Trip Report *COMPLETED* Simply Having a Magical Christmastime - Nov/Dec 2022

Hellloooo humans! And Happy Holidays! I had every intention of starting this trip report earlier in the month, but work has been busy busy busy ever since we returned from vacation, and of course we had Christmas preparations as well. Nevertheless, I'm ready to get this report cranked out while the memories are still fresh on my mind! Let's get this party started!

Who: Me (Katie), my husband Jason, and our then 17-month-old son, Lincoln

When: Sunday, November 27th - Friday, December 2nd

Where: All Star Movies

As I mentioned in my Pre-Trip Report, we're planning to drop down to one trip per year starting in 2023 - a bittersweet decision after several years of J and I being passholders - so we tried to soak up as much of the magic as possible on this trip. Lincoln is at a really fun age, and he had an absolute blast on this trip. We're already looking forward to next year!

 

[k8einwdw]

Here now and enjoying your report. Love the pic of the three of you on the sky liner.

Glad to have you here!

I’m here! L is getting so dang big!

You're telling me! Time is a thief!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, November 28th - Animal Kingdom Day

I was awakened shortly before 1am with a little voice calling "Maaamaaaa....maaaamaaaa..." Let's see if he'll fall back asleep on his own, I thought. As his pleas for help got louder, I figured I had better be a good hotel neighbor and rescue my toddler. I tried rocking him back to sleep, and as soon as I'd lay him down, he'd be right back up and upset. I tried putting him in the bed with us - he thought that was a fun game. Eventually, I had to put him in his pack-n-play and sit in the bathroom floor where he could see me until he fell back asleep, around 3am. For a kid who sleeps through the night 99% of the time at home, he sure does have a hard time sleeping in hotels.

We had initially planned to wake up at 5:30 to make 7:30 early park entry at Animal Kingdom, but there was no way we'd make it through the day on so little sleep, so we decided to set the alarm for 6:55 am so I could be up in time to make our Genie+ reservations. I had forgotten that you had to purchase it every day of the trip now (wish I would have thought of that when I was sitting on the floor at 2am), so I had to rush to get that done by 7:00 - it was $20/person on this day. At 7am, I was able to make an 8:50-9:50 reservation for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We decided to skip Flight of Passage this time, since it takes a good hour for two people to get through it.

Lincoln woke up as I was making our Genie reservations, so I got him out of bed, and woke J up shortly afterward. I turned on some Disney Junior for L and had sat him down for his first breakfast of a banana and some milk, while J and I got ourselves ready. L doesn't like to eat a lot when he first wakes up, so on mornings when we're in a rush, I'll have him eat a "first breakfast" of something small to hold him over until we get to our destination, and then he'll have a "second breakfast" an hour or two later once he's worked up an appetite. Once J was ready, he got L cleaned up, sun-screened, and dressed, while I fixed my hair/makeup.

We left the room around 8:15, and we were parked and heading into Animal Kingdom at 8:45. On our way in, I stopped to take some pictures of the tree - I think this may be my favorite tree in the parks - I especially love all of the characters around the bottom of the tree.

When we got to the touch points, both of our bands flashed blue...uh oh. They had us try again - same issue. They brought over a CM with an iPad, and she determined that our Magic Bands weren't connected...except we'd had both of these bands for a few years. So, we headed to Guest Services. After what felt like ages waiting in line (it was probably 10 minutes), we got up to the front, and a CM was able to re-register our bands. We determined that we would need to take a few of the old ones off of our account so that we wouldn't run into this issue again.

With that settled, we made a bee-line for the safari for our Genie return time. After we tapped in, I made our next Genie reservation - meeting Mickey and Minnie at 10:50-11:50.

We made it on to the safari, and L had a hard time sitting still while the vehicle was moving - he ended up swapping back and forth between J and I a couple times.

This ended up being a great safari, despite a squirmy toddler.

We saw lots of my favorite, giraffes.

And we got to hear/see the lions roar! J was able to get it on video - the male lion started roaring right as we got up to them, and then both females joined in. Lincoln was amazed (as were we)!

Up next: Caffeine and TIGERS!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Nice to see your report here! It looks awesome so far.

 

[heatherhy01]

Just caught up! Looks like a great trip so far!

 

[k8einwdw]

Nice to see your report here! It looks awesome so far.

Just caught up! Looks like a great trip so far!

Thank you both for being here!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, November 28th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

When we got off of Kilimanjaro Safaris, Jason and I both agreed we desperately needed some coffee. We prefer to get Joffrey's when we're in WDW, so we made our way over to Asia, stopping to take some pics of the Africa holiday decorations along the way.

J and I both ordered the Holiday Game Changer - cold brew coffee with a shot of espresso and a holiday-flavored syrup (I think we both got the Peppermint flavor, the other choice was Gingerbread). We were both feeling a little hungry as well, so we decided to grab something to eat. Since we were in Asia, we headed over to the Yak and Yeti quick service, since they had a few options for breakfast. I didn't take any pictures, but we split the Sausage, Egg, and Cheese English Muffin and Hash Brown Bites - the hash browns were seasoned really well, and we enjoyed them! During this time, Lincoln had his second breakfast of some blueberry mini muffins.

While we were in Asia, we decided to walk through the Maharajah Jungle Trek to see if we could see any tigers, and we did! Two of them! I want to say the one sleeping is Sohni, the mom of the two cubs that were born a few years back. I'm not sure which one the other tiger is.

By the time we left the jungle trek, we had about 15 minutes until our time to meet Mickey and Minnie. We decided to go over to the Baby Care Center to change L's diaper, and stopped to take a couple pics along the way. Of course, I had to get a pic of L in his Lion King shirt, in front of the Lion King photo op!

At this point, L was starting to act a little tired and cranky, so we were crossing our fingers that he would cooperate for his first character meet.

Up next: A character addict is born

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, November 28th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

It was finally time for our Mickey and Minnie meet, and J and I were excited! L had "met" Mickey back in December 2021, but that was before traditional character meets had come back.

After we had tapped in, we decided to make an LL reservation for Expedition Everest, so that J and I could take turns riding while L napped.

We had to wait about 10-15 minutes from the time we got in line until we got up to the front. L had a hard time waiting in line, especially once we got up to the front and he could see Mickey and Minnie. As soon as I set him down, he walked right up to them. He acted shy at first (pictured here), but in no time, he was giving them high fives and hugs. Man, the difference between last year's picture and this year's picture...is someone cutting onions in here?

Jason was on video duty, and took a video of the interaction, but when he tried to pull it up on his phone, the video was nowhere to be found. He was crushed, and felt like he had "ruined" Lincoln's first true character meet. I reassured him that I had taken a picture, and we'd have plenty of other opportunities for Lincoln to meet characters throughout the trip.

We headed back over to Asia to take turns riding Everest, thinking L would fall asleep on the walk over, but he was too amped up from meeting some of his heroes. J rode first, and I rode second. Honestly, we didn't really need the LL reservations - the wait was only 10 minutes, and we could have easily ridden multiple times had we wanted to. When I got off, Lincoln had finally fallen asleep, so J and I decided to stroll around the park while he napped.

We started out in Discovery Island, where we made a few purchases in the gift shop, including a Munchling that we let L open when we got in the car later on. When Munchling first came out, I said there's no way I'd spend $17 on one tiny mystery plush...let's just say we've now accumulated four of them. After we had finished shopping, we meandered around the Tree of Life trails for a bit.

Afterward, we walked back through Africa, and walked the back way into Pandora. So to recap, since we had entered the park three hours ago, we had walked from the entrance, to Africa, to Asia, to Discovery Island, back to Asia, back to Discovery Island, back to Africa, to Pandora. But, we wanted to let Lincoln nap for as long as he needed. Once we made it to Pandora, we sat near the exit of Flight of Passage to mobile order our lunch from Satu'Li Canteen. We all got our usual -chicken bowl with noodles and creamy herb dressing for me, chicken and beef bowl with noodles and creamy herb dressing for J, the kids cheese quesadilla with cuties for L, and a blueberry cream cheese mousse for all of us to split for dessert. L woke up right as I finished placing our order, so we clicked "I'm Here" and headed in for our lunch.

While we were eating, J said he was going to take a video of L to make sure his phone's camera was working. When he went to take a new video, lo and behold, the Mickey and Minnie video showed up! Poor Jason was so relieved. He had really been beating himself up over losing the video (even though he had done nothing wrong), so it was really a weight off of his shoulders when he was able to recover it.

Once we had finished up lunch, we decided to try to hit some more character meets before leaving the park. I checked the times for the characters over in DinoLand, and it showed that Donald only had 15 minutes left before he took an hour break, so we booked it from Pandora over to DinoLand. Unfortunately, they closed Donald's line right as we were walking up. Daisy's line was still open, so we headed over there. Lincoln fell in love with Daisy, and was telling her all about the different things in her set.

Next, we headed over to see Chip and Dale This was about a 20-minute wait, and Lincoln was not happy that we wouldn't let him run around in the walkway, but once we made it up to the front, he really enjoyed interacting with Chip and Dale.

We even got a picture of all of us, which is my favorite picture of the trip!

It was around 2:15 when we finished up with Chip and Dale, and we had a 4:50 reservation at Homecomin', so we decided to go ahead and head out of the park so that we would have time to shop and walk around Disney Springs before dinner. As we got out to the car, Jason looked at me and said, "Where is my backpack???" Sir...why would I know? I don't keep up with your personal items. I'm someone's mom on this trip, but it's not you... If you'll notice, he's not wearing the backpack in our picture with Chip and Dale. I told J I would go ahead and get Lincoln buckled into his car seat and start the car while he ran back up to Guest Services to see if anyone had turned his backpack in. Thankfully, he had the car keys in his pocket, and not his backpack, otherwise, I may have come home from the trip a widow.

It took a good 15-20 minutes for J to go up to Guest Services and come back, so I let L open up the Munchling that we got him while he was napping. He wasn't too impressed by the process of opening it, but he loved the toy he got, and it now serves as his toy while he's riding in Jason's truck. Eventually, Jason came back to the car, and I could tell by his face...and the way he wasn't wearing a backpack...that they hadn't found it. They'd taken down his information, and said they'd contact him if/when it was turned in.

Up next: Disney Springs and Homecomin' dinner

 

[Swissmiss]

Your little L is so stinkin’ cute

 

[mpaulam]

Oh no...hope the backpack is returned!

 

[Mrs.JJP]

And then L spotted the "fiwer" - this kid is obsessed with fire, whether it's a fireplace, a candle, a fire on tv...I'm hoping that's normal toddler behavior and we don't have a pyromaniac on our hands.

My 16-month old is similarly obsessed with fire Her eyes get really big and she will blow at it, so at least she knows it's hot... but I don't know if she realizes that means it will hurt if she touches it We have a wood burning fireplace so that's been a good practice in holding consistent boundaries lol.

For a kid who sleeps through the night 99% of the time at home, he sure does have a hard time sleeping in hotels.

My daughter is the same way. Sleeps great at home, not so much anywhere else.

Just caught up and following along!

 

[fractal]

Late to the party but catching up! Go Lincoln!

 

[k8einwdw]

Your little L is so stinkin’ cute

Thank you!!

My 16-month old is similarly obsessed with fire Her eyes get really big and she will blow at it, so at least she knows it's hot... but I don't know if she realizes that means it will hurt if she touches it We have a wood burning fireplace so that's been a good practice in holding consistent boundaries lol.

My daughter is the same way. Sleeps great at home, not so much anywhere else.

Just caught up and following along!

We're planning to take him camping for the first time this spring, and I'm definitely a little nervous about having him around a campfire. May need to bring the leash on the camping trip.

Late to the party but catching up! Go Lincoln!

Welcome, glad to have you aboard!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, November 28th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

We didn't want to sit around in the AK parking lot waiting for J's backpack to be turned in, so we decided to continue on with our plans and make the best of it. We headed to Disney Springs, arriving around 3:15, which gave us about an hour and a half to meander before our dinner reservation.

We wandered around Disney Springs, stopping to admire some of the Christmas Tree Stroll trees along the way. We made stops in Uniqlo, World of Disney, Basin, Disney Days of Christmas, the Marketplace Co-Op, Tren-D, Disney Style, and Ever After Jewelry. Toward the end, L was getting a little impatient with shopping. He loves shopping back home when he can ride in a cart, but he was not a fan of being stuck in the stroller while we went into the various stores. We would walk into a store, and about 5 seconds later, he'd say "OUSHIDE!!" (outside) - needless to say, we didn't spend too much time in any of the stores.

We strolled around, checking out the holiday decorations (the peanut reindeer are my favorite).

Even being outside, L was getting pretty cranky. We tried to pacify him by taking him to see the big water fountain by the movie theater, but he got mad because we wouldn't let him play in it. Finally, at 4:50,we checked in for our dinner reservation at Homecomin'. They took us back right away, and sat us at a booth just inside the entrance. To drink, I got the strawberry lemonade moonshine, J got the moonshine margarita, and we got L some milk.

We ordered the Bunch of Puppies for our appetizer - L was not a fan, but J and I love them. They're best if you split one in half, spread the pimento cheese on one half, the pepper jelly on the other, and smush them back together.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we tried to entertain L with the coloring page and crayons the host gave us, and we let him play with some straws as well. Ultimately, he wanted me to hold him, so I held him in my lap until our food came. For dinner, I got the Fried Chicken Salad, J got the Grilled Chicken Club sandwich, and L got the kids fish sticks with mac and cheese and peas and carrots. He also requested the cucumbers from my salad, and I gave him some of the hard-boiled egg as well.

L seemed to finally be content once he started eating, so we thought he might have just been hangry, but his good mood was short-lived. After taking a few bites, he requested to be held again. L is normally pretty good when we eat out, so this was out of character for him. No one wants to be that family with the disruptive kid in a restaurant, so I ate the rest of my salad one-handed while I held him.

I won't get too personal, but it turns out that L's bad mood was likely caused by some...digestive issues. Those issues cleared themselves up while I was holding him at the dinner table, and then again on the ride back to the hotel, and a third time after we got back to the hotel. He was back to his normal self after that. We requested a to-go container for the rest of L's food so he could eat back at the hotel.

Oh no...hope the backpack is returned!

While we were at dinner, J got an email that his backpack had been returned, and would be available at AK guest services until an hour after park closing - after that, it would be sent over to guest services at Disney Springs. Once we had finished dinner, we paid the check and then headed back to the car to change L, then we drove back to AK to pick up J's backpack. Once J returned with his backpack and we made sure everything was accounted for, we headed back to the hotel.

We got all the way up to the room when I realized that I had left L's food in the car. I told J that I would run back to the car to get it while he changed L. When I returned to the room, L was inconsolable - J said he cried the entire time I was gone. Once I got him calmed down, I was finally able to convince him to eat some of his dinner while he facetimed with J's parents. While he was distracted, I took a quick shower, and then ran L's bath. We bathed Lincoln and got him ready for bed, finally putting him down around 8:30. J went to sleep a little after 9:00, and I followed around 9:45.

It had been a long day, in more ways than one. Thankfully, we were all able to get a good night's sleep so we were ready to have a much better day on Tuesday.

Up next: A Fantastic Morning at Magic Kingdom

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Even being outside, L was getting pretty cranky. We tried to pacify him by taking him to see the big water fountain by the movie theater, but he got mad because we wouldn't let him play in it.

Gotta love toddler problems. Lil BES was recently very upset because she couldn’t play with bubbles outside because they were frozen.

I won't get too personal, but it turns out that L's bad mood was likely caused by some...digestive issues. Those issues cleared themselves up while I was holding him at the dinner table, and then again on the ride back to the hotel, and a third time after we got back to the hotel. He was back to his normal self after that.

Glad to hear he got back to his normal self quickly. He seems like a pretty chill kid so I’m sure if he’s not there’s probably a reason.

 

[k8einwdw]

Gotta love toddler problems. Lil BES was recently very upset because she couldn’t play with bubbles outside because they were frozen.



Glad to hear he got back to his normal self quickly. He seems like a pretty chill kid so I’m sure if he’s not there’s probably a reason.

How dare you let the bubbles freeze? L is a pretty chill kid 95% of the time and loves eating out at restaurants (mostly because he loves entertaining all of the other patrons), so we knew something was definitely off with him this day. Thankfully he did much better the rest of the trip.

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, November 29th - Magic Kingdom Day

My alarm went off at 5:30 am - we were headed to MK this day, and it opened for resort guests at 7:30, so we wanted to try to be out of the room around 6:30. L woke up with my alarm - thankfully, he had slept through the night, so we were all feeling much more well-rested. I let him play while I did my skincare, and then we woke up J so we could all start getting ready. I remembered to buy Genie+ in advance this time, which was $15/person on this day. We were headed out of the room at 6:40 - not too bad.

En route to MK, I grabbed our first LL reservation - Pooh for 8:05. Our priority for this day was getting L on the rides he hadn't done before, and I initially wanted Jungle Jingle Cruise, but mere seconds after 7:00, the earliest time was already 2:00-3:00 pm. I didn't want to be stuck waiting until 10:00 to make our next LL (although we probably would have been fine). Peter Pan also didn't have any early times, so we decided we'd rope drop Peter Pan, and try for Jungle Cruise later.

We parked at TTC, monorailed to MK, and we were walking in to the park at 7:15.

Once they allowed guests into Fantasyland, we headed straight for Peter Pan, where we waited less than 15 minutes.

We were out of Peter Pan before official park opening, so we headed over to Small World, which was a walk-on. L enjoyed Small World, as usual, and when we got off, our window for Pooh had opened up, so we headed over there. After we had scanned in, I made our next LL reservation for Haunted Mansion from 8:35 to 9:35.

L seemed to enjoy Pooh - we have a lot of Winnie the Pooh books at home, and I've let him watch some episodes of "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," so he's familiar with the characters, and especially loves Tigger.

After we got off Pooh, we decided to hit up the carousel, since L hadn't done that one before. We weren't sure what he'd think, but despite how he looks in this picture, he loved it! He loved looking up and watching the mechanism moving the horses up and down, and he was smiling the whole ride. He cried when we had to get off, so we promised him we'd come back later.

After the carousel, we decided to run over to Tomorrowland to grab some coffee from Joffrey's before we headed to our LL at Haunted Mansion. When we got over there, we saw that Space was only a 10-minute wait, so we decided to utilize rider swap to ride it, since neither of us had ridden in over two years. J went first, while I waited in line at Joffrey's. He was able to walk straight on, and I was still in line at Joffrey's when he got out. We swapped places, and he took my place in the Joffrey's line, while I headed in to Space. When I got off, J was still in line at Joffrey's, so I joined him in line, where we proceeded to wait a few more minutes before we were able to order, and then another few minutes before we got our coffees. I don't know if the sloths from Zootopia were running the Tomorrowland Joffrey's that day, but it took at full 30 minutes from the time we got in line to the time we got our coffees.

J hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, so while we were in line at Joffrey's, we placed a mobile order for him to grab some breakfast from Friar's Nook on our way over to Haunted Mansion. He scarfed down a breakfast sandwich while L had his second breakfast of mini muffins. Once they were done, we ran over to Haunted Mansion, and made it in right at the end of our LL window. We got stopped by playful spirits a few times, and ended up by Madame Leota for several minutes. At some point, L fell asleep on the ride, so I carried him out, and by some miracle, he stayed asleep when I transferred him over to his stroller.

While he was sleeping, J and I took turns using the Tangled restrooms, and I grabbed the grown-ups an LL for Big Thunder, so we could take turns riding while L snoozed.

I rode first, while J grabbed a shady spot by the water to wait with L. After I got off, I took over with L while J rode. While J was on the ride, L woke up from his nap, and requested a snack, so he enjoyed some puffs while we watched the boat go by.

By this point, it was only 10:30, but we had ridden Peter Pan, Small World, Pooh, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder, and we were only getting started!

Up next: More MK fun

 

[RememberWhen]

Sounds like genie+ was worthwhile with a little. I’ve got a trip with just me and my youngest planned and I’m thinking I’ll do genie+ on our MK days so we can ride without huge waits.

 

[Spash007]

That Joffreys was closed a week later, so I’m wondering if a machine was broken that could have slowed it down?

 

[amjt660]

I'll have him eat a "first breakfast" of something small to hold him over until we get to our destination, and then he'll have a "second breakfast" an hour or two later once he's worked up an appetite.

During this time, Lincoln had his second breakfast of some blueberry mini muffins.

so... Lincoln is actually a Hobbit?

I don't know if the sloths from Zootopia were running the Tomorrowland Joffrey's that day,

enjoying the report !!

Max

 

[MickeyCB]

Next, we headed over to see Chip and Dale This was about a 20-minute wait, and Lincoln was not happy that we wouldn't let him run around in the walkway, but once we made it up to the front, he really enjoyed interacting with Chip and Dale.

We even got a picture of all of us, which is my favorite picture of the trip!

This is the part where I say pooh! to people who say kids need to be a certain age to go to Disney.
Look at that JOY!!