Three kids ages 2-12, two late night After Hours events, and no Genie+ for us-how will this go?!?

[Cherrychip]

Hello and welcome to my trip report! If you are interested in reading about touring without utilizing Genie+, After Hours events, or trying to fit in activities to please a wide range of ages, you’ve come to the right report!
Who: Myself, DH, DD 12, DD 9 and DS 2.
When: March 4-10, 2023
Resort: Port Orleans Riverside Royal room (this was on my Disney bucket list and with the arrival of DS, our last chance to stay in one of these rooms as a family of 5, since he is still under 3!)
Crowd Levels: somewhere in the moderate range- I think HS was around 8 the whole week and the other parks were 6-7 most of the week.


We previously visited WDW in 2017 and 2019 and had a wonderful experience both times. I wasn’t thrilled with the switch from the free fast pass system to Genie+ and ultimately decided to skip it- the stress of having to try to book a headliner at 7am every single day and not knowing if or what time we might get it and feeling like we couldn’t miss anything we booked or we weren’t getting our monies worth was just too stressful for me, so we decided to focus on rope- dropping or hitting things at park close. We did buy one individual LL for Guardians which I felt was well worth it.

Going into the trip I had reservations booked for Boma, Crystal Palace brunch, Sci-Fi Fantasmic package, Storybook Dining with Snow White, Space 220, Topolinos and Hoop De Doo. This ended up being too much for us and we canceled half of them as we went through the trip. Hopefully our cancellations turned into some else’s pixie dust!

Next post: driving to WDW from Michigan and arrival day!

 

[DLo]

Following along . Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Cherrychip]

March 3- Departure Day! Our plan was to drive to Unadilla, GA today which was around 13 hours before factoring in stops. We hoped to leave around 8 but didn’t end up pulling out until around 9:45 am and ultimately didn’t get to our motel until around midnight. Weather was very rainy and windy much of the drive and we passed several accidents and at one point had to swerve onto the shoulder to avoid hitting a mattress that was in the left lane of the freeway so we were very glad to make it safely to our motel.

Because we got in so late, we didn’t leave as early the following morning and didn’t get to WDW property until around 3 and by the time we got our room (had to wait a bit for our room to be ready) and got our car unloaded, there wasn’t really time to unpack properly and settle in before we needed to head off to Epcot. Normally we don’t go anywhere on arrival day, but because our Epcot day later in the week was planned to be a sleep in morning, I wanted to get at least one of the new rides done on arrival day. I wasn’t able to get a virtual boarding group this morning so I purchased an individual LL for myself and my daughters for 6:50-7:50 pm. DH doesn’t like roller coasters so he didn’t want to pay to ride.

Upon arriving at Epcot, we had a bit of time before we needed to go to Guardians, so we rode Spaceship Earth.

 

[Cherrychip]

Next we made our way over to Guardians of the Galaxy for our Individual Lightning Lane. DH hung out with DS2 at the ride exit and we were on the ride very quickly. We all loved this ride, it was so much fun! My girls wanted to ride again but I wasn’t sure if we would be able to fit it into our other Epcot day so I told them probably not this trip.

I think it was coming up on 8 pm at this point and I wanted to try to get Remy out of the way tonight and my DD9 had her heart set on a turkey leg for dinner as well. I wasn’t sure if we had time for both but we speed walked to the American Adventure pavilion and grabbed a quick dinner, and were in line for Remy by around 8:40. The line was fairly short at this time of night and we were off the ride before the fireworks show ended and made it most of the way back around World Showcase before the show finished. Remy was cute but I was glad we didn’t spend anything extra to ride this one.

We were all tired when we got back to the room and I was feeling stressed because I still had to unpack and get us set up for the week ahead. We were planning to rope drop FOP at Animal Kingdom in the morning and early entry was set for 7:30 am so we were planning to leave our room by 6:30am. I’m glad we did Epcot on arrival evening on this trip since we got both of the new rides done, but I probably would not plan anything on our arrival evening again, as it did make for a stressful/ tiring start to our trip. Thankfully unpacking didn’t take as long as I thought it was going to and was soon in bed!

Next up Animal Kingdom day, with a goal of rope dropping FOP!

 

[Cherrychip]

Before we get to AK day, adding a few photos of my 2 year old enjoying his slushy at Epcot and a late night bedtime cupcake snack- I had forgotten that after we got back from Epcot we ran over to the food court right before it closed for some Mac n cheese for him since he didn’t eat actual food in Epcot and some treats before bed!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Looks like your trip got off to a great start!

 

[Cherrychip]

Day 2-Animal Kingdom day! We were all pretty tired this morning and DH wasn’t keen to wake up for rope drop but when I told him the alternative was buying Individual LL for FOP, he decided he’d rather save the money and get up, especially since we wanted to start our day pretty early anyway to avoid the heat of the afternoon. Since we had our vehicle, we drove to the parks each day and my goal was to arrive at the parking lot one hour before early entry was scheduled to start at 7:30. We ended up leaving our room around 6:36 and this was plenty of time. We were very near the front of the line to tap into the parks and they started letting us in before 7:30 to line up at the rope inside the park near Pandora. We had rope dropped FOP on our 2019 visit and we ended up even closer to the front on this trip. I have a picture of us walking to the ride entrance taken around 7:26 am. We had to use rider switch on this ride and I wasn’t sure how that would impact our ability to be near the front but it was fast and easy- when we got to the actual entrance to the ride entrance, a cast member pointed us to the umbrella right beside the ride and those of us riding second ( in this case just myself although I could have brought one other rider with me) had to jump out and scan our park cards or magic bands (we mainly used the plastic tickets on this trip). The rest of the party could stay in line, so if we did have a rider going twice, they could have quickly scanned and caught back up with those who stayed in line. We all got out of line since we didn’t realize this but it literally took a few seconds so didn’t lose ground on our rope drop.

I then located the stroller parking by FOP and checked DS for a diaper change and we headed over to Navi, where I realized was another stroller parking area closer to that ride. I snapped some pics of him in Pandora on the way.

 

[Cherrychip]

DS and I rode Navi and he was a bit nervous but I talked everything up as we went through the ride ( look at the nice “doggies”! Look at the frog goes playing tag!) and I think he ended up enjoying it as DH and the girls reported he liked the ride when they took him a second time while I rode FOP with my ride switch. We all loved FOP and my 9 year old wanted to ride again but since we weren’t wanting to stand in a long line or buy an ILL I told her this one was once for this trip. And it would have been hard to fit in another ride even if we had ILL as our schedule was pretty full and we all wanted time for a break in the afternoon.

After we finished our rides in Pandora, I decided we should head over to the safari ride. My touring plan suggested riding some of the other thrill rides first but I was afraid DS would be asleep if we waited too long to ride and I really wanted him to be awake for this one since I knew he would love seeing the animals. The line was delayed a little and they played the announcement about animals blocking the path a few times but we were on the ride without too bad a wait- my ride pictures say we were on by 9:37. We had a great ride and DS was so excited every time we saw a different animal!








Next we headed over to Dinosaur-DH and I had both ridden before, but my girls hadn’t wanted to ride on our previous trips, so this was their first time. DD12 enjoyed it. I think DD9 felt it was too slow-she was all about the fast rides on this trip!

On the way, we saw a bird eating a snake and passed by Kevin from Up.



I went first with DD12 - we were in line at around 10:26 am, then DH rode with DD9. DS2 loves dinosaurs so I had planned to take him on Triceratop spin and spend some time in the Boneyard playground with him while we were switching off, but he fell asleep in his stroller and didn’t wake up while we were in this part of the park. It was definitely an added layer to our scheduling to have to work around his naps- he slept great in his stroller so that wasn’t an issue, but if we rope dropped the big rides that tend to get long lines by mid- morning, he would likely fall asleep by the time we were ready to hit the rides he would enjoy.



At this point it was around we were all hungry and ready to eat but I decided to hit up Expedition Everest with the girls first since the posted wait time wasn’t too high and I wanted to make sure we got this done since it was a priority for them. We were in line for this around 12:47, meanwhile DH headed back to Pandora to wait for us since we were going to eat lunch here. I think the line was posted around 25 minutes and moved pretty quickly. DD 9 requested front row on this one and we were able to get in the front row line. We had a fun ride, this is a favorite for all 3 of us girls!

Now it was off to Pandora to grab lunch. We were all starving at this point. DH and I each got one of the chicken bowls, DD12 got the hot dog wrapped in bread dough and DD9 got a cheeseburger pod. I also grabbed a couple desserts for us to share-a blueberry lemon cheesecake dessert and a chocolate raspberry mousse dessert -both were yummy!




After we finished lunch, it was almost time for a showing of Nemo to start so we headed over and walked right in as they were already seating people. We hat great seats in the center in the back half of the theater- I like the back half since it is higher up and I feel it is easier to see everything on stage if you aren’t below stage level. It felt great to rest in air conditioning and DH fell asleep during the show. DS mostly liked the show although some of the loud parts were a little scary for him. The girls were so- so on this- they preferred rides on this trip for sure!

At this point everyone was ready for a break- we had. Boma reservation for 7:30 ish and I was a little disappointed we hadn’t watched the Lion King show or taken DS 2 on triceratops but everyone voted for a break and swimming. I debated canceling Boma so we could try to return in the evening and ended up modifying it to 8:45so we could possibly return to AK for a bit if we felt like it. We left the park around 2:20and made our way back to the resort where DS2 and DH had an afternoon nap while I took the big girls swimming. I think we swam until around 4:30 or 5 at which point I told them we needed to go back to the room if we were going to try to go back to AK. However DH and DS were both still asleep and I realized it would be too stressful and rushed to try to get to AK in time to do anything before park close and we couldn’t jump in any lines at park close anyway since would need to get to our Boma reservation. The girls were a little disappointed but it was just as well as it ended up pouring that evening during the time we would have been trying to go so we wouldn’t have done Triceratop or Boneyard in the rain anyway!

It was very nice to not feel rushed getting ready for Boma and since we had eaten lunch later than planned, the later dinner time worked much better for us- we tend to be late eaters generally. This was our first time at Boma and it was delicious- would definitely do this meal again! Everyone found food they enjoyed here.

 

[Cherrychip]

We all ate until we were stuffed. I was excited to try the Zebra Domes for dessert and they were very good although the chocolate coffee tart and purple fruity dessert on a shortbread cookie ( don’t remember what it was called) ended up being my absolute favorites.






DS2 even found something he would eat that wasn’t ice cream, cupcakes or popcorn which ended up being his primary diet this week. He loves watermelon or “waterday” as he calls it! I don’t think he ate much besides that but at least fruit is healthy!


After dinner we took a quick tour of the lobby, then made our way back to our room and to bed as we had another 7:30 am rope drop scheduled at MK in the morning!

Overall thoughts on this day- I don’t think Genie+ would have made much, if any, difference in our touring this day and we didn’t miss having it. The biggest time hurdles were the logistics of needing to rider switch several rides and the number of bathroom breaks and diaper changes, and trying to fit things around DS sleeping etc. That’s just the nature of touring with a toddler and I felt like we got a lot done in the amount of time we spent at the park this day.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[Cherrychip]

A quick revision to my AK post in case I ever look back at this for future trip planning- I realized we actually went to the 12:00 Nemo show before heading to Everest, then to lunch last! Next up, our first MK day!

 

[Cherrychip]

Day 3-Magic Kingdom. We had brunch at Crystal Palace scheduled for 10:30 am today and After Hours booked at MK from 10pm-1:00 am tonight so the plan was to rope drop Peter Pan during the 7:30 am early entry, ride Fantasy land rides, head to brunch, maybe catch the 12:00 pm parade, then head back to our room for a long break before After Hours. Since we were driving and would have to take the ferry or monorail, I was hoping to be at the parking lot right at 6:30 am but we didn’t make it there until 7:00 am and were on the monorail by 7:15 am. Once we entered the park we speed walked to the rope drop area and got to the back of the group as they were just starting to walk into Fantasy land. It was quite foggy this morning so I didn’t even try to grab a castle picture on the way in. We parked the stroller and joined the line for PP which moved pretty quickly and were soon off to Neverland!

After this we grabbed our stroller and headed over to Pooh. We were in line for that at 8:00. This line also moved pretty fast and DS and DD9 enjoyed all the interactive elements in the que.





I was wearing a honey/ bee print dress and ears since we had brunch with Pooh later so I had to get a couple pictures as well!




Next up was teacups, I prefer this ride at night but we couldn’t walk by and not get on!

We were on this by 8:25 am. DS2 really liked this one.

Our next ride was Dumbo, a super short line and after getting a picture of the kids in the Dumbo outside the ride and parking our stroller, we were on by 8:42.



The girls were ready for a faster ride at this point but we were saving the mountains for After Hours so I told them the best we could do was Barnstormer lol! That was essentially a walk on. After the world’s shortest roller coaster ride ended they wanted to go again but DS didn’t, so DH and I took him for another ride on Dumbo while they did Barnstormer again.

 

[Cherrychip]

We were on Dumbo for our second ride at 9:03 am.

After we finished, we paused to regroup and put on sunscreen which I had totally forgotten to do earlier and DS pulled his first escape act and took off running. He thought it was hilarious to run at top speed with me frantically trying to catch him. I initially thought he was headed for the little splash/ play area, but he didn’t even pause there and I barely caught him before he ran offstage into a cast members only area! I had a backpack harness/ leash I had brought just in case and into that he went at that point until it was time to go back in the stroller so I could make sure I didn’t lose him if I needed both hands free for a second. I know not everyone likes those but he was fast and losing him in a Disney park was at the top of my never want to experience list!

We decided to head to Small World but detoured to Little Mermaid on the way. This was a walk on I believe.



We took a couple pictures in the cue, the first one says 9:23 and I believe was on the way in and the second says 9:33 which I believe was on the way out

Ariel wasn’t in her grotto so we headed on to Small World which was also a very short line and were on by 9:56 am.

We all enjoy this but I think this was DS2s favorite ride of the trip along with Safari at AK- happy singing dollies and animals and bright colors to look at everywhere!




Once we finished Small World, it was time to head to Crystal Palace for brunch with Pooh and friends!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

First - your children are gorgeous! And I love the picture of the oldest holding the baby. What a great big sister!!! It sounds like you got a lot done with 3 kids. I'm tired just hearing about it and I go by myself!!!

 

[Cherrychip]

First - your children are gorgeous! And I love the picture of the oldest holding the baby. What a great big sister!!! It sounds like you got a lot done with 3 kids. I'm tired just hearing about it and I go by myself!!!

Awe, thank you! My girls are definitely a big help with little brother although he doesn’t always appreciate being “ bossed” lol! This felt like our most exhausting trip from my perspective for sure! Although our very first trip when the girls were almost 4 and 6, we basically rope- dropped to closed every single day- they didn’t even know there was a pool at our resort because we never even made time to walk around the grounds-so I must have been exhausted that trip too, but maybe I’ve blocked the exhaustion from my memory!

 

[Cherrychip]

We checked in for our reservation a few minutes early and were soon seated. DH would have preferred to eat later since we had eaten so much at Boma late the night before, but Crystal Palace fit best into our plans on this morning and I wanted to pay the cheaper breakfast price. He waited a while before getting his first plate so we spent probably close to 2 hours here as our reservation was for 10:30 and we left after the 12:00 parade had started.

Right after we were seated and placed our drink orders, Eeyoe came by. This was DS2s first character interaction- would he like the characters or would he be scared?!? The answer to this would determine whether we kept or Topolinos reservation scheduled at the end of the week so I was hoping he would love them…..

First some food pics:

DH may not have been hungry yet, but DS clearwas and since they had donuts, which are one of his four food groups, he actually ate some food here!

My partially eaten breakfast plate.




We were still eating when they switched over to lunch and you can eat from the lunch buffet even if you reserve d breakfast so we got to try both meals- I sampled the entrees but only took pictures of the desserts-my favorite was the pudding with the caramel corn on it. DS had some ice cream for dessert after his donut- on a mission to eat alllll the sugar, lol! He’s had to adjust back to real life now that we are home and meals consist of more boring practical foods like vegetables again!


And finally to answer the question that’s been burning on your mind-DS’s reaction to the characters:

 

[Cherrychip]

And more pics since I hit the limit on my last pool





He loved them! He was so excited and gave hugs to all of them.

And of course Pooh liked my ears and dress, lol!

 

[Cherrychip]

DH was the last to finish eating since he had waited a bit so we took a few pictures while we waited for him to finish.


After this picture DS made a dash for the exit and got all the way outside before I was able to catch him so we kept a firm grip on him the rest of the time!






We enjoyed this buffet- it’s especially cute if you have littles, but I could see booking this even without kids, especially if they continue to allow the last breakfast bookings to eat lunch food at the breakfast price once it is put out -it’s nice for a day where you rope drop the park, then fill up on a large meal before going back to your resort for a long rest before going out in the evening and convenient to not have to travel to another location for the meal.
We left as the end of the parade was just passing by and I felt like a Disney pro for knowing that we could walk through the shops instead of on the sidewalk where the parade crowds were. Of course that did mean fending off souvenir requests from DD9, lol! We got to the end in time to see the last few floats as they rounded the bend to go offstage.




DS2 was probably already asleep at this point. He took a long nap all afternoon and DH joined in as soon as we made it back to our resort. I had a bit of a nap as well, then dragged myself out of bed to take the girls swimming for a while.


I don’t recall what we did for dinner, but it would have either been something from the food court or snacks that I had packed for the trip. Eventually we made our way back to Magic Kingdom- we had After Hours booked tonight and we were looking forward to it!

 

[Cherrychip]

After Hours officially ran from 10pm-1am the night we attended. Guests with just an After Hours ticket could enter at 7. Since we also had day tickets, we could return as early as we wanted, but we were in no hurry since it would be a late night, especially for DS2. We parked ar7:47, got off the monorail in front of MK just after fireworks had started, grabbed our After Hours bands from a cast member and headed to Tomorrow Land using the path behind the shops, as it was open during fireworks. Astro Orbitor had a fairly short wait time posted and I didn’t want to do this one during the official AH since it always takes a while, so we jumped in line and we’re blasting off at around 8:47 pm. I love the views of the park from up here even if I can’t get good pictures while we are spinning!

Next we headed onto People Mover- love this so much!



Finally we did Buzz, no pictures from this one.

At this point it was getting close to 10 and I saw that they already had the After Hours snack carts set up so we grabbed pop, water, ice cream and popcorn around 9:55pm.





We are the ice cream fast as I wanted to jump in line for Space Mountain asap. DD12 had taken a Strawberry Bar which is harder to eat fast since you can’t really bite it and I told her to throw it away and get in line when she was half done. She was a little sad not to finish it but I promised her she would get as much more as she wanted during the night, which we did!

My goal for this event was to ride all three mountains as much as possible since we weren’t buying Genie+ and I wanted to focus on family rides DS could do with us during our other two days in MK. DH doesn’t like roller coasters, so he and DS did things like People Mover, Jungle Cruise and Small World during the event before DS crashed in his stroller.

I don’t have a lot of pics from the event but we did grab some shots in front of the castle as we headed from Space Mountain to Big Thunder Mountain.


Notice DD12 has a replacement Strawberry Bar for the one she didn’t get to finish!

And one photo from the play area outside the former Splash Mountain restrooms.

This event was wonderful! We rode Space three times during the first hour and were able to use the lightning lane until day guests cleared the regular line. We rode Big Thunder next, three times, then Haunted Mansion x1, then 7dwarves three times during the last half hour, and ate tons of Mickey bars, strawberry bars, popcorn and pop as we speed walked between the lands.10/10 would do again! We were all exhausted at the end and went straight to bed when we got back to our room- the next day was scheduled as a low key MK day with a sleep in morning and dinner with Snow White!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Listen - the baby has things to do and doesn't have time to wait on you. LOL. I love escape artists. And it looks like you had a blast at the after hours. I did one right before the Covid shut down (I think it was Villains after hours) and LOVED it.