Disney World with the kids! It doesn’t get more cliché than that. But guess what? We had an awesome time. Disney World is amazing. The resort and attractions are enchanting and very clean. Guest services are dedicated. We absolutely loved our trip. The kids didn’t want to return home!
We travelled with Vacances Transat (Air Transat), stayed at the Pop Century, a Disney resort for 7 nights (November 7 through 14, 2014), and visited Disney’s 4 main attraction parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios). We used the meal plan with 1 quick service meal and 1 table service meal every day. We were in the 70’s wing at the hotel, with lake view.
On to the Travel Log:
2AM – Hop, en route. The kids were happy to discover the airport and the plane, as it was their first plane trip. The plane was late 1 hour. Xavier enjoyed discovering take off and landing. We took the Magical Express to the resort — this is Disney’s transport service from the airport to the resorts — it was well organized, with an introductory video while we were on the bus.
Arrival to Pop Century hotel, we are hyper happy!! The kids are on pure adrenaline, jumping around everywhere. The hotel is great. We walked around a bit, then ate at the food court. The meal choices were nice, with healthy options. This nice lunch helped us relax and recharge a bit.
The room was not ready yet, so we left for Hollywood Studios at 2pm, using the shuttles. This was easy to figure out: just wait at the designated spot in front of the hotel for the destination you want. Shuttles come around every 15-20 minutes or so, and more frequently in the morning. Everything was well organized here. I guess Disney is used to tourists!
We didn’t try out that many attractions on the first day; mostly, we got used to the place and oriented ourselves. Once we got back to the room at night, we had a better sense of how things worked here, and went back online to « My Disney Experience » to rearrange some of our plans (FastPast, etc.) and plan our next day a little more precisely.
We saw the Muppets stage show, stopped by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, saw the Frozen SingAlong, ate burgers and pizza with a giant carrot cupcake, and finally, saw Fantasmic, which was just wow! (Although temperature dropped at night, we had brought no sweaters, we were seated in front in the splash zone and we were freezing! But still beautiful.)
The room was ready when we came back; it was comfy and quite clean. We booked a standard two queen bedroom, and I wasn’t sure if it would be tight on space, but I was pleasantly surprised. We mostly used the room to sleep, shower and recharge, not to spend a large amount of time there, and this fit the bill perfectly. We had a nice view of the lake, with the Art of Animation hotel on the other side; the room and surroundings were quiet. Housekeeping left fresh towells and toiletteries every day (even when we put the ‘don’t bother’ sign), which was nice; they even rearranged the kids plush toys and left mini-towell sculptures (magic touches) sometimes, to the kids’ enjoyment. Free WiFi, all over Disney, which was very useful.
Favorite moments from day 1:
Orléane’s eyes when she saw queen Elsa appear on stage at the Frozen Sing Along, the kids worn out in their bed at night with their new Mickey and Minnie plush, and arriving at the hotel, which was a happy joyful family moment.