Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Disney We Go Finally - Day 3 - Thomas's Birthday- Magic Kingdom and T-REX

[caitlinsmummy]

Welcome to another trip report! I'll start off by introducing the family:

Myself (Kelly) - Chief planner and organiser

Husband (Chris) - The laid back photographer one

Caitlin (15) - Total drama llama and moody teenager totally glued to her phone all the time

Thomas (13) - The cheeky brain box one

Noah (8) - The cute one. Noah is autistic and struggles with change so holidays are quite often a challenge for him

We have been to Orlando as a family twice before, Oct/Nov 2018. We stayed onsite at Port Orleans Riverside for 14 nights with the free QSDP (upgraded to DDP) We also threw a night in at Royal Pacific Resort in Universal to make use of the express passes, you can find the trip report here.

We returned in May 2019 for 9 nights. We stayed on International Drive at The Rosen Inn International, our first off-site stay. We visited Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, Kennedy Space Centre, Universal (with a nights stay at Hard Rock Hotel) and 1 night at Caribbean Beach Resort and a day at Magic Kingdom/Hollywood Studios. The trip report is here.

Our plan was to return May 2020 for 19 nights staying on-site with the free QSDP and also 12 nights in a villa over New Year in December 2020 and just doing Universal, as with many others both of these were cancelled. We settled on May/June 2021 believing this would go ahead and obviously it didn’t ☹ so we finally settled on February/March 2022 and if this one didn’t go ahead we wouldn’t rebook due to the kids and GCSEs etc so we had everything crossed it would!

We were delighted when the travel ban was lifted in November 2021, so got to full on planning again. This time we’ve had 4 nights at The Holiday Inn, Lake Buena Vista and 17 nights in a beautiful Dibb Villa in Emerald Island Resort just off the 192, about 15 minutes from Disney. The pre trip report is here if you’d like to read.

Day 3 – Thomas’s Birthday, Magic Kingdom and T-REX

Day 3, jet lag should be subsiding, yes? No! Wide awake at 4.30am again But to be fair I did fall asleep at 9pm last night everyone else woke around 6.30am. Today was Thomas’s 13th birthday. I’d ordered a lovely gift basket from the lovely angelbabe (Debbie) and Thomas loved it. It had crisps, sweets, chocolate and lego. We’d brought cards from family too which he opened and we’d converted his money in to dollars. Thomas worked his way through some of the snacks whilst we got ready, sharing with the other 2. With it being his birthday we gave him the choice of what he wanted to do and he choose Magic Kingdom.

Noah had some cereal in the room and by 8.00am we were on our way to Magic Kingdom. We arrived at 8.40am, I expected the queues to be really big but they weren’t, straight through security and obviously first day we have to take the Ferryboat to MK! The tears started right then for me, just seeing the castle, knowing we were actually here after so long was just so emotional

There was a photopass photographer here so obviously we had to get a photo then headed in to the park. We noticed guest relations in the park was really busy, I was so glad I had pre registered and sorted the DAS pass as I imagine we’d have been waiting a good 30 minutes just to get seen.

We headed round to Mainstreet and got our full look at the castle, obviously I cried It just seemed so surreal we were actually here. Disney still has the magic, we got another photo with a photopass photographer and stood and took in the castle, it's just breath taking.

We had a slow walk round to Frontierland, posing for some photos and Instagram videos.

Sleepy Hollow was planned for breakfast. I’d be totally underprepared and forgot to link my card to my MDE app so we needed to queue to order, thankfully the queue didn’t take long at all, around 10 minutes.

Breakfast[/B]

Fresh Fruit Waffle Sandwich Served with Stawberries, Bananas, Blueberries, Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread - $8.49

Mickey-shaped Waffle with Strawberries and Powdered Sugar Served with Strawberries and Whipped Cream - $7.49

Obviously there had to be a mickey waffle! We all shared these and really enjoyed them, so warm and tasty. We would definitely order these again, such a great breakfast option and fab for sharing too.

The total bill came to $17.02

Whilst in the queue a lady approached me and said how she loved my ears and where did I get them from, she also loved how they matched my bag. I told her someone had purchased them from The Emporium but it was in December and I understood they've been sold out ever since. They were such a hit and I got so many compliments on my ears and bag on this trip

We had pre registered for the DAS Pass before we came for Noah and so we had pre booked our first 2 DAS passes. Splash Mountain at 10.30am and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin at 11am. We had a leisurely stroll to splash stopping in the Christmas shop to look for our yearly bauble. We always get it personalised but we we're a little disappointed in the choices!

We then stopped and got a refillable popcorn bucket and went to splash for our first ride. A perfect first ride back. Whilst in the queue I booked our next DAS which was for space mountain at 11.24am.

We really enjoyed splash, it was the perfect first ride. After this we walked over to Tomorrowland and did our next DAS pass of Space Ranger Spin. Noah was fuming as I somehow got over 100k in the first 30 seconds I still have no idea how I did considering my end score was 117,000 haha

It was now past our return time for Space Mountain so off we went. Once we’d scanned in I tried to book a return time for the next ride but as there wasn’t any WiFi I couldn’t.

This was one of the flaws we found with the DAS pass. If you aren’t connected to Disney WiFi you can’t book a return time as it doesn’t think you’re in the park. We found the WiFi in the park very sporadic at times so it did become a little frustrating. Eventually I managed to book a return for 7DMT. The current wait time was 150 minutes, so our return time was booked for 140 minutes time at 1.58pm. I noticed when booking return times the DAS usually took 10 minutes off the posted wait time.

Back to Space Mountain, this was Noah's first ride on here as he was too small last time and he absolutely loved it! He was begging to go straight back on but we explained we couldn’t and we would do it again another time.

We left the ride and had a wander over to the Carousel Of Progress, Thomas really enjoyed this last time, the others not so much, but we all enjoyed it today, it was a welcome cool area away from the heat too!

In here I also booked our lunch slot at Cosmic Ray's. After this we headed over to Cosmic Ray’s for our lunch reservation.

Lunch

We ordered:

Mission to Mars Burger topped with Bacon and Macaroni & Cheese served on a Bun dusted with Crushed Cheese-flavored Puffs and served with French Fries - $12.99

Chicken Strips (2 Strips) Served with choice of two Sides and choice of Small Lowfat Milk or Small DASANI® Bottled Water - $7.99

The total for this was $22.34

We choose 2 sides of apple slices and a milk with the kids meal and Noah had those with his lunchable. Caitlin and Thomas had their lunchable too and a each tried a some of the chicken tenders. They were lovely and crispy, just as we remembered them. I had 1 bite then Chris and I halved the burger. We thought the burger was tasty but the bun very dry. Chris also wasn’t keen on the Cheetos on the top of the bun, so a bit of a mixed review on this one, Chris and the boys finished off the fries, I tried one and it was hot and crispy, not soggy.

By the time we’d finished it was 1pm and we had almost an hour to kill still till our 7DMT return time and we couldn’t book another till we’d rode this so we had a look on the app to see what the wait times were like. Mickey’s Philarmagic was posted at 15 minutes so we decided to go do this. When we arrived it was showing 30 minutes, I knew there was no way we’d get Noah to wait that long so we skipped it. (At this point we didn’t have the red wheelchair tag for the pushchair yet)

We found the park was getting increasingly busy and we were feeling a little overwhelmed so we decided to grab some snacks and find a shady spot.

Snacks

We stopped at Storybook Treats to share some icecreams. We got:

Snow White Cone DOLE Whip® Lemon, Blue Cone, Chocolate Bird, and Sugar Bow - $6.49

They also had the 7 dwarves speciality cones and todays was the Doc cone, I couldn’t see the description properly because of the sun but I thought it said toffee ice cream … turns out it was coffee Sadly I didn’t get a pic of the description. This was $5.99

The total was $13.29

We enjoyed the cones, although I wasn't as keen on the coffee one, but Noah seemed to love this one. They melted very quickly as it was fairly warm!

We had a walk over to Gastons Tavern and everyone used the rest rooms, I was tempted to get a cinnamon roll but I knew no one else would eat it and there was no way I would manage even half of it myself It was now time for our 7DMT return. We all enjoyed it again, but said we definitely wouldn’t wait long for it, it just seems to be over so quickly and everyone would much rather ride other rides. This actually ended up being our first and only ride of 7DMT! We just don’t get the hype for it … don’t shoot!

Whilst in the queue for 7DMT I grabbed a 20 minute return time for People Mover so that’s where we headed. We had little bit of an issue with DAS pass as it wasn’t showing for the CM when we scanned but I showed him it on my app, another glitch with the app, h overrode it and we went on. Another one that we enjoy for a nice little chill. Even when it does breakdown with you on it we were only waiting about 2/3 minutes for it to restart to be fair.

It was almost 3pm now and we were all feeling the tiredness so we decided to call it a day in the park but not before some more photopass photos Noah point blank refused to be in these ones, I think the heat was getting to him, such a shame as they were some lovely photos and magic shots.

On the way out we popped into the Emporium and the 50th store where I found my beloved Mickey hand soap dispenser, I picked up a spirit jersey I liked too, we didn’t take pics of these so I’ve grabbed some stock photos instead 😊

There was a spirit jersey which I absolutely adored but was priced at $130! I really could not justify it at all so gave it a miss

We had a mooch around Mainstreet Confectionary and got a mickey and Minnie rice krispie treat and a 50th Anniversary Celebration Cookie Pie. We tried these over the next few days, the rice krispie treats were nice but the cookie pie was very sweet and sickly, none of us really liked it at all.

The total came to $18.61

Whilst in here I noticed meeting Mickey at Town Square Theatre didn’t have much of a wait so I booked a return time for 10 minutes. We popped over to the popcorn cart and refilled the bucket just as Mickey and Friends came down from the train station, so we got some lovely pics and interactions.

Over to Mickey’s Town Square Theatre where we met the main man himself in his 50th attire, he looked very smart. It was such a lovely interaction just a shame there’s no photopass photographers anymore in here. It was now 4pm so we left the park and took the ferryboat back to the car and drove to Disney Springs.

We parked in the Lime Garage and headed straight to T-REX. It was a Tuesday evening and Disney Springs was very busy to say it was a weekday! This was Thomas’s choice for his birthday. We didn’t have a table booked but we used our Landry’s card to request a table. I overheard people requesting tables and they were being quoted 1 ½ hours plus! We were told around 30 minutes so popped into Uniqlo to have a look around, within 5 minutes I had a text to say the table was ready! So off we went.

[COLOR="darkorchid"]Dinner

Caitlin ordered the kid’s pepperoni pizza with apple slices - $10.99 she also got a full sized Dr Pepper - $4.29

Thomas got the kids mac n cheese with fries - $10.99

Noah got the fettucine pasta, plain with apple slices - $10.99

I ordered the small Caesar salad - $9.99 and what I managed to eat

Chris ordered the chicken sandwich - $19.99 and a coke - $4.29

In total this came to just over $70 but we both had our welcome rewards on our Landry’s card so we split the bills and got $50 off. As we’d used the Landry’s card the manager also visited our table and checked everything was ok.

We all actually enjoyed the food in here, very similar to other offsite places. The atmosphere was great and the kids loved the meteor shower, I think this was one of my favourite Caesar salads and almost the perfect size for me too as it was a side plate, which is what I use at home

Total price after discounts and including tip - $37.93 [\COLOR]

The theming was amazing, we saw several meteor showers. On the way in Noah had spotted the Build A Bear shop and decided he wanted to get one on the way out. He choose his dino which he called Zacko (but has now been renamed Dino )

I’d received an email yesterday from Bath and Body Works to say there was a 1 day only offer of hand bacs for $1, obviously it’s too good of an offer to miss so off we went I popped it in the sat nav to try and find one not too far away and it took us to Kissimmee. The staff in the store were lovely and helpful and told Caitlin and I we could both get 20 each that wasn’t a problem! Bonus … sadly Caitlin wanted her own too so I only got 20 I did have 5 from Debbie too so I wasn’t exactly going without

We got back to the room around 8.30pm and Noah was fast asleep by 9pm … poor Thomas was sleeping on the floor now Dino had been took to bed

Thomas said he’d had a great day, as had we all 😊 it was so amazing to be back, all the stress, tears and tantrums were 110% worth it!

[Floridarules]

Great day, thanks for posting. MK walking down Main Street is magical 🥰

[Rescuer]

A lovely birthday day. Mk and T-Rex, great choices.

Shame Noah was tired at the end and didn’t go in the photos, at least he met Mickey after though.

How many antibacs did you end up bringing home? Although for a $ no wonder you didn’t resist!

Your ears and bag are lovely.

We brought a soap dispenser home but not the 50th one. I love it but I don’t love the soap in it. Did yours have the grapefruit soap as well?

I had to empty it yesterday and replace it with bath and body works frosted coconut. There was something about the Disney one that invoked memories of my primary school soap, 🤢. You know that way where a smell just doesn’t sit well with you 😂

[dreamofmagic]

What a great day! Can I ask how you were able to prebook the DAS? Also love the look of T. rex think my wee boy will love it there so that’s now added to our list! We go in October will be my sons first visit but mine and my hubbys 3rd visit so I know there will be tears finally walking into magic kingdom with my wee boy

[Orlandoguy]

Sounds like a great day, you have a lovely family, am really enjoying these trip reports

[Goldia]

Lucky Thomas getting to spend his 13th birthday in MK. It sounds like the perfect day for all of you! The DAS worked well, despite the Wi-Fi issues. You got on loads of rides. First up Splash! Brilliant. Plus all the yummy snacks. Oh and the photopass. It all looks marvellous. I'm not surprised you were crying on the ferry boat and at the sight of the castle.

Can you believe we've never caught the ferry to MK? We've always been onsite so never had to...I guess that's another thing we will have to rectify someday.

You must have all been shattered again by the end of the day, you did well to keep going without a rest break in the middle and make it to DS for dinner! So good that all the stress in the run up to the holiday was worth it in the end.

[Milpston]

What a fantastic day. The gloom of the last couple of years washed away in mk magic!

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Floridarules

Great day, thanks for posting. MK walking down Main Street is magical 🥰

See more...

It really is, there's no feeling like it is there! <3 x

Originally Posted by Rescuer

A lovely birthday day. Mk and T-Rex, great choices.

Shame Noah was tired at the end and didn’t go in the photos, at least he met Mickey after though.

How many antibacs did you end up bringing home? Although for a $ no wonder you didn’t resist!

Your ears and bag are lovely.

We brought a soap dispenser home but not the 50th one. I love it but I don’t love the soap in it. Did yours have the grapefruit soap as well?

I had to empty it yesterday and replace it with bath and body works frosted coconut. There was something about the Disney one that invoked memories of my primary school soap, 🤢. You know that way where a smell just doesn’t sit well with you 😂

See more...

He'd had an amazing birthday, I'm a little jealous

It was a shame as they were lovely photos but it didn't harm anything in the end end.

Ummmmm I ended up bringing about 35 back but I did bring some back as gifts for friends

Ahh no what a shame, to be honest I haven't used it yet as I'm still using my Bath and Body Works one, it's in the kitchen ready for when that runs out though, I hope it does smell nice ... but even if it doesn't I only got it for the Mickey head dispensing sad I know haha x

Originally Posted by dreamofmagic

What a great day! Can I ask how you were able to prebook the DAS? Also love the look of T. rex think my wee boy will love it there so that’s now added to our list! We go in October will be my sons first visit but mine and my hubbys 3rd visit so I know there will be tears finally walking into magic kingdom with my wee boy

See more...

I prebooked through the Disney website. You need to use a VPN as it's only available to US guests through the US site at the moment. If you have a look on here it explains things a lot clearer, but it was very simple to do. The longest part was the chat after the video link to book all the rides but definitely worth it.

Oh I think he will love TREX, just be aware it can be loud when the meteor shower is happening so maybe invest in some ear defenders.

There certainly will and it's nothing at all to be ashamed of, I don't think there's been one trip I haven't cried walking onto Main Street for the first time on that trip x

Originally Posted by Orlandoguy

Sounds like a great day, you have a lovely family, am really enjoying these trip reports

See more...

Thank you so much, that really means alot I'm glad you're enjoying them, we're certainly trying to savour every moment fully aware it could be our last trip with Caitlin as she's 16 in November and probably won't want to go on holiday with the family and would rather go with friends x

Originally Posted by Goldia

Lucky Thomas getting to spend his 13th birthday in MK. It sounds like the perfect day for all of you! The DAS worked well, despite the Wi-Fi issues. You got on loads of rides. First up Splash! Brilliant. Plus all the yummy snacks. Oh and the photopass. It all looks marvellous. I'm not surprised you were crying on the ferry boat and at the sight of the castle.

Can you believe we've never caught the ferry to MK? We've always been onsite so never had to...I guess that's another thing we will have to rectify someday.

You must have all been shattered again by the end of the day, you did well to keep going without a rest break in the middle and make it to DS for dinner! So good that all the stress in the run up to the holiday was worth it in the end.

See more...

The DAS really was so helpful for us. Later in the holiday we end up having to use his stroller in some of the queues as he struggled to cope more, but he did so so well on the whole trip. We wouldn't have got half the stuff done if it's wasn't for the DAS pass as there's no way he could have queued, the times were madness!

No way! You definitely need to rectify that Abby, even if you just get the monorail to the TTC and then the ferry to MK it really is such a magical view and getting that glimpse of the caste ... ahhhhh

We have slightly more chilled days once we get to the villa, we just didn't find it relaxing heading back to the room and all being cooped up with no space for a break X

Originally Posted by Milpston

What a fantastic day. The gloom of the last couple of years washed away in mk magic!

See more...

It really was such a magical day, MK does that sort of magic to you doesn't it X

[mick]

That was a great day nice way to spend your birthday

Joan

[WIGGYSMUM]

Kelly what a really lovely day , full of great food no photos, just a shame that Noah wouldn’t do the magic shots as they were so lovely x