Trip Report No, seriously, we have important meetings... honest! Live reporting.

Hello WDWMagic friends and family. I know, I know... back when we last travelled together in February, the next trip wasn’t supposed to be until December. But then @MeffysMom and I got our new teaching assignments for the upcoming year. And we both are teaching Advanced Placement classes. And the Annual AP National Conference is at the Swan/Dolphin next week. So... we had to add in a trip!

If you’ve followed along with us before, you know that our trio travels every chance we get (and almost always via car). Well, with no Disney planned, we decided to drive cross country this past month with the destination being a Disney cruise to Alaska and most of the drive through Canada. It was 8000 driving miles, plus the cruise of amazing experiences, but also an exhausting 4 weeks. We didn’t expect to be turning around 6 days later for the 900 mile drive to WDW.

We hit the road late tonight after @MeffysMom gets done ushering Hamilton in Baltimore. So a very late night drive! Here’s a brief overview of the plans:

Wednesday- arrive around 4pm and check in to Pop Century. Then DVC bowling at Splitsville and a short evening visit to Magic Kingdom.

Thursday- morning at Epcot, then get checked in for meetings. In the evening we will be going to the DVC Moonlight Magic at Animal Kingdom.

Friday- EMH at Magic Kingdom, then Meffysmom has meetings and our daughter and I will be on our own. The evening will be at Studios.

Saturday- more meetings for Meffysmom, while our daughter and I are going to take a slow tour of Epcot. Then we are all meeting up for more Epcot time.

Sunday- this is my meeting day, so the girls are possibly doing a nuts 4 parks and Disney Springs in one day PLUS moving to Old Key West. For the evening we will head back to Epcot for our final final Illuminations.

Monday- morning at Animal Kingdom and then nice dinner at The Edison.

Tuesday- check out day with a morning at Studios and then maybe stop in Magic Kingdom before the long drive home.

As usual, I’ll try to do live posting throughout the adventure. See you soon!

 

[PacNWTigger]

Hope you have a safe trip!

 

[riverside]

Safe travels & have a great time!!
I must say though....I don't envy all that time in the car!!

 

[brifraz]

Safe travels & have a great time!!
I must say though....I don't envy all that time in the car!!

It’s been a lot of hours, but luckily some amazing sights were seen! Now, tonight and tomorrow on I95...that’s a tale of boredom.

 

[Songbird76]

Our paths may cross!! We're at Epcot on Sunday and AK on Monday, too! Have a great trip!

 

[brifraz]

Our paths may cross!! We're at Epcot on Sunday and AK on Monday, too! Have a great trip!

I’ll keep an eye out for your triangular head and green hair (slightly Phineas/Ferb-ish) and you watch for my Illuminations fireworks. I’m sure we’ll see each other!

 

[brifraz]

Good morning! We had an impressively fast drive down I95 and found ourselves checking in to Pop Century at 2pm. Since it was a little before rooms would be ready we did a quick walking tour of the property.

Once we got into our room, it was a short nap and then to Splitsville for the DVC event there. With just 3 of us we get more than enough food (2 apps, 3 meals = lots of leftovers for later meals!) and 3 games of bowling (could’ve squeezed in a fourth if we wanted to).

We then took all those leftovers back to our room and caught the bus to Magic Kingdom. We had FP+ for Pirates and Jungle Cruise so we hit those and Aladdin all during the fireworks (so lines were quite low anyway).

As fireworks ended we got off Jungle Cruise (fun as always) and then headed to Fantasyland to hit whatever had short lines. So, It’s a Small World followed by The Little Mermaid and the Teacups.

We were all pretty darn tired and both TTA/Peoplemover and Buzz had about 20 minute waits so we headed back the room for some much needed sleep.

Now we are standing first at the rope for Epcot 8am EMH! See you soon.

 

[Katiekitten]

Following along! Have a great trip.

 

[Darstarr]

Following along! Have a great trip.

Me too and ditto!

 

[brifraz]

Don’t see this wait time very often.

 

[brifraz]

And a boat to ourselves!

 

[Janir]

Important meetings in WDW. Why can't I ever have important meetings in WDW??

 

[Rista1313]

yay for zero wait!

 

[brifraz]

After that early adventure in Arrendale, we headed to Soarin for a quick ride before the lines grew. It was still EMH, so we only waited about ten minutes. Then we headed to the Living Seas and spent a good half hour actually exploring the aquarium. We all tend to forget, in our rush to do exciting things, that it really is a high quality aquarium in there.

By this point, we were pretty darn hungry so we headed back to The Land for our breakfast. Always good food and more than enough of it.

Oh... and characters!

After breakfast it was time for our first two FP+ so over to Spaceship:Earth and then Mission:Space. This brought us to about 11:30am and if you’ve trip reported along with us in the past, you know that a visit to the Mayor of World Showcase tends to happen when his corner office opens.

Here’s the view from Carl’s corner at the Rose and Crown.

Carl was busy as always keeping tabs on the constant flow of customers, but we did get to catch up with him a little!

It was getting near our next FP+ so we headed back toward Test Track with a quick...disappointing...beverage stop.

Yup, no Beverly. Whatever shall our taste buds do??

On to Test Track! And what an adventure it was. We got a bonus 20 minutes!!

You don’t realize how steep that banking is until you sit on it for 20 minutes! Little extra sun never hurt anyone, right?? We headed back to our room for a short nap and cooling off (it was 20 minutes sitting still in full sun at 104 degree heat index that was the killer).

Now, this evening is another adventure. Meffysmom managed to score seats at the premiere of the new Lion King, but sadly only two were available. So, the girls are off doing that.

And I’m enjoying a Kilkenny (or two) at Raglan Road.

And in a couple hours it’s off to Animal Kingdom for the DVC party.

 

[Janir]

After that early adventure in Arrendale, we headed to Soarin for a quick ride before the lines grew. It was still EMH, so we only waited about ten minutes. Then we headed to the Living Seas and spent a good half hour actually exploring the aquarium. We all tend to forget, in our rush to do exciting things, that it really is a high quality aquarium in there.

By this point, we were pretty darn hungry so we headed back to The Land for our breakfast. Always good food and more than enough of it.
View attachment 391136
Oh... and characters!
View attachment 391137

After breakfast it was time for our first two FP+ so over to Spaceship:Earth and then Mission:Space. This brought us to about 11:30am and if you’ve trip reported along with us in the past, you know that a visit to the Mayor of World Showcase tends to happen when his corner office opens.

Here’s the view from Carl’s corner at the Rose and Crown. View attachment 391139
Carl was busy as always keeping tabs on the constant flow of customers, but we did get to catch up with him a little!

It was getting near our next FP+ so we headed back toward Test Track with a quick...disappointing...beverage stop.
View attachment 391144
Yup, no Beverly. Whatever shall our taste buds do??

On to Test Track! And what an adventure it was. We got a bonus 20 minutes!!
View attachment 391141View attachment 391140

You don’t realize how steep that banking is until you sit on it for 20 minutes! Little extra sun never hurt anyone, right?? We headed back to our room for a short nap and cooling off (it was 20 minutes sitting still in full sun at 104 degree heat index that was the killer).

Now, this evening is another adventure. Meffysmom managed to score seats at the premiere of the new Lion King, but sadly only two were available. So, the girls are off doing that.
View attachment 391147

And I’m enjoying a Kilkenny (or two) at Raglan Road.
View attachment 391142
View attachment 391143

And in a couple hours it’s off to Animal Kingdom for the DVC party.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the AK DVC party. DW and I have it scheduled for our upcoming trip.

 

[brifraz]

Good morning and happy Friday to you all! With last nights late event at Animal Kingdom, we decided to sleep in a bit this morning. Of course that means Meffysmom and I were still up around 7am, but it’s past 8am now and we are still relaxing and our daughter is still sleeping, so a good call for all our happiness and health.

But, I know why you are here...it’s to hear about the DVC event at Animal Kingdom!

We arrived around 7:45pm, but the party didn’t start until 9:30pm. Luckily, Meffysmom once again scored extra FP+ in the afternoon so we headed back to Expedition Everest for a ride...just as it went down. And, sadly it stayed down until about 10:45pm (halfway through the party). But that did give us an FP+ to use anywhere. So over to the safari we went! Not a whole lot of animal activity (which is odd for just past sunset) except the wildebeests who were running all around - no doubt inspired by the Lion King event.

Now it was time for the event!

Being pretty hungry, we started our evening by using one of the meal vouchers for some chicken nuggets st Restaurantosaurus. Maybe not all that interesting, but free and comfortable. Plus I decided to splurge on this guy.

As we shared the food, we used our game tickets to play a game at Hester and Chester’s. We were tracking wait times pretty carefully and decided that rather than go to the 10:30pm Rivers of Light, we wanted to wait in line for Flight of Passage. Why on Earth would we do that? Well, the wait was showing at just an hour AND we really wanted to go through the entire standby queue - we never have and knew it was pretty cool. Which it was, and we really only waited about 40 minutes.

After our flight we were a bit hungry so we used our second meal ticket at Satuli for a chicken/noodle/green onion bowl which was very good. Before leaving a Pandora, we got a picture.

But, once again we needed a sweet fix so we stopped at Creature Comforts for our Mickey bars. It was just past 11pm at this point and we didn’t really want to go back to Everest so we met up with some characters!

One of us may have suggested to Flik that a bug sandwich might be yummy.

Which I think might be why I got left out of meeting Meeko!!

While both of those waits were pretty short, it was getting close to midnight and we were pretty tired so we headed out.

So, my thoughts on the event? Well, you can’t beat the price for sure. And we got about $60 worth of food and drink (and didn’t even use our third meal ticket). So, based on that alone...a great deal. We only really did one attraction, but welcomed the wait for it. Had Everest been up all night we definitely would have done it, too. Plus we got two character meets with short waits. A fun experience and for the price we paid, awesome! (don’t talk to me about annual dues or any of that)

Time to take Meffysmom to her meeting day 1 and get going!

 

[DryerLintFan]

I'm surprised you didn't take the last meal ticket and use it for food to bring back to the resort with you. Thanks for sharing about the party!

How did they like the Lion King?

 

[brifraz]

I'm surprised you didn't take the last meal ticket and use it for food to bring back to the resort with you. Thanks for sharing about the party!

How did they like the Lion King?

Thought about going to Pizzafari or Flame Tree and getting to-go, but our micro fridge is still jammed with Splitsville leftovers (heck, I’m enjoying some cold pizza breakfast now) so we decided not to.

The girls enjoyed Lion King. Said it was visually stunning. Didn’t get a whole lot more out of them, which generally is a positive but not overwhelming praise.

 

[Janir]

Good morning and happy Friday to you all! With last nights late event at Animal Kingdom, we decided to sleep in a bit this morning. Of course that means Meffysmom and I were still up around 7am, but it’s past 8am now and we are still relaxing and our daughter is still sleeping, so a good call for all our happiness and health.

But, I know why you are here...it’s to hear about the DVC event at Animal Kingdom!
View attachment 391338
We arrived around 7:45pm, but the party didn’t start until 9:30pm. Luckily, Meffysmom once again scored extra FP+ in the afternoon so we headed back to Expedition Everest for a ride...just as it went down. And, sadly it stayed down until about 10:45pm (halfway through the party). But that did give us an FP+ to use anywhere. So over to the safari we went! Not a whole lot of animal activity (which is odd for just past sunset) except the wildebeests who were running all around - no doubt inspired by the Lion King event.

Now it was time for the event!
View attachment 391343
Being pretty hungry, we started our evening by using one of the meal vouchers for some chicken nuggets st Restaurantosaurus. Maybe not all that interesting, but free and comfortable. Plus I decided to splurge on this guy.
View attachment 391344
As we shared the food, we used our game tickets to play a game at Hester and Chester’s. We were tracking wait times pretty carefully and decided that rather than go to the 10:30pm Rivers of Light, we wanted to wait in line for Flight of Passage. Why on Earth would we do that? Well, the wait was showing at just an hour AND we really wanted to go through the entire standby queue - we never have and knew it was pretty cool. Which it was, and we really only waited about 40 minutes.

After our flight we were a bit hungry so we used our second meal ticket at Satuli for a chicken/noodle/green onion bowl which was very good. Before leaving a Pandora, we got a picture.
View attachment 391339
But, once again we needed a sweet fix so we stopped at Creature Comforts for our Mickey bars. It was just past 11pm at this point and we didn’t really want to go back to Everest so we met up with some characters!

One of us may have suggested to Flik that a bug sandwich might be yummy.
View attachment 391340

Which I think might be why I got left out of meeting Meeko!!
View attachment 391341

While both of those waits were pretty short, it was getting close to midnight and we were pretty tired so we headed out.
View attachment 391342

So, my thoughts on the event? Well, you can’t beat the price for sure. And we got about $60 worth of food and drink (and didn’t even use our third meal ticket). So, based on that alone...a great deal. We only really did one attraction, but welcomed the wait for it. Had Everest been up all night we definitely would have done it, too. Plus we got two character meets with short waits. A fun experience and for the price we paid, awesome! (don’t talk to me about annual dues or any of that)

Time to take Meffysmom to her meeting day 1 and get going!

Looks like the DVC party was fun and the wait times for FoP wasn't horrible. Which suits me fine as I didn't manage to snag a FoP FP for our AK day earlier in the week so in case we don't get to ride it that day, riding it for the party looks liek it will be a good option.

 

[brifraz]

Looks like the DVC party was fun and the wait times for FoP wasn't horrible. Which suits me fine as I didn't manage to snag a FoP FP for our AK day earlier in the week so in case we don't get to ride it that day, riding it for the party looks liek it will be a good option.

And I think if Everest was running that wait might even be shorter!