My extended family of 9 and a half arrived to AoA Saturday June 25th. In the Group is me, Pop, my wife, Mimi, my DD, DS, DS and his wife, their DS, DS, and DD with one on the way. We drove 2 days from Arkansas and arrived just after 3pm. Settled in, let the grands study the cars and got lots of picks with Lightening McQueen and Mater, their favorites, then headed over to Disney Springs for a late T-Rex ADR.
Sunday was HS and my 1st attempt at LL which I was very skeptical about(i really liked the old paper FP and even was OK with the FP+). I had not ever road RoR, SR, or MMRR. So was very anxious about getting to ride all 3 plus the so many other I love at HS. Plans were to not pay for RotR and rope drop it. We got MMRR LL for 11:30. Walked fast to RotR rode it, loved it, got off and did SR stand by/baby swap, loved it. Hit the 2 hr mark and LL Toy Story Mania for later and got to MMRR a little late but loved it. The grands really loved it. Watching them was almost as good as the ride itself. Overall it was a great day. The only thing we didn't ride that made me sad was Slinky Dog. Our ADR was Hollywood and Vine. This was our 2nd time there. Not very impressed with it and will not go back. The characters were great though. Grands loved them. Defiantly a great start to the week.
Monday was an off day we hung by the big blue at AoA from 11 to 3pm. Plenty of sun screen was used. We had Disney Springs Rain Forest Cafe ADR at 5, We finished off the day at the big blue again but got to bed for a good nights sleep early enough.
Tuesday we headed off to AK. LL the safari early and roped dropped to get to FoP and got on right away. Loved it always do. Next was Navi river for a 30 minute stand by then the safari. ALL the animals were out and very active with very close calls on the giraffes and Rhinos. All 3 lions were out and beautiful. Went back for one of the last safari rides of the night and saw nothing. The Lion king show was a shell of itself and very disappointing(it is one of our favorites). The nemo show ended very abruptly almost at the end, don't know what happened but an announcement came on saying the show had been canceled. it had stopped once early but after a short delay continued. Bug life was almost so dark you couldn't see alot of it. EE didn't disappoint. very few hair bands were present, the smoke and bird were working. Disco yeti was very clear. Chose to skip dinosaur. Our ADR was a Tusker House and the grands just loved the Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, but Minnie was missing. I try my best to write as positive report as possible, and only mentioning the negative when i feel like it needs to be added. The male and female cast members at the coffee stand just outside of AK as you go in and out, well they were jerks. Not nice at all. I have never met up with cast members this rude. they may need to get out of the CM business and stay away from any jobs that deal with people interactions. Overall great day.
Wednesday we headed to EPCOT. Got VQ GotG party 71 for around 1pm. Was very sad to not be able to get frozen or ratatouille(which was down on and off all day). But did pretty much everything else, had several beverages around the world. When we got to GotG we only had 5 that could ride for whatever reasons. My son chose to be the lone rider of the group and was paired with a family of 3 who threw a fit over it. Because of said fit we got a second stress free ride from the CM's working. I made a thread about this on the general discussion board. It is a great ride, for sure. We could not get a Space 220 ADR and decided to just do quick service this day. Harmonious was awesome. Way better than the last show which we liked.
Thursday was another day off and we did our complimentary mini golf at winter summer wonderland at 10;30am Had a great time. We than hit the cone pool at the AoA. and had an ADR at Ohana at 4pm. I just love this place. Can't say enough about the food, atmosphere and service. If i was a DVC member I would try my best to get this resort. Finished off the night with more cone pool swimming.
Friday was MK day. We decided to not ride 7DMt and Just LL through the day hitting everything we wanted and all the meet and greets. Chose not to ride space mountain this time, but just had a great day with the grands riding all they wanted. It did rain hard just as we were going n the laugh floor and had Buzz LL right after so stayed dry and the rain stopped, but the cloud cover stayed and made it a cooler day. the castle show at 9:20 was spectacular. The crowd at the show was unbelievable and the CM's just didn't have much control but worked their tails off trying to keep things moving.
Lightening Lanes worked out great for us. We chose not to pay for any of the pay for ride rides. It worked out for us. Going into the LL thing very spectacle but came out with a positive feeling about it. Having to pay for it doesn't seem right. Having to then pay for individual rides over that seems even more wrong.
Overall though, the trip was great. May not be back for a few years but loved the memories made on this one.
Sunday was HS and my 1st attempt at LL which I was very skeptical about(i really liked the old paper FP and even was OK with the FP+). I had not ever road RoR, SR, or MMRR. So was very anxious about getting to ride all 3 plus the so many other I love at HS. Plans were to not pay for RotR and rope drop it. We got MMRR LL for 11:30. Walked fast to RotR rode it, loved it, got off and did SR stand by/baby swap, loved it. Hit the 2 hr mark and LL Toy Story Mania for later and got to MMRR a little late but loved it. The grands really loved it. Watching them was almost as good as the ride itself. Overall it was a great day. The only thing we didn't ride that made me sad was Slinky Dog. Our ADR was Hollywood and Vine. This was our 2nd time there. Not very impressed with it and will not go back. The characters were great though. Grands loved them. Defiantly a great start to the week.
Monday was an off day we hung by the big blue at AoA from 11 to 3pm. Plenty of sun screen was used. We had Disney Springs Rain Forest Cafe ADR at 5, We finished off the day at the big blue again but got to bed for a good nights sleep early enough.
Tuesday we headed off to AK. LL the safari early and roped dropped to get to FoP and got on right away. Loved it always do. Next was Navi river for a 30 minute stand by then the safari. ALL the animals were out and very active with very close calls on the giraffes and Rhinos. All 3 lions were out and beautiful. Went back for one of the last safari rides of the night and saw nothing. The Lion king show was a shell of itself and very disappointing(it is one of our favorites). The nemo show ended very abruptly almost at the end, don't know what happened but an announcement came on saying the show had been canceled. it had stopped once early but after a short delay continued. Bug life was almost so dark you couldn't see alot of it. EE didn't disappoint. very few hair bands were present, the smoke and bird were working. Disco yeti was very clear. Chose to skip dinosaur. Our ADR was a Tusker House and the grands just loved the Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, but Minnie was missing. I try my best to write as positive report as possible, and only mentioning the negative when i feel like it needs to be added. The male and female cast members at the coffee stand just outside of AK as you go in and out, well they were jerks. Not nice at all. I have never met up with cast members this rude. they may need to get out of the CM business and stay away from any jobs that deal with people interactions. Overall great day.
Wednesday we headed to EPCOT. Got VQ GotG party 71 for around 1pm. Was very sad to not be able to get frozen or ratatouille(which was down on and off all day). But did pretty much everything else, had several beverages around the world. When we got to GotG we only had 5 that could ride for whatever reasons. My son chose to be the lone rider of the group and was paired with a family of 3 who threw a fit over it. Because of said fit we got a second stress free ride from the CM's working. I made a thread about this on the general discussion board. It is a great ride, for sure. We could not get a Space 220 ADR and decided to just do quick service this day. Harmonious was awesome. Way better than the last show which we liked.
Thursday was another day off and we did our complimentary mini golf at winter summer wonderland at 10;30am Had a great time. We than hit the cone pool at the AoA. and had an ADR at Ohana at 4pm. I just love this place. Can't say enough about the food, atmosphere and service. If i was a DVC member I would try my best to get this resort. Finished off the night with more cone pool swimming.
Friday was MK day. We decided to not ride 7DMt and Just LL through the day hitting everything we wanted and all the meet and greets. Chose not to ride space mountain this time, but just had a great day with the grands riding all they wanted. It did rain hard just as we were going n the laugh floor and had Buzz LL right after so stayed dry and the rain stopped, but the cloud cover stayed and made it a cooler day. the castle show at 9:20 was spectacular. The crowd at the show was unbelievable and the CM's just didn't have much control but worked their tails off trying to keep things moving.
Lightening Lanes worked out great for us. We chose not to pay for any of the pay for ride rides. It worked out for us. Going into the LL thing very spectacle but came out with a positive feeling about it. Having to pay for it doesn't seem right. Having to then pay for individual rides over that seems even more wrong.
Overall though, the trip was great. May not be back for a few years but loved the memories made on this one.
