Trip Report Finally Back in Our Happy Place. A Three Week Trip With a Cruise Included

We’ve been back for just over a week from what was a wonderful three weeks. There were a few hiccups, but for the most part Disney World was just as we remembered it.

This trip was me and my two youngest daughters, Alice (18) and Lexi (15)

We stayed at Pop Century from July 7th-20th, then sailed on the Disney Magic from July 20th-25th, then French Quarter for the last three nights, July 25th-28th. For the Pop Century part of the trip we had the UK 14 day park tickets which included the waterparks.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

We’d lingered over dinner a bit so we weren’t sure if we would be able to get a good fireworks viewing spot

On our way back

We had hoped to watch from the lower railing but we’d left it too late. Still not a bad viewing spot that we found on the edge of the steps

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

For once I got better photos than Alice.

I’m not quite sure what she was going for here

I only took a few because I wanted to enjoy the show

There were a few happy/sad tears shed as we watched the fireworks and then said goodbye to Epcot for this trip

It was very busy waiting for the skyliner back

On the way back we shared the skyliner cabin with a lovely family of three with a little girl of five-ish, she was such a funny little thing who just didn’t stop talking

To her dad: daddy why didn’t you ride the golf ball, it’s your favourite
Dad: you wanted to ride other things so we didn’t have time
Girl (in the most sarcastic but funny voice): well I’m sooooo sorrrry, you should have said something

Then she was naming all the characters on each passing skyliner cabin. One without any characters came past and she shouted PLAIN: LOSERS . From an older child it could have sounded a bit mean, but she said it in such a funny way. It’s now become our go to phrase whenever we see a bus or skyliner without any characters

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Loving the dynamic expression of that first picture.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July

Our last day in the parks . But we did still have the cruise and a few resort days afterwards to look forward to.

Our plan was Animal Kingdom first with LL for Dinosaur, Everest, Safari and Flight of Passage. Then Magic Kingdom after lunch and hopefully we would be able to pick up some extra LLs after our AK ones.

Our last morning at the Pop bus stop

Lexi was pleased with the Remy bus

DiVine was just inside the entrance so we watched for a while

We were at AK around 9am, later than on our previous visits and it was busy already

Lots of tour groups again

I loved this

 

[MinnieM123]

DiVine was just inside the entrance so we watched for a while

Nice picture. Haven't seen many people post photos of DiVine for a while. Always thought she was one of the most creative characters; plus, I admire the talent of anyone who can walk on stilts!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

The last ever walk through Dinoland for Alice and Lexi

I acquired an extra child on the ride

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

Our LL for Expedition Everest was next

There was only a short wait for single rider so we went round again.

Lexi had joked that she always seemed to be seated with another teenager or what she called Discarded Dads, the dads who had to sit alone when there was an odd number in the party. Today we all got Discarded Dads

 

[Tuvalu]

“Discarded Dads” — that’s hilarious!

 

[RememberWhen]

“Discarded Dads” — that’s hilarious!

They shall all henceforth be known as discarded dads. Poor fellas.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I like the discarded dads name too. It will become wdwmagic-iconic lingo.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

We had time for a snack before our safari LL

Then a stroll to Africa

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

I was sitting on the end of the row in our safari vehicle so was in charge of photos

I would love to do the Wild Africa Trek but that bridge terrifies me

I think there are hippos (Alice should have been in charge of photos )

Crocodile?

I’m better at taking photos of water

I thought I’d just taken photos of grass when I looked at this but you can just see the dogs

It’s hard to miss a giraffe

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

My notes say friendly zebras. This is just before they were “friendly”

Babies

Hidden Mickey

I love seeing Disney ducks everywhere

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

More grass. We could just see the cheetahs behind the tree

No lions today

Finishing the safari

Despite my bad photos, we had a really good safari. Our guide Sebastian was excellent, I think he was quite an experienced guide because he wasn’t just reciting the script like some guides do but adding in extra details

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

After our safari we browsed the shop but didn’t buy anything. Surprisingly after such a long gap between trips, we didn’t buy much while we were in the parks. Probably a good thing after the amount I’d spent on Lightening Lanes

I think Alice would have liked one of these though, I may have to go and get it for her when I go back

On our way back to Asia

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

There was one thing we hadn’t done in Animal Kingdom yet, usually we do this every time we’re in this park because I love tigers

We really wanted to see Bakso but took our time getting there

Couldn’t miss taking water photos

Just wandering

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

Not much luck in the first viewing area. We could just about see a tiger in the grass

So we continued with our wandering. I love the theming in this area

Tigers!!

They were very sensibly snoozing in the shade so this is all we saw of them, but at least we did get to see them

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

Some bird spotting next

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

We wanted some lunch before our Flight of Passage LL. We had planned to go back to Satu’li Canteen as we’d really enjoyed the food there but as we were walking past Pizzafari we changed our minds because we had not had any Disney puffy pizza yet. I regret that decision.

The pizza was just ok

I thought I ordered the alcoholic version of the Blue Lagoon Lemonade that had coconut rum in it. I should have realised when it was put on the tray that it was the wrong drink because the cup had pictures on it and alcohol is served in plain cups. This was so overwhelming sweet, I took a couple of sips and couldn’t drink any more. I really wish we’d gone back to Satu’li and had the shrimp and noodles with a lovely kiwi margarita.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 19th July (cont)

After lunch, off to Pandora

We loved Flight of Passage as much as usual.

On the way out Alice was looking for Easter eggs that she’d missed previously

Bye Pandora

Art on the way out of the park

I’d really enjoyed the way we’d done Animal Kingdom this trip. We’d deliberately avoided spending afternoons there because as much as I love the park, I’ve found that if you’re there during an afternoon rainstorm almost everything shuts and you’re stuck for things to do. We’d got a lot done in our mornings there, I think the only thing we didn’t do was the Nemo show which none of us are particularly big fans of.