Trip Report *COMPLETED* Allll the fun...and other musings - an August trip report

Some preamble
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Burnett Family Trip Report – Summer Edition. Before you commit to reading this, be warned that it may take a bit of time to complete this as I have 10 days to cover with something like 900 pictures to pick from and a busy next few weeks.

Some trip info
I could direct you to our epic pre-trip report found here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...the-fun-august-20-29-ptr.915198/#post-7298480
but I’ll save you the trouble and recap the important stuff here.

Who's travelling

From left to right there is my wife Tammy, Myself (Graham), our daughter Steph (Stephanie) and our son Liam.

When
August 20th – August 29th

Where
Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village in a studio

Anything else
The only other kind of interesting/problematic thing is that Steph has been having some foot problems for the past few months. She’s been off karate and has been going to physio, acupuncture and chiro, but at the end of two months her foot is still sore. This may come into play during our trip…

So……Let’s get started

August 18th-19th – some pre-trip stuff

We had some pre-trip stuff to take care of before we could get our vacation started.

Step 1: Take the feline members of our family to my Mom and Dad’s. We have two cats that we rescued from the SPCA when they were kittens.

We have Zoey who is 7

and we have Pyper (the torty) who is 5. They typically like being at my parents place as it is quiet and they don’t have to worry about….

Step 2: So it is early July and we’re out driving on a Saturday. “Let’s go to the SPCA just for fun” Tammy says…. Long story short “Let’s go to the SPCA just for fun” became this:

This is Cooper. He’s about 6 months old. We really don’t know what he is (We think a Daschund/Lab mix. Don’t aske me how that happens). The cats aren’t overly thrilled with him yet (Pyper hides. Zoey is the boss and smacks Cooper around when he gets out of line).

We found a great place for Cooper to stay while we were away which we were happy about. The place came and picked Cooper up on Friday morning (the 19th) and with that we were almost ready.
I went to work on the 19th, but had booked a ½ day off to do some last minute running around/packing. Tammy runs an in-home daycare, so she was working the whole day. Around 5 the final kid was picked up, and we were ready to go.

We jumped in the car and took off across the border to the Sleep Inn in Buffalo, where we’d be staying for the night, before our flight the next morning. We made a quick stop at Sam’s Club to pick up some breakfast items, and then called it a night. We were in bed by 10, and ready to get this trip officially started.

More to come

 

[gwhb75]

Thanks for the idea to visit Ample Hills! We love the Boardwalk area. Adding to the the plan for our trip in Feb/March.

Totally worth the trip to Boardwalk ( as long as you like ice cream). Thanks for following along

 

[gwhb75]

August 25


So we’ve made it to just past the halfway point now, but there’s still lots of stuff to do. This morning the plan was to go to HS, and the kids wanted to make rope drop again. I agreed with the strategy, with one slight modification….I told Tammy to sleep a bit longer. The whole purpose of making rope drop was to ride RNR and ToT, which are two rides that Tammy doesn’t like, so there really was no point in her coming with us just to sit on a bench waiting for us. She thought that sounded good, so she stayed in the room while the kids and I headed to HS. We got to the park just as they opened up the streets, so our timing was perfect.

We headed right to RNR, and there was almost no wait.

While in line I got a text from Tammy telling me she was on her way. I told her to get pictures done by a photopass photographer on the way in (I didn’t think she would, but she actually did).

As I mentioned, there was no line at all, so we were on in no time.

Since the line was so short we decided to ride again, only we did the single rider line this time. I finally got my name on a poster.

I told Tammy she could be my groupie.
Liam didn’t strike me as a traditionalist, but apparently he feels strongly about the change to the pre-show (he has no idea what this hand gesture means).

Next up was a FP for ToT.

We had a fun.

While in line for this one Tammy texted to say she had arrived. After the ride I stopped by the Joffrey’s coffee cart and picked Tammy up a Vienna Latte.

more to come

 

[gwhb75]

August 25th continued

The kids decided they were going to stay around ToT and RNR, so I met up with Tammy and we headed back to the hub.

We got to the end of Hollywood Blvd, and there was a photpass photographer there with no one in line, so we decided to get some pictures taken. The pictures started out normally

…and then he asked us to kiss (after confirming we weren't brother and sister). So we did.

However, I decided to have a little fun with this so I kissed Tammy for a long time. Tammy thought the picture was just taking long to take...

but she didn’t know I was doing this.

I got a round of applause from the people who were now in line waiting for their pictures.

So after the PDA, we headed over to the stage area. We were going to go to Pixar Place, but we checked the time and saw that the March of the First Order was about to start, so we decided to wait and watch it. It was pretty neat to see.

Next we headed to Toy Story. We had FPs coming up, but we had a bit of a wait. Instead of just standing in the heat, we decided we’d get in line for pictures with Buzz and Woody. We weren’t going to actually get the pictures, we thought we’d just wait until the kids came and then leave the line. However, the kids took their time getting there, and before we knew it we were next in line. Why not?

After the pictures we headed out and the kids eventually made their way over. This time we got to use the new 3rd track.

It looks good.

more to come

 

[gwhb75]

August 25 continued

After our ride we headed over to the Star Wars Launch Bay.

We had gone there at Christmas and did the meet and greet with Darth Vader and Chewbacca, but now Kylo Ren was there, so we decided to meet him.

We had a really good experience with him. Liam decided he’d be a bit of a jerk when he went in (in a stupid/playful kind of way). We walk into the room where Kylo Ren is, and he points at Liam and commands him to stand in a certain place. “Excuse Me!!” Liam says. “What was that Kylo BEN”. He turns around quickly, points at Liam and says “I don’t talk about him”. Then we all get in line and he starts talking to Tammy, Steph and I, telling us how we should join the dark side, and how he sees great potential in us.

Everyone should have someone in their life who looks at them the way Tammy looks at Kylo Ren? What the..

Then he stops at Liam, pauses, and just says “No”, and then walks away.

For someone from the dark side he has a pretty good sense of humor.

After meeting Kylo (yeah, we’re on a first name basis now), we headed out, but ran into some Jawas.

Liam wanted to trade with them. All I had was some unopened bandaids, so I gave one to Liam to try and trade.

The Jawa was quite happy to trade with him, and gave him a poker chip. Liam had fun.

Lunch was the next order of business. We stopped at Min and Bill’s AGAIN, and Steph got the mac and cheese AGAIN. Liam stopped at one of the carts and got Thai Chicken Nuggets.

We then went to the Backlot Café, where Tammy got the salad again, and I got the chicken and waffels.

All were good, but HS needs more QS restaurants.

more to come

 

[gwhb75]

August 25th continued

With lunch over, we made our way over to Star Tours. However, we saw there was no line for the pictures with Olaf, so we went and got pictures done.

Even Liam got into some warm hugs

Star Tours was next, and it was fun.

We split up after that. The kids went back to RNR and TOT, and Tammy and I went on the Great Movie Ride. If the rumors that this is closing soon are true, at least we got to ride it one last time.
We called it a day after that. We headed back to AKL, spent some time at Community Hall, and then took a long nap.

.
We woke up around 4ish, feeling somewhat refreshed. We were kind of excited about dinner tonight since we were going to the Skipper Canteen for the first time. We got to the park around 5ish, picked up Steph’s wheelchair (she didn’t use one in the morning and her foot was really starting to bother her again). Once she was mobile, we headed into the park and over to the skipper canteen

We got to the check-in desk almost right on time for our reservation, and had a short wait in the outdoor lobby.

Before long we were called in. We loved the look of the place. We were seated in the main mess hall (we would have liked the S.E.A. room, but we weren’t overly picky). Our server came not long after we were seated, and she was fantastic. She was in character for the whole meal and we thought she was just fantastic.
We looked over the menus, and made our choices.

Before long the bread was brought to our table

We started with the pot stickers appetizer which were really good.

I also tried one of the “Exotic” Cokes (a Coke from another country).

more to come

 

[gwhb75]

August 25th continued

For dinner Tammy got the “Tastes Like Chicken Because It Is”,

Steph got the layered pasta,

Liam got the head-on Shrimp (not sure what happened to the picture of it, but it's gone). and I got the Char Siu Pork (which was recommended by our server).

I wish the food experience matched how much we liked the theming and our server, but it didn’t. Liam didn’t like the shrimp at all (he said it smelled like wet dog. Not only that, but you could see the eye’s still). I tried a bit of the shrimp and it was mushy. Blah. Tammy said the chicken was kind of bland. Steph did not enjoy the pasta. I was the only one who found my meal to be passable, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. We were pretty disappointed. Having said that, we didn’t want to let the bad food taint our view of our server (I wish I could remember her name). We waited to speak to the manager where we told him how awesome our server was. We wouldn’t have mentioned the food, but he asked how we enjoyed it. We let him know it wasn’t really to our liking, and left it at that. We reiterated how great our server was, and he said he’d make sure she got something and that she would know it was from us.

After our kind of disappointing meal we headed out to the parks. I booked a FP for Pirates on my phone. While waiting to board the boat for Pirates I booked a FP for Jungle Cruise. We had fun, although we did get a bit wet (we were sitting in the front).
We headed over to JC after that.

We had a great ride with one of the funniest skippers we’ve ever had. She had a lot of material we hadn’t heard before. I did notice they avoided the alligator jokes all together (she actually had us look the opposite way from where they were when we passed them).
Mermaid was up next (Steph wanted to ride it, and there was a FP available so I took it).

It was OK.

After Mermaid I booked a FP for Space Mountain for later in the evening (Liam really wanted that one, and since Steph got Mermaid we had to make it fair). We made our way over to Tomorrowland, with a quick stop at the Tea Cups (where Tammy and I actually rode (without the kids who rode on their own)).

It was fun

Next up was the PeopleMover.

I don’t know what it is about that ride, but I love it.

more to come

 

[gwhb75]

August 25th continued

We still had a bit of time after the ride above Tomorrowland, and the kids were still a bit hungry since they really didn’t eat all that much for dinner, so we headed down to Main St. Everyone wanted Ice Cream, so we stopped in at the Parlor again.

The kids got sundaes (a Plaza sundae and an All American sundae). Tammy and I split an ice cream sandwich.

We really enjoyed them.

After finishing our dairy treats we headed back to SM.

We got there about 15 minutes early for our FP, but thought we’d give it a shot.

We scanned our band, but the Mickey head turned blue (I should note that something seemed messed up with the FP line. It was really long, and there was a manager walking up the line talking to people making sure they were having a good time). So, as I mentioned, the Mickey head went blue. However, the CM standing there took pity on us and pushed a button on his tablet, and suddenly blue went green (here’s an interesting thing though. The CM actually was giving us a bonus FP. We thought he was just accelerating our’s to the current time, but that wasn’t the case (you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out how I figured that out)).
We had a fun ride. One the way out I noticed the screens that normally show your name was showing the “white screen of death”.

Uh oh…
Well, that’s it for this day. We headed back to the room after that and called it a night (it’s around 10ish now). Tomorrow we plan on having a more laid back start to the day.

End of August 25th

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Enjoying your trip report! I was in Disney the same time you guys were, but I only counted twice we were in the same park on the same day so far. It's really interesting comparing your trip to mine and seeing what you did on different days.

We had to get my Mom a wheelchair too while we were down there for her knee. It helped her out a lot. I hope it helped your daughter out!

 

[gwhb75]

Enjoying your trip report! I was in Disney the same time you guys were, but I only counted twice we were in the same park on the same day so far. It's really interesting comparing your trip to mine and seeing what you did on different days.

We had to get my Mom a wheelchair too while we were down there for her knee. It helped her out a lot. I hope it helped your daughter out!

Glad you're enjoying the report.

What did you think of the crowd levels? We found it to be a bit quieter than in prior years.

The wheelchair was a definite help, but her foot still isn't in good shape.

Thanks for reading.

 

[fractal]

Great update!

I'm very impressed you're able to get those teenagers up for the rope drops. Love the "kissing trick". I'll have to try that one!

Too bad about Skipper Canteen. Looks good though.

There definitely is something about Peoplemover.

 

[Ciara]

We got to the check-in desk almost right on time for our reservation, and had a short wait in the outdoor lobby.
View attachment 161758

This photo is great! Like a album cover

 

[steviej]

Terrific trip report! Only read the first page, can't wait to read more!

That button is to call a flight attendant in case you get incapacitated in the loo and need help. Seriously.
(wouldn't it be embarrassing to have to use it?)

One time on a flight, I went to the bathroom, and I could not get the door to unlock for anything! I was mortified at the prospect of having to use that button! I had to play with the lock for over 20 minutes before it finally opened!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Glad you're enjoying the report.

What did you think of the crowd levels? We found it to be a bit quieter than in prior years.

The wheelchair was a definite help, but her foot still isn't in good shape.

Thanks for reading.

We hadn't been there in like 8 years, so it was hard to compare the crowd levels. The first few days of our trip I honestly expected the crowds to be a little lighter, but we managed to do a lot. They definitely dwindled down towards the end of our trip though. I can't complain. We had very few waits over half an hour the entire trip.

 

[MinnieM123]

With lunch over, we made our way over to Star Tours. However, we saw there was no line for the pictures with Olaf, so we went and got pictures done.

So happy you got a picture with Olaf! Olaf is my favorite; I could care less about Anna and Elsa (not a fan of Frozen to begin with, but I think Olaf is funny and has spunk)!

 

[gwhb75]

This photo is great! Like a album cover

That's actually what I was going for. Thanks for noticing.

 

[gwhb75]

Terrific trip report! Only read the first page, can't wait to read more!



One time on a flight, I went to the bathroom, and I could not get the door to unlock for anything! I was mortified at the prospect of having to use that button! I had to play with the lock for over 20 minutes before it finally opened!

Glad you're enjoying the report so far.

I would love to push the button, and then have them have to open the door and see me just sitting there. I'd ask for a coke...

 

[gwhb75]

So happy you got a picture with Olaf! Olaf is my favorite; I could care less about Anna and Elsa (not a fan of Frozen to begin with, but I think Olaf is funny and has spunk)!

I agree. I don't really care for Anna or Elsa either.

 

[gwhb75]

We hadn't been there in like 8 years, so it was hard to compare the crowd levels. The first few days of our trip I honestly expected the crowds to be a little lighter, but we managed to do a lot. They definitely dwindled down towards the end of our trip though. I can't complain. We had very few waits over half an hour the entire trip.

I agree. The first weekend we got there was a lot busier than I expected (I chalked it up to it being the weekend so lots of locals would be there). It definitely died off on Sunday night.

 

[gwhb75]

Great update!

I'm very impressed you're able to get those teenagers up for the rope drops. Love the "kissing trick". I'll have to try that one!

Too bad about Skipper Canteen. Looks good though.

There definitely is something about Peoplemover.

It's not hard to get them up when it's their idea. Getting them up for school is a whole different ballgame.

I really wanted to like the Skipper Canteen. I loved the decor and the server, but the food just wasn't very good in our opinion (maybe if we had the steak we would have been OK)

I'm not sure why I like the Peoplemover so much, but I do. I could ride that loop for hours and not get bored (I'm always hoping the load area is empty when we get back so we can stay on).

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm not sure why I like the Peoplemover so much, but I do. I could ride that loop for hours and not get bored (I'm always hoping the load area is empty when we get back so we can stay on).

This is one of the best rides ever! (The only thing I miss from years ago, are some of the indoor SM effects--especially years ago when you'd see the ride cars with the green lights on the sides, fly through "space"--really fun to see, along with hearing the screams of the riders!)

Also, the ride actually has some length to it, unlike some others that seem like they're done too quickly. The outdoor breeze is nice as the cars move along, especially on a hot day. In the evenings, the Peoplemover's view over the park is so pleasant.