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 22 continued
There was one more party-specific snack I wanted to try to find (the Tombstone tart), so I left Tammy on her own for a few minutes while I headed over to the cart in Liberty Square where they were selling it.
Just as I was buying the tart I got a picture from Tammy on Messenger. One of the Country Bears saw her sitting on her own so he came and sat beside her (he was being flirty LOL).

Too funny. A bit later in the night they came out again and he looked over at Tammy and waived at her LOL.

The tart was OK btw.

Steph eventually joined us right before the parade started. As I mentioned earlier, Calvin is not a sit-and-relax guy, so he decided he’d try to go on a few more rides during the parade. This parade is really the only one I care to watch (I guess I’d watch the Christmas one if we ever get to attend a MVMCP), and it did not disappoint. The music is so catchy.

I decided I just wanted to sit and enjoy the parade. so no pictures I'm afraid. It was very enjoyable though.

After the last float passed us we decided to call it a night. However…. Since we were in Frontierland where the parade started, when we got to the front of the park the parade was just getting started LOL. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but they leave gaps in the parade now so people can exit the park if they want (the parade wraps around the front entrance and I don’t recall being able to get out during the parade in the past. Now they time it out and there are CMs with those glowing wands like what tarmac employees have at airports that will wave groups through when the parade has a gap in it). We got to see a few more floats before we were waived through.

A quick monorail ride back to the ticket and transportation center, and before long we were back in our room.
Tomorrow was going to be our Hollywood Studios day, but I re-jigged things when I remembered we’d be really late tonight. So tomorrow is going to be a pool/resort/Disney Springs Day instead.

End of Sept 22

 

[cgersic]

Love the matching lobster shorts! I haven't been to one of the water parks in a really long time, I should give it a shot again. Looks like the party was a real success!!

 

[erstwo]

We woke up at a more reasonable time (8ish). We did watch the news for a few minutes, and of course the main topic of interest is this hurricane forming in the Gulf of Mexico that could be headed our way. I’ve heard Disney is the safest place to be during a hurricane (I don’t agree…I think Canada would be the safest place to be….but I guess they mean the safest place in the Orlando area…LOL). I don’t really get bothered by things like this, so we’ll just play it all by ear.

Okay - I laughed out loud at this. You are correct - probably safer in Canada!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Love your matching t shirts for Halloween. Did you get them from Etsy? So pleased you enjoyed the Halloween night as we are hoping to get tickets for it next year because we haven’t done it before.

 

[gwhb75]

Love the matching lobster shorts! I haven't been to one of the water parks in a really long time, I should give it a shot again. Looks like the party was a real success!!

Steph had a lot of fun planning outfits. It wasn't abnormal to get a message from her when she was at the mall asking "what size are you again"...I knew another matching outfit was being purchased.

 

[gwhb75]

Love your matching t shirts for Halloween. Did you get them from Etsy? So pleased you enjoyed the Halloween night as we are hoping to get tickets for it next year because we haven’t done it before.

We got the matching shirts on Temu. I fully recommend the Hallowe'en party. The parade alone is worth it.

 

[gwhb75]

Okay - I laughed out loud at this. You are correct - probably safer in Canada!

100% safer to be thousands of miles away LOL

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 23 – our last “laid back” day

As mentioned at the end of the Sept 22nd day, the original plan was to do Hollywood Studios today, but I called an audible and decided that today would be a good day to take our final “rest day”. We were back into the room well after midnight after the Not-So-Scary, and I didn’t feel like inflicting pain on the rest of the group by making everyone rope drop the next morning, so “rest day” it is.

The day started with coffee and a light breakfast in the room. Back when we were planning, Steph and Calvin had wanted to go to Everglazed one morning, so this morning was the best day to do this. So, after coffee, we hopped in the car and made our way over to Disney Springs. We found a spot in the Orange garage, and made our way into the old “west side” of what used to be Downtown Disney.

We were fairly early, so DS was pretty empty.

It didn’t take us long to find Everglazed (it’s down by the theatre/Splitsville), and we made our way in.

Everything looked good here. We decided to try a few things:

• A breakfast sandwich on a donut (Calvin)
  
• A churro donut (Tammy and I split)
• 
• The Icon donuts (Steph)
• 
  
  
• A Purple Reign Nitro Cold Brew (Tammy), a Reese’s Cold Brew (Calvin and I both got this one), and a Cookies and Cream cold brew (Steph).
  

We found a small table in their outdoor patio area, and enjoyed our baked goods.

To be continued

 

[gwhb75]

September 23 continued

After finishing 2nd breakfast, we headed over to the Coke Store as Calvin wanted to get a can with his name on it (and he got one for his brother too).

Tammy and I just wandered a bit, and I did buy the limited edition Oreo Coke Zero (I was curious what it would be like. The aftertaste really tasted like Oreo – so weird).

With that out of the way, we decided we’d head back to Animal Kingdom Lodge and hit the pool for a few hours. The nice thing about AKL is that there are two pools to choose from, and we decided to try out the Jambo House pool this time. Both pools are really nice, so you really can’t go wrong.

We made a quick stop at the Jambo gift shop. One thing that Tammy had been looking at was a Loungefly bag. There were a few that she was going between (she was really hoping to find a Dumbo one but we didn’t find any), but ended up going with the DVC bag (she said the colour would match more of her outfits). She really liked it.

With that purchase out of the way, we made our way to the pool.

It’s a really nice pool area. We hung around there for a few hours before heading back to the room to get changed before our next appointment….

To be continued...

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 23 Continued

As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, Tammy and I had done a DVC update thing, and had signed up to do a tour of the Fort Wilderness DVC cabins, so we made our way over to Fort Wilderness.

We parked at the check-in building, and then took the internal bus over to Pioneer Hall.

We checked in at the DVC kiosk, and were soon escorted to the model cabins.

The cabins are…OK…

I like the woodsy location, and the points for a week are really low, but the design isn’t the best. They are meant for up to 6 people, but 4 people are in the master bedroom (a normal bed and bunkbeds). The other 2 would be in the living room on a roll-out couch. I could see trying this once as a group of 2 or 4, but I can’t see doing 6 adults.

After the tour we wandered the area around Pioneer Hall for a bit. We went to the Trading Post and the old Trails End (I miss the old Trails End – I wish they had kept it). It was a relaxing time.

To be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 23 continued
We then made our way back to Disney Springs (this time to the marketplace side).

Steph and Calvin went off on their own, while Tammy and I headed over to the Lego store. Liam is a big fan of Lego and asked us to send him pictures of what was available as well as the prices. We spent some time wandering around snapping pics for him. He decided not to buy anything…however…we did pick up a few things for him:

• A mug
• 
  
  
• A Christmas wreath/centre piece – that’s more for us, but we’ll have Liam build it for us
• 
  
  
• We also got him the limited edition Pharrell Williams Lego set for Christmas (don’t worry, he isn’t on WDWMagic and doesn’t read my trip reports).
• 
  
  
• A car set as his “sorry you didn’t come with us” consolation gift.
• 

Man, Lego has come a long way since I was a kid. Some of these sets look amazing (When I have a bit more time on my hands I’m seriously considering doing the Titanic set).

To be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 23 continued
After the Lego store we decided we should eat something (it was around 4pm). One place we had all wanted to eat at (at least I thought we did) was Earl of Sandwich, so we headed there.

Earl is a favourite of ours, and it’s very reasonably priced. There really wasn’t a line when we got there which was nice, so we quickly placed out orders. Calvin ordered the buffalo chicken wrap,

Tammy got the Holiday sandwich,

and I ordered the limited time pulled pork sandwich.

But, as I hinted at when I said I thought we all wanted to eat here, when it came time for Steph to order we heard “I don’t really want anything”…..uh oh….someone’s going to be hangry….

Regardless, the sandwiches were delicious.

After three of us finished eating we headed back towards the car.

I kept trying to offer Steph dining options, but she wasn’t having it….hmmmm….then I had an idea…. We had been watching a lot of Disney stuff on YouTube before the trip, and one thing we thought looked fun was “Disney Bus Roulette” where you go to the bus stop at Disney Springs and get on the first bus that comes and then eat at that resort. I proposed a modified version of that where we would get in the car and drive to the first resort sign we saw…At least that’s how the idea started….then it became “either Poly or Wilderness Lodge”….We love both resorts so we left it up to Steph, and she picked Wilderness Lodge.

To be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 23 continued
We arrive at Wilderness Lodge and head into the lobby.

This lobby and Jambo are the two best on site in my opinion.

For food, our first thought was that we would go to Roaring Fork (the QS at Wilderness Lodge)

, then I remembered Geyser Point. Steph was happy with that choice so we headed down to Bay Lake.

Geyser Point is walk-up only, so we weren’t sure how long we would need to wait….the answer was 0 minutes. A table had just cleared up when we got there which was great. Geyser Point is amazing. It has a very relaxed vibe.

The view rom our table

to be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 23 continued
Not long after we were seated out waiter came by. We quickly perused the menu and ordered. Steph ordered the steak sandwich and mac and cheese bites

, Calvin ordered the Bison Burger (I guess I didn't take a picture), and Tammy and I split the charcuterie flatbread (so I guess Earl of Sandwich was just the appetizer????)

. Not too long after we ordered the food arrived…..and so did this duck

….I guess the duck is used to getting fed because it was not scared of us at all. He eventually left empty beaked… all the food was really good, and I would fully recommend Geyser Point.

After the mains we ordered the campfire mousse to share. It looked really neat and was very tasty.

After finishing our meal we hung around the area a bit. Around 9pm the fireworks started so we watched them, and also played some foosball (and I don’t know what has happened to me, but Steph beat me in every game of foosball we played this trip….Getting old sucks).

After the fireworks we headed back to the lobby and just sat in there for a few minutes enjoying the ambience (well 3 of us did. As I mentioned before, Calvin is not a sit-and-relax kind of guy, so he took the elevator up to the top floor of the lobby so he could see it from up high).

After that we called it a night.

You know, for an unplanned day we really had a great time. Tomorrow we are off to Hollywood Studios.

End of Sept 23

 

[erstwo]

That has to be one of the best ‘rest days’ ever!

 

[gwhb75]

That has to be one of the best ‘rest days’ ever!

It was very enjoyable

 

[fractal]

Great rest day!

Yeah, those cabins look a bit tight for 6 adults.

 

[gwhb75]

Great rest day!

Yeah, those cabins look a bit tight for 6 adults.

They really did. I'd say 4 adults max.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24th - Hollywood Studios.

As mentioned at the end of Sept 23rd, today is Hollywood Studios day. As you’ve probably figured out based on how the last few days stared, we were up early, had coffee in the room and were out the door in time for early entry at HS.

We parked and walked over to the front gates.

This guy says a lot of people take his picture now that he has this sign…

We’re here…

Notice Steph and Tammy's matching shirts...Steph strikes again.

So what to do first. The original plan was Rise of the Resistance but, as usual with this ride, it didn't open right away due to technical difficulties. I get that it’s really cool to have the technologically advanced rides, but it seems like they all have technical difficulties that lead to late openings and frequent downtimes. It is a cool ride though.

So, with ROTR not being an option, we decided to head into Toy Story Land and get in line for Slinky Dog. The line when we got there was outside of Toy Story Land as the que hadn’t opened yet.

to be continued.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 24 continued
While we were waiting Calvin headed over to the nearby Joffrey’s cart to grab some coffee. The line for the coffee wasn’t very long, so we figured he’d have time….wrong…A few minutes after he got in line for the coffee the Slinky Dog line started moving.

Before long we were at the main ride entrance, and there was no sign of Calvin.

We started letting people go ahead of us while we waited. He finally arrived and we headed in. The line wasn’t too bad (I’d say around 45 minutes). We ended up in the front of the ride (we didn’t ask for it).

It was a great ride.

After Slinky Dog we headed over to Toy Story Midway Mania. I remember when this used to be THE ride at Hollywood Studios. Now it has a 15 minute stand-by.

The big decision is who is riding with who. Steph wanted to ride with me, so Calvin was assigned to Tammy.

Steph and I worked together fairly well, but at some point I went into business for myself and ended up with the highest score in the car.

It’s still a great ride.

To be continued.