It has been far too long since we have made this series of posts. Yep, the Calkins Family is headed back to Walt Disney World, but this time we are taking a day to head over to Universal Studios and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. After years of hype, months of planning, and a week of packing, we were so ready to enjoy the next Calkins Family Vacation!
During our last trip to Walt Disney World (WDW), our constant flight delays made the girls say “No!” to future air travel to the parks; the closure of Disney’s Magical Express, the free shuttle from Orlando International Airport to WDW, certainly contributed to this as well. In fact, the girls’ main draw to Fort Campbell was that we could now drive to Florida. So once we got orders to Kentucky, we all knew this vacation was going to be in our future. Heck, who am I kidding, even if we were stationed in Alaska we would still find a way to see Mickey and Minnie. Starting a few months out, after finding the optimal week for low crowds, I took a look at the website for Shades of Green, the military resort on the WDW grounds (right across the street from Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort actually), to see if they had any availability. Surprisingly, they had plenty of space, and since I could cancel with a full refund up to a week out, I booked the resort for five nights. Although it was not at one of the themed resorts, it did not cost very much and gave each of us our own bed (granted, mine was the couch turned sleeper, but it was fine). After reserving our rooms, I submitted my leave request and then stopped by Leisure Travel Services on post to get discounted tickets. The girls (mostly Elaina) really wanted to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this trip, so I purchased three tickets each for WDW and one each for Universal Studios Orlando; I had to get the park-hopper for Universal, as we needed to visit Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida and Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure, courtesy of the Hogwarts Express. And immediately after purchasing them, I realized I had made a mistake and, after getting a refund, had to do it all again. Because Elaina is no longer a child for theme park tickets… *tear*
Taking a week off from school, the girls and I drove down to Orlando via Interstates 24 and 75. I felt bad about them missing so much time from class, but there has not been a really good time in the last two years for me to take the time off, the girls to be with me, AND for the crowds at WDW to be low. It just meant we were going to have to make the most out of this vacation (and do a lot of homework when we returned).
Right before our hotel at the halfway point, we decided to stop in Atlanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium. I purchased our tickets in advance at Leisure Travel Services, saving about $15. The aquarium is supposed to be one of the best in the world and we all were excited to do something other than just drive on our first day of vacation.
The Georgia Aquarium had a lot to offer for each of us. There were plenty of sharks, including Whale, Tiger, and Great Hammerheads. I have never seen a Hammerhead or Tiger Shark up close, and they were absolutely terrifying.
The Tiger Shark just swam at the top of the tank the whole time, staring down on its domain. The experience was awesome and completely reaffirmed my irrational fear of sharks.
The Whale Shark, on the other hand, was gigantic, graceful, and extremely peaceful to watch. To Gabby and me, these creatures were amazing to observe and we could have stayed there all day, but after a couple minutes at each tank, Elaina was getting a little bored with them. As kids get older, it is just more difficult to keep them entertained and engaged.
It was also really cool to see a full-size Manta Ray in the main tank. Those creatures are just as big, beautiful, and graceful as expected. After taking a tour of the predator (shark) and main tanks, the girls were already starting to get hungry, so we headed to the Coastline Cafe for a quick bite.
In what was to be a preview of their go-to WDW meal, the girls predictably ordered chicken strips and fries. At least the meal was enough to feed all three of us, so that saved us some money (as it would over the next few days as well).
After lunch, we took in some of the many other exhibits at the aquarium. One of the exhibits the girls enjoyed the most were the eel tanks, which included a tunnel for the girls to crawl through and come up inside the tank. This especially freaked out Elaina when she turned her head to the left, only to find a Moray Eel pressed against the glass.
But in our next segment of “Things that just don’t impress them anymore,” when we came to the Beluga Whales, Elaina just shrugged and sat on a bench. She used to love watching them at other aquariums, and even though there were four whales playing in the tank together, she just was not feeling it. This was kind of sad, halfway because maybe zoos and aquariums are not her thing anymore, but also because maybe I am out of touch with what my girls want to do so we can spend time together. Probably a little bit of both.
Gabriella still enjoyed the whole aquarium, especially the sharks, main tank (Whale Shark, Sea Turtles, and Manta Rays), and penguins, but looking up to Elaina, she kept pace with her and left exhibits rather quickly.
After waiting to climb in the penguin habitat, they loved watching them swim around the glass windows. I will admit, I was having a pretty fun time watching them swim too. I was just getting worried that maybe WDW was going to come across as too childish and my oldest was not going to enjoy this trip (I could not have been more wrong, but I will get to that later).
We closed out the aquarium by getting some ice cream and seeing the alligators, and by then the girls were ready to leave to the motel room. But we had to stop at the gift shop first, where they both got a necklace and I purchased a refrigerator magnet.
They both told me they enjoyed the aquarium, even if Elaina rushed us through it. It was really well done, had an amazing selection of animals, and was very easy to navigate, as there was one central hub from which all the exhibits branched off. For anyone travelling to Atlanta, it was probably the best aquarium I have ever been to (with only the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago coming close), so I would highly recommend it. I only wish I could come back to read all the informational signs the girls dragged me past.
The motel I booked was about an hour South, so we got on the road and headed to the Best Western in Byron, GA. While I reorganized our bags in preparation for the next leg of the trip, the girls played on their tablets and called their friends. We also ended up eating at a local barbeque joint, as sampling local food is usually my favorite part of any trip; this was so much so that, for a lot of the drive, I regaled them with stories of their Mom and I’s best road trips, where we took part in eating contests (Pappy’s Smokehouse in Saint Louis, MO), ate at the birthplace of the corn dog on a stick (Cozy Dog Drive In in Springfield, IL)), and gluttonously employed the Disney Dining Plan at WDW with peak efficiency.
Because our drive to Florida was planned over the course of two days, there was absolutely no rush to get back on the road. Given that the girls were going to be up early the rest of the week to catch the bus and be there for rope drop, they were happy for the chance to sleep in. We took our time getting down to Orlando, stopping at Starbucks for Elaina to get an apple pastry and Gabriella to get her butter croissant.
The girls could not agree on where they wanted to eat (Elaina wanted something light while Gabriella wanted chicken nuggets) and are not too great yet at finding potential restaurants outside of the ones on interstate signs. They finally agreed on IHOP, because it is always a good time to have pancakes, bacon, and crepes (one guess as to our wannabe Parisian who ordered the latter).
A couple hours after lunch, we made it to the WDW area, spotting Cinderella’s Castle from Magic Kingdom as we arrived. The Shades of Green Resort is at a great location, very close to Magic Kingdom, and across the street from Polynesian Village and Grand Floridian Resorts. I had actually been here about a decade ago, playing golf at the Magnolia Golf Course which surrounds the area. We pulled into the parking garage and left to explore the facilities.
As stated before, unlike the rest of the resorts at WDW, this one is not owned by Disney and is not Disney-themed. It instead is one of the five Armed Forces Recreation Centers (AFRC), with the other four being Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Germany, Dragon Hill Lodge in South Korea, Hale Koa Hotel in Hawaii, and New Sanno Hotel in Japan. Surprisingly, the girls and I did not particularly care about the lack of theme, so the resort worked great for us. But since it is not technically a Disney resort, we could not check our MagicBands beforehand or purchase anything in the park with them. Only a small issue, but something of which to be aware.
We discovered there was a lack of activities at Shades of Green though, which was a little disappointing. The Surrey Bikes at Port Orleans – Riverside really did spoil me. As is the usual for us though, aside from the first and last days, we were not planning on spending a lot of time at the resort. Due to the overall cost of the trip, mostly from our day at Universal, we would not be enjoying a rest day between park days two and three.
Although every WDW resort has a convenience store on the grounds, with merchandise, medicine, and some food, Shades of Green had a full military shoppette in the hotel, and one with normal Post Exchange prices. As an example, the girls both got their sequin Minnie Mouse ears for $9.99 each, whereas they were $34.99 inside the parks. Pretty great deal. This was very welcomed, especially when it came to the girls and their evening snacks.
And things got better once we got to our room, as it was gigantic. Two queen beds and a sleeper sofa, meaning we each got our own bed (continuing to try to be the best Dad I can, I opted for the sleeper sofa, and neither of them complained). The girls’ only issue was there was no microwave in the room, but it was not one for me because it forced me to get a lot of steps in to use the microwave in the common area.
After checking out our room, we decided to tour the rest of the resort, including the pool, restaurants, and arcade. We did not end of using the arcade or any of the sit-down restaurants, but the pool was excellent.
The girls had a really fun time playing in the heated pool, but I stayed out for health reasons. I got diagnosed with shingles a week before the trip, and even though I was taking medication to stop it from spreading, I still had a pretty sizable rash on my shoulder, back, neck, and chest. I not only did not want to pass the virus onto anyone else at the pool, but did not even feel comfortable taking my shirt off.
The girls had a blast though, swimming around the pool for a while before heading atop the water slide tower.
They went down the slide, then walked quickly up the tower, doing this at least a dozen times in a row.
The girls definitely gave a big thumbs-up to this pool, which made me happy because I was worried they were going to compare it to the pools at the Caribbean Resort, which have actual water cannons.
While the girls enjoyed the water, I refined our Lightning Lane selections for the next day. I paid for this service, and as I will discuss in later posts, it was well worth it (in my opinion, at least). We were meeting our family friends, the Rowans, at WDW over the next few days, so I was trying to sync up our schedules as best as possible. We were going to start by meeting up for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at Hollywood Studios the next day and then take it from there.
After choosing to go to a dim sum restaurant (and only finding the parking lot packed due to the AFC Championship Game), we settled for Olive Garden. The girls had a good meal, but had to listen to my rant about trying new foods on vacation. After getting full off salad, pasta, and breadsticks, we headed to bed a little early in preparation for tomorrow’s activities. There were no complaints about the drive down and glad we took two days to do it. They have seen me in “uber-efficiency mode,” and I try my best not to do that on vacations, just making sure they have a good time. But now that we arrived at the resort without incident, the test was going to be how we handled the parks. Next stop: Hollywood Studios!
Thanks for checking in on us.
Cheers!
Adventures in Single Dadding 