WDW Day 4: Now it's time to say Goodbye...

Now it’s time to say goodbye… you know what’s awesome about staying at a WDW Resort?  You can check-in for your flight at the resort.  They even check your bag all the way through for you!

On our last day, we took the River Delta boat to Disney Springs for lunch and shopping.  We walked into T-Rex Café with no wait.  It was so cool!  Similar to The Rainforest Café (sister-restaurant), there was a meteor shower every few minutes.  The food was yummy too.

T-Rex Cafe was especially for MrE

We had an hour to browse and select our souvenirs for the trip.  We let the kids pick 1 present each and also pick a key ring for their backpacks.  (I already let them Build-Your-Own Droid at Hollywood Studios)  MissE chose Mulan and Princess & the Frog Figurine Set and MrE chose a Star Wars magnetic sand set.  I chose Haunted Mansion fridge magnets and tea towels, and what I had my eye on for some time: Alex & Ani Disney (I want MORE!)

Lego Store Disney Springs

We made it back to the resort to catch the Magical Express to the airport (complimentary).  We flew with United on the way home; it was just as terrible as we expected.  We had to pay to watch the TV! Seriously? Because charging $5 to watch videos during the flight is going to drive your stock up.  We made it an hour before we had to suck it up.

This trip was truly amazing.  We had so much fun and took with us fantastic memories.

Some  Tips:

If we didn’t live so far away, we wouldn’t have packed it all in as much as we did in 10 days.  We’ve been asked if we had to choose one of the things we did, what would we choose?  The Disney Cruise.  Don’t get me wrong, the parks were fun but they were early days, crowds, walking and lines and late nights.

DCL

• DO IT!  It’s worth the higher cost 
• The ratio is 2:1 cast members which means the service is perfect.
• Don’t do a cruise less than 4 days unless you’ve already been to Nassau and Castaway Cay
• The themed cruise, Halloween on the High Seas, added more fun!  One day I hope we get to do Star Wars at Sea
• Seriously, Disney have ruined cruising for us

Universal Orlando

• Plan on 2 full days for each park and maybe an extra 1 just to  enjoy the resort and City Walk
• You need a two-park pass to ride the Hogwarts Express so weigh up how much you really want to ride it.  The park-to-park is $50 more PER PERSON.

Walt Disney World

•   Magic Bands are awesome.  I hope these are rolled out to Disneyland one day.
• We purchased 3 day park hopper tickets, however we could of just done 1 park each day.
• If you are going to one of the special ticketed events, spend the day at the resort pool then head into the park.
• Fastpass are booked in advance. I tried to do my research but what I didn’t do was get onto the wait time apps ahead of time and check what waits are like because that would of changed my pre-selections.  I did a Fastpass for Mission: Space when I should have done it for Test Track.  We didn’t know this until we saw that Fastpass was totally unnecessary for that ride.  We used the My Disney Experience app to book Fastpass while we were at the park but this was mostly because we couldn’t find the Fastpass stations half the time!  The app is limited on the number you can select though.  (This is one of the reasons I almost like Disneyland more!)
• Advanced Dining Reservations are a must do.  We waited nearly 45 minutes for Yak & Yeti because we didn’t have an ADR but again, who knew we were going to exhausted and starved 90 days in advance?
•  If you see something you like while in the park, buy it.  I waited because I wanted the perfect thing but ended up missing out as it wasn’t in the World of Disney gift shop (Hollywood Tower of Terror souvenirs)   

 Guess we’ll keep this all in mind for next time… in another 10 years!  ↞ hopefully not though!