Trip Report Another Three Week Trip, Another Who Knows How Long Trip Report

Hi again everyone. If you’ve followed my other trip reports you’ll know that I’m not the quickest at writing them and I’m not very good at being brief so this could go on for a while. But I will finish

This trip was me and my two youngest daughters, Alice and Lexi

Our first two weeks were in a studio at Saratoga Springs, we’d booked this way back in September and had the UK guest special deal of a free full dining plan. Then about a month before, we decided two weeks wasn’t quite long enough so changed our flights and booked a week at Caribbean Beach, the first time staying there for us. We had the UK 14 day park tickets, which are valid for 18 days from check in so we had a few non park days to stretch them out then had a few days at the end with no tickets where we’d planned some chilling out time with a few fancy meals.

 

[Tuvalu]

Maybe I should add another day.........

The was for .

I’ll even allow it for AK.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

Leaving the safari

I don’t remember being able to see gorillas without walking around the trail before

I would love to do this one day but I’m a bit scared about the rope bridge part. And it would have to be a cooler time of year

The girls stopped to earn a couple of their Wilderness Explorer badges and then we needed a snack. We were planning an early lunch so didn’t want to eat too much. We used our first snack credit of the trip and shared a Mickey pretzel

One of our favourite places to eat in the morning because it’s always empty, the little courtyard behind Tamu Tamu Refreshments

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

Next we boarded the Wildlife Express train to Bluey Land, Conservation Station

The girls had some badges to earn there and we do like the TV show

I remember on past trips going into the building was always lovely and calm, not anymore. We entered in the middle of a Bluey show and it was very loud and chaotic, the air conditioning was nice though. I actually would have quite liked to watch the show because I’m sure it’s very cute, but it was a bit too busy and I would have felt guilty taking space away from a family with young kids. We looked around the windows for a bit and the girls earned their badges

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

Then outside to Jumping Junction to see the kangaroos and wallabies. We had to wait to go in and were taken in small groups around the attraction. We stopped a few times going around and our guide was telling us some facts about the animals. It was so hot by this point and we were all trying to squeeze under the umbrellas on the way around

Our guide was very good and the kangaroos and wallabies are cute but I miss the petting area, my girls used to have so much fun there when they were little. I think I’m also a bit blasé about seeing the animals because our local zoo (Whipsnade, it’s worth a visit if you’re over in the UK) has free roaming wallabies so I see them quite often

I’m not in a rush to go back to the new Conservation Station although I’m glad I got to see it. I think it’s worth it if you’ve got young children or you really want to see the animals

 

[MinnieM123]

Our guide was very good and the kangaroos and wallabies are cute but I miss the petting area, my girls used to have so much fun there when they were little. I think I’m also a bit blasé about seeing the animals because our local zoo (Whipsnade, it’s worth a visit if you’re over in the UK) has free roaming wallabies so I see them quite often

I’m not in a rush to go back to the new Conservation Station although I’m glad I got to see it. I think it’s worth it if you’ve got young children or you really want to see the animals

Haven't been keeping up with AK (my last visit to WDW was about 6 years ago). Didn't realize that the animal petting zoo was no longer there, in the outside area near Conservation Station. That's too bad, as I recall seeing kids enjoying the up close connection to the animals.

 

[Ben_since_1971]

Wild Africa Trek is awesome and so much fun. The rope bridge is a little intimidating, however the bridge itself is fairly sturdy (not a lot of sway), and you are harnessed up and attached to a guidewire six ways to Sunday - really nothing to worry about. It just looks intimidating. I am so glad I did it. Hope you get the opportunity to do it someday.

 

[cgersic]

I can't remember the last time I rode the train to Conservation Station.... it's been awhile for sure. Is the Bluey party in the same building where they do the animal surgeries?

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Haven't been keeping up with AK (my last visit to WDW was about 6 years ago). Didn't realize that the animal petting zoo was no longer there, in the outside area near Conservation Station. That's too bad, as I recall seeing kids enjoying the up close connection to the animals.

It only happened earlier this year, I’m glad we got to go one last time last summer

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wild Africa Trek is awesome and so much fun. The rope bridge is a little intimidating, however the bridge itself is fairly sturdy (not a lot of sway), and you are harnessed up and attached to a guidewire six ways to Sunday - really nothing to worry about. It just looks intimidating. I am so glad I did it. Hope you get the opportunity to do it someday.

It is definitely on my wish list to do this. I don’t think I’d like to do it during the summer months though

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I can't remember the last time I rode the train to Conservation Station.... it's been awhile for sure. Is the Bluey party in the same building where they do the animal surgeries?

Yes, the big space in the middle is now sectioned off for the Bluey party. You can still go round the edge and look in the windows, so if there are any animal surgeries happening you could still see them

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

Next stop - lunch at Satu’li Canteen

On our way

As much as possible I like to eat off peak at counter service restaurants because it can take me quite a while to order and I’m very aware that I’m holding up the queue. Just over 18 months ago, out of nowhere, I developed quite serious allergies to peas and lentils and then in the last six months I’ve also become allergic to chickpeas. As they’re not one of the common allergies that Disney already has menus set up for, I usually have to have a specialist CM come out with lists of all the ingredients. It’s not as simple as just avoiding the whole versions of the foods either as they can be hidden ingredients, for example some (but not all) Disney fries have a coating that contains pea protein and some of their breads contain chickpea flour. It’s a bit of a learning experience for me as someone who’s never had any allergies before

I had the shrimp with noodles and the dragon fruit margarita

Alice had the same meal with the Ube cold brew

Chicken and noodles with the Pandoran Sunrise for Lexi

We all really enjoyed our food, it’s definitely one of our favourite counter service meals

I like all the the little details here

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

After lunch was a first for us, the regular queue for Flight of Passage. We’d used LLSP last year and FP+ in the old days. It was showing as a 50 minute wait which was about right

Lots of details in the queue

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

More queue photos

Although I enjoyed seeing all the details in the queue, it was much too loud and echoey in there for me. I’ll have to bring some earplugs if I want to do it again. As usual we loved the ride

A must do stop on the way out

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

I was wilting a bit after Flight of Passage so decided to head back to the room for a nap. The girls wanted to stay in the park a while longer

They only took one photo, in the queue for Expedition Everest, and sent it to me

My evil nemesis

And their ride photo

They also went on Kali

Meanwhile back in the room

I enjoyed some balcony time

Followed by a much needed shower and nap

I also placed a Garden Grocer delivery. I didn’t think I was going to need one on this trip as we had the refillable mugs and a lot of food included in the dining plan. But I ended up buying a drink from the vending machine because I didn’t want to walk all the way to the drinks stations so it made sense to order in some drinks and snacks

 

[Tiggertoo56]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

More queue photos

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Although I enjoyed seeing all the details in the queue, it was much too loud and echoey in there for me. I’ll have to bring some earplugs if I want to do it again. As usual we loved the ride

A must do stop on the way out

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I love the queue for FOP - there is so much to see! It is rather noisy though. But worth it to get to the ride.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

Because we had an early morning and very busy day coming up we wanted to have dinner close to home. I’d originally planned on booking the Turf Club but it turned out that it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so booked a new to us restaurant in Disney Springs instead, Homecomin’.

We decided to take the bus there thinking it would be quicker than the boat but ended up waiting a while so had to power walk when we got there

The view from our table. It had rained during our afternoon break and there was a mummy duck supervising her babies splashing in the puddle

Drinks, I was told that anything $16 dollars and under was included on the dining plan

I went with the spicy watermelon marg, very good and very, very strong. Definitely not the typical Disney margarita strength

Lexi had their strawberry lemonade which she said is the best ever

You can just see Alice’s apple juice in this picture, she’s not a soda drinker and at 19 is too young for alcohol even though she can drink at home

Salmon for me

Shrimp and grits for Alice

And a dream meal for Lexi. Fried chicken, two carbs and no vegetables (she’s a bit of a picky eater)

We all loved our meal here and will definitely be back. We were far too full for the included dessert so got it to go. I had the shine cake, Alice the bourbon brownie and more doughnuts for Lexi

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

We wanted to get the boat back to Saratoga so wandered through Disney Springs after dinner

It was pretty busy. We didn’t stop in any shops because we knew we’d be back another day

Tree sparkles

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

We were being treated to an incredible sunset

I always have to take photos of Lexi posing like this for her instagram

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

At the boat dock we had our first experience of Disney’s new policy and had our MagicBands scanned

Not too long a wait and we had a boat all to ourselves

I was trying to get a photo of an unfurled flag

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 7th July (cont)

The journey back

And the nighttime view from our room, I was loving having the balcony