Trip Report Birthday Blast at Pop Century

We are Disney World vets, been going since high school (funny story, my hubby is my brother's best friend, so we've known each other forever lol). We live in NW Florida so it's about a 7 hour drive but one we've done so often I think the car could get there on it's own. This time we went to celebrate my 49th bday and use our weekday passholder tickets one last time. We have 4 boys but our oldest lives on his own and couldn't get off work to join us. Which really sucked because we had given him tickets to the Jon Foreman performance at House of Blues that weekend for his birthday. The plan was for the two older boys to see the concert while the rest of us toured Disney Springs since we can't use our tickets on the weekends.
It turned out okay, though, as my 15yo went to the concert with the 20yo and they both loved it. Hubby and I hung out with the 11yo and loved it. Win win lol.

waiting in a very long line to get in to the concert

trying on hats in Disney Springs

 

[magicmom4]

We checked into the Pop Century on Sunday April 3rd (my bday) and since our passes can't be used on weekends we gave ourselves the day to do some shopping and explore the hotel. Since we are a party of 5 we get two adjoining rooms (still cheaper than a Deluxe resort) and this time we lucked out with rooms in Building 1, the 50's, very near the food court and buses. We also lucked out with it being spring and getting to see so many baby ducklings! I snapped these two as we were walking into the food court.

Next up, finally time to hit the parks!

 

[magicmom4]

We went against tradition and visited Animal Kingdom first. It took a lot not to hit the MK first off lol, but AK was having early hours and it just made sense. It helped us feel better about our decision when we pulled into the parking lot and were greeted by this enthusiastic CM.

We hit the safari first and got some great early morning shots of the animals.

Next up, the Pangani Trail.