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]

Thursday 17th July (cont)

We stopped for some photos on the way to our Guardians LL

I can’t find our ride photo from that day, I must have forgotten to download it. I know our song was Conga, which i now rank second, One Way or Another is still favourite

We were feeling hungry so headed back to La Cantina de San Angel for something to eat, obviously had to get a margarita as well. It was crazy busy there and we ended up taking our food to the walkway over to the Odyssey building and balancing our trays on our laps. It was too awkward to take food photos but we did have a nice view.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 17th July (cont)

We hadn’t been on The Seas With Nemo & Friends yet, so that was our next destination. One thing I find with the long trips that we take is that we end up missing things because we think ‘Oh, we’ve got plenty of time, we’ll just do them the next day we’re at this park’. And Nemo was something we almost missed doing.

I do love this ride, it’s just cute. And I love the queue, particularly on a hot Florida day.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 17th July (cont)

After our ride we explored the aquariums

We started to get the giggles over some of the fish names

And because we’re Brits we do like a silly insult and can make most words sound like an insult. So we started with the fish names: “You Smallmouth Grunt”, “You Horse-Eye Jack”. People around us must have thought we were crazy and wondered what we were laughing at so much.

More insults

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 17th July (cont)

A bit more exploring

Found him

We had to rescue Lexi on our way out

We walked through Journey of Water again but it was very busy and we couldn’t interact much. There was a Moonlight Magic event on that night so it was feeling quite busy everywhere

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 17th July (cont)

Because it was so busy we decided not to stay for fireworks, we were planning on watching them the next night anyway. We walked through the UK shops on the way out

My weird child

A few more character outfits on the way out

We timed our skyliner trip home perfectly again. Missed the rush and saw the fireworks

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July

With two days left until our cruise we knew we wanted to visit all four parks again and end each day with fireworks. The last night had to be Magic Kingdom, so this night would end at Epcot and because of the ease of getting there on the skyliner it made sense to start at Hollywood Studios.

Our last morning getting the skyliner was the busiest, the queue extended across the bridge and down the side of the lake. It did move quickly though

We rope dropped Tower of Terror

And had time to ride again before the park opened to non resort guests

I liked some of the artwork in the shop

We needed a snack so stopped at the Joffrey’s cart

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

My attempt at an arty photo

Alice did much better

On our way to our next ride

The girls made me stop until the sign changed

MMRR wasn’t too long of a wait so we headed over there

I hadn’t noticed the Hidden Mickey last time we rode

 

[riverside]

Alice’s picture is really cool!!

 

[Minnie1986]

Thursday 17th July (cont)

I would like all of this in my house

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Art on the way out

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Next we had to go back to Pop Century for a boring job, laundry. We only had two days left before our cruise and they were going to be very busy so this would be the only chance I had to do it.

would like all of this in my house

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

We got stuck for a while on MMRR so I was able to get some photos

A pose with Walt on the way out

Alice wanted to go to Star Wars Launch Bay next

Goofy was playing games

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

Alice was enjoying herself looking at all the artwork on the way in to Star Wars Launch Bay. Lexi was eye rolling a lot, she thought we were dawdling too much and isn’t the best at just standing and looking at things. I’m really glad we spent the time there though, we only found out afterwards that it was closing. I am looking forward to the change to focus on animation though, I remember when you could watch actual animators working there

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

Alice took a lot of photos, she really went full on Star Wars geek

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

Alice wanted to meet Darth Vader. Lexi didn’t but she was overruled, she was being a bit teenager-y. We probably waited about 30 minutes and Lexi did enjoy it once we were there

Then off for our last two rides on Star Tours for this trip

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

We decided on ABC Commissary for lunch again, we’d enjoyed it on our previous visit and we wanted to eat inside in some ac.

Shrimp tacos and watermelon margarita again for me

The wait times for pretty much everything were crazy, I’d bought LLMP the night before but had been unable to get times for Hollywood Studios that fitted with our plans so I opted to just get good times for our second park, Epcot. I’d also been unable to get LLSP for Rise of the Resistance on such short notice and we weren’t prepared to wait in the regular line for it which was close to two hours. We really wanted to ride though so decided to try the single rider line.

Final walk through Batuu

It was meltingly hot in the single rider queue, everyone was huddling in pockets of shade

I’m glad we’d had a chance to ride with LLSP on our earlier visit because we were rushed through the room with stormtroopers, but we only waited about 20 minutes to ride

And then it was time to say goodbye to Hollywood Studios for this trip

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

We arrived at Epcot around 2.30 with LLMP for Frozen, Mission:SPACE and Spaceship Earth. And in a surprise to no one, I had also bought LLSP for Guardians. This was the fifth one and I don’t regret it, I love the ride and it was worth it for me.

Frozen was first, I look so happy

We always need to get a troll photo

We had some time before our next LL so we explored the Stave Church

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

Spaceship Earth was next and on our way we found some toilets that we’d never used. Weirdly exciting . Even weirder to take a photo

The new seating area was being well used

Next was Misson:SPACE

Lexi was ready to press the buttons

Then Guardians

We’d been keeping our fingers crossed for September as our song and we got it. Final rankings for the songs are 1:One Way or Another, 2:September, 3:Conga and 4:I Ran. I’m really hoping to get the others in a few weeks time

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

We’d managed to get an additional LL for Soarin’ so that was our next stop. Then something we hadn’t done yet but was always a must do for the girls - the jumping fountains

On our way

I’ve never seen anyone actually climb into the fountains before, the parents were just standing and watching them

The girls have always had a lot of fun here, it’s such a silly little thing but we love it

I’ve always loved this area of the park, there’s never many people here and I enjoy just sitting and watching the water

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

We had a dinner reservation at Ale & Compass over at the Yacht Club so made our way out of the park

We walked inside as much as we could so that we could cool down

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 18th July (cont)

We only waited a short time before we were shown to our table

I had a glass of the MacMurray Pinot Noir which is one of my favourites

Our server was unsure about my allergy so asked the chef to come out and speak with me. The chef was excellent, she told me every ingredient in the dish that I wanted and exactly how she prepared it.

I went with the Catch of the Day. I didn’t write down what fish it was but I really enjoyed it

Lexi went with chicken, not very exciting but she liked it

Alice had the Seafood Pot Pie which she said was delicious. I would have loved to try it, I miss being able to try other people’s food but it’s not worth the risk

For dessert Alice had something chocolatey, I think it was a Boston Cream Pie

Our server recommended the Butter Cake which Lexi and I both had. This was so good, the sort of cake I like, very simple but just perfectly done.

We all really enjoyed our dinner. The only negative about the experience was us. We were in our park clothes and felt a bit scruffy as a lot of other people had obviously made an effort to look nice. I know it’s not a signature and doesn’t have a dress code, but if I ate here again I would bring something to change into.