Trip Report Completed: How to Avoid a Rebel Invasion: a dual August trip report

Hello all! It's pre-trip report time, title explanation to follow!

Who:

That's all of us back in August of 2017 at Whispering Canyon Cafe.
From the left: SIL @NessNewt, myself with my younger niece E on my lap, mom C, bf P, my now middle child R, my oldest hiding his head T, with older niece L in front of him, and my brother Z. We're all going back and we're bringing this cutie:

It's baby E's first trip! Well, outside the womb that is. Lol
Where: Pop Century for Me (K), P, baby E, C, R, and T
Coronado Springs for @NessNewt (V), Z, L and E
When: August 10-16 for Myself, P, baby E, C,R and T
August 14-21 for @NessNewt (V), Z, L and E
We're getting out before Star Wars Land opens and the masses flood the parks, hence the first part of our trip title. And @NessNewt and I will both be reporting, so it's kind of like 2 trips in one!

 

[NessNewt]

Day 5 continued (Day 2 for our crew)

We left the hub to head into Adventure land. We sampled Red's Revenge and got a Dole Whip swirl. Then headed into the Tiki Room for a little down time.

Next we had a FP for Peter Pan's Flight. There was a MASSIVE line for FP, heading out towards the carousel. I told Z it was a "slow pass" line and thought of @Doc Disney . It moved fast enough and we didn't actually melt in the sun before we reached AC.

Our last FP was to meet Mickey and Minnie in town square. Z had plans with P, R and T Disney Springs so he left to go meet them.

I love the outfits and the decorations in the room!

Z's plans with P, R & T included a stop at Jock Lindsay's for that special bacon and their appointment at the Void. Z loved both.

He thought the Void was amazing and would absolutely do it again.

I had a surprise at the resort for the girls. When we got off the bus their Auntie J was waiting for us!

This is the only picture I took of J that first day, lol. She hung with us for a little while and we went for a swim before showering and getting ready for dinner. On our bus to Disney Springs she got the text message that her room was ready. And it was the connecting room right next to us!!!

At DS J and I went to the walk up window at Wine Bar George to try that Froscato Dole Whip mimosa and it was REALLY good.

We found Z and the five of us went to Homecomin' for dinner.

The only picture I took

Z got this whiskey flight and J volunteered to help him finish it.

This was a mistake.

We all loved our food. LOVED it. J had Mac n cheese and chicken biscuits. Z had pot roast with green beans and mashed potatoes. I had the fried chicken. It was very filling and very delicious. The service was also excellent. We all said we would eat there again.

After dinner L said she wanted to go to a park. I found a FP for Expedition Everest for the two of us so we set our sights on that. J was going to come with us and I found her an overlapping FP. E begged Z to take her to a park too. He was feeling VERY sleepy from that whiskey flight He agreed to Epcot and I found them FP's for spaceship earth.

We took the bus back to the resort. By the time we got to the resort J was done. The whiskey was hitting her too and she still had to unpack. So we said goodnight to her and we caught our respective buses to the parks.

Z and E rode Spaceship Earth and did Turtle Talk with Crush before heading back to the resort.

L and I went on Expedition Everest (her first time riding it!).

Our ride photo never turned up but we saw it after the ride and you couldn't see L at all because she was ducked down. But she LOVED it. (And ended up riding it 4 times this trip).

After EE I snagged us FP's for Kali River Rapids. Twice. Because if you're going to get wet, might as well embrace it.

Trunk up, @Darstarr !

At this point we were ready to call it a night and caught a bus. Our bus driver was great. The first stop at CSR is bus stop 2. She asked if anyone was starting school soon. L shouted out that she was. The bus driver asked her what comes after bus stop 2. L said bus stop 3. And at bus stop 3 shouted out that bus stop 4 was next (we were the only two on the bus at this point). She thanked her for her help and gave her an "honorary bus driver" sticker as we got off.

With that, we crashed! Mama had some Rope Dropping to do in the morning...

 

[krisri18]

Day 5 cont
While @NessNewt and the gang went off to do their Fastpass for Tales, we met back up with C to claim baby E.

He definitely enjoyed the splash area!
A quick diaper change and we split up again. C and T met up with R to ride HM.

I may have forgotten to tell them there's a photo now....
C's photo is bad enough to get me grounded, lol so no sharing!
P retrieved the stroller from over by Ariel and we moved it to be closer to Pooh (I feel like we spent waaay too much time relocating the stroller). I noticed Pooh and Tigger's meet time was 10 mins later than the app had said so we figured we had time for a quick spin on the teacups!

He's excited and has no idea what for! Lol

Teacup time!
Baby E seemed to enjoy it, we tried not to spin too much. When we exited, we noticed there were already 3 families in line for Pooh and Tigger, so we hopped in line too. That was a very hot 20 mins of waiting in the blazing sun. Why couldn't they open the queue line with the umbrellas beforehand? We were all melting! @NessNewt , Z and the girls joined us and thankfully the line opened shortly after. It was only a few more minutes before the characters came out. Baby E was kicking like crazy when he saw Pooh and Tigger. He LOVES Pooh's Up Down song and the Wonderful Thing About Tigger's so he is familiar with the duo.

Pooh kisses!
Baby E needed a nap and I desperately needed the Redd's Revenge! Off to Adventureland!

So pretty and delicious!
We let baby E nap while we snacked and then slowly worked our way to the exit. P was headed to Disney Springs to meet T,R and Z to go the Star Wars adventure at the Void. The others had already headed over so they could have a bacony snack, so P was running behind. C had already headed back to the resort for a nap. Which left me to get Baby E back by myself. With the stroller. And the bags. On the bus.
There was a bus sitting there when I made it to the stop, mostly full. But the driver waited for me and then took pity on me trying to carry the sleeping baby, 2 bags, and the poorly folded stroller (I was out of hands). She grabbed the stroller and told me to just find a seat and she'd bring me the stroller. Well, there were no seats. A very nice family that we met on the morning bus was there and one of their daughters moved so baby E and I could sit. When I turned to get the stroller, I saw that the driver had dropped it off with the dad who was standing by the doors with his own stroller. He said he'd hold it for me, and even carried it off and opened it for me when we arrived at Pop! And the nice woman next to me kept baby E entertained on the ride when he woke up! Thank you kind bus people!
A nice nap and refresh and we were off to HS! C was with me so I had some assistance.

R, T, and P had taken a bus from Disney Springs to Riverside so they could switch to HS. They waited over 30 mins for a bus, which then went to every stop at the resort. We were dangerously close to missing our SDD FP! C and I made it through security and hustled to Toy Story Land. We had 15 mins left in our window and the boys weren't even on a bus yet. So C rode solo first, then I did the same!

My pic never showed up.
Baby E loved watching the coaster!

It started raining. I covered the top of the stroller this time!
As we were walking away from SDD, P came running up! He didn't have any bags so he got through security faster and he made it to SDD within the 10 min grace period!
As he was riding the coaster, T and R came jogging up. They had seriously powerwalked from the entrance but were past the 10min grace period. We told them to try anyway and they got in! So maybe it's a 14 min window after? We didn't get to ride together, but we got to ride!
The all had a FP for Star Tours next so we headed that way. I took baby E to see Muppets instead. He was intrigued.
Then we headed towards our dinner reservation at 50s! I got outvoted cuz they all wanted to eat there and I wanted to go see EquityBen's Frozen show ! Dinner won. But first: the most important Meet and Greet of all!

 

[krisri18]

Day 5 cont
Baby E has a major obsession with a famous snowman. We must hear "In Summer" about 10 times a day. And if we're in the car, it's on repeat the entire time. It's the only thing that calms him down instantly. So meeting Olaf was a requirement. And his wait time said 5 mins!

Hands down the best character meet ever! We told Olaf how much baby E loves his song and at the moment the instrumental version started playing! Well Olaf started conducting everyone to sing, then he danced the entire song with baby E (he even did the little softshoe bit in the middle) ! Baby E loved every second of it! P videoed the entire thing and baby E is kicking and giggling the whole time!

Baby E didn't want to leave but we had a reservation to get to! We waved goodbye to Olaf and headed to 50s.
We checked in and waited a few minutes for our table, baby E flirted with one of the hostesses while we waited. He's a big fan of girls telling him he's cute. Lol
We got seated fairly quickly and our waitress was very nice, just seemed like she was very busy! Baby E knocked his forehead on the table while he was in the highchair (we backed him up after). She cheered him up by bringing him a glow cube (thought of you @riverside )

C and I both ordered Magical Star Cocktails so that's a total of 3 glow cubes! Our waitress challenged us to come up with 20 Disney/Pixar animated films that were only 1 word (and The counted as a word). We had 20 within 5 mins and just kept adding as we thought of them! Totally easy for the family that's watched every animated film in chronological order (with coordinating meals) twice!
We had a great dinner and dessert and then R got a birthday surprise!

Everyone in the room sang, but in whispers because baby E had fallen asleep in my lap!
We were completely full and the park was closing soon, so we headed back to the bus stop to get out before the crowds. Our final day was coming up!

 

[Swissmiss]

Day 5 cont. Or 2 for @NessNewt
We divided up: T with L, me with E, Z with @NessNewt,and P.... rode alone. At this point Z declared P to be the cheese.

And there I thought it was only my silly humor hearing the song in my head as I read your post ... until I read that Z declared P to be the cheese

 

[krisri18]

And there I thought it was only my silly humor hearing the song in my head as I read your post ... until I read that Z declared P to be the cheese

Z is always good for a pun or dry joke that most people don't notice. Lol

 

[riverside]

She cheered him up by bringing him a glow cube (thought of you @riverside )

Haha!! I hoped E liked it!! Funny thing--J never asked for one this last time!!

 

[NessNewt]

Z is always good for a pun or dry joke that most people don't notice. Lol

Or that I ignore. So. Much. Sarcasm.

 

[krisri18]

Haha!! I hoped E liked it!! Funny thing--J never asked for one this last time!!

Still plays with them! Mostly by banging them loudly on the floor, table, my ankles, etc. Lol is J outgrowing glow cubes??

 

[MickeyCB]

The pictures with baby E and Olaf, have to be the absolute cutest thing ever!

 

[NessNewt]

Day 6/ Day 3 for our crew

J and I were up early because we knew we were going to have to RD FOP. We took a stroll over to the main lobby to hit up the coffee bar there and get J and Z some ice coffee.

This little early morning walk with my sister was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

J and I left Z and the girls to make their own way over to AK at their leisure.

We got to Animal Kingdom maybe a little after 8:00. They had not let the crowd to the turnstiles yet. When they did let everyone in (maybe 8:20/8:30) Pandora was already open.

I told J we were going to have to walk quickly to Pandora to make up some ground. I had forgotten that my sister has SUPER LONG strides! I had to hop/jog a little to keep up with her walk!

When we got in line the CM said it would be a 60 minute wait. We agreed that would be fine, especially since it was only 8:30. The wait was really more like 35/40 minutes though! J loved it.

Then J and I headed over to Expedition Everest since it had a 15 minute wait posted.

After EE we met up with Z and the girls at Kali River Rapids for another short wait and wet ride.

Then it was time for our first FP's. EE for L, J and I. Mickey & Minnie for Z and E.

At this point we needed some fuel, so we popped by Eight Spoons for Mac n cheese. I tried to get a feel for what everyone wanted but there was some whining (HANGRY) so Z and J said "Just get one Mac n cheese for the girls".

Then everyone tried it. And I was instructed to go get a second one, lol.

I forced everyone to get pictures.

We were killing time at this point because we knew my mom and stepmom, L2 and C2, would be there soon to surprise the girls. Z wanted to meet Launchpad. E refused so J took her to walk around Dinoland. They got some postcards from a DVC CM who offered J FOP FP's for the DVC presentation.

Meanwhile, Z and I enjoyed our Launchpad meet and greet immensely!

He was giving Z a hard time about his shirt.

And being a big flirt with me!

Seriously, so much awesome energy! L was pretty meh about it, but Z and I had fun.

Coming up : more hangry people and surprises

 

[krisri18]

The pictures with baby E and Olaf, have to be the absolute cutest thing ever!

Thank you! I adore them! They have to be some of my favorites from the trip. I showed Baby E the video today of him dancing with Olaf and he started kissing my phone!

 

[Spash007]

Mind if I ask how old E was for this trip? I think he was born right before my son L, so I'm guessing like 6-7 months? You're pictures of him having so much fun are seriously making we want to pull forward our next trip!

 

[krisri18]

Mind if I ask how old E was for this trip? I think he was born right before my son L, so I'm guessing like 6-7 months? You're pictures of him having so much fun are seriously making we want to pull forward our next trip!

7 months and 2 weeks! He had a blast, definitely had his overtired moments but overall he loved the trip!

 

[krisri18]

Time to get the this trip report a-movin'!

Day 6 (Friday) for my crew:
Our last day
We packed up whatever we had left (I had packed pretty much everything the day before). Baby E occupied himself with the recycling....

Then we hauled all of our luggage to Bell Services to hold for us for the day (I'm not a fan of resort airline check-in. They 'forgot' one of my bags before at the resort plus I like to be able to rearrange things before the airport cuz odds are good I'm going to buy way too much stuff before we leave). Took resort photos along our walk.

Loved some of the song titles!

We went over to the food court for breakfast because we still had quick service credits to use. C mobile ordered for herself, T and R. P picked out what he wanted and joined them while I waited for-ev-er for my allergy meal. Which I then ate at record speed since everyone else was already done. R wandered the gift shop area while I ate, he got a couple stuffed animals for his gf and then we got in line for an AK bus. The line was huge! Like 3-4 buses worth huge. But they just kept coming! At one point they were loading 2 buses at once. We hung back and waited to be able to get seats on the next one.

Ready for AK!
We made it to the park and R & P headed straight for EE. They wanted to see how many rides they could get in within the first hour. C,T and I took baby E to ride NRJ. The waittime said 20 mins, which is about the longest I'm willing to wait for that ride.

 

[krisri18]

Day 6 cont:

Someone couldn't handle the 20 min wait!
He ended up waking up on the boat, lol.
P and R had a few good runs on EE

They met up with us in Pandora for Night Blossoms (we had sooo many snack credits to use!).

Baby E is a big Night Blossom fan!
We got to see that weird Pandora robot suit guy, it was just strange.
I swapped out Mama Melrose lunch reservation for a Yak n Yeti since we weren't going to make it to HS in time for a 11am lunch. Then we headed to another of my must-dos: Chipmunkasauruses!
Stopped for a Hakuna Matata photo along the way!

Caught a glimpse of Kevin

We got to the Chipmunks line before they arrived for the day but we were still the 5th family in line! Thankfully, it's shady over there.

As usual, Baby E was super excited to meet the dinomunks! And they were pretty happy to meet him too!

R had bailed on us to go ride EE again before lunch.
We said goodbye to our furry friends and meandered over to Yak and Yeti. Chip and Dale were going on a quick break after meeting us so they followed us out. Pretty sure Baby E thought they were coming with us cuz he was pretty excited to have a chipmunk following him and waving the whole time!
Off to lunch!

We enjoyed a relaxing air-conditioned meal and Baby E fell asleep on me!
Then we made the decision to head over to HS. I had made our FPs there for the day, but we weren't sure if we'd end up going. Since the first one was SDD, once again we'd be cutting it close!

Quick Tree of Life selfie with a sleeping baby on our way out!

 

[krisri18]

Day 6 cont:

We waited a good 20 mins for a HS bus to arrive and were starting to wonder if we'd miss our SDD FP. Bus finally arrived and off we went!

Looks like we made it!

I see you family!
We rider swapped so P and R rode again with me. From there R and P went to do their FPs for ToT

And then single ridered RnRC (only 1 photo showed up)

T, C, baby E and I headed here:

Unfortunately it was not an EquityBen show, still good, but not as good as I know it can be.
Baby E was super focused when he heard the opening notes of Olaf's number.

We were getting close to needing to pickup our bags from bell services, so we grabbed the stroller and got everyone a snack (3 giant funnel cake/ice cream monstrosities, 2 root beer floats, and a Coke) then made for the bus stop. There were a couple of cast members at the exit that started teasing the boys for not bringing them a funnel cake too, C offered to go back and get them each one since we still had snack credits. They thanked her for the gesture but passed. Lol
We got our bags and started the game of rearranging, getting park stuff into the checked suitcases that we didn't need, changing for the plane, and hitting the gift shop/food court. We had an important purchase to make!

Yup, between our two rooms we had 26 snack credits left to use! Plus C still had 3 extra quick service credits. For a grand total of 35 snacks! That now had to be shoved into our suitcases....

We made them fit.
We had each saved a quick service credit to get dinner for the airport so we popped into the food court and grabbed 2 chicken tender meals, 1 cheeseburger meal, and 6 more snacks:grapes, pineapple chunks, side salad, carrots/celery, apple slices, and pretzels with hummus. We had enough food for at least 10 people.
By the time we got our food , our Tragical was outside. There were actually 2 of them, the first bus still had stops to make, so we got on the 2nd bus straight to the airport.
Where we proceeded to have to wait in an incredibly long line to get baby E's boarding verification document (why doesn't Southwest let you do this ahead of time???). Ate our dinners, then had an even longer wait to get through security! We did not move for 30 mins. I have no idea what the holdup was. It was finally our turn and I handed over our IDs and boarding passes and the TSA lady tells me we shouldn't have brought the stroller through that line and should have used one on the left. Well too late lady! I was NOT moving to another line, baby E was asleep on me and my arms were falling asleep!
Security was taking so long that we were dangerously close to missing our boarding time. Which if you fly Southwest you know means we'd all be stuck in center seats. I was not happy. To make things worse, our stroller "alarmed". We still don't know what that means. All I know is that they said one of us (P, R or myself) would have to be taken aside for a pat down and all of our belongings gone through. At this point, we sent T and C to the gate and told them to tell the gate agent that we would do our best to get there. P volunteered himself, which was nice of him. I was still holding a sleeping baby and R is only 15 (can they even do a pat down on a kid?). The TSA people moved fairly quickly and we were given our stroller back. We hightailed it to the fonorail and then RAN to our gate. C was at the desk explaining that we were trapped back at security still when we ran up. Turns out our flight was now delayed cuz we were waiting on the crew. So we made it! We took off about 30 mins later than we were supposed to.

Flying home!
An uneventful flight, baby E eventually fell asleep. Slept all the way to baggage claim, P went to get our car while T and R grabbed all the luggage then started hauling it all out to our car. C and T said goodbye and took the shuttle to C's car and headed home. Baby E slept the car ride home and didn't make a peep when I moved him to his crib. Disney wore all of us out!

 

[krisri18]

Final thoughts for my crew:
1. We love Disney food, but the dining plan in August was just too much for us! It was too hot and we were always too full from our table service meals to enjoy snacks. Thank goodness we had gotten free quick service and only paid for the upgrade!
2. We're renting a stroller next time. It was great having it to help haul things at the airport but I still have no idea what made it alarm at security so I wouldn't want to bring it again!
3. We like staying at POP, 2 rooms worked for us but I think our next big family trip will be either an off property rental (I know, blasphemy!) or renting DVC points and doing a 2bedroom again. We like having the space.
4. Taking a baby was a completely new realm for us. We missed all of the nighttime shows except HEA. We never made it around WS. We missed some of the things we usually do. But we got to do so many things with him that missing those things doesn't matter. I know he won't remember the trip, but we will!
5. Olaf is the greatest, that is all.
Edited: P picked my favorite place in the world for his proposal and I him even more for it since I can't imagine it was easy to do with everyone watching! I'm a very lucky girl!

 

[KellBelle]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us! I love that E is not afraid of the characters.. those pics were all so adorable!

 

[riverside]

I was stressed out reading about your experience at the airport!! Glad it all worked out in the end!!
Great TR & congratulations again!! And Baby E is adorable!! I assume @NessNewt still has some things to add to this?

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for sharing your side of the rebel invasion