Trip Report Daddy Daniel Disney 2020 (Picture Heavy) *and the pictures work now*

Background: When we had our first child, we decided that we would take him to Disney World every year for his birthday. On his fifth birthday, my wife was 34 weeks pregnant, so I took Logan alone. https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/daddy-logan-september-trip-picture-heavy.916288/ Fast forward 2.5 years and it is Daniel's turn for his 5th birthday trip with just daddy.

I worked last weekend, came home Sunday to sleep from 8:30-12:30 and we hit the road! Saw a monster truck when we stopped for gas!

We rented points from a guy at work so we stayed in a 1 bedroom villa at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village

First day saw an afternoon at Magic Kingdom, starting with his favorite ride:

We had "ice cream lunch" in front of the castle

and rode a few more rides before we monorailed it to Epcot for the "Donald Duck ride" and black beans and rice.

Tuesday morning we showed up to Hollywood Studios at 6:15 to hang out with a few others

We did the Star Wars thing, landed group 27 for Rise of the Resistance

After Smuggler's Run we ran over to Toy Story Land for some Saucers and Toy Story Mania

Our boarding group got called as we were loading onto TSM so we went straight back to Galaxy's Edge, then road Star Tours and headed back to the hotel to do some swimming.

That evening we went to Magic Kingdom for dinner

and Daniel fell in love with my favorite part of the park:

I seriously could barely drag him off the island so that we could make our fastpasses to Pirates and Peter Pan! Then we rode the Haunted Mansion, People Mover, and Buzz Lightyear again, before we went back to the resort for the night.

Wednesday morning he decided that he wanted to ride the Star Wars rides again, so we got up early and made it in to the park right at 6:50. That day we landed boarding group 21, and since we had a longer wait for Smuggler's Run, our group was called in time to go straight from one ride to the other.

He wanted a helmet after the ride so I bought him one, which drew the attention of a certain someone, but Daniel is super shy and would not take a real picture or engage with her at all, this is the best I could get, but I love it.

Next we went back to the pool for a little while and had lunch back at the resort. That afternoon we went to Animal Kingdom, but Daniel freaked out about pretty much every ride besides the Safari so we did not end up spending much time there.

Since he freaked out on me, I decided that we were going back to the hotel and taking a good nap. After that we took a bus to DHS, so that we could hop on the Skyliner over to Epcot

He HATED the gondola, and made me promise not to make him ride in one again. Dinner at Epcot finally got me my coveted fish & chips at Yorkshire County, and Daniel had hit hot dog

We did a little shopping, and rode the Donald Duck ride again before we went back for the night.

 

[Howdy]

Thursday

Next morning we went back to Epcot for breakfast with his favorite characters

Next we rode Living with the Land before I finally got him on Soarin`

which he claimed to hate. After Soarin` we headed into World Showcase for Frozen Ever After. A funny thing happened with this ride. While we were in line, Daniel started playing with the little boy in front of us. His mom tried to strike up somewhat of a conversation with me, but she spoke French and her English wasn't great, so we weren't able to have much of a chat. I did learn that it was her 42nd birthday that day though. When we got up to the front of the queue, the ride operator asked how many were in her group and since it was only the 2, they loaded 2 boats ahead of us. I smiled, wished her a happy birthday, and got on my ride with Daniel.

When we exited the ride, our new friends were waiting there so that she could ask me if I had a wife! I was so taken aback that I didn't even know what to say, other than "Yes, I'm sorry" These things don't exactly happen to me often, so I thought it was pretty awesome, especially considering that she was an attractive lady who actually seemed to have some class about her.

After Frozen, we rode Nemo and went back to the hotel for some swimming before Magic Kingdom evening.

Daniel got to ride all of his favorite rides again, with a couple of new ones and, naturally, more ice cream

We had driven ourselves to the Magic Kingdom this time because I knew that we needed to go to Disney Springs Thursday evening, so I finally bought him his balloon

Then we went back to Epcot to do a bit more shopping, and stop to visit a couple of friends!

After Epcot we went to Disney Springs for the Lego Store and World of Disney. He insisted that I park on the top of the parking garage.

Thursday night I packed up the car for the most part, so that Friday morning we could quickly get the room cleared out and go straight to the parks.

 

[Howdy]

Friday

Friday morning we drove to the TTC and took a boat to MK

Dan the Man got to take another ride on Peter Pan:

before we hit up Small World and stopped for Breakfast

Next we rode the teacups, where he had me spin us as fast as I possibly could

Then we did the Peoplemover again, followed by Buzz and the Speedway just for good measure.

Finally, we jumped in the car and ran back over to Epcot to spend our last bit of time on vacation.

At long last, I loaded him up in the car and we embarked on our 865 mile trip back North.\

11 hours and 6 minutes later, we pulled in our driveway and made our way to bed.

It was an amazing trip, I only wish that it could have lasted a couple more days. I only have to wait about 22 months, though, before I make the trip again with our youngest, Henry.

 

[Howdy]

A few more random pictures that I found on my camera.

This trip was one of my all time favorite Disney vacations. Daniel is the type of kid that is super thankful for everything that is presented to him, so his genuine "thank you, daddy!"s warmed my heart to no end. We really liked AKL, the transportation all functioned well for us, and the staff was all pleasant and helpful.

I did, as always, find it annoying that it felt like an abundance of Fastpass was being used to keep some rides with longer lines than necessary. Often the Fastpass line for Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear was almost as long as the Standby line, which made a relatively short standby line take forever to get through.

 

[skyphotographer]

No pictures on my computer.