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]

Tuesday 8th July (cont)

We spent a few hours relaxing in the room (I had a nap) before going back out for dinner.

We wanted somewhere a bit quieter than the Pop food court, so hopped back on the skyliner to check out Caribbean Beach.

None of us realised beforehand how long the walk was from the skyliner station to Old Port Royale, it felt like a billion miles after walking around parks all day , but it was worth it because we all really enjoyed our food

Chicken Caesar Salad for Alice

Chicken Bowl for Lexi

Fish Tacos for me

We walked back to Riviera Resort skyliner station, it was still a long walk but I think slightly shorter than to Caribbean Beach’s

Another lovely sunset

On the skyliner I noticed I noticed a bug on my ankle, I flicked it away and it landed on the other ankle. I didn’t feel it bite me but by the time I got back to the room there were two small dots on each ankle.

We had so much fun on our first day back in the parks. Like everyone else I don’t like having to pay extra for Lightning Lanes, but it worked well for us with three in Animal Kingdom and three in Hollywood Studios. And we could have got more if we’d wanted to stay in the parks for the evening. There was a little bit of zigzagging in AK but I didn’t feel like we were just rushing from one LL to another, we still had some slower exploring time.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July

It was Magic Kingdom day!!!!

We were awake early again, it always takes a few days to adjust to the time difference. We hardly waited any time for a bus and were at Magic Kingdom before 8am, plenty of time to get through security and into the park for early entry. But then going through the scanners I got pulled aside for the extra bag check and joined a huge queue which took about 15 minutes to get through. Next going through the tapstiles my MagicBand didn’t work and a supervisor had to be called over (it never did work tapping in to MK even though it worked in all the other parks), so we ended up being later into the park than we planned.

I had intended trying to take photos of Alice as we entered the park knowing she would be a bit emotional being back. But, even though we’d been to two parks the day before, going in to Magic Kingdom for the first time in over five years really got to me as well. There really is nothing quite like walking up Main Street and we were both shedding some happy tears. Lexi was happy as well, she just doesn’t show her emotions like Alice and I do.

Walking up Main Street I was joking with the girls that the last time I was there was running the marathon and one side of the street was roped off for spectators who were cheering on all the runners, and I was a bit disappointed that nobody was cheering me this time . And then it clicked for all of us what had been happening with my MagicBand the day before when it was making a noise every time I tapped in somewhere.

I was wearing this MagicBand that I’d bought during the marathon weekend but had never worn because I didn’t want to use it before I’d completed the races

The noise when I tapped in was clapping and cheering, I loved it.

Lexi still walking ahead of the slow coaches

Even though we were later than planned we still wanted to take our time to just enjoy being there

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

While everyone else going in to Fantasyland was racing to get to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, there was only one ride that we wanted to be our first in Magic Kingdom

Tigger was so funny, he was knocking on the door for Pooh and then saying hello to everyone

Even though the queue was moving very quickly, the girls wanted to play

In our Hunny Pot

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

Next up was Little Mermaid

Bad ride photo

The girls did not wave, I did.

Then off to Storybook Circus

I think both of them were three the first time they rode Goofy’s Barnstormer. I did try to get them to pose next to the height sign to show they were tall enough but I got teenage eyerolls . I’d forgotten how zoomy this was

We couldn’t miss out Dumbo

Lexi wanted her own Dumbo

So I had to get a photo of them together afterwards

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

The girls wanted to ride the Teacups next, so off we went

I do not ride this anymore so I went to get a snack for us to share

The girls enjoyed themselves

It was cute seeing the other Alice riding

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

We then had a choice to make, we had time before our first LL to ride either Peter Pan or Seven Dwarfs as they both had similar wait times.

The girls chose Seven Dwarfs

Not long after I took this photo the queue stopped moving. We waited for a while then checked the app to see that the ride was down. I gave the girls the choice of waiting but they didn’t want to so we got out of the queue

The wait time for Peter Pan had gone up quite a bit so we decided on Small World instead

Welsh dolls

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

After Small World it was time for our first LL, Haunted Mansion

Lexi, who didn’t even know that there was a ride photo did pretty well

I didn’t know in advance where the photo was taken

In my defence, I was getting my phone out to take this amazing photo

Then I tried to take a photo of the Hatbox Ghost

I just put my phone away and enjoyed the ride after that

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

I’d timed the Haunted Mansion LL so we would be at Columbia Harbour House as it opened

Fried shrimp for me and Lexi, nothing exciting but it was tasty

A healthier option for Alice

We were supposed to go straight from lunch to our next LL on Pirates but we’d had a notification that the ride was down. We all really wanted to ride it so decided to keep the anytime LL and wait to see if it reopened. This did mean that we had some time to kill before our final original LL on Tiana’s. Not wanting to be zigzagging too much we joined the queue for Peter Pan which was showing as 45 minutes.

We were pixie dusted and took flight, saying “poor Nana” as we flew over her

 

[rshell68]

I didn’t know in advance where the photo was taken

Where do they take the photo? I know all the other ride but have no clue on HM

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Where do they take the photo? I know all the other ride but have no clue on HM

It’s quite near the start of the ride, where the changing portraits are. I don’t know why but I expected it to be a bit later on

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

Our next LL was for Tiana’s. This was fun but I don’t think I’d be prepared to wait in a really long queue for it. I did know beforehand what the storyline was but couldn’t follow it while riding.

I got Mike Wazowskied by Lexi

We were in need of a cold treat after our ride

Alice didn’t get as messy as she used to (I’ve been going through old photos a lot recently)

We then had to zigzag a bit, because of the times I’d been able to get for our extra Lightning Lanes we had Buzz followed by Jungle Cruise

On our way, my favourites

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

We had some time before our Buzz LL so rode a family favourite, the blue train. When my oldest daughter was about four she called her favourite rides the blue train and the fast train (Big Thunder) so that’s what they’re always known as to us

Lexi breaking the ‘no dancing’ rule

Then off to Buzz

My worst score ever on Buzz, I wasn’t doing very well on shooter games, and Alice didn’t do much better. I’m blaming it on a broken space gun, I couldn’t see the red dot when I pointed it at targets

Then back to Adventureland for Jungle Cruise

We were hoping to ride Pirates next but it was still down. We really needed a break from the park at this point, we were all very hot and tired, and there was no way we would make it through to fireworks without a nap. We decided to hold on to our anytime LL and hopefully use it to ride Pirates that evening.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

On our way back to the room we were chatting about what we wanted to do for dinner that evening. I really didn’t want another quick service meal in MK so checked for table service availability. I saw a time for Tony’s that fitted with our plans so booked it. We’d stopped going there a long time ago because we thought it went downhill but I’d been seeing good reviews about it lately.

Refreshed after our naps we opened our door to absolutely torrential rain. If we hadn’t had the reservation to get to we would have waited it out but we quickly changed into flip flops and put on our ponchos and headed out. We were so lucky that a bus pulled in just as we got to the bus stop and by the time we got to MK the rain was down to a drizzle.

Because the bus had arrived so quickly we had plenty of time before dinner, Pirates was back up so we headed over there

We enjoyed the ride singing our version of the song “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate’s after me”, misheard lyrics by Alice when she was little

Then back to Town Square to check in for Tony’s

Our server wasn’t sure how to deal with my allergy so got the chef to come to the table. Chef Ashley was excellent, ensuring me that everything was made in house so they had complete control over how meals were cooked and she personally brought out my food.

We started with the garlic bread because we’d heard very good things about it

With the Parmesan sauce (Lexi was trying to get out of the photo)

This was so, so yummy , I had to stop myself from eating too much of it before the rest of our food came out.

I had the oven roasted shrimp scampi, this was very good

Chicken Alfredo for Alice

And a favourite for Lexi, Chicken Parmigiana

We all really enjoyed our meals, although the girls left quite a bit of food because they ate too much of the garlic bread

We had planned to recreate an old photo but forgot, so I’ll just share that

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

On our way back to the room we were chatting about what we wanted to do for dinner that evening. I really didn’t want another quick service meal in MK so checked for table service availability. I saw a time for Tony’s that fitted with our plans so booked it. We’d stopped going there a long time ago because we thought it went downhill but I’d been seeing good reviews about it lately.

Refreshed after our naps we opened our door to absolutely torrential rain. If we hadn’t had the reservation to get to we would have waited it out but we quickly changed into flip flops and put on our ponchos and headed out. We were so lucky that a bus pulled in just as we got to the bus stop and by the time we got to MK the rain was down to a drizzle.

Because the bus had arrived so quickly we had plenty of time before dinner, Pirates was back up so we headed over there

We enjoyed the ride singing our version of the song “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate’s after me”, misheard lyrics by Alice when she was little

View attachment 878002

Then back to Town Square to check in for Tony’s

Our server wasn’t sure how to deal with my allergy so got the chef to come to the table. Chef Ashley was excellent, ensuring me that everything was made in house so they had complete control over how meals were cooked and she personally brought out my food.

We started with the garlic bread because we’d heard very good things about it

View attachment 878003

With the Parmesan sauce (Lexi was trying to get out of the photo)

View attachment 878004

This was so, so yummy , I had to stop myself from eating too much of it before the rest of our food came out.

I had the oven roasted shrimp scampi, this was very good

View attachment 878005

Chicken Alfredo for Alice

View attachment 878006

And a favourite for Lexi, Chicken Parmigiana

View attachment 878007

We all really enjoyed our meals, although the girls left quite a bit of food because they ate too much of the garlic bread

We had planned to recreate an old photo but forgot, so I’ll just share that

View attachment 878008

You will need to take another trip just to recreate that picture .

 

[littleroo]

I like Alice's version of the Pirates's song better! I imagine to a child it would seem to make more sense!
We enjoyed our meal at Tony's, as well! Now, you really have me wishing I ordered the garlic bread.

 

[cgersic]

I really enjoy when y'all put in the old photos along with the new ones! So fun to see your kids growing up Disney, even from far away. Great report!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I really enjoy when y'all put in the old photos along with the new ones! So fun to see your kids growing up Disney, even from far away. Great report!

Thank you. I wasn’t sure whether to include the old photos but this trip brought back so many lovely memories that it seemed appropriate.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 9th July (cont)

We’d used five Lightning Lanes so far and had booked another three before we’d left for our naps

Space Mountain for the girls. I don’t ride this anymore, it’s far too jerky for my back

I rode Pooh instead

I had hoped for my own Hunny Pot because I like to sing along, but I had to share so I whisper sang to myself.

Then a little wander

And our next LL at Tomorrowland Speedway. I think it’s the first time I’ve been on this where I haven’t had to use the pedal for a child whose legs are too short

I do like the views you get at night

We were zooming