Pre-Trip J,K, and L's annual Week After Thanksgiving Trip!

k8einwdw · Nov 4, 2023

Tiki Traveler said:
Our children grow up right before our eyes whether we want them to or not don’t they? (I thought this gif was appropriate. ) I remember my children knew their own minds a little better at 3 yrs. than 2 yrs.

What a wonderful family trip plus AKL!! Plus Christmas!!

Looking forward to your adventures! Have a wonderful time!

It feels like time is passing as quickly as it is in that gif! Thanks for being here!

Loco_driver said:
You’re staying at kidani?! I was definitely not half asleep when I read your first post and totally missed that part.

To be fair, I wouldn’t have known that Zebra Trail is at Jambo and not Kidani.

Swissmiss · Nov 4, 2023

I too am in for the Lincoln cuteness

mpaulam · Nov 4, 2023

Lincoln has really grown!
Can't wait to read all about your trip.

k8einwdw · Nov 5, 2023

Swissmiss said:
I too am in for the Lincoln cuteness

mpaulam said:
Lincoln has really grown!
Can't wait to read all about your trip.

Thank you both for following along!

fractal · Nov 5, 2023

Tuvalu · Nov 5, 2023

Happy Merry Christmas GIF by Mickey Mouse

I plan to live my Disney Christmas vicariously through your family this year!

k8einwdw · Nov 6, 2023

fractal said:

Tuvalu said:
I plan to live my Disney Christmas vicariously through your family this year!

Welcome! Glad to have you both virtually tagging along!

k8einwdw · Nov 6, 2023

Before we get on with our plans for the trip, I thought I'd share a few family updates.

I'll start with the hard part. On March 31st, we lost our beloved Max at only eight years old to a neuromuscular disease called Myasthenia Gravis. Jason and I were with him when he crossed over the rainbow bridge, petting him, telling him how much we loved him, and thanking him for being the best dog we could have ever asked for. His loss is felt in our home every day, but we are so thankful for the eight years that we had with him.

We have not brought ourselves to adopt another pet, both because Max was such a special dog and we know it will never be the same, but also because we have a two-year-old that is still learning boundaries when it comes to animals. Jason's parents have a pitty that is a big baby and an absolute nanny dog and lets Lincoln climb all over her, and he thinks he can do that with all animals.

Now that I've ripped that band-aid off, I'll lighten the mood. When we decided last year to drop down to one WDW trip per year after several years of being APs, I was afraid that I'd be feeling major FOMO for the 51 weeks of the year that we'd be away. While there has definitely been FOMO (especially during Flower and Garden), we have found plenty of other ways to fill our time. For Christmas last year, my parents gifted us a family membership to Zoo Atlanta, and we also got ourselves GA Resident passes to the Georgia Aquarium.

In May, we went to the beach with Jason's parents...

And last month, J and I took a trip up to New England for our 10-year anniversary.

Also last month, my younger sister (some of you may remember her from my February 2020 Cruise TR or Lincoln’s First Birthday TR) got engaged! They are planning a wedding for next June.

Lincoln turned two in June, and is 10000% two-year-old boy. Lots of fun, lots of laughs, lots of sweetness, and yes, some toddler tantrums here and there. Right now, he is into anything that goes - cars, trucks, trains, planes, construction vehicles, etc. He does not have a favorite movie yet - he does not have the attention span to watch a movie for longer than 15-20 minutes.

But, he does know and enjoy many Disney/Pixar characters, including of course the Sensational Six, the Winnie the Pooh gang, Woody and Buzz, Lightning McQueen and Mater, as well as Ariel.

We took him in for his most recent post-op appointments with both his neurosurgeon and plastic surgeon over the summer, and his skull is still looking good. We will continue to take him in once a year for follow-ups and CT scans until he is five years old.

I think that about covers it! I'll start going through our daily plans in my next post!

cgersic · Nov 6, 2023

So sorry about your pup. Furry friends are sooo hard to say goodbye to. Loving the pics of all of you enjoying new adventures!

MinnieM123 · Nov 6, 2023

Please accept my condolences on the passing of your beautiful dog, Max. It takes a long time to come to terms with the loss of a beloved pet like that. It sounds like he had a wonderful family to share his life with.

As for the rest of your post, the photos of Lincoln are precious; and the rest of the photos show a lot of happy, family members. Looking forward to updates to your WDW trip!

Wicked Sisters · Nov 6, 2023

So sorry for your loss of your beautiful fur baby Max. What a wonderful 8 years he enjoyed with you.
That last photo of Lincoln in the car seat with his spiked hair is adorable

k8einwdw · Nov 6, 2023

cgersic said:
So sorry about your pup. Furry friends are sooo hard to say goodbye to. Loving the pics of all of you enjoying new adventures!

MinnieM123 said:
Please accept my condolences on the passing of your beautiful dog, Max. It takes a long time to come to terms with the loss of a beloved pet like that. It sounds like he had a wonderful family to share his life with.

As for the rest of your post, the photos of Lincoln are precious; and the rest of the photos show a lot of happy, family members. Looking forward to updates to your WDW trip!

Wicked Sisters said:
So sorry for your loss of your beautiful fur baby Max. What a wonderful 8 years he enjoyed with you.
That last photo of Lincoln in the car seat with his spiked hair is adorable

Thank you all

ajrwdwgirl · Nov 6, 2023

So sorry to hear about the passing of your pup. It is nice you could be with him to give him comfort as he passed.

LeighM · Nov 6, 2023

I'm sooooo sorry to hear about your little Max :cry:

Losing a furbaby is always so hard esp if they are a soulmate kind of dog. I came close to losing my Pip when he was 8 years old from a bad reaction to a vaccine that caused meningoencephalitis. It really hurts (and hits different) when they are that young.

k8einwdw · Nov 7, 2023

ajrwdwgirl said:
So sorry to hear about the passing of your pup. It is nice you could be with him to give him comfort as he passed.

LeighM said:
I'm sooooo sorry to hear about your little Max Losing a furbaby is always so hard esp if they are a soulmate kind of dog. I came close to losing my Pip when he was 8 years old from a bad reaction to a vaccine that caused meningoencephalitis. It really hurts (and hits different) when they are that young.

Thank you both, Max was our first "baby," so it's been tough, especially since we thought we'd have at least 4-5 more years with him.

k8einwdw · Nov 7, 2023

Now, let's get on with our daily plans!

Sunday, November 26th - Travel Day

We drive to WDW from our home in Georgia, and we take I-75 right through Atlanta, so we like to leave at 5:00 am to try to beat traffic. The drive takes us eight-ish hours, with a stop in Central GA for breakfast/potty break, and a second stop just past the GA/FL border for gas/potty break. We should arrive sometime after 1:00 pm, and fingers crossed we'll get lucky and our room will be ready when we arrive. We plan to stop at Jambo House to grab some lunch from The Mara, and if our room isn't ready, we'll take Lincoln to the playground and explore the grounds a bit until it is.

Once our room is ready, we'll get unpacked and settled in for the week. I'm trying out something different for Lincoln's sleeping arrangements for this trip - I'm renting an inflatable toddler bed and blackout sleeping tent from a service called BabyQuip. Lincoln is too tall for a pack-n-play or a mini crib, and he sleeps in a toddler bed at home. We could put him on the pull-out couch and request bed rails, but I don't love feeling like we have to go to bed as soon as we get Lincoln down for the night. I'm not sure how he'll feel about the blackout tent - if it's an absolute disaster, he can just sleep in the inflatable toddler bed in the floor.

Once we have the room set up, we plan to head to Disney Springs for the rest of the day. We were hoping to get a dinner reservation at Homecomin', but I was unsuccessful 60 days out. I'm hopeful that someone will cancel their reservation last-minute; otherwise, we'll just grab dinner at one of the QS locations at Disney Springs.

Monday, November 27th - Animal Kingdom Day

Our first park day will be Animal Kingdom, and THANK GOODNESS all of the parks are opening at 9:00 am this trip, with 8:30 am early entry. It seems like AK was opening at 8:00 am (with 7:30 am early entry) for the past few years, and even though we're used to getting up early with a toddler, it's tough to get out of the room early enough to make it by 7:30. Since we're staying right next door, we'll probably try to leave the room around 7:45 or so, so that we have time to get down to our car, drive over to AK, park, and get into the park before 8:30.

We plan to get Genie+ for all four park days - I know people have their feelings about it, but we have a two-year-old who will absolutely not wait patiently in a line for longer than 15-20 minutes. We've debated whether or not we want to get a LL for Flight of Passage - it's one of my favorite attractions, but it takes soooo long for both adults to ride separately. That will probably be a game-time decision for us. We do plan to rope-drop Na'Vi River Journey, may or may not do Flight of Passage, and then we'll head over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. After the safari, we're hoping to see the Festival of the Lion King - we finally feel like L is old enough to sit through a show, but we'll probably try to sit on the end of an aisle just in case we need to make a quick exit.

We'll try to do both the Gorilla Falls trail in Africa, as well as the Maharajah Jungle Trek in Asia. J and I will either get a LL for Expedition Everest, or take turns in the single rider line. We may also try to get a LL to meet Mickey and Minnie over in Discovery Island, since it's one of the few places you can meet them together. The rest of the characters in AK are standby-only, so we'll play those by ear. We'll probably try to take L on Triceratop Spin, since he's never done that one before, and we know Dino Land is going away. We may take him over to the Boneyard playground - I think L would enjoy it, but it's massive, which makes me a little nervous. We'll plan to grab lunch at either Satu'Li Canteen or Flame Tree BBQ while we're in the park, and head back to the resort probably mid-afternoon. We don't have any reservations for dinner this night, but we're thinking we may try out Sanaa To Go, since it's right there at Kidani Village.

Up next: MK and "Rest" Day Plans

meggo819 · Nov 7, 2023

k8einwdw said:
it's one of my favorite attractions, but it takes soooo long for both adults to ride separately.

Do y’all “baby swap”? My husband and I did for FoP a couple weeks ago. I took our oldest first while hubby took younger 2 on Navi with a short wait. Then we traded. He had a much shorter wait for FoP, oldest got to go with him again, and I took younger 2 on Navi again. Hubby definitely got the shorter wait for both rides, but none of it was that bad since it was early.

k8einwdw said:
but it's massive, which makes me a little nervous

Yes! I didn’t realize how big this was, so I’m kinda glad we ran out of time for it…

k8einwdw · Nov 7, 2023

meggo819 said:
Do y’all “baby swap”? My husband and I did for FoP a couple weeks ago. I took our oldest first while hubby took younger 2 on Navi with a short wait. Then we traded. He had a much shorter wait for FoP, oldest got to go with him again, and I took younger 2 on Navi again. Hubby definitely got the shorter wait for both rides, but none of it was that bad since it was early.

If we both have a Lightning Lane, we don’t use rider swap, but if we wait standby, we do. I think the ride itself only lasts about 4-5 minutes, but it just seems like the whole thing takes ages, with the multiple pre-shows and walking through the long queue. Maybe we’ll try to plan it for L’s nap time, so we can take turns walking around while the other one rides.

k8einwdw · Nov 8, 2023

Tuesday, November 28th - Magic Kingdom Day

We went to MK on a MVMCP day last year, and it worked out beautifully for us - between Genie+ and low standby wait times, we were able to get so much done, even with it being a shorter park day. We're going on a party day again this year, and hoping it works out well for us.

L is now 36 inches tall, which means he is tall enough to ride the Barnstormer. We've been showing him videos of the ride and trying to get him excited about it, so hopefully he'll a) want to ride, and b) enjoy it. We also want to try to get him on the Tomorrowland Speedway and ~~Jungle~~ Jingle Cruise, since he has not done either of those before. We're thinking we'll take turns taking L on Tomorrowland Speedway while the other parent rides Tron. We've had terrible luck getting an LL for Jungle Cruise - I don't know when that ride became so popular, but even right at 7am, it's tough to get a return time before lunch. We're determined to ride it this trip, so if we can't get a decent LL, we'll just wait standby at rope drop.

L also has not done Mad Tea Party or Magic Carpets of Aladdin, or seen Country Bear Jamboree, so we're hoping to accomplish those on our MK day as well. The park closes for non-party guests at 6pm, but I'm hoping we can stick around long enough to see the castle lighting at 6:15 (even though it will never compare to the Dream Lights). We have a 7:05 pm dinner reservation at 'Ohana , so we'll monorail/boat over to the Poly after we leave MK. This will be our first time dining there since the re-opening and menu changes, so we're hoping we will still love it as much as we used to. It will be a late night for Lincoln, but our next day will be a "rest" day, so we won't have to wake up as early.

Wednesday, November 29th - "Rest" Day

I put the word rest in quotation marks, because we're not very good at resting, especially at WDW.

We have a 9:30 am breakfast reservation at Boma this morning, so we should be able to take our time getting ready, and head out of the room around 9;00. We'll either walk down to Jambo or take the internal shuttle. Boma is one of our favorite breakfast spots in WDW, and L was six months old and just starting to eat solids the last time we had breakfast here, so we're hoping L will enjoy it as much as J and I do. After breakfast, we'll be heading out for a day of resort-hopping to see the holiday decorations.

We normally drive my car to the parks, since it's just easier having L in a car seat rather than trying to wrangle him on a bus, but for this day, we'll be utilizing Disney transportation. Since we'll have the better part of a day, I'm hoping we'll have time to see the Skyliner resorts, the Epcot-area resorts, and the MK-area resorts. I'm thinking we'll take a bus from AKL to HS, and start with the Skyliner resorts - we'll be going to Riviera later in the trip (spoiler alert), so we'll skip that one for now, but I definitely want to take Lincoln back to AoA. I love the Christmas tree at AoA, and I think L would enjoy exploring the different areas, especially the Cars section.

After the Skyliner resorts, we'll take the Skyliner over to Epcot, and hit up Yacht Club, Beach Club, and Boardwalk. Yacht Club is going to have a gingerbread display for the first time this year, so I'm excited to see that one. After we've seen the Epcot-area resorts, we'll bus over to MK. We'll take a boat over to Wilderness Lodge to see their tree, and maybe if we have time, we'll boat over to Ft. Wilderness to take L to their playground and to see the stables. Afterward, we'll hit up the monorail resorts (except Poly, since we will have been there the night before) before heading back to Kidani for the night. We don't have any dinner reservations for this day, since we don't want to have to rush to be somewhere by a certain time. We may not be able to see everything on my list - you never know with a two-year-old - but we'll see as much as we can!

Up next: HS and Epcot Days

k8einwdw · Nov 9, 2023

Thursday, November 30th - Hollywood Studios Day

Hollywood Studios has become a half-day park for us since having Lincoln. We'll plan to get there for Early Entry, and plan our park touring strategy around Genie+. I always aim to get a LL for Slinky Dog Dash, but so does everyone else.

If we can get a LL for SDD, we'll rope-drop MMRR. If we can't, we'll make our first LL for MMRR, and rope-drop SDD (using rider swap of course). The only rides L can do at HS are Runaway Railway, Alien Swirling Saucers, and Toy Story Mania, so we'll prioritize those three. L has not done Toy Story Mania yet, but we think he's old enough now that he would enjoy it.

J and I will try to ride Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, and Rise of the Resistance utilizing Genie+ and/or Rider Swap. I really wish HS still had a playground, because we use Rider Swap the most in this park. J and I are thinking one of us can take L to the Lightning McQueen Racing Academy while the other rides ToT, and maybe one of us can take him to the Disney Junior Dance Party while the other rides RotR. We may even try to do the Frozen Sing-Along if L does well at Festival of the Lion King earlier in the week. We have a 12:35 pm lunch reservation at Roundup Rodeo BBQ , which I've heard mixed reviews about. Some people say the food is fantastic, some people say it's just fine. Some people say the service is very slow, some people say it's great. I guess we'll see how it works out for us. We will probably end up heading out of the park not too long after lunch, heading back to the resort for a nap/rest, and then going back to Disney Springs that night.

Friday, December 1st - Epcot Day

Our last park day.

We'll plan to be at Epcot for Early Entry at 8:30 am. We usually will rope-drop Soarin' (and use Rider Swap), but last year, they had the Land, Seas, and Imagination pavilions closed until 11:00 am, so we rope-dropped Joffrey's.

Hopefully that was just a fluke and not a normal thing. Ideally, we'd like to do 1) Soarin, 2) LWTL, 3) The Seas (maybe the ride, maybe just the aquarium), 4) Imagination, 5) SSE (using LL), 6) GOTG (using ILL), then head to World Showcase. Fingers crossed they're still doing Soarin' over California when we go! We also definitely want to take L to Journey of Water at some point in the day, and may bring a swimsuit to change him into, depending on the weather that day.

In World Showcase, we'd like to see as many of the Holiday Storytellers as possible - I need to figure out their performance schedules so we can try to plan around them. As much as I love the Festival of the Holidays - the Holiday Storytellers are classic Epcot "Edutainment," the Candlelight Processional is so beautiful and moving, and the park is decorated beautifully - I feel like the food booths are always a little lacking, at least for us. It seems like there is always a ton of sweets - cookies, pastries, etc - and not much in the way of savory food (that we like, at least). We'll probably end up getting a couple things from the festival booths and then eating lunch at one of the QS in World Showcase.

We do have a dinner reservation at Biergarten - somewhere we have not been since 2018. J and I love the food there, there are good options on the buffet for L, and we think L will enjoy the live band. We are also planning to let L stay up to watch the Epcot fireworks that night, if he's feeling up to it - this will be his first time seeing fireworks in person! Afterward, it will be back to the resort to get packed up and ready to head home the next morning.

Pre-Trip J,K, and L's annual Week After Thanksgiving Trip!

k8einwdw

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Swissmiss

mpaulam

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k8einwdw

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fractal

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Tuvalu

k8einwdw

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k8einwdw

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cgersic

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MinnieM123

Wicked Sisters

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k8einwdw

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ajrwdwgirl

LeighM

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k8einwdw

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k8einwdw

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meggo819

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k8einwdw

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k8einwdw

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k8einwdw

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