Trip Report Daddy-Logan September trip (picture heavy)

Howdy · Sep 17, 2016

Day 5:

Friday morning was spent at Animal Kingdom. We pulled in the lot just before park opening and, after a quick picture, went straight to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride.

Jenny was our driver and while we were looking for the Cheetah, Logan’s keen eye spotted this momma rhino nursing her offspring up on the hill

After the Safari we decided to wander the Exploration Trails for a bit before we headed back to the resort (we had already ridden Kali River Rapids on Tuesday and he doesn’t really care for much else in that park at the moment).

After a short “rest” we got dressed for MNSSHP and headed to Epcot for a very early dinner. He didn’t feel like dealing with his hot Ant-Man costume this time, so we opted for the standard Ironman shirt.

Before dinner we attempted to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour but it was down, so I enjoyed another delightful Jalapeno Margarita and we went to ride The Seas. Dinner was Coral Reef, which I am not a fan of but he loves the environment so I took one for the team. He had a steak with mashed potatoes and green beans, I had the mahi mahi with his broccoli that they forgot to substitute originally for green beans. Food was good, not great, not worth the price tag.

After dinner we stopped for some pictures that I apparently thought were FABULOUS!

On the monorail to MK he finally fell asleep for me and took a nice long nap while I wandered through the shops. Yet again, the party looked like it was going to be a watery wonderland, I was wading through puddles 6” deep pushing his stroller from ride to ride. We went on Winnie the Pooh and attempted Buzz Lightyear but it was down.

After the rain subsided we headed to the Main Street Bakery for some specialty party cupcakes

Then we did the standard MNSSHP trick-or-treating and Photopassing.

Got to see the parade this time and my favorite Disney fireworks show!

Tomorrow will be our last full day, still not quite certain how we will play out Sunday morning, nor what we will do tomorrow.

Howdy · Sep 17, 2016

Bonus: In today’s episode of I Hate My Job! There is a thunderstorm going on, all of the outside rides are down and the photopass photogs are off of the streets and this guy is in a crane basket working on the castle!

Howdy · Sep 18, 2016

We just now got home. I will type up my posts from the last couple of days tomorrow along with my closing thoughts on the trip and the state of WDW as a whole

MinnieM123 · Sep 19, 2016

Looking forward to your wrap-up comments. It's so nice that you've created such wonderful Disney vacation memories for you and Logan. By the way, his adorable smile must light up the room wherever he goes! :happy:

FlaggNL · Sep 27, 2016

Thanks for sharing! A more that great TR, better said awesome!! Saw that you were in POFQ... we have 15 night left before take-off to Orlando!

fractal · Sep 27, 2016

Great report! Awesome Dad, and I'm sure Logan can't wait to go back.

Howdy · Sep 27, 2016

Okay, sorry it took so long to get this up, but here we go with the wrap up…

Last full day:

So Saturday morning we got up early and headed over to the Magic Kingdom for breakfast and a few last rides.

Shared a cinnamon roll at Gaston’s Tavern before we hit up Dumbo one last time. Logan is obsessed with the playground at Dumbo so I gave him 20 minutes to enjoy it that morning.

After Dumbo we headed to Peter Pan’s Flight for a Fastpass+

Then we went to Enchanted Tales with Belle where he used his best Lion Guard ROOOOOOOOOAR and got to play the Beast!

Logan absolutely loves Belle, so this was an amazing experience for him, but especially for me to witness.

After Belle we rode Buzz one more time and he ROCKED IT!

Finally, we were able to catch It’s a Small World before we left that park.

Small World was freshly refurbished and in pretty good shape. The dolls all looked good and everything appeared to be freshly painted if not scrubbed down, but I did notice that most of the stuff hanging from the ceilings wasn’t moving. Hopefully that is all back up and running now.

After Small World I agreed to go back to the hotel and build one more of his new Legos before dinner. Normally this would have been nap time but he promised me that he would not get fussy that night if I didn’t make him rest and I’m a pushover so Lego it was!

Dinner Saturday night was a specific request from Logan based on our trip last September. He LOVED the steaks at Shutters so I promised him that we could go back there for dinner this trip.

He had the steak and fries while I had the bbq ribs which were phenomenal. This restaurant may become a multi-trip staple for us.

After dinner we drove over to Epcot for the evening. First order of business was a picture with Pluto. Logan sleeps with a stuffed Pluto every night and still takes it most everywhere that he goes so we always make sure to get a picture with him.

Next we rode “the Donald Duck ride” one more time, Logan always puts his hands up when we get to the stage scene

I managed to talk him into watching the American Adventure which he ended up loving

Finally we headed to France to grab some pastries to take home to Momma and snapped a Photopass while we were there

Stopped in Germany on the way out for another picture.

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Somewhere along the way we colored an awesome Duffy bear and then we had a picture in front of Spaceship Earth on the way out that night.

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Howdy · Sep 27, 2016

Sunday morning I got up before Logan and finished packing the car up. He was just ready to go home by then so we were on the road by about 8:45.

We were loaded up and rollin out ready for a long drive ahead

At some point this happened, not real sure why lol

And one of us got to take a nap on the way home

This was a wonderful site!

We made it home that night around 9:30 after all of our stops for gas and food. Momma and Daniel were super excited to see us and we were ecstatic to see them.

Final thoughts:

This was one of the most fun trips that I have ever had, getting to experience everything through his eyes and spending so much amazing time with him. I was incredibly impressed with POFQ and have every intention of making it a frequent stop in the future. The grounds were well kept, resort was small so everything was close at hand when we needed it, pool was really nice, playground was a cool little themed setup, and of course the boats to Disney Springs were a nice addition. The busses to Magic Kingdom were great because they were rarely ever super crowded since they serviced only POFQ, the others serviced both Port Orleans resorts so they tended to be more crowded, but we were the first stop so early in the morning we could almost always get a seat. Sassagoula was closed for refurbishment which was disappointing because I was looking forward to eating there, but am sure that we will get another opportunity in the near future.

As far as parks were concerned:

Epcot cast members were largely surprisingly rude, especially surprising since the bulk of the rudeness was encountered before Food & Wine even started. Animal Kingdom had the nicest cast members of all parks that we encountered, followed closely by Magic Kingdom. We really didn’t spend enough time at DHS to form an opinion on this matter. All of the staff at our resort were awesome, as well as pretty much every restaurant that we stopped in along the way. Jenni, the Safari driver, was fantastic and really made the ride special. I felt like the food quality was worth the price this trip as well. Also, I am not sure if I like Soarin Around the World, but I am sure that I miss the smells of the original. I really didn’t notice any special scents on the new ride, or at least nothing as profound as the citrus groves or pine forests. MNSSHP is still worth the price IMHO, but such a risk with the weather that I will have a difficult time justifying it on the next trip. It may become an every-other year type of thing.

MinnieM123 · Sep 28, 2016

OMG--that photo of Logan with Belle was so precious!!!! :inlove:

So happy you and he had such a fun vacation!

Sorry to hear about the rudeness you experienced over in Epcot. Almost sounds like some of the CMs received some sort of negative news that day; but whatever was going on (if anything at all), it should not have spilled over to their interactions with park guests.

MississippiBelle · Sep 28, 2016

Looks like y'all had a hitchhiking ghost in that last EPCOT shot! Glad y'all had a great trip!

Zipadeelady · Sep 28, 2016

Great report! Thanks for sharing. Love the pic with Tinkerbell in your hand, your sons face is priceless.

FlaggNL · Oct 7, 2016

Thanks for the wrap-up! Love the report and thanks for sharing!

minnie2000 · Oct 7, 2016

Great report!

Trip Report Daddy-Logan September trip (picture heavy)

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