Trip Report It's a trap! (LIVE-ish) ***COMPLETED***

I wish I had seen this sooner

Part 1: In-laws are better than outlaws, right?

• 3 Nights at Cabana Bay
• 2 full park days at Universal and maybe partials on the either end.
• The Cast:
  • MIL
  • SIL
  • and I (BES)

Part 2: Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

• 1 night at AKL in a 1 bedroom villa.
• 6 nights at POP in 2 rooms.
• 7 days of park hopping
• The Cast:
  • my parents
  • my younger brother
  • my nephew (who will be 8)
  • and myself

 

[KellBelle]

Late but following along now

 

[Nunu]

Part Two Day 1: Midday

Our first night was at AKL-Jambo in a 1 bedroom villa savanna-view.

This is likely a once-in-a-lifetime thing for my family so the plan was to spend all day at the resort.

(For those of you who missed the pre-TR we couldn’t book POP for our entire stay. I decided that I would pay for the initial night at AKL instead.)

Family wandered the lobby while I checked in. Our room wasn’t yet. Nephew swam and we relaxed by the pool.

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Never got a room ready text. Eventually got an email about 3:55.

We were in the Uzima savanna!

We had planned to do the free culinary tour at 4:15 so we had just enough time to put some stuff in the room and head to Jiko.

(They all did a quick wow moment with the room and saw some friends from the balcony first.)

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The culinary was neat. We started at Jiko. Our tour guide there told us all about the restaurant and the inspirations for the food and decor. There we sampled some bread with four different types of dip. All delicious.

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Switched guides at Boma. Our guide there told us a lot about Boma and also about his home country of Zimbabwe. Here we tried the butternut squash soup. And also got a zebra dome! Nephew loved the zebra dome and I was impressed he at least tried the soup.

Back to the room. Now they could fully take it all in. Many wows.

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It was declared to be the nicest hotel they had ever been to. I even got some thank yous for the room.

Great idea to stay at the resort and enjoy your day there, it's beautiful! Very nice room, love the views from the balcony

 

[Nunu]

Part Two Day 2 evening:

Checked in to POP. Declined mousekeeping. Had dinner in the POP food court. I had the kid’s pot roast.

This was my family’s first POP visit since the renovation. They were impressed. We had two connecting rooms in the eighties.

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Nephew swam. I chatted with DH. He sounded terrible. He definitely caught a cold and was feeling pretty bad.

On the brightside he remarked that at least it was good I wasn’t there so he didn’t have to worry about getting me sick.

Had a pretty low key evening just relaxing in the room.

Part Two Day 2 Wrap Up:

Hamburgers: 0
Drinks: 0
Steps: 18,766

Pop is our favorite Value resort, specially after the rooms refurb, I'm sure your nephew is enjoying the theming too!

 

[Swissmiss]

He is for the most part. He is also really really stubborn. On this side of his family he has grown accustomed to never being told no, so that’s hard at times.

I’m in a weird position where it looks like I could be his mom but really I have no authority over him and my parents choose not to.

Bro and I do what we can without upsetting anyone too much.

That’s difficult. Kids need to be told no when no is the right answer at the time, or at least having the answer stay in one place. My sister and I have very different parenting styles - her boys were often given “this the last time” MULTIPLE times. My daughter often heard “if you continue to do this, X is going to happen” - and X always happened (consequently I always tried to take a beat before saying what X was, to make sure it was something I was willing to go thru with).

 

[donnylambb]

great report so far keep it up!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 3 morning:

Despite this being tagged as a sleep in day everyone was up pretty early. Everyone verrrry leisurely got ready and went to the food court for breakfast.

I got the kid’s waffles. Nephew ate one of my waffles and most of my grapes (in addition to his own breakfast)

Back to the rooms for more getting ready. One of my least favorite things about traveling with my family is that it takes forever for them to get ready or make any decisions.

Finally made it to MK just before noon just as the window for our first FP opened. BTMR. Nephew wanted do splash but it was more than 1hr and really hot and sunny.

We headed to Adventureland next. The plan was to ride PotC before our next FP window opened but realized nephew needed a rest and a snack first.

Since someone ate half of my breakfast I was ready for a snack too.

Attempted to get spring rolls but they sold out a couple of people ahead of me. Nephew got popcorn. Everyone else decided that food was a good idea too.

Settled on Pecos Bill’s. A family first. Bro and I split nachos. I think burgers for the others.

This break brought us to our next FP window.

Next up- Jungle Cruise! It started to rain just before we boarded. (Thanks @Darstarr) our Skipper Gianna was great. The rain worsened as we were getting off JC.

Where to go next? The Tiki Room!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Late but following along now

Welcome aboard!

Great idea to stay at the resort and enjoy your day there, it's beautiful! Very nice room, love the views from the balcony

Pop is our favorite Value resort, specially after the rooms refurb, I'm sure your nephew is enjoying the theming too!

I’ve really enjoyed all the three resorts I’ve stayed at this week. All are unique.

We have had to explain at lot of the culture references to my nephew at POP. In describing what an 8-track was mentioned a cassette and realized he didn’t know what that was either.

great report so far keep it up!

Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying it.

 

[Nunu]

Welcome aboard!




I’ve really enjoyed all the three resorts I’ve stayed at this week. All are unique.

We have had to explain at lot of the culture references to my nephew at POP. In describing what an 8-track was mentioned a cassette and realized he didn’t know what that was either.



Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying it.

Bless his heart! I'm afraid I know what a cassette is

 

[ELeigh]

We had two connecting rooms in the eighties.

We were in the same section last week Love Roger Rabbit

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

We were in the same section last week Love Roger Rabbit

I’m happy with this section. Close to the main building and to the bus stops.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Bless his heart! I'm afraid I know what a cassette is

Haha. He’s only 8. It makes me feel old to realize that cassettes are well before his time.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 3 afternoon:

By the time we were out of the Tiki Room the rain had let up. (My dad and bro weren’t as enchanted by the tiki birds as the rest of us.)

Made our way to Tomorrowland. Space Mountain was our final FP of the day and it had been down since we entered the park.

We wanted to be close by in case it opened in time for our window.

Hopped on the PeopleMover. A personal favorite of mine.

(TRON construction)

Split a cream cheese stuff pretzel and a frozen coke. Nephew had a Space Ranger Slush. No one really enjoyed the candied straws, especially since they were paper.

SM was still down so our FP was changed into an open one. It looked like our only exclusion was SDMT (which was also down).

Nephew decided PotC but we decided to cut thru Fantasyland to see if the Barnstormer line was short. Nope. (Perhaps due to SDMT being down.)

The castle was blocked off for a show so we made it to PotC the long way.

Nephew was ready to go. As we were heading out he saw the monorail and asked to ride it. Heck yes. (He refused to last trip.)

Mom had wanted to get off at the Contemporary to see about a “special purple cupcake”* but nephew said no and because he is apparently in charge we remained on.

There was much commotion about this. Mom said it was fine. Bro and I knew better. He even offered to ride the loop again to get her this purple cupcake but she declined. She was irked though.

I sweet-talked him into letting us get off at Poly as no one else had ever seen it. Dad and nephew were unimpressed. Bro and mom liked it. We got some coffee drinks and I ended up getting some sushi. It tasted great but seemed a little pricey even by Disney standards.

Got back on the monorail and made our way back to MK and caught a bus back to POP.

*reading about all these cupcakes on this site I had wondered who the heck would buy into them being a thing.

Oh that would be my mom. She doesn’t even like cupcakes but is a sucker for special or limited things.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 3 evening:

Back at POP. Nephew swam with my Dad. Bro and I had dinner with our mom- it was Mother’s Day after all.

My brother is such a slow eater. Painfully so. And somehow he’s always the last one to get his food.

I think he had chicken tenders. I had a chicken sandwich and our mom had some special Mother’s Day meal.

She found herself the special POP Mother’s Day cupcake so all was good.

(Bad lighting sorry)

Just as I thought we were finally done with dinner Mom started her usual airing of grievances. (She likes to tell and retell stories of people that have wronged her in some way.)

We are so used to it that I almost forgot to include it but I was trying to figure out where all of the evening time went and this was it.

Bro and I know to just bear it and just try to stay off of the grievance list ourselves.

Our intention was to relieve our dad from pool duty but dinner took so long nephew was finished before we were back.

There was talk of going back to MK at night but dinner took soooo long it wasn’t even worth it. And I had I feeling if bro and I went Mom would be mad.

Bro and I watched trashy shows on TV. Neither of us have cable so we were enthralled.

Part Two Day 3 Wrap Up:

Hamburgers: 0
Drinks: 0
Steps: 15,852

 

[Nunu]

Part Two Day 2 afternoon:

By the time we were out of the Tiki Room the rain had let up. (My dad and bro weren’t as enchanted by the tiki birds as the rest of us.)

Made our way to Tomorrowland. Space Mountain was our final FP of the day and it had been down since we entered the park.

We wanted to be close by in case it opened in time for our window.

Hopped on the PeopleMover. A personal favorite of mine.

View attachment 372332
(TRON construction)

Split a cream cheese stuff pretzel and a frozen coke. Nephew had a Space Ranger Slush. No one really enjoyed the candied straws, especially since they were paper.

SM was still down so our FP was changed into an open one. It looked like our only exclusion was SDMT (which was also down).

Nephew decided PotC but we decided to cut thru Fantasyland to see if the Barnstormer line was short. Nope. (Perhaps due to SDMT being down.)

The castle was blocked off for a show so we made it to PotC the long way.

Nephew was ready to go. As we were heading out he saw the monorail and asked to ride it. Heck yes. (He refused to last trip.)

Mom had wanted to get off at the Contemporary to see about a “special purple cupcake”* but nephew said no and because he is apparently in charge we remained on.

There was much commotion about this. Mom said it was fine. Bro and I knew better. He even offered to ride the loop again to get her this purple cupcake but she declined. She was irked though.

I sweet-talked him into letting us get off at Poly as no one else had ever seen it. Dad and nephew were unimpressed. Bro and mom liked it. We got some coffee drinks and I ended up getting some sushi. It tasted great but seemed a little pricey even by Disney standards.

Got back on the monorail and made our way back to MK and caught a bus back to POP.

*reading about all these cupcakes on this site I had wondered who the heck would buy into them being a thing.

Oh that would be my mom. She doesn’t even like cupcakes but is a sucker for special or limited things.

Kids have all the power these days, apparently they rule most households! I never decided on anything when I was a child, my parents did. Generational thing, I guess?

Anyway, I'm glad you got to ride the monorail to Poly and your Mom had the special cupcake she wanted!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 4 Morning:

Epcot today. Since the previous two days we started out more midday and everyone was complaining about the heat I suggested that we *try* to head out early.

Made it to Epcot about a half hour after opening. Bag check was terrible as per usual there.

There was a very chipper CM Cassy that was doing an awesome job managing the crowds.

There was a minor confusion at the gate as my bag check line took way longer than my mom’s.

Dad insisted he should wait for me despite everyone else figuring I would know to look for them past the gate. In the end we had to all go looking for dad.

Did Test Track first on standby. It was maybe 50 minute wait. It went by quickly as I was catching up on this. (Thanks WDWMAGIC buddies!)

It started to rain lightly as we headed next towards Soarin’ for FP #1. The general consensus was that they liked the new version better.

Stopped for a snack break in Sunshine Seasons.

Adults split the Festival cupcake. Something with earl grey and honey. Good. The honeycomb on top was kinda gross.

JII as FP #2. Dad and bro rated it “makes the Tiki birds look good” Nephew liked it.

The sky was looking really nasty but the rain had stopped. Made our way to The Seas for our third FP and to avoid the impending downpour.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 4 Midday:

Saw this little guy in The Seas. Got a little video of it shuffling along.

After we were done exploring Sea Base we went outside to find a light rain. Did we put our ponchos on? No. We walked towards World Showcase for food booths.

When it started to pour then everyone put on ponchos which is much more difficult to do when already wet.

We split a honey tandoori chicken flatbread which was super good.

No pictures because of the downpour. Also no lines at food booths... because of the downpour. 🌧🌧

Mom and bro split some lobster thing. They liked it. Then we decided to throw in the (soaking wet) towel.

Made our way back to POP.

Had soup and quiche for lunch. Very good especially since I was still cold and wet.

Back to the room for warm up showers and naps.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 4 evening:

Eventually we went back to Epcot. Rode Spaceship Earth, checked out Club Cool and went in the butterfly tent.

Next we started around World Showcase counter-clockwise.

First up: Shared a Violet Lemonade.

Next I tried a seared scallop dish near Canada. All mine as no one else likes scallops. It was just ok. Really saucy. Scallops didn’t have any flavor on their own.

Next I got a milk stout between France and Morocco. The beer was good. The cashier not so much. I couldn’t quite figure out if he was just a bit socially awkward but trying for guest interaction or being a bit creepy with me.

Next we split a Harissa Chicken Kebab. The couscous that came with it was super good.

I’m real glad I had that beer. Bro and I are very similar Disney travelers. We have come to realize that the rest of the group does everything that we hate.

They stop randomly instead of going over to the side. They get irritated when someone cuts them off walking but do it to others.

We are sorry.

World Showcase at night it usually my favorite but not with this group. Yay for beer.

Mom spent a lot of time looking at food booths and talking about all of the things she had pinned/planned to try and not getting any of them.

Dad frantically looked for Photopass photographers despite nephew and mom refusing to do it.

Nephew and bro struggled to find food as they are both picky eaters.

It was past 8 at this point. Decided to split up. Parents and nephew went to Italy. They split a food booth pizza and zeppoles. Nephew loved the zeppoles.

Bro and I went to China. He ate at the quick service. I got a Tipsy Ducks in Love.

The CM seemed very generous with the whisky. That is my kind of pixie dust.

We left as Illuminations was starting. Nephew isn’t super fond of loud noises and we were happy to beat the post-show bus crowds. We even got nephew to do a photopass pic on the way out. Dad was thrilled.

Everyone stated they had a nice day.

Part Two Day 4 Wrap Up:

Hamburgers: 0
Drinks: 2
Steps: 22,095

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 5 Morning:

Up early for a special event.

Mom and I lyfted (is that the right verb for it?) to Disney Springs as it was early and we didn’t want to chance it with bus times.

We did a cake decorating cake at Amorette’s. The class was excellent. It was about 90ish minutes long. Our head teacher Misha was great (as was the rest of the staff)

Right away we were offered coffee/tea/juices/bellinis or mimosas.

I choose a mimosa. I believe they were blood orange. Yum. (They also refilled the mimosa at some point.) And I also got some coffee to even out the drinks.

The class was well organized. I won’t bore you with the details but:

Before:

After:

They boxed it nicely for transport and gave us a set of macarons and a fancy cookie too.

A POP bus was just pulling away as we got to the bus stop. Jumped on the AoA bus instead so our cake wouldn’t melt.

L

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Part Two Day 5 Midday/Evening:

Lunch at POP. Dad and nephew were finishing their morning swim. Bro was coming back from his solo morning at AK

Tried the Mahi Sandwich.

Surprisingly good. Despite the worsening clouds they insisted we eat outside near the pool. Unsurprisingly we got rained on. A lot.

Drying and napping in the rooms. Then headed out to HS.

(Had to bust out these today.)

It was our longest wait for a bus ride. Saw multiple buses for each of the other parks before a HS bus came.

It was about 3:45 as our bus arrived and we realized that our FP for SDD was for between 3-4 not 4-5. Yikes.

Somehow we made it to HS and back to SDD by like 4:13. Got a green Mickey. All was good.

The guys and myself liked the ride. Mom might have called out to Jesus at a couple of points. We had assumed that if she could ride BTMR that she would be fine with SDD. Not so much.

Wheezy was sleeping on the job. You could hear him but no movement.

ToT was next. Mom was out. She was already feeling sick from SDD and ToT would certainly not help.

My dad had been really building it up for nephew. For like months. Nephew was really hesitant but dad just kept badgering him about how much he would love it.

The more responsible adults knew better. As soon as the show part started he declared he wasn’t going to ride. Dad was still trying to convince him. I asked the nearest CM how we could leave. Unfortunately our exit was in the loading area.

So I had to convince a freaked out kid that even though we were going towards the terrifying elevator he was not going to ride it. While my dad and a guy in front of us were still trying to tell him he would love it. (The stranger was being really sweet about it though)

We made to the load and exited as my dad and bro continued on. Ironically to chicken out you have to ride an elevator.

I kept reassuring him that it was ok that he didn’t ride and that I was proud that he spoke up. We found my mom outside to wait for the others. (I was offered a rider swap but declined)

 

[MickeyCB]

Finally caught up and enjoying your trip report very much. And, I feel your (family) pain!