Waking up Thursday morning at Pop Century, packing all of our things and ordered our Uber to Royal Pacific. Royal Pacific is one of the higher end resorts at Universal. Booking there gave us unlimited express passes for the entire family from check in day until checkout day for free. I booked the 6 of us in a hospitality suite with a connecting 2 queen room for one night. Also, it includes early admission into the park (1 hour early) and transportation to and from the parks. On our arrival day we dropped our bags with the bell service and went to the kiosk to the print out our park tickets. After that we had to get in line to check in where they print out the room keys. The room key is also what you use for the express passes. Entire process took about 30 minutes and as we finished she leid each of us which was super cute.

Leaving the hotel we had 3 options to get to the park- bus, walking trail or boat. We were told the quickest way is the walking trail(since you don’t have to wait around for it) and it is only a 15 minute walk but on the way there we noticed the boat was loading and jumped right on. Started moving after we sat down and it was only about a 5 minute boat ride. Boat pulls up right at City Walk. We decided to start at Universal. Surprisingly enough, every park we went to our entire trip was easier to get into than our local Busch Gardens. Limited lines to stand in for bag checks and ticket scans definitely starts each day off right. I did have to go the photo shop and activate the code from my email for our 3 day photo pass. After that we were ready to go and hit up our first ride- Rip Ride Rocket. THIS IS WHERE WE SEE HOW AMAZING THE EXPRESS PASSES ARE. Walking pass the other line is a huge relief. Definitely worth hotel hopping to take advantage of 2 days of express passes. This coaster is huge and Kyle really had to stretch his neck to meet the minimum height requirement. We also had to use lockers for everything on us except our lanyards that held our passes. You get to pick a song to jam to during your ride. It’s intense and definitely the best roller coaster of the entire trip. I was scared with Kyle because of him being so close to the height requirement and I’m paranoid anyway so I kept my arm on him as if that would be of any assistance in an emergency. Everyone loved the ride but Kayla did mention she only needed to ride that one once this trip, lol. I’m not going into detail of every ride like Disney since Universal has SO MANY MORE rides and your not limited to only 3 with fastpass selections. With the express pass every ride was a pretty quick wait and where we had to wait 20 minutes or so in line I couldn’t imagine how long those without express passes had to wait.

We had a great spring break trip!

Monday-Thursday we stayed at Pop Century (2 rooms that connected) and did half day Monday at Hollywood Studios. The magical express picked us up at the airport (waited in line about 10 minutes before boarding the bus) and took us straight to the resort where we just jumped on the next bus to Hollywood studios. We carried our park bags on the plane as our carry on and didn’t have to touch our checked luggage- magical express took care of it all!

We arrived at Hollywood Studios about 11:45

We grabbed lunch at Andy’s lunchbox via mobile order. Toy story area was pretty packed and they have limited seating for the quick service restaurant. Luckily, I noticed another larger family that was finished eating and asked them if they were about to leave. Normally, I wouldn’t want to pressure someone out of a seat BUT the park is packed and everyone is looking for a table. If you’re finished eating, leave out of respect for those waiting. I’m sure if Aaron was next to me when I did it he probably would have dragged me away before I finished asking 😂 they were great about it and started getting up about 2 minutes later.

After lunch we noticed a small wait for the Indiana Jones show so we hopped in line. No fast pass and I believe we waited about 15 minutes. Luckily my precious children found a way to keep themselves occupied 🙄

I figured we wouldn’t get a good seat since we didn’t have a fast pass but we lucked out and the seats were fine!

The show is definitely worth watching! Loved the humor and pyrotechnics to keep you interested.

Coming out of Indiana Jones we walked right over to the muppet show. Pretty much no wait, just walked in. Cute and funny show but after waking up at 3am I must admit I fell asleep at some point. Christian woke me up at the end laughing at me 🤣.

One of my favorite pictures!

We used our fast passes for tower of terror which was a pretty big let down! We were all expecting more! Not a big drop, not scary and not worth a fast pass. We joked all trip about how people made such a big deal about that ride and we wouldn’t even want to go on it again.

Once we got off the ride it was our first opportunity for Kyle to make a collectible penny souvenir. This was one of the best tips! I LOVED seeing him get off of rides and run straight to the souvenir shop searching for his penny machines. I didn’t go get a roll of quarters or use certain pennies. Just went through our change jar and grabbed as many sets of 2 quarters and 1 penny that I had. Last time I was at the store I bought 4 tubes of mini m&ms and just kept them sealed. I’ve heard with TSA if you already have placed your change in the tubes then you will be searched more so I kept the change in a clear sandwich bag in my carry on and the m&ms sealed shut. Once we got off our last plane and we were in line to board the magical express shuttle I let the kids eat the m&ms and I filled the tubes there. Simple and made it quick and easy to grab throughout the park.

We had a little time to kill before our toy story mania fast pass so we walked in to a little museum to pass some time. They had a meet and greet with Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc we decided to wait for. I’m pretty sure this was Christian’s most irritating part of the trip 😂 none of us are really into characters but there wasn’t much else to do and Kayla and I thought it would be fun to get the picture taken. Now, it looked like a short line… we stood there 30 minutes 🤦🏼‍♀️ that moment there made me thankful we didn’t come to Disney for the character meet and greets! But the pictures of Kayla hugging Sully were totally worth it!

After finishing our photo op it was fast pass time for Toy Story Mania. I really loved how they designed this area of the park. Uno is one of Kyle’s favorite games- had to get that picture!Toy Story Mania was no wait, pretty much just slowly walking onto the ride. A lot of fun, you get to shoot at targets the entire ride and it calculates your score. Perfect for my family since their main purpose in life is to beat each other🤦🏼‍♀️These facial expressions is what Disney is all about Kyle beat me 🙄Even though we stayed on resort and I was able to book our fast passes 90 days in advance; we still weren’t able to snag a slinky dog fast pass! We decided after toy story mania to bite the bullet for slinky dog. It was the smallest wait time we’ve seen (80 minutes) so we jumped in line. After a few minutes the girls and I left the line to go to the restroom which luckily as long as you have someone in line the staff is perfectly fine with you leaving and coming back. After using the bathroom we stopped and grabbed 3 Mickey pretzels with cheese, a few drinks(can’t remember what the drink was… a slush possibly?! And Aaron a beer. We hid the pretzels in a book bag since we felt really weird getting back in line with 4 drinks and a load of snacks. I am thankful we were able to do that because it really does help the time pass being able to snack! Better to get it all before getting in line though! took them forever to get a decent picture with the giant glue 😂The Result: slinky dog is worth the wait! Fast and fun I would definitely ride again! I wouldn’t wait 2 hours to ride it but to be honest I wouldn’t wait 2 hours in line to ride anything We decided we might as well get in line and ride alien swirling saucers so we can check all of toy story off our list. 40 minute wait but it felt much longer. It’s ok, not worth waiting longer than 15 minutes. On our way out to our fast pass for Aero Smith’s Rocknroller coaster we finally spotted a popcorn stand with the alien buckets! Kayla, Hannah and Kyle loved it! ($25 and you can get popcorn refills for $2 at all the parks)they kept running up to us holding him saying “we are eternally grateful!”

I think we waited about 10 minutes going through the line for the roller coaster with our final fast pass. Hands down it’s the best ride at Hollywood Studios. It was a relief to get on a thrill ride! I wasn’t expecting it to be that good since we could bring our book bags on it but once the ride started we were all holding on tight to our belongings!

After being up since 3am we were tired. Left the park around 7:30. Hopped on the shuttle and went back to Pop Century. No wait for the shuttle! At their cafeteria we ate at different spots. It’s nice for everyone to grab their food and then join together to go to the register instead of paying individually. While everyone ate I went to guest services to find out why all of my photos haven’t posted on to my account and why my magic band wasn’t able to make purchases. It took about 30 minutes to basically hear just wait a few days for the photos but they should have downloaded automatically and she said they fixed my magic band and it should be working now. I walked away concerned about the photos since I bought the photo pass(memory maker) and really didnt want to lose any pictures.We got up to our rooms (80’s building) two connecting rooms. One queen bed and one fold out bed in each room. Perfect space for us since we only used the rooms to sleep in.

Tuesday Animal Kingdom

Got to the park around 10 just in time for our safari fast pass (9:30-10:30) great experience! You get in a large safari truck and drive down the trail as your guide on the speaker gives you photo tips and fun facts about each animal as we approach them. I love that you get pretty close to the animals and they are in a natural environment instead of walking pass cages. Aaron requested an early morning fast pass for this since he was told that was the best time to see the animals active. He was right! We saw everything but a monkey 🐒 (which broke Kayla’s heart)

We walked around looking for food but since it was early (10:30) everything was still closed. Christian suggested Yak and Yeti since it looked open. Not knowing this is one of the most popular restaurants and we didn’t have a reservation. Walked in at 10:45 and they said they could seat our family at 6 right at 11. I was pretty excited since I’ve heard great reviews but didn’t book it since I didn’t want to overbook or overeat too much at the parks. Food was amazing, great atmosphere and it just started raining so we really lucked out being able to sit inside for a bit. Lunch was about $150 for the 6 of us but my husband and I did have a cocktail/beer. We all tried each other’s dishes- everything was so good!Christian ordered the dim sum basket- which had a bunch of different things he’s never heard of before. His face when he saw it was pretty skeptical but he enjoyed it. He added a side of fried rice and dumped it on top of the basket, covered it in the sauce and ate it all.Luckily they had Mac and cheese for Kyle 🙌🏻Kayla enjoyed her honey chicken Aaron and I both ordered an appetizer to share. He ordered the firecracker shrimp-delicious!Tuna nachos were my favorite and it’s a huge portion perfect for sharing Hannah went for a simple cheese burger

It was still raining when we left the restaurant so I got out the ponchos I bought. Luckily we only needed them for about 10 minutes on our way to Expedition Everest for our fast pass. Expedition Everest is one of Kyle’s favorite rides from the trip. A month ago I took Kyle to Busch Gardens and he overcame his fear of scary rides. I know without that Busch trip he wouldn’t have gotten on the majority of our fast pass rides. After that we decided to walk over to Dinosaur since the wait was only 30 minutes on the app.when we got to the ride there wasn’t a wait at all. Dinosaur was fun but I wouldn’t use a fast pass for it. It did scare Hannah Kyle and Kayla though 😂we decided to go back to the resort and relax for a few hours before our 5:30 dinner reservation. Walking out of the park we walked by it’s tough to be a big and noticed it didn’t have a wait. Note this squirrel (my favorite animal 😍)Aaron thought it was fake for some reason. After the show we went back to the entrance to see if it was still there. He wasn’t, I was right. Not much to do with Disney but still worth typing 😂😂I actually would not have minded a little wait for it’s tough to be a bug. The entire line has animals carved into wood and it would have been nice to slowly walk through and have a few minutes to look at it. The show is worth waiting for. Definitely a must do for Animal Kingdom. Aaron and I loved it! It scared Kayla Hannah and Kyle so if you have small children I would let them sit out.we could hear so many little ones crying throughout the show. Leaving the park was a breeze. Walked right out and directly onto our bus back to Pop Century. The girls and I walked over to the pool area since Hannah wanted to get in and I wanted her to test the water before going through the trouble of getting ready.Christian and Kayla stayed in the rooms to nap while Aaron and I took the kids to the pool. We went to the computer pool closer to our building first but after about 30 minutes we walked over to the hippy dippy pool. Worth the walk!! They have music playing, a bar and started doing games with the kids. It didn’t seem warm enough to me for swimming but the pool is heated and the kids thought it was perfect. Aaron and I enjoyed a drink from the bar and the lounge chairs.

We got back to the room with just enough time to wake up the oldest two and head back to Animal Kingdom. We had to rush over to pizzafari and made it at 5:35 for our 5:30 reservation. Personally, I wasn’t impressed with Pizzafari at all. About $130 for a family of 6 to share a Caesar salad, caprese salad, large pepperoni pizza, small baked ziti, chicken Alfredo and cannolis. All of the toppings fell right off the pizza so that was messy, salads were fine but I thought the Caeser could have had fresher lettuce. Chicken Alfredo and ziti was good. Cannolis the kids enjoyed but I gave up mine- tasted stale to me. All in all I wouldn’t recommend it. It reminded me of CiCi’s at home where we only pay about $35 for all 6 of us for unlimited pizza, salad, Alfredo, ziti, garlic bread and several desserts. First picture is the moment Christian realized he doesn’t like caprese salad 😂.

Left there for Pandora for our FOP fast pass. Pandora is my favorite area- I love all of the lights and scenery. Disney outdid themselves!

Flight of Passage is the best ride (and hardest to get fast pass) in all of the Disney parks. Kyle did get pretty scared right before the ride started only because he didn’t know what to expect and he knew we weren’t sure what was going to happen either. You sit on a banchee simulator. Not scary at all! The floor does drop away from you for it to move but it’s not a roller coaster- completely safe and amazing as you truly feel you’re riding a banchee through pandora.

After getting off the ride we went to Pongu Pongu and bought the night blossom drinks with the boba balls and waited in line for about 45 minutes for the Pandora river ride. The night blossom drink was delicious! It was beautiful and definitely worth seeing if you’ve seen the movies but I wouldn’t wait for it again- one of those you only need to do once.

I may have ordered the night blossom with liquor 👀

After that it was time for the tree of life show- MUST SEE for animal kingdom! This was one of Kayla’s request for the trip so I’m glad we were able to see it. Pretty crowded but we had a great view

During the wait for river ride I snagged a 4th fast pass for Pimeval Whirl in the Dinoland area. Had to wait about 10 minutes in line but it was a fun ride.

After that we went straight back to the resort. No wait for the transportation on to the shuttle! Once we arrived back at the room we left the kids to rest while Aaron and I went down to the Petals Pool Bar for a couple of drinks. Good drinks, short wait and a relaxed atmosphere to sit out and just enjoy the quiet. Then the quiet ended once Hannah started messaging me about how everyone was hungry. They met us in the cafeteria area in their pajamas for late night snacks which consisted of fries, ice creams, cookies, cupcakes and pasta 😂😂😂Thursday- Magic Kingdom. We had a fast pass booked for 9:30 at Big Thunder Mountain. We decided the night before to let it go and give everyone the opportunity to sleep in. Instead we picked up a fast pass for haunted mansion at 3:30. Aaron, Kyle and myself were up and ready to go for the day by 10 so we walked down and had breakfast. Very good! Walked over to art of animation to look around. They have a cute playground Kyle played on for a bit. From there we jumped on a bus to Disney Springs. Which I should have researched a bit before the trip. It’s just a shopping area. I wanted to go to the photo studio but gave up since it was such a far walk and we had magic kingdom that day. The LEGO store was neat and they had a play area where you can build and race cars which Kyle enjoyed. I’m not a big shopper so had I known I would have skipped out on going to Disney springs.

Came back and took the older kids down for lunch at Pop. Then it was time to head over to magic kingdom for the day. Longest bus ride but I think it was only about 15 minutes. Walking down Main Street we took a photo with the castle in the background(no wait). Kyle asked for a Mickey bubble gun for the second time this trip so we got him one. $25 and it lights up and is refillable. He played with it a lot so worth the price tag! A lady mentioned the parade was suppose to start at 2:30 and since it was about 2:15 we started walking towards the castle to wait for it and even had a few more pics taken closer to the castle(again, no wait) BUT That woman was DEAD WRONG. The parade was scheduled to start at 3 but didn’t actually start until about 3:15 . I know that doesn’t sound like a like of time but it was. It was hot and boring just standing for an hour straight. A great reminder of how you shouldn’t trust strangers 🙄.Now, the wait was awful and the lady near me kept getting on her kids about their dripping ice cream. She reminded me of the typical mom vacationer. Take a smiling pic of the kids enjoying their ice cream in their matching shirts at the magic kingdom parade. In reality you were screaming at them constantly and everyone was miserable. I feel your pain, momma, I really do.

Anywho, the parade is worth the wait and we did get a great spot since we were there an hour early. You see tons of characters! a few times I considered us walking away but Aaron really wanted to see a parade with the kids and this would be our only chance! We had to walk fast over to space mountain afterwards since our fast was from 2:45-3:45.

Space Mountain was a great coaster. Worth a fast pass and we all enjoyed it. Christian and Kayla went to Disney with their mom before and actually got stuck on Space Mountain and had to walk off. So this was their first time actually riding it.

In the souvenir shop where we did kyles pressed penny we found 2 photo booths that were included with our memory maker photo package.

Then it was on to Haunted Mansion. Little bit of a wait even with our fast pass but not very long. The ride was fun but I wouldn’t wait more than 30 minutes for it.

After haunted mansion we walked pass the tangled castle area per Kayla’s request. Using the bathroom there I ran into a custodian who had Disney pins on her pack. Hannah, Kayla and myself all traded with her right there in the restroom. Then we were in the area of Beauty and the Beast for our seven dwarf mine train fast pass. My FAVORITE area of Magic Kingdom. Gaston’s tavern, Maurice’s popping machine (to refill our alien) and we came at the perfect time to do a meet and greet with Gaston!Time for our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Fast Pass! It was my favorite ride in Magic Kingdom.

Since that was our final prebooked fastpass I jumped on the app to see what else was available- barely anything! I booked us for the teacups since it was the only ride to grab.

After that we considered getting on the people mover but after walking over there it was a 20 minute wait and our dinner reservation was coming up soon. Be Our Guest was my splurge of the trip. We waited in front of the castle about 20 minutes because we were there 30 minutes early for our reservation. They walk you in and show you each room for a second on the way to your table and let you know after your meal you can walk around again for pictures. I requested the West Wing so we would have the rose 🥀 and Beast’s picture on the wall that changes every 20 or so minutes. We were pretty close to the entrance to West Wing which was preferred. If you sit really close to the rose or picture you will have a constant flow of traffic coming in to take pictures right next to you. For dinner it is a set price ($60/10 years old and up and about $35/child) which includes a drink, appetizer, entree and dessert. The plus side to a family of 6 is that you get to try a wide variety since we usually all get something different.

Aaron:

mixed field greens

Saffron infused seafood

Louise:

Escargot & filet mignon

Christian: charred octopus & lamb chop

Kayla: French onion soup & smoked ricotta & corn tortellini

Hannah: Maine lobster bisque & filet mignon

Kyle: mac n cheese & fries. Yep I paid $35 for him to have that 🙄😂

For dessert everyone gets the dessert trio with a macaroon, chocolate truffle, white chocolate cup (Chip) filled with the grey stuff! Even the decorative paper under the dessert was edible(but not very good)

Kyle’s dessert was the same but with Edible paint to decorate Chip.

About every half hour Beast will walk through the castle going towards the photo area.

After our meal (it’s about a 2 hour event for dinner)We walked around to take pictures and went to meet the Beast

Meeting the Beast was a typical picture with a costumed character. No added movements to make it more “Beast” like but still exciting since it’s a rare(he’s only at this castle and only at dinner) picture to get.

After leaving the castle we headed over to the fireworks. Passing by Tangled area again the girls and I decided to wait for the lighted lantern photos while the guys went and grabbed a spot for the fireworks. Lantern photos had a pretty long line and we waited 30 minutes. It was worth it! We all love the photos

After our picture we quickly walked to the castle to find the guys. It was PACKED. The fireworks show started right on time and even though you are shoulder to shoulder with everyone it’s definitely a must see! Directly after the show we started walking out of the park to our bus. Christian led the way straight out of the park within 10 minutes! Before we knew it we were back at Pop and our last night at Disney World was coming to an end.

Thursday morning was our check out day. Woke up, packed up and walked out to drop off area in front of the resort. I took Kyle in one last time and made a souvenir quarter and penny inside the Pop shop. Also used a gift card I received to buy breakfast- they had bacon egg and cheese bagels for about $6 so I bought 4 and a cup of doughnut holes for Kyle. I was planning on spending my gift card on souvenirs but since we vacation pretty often I couldn’t find a single thing I wanted to buy. Purchasing souvenirs for family is just exhausting and in reality, it’s all junk no one will use for long. I tapped for my Uber as I brought our sandwiches out for everyone to eat. I’m glad I waited to hit that button because he pulled up in 5 minutes!

Prior to the trip, I researched. A lot. Where to go, what to eat, what to bring, what everything is like. I read menus, ride reviews, fast pass instructions, reviewed park maps, what to do when it rains, how to walk through the park, shortcuts others are unaware of. Solely because I wanted it be as hassle free as possible. All you hear is constant reviews of how miserable people are at Disney. They walk in not knowing that Disney actually doesn’t have that many rides, you can’t walk in to most restaurants expecting to get a table and it’s slam packed!

A lot of blogs and reviews I read tend to over do it. Remember the mom at the parade? Don’t stress yourself and your family out to point where everyone is miserable but you still want a fake smile for your parade picture.

Here are my tips for Disney:

Plan ahead. If you are able to stay on a Disney resort, do it! Pop Century was very affordable and staying on the resort has so many perks!

-Free Disney magical express from the airport to your resort.

-Free transportation to and from the parks

-Advanced dining reservations (180 days in advance)

-Advanced fast pass booking (90 days in advance)

-Free magic bands come with information. I couldn’t imagine doing Disney without it. So easy and our pictures load automatically from all rides- no need to go find your picture after each ride!

-Magic Hours- a park each day either opens early or stays open later just for resort guests. We didn’t take advantage of that because our time at the parks was more than enough for us.

-Dining Plan- you must stay on a Disney resort to purchase a dining plan. I didn’t purchase one this trip since Thursday morning we headed straight to universal. Had we stayed the entire trip at Disney, I would have utilized the dining plan. I did use a Disney dining calculator prior to the trip to see if I should buy it and we would have had a lot of leftover credits and I thought I could beat the price. After the trip I calculated everything and we saved a couple hundred dollars by not using the dining plan. Even with our Be Our Guest dinner reservation and yak and yeti lunch!

Prior to the trip I bought:

-a set of 50 trading pins off of eBay for $25

Trading pins in the park are $8-$15/pin. The ones we received off of eBay were a lot of characters that we love anyway and during the parks it’s fun to look for Disney employees with pins to trade. Takes away from the monotony of just walking from ride to ride.

-Mickey ears for me and my girls for $14/piece and a Mickey hat with ears for $20 off of amazon

Mickey ears in the park are about $25. Purchasing ahead of time saved us the time of looking for a pair while there. Hannah only wore her ears the first day. Kayla and I wore ours each day, all day. Completely worth the price!

-brought m&ms tube with pennies and quarters for the penny souvenirs(didn’t put it in the tube until we were off the plane to avoid hassle from TSA) The pennies were a huge hit for Kyle and it’s a great, really cheap souvenir! Using the m&ms minis tube was perfect, took up limited space in the bag and you place the change in the order you will use it(2 quarters 1 penny stacks) so every time you get a machine it takes about 5 seconds to pass out the change.

-a couple lanyards for universal and to hold Disney pins. A must have if you are going to universal and it’s very convenient for the pins.

-6 ponchos from the dollar tree

We lucked out and only needed the ponchos once for about 10 minutes. I would have been pretty upset purchasing ponchos there for just a short amount of time.

Disney transportation is amazing and we barely waited. As for the fast passes, I explained to the family that we have 3 rides a day. If we do something more than that it’s an added bonus. I think that’s the importance of dining reservations. It’s time to get out of the heat/rain, etc to rest your legs and gives you a break between fastpasses and shows. In reality, I think the picture perfect day at any of the parks would be: 3 rides, at least one dining reservation, 2 shows. It doesn’t matter how busy the park is if you already have reservations. The outside shows will be packed but it’s not difficult to see so going 30 minutes ahead of time isnt bad for a good spot. I was told the crowds after the fireworks is so bad it takes hours to leave. Maybe with a stroller it would be difficult but we walked straight out by sticking to the side and we watched the fireworks VERY close to the castle. So had there been a wait, we would have been in it.

It’s better to go with how the family is feeling instead of trying to pack in as much as possible. If you are there at park opening then go back to the resort for a few hours half way through the day. Everyone too tired to go at opening? Then don’t! Don’t force anything. Give them a few hours to relax. Someone has a favorite ride and couldn’t get a fast pass? Wait for it if they want to. We did opt for waiting for a few rides and the trick to that is grab a snack before getting in line, have a battery charger for games to play on phones. Also, if you have to use the bathroom your allowed to leave and come back as long as you have someone in line(atleast it wasn’t an issue for any of our lines)

My go to after every trip was to post every picture on Facebook to have as a safe back up just in case something happens to my phone or computer. Well… after about 1,000 photos from Disney this past week I realized I should probably find a different way to display these memories. My hope to is to look back one day and not just see the pictures but remember all those special moments when the pictures were taken. So, why not a blog? At least it will not spam everyone’s newsfeed and can be more detailed than commenting on a photo what happened. WARNING: This will be pretty boring to everyone except possibly my children when they are older and become parents themselves.