Trip Report Moderate Crowds, Good Weather and a Hurricane – a September/24 trip report.

Moderate Crowds, Good Weather and a Hurricane – a September/24 trip report.



Intro

Hello again everyone. We’re back from Disney and I’m finally getting around to starting this trip report. Before I jump in, I’ll just warn you that this will probably be a bit drawn out. I have just started writing now, and have about 9 days to cover and things are really busy right now. I’ll get it done, but it probably won’t be quick (fortunately, Netflix has conditioned us now to waiting extremely long times for things (looking at you Stanger Things and Cobra Kai)). LOL.



Quick recap of the trip

If you didn’t read the constantly-changing pre-trip report, here’s a quick summary

Who – This time we’re a different party of 4 than normal. There’s my wife and I (Tammy and Graham), and our daughter with her husband (Steph and Calvin - @S&CVDZ ). Our son Liam didn’t make this trip with us this time.

When - Sept 19-28

Where – Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani village in a 1 bedroom

Tickets - 5 day with park hopper and waterparks (we bought this using the Canadian deal they had). We also did a Not-So-Scary on the 22nd.


OK, let’s jump in



Let’s start with some pre-trip stuff

This was our first “long” trip in about 6 years (Thanks Covid). Tammy and I had been back at WDW twice in the past year for a few days (September 2023 at Wilderness Lodge for two days before our 25th anniversary cruise, and April 2024 for three days (that I tacked on to the end of a work trip to Tampa).
Those trip reports are here if you want to catch up:

Trip Report - Surprise - We went to Disney again

Surprise…we went to Disney for a few days High Level Details Who - Tammy and I When - April 17th-20th Resort – Saratoga Springs - Studio Preamble So like the title says, we did a kind-of last minute trip to Disney in mid-April. I was going to be on a course in Tampa from April...

forums.wdwmagic.com

Trip Report - *COMPLETED* How Much Magic Can We Cram Into 2 Days???....Allllll the Magic (if you know you know)

As the quote goes “Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in”. Welcome to my first trip report in 6 years. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever write a trip report again, but here we are. Maybe I’ll do more of these in the future. If you’re interested in the pre-trip report, here’s the...

forums.wdwmagic.com

The lead-up to the trip had us making a lot of changes to the original plan (here’s the link to the pre-trip if you want to catch up):

Pre-Trip - The warmup is over - a September Pre-trip report

The warmup is over - a September Pre-trip report Some preamble stuff If you’ve read my last two mini trip reports, you know that we’ve been dipping our feet back into all things WDW (links to the past two mini-trip reports are here if you’re interested...

forums.wdwmagic.com

We finally nailed all the plans down a few days before we were schedule to leave.

One thing we did this year was pack a “park survival” case. Ok, confession time…getting older kind of sucks when it comes to Disney Parks. Tammy and I mentioned a few time during this trip that we have no idea how we used to do our trips back when we started in 2008. Back then we’d do 10 day park hoppers and were pretty much doing rope drop to the kiss good night almost every day (never mind the physical toll of that for a second, how crazy is it that 10 days with park hopper and waterparks back then cost less than 5 days now). With this trip we found that we needed more breaks than we used to…. Thus the “park survival” case. Things in this case included:

• Cooling towels (just wet them and they stay cool for hours)
• Neck fans (I was on the fence about these, I got them off Temu but wasn’t sure if we’d use them or not (spoiler – we really didn’t))
• Waterproof phone cases (these were great for the waterparks)
• Ponchos (didn’t want to spend $12/poncho when we can get similar quality ones for $3 at home)
• Spray water bottles (these are kind of cool – it’s a water bottle, but they also have a trigger built into them (like a water gun) that will spray a fine mist)
• I also found a really cool Haunted Mansion sling bag

We also had to bring our Magic Bands along.

I’ll point out how many charge ports you need for your trip now. We had 4 magic bands and 4 phones that needed to be charged every day, as well as tablets and headphones/earbuds (for the flights), so it would be possible to have 10-12 things that needed charged at any one time.



Tammy went and got her nails done the day before we left. When she told them she was going to Disney they added some Disney “flair” to the nails.

Tammy and Steph also brought our cat Lylla to my brother’s house on the 18th

That's it for the preamble stuff. More to come shortly.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued

After Toy Story I checked the MDE app and saw that ROTR had finally opened, so we decided to head into Galaxy’s Edge.

We stopped for a few pictures along the way.

notice my Boba Fett socks?

The line for RotR was under 60 minutes, so everyone was happy to wait. Steph and I are big Star Wars fans. Tammy thinks its “meh”, and Calvin somehow has not clue about Star Wars.

Most of the time in line was spent saying “I’m pretty sure the next room is the last one, and then we’ll be on the ride”. Finally we got to the pre-show room, and then headed out to the ride.

I decided to stand as close to the door of the first ship you get on for one purpose….this:

I did notice that they have changed the process in this room. When Tammy and I were here last April they let people hang around and take pictures. Now they rush you out and into the lines for the interrogation room. The one good thing about this is that you can get a picture of the room with no one else in it.

We had a great ride (Steph really liked it).

to be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued
After RotR we wandered Galaxy’s Edge a bit. We filled our popcorn bucket, and Steph and I got the Cold Brew Black Caf.

The popcorn looks neat but is just regular popcorn (in case you were wondering). Steph and I found the cold brew to be kind of bitter (we were expecting it to be a bit sweeter). Calvin also picked up two of the Galaxy Edge Coke bottles (do you remember when they used to cause issues if you tried to bring them on the plane with you).

After this we left Galaxy’s Edge and headed over to the Muppet Courtyard.

We hadn’t seen Muppet Vision 3-D in years, and we thought that kind of humor is something Calvin would like, so we headed in (and now that it’s been decided that MV3D will be going away soon, I’m glad we did). You know…as much as the attraction, as well as the Muppets, are dated (I remember loving them when I was a kid which is now more than 40 years ago), it really is a good show. I hope they can find somewhere in the park to keep at least some part of the attraction alive (outside of the retheme of RnR).

To be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued
Speaking of RnR, that was our next stop.

should I be insulted that before the photographer took this next one he asked if I was able to jump first?

A quick trip down Sunset Boulevard, and we were soon standing in G-Force records.

We decided to do this one as single riders (well 3 of us did. This was a one and done for Tammy years ago, so she sat it out). The line moved fairly quickly and we all enjoyed our rides (and again, I’m glad we rode this one too as it will be closing shortly).
Me:

Steph, who clearly is my daughter:

and Calvin, who's look can be best described as "I know this is fun, but I'm terrified"

LOL. We had fun.

To be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued
After RNR we headed back to Galaxy’s Edge as we had booked 12:30 reservations at Oga’s Cantina.

We don’t drink but wanted to check the place out (and they do have a good selection of non-alcoholic drinks).We checked in on the MDE app, and a few minutes we were called in.

Rex

I wish I had kept better notes on what we had ordered. The only one I remember was that I got the carbon freeze (the cool thing with that one is that they put a cube of dry ice at the bottom of the glass so the drink bubbles and “smokes” the entire time.

All the drinks we got were good, and the theming is amazing. The only complaint I have is that there aren’t enough sitting areas (most of the tables are standing). Still, I fully recommend checking the place out.

After finishing our drinks we headed out of Galaxy’s Edge again. However in keeping with the Star Wars theme, we headed over to Star Tours (wouldn’t it have made sense to expand Galaxy’s Edge to include this ride in it?)

…and then headed to the backlot express for a Wookie Cookie (which was very good – Tammy and I split one because they are huge).

to be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued

After finishing our cookie we headed back down Sunset Blvd to Tower of Terror (this is another one-and-done for Tammy so she didn’t ride).

Calvin decided he wanted to do RnR again, so he went there while Steph and I did ToT.

It’s such a fun ride.

After ToT we stopped at the Joffrey’s cart outside the gift shop, and Steph got one of the Tower of Terror Cookies, and I got a Frozen in Fear, and then we stopped at Rosie’s All American Cafe, where Calvin got the Fantasmic Peanut Butter tart.

With snacks out of the way, we decided to call it a day for HS. On the way out we hopped on the Skyliner. Steph has never been on the Skyliner before, so she was happy to get to ride it.

to be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued
We decided to head back to AKL and go to the pool for a few hours (and I found the hidden Timone today).

The pool is so great.

While we were at the pool, Tammy and I started talking about what to do for dinner tonight. We didn’t have anything booked and really weren’t sure what to do. We didn’t feel like going off site, and really didn’t want to go too far tonight. I decided to check the MDE app to see what was available….hmmmm….Boma is free….Tammy and I loved it when we were there last time….Yes Steph and Calvin are picky eaters, but we’re sure they could find something they would enjoy….OK Boma it is.

After a few hours swimming he headed back to the room to get changed for dinner, then headed over to Jambo House for dinner.

Boma was great.

One interesting that that happened during dinner was that we saw the people from one of the YouTube Channels we watch (Addicted to the Mouse). They were with their family and some friends so we didn’t want to interrupt them, but it was fun seeing someone that we watch regularly.

To be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued

With dinner out of the way we decided to head back to EPCOT for the evening.

We really didn’t have a plan, and didn’t really have anything we wanted to do (other than Steph wanting to get the shaved ice from Japan), but we headed to EPCOT anyways.

We rode Spaceship Earth, went back to Club Cool, and then walked around world showcase where Steph got her Kakigori with the sweet milk topping.

I tried it. It was OK.

After that we called it a night.

Tomorrow is our Animal Kingdom day.

Oh yeah….the hurricane is still in the news. They are saying we could get the effects of it on the 26th. I guess we’ll see.

End of September 24th

 

[Tiki Traveler]

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Your wife’s dress is so cool! And the matching clothes are neat too! I don’t know how many other vacations where you can wear such fun, themed clothes!

 

[fractal]

Nice job on the photos!

 

[gwhb75]

Nice job on the photos!

Thank you

 

[gwhb75]

Your wife’s dress is so cool! And the matching clothes are neat too! I don’t know how many other vacations where you can wear such fun, themed clothes!

I really liked that dress too. The matching outfits were fun, and Steph had a lot of fun planning then.

 

[rshell68]

Yikes the guy next to Calvin looks like he's going to spew

 

[gwhb75]

View attachment 830156

Yikes the guy next to Calvin looks like he's going to spew

Lol

 

[gwhb75]

September 25th – Animal Kingdom (and hurricane eve)

Today was our Animal Kingdom day. Interesting tidbit of info… I almost forgot to schedule an Animal Kingdom day (which is odd since AK is my favourite park). If it wasn’t for Calvin reviewing my planned park day schedule a few weeks before our trip and pointing out that I didn’t have AK on the schedule, we wouldn’t have had it scheduled.

But before we get into the day, a quick hurricane update…Disney announced this morning that Typhoon Lagoon, the golf courses and Disney Springs would be closed tomorrow out of an abundance of caution. The 4 theme parks would remain open but hours could be modified as conditions require.

But back to today…. You would think for a person who loves planning that I would have been more on the ball…After in room coffee/breakfast we hopped in the car and headed over to AK for the early entrance…only thing is that I didn’t check the schedules carefully and missed that AK’s early entrance time was 30 minutes earlier than I thought it was. Bah.

After parking,

and getting some pics done at the entrance (notice the matching outfits….Steph strikes again)

we made our way in.

Tammy not knowing I stopped for a pic again:

The plan was to hit Pandora first to get on Flight of Passage.

Had I scheduled things correctly we would have been in line before the ride opened. Instead, the ride was already open when we got there. Fortunately we were still pretty early so the standby line was only about 35 minutes. I really like the amount of detail there is in the standby line.

Before long we were in the preshow area, and then on to the ride.

Calvin hadn’t been on this before, and he really enjoyed it.

to be contined

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 25 continued
After FoP we stopped for some pics.

btw....my footwear....so I have a really messed up left foot. I've had surgery twice on it (it's a defect thing - my foot doesn't stretch properly. When I was growing, my foot wouldn't stretch, the arch would just get higher. The surgeries were to release the tension and flatten the arch (the two times I had the surgery the left foot was 2 sizes shorter than the right foot. After the surgery it was 1/2 size larger). I really should have surgery one last time but it's a hassle and there is no guarantee it won't make things worse). Anyways... I had found running shoes with a wider base that I thought would help, but after a few days with those my feet were killing me. The only shoes that were comfortable were my Blundstones. At least I don't wear sports-type shorts so they don't look too odd LOL.

With pics out of the way, we decided to have 2nd breakfast so we headed to Pongu Pongu Snacks. Tammy got the Pongu Lumpia,

I got Marshall’s favorite stuffed pancake sandwich,

and we shared a night blossom.

Everything was good (I do think the sandwich could use a bit more of the guava jelly).

Calvin wanted to get something from Starbucks, so we left Pandora and headed there for him to get an iced coffee.

To be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 25th continued
We were going to do the safari next, but no one felt like waiting in line for it (it was around 45 minutes), so we decided to pivot and head over to Asia to ride Everest.

We did the standby line the first time so that Tammy would ride (truthfully, she’s happy not to ride at all, but will go on as long as someone rides with her). The standby line was short (about 15 minutes), so that was ride 1 out of the way.

Then 3 of us decided we wanted to ride again, so we took advantage of the single rider line (that had no one in it)

and rode it again…and again….and again…don’t ask me how I managed to handle 4 rides in a row. I’m at the age where I normally get motion sickness if I don’t get a long enough break between rides (Liam can attest to that. I went with him to a theme park in Canada (Canada’s Wonderland) back in June (school is still in session in June in our area so the park was empty). I did not get enough of a break between rides and ended up with my head in a garbage can at one point LOL).

Somehow I came out unscathed this time.

To be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 25th continued

After Everest we made over to the Theatre in the Wild to see the Finding Nemo stage show.

The show is so good. It’s weird to think that the movie doesn’t have any songs in it as the songs in the stage show just fit so well.

After Nemo we headed over to Dinosaur for what we thought was, once again (see my previous trip report), our last ride on Dinosaur (until Disney announced a few weeks ago the Dinosaur won’t be closing until 2026, so we may get one more ride through time).

Dinosaur Is fun, but really is showing it’s age. Regardless we had fun.

After Dinosaur we felt like a snack (and Steph had a snack on her “snack list” that was only available in AK), so we headed over to Dino-Bite Snacks.

Steph got the Dig Ice Cream sandwich (it’s an ice cream sandwich with candy bones and “dirt” (Oreo crumbs) on top. Tammy and I split a regular ice cream sandwich and an iced coffee. Calvin went with a Mickey Pretzel (I forgot to take a picture).

All the snacks were good.

to be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 25th continued
Sadly (for me at least since I love AK), everyone else decided they were done with AK for the day so we ended up leaving.

We headed back to AKL and hung around community hall for a few minutes (and I found the hidden Timone again) and the pool

(we took the internal shuttle from Kidani to Jambo to use their pool again)

While we were there our thoughts turned to dinner. I checked the MDE app and saw that 50’s had a reservation available for around 5:30. We all love it there (well 3 of us do. Calvin hasn’t been before), so it was an easy sell. With 50’s booked, we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios a bit early and see if we could squeeze in a ride on Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway.

again with the matching...

The standby line was about 45 minutes but since we didn’t have anything else planned we decided to give it a shot.

The line moved relatively quickly, and before long we were boarding the train. This is a really good ride, and the song is definitely an “ear worm” type song. I still catch myself humming it sometimes (and Tammy will sometime start singing it out of the blue).

Two more statues

to be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 25th continued

After MMRR we headed over to 50’s for our reservation.

The place was really busy so we had to wait a few minutes in the lounge before our table was ready. We had a really great server (sadly I don’t’ remember her name) from Downer’s Grove, IL. So here is a “it really is a small world” story (which will help explain why I don't remember her name but remember where she was from). The company I work for bought a company a few years ago…..in Downer’s Grove, IL (it’s a small town about 30 minutes outside of Chicago). I’m the Director of Accounting for North America, so I’m in Downers Grove 4-5 times a year. What are the chances.

For dinner, Calvin and Tammy got the Mom’s sampler,

and Steph and I got the meatloaf

As I said, our server was excellent. She had a very dry/kind of sarcastic sense of humor. Calvin is not only a big eater, but also a fast eater. A few minutes after our meals had been dropped off Calvin was done. Our server came by to see how we were enjoying our meals, and when she saw that Calvin was done already, looked at him and said “who hurt you”. LOL. We left a cast compliment for her.

We all were made members of the “Clean Plate Club”.

After dinner we decided to call it a day. It was starting to get a bit windy and drizzly, and we weren’t prepared to get wet.

We will be playing things be ear tomorrow. We’ve hit all 4 parks now, so we’re going to hit some “must re-do’s”. We’ll try to get back on to Guardians again, but who knows how the day will go.

End of Sept 25th.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Sept 25th continued

After Everest we made over to the Theatre in the Wild to see the Finding Nemo stage show.
View attachment 833496

View attachment 833499View attachment 833500View attachment 833501View attachment 833502

The show is so good. It’s weird to think that the movie doesn’t have any songs in it as the songs in the stage show just fit so well.

After Nemo we headed over to Dinosaur for what we thought was, once again (see my previous trip report), our last ride on Dinosaur (until Disney announced a few weeks ago the Dinosaur won’t be closing until 2026, so we may get one more ride through time).
View attachment 833503
View attachment 833504
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Dinosaur Is fun, but really is showing it’s age. Regardless we had fun.

After Dinosaur we felt like a snack (and Steph had a snack on her “snack list” that was only available in AK), so we headed over to Dino-Bite Snacks.
View attachment 833505
Steph got the Dig Ice Cream sandwich (it’s an ice cream sandwich with candy bones and “dirt” (Oreo crumbs) on top. Tammy and split a regular ice cream sandwich and an iced coffee. Calvin went with a Mickey Pretzel (I forgot to take a picture).
View attachment 833506
All the snacks were good.

to be continued

Not a big secret that I'm a big fan of AK so I enjoyed reading about your day.

The more pictures I saw of your shirts the more I liked them. Steph did good!

I understand the foot issue. I've got my own issues and sometimes you have to throw fashion out the window and do what works.

Love the pics of the Finding Nemo show! I haven't seen it sine it has been redone but it's on my list!