Trip Report Glad Tidings and Thrill Riding - November/December 2025

Hellllooooo, humans!

We've been back from WDW for a month, so it's time to get this trip report cranked out before I forget all of the details. Let's get down to business!

Who: Me (Katie), my husband Jason, and our 4-Year-Old, Lincoln

When: November 29th-December 6th

Where: The Holiday Inn at Disney Springs, followed by All Star Music

A little background on this trip. We live north of Atlanta and drive to WDW - it's about a 7-8 hour drive, depending on traffic. In 2023 and 2024, we got stuck in awful traffic on I-75, between Gainesville and the Florida Turnpike, delaying our arrival by 2+ hours one year. On our way home in 2024, I told J that I wanted to start driving part of the way down the night before checking in to WDW so that we would have less of a drive and hopefully less traffic getting to that area of Florida earlier in the day. We monitored hotel prices in Lake City and Gainesville about 2-2.5 hours north of WDW, throughout the year, and they rarely dipped below $200/night for the decent hotels. I had a hard time coughing up $200+ to stay at a Best Western in Lake City, but I was determined that we were going to make most of the drive the night before we checked in at ASM. About two weeks before our trip, I told J we need to make a decision about where we wanted to stay. On a whim, I decided to check prices of hotels around Orlando, thinking since it was a much bigger city than Lake City, we might find some more affordable options. Lo and behold, the Holiday Inn at Disney Springs had a room for $117. Sold! It still meant we'd be making the 7-8 hour drive all in one go, but we decided it'd be nice to wake up on our check-in day and already be in the bubble. How did we like the Holiday Inn? Stay tuned to find out.

 

[k8einwdw]

Sunday, November 30th - Continued

Around 3:30, we left our room to head to the Poly to meet up with some of my family. If you read my 2021 trip report, this is the same aunt and uncle, cousin, cousin's wife, and their son, now 5. They all live in Florida and my aunt and uncle are DVC and passholders, so our trips have overlapped a few times over the years. They were staying in the new DVC tower at the Poly and had invited us to have dinner with them at Wailulu Bar and Grill. We managed to get a table with a great view...

The two boys had not seen each other in quite some time, but once they had warmed up to each other, they had an absolute blast. Our family had a bit of a baby boom in 2020 and 2021 - these two are 8 months apart in age.

For my meal, I had the Teriyaki Chicken Poke Bowl. A lot of the food at Disney tends to be heavy and/or greasy, so anytime I can find something that feels a little lighter and fresher, I'll usually go for it. This was really good!

We spent the meal chatting and catching up, and after we ate, we let the boys play on the beach for a bit.

After leaving the Poly, we headed back to ASM to get ready for bed and hit the hay early, since we knew we had an early wake-up time to look forward to in the morning.

Up Next: Animal Kingdom Day

 

[Minnie1986]

Hellllooooo, humans!

We've been back from WDW for a month, so it's time to get this trip report cranked out before I forget all of the details. Let's get down to business!

Who: Me (Katie), my husband Jason, and our 4-Year-Old, Lincoln
View attachment 901129

When: November 29th-December 6th

Where: The Holiday Inn at Disney Springs, followed by All Star Music

A little background on this trip. We live north of Atlanta and drive to WDW - it's about a 7-8 hour drive, depending on traffic. In 2023 and 2024, we got stuck in awful traffic on I-75, between Gainesville and the Florida Turnpike, delaying our arrival by 2+ hours one year. On our way home in 2024, I told J that I wanted to start driving part of the way down the night before checking in to WDW so that we would have less of a drive and hopefully less traffic getting to that area of Florida earlier in the day. We monitored hotel prices in Lake City and Gainesville about 2-2.5 hours north of WDW, throughout the year, and they rarely dipped below $200/night for the decent hotels. I had a hard time coughing up $200+ to stay at a Best Western in Lake City, but I was determined that we were going to make most of the drive the night before we checked in at ASM. About two weeks before our trip, I told J we need to make a decision about where we wanted to stay. On a whim, I decided to check prices of hotels around Orlando, thinking since it was a much bigger city than Lake City, we might find some more affordable options. Lo and behold, the Holiday Inn at Disney Springs had a room for $117. Sold! It still meant we'd be making the 7-8 hour drive all in one go, but we decided it'd be nice to wake up on our check-in day and already be in the bubble. How did we like the Holiday Inn? Stay tuned to find out.

Absolutely love reading your TR!

 

[Minnie1986]

Been waiting for this!

 

[k8einwdw]

Absolutely love reading your TR!

Glad to have you here!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 1st - Animal Kingdom

Around 3:00 in the morning, I woke up to Lincoln coughing (he and I had both had a nasty cold a couple weeks before the trip, and poor L always gets a lingering cough that lasts for weeeeks). Evidently it woke him up too, as I soon heard him get out of bed and start walking over to our side of the room. He announced "Don't worry, I'm just going potty and then I'll go straight back to bed!" Naturally, straight back to bed meant that he wanted to climb in mom and dad's bed. I didn't want him to wake J up too, so I ended up spending the rest of the night in L's bed.

With the middle-of-the-night wakeup, 5:45 came wayyyy too early. We didn't want to miss Early Entry at 7:30 though, so I dragged my carcass out of bed and got myself ready while the boys slept for a few more minutes. Around 6:15, I woke the boys up, with the plan of leaving the room by 6:45. We didn't end up leaving the room until 7:00, but thankfully, it's a short drive from the All Stars to Animal Kingdom, so we still made it in time for early entry.

Our first stop at Animal Kingdom is always Na'Vi River Journey. We booked it over to Pandora and hopped in line, where we were informed by a CM that the ride was currently down, and they didn't know when it would be back up. We decided to stick it out, and if the ride wasn't open by 8:00, we'd pivot and head to Africa first.

While we were waiting, a ton of people left the line. L passed the time in line eating the rest of his highly nutritious breakfast that he had not finished at the hotel.

We were glad we stuck it out though, because they finally opened the queue just after 7:45, and we were able to walk right on. We got stopped a couple times, but we were still off before the end of Early Entry at 8:00.

We did not do Flight of Passage on this trip - we haven't done it in a few years, actually. Even with a Lightning Lane, it still eats up the better part of an hour for J and I to ride it separately. It has a 44" height requirement and L is currently 42.5" tall, so we shouldn't have to wait too much longer to be able to ride it all together.

Up next: Kilimanjaro Safaris

 

[Wicked Sisters]

I was also worrying that you were not going to do a trip report this year. Always look forward to reading them. What a growth spurt Lincoln has had. We will be there from 9th to 23rd Nov so will just miss you unfortunately.

 

[littleroo]

First of all, I can't believe what a little person Lincoln has turned in to. He is adorable I also agree with the rest of the gang that I am glad you got this party started!!

I am very interested in your story about your bill at the Holiday Inn. The same thing happened to us this summer while staying in Disney Springs. We booked on Travelocity for a fee and a disclosure that we would have to pay for parking on property. The bill ended up being 250 dollars more than what was originally stated for 2 nights with all the add on fees! We talked to the front desk and they wouldn't budge. I would definitely say, buyer beware when staying at Disney Springs hotels.

 

[donaldtoo]

Sunday, November 30th - Check-In Day #2

After a restless night's sleep, we were all ready to officially officially begin our Disney trip. We packed up our things, got ourselves ready for the day, and left Holiday Inn around 8:00 am. So, how did we feel about the Holiday Inn at Disney Springs? It was...fine. The room was clean, the staff were friendly, and there was some Disney theming to be found throughout the common areas of the hotel. However, getting in and out of the parking lot was a major hassle, and although we were technically still on Disney property, it didn't really feel like we were at Disney. And to top it off, that $117/night turned into...$203. We would have saved money staying at an All Star.

View attachment 901160

We arrived at All Star Music around 8:15. I had checked in online, but decided to check in in person as well to re-iterate our request for a first floor room. We've requested a first floor room every trip since Lincoln was born, and not once in that time had we received one. The CM I spoke with said she would note our request, and I told her we weren't in a hurry, since we were planning to head to Disney Springs for a few hours.

View attachment 901161

We also needed to pick up our stroller for the week. Lincoln had officially grown out of our travel stroller, and we knew there would be no room in the back of my car for our jogging stroller with all of our luggage crammed in there. We rented from Scooter Bug, since they are Disney's official provider for stroller and ECV rentals, and they are the only vendor that is allowed to drop strollers off with Bell Services. I was a little nervous, having read some less than stellar reviews recently, but I'm happy to report that we had a good experience. Our stroller was dropped off before the designated time, and was clean and in great shape. We rented a Bob Revolution, and it has ruined me for our jogging stroller at home (Joovy Zoom).

I knew the day would come when L discovered that the Disney resorts have arcades. Well, today was that day. Thankfully, he's at the age where he's perfectly content pretending to play the games, without me having to fork out the money for him to actually play.

View attachment 901162
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After dragging L out of the arcade, we hopped back in the car to "rope drop" Disney Springs. We parked at the Lime Garage and headed straight for Gideon's, hoping that the line would not be too bad right at opening. Unfortunately, that was not the case. L was content waiting in line for all of 10 minutes before he started getting antsy. We decided that J would stay in line, and I would take L to walk around and get out some energy. While we were in the bathroom, I saw a woman who had already managed to get in and out of Gideon's. I asked her what time she had gotten in line - 9:00, an hour before opening. We decided that if we do this again this year, we'll have J head to Disney Springs while L and I check in to our hotel.

While poor J was roasting in the Gideon's line, I took L to ride the train and the carousel in the Marketplace area. Little man felt like a big kid riding the train all by himself.

View attachment 901164

Finally at 11:00, I got a text from J that he had made it inside Gideon's. L and I booked it back over to that side of DS, where I promptly chugged my peanut butter cold brew.

View attachment 901165

Coffees and cookies in hand, we set out to do some shopping. We first headed to the Disney Drop Shop, the new blind box store. L and I each got one of the trash cans, L got a Toy Story Alien, and J got a Star Wars figure. He had wanted one of the Ewoks, but they were all sold out by the time we got there. We also hit up World of Disney, Basin, Disney Days of Christmas, Once Upon a Toy, and a few other stores.

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At 12:30 on the dot, I got a text from Disney that our room was ready! And it was on the first floor! Woohoo!

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Around 12:45, we were all getting a little hangry, so we decided to mobile order lunch from D-Luxe Burger. We all got burgers - I got the Bacon and Blue Burger, J got the BBQ Burger, and L got the kid's cheeseburger. It took us a while to find an open table - Disney Springs had started getting crowded. After we ate, we decided that we had all had enough Disney Springs time, and we decided to head over to All Star Music.

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Once we got to our room, we got unpacked and settled in, and I decorated our window. This is something I'd been wanting to do for years, and I finally remembered to get stuff to decorate this time.

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Up next: Dinner at the Poly

Good grief on that Holiday Inn hotel bill…!!!!!
I was starting to expect to see line items such as…
Just because tax $-.- - USD
We know you love taxes tax $-.- - USD
Surprise…!!! Another tax…!!! $-.- - USD

 

[k8einwdw]

I was also worrying that you were not going to do a trip report this year. Always look forward to reading them. What a growth spurt Lincoln has had. We will be there from 9th to 23rd Nov so will just miss you unfortunately.

I hope you have a great trip! We’ll be there a few days after you.

First of all, I can't believe what a little person Lincoln has turned in to. He is adorable I also agree with the rest of the gang that I am glad you got this party started!!

I am very interested in your story about your bill at the Holiday Inn. The same thing happened to us this summer while staying in Disney Springs. We booked on Travelocity for a fee and a disclosure that we would have to pay for parking on property. The bill ended up being 250 dollars more than what was originally stated for 2 nights with all the add on fees! We talked to the front desk and they wouldn't budge. I would definitely say, buyer beware when staying at Disney Springs hotels.

Good grief on that Holiday Inn hotel bill…!!!!!
I was starting to expect to see line items such as…
Just because tax $-.- - USD
We know you love taxes tax $-.- - USD
Surprise…!!! Another tax…!!! $-.- - USD

I was definitely a little gobsmacked when I got the final bill. Disney hotels aren’t cheap, but at least they give you the full price upfront. If we decide to come down a day early this year, we’ll book an All Star for the night.

 

[donaldtoo]

I was definitely a little gobsmacked when I got the final bill. Disney hotels aren’t cheap, but at least they give you the full price upfront. If we decide to come down a day early this year, we’ll book an All Star for the night.

Over the years, we’ve stayed at ASMusic 3 times.
The first 2 times (with our 3 young children) was in family suites, and the last time we stayed in 2 standard rooms, as SonIL had joined the family by then. We always liked the resort…!!!
We stayed off property on our honeymoon in ‘88, and vowed to never do that again.
We’ve also stayed at POR, Pop, AoA and, most recently on family trips with our 2 young granddaughters, AKL Jambo House and OKW…!!!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 1st - Animal Kingdom - Continued

After we got off of Na'Vi River Journey, we booked it back to Africa to ride Kilimanjaro Safaris. It was listed at a 25-minute wait, but ended up being closer to 20 minutes.

Can you spot (ha) the baby giraffe?

This White Rhino was super close to the truck. As someone who was forced to watch "Hatari!" many, many times in my youth, I was a little nervous.

After disembarking our safari, we asked Lincoln what he wanted to do next. "Do you want to go see more animals?" No. "Do you want to see the Lion King Show?" No. "Do you want to ride a train?" No. He was determined to be grumpy, so J and I decided to go get coffee from the Joffrey's in Asia and let him chill in the stroller for a bit. L spent some time running up and down these bleachers while J and I sipped our coffee.

Afterward, J and I took turns riding Expedition Everest via the Single Rider queue. We were both on and off pretty quickly. L and I browsed the gift shop, and as we were walking out, we spotted one of his favorite YouTubers, Handyman Hal. I asked L if he wanted to go say hi, and he said "NO." I have always been introverted, and hated to be called shy as a kid. I resented my parents for forcing me to talk to adults I didn't know, so I try not to do that to Lincoln. Once J was off Expedition Everest, L informed us that he was hungry, so we went in search of some popcorn, since we had the refillable popcorn bucket from 2024 with us. We remembered there being a popcorn cart in Dinoland...

Of course, it wasn't there anymore. I was never a huge Dinoland fan, but I'll admit it was a little depressing walking through the dying corpse that is the current state of Dinoland. I'm glad they're finally putting it out of its misery soon. We ended up finding popcorn in Discovery Island.

L accidentally dropped a few pieces of popcorn, which of course resulted in the ibises swarming. Lincoln kept telling them "Go away, you cheeky ibis!" After popcorn, everyone was in a much better mood, and ready to take on the next activity.

Up next: Finishing up our time in Animal Kingdom

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 1st - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After finishing our popcorn, we headed into the Tree of Life...

To see the new Zootopia: Better Zoogether! show. I thought it was cute. Is it a must-do every time we're at AK? Certainly not. But, it's a nice way to get off your feet and out of the heat for a bit.

After the show, we meandered around the Discovery Island shops for a bit, before mobile ordering lunch from Satu'Li Canteen. J and I both ordered our usual grilled chicken bowls with noodles, and we ordered L the kids' cheeseburger pod meal. L, the world's biggest burger fan, decided that he didn't like the cheeseburger pod, so he ended up eating the grilled chicken off of my bowl, and I ate his cheeseburger pod.

After lunch, we headed back to Africa to take the Wildlife Express train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. For whatever reason, the train was running soooo slowwww on the way there. Like we literally could have walked and gotten back there faster. We didn't end up taking any pics in Rafiki's Planet Watch. L pet some of the animals in the petting zoo, and then it all went downhill from there. We tried to stay to watch one of the animal presentations, but L kept getting up and running around. We warned him that if he kept getting up, we would leave. Naturally, that ended in us carrying our screaming 4-year-old all the way to the train station.

It was clear to everyone but L that he was in desperate need of a nap, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We stopped at Zuri's Sweet Shop for treats first - a Santa Mickey rice krispie treat for L, and a strawberry crunch rice krispie treat for me.

Aftermath of the Santa rice krispie...

We headed out of Animal Kingdom just before 2:00 - we had been there for 6.5 hours, and done almost everything we wanted to do. I think L gets bored at AK since there are fewer rides - hopefully he'll grow to appreciate the shows and animal viewing trails as he gets older.

Up next: A Magic Kingdom Evening

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 1st - Magic Kingdom

After we got back to our room, L and I took a 2+ hour nap - we were both beat. Once we woke up, we all got freshened up and changed, and headed out for Magic Kingdom. It was a non-party night, which meant it was C R O W D E D. We promised Lincoln we would ride one ride while we were there - he chose the Barnstormer, which had a 35-minute posted wait. Reader, it was unfortunately much closer to 50 minutes. For Barnstormer.

While we were in line, we mobile ordered dinner from Pecos Bill. J and I both got the rice bowl with chicken, and L had a kid's cheeseburger (which he preferred to the cheeseburger pod from Satu'li Canteen) . After we ate, we grabbed a spot nearby to watch the new (to us) Starlight parade. It was about 7:30 when we grabbed our spot, and the parade was scheduled to step off on Main Street USA at 8:00. Since we were toward the end of the route, it took a bit of time for the parade to make it to us. Thankfully, we were able to keep L entertained with some toy cars and his glow necklace.

Finally, at 8:23, we got our first glimpse of the parade! Lincoln really enjoyed seeing all of the characters on the floats.

The final float was my favorite - it pays homage to the Main Street Electrical Parade, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little misty-eyed during this part.

Our thoughts on the parade:
Pros - The floats are visually stunning, the technology is leaps and bounds beyond what we had before with MSEP, and the units feature a variety of older and newer IP, so there's something for every generation to enjoy.

Cons - There are huge gaps between the floats that should be filled with more "movers." Walking characters, dancers, etc. The song is also a little underwhelming. I get that they were trying to pay homage to MSEP and SpectroMagic with a more "classical" sounding song, but it literally sounds like hold music.

Could go either way: It's a fairly short parade. In fact, I believe it's the shortest nighttime parade Disney has done, at least domestically. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because we were definitely ready to go after an hour of standing in the same spot, but also we waited almost ten years for the shortest nighttime parade??

Overall, we did enjoy the parade. We will definitely include it in our future plans. I just believe it could use a few tweaks, but it's also still fairly new.

Up next: It’s just beginning, feel your heart beat faster…

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 1st - Magic Kingdom - Continued

After the parade, we had just under half an hour before Happily Ever After was set to begin, so we hustled to find a spot to watch. We didn't want to deal with the mayhem of Main Street USA, so we decided to find a spot in Fantasyland behind the castle. This ended up working out perfectly - while we couldn't see the projections on the castle, we had fireworks in front of and behind us, and we had plenty of room for Lincoln to move around. This will definitely be our go-to spot for fireworks at MK going forward.

After HEA was over, we made the slow journey out of the park. We were at a complete standstill on the Tomorrowland bridge for a few minutes - I never did figure out why. Thankfully, they had opened up the alleyway that they use for the party entrance, so that made it a little easier getting out of the park.

Finally, at 10:30, we made it back to ASM, where we all collapsed into bed. Poor L had fallen asleep on the ride back, and insisted that his dad carry him to the room.

Up next: Magic Kingdom Day

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 2nd - Magic Kingdom Day

This was another 7:30 am Early Entry morning (ughhh), so I rolled out of bed at 5:30. We left the room shortly after 6:30, and by 6:55, we were watching the sun rise in a very empty MK parking lot.

I told J that if the Joffrey's at the TTC was open, I wanted to grab a coffee before we headed into the park, because the Joffrey's in Tomorrowland is always soooooo crowded in the mornings. I walked up right as they were opening, and we were headed on to the ferry less than two minutes later.

It took a while for the ferry to load up and get moving...

But thankfully, we still made it just in time for Early Entry.

We asked L what he wanted to ride first. Peter Pan? Nope. Small World? No. His choice? The carousel. Arty horse (@Tuvalu)?

After disembarking the carousel, L wanted to try his hand at pulling the sword out of the stone. No dice this time, maybe one day!

Up next: A rainy MK morning

 

[Wicked Sisters]

We were wondering where you got your Joffrey drink holder from. We have not seen one like that before.

 

[k8einwdw]

We were wondering where you got your Joffrey drink holder from. We have not seen one like that before.

It’s from a small business called Little Things with Sam!

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 2nd - Magic Kingdom - Continued

We headed to It's a Small World next, which made me nostalgic for Lincoln's nursery. Last summer, we transformed his It's a Small World nursery into a truck-themed "big boy room." I was so proud of his nursery, and sad to see it go.

We had some time to kill before our first Lightning Lane, so we decided to head over to Tomorrowland to ride the Peoplemover.

It started raining while we were on the Peoplemover, and of course we hadn't put the rain cover on the stroller, so we made a mad dash to get it covered up before it got soaked. We saw that Space Mountain was at a 10-minute wait, so J and I decided to take turns riding while the other parent took L on the Tomorrowland Speedway. I took L to ride Speedway first, and J was on and off Space Mountain right about the time we were loading into our car. I headed to Space Mountian next, and got back over to Speedway before the boys had gotten on. J sent me this picture...

And about 30 seconds later, he called me to say that their car had stalled on the tracks. I went to find a CM to notify them, but thankfully a nearby CM had noticed them and started walking over. They were able to get them started back up and offered them a LL to ride again, but we were all Speedway-ed out by that point.

Next, we headed to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for our first LL. I love L's face in our ride pic.

We headed back to the Storybook Circus area next. I loved these wreaths!

We rode Dumbo first, and then Barnstormer (only a 10-minute wait - big improvement from the night before). It was raining HARD at this point, so we all got soaked.

We ran into Big Top Souvenirs to try to get out of the deluge. Everyone else had the same idea, so it was PACKED in there. L saw the bakery cases and asked for a treat, so we grabbed him a cupcake and a Goofy's Glacier. J and I split a caramel popcorn. There was no open seating in Big Top Souvenirs, so we decided to make a run for it and go to the open-air covered pavilion in the back of Storybook Circus. They were currently using it for Santa character meets but since there was no one else back there, the CMs let us sit down at one of the tables.

One thing you should know about L is that he is terrified of Santa. This started back in 2024 - we had taken him to our local mall to meet Santa, and Lincoln was perfectly happy in line, but as soon as it was our turn and Santa started talking to him, he panicked and hid behind me. So when this Santa got up from his chair and started walking over to talk to Lincoln, I quickly made eye contact with him and shook my head. He backed off, but unfortunately not before L spotted him. He had an absolute meltdown. Thankfully, an absolute angel of a CM on her college program came over and distracted him with stickers and asking about characters, and he eventually calmed down. We put in a cast compliment for her in the app after we left.

Up next: Silly Spooks, Pirates, and Going Down the Bayou

 

[Wicked Sisters]

It’s from a small business called Little Things with Sam!

Thanks, I looked them up and sadly they don’t deliver to the UK. I have found some on other sites but I really liked the pattern on your cup sleeve.

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 2nd - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

Once the rain had let up, we headed over to Haunted Mansion for our LL.

Then, over to POTC, which was practically a walk-on.

J and L enjoyed a sword fight in the gift shop, but we knew better than to let a 4-year-old bring a sword home with us.

Then, we hoofed it over to Tiana's Bayou Adventure for our next LL. I rode this one alone in 2024, since L was not tall enough to ride yet and J is not a fan of water rides. This time around, all three of us rode.

We were assigned the first two rows, and I was nervous about how L would react to the BIG splash at the end, but he loved it! He's already asked me multiple times since we've been home if we can ride it again when we go back this year.

It was nearing 1:00 at this point and we were all starving, so we decided to mobile order some lunch. Pecos Bill was the closest option, but we had just eaten there the previous night. We considered Columbia Harbor House, but I don't eat seafood (and I'm allergic to shellfish), so my options would have been chicken tenders or chicken tenders. So, we ended up walking allllll the way to the other side of the park for Cosmic Ray's. L got the kid's Mac and Cheese, J got the Truffle French Onion Burger, and I got the Chicken Sandwich. J's meal was the best of the three. Cosmic Ray's previously had a spicy chicken sandwich that was delicious, but they had changed it since our last trip, and this one was just okay. We, of course, sat near the main draw of Cosmic Ray's.

I need Disney to release a Sonny Eclipse album. I've heard every song a hundred times, and they never get old.

Up Next: Closing out our day at MK