Good morning WDBers!

My family and I were able to secure a quick two-night stay at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin using our Starwood Points! So, we'll be treating our daughters to a quick two-day trip to their favorite park....EPCOT!

I'll add the trip report to this thread, but wanted to share our quick ideas for what we'll be doing.

Day 1 - Drive to WDW, eat lunch (maybe at Downtown Disney) and then a quick trip around the Monorail resorts before settling down for an start to our day at EPCOT

Day 2 - Epcot! Lunch at San Angel Inn and Dinner at Tutto Italia planned

Day 3 - Breakfast at Kona Cafe before driving back home

Should be fun to make a quick unplanned trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!

UPDATED: TRIP REPORT LINK HERE!

Sounds like a great plan. Enjoy. I love those last minute surprises almost as much as the ones that you have planned for a year out. In some ways they are more fun because it is like a little bonus. Have fun. Take your rain gear, we have been getting the proverbial afternoon shower frequently lately.

Have a great time Arny! Eat some tonga toast for me!

Sounds like a great trip! Hope you and your family have a great time, and I can't wait to hear about your trip.

OH WOW! Very exciting!!!! It is WAY better to be surprised with a trip than to be surprised that you have to cancel it. ENJOY! Have fun!!! Quick and unplanned, how soon will you be going? Right now? I don't think I saw a departure date.

Doesn't matter! TOOO FUN!!!!

Have fun Arnold !! When are you going?

Oh wow - have a great time, how excited are your girls going to be, it will be amazing to see their faces. Looking forward to hearing to trip report.

Well, the girls were excited to hear about the surprise trip this weekend

We had to tell them because it's a late birthday present to the both of them. So, they got to choose the park (Epcot), where to eat and what they'd like to do while at the parks. So, they feel like they are in control for this trip! They love it!

Thanks for all of the well-wishes! I'll share the info (and some pics) here on this thread when we get back. We are only three days away!

Supposed to be 90 every day the end of this week, so not too bad for July. Good for you. Enjoy the time. It's nice to let your kids do the choosing and let them feel like they are in control of what they are doing. Have fun. Look forward to the trip report.

Have a great time!

WOW what a birthday surprise. Hope you have a great time. Say hi to Mickey for me. Look forward to your trip report.

Oh how very cool that your girls got to make a lot of the decisions! What a great idea! Brings a tear to my eye to envision my girls planning our trip. I LOVE IT!!!!! One will be 3 in AUG and the other is 4 months, still a little early for that. But now I can't wait for it!

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes. It must have helped because we had a great time!

DAY ONE

We had a late start to our quick trip and left after lunch on Friday. But, after a three-hour voyage we saw this....



After a few minutes we arrived at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin.....



Then we headed up to our room after check-in to drop off the bags and looking through the window we saw this....



Since we arrived a little later than expected, we didn't have a lot of time to hang out and do much that evening except for having a nice dinner at our family favorite... Olivia's Cafe!


DAY TWO

So, with a calm evening the night before we were able to get some nice rest in preparation for the long day ahead.... EPCOT!

After a quick breakfast at the Garden Grove restaurant, we went towards the ferry boat between the Swan and Dolphin to get to the International Gateway.



After a quick ferry boat ride (stopping at Beach/Yacht Club and Boardwalk before our stop at Epcot), we arrived at the gates a little early and so we went over our plan of attack for the Future World attractions. First, the family would head straight for the standby queue of Soarin'. Meanwhile, Papa Vee would head to Test Track to grab some FastPasses.

The gates opened up and after a quick bag check we headed through the World Showcase (still not open) and towards Future World where we were welcomed by the rope drop crew and some of the Disney Characters. "Welcome to Epcot!"

After the rope drop, we proceeded with our plan. I battled through the crowd, grabbed the FastPasses and then quickly made my way back to the Land pavilion where my family was already waiting for me towards the front of the line at Soarin'

We had a great trip to California on Soarin' (front row) and followed it up with a peaceful ride on Living with the Land. Then the girls decided to go on the Seas and Journey into Imagination before heading to Test Track.



Our plan worked like a charm as there was already a long wait at Test Track, but we got on in less than 10 minutes. While in queue we noticed some additional cars being added to the track.



After Test Track, we decided to hit SpaceShip Earth before heading to the World Showcase.



So, after a fun and educational ride on SpaceShip Earth, we headed towards the World Showcase! But, we spotted the real Duffy the Bear and had some pictures taken and got some autographs



It was getting closer to lunch time (San Angel Inn in the Mexico pavilion), so we headed towards Mexico and a trip on the Gran Fiesta!



We had a great lunch and then continued on our trip around the world with a stop in every pavilion to decorate our "Duffy" (instead of the masks that you can decorate at every Kidcot station, you now have a Duffy that you decorate and get stamps on) and to have our passports stamped







We managed to finish off all of the countries and took the ferry boat from the front of World Showcase to the back to have some dinner in Italy at Tutto Italia.

After an entire day at Epcot and every 'must-do' checked off of our list, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for our trip home in the morning.


DAY THREE
Since we got a late start on our trip on Friday, we decided to stay a little longer than expected on Sunday. So, instead of breakfast at Kona Cafe and leaving, we decided to do a little 'Monorail Resort Exploration' and then head for a quick stop at the Downtown Disney Marketplace.

So, we arrived at the Polynesian Resort (love it!) for our breakfast.



Then, after our Tonga Toast and Big Kahuna breakfast we explored the Grand Ceremonial house and the girls did some pin trading. Then, we jumped onto the monorail for our quick trip to the Grand Floridian and Contemporary Resorts.



After more pin trading and checking out the resorts, we headed off for the Disney Marketplace for some more pin trading and browsing around the stores.





After the Disney Marketplace, we jumped on the road to head back to civilization.

The good news is that we got to accomplish everything that we planned to do. And, even though there was a ton of rain on Friday, we kept completely dry throughout Saturday (Epcot) and Sunday (Monorail Resorts/Marketplace).

Great little trip for the family!

Great trip report Arny! Loved how you included the pix! Glad you had a magical time with your family & tonga toast for me!

MML

YAY!!! Sounds like a great trip!!!

All of the EPCOT must do's attacked!! Love the Monorail tour. Great pics!!!! Thanks for the report!!!!

Great report. Sounds like you had a great trip. The pics are perfect.

Don't you just love those new Lego masterpieces? I think that they are awesome!

TY great report. I love it when we all post our reports because it gives you a glimps into who other people enjoy they're trips. I think those lego figures are amazing to, it must be great to have the skill and foresight to see the end result.

Sounds like a great time! I'm overdue for a quick Disney vaca, but having an almost 6 month old, it's not easy. Planning on going for her 1st birthday in February/March-ish with the entire family. Can't wait!

When did they put up those new Lego sculptures? Those are so cool!

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the Trip Report! We just loved our fun-filled stay and the best part is that we used our Starwood points to stay at the Swan/Dolphin and then used some Disney Visa points for our gifts/meals. So, we were able to get a Disney vacation in with less 'out of pocket' than we anticipated

I'm adding the link to the TRIP REPORT in the first post of the thread since it's a few posts into the thread.