Trip Report Our (slightly) Unexpected Disney World Trip

You can never start a trip report too soon, so I’m starting this one as I’m waiting to check out of our hotel, sadly going home today.

The reason this trip is slightly unexpected is that six months ago we had no intention of going to Walt Disney World any time soon. Personally, I wanted to wait until things got a little more normal. But then my daughter threw a wrench in the works and got accepted to the Disney College Program. Since she’ll be working here for 6 months, we realized we HAD to come and visit her at her job launching boats in Mexico.

It was basically what I’d call a small trip (although my wife thinks we jammed so, so, so much into our five full days here.

Cast of characters: Myself (Steven), my wife (Jennifer), and youngest daughter, (Mik). Our cast member daughter (Samantha) was able to get a couple of days off so we were able to spend some time together.

One thing I have to say is my family has an aversion to having their pictures taken too much, so they’re missing from a lot of photos, but trust me, they were there.

Due to budgetary reasons, we stayed at the cheapest on-property room available: The All-Star Sports. I have to say I was not excited. I generally find the over-the-top theming obnoxious. No decent restaurant. The bus stops don’t have covering. I don’t even like sports. That said, we had a phenomenal time here. The grounds were immaculate. EVERY cast member seemed to go out of their way to be helpful. I had to speak to the manager a couple of times just to tell him how awesome everything was. I made several cast member compliments on the app. While I still have resorts I’d rather stay at, I’d stay here again without regrets.

I took a few thousand photos so I need time to download and sort, so there will be more to follow!

See you real soon!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I stayed at the All Star Movies about 23 years ago. I wasn’t too impressed at the time, but that may have only been my expectations. We were in the Mighty Ducks section. Another section may have felt more “Disney.”
How was your stay?

I had a very nice stay. All the rooms at the Movies have been renovated. I stayed in the Mighty Ducks section which was fine for me because I like hockey but I was about a two minute walk from the Music bus stop. It was a closer walk to the bus stop (Music) here than when I stayed at the Movies just a month ago and was in a preferred room.

 

[amjt660]

So I was looking forward to showing off my knowledge of the Canadian language. Unfortunately, the international cast members still aren’t back yet, so throwing all those “eh’s” at the end of my sentences was lost on the cast members.

Max

 

[Sbk1234]

The next day started bright and early, as well. Since I’d never seen Avatar Land I decided to go to Animal Kingdom.

We were treated to a lovely sunrise as we waited for the Early Entry to begin. Naturally, when we were let in we hoofed it right to Flight of Passage.
We still had about a 40 minute wait or so, but the line hardly ever seemed to stop, and there was so much to look at, we didn’t really mind the wait.

I should say first, that I am not a huge Avatar fan. I thought the movie was alright, mostly lots of good eye candy, but not what I would have ever thought to make into a land at a Disney park. That said, I think they did an incredible job creating this land. Animal Kingdom, imho, has the best, most immersive theming of any Disney park, and Avatar Land (or whatever it’s really called) has the best theming of Animal Kingdom.
I liked the ride, but I’m prone to motion sickness, so I had to close my eyes a couple of times to keep myself from getting ill.
Next we did the Navi River Ride, which I actually enjoyed more. Perhaps I’m just old, but I liked the slow pace and the ability to really savor the scenery.

After a walk through Africa it was onto our favorite Animal Kingdom attraction: Kilimanjaro Safari.

 

[Sbk1234]

This guy helped us onto the truck. Truthfully, not enough can be said about the cast members. They were fantastic!

Since this ride is all about spotting rare wildlife, it’s fitting that both daughters actually allowed me to photograph them!

And I was real serious about the safari.
I noticed that for some reason I didn’t smile a lot in most of my selfies. I have no idea why.

Since everyone can find better pictures of animals on the internet than I could ever take, I’m not going to post any more. But we did see some good views.
My daughter wants to be a veterinarian, so working this ride was the job she wanted when she got accepted to the Disney College Program, but alas, that didn’t happen.

Later we hiked through the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. If you look carefully you can see an ugly simian, and way behind him in the background is a gorilla.

Dinosaur has always been one of my favorite attractions in the park. I honestly don’t understand the disrespect I’ve seen it get from many fans. The line wasn’t too bad, about 20 minutes or so.

Now I’m personally not too fond of this show, but my family wanted to see it: Celebration of the Festival of the Lion King. I’m looking forward to them putting back all the elements they had to remove due to Covid so they can shorten the name.

 

[erstwo]

Is that Simba at FoLK new?? I feel like he's much bigger than I remember!

Enjoying the report! I laughed at the comment about being able to photograph your children - IF I can convince mine to take a photo, they also demand to approve each photo before I'm allowed to show anyone else. And I don't even have Facebook/ Twitter/ etc! Kids.

 

[Sbk1234]

Is that Simba at FoLK new?? I feel like he's much bigger than I remember!

Enjoying the report! I laughed at the comment about being able to photograph your children - IF I can convince mine to take a photo, they also demand to approve each photo before I'm allowed to show anyone else. And I don't even have Facebook/ Twitter/ etc! Kids.

I don’t know about the Simba. I’d only seen the show once before many years ago.

 

[Sbk1234]

Around this time we had decided that we wanted to change our dinner reservations for that night. Nobody was too excited about the restaurant I had picked out. Of course we didn’t want to pay for them if we weren’t using them, so I went to guest services and was helped by this wonderful cast member. She was able to cancel our reservations so we wouldn’t be charged. I honestly don’t know what the cancellation policy is. Perhaps I could have done it myself online, but she was helpful and patient, and the recipient of a cast member compliment.

The females in my group all decided they wanted time to shop, so we decided to split up for a while. I got some wandering time and rode Navi River again. Finally I decided to try and find the others so I started using the tracking feature on my phone to find them. I narrowed it down pretty well and finally figured out they were heading towards Kilimanjaro Safari. I tried to catch up to them to surprise them, but finally called when I could see they were getting close to the line. Unfortunately I didn’t make it in time and missed them by about one truck. So I rode by myself, but got the whole row just for me, so that was fine.

Finally, dusk was approaching and it would finally be time to see Avatar Land glowing.

 

[Sbk1234]

Mik even had bought Pandora ears for which she got compliments for the rest of the trip.

I have to say the photos don’t do this place justice at night. It was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately it just didn’t get too dark before closing time and our new dinner reservation at Rain Forest so we didn’t get to see it in all its nighttime glory. Hopefully next time.

Over eight miles walked that day. Not bad!

 

[Sbk1234]

By this time Jennifer was pretty pooped and needed to sleep late, so Mik and I went into early opening together and let her sleep late. Even though we took the bus in from our resort, we were greeted by the Sky Liner in all its glory at Disney Hollywood Studios. There’s something indescribably satisfying about seeing the sun come up over Walt Disney World.

 

[Sbk1234]

Being from California, we had the advantage of having our own near identical Galaxy’s Edge, so two of the biggest rides were not a priority for us.

We decided to make our priority Micky and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

I have to admit to mixed feelings here. On the one hand, this is a totally adorable, enjoyable ride. We had a good time with it. It was extremely well done. On the other hand The Great Movie Ride was one of my all time favorites and (imho) the flagship attraction of the park. If only they could have added one without removing the other.
Following Micky and Minnie’s, we walked through Toy Story Land. I wasn’t too interested in the rides here since they seemed more like “kiddie rides” to me, but I was impressed with the land and atmosphere.

About this time we were rushing through the land, but I had my eagle-eyed daughter with me, who noticed that Toy Story Mania was a walk on, so we did just that.
I’m nearly 55 with my 17-year-old daughter, so it should be no surprise who was doing better throughout the game. She was really beating me, but then Disney is the land of magic. I don’t know what happened or how, but in the end, I managed to beat her!
Score one for the AARP crowd.

Yes, I’m the yellow one!

We worked our way to Tower of Terror, which Mik wanted to ride.

The cast members here seemed very welcoming.

I’m always a bit hesitant to ride since I had a heart attack some years ago, but I figured I’d wait with Mik and bow out at the end. We didn’t mind the 45 minute wait, since she and I always enjoy talking together.
As we approached the inside part of the queue, a special Disney celebrity came by to see us.

 

[Sbk1234]

By the time we finished up, Jennifer joined us. Her first order of business was to do some shopping and get a proper set of Mouse ears.
Then it was off to the Indiana Jones stunt show. The show was good; the same as always. I’m kind of glad they got rid of that contrived bit about getting volunteers from the audience.

One nice thing that happened was while we were waiting for the show to begin, Jennifer got a phone call from work and had been promoted.
Like I said, the rides in Galaxy’s Edge weren’t a priority for us, but what I really wanted was to drink some blue milk.

We had reservations for a late lunch at 50’s Prime Time Diner, one of our favorite restaurants in the park. We saw some more things like the Walt Disney exhibit, rerode the runaway railway, did some shopping, but by then, to be honest, I was pretty done with the park. Jen and Mik wanted to do some more heavy duty shopping, so I decided to do a little resort exploring. So I left and hopped on a bus to the Contemporary.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

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By the time we finished up, Jennifer joined us. Her first order of business was to do some shopping and get a proper set of Mouse ears.
Then it was off to the Indiana Jones stunt show. The show was good; the same as always. I’m kind of glad they got rid of that contrived bit about getting volunteers from the audience.
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One nice thing that happened was while we were waiting for the show to begin, Jennifer got a phone call from work and had been promoted.
Like I said, the rides in Galaxy’s Edge weren’t a priority for us, but what I really wanted was to drink some blue milk.
View attachment 635131
View attachment 635132
We had reservations for a late lunch at 50’s Prime Time Diner, one of our favorite restaurants in the park. We saw some more things like the Walt Disney exhibit, rerode the runaway railway, did some shopping, but by then, to be honest, I was pretty done with the park. Jen and Mik wanted to do some more heavy duty shopping, so I decided to do a little resort exploring. So I left and hopped on a bus to the Contemporary.
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Looks like you had two celebs greeting you at Tower. TJ (the cast member) is a bit of a WDW celeb.

 

[Sbk1234]

Looks like you had two celebs greeting you at Tower. TJ (the cast member) is a bit of a WDW celeb.

I thought I had recognized him from tv, some shows about Walt Disney World and such.

 

[Sbk1234]

As I’m pretty sure I said earlier, one of my favorite parts of a trip to WDW is exploring the resorts. So I was excited to get the chance. I got off at the Contemporary Resort and got right on the Monorail and took it to my favorite resort that I’ve never stayed at: the Polynesian.

From there I took a launch to the Grand Floridian. I know this is considered one of the top resorts on the property, but it just didn’t “do it” for me. It just seemed bland to me.
However, one highlight of the whole trip is I sad down and there was a pianist starting to play. I got to enjoy a wonderfully relaxing little concert of Disney tunes.
Then I walked to the Magic Kingdom and took a boat to Wilderness Lodge.

 

[Sbk1234]

The walk from Grand Floridian was very pleasant, and quite scenic.

When I got around to the docks, it looked like Donald had been busy.

I got my first close up glimpse of the Magic Kingdom of the trip, then took a launch to Wilderness Lodge, my other favorite resort I haven’t stayed at.

That night we ended up at Disney Springs. A friend of mine mentioned that Cinderella was her favorite character, so I took my photo with this statue outside one of the stores. Since it took a couple of tries I found out that in the wrong light Cinderella looks possessed.

It was onto the Magic Kingdom the next day, but I managed the most steps of the whole trip this day.

 

[rshell68]

From there I took a launch to the Grand Floridian. I know this is considered one of the top resorts on the property, but it just didn’t “do it” for me. It just seemed bland to me.

We stayed at the GF once (hubby complained we got a comp stay....long story) and felt the same.

 

[Darstarr]

When I got around to the docks, it looked like Donald had been busy.

 

[Sbk1234]

We rode back to our hotel exhausted, but eager for the next day. This time was to the Magic Kingdom. To make the most of our one day in this park, we bought Disney Plus, and were early for early entry.

Just through the magical gateway and we were in.

And finally, we were in view of Cinderella Castle up close.
We made good use of our early start and headed right to Peter Pan when everyone else went to Seven Dwarves. I hadn't been on this for a lot of years, and had no idea they had redone the line. I was impressed. I honestly wouldn't mind a long wait in a line like this.

After a while we made it to the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean. While I still think Disneyland's version is the best, this one isn't too shabby, either. I even got a photo of Jennifer and Mik, both with their ears on.

Lunch finally came at my favorite restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, Liberty Tree Tavern. We ate more than we should have, but with renewed fuel, we were ready to take on the park again.

 

[MickeyCB]

Love your King and Queen shirts!

 

[Sbk1234]

Love your King and Queen shirts!

Thanks. Our cast member daughter had just told us how matching couple and/or family shirts is often one of the things they look out for when sizing up guests.