saying goodbye to my beloved dinosaur (or so i thought...) - march 2025 spring break TR

[madeline07]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my March 2025 trip report! I am so very excited to finally be writing this report. I've been so caught up with school that this is the first opportunity I’ve had. I took some notes during the trip that should help me jog my memory, as well as some photos that I’ll add! I also got some very exciting news regarding Disney during the trip, which I will get to later...

If anyone’s interested in reading about the planning process for this trip, I wrote a full PTR, which is linked here. Before I get into our arrival day, I will do a quick background and introductions! My name is Syd, and I am currently a third-year college student living in Boston. This vacation marked my 12th trip to Disney! The past few trips we’ve taken have been with my dad, cousin, and best friend from home. This works out well because my cousin is close with my dad and they can share a hotel room and hang out, while my friend and I share another room and hang out. The four of us spend most of the trip and park time together, but it’s nice to have pairs for when we do split up.

The dates of this trip were 3/1–3/7, and we hit Universal/Islands of Adventure and all four Disney parks. One of my big goals during this trip was to try as many new restaurants/food stands as possible, and I think I did a pretty good job! We also did a split stay between Port Orleans French Quarter and the Boardwalk Inn, but I will go into more detail about this later in the report.

Also, I have a quick note for those who also take notes during their trips. For the first day of the trip, I used Apple’s Journal app to keep notes and photos, so that I had something to refer back to when writing this TR. However, I realized that it’s pretty easy to accidentally delete journal entries (luckily, I realized this without it actually happening to me). Also, the interface just wasn’t my favorite. I found it easier and more secure to take notes in my Notes app, and then just take photos separately on my camera app. Without further ado, let’s get into this TR!

 

[madeline07]

Table of Contents

3/1/25 - 4 AM Wake-up Call?! (Arrival Day Part 1)
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[madeline07]

Saturday, 3/1/25 - 4 AM Wake-up Call?! (Arrival Day Part 1)

Okay, SO. My travel day started with an early wake up at 4:30 AM. I usually am not a morning person, but Disney is a different story. I love to get one of the earliest flights possible from Boston to Orlando, and in this case, that flight was around 8 AM. I am always flying Southwest (though probably not for long with all these changes they’re making…), however they don’t offer a direct flight from BOS → MCO. So, I usually fly Delta for this route. Anyways, I woke up at 4:30 AM to wash my face, get ready, and finish packing my last minute items.

Since I don’t have a car here, I always take an Uber to the airport. I ordered this Uber the day before, mostly to hold myself to a certain time and make sure I didn’t leave for the airport too late. I was in my Uber at 5:15 and headed to the airport! This may seem kind of early for a 7:30 AM boarding time, but I do not play about the airport. For whatever reason, the baggage check and security lines are always busier than I’ve ever seen at Delta in the early morning, especially as spring breaks start to commence. Last year, I cut it pretty close with my airport arrival time, and I did not want to make that mistake again.

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I arrived at the airport within 15 minutes, at 5:30 AM, and quickly checked my bag. I was in line for security at 5:45, and through security by 6. Luckily, things were very efficient today, but it left me with an hour and a half before my flight boarded. This was fine though, I have no issues with sitting at my gate on my laptop and killing time before the flight. I popped into one of those little airport stores for a bottle of water and a bag of Cheez-its, and then headed to my gate.

I always travel with a reusable water bottle, but on this trip I decided against it because I can never find a good place to refill it in Disney. The water fountains aren’t very efficient at filling my big Owala Plus, I already planned to buy a refillable mug and place an Amazon Fresh order for a pack of water bottles. I am usually very good about using a refillable bottle rather than plastic ones, but in Disney I have to make an exception for convenience, especially since they have recycling bins everywhere you look.

The flight from BOS → MCO is around 3 hours, and since my flights are always at a sorta awkward time, I try to bring some snacks just in case I get hungry. This trip, my snacks of choice were beef Chomps (my recent obsession), salted macadamia nuts (one of my other recent obsessions), and Undercover Quinoa Crisps in the dark chocolate + sea salt flavor. These crisps were so good, writing this actually reminded me that I wanted to get more next time I’m at Target.

While at my gate, I got to watch a pretty sunrise and play my daily NYT games (wordle, the mini, connections, and strands). Before long, it was 7:30 AM and time to board! The whole process was pretty efficient this morning, we took off around 8 AM. With the Oscars the next night, I still had three Best Picture nominees that I hadn’t seen. I decided to watch Emilia Perez, which was available on Delta’s screens and basically took up the entire flight. I know this is a TR and not a movie review, but I will just say that this movie left a lot to be desired.

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Anyways, we landed in Orlando right around 11:10 AM, and the flight was pretty smooth (according to my notes). I had a nice window seat with nobody directly next to me, which is always great. As soon as we landed, I received the text that our rooms were ready! So early! I checked the location of our rooms, and was super pleased with the location. We had two garden view rooms in Building 4, which was right next to the lobby/main building with all of the food and retail. By 11:30, I was on that glorious fake monorail and heading to get my bag! My bag had already been taken off the carousel and set aside by the time I got to baggage claim, which was a pleasant surprise.

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My friend was flying in from Maryland and her flight was landing shortly after mine, so we decided that I’d just wait for her so we could Uber to the resort together. I headed back up to the main terminal to shop around for a new luggage tag, since my beloved Snoop Dogg tag had broken just as I arrived at the Boston airport. I went into the Disney store first and didn’t see anything, so I ventured into the Universal Studios store where I found this super cute tag! I filled out my info and put it on my suitcase right away.

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[disneyAndi14]

Joining in! I am a fellow Dinosaur fan! I have written a few reports singing the praises of the ride! The pre show is Epic!
Looks like a good travel day so far!

 

[summerlvr]

Looking forward to reading more! I don't normally ride Dinosaur, but you and @disneyAndi14 are making me think I should ride it one last time during my April trip.