So if you follow my blog or my FB you know Labor Day weekend we surprised our 5 year old with a quick weekend trip to Disney/Orlando.   Not only did she get an awesome surprise trip but she also got some dresses from Little Dress Up Shop.  She just loves those dresses!  They aren’t itchy, they wash awesomely, and they are easy for her to get on and off herself when she is playing dress up.  Oh.  And most importantly for mom.  They are reasonably priced!  This trip she had the underskirt too.  It made a difference in the heat of Florida.  Kept the dress off her and kept her cooler.  And to be honest, made the dress look even better.

As always we try new things each trip and I try to learn a little each time.  Here goes for this one…

We took a late flight Friday night with Southwest direct.  Our last few trips to MCO we have taken this flight.  Part of me loves it.  Part of me hates it.  I love the fact that it doesn’t feel like we wasted a whole day of travel down.  I don’t love that we have to pay for a hotel that night and we usually don’t get to bed until 11pm/12am.  We don’t however have to take another day off from work or school.  And we do have a later start to the day the next day.  So as you see.  The pluses and minuses kind of even themselves out to the point I usually make the jump and take that flight.

This trip was our first stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We stayed at Jambo House on our DVC points.  This hotel is mainly hotel rooms and not DVC.   We did have rooms originally at Saratoga, but then rooms opened up at Animal Kingdom Kidani and then we finally ended up at Jambo because a Savannah view room opened up.   Who doesn’t want to wake up to giraffes and zebras outside their room???  The location of our room was pretty perfect.  About halfway down one of the “horseshoe shapes” of the lodge.  We got one room over from our requested room that I did from Touring Plans.   The distance of this hotel is what everyone always complains about.  I don’t feel that it was a huge issue.  It felt like about the same distance from our favorite Value resort Pop Century.  If you were doing a lot of back and forth between the parks, you might pick a different one, but in general it wouldn’t stop me from choosing this park in the future.

Our day at the Disney parks was a hard one to pick.  Inadvertently we did a 3 Park Challenge (I know.  It’s probably not a thing…Can we make it a thing?). Magic Kingdom is a must of course. We did a bunch of our favorites.  Mine Train, Dumbo, Tea Cups, Pirates, Big Thunder, Small World, Buzz and of course a visit with Rapunzel and Tiana.   Ate at Columbia Harbor House (one of my faves and one of our usuals).  We did Mobile order.  I hate doing this when we are using a gift card to pay for most of the trip and you can’t pay with gift card or charge to the room yet.   However it was a time saver.  So we went for it.  My biggest mistake in this park was I accidentally deleted our fast pass to Big Thunder when I was trying to switch one from Splash Mountain. I seriously almost cried.  Thankfully it was just a fast pass.  We all survived.  We headed out right before the parade.

Next on to Epcot.  We knew it was going to be busy and it was hot.  It was the first Saturday of Food and Wine Festival.  Dan’s requirement of this trip was Test Track.  I kept checking out the app and somehow grabbed a fast pass to Test Track at 5:35.  After the shock wore off that we didn’t have to wait one hour in line, we headed over to Soarin’.  The posted wait was 40 minutes.  It was like 20.   We had time after so we rode Living with the Land.   The original plan was to head to the countries and walk them (and the food booths) on our way out of the park to Hollywood Studios.  With the crowds, heat, threat of rain, and now our fast pass for Test Track we decided to eat at Sunshine Seasons.  The food was good.  I had a kid’s version of the salmon and that was a perfect portion for me (I miss my mom on the trips with just the three of us, all the time but lots at meal time.  We tend to share meals and I waste less).   M had pasta which she devoured and Dan had the pork.  All of us were happy.

After our Test Track fast pass, a beer for Dan, and a quick stop in the DVC lounge (free snacks and drinks!) it was off to Hollywood Studios.   We took the boat from the back of Epcot.  Not an awful option but it was warm inside that thing.  And it made a bunch of stops.  If you are in a hurry, maybe try Uber or Lyft from Beach Club.  The main goal at Hollywood studios was to watch the Star Wars fireworks and walk through Toy Story Land.  Being able to ride Toy Story Mania twice was an awesome bonus.  We actually didn’t walk much of Toy Story Land because M decided it was more important to ride twice than walk the Land.  The second time we basically walked right on.  It was pretty awesome.  After watching the awesome Star Wars fireworks we headed  to the parking lots with the masses.  It was a long day and we decided to call an Uber.  The parking lot there is currently a hot mess.  Like a huge hot mess.  It made getting out of there at the end of the night pretty awful.  The poor Uber guy also had to sit in traffic at the end of the night.  It was so much better being in an Uber though.  I can’t imagine what those busses were like.  We were in a climate controlled car, sitting and comfortable.  Was worth the $15.  I probably would have paid more.

The next day we were off to LEGOland. Dan left the hotel a little before 8 and Ubered 5 minutes to Enterprise.  We had rented through Costco and the experience with both Enterprise and Costco were good.  I feel like we got like 3 calls minimum from Enterprise making sure we were happy.   It was about an hour and 15 minutes from the hotel to LEGOland.  The park is a nice small park with lots to do for kiddos.  Probably best ages 4-8 but there is stuff to do and see for older and younger children as well.  It rained mid-day so we didn’t get to do everything we wanted but we did a lot!  They had some nice small coasters and lots of models to look at.

On the way back to the hotel we hit the Disney Vineland Character Warehouse.  Oh and the Crocs and Oakley Outlet too.   There went the “cheap” theme of the trip!   We got some good deals though!   We ate at Freddy’s (a local chain) across the street and it was similar to a Steak and Shake.  Food was good.  Ice Cream was better.

The final day was our “pool day”.  We checked our bags in at the hotel, had them hold our carry-ons and headed to Kidani to eat breakfast at Sanaa.   It’s a quick service for breakfast and you can sit and watch the animals.  Pretty darn awesome.  We hit the pool at Kidani after.  It has a nice big slide, a kiddie play area, a smaller slide, and lots of shade for this “over-protective from the sun” mom.  There is a bar at the pool side which has some sandwiches and snacks.  Not anything to write home about but it did the job for a small snack since we were having a late lunch/early dinner at Rainforest Café.  There is a nice shower and changing area up by the fitness center.  It was nice to be able to wash the chlorine off before changing for dinner and the plane ride home.  It just made me feel better the rest of the afternoon and I wasn’t as concerned about not giving Maddy a bath before school today since we didn’t get home until super late.

Rainforest Café was a nice option since we didn’t have park tickets that day and the sit-down options at Animal Kingdom Lodge are a bit much for a late lunch or light dinner.  You can still visit the location at Animal Kingdom Park without a ticket.  They have an entrance outside the park.  We are Landry’s club members and I had a few Landry’s gift cards.  We paid the balance with Disney gift cards.  They take both.  After our meal we headed back to AKL to visit the animals one last time.  And maybe have one more Mickey bar…

So the question is would I do a long weekend trip again if I found the right “deal”?  Yup.  And again.  And again.  Besides the weather delay on the way back to Pittsburgh, it was a pretty awesome weekend.  I came home exhausted, sore, and happy.  An awesome weekend.