that the sun has finally come out. So I went back to build services and grabbed our swim bag, changed into swimsuits and went to the pool. We used up our last two adult quick service credits to split lunch with the kids and each got a cocktail. So that was really nice. And then it started to cloud over and rain.

[00:49:54] So we changed back into our dry clothes and went back into the Aventi room to finish playing some cards and stuff like that. And then the fire alarm went off. So yes, so everyone had to evacuate. Luckily, it had stopped raining. So when we got outside, we're like, oh, at least we're not having to stand out here in the rain. The sun had come out. So we just kind of walked around. Brooks got to see the fire truck pull up. So he thought that was really cool. He was holding his little fire truck car and he was like, look, I have a fire truck too.

[00:50:25] But shortly after they let us back in, they didn't say what had happened, but it wasn't seemed to be like too big of a deal, thankfully. So that was good. And then we got our room was ready text at 329. And we had a resort view, which is like the standard view deluxe studio at Riviera. So we were on the eighth floor, room 8855. And it was overlooking the front of the resort. And we could see the Epcot ball, which meant that I was really excited because that was

[00:50:54] likely we were going to be able to see Epcot fireworks from our balcony. Yeah. So did you end up getting to see those at any point from your balcony? We did. Yeah. One night we did. We got back to the room and changed into our PJs and watched it from the balcony. So that was really cool. That's so cool. I love that. But so you don't have to always have a preferred view room to have something that's really fun to look at. Yeah. Yeah. And I loved our view. We had a view out the like the front where we could kind of see the front of the hotel

[00:51:23] and people coming and going. It was a beautiful view. Yeah. All right. I know you had a dinner reservation this night for Tritoria Al Forno. So tell me about your evening. Yeah. So we decided to go over to the boardwalk. This is our first time going over to the boardwalk area. So we took the Skyliner at 420, which was Brooks's favorite part of the trip, is to take the Skyliner. And Matt had scoped out a couple of drinks that he wanted to try. So we went straight to Bellevue Lounge.

[00:51:52] I think we had talked and we thought maybe it was Abracadabra, but it ended up being Bellevue Lounge, the place that he wanted to go to. Okay. And so we went upstairs and went there and he said that it was the best drink that he got all trip. It was their version of an espresso martini. And it was very good. I had a drink of his as well. So it was very good. And then we went back downstairs and walked around the boardwalk and went to our dinner reservation at Tritoria Al Forno around six.

[00:52:20] This was our first time going to this restaurant as well. And we really enjoyed it. Our waitress was fantastic. I put in a cast compliment for her. She was so fun, really engaging with the kids, was really sweet. And we love being able to sit with like the open kitchen. We were kind of right off the kitchen so we could see them making the food. It was really fun. Great atmosphere. We will definitely go back for sure. Okay. Yeah. I've never been there myself.

[00:52:49] It's one of those that, I don't know, I just never make it a priority to go there. I do hear that they have a really good brunch there. So I've kind of been curious to try that. Yes. Yes. I was going to get the lasagna and ended up getting a shrimp dish instead, which was good. But I kind of wish I would have gotten the lasagna. So I told Matt next time, I'm going to get the lasagna next time. We got tiramisu for dessert and it was delicious. So good. Okay.

[00:53:18] What did you do after dinner? We walked around the boardwalk, but there was honestly not a lot going on at the boardwalk, which of course, this is a Wednesday night. And I'd kind of worried about that. I thought, well, it's going to be so busy that maybe they'll have certain things going on. But there really wasn't much of entertainment going on. It was still daylight though. So maybe when it gets dark, more things start happening. But we still enjoyed getting to see everything. It's beautiful. So we took the Skyliner, go back to Riviera. At Riviera, they have a Pascal scavenger hunt.

[00:53:47] So you can find Pascal each day. And then you get like a little button and sticker each day that you find him. So the kids wanted to go find Pascal. So we did that and got a button. And then we were back in the room around nine. Perfect. Perfect time to get some rest and be ready for the next day. And the next day was Thursday, April 9th. And it was an Epcot day. And I wrote down that this was the only day that you planned to rope drop. So you needed that extra rest. We sure did. We sure did.

[00:54:16] And we are pros at rope drop. And we did a very good job at our rope drop strategy. And so we rope dropped. We got up on the Skyliner probably at 7 was about when we were on. And then we were let on the bridge at 7.56. And early entry was 8.30. So they let us on probably at 8.20. They let us get on. And so we went straight to Remy, which is really exciting.

[00:54:45] And we were off Remy by 8.40. So we did a very good job with our rope drop strategy. I was proud. At this point, we forgot that we were planned was to go get breakfast at the little pastry area in France. We were kind of like all excited about Remy. And we were just walking through and we saw a topiary. And we started taking pictures of the topiaries and we forgot to eat breakfast. So in hindsight, we should have eaten breakfast there because there's not really anywhere else that's open in the World Showcase to eat. Right.

[00:55:15] And that time. So we kind of missed our chance over there. We walked around and saw a topiaries. The kids have fun picking out their favorite one and taking pictures. And it wasn't too crowded, especially since we're kind of walking through the topiaries in that less crowded area than where everybody was rope dropping, you know, Guardians and Remy and Frozen at that point. It was chilly. We all had our jackets on, but the sun was starting to peek out. So that was really nice.

[00:55:44] We scanned into our Figment lightning lane that we were basically just using as a burner lightning lane because I really wanted to try to get a lightning lane for Remy so that we could ride it twice because it is our favorite ride. We wanted to try to get it right twice, but spoiler alert, we didn't get any. No Remy lightning lanes were to be had the rest of the day. Weight Magic as well, trying to score one and they never got one for us. But it was busy.

[00:56:13] I mean, it's a busy week for sure. You are the second person now that I'm talking to that has used Weight Magic. So we'll pause right here and say, how did you like it overall? Even though it couldn't find you a Remy's this day. Yeah. Did you get use out of it? I do. I do think I got some use out of it. Yeah. I could not get a poo lightning lane when we were at Magic Kingdom any earlier than like five o'clock for our pre-booking for poo.

[00:56:41] And I really wanted to try to do it when we were on that side of the park earlier in the day. And within four hours of having purchased Weight Magic because I got the 10 day plan so that it would start searching three days before we were even there. Within five hours of purchasing it, it had bumped up our poo lightning lane to 12. So that was very helpful for us because that allowed us to do it while we were on that side of the park and then kind of leave that side of the park and not come back.

[00:57:09] To be honest, I don't think we really got much other use out of it. But that was not because it definitely booked us several things. It just ended up where I would modify it to be later in the day because we were going to be on that side of the park later in the day or we ended up deciding not to do that or things like that. So it definitely was it was working. It was it was doing some work. But it just didn't work out with our schedule for really anything else to work out. OK. And I heard I think it's I have not looked it up myself.

[00:57:39] I'll be honest. But I will put a link to it in the show notes. Was it about $30 or so? That sounds about right. I want to say it was around then. OK. Something like that. OK. All right. Good to know. All right. What was next? OK. So we picked up the Buzz Bee Scavenger Hunt. I really wanted the egg scavenger hunt because we saw all the eggs around. They were still out, but they were sold out of the scavenger hunt actual paper and sticker thing. So Brooks really enjoyed picking out the eggs.

[00:58:09] But we actually did the stickers on Buzz, which he didn't really know the difference. So it was fine. So that was really fun for the kids to do those. And then we went over to the Mexico boat ride and did that with Donald. La Cava was not open yet. So this is this was kind of a thing where maybe my planning could have been better to do the front of the park in the morning instead of the back of the park. But that's what we usually do. And then we never make it to the back of the park and actually like go in the countries and

[00:58:38] see anything because it's so crowded and trying to maneuver the stroller. Right. So this way we were really able to explore back into the countries and we felt like we had them to ourselves, but none of the food options were open. So you need to come already fed before 1130 in the showcase. So it started raining. And so we hopped into the caramel place and got some snacks and let the kids run around under the overhang over there in the Italy. Caramel couche.

[00:59:08] I wasn't going to try. I know I could see you avoiding it. People are nervous. I said just go for it. And if you if you mispronounce it, you mispronounce it. But my understanding is, is that it's I think it's when I've done like the Google where you have it say it for you. And I think it says like caramel couche. So I think that's what it is. I just say caramel couche. But whatever Virginia said, that's where we went. All right. Carry on.

[00:59:35] I got the caramel popcorn and it was delicious. So highly recommend. Highly recommend. Brooks got like a chocolate Mickey sandwich that was really good. And that was a good use of our snack credits too. So we got some use out of that. And then Matt found a beer stand selling beer. So he was really excited to get to get a beverage. And as opposed to a beer stand selling orange juice. I think he would have taken orange juice at that point. We there wasn't there wasn't really. He just wanted something.

[01:00:03] So then we decided to mobile order some Regal Eagle, which I had done probably back when we were on the Mexico side. I went ahead and put an order in for Regal Eagle, but they didn't open until 1145. I had in my head that all these places would open up at 11. I would have assumed as much. Okay. No, no. The actual booths open at 1130 now and Regal Eagle now opens at 1145. So. Okay. There's there's some good.

[01:00:32] So I got the first mobile order spot at 1145. And that means that they open at 1145, which means they start like processing your order. So it wasn't actually ready until noon. But that was all right. That was all right. We were we may do. They actually right next to Regal Eagle, they have that entrance, that long walkway. And they had characters down there, which I think is means that they're like training or maybe. Yeah. I don't know. They get to refer to as character palooza in the Disney community.

[01:01:00] And that's when you see a bunch of random characters together. And usually it's because it's cast members who are still in training and they're just having an opportunity to meet people. And it can be a nice little surprise that you could just kind of come across. Yeah. So we got to see Pluto and Mickey, which I think this was our first time meeting Pluto. So that was really fun. We got to see that. And then Mickey was wearing his like very dapper tux outfit. Okay. He looked very handsome.

[01:01:28] So we got to go down there and meet them while we were waiting. When I got back up, our food was ready. So then we went to inside to Regal Eagle and got our food. The sun had come out and it was really nice outside. So we wanted to try to eat outside on those tables that kind of right there next to the water. So we took our food down to there. And as soon as I got all the food laid out for the kids, it started pouring. So we backed up all the food and ran back into Regal Eagle. Well, luckily we were able to find a spot.

[01:01:58] Not too bad. And set the food all back out and ate. It was really good. I was really impressed with the barbecue. We are from Kentucky. We have very good barbecue here. Mm-hmm. And I thought the food was really good. I think it has pretty good sides there too, which I'm all about the sides. I mean, I like barbecue. Obviously, I'm from North Carolina. Yeah. North Carolina native originally. So I do love my barbecue. But what I love more is the sides. Same. Same. Yes.

[01:02:26] I tried, I think between all of us, we got most of the sides. The macaroni and cheese was really good. The beans were good. The coleslaw was good. Everything was really good. And it was a good, it's a large portion, which was good because we were starving at this point. So that was nice. And then we decided that we were probably good. We were kind of already back towards the Skyliner. So that was a good point for us to kind of head back and do a little midday rest.

[01:02:53] So we went back to the room around 1230 and just took a rest. I think we did a little bit of laundry, things like that while we were there. And then we headed back at 3pm, which is really nice to be on the Skyliner because you could just kind of pop in and pop back out. It was really seamless to do that for sure. Yeah, you don't feel like you're wasting a lot of time in transportation. Yeah, yeah. So when we got back, we did the Moana walkthrough. The sun was out and it was warm. So that was nice.

[01:03:22] So the kids did the Moana walkthrough. They didn't get too wet. They were pretty good. They got a little wet, but not too bad. And then we had a Nemo lightning lane. Standby for Nemo was 35 minutes. What on earth? Okay. So the crowds had arrived again. And I was like, my goodness, the lightning lane was a little backed up as well. Wow. I was a little nervous. I was like, oh my goodness, we do not want to get stuck on the Nemo ride.

[01:03:52] But we went right on and didn't have a problem. We got right through and then kind of explored the aquarium. We got to watch them feed the manatees, which is always fun. Look at the fish and the sharks. So that was fun. And then we got to do our Soarin' lightning lane. So this is our first time doing Soarin'. I think any of us are first time doing it. And Brooks is exactly 40 inches tall.

[01:04:18] So we weren't sure if he was going to be tall enough or would want to do it. And he said he really wanted to do it. So we got up there and he got measured. And the cast member felt like he was just under the mark. And so he was not able to do it. But they gave him a little card so that next time he comes, if he's tall enough, he'll get to skip the line and be first in line. So he was okay with it. I thought he handled it pretty well. So did you do writer swap? Yep.

[01:04:45] So we did, we did writer swap where I rode with Hallie first. And then we, that was our first time getting on it. It took a while. The pre-show and the line, even for the lightning lane was, was a pretty good little line. It took us about 30 minutes before we actually got up and lifted into the air. So that was, that was a little nerve wracking. Hallie and I were both a little nervous, but we both really, really enjoyed it.

[01:05:12] It was so beautiful and the smells and the sights. I re I really enjoyed it. And I don't like thrill rides at all. And I really enjoyed it. So we were good. And Hallie liked it so much that she actually wanted to ride it again. So at first I was like, you don't have to ride it again. If, if you don't like it, you don't have to do writer swap with dad. But if you want to ride it again, you get to ride it again with dad. And so she liked it so much that she did want to do that.

[01:05:38] So while I was taking Hallie on Soren, Matt took Brooks on living with the land using our lightning lane and we swapped, we just swapped magic bands. I took, we swapped magic bands around so that I could take Brooks back on living with the land again and use our lightning lanes again. So that worked out really well. What time is it approximately now? Cause I know you did have a dinner reservation for Cabanito and you were hoping to be able to move it if you could. Yes. Yes.

[01:06:06] And I did, I was successful to get our Cabanito moved back up to 6 50. So that was good. And this was around six o'clock. So we headed pretty much from Soren, made the walk back up to Japan Pavilion. And we kind of just kind of explored around in the Japan Pavilion, went ahead and, you know, checked in that we were there and it was busy at this point. It definitely filled in. The restaurant itself was really busy. It was raining. So people were kind of trying to wait inside.

[01:06:35] And so we were a little nervous. We hadn't gotten any notification about our table or anything, but then at 7 20, we were finally seated. So about 30 minutes after our, our dining reservation. Okay. And we really, we really enjoyed the, this experience. This is our first time doing this as well. I've always wanted to do it, but we hadn't gotten to the food was really good. Like really, really good food. And Hallie got a special drink. It had little boba balls in it. So she was really excited about that.

[01:07:05] She loves those, those drinks. I got a Tokyo sunset, which was very good. And Hallie really wanted to try sushi for the first time. So we did order a California roll, which was separate from the dining plan. It was no big deal at all. And we all got to try sushi or Hallie got to try sushi for the first time. So that was really fun. She enjoyed it. She said it wasn't her favorite. She liked the rice, the best of the sushi. And I was like, well, we'll just get you a bowl of rice. Like you don't have to get sushi for that. But it was, it was good. We really enjoyed it.

[01:07:34] It was crowded in this restaurant and all the tables are kind of close together and it was pretty humid and stuffy. And it's funny because it is loud. Yeah. So it was, the food was great. Our server was great. We really enjoyed the drinks, but the atmosphere was a little, was a little different than our, our other experiences. So I'm not sure we would do it again. I'm glad we did it, but I'm not sure we would do it again. Okay. So we were finished by about 820 and headed to the Skyliner.

[01:08:02] It looked like it had a really long line. So I was nervous, but it moves continuously. I mean, it just constantly walking. So it didn't take us maybe 10 minutes to get through the line before we were on a car. So it looks intimidating, but it really does move pretty quickly. And then this is the night that we got back to the room, did baths and we're on our balcony in our PJs and watched Epcot fireworks, which was really cool. Really cool. Perfect. All right. Friday, April the 10th.

[01:08:31] This was your Hollywood Studios day. And I noted that this was going to be your first time really exploring Galaxy's Edge. So that was a focus for the day. So walk me through all of the fun. Yes. And this was, we all said by far, this was our favorite day of the trip. It was amazing. So we slept in and we did not repeat our sins of the previous day.

[01:08:58] We all ate breakfast before we got to the park so that we could not forget to eat when we were in the parks. So we went down to Primo Piatto and got breakfast, which was fantastic. It's so good. I got my eggs and polenta, which is my favorite meal there. And it was so good. And we were on the Skyliner at 9 a.m. and off at Hollywood Studios at 9.13. Just shout out to the Skyliner. So nice. And then we went straight to build lightsabers.

[01:09:25] Both the kids had decided that this is what they were going to use their souvenir money for. So we went to build lightsabers. Not the expensive breakable lightsabers. We went for the Star Tours gift shop version of lightsabers. And this was so cool. We went straight in. There wasn't a wait. And they kind of walked the kids through the process. Steps they need to pick out their certain things. And they get to pick out their colors and their accessories.

[01:09:55] And it was really, really fun. We really enjoyed it. About $35 for each. So that was really great. That was the best money we spent all trip for sure. Hallie was dressed up as Ray. And so we got lots of fun character interactions because of that. And Brooks was dressed up as Baby Yoda. He had like a Baby Yoda t-shirt on. So they were really into it.

[01:10:19] And after we built the lightsabers, we went and played around and took lots of pictures with the photo pass photographers. Galaxy's Edge was not super crowded. And it was sunny. And it felt great outside. So this was really fun. And so then after we played around with the lightsabers for a little bit, we went and did Rise of the Resistance for the first time. So we were very excited. Brooks really wanted to try it. I was a little nervous. I was like, listen, you weren't tall enough for Soarin' Buddy.

[01:10:49] Like, I don't think you're going to be tall enough for this. So let's just, we'll wait and do it next time. But he really wanted to try. He was like, can I see if I'm tall enough? And I was like, okay, well, we'll try. So we walked up there and he was tall enough, like plenty tall enough for it. So I don't know if it was different shoes he had on this day or what the difference was. But the 40 inches rise, he was tall enough for. And they measured him three times before we actually got on the ride. So that was good.

[01:11:19] And so we were really excited that that meant we were all going to get to ride together. We weren't going to have to do the rider swap. The pre-show to the actual ride is just so cool. It was so awesome to be able to do that experience. Brooks did get a little scared because they're very, they make it very feel real. And so he was a little nervous, but he was playing along. And then when we actually got in the ride vehicle, he kind of just like sat right next to me.

[01:11:45] And I kind of put my arm around him and he kind of hunkered down next to mama. But, but he enjoyed it. He, he really, he really enjoyed it. When we actually do the drop part, I was really nervous, but I really enjoyed it too. It was, it was really fun. It definitely made me feel a little motion sick the rest of the day or the rest of the morning, but it was, it was worth it. It was, it was not bad at all. It was, it was totally manageable and really fun.

[01:12:11] After that, we let the kids walk around more and play with our lightsabers. And then we took that pathway back from Toy Story area or back from Star Wars over the Toy Story area. And we had a lightning lane for Toy Story mania. And we also had a lightning lane for alien swirling saucers. I told Matt, I was like, listen, I cannot do alien swirling saucers. I am toast after doing Rise. So you are going to have to take the kids to do that.

[01:12:38] And Matt was like, I really do not want to do a spinning ride right now either. Let's walk past it and see if they notice it or not. And they didn't notice it and they didn't say anything. So we just skipped that part and went straight to Toy Story mania. And did our lightning lane for Toy Story mania at 1015. Star Wars area was not as crowded. The Toy Story area was super crowded at this point. It's, you know, 10 o'clock and everyone's arrived. Standby was 60 minutes.

[01:13:06] So we were really glad for that lightning lane. And that is so fun. It's really, really fun. Brooks enjoyed it. He actually was able to try to do his own little shooter gun this time and try to get some points on the board. And so that was really fun. We really enjoyed that ride. We got off that and we kind of had some time to kill. We had a lunch reservation at noon. And so the Little Mermaid show was starting at 1110. So we walked over to that area.

[01:13:35] And that was our first time getting to do that show. And it is so cute. It was so fun. We really enjoyed getting to do that. Brooks, that was his favorite show that we did all trip. He talked about it several times. He really enjoyed it. I did too. It was really cute. We were glad we got to do that. And then after that, we walked over to 50's Prime Time for our lunch reservation at 12. And we did the Fantasmic Dining Package, which was worth one table service credit.

[01:14:02] So that's a really good use of our table service credit. Matt and I, this was our first time eating there. Matt and I both got the Mama Sampler. So it was like fried chicken, meatloaf. And so it was really good. We really enjoyed the food. And the dessert, I got this Neapolitan cheesecake bar thing that was really good. Okay. Yeah, it was really good. We thought the food was great. And the service was really fun.

[01:14:31] Our server was really fun. She got onto Matt for putting his elbows on the table. And she was cutting up with Hallie and Brooks. And they were really into it. And so we really enjoyed it. We thought it was really fun. Really worth the table service credit. And we would definitely go back. After that, we figured it was probably about time to head out of the park. It was around 1.15. So we went back to the room and did a rest. Did some more laundry. Kids played in the room.

[01:14:59] And then we went back to Hollywood Studios at 4.15. We stopped to get some snacks at Fairfax Fair. Both kids got their favorite snack of the trip, which is the Bell of Enchantment drink. I had to write that down. Okay. It was like a juice. And it had, it was like yellow juice. And it had red boba balls in it. So it was like, you know, it was themed to, to Bell.

[01:15:25] And Hallie really, really thought it was, thought it was good and had a really good review on that. And so then we did that right before we walked back to do the villain show at 5.10. This is our first time doing the villain show. And we loved it. It was so fun. So cute. I really wanted Cruella to win. I thought her performance was fantastic. She went first and then Hook and then Maleficent. Maleficent's was really good too.

[01:15:54] And Hallie is a huge Descendants fan. Mal is her favorite, which is Maleficent's daughter. And so Hallie was really excited that Maleficent did win. So that was fun. Now, I was a little distracted because this is when our Southwest window opened that we needed to check into our flight. So I was trying to do that and get our flight situated, our seats booked so that we could all be sitting together and not be sitting separately on the plane with our two children. So I was a little distracted during that time period.

[01:16:23] But it was, it was a really fun show. Why did they have to make it so stressful? Gosh, I don't know. After doing this twice now, trying to get the seats and everything. I'm not sure. We got the Southwest credit card so that we could do the companion pass. And so we have points and it's, it's very financially advantageous for us to fly Southwest, which we don't fly a lot. So we will continue to fly Southwest while we have the companion pass. But after that, I don't know about this whole thing. Yeah.

[01:16:53] Alrighty. So we decided to do supper at Backlot Express. So we did a little mobile order for that. Kids got chicken tenders. I got the Southwest chicken salad, which was really good. And I got a rum island breeze, which was very, very good. It was so good that Matt ended up deciding he wasn't going to eat anything. He wasn't hungry. He was like, I can't eat anything else. And, but then he tried to sip of my drink. He's like, I would like one of those.

[01:17:20] And I was like, at this point, it's better for us to just use a quick service credit and get you one of these drinks, even if you don't want to eat anything. So that was, that was one of our uses of our credit was just to get a dinner so that Matt could get a beverage with it. This was the funniest part of the trip. Matt accidentally threw his phone away in the Backlot Express trash can. Oh no. Yes. Yes. And so he realized it about 10 minutes after we walked away, he couldn't find his phone.

[01:17:46] He said, I put it on the tray and I threw all of our trash away. And I was like, oh no. So he went back to the trash can, opened up the trash can. Luckily it was sitting right there on tops. Oh, thank goodness. The kids thought it was quite funny. Mom and dad were a little nervous there for a minute, but. Oh. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So then after that, we walked back to Batuu because I thought, you know, we could try to see some characters and let the kids play with their lightsabers. They were really keen to play with those.

[01:18:14] So we walked back there and we had the highlight of the trip. We walked to the very back and the first order was out. Kylo Ren and the stormtroopers were out and they saw Hallie and Brooke. So they came right over into the crowd and started interrogating them. They felt very real. Like I was stressing. I was like, I need to get out. Like they're asking me what my business is. And I was like, nothing, nothing. We're totally leaving. Hallie was eating it up. She's giving it back to them. Brooks is laughing.

[01:18:44] They were, they thought it was so cool. Everyone around us is videoing it. It was, it was really a cool, really cool interaction. It was, it was really, really fun. After that interaction, the crowds like dissipated. Like they left after, you know, the Kylo Ren went back in the spaceship. And all that. And we felt like we had Batuu to ourselves. So Hallie and Brooks were out with their lightsabers, you know, running around and playing with a couple of other kids.

[01:19:11] We walked over to the Millennium Falcon and took some pictures in front of that. Chewbacca was out. So we saw him. We had a really good time over there. I don't think I asked you when we talked for your pre-trip interview, but did you end up getting Memory Maker? We do. Okay. We did the, with the DVC, we did the membership Magic Beyond. Got it. Because just to get the Memory Maker. So that was $99. So that was a better deal to get Memory Maker than it would be if we had just bought Memory Maker outright.

[01:19:41] So we saved about $150 doing that. Yeah. Yeah. It made me think of it because Galaxy's Edge is one of my favorite places to take some PhotoPass photos. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, we definitely have to wait. Especially at night. Great PhotoPass photos over in that area for sure. They did some magic shots with the lightsabers and stuff like that. It was cool. Yeah. So after that, we did a 7 p.m. Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. I was surprised Brooks really didn't like this one.

[01:20:09] He, I don't know if he got a little scared from Rise, that he felt like it was very similar, and he thought it was going to randomly have a drop. But he didn't really like this one. But everyone else, everyone else really did. So that's one of my favorites. We grabbed some Mickey pretzels on Sunset Boulevard as we walked back to do Fantasmic because we had the Fantasmic diming package, the 8.30 p.m. show, and we were really excited. This was all of our first time doing Fantasmic, so lots of firsts this day.

[01:20:40] It wasn't too crowded, but I was glad that we had designated seats in a good area. We didn't feel like we had to get there super early or wait in that long standby line for sure. They had two shows this night. We had the first one. It was delayed for about 10 minutes. I'm not really sure why, but I was nervous. I was like, I hope they don't cancel it. But then at 8.40, the show started up, and it was great. We really, really enjoyed the show, all the lights and the music. Both kids really enjoyed it.

[01:21:09] The kind of scary villain scene was maybe a little bit long for Brooks. He was kind of getting over it at that point, but they were really, really enjoyed it as well. And then at this point, it was end of the night, and we were getting ready to get back on the Skyliner, and I was nervous. I was like, oh, no, it's going to be a really bad line. It really was not. It was not a bad line at all. We walked straight out from Fantasmic to the Skyliner.

[01:21:37] At 9.20, we were in line for the Skyliner, and we were in our room at 9.40 back at the Riviera. Wow. The whole process only took 20 minutes, so we couldn't have been in line for very long at all. I feel like the line for the Skyliner is, in my opinion, it's usually worse at the Epcot point than the Hollywood Studios. And maybe it's just based on the times that I've been trying to take it.

[01:22:03] But I always see that line at Epcot, and I'm just like, oh, my gosh, that is so long. It's going to take so long. Exactly. It looks really long. I never have that reaction when I'm walking up to the Hollywood Studios, even if there's a line. It doesn't. I don't know. It just looks more manageable to me. Yeah, for sure. Well, we were very glad that it didn't feel like a really, really long line at all. So yeah, it was a really, really great day. We had a lot of fun, especially with the character interactions. That was definitely a highlight of the trip. All right.

[01:22:31] So that brings us to Saturday, April the 11th. And this was an Animal Kingdom day. And I noted that there was a bingo game going on. Yes. And the winner of bingo got to pick where to eat dinner this day. So a little added friendly competition. Yes. So how did this all go? Hallie got, she won bingo first. She got her bingo card, you know, four in a row first of the trip.

[01:22:59] So she got to pick dinner this night, which we already knew that she got bingo very early on in our trip. I think by day two, she had already won. So we knew that she was going to get to pick that. But I won't spoil where she decided to eat for dinner. But first, we were heading to Animal Kingdom. We did wake up pretty early this day around 7. And this was our first time we were going to have to take the bus. So we were a little nervous about that part. We walked down to the Animal Kingdom bus at 7.55. Early entry for this day was 7.30.

[01:23:27] So we knew we weren't planning to get there for early entry or anything like that. Right when we were walking out of the Riviera, the Animal Kingdom bus was pulling up. And I wasn't sure like how fast they were going to come. So I kind of was like, we might need to kind of run to catch it. I don't know. And so we kind of just walked quickly down the little ramp to go down to the bus station at the Riviera and got on that bus. And then we headed to Animal Kingdom.

[01:23:53] We went straight to Starbucks because that's our favorite Starbucks of the parks over there at Creature Comforts. And I got a table outside while Matt went inside and got our drinks and breakfast, which is an important part. We got breakfast at Starbucks as well. And so Russell and Doug walked by. That was really cute. Really enjoyed getting to see them. And then walked through the wilderness trails there right around the Tree of Life and got to see those.

[01:24:22] So that was fun. And then we walked towards Africa. The kids wanted to do a few wilderness explorer stops. So we did the Critter Habitat Scavenger Hunt, which they now have that one on the walkway to the wilderness explorer train. Since that's down right now, that's usually on the Rafiki's Planet Watch. So they have that right there. And the kids really enjoyed getting to do that. And then we walked to the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trails because you can take your Starbucks or coffee beverage. Yes, you can.

[01:24:52] On that trail. You can't be eating, but you can be enjoying your coffee. So we still hadn't finished our coffee. So we knew we didn't want to get on the safari. Or a cocktail. Or a cocktail, yes. Like you're not limited to doing this in the morning. Yeah, if you're doing it in the afternoon, you can take your beverage of choice on the trail. So we love that trail. It was really fun. We got some really cool gorilla interactions. The big male gorilla was out. And that was really cool.

[01:25:19] And so once we had finished our coffees, we got in line for safari and scanned in at 949. Standby was 50 minutes. So this was definitely the busiest day in the parks that we saw, which is also a Saturday. So we knew that that was going to be a busy day. So we were glad for our lightning lane. This was one of our best safaris that we have had. And we've done several safaris over the years. We saw lots of animals, a ton of elephants. They were really out and active.

[01:25:50] The baby elephant was running around. He was the cutest little thing. Oh my goodness. And then we saw two lions cuddled up on the very top rock. That was really cool. Really cool. The sun was coming out and it was starting to warm up. And Hallie brought her camera. So she was all about taking all the pictures on the safari. So that was really fun. After we did the safari, we took that back trail to Pandora because Africa was packed. I mean, it just felt like kind of...

[01:26:16] I was like, oh, this is the spring break crowds that they told us about. Like these, they are here for sure. But that back trail from Africa to the Pandora wasn't crowded at all. That was kind of a nice little respite as we walked into Pandora. I think a lot of people who are maybe newer park goers don't even really know that it's there. It's on the map. It's not hiding. But it literally feels a little off the beaten pathway. Yes.

[01:26:46] And so... It goes along the water there. You're like, I don't really know where we're going. And then all of a sudden you're in Pandora. So that's cool. So we scanned into our lightning lane for Navi River about 10.50 and the standby was 60 minutes. We love this ride. It's nice and peaceful. The people behind us, it was their first time on the ride. So that was really fun. When we got around to where the animatronic, the shaman is, that was really cool. They were really impressed with that.

[01:27:14] And I love to sing the song that she sings all the time at home. And so when she started singing that, Brooks turned around to me like, that's the song you sing, Mom. Like, what are you... I taught her that song. That's what she's doing. But it was fun. It was a really, really good ride. And then while we were in line for that, I had put in a mobile order for Satuli Canteen. So this was something that we've always wanted to try, but we've never been in Pandora area during lunchtime.

[01:27:44] So I was really excited to try that. And Matt said that this may have been his favorite meal of the trip, table services included. He loved it. It was really cool. Inside is really cool. Outside is themed really cool. The food was really good. We tried a little bit of everything. We tried the chicken and beef bowls. One of us got the hearty greens. One of us got the noodles. Someone got the cheeseburger steamed pods. So we kind of just picked and chews off of everybody's plate to try everything.

[01:28:14] And I got the Yovo fruit margarita, which was fantastic. Highly recommend that for sure. And so after that, we had our Flight of Passage single passes. Hallie had kind of been on the fence all morning on whether or not she wanted to ride it. But she had kind of talked herself up. She's like, okay, yeah, I think I'm going to do it. I'm like, are you sure? She's like, yeah, yeah, I'm going to do it. And so we walked over there and it was down. Oh, no.

[01:28:44] So I had actually realized it was down as I was walking over there. I looked up to make sure our Lightning Lane time was correct. And I had gotten a anytime Lightning Lane for the Flight of Passage. So I knew it was down. I was like, oh, man. And so we walked over there and talked to the cast member. And apparently he had been down all day. I hadn't even realized it. So that might have been why other areas of the park felt kind of fuller. I'm sure it was. Because everyone was kind of doing other things, waiting for Flight of Passage to come back up.

[01:29:12] So we hung around for a little while. We went in the gift shop there at Wind Traders. Hallie got a little wrist banshee that she was really excited about. And it did not come back up. But at this point, Hallie decided that maybe that was okay, that it didn't come back up. Maybe it was going to be a little bit too much fur anyway. And I had eaten a really big lunch and drank that margarita. And I was like totally fine with not doing it. I had not felt the best all week anyway.

[01:29:41] So I didn't realize. I didn't think my emotion sickness was going to let it. But I was going to take one for the team. If Hallie wanted to do it, I was going to do it. But I ended up talking to a cast member. And we got our single passes returned, refunded to us. And they were very nice about that. It wasn't a big deal. So then we headed to do the Zootopia show, which was so cute. We had a lightning lane for that, which I was glad for. It was a really probably about a 40-minute line is what the standby cue said.

[01:30:10] And so I was glad that we had a lightning lane. And that was our first time doing that show. I had not done the Bugs Life show since I was a kid. So I didn't really remember anything. But we both really enjoyed the Zootopia show. The kids really enjoyed it too. They didn't get scared or alarmed by any of the effects or anything like that. We really enjoyed it. We thought it was really fun. And after that, we felt like we were probably pretty done for the day.

[01:30:36] We did some last-minute souvenir shopping and headed to the buses around 1.15 p.m. So basically when you would have been taking sort of a midday break anyway. Mm-hmm. So that worked out. So after your break, what did you end up doing? So Hallie got to decide what we were going to be eating for dinner that night. So we kind of already asked her, like, what do you want to eat for dinner? Like, that'll kind of decide what we're going to do for this afternoon.

[01:31:00] And she wanted to play in the pool and eat wherever that meant that she was going to get the most time in the pool. Because the sun had come out at this point. It was actually warm. Mm-hmm. And it was perfect pool weather. So we decided to do just primo piato by the pool for dinner. Mm-hmm. So we played in the pool. We did the slide. Hallie and I both decided that we liked the pool better at Riviera. It wasn't as crowded, easy to find chairs, et cetera. Mm-hmm.

[01:31:27] Even on a Saturday at 3 p.m., we were able to find a chair. I mean, it was full, but it wasn't overly crowded like the Grand Floridian pool felt. But the slide at the Grand Floridian was much better than the slide at the Riviera. So that'll be, that was our recommendation. At around 5 p.m., we went over and got a mobile order for primo piato and moved to, like, a table area that we could eat. It was kind of right beside where they do the campfire at night. Uh-huh.

[01:31:56] And we used up our last snap credits at primo piato. Matt got the beef bolognese. He said it was the best pasta he had had all week. It was really good. I got a burger. And then we used our snap credits up at the gelato cart that's right next to the Riviera pool and got some gelato. Mm-hmm. And we watched them do the campfire and s'mores behind us. The kids didn't really want to, like, go over there, but they enjoyed watching the other ones do it. Mm-hmm.

[01:32:24] And I had a really good evening next to the pool, watched the Skyliner go off behind us. It was really nice. All right. So unfortunately, that means we're at your departure day, which was April the 12th. It was a Sunday. But your flight wasn't for a little while, so you had time to do some brunch. I know that was on the itinerary. And also sleeping in, preparing yourself to go back to real life. So how was your final day? Yes. So we did sleep in. We slept in.

[01:32:53] And I had said the night before, and I said it out loud, and this is my fault. I was like, man, it's been really great that no one's gotten sick yet on this trip. Mariah. And, yeah, I know better than that. Why would you put that out into the universe? Mm-hmm. So I woke up the next day not feeling well. So at least it was just me not feeling well. So I took some medicine and tried to sleep it off. Matt took the kids down to get breakfast, and they played around for a little while. Came back up at 10, at which point I was feeling a little bit better.

[01:33:24] And we were trying to finagle everything back into our suitcases to get them all loaded back up. It just kind of felt like Tetris. We have a lot more things to go home with, all of our souvenirs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But then we took our bags down to bail services right at 11. We were, like, walking out of our room at 11 to check out. So that was good. And went up to Topolino's for our breakfast reservation. Breakfast reservation was at 1130. Mm-hmm. We weren't sat until 11.58.

[01:33:51] But as soon as we got to our table, Daisy was there. So we got to see Daisy, which is one of our favorite characters. We love Daisy. She's so fun. She's a dancer. And so her and Hallie were talking about their dancing. And that was really fun. Our waiter was good. We did feel like we were just a bit rushed. I think it's because we had waited 30 minutes to sit down at our table. So I'm sure we were one of the last groups to come through. Mm-hmm.

[01:34:17] But it wasn't anything that we would have noticed if we hadn't been there before where it was very relaxing and so forth. So we ordered our food and got the steak and eggs and polenta, which is my favorite meal. I was not feeling up to that. So I just got the yogurt and fruit parfait, which is really, really good. I really enjoyed that. And the best part was the bread basket or the muffin pot, maybe. Mm-hmm.

[01:34:46] That was all of ours. We really enjoyed all those pastries and muffins. Saw all of the characters, and we were done by 1234. So we were sat at 12, done at 1234. So very quick. That is a pretty quick meal. Pretty quick meal. And we saw all the characters twice. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, they were just kind of like just walking by one after another. Mm-hmm. It was good. We went out on the terrace. It was a beautiful day.

[01:35:16] So we went out on the terrace and took some pictures. And then after breakfast, we went down to the courtyard. We, Matt and I both, decided that our favorite part of Riviera is that courtyard. The night before, we spent the evening until 9 p.m. just watching the kids play out on the turf and hang out with the sun going down and the skyliner. It was a beautiful night. And then the next day, we spent the day letting the kids play on the courtyard while we just hung out and sipped some coffee.

[01:35:45] That's really our favorite part of the Riviera. And while we were down there, Daisy and Goofy came out and played some games with the kids. We got some really cute pictures. They had a photo pass photographer. And they just like walked up and played tic-tac-toe with the kids. It was really, really cute. Aw. Yeah. And so we went back to the lobby around 1.45 to wait for our car. And it was supposed to be there at like 2.10, I think is when I had scheduled it for.

[01:36:15] But I got a message that they were already there and ready for us if we were ready. And so we were like, well, sure, yeah, we'll go ahead and head back. So we got in the car. And that's why I forgot to use up my last snack credits. I was planning on getting some cookies to go, but that's all right. We went ahead and headed back to MCO and said goodbye to our Disney trip for another year. Was your flight on time? Yes. Our flight was on time. Didn't have any issues in the airport. Got through security.

[01:36:44] It definitely took longer to get through. TSA, we have pre-check. But it definitely took longer to get through than we've ever taken before. It took about 30 minutes, which is not bad. But we definitely noticed the crowds more. It was a Sunday afternoon coming back. So that was definitely more noticeable. All of those things. But very good. When is your next trip? How much time is going to pass?

[01:37:13] How much is Brooks going to get to grow between now and then? We actually don't have a family trip planned yet on the books. Matt and I's 15-year wedding anniversary is next year. And so we're going back, just the two of us, for our anniversary in August. And we're probably going to do just a resort-only stay for that time period. Just a couple of days. But we haven't figured out when we're going to go back as a family.

[01:37:41] I really want to go back at Christmas time. I think that would be so cool. We've not had to do the Christmas parties or anything like that. So I think that would be really fun. But we haven't decided. We haven't decided quite yet. But we know, because you're DVC, you will be back. And presumably, with the way that kids grow, I'm guessing by the next time you go, Brooks will be good to go to ride Sorin. And he'll get to experience that.

[01:38:10] And it sounds like he's maybe a little bit of a thrill-seeker. Yeah. So he'll be game for it. Do some rides. Slinky Dog might be in our future. Some of those things, for sure. Mm-hmm. Cool. Well, this sounds like such a fun trip. And in spite of the crowds, you got so much done. And I think that's probably based on the fact that you had Lightning Lane.

[01:38:31] But also probably based on the fact that you had planned it out and you were prepared and kind of had tried to organize your trip in a way that would work best for you, given the time of year that you're going. So well done, Mom. Thank you. Thank you. We were pleasantly surprised. I was worried about the crowds. But I'm glad that we ended up going. It worked really well. And it wasn't too much of a deterrent. Well, thank you so much for coming back, Mariah. It's been wonderful to get to talk to you again.

[01:39:01] Thank you so much for having us. It was really fun to keep track of everything and write everything down and knowing we were going to get to talk to you. It's a fun way to commemorate the trip. Yeah. And I'm looking very much forward to seeing some of these photos. So you'll have to let me know if any of them are Hallie Originals. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So thank you so much. And I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. Thank you so much to Mariah for continuing to be a guest on the podcast.

[01:39:29] It is always a lot of fun talking to you. And I especially love that I got to chat with Hallie again. I hope you will all be back in the future. Before you go, please remember to share the show with others who might be planning their own magical vacation. Sharing is caring. And that is all for today. I'll leave you, as I always do, with a reminder to keep daydreaming about where you long to be. Thank you.