Trip Report **completed**Our not so perfect, but good enough July 2021 trip

Hi, all! It took me much longer to get this started than I wanted, but my computer decided it didn't have room for any more of my photos and I had to get an external hard drive and transfer some in order to start! We've also been a little busy getting everything ready for Logan to leave for Iowa in 2 weeks!

So, if you didn't follow along with my PTR, we were supposed to be on a cruise to celebrate Logan's HS graduation, but instead had to switch gears and decided to spend a few days at WDW.

Now, the specifics:
Who: Me (Amy), my husband Brian, Logan (18), Lily (16), and Owen (13)
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Where: Cabana Bay Beach Resort and Pop Century

When: July 11-20, 2021

Why: as I previously mentioned, this trip was to celebrate Logan's HS graduation. He asked for a cruise, so I do have another one scheduled for next June and we quickly threw together the Disney portion of this trip (so I guess we can call this his preliminary graduation trip!!)


We had some truly magical moments on this trip and some definitively un-magical moments as well! Unfortunately, our first day held one of the most un-magical moments.

We drove from Ohio and always try to leave very early to try to avoid as much traffic as possible. We set an alarm for midnight and our goal was to leave the house between 1 and 1:30 am. We were spot on!
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We made a quick stop at McDonald's for Cokes and were on our way. It was smooth sailing all the way to northern Florida. We even made it through Atlanta with no drama or slow downs!!
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Florida was stop and go the whole way, but we still made decent time and were pulling in to Cabana Bay Beach Resort about 4:00 which was about 1-1.5 hours later than we had anticipated, so not too bad! However, that is official check in time, and the parking area was a mess, as was the lobby!
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Luckily, they had sent me an email that allowed me to check in prior to arrival and that line was fairly short! The regular line was wrapped all the way around the lobby and was said to be 2 hours long! Brian dropped me off and found a parking spot that he probably shouldn't have been in to wait for me and sent Logan in to the lobby to guide me back to the car!

Now for the most un-magical moment of our trip! I had booked a 2 bedroom volcano view suite as a surprise for Logan since it was his celebration trip and I thought it would be cool to see the volcano lit up at night and watch all the activity in the park from our room. I paid way more than I normally would for a room, but felt it was a reasonable splurge. Well, we get to our room which happened to be on the second floor and this was our view:
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Yes, that is the back of a service building and the very tip of the volcano!! I don't understand how they can charge the same amount of money for this view as they can for the higher floor rooms (which I did request)! They need a lower partial or obstructed view charge for the rooms on this floor. I did say something and no one cared at all and basically told me to stuff it! Needless to say, we won't be back there any time soon!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We finally entered the indoor portion of the queue right at 8:00.
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We did not use the entire indoor queue. I'm guessing because it was so early, but I wanted to see everything!! Oh well, we refused to stand in the obnoxiously long line that was present the rest of the day!
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Four of us enjoyed it! Unfortunately, Brian's motion sickness acted up on it and he didn't feel well at all. It didn't bother him last time we did it, but that was several years ago.
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Then we decided to do Na'vi River Journey since it appeared to be a walk on and we were right there. It is a nice little ride, but definitely not worth any kind of wait!
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Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Another brief pause, Lily got invited to Homecoming on Friday!
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Now, back to the report.

Saturday, July 17 Animal Kingdom

We were up and at the bus stop by about 6:45 for an 8:00 opening.
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We didn't wait long at all and were walking to the front of the park by 7:20.
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There was no wait to get in and we were soon seeing my favorite park icon!!
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What a sweet homecoming invite! I'm guessing she said yes?
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
Then I headed back to see if they were done on the ride. They were not, so I took some more pics!
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Where we took cover earlier:

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We rode Mako and Manta again, then headed back out to the car.
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YaY! It’s so great you went to SeaWorld! We love that place! It’s our vacation from the crowds 😀 and it’s super fun too!
 

MerMom1981

Well-Known Member
The long awaited graduation trip!
I'm having trouble with how grown up your kids are! Mine are just a couple of years behind yours, and I'm so not ready for homecoming and driver's licenses and college. 😭 Not. Ready.

It made me smile to see that your kids still wanted to stop at the KidCot stations ❤️
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The long awaited graduation trip!
I'm having trouble with how grown up your kids are! Mine are just a couple of years behind yours, and I'm so not ready for homecoming and driver's licenses and college. 😭 Not. Ready.

It made me smile to see that your kids still wanted to stop at the KidCot stations ❤️
Thanks for reading! I'm also having trouble with how grown up my kids are! They're a lot of fun at this age too, you just have to get past the I know everything attitude every once in awhile!!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I finally have time for an update to this report! But first, Homecoming!

On Thursday, Lily played in the Powder Puff football game. Her boyfriend helped coach the team and participated in the halftime cheer/dance routine.
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Then on Friday, Lily signed the National Anthem at the football game.
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And the dance was last night.
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Now, back to Animal Kingdom. Brian and I decided we wanted breakfast. We stopped at Pongu Pongu. I got 2 Night Blossoms so everyone could try them, Brian got the sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit, and I got the French Toast Sticks. The food was ok, nothing special, but I really liked the Night Blossom.
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We then made our way toward Africa.
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ArmoredRodent

Well-Known Member
Lily played in the Powder Puff football game.
Thanks for posting this great story. I started coaching Powder Puff football in high school, coached co-ed college flag football, taught a beginners' undergraduate collegiate course in football, coached PeeWee and high school football for many years (we had several young women on my teams, and some of them were the best athletes out there). Both my sons also coached female players in both PeeWee and Powder Puff football. Both Lily and her boyfriend will probably have fond football memories for many years, and I hope they will pass their experiences forward to others.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks for posting this great story. I started coaching Powder Puff football in high school, coached co-ed college flag football, taught a beginners' undergraduate collegiate course in football, coached PeeWee and high school football for many years (we had several young women on my teams, and some of them were the best athletes out there). Both my sons also coached female players in both PeeWee and Powder Puff football. Both Lily and her boyfriend will probably have fond football memories for many years, and I hope they will pass their experiences forward to others.
Thanks for reading! The game was definitely fun for both of them and they plan to repeat it next year as seniors! Lily actually played on coed flag football teams for several years when she was younger and always enjoyed it.
 

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