12 Days at Disney Trip Report Feb 2018 (WDW) - Day One
We're prepping the site for trip reports! Because of the pandemic, the first of these Trip Reports goes way back to February of 2018 in Walt Disney World.
About This Trip
This trip was unusual in that it started with my mother and I, and then we were later joined by my husband and daughter (11 at the time), and then my mother left and my husband, daughter and I hung around a few more days. So for my mother, husband, and daughter, they each had a week at Walt Disney World, and for lucky me, I had 12 days!
Because of this, they all got park hoppers and I got an annual pass, which actually saved me money. Also, park hoppers only go for 10 days at a time. Basically, if you plan to stay more than 10 days, an annual pass has been worth it. Not sure if that will continue to be true post-pandemic with the new Magic Key pass.
With my annual pass, I got discounts on dining and retail (when I remembered), and I got the Memory Maker upgrade so that all of our PhotoPass pictures were downloadable. I had often ignored PhotoPass in the past, so this trip was different in that we actually sought out the photographers and got lots of lovely family pictures.
We were there during Festival of the Arts which was new that year, and which I recommend. It was great, and you'll see we enjoyed a lot of special aspects of it without it interfering too much with our other plans.
In a splurge, we were staying in a Polynesian Village Resort Studio room, which was very comfortable, even when there were four of of us in the room. This was really special to us. The first several times we went to Walt Disney World, it was something we could barely afford to do, and we would ride by the Polynesian on the monorail and sigh. Now, we actually got to stay there and it was like a dream come true!
Day One - February 3, 2019 - Travel and Animal Kingdom
On travel days, I am always so excited and anxious, I never get enough sleep. I got about four hours that night, and we woke up at 3:15 am. We were lucky enough to get a flight from the city I live in (nice, small airport). We were at the airport by 4:00 am, and through security by 4:45 am. Had just enough time to get coffee, and then flight boarded and took off at 5:45 am. Where we were leaving it was 17 degrees Fahrenheit.
We flew on Delta, first class and I have to say, first class is very nice if you have flight anxiety, because the minute you board, you are offered anything to make you comfortable. First leg of flight to Atlanta, there was a water bottle waiting for me, and a little pillow and blanket for each of us. Second leg, we had mimosas before takeoff.
Upon landing at MCO, it was still morning (11ish), and we only had to wait a half hour for Magical Express. Very familiar with that process by now. We know our way around the Orlando Airport like pros, so it was painless.
Upon arriving at the Polynesian Village resort, the tropical smells hit us and we were given leis. The lobby smelled like vanilla flower. Our room in Tokelau was ready upon our arrival, so we settled in there. We wanted to scope out the area, so we made sure we knew how to walk to the TTC by walking the path there and back. It was about a 7 minute walk from our room to the monorail platforms at the TTC.
The view from our room at the Polynesian Village Resort
We had one FastPass for that day for Flight of Passage, so we got on a bus to Disney's Animal Kingdom. When the debate comes up about where to spend the first day, my mother and I differ. She prefers the Magic Kingdom. I probably would too had I not interned at the Animal Kingdom, so the Animal Kingdom is my home and I don't feel HOME until I go there. This time, FastPass availability decided for us.
It was about 3:00 in the afternoon by now and the line to get into the Animal Kingdom was long, but we waited, and then went to scan and my Magicband didn't scan. Some issue with linking my annual pass to my Magicband, even though I had gone through all the steps I was told to in the MyDisneyExperience app. So then, I had to go to Guest Services and there was a gruelingly long line there. I waited in line about 30 minutes and then the Cast Member there got it sorted out for me and we were through the gate finally at 3:45. In line for Flight of Passage from there by 3:50.
It having been my first experience on Flight of Passage, I was blown away. Literally blown away, and upon exiting the ride, I was crying happy tears all the way out of the queue, which is quite a walk. I couldn't stop blathering about how Disney had done it again and had created an experience like no other. It was really great.
But we had to hurry as we had a reservation at Sanaa for dinner at 5:00. Thankfully, the bus from Animal Kingdom to Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani village takes only about 5 minutes. While we waited for our table, we stood outside in the savannah viewing platforms and watched ankoli cattle and herons.
At Sanaa, I had a painted lemur (now officially one of my favorite Walt Disney World drinks), and we shared the bread service with all the accompaniments. This was the highlight of the dinner. For an entree, I had the Potjie inspired butter chicken and paneer masala which was just ok. It was also way too much food, so I didn't finish it. I love kheer, so ordered that for dessert, but the kheer at Sanaa was too sweet and had nuts and raisins and mango sauce, and I didn't really care for that either.
Being we love the Animal Kingdom Lodge, we had to go over to the Jambo House to get some Zebra domes from the Mara quick service there, so we hopped on a resort shuttle over there. Love that place. It always smells like campfires and exotic wood. Got some Zebra domes and hopped a bus to the Magic Kingdom.
We had ambitions to wrap up our night with Once Upon A time at the Magic Kingdom, but the bus from the Animal Kingdom Lodge to the Magic Kingdom kind of did us in. It was packed and standing room only. This entire vacation, we were surprised at the crowd levels. The crowd calendar we had looked at called most days of our trip a 2-4 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of crowds. In retrospect, when they reported what the crowds actually were, they fell in the range of 7-9... basically, much worse than anticipated. So between being tired, and having that initial unpleasant experience on a standing room only bus, by the time we got to the gates of the Magic Kingdom, we were like "You know what? Not tonight."
So we rode the monorail back to our resort. The monorail further affirmed we weren't ready to deal with other people. There was a group in our car, and one man was pretending like he knew all the behind the scenes stuff at the Magic Kingdom. He was leaning against the door of the monorail (the door that literally says on it "Please do not lean on the door") and he was spewing untruths about where the railroad tracks go (all the way around the seven seas lagoon... HA). If you want to annoy a former cast member, please do unsafe things while telling lies about what you know about Disney.
Back at the resort, we watched Once Upon a Time from the beach of the Polynesian which was blissfully free of crowds.
After this, I was wondering where our groceries were. I had ordered groceries to be delivered to bell services from Garden Grocer, so I called bell services and asked about them. It was about 8:30 and they told us they'd be to our room in 10-15 minutes. When they finally came at 9:50 pm or so, they just gave us one sad little bag with a pack of shredded cheese and a tub of butter, which was a portion of what we ordered. I think it was just the refrigerated stuff, so I told them there should be other bags. Somewhere in there, we passed out to sleep because we were exhausted but woke to a voicemail that we could get our other groceries from the lobby the next morning. When I did, they weren't quite right either. For some reason, we got 50 ziploc bags instead of the english muffins we ordered. Honestly, I would not recommend getting groceries delivered again. Not just because our order took forever to arrive and then was messed up, but also because we really ended up not needing most of the food.
So, it was a somewhat not great first day, mostly because we exhausted ourselves and a few little things didn't go right, but things were looking up soon.
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