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

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.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

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.

Oh this sounds very familiar. And dare I asked a repeat question to confirm… “I TOLD you no!”

I registered this tiny thing for kindergarten this morning. It goes entirely too fast.

We’ve got a couple of weeks before it’s time for lil BES.


Ooh. And I must have messed up the quote thing but re: shirts- DH and I also noticed a lot of ones that were mean spirited towards spouses and were bothered by it too.

 

[muddyrivers]

The picture of L "drinking" the beer stein menu is hysterical! Hot chocolate or not, he's clearly seen how a lot of adults drink in World Showcase

 

[Minnie1986]

Thursday, December 4th - Epcot Day - Continued

After SSE, it was time for L's most anticipated ride of the day - his first time on Test Track. We had shown him POV videos of all of the rides he had grown into since our last trip, and he was most excited for this one. Unsurprisingly, he loved it!

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Then, it was time to split up. J and I both had a LL for GOTG - technically L was just tall enough to ride, but we weren't quite comfortable with that yet. J rode first, while I took L through the Journey of Water.

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It was about 11:30 at this point, and I wanted L to eat lunch before we got into World Showcase, and J and I tend to graze throughout the pavilions rather than eating one solid meal. I mobile ordered him some lunch from Connections - a PB&J kids meal with fries and a cutie.

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Shortly after we sat down, J was off of GOTG, and it was my turn. Up to this point, I had gotten "September," "Disco Inferno," "Conga," "I Ran," and that weird holiday song they did a few years ago. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "One Way or Another" continue to evade me - I got "I Ran" again. I'm of the camp that "September" is the superior song on GOTG, but I'd like to get all of them at least once.

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It was past noon and neither adult in our party had had any coffee yet, so it's a miracle we were still functioning. We grabbed Joffrey's from the kiosk near GOTG - I got the holiday cookie latte and finally felt like a human again.

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Now that we were caffeinated, it was time to head in to the World Showcase. We stopped first at the Las Posadas Holiday Kitchen, where J and I split the Tostada de Carne. This was tasty, albeit a little small for $8.

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Afterward, we headed in to the Mexico pavilion to ride Gran Fiesta Tour- since this one doesn't have Lightning Lane, I feel like it's a pretty good indicator of how crowded the park is. In 2024, the queue snaked through several switchbacks where we got to enjoy a lovely view of everyone eating lunch at San Angel Inn (that has to be so awkward for the people eating there). This time, we only had to wait about 5 minutes.

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Up next: More World Showcase

I'm of the camp that "September" is the superior song on GOTG, but I'd like to get all of them at least once.

 

[Minnie1986]

Thursday, December 4th - Epcot Day - Continued

After leaving the Mexico pavilion, we popped in to Norway to use the restrooms and check the wait time for Frozen Ever After, since we had not gotten a LL. It was unsurprisingly over an hour wait, so we passed. In China, we browsed through the shops. In Germany, J got a beer - while he was in line, L and I headed into Karamell Kuche. I got one of the delicious caramel gingerbread sandwich cookies for J and I to split later, and I told L he could pick one treat for himself. He chose...a caramel apple.

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He mostly ate the caramel off of the apple (anyone surprised?), but J and I helped with the apple part. I miss when the CMs were allowed to cut the caramel apples for you, they're tough to eat whole. We skipped past Italy, as we generally don't care for their shops. In the American pavilion, we got the pretzel bites and beer cheese from Block & Hans. I didn't get a picture, but we all really enjoyed them!

Japan is always a favorite for us - we enjoyed watching the Matsuriza drummers, and we love walking through Mitsukoshi. I tried to convince J to get the sushi tree from the Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen, but he wasn't feeling it this year. By the time we got to Morocco, it was clear that L was due for a nap. He has mostly dropped his afternoon nap at home, but the days at Disney are soooo long that it really helps if he has a nap. J and I took turns strolling him around until he finally sacked out.

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In France, I was in the mood for a sweet treat. We checked the line for Les Halles, and it was madness as usual, so I settled on L'Artisan de Glaces, where I got the brioche ice cream sandwich with White Chocolate Coconut ice cream and caramel sauce. It was delicious! The science behind how the bun stays warm and the ice cream stays cold is a mystery to me.

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After France, we strolled through the UK pavilion, stopping in the shops along the way. In Canada, J got some Maple Popcorn from the popcorn cart, and he and I enjoyed some people watching on one of the benches up by the Trading Post. We remarked on some of the t-shirts we saw. I had seen an Instagram Reel recently where someone pointed out that a lot of married couples wear t-shirts where the wife's says something the lines of "I'm His Princess," or "Best Day Ever," and the husband's says "My Stupid Wife Made me Pay for this Vacation and Wear this Dumb T-Shirt." So of course, I had been noticing those shirts throughout the trip. We saw one while we were people-watching that said "My Favorite Disney Villain is my Wife." Maybe the humor is lost on me, my spouse and I actually enjoy each other's company.

L woke up around the time we were leaving the World Showcase, and he had had an accident while he was asleep. 100% our fault for not making him use the restroom closer to his nap. I got him changed while J wiped down the stroller and laid a blanket down so L wouldn't have to sit on a damp stroller. Don't worry, I scrubbed the stroller down with plenty of soap and hot water when we got back to the room that night. We had some time to kill before dinner, so we took L to the playground behind Creations to get some energy out. L kept trying to play with this one group of kids that was playing Frozen, but the ringleader (Elsa, of course) said he was too little to play with them. Thankfully, he found another boy about his age to play with, and they played "Jail," as seen here.

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We had a 6:30 reservation at Biergarten, so we started walking back that way around 6:00. It took a while for us to be seated after we checked in, but thankfully we got a table for just the three of us. Do they still combine smaller parties at Biergarten? I know they used to pre-COVID, but this was our first time here since 2018. L promptly picked up the beer menu and pretended to drink it. He told us it was hot chocolate. The grandparents got a kick out of this one.

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Then, it was time to head to the buffet.

L's Plate - he ate mostly chicken "schnitzel" and applesauce. For some reason, he wasn't a fan of the macaroni and cheese.

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My plate:

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J's plate:

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J and I both loved the beer cheese soup and the pork schnitzel with the delicious gravy. L's favorite part of the meal was the entertainment - he was transfixed the entire time the musicians were playing. He told us afterwards that the alphorns were his favorite part.

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Overall, Beirgarten was one of our favorite meals of the trip! The food was great, we enjoyed the entertainment, and our server was wonderful as well!

Up next: Finishing out our night at Epcot

I will never understand the t shirts where the husband is "playfully" either insulting the wife, or complaining about having to be there. Personally, it just evokes massive side eye from me, but to each their own.

 

[k8einwdw]

Oh this sounds very familiar. And dare I asked a repeat question to confirm… “I TOLD you no!”

I was informed over the weekend that I “don’t know anything.” I thought we had a few more years before our kids start bullying us.

The picture of L "drinking" the beer stein menu is hysterical! Hot chocolate or not, he's clearly seen how a lot of adults drink in World Showcase

He is a hoot! Probably mimicking J and I chugging our coffee in the mornings.

I will never understand the t shirts where the husband is "playfully" either insulting the wife, or complaining about having to be there. Personally, it just evokes massive side eye from me, but to each their own.

They’re not for me, but apparently there’s a market for them, because we keep seeing them.

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday, December 4th - Epcot Day - Continued

After dinner, we headed back over to Future World World Nature for our last LL of the day. The last couple years, I've booked a LL for LWTL at night as one of my pre-selected LLs, and it has definitely paid off. A ton of people ride LWTL to see the Christmas lights, and the wait can get a little crazy. It was up to 45 minutes when we walked up, but we were able to walk right on with our LL.

The lights make one of my favorite rides at Epcot even more special.

After LWTL, L asked if we could do one more ride. He requested Test Track, but the wait was 60+ minutes, so he settled for Soarin', which was posted at 25 minutes. I'm not sure what was going on - maybe one of the theaters was having issues - but we ended up waiting closer to 55 minutes. At one point, when we had been at a complete standstill for 20 minutes, J showed me that there was LL availability for Soarin' immediately. We should have booked it, exited, and come back in through the LL queue, but I didn't want to annoy people by getting out of line, even though a ton of people had been bailing. Thankfully, the party behind us had a daughter about Lincoln's age, so the two of them kept each other entertained during the wait.

It was after 9:00 by the time we finally made it off of Soarin', and we were all ready to get some rest. We headed back to the resort, where J and I started packing while L enjoyed watching some of the bedtime stories.

Up next: Hollywood Studios

 

[k8einwdw]

Friday, December 5th - Hollywood Studios Day

Hollywood Studios was opening at 8:30 am for Early Entry, so we were up and out of the room shortly after 7:30. We were rope-dropping MMRR, so we headed straight down Hollywood Boulevard. On our way in, we spotted the elusive pin-trading trash can. It's exactly what it sounds like - a trash can with pin boards on all four sides. J asked if I wanted to stop to look at the pins, and I told him that I could wait until we got off the ride. We were on and off of MMRR before Early Entry ended...

But the trash can was gone. I had learned my lesson - if you're lucky enough to spot one of the unique/elusive pin-trading experiences, don't expect it to stick around for more than a few minutes.

By some miracle, I had managed to snag a 9:00-10:00 LL for Slinky Dog, so we headed in to Toy Story Land next.

Someone was very excited to ride his favorite roller coaster.

I will always love the theming in Toy Story Land - the SDD queue is one of my favorites in WDW.

L opted to sit with J this time around, and as you can tell by the pic, he loved it!

After we got off, he asked if we could ride again. Thankfully, we were able to persuade him to settle for Alien Swirling Saucers.

Our next LL was for Toy Story Mania, which L rode with me. Can you guess which score is whose?

We had some time to kill before our next LL, so we decided to introduce L to a Hollywood Studios classic - Star Tours. I know this ride gets a lot of hate, but I will always love it. Even if it doesn't always love me back as I get older.

We were hoping L would be picked to be Rebel Spy, but no luck this time. We're determined that it's going to happen one of these days.

Up next: L's first time dropping in...

 

[k8einwdw]

Friday, December 5th - Hollywood Studios Day - Continued

As I'd mentioned earlier in the report, L had been 39 inches tall on our 2024 trip, and had grown to 42 inches tall in the past year, growing into quite a few attractions with a 40-inch height requirement. In the weeks leading up to the trip, we talked to him about the different rides he had grown into, and showed him POV videos on YouTube so that he could make a decision on whether he wanted to ride them. The one ride that he went back and forth on was Tower of Terror - sometimes he said he wanted to ride it, sometimes he said it was too scary. We told him it was ultimately up to him, and we would never force him to do something he didn't want to do. A week before the trip, I went ahead and booked Lightning Lanes for all three of us for Tower of Terror - if L decided he didn't want to ride, then one of us could ride twice. The day came, and L must have been feeling especially brave, because he told us that he really wanted to ride Tower of Terror.

As we were in line, we reassured him that all of Disney's rides were safe, and that we could leave if he got too scared. In line, we were surrounded by a group of high school students, several of whom were talking about how scared they were and how they didn't want to do it. I was afraid L would back out, but he went through with it, and...he loved it! On the first drop, he reached out to grab my hand for reassurance, but after that he was screaming and giggling in delight. We officially have a thrill-seeker on our hands!

After ToT, it was time to check in for our lunch reservation at Hollywood & Vine. We were on the Disney Dining Plan, and I think that the Fantasmic Dining Package is one of the best deals you can get on the dining plan. You get your meal, plus guaranteed seating for Fantasmic, for the cost of one table service credit (or two, if you book Hollywood Brown Derby). L had not been interested in meeting characters up to this point in the trip, and we had been cautious about it since the Santa incident on Tuesday, so we were nervous that he would get scared around the characters at Hollywood & Vine. Thankfully, that did not end up being the case!

We met Pluto first, and Lincoln informed him that his name should be Cute-O.

Then, the Big Cheese himself.

I may or may not have had a little cry after seeing this picture. L looks so big standing next to Mickey, he is growing up way too fast!

For reference, this is what L looked like the last time we had dined at Hollywood & Vine in 2022.

We met Minnie next...

Shortly after Minnie left, we finished eating and paid our check, and we were still waiting for Goofy to come by our table. If you're unfamiliar with the layout of Hollywood & Vine, the dining area is split between two sides, on either side of the buffet. At any given time, there are usually two characters on each side of the restaurant. Goofy had come over to our side of the restaurant a couple times, but had left before he reached our table. When our server brought back our copy of the check, he asked if we had met all of the characters, and we mentioned that he hadn't met Goofy. A few minutes later, one of the character attendants came to our table and said that Goofy would be over shortly, and that some of the guests on the other side of the restaurant had been taking an especially long time with the characters. Finally, a few minutes later, the lead (supervisor? captain?) came to our table and said that Goofy wanted to meet with us in the front of the restaurant.

At no point were we upset - we totally understand that these things happen, and you'll never catch us being rude to a cast member - but we were thankful that they took the time to make sure that L got to meet Goofy before we left. I'm sure they also wanted to clear the table too, we had been there for an hour and a half by that point.

We will definitely be back to Hollywood & Vine - the food is pretty good for a character meal (J and I especially love the mushroom risotto), it’s fun to meet the characters in their seasonal outfits, and quite frankly, we don’t love most of the other table service options in HS.

Up next: Wrapping up our last park day

 

[Wicked Sisters]

I love the photo of Lincoln looking at Mickey. Adorable.

 

[rshell68]

This picture is the most precious things ever!!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Yay for loving Tower of Terror!! So glad he enjoyed seeing the characters at Hollywood and Vine!

 

[k8einwdw]

I love the photo of Lincoln looking at Mickey. Adorable.

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This picture is the most precious things ever!!!

Thank you! That one is a framer for sure!

Yay for loving Tower of Terror!! So glad he enjoyed seeing the characters at Hollywood and Vine!

Ever since we’ve been home, he’s told everyone that Tower of Terror is his favorite ride now!

 

[k8einwdw]

Friday, December 5th - Hollywood Studios Day - Continued

After lunch, I wanted to grab a couple pics of the Echo Lake area. . I love the silver garland and vintage style signs on the light posts, I love the floating ornaments, and I love Gertie's Santa hat!

We had grabbed a LL for Star Tours while we were at lunch, so we rode it again - no luck getting Rebel Spy this time either.

One thing I absolutely had to do before we left HS was check out the holiday movie exhibit inside of Walt Disney Presents. While we were there, they had some of the props and costumes from "The Santa Clause"...

And my favorite Christmas movie, "The Muppet Christmas Carol." Rizzo's and Robin's (Tiny Tim) costumes were so tiny!

Inside the theater in Walt Disney Presents, they were showing some of the classic holiday shorts - "Pluto's Christmas Tree," "How to Ski," and one other one featuring Donald. To our surprise, Lincoln asked to sit down for a few minutes to watch - he really enjoyed them!

Afterward, we headed out of the park for a bit to start packing up the car to leave the next morning. We knew it would be a late night, and we didn't want to wait until the morning to have to rush to pack up the car before breakfast. While we were at the hotel, I managed to grab us a LL for MMRR for 5:30pm-6:30pm. We got back to HS just in time for our return time to open. Hollywood Boulevard looked so beautiful with all of the lights turned on.

After we rode MMRR, it was time to grab a quick dinner before heading into the theater for Fantasmic. I wanted to try the buffalo honey chicken strips from Backlot Express, but we didn't want to be in a rush to get to Fantasmic on time, so we decided to mobile order our dinner from Rosie's All American Cafe, since it's right there on Sunset Boulevard We generally avoid the QS places in Sunset Ranch Market, because 1) they're generally not that great, and 2) finding seating in there can be a pain. We managed to grab a table just as another party was getting up, and Jason went up to get our mobile order. For dinner, J and I both got the Spicy Aioli Chicken Strips, which were...fine. They weren't bad, but they weren't the honey buffalo strips I had been looking forward to. Lincoln got...the kid's cheeseburger. Shocking, I know.

After eating, we used the restroom and then headed into the theater for Fantasmic. J was pushing the stroller, and when he went to park it, the CM guarding the stroller parking told me that only one adult at a time needed to be in the stroller parking area.

I knew J was not going to remember to grab everything and be able to carry everything and Lincoln, so when the CM stepped away, I went over to help J. L was a bit cranky at this point, as it was around his usual bedtime, and he hadn't had a nap that day. Thankfully, I was able to get him calmed down once we found our seat and I gave him his light-up necklace and bubble wand. I think you can see in our faces that we were all D O N E at this point. We love taking L to Disney and seeing him experience everything, but by the end of every trip, we're ready to be home in our regular environment.

I didn't take any pics of the show, but it was amazing as always. Every time we see it, I worry that it will be the last time. You just never know when Disney will decide to take away something beloved (looking at you, castle dream lights). While we were waiting for the show, L kept asking if we could ride ToT again. Since we had used a LL to ride earlier, that meant we would have to wait in the regular queue. We told him that we would check the wait time when we got out of the show, and decide if we wanted to wait to ride again. When we got out, it was posted at 30 minutes, so we decided to go ahead and hop in line. As we were waiting, we watched the posted wait continue going up, until it was posted at a 75-minute wait. L was determined to ride, so he said he wanted to stay and wait.

Soon though, he started doing the potty dance...we asked him if he needed to go to the restroom, and he insisted that he could wait until we got off. We were nowhere near the entrance to the building, so we knew there was no way he was going to be able to wait that long. We told him that we needed to do the responsible thing and get out of line to go to the bathroom. Poor L was devastated. He cried all the way to the bathroom, and then all the way to the car, where he promptly fell asleep until we got the hotel, where he cried some more once he woke up. It was not the ideal way to spend our last few moments in the parks for the year.

Up next: Our final morning in WDW

 

[cgersic]

Ohhhh, poor L! I agree it's devastating sometimes to not get done what you want at Disney. Bless his heart

 

[k8einwdw]

Ohhhh, poor L! I agree it's devastating sometimes to not get done what you want at Disney. Bless his heart

He doesn't quite understand that most of his favorite rides are a lot of people's favorite rides, and sometimes that means we can only ride once per trip. We may have to start re-thinking our park touring strategy to accommodate our little thrill junkie.

 

[k8einwdw]

Saturday, December 6th - Departure Day

We were up around 6:30 this morning to pack up last-minute items, finish packing the car, and bid adieu to All Star Music. We always like to book an 8:00 am table service breakfast on our check-out day, and this year, we chose Steakhouse 71 for our departure day breakfast. We arrived at the Contemporary shortly before 8:00, and grabbed our annual photo with the metal Mickey sculpture.

While we were waiting for our table to be ready, L watched a little "Encanto" in the cute little kids' chairs in the lobby.

For breakfast, L got the kid's pancakes with yogurt and sausage, I got the seasonal pancakes, and J, normally a steak and eggs guy, got the Prime Rib Hash. My pancakes were a pumpkin spice with a pecan streusel topping and cream cheese frosting. They were very good, but very sweet. J really enjoyed his prime rib hash as well.

After breakfast, I grabbed a couple Shakin' Jamaican cold brews from the Joffrey's stand in the lobby for J and I to drink in the car, and then we popped into the gift shops upstairs to grab a couple last-minute gifts. Finally, we were passing through the depressing side of the gates at 9:49.

Since this was a shorter post, I'll go ahead and give my final thoughts on the trip here, rather than in a separate post. This was our sixth trip to WDW with Lincoln, and every year it gets easier in some ways, and harder in other ways. It's gotten easier as he's gotten older, because he doesn't require as much "stuff" as he did as a baby/toddler (pack n play, diapers/diaper bag, disposable bibs and placemats for eating, etc). It's also become easier as he's gotten taller, because we are no longer having to skip or use rider-swap for the bigger rides. It's become harder because he has more opinions now about what he wants to do, and we can't always do the things he wants to do (i.e. ride the popular rides with long wait times over and over). He's also in that in-between stage where he usually doesn't nap at home, but the days in Disney are soooo long that he really needs a nap if he's going to make it to the end of the night. He'll be in kindergarten on our next trip, so we'll see how things have changed then.

The crowds were about the same as they usually are the week after Thanksgiving - Epcot seems to be consistently the most crowded park for us, and we still swear by going to MK the day of a Christmas party, because it's basically dead for the first half of the day. 2026 will be our last year (at least for a long time) going the week after Thanksgiving, so we're trying to enjoy it while we still can. Lincoln has one year left at his church school, and then he'll start public school in First Grade, and we'll have to go to WDW on school breaks like everyone else.

The weather was warmer than usual - I blame my Florida family that was down at the same time as us, it's always warmer when we're there at the same time. I didn't mention it earlier in the report, but it was so hot on our Hollywood Studios day that I ended up buying a different shirt to wear for the second half of the day. My cute Mickey gingerbread shirt had thick screen-printing covering most of the front and back of the shirt, so it was heavy, and miserable to be wearing in the hot temps.

All Star Music was great! Every cast member we interacted with there was friendly, and the housekeeping staff would re-arrange Lincoln's stuffed animals when they cleaned the room, which was always a fun surprise to come back to. We would not hesitate to stay there again. Next trip, however, we'll be staying somewhere new to Lincoln, and somewhere J and I have only stayed at for one night, back in 2017...

We got a bounceback offer, and booked our next trip just a couple days after getting home! We’re really excited for Riverside, especially since they’ve been refurbishing the rooms.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along on this trip - I hope you enjoyed reading, and I look forward to living vicariously through all of your trip reports for the next few months!

 

[riverside]

Great TR & thanks for sharing!!
And, YAY for Riverside!! How exciting!!

 

[Swissmiss]

Saturday, December 6th - Departure Day

We were up around 6:30 this morning to pack up last-minute items, finish packing the car, and bid adieu to All Star Music. We always like to book an 8:00 am table service breakfast on our check-out day, and this year, we chose Steakhouse 71 for our departure day breakfast. We arrived at the Contemporary shortly before 8:00, and grabbed our annual photo with the metal Mickey sculpture.

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While we were waiting for our table to be ready, L watched a little "Encanto" in the cute little kids' chairs in the lobby.

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For breakfast, L got the kid's pancakes with yogurt and sausage, I got the seasonal pancakes, and J, normally a steak and eggs guy, got the Prime Rib Hash. My pancakes were a pumpkin spice with a pecan streusel topping and cream cheese frosting. They were very good, but very sweet. J really enjoyed his prime rib hash as well.

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After breakfast, I grabbed a couple Shakin' Jamaican cold brews from the Joffrey's stand in the lobby for J and I to drink in the car, and then we popped into the gift shops upstairs to grab a couple last-minute gifts. Finally, we were passing through the depressing side of the gates at 9:49.

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Since this was a shorter post, I'll go ahead and give my final thoughts on the trip here, rather than in a separate post. This was our sixth trip to WDW with Lincoln, and every year it gets easier in some ways, and harder in other ways. It's gotten easier as he's gotten older, because he doesn't require as much "stuff" as he did as a baby/toddler (pack n play, diapers/diaper bag, disposable bibs and placemats for eating, etc). It's also become easier as he's gotten taller, because we are no longer having to skip or use rider-swap for the bigger rides. It's become harder because he has more opinions now about what he wants to do, and we can't always do the things he wants to do (i.e. ride the popular rides with long wait times over and over). He's also in that in-between stage where he usually doesn't nap at home, but the days in Disney are soooo long that he really needs a nap if he's going to make it to the end of the night. He'll be in kindergarten on our next trip, so we'll see how things have changed then.

The crowds were about the same as they usually are the week after Thanksgiving - Epcot seems to be consistently the most crowded park for us, and we still swear by going to MK the day of a Christmas party, because it's basically dead for the first half of the day. 2026 will be our last year (at least for a long time) going the week after Thanksgiving, so we're trying to enjoy it while we still can. Lincoln has one year left at his church school, and then he'll start public school in First Grade, and we'll have to go to WDW on school breaks like everyone else.

The weather was warmer than usual - I blame my Florida family that was down at the same time as us, it's always warmer when we're there at the same time. I didn't mention it earlier in the report, but it was so hot on our Hollywood Studios day that I ended up buying a different shirt to wear for the second half of the day. My cute Mickey gingerbread shirt had thick screen-printing covering most of the front and back of the shirt, so it was heavy, and miserable to be wearing in the hot temps.

All Star Music was great! Every cast member we interacted with there was friendly, and the housekeeping staff would re-arrange Lincoln's stuffed animals when they cleaned the room, which was always a fun surprise to come back to. We would not hesitate to stay there again. Next trip, however, we'll be staying somewhere new to Lincoln, and somewhere J and I have only stayed at for one night, back in 2017...

View attachment 907365

We got a bounceback offer, and booked our next trip just a couple days after getting home! We’re really excited for Riverside, especially since they’ve been refurbishing the rooms.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along on this trip - I hope you enjoyed reading, and I look forward to living vicariously through all of your trip reports for the next few months!

Ok your 291 makes me feel better about my 175

We started going to WDW (and DLP) when my daughter was a bit younger than L. We (myself and her godparents) would try to manage her expectations before each trip by each of us picking a “must do” ride in each park so that anything additional would be a bonus. I also would try to put the wait times in terms she would understand (at the time she watched a lot of Dora the Explorer, so I would use that as a measure) and tell her that I was happy to wait if she thought she could wait the time of X episodes of Dora.

And I will admit I showed my daughter (who will turn 21 the week after we are at WDW this summer) a picture of L this morning and said “he rode ToT and LOVED it”. She wouldn’t ride it with me last summer - though I should be honest; it was the first time I had ever ridden it either

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

I really enjoyed your tr with L. It brought back lots of good memories of when we took our young kids. It's fun to watch how things change with the little ones over the years. Lots of good pictures of L. too.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Thank you for such a wonderful report. Hope you post a few photos of Lincoln through the year as he’s growing so fast.