A Magical Surprise

 



My grandson was celebrating his 3rd birthday in July.  It had been an emotional and challenging health year for the little guy.  My son and his wife changed their vacation plans to celebrate his milestone birthday in family style with a trip to Disney World.  After inviting my youngest daughter along, things were said and plans were made and it became the cancelled graduation celebration we had hoped.  We had talked bout finally visiting Galaxy's Edge in Hollywood Studios after her graduation, but the expense was too much.  We had settled on a trip to Maine, but that too was cancelled when I spent the money I was saving for the trip on her childhood horse, Troubadour.  We both agreed it was a much better use of the money.  When the opportunity arose to go to Disney adjacent to my son's family trip, I was still hesitant.  It was a lot of money that I had not planned for a trip. My daughter and I agreed to split the cost and it was much more affordable. My husband encouraged us to go and celebrate both my daughter and my grandson.  He was previously committed to a mission trip to Appalachian area.  With less than a month to go, we were headed to Disney World the most magical place on earth, but in July also the hottest.  Why go in July many people questioned.  Well his birthday is in July and my daughter in-law is a teacher and July is her month off.  So not ideal to be visiting the magic on the surface of the sun during the hottest time of the year, but still totally worth it, but yes we will still complain about the heat and humidity. 

We were able to use our travel point and got a direct flights to and from Cleveland for free. Cha Ching!  Though not free, we did opt for the quick service dinning plan.  Was it worth it? TO me yes.  I liked knowing it was already paid for.  We joked that we were squeezing every penny of it and we did.  Our meal, beverage and snacks spending was within $5 dollars of the cost.  The secret.  We typically bought the the top 2 most expensive quick services with with an alcoholic or slushy drink which range from $8  to $16. We also typically bought the upper end of the snack range as well. I am happy to share we did not eat one hamburger or chicken fingers.  We opted for ribs, 1/2 roasted chicken and lobster rolls.  I forgot how large the portions are and I don't think I would have been as successful on my own.  I would have forgotten to eat being so busy in the park.  Did we make mistakes using the quick service? Absolutely. But for us it was totally worth it!!  Being so hot the resort mugs included in our plan were a game changer.  Only adding the $22 cost of the mug in my breakdown assessment, I hadn't included the cost saving on our 4 refills for  water, soda, vitamin water or lemonade daily.  So that was another $16 a day on stand alone beverages.  So an estimated $100 we would have spent on stand alone beverages.  So yes, the quick service dining plan was a good fit for us. Out of pocket we spent around $200 on food, but the majority of that was my grandson's character birthday breakfast at the Grand Floridian. TOTALLY WORTH IT!!

Hourglass Lake - Pop Century Disney World Florida

On the day of our arrival, we enjoyed time at Pop Century Resort before meeting up with my son and his family at Disney Springs. We liked our stay at Pop Century. The rooms were updated.  We stayed in the 50's section and had access to our own bowling pin pool.  I enjoyed it several times though the water was lukewarm and wasn't very refreshing. But I am not sure what is refreshing when the real feel is 104 degrees. I liked that it was off the main path, but my daughter felt it was far from the skyliner and buses.  The skyliner!  Total game changer. If I ever go back, I only want to to stay at Art of Animation, Pop Century or Caribbean Beach that offers the skyliner.  It was our favorite mode of transportation.  It connects The forementioned resorts with Epcot and Hollywood Studios.  When we arrived at Disney Springs, a summer storm rolled through, but it didn't deter us too long.  We went to the French Quarter resort and enjoyed beignets.  When we arrived back to our room, my daughter, Christina, surprised me with a t-shirt that my daughter in-law made me to where to my grandson's birthday breakfast. In fact she made one for all 5 of us.  I was very surprised and absolutely thrilled!



The next morning we took a "Minnie" Van to the Grand Floridian's character "Wishing Breakfast" breakfast. I wasn't certain how my grandson would react to seeing characters, but his mommy prepped him well.  We had many fun moments around the table especially when he would formally introduce each of us to the characters with his arms outstretched. At the end there was a wishing ceremony where you could write your wishes on a piece of paper and wave it in the air.  He wished for no hospital stays in 2025.  He shared one of his wishes with my daughter who wrote on her wishing card "employment".  Snow White visited my daughter and told her the dwarfs maybe able to help.  It got a good hearty laugh from all of us before we headed off to the Magic Kingdom for the day.


My daughter and I were surprised how well we remembered the Magic Kingdom.  Prior to our trip we made a list of a combined wish list of 3 things we wanted to do or see at each park.  Many times those items overlapped.  When at the Magic Kingdom we got to do our favorites and more.  I was surprised at how uncrowded the park seemed.  Yes, we had waits, but getting to and from around the park wasn't crowded.  In total we road on over a dozen rides and some twice.  We spent some time with my grandson, so his parents could do a ride or so on their own.  We were all able to go on a ride together as well. The heat did take a lot out of us and we decided not to stay for the fireworks.  We originally thought they started at 9 p.m., but when we discovered they started at 10 p.m. we were out and headed back to our room at Pop Century.  One of our favorite things to do at Disney World was watching the people come down the water hill of Tiana's Bayou.  We stood there and watch for over 30 minutes at the end of the night.  Of course neither of us enjoy water rides so that is as close as we came to one.  

Day two ended with a bus ride back to the resort, a beverage refill and off to bed with over 19,000 steps.  That is a big jump from my average "too hot to walk" 5,000 daily steps.






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