Last week, we spent the boys’ Spring Break at Disney World. Two years ago, we stayed at the Yacht Club Resort, on property, and we discovered that it was an almost ideal resort for us, stacking up well against the Grand Floridian and the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Yacht Club (adjacent to the nearly identical Beach Club, and sharing the same pool) is within walking distance of Epcot and has easy access the Hollywood Studios. It is also in easy walking distance to the Boardwalk resort.
The Beach Club adjacent to the Yacht Club is almost identical, differing mainly in decor. It is situated closer to Epcot.
Regardless of which of the two we stay at, the Stormalong Bay pools are ideal for W and J.
Upon checking in at the Beach Club after an early morning departure on Sunday (4/5), we were asked if we were celebrating anything. I mentioned Spring Break, but Hsuan mentioned that we would be celebrating our wedding anniversary soon after our return home. Adam, the young man who checked us in at the desk, said we may as well get started on our celebration early, and he handed me and Hsuan two “Happy Anniversary!” pins.
We wore them to the parks every day for the following week, and doing so changed the vacation from a simple Spring Break vacation to a week-long anniversary celebration.
Everywhere we went, a cast member would often wish us “Happy Anniversary!” That alone would have made the vacation nice, but on Tuesday, while we were at Epcot in the Mexico Pavilion, we were listening to the Mariachi Cobre group perform outdoors. At the end of one song, the leader spied me and Hsuan in the audience gathered outside and brought us to the front, where they serenaded us with a nice Mexican love song.
That alone made the entire week special. After the song, a young lady came up to us and told us that she had photographed and video-recorded the event for us on her iPhone, and she graciously messaged the photos and video to me.
We also got a nice dessert at Tokyo Dining for dinner later that evening.
On Friday, we had our by-now-traditional dinner reservation at Monsieur Paul in the France Pavilion. As usual, the meal was spectacular (and expensive), but it was topped off by desserts that included "Happy Anniversary” written in chocolate on our plates.
My dessert was a white chocolate sphere, mounted atop a little cake and containing berries and a strawberry sorbet. The waiter poured a berry sauce over the top, which melted the white chocolate sphere to reveal the sorbet and berries inside.
I don’t quite remember, but I think Hsuan’s dessert was meringue, ice cream, sorbet, and berries.
Earlier in the week (before the Monsieur Paul dinner), I made sure to e-mail guest relations to thank them for the anniversary experience, specifically complimenting Adam, Mariachi Cobre, and the staff at Tokyo Dining.
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As before, we had use of the Magic Bands for our tickets, room key, and charging, only this time, the Magic Bands are ubiquitous rather than provided to guests at select resorts. I also made use of the My Disney Experience app to help manage FastPass+ as well as look for dining reservations, look up ride wait times, and so on. We had made initial FastPass+ selections the night before leaving home, using my My Magical Experience account online to link our Magic Bands and make plans, but unfortunately, doing so before leaving (rather than weeks in advance) limited our selections.
I also bought (for $200) the Memory Maker photo package, which makes all photos taken at Disney World and linked to our Magic Bands available for download after our vacation. It’s like regular PhotoPass photos, but everything is paid in advance. It turns out that RFID in the Magic Bands also ensured that some photos automatically taken on rides were also — automagically! — linked to the Memory Maker account. However, the RFID system isn’t foolproof, and a few times, we got photos that weren’t of our family, and I think one photo of Hsuan (taken during single-rider at Test Track) seems to have gone missing. It’s useful to link photos manually to our bands after the ride, as a backup, though that means I would up with multiple copies of several photos.
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Early morning at the Magic Kingdom.
I had wanted to get FastPass+’s to the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride at the Magic Kingdom, but such Fast Passes were unavailable that late, for the entire duration of our vacation. Therefore, on Monday, I decided we’d arrive at the Magic Kingdom at 7 AM, in time for the 7-8 AM Extra Magic Hour. We were at the gate for Rope Drop, when all the guests are finally allowed in the park, and we walked briskly to the Mine Train and got into the already-long line.
The ride was a lot of fun, and even J enjoyed it, so we rode twice more on Thursday. It was during the first ride on Monday that I saw photo flashes, but I couldn’t find out where to link photos to my Magic Band and Memory Maker account. I asked a cast member, and it was then that I learned that some photos are linked automatically. Sweet!
The rest of the morning, we rode Peter Pan’s Flight and the Haunted Mansion, had breakfast at Be Our Guest, and rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
That afternoon, we park-hopped to Hollywood Studios, where we missed the Lights, Motors, Action! car stunt show, but we got to attend the Beauty and the Beast show, see the Indiana Jones stunt show, ride Star Tours two or three times (once with Fast Pass), ride the Great Movie Ride (a particular favorite of J’s), and even see Muppets 3D (which is currently unavailable at California Adventure). In the evening, we used our FastPass+ to see Fantasia.
After Fantasia, Hsuan and J returned to the Beach Club, but W and I stayed during the late Extra Magic Hour to ride Tower of Terror. Twice. It was the first time on the ride for both of us, and we loved it!
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Tuesday was our first Epcot day, and as a result of making our FastPass+ selections too late, we didn’t have FastPasses for either Test Track or Mission Space, so we went during the morning Extra Magic Hour to get a jump start on Test Track.
J and the insanely high-powered car I designed.
We also managed to get a timely ride on Mission Space afterward.
J and W as Commander and Pilot in Mission: Space.
Epcot holds its Annual Flower and Garden Festival around this time of year, so the entire park was decorated with brilliant flowers and Disney-character topiaries.
The San Angel Inn Restaurant in the Mexico pavilion used to be a regular dinner destination of ours before we started having dinner reservations in France, but during recent years, we haven’t been able to get dinner reservations. This year was no different, but I did manage to get lunch reservations (with dinner reservations at Tokyo Dining in the Japan pavilion). It was during the wait before our lunch reservation that we spent a lot of time at the Mexico pavilion and during which we heard the previously-mentioned Mariachi Cobre and were serenaded.
J and W in the China Pavilion, doing the Agent P activity.
As during our previous visit, J and W enjoyed the Agent P interactive adventure, this time searching around the China pavilion, before we headed back through the rest of the World Showcase to the exit and a brief rest at the Beach Club, which is conveniently in walking distance.
We returned for dinner at Tokyo Dining. J and W did Agent P in France, and then J and I did Agent P in the Germany pavilion, while Hsuan and W went for gelato in Italy.
After having a little more fun in Future World (where we skipped our The Seas and Turtle Talk FastPasses), we used our final FastPass+ of the day to get a good view of the Illuminations fireworks show, which I think I’m starting to enjoy more than Wishes in the Magic Kingdom.
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Wednesday was our day at the Animal Kingdom. Our FastPasses were for the afternoon and evening, and there weren’t a lot of rides that we really wanted to enjoy, so we slept in a bit. We caught one of the earlier shows of Festival of the Lion King in their new theater. It’s always a great show, even when some of the performers aren’t as strong as their counterparts during other performances.
W and I rode Expedition Everest using the single rider line, since we didn’t have FastPasses, and the wait wasn’t very long. Then we had lunch together in Dinoland, and then we used a FastPass+ to ride DINOSAUR as a family.
We saw the 3 PM performance of Finding Nemo — another show that’s always a pleasure — got some photos with Dug and Russell, and then rode the Kilimanjaro Safari at 4:25 PM on another FastPass+.
W was tired after the Safari ride, so J and I explored the Pangani Forest trail while he rested with Hsuan. After J and I were done, W wanted to do it, so he and Hsuan went on the trail while J and I went to Harambe, where, after a snack break, we decided to catch the last performance of the day of Festival of the Lion King. I texted Hsuan, and she and W managed to get in the show, too.
We used our last FastPass+ of the day to ride the Kali River Rapids. J got soaked and had to change into a new souvenir t-shirt.
Then W and I hopped on Expedition: Everest one last time before we all left and went back to the Beach Club.
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Thursday was our full day at the Magic Kingdom. We got a slightly late start and missed rope drop, but we still got in line for Seven Dwarfs during the morning Extra Magic Hour. We also managed to squeeze in Peter Pan, Big Thunder, and Splash Mountain before another expensive breakfast at Be Our Guest.
After breakfast and the Haunted Mansion (FastPass+ at 10 AM), we spent time in Tomorrowland, at the Speedway (FastPass+), the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Buzz Lightyear (FastPass+), the Carousel of Progress, the Laugh Floor, and Stitch’s Great Escape. Not necessarily in that order. It was sunny and hot, so we kind of just wanted to get through the rides.
We left the Magic Kingdom mid-afternoon to return to the Beach Club to relax in the pool and have a light dinner. Then we went back to the Magic Kingdom for return visits to Buzz Lightyear (an add-on FastPass+) and the Laugh Floor before catching the Wishes fireworks show. We finished the evening in Extra Magic Hours with the Main Street Electrical Light Parade and another, final ride on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
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Friday was our final day in the parks. We spent the morning at Hollywood Studios, with W taking Hsuan on Tower of Terror, while J and I rode Star Tours again. We met up at the Great Movie Ride and then finished our day at Hollywood Studios with the Lights, Motors, Action! show.
Rather than take a boat to Epcot, we took a bus, which was faster and more direct. Back at Epcot, rode Test Track just before our FastPass+ ended at 3:05 PM, and we also rode Spaceship Earth at 4 PM (also FastPass+).
After a brief restroom break for me to freshen up a bit and change shirts, we then went to the France Pavilion for our dinner reservation at Monsieur Paul. Our waiter, Nathan from Paris, was very friendly and gave us excellent service, as we’ve come to expect at Monsieur Paul. W had a scallop entree, while J had a filet mignon.
Hsuan and I had the prix fixe menu, and we each had a glass of Chateau Picard cabernet. For our appetizer, we had the escargot, but for soup, Hsuan had a lobster soup while I had a piping hot beef broth soup in one of those pastry-topped bowls.
For our entree, we both had the New York strip with asparagus and other vegetable
Finally, for dessert, we had the Happy Anniversary decorated desserts mentioned at the top of this post, and we also had some cappuccino.
We had a relaxed time enjoying Epcot afterward, particularly the flowers and topiaries.
We finished off the evening with Mission: Space (FastPass+), with W and me going on the more intense version of the ride (Orange), while J and Hsuan went on the less intense version (Green). We watched Illuminations again, this time without FastPass viewing, which was okay. We rode Journey into the Imagination — a favorite of J’s — and also revisited Test Track; without FastPasses, we used the single rider line. We then did a circle tour clockwise around the World Showcase before calling it an evening and heading back to the Beach Club.
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On Saturday, we got a late check-out at 1 PM from the Beach Club and enjoyed the pool in the morning. We missed the Magical Express luggage check-in, but otherwise, the trip back was smooth.