As restrictions were lifting with COVID, my family and I were itching to get out of New England. We went back and forth on a few places, but finally agreed that our daughter has had a challenging year and would love a trip to Disney. We booked the trip 4 weeks before we left. Our last trip, two years ago we had such great success with Rachel from Travels with Family Magic that we decided to use her again.
Due to some ticket restrictions we were not able to get tickets to Magic Kingdom, there were no fast passes, no meal plans and limited reservations for dinner. Despite some changes we still had some fun things planned. Below is an outline of our trip.
Day 1: We had an early flight out of Logan in Boston and after hearing some challenges with the airports we decided to only use carry ons, which we were glad we did as it cut our time getting through everything.
We arrived in Orlando around 10:30am. Disney has The Magic Express Bus which takes you to your resort. I was shocked at how long the line was. After 45 minutes we were on our way to our resort.
Caribbean Beach Resort: We knew wanted a moderate resort, which is a step up from the value resort we stayed at before. There were not a lot of options so we chose the Caribbean Beach Resort. I had stayed here as a child, but I do not remember much of it. This is a large resort. There are 5 sections each named after Caribbean’s islands and they each have their own pool. There is also a main pool with two water slides.
There are a couple places to eat and a gift shop. There are beaches with hammocks and lounge chairs, there is no swimming here. There is a playground and activties like movies under the stars. For transportation there is access to buses and the sky liner. The only downside is there is a lot of walking to get around. Which I don’t mind, but if you have young children or unable to walk long distances it could be tough. Our room was a basic room with two queen beds, a twin size Murphy bed, a small table, refrigerator and bathroom. It was a little outdated, but clean and had everything we needed.
We spent some time at two different pools. In the evening we took the bus and walked around Disney Springs that has everything you can imagine for stores/souvenirs, restaurants and some activities like a movie theater, bowling alley, NBA center and more.
We had dinner at City Works which had over 50 beers on tap, many of them local. Our food was good. I tried a Hot Chicken Wrap, which is a spicy southern chicken. A different kind of spicy, but I liked it.
After exploring Disney Springs we took the bus back to our resort and rode the sky liner to get a birds eye view of the area.
Day 2 Animal Kingdom: The park opened earlier than expected. We grabbed some breakfast at Creature Comforts, which is a Starbucks. Since it was early we rode the safari first. Many of the animals were out eating along with their babies
We got to ride all of the rides at least twice and see a couple shows. The longest we waited was 30-40 minutes, which is really good. Our favorite rides in Animal Kingdom were Avatar and Everest.
We grabbed a late lunch at the Satu’li canteen, which is our favorite restaurant in Animal Kingdom.
Crispy Tofu
The nice thing about Animal Kingdom is it is very shaded, helping it not feel as hot. By 5pm and we had done everything we wanted. I wanted to check out The Boardwalk so we rode the bus there and walked around, then took the sky liner back to our hotel.
2nd Full day Hollywood Studios: My husband was up at 6:45am to get in the virtual queue for the Rise of the Resistance Ride. You are not guaranteed a spot, but luckily my husband was able to get one. I recommend watching a couple Youtube Video’s or talking to your travel agent about the best way to get a pass. We rode the sky liner to Hollywood studios. They opened park 30 minutes early. We got through the Smuggler’s Run ride line in under 30 minutes, which is a very popular ride. My husband and daughter loved it, it made me nauseous.
I liked the Rise of the Resistant Ride a lot better than the Smuggler’s Run.
We were able to do all the rides in the park at least once. Most we did 2-3 times. The only ride we did not do was Rockin’ Rollercoaster, as my daughter was not ready for it. We did not eat breakfast and got an early lunch at Pizza Co. It is ok food. We did not see a lot of good options in the park that were quick services. We tried to ride Slinky Dog Dash twice, but due to technical difficulties and rain we didn’t get to.
We had a late dinner at Riviera Resort and this was one of the best meals we had at Disney. The Riviera is next door to the Caribbean so we were easily able to walk back and forth between resorts.
Vegetable Kabob with quinoa and a pita.
3rd Full Day Epcot:
Epcot does not open until 11am so we slept in and got breakfast at the hotel. Our biggest challenge this day was getting to the park. We were going to take the sky liner, but it was down due to technical issues. We were directed to the bus stop behind our hotel. After waiting a few minutes a cast member ran over and said a bus was not coming there and directed us to the Riviera, about a half mile walk away, where we waited another 45 minutes for a bus. This being our only challenge is not that bad.
The parked opened about 30 minutes early, which was nice. We were able to get right on Soarin, which is one of my favorite rides. We rode all of the rides in the beginning of the park, except for Test Track as it was closed most of the day.
The Flower and Garden Festival was going on and there were many kiosks with a variety of food and drinks. We found a exhibition center right after Canada where there was a lot of options for food and drinks, along with some live music. This was a perfect place to escape the rain.
My goal was to eat and drink around Epcot. I was about 75% successful. We had some really good food and drinks in different countries. The constant rain caused some of the kiosks to close down.
After eating and drinking around the world we rode a few rides again and were able to get in line for Test Track and ride it twice, staying until the park closed. This was our last day in the parks as we had an early flight the next morning. Even though our stay was short, we were able to get in a lot of fun.
Below are some take aways in no particular order:
A smart phone is a must to pre order food, check wait times and navigate around the parks.
Some places did not accept cash. We used our Apple Watches or Magic Bands to pay for everything
Make sure you bring a water bottle as there are refillable stations.
Breakfast was difficult to find, our resort cafe did not open before we left for the parks and the only option in the parks were Starbucks and the lines were always very long. Next time I will make sure we have food in the room.
It rained/stormed everyday, which is expected for June. Make sure you have rain gear.
The weather caused the rides and sky liner to shut down several times.
The food is so so at Disney. We found that the higher end resorts and Disney Springs had better food options. We also enjoyed the kiosks in Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival.
We found it cheaper to eat without a meal plan. You have to order the majority of your food ahead of time through the My Disney app. We saw very little options to walk into a restaurant, get seating and order unless you had reservations somewhere. For quick service you can order off the kids menu to save some money.
I said this last time we went and I will say it again. I’m so glad we waiting until our daughter was nine to go. We saw so many parents struggling with young kids having meltdowns from standing in line, the heat and the rain. You know your kids the best, but there is a lot of walking, we averaged 10-12 miles a day. There is also a lot of standing around in Disney, which can be hard for many kids.
The photo pass is worth the $200 to help capture memories of the trip. .
We enjoyed not being on a timed schedule. For this nomadic family we enjoyed being able to explore as we wished and not have to run to a ride or reservation.
We thought we wanted a moderate hotel, but we were never there. We were at the parks 10-12 hours a day and never used the pools or other amenities at the resort other than the first day.
Overall, it was a great short trip. We will probably not go again for a while, but Disney is such a fun place for a fast paced vacation.
