Trip Report Finally Back in Our Happy Place. A Three Week Trip With a Cruise Included

We’ve been back for just over a week from what was a wonderful three weeks. There were a few hiccups, but for the most part Disney World was just as we remembered it.

This trip was me and my two youngest daughters, Alice (18) and Lexi (15)

We stayed at Pop Century from July 7th-20th, then sailed on the Disney Magic from July 20th-25th, then French Quarter for the last three nights, July 25th-28th. For the Pop Century part of the trip we had the UK 14 day park tickets which included the waterparks.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

And plastic cheese!

I do love Disney plastic cheese

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

It was time for our first Lightning Lane, Kilimanjaro Safaris. I’d booked it as early as possible in the hope that the animals would be quite active.

As we tapped in I got held for a second by the cm because the tap point was reacting a bit strangely to my MagicBand. Before turning green it was yellow and making a strange noise, it had happened when tapping into the park as well. I had no idea why this was happening, neither did the cm but I was given the all clear to carry on.

Photos from our safari, the animals weren’t as active as I’d hoped but we all enjoyed it anyway

The African painted dogs, Alice’s favourite animal. We had some in our local zoo but lost them to old age a few months ago so she was very happy to see these

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

More from our safari

We could just about see the cheetahs

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

Lounging lions

The last couple of photos

When we left the safari Alice commented that the people behind us weren’t very bright. They were pointing out hyenas even though our safari guide had clearly said they were painted dogs.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

We’re big fans of Mammoth Club and in the run up to the trip had watched all of Molly’s videos on how to use Lightning Lanes. Lexi had been designated chief fiddle-faddler and when we had tapped into the safari she got our next LL. We didn’t need anything else in Animal Kingdom so planned to hop to Hollywood Studios if we could get LL times that we liked. We were very pleased to be able to get an afternoon LL for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, this was a ride we hadn’t done before.

We still had time before our next LL in this park so went for a stroll around Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail.

We spent some time looking at the indoor exhibits, I made the girls walk in front of me in case there were any because I don’t even like looking at them behind glass. I don’t even like the word.

I find the mole rats fascinating but I know a lot of people find them gross

Spoiler: Not for those who don’t like rodents

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

Then some bird spotting

This guy was fighting with his food, it took a lot of work for him to eat that fish

Pretty colours

I love watching the weavers work, I couldn’t get a better photo of them

Not birds

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

Meerkat on watch duty

There weren’t very many people on the trail so we spent a bit of time watching the gorillas being very active without worrying if we were in anyone’s way

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

The girls had forgotten about the hidden Jafar

The single men weren’t being very active

I love a waterfall. It became a joke throughout the trip that I had to take photos of every water feature

Leaving Africa to go back to Asia for our next LL

 

[littleroo]

Great Gorilla pics!! Waterfalls are truly one of nature's greatest gifts!

 

[radiorae]

I didn’t know about the hidden Jafar! That’s so cool

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I didn’t know about the hidden Jafar! That’s so cool

I think you have to know it’s there before you go but once you see it you’ll see it every time

My oldest daughter (now 26) was obsessed with the Hidden Mickey books when she was younger so we spent quite a lot of time looking for them

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

Our next LL was for Kali River Rapids. We’d brought our flip flops with us so changed into those and put all our stuff in a locker. I can cope with damp clothes but did not want to spend the rest of the day with wet shoes.

I was trying out the new waterproof phone cases I’d bought for us

This was a lot of fun. I’m always a bit nervous of the big drop, I’ve been completely soaked through before, but this time we just got a bit wet

The girls had to play in the fountains afterwards

When we’d tapped in to Kali, Lexi had got us another LL for Hollywood Studios. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and this was before our LL for MMRR

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

Next we had to make our way right across the park to Pandora for our LLSP at Flight of Passage. We had a little bit of time to kill so had a bathroom break and a little wander round

Mini waterfalls

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

More waterfalls

My usual view of Lexi

We were a bit chilly waiting to go on the ride, the ac was very cold and our clothes were still a bit damp from Kali.

We all enjoyed the ride particularly Lexi, the last time she rode it when she was 10 her legs were too little to feel the breathing of the banshee

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

After Flight of Passage we headed to Satu’li Canteen for lunch. This was the first time for all of us eating here. It was only just past 11 am but we were hungry after being up so early.

This was my first time dealing with an allergy issue at Disney, I’ve never been allergic to any food before January this year. I spoke to the cm at the register and she offered me the allergy menu but because I don’t have an issue with any of the major allergens this menu doesn’t help me. So she called over a manager/coordinator (I don’t know what the official name is but they seem to have one at all the park quick service locations). Both cms were very helpful and I was shown an iPad with the lists of ingredients for every item on the menu and I determined that what I wanted to order was safe for me to eat, did not contain any peas or lentils. I was very pleased with the way this was handled, throughout the whole trip I thought Disney did a very good job at helping me with my allergy (with one exception a few days after this)

My choice, the Chilli-Garlic Shrimp Bowl with Noodles and Green Onion Vinaigrette. This was really good. I also had the Kiwi Margarita, making good use of my quick service credit. Alice had the same but with a non alcoholic drink.

Lexi had the Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl with a Pandoran Sunrise

After lunch we headed to our last LL at Animal Kingdom, Na’vi River Journey

Saw this little guy on the way

On the boat

And then I took this photo and realised I hadn’t switched off the flash on my phone so no photos of the ride but I do remember that the Shaman animatronic was working

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

We’d done everything we’d planned to do in Animal Kingdom, we were saving shows and some more exploring for a day when I hadn’t paid for Lightning Lanes, so after Na’vi we headed out of the park. We only had a couple of minutes wait for a bus, in fact we had amazing luck with transport the entire trip, and before long we were in Hollywood Studios.

Always have to pull the rope

When we’d tapped in to Na’vi we’d got a LL for Star Tours but we had a little while to wait. We were melting in the heat so headed for some much needed ac.

Photo stop

Then off to Star Tours, Alice was hoping for the new Andor or Ahsoka scenes

There was hardly any queue, we didn’t really need the LL, so once we got off we went straight back round again.

I know it’s not that popular any more but we absolutely love this ride. No new scenes for us this time though.

Then off to Batuu for some more Star Wars fun

 

[RememberWhen]

We love star tours! DD4 and I did it 4 times when we were recently at the park. She loved that there wasn’t much of a line and that it’s an awesome ride!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

We love star tours! DD4 and I did it 4 times when we were recently at the park. She loved that there wasn’t much of a line and that it’s an awesome ride!

I think it’s very re-rideable because you never know what combination of scenes you’re going to get. Although I loved it way back when it was just the same ride all the time

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

We’d had a message through saying that MMRR was down and that our LL had been converted into an anytime pass. We really wanted to ride it so decided that we’d wait and see if the ride reopened rather than use it on anything else.

We had a little while before our Smugglers Run LL so spent some time exploring in Batuu.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

Then off to ride

We were teamed up with a lovely family of three. The little boy and his mum were originally assigned to be pilots but he got a bit upset because he didn’t want to fly the ship, he wanted to shoot things, so they swapped with Alice and Lexi who were pleased to be pilots.

After that we left Batuu and made our way into Toy Story Land

At this point the early morning was catching up with us. MMRR was still down so we decided to ride Toy Story instead. The girls loved competing against each other but I got the worst score I’ve ever got because the last screen on my side of the car was glitching.

Leaving Hollywood Studios

Back in the room Piglet had had a very lazy day