30th Birthday Disney World Trip Report
I previously posted about my 30th birthday trip to Disney World and all of the planning involved. My post today is all about the trip itself! So let's get started.
Sunday - January 10th
We had a 7:45 am flight direct to Orlando from Birmingham, AL. We live about an hour and a half from the airport. To avoid being too sleepy on our first day, we opted to stay overnight in Birmingham. We arrived at the airport around 6 am. We checked our luggage and got through security fairly quick. We had a small breakfast near our gate. In case you forgot, I was about 20 weeks pregnant at the time. Unfortunately I got sick the morning we left, so breakfast was pretty hard to get down. But I knew with the flight, I needed to eat some something.
We landed about 9:45-10 am, Orlando time. We utilized the free Magical Express, so we went straight there after landing. We got super lucky and the moment we walked up and got on the bus, they closed the doors and off to Disney we went! Our first drop off was at Coronado Springs. We had a few passengers to get off there. Then we were off to the All Star Resorts. The bus ride itself was quick and easy. I love the bus ride. Watching the videos really gets me in the Disney spirit, so to speak. Some people opt not to use this free transportation, but we always do if we can.
We were at the All Star Sports Resort around 11:30 am. We had not received a text with our room information, so we went and checked in at the front desk. I did online check in, so I was able to use that line. The castmember told us our room number and gave us a map. She also gave me my "birthday pin". I stopped in the gift shop and purchased some new ears that I wanted and some MagicBandits. Then we headed to our room. Unfortunately when we got there, our MagicBands would not open our room. We tried multiple times but still nothing. We had to go back to the front desk. When we got to the front desk, it took them about 15-20 minutes to fix our MagicBands. They offered us a "free" FastPass+, and we took her up on the offer, but I also made her aware it wouldn't help us too much since most of the rides I couldn't ride due to being pregnant. That is when she gave me a celebration button to celebrate being pregnant!
We were finally able to get in our room around 12:15. We dropped our carryons off and freshened up. We then headed to the bus stop to Disney Springs! We were in line for the bus by 12:30 and we were at Disney Springs by 1 pm. We went straight to Wolfgang Puck Express for lunch! We used two of our Quick Service credits. I got the pepperoni pomodoro pizza and cheesecake. My mom got the greek chicken salad and brownie. I find Wolfgang Puck Express to be one of the best uses of the Quick Service credits if you are on the Dining Plan!
After lunch, we went and did some shopping around Disney Springs. I found some really cute postcards that I plan to frame for Melody's room. I also took pictures of some other things like shirts and hats that I considered going back to get. I always do this because I don't want to risk buying something early on and then finding something better later.
After a few hours shopping, we caught a bus to The Boardwalk around 4 pm. We had dinner reservations at Cape May Cafe at 6:20 which is at The Beach Club. We decided to start at The Boardwalk, then make our way over to The Beach Club. It only took us about 20 minutes to make it to The Boardwalk. Mom and I spent about 30 minutes or so walking around the hotel and the shops. Since it was still day time, there wasn't much going on yet. We are big Alabama fans, and Alabama was in the National Championship the next evening. We were planning to watch the game in our room, but we wanted some snacks. I really wanted some cold french onion dip, so we looked at the general store at The Boardwalk to see if they had any. They did. We decided we would go back and get it if we couldn't find any at The Beach or Yacht Clubs.
We walked around both The Beach and Yacht Clubs. I took some photos for Brad to see when we got back. We have been considering staying at one of the Epcot resorts, so I wanted to get some pictures of them. We spent some time sitting outside in the rocking chairs just relaxing before dinner. You can read all about Cape May Cafe here.
After dinner, we went back to The Boardwalk and got my french onion dip. Then we headed to the bus stop. We had to catch a bus to Disney Springs, then get a bus back to the All Star Sports Resort. Technically speaking, we could have caught any bus, but Disney Springs was the first to arrive. When we got back to our hotel, we went to the food court and got our refillable mugs that came with the Dining Plan. We went back to our room to find our luggage had been delivered. So we unpacked, showered, and got ready for our first day at the parks!
Monday - January 11th
We got up around 8:30 or 9 am. Mom went to the food court to get us some drinks while I got ready. We were ready and headed to the bus stop for Epcot around 9:30 am. We were at Epcot and through the gates around 10 am. We took a few pictures, then we headed to The Seas area.
A side note about Epcot. When you first walk in, the first ride everyone sees is Spaceship Earth. The line is SUPER long in the morning as you can see below. Don't wait in this line! Come back later in the afternoon!
We first went to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We walked right on. Next, we went to ride Living with the Land. Again, another walk on ride. We finished both of these rides within about 30 minutes. Don't waste a FastPass+ on these rides this early in the morning, especially in the off season. We saw people use their FastPass+ for The Seas with Nemo and Friends at the same time we entered the line for the ride. They ended up being maybe two clamshells ahead of us.
After Living with the Land, we started in Canada and made our way to Japan. We had lunch reservations at Teppan Edo at noon. We took a few pictures then we shopped some at Mitsukoshi. We waited at the usual check in spot until about 11:55 am. When no one showed up, we made our way upstairs. Usually someone is located outside downstairs to check you in. On this day, we had to check in directly at the restaurant. Unfortunately we missed the welcome ceremony due to this.
I have included some pictures below of our meal. I didn't do a new review since the food hasn't changed any. We were in and out in about an hour. Since we were celebrating my birthday, I got a fancy chef hat and they sang to me.
After lunch, we made our way from Japan around through Mexico. We did some shopping along the way as well. Our last ride at Epcot was around 2:45 pm at Spaceship Earth. Notice the lack of a line now!
We caught the monorail to head over to The Magic Kingdom. We strolled up Main Street and headed to Tomorrowland first. Carousel of Progress was up first at around 4 pm. Unfortunately the PeopleMover was temporarily out of service, so we made our way to Peter Pan's Flight for our first FastPass+. Mondays are awful at The Magic Kingdom, even during the off season. So the FastPass+ did come in handy for some rides. Our next FastPass+ was for The Haunted Mansion, but it was also closed. We opted to use a snack credit and grab a funnel cake and drink around 5pm.
After our snack, we went back to The Haunted Mansion, but it was still closed. We decided to use our free FastPass+ for Pirates. I am not sure if it was a great use or not. Everyone that had The Haunted Mansion FastPass+ apparently went to Pirates. Therefore the FastPass line was longer than the regular line! It was also super frustrating because they squeezed four adults (one of which was me, the pregnant lady) in the front of the boat. And if you know Pirates, you know that front seat isn't very large. Afterwards, we went and rode The Jungle Cruise. It wasn't quite dark enough (I love riding at night), but it was still a fun experience.
We took a few pictures as we left since the castle was still lit up for Christmas. We also stopped by and got an caramel apple on our way out at The Confectionary. Then we went and waited for a bus to go back to our room. The National Championship started at 8:30, and we planned on getting pizza and other snacks to go with my french onion dip! We went to the food court and ordered a large pepperoni pizza and breadsticks. We paid out of pocket for this since it would normally cost two Table Service credits on the dining plan.
We were back to our room with all of our food by 8 pm, and we ate and watched Alabama win the National Championship! The moment the game was over, we went straight to sleep since we had an 8:10 am breakfast reservation the next morning!
Tuesday - January 12th
Even though we had a late night, we were up and at the bus stop around 7-7:15 am to head to the Magic Kingdom. We made it by 7:45 am and checked in for our breakfast reservation so that we could get in the park early. As soon as we got in, we headed towards the castle to take some pictures while the park was empty. In order to get even better pictures, we went straight to the castle. We skipped all the photos farther away since that was where everyone else was waiting. Check them out below.
We made it to Be Our Guest by 8 am. We checked in and were immediately sent to wait in line to place our order. We had to wait a bit because there was a computer glitch. However, we still got a seat in the West Wing. We were seated and waiting on our food by 8:15 am. Because of the glitch, they came and collected our receipt to bring us our food. We finally got our food by 8:30 am. The glitch caused a lot of people to complain, but there was really little they could do. They made every attempt to get the food out as soon as they could. I wrote about our food here.
After breakfast, we went straight to Tomorrowland and rode the PeopleMover first. Next up was The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Then we headed to It's a Small World. I am most positive we stuck around Fantasyland and rode some more rides before doing some shopping on Main Street. We then left the Magic Kingdom and caught a bus to Hollywood Studios. That is where our FastPasses+ were that day.
We were at Hollywood Studios around noon, and we headed to The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge for a quick lunch. If you like their food, but you don't want to use two Table Service credits, I recommend this. It is relatively inexpensive, and it is really nice. My review is here.
Our first FastPass+ was at Frozen Ever After at 1:20. We walked around and did some shopping. I got Brad a cute BB-8 tumbler that a castmember was nice enough to give to me for my birthday.
We had dinner reservations at Epcot, so we left Hollywood Studios around 2:45 and caught the boat over to Epcot. It was a nice little ride that we had never experienced before. Below is a short video:
We got to Epcot around 3, and we did some shopping while making our way over to The Land. We rode Living with the Land one more time, then we took a break at Sunshine Seasons. We got a drink and snacked on some of our pastries from Be Our Guest to kill some time.
We checked into The Coral Reef a few minutes before 5, and we were seated nearly immediately. You can read about my review here.
We finished dinner around 6:30. We had FastPass+ at Fantasmic, but we were both really tired and we just didn't think we could make it in time. Instead, we decided to head back to the room and call it a night. It had been a long day, especially since we had such a late night before.
Wednesday - January 13th
We got up and were at the bus stop for Hollywood Studios around 9:15. We made it by 9:30 and went straight to Toy Story Mania. Unfortunately the line was already over an hour wait which wasn't really worth it to us. Instead, we went and toured the Star Wars Launch Bay. It was neat. I am sure my husband would love it, but if you aren't a big Star Wars fan, it doesn't offer much.
Next we went and waited 30 minutes for The Great Movie Ride. In all my years of going, I have never waited that long. I really didn't expect it to take that long. That is the big problem with Hollywood Studios right now. With so much closed, all of the usual short lined rides now have long lines. It is really unfortunate.
We left and caught the boat again to Epcot for lunch. We wanted to try something different so we had La Cantina de San Angel. I have always wanted to eat at one of the Mexico restaurants, and it did not disappoint. You can read about my review here. Afterwards we went on the Great Fiesta Tour. We went and did some more shopping then road Spaceship Earth one more time before heading to The Magic Kingdom.
We spent time riding the slow rides and had a caramel apple as a snack. We pretty much relaxed while at the Magic Kingdom since it was our last night there. We had dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern at 7:35, so we really didn't feel that was much need to be in a rush to do anything. We felt like we had accomplished all the rides we wanted, so we literally relaxed. We had a dole whip before dinner and just people watched.
We went to dinner around 7:30, maybe a little sooner to go ahead and check in. We were not seated until almost 8. You can read about our experience here, but I will warn you, we will not go back! It wasn't a great experience at all!!
We finished dinner around 9 and slowly made our way through the parks to call it a night. We took some last pictures and did some final shopping down Main Street. We left Magic Kingdom around 9:45 or 10 so that we could make it back to the room to pack. Our flight home the next day wasn't until 5:30 pm, but we wanted to go to Disney Springs one last time before leaving. So we made sure we were as packed as possible before going to bed.
Thursday, January 14
We utilized the airport check in service at our hotel so that we didn't have to carry our luggage all day. This was a super quick process. We were on a bus headed to Disney Springs by 10 am. The only items we had to carry were our carry on things like our computers and such. We just killed time at Disney Springs for a few hours. We had a few things we wanted to go back and buy, so we were sure to do that. We also had lunch one more time at Wolfgang Puck Express. Magical Express was picking us up around 2:30, so we left Disney Springs to head back around 1. We didn't want to risk missing our ride to the airport! The Cheerleading Nationals were that upcoming weekend, so when we got back, the hotel was full of cheerleaders. We had about an hour to kill, so we just found a table and chairs out by the pool and relaxed until our bus arrived. The Magical Express was prompt and off to the airport we went. Unfortunately our trip came to an end, but it was one magical journey. It was a completely different experience being at Disney pregnant, but we still were able to have a lot of fun!
