Fun Family and Friends.... Hot August 2016 a magical 7 day adventure!

**princessgirls** · 09-21-2016, 01:46 PM

Preface: Our good friends Janice, Larry and their two boys and Fred, myself, Morgan and Maddie have vacationed together before kids and every year since our kids were babies. We vacation well together, and as our kids are getting older, and in high school decided this would be a good year to do Disney!! In January a trip for August started it's planning stages.
It ended up being a very hard year for me personally, my beloved mom who was otherwise healthy, became sick in March and passed away six weeks later on May 7th. We did not think it would be that quick, or were sure we could go to Disney if she was battling to live. God called her home, and I am still reeling. I finally got excited for Disney during the summer, and we did luck out with a dining promo that came out in
April. We were able to save $700 each on our package.

Dates: August 23-30
Resort: Pop Century My family got 2 rooms!!!! BEST MONEY spent!! 2 bathrooms with 2 teenage girls, and everyone had their own bed...HAPPY FAMILY

Travel: All 8 of us piled into our Suburban at 3am on the 23rd and headed to Newark Liberty. Fred dropped us off curbside with the luggage, and drove the truck over to long term parking, and was back in 15 minutes. That was very seemless. The terminal was busy, and TSA is miserable at Newark. I thought for a moment I was in a jail, but we did get on our flight with no problems, and it was a smooth trip to Orlando. We landed at 8:25am and quickly got on a magic express bus, had already done online check in, and once at the Pop just dropped off our carryons and boarded a bus to the Magic Kingdom!!!! We walked into the Magic Kingdom a little bit after 10am. No time wasted getting into the Kingdom!!!!
Flight home was uneventful, smooth, and quiet. We were all exhausted!!

Parks: We had an awesome 7 FULL days in the Disney parks in HOT August!!! We did Typhoon Lagoon one day too, and that was a nice break.
We spent the most time in the Magic Kingdom, ate more in Epcot, and the kids asked to go back to Hollywood Studios more than expected. We had a incredibly HOT morning in Animal Kingdom, and got out of there after lunch at Flame Tree, which we ended up in Pizzafari just to cool off. It was so hot, there were virtually no animals out for the safari...LOL!!!
We hopped a lot, one day going to three parks. We found the parks clean, fun, and the average wait time if we didn't have fast pass was 20 to 40 minutes.
I did plan fast passes for the morning, so some days we did get six or seven of them.
Took advantage of Extra Magic Hours early in Epcot to get to Frozen Ever After, which was very cute. We waited 20 minutes at 8:15am.
The new Soarin is awesome. We did it 3X this trip. The teens were not into Epcot. All 8 of us did take one big nap in Ellen's energy adventure. Hysterical, one long row, all of us out cold. We had some time to kill, but not enough to go back to the resort before dinner.
We enjoyed Illuminations once this trip in a perfect spot while eating dessert at the Rose and Crown. We had a table right on the water. That was awesome, even at a balmy 89 degrees.
I was able to see Wishes a few times during the trip, and did not get over to the studios for the Star Wars fireworks. I was bummed about that. Forget Animal Kingdom for this crew at night. I am not hearing too much buzz about that anyway.
For the most part all 8 of us stuck together, and then at night the kids went off and running after dinner. I would see them periodically running past us in the Magic Kingdom. They enjoyed some freedom!!

DINING: We enjoyed ALL of our meals, and made every ADR on time if not early. That was thanks to Janice, who is very punctual.
We did some favorites and some new places too:
Chef Mickey's Classic...food was good, server was not. He could not keep us in enough waters and sodas and was annoyed with us for asking. Hey... 18% gratuity for each family tacked on to already inflated prices...DUDE, BRING ME ANOTHER SODA!!!!!
Via Napoli... New for all of us, and delicious!
Whispering Canyon... Always a good time.
Rose and Crown... favorite night of the summer for various reasons, good meal, lively music, and best view of illuminations ever while eating dessert.
Cape May Cafe...New for all of us, the food was very good.
Kona Cafe... LOVE this restaurant, we had a great meal here.
The Wave...New for us...this was a hidden treasure. Amazing food.
And Fred and I did Askerhaus Princess Breakfast with our girls, as it is a family tradition and we all enjoy it!
Quick Service favorites were:
Be our Guest, Sunshine Seasons, ABC Commissary, and Flaming Tree
Kids really enjoyed using their snack credits on Starbucks. I enjoyed a Dole Whip, and one afternoon a Root Beer Float really hit the spot.

Resort:
Pop Century was great. We literally spent 8/9 hours a day in the room. We were up and out early and came back late. Fred did laundry one afternoon, I was in Epcot hanging with Intercot's very own Christine Warner, and mentions at the Rose and Crown that he left our laundry in the Pop laundry mat in the dryers. They weren't finished.... I said you left our laundry????? YIKES!!! On our way back to the room at 11pm or so, our laundry was all neatly folded and waiting for us. A nice person did that, and that was MAGICAL!!!!
The busing was always good, even leaving the Magic Kingdom at night they were running buses. There was a CM at the bus depot managing the people, and they were making people in scooters wait in line with everyone else until they got to the front of the line. I feel that is fair. They are sitting, and we are all Hot and tired at the end of a long day. They did not have to in other parks.
We ordered a few breakfast items and cases of water from Garden Grocer. Excellent service there, and even called mid week asking if they could deliver another case of water (our family of 4 drank 64 water bottles that week)

Magic Bands: We all loved them!! Makes life so easy. Was sad they longer worked upon return to NJ.

Fast Pass Plus: Still not a fan... however, beings it was the end of HOT August, crowds weren't terrible, and we did a lot each and every day, and some days got 6 or 7 fast passes. We did change plans all together one evening for the next day, and was able to get descent ride times. A pleasant surprise.

This trip was awesome, honestly. We had laughs, great food and fun, and although it was HOT it did not stop us from anything. It did rain a little, but I was never outside when it did. I managed to avoid any rain or having to break out my poncho.
It was a lot of fun going with another family for all of us. When you can come home and miss one another terribly it is a good time!!
I needed this trip. It was good for my soul. I am thankful for the gift of laughter and memories made with family and friends.
Fred and I are going back in 2 weeks for the Food and Wine Festival to celebrate our 20th Anniversary!!!
I enjoyed meeting up with Christine Warner and Heather AKA Beach Club Babe on this trip. Both amazing ladies!!

I came home with six blisters from starting my trip in Sketcher Go Walks... boooooo..... but did average between 17,000 and 20,000 steps a day, if that gives you an indication of the kind of trip we had. I think Fred and I might go at a more relaxed pace for our Food and Wine Anniversary trip.

Thanks for reading! I love Intercot and the people on here!
Julie