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!]

I’m not too excited for Rat. When we rode in DLP I found it made me a little queasy

Although there was some park time left we decided we were getting a bit tired and had a long day planned for tomorrow. We headed out for a pretty uneventful journey home.

It was a little odd seeing so much of Epcot under construction. At one point I had to stop and really think about where I was as all I could see were walls and not the landscape i re-called. I do like the entrance being clear of the “tombstones” and do appreciate updates are needed. If I was a first time visitor or only had one day in the parks Epcot certainly isn’t showing it’s best self at the moment and wouldn’t be my first choice to visit.

We still had a couple more chances to experience the park before we left Florida though!

 

[Loco_driver]

Overall I liked the fireworks but what is with that kid? Annoying is probably the best description! It’s no illumiNations, but I was happy to see it the once.

I really don’t understand the child narrator either. A show meant to tug at the heartstrings of fans of the original Epcot Center, and there’s a creepy kid narrator? It’s just so out of place! I did like the show outside of that. Really liked the kites!

 

[Oh bother!]

I really don’t understand the child narrator either. A show meant to tug at the heartstrings of fans of the original Epcot Center, and there’s a creepy kid narrator? It’s just so out of place! I did like the show outside of that. Really liked the kites!

The kites were a nice touch, something a little differently

I just hope the narration for the permanent show takes a very different approach!

 

[Oh bother!]

Wednesday December 4th

Today was our full Magic Kingdom day.

I originally struggled with lunch time reservations for BoG, especially with some changes to our flight home that moved it 4hrs earlier than anticipated and made my BoG “last meal” to difficult.

So I booked a breakfast just in case!

We were on the bus around 7.30

Whilst it was still quiet at the parks I took the opportunity to take some photos with the steam trains, using it as my Casey Jr backdrop!

Then we made away towards BoG

Our reservation was at8.30 before the park opened so reservation details were checked to allow us back.

We ordered our breakfast from a CM not using the screens. They then showed us to a table rather than finding one ourselves.

I asked to be seated in the West Wing and they were able to do this

 

[Oh bother!]

I didn’t take too long for our food to arrive.

M had feast a la Gaston and a beer

I choose the Belles prefere

I had a Bellini and we had our plate of pastries

We enjoyed everything we had but agreed we wouldn’t pay oop for this!

I admired the tree on the way out

We were round about park opening as we headed out. I wanted a few more Dumbo pictures before it go to busy so we headed that way

Then it was time to take a flight on Dumbo Air

We stopped off in story book circus area to use the bathrooms and grab more photos then headed to the Barn stormer as it was a walk on. It’s too short to justify more than a few minutes wait for us!

The little mermaid was also a walk on so we took the opportunity to go under the sea

As we walked back through Fantasyland we found Cinderella’s mice were out greeting today as the Fairy Godmother was engaged elsewhere

 

[Oh bother!]

We left if with us meeting the mice

Then it was time for a haunted mansion FP.
You’ll have to imagine a ride photo.... this is one of the many that they can’t find

After HM it was time for my once a trip ride on it’s a small world. M hates this but I always tell him you have to do it once as it’s a Disney classic!
We had asked for a das return on our to HM. They’d offered for us just to go straight through but we needed to get the FP used. Instead of issuing out to my band I was just given the CMs name and told when I was ready to give his name to the CM on the FP entrance.

We were quickly on with minimal standing on slopes, which is what I was hoping to avoid here.

M suitably tortured by it’s a small being stuck in his head we head straight across to our next FP at Peter Pan.

We don’t ride this often as for us it is never worth the hour plus queues it typical gets and often we wouldn’t use a FP for it but knowing we would have ridden many of our favourites during the party I decided to use one FP this trip for it.

I did try and take photos but I’ll spare you are they are just a blur!

We walked over to the jungle cruise, the area seemed busy and the park overall was beginning to feel very crowded.

When we got there it was a 2 hour wait!! There was no way I was going to be able to do that, the stop starting of queues particularly on rides like this which isn’t a constant consistent load with small movement,gives my ankle too much chance to cease up. So we decided this was a valid time to use my DAS pass.

A bit of an aside but I didn’t feel completely comfortable using my DAS throughout the trip. I’m still accepting I need some help sometimes and at times needed to be reminded how exhausted I was feeling was from the extra effort not just busy days!

All the wait times had jumped significantly so we decided to give me a little time to sit and rest and that a dole whip would help that.

We planned to share as we do with many of the snacks as it means we can try more things. M wanted what I think was a Christmas special with frozen hot chocolate, cherry and pistachio whip

It was good but I kinda wish we just went with the OG

We rested and people watched for a bit until it was time for our final FP at Big Thunder Mountain. I didn’t take any pictures.

Once we tapped in I had a look for any additional FP that were starting soon. There wasn’t much available but we managed to get Philamagic starting in about 10 mins so picked that and that’s where we headed straight after our wildest ride in the wilderness.

We enjoyed the show, rest and aircon.

I checked the wait times and everything was getting fairly high. This was a non-party day with evening EMH so I was expecting it to be busy. It was also my only chance to see Festival of Fantasy and HEA this trip, which is why we picked MK despite the higher crowds.

Our Jingle Cruise return time was opening up so we headed that way. When we got there the FP line was huge and I was worried how much help the DAS would actually be.
The like moves fairly slowly and I was glad I had rested a little already. We enjoyed looking for the Christmas touches in the queue

 

[Oh bother!]

Not our boat..

r skipper was ready for us

We got really backed up at the end. Our poor skipper was trying really hard to keep up a commentary but she was running out of material and the group of passengers weren’t making it easy for her, many just ignoring her jokes etc. When we had exhausted all her Disney jokes, let alone jungle cruise ones, she looked worried but luckily we started to move around then!

As the park was so crowded I wanted to go find a good spot for the parade, which was at 2 not 3 today.

 

[Oh bother!]

We got a much better spot than I was expecting just 20 mins before the parade but mainly thanks to CMs starting to extend where you could wait as the parade got closer.

after the band passed and whilst we were waiting for the parade we decided that before we left the park we were going to want a little snack. M wanted savoury so I suggested using a snack credit for some casey’s loaded fries as we were right opposite.

I’d had no luck getting mobile ordering to work but tried again and it finally worked

So we could enjoy the parade knowing we had a yummy snack coming up.

 

[Oh bother!]

My favourite float is on her way!

You might notice a little issue....

No flames!! At all! I was very disappointed, this is my parade highlight both at wdw and DLP.

I didn’t get a photo of the Mad Hatter but we had a nice little interaction with him during the parade.
He headed over to me and confidently stopped and said “why my dear you look like an elephant” and just as the words left his mouth you saw a slight flicker of horror on how I could interpret that! He quickly followed with an “ in the best possible way”. I thanked him for noticing before he continued on.

Something I enjoyed less both just before and during the parade was late comers trying to push their children forward. We were sat on the very edge, there was no room in front of us and as we were sat we weren’t blocking anyone. We did get climbed on a bit and we also had a couple of CMs thinking the Child that kept moving to far into the road was mine and I just wasn’t paying attention. Everytime they looked at me to “help” I explained they weren’t mine. it wax a bit annoying and a bit painful when one of them landed on my foot

Parade over we clicked “I’m here” on our mobile order and battled across to caseys.

So many people were feeding these guys bread chips and hot dogs

 

[Oh bother!]

I ran out of photo space again!

Our plan was to head out after the parade to take a little break
We didn’t have room for more treats but these looked good

I have no notes on the journey back so the bus trip must have been pretty uneventful.

We took a couple of hours to have a rest in the room. M got me some ice for my foot (I take big ziplock bags with me that we then fill and use as make shift ice packs).

We had a 6.25 reservation at Boma. So we headed down a few minute before.
We were promptly seated and greeted by our server. He was great, the best one we had so far this trip. Very attentive but not in the way or intereferring.

M got a run runner

I think I had a glass of wine.

We started with soup and what I think was a casserole

I didn’t pictures of many of the plates

And the dessert picture confirms I must have had wine.

As usual everything at Boma was good! I’m not a massive fan of buffets normally but enjoy the food here enough to do it.

As we left there was a photopass photographer by the Christmas tree so we took the chance to get some pictures.

and I got a picture of the back of my shirt that @sheriffwoody had kindly shipped to the resort for me to avoid the high international postage.

We headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the evening.

 

[Oh bother!]

When we got back to Magic Kingdom the main plan was a spot for HEA.

It was fairly busy this evening

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired off seeing the castle lit up like this

I only took a few pictures as I wanted to enjoy the display. I knew this would be the only time I saw HEA this trip thanks to the Christmas parties

Now maybe I’m getting old and grouchy but there was a young couple in front of us. All through the show they were kissing and canoodling.... other than this being to much PDA they kept moving!! I am what you may describe as vertically challenged so I find my little viewing spot, normally through peoples heads, shoulders, upper arms if they are very tall and that is how I see when everyone’s taller than me. I can’t do this if they keep moving

Plus HEA is on, you paid a lot to see this. Watch it and kiss him when there’s not more exciting fire works to see!

Anyway grumpy old lady rant over we headed towards Pirates as I had managed to pick up a FP. The park was still open, EMH wouldn't be starting for another half hour or so.
Our ride photo for this is one they managed to find..... I’ll leave it to you if this one justified my efforts more than the SDD

I promise we like the ride and weren’t really bored!!

Next up it was thunder mountain, I always enjoy it more in the dark

Once we were finished we were officially in EMH.
haunted mansion was our next stop. No photopass picture to share from here! But I did stop for more pictures in my haunted mansion outfit

 

[Oh bother!]

This and loads more pictures for my instagram page taken we headed towards Fantasyland.
I hadn’t ridden the carrousel yet this trip and as it was late EMH there was no wait other than the previous cycle finishing so we headed there next

Trying to tick off the attractions we hadn’t done yet this trip and that are typically quieter with less young families in the park meant our it was time to bounce in a hunny pot.

Although I do worry about the amount of germs that must be all over it I do love the details in the queue

We had only a couple of minutes to wait before we were off on our adventures with Pooh

We browsed the gift shop on the way out. My absolute favourite non-princess character is Eeyore so this made me much happier than even a wall of Mickeys would

I really wanted to take this guy home but I also knew we had Christmas presents to take back for nieces and nephews as well as 2 new loungeflys and various other bits so space in the suitcases was going to at a premium!

After saying goodbye to the Eeyore I couldn’t re-home M wanted to ride Buzz.

He loves this ride but we do both agree we never do as well here with the fixed guns as we do in Paris where they come off the stand

We got our buzz photos and the little video as you tap your band for these.

 

[Oh bother!]

As buzz was a walk on and M gets competitive with beating his own score (mine aren’t worth competing with!) we did Buzz twice more

We decided we were pretty close to the end of EMH and there was nothing else this side of the park we wanted to do or re-do so we decided to take a slow walk out and stop for pictures and photopass opportunities as we went.

sort of caught the kiss goodnight

We had been admiring the decorations on the way into Jambo all week and were finally in a good spot on the bus to take a picture

It had been a long day but we were pleased we did pretty much everything we wanted. I was happy to have seen HEA again but did realise the value to me of the dessert party we had done for our first showing of it in 2018.

It was pretty much straight to bed when we got back to the room.

Next up.... our second day at Universal

 

[Oh bother!]

5th December... Universal Day 2

Ahead of the trip we considered if to change today’s plans and try to do RoTR opening day. Ultimately we decided to keep our plans as they were so it was a cookie from MVMCP for breakfast and an Uber to Universal.

Our first and main goal today was ride Hagrids as the only remaining new to us experience to tick off.

The parks opened at 9am. We were a little later than I wanted to be but through security at 9.05. We than pretty much power walked (something I paid for later!) to Islands of Adventure and straight to Hogsmead to get in the queue.

When we arrived the wait time showed “extended delays”. We could see they were cycling empty ride vehicles so decided to jump in line anyway.

As a big potter fan I really wanted to do this but I am also not great on rollercoasters I don’t know so was a little apprehensive. I’d read about the drop when following along on the ride updates on this site, that was my main fear!

After about 5-10 minutes we saw vehicles with guests in and the queue started to move so I was pleased with our decision to wait.

Some queue pictures

By 10.15 we were off the ride!
I was pretty happy with hour and 10 mins to walk all the way through city walk, to Hogsmead, queue and ride time!

I LOVED this ride. It was just intense enough to have a thrill element but not so scary I cannot do it. Spoiler alert for upcoming RoTR reviews but this was by far my favourite new (to me) ride of the trip. My only regret is that we didn’t do it on day 1 so I could ride again today. I feel like I would have enjoyed it even more a second time when I was relaxed knowing it wasn’t too scary.

Forbidden Journey was a 10 minute wait so that was our next stop

I felt a little queasy getting off today. This does push my limits for motion sickness and I think it was my position as “last” on the bench that did it. I’ll try and avoid that position again.

We walked through the Jurassic Park area, which was trying to out do Epcot on amount of construction walls, and M spotted the Raptor encounter was on. It was one of our longest waits of the day at 25 minutes but I’d done my only must do of the day so agreed to wait.

We saw some great encounters and people who really screamed. I’m not sure either of us are jumpy enough but we got some good pictures still

Having survived our meet we headed to Spider-Man.

Then M wanted to do the Hulk as he missed it on our prior visit

 

[Oh bother!]

Whilst we in the Superhero island area a lot of people commented on Ms t-shirt, a lot of them clearly big Marvel fans sad about Stan Lee’s passing

I sat on the bench and caught up with my trip report notes whilst waiting for M.
I also started to realise I had made a wardrobe error! Originally I had planned on wearing a skirt with this t-shirt but having got so cold at universal earlier in the week I was paranoid about not enjoying the day if I was chilly so switched to jeans. BIG mistake, it may not have been that hot by Florida standards but it was by U.K. in December standards so I was melting!

M came back really quickly, as single rider does tend to move fast on Hulk. I asked if he wanted to go again and he practically ran back to the queue as though I might change my mind. It’s probably his favourite Universal ride.

We walked through to see when the next Grinchmas show would be. It was a while off and today was not planned as a full day at Universal so we decided not to wait.
I took a few photos of the area

We covered what we wanted to at IoA so boarded the London bound train.

It was about 11.30 and we had only eaten a left over cookie so it was time for breakfast

I was pleased to see the dragon had found her flames, she wasn’t fire breathing earlier in the week

We went over to the dark side and explored Knockturm Alley

The ice cream clearly made us more hungry as thoughts turned to lunch.
We agreed there wasn’t much more we want to do and that we had to find time for Disney Springs as we had gifts to buy we hadn’t seen anywhere else. So we agreed to hit the last couple of bits and then head out.

Transformers was on the way to front of park so we did that next

 

[Swissmiss]

My DD and I make the same comment about Buzz when we did it last week. We’ll probably skip it at WDW from now on.

 

[Oh bother!]

My DD and I make the same comment about Buzz when we did it last week. We’ll probably skip it at WDW from now on.

I really hope that if they refurb they make the change!

 

[Oh bother!]

5th December continued....

After our final ride at Universal we headed towards the exit. M wanted to grab a beer so I left him in the queue and went to watch the toys from the Christmas parade who had just come out with one float and were putting on a little show.

I saw a lot of it before M came over with his beer. Apparently they were having trouble with it and with payments so this was in the end whatever the Universal equivalent of one Mickey’ is.

Obligatory Universal globe selfie on the way out

We got an Uber to Disney Springs.

I really wanted something from candy cauldron but knew I had to eat a proper lunch first so passed up on the sweet treats for now

We went to the Marvel shop to buy a Christmas gift for M’s nephew which we hadn’t been able to find in any other shop. We didn’t realise that it made loads of noise until he opened it at Christmas .... whoops!

We talk a walk through

And decided to try a new to use QS ....
Polite Pig

Ordering took a while as the CM was training

But the food was sooooo worth it!

We shared the sides, the potato salad was good but the mac and cheese was excellent! I wish I could have more right now.

The portions were generous and I soon realised I wouldn’t be going back to candy cauldron!

After lunch we spent some time shopping in World of Disney and picked up more Christmas bits.

Then it was back to The Dress Shop to find my friends dress. The dresses had moved since our visits a few days earlier and were now to the left of the store rather than all the way in the back.

They didn’t have the sizeI wanted. A lovely CM was trying so hard to help but didn’t really know what she was doing. I had to show her how the online search worked as she wasn’t searching correct sizes. Once we figured that out I was told there was a small stock at the Poly and at HWS. We went through a long explanation from the CM on how to get to the poly by checking what the front of the bus said and getting on the one marked for my destination
Honestly she was so trying to help but was stating the obvious!

We decided to try HWS tomorrow so headed towards a bus back to AKL

 

[sheriffwoody]

I'm in way late, but enjoying this! You have the most adorable outfits And I'm SO GLAD you're Haunted Mansion shirt made it there safely.

I did overall find the show a little awkward and if this is the improved version I’m pretty glad I missed the first attempt!

Personally, I think it was a downgrade The old one was so cheesy, but still better than the new one.

 

[Oh bother!]

I'm in way late, but enjoying this! You have the most adorable outfits And I'm SO GLAD you're Haunted Mansion shirt made it there safely.


Personally, I think it was a downgrade The old one was so cheesy, but still better than the new one.

Thank you!
My t-shirt is super comfy and I’m adding the foolish mortal patch now I’m home. No iron in the AKL room to do it there!

It is definitely a downgrade from the old show (was it flights of wonder?). I didn’t see the first attempt of the up show, but understand they have been tweaking it. I think they could do with changing it a lot more!!