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Old 16 Apr 20, 03:18 PM  
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nothingless
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Talking 5-week Split Stay in Florida, Feb/March 2020 - Day 13: Disney Skyliner & Disney Resort Hopping

Day 13: Disney Skyliner & Resort Hopping: SSP, ASM, AoA, and CB
February 22, 2020

[-- Trip Index --]

After a really cold day yesterday, today the temperature was due to rise a bit, hitting a high of 20 in the late afternoon, and due to be around 16-18 earlier in the day. Unfortunately this was still too cold to go back to Aquatica, which is what Myla really wanted to do. We debated between going back to SeaWorld but in the end decided to do something new: get ourselves in the proper Disney spirit for our move on Monday by doing some resort hopping!

This is something I've always wanted to do, but we never take the time out for this once we're on-site and visiting the parks. Plus, this way we could ride the Skyliner - Myla had asked to go on it every time we passed it in the car to and from Disney Springs. Michael really fancied having a look at some of the hotels we'd be staying the next few weeks, whereas I decided to take the chance to do a mini photoshoot for our company, with some of the new clothes I'd brought and also I really fancied looking at some hotels we'd never been to before, keeping in mind we were keen to book a free dining offer for summer 2021 once we got home in March!

(yeah obviously that's off now - keep in mind at this point in mid-Feb, coronavirus was just something happening on the other side of the world and we didn't actually think it would affect us at all!)

Keeping all the above in mind, our plan was to park at Disney Springs, walk over to Saratoga Springs (where we were checking in on Monday), have a bite in their QS and check out the gym, then take a bus to whichever park came by first, once there hop on a bus to All Stars Movies, take some photos in the Toy Story area and let Myla have a play, catch a bus to Hollywood Studios, ride the Skyliner to Art of Animation (where we were staying at the end of our trip), get food in their food court, let Myla play in their playground, and then catch a bus back to Disney Springs.
As you'll see below, we changed our plans a little bit and ended up going back to Carribean Beach from AoA on the Skyliner, and hopping on a Disney Springs bus from there.

I had worked all the above out with some Dibb help as well when searching fun ways to resort-hop - if you're thinking of doing something similar, I'd highly recommend it, we had a great day! If I was doing it again and didn't have a need to see giant Toy Story statues, I'd probably take the boat from Hollywood Studios to the Boardwalk and take the Skyliner from there!

We didn't rush once we were up in the morning and had decided on our plans. Myla did some coloring, and I finished all my work for the day on the laptop.

We left around 10:30 for Disney Springs, and parked in Grapefruit, the closest one to the Saratoga Springs walkway. It was lovely and sunny, but with a cold wind blowing.


We wandered over to find the Saratoga Springs walkway - it's past the Christmas shop in that corner. I remember last time I was in that area, that's where the busses left from! That was in 2015, I think, and I was surprised to see the bus stops had moved lol!


Found the walkway!


We'd never been to SSP before, so we consulted the map at the Congress Park bus stop. Those buildings definitely looked close to Disney Springs - though of course that depends on where in Disney Springs you're going! If you wanted to be on the Splitsville side, it'd still be a good walk.

For our upcoming stay, I'd requested a room in the Paddock, so instead of taking the faster route from Congress Park to the lobby, instead we crossed the road and walked to the Paddock area instead, eager to check out their pool and facilities. (spoiler alert, we weren't given a room in the Paddock! So this was a bit in vain lol, although we did love where we did end up, and I'd actually request there (Grandstand) instead of Paddock next time!)


We found the Paddock Pool and had a quick look around - Myla was in the stroller eating Goldfish. Michael and I both liked the look of SSP, it was big, spacious, green, and quite mature feeling. We loved the Paddock Pool too and were excited about hopefully swimming there!


We checked the map again to work out the best way to the lobby - crossing the big walkway over the lake!


We really enjoyed our leisurely walk that morning, but I was already thinking it was a MUCH further walk from the Paddock to most restaurants in Disney Springs than I had realized, and my instinct turned out to be correct: we didn't walk from SSP to DS even once in the days we stayed there! It didn't help that we would end up getting a room in the Grandstand, the bit furthest from DS, but basically most of the non-preferred rooms seemed like a long-ish walk. We ended up taking the little boat from Saratoga to DS instead - it drops you off at the Market Place, so a lot more central, and the boat dock was pretty close to our room, maybe a 5 minute walk. Plus, bonus, Myla much preferred the fun boat to boring walking lol!

Sorry for the tangent - getting back to our Saturday of resort hopping now! We finally found the lobby and Artist's Palette, and went inside for a browse around the shop.


The decor here is really cool, with all the colorful hanging lights! We were a bit hungry now, it was 11:30 AM, and got some food. Michael ordered a vegan Asian Noodle Bowl, and I got a cinnamon roll. Myla didn't want anything after just eating 2 bags of Goldfish crackers. Mine was delicious, warm and soft with plenty of icing. His was disappointing - it wasn't so much a noodle dish as watery soup with some noodles and tofu chunks thrown in. He didn't like it at all, definitely recommend you give that one a miss!


Bellies full, we headed to the Saratoga bus stop, to take the very first theme park bus we saw. This happened to be Hollywood Studios, it was sitting there when we walked up so we had no wait at all! Now I know it sounds silly, but even something as small as riding a bus was fun for Myla. We don't often take the bus at home, and she was allowed to sit in her own seat (instead of a car seat), and felt like a really big girl - she was beaming from ear to ear and loved the ride!


We got off at Hollywood Studios only 7 or 8 minutes later, and walked underneath the Skyliner. Being so close to the park and hearing the background music etc got us all really excited and I just felt like I couldn't wait till Monday! We decided to head to All Stars Movies now, and promised Myla we'd ride the Skyliner later, but for now did she want to go on another bus? Yes, she was once again very excited about this lol.


A bus for the All Stars resorts pulled up just as we got to the bus stop, great timing again!


It stopped at Sports and Music first, which we didn't mind - it was fun to see a bit of these hotels too. I'd never been to any of them, so it was fun to see them all in real life after having seen them featured in other trip reports so often lol! Finally we got to Movies, and headed inside for an explore.

Edited at 03:56 PM.
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Old 16 Apr 20, 03:19 PM  
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You may think All Stars Movies is a weird choice to visit for resort hopping, but our reasons were two-fold: 1, we'd been looking at the All Stars resorts for possibly a summer 2021 trip once free dining would be released. I knew they were similar to Pop Century, where I'd stayed in 2007, but Michael had only ever stayed in DVC Deluxes, so he was eager to see a value resort in person too. And 2 was that I had some lovely new Toy Story prints in my shop, and thought it'd be cool to take some photos of these among the giant Toy Story statues.

So to that end, we walked out the other side of the lobby, and checked the map for where to find the Toy Story section.

She's making her best VROOM VROOM noises here.


Once we got to the Toy Story area, Myla ran right inside. She is a huge fan of the Toy Story movies - her second birthday party was Toy Story themed, and she still watches all movies regularly. So she was elated to see all this, and I know she would have been over the moon to actually sleep there! Michael and I agreed the grounds and food court looked lovely too and we wouldn't hesitate to book here if the dates and prices were right.

"Look! LOOK! LOOK!" pointing around excitedly lol.

I pointed at our clothes and mentioned to Myla how they matched the area, and asked if she wanted to help my work by taking some photos. She normally loves this, and now was no exception. She loves 'helping' anyway, no matter what it is, but especially loves this sort of thing as she'll then endlessly ask to see the photos again and she'll be very proud of how she helped mommy lol. So she threw off her jean jacket and immediately started looking around for good spots for photos, and telling *me* how to pose haha.

"No Mommy, go like THIS!"


Next up it was daddy's turn and she dragged him over while handing me the phone to take the photos.


I know I'm bias but she's my little superstar!

She ran off to play around the big blocks next, making us chase her and play hide and seek around all the corners. With the sun out and sheltered from the wind in this courtyard, the temperature was just lovely!


I wanted to get a few photos of Michael on his own too, but of course Myla wanted to be in them too lol.

More hide 'n seek!



Now it was my turn - I'm really not very good at posing and I always feel very self conscious but these turned out not too bad haha.


Finally we pulled Myla away from the big blocks and got her to agree to come with us when we mentioned the slide in the proper playground. On the way out, we stopped by the Infinity Wall for a few last photos. Really, my husband is a superstar too - he's as self conscious as I am but such a good sport!
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Old 16 Apr 20, 03:20 PM  
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Once at the playground, we sat down in the shade while Myla ran around. Very decent playground, we were hoping each of the DVC resorts would have one like this too!


We stayed there until Myla said she needed to pee. We headed back into the lobby for the toilets, and after some convincing from me, she successfully managed a pee, on the toilet! This was a real conquest again for her, that she didn't let the noise scare her into not peeing. Score!

It was 13:30 now, and we decided we needed to get going again as we still had some other places to visit. We waited around 15 minutes for a bus back to Hollywood Studios.


We were at Hollywood Studios for just after 2PM, and headed straight for the Skyliner. It looked like there was a queue, but there wasn't really, we walked right on, no stroller collapsing, and were off before we knew it! We all enjoyed this first ride - it was fun, smooth, and fast!


At Carribean Beach, we got off and transferred to the Art of Animation/Pop Century line. Again, it looked busy, but it really wasn't - we didn't even wait 2 minutes!


We were at AoA not even 10 minutes after getting off the bus at Hollywood Studios, and we both agreed the Skyliner is a real game changer, and we'd definitely favor a Skyliner resort over non-Skyliner if we had the option!

We walked through the Finding Nemo section and past the pool towards the food court, Landscape Of Flavors. I loved the look of AoA, everything looked so bright and colorful and fun! Myla was looking around too, but I could tell she was getting very tired as she didn't say much. Still, we were all excited about getting to sleep here later on in the trip!


We headed into the lobby, had a little look around, and made it over to the food court. We were hungry and well overdue for a late lunch by now! I loved the look of the lobby, with the chandelier and all the drawings.


Once inside Landscape of Flavors, it didn't take us long to pick our meals. Myla didn't want anything to eat, so I bought her a fruit cup, figuring she could eat that later if she wanted. Since Michael wanted a scramble and I wanted a burger, we split up and each went to different stations to place our orders. The food was yum, his chipotle scramble was really tasty, and so was my vegan burger - really good and moist, and the vegan cheese was really nice too! Great lunch for under $25!


At some point while eating, we glanced over to the stroller and saw Myla had fallen fast asleep. Michael tucked his hoodie around her and we let her sleep.


Originally our plan had been to take a bus from AoA to either another hotel, or back to Disney Springs to let Myla have another ride on the carousel. But with her asleep, we didn't want to have to collapse the stroller. I fancied a coffee after lunch, so suggested to Michael we took the Skyliner back to Carribean Beach instead and get some coffees from the Joffrey's kiosk there. He was all for that, so we made our way back to the Generation Gap bridge and the Skyliner station.
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Old 16 Apr 20, 03:21 PM  
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Ah, fond memories of my very first WDW trip in 2007 when I stayed at Pop Century!

We got off at CB, and walked down to the Joffrey's kiosk beside the Skyliner station. The total for one americano and one soy cappuchino was $9! Ah well, nevermind - we were in Disney now!


We followed the signs to Old Port Royale and slowly walked in that direction until we came across a bench in the sun overlooking the river, and we sat and finished our coffees there.


It was so relaxing and romantic - Myla still fast asleep, and we were chatting about the upcoming 3 weeks on-site, our planned trip in September, and just life in general, feeling so happy and optimistic. We loved the look and feel of CB, and agreed that we'd absolutely book CB for summer 2021 if it was included in the free dining again!

Just as we finished our coffees, Myla woke up, surprised to see where we were and supremely annoyed when she realized we rode the Skyliner a second time and she slept through it! By now it was past 15:30, so we decided to continue our walk to the CB lobby, have a nosy at the Pirate pool, and catch a bus to DS from there.


The Pirate pool looked awesome - Myla actually asked if we could get into it right now lol. I didn't take any photos as there were quite a few people swimming and I felt it'd be weird as we were fully dressed and it wasn't like I was taking pictures of my kid in the pool or anything!

We walked through the lobby to the CB beach stop, and waited about 10 minutes for a Disney Springs bus.



It then made 4 more stops within CB (this is one big resort!) before finally heading on to Disney Springs - we were there by 16:20. Neither Michael nor I were hungry after our late lunch, but Myla was. We agreed that we could go for an icecream at Erin McKenna if she ate her fruit cup, which she happily agreed to!


We walked through DS to get to the bakery, just window shopping on the way. Michael went into the Tommy Bahama store for a bit but ended up not buying anything.

Today was Mardi Grass, and we could tell Disney Springs was a lot busier than it had been last week!

I ordered the same chocolate icecream we got before, and this time we got some special Mardi Grass sprinkles, much to Myla's delight. It was yummy again, such a tasty treat!



We headed back to the car afterwards, and were home by 17:45. Michael went down to the clubhouse for a gym session, while Myla helped me get started with some of the packing - she was chatting to me all evening about what all we'd seen today, and giving the likes of Buzz a big hug once we were in Disney next week! 🥰
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Old 16 Apr 20, 04:11 PM  
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We went on a resort tour last year when we visited in April. It’s really good to see different resorts and decide where you might like to stay in the future. Loved Myla’s Mardi Gras sprinkles! Thank you for posting.
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Old 16 Apr 20, 04:16 PM  
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Thanks for sharing, I look forward to reading your report every day.
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Old 18 Apr 20, 03:09 PM  
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We always enjoy a resort hop

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Old 23 May 20, 11:06 AM  
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What a fabulous day. Resort hopping always makes it to the list of things we'd like to do but we never seem to make time for it.
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Old 12 May 21, 11:02 PM  
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Originally Posted by nothingless View Post


Ah, fond memories of my very first WDW trip in 2007 when I stayed at Pop Century!

We got off at CB, and walked down to the Joffrey's kiosk beside the Skyliner station. The total for one americano and one soy cappuchino was $9! Ah well, nevermind - we were in Disney now!


We followed the signs to Old Port Royale and slowly walked in that direction until we came across a bench in the sun overlooking the river, and we sat and finished our coffees there.


It was so relaxing and romantic - Myla still fast asleep, and we were chatting about the upcoming 3 weeks on-site, our planned trip in September, and just life in general, feeling so happy and optimistic. We loved the look and feel of CB, and agreed that we'd absolutely book CB for summer 2021 if it was included in the free dining again!

Just as we finished our coffees, Myla woke up, surprised to see where we were and supremely annoyed when she realized we rode the Skyliner a second time and she slept through it! By now it was past 15:30, so we decided to continue our walk to the CB lobby, have a nosy at the Pirate pool, and catch a bus to DS from there.


The Pirate pool looked awesome - Myla actually asked if we could get into it right now lol. I didn't take any photos as there were quite a few people swimming and I felt it'd be weird as we were fully dressed and it wasn't like I was taking pictures of my kid in the pool or anything!

We walked through the lobby to the CB beach stop, and waited about 10 minutes for a Disney Springs bus.



It then made 4 more stops within CB (this is one big resort!) before finally heading on to Disney Springs - we were there by 16:20. Neither Michael nor I were hungry after our late lunch, but Myla was. We agreed that we could go for an icecream at Erin McKenna if she ate her fruit cup, which she happily agreed to!


We walked through DS to get to the bakery, just window shopping on the way. Michael went into the Tommy Bahama store for a bit but ended up not buying anything.

Today was Mardi Grass, and we could tell Disney Springs was a lot busier than it had been last week!

I ordered the same chocolate icecream we got before, and this time we got some special Mardi Grass sprinkles, much to Myla's delight. It was yummy again, such a tasty treat!



We headed back to the car afterwards, and were home by 17:45. Michael went down to the clubhouse for a gym session, while Myla helped me get started with some of the packing - she was chatting to me all evening about what all we'd seen today, and giving the likes of Buzz a big hug once we were in Disney next week! 🥰
Lovely photos your daughter is such a cutie ☺️
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