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

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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.
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We have Zoey who is 7
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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:
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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).
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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
 
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gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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.

I agree with everything you said.

The other thing I like is that it's like an omni-mover with no FP to mess up the line. Even when the line is huge it's never a long wait.
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So many things that I want to try!

The pizza place at DS.. The Coke samplers.. Ample Hills. :hungry:
All are good. Ample Hills is a great, although dangerous (in a "bad for the waistline" kind of way) addition. The Coke store and Blaze pizza are great too.

Thanks for following along.
 

steviej

Well-Known Member
All are good. Ample Hills is a great, although dangerous (in a "bad for the waistline" kind of way) addition. The Coke store and Blaze pizza are great too.

Thanks for following along.

I've seen a ton of tr's talking about blaze pizza. That's all I've been seeing is Blaze Pizza, Blaze Pizza, Blaze Pizza. So I looked into it, and lo and behold, there's one 15 minutes from my house. My wife and I went there on friday, it was AWESOME! I live in NJ, about 20 minutes outside of New York City, some of the best pizza in the world and I was blown away. It definitely doesn't have that "chain" pizza taste to it (looking at you Pizza Hut). We can't wait to go back and are glad we don't have to use a WDW meal to try it!
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I've seen a ton of tr's talking about blaze pizza. That's all I've been seeing is Blaze Pizza, Blaze Pizza, Blaze Pizza. So I looked into it, and lo and behold, there's one 15 minutes from my house. My wife and I went there on friday, it was AWESOME! I live in NJ, about 20 minutes outside of New York City, some of the best pizza in the world and I was blown away. It definitely doesn't have that "chain" pizza taste to it (looking at you Pizza Hut). We can't wait to go back and are glad we don't have to use a WDW meal to try it!

It looked really good and Steph enjoyed it. We'll have to go back the next time we're there and try it (there aren't any near us here in Canada).
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
August 26 – “on the fly”

Here we are at the last full week day at Disney. We still have the weekend, but it’s getting close to the end. However, we still have 3 days, so let’s not waste them thinking about leaving.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re not really “uber planners”. We normally know what park we’re going to, and have a few FP’s booked, but not much else. Based on our rough plan, we were supposed to be at AK today…I said supposed to. Tammy and I get up, make coffee, etc and start getting ready. Not long after the kids get up. “Can we go to EPCOT today?”….NO! I kid, I kid. We were more than happy to change our plans, so EPCOT became our new destination. Being the good Disney citizen I am, I jumped on the MDE app and cancelled our AK FPs.

on our way
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and we're there
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We got to the park just after rope drop, cleared “security” and headed right towards World Showcase (after picking up a wheelchair for Steph).
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One of the things on our “to-do” list this trip was to ride Frozen Ever After.
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I had a FP booked, but it was for tomorrow (you know…the day we were supposed to be at EPCOT). I knew the kids probably wouldn’t want to come back to EPCOT tomorrow, so we had to do FEA without a FP. I was concerned we’d end up in a 2 hour line, so we booked it over to Norway/Arendell. The line for the ride wasn’t horrible when we got there. The posted time was 45 minutes, so we decided we’d wait. I’m glad we did, because the actual time was closer to 25 minutes.

waiting in line
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and it looks like Tammy is only a few months away from being the shortest in our family
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As much as I get that people liked Malestrom, you have to admit that the Imagineers did a good job with converting it to FEA. The theming is really well done (and the que is much better than the old Malestrom one). We all really enjoyed the ride (the audio animatronics are excellent).

Like most reports I've read, a lot of people don't know where the camera is on this ride. It looks like we're at church or something

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After FEA we headed back towards Future World. On the way there I checked my emails and noticed a FP notification that we received last night around 10:30 telling us that our Space Mountain FP was cancelled because of technical difficulties. We had two options:
1) Use the SM FP any time during the night (last night) if it re-opened
2) Use the FP for any attraction we wanted the following day.
I assumed we had received the email in error since we had used our FP on SM the night before, but I mentioned it to the rest of the family, and we decided we may as well give it a shot. After a brief discussion, we decided we’d try it on Test Track (I would have done Soarin’ again, but I know Tammy doesn’t enjoy it, and I know she likes Test Track). We made our way over to the FP line at TT and tapped our bands…..green Mickey head.
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We had a great ride.

more to come
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
August 26th continued

After TT, Liam and I headed back to MS.
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This time we actually had a 3rd person with us, so we almost had a full team. Maybe we won’t crash this time. We had fun (I hope the person we rode with doesn’t think we’re too weird. We were being stupid the whole time, but I think she eventually caught on and was laughing with us).

After MS we met up with Tammy and Steph and headed over to the Imagination Pavilion to check out the DVC lounge.
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We entered the pavilion, checked in, and tool the elevator up (we would have taken the stairs, but Steph had her wheelchair).
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The lounge is really nice, and I would love if they kept it as a permanent thing.
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There were a few computers, some Ipads and a lot of couches with charging stations.

There were also a few Coke free-style machines and a Keurig machine.
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The views were pretty good too
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We probably spent about half an hour there.
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The snack cart also made an appearance.
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While relaxing in the lounge I booked a FP for JII (I get that we don’t need it, but I think it’s funny to go into the FP line when the standby is empty….I don’t know why). We had fun again.
more to come
 
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prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
I'm sad to read that your meals didn't live up to the hype at Skipper Canteen. I really do want to try to eat here for the atmosphere, but I hear such mixed things on the food!

Love the pictures with Olaf! Liam giving him a hug is the best!!! :)
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
August 26th continued

Next we decided we’d do a quick circle of World Showcase. We started in Mexico.
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The pavillion is really well themed. I wish there were more consistent reviews of the San Angel Inn as I’d love to try it, but the mixed opinions always make me chicken out. Maybe one day. We did ride the Gran Fiesta Tour while we were there.
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It was what it was.

Next was Norway. I saw there was no line for the pictures with Anna and Elsa so, as much as I don’t care about them, we went and got pictures done (I was actually more interested in seeing the new Royal Sommerhaus than anything else – which, again, was really well done). The wait was only about 10 minutes.
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That’s a far cry for the crazy lines they used to get in the MK. Is this because of the location, or has Frozen’s popularity wained a bit (which, if it has, will know doubt come back in full force once the new movie comes out).
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We also got some pictures just outside Norway.

Next up was Germany. I took a picture of the area and sent it to my boss (he came with me when I went to Germany in May). We made a quick stop in Caramel Kuche and picked up some salted caramel squares.
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So good.
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We also checked out the store in Germany. I was tempted by the crystal castle….
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Only $37,000. Just charge it to my room;)

Next was the USA. We didn’t actually go into the pavilion, but did stop and watch the “American Music Machine” perform.
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They were OK (they’re an acapella group. We saw them at Christmas when they were performing in front of the Fountain of Nations). I had to sit next to an old bird.
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We made a brief stop in Italy after that, but really only wanted to check out Via Napoli.

more to come
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
August 26th

Finally, we made it to Japan. We had lunch reservations for Teppan Edo today (this was Steph’s pick).
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We were seated quickly,
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and had an excellent meal.
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Liam and Steph got the steak and shrimp, and Tammy and I got the steak and chicken. Our chef was outstanding. He was an older man, and he really knew his stuff. It was very entertaining.

Some food pics
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The other good thing about doing lunch at Teppan Edo is that they give an AP discount (they don’t take TiW there at any time). We decided to skip dessert because, while the Teppan Edo has great main courses, their desserts are nothing special.
After dinner we browsed the store in Japan. We picked up some sour coke and lemon candy (like the Japanese version of warheads). Liam also got some rock sugar.

We continued out way around WS. Next up was Canada. We caught one of the final show of Les Parfaits Inconnus.
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They were very good (and more entertaining than what I saw of the lumberjack show). They were all very talented and funny. We really enjoyed watching them.

more to come
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
August 26th continued

After this we decided to call it a day for the WS part of the park.
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Liam and Steph wanted to go to Innoventions to ride Sum o Fall Thrills one last time, so we headed there.

They had a good time.
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It was now around 5ish, and we decided to head out of the park….and back to Ample Hills (you know, since we didn’t have dessert at Teppan Edo).

We walked back to the International Gateway exit and then took a boat over to the Boardwalk.
The new look beach
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Soon we were there
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We got the same sundaes as last time.
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They were good again
After that we decided to head back to AKL. We weren’t sure of the best way to get there (should we walk back to the front of EPCOT or try something else). I came up with the idea of taking the bus from BW to AK and then from AK to AKL. It turned out to be a good idea. Before long we were back at AKL.
We went to Community Hall again (pictures, foosball, pool and then out).
Even Tammy got into some pool with Liam
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The kids wanted to go right to the pool after Community Hall so they headed back to the room to get changed. Tammy and I went down to the observation area and used the night vision goggles for a few minutes. There were a few giraffes around, so it was fun to see them.
The AKL from the back
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After observing some animals in the dark, Tammy and I went back to the room, put on our bathing suits, and met the kids down at the pool. We had a good time.

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Well, that’s it for today. I’m not sure what the plan is for tomorrow now that we’ve moved things around, so I’m guessing we’ll be planning on the fly again tomorrow.

End of August 26th
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm sad to read that your meals didn't live up to the hype at Skipper Canteen. I really do want to try to eat here for the atmosphere, but I hear such mixed things on the food!

Love the pictures with Olaf! Liam giving him a hug is the best!!! :)

I think if you stuck to the steak of the salad with steak you'd be safe. The atmosphere is great. Don't let our bad experience put you off.

Liam is usually a good sport with stuff like that.

Thanks for following along. Don't you have a trip coming up soon?
 

Princess Leia

Well-Known Member
August 26th continued

Next was Norway. I saw there was no line for the pictures with Anna and Elsa so, as much as I don’t care about them, we went and got pictures done (I was actually more interested in seeing the new Royal Sommerhaus than anything else – which, again, was really well done). The wait was only about 10 minutes.
View attachment 163940
That’s a far cry for the crazy lines they used to get in the MK. Is this because of the location, or has Frozen’s popularity wained a bit (which, if it has, will know doubt come back in full force once the new movie comes out).
View attachment 163941
I think that the quick lines are because they have 3 different Elsa & Annas on duty at the same time.
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
I think if you stuck to the steak of the salad with steak you'd be safe. The atmosphere is great. Don't let our bad experience put you off.

Liam is usually a good sport with stuff like that.

Thanks for following along. Don't you have a trip coming up soon?
ONLY 42 DAYS AWAY!!

Your trip report is making me question all my ADRs LOL
 

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