Disney World November 2019

Originally we cancelled our December Disney trip back in October because we decided to go to Germany in December instead, but a few weeks after cancelling we knew we would really miss holiday season at Disney so we planned a last minute trip for Thanksgiving into the beginning of December.

For this trip we stayed at Disney’s Caribbean Beach resort for the first time. I chose this resort because it’s a moderate resort and is very reasonably priced and since this was last minute we needed to keep it on the cheaper side! Caribbean Beach also has rooms that sleep 5 people so we fit there (we are actually a family of 6 but infants don’t count!) Really the main reason I chose CB though is because Disney’s new Skyliner gondola system just opened and the main station is at CB!

Our room at CB was nice and looked recently remodeled. It was much smaller than the deluxe resort rooms we are used to, but we just sleep there so it’s okay. It had 2 queen beds and a pull down twin which slept the 5 of us just fine and they brought us a pack n play for Belle (that thing took up most of our room space). CB is a huge resort! There are tons of buildings and bus stops! Our room was in the very first building of the Martinique section so we were actually right next to the lobby and main bus stop, Old Port Royale. It was nice being next to the main bus stop but you still have to stop 500 more times at all the other bus stops before your bus actually leaves the resort property. You definitely need to allow yourself an hour to get to wherever you’re going if you have reservations to make!

The main lobby of CB is very pretty and smells amazing! I’m not sure what kind of Disney magic scents they have going on in there but it’s wonderful. The main pool of CB is pirate ship themed and has an awesome area for toddlers and little kids!

Because CB is so huge and spread out you can’t just walk to the Skyliner station either, but they have an internal resort bus that just makes a continuous circle around the resort bus stops taking people to and from the Skyliner station and main lobby.

The Skyliner is awesome! We loved it so much! From CB you can hop on the Skyliner and get super fast to Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Art of Animation, Pop Century, & Riviera resorts. Because the gondolas are continually moving the process is so fast and you don’t have to wait long for your turn even if the line looks crazy long! Gondolas accommodate wheelchairs and single strollers but they do make you fold double strollers which is my only complaint!

Thanksgiving night we had dinner at Be Our Guest in Magic Kingdom. We’ve eaten at BOG many times and it’s always been less than desirable, especially for 2 table service credits or a fixed price of $60/person. Food is typically slow to come out and we’ve never had a good server. The only reason we keep going back is because Rhett loves to see the Beast and BOG dinner is the only place to see him. I’m happy to report that we finally had a wonderful experience! Our server, Lola, was so sweet and very attentive and our food was very quick! I had my usual, lamb chops, and they were fantastic. Andrew has steak and scallops and they were also very good. The food, in our experience, has always been good. On the topic of BOG, the quick service breakfast there is really great and a good way to see the castle without using 2 table service dining credits but it’s not cheap so don’t go in expecting that!

We started our day 2 with a quick Skyliner ride to Epcot for a pre park opening Princess breakfast at Akershus in the Norway pavilion. If you’ve read my other Disney posts, you know we are a fan of Akershus breakfast, but not lunch or dinner. Princesses are there all day but the food for lunch and dinner is traditional Norwegian and not our style. Breakfast includes Mickey waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, hash brown casserole, fruits, cheeses, and pastries. Belle has her own photo area prior to dining (which I’ve always thought was weird because Belle is French and Elsa is Norwegian, but I digress) other princesses there include Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Ariel. These are subject to change on any day but we’ve been several times over the last 4 years and they’ve always been the same.

We like the early Akershus breakfast because it allows us to hop across the sidewalk to meet Anna and Elsa before it actually opens and the line gets long! There aren’t fastpasses to meet Anna & Elsa and once the park opens the line will be very long.

Frozen 2 came out a few days before our trip so the Queen sisters were wearing their new dresses when we saw them! This absolutely thrilled Lorelei because Elsa was wearing her new white dress!

After meeting the ice Queen herself we used our very necessary FASTPASS to ride the Frozen ride which always gives us a hilarious ride photo. The kids have rode this ride so many times and they still make the funniest faces during the big drop when the photo is taken!

We had a quick service dinner in the lobby of our resort this night and it was really lacking. Andrew and I both had the Caribbean jerk chicken and it had zero flavor, I’m actually not sure they didn’t forget to put the seasoning/sauce on it?

Day 3 was our Animal Kingdom day and we cannot start an AK day without breakfast at our all time favorite, Tusker House! If you’ve never had curry chicken and rice for breakfast, you need to! Of course Tusker House has all the basic breakfast foods too. Characters include Mickey, Goofy, Donald & Daisy.

I’ve talked about it before but it’s worth mentioning again that Animal Kingdom has one of the nicest baby centers of all the parks. The park baby centers offer private bathrooms, private nursing/pumping rooms, changing tables, play rooms, sinks for cleaning bottles or pumping parts, and baby items for purchase that you may have forgot like diaper, wipes, diaper rash cream, etc. The baby center at AK is conveniently located right next to Starbucks so the kids and I hung out on there while Andrew grabbed us coffee and cake pops.

Our favorite area of AK is Pandora, the Avatar movie themed land. The kids are fascinated with the Na’Vi people and since they’re really into dressing up right now we got them some Na’Vi accessories which are so cute! Lorelei got to ride the Dinosaur ride for the first time and was pretty scared, she kept her eyes closed through most of it. She did say she wanted to ride it again though and Rhett rode it for the second time although he was scared of it last time too.

We finished off our AK day with dinner at Yak & Yeti which is another one of our favorites. I had our usual Chicken Tikka Masala which never disappoints I tried the fried wontons dessert for the first time and it may have been the best part of my meal and its hard to beat the CTM! They are cream cheese filled fried wontons with vanilla icing drizzle served with pineapples and vanilla ice cream. They were so sweet and so good!

Day 4 started with 7am extra magic hours at Hollywood Studios. We rode some rides in Toy Story land before our 8am Disney Junior breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. In the last year or so the characters here have changed, ditching the old Disney Junior characters for newer ones and we are big fans of the change! Breakfast characters now include Doc McStuffins, Fancy Nancy, Vampirina, & Roadster Racer Goofy. Lorelei really loves Fancy Nancy and MM loves Vampirina, they both have magic bands of them!

Right after breakfast I snagged a Tower of Terror FASTPASS so Lorelei could ride for the first time! She closed her eyes through the entire ride but she loved it! Rhett has been on it before and agreed again that he loved it. While Andrew and 3 kids were waiting on Lorelei & I they had their picture taken by a Disney photographer which gave me a good giggle when it popped up on my Disney Experience app.

Belle & MM enjoyed a churro snack break while the big kids rode Star Tours for the first time which they both really loved!

We finished up everything at Hollywood Studios pretty early and headed back to our resort for a 6:30pm dinner reservation at Sebastian’s Bistro. I have a really mixed review about Sebastian’s, it was a rough experience. One of the first nights of our stay I stopped by the hostess stand right at opening time to see if they had any tables open for dinner that night and the hostess was extremely rude to me which gave me a sour first impression. We already had reservations for later in the week and I almost cancelled them because I was so mad at the way she acted, but I decided to let them have a chance to redeem themselves. When we checked in for our reservation time it was a different hostess and she was also super rude. We were seated about 20 minutes past our reservation and by this point the kids were sooo done! Thankfully our server was wonderfull, especially with Belle who was a very hangry baby. Our food was definitely good. For appetizers we ordered the Caribbean pull apart rolls, jerk chicken wings, and crab cakes. None of which disappointed. For our entrees all the kids had steak which was cooked well. Andrew and I both had the Mahi Mahi and were very pleased with that. We had key lime pie for dessert which I thought was good but Andrew said was mediocre at best. I turned him into the key lime pie lover that he is now so I’m not sure whose review is more trustworthy haha! Overall I think Sebastian’s Bistro is a good choice if you are staying at Caribbean Beach resort but definitely not worth making a special trip for!

Day 5 was finally our full Magic Kingdom day! MK days are not done in true Rowlett fashion without a meal at Crystal Palace and breakfast is definitely the best! Typical breakfast buffet with characters Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger.

Magic Kingdom closes early this day at 4:30pm for a private event and it closed early the next day at 6pm for the Christmas party, but we’ve become pretty efficient so it didn’t hinder us at all. The twins of course rode Seven Dwarves Mine Train, we ate lots of cookies, and then headed to Epcot for the night to have dinner at our all time favorite Via Napoli then hopped on the Skyliner back to our resort.

Day 6, our last day, we took the first busy to Magic Kingdom and made the short walk across the street to the Contemporary resort for an 8am breakfast at Chef Mickey’s. Chef Mickey’s is a Disney staple for us and its a lively character breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy & Pluto.

After breakfast we walked over to Magic Kingdom to start our day. We had a FASTPASS to 7 dwarves but the ride was down for most of the morning. This ended up being okay because we used that FP on Big Thunder Mountain instead which Lorelei had never rode before and she really loved it! The twins also rode Splash Mountain with Andrew for the first time and even though it was super cold that day they didn’t get wet and had a blast! The first several days of our trip the weather was in the high 80s but the last 2 days a cold front came through and it was in the low 60s.

After getting everything done at MK we took the monorail over to Epcot for an early 4pm dinner reservation at Le Celier. Our Magical Express bus was picking us up for the airport at 6pm so we wanted to get in one last good meal. We really enjoy LC and of course we all had steak. After dinner we took the Skyliner back to our resort and almost immediately got on ME to the airport. Our flight left at 9pm which surprisingly with 4 toddlers was an excellent choice on our part! We let them run around the gate before boarding and all 4 of them crashed for the entire flight!