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.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

I've been following your trip report which I am very much enjoying. I got so excited when I saw this pic. The two women in the bottom right corner (sorry I don't know how to circle them) are people I follow on social media. The daughter is autistic and theirs is a very inspirational story.
Looking forward to reading the rest of your report!

 

[gwhb75]

View attachment 833648
I've been following your trip report which I am very much enjoying. I got so excited when I saw this pic. The two women in the bottom right corner (sorry I don't know how to circle them) are people I follow on social media. The daughter is autistic and theirs is a very inspirational story.
Looking forward to reading the rest of your report!

Yes, Stephanie saw them and mentioned that she watches them too.

 

[gwhb75]

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!

Yes, Steph did a good job keeping us all coordinated for this trip.

The foot issue has always been a thing for me. I was just happy that the Blundstone's actually made my foot feel way less pain than normal (although each morning started with me asking Tammy "do these look OK with these shorts" LOL).

 

[Bullseye1967]

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

I am not usually a fan of the matchy look, but it works for you guys. Are those from RSVLTS? I think I need one. (But no matching one for the wife).

We left a cast compliment for her.

Kuddos to you! Not enough people recognize great CM's !

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 26 – Hurricane Day

So the much anticipated day is here. There was a lot of uncertainty during the week as to the potential path that hurricane Helene was going to take, but as we got closer to today the path became clearer. The hurricane took a turn to the north over the past day, so the Disney area was not going to take a direct hit. We were still expected to feel the effects of the storm in some way during the day, but we’d see. We are happy we switched our flights from Tampa to Orlando, as it looks like Tampa is going to get hit was a big storm surge (they closed the Tampa airport last night and do not know when it will reopen)

I did have a cousin from Scotland who was at Disney during hurricane Matthew in 2016. They closed everything during that storm as Disney did take a direct hit, but normal operations pretty much resumed in full after one day.

As I mentioned earlier, we had already done all the “main” thing we wanted to do, so today was going to be “greatest-hits” day, along with a few smaller attractions that we hadn’t done yet. I was up early to check the weather/park status, and nothing had changed from the prior day (i.e. Disney Springs, Typhoon Lagoon, and the golf courses were closed, but everything else was open). After I turned the coffee on I hopped on the MDE app and scored an afternoon boarding group for Guardians again. After coffee in the room we hopped in the car and headed over to Magic Kingdom. The park wasn’t overly busy when we got there, possible because we were getting some light rain

We parked the car, boarded the tram, and were soon at the ticket and transportation center.

We opted to take the ferry across the 7 seas lagoon as it had just arrived and had started unloading.

Just after we got on the ferry it started to rain a bit heavier, so I quickly distributed the ponchos we had brought.

We were waiting for the ferry to start moving, but it didn’t…so we waited…and waited….and suddenly the skies just opened up. I’m not exaggerating when I say your couldn’t see a thing ahead of us. These pictures were take over the span of about 5 minutes
Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

and finally, pic 4

Finally, the ferry started moving, and soon we were inside the park

to be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 26 continued
Man, those ponchos were a good investment. After the rain band went thought the ferry started moving and soon we were inside a very wet Magic Kingdom.

After we were through the park gates Steph and Calvin split up from us (they wanted to go back on TRON),

while Tammy and I wanted to have a slightly slower start to the day so we headed over to Gaston’s Tavern.

Gaston’s had one thing on my snack list that Tammy and I wanted to try (the crème brulle croissant).

I guess a lot of people had the same idea as Gaston’s was quite busy. I got in line to order while Tammy went and found a seat. Finally it was my time to order…”1 crème brulee croissant please”….I guess the weather had delayed things a bit, as they told me they hadn’t arrived yet, and they weren’t sure when they would….well that sucks. I decided instead of ordering anything I’d go check what Tammy wanted to do. She decided that a cinnamon roll would be an OK substitute, so I got back in line…and just as I was getting up to order they started bringing out trays of crème brulee croissants…..YAY….Tammy and I split one of the croissants and each had a coffee.

The croissant definitely lived up to the hype. So good.

Steph and Calvin also had some snacks while they were off on their own. Steph had the cream-cheese stuffed pretzel,

and Calvin had the Jalapeno Popper Dog from the Lunching Pad.

to be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 26 continued
After leaving Gaston’s, Tammy and I headed over to Tomorrowland to ride the Peoplemover one more time.

I love the Peoplemover. I think I could ride it all day. I should mention that the skies started to clear as we rode. By the time we were done the sun was starting to come out from behind the clouds.

As we got off the Peoplemover Tammy and I stopped for a picture with Stich (the line was really short),

and then rode Buzz Lightyear Spaceranger Spin

to be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 26 continued
After that we met up with Calvin and Steph at the front of the castle. Our plan was to walk down Main St and then head over to EPCOT…but plans changed a little bit…Why walk when you get take on of those old cars up front. It was fun.

We got to the front of the park and decided that rather than going back to the car we’d just take the monorail over to EPCOT (we were now in our window for Guardians). A quick monorail ride and we were there.

We quickly made our way over to Guardians and made our way in. Guardians is such a great coaster.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the song….Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.

to be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 26 continued
After Guardians we headed over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends. We haven’t been on this in years.

It was OK….Kind of “meh” really. We also spent some time in the Seas pavilion. The aquariums are really interesting to watch.

I did have a weird thing happen while we were there though…. We were in a bit of a crowded area, and a small kid walked into me and fell….I guess the kid’s Mom decided this was 100% my fault and started going off on me, and telling everyone she was with that I had just knocked her kid down. Oh boy. I just walked away, but not before she decided to yell across the room that I was an “A**hole”.

After that unfortunate incident we made our way over to Journey of Water.

It’s a neat little attraction.

After playing with some H2O we headed over to Connections Café. We tried one of the Baumkuchen cakes (it’s a cake inspired by trees (I.e. when you cut into the cake it looks like it has rings).

It was pretty good.

to be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 26 continued
After this we called it a day for the parks.

Goodbye EPCOT

We got back to the MK parking lot, picked up our car, and drover over to Disney Springs. One thing I haven't mentioned in this report yet is how many Cybertrucks we have seen this trip. Here is one parked beside us at MK

and when we pulled into the parking garage at Disney Springs...

Tammy and I didn’t have reservations tonight, and weren’t sure what we wanted to do. We once again split up, with Tammy and I going to Blaze.

We were on the fence about going here since they opened a Blaze pretty close to us, but there is still the nostalgia appeal of Blaze at Disney. It never disappoints.

Steph and Calvin had reservations at Planet Hollywood (It was the place they went on the first day of their honeymoon last year, so they wanted to go back again).

They enjoyed their meal.

Tammy and I stopped by the Ganachery to pick up some chocolates for my brother and sister-in-law who were looking after our cat while we were gone.

We had two excellent CM's help us in there, so we left another cast compliment for them on the MDE app.

After this we met up with Steph and Calvin and headed to World of Disney. We just kind of wandered a bit and then called it a day.

So, for the Orlando area, the hurricane was basically a non-event. We had some rain and a few periods of high wind, but nothing too bad. I fell terrible for the people in the north of Florida (and the other States) who took the full brunt of Hurricane Helene.

Hard to believe but tomorrow is our last day.

End of Sept 26

 

[gwhb75]

I am not usually a fan of the matchy look, but it works for you guys. Are those from RSVLTS? I think I need one. (But no matching one for the wife).

Kuddos to you! Not enough people recognize great CM's !

Steph says that she found the shirts at Walmart.

The app makes it so easy to do cast compliments now that there really isn't a reason not to do them now.

 

[Tiggertoo56]

Sept 26 – Hurricane Day

So the much anticipated day is here. There was a lot of uncertainty during the week as to the potential path that hurricane Helene was going to take, but as we got closer to today the path became clearer. The hurricane took a turn to the north over the past day, so the Disney area was not going to take a direct hit. We were still expected to feel the effects of the storm in some way during the day, but we’d see. We are happy we switched our flights from Tampa to Orlando, as it looks like Tampa is going to get hit was a big storm surge (they closed the Tampa airport last night and do not know when it will reopen)

I did have a cousin from Scotland who was at Disney during hurricane Matthew in 2016. They closed everything during that storm as Disney did take a direct hit, but normal operations pretty much resumed in full after one day.

As I mentioned earlier, we had already done all the “main” thing we wanted to do, so today was going to be “greatest-hits” day, along with a few smaller attractions that we hadn’t done yet. I was up early to check the weather/park status, and nothing had changed from the prior day (i.e. Disney Springs, Typhoon Lagoon, and the golf courses were closed, but everything else was open). After I turned the coffee on I hopped on the MDE app and scored an afternoon boarding group for Guardians again. After coffee in the room we hopped in the car and headed over to Magic Kingdom. The park wasn’t overly busy when we got there, possible because we were getting some light rain

We parked the car, boarded the tram, and were soon at the ticket and transportation center.
View attachment 836543View attachment 836544

We opted to take the ferry across the 7 seas lagoon as it had just arrived and had started unloading.

Just after we got on the ferry it started to rain a bit heavier, so I quickly distributed the ponchos we had brought.
View attachment 836547View attachment 836546
We were waiting for the ferry to start moving, but it didn’t…so we waited…and waited….and suddenly the skies just opened up. I’m not exaggerating when I say your couldn’t see a thing ahead of us. These pictures were take over the span of about 5 minutes
Pic 1
View attachment 836545

Pic 2
View attachment 836548

Pic 3
View attachment 836549


and finally, pic 4
View attachment 836561

Finally, the ferry started moving, and soon we were inside the park

View attachment 836562

View attachment 836563

to be continued.

We arrived that day from the UK! Luckily it didn't affect our travels and the rain etc had passed through before we arrived.