Trip Report A Disney Year: a recap of 2025

Hello! It’s been awhile since I have done a trip report. I always think I’m going to post one and then I don’t. I’m not disciplined enough to do a live report either. Well I decided to do a recap of highlights of my trips this year to WDW and Disneyland.

The people involved: me (Amy) and Brad (my husband)

Trips: January (WDW), March (Disneyland), April (WDW), June (WDW), July (Disneyland)

Reasons for travel: quick check up on my dad, DL Food and Wine, Easter and visiting my niece on the college program, just for fun, celebrating Disneyland’s 70.

 

[rshell68]

Bring on THE BRAD!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June Trip 2025

June 20

Today was a travel day and midafternoon flight out of Minneapolis. Brad and I were spending one night at the All Star Sports, the main reason was I wanted to be able to make lightning lanes 7 days in advance for June 21. June 21 is Brad's b-day and I wanted to make sure we had some good attractions lined up for it.

Brad was excited to see the gates, it had been a few years for him.

We were in the Hoops Hotel section, which isn't a bad area of the Sports.

After dropping off our bags we headed to Disney Springs for some lounge/restaurant hopping. Our first stop was at Morimoto Street Food for some ribs (not pictured) which are a favorite food of ours. Then we went to Jock Lindsey's for some drinks and snacks. Then we tried a new to us place, the Summerhouse, and we really enjoyed our drinks and snacks. Of course we got some cookies at the Summerhouse Cookie bar. I think the Summerhouse cookies are so much better than Giddeon's, especially the Oatmeal Butterscotch cookie.

Before we went to Jock Lindsey's Brad also stopped at Guest Relations in the Springs and bought his annual pass. He was happy to be a passholder again. After Summerhouse we headed back to the hotel for the night.

June 21st! Ready to celebrate Brad's birthday! We had a great morning at Hollywood Studies. We rope dropped Slinky with early entry and were off the coaster shortly after early entry began. Then he wanted to spend time in Galaxy's Edge and it was nice to get some pictures in the land without a lot of people.

Baseline was on the agenda, of course

We said our goodbye to Rock n Roller Coaster. Neither of us are big fans of this coaster, so even though we will be going again to the Studies when it is open I think we are done until it switches to Muppets. I mean we look so thrilled to be on it right. To be honest it is fun, but going upside down can often give me a headache and he gets motion sickness and that is really our beef with this ride.

We hopped over to Epcot so he could see the new area by Spaceship Earth and ride a little Guardians. Which if B doesn't really get motion sick on as long as he doesn't look around on it .

Oh, a picture out of order but we had to do all the Star Wars character pictures in Launch Bay. It was his birthday, so I didn't put up a fuss.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 21

At Epcot we met up with some characters at the character spot before heading to the Yachtsman Steakhouse for Brad's birthday dinner. He really loves this restaurant and I enjoy it too. We think it is funny that every time we eat here we are usually sat at the same table, or at least in the same room. After dinner we headed back to the Studios for some more attractions and a couple drinks at Oga's. Then we headed to our hotel for then next 5 nights. We were staying at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista, we cashed in some Hilton points so the price was right. We had stayed there on Hilton points a few years ago and found the hotel decent. The last time we stayed at this Hilton there was a huge sorority convention in which we had a few interesting observations and this time we experienced a beauty pageant. The pageant had contestants of all age groups and apparently there was even a men's competition. Staying at the Hilton isn't bad as long as we have a car, I wouldn't want to rely on their bus transportation and the walk to Disney Springs is really easy.

June 22nd: This turned out to be the only time we spent of significance in Animal Kingdom and we had a special event to attend by mid-morning so we really didn't have a ton of time. We made sure we rode Dinosaur, just in case it would our last time. I don't think the closing date had been announced yet. We enjoy Dinosaur but we are looking forward to Indy. So our morning was: Expedition Everest multiple times, safari, an animal trail to try to see Basco (the baby tiger), Dinosaur and then we were out of there.

 

[Tiggerish]

We hopped over to Epcot so he could see the new area by Spaceship Earth and ride a little Guardians. Which if B doesn't really get motion sick on as long as he doesn't look around on it .

I love this pic of you guys!! June 21 was my mom's bday too.

 

[cgersic]

Hi Brad!! The RnRC photo couple in front of you made me laugh out loud

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 22
We left Animal Kingdom early to attend a special D23 event celebrating Walt Disney Archives. It was a great event and it was fun to listen to the presentation and see some artifacts the Archives brought out. It was at the AMC theater and we got free popcorn and soda.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 22
After the presence wandered around Disney Springs until our brunch reservation at Wine Bar George. It was our first time there and we had a couple drinks and shared the brunch board and Mac and cheese bites. Dessert was at the Salt and Straw. Then we went back to the Hilton to nap, there was a couple fun photo displays by the elevators, I liked the Mickey hat one.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 22

For the evening we decided to try the Dahalia bar at Coronado Springs. It was nice, Brad had fun with the create your own old fashioned. There were some really good views from up there too. The plan was to go the Animal Kingdom Lodge to go to the Victoria Falls lounge but we were tired and just wanted to get a good nights sleep.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 23
This morning brad and I split up. He went golfing at the Palm and I went to Kona Cafe for breakfast and a little time at the Magic Kingdom. When he got done golfing he picked me up at the Polynesian and we went to visit my Dad in the nursing home. I brought him a cupcake from the confectionery that we was excited about.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 23
A couple pictures from my time at the Magic Kingdom.

After visiting my dad we dropped the car off at the Hilton and walked to disney Springs. We were doing a Springs bar crawl tonight. We did Terralina, Frontera, Paddy’s, and ended up at The hideaway. We had a great time and chatted with some fun people at the bars.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 24

Today was an Epcot day. We started with breakfast Trattoria al Forno (yum) and roped dropped France . I love me some Impressions de France. I was also pretty pumped to run into Launchpad McQuack. We had a good morning wandering around. Brad was excited for the Voices of Liberty. Lunch was a favorite of the Biergarten. I don’t listen to polka on a regular basis but I really enjoy a good polka and polka band.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 24
We enjoyed drinks in Mexico later in the afternoon. Avocado margarita for me and the Paging Mr Morrow old fashioned for Brad at La Cava. We really enjoy Paging Mr Morrow, he is so goofy. The we did some more attractions before going to Geo 82. The food and drinks and atmosphere were enjoyable.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 24
When booking the redo didn’t think about timing it with the fireworks but that’s how it worked out. We had a decent view of the show. It was a relaxing day at Epcot.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 25

Today was our 20th anniversary. So of course it had to be a Magic Kingdom day. We had honeymooned in WDW so it was nice to be here to celebrate. Our WDW honeymoon was a compromise (non-negotiable for me) in 2005. I had wanted to get married at WDW but Brad was not yet converted (he had only been to WDW twice for short family trips) and refused to get married anywhere but a church. So I agreed to the church wedding as long as it was in my home church (where my parents married) and we honeymooned in WDW. Now Brad kind of wishes we had gotten married in WDW.
Anyway we did favorites and tried Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Tiana’s was not as traumatic as it was at Disneyland. I even contacted @Tuvalu and she assured me I wouldn’t get super wet on the ride, she was correct. It ended up being a great morning at MK.
Our anniversary dinner was a Homecoming. We missed our reservation time and ended up sitting at the bar to dine but the food was good and we had a nice chat with a couple nearby.

 

[cgersic]

Happy Anniversary!! Pluto on Dumbo - that's my dream right there And the fireworks view at Geo82 looks amazing!

 

[rshell68]

I don’t listen to polka on a regular basis but I really enjoy a good polka and polka band.

Aren't you required to like polka music as a Wisconsin-ite?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Aren't you required to like polka music as a Wisconsin-ite?

View attachment 903888

I think it is a requirement! HAHA. I remember in school as part of our folk dance unit in Physical Education class, it was mostly just polka dancing.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Happy Anniversary!! Pluto on Dumbo - that's my dream right there And the fireworks view at Geo82 looks amazing!

Thank you! It was being by Pluto on Dumbo, but later in the trip I'll get something better.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 25

Here was my good food from Homecoming. The chicken is always so good. I am usually disappointed in the biscuits though.

After dinner at the Springs, we picked up some
Pupcups at Sprinkles to bring home for our dogs. It was the first time we had done that and turns out to be the last.

Brad and I found ourselves at the Magic Kingdom for the night and had fun. I had Brad take a picture of me in front of Big Al’s to send to A since she had spent so much time working there in the winter/fall. Then we saw the Country Bears, it was Brads first time watching the new show. What did he think? Well since he hated the original, he thought it was a vast improvement. I caught him smiling and singing along a few times and he stayed awake for the whole thing! We ended our night with Happily Ever After, which I guess is a good end to celebrating and anniversary's.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 2025

June 26

Today we transferred back to the All Star Sports. We enjoyed staying at the Hilton and will probably cash in some more points in the future for it but it is nice to be on Disney property. Our room wasn’t ready at the Sports so we had a leisurely late breakfast at the food court and did laundry. When our laundry cycle was finishing we got a room is ready text. It was back to the Hoops Hotel for us. We took advantage of the free water park day . Both is us wanted to go to Typhoon Lagoon but Blizzard Beach was closer so we went there.

We hadn’t been to a water park in years and we had a lot of fun. I think we got there shortly after 10 am and found a shady spot. Then lapped the lazy river a few times, went in the wave pool and Brad did some slides.

After the water park Brad returned the rental car to the airport and while he was gone I unpacked, folded the laundry, and napped. Once he got back I little him take a little nap before we began our monorail bar crawl.

Our monorail bar crawl started at Wailullu after we put our name on the Trader Sam’s list. Both of us really liked Wailulu. Then we went to the Tambu Lounge and luckily found a spot at the bar. Drinks and wings were good there too.

My burger at the All Start, it was goopy but the fries were really on point.