Hoppe Ever After

Day 1 – Arrival
We flew into MCO around 9am and took an uber directly to our resort, Coronado Springs. We honeymooned here, so we obviously had to spend some time here! Our room was ready when we arrived, so we took our bags over before getting ready for a pool day. The pool at Coronado is so stunning and has a great poolside bar! It was nearly empty for us to enjoy swimming and was the perfect way to ease into vacation (as if you need to ease into vacation?). Next, we stopped for lunch at Rix Sports Bar & Grill in the hotel and we each enjoyed the poke bowls – it’s one of our most favorite meals at Disney World!

After a little nap, we got ourselves ready to go to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. With 10 haunted houses and 5 scare zones, it was a frighteningly good night for sure! We did not get express passes for the night, so we only got to do 2 haunted houses. We definitely could’ve squeezed in more, but by midnight we were completely exhausted and went back to our room for the night. We opted to do A Quiet Place and the Insidious haunted houses which each had about an hour wait to get in and THEY. WERE. AMAZING. Haunted houses are really too much for me to enjoy, but they did such a good job that I would absolutely go again, and ABSOLUTELY get the express pass. We however, had no issues getting on the rides that were still open like The Mummy, Rip Ride Rockit, and Escape from Gringotts within minutes.

Day 2 – Rest Day & Shopping
We planned a rest day early on in our trip knowing we’d be beat from flying in early AND staying up late at HHN in the same day, and are we sure glad we did! We also switched hotels this day so there was a lot happening in a short amount of time. We did a quick grab-and-go breakfast at Coronado Springs before switching to Port Orleans – French Quarter. We took an uber over to our next resort and when our driver pulled up, security asked if they were dropping off Cameron (my husband). We thought well, that was a lucky guess that he knew it was us? And then when we pulled up and walked through the front doors, we were greeted by cast members by name, before even checking in! Let me tell you, the magic of Disney never ceases to amaze me! My husband is still making fun of me weeks later for being “that person” that gawked and asked how they knew it was us. What can I say, I was impressed! We got to our room which was one of the newly renovated standard rooms, and went straight to the pool bar (again). We had a few drinks then went to unpack. When we finished unpacking, we went out to Disney Springs for our usual shop & walk around time.

We first stopped at eet by Maneet Chauhan, a modern yet authentic Indian restaurant, for happy hour and appetizers. We shared the bread service with pimento whipped paneer, coriander honey, and various chutneys. The mint one was my favorite!! The platter came with both garlic naan and buttered naan. We opted for the spicy margaritas to drink and they were the perfect amount of kick without burning your tongue!

After we walked around and picked out gifts to take back home, we went to the new Summer House and sat at the bar with the loveliest bartender. We met some great people while we sat there and eventually ordered the chicken tacos and fish & chips platters for dinner. We spent a good portion of the night there before heading back to our room to rest for the start of our park days!

*Did you know, if you stay at 2 different resorts on the same trip that Disney will move your luggage to your new resort/room, free of charge?!

Day 3: Hollywood Studios & EPCOT
We started our morning at Hollywood Studios and got the breakfast ronto wraps from Ronto Roaster’s in Galaxy’s Edge. I also indulged in the Cold Brew Black Caf (the cocoa puff coffee drink!) with breakfast. These are one of our favorite breakfast options in the parks so we went straight there since we were starting our day on that side of the park anyway! Our initial lightning lane reservations were for:
LLSP – Rise of the Resistance
LLMP – Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror, Indiana Jone’s Epic Stunt Spectacular

We also took a ride on one of my personal favorites, Toy Story Mania!, because I always beat my husband and he always gets annoyed about it! We rode Tower of Terror an extra time, and got on Smuggler’s Run early in the day so we hardly had to wait! We had reservations at Oga’s Cantina where we enjoyed a drink and appetizer, and REALLY enjoyed the atmosphere! We ordered the Batu Bites which was basically dried crudites, chips, and spicy salsa kind of dip, and then I ordered the Jedi Mind Trick and my husband the Gold Squadron Lager. If you’re a big Star Wars fan, I HIGHLY recommend going for the experience! We wrapped up our time at Hollywood Studios with lunch at Dockside Diner where we got yet another one of our park favorites, the bacon macaroni & cheese hot dog! We share one because it is plentyyyyyyy enough for two.

We hopped on the Skyliner and went to EPCOT for the rest of the day. The Food & Wine Festival is our favorite EPCOT festival so we spent our afternoon checking out all the food and drink options! Shockingly, the Pickle Milkshake was DELICIOUS! You can find this at the Brew-wing station inside the former Odyssey restaurant. We also ate the impossible buffalo chicken tenders and PBJ wings. This was easily our favorite stop this year and only wish we’d indulged it more the rest of the week!

Our Food & Wine Festival selections from our day:
France: Boeuf Bourguignon, Pommes de Terre Roties
Brazil: Frozen Caipirinha with Cachaca
Greece: Spanakopita, Griddled Cheese, Greek Melon Limeade
Japan: Teriyaki Chicken Bun, Wagyu Temaki Sushi
Brew-wing Lab: Peanut Butter and Jelly sticky wings; Impossible Buffalo Chicken Tenders; Pickle Milk Shake

We finished our night at Scat Cat’s Club – Lounge in our hotel with live jazz, drinks, and beignets!

Day 4 – EPCOT
We had an entire day dedicated to EPCOT because we just absolutely love F&W, like I said before!

Our initial lightning lane reservations were:
LLSP – Guardians of the Galaxy
LLMP – Living with the Land, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Spaceship Earth. We also added on Soarin’ once we checked into our first ride so we could do that & Living with the Land around the same time, since they’re in the same building. We also walked on to Figment because it’s just too cute to me!

We excitingly spent the rest of the day walking around F&W and enjoying all the offerings we could find. We even got a picture with “Binny!” (IYKYK).

Our Food & Wine Festival selections from our day:
Shimmering Sips: Mimosa Flight of tropical mimosa, berry mimosa, and blood orange mimosa
The Fry Basket: Adobo Yuca Fries with garlic-cilantro aioli, Fry Flight of truffle-parmesan, barbeque bacon, and sweet potato casserole fries
Morocco: Fried Falafel Pita

Day 5 – Magic Kingdom
We finally had to brave some rain on our last day. We really lucked out all week since the original forecast showed rain every single day, and we ended up only having to deal with it on the very last day with a hurricane about to roll in. We super lucked out in the sense that our trip fell right between two hurricanes bookending our trip! This alone convinced us we probably need to invest in the trip insurance here on out (not that the trip insurance even costs all the much). ALWAYS pack an umbrella and/or poncho, because even on the best forecasted days, rain pockets may surprise you.

Our initial lightning lane passes for MK were:
LLSP – TRON
LLMP – Haunted Mansion, Pirate’s of the Caribbean, and Tiana’s Bayou.

I usually hate log flume rides but Tiana’s version might had made me a believer. Plus, since it was already raining, I learned to just wear my poncho on (why hadn’t I thought of this before?!) and it was radically more enjoyable! We went through the Enchanted Tiki Room for my first experience, enjoyed cheeseburger spring rolls for the first time, and climbed the Swiss Family Treehouse (my husband swears we’d done it before but I don’t recall ever doing it). We left MK early before Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween started, and to meet with family for dinner in Disney Springs at Raglan Road before we headed home!

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to read my post! Contact me today to help you begin planning your next vacation!