Trip Report Kylo Ren is Scary, and so is every other character

Welcome everyone. We are back with yet another Trip Report.

We were in WDW at the end of January/early February this year. Normally I would post the trip report right away, but this year I had a rather intense insurance course I was studying for related to my job. It was not nearly as much fun as a Slinky Dog coaster. Thankfully, about 4 months later, I have passed, and now it's time to re-live old memories by typing away at this trip report.

A change in this trip from years past...We're passholders now!!!

My wife Sara did the math, and figured out that we could save some money by becoming passholders and going twice in a calendar year. So we were looking forward to all the perks that come from Passholder status .

This trip began as all our most recent ones have...leaving on a Thursday evening after Luke returns home from school and making the long drive from York, PA to Florida. Sara had gotten home from work, and we hastily packed the car to have it ready for when the bus dropped him off. We stopped at a Moe's for lunch in Leesburg, VA, then continued on our way to Southern, VA for an overnight stop. Luke is currently huge into football, soccer, and almost any other sport, so our soccer ball made the trip with us, even into the rest stations.

We made it to our hotel around 11pm, quickly loaded all our things into the room and fell asleep fast. When we woke up the next morning, Luke was excited to learn that his new shirt he had gotten the previous weekend had thumb holes!!!

You can just really sense the excitement in his face in this picture. After packing up the car and a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were back on 95 South. At a rest stop football became the game of choice this day.

We stopped for lunch at a pizza hut in South Carolina, and talked to the manager who grew up in PA, now lives in SC, and goes down to WDW every year. We traded stories for a bit, then were back on the road, where the kids (and Sara) promptly passed out.

We made it to Florida before the sun went down this year. By our standard, we made good time, but we still missed out on the free orange juice.

And a silly one...Makayla was a little bit lost

Often it seems that the drive from the Florida border to WDW can take the longest of the whole trip. This particular ride was no exception. The kids were happily watching their DVD player in the back (Luke probably watched the Captain Underpants movie at least 4 times on our trip down), but also peppered us with the classic, "are we almost there," every 5 minutes. Sure enough, we eventually arrived. Our first stop of the night was Disney Springs.

 

[Lyear]

Once we had finished with the Paint by Number exhibit, we made our way over to Canada. As is our custom, we arrived to the theater just as they had started a show, so we had about 15 minutes to wait. No problem, we spent some time exploring the area.

Luke remembered that this was the area where we had played floor is lava on our last trip, so of course we had to do it again on this trip. It's weird how Canada is the only place where we have played this game in WDW. Finally we made our way back to the theater to take in the show. Afterwards, we picked up the new Ziploc suitcases to collect stamps around the world showcase.

We went on to United Kingdom after this, where Makayla really wanted us to take a photo in the Peter Pan layout. The boys went to the "boys side" and the girls went to the "girls side."

We found the kids suitcase stamp location, then made our way over to France. We had lunch reservations at Via Napoli, and I was hoping we would be further along in our trip around the world by this time. However, it became clear we would need to take a break from the touring to go eat, then backtrack to get started again. I'm probably weird and in the minority, but things like that tend to bother me. I do my best when I'm planning to try to time out meals for when we're going to be in that area, but in this case it didn't work out perfectly.

We just happened to arrive at France a couple minutes before Belle was scheduled to come out and meet guests. You may have noticed Makayla's outfit for today was what we call "blue dress Belle." Makayla is a huge Belle nut, and has probably seen Beauty and the Beast at least 30 times between the live action version and the cartoon. She was Belle for Halloween, and we brought the costume along and had her wear it this day just so she could meet Belle in the blue dress in France.

Unfortunately, Makayla is not a huge character person. If you've read some of my prior reports, you're remember some of our adventures with meeting characters. Her reaction can range from indifference to all out fear. When we told her we were going to say hi to Belle, she immediately said she didn't want to. With some persuasion, we were able to get her to stay in the line, but sure enough when Belle showed up, she wasn't in the mood to say hi.

Here she comes...

No, I will NOT acknowledge that Belle is behind me

Belle to her credit was trying her best to talk to Makayla about going on adventures, but she was set that she was not going to interact.

Kudos to Belle for great effort in the interaction, but meeting a princess was not something Makayla was into on this day.

 

[Lyear]

When we had left Belle, we rushed past several countries on our way to Italy for our Via Napoli lunch. We had eaten at Via Napoli a couple times before, always on the Disney Dining Plan. This year, we had decided not to do the dining plan, mostly because of the sheer amount of food it forces you to eat. This became nice in this type of situation where we could order a large pizza for the family, instead of each ordering our own individual meals.

We were seated right away after checking in, and were placed toward the back of the restaurant.

A look down the aisle beside us. I feel like everytime I write about this place I talk about my love for their giant lanterns.

Sara noticed this picture sitting on our table and insisted we order this as a side dish.

We quickly ordered our food and drinks, and then Luke and I began the child menu penny flicking game that you can see two photos above. We played countless rounds, with Luke more or less keeping score for us. Somehow his score seemed to increase faster than mine on a regular basis . Soon enough Makayla wanted a piece of the action.

In a little while, our food had arrived.

Half a pizza (they did deliver a whole pizza to us, but we forgot to take a picture before we dished it out. )

And let's not forget that mouthwatering bread. Ok, the photo doesn't look that appetizing, but it was actually pretty good.

So yummy

Luke remained hard at work on his menu as he waited for his pizza to cool.

So what can be written about Via Napoli that I haven't said before? I loved ordering one pizza for the family rather that each getting our own meal that we struggled to eat. The single pizza ended up being just the right size. I also think the larger pizza tasted better than the smaller individual size pizza. Debate can rage all day long on what qualifies as good pizza, but in my opinion, this one from Via Napoli would rate right up there with the best pizza in WDW. Very impressed, and will hopefully visit again soon.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Once we had finished with the Paint by Number exhibit, we made our way over to Canada. As is our custom, we arrived to the theater just as they had started a show, so we had about 15 minutes to wait. No problem, we spent some time exploring the area.
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Luke remembered that this was the area where we had played floor is lava on our last trip, so of course we had to do it again on this trip. It's weird how Canada is the only place where we have played this game in WDW. Finally we made our way back to the theater to take in the show. Afterwards, we picked up the new Ziploc suitcases to collect stamps around the world showcase.

We went on to United Kingdom after this, where Makayla really wanted us to take a photo in the Peter Pan layout. The boys went to the "boys side" and the girls went to the "girls side."

View attachment 378910

We found the kids suitcase stamp location, then made our way over to France. We had lunch reservations at Via Napoli, and I was hoping we would be further along in our trip around the world by this time. However, it became clear we would need to take a break from the touring to go eat, then backtrack to get started again. I'm probably weird and in the minority, but things like that tend to bother me. I do my best when I'm planning to try to time out meals for when we're going to be in that area, but in this case it didn't work out perfectly.

We just happened to arrive at France a couple minutes before Belle was scheduled to come out and meet guests. You may have noticed Makayla's outfit for today was what we call "blue dress Belle." Makayla is a huge Belle nut, and has probably seen Beauty and the Beast at least 30 times between the live action version and the cartoon. She was Belle for Halloween, and we brought the costume along and had her wear it this day just so she could meet Belle in the blue dress in France.

Unfortunately, Makayla is not a huge character person. If you've read some of my prior reports, you're remember some of our adventures with meeting characters. Her reaction can range from indifference to all out fear. When we told her we were going to say hi to Belle, she immediately said she didn't want to. With some persuasion, we were able to get her to stay in the line, but sure enough when Belle showed up, she wasn't in the mood to say hi.

Here she comes...
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No, I will NOT acknowledge that Belle is behind me
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Belle to her credit was trying her best to talk to Makayla about going on adventures, but she was set that she was not going to interact.

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Kudos to Belle for great effort in the interaction, but meeting a princess was not something Makayla was into on this day.

Looks like a great trip! And your son is an Eagles fan cool!

 

[LeighM]

Enjoying your trip report! We're planning on getting APs for our trip in 2021/2022. We have a cruise planned next year and plan on going back to WDW for their 50th. Plus, I want the crowds to die down a little bit for Star Wars and have the new rides open before we go back. It's going to feel like forever

 

[Lyear]

Looks like a great trip! And your son is an Eagles fan cool!

He's not the only one. Fly Eagles Fly! It was awesome that the first year he really started watching football was the year they won the Super Bowl. He still watches youtube videos from that season all the time.

Enjoying your trip report! We're planning on getting APs for our trip in 2021/2022. We have a cruise planned next year and plan on going back to WDW for their 50th. Plus, I want the crowds to die down a little bit for Star Wars and have the new rides open before we go back. It's going to feel like forever

That sounds like quite a line up. Hope you have a great time. Regarding Star Wars...when we planned our next trip, the opening for Star Wars Galaxy's Edge was still being shared as late fall. We figured September would be a good time to go. Oops. Oh well, hopefully the extreme crowds will dissipate by late September.

 

[Lyear]

Following our lunch, it was back to France for the movie. Last year both kids were bored, but this year they both really liked it. They were especially fans of the hot air balloons. After, Sara found this artwork related to Festival of the Arts.

Then we spent some time in Morocco.

They loved this camel...Makayla especially. They also liked the drums underneath it.

She wanted to get her photo in front of these flowers.

Then we all joined in.

We couldn't get anyone to open this door.

And then off to Japan. Not as many photos here They liked seeing the water flowing under the bridge. It was actually hard to get them to turn around to take this photo.

 

[Lyear]

America was the next stop. The past few years we had always gone around Christmas, so the Voices of Liberty were singing Christmas songs. This year Christmas was done, so we got to hear their patriotic songs...plus Let It Go from Frozen .

Initially our plan was to stay for the Voices of Liberty performance only, but we decided to stick around for the movie as well. We had a little bit of time to kill and looked at the displays.

It was around this time that Makayla had a potty emergency. Fortunately we made it there in time, and then back before the start of the show. As for the show, both kids didn't fully understand what was going on, and Makayla got a little bored and sleepy. Luke has learned about MLK in school though and he said he enjoyed that part of the movie.

After this, we got back to our stroller and continued on our way. Makayla decided she wanted to get her bubble wand out again. She turned it on, but the bubbles didn't come out right away. She decided to hold the wand up to her eye to look at it, just as the bubbles must have made their way to the top . She got a complete face full of bubbles. She was fine, and Luke, Sara, and I thought it was the funniest thing. She, of course, then tried to repeat it over and over again the rest of the day.

As we made our way to Germany, both kids wanted to stop and look at the trains. I think they might have stayed there the rest of the day if we had let them.

More art in Germany...

When we got to China, we had missed the circlevision show (which always seems to be the case). We took a couple photos and then decided to keep moving.

 

[Lyear]

We had a fastpass for Frozen Ever After later that night, so we decided to skip over Norway for now and went straight to Mexico. Sara managed to get a photo of them getting their passport signed here.

If you have followed our trip reports before, then you know we love eating at Mexico our first night in WDW. I have suggested trying somewhere different, but Sara always insists on San Angel Inn. We had some time before our check-in, so we took a trip on what we call the Donald Duck boat ride. I feel this is one of the more underrated attractions here. We always have a great time. "Bring back my bathing suit." was repeated with giggles during our entire trip.

We still were about 20 minutes early, but we decided to go ahead and check in for our meal. I asked if we could request a waterfront table. They said it would be a little bit of a longer wait, but we were fine with that. I think Luke was feeling the effects of a long day.

It was only about 5 minutes until they called us, and we were seated by the water. We had a great time waving a guests who were on the boats. Most of the time they would wave back to us. By the end of the meal, Luke said his arm was getting tired .

The chips and salsa were a big hit. I ordered a "wild one" margarita. Sara and I both thought it was pretty good.

We ordered Luke a mac and cheese kids meal, and Sara and I each got the Plato Vegetarian. We decided not to order Makayla her own meal since she doesn't normally eat a lot. We let her share from our plates. The kids kept themselves occupied as we waited to order.

You can't sit at a water front table at San Angel and not take a photo of the temple. It's part of the agreement you sign when you are seated.

Luke's menu had another coin flicking game, so we played that for a bit as we waited for our food.

I'm not sure what this photo was about.

 

[Lyear]

In what seemed like a very short time, our food arrived. We had to take a pic of Luke's Mac and Cheese quickly as he started devouring it.

And a photo of either Sara's or mine, no idea who's it is.

Sara loves when I take random pictures of her while she's eating.

The food was really good, but then again the food has always been really good for us here. It is a great experience sitting by the water when you eat here. Our server was great as well.

Once we had finished our meal, we decided to do the boat ride one more time, and then it was back into WS.

 

[Lyear]

We made our way over to Norway, where the line for Anna and Elsa was very short. Luke wasn't overly excited to meet princesses. Truth be told, we were all pretty tired, and I'm not sure any of us were overly excited for anything .

It was only about 10 minutes before we were led in to meet Elsa. Luke decided he didn't want to meet her, so he refused to get into the photos.

Makayla wasn't so enthused to be meeting her either. She wanted to keep holding my hand, and refused to make eye contact.

Elsa was calmly signing the autograph books and trying to make conversation.

Eventually I decided to pick her up, and we got half a smile.

And then we met Anna, and got this

She would only stare right at the camera person. Anna was talking to her and asking questions but she wouldn't respond or break her gaze. Sara and I were trying to get her to look at Anna, but she refused.

Eventually she called us all over, and even Luke gave in to her request.

I'd venture to say it was not the most engaging conversation Anna had had that day.

It was time for our Frozen Ever After fastpass, but when we went over toward the ride we saw the doors were closed. We learned the ride was closed and it was uncertain if it would open up again that night. We decided to head inside the Norway "church" because it was getting really cold out. Here they had displays set up to some Norse gods, which was sort of fun to read.

Someone was getting tired

 

[Lyear]

We stepped outside for a second, to realize the ride was still down. It was beginning to look like we wouldn't be able to ride. We then noticed we had received a new email from Disney.

Looking back, I wish I had taken time to read this closely. I glanced over it and all I saw was fastpass experience of your choice. Maybe it was because we had two kids with us. This would become a point of pain and confusion tomorrow.

We realized that Frozen was likely not coming back up this evening. We decided to get a seat for Illuminations. We found a spot near the Norway pavilion.

People slowly started filling in around us. Our kids are not fans of "loud" fireworks. Anytime we go to a show they insist of wearing their ear covers. They had them on well before the show started. At the time of this show, I knew another, new show was in the works for Epcot, and I was wondering if this would be our list time seeing Illuminations. I believe we'll still be able to see it when we go in September though. Either way, we enjoyed the show. The kids got a bit bored at different times, but the parents had a good time.

When we had finished, Sara made sure on the way out that we stopped by Mouse Gear to pick up our annual pass "perk," AP magnets. Then it was to the hotel and to bed. We had had a very full first day.

 

[Lyear]

Our next day was Sunday, and it was an Animal Kingdom day. It will likely be a day I will always remember. Looking ahead at the weather report before our trip, Sunday had always stood out. While the whole week called for colder temperatures (for Florida), it was all sunny or cloudy, except for Sunday. Sunday had been forecast as rain for at least 5 days in advance. As many times as we had gone to Disney, we had never experienced a full rainy day, where it rains from start to finish. This would be our first opportunity.

We started fairly early for having been out for fireworks the night before. Our plan had been to use this day to sleep in a bit, but we were still able to have breakfast in our room and be out the door before 9am. We opened up the door and realized that yes, the forecast was correct and it was raining. At this point it was a lighter rain, and we had no idea if it would continue raining all day, or perhaps let up at some point. We had come prepared with our ponchos and stroller cover.

Poor Makayla's poncho was a little too big for her, so we ended up tying a knot around the bottom so she wasn't tripping on it. It was cold and rainy, but we were in good spirits.

We made it to the bus stop and made our way over to AK. There weren't a lot of people in line as we entered. On the way through, we saw a cast member standing under a small rock cover, and we stopped and talked to her about the skull she had. CM's in AK always seem so knowledgeable.

We then had to spend some time at Luke's favorite bridge. It's become a tradition for us.

So a lesson in poor reading skills . For some reason, when I had gotten the email listed above, I didn't read the word "NOT," as in not valid for certain attractions, like Pandora. Somehow, my head immediately thought that since Frozen was a tier one attraction at Epcot, that the replacement would be a Tier one. So we happily went off to Pandora on this rainy morning. Again, as I type this I'm amazed at the fact that we actually did this . Our plan was to let Sara and Luke do Flight of Passage (which Luke was not 100% on board with) and Makayla and me do the Navi River. Luke was ok with trying Flight of Passage, but he was clearly a bit scared.

We find stroller parking in pandora and separate, and Makayla and I stroll up to the Navi fastpass entrance, but our fastpasses aren't working. The CM kindly explained to us that our first fastpass wasn't until later in the day. I explained out Magical email we had received, and she calmly let me know that the replacement fastpasses were not good in Pandora. I pulled out my phone in my attempt to prove this CM wrong, when sure enough, I read the word NOT for the first time . It was like I was in a Snickers commercial and wanted to get away. I apologized profusely to the cm, and she must have sensed it was sincere because she said we could go ahead and ride.

Right around this time, as I'm getting ready to stick my phone back in my pocket it starts ringing, and Sara starts explaining that they're not letting her and Luke on Pandora. The CM said it would be fine for all of us to go on Navi, so Sara and Luke make their way over to us, and Luke is very relieved. So after our crazy mix-up, we all got to ride Navi together. So at least the story has a happy ending.

Our first scheduled fastpass of the day, for real, was Everest. After Navi, we left Pandora and walked over towards Asia. We stopped on the way to get a Wilderness Explorer badge. The CM's seemed relieved that someone stopped to talk to them on this rainy day, and we all got to learn a lot of about Howler Monkeys (I think ). Poor Makayla, it's not even 10am, and her hair was already soaked.

Just three months before our trip to Disney, Luke had taken a big step in his thrill ride journey by going on some "big" roller coasters at our local amusement park, Hersheypark. After plenty of convincing by Sara, he agreed to go on a big coaster...and loved it. And following that, he couldn't get enough. We knew at that point that we had to try Everest on our trip here. Luke was a little nervous going in because he had never gone backwards in a coaster before.

We did a parent swap, and I got the first ride with Luke.

Trying to capture the moment....a little nervous.

and at the loading queue, still nervous...

You can't see his face below, but he was all-in. He LOVED it. It instantly became his favorite roller coaster, and retains that title to this day. Sara and Makayla had waited for us in the gift shop. Luke decided that he NEEDED an Expedition Everest shirt, and Makayla NEEDED a small stuffed cat animal that we have named Yeti-cat. After a quick purchase, it was Sara's turn on Everest.

 

[debpeduz]

Kudos for you and family making the most of a rainy day! It isn’t easy (been there) but you definitely still have fun!

 

[Lyear]

Luke and Sara got a seat at the front of their car (not the entire train), so you can actually see Luke in this photo.

He had a great time the second time too. He would have kept going over and over again, but our fastpasses were all used up.

Meanwhile, Makayla and I made our way over to Dinoland. She saw this photo op and really wanted to get her picture taken.

We took a turn on Triceratops Spin, then met back up with Sara and Luke. Sara thought that since Makayla is really into dinosaurs, she may enjoy going on the Dinosaur ride. I had my doubts, and was afraid that a turn on that ride might turn her off dinosaurs forever. Fortunately (maybe???) the line was too long as we had upcoming fastpasses for the Nemo show. We decided that we would do another Wilderness Explorer badge before Nemo. We also saw some rarer characters in Dinoland.

Duck Tales...Whoo Hoo

The Wilderness Explorer station was about matching the jaw bone with the skull of the different dinosaurs, and learning about the different shapes of teeth between carnivores and herbivores .

Once we got our badges (stickers), we made our way to the Nemo theater. We had a fastpass for this, and got there a couple minutes after the FP entrance had opened. As we entered, a CM suggested that we head down right along the stage. As we went to this area, another CM noted that the first row in front of the stage was open, and suggested we sit there as there was a special interaction with the shark that happened here. We decided to go for it.

Hard to see us in this picture, but a great pic of the people two rows behind us . Here was our view of the stage, the kids had a little trouble seeing over the stage from here.

It was hard to get a wide enough shot that does the view from our seats any justice.

Anyway, since we were in so early, it was a pretty long wait until the show started, so our kids were getting pretty antsy. They held it together pretty well. Eventually, the show began and we were right there as it was taking place in front of us. Great views from our seats. Eventually we get to the Bruce the shark song. Right around the time Bruce begins to chase Marlin and Dory, the "shark interaction" happens. And it turns out the "shark interaction" is the Bruce prop tilting off the stage, mouth open, towards the front row before turning at the last second and returning to stage. And wouldn't you know, Bruce came...right...at...Makayla .

I was sitting beside her, and turned her way. She initially had a look of shock and terror, before making the turn towards tears. I quickly gave her a hug and she calmed down pretty well. By the time the sharks had left the stage she was back to enjoying the show. Overall the show was great, and it was awesome to be close enough to see the expressions on the characters faces so clearly. As we exited, it was nearly time for our lunch reservation at Tusker House, and we headed over towards Africa.

 

[krisri18]

Luke and Sara got a seat at the front of their car (not the entire train), so you can actually see Luke in this photo.
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He had a great time the second time too. He would have kept going over and over again, but our fastpasses were all used up.

Meanwhile, Makayla and I made our way over to Dinoland. She saw this photo op and really wanted to get her picture taken.
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We took a turn on Triceratops Spin, then met back up with Sara and Luke. Sara thought that since Makayla is really into dinosaurs, she may enjoy going on the Dinosaur ride. I had my doubts, and was afraid that a turn on that ride might turn her off dinosaurs forever. Fortunately (maybe???) the line was too long as we had upcoming fastpasses for the Nemo show. We decided that we would do another Wilderness Explorer badge before Nemo. We also saw some rarer characters in Dinoland.

Duck Tales...Whoo Hoo
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The Wilderness Explorer station was about matching the jaw bone with the skull of the different dinosaurs, and learning about the different shapes of teeth between carnivores and herbivores .

View attachment 381878

Once we got our badges (stickers), we made our way to the Nemo theater. We had a fastpass for this, and got there a couple minutes after the FP entrance had opened. As we entered, a CM suggested that we head down right along the stage. As we went to this area, another CM noted that the first row in front of the stage was open, and suggested we sit there as there was a special interaction with the shark that happened here. We decided to go for it.

Hard to see us in this picture, but a great pic of the people two rows behind us . Here was our view of the stage, the kids had a little trouble seeing over the stage from here.

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It was hard to get a wide enough shot that does the view from our seats any justice.

Anyway, since we were in so early, it was a pretty long wait until the show started, so our kids were getting pretty antsy. They held it together pretty well. Eventually, the show began and we were right there as it was taking place in front of us. Great views from our seats. Eventually we get to the Bruce the shark song. Right around the time Bruce begins to chase Marlin and Dory, the "shark interaction" happens. And it turns out the "shark interaction" is the Bruce prop tilting off the stage, mouth open, towards the front row before turning at the last second and returning to stage. And wouldn't you know, Bruce came...right...at...Makayla .

I was sitting beside her, and turned her way. She initially had a look of shock and terror, before making the turn towards tears. I quickly gave her a hug and she calmed down pretty well. By the time the sharks had left the stage she was back to enjoying the show. Overall the show was great, and it was awesome to be close enough to see the expressions on the characters faces so clearly. As we exited, it was nearly time for our lunch reservation at Tusker House, and we headed over towards Africa.

Points to Makayla, I would have totally lost it if Bruce came at me. Sharks are a big nope nope nope for me!

 

[bee]

I'm enjoying your report and looking forward to more!

Somehow, my head immediately thought that since Frozen was a tier one attraction at Epcot, that the replacement would be a Tier one.

Frozen breaks down way too often for Disney to give out Tier 1 FPs for other parks!

 

[Lyear]

Kudos for you and family making the most of a rainy day! It isn’t easy (been there) but you definitely still have fun!

Certainly makes for good memories. thankfully we did have a fun time even with the rain. It's funny how this day has now become a standard in our house for rain. "It's raining, but at least it's not like Animal Kingdom."

Points to Makayla, I would have totally lost it if Bruce came at me. Sharks are a big nope nope nope for me!

I can only imagine how scary it would be to have a giant shark coming at you when you're four.

I'm enjoying your report and looking forward to more!



Frozen breaks down way too often for Disney to give out Tier 1 FPs for other parks!

Hahaha, very fair point. Thanks for following and for your kind words.

 

[Lyear]

I believe that it was on our walk from Nemo to Tusker House that the rain changed from being a light rain to a steady, soaking rain. We made our way to Tusker House and were happy to be able to get under their canopy and out of the rain. Stroller parking was particularly cramped as everyone was trying to get their stroller out of the rain and under the small part of the stroller section that was under cover.

We checked in for our meal and then waited to be called. We realized that CM's were taking guests inside the restaurant through a side entrance to keep them dry, so we decided to stash the ponchos with the stroller for the meal. It took a good bit of time before we were paged that our table was ready. We walked inside the restaurant and were walking past tables of guests eating on the way to our table.

As you might imagine from the title of this report, Makayla thinks characters are all super scary, but especially the ones where you can't see their actual faces. Usually a week in Disney will see Makayla go from wanting nothing to do with characters to being okay with them if she is being held or is right there with Sara or me. So it wasn't a huge surprise with this being the second day of the trip that she wasn't a fan of Mickey and his friends. Mickey happened to be greeting a family at a table as we were walking past, and Makayla completely lost it. She made a run to go back towards the exit of the restaurant. I went after her and managed to get her hand, but at this point she started screaming and threw herself down on the ground trying to get away. I tried to assure her that she didn't have to say hi to anyone, but she continued screaming as I picked her up and made our way to the table.

Once we got there, she refused to sit in her seat and insisted on hiding under the table . We eventually got her to sit in her chair by promising that she could sit the opposite corner of the table from Luke and that she wouldn't have to say hi to anyone. she continued to keep a close eye out for characters and would hide under the table when anyone came near our table.

We were told that it would be a few minutes until the characters arrived, so we took some time to grab food from the buffet. No photos of the food on this meal, but lots of character photos.

Before a character had made it to us, the restaurant did the jambo parade with the characters. Not surprisingly, our kids didn't want to participate.

Donald was first to arrive at our table. Makayla was of course hiding under it. Luke got his picture though, then Donald signed the autograph book.

Donald and Daisy had some type of playful interaction near our table. I can't remember exactly what it was about. As you can see, Makayla is not seated in her seat.

Daisy was next to arrive at our table.

More interaction

A few minutes later, Mickey stopped by. I remember him stooping down to wave at Makayla under the table, which she did NOT appreciate.

 

[Lyear]

Goofy was the final one to stop by.

for some reason, this is the only photo with Goofy that wasn't fully blurry.

Other than Makayla, we all had a great time. The food was really good, especially the dessert. We had also done the Rivers of Light package, so we got out tickets to that for later that evening. I think Makayla was relieved when we finally left.

We got back to the stroller and all put our ponchos on, and then this happened. I promise, no alcohol was consumed by her as part of our meal.

Luke is always up for a sneak bunny ears photobomb

We stayed in Africa and saw the Festival of the Lion King show. The one downside of the theater is that they made you take your ponchos off before entering, so it was a bit of a commotion as everyone had to wait to the last minute when they were under a roof to take their poncho off. We got in and seated, waiting for the show to start.

We had made sure before we left Tusker House to have our kids use the bathroom since we knew we were going to see FOTLK next. But as is normal for us, one of our kids decided they had to use the bathroom right as the show was starting. This time it was Makayla. Thankfully we were sitting on the end of an aisle so it wasn't too much of a commotion to throw our ponchos back on and run to the nearest bathroom.

When we made it back, the giant floats were just getting into place so we didn't miss too much. It had been several years since I last saw this show. It's always been one of my favorites but the timing never seemed to work out for us. It was good to get back and see it again. Makayla said she was a little scared during the scar song, with the fire dancer, but otherwise liked it.

We next made our way to the Safari. It was our fastpass time, but when we arrived, we saw they had shut down the standby line and everyone was going through the fastpass. Safari had become a walk on. Somehow, Sara didn't take any photos on the safari. Either that or I simply failed to upload them . I'm pretty sure it's the former. Either way, we didn't see too many animals. I think they were all seeking cover.

After the safari, Luke wanted to do "it's tough to be a bug." We figured that Makayla had been scared enough for the day, so we decided to split up. Sara took Luke to the show, and I took Makayla on the gorilla trek.

I obviously wasn't there, but Sara said overall "it's tough to be a bug" went well. She had forgotten how much fog they use during the show and it was a little more scary than even she remembered. She said Luke did well, but he seemed thankful when it was finished.

Makayla and I meanwhile went on a wet trail to see some animals. Very few animals were outside in the viewing areas, but shortly after starting we came to a small enclosure and were glad to be out of the rain.

After about 10 minutes, we went back outside and next up was the gorilla viewing area, which thankfully was also indoors.

The gorillas didn't seem to be enjoying the rain any more than we were. They were all hanging out under rocks.

Once in a while, a gorilla would run out into the open to grab some food, then run back under cover.

They had a wilderness explorer station at the exhibit, so we stopped to do that and got our badge.

We found two more wilderness explorer stations as well on the hike. When we came to this bridge, Makayla said she wanted to get her picture on it, but didn't get much of a smile out of her. At this point, I think her poor poncho had become just an accessory.

Once we had finished, I texted Sara who replied that Luke wanted to ride Dinosaur. Sara seemed intent on getting on that ride this year. We walked over towards Dinoland, and then Sara even convinced Makayla that she wanted to go on Dinosaur. My hesitancy and warnings about potential nightmares were disregarded, and soon I found myself in line with the rest of the family hearing all about a dinosaur that we were supposed to bring back in our time rover.

As we boarded and buckled, i was seated next to Makayla, who decided at this point she was scared. I reached over and put my arm around her, which was a good thing to do as a parent, but it meant that the small metal bar was now punching into my ribs at every bump. I never noticed before how many bumps are in this ride . The ride kept going, Makayla kept screaming, and the metal bar was hitting my ribs over and over again. I also noticed for the first time how much of this ride is in complete darkness.

Finally we came to the photo, and lets just say it was memorable

So I guess Luke decided to cringe and look away when he saw the giant Dina ready to eat us. Makayla meanwhile is in mid scream as I try to comfort her. At least other people in the car seemed to be having a good time.

I think it was starting here that I began covering Makayla's eyes during the scary parts. One thing that she did mention afterwards was seeing the dinosaur holding the tree up for us at the end so we could go under it.

Surprisingly, to me at least, when we exited, both kids said they liked the ride . I think they were more just thankful they survived, since neither one wanted to ride again. We did spend a LOT of time in the gift shop afterwards playing with some of the dino toys.

 

[Lyear]

When we were finally able to leave the gift shop, Luke and I did Primeval whirl two times as a walk on. He would have liked to go more, but two times was all the spinning I felt I could handle, and also Sara and Makayla were stuck waiting for us while we rode. We were coming up on our showtime for Rivers of Light. We decided to take a little bit of time to relax and get out of the rain by going to Restaurantosaurus. We were still full from eating lunch, but we were wet and cold. Sara and I each got a hot chocolate, and Luke and Makayla got a chocolate milk. In what was a prime eating time, Resto was pretty empty. Most people had clearly given up for the day.

We were seated in our favorite room in the restaurant, with the fossils on display, when Makayla suddenly spilled her chocolate milk all over herself. We got her wiped up, but she busted into tears over the ordeal. A CM must have thought she had gotten hurt, as he stopped cleaning to rush over and make sure everything was okay. We assured him it was fine, and he walked away...then showed up about a minute later with a cookie to give to Makayla and Luke. What a thoughtful act! Sara thankfully had the foresight to pack an extra change of clothes for the kids, so we got Makayla changed in the bathroom then got ready to head back out in the rain.

We made our way to the dining package entrance. When we had seen this show last year, the seating was almost entirely fully. On this rainy, Sunday evening, there may have been 30 people sitting in our section for the show. The show was just a beautiful as before, and honestly the raindrops created a really cool effect in the light patterns where the whole showcase seemed to be dancing. However, there's only so much you can enjoy anything when you are cold and wet, and we had hit our limit for this evening. After the show, Sara had had enough, and we noticed that Makayla was shivering, with her poncho now in tatters. They left for the hotel.

Luke was still amped up on his prior Everest run this morning and wanted to do it again. I agreed I would go on it again with him. It was nearly a walk on.

Luke loved it. It was my first time riding Everest in the dark, and not exploding out of tunnels into light, but rather the whole ride being dark, definitely heightened the thrill of it. Luke really wanted to go again, but unfortunately I felt my stomach was beginning to get into knots, and really didn't want to risk getting sick at the end of the day. Much to his dismay, we decided to head to the exit.

Right as we get to the tree of life, I had an idea. I pulled out my phone and saw that Flight of Passage was only a 30 minute wait . Probably will never see it that short again. I pitched the idea to Luke, but he didn't want to go on it. I guess he thought it was still a little scary. Looking back, I wish I had pushed a little harder. We continued towards the exit and got on the bus back to our hotel.

It felt SOOOOOOOOOOO good to get out of our wet clothes. We quickly got ready for bed and climbed under the covers in an attempt to warm up. Our long, soaking, rainy day had come to a close. It's not a day that will be remembered as a great day, but certainly a day I'll remember for a long time.