If you read my last post about the first half of our Disney trip, I left off with our late night at Epcot on Tuesday, October 5th. This post will pick up the next morning and continue through the end of our trip. We had a wonderful week!
Wednesday, October 6th:
We took it easy Wednesday morning, and the girls played and watched a movie.
After lunch, we headed down to the neighborhood pool and splash pad area. It was close enough for us to walk to, which was really nice!
The pool was really spacious with plenty of room to splash and play. The girls had a blast!
Abigail enjoyed the pool, but didn’t care for the splash pad area after the bucket of water dumped on her head…haha. Brooklyn and Savannah had a lot of fun in the splash pad area.
Brooklyn loved the two big water slides! Savannah even tried one of the big water slides at the end of the afternoon, although I didn’t get a picture.
Travis came down the green slide so fast that his feet hit the top of the slide :) I don’t think he was expecting that!
Had to get a picture in this photo spot area by the pool. We loved staying in Windsor Hills!
The landscaping was really pretty around the edge of the pool area…
The garage of our rental house was converted into a game room with an air hockey table and pool table. I think that’s pretty common for rental properties in that area. The girls enjoyed playing out there when we weren’t at the parks.
We had a great day on Wednesday, and it was so nice to have a day off from the parks. I can’t imagine doing 4 park days in a row with no break. We needed the rest and a slower pace for the day, adults and kids included.
Thursday, October 7th:
Thursday was our Magic Kingdom Day. We arrived around 9 AM when the park opened for non-resort guests.
We decided to ride the ferry from the parking area instead of taking the monorail. I always enjoy the ferry ride, and it was fun to see the castle off in the distance as we got closer.
This was my first time seeing the fall decorations at Magic Kingdom (that I can remember, at least).
We started heading toward the castle and could already tell it was going to be a super hot day. It felt hotter than our previous two park days already.
We stopped and took some pictures before we all got too sweaty ;)
Before our originally-scheduled trip in March 2020, I ordered coordinating shirts for all of us from Etsy. I was worried that the girls’ shirts might be too small by the time we finally went on the trip, but thankfully they still fit!
Brooklyn was ready to get a move on after all the pictures were finished ;)
Our first ride of the day was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
The girls enjoyed it (Abigail most of all).
Next, the girls wanted to ride the carousel. We were trying to knock out as many rides in Fantasyland as we could to minimize walking. We really did a lot of criss-crossing the parks at Animal Kingdom and Epcot because we were following the Touring Plans recommendations in the app, but at Magic Kingdom we really just made our own plan as we went based on what was nearby and what everyone was interested in. It worked really well and saved our legs for sure.
The girls all loved the carousel! Paw and Cici rode too, and Rae Rae took pictures from outside the fence. I loved all the Cinderella details at the top of the carousel.
I thought this picture turned out so cute :)
After the carousel, we stopped for a quick snack and bathroom break…
…before heading over to the Barnstormer nearby, a kiddie coaster. It was Abigail’s first ever roller coaster!! The girls all loved it!! Brooklyn said it was really fun :)
We basically walked right onto Barnstormer and Dumbo afterward…
Rae Rae rode Dumbo with Savannah and snapped this picture of her :)
I rode Dumbo with Brooklyn and she had us flying up and down all over the place…trying to make it as thrilling as possible ;) Abigail rode with Cici, and she actually liked Dumbo this time!! She hated all the rides that went up high 2 years ago when we did Magic Kingdom with the Hesters.
There was a fountain area nearby and the girls ran through it and got all wet (Brooklyn and Savannah especially…Abigail didn’t get too wet). The water felt good because it was such a HOT day.
Even the grownups enjoyed cooling off a bit ;)
Next we headed over to Journey of the Little Mermaid. Abigail and Savannah especially enjoyed it, as well as Cici.
It felt nice to be in the A/C too!
Next, we headed over to the Mad Tea Party…i.e. the spinning tea cups. Also known as Rae Rae’s “favorite”…or not ;) She would’ve sat it out but Brooklyn told her she wanted to ride with her…and of course, Rae Rae couldn’t say no to that…haha
It was me, Brooklyn, Paw, and Rae Rae all crammed in one tea cup and we barely fit…haha. The ride started, and Paw just kept spinning us faster and faster…as fast as he could. I was just heehawing the whole time looking at Mom’s face, and Dad was just grinning and spinning us as fast as he could. It was hilarious. One of my favorite memories from the whole day. I’m pretty sure Travis was doing the same thing in the other tea cup…must be a guy thing. No one got sick and we made it out alive. Whew! :)
The girls spent a few minutes trying to pull the sword out of the stone after we got off the tea cups ride. I’ve heard that it actually does come out every once in a while for a lucky child, but we didn’t have any success pulling it out this time.
Watching their intense effort was fun though!
Next we rode It’s a Small World…
My favorite memory from this ride was sitting next to Abigail and watching her clap along with the song as we were on the ride. It was so cute!
Abigail really liked the ride, and it seemed like the other girls did too.
I’m not sure why, but at one point we got log jammed behind the boats in front of us and slowed down a lot in the last room or two. We all had the song stuck in our heads for a while after that ;)
We decided to take a break for lunch after that. We had already done 7 rides…plus a snack break and the water fountain area. We decided to eat at Columbia Harbor House since it was pretty close by. This was the first time we tried to mobile order on our phone, and it worked really well! As soon as we placed the order, it alerted us to come to the counter to pick it up. All week except for the first day, we packed PB&J sandwiches, chips, and fruit for Savannah and Abigail to eat for lunch, and we ordered Brooklyn a kids meal. That worked really well, and I’m sure we saved a lot of money not buying multiple kids meals each day. It felt so nice to sit in the A/C and cool off for a little while during lunch.
After lunch, we decided to try to knock out Peter Pan’s Flight because it was close by, and the wait time had dropped to 40 minutes from closer to an hour. This was definitely the longest line we’d been in all day by far. The ride ended up breaking down a couple of times while we were in line, so we probably did end up waiting about 40 minutes. (Most wait times were thankfully not anywhere as high as the posted wait times).
Abigail fell asleep while we were in line :) She was worn out from all the fun we’d already had.
The queue had some neat special effects that Brooklyn and Savannah enjoyed. We finally got on the ride, and it ended up breaking down TWICE while we were on it…haha. We were just sitting suspended in the air waiting on it to move again. Travis said Abigail woke up in the middle of the ride when it jolted to a stop and asked, “Where are we??” We got off the ride, and none of us were very impressed. I think the queue was neater than the ride itself. Definitely not worth the long wait.
Next, we headed over to Tomorrowland to see the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. Travis and I remembered it being really funny from seeing it either on our honeymoon or 5 year anniversary trip (can’t remember which).
Little did we know that both Paw and I would be featured during the show. I think I got picked because I made the mistake of sitting on the aisle…whoops. They asked where I was from and how the weather was in AL. Thankfully nothing too hard, and I didn’t have to dance or do anything weird ;)
Paw was picked as “that guy,” which meant they kept going back to him throughout the show and featuring him on camera. One of the monsters joked that he was wearing a lampshade on his head! Haha!! I wish we’d gotten a picture or video of him on the big screen, but we were too busy laughing hysterically to remember.
It was hilarious. The whole show had us laughing, especially when Paw kept getting on camera. Mom especially was just dying laughing. It was definitely another highlight of the day!
Next, we walked over to Tomorrowland Speedway. Brooklyn had been talking about wanting to ride it for weeks before our trip. None of us had done it before, and afterward we realized why. It was a really rough version of go-karts that were stuck on a track so you couldn’t really drive them wherever you wanted on the track.
Brooklyn rode with me and tried to steer while I pressed the pedal. We got about 3/4 of the way around the track when our car shut off. I kept pressing the gas and nothing was working. Rae Rae came up behind us and tried to give us a push with her car…haha. We had to just sit there with cars backing up behind us until a cast member walked over and restarted the car for us. 2nd ride of the day that broke down while I was in it. Travis rode with Savannah and said their steering wheel didn’t even work at all…so they had a really rough ride bouncing from side to side…haha. The kids enjoyed the speedway, but the adults weren’t big fans ;)
We stopped for a snack break of soft serve ice cream and smoothies nearby afterward. The treats were very refreshing in the heat.
After that, we decided to head over to Haunted Mansion, another ride that Brooklyn had been really wanting to do. We walked past the castle, which had been redone for the 50th anniversary. My first time to visit Disney World was during the 25th anniversary (and the castle was decorated like a big pink birthday cake), so it was neat to be here 25 years later.
We also found a few of the 50th anniversary statues…
I was surprised that both Savannah and Abigail wanted to ride Haunted Mansion too. Neither of them seemed very fazed by it afterward! I rode with Savannah, and she held my hand the whole time but never cried or got upset. She said she even kept her eyes open the whole time. Travis said Abigail didn’t seem spooked either.
Next we decided to head to Splash Mountain to cool off. I think the heat index was 101 that afternoon. On the way, we saw the Royal Princess Processional, a cavalcade with a bunch of Disney princesses! Disney World wasn’t doing full parades at the time of our trip, but had “cavalcades” throughout the day…a smaller and quicker version of a parade.
Abigail had been hoping to see Cinderella all day, so I was really hoping we would see the cavalcade come through. The girls were excited!
Brooklyn was excited to see Elena of Avalor and Mulan, her favorite princesses. Savannah said her favorite was Elena also.
The girls love their Paw!
We headed on to Splash Mountain and saw a couple of the Country Bears on the way. Cici volunteered to stay with Abigail since she wasn’t tall enough to ride. They went to see the Country Bear Jamboree while they waited on us. Cici said Abigail liked it.
We had to wait for a while for Splash, but it was so worth it. Is it even a day at MK without riding Splash Mountain?? :)
Savannah was brave and said she liked it. Brooklyn loved it! It felt great to get a little wet.
Cici and Abigail stood at the bridge at caught a few pictures of us coming around after we’d gone down the big drop!
I didn’t pass extra for PhotoPass, but I did take a screenshot of our ride photo. Savannah is covering her head with a hat…haha!
Big Thunder Mtn Railroad was nearby, and Rae Rae was wanting to ride it before we left (it was after 5 pm by this point). So she and Paw took Brooklyn and Savannah to ride it, while the rest of us headed toward Main Street.
As we headed toward Main Street, we found another statue of Pooh and Piglet :)
We also saw the Mickey Celebration Cavalcade with Mickey, Minnie, and friends.
Abigail was excited and was so cute waving :)
I needed a few minutes to look for some gifts in the gift shop. I found what I was looking for, and Abigail picked out a Mickey Mouse pen that Cici bought for her. The princess cavalcade also came by again! When I finished up in the gift shop, we found a bench and waited for the others to meet up with us.
They apparently only waited about 30 minutes for Big Thunder, and the girls both loved it.
Savannah hated it 2 years ago, but this year it was it favorite ride at Magic Kingdom! Rae Rae said both girls even put their hands up on the ride!! I couldn’t believe it!!
It was a full day, but we got to ride so many things!! I think it was about 6:30 pm when we left. The park was crowded, but the wait times really weren’t bad at all for the most part. We walked on to quite a few rides, and the lines moved fast. We saw Pooh and friends as we were leaving! Lots of character sightings today. It was a really great day!
Favorite Attractions at Magic Kingdom:
Savannah: Big Thunder Mtn Railroad and Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
Cici: The Little Mermaid
Brooklyn: Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor and Big Thunder Mtn Railroad
Abigail: Carousel and Tea Cups
Rae Rae: Splash Mtn, Big Thunder Mtn Railroad, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
Paw: Big Thunder Mtn Railroad
Travis: Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor
Erin: Splash Mountain and Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor
Friday, October 8th:
Well, every park day had gone so smoothly up until our last day. We really couldn’t have asked for the first 3 days to go better. The lines were mostly short, and we got to do almost everything we hoped to do. Hollywood Studios opened at 9 am to non-resort guests, and we left the rental house at 8:30 with plenty of time to get there, or so we thought. It was only 11 minutes to Hollywood Studios.
Well, we got to the gate and there was a line of cars backed up probably 30 deep in each lane. It took us over 15 minutes to get through the line to pay for parking, so we didn’t even get out of the car until after 9 am. Then there was another fairly long line to scan our tickets to get in. We could tell right off the bat that it was going to be a crazy day at HS. We didn’t have any wait at the other 3 parks to park or scan our tickets.
We decided to take a few pictures before we got too hot and sweaty…
It was very sunny ;)
This is how we felt about the crazy crowds, and we were just getting started…haha
After a few pictures, we decided to head for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway first. The wait was already showing 60 minutes, but most of the other headliners were just as long, and I wanted to do something Abigail could ride and enjoy first before we did other things. I think the wait only ended up being about 40 minutes, and we all enjoyed the ride. I think it is the newest ride at Hollywood Studios, so none of us had ever ridden it before. It was really cute! My favorite part was when our car started dancing :)
By the time we got off the ride and started to head toward Toy Story Land, it was already about 10:30 am.
Slinky Dog Dash was next on our list. The posted wait time was 90 minutes. I think we waited about 65 minutes, but whew it was HOT out in the sun for part of the wait. It didn’t feel as hot as our MK day, but still pretty hot. We had snacks/drinks while we waited in line.
Abigail was just barely tall enough to ride (38 in), and she said she wanted to ride it! At a certain point in line, we had to park the stroller, so she had to stand or be held in line the rest of the time.
We loved all the Toy Story details in line while we were waiting…
Finally, it was our turn to ride! I sat with Abigail and held her hand during the ride. The big girls put their hands up during the ride again like they did on Big Thunder Mtn! Everyone but Abigail liked it! She didn’t cry during the ride but burst into tears as soon as we got off. She called it “stinky”…haha…although that night she tried to tell us that she actually did like it after all ;) It was a super short rollercoaster. It felt like it was over almost as quickly as it began. It was a long time to wait for such a short ride.
By this time it was lunchtime, and we’d accomplished 2 things :( We decided to walk toward Galaxy’s Edge to find something for lunch since Brooklyn and Savannah were really wanting to do all the Star Wars rides at Hollywood Studios. We found some storm troopers on the way!
Brooklyn was excited but a little nervous to see them. She didn’t want to make them mad ;) but enjoyed talking to them and hearing them interact with other people. One of the stormtroopers talked to us and told me to keep my kids in line because they didn’t need any more troublemakers running around…haha.
We decided to eat lunch at Docking Bay 7. It was nice to eat inside in the A/C! Travis really loved all of the details in Galaxy’s Edge and inside the restaurant. Since I’m not a big Star Wars fan, I didn’t appreciate it like he did. But he and the girls thought it was really cool!
After lunch, we planned to hop in line for Rise of the Resistance, the ride that “everyone” says you HAVE to do at Disney. The wait time posted was 130 minutes…yikes. I was planning to take Abigail to see the Frozen show since she wasn’t tall enough to ride ROTR, and then come back to do rider swap once the rest of the group was finished riding. At that point, Rae Rae decided to take matters into her own hands and sign Paw up for a disability pass (he has spina bifida), which allowed our group to get a pass to come back and ride ROTR via the lightning lane at 2:50 pm. You can only get one DAS ride pass at a time, so we all hopped in the line for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in the meantime, which had a 60 minute wait.
Abigail and I had already started heading toward the Frozen show before we turned back around to meet everyone again…she had fallen asleep in the stroller, so I guess she would have missed the show anyway. She slept on Travis’s shoulder for part of the wait in line, but we had to stand her up to measure her and then she went back to sleep for a few more minutes. She was sleeping standing up when she got measured…haha. 38 inches and barely qualified!!
Our group had to split up because only 6 people can be in a crew together, so Rae Rae and Cici ended up being the pilots of a different ship. The rest of us were all together. Dad and I were the pilots, Brooklyn and Savannah were the gunners, and Travis and Abigail were the engineers. It was HILARIOUS. Dad and I kept crashing into stuff right and left. I was dying laughing the whole time. I loved it!! Travis did too. Brooklyn and Savannah liked it, but they were nervous leading up to it about whether they would know how to do their jobs very well, so I think their worrying kept them from enjoying the ride more. I bet they’ll love it even more next time we do it.
When we got finished, we had a few minutes to wait before it was time for our group to ride ROTR. We saw some more storm troopers…
…and took some pictures in front of a Rebel Alliance ship :)
I stayed back with Abigail (we got a rider swap pass first) while everyone else rode Rise of the Resistance, and we walked around looking for a snack cart. I couldn’t find anything that looked appetizing, and didn’t feel like walking too far, so we headed back to the ride’s exit. On the way back, we saw Rey!! Abigail didn’t know who she was (I recognized her from some of the movies I’ve seen), but she was still excited and waved “Hi, Rey!!” She didn’t want to leave until Rey waved back, which she did :)
While we waited, another family was sitting nearby, and their child had a bubble wand. Abigail was thoroughly entertained just running through the bubbles and trying to catch them. A fun memory from the day for me :)
The group came out of ROTR, but didn’t say much so they wouldn’t spoil it for me. Travis and I jumped back in the lightning lane to do rider swap while the grandparents took the girls to go find a snack. The ride was great!! It was definitely a different type experience than any of the others we’d done to that point. We got about 90% finished with the ride (according to Travis) when it broke down…
We sat there for 5 or 10 minutes before a cast member came to get us out. We had to unbuckle and walk out a back entrance. We got the behind-the-scenes look at the last part of the ride. We also got FastPasses to come back and ride it again anytime that day. Unfortunately we never got an opportunity to use them because the ride was down for a while after that. We then met up with Rae Rae and Abigail who were sitting on a bench waiting for the others to come out of Star Tours. It only had a 5 minute wait so they decided to ride it rather than doing snacks first. The girls loved it!
I really wanted Abigail to be able to see the Frozen show, so we decided to catch the 4:30 show as a group. It was so cute and funny! The Arendelle historians were hilarious.
The girls all enjoyed it, and Abigail was literally sitting on the edge of her seat. She said she didn’t like the snow at the end, but she loved the rest of it ;)
After the show, we got snacks from a snack cart–more frozen lemonade, popsicles, and Mickey ice cream sandwiches. We saw the Pixar Pals Motorcade before the show and during our snack time too! The girls liked seeing Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and Sulley.
Happy about her yummy snack! :)
We debated trying to do another ride or two (like Tower of Terror), but by that point, it looked like rain was moving in soon, and everyone was getting tired and tired of waiting in long lines.
We found a few more statues on our way out, including BB-8 and R2D2!
Rae Rae wanted to take the girls to a gift shop to pick out a souvenir before we left, so we went in a few stores on the main street near the park entrance. Savannah picked out an Elsa Christmas ornament, Brooklyn picked out a Mandalorian, and Abigail picked out a Porg (some kind of Star Wars creature that looks like an owl)…haha.
We hurried to the car after that because the sky started to get really dark. We barely got everything loaded up when there was a huge flash of lightning and immediate clap of thunder that was WAY too close for comfort. We threw everything in the car as fast as we could and jumped in the car just as the bottom fell out. We couldn’t have timed it any better! That was our cue to leave :)
We had a fun day–the lines were definitely longer than any of the other days, and there were a lot of things we didn’t get to do that I hoped we would…but we enjoyed the rides and show we did get to see/do.
Favorite Attractions at Hollywood Studios:
Cici: Slinky Dog Dash
Brooklyn: Rise of the Resistance
Savannah: Slinky Dog Dash and all of the Star Wars rides
Abigail: Frozen Sing-a-long and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Paw: Slinky Dog Dash
Rae Rae: Mickey’s Runaway Railway
Travis: Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler’s Run
Erin: Smuggler’s Run and Mickey’s Runaway Railway
Saturday, October 9th:
We managed to hit the road by 7:20 AM (Eastern time!). Travis got most of our things packed in the car the night before, which definitely helped.
We decided to drive home through Atlanta instead of going back the way we came. The traffic wasn’t too bad for Atlanta. We stopped at Jersey Mike’s for lunch and Burger King for supper. Everything went pretty smoothly until we were on the back roads somewhere between Atlanta and home. Abigail said she had a “headache” in her tummy…and the next thing we knew, she had thrown up all over herself in the car. We still had about 2 hours left to drive. Thankfully, we were able to wipe her off and change her clothes, and it didn’t slow us down too much. We finally got home around 8 PM…whew. It was a long day, but we were glad to make it home in one day instead of having to spend the night in a hotel and drive the rest of the way on Sunday.
We also got to see a beautiful sunset on the drive home!
Overall Disney thoughts – We absolutely loved the rental house and neighborhood. We would stay in Windsor Hills again in a heartbeat. It had a super convenient location, and we loved the private pool and the neighborhood amenities. I was glad we got our trip in before the Genie+ service debuted, and people had the option to pay extra to skip the lines. Overall, with the exception of Hollywood Studios, the lines moved quickly and most wait times were not bad at all. We got to do most things in each park (especially AK, MK, and EP) that we wanted to do! We took 2 single strollers to the parks, which worked out really well (one stroller belonged to the rental house). Brooklyn and Savannah rode occasionally on the first park day or two, but for the most part they walked everywhere. Abigail rode in the stroller most of the time unless we were just going to be walking a short distance. It was really helpful to have that 2nd stroller though for storing backpacks and all our stuff. I honestly think having 2 single strollers was way better than having 1 double stroller. Easier to navigate and split up the load so that one person wasn’t pushing all the weight. Next time, I would pack ponchos again but not worry with rain jackets. I was surprised at how much I loved Epcot and how much there was for kids as young as Abigail. I remembered it being kind of boring as a kid, but they have added a lot since then! I would say my favorite park days of the week were probably Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We loved having Paw, Rae Rae, and Cici with us and are so glad they were able to come on the trip. Overall, we had a blast and made a lot of good memories. I’m so glad we went, and can’t wait to go back again sometime in the future.
