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

 

[MickeyCB]

A photo from another time which should give a clue to our dinner plans

I sulked a bit! But then checked in and took a few photos

Those shoes are literally insane!!! I just went to their website to check it out. They are amazing! (This coming from a woman who wears nothing but sneakers anymore).

 

[ELeigh]

Those shoes are literally insane!!! I just went to their website to check it out. They are amazing! (This coming from a woman who wears nothing but sneakers anymore).

Hum A Merry Tune

<p>Over the seven jewelled hills, beyond the seventh wall, dwell these cheeky, chunky, kids ankle boots. Featuring a printed Seven Dwarfs and woodland cottage upper, faux fur and green glitter detail, laces, side zip and printed Snow White and Grumpy cushioned tongue.</p> <ul> <li>Disney...

www.irregularchoice.com

Found some for you! I can’t do the heels but if those sneakers came in my size my account would be a little lighter right now

 

[MickeyCB]

Hum A Merry Tune

<p>Over the seven jewelled hills, beyond the seventh wall, dwell these cheeky, chunky, kids ankle boots. Featuring a printed Seven Dwarfs and woodland cottage upper, faux fur and green glitter detail, laces, side zip and printed Snow White and Grumpy cushioned tongue.</p> <ul> <li>Disney...

www.irregularchoice.com

Found some for you! I can’t do the heels but if those sneakers came in my size my account would be a little lighter right now

They are fun aren't they?!

 

[Oh bother!]

Those shoes are literally insane!!! I just went to their website to check it out. They are amazing! (This coming from a woman who wears nothing but sneakers anymore).

They have done a number of collections over the last couple of years so I have Alice heels, flashing Cheshire Cat wedges, Toy story and many others!

They did trainers in a few of the ranges including toy story and Mickey releases I think x

 

[k8einwdw]

Sorry for the likes spree - I've been binge-reading your trip report during a slow day at work. Looks like a wonderful trip so far, and your dresses are so cute!

 

[Oh bother!]

Sorry for the likes spree - I've been binge-reading your trip report during a slow day at work. Looks like a wonderful trip so far, and your dresses are so cute!

Thanks for joining in!

I do like a bit of Disney clothing and bounding

 

[Oh bother!]

6th December Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam

We decided to head over and find our spot.

When we arrived it was nice as everyone was sitting in front of the theatre but as soon as Art of Animation started a few people started to stand. There was some complaining from the group but ultimately it just forced everyone to stand.

Soon it was time for jingle bam but it seems all the photos are on Ms phone so I won’t be posting any today!

Overall I liked the snoap
And thought the show was ok. Probably wouldn’t to out of my way to see it again.

We decided to head out. We had a long day tomorrow and as we headed towards the end of the holiday the long days were catching up with us.

Our bus came quickly and we had a driver with a good sense of humour but more importantly he drove really fast! We were back in no time.
M went to get some tea in our refillable mugs then we called it a night and headed to bed!

 

[Oh bother!]

Saturday 7th December .... Our final visit to the Magic Kingdom

I like to finish our trips at the Magic Kingdom but as that wasn’t going to work this time I decided to squeeze in a couple of hours this morning.

On our way out we popped by reception. We hadn’t used as much cash at Universal or going offsite as expected so I wanted to pay some off the bill.

Whilst there we had a couple of small things to let them know. The vending machine near our room hadn’t been useable for a few days as someone had shoved pennies in and got them stuck.

Also when housekeeping changed the towels they hadn’t left a bath mat. We weren’t changing towels that day so I just wanted to leave a note to request the mat. I explained to reception that I couldn’t just leave a note in the room as they hadn’t supplied the normal notebook and pen.

There was then much conferring with the manager and disappearing “out back”. After several minutes, in which I was beginning to regret mentioning anything, he returned with a stack of notepads and asked how many I wanted. At this point I didn’t really want any, I has only mentioned it to illustrate receptions tome was being wasted by things that could be solved by keeping the pad in the room

I took one anyway but explained we were going straight to the park, so I still needed him to report it. When we got back later we now had 3 bath mats!!

Anyway... far more time spent at reception than was necessary we made our way to the bus stop.

After about 10mins the bus arrived but he asked us to wait whilst he tested the ramp. It wasn’t working so I half expected the bus to be taken out of service. Thankfully the bus driver took us anyway, perhaps because of the surprisingly small group waiting. It was 8.20 am and there was only us and a mum with her young daughter getting on.

Whilst we were on the bus we talked about when we would pack as tomorrow was our last full day

We decided to skip HWS in the morning. It was only really scheduled as contingency in case we hadn’t already done RoTR or SDD had been down due to rain etc. With both ticked off our list I cancelled our SDD FP for someone else to pick it up.

When we arrived at the park it was noticeable much warmer and brighter today which we were happy about!

Making sure we got the most out of our memory maker so stopped for a few pictures as we headed in

M headed to BTM to get a DAS return and I took a slow walk towards our first FP

I barely had time to take this picture and M arrived so we entered the queue.

Perhaps it was just my eyes not adjusting so quickly as it was bright out today but it seemed a little dark on the ride today vs earlier in the week.

No ride photo but honestly they are so rubbish anyway I am not worried about this one!

We went to the DAS for BTM which was excellent as always. As we exited we came across a photopass photographer we hadn’t seen before

On our way past we picked up a DAS for haunted mansion. M told me in no uncertain terms I needed to accept help today or I wouldn’t make it through an evening plans. I knew he was right but still don’t like admitting it!!

They said we could do straight on but I wanted to get a snack before I could take some pain relief first.

There’s only one option for us as a snack around breakfast time in the Magic Kingdom

We share the bun as it’s huge! I’m still amazed when I see small children having a whole one to themselves.

As we had a ton of snack credits left I also got the lefou brew. M had a little bit but wasn’t that keen. I thought it was ok but not really bothered if I don’t have it again. I was excited that it gave me a chance to use our metal re-usable straws though!

Gaston came out whilst we were eating. Even with his interactions on the way to his M&G spot you could tell he was going to be a good character to meet, although we didn’t this time.

It was time for our Mine train FP. M likes the ride but will not wait a long while for it. Just as well we had the FP as the line was snaking all the way round the ride. It does mean I’ve only ever seen the main queue once

Our ride photos turned up, all by themselves without me having to write to Disney!

Apparently M had something in his eye and wasn’t just bored!

 

[Oh bother!]

More Magic Kingdom....

When we finished our visit to the mine I wanted to go and get pictures at Pooh for “the gram”

I won’t bore you with them all but I took a few!! We decided not to ride as the wait was 45 minutes.

Our FP for buzz was opening up shortly so we walked that way instead. The FP queue was slow!

This was meant to be my annoyed face..... I shall avoid making it in the future!!

I picked up another buzz FP as it’s one of M’s favourites but did warn him we might not have time to use it.

We headed back to use my Haunted mansion DAS pass. The stand by was so long I was glad I got this earlier, I would have had to skip a last without it as the stop start of the queue would have been too much.

I was pretty disappointed with my last ride.... the “show” was the worst I’ve ever seen. How can you consider the chamber has no windows or doors when the door is wide open?! It wasn’t still being filled up either, all guests were already inside!

we noticed the most well behaved service dog getting into the doom buggy in front of us. He was very professional and not a bark or movement out of him the whole ride, this was without question a genuinely trained dog!

We had two stops thanks to hitch hiking ghosts as well.

Overall not the best but my ride photo showed up!

It was time for lunch at BoG

I quickly realised I should have mobile ordered but it was too late by then!

I prefer the breakfast approach of the CMs seating you to the free for all of find your own spot but we saw an open table near the Christmas tree and windows so took that.

We had enjoyed the french dip on our last trip so both ordered that again

I enjoyed a glass of fizz whilst M had a red wine.

We enjoyed lunch but the lunch time service is definitely on the noisy side!

We cancelled the buzz FP and switched it for a Safari at AK later that evening. It wouldn’t let me have the time I wanted at first but with some refreshing I found what I wanted.

We headed out doing some shopping on the way.

At the confectionary we switched in 3 QS meals for 9 snacks. That leaves us 5 QS and 27 snacks to go! We also had 8 table service but they were allocated to ADRs so fine.

We bused back to AKL, collected my shopping I’d sent back from HWS the day before and redeemed one more QS for snacks they didn’t have at MK.

next up pool time

 

[Oh bother!]

We decided to spend some of our rest time at the pool as it warmed up a lot this day.

We found a spot and decided to have a quick dip in the pool.... I’ll spare you any bikini photos, trust me it’s for the best!!

we weren’t in the pool very long when I spotted a waitress with a cocktail menu. We took a look and ordered from the pool.

Once our drinks arrived at our sun loungers I was very happy to get out the water and relax in the sun.

Frose from me....

It was melting very quick but given a little mix it was fine. Not the best frose I have ever had but perfect for sitting around the pool.

M had a beer

He was happy with his choice.

We spent an hour or so enjoying the sun before returning to the room.

We went via the flamingos....the area was a little sad looking

It seemed a little muddy

We had a good giraffe viewing opportunity when we got back to our room.... can’t seem to add the videos so just imagine a giraffe walking across some grass...

We spent an hour or so more resting and then got changed for our evening event...
After Hours at Animal Kingdom!

 

[Oh bother!]

December 7th continued..... the rest of the evening is going to take a lot of posts! I took sooooo many pictures!

The evening was still pleasantly warm when we headed out but light was starting to fade. So first thing we did when arriving at AK was get more photopass pictures!

We had to wait a while for these pictures as someone queue jumped and then the photographer needed to make some adjustments to the camera. She was a great CM though and talked to us whilst making her adjustments before taking much longer with us and getting different pictures.
We were told to show our elephant trucks (trunks up @Darstarr )

And then roar like lions

After our mini photo shoot (I have a lot of pictures from here!) we headed in. We asked where we would need to come back to for the After Hours check in and were told from in the park we could check in now and given direction to the kiosk so we went straight there for our wrist bands and event guide.

I can’t remember if we did the Safari or not I don’t seem to have any pictures if we did.

I do have more photopass pictures though as it seemed they wouldn’t be available during the after hours event.

I was happy to get the tree of life Christmas projections in behind us as well.

We watched a little of the tree awakening now but would see the different elements throughout the evening.
These are my photos from normal park hours.... you can see it’s still getting dark but the projections show beautifully. I really enjoyed this Christmas addition.

 

[Oh bother!]

The animal lanterns were also starting to light up and looked even more beautifully done than during the day

Based on where our next few photos are from perhaps we did do the Safari

A nice gentleman stopped to help us take this picture

Then it was time to get some pictures for Instagram.... which I still haven’t posted.

The walls around AK are full of such lovely details and words and phrases we would all do well to remember

When I finally found the “most beautiful” wall I realised it was behind a sign and line on floor for cast members only. I’ve seen people much closer than this but I didn’t want to break the rules.... so am standing as close to the line as I could!

It was coming up to our 6.20 ADR time so we headed that way.

Tonight was a new to us dinner at Tiffins. We’d given up Jiko for this so the big question would be was it worth it?

We checked in and had a short wait where I enjoyed looking at the details of the imagineers research trips for building AK.

Some of my favourite pieces...

Our table was ready and I was surprised to be led through Nomad Lounge. I hadn’t realised there was a section of seating on this side of the building and in al honesty the squeezing through a packed nomad lounge wasn’t the start to the signature meal I expected.

 

[Oh bother!]

Our server came by and was not the most friendly. She seemed even more put out to find we were using dining plan.

Once we ordered I took a look at some of the details around the room.

There were some further pieces I wanted to see and read about. Despite being encouraged by the CM seating is to look around I did not feel it was polite to look at some of the items whilst people were seated at the tables, I would have been very close and reading over them. So I left those bits and hoped I would get an opportunity if this tables finished before we did.

Dinner arrived ....

Surf and Turf and a glass of red wine for M

Lamb shank and a different glass of red wine for me

The food was good, mine was huge! M helped me finish it as there was too much if I was going to enjoy dessert and the included snacks at after hours!

Our waitress did not check on us.

When it came to ordering desserts we also ordered an extra drink. This was not a rushed dining experience and our wine was finished. Here the waitress was pretty rude with a very pointed “do you want to charge them to your magic band” comment. I found this very odd, if her intent was to remind us these were not included on DDP there were far more polite ways to do so!!

M ordered a beer, I think an exclusive for tiffins or AK although I do not re-call the details. I ordered sparkling wine of some sort

I managed to get some more pictures of the rooms details

We both had the dessert trio, mine without banana

 

[Oh bother!]

Ran out of room again ....

They give you this postcard when settling the bill as a keepsake

Overall we did enjoy the food at Tiffins but the service was not what I would expect or have experienced at other signature meals.

We both agreed that although it was nice we would likely not give up Jiko for Tiffins again.

When we left the restaurant the park was closed but after hours hadn’t officially started ( there was an hours gap on this evening).

We took some more photos and were already noticing the park was becoming very empty

We walked round through Asia

For some reason, despite being full of a very big meal, we thought it was time for an ice cream! As the snacks are included in the evening I can only imagine if was the draw of “free” Mickey bars that made us want one.

I only managed about half of mine.

The rivers of light floats where out and looking pretty, although we decided not to watch there was a 9pm showing for event guests

 

[Oh bother!]

These were taken at 9.05... 5 minutes into the event

As you can see it’s pretty empty!

Time for our first ride.... Everest.
Much like BTM I much prefer Everest in the dark.

We rode three time’s. The wait said between 5-10 minutes all evening. In reality it took as long as it took you to walk the queue

I decided three times was enough for now!
As we walked past we noticed Mickey and Minnie had a 5 minute wait so we hoped in line. This was largely for me to send pictures to my brother. My young nephew is currently obsessed with Mickey and we had sent some parade photos for him which he loved, so decided to send him some of us saying hello

We got some drinks and M some popcorn as we left.
Some places were serving drinks in to go cups, some bottles. Once we realised this we tried to pick places with bottles instead so we could put it away on rides

Popcorn was also in to go cups.

Next we went to FoP. The wait said 15 minutes but we walked through and straight into link chambers. As soon as link chambers were relatively full they closed the doors.

We took a walk around pandora, it was fabulous seeing it so empty!

Then I enjoyed a coconut bar. I’d never had one of these before but it was delicious and I’d definitely consider getting it as a snack again

We hadn’t visited Dino-o-Rama so far this trip so headed that way.

We went in search of our Dino.... again only a minute or two wait. No ride photo showed up... again!

We continued round enjoying all the space and the Christmas decorations

 

[Oh bother!]

The dance party was on but no one was participating!

We decided to ride Triceratops spin.

It wasn’t “flying” when we arrived and no one was in the queue. The CMs looked thrilled someone wanted to ride and practically begged us to stay on for another go but we had other plans.

We were really enjoying how empty the park was!

We decided to take another ride on Everest. It was now quiet enough that we could pick if we wanted front, back or a carriage to ourselves.

M did not understand my suggestion to cover our eyes!

We had a little rest after this and then went back to Pandora for the rest of the evening.

Walked on to FoP again.
Then we watched a little of the drummers.

We watched a few minutes then walked over to Navi. M doesn’t love this ride but I think it’s pretty, even if it’s a little short. I agree I wouldn’t queue extended time but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity for a walk on.

I didn’t feel at all guilty taking pictures as there was no one for 3 boats in front and at least 4-5 behind us

I took some more picture of the land

 

[Oh bother!]

I was done with rides for the evening, M said we could head out but I knew he really wanted to do FoP again and when else was he going to get to do so with no wait!

I convinced him to go and I would take a seat and rest by the exit.

A few minutes before midnight a CM came by the exit and checked if any of us where waiting for rider swap etc. So they could make sure we got on if we were waiting to. I thought this was good of them. M came back a minute or two later and we slowly walked towards the front of the park.

I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity for empty photos of the tree of life

We were about to take a selfie when a CM came by and offered to take the pictures. She also moved us slightly to the side to a spot she said was her favourite for night time pictures

 

[Swissmiss]

I really like a lot of your outdoor pictures with the different lighting.

 

[Oh bother!]

A completely empty park but a stroller is still in the picture

The bus stop was completely empty!

We had a great time! It was lovely to see the park so empty.

We got back to this though

We’d decided to take Sunday morning easy and do some packing so we headed to bed without an alarm set.

 

[Oh bother!]

I really like a lot of your outdoor pictures with the different lighting.

Thank you.
Turned out the night mode on the new I-phone was well worth it!!