It has been 4 years since we have been to Disney World which I can’t believe and this was Molly’s very first time!!  We were so excited go back with some of our best friends and they were so sweet to plan the whole trip for us with their Disney agent, Carolyn, from Key to the World Travel.

We had the best time and I wanted to share our trip with all of you here.  I also did a Q & A on on my instragram stories that I have yet to go back and answer and I was thinking that I will write them all out in a blog post and answer those for you guys next week!  And if you have any other questions, leave that at the end of the post and I will add those too.

H O T E L

We stayed at the Riviera Resort which is one of the newer resorts.  We booked a one bedroom villa for our family of 5 which had 1 King Bedroom and 1 Queen-Size Pull Down Bed and 1 Single Pull Down Bed in the living room.  It slept our family of 5 perfectly and the way they hide all the extra pull down beds around the room is pretty amazing!  You can see more of it in the family video. The room is great for families because the rooms include a full kitchen and a split bathroom that features 2 sink areas.

The hotel offered several different restaurants, a really nice pool with a slide for the kids, fitness center, a beach area, and a large green space for games like bocce ball, corn hole, and chess.

The rooftop restaurant, Topolino’s Tererace, was really neat and was a fun character meal.  We had breakfast there, but you could also schedule dinner.

Another one of our favorite features of the hotel was that it was right next to the gondolas that take you to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.  This was a pretty awesome perk and the kids thought it was so cool.  The hotel also provided bus service of course to all the parks and those ran every 15 or 20 minutes I think.

An extra note on their amazing customer service is that we accidentally left Madelyn’s baby blanket in our hotel room when we left and I was so sad about it.  But we filed a lost and found item and they actually had it and shipped it directly back to our house at no cost! I was so happy.

S A T U R D A Y

We arrived on Saturday afternoon after a short 1.5 hour flight from Pensacola airport to Orlando (MCO).  We had a car service waiting for us to take us to the hotel and took a short stop at the Publix on the way where we had scheduled a grocery pick-up.  It was so nice to have a few groceries delivered right to our car on the way to the hotel.

Girls Sunglasses | Girls “castle bound” shirts

We made it to the hotel and got settled in our rooms. Our flight was a little delayed, so we weren’t able to squeeze in some pool time like we had hoped.

It was time to hop on the gondola and head towards Epcot to Disney’s Yacht Club resort and have dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse to celebrate Matt’s birthday.  The restaurant was great and we all really enjoyed our meal.  I think it would be considered a little more “fine dining” for Disney standards.

S U N D A Y

Sunday was our big day where we had our  VIP tour scheduled.  We met our tour guide right at the entrance of Magic Kingdom at 10am and we followed him for 1o hours until 8pm!! It was such a fun day.  We hit all 4 parks and he guided us through all the rides we wanted.  They supply the transportation between the parks and have access to all the ins and outs of the back gates and parking areas.  For all the rides, you basically have lightening lane access to any line you want.

We hit Magic Kingdom first, then Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and lastly, Epcot. We rode over 18 rides I believe.

We finished at Epcot so that we could catch the final firework show at 9pm.  They actually had a VIP area with picnic tables and private access for us to watch the show from which was pretty amazing if you know how crowded it can be to watch these firework shows.

Tips for VIP:

Pack a lunch to save time. Every hour counts.
Bring Snacks
Meet guide at Magic Kingdom rather than have them pick you up from hotel to save on time.
Have an idea of what rides are important to you, but the guide will really make the plan.
You can have up to 10 people, so utilize it to save cost.

M O N D A Y

We started our morning at Topolino’s Terrace.  We actually couldn’t get a reservation, but took our chances by stopping up there in the morning and we were able to sit in the “bar area.” It is technically not part of the character stops, but they walked right by our table and the kids thought it was fantastic!

After breakfast, we took the gondola to Hollywood Studios.  We had a lot of the Star Wars area that we had not taken time to walk through when we were with the VIP guide, so we spent a good bit of time there.  We didn’t do a great job of getting lightening lane passes on our own for this day, so it definitely seemed a lot slower paced compared to the day before!  But we were happy with that and hit a few new rides that we hadn’t done before.

 

Monday evening we had dinner reservations at Paddlefish in Disney Springs.  We took an Uber to Disney Springs and walked to the restaurant. The restaurant was really neat as it is a replica of a river boat.  I would say our food was pretty good.

 

T U E S D A Y

For our last day, we went to Animal Kingdom and then snuck in a little pool time back at our hotel before heading back to Magic Kingdom to ride a few more rides and catch the evening fireworks show.

In Animal Kingdom, we headed straight to …. water ride for a lightening lane and thankfully my friend remembered to pack ponchos because we did get wet!! We had a late breakfast scheduled at Tusker House which is a character breakfast and it is served family style.  The food was good and the kids enjoyed seeing the characters even though they still have to stay distanced a bit for photographs.

We enjoyed the beautiful Kilimanjaro Safari which is a must do.  We didn’t do this during the VIP because it takes a long time, but we were able to get a lightening lane for it.  Also, I was really sad that Everest was closed while we were there because I have never done that ride.

After we had our fill at Animal Kingdom, the kids wanted to swim in the pool for a bit back at the hotel which sounded great to us.  We regrouped for a bit and then got dressed to go back to Magic Kingdom for the evening.

Kids Swimsuits

We headed back to Magic Kingdom for a few more rides and the new firework show which truly was amazing!

What We Rode

Magic Kingdom:

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
Space Mountain: the kids loved this!
7 Dwarfs Mine Train
Peter Pan’s Flight
Splash Mountain: Molly was barely too short
Thunder Mountain
Pirates of the Caribbean
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Haunted Mansion
Barnstormer
Ones we missed this trip:
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Jungle Cruise

 

Animal Kingdom:

Avatar Flight of Passage: this is beyond amazing (a must do!) but definitely gets me a bit queasy.
Na’vi River Journey
Kilimanjaro Safari: A must that’s fun for kids of all ages!!
Lion King

Hollywood Studios:

Rise of the Resistance
Slinky Dog: a favorite!
Toy Story Mania: Another family favorite that we did multiple times!
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway: This was another top favorite!!
Tower of Terror: scared us to death!
Rock N Roller Coaster: another scary one but so fun!
Alien Swirling Saucers
Star Tours : The Adventures Continue
Frozen Sing-a-Long which we ALL loved!

Epcot:

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure: We were so sad that this one broke down while we were in line and it was late in the evening and we had to walk away.
Frozen Ever After: This is really cute!
Ones we missed this trip:
Test Track
Soarin’ Around the World

Final Thoughts

We had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed our trip. We loved our hotel and would highly recommend it to others.  Matt and I are still proponents that if you have young kids and Magic Kingdom is your number one park, that staying on the monorail is still a very nice luxury.  Now that are kids are getting older and Hollywood Studios is a pretty big attraction for us and Epcot, the Riviera Resort, is super appealing because you have the direct access to the gondolas.

The VIP tour is absolutely amazing and if you ever have the opportunity to split that cost with 1 or 2 other families, I highly recommend it.  The guides are so kind.  They take you through all the secret doors and parking spots.  They buy you all the waters you need plus popcorn or Mickey popsicles.  They know where everything is in the park so you don’t have to check your phone once all day if you don’t want to. Its truly magical.

Previous Trips

Everything You Need to Know About Disney
What to Pack for Disney World
What to Wear to Disney World in January

2017 Disney World Day 1 – Our Hotel
2017 Disney World Day 2  – Magic Kingdom
2017 Disney World Day 3– Epcot and Magic Kingdom
2017 Disney World Day 4 and 5 – Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

2018 Disney World – The Four Seasons Orlando Hotel Review
2018 Disney World Day 1 – Our Hotel + Magic Kingdom
2018 Disney World Day 2  – Character Breakfast + Magic Kingdom
2018 Disney World Day 3 – SeaWorld
2018 Disney World Day 4 – Magic Kingdom
2018 Disney World Day 5 – Magical Moments at the Four Seasons

 

A video from our trip…