Trip Report Let in snoap, let it snoap, let in snoap *Completed*

Soooooo we landed back in a grey, cold London a week ago. It’s hardly stopped raining since and I miss Disney! Time to start my trip report
It’s my first attempt so go easy on me
I now realise what detailed notes some must make to share such fabulous reports with us all..... I did not make fab notes so let’s see how this goes!

My pre-trip is here: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-trip-reports-made-me-do-it.961639/#post-8956121


But the key bits summarised are:
Who: Me and M
Why: I wanted to do a Disney Christmas, but not Christmas week! We also celebrated 15 years together during the holiday.
When: 29th November- 9th December
Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge

A preview pic to break up the text lol

 

[Oh bother!]

Awww what a bummer we didn’t meet!

I’ll do a better job on pre-trip reports next time so hopefully easier to say hello!
Looks like you had a good trip though!

 

[Nunu]

Welcome! And I promise to say hello should we find ourselves on the same monorail again

I'd love that!

 

[Loco_driver]

I’ll do a better job on pre-trip reports next time so hopefully easier to say hello!
Looks like you had a good trip though!

I’d followed you pre trip too. I meant to send you a PM when we arrived, and it just totally slipped my mind!

 

[Oh bother!]

I’d followed you pre trip too. I meant to send you a PM when we arrived, and it just totally slipped my mind!

No worries I wasn’t massively clear about which parks we would be in! I won’t be back until 2021 but hopefully better luck next time lol

 

[Loco_driver]

No worries I wasn’t massively clear about which parks we would be in! I won’t be back until 2021 but hopefully better luck next time lol

I’m sure I’ll be there in 2021!

 

[Oh bother!]

Another November 29th post... check in!

I promise there will be more photos from this point on!

we checked in quickly and were given a partial savanna view.

We did notice a few less animals this time.
I‘m still not sure if it was our schedule or because of the on going works at AKL.
Our room was on 4th floor but because of the third floor being refurbished we had to go up to the 5th, along and back down again. It was a minor inconvenience but did mean the lifts were busy!!!

I am pretty sure we had a refurbished room as I think the bathroom was much nicer then our 2018 visit and a few lion king touches seem to have found their way to the room

And the all important toiletries

At this point we had been up for a looooong while but if we are ever going to adjust to the time we know we have to stay up. So we spent an hour or so unpacking, I found AKL either doesn’t have enough storage for long trips or I travel with too many clothes. We did a quick change, collected our mugs (one Mickey, one with buzz and other characters as I don’t like the Christmas design) and we were off to Hollywood Studios for our first view of Toy Story Land!

 

[amjt660]

Following along
My wife and daughter like your disneybpark lounge fly backpack ( I did not know they were called this) - rose gold yes?

Max

 

[Oh bother!]

Following along
My wife and daughter like your disneybpark lounge fly backpack ( I did not know they were called this) - rose gold yes?

Max

Thanks for following along and to your wife and daughter, it is the rose gold loungefly. Some very sneaky friends bought me in from DLR in March for my birthday.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm in and looking forward to more. The room at the AKL looks really nice.

 

[Nunu]

Another November 29th post... check in!

I promise there will be more photos from this point on!

we checked in quickly and were given a partial savanna view.
View attachment 434550
We did notice a few less animals this time.
I‘m still not sure if it was our schedule or because of the on going works at AKL.
Our room was on 4th floor but because of the third floor being refurbished we had to go up to the 5th, along and back down again. It was a minor inconvenience but did mean the lifts were busy!!!

I am pretty sure we had a refurbished room as I think the bathroom was much nicer then our 2018 visit and a few lion king touches seem to have found their way to the room

View attachment 434554View attachment 434556View attachment 434557
And the all important toiletries
View attachment 434558

At this point we had been up for a looooong while but if we are ever going to adjust to the time we know we have to stay up. So we spent an hour or so unpacking, I found AKL either doesn’t have enough storage for long trips or I travel with too many clothes. We did a quick change, collected our mugs (one Mickey, one with buzz and other characters as I don’t like the Christmas design) and we were off to Hollywood Studios for our first view of Toy Story Land!

Thanks for the room photos!

Very nice bathroom, I see a magnifying mirror in there, too.
@riverside and I, like them.

 

[Oh bother!]

I'm in and looking forward to more. The room at the AKL looks really nice.

Great to have you following!
The room definitely seemed nicer than our prior stay!

 

[Oh bother!]

Thanks for the room photos!

Very nice bathroom, I see a magnifying mirror in there, too.
@riverside and I, like them.

That mirror was well used! There was no where else in the room that wasn’t too dark or shadowy to do make up.... first world problem I know

 

[Oh bother!]

November 29th - Hollywood Studios
So I’ve waffled on for best part of two pages and we haven’t made it to a park yet!

Now seems like a good time to set expectations.... all my photos are either iPhone or photopass, although we did seem to avoid the talented Callum the quality won’t live up to some of our great photographers on here!

So with that we entered a park for the first time this trip. Our magic bands worked and new tickets linked easily.

The park seemed fairly busy but pretty much as expected on Friday, the day after thanksgiving.

I took a bad pic of the Christmas decorations

Then we headed to TSL.

Now you are probably thinking why TSL not Star Wars? Well firstly I don’t understand a thing about Star Wars but more of a factor in the decision was we had two night time opportunities to visit HWS, the other would be the day after RoTR opened. I really wanted to see TSL all lit up at night and ride SDD with the go, go, go all lighting up properly so that was the priority.

We stopped for a few pictures

I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t buy a “toy sized” cookie like this to actually eat

We waited about 20 mins for A.S.S it was cute and we enjoyed it, especially with the Christmas music. Not sure I would wait much longer for it but for that length of wait it was fun.

More photos on our way back across the land

Our SDD FP, the only way I made for this evening was now opening up so we headed that way.
I would love to be adding a ride photo but it hasn’t shown up This first missing photo would be a sign of things to come!

By now we were getting very tired and a bit peckish so we headed back out to head to Disney Springs for dinner.

 

[Oh bother!]

Still November 29th

on the way out of the park we stopped at guest relations.
I’ve been wondering how to explain this but decided to keep it simple.... I have some complex orthopaedic issues. You can’t really see anything wrong and I wear heels as they hurt no less than slippers but it often leaves me in a lot of pain. So much so I had to declare my medication when I arrived in the US as it’s controlled.
So we got a DAS pass. I was already limping by this point and although I was determined not to use it unless I was struggling M was right to tell me I would need it!

So with that done (and hopefully explained ok here ) we jumped on the bus to springs.

Our destination was Ms requested “repeat” QS from our last visit... d-lux.

As we are utilising dining plan ( UK free dining offer!) we could chose alcoholic or specialist drinks so we combined and went for a boozy milkshake each. I believe these were Godiva and strawberry

The milkshake was yummy but a meal on its own!
Full and completely exhausted we headed back to AKL for the night.

 

[MickeyCB]

Following and looking forward to the rest of your TR!

 

[Oh bother!]

Saturday 30th November

As expected we woke up fairly early having not fully adjusted to the time difference, but that worked as we were headed to Animal Kingdom for EMH.

I had to live chat with my mobile phone provider for a bit as they messed up my data roaming options, but that was seemingly solved fairly quickly and we were able to head off.

We generally had pretty good luck with buses from AKL ( not always the case for returns!) and this was no exception as the bus pulled in as we arrived.

As with everyone else we headed to Pandora.

As usual the FoP queue was forming on end path towards Africa. We joined in and waited about 30-40 mins before we were assigned our link chambers.

Flight completed we still had a little EMHs time left.

We’ve found on previous trips that the early Safari’s have been our best ones so we headed that way and quickly we were headed on to the reserve.

Now for a some notgreat safari pictures of animals you've likely all seen before
Seems I didn’t take too many picture this go round.

 

[Oh bother!]

Following and looking forward to the rest of your TR!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[Oh bother!]

November 30th ... Time for breakfast!

I decided I was finally awake enough to eatso joined a ridiculously long queue for Kusafari bakery.

I dispatched M to get a bottle of water from the little cart as the queue was so long and we were thirsty.

I expressly said charge it, do not use snack credits. I can’t get my head round a boring water for a snack rather than a massive ice cream!

So he comes back and hands me the receipt and you want to guess what the CM has done? Yep snack credit used

I think I must of been hangry because I sent him back to her to get it sorted .... 10 mins later a manager had been called, a snack credit put back on our account and our bottle of water gifted by Mickey and I’d got to the front of the queue and ordered this....

Now this is worth a snack credit! And it was warm

We sat in harambe and people watched whilst we shared our very sweet breakfast treat. What honestly amazed me was the amount of people, including children, who seemed to have one of these to themselves! How can you eat so much cinnamon roll? No judgement here, I really do want to know how I don’t have to share but avoid a) a sugar coma or b) the cinnamon coming back to say hi to the yeti.....

Especially as it was time for our first FP at Everest.

Kevin was out on the way. We say Kevin a few times this trip and I hope Disney keep her around

I’d love to share our picture but it didn’t show up . Disney are currently searching for more or less a whole 10days of ride photos for me

We made use of the empty Rivers of Light area for some pictures... I needed enough insta content to get me through no wdw in 2020 (we will be going to Paris though)

The park was starting to get busy by this time.
We decided to walk the trails. We really enjoy the “non-ride” attractions at AK and feel focusing on ride and ride count only misses so much of what the park brings.

so with that we set off in search of Tigers.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Just a couple of things.....

How in the world do your get issues solved quickly with your mobile provider? I'm always on the phone for over an hour and things still aren't resolved!

That Hippo is soooo sweet looking, I've only seen them partially in the water - great pic

Love the Baloo skirt!!!!

Agree with you on the non rides at AK. I love just walking around that park

 

[Oh bother!]

Just a couple of things.....

How in the world do your get issues solved quickly with your mobile provider? I'm always on the phone for over an hour and things still aren't resolved!

That Hippo is soooo sweet looking, I've only seen them partially in the water - great pic

Love the Baloo skirt!!!!

Agree with you on the non rides at AK. I love just walking around that park

Thank you. I had the skirt commission from a lovely lady here that makes fab Disney fashion. It’s so unusual to see good jungle book fabrics!