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

 

[Tuvalu]

I think that the quick lines are because they have 3 different Elsa & Annas on duty at the same time.

Nope. I've done the Anna and Elsa meet and greet a couple times and there is only one way in and one way out and one Anna and Elsa on duty at any given time.

 

[JennSmith]

August 23rd continued

We get in, and the kids decide they would rather go on RNR than watch the fireworks, so they took off (Liam was also getting hungry, so he picked up some chicken nuggets on the way to RNR). Tammy and I got a pretty good spot for the fireworks, and then waited.
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Soon the lights go off and the show starts. I really hope they keep the show, because it was really well done. I don’t normally care for fireworks shows, but this is so much more than that. The projections on the theatre are really clear, and then there are lasers and fire.
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The big finale
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Just really good.

At 9 the fireworks end and the park starts emptying out. We text the kids and tell them to meet us behind the Starbucks. A few minutes later they show up…eating cupcakes? Turns out a CM was out in the street just handing out free cupcakes (I guess because the park was closing and they had left overs).

Now, for a day that was supposed to be an off day, we sure have done a lot. It’s now after 9, and we’ve basically been going almost non-stop since 10 this morning….but the day isn’t over yet.

One of the things that we had wanted to do on this trip was go to Ample Hills at the Boardwalk, and since we were so close, we decided we may as well go now. We were going to take the boat, but the line was just too long, so we decided to walk. Along the walking path we found an abandoned park wheelchair. This couldn’t have come at a better time, as Steph’s foot was really bothering her now. She hopped in and we pushed her over to the Boardwalk.

We got to Boardwalk and headed right to Ample Hills.
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The place wasn’t too busy which was nice,
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We decided to get two sundaes and split them.
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We got the Ooey-Gooey-Butter Cake base which was just amazing. The sundaes were huge and very rich, and really good.

After our sundaes we decided to call it a night.
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We took a boat to Epcot and entered World Showcase at the International Gateway (after going through the metal detectors again). I’ve learned that my belt buckle sets it off every time which means I’m getting wanded every time.

We walked through the parks to the bus,
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and got back to our room before 11. What a day. We did Disney Springs and, technically, 3 parks (OK, we didn’t do anything in EPCOT, but we did enter the park so I’m counting it). I think we need to start planning our non-planned days a bit better.

Tomorrow is "tour" day.

that's it for August 23rd

So does Ample Hills not serve the Star Wars flavors? That's a bummer if they don't

 

[Princess Leia]

Nope. I've done the Anna and Elsa meet and greet a couple times and there is only one way in and one way out and one Anna and Elsa on duty at any given time.

3 - I believe MK was 2

I'm really not sure how it's done, but the wait time for the M&G has almost consistently been in the 15-20 minute range since it's opened. It's difficult to say that Frozen isn't as popular as it once was when the M&G had hours-long waits at MK and FEA has ridiculously long waits.
Again though, idk how they pull it off.

 

[gwhb75]

So does Ample Hills not serve the Star Wars flavors? That's a bummer if they don't

I didn't see any Star Wars ice cream when we were there.

 

[MinnieM123]

So does Ample Hills not serve the Star Wars flavors? That's a bummer if they don't

Here's the menu for Ample HIlls on the Boardwalk at Disney.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/boardwalk/ample-hills-creamery/menus/

 

[gwhb75]

August 28

Well, here we are at our final weekend. The interesting thing about today was that we really had no idea what we were going to do. The original plan had us at EPCOT today, but we did that yesterday, so now today is another “on the fly” kind of day. Tammy and I are the first up as usual. We make coffee, get ready etc. The kids wake up due to the commotion of us getting up. After some discussion, we decide we’ll send the morning at the pool. This plan is perfect for us for a few reasons:
1) It gives Steph a chance to rest her foot a bit
2) It gives Tammy and I a chance to start packing

The kids get up, shower, put on their bathing suits and head down to the pool. Tammy and I pull out the suitcases and start packing. For some reason we feel way more organized this year, and the packing goes quite smoothly (it was nice being able to do laundry as a lot of the clothes are clean an ready to be put away when we get home, as opposed to having huge mounds of dirty clothes). We designated one of our larger suitcases as the dirty clothes suitcase and then packed everything else in the other ones we brought. Within about half an hour we were 80% packed. We quickly put our bathing suits on and headed down to the pool.

We got to the pool and found where our kids had put their stuff. We relaxed for a while, and then went into the pool and swam.

We really love the pool area at Kidani. The kids headed over to the play area, so I followed and took some pictures.

We spent a few hours at the pool in total, and had a really good time. Around 11ish everyone started getting a bit hungry, so we decided to gave the Maji pool bar a try.

We got 2 pretzels with cheese, one nacho with cheese, and Liam wanted a small Cesar salad.

All were really good. The kids also bought the refillable Crush mugs (Liam got a virgin Pina Colava, and Steph got a frozen lemonade).

The snacks were good and were the perfect amount for how we were feeling.

to be continued...

 

[gwhb75]

August 27 continued

After our snacks we headed back to the room and got changed into some normal clothes. We decided to stop by community hall where some pool was played and some pictures were taken.

It’s always fun spending time together.

After about 30 minutes of community hall fun, the kids decided we should go back to Hollywood Studios. We hopped on a bus and were soon at HS.

On the way in I was “randomly selected” for secondary screening. I already know I’m going to get scanned with the wand since my belt keeps setting off the metal detector. I wonder if I should just remove my shorts and throw them into one of their little bins for all the metal things that are in your pockets?

After being violated for your protection, we headed into the parks. The kids split up from us and headed down Hollywood Blvd (but they just “HAD” to stop at Starbucks to get some drinks first. I should really turn off their ability to charge things to our room).

While the kids turned right towards ToT and RNR,

Tammy and I turned left and headed towards Star Tours.

We had another fun ride, but has the randomization been turned off on the ride? We got the exact same ride three times in a row (on different days).

We headed back to the “hub” after Star Tours. We stopped in at Starbucks to get some ice water, and then caught the end of the “A Galaxy Far Far Away” stage show. I don’t really get what the show is, but it was interesting to see.

more to come

 

[Tuvalu]

August 27 continued

After our snacks we headed back to the room and got changed into some normal clothes. We decided to stop by community hall where some pool was played and some pictures were taken.
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It’s always fun spending time together.

After about 30 minutes of community hall fun, the kids decided we should go back to Hollywood Studios. We hopped on a bus and were soon at HS.
View attachment 165545
On the way in I was “randomly selected” for secondary screening. I already know I’m going to get scanned with the wand since my belt keeps setting off the metal detector. I wonder if I should just remove my shorts and throw them into one of their little bins for all the metal things that are in your pockets?
View attachment 165543

After being violated for your protection, we headed into the parks. The kids split up from us and headed down Hollywood Blvd (but they just “HAD” to stop at Starbucks to get some drinks first. I should really turn off their ability to charge things to our room).

While the kids turned right towards ToT and RNR,
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Tammy and I turned left and headed towards Star Tours.

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We had another fun ride, but has the randomization been turned off on the ride? We got the exact same ride three times in a row (on different days).

We headed back to the “hub” after Star Tours. We stopped in at Starbucks to get some ice water, and then caught the end of the “A Galaxy Far Far Away” stage show. I don’t really get what the show is, but it was interesting to see.

more to come

In that first picture you look like a Ray Romano doppelganger!

 

[gwhb75]

August 27th/

While watching the show, I quickly checked the MDE app and saw that Toy Story only had a 30 minute standby, so we headed over there. The line did move quickly and we had lots of fun.

After Toy Story we made our way back towards the hub and eventually found the kids.

We headed over to 50’s for dinner.

The place was packed, but we were seated quickly. Our server was a younger guy this time, and he was pretty good. He was in character the whole time, but he had a dryer sense of humor than some of the other servers we’ve had. He had some pun type jokes that the kids (especially Steph) thought were pretty funny (“what you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh” or “do you know what my three worst subjects are at school? Math”).

For dinner Tammy got the Mom’s sampler,

Steph got the meat loaf,

Liam got the blue plate special which was Ossobuco (a pork shank with the bone in),

and I got Dad’s stuffed pork chop.

All our meals were really good. 50’s never disappoints. For dessert we split 3 brownie sundaes which were also really good (not Ample Hill’s good, but still really good).

With full bellies, we headed out. The skies were a bit overcast and It looked like it was about to rain. We grabbed a quick picture outside the restaurant, and then headed over to the hub.

to be continued

 

[Tuvalu]

$21 for Fried Chicken?!

I remember when it was $11. And I thought it was priced high then!

 

[gwhb75]

August 27th continued

Just as we hit the hub it started raining. We decided to head over to the Star Wars Launch Bay and watch the movie they have there (it’s not really worth lining up for, but it was indoors during the rain so it was good).

We also met Kylo again.

After SWLB we headed back down Hollywood Blvd to use our FP for RNR. The line was really short (I think the rain probably helped empty the park a bit) so we did the FP and then rode single rider again after that.

It was fun.

Random picture of me trying on some stuff

Next up we had FPs for the Frozen Singalong at the Hyperion Theatre.

The show was really good (and a lot funnier than I remembered it being). It was interesting that the Anna who we had pictures with the previous day at EPCOT was the one who was Anna at the sing-along tonight (see @Direwolf27, I told you there was only one). The show was good.


After that we headed back to TOT for our final FP of the night. I almost killed a kid in the library when I tripped backwards over Steph’s foot (she was leaning against a table with her legs kind of sticking out). I stumbled and saved myself against a table, but almost flattened a small child along the way. Fortunately he was OK. The ride was good.

Our last ride of the night was another trip through Hollywood in a strech limo (RNR – our kids 10th time today). The standby line said 90 minutes but there was no one in line (I’m guessing they didn’t update the time before the start of the Star Wars fireworks (which had just started) so we rode standby.

It was fun again.

After that we booked it to the front of the park to beat the rush of the fireworks and Fantasmic ending. We got to our bus stop just as the park emptied out.

We got back to the hotel around 9:30 and went to the Community Hall for a while. We also made a stop at the store and picked up some Zebra Domes.

Soooo good.

We took the Zebra domes back to the room, and were about to enjoy them when I notice we had a message on our phone…”Here are a few helpful tips to make your checkout tomorrow go smoothly”…ummmm…..we’re not checking out tomorrow. I decided I better go down to the front desk and figure out what’s going on so I headed down. It turns out it was a system glitch so that was good news.
With that sorted out I headed back to the room, enjoyed our zebra domes, and headed to bed. Tomorrow’s the last day.

end of August 27th.

 

[gwhb75]

$21 for Fried Chicken?!

I remember when it was $11. And I thought it was priced high then!

Could have gone to KFC and got two buckets of fried chicken for that price.

 

[Tuvalu]

We got to our bust stop just as the park emptied out.

Your "bust" stop? Methinks it's time for you and Tammy to take a "nap".

 

[gwhb75]

Your "bust" stop? Methinks it's time for you and Tammy to take a "nap".

Did you notice the typo I made with Liam's virgin pinal colada too? fixed that one...

 

[Tuvalu]

Did you notice the typo I made with Liam's virgin pinal colada too? fixed that one...

Yes, fixing that was a good idea!

 

[Princess Leia]

August 27th continued

Next up we had FPs for the Frozen Singalong at the Hyperion Theatre.
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The show was really good (and a lot funnier than I remembered it being). It was interesting that the Anna who we had pictures with the previous day at EPCOT was the one who was Anna at the sing-along tonight (see @Direwolf27, I told you there was only one). The show was good.

Wait, do they really share CMs from park to park?

 

[gwhb75]

Wait, do they really share CMs from park to park?

Based on what we saw, I would guess yes.

 

[Courtney6682]

Great pics as usual. Stephanie is Tammy's twin and Liam is a mix of you both! Such a lovely family!!! @gwhb75

 

[gwhb75]

Great pics as usual. Stephanie is Tammy's twin and Liam is a mix of you both! Such a lovely family!!! @gwhb75

Thanks for all the kind comments. Tammy was thirlled that you think Steph looks like her (usually people say she looks like me. I don't see it myself. I think she looks like Tammy).

Thanks for following along.

 

[Courtney6682]

Thanks for all the kind comments. Tammy was thirlled that you think Steph looks like her (usually people say she looks like me. I don't see it myself. I think she looks like Tammy).

Thanks for following along.

YW! I feel her pain...my only child looks like her father....