Trip Report Some People are Worth Melting For: Year 1 AP Adventures!

We’re back!

Timeline: June 2024
Location: Boulder Ridge Villas at Wilderness Lodge
Cast: Me (A), Dad (R), my sister SB, brother-in-law Iz, and niece B!
Why? It is little B’s first trip! I feel so thankful to be here experiencing the magic with her for the first time.

This is all of us pre-B during our last trip all together in 2021. I’m excited for SB and Iz to finally experience WDW since the pandemic. Things were quite different back in Summer 2021! They also of course haven’t ridden Ratatouille, Guardians, or Tron yet, so I’m looking forward to that for them too.

 

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Ready for more sustenance, we went to Starbucks. I am not a Joffrey’s fan (sorry). I got a cake pop and we both got our usual drinks.

We sat near the lounge for Brown Derby and saw some chipmunks taking a walk backstage.

Once we finished our drinks, we walked over and caught the last showing of BatB for the day. We actually had remarkably good seats for walking up at the last minute!

 

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Rain was coming, and I was in my birkenstocks. I have previously ruined a pair of birks beyond repair in Disney rain, so I was taking no chances. Into the nearest gift shop we went, in search of…

Crocs.

Hate if you want, but these are comfy and since this trip, have become part of my regular WDW shoe rotation. Can’t beat ‘em when the forecast is calling for rain!

I was also blown away by the fact that it was July and here lies Halloween merch.

I also thought this shirt was funny.

While we were in the shop, S decided she wanted to get a hat for her then boyfriend, now fiance. She didn't see anything she liked, so we went back to GE to look. Still undecided, we made our way around to the Muppets when she decided she wanted to go back for a hat she saw in GE. I parked it on a bench when she went to buy it and as luck would have it, the rain rain rain came down down down. Quickly.

 

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She hurried back and we went to ABC Commissary for this.

It isn’t anything spectacular, but is a guaranteed satisfactory meal and I love the steak fries.

It was still raining after we finished dinner, but I had stacked two LL’s for RnRc and ToT. It was rainy on the way over, but once we reached Tower, it was so pretty!

After our rides, we decided to go grab a seat for Fantasmic. Of course, right
when we sat down, more rain. But, we were here and nothing can stop us now!

I was slightly nervous that the show would be cancelled, but thankfully it went on without an issue. We headed back to the resort after and were getting ready for bed by 11:00. We had one more early morning ahead!

 

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Day 5: July 14, 2025

This was our going home day. Boooooooo. Both of us had flights later in the afternoon though, so we started the day with a very early AK visit. S really wanted to RD FoP, so by 6:50, our luggage was at Bell Services, we grabbed coffee and cereal from the food court, and we were waiting at the bus stop.

We made the first bus of the day!

We arrived at AK right around 7:15. It was very backed up at the gate.

After fighting through, we joined the masses and headed right to Pandora.

I had never RD’d FoP like this before, but I was impressed with how the CM’s managed the intense amount of guests. It went very smoothly and we were boarding just a little after 8:00.

 

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We hustled over to the Safari next. We saw a TON of animals because it was so early!

 

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I didn't take many pictures the remainder of the day because of the last-day-Disney blues, but after the Safari we made our way to Everest and single rider. We both were on and off within 10 minutes. We also walked-on to Dinosaur.

Hungry for a morning snack, we stopped and I got a Tiger Tail and S got a Mickey Bar. I LOVED the Tiger Tail.

We saw Kevin on the way to watch FotLK.

The show was fab as usual.

Running low on time, we grabbed a quick lunch at Satuli Canteen and then it was time to head back to the resort.

We had different flight times and slightly different pick-up times from Mears, so S and I said our goodbyes and I boarded the bus of sadness. (Not too sad though, because I’d be back in October!)

My apologies for dragging this one out so long. Up next… a very scary Halloween 2024 TR, featuring Dad! My goal is to finish my 2024-2025 AP Trips in this same thread, since my renewal is in May. I just need to add October 2024 with Dad, February 2025 with Dad, my sister, and my niece, and my April 2025 spring break solo trip! Wish me luck.

 

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Fall 2024: Our First Visit to WDW in Spooky Season
When: September 28-October 3, 2024
Where: AKL & POFQ
Who: Me and Dad

Woohoo! We are finally visiting WDW in the Halloween season. This was the last time of the year that I had not visited, so it was exciting to finaly check that box. Dad and I had a very early flight out to MCO. Literally while waiting on the runway, to takeoff, I grabbed this!

Anybody else SO glad we don't have to deal with this anymore?

We were waiting at baggage claim just before 9:00 am. We had a very ambitious morning planned. Originally, we weren't due to fly in until tomorrow, but the flight was cheaper today so we added a night at AKL! This was our first time at this resort.

Per usual, the Mears bus took a while, but we were walking in to AKL just before 10:30.

Thankfully, our room was already ready! I booked a standard view so we were very surprised to walk out onto the balcony and see this!

Here are some obligatory room pics for you. It was very nice and clean, but we didn't have much time to linger. I had several LL's for AK that had expired already and we had an ADR for Steakhouse 71 coming up soon.

On to the AK bus we went!

Why a picture of a bus you might ask? Because we have the worst bus luck ever. In my head, I imagined it being a VERY quick ride to AK from AKL. Perhaps normally, it is. Today, NO. We got stuck at a left turn light that literally would NOT turn green, and a driver who refused to leave the turn lane or turn on red or do anything until approximately 20 minutes had passed. I wish I was exaggerating. I understand that there is likely a protocol for that, but wow. People were so upset that there was nearly a riot.

 

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Eventually, we made it in!

And, we were greeted by Divine after our troubles.

Now running quite low on time before our lunch ADR, we hurried over to Dinoland. This was shortly after they announced the closure but had yet to announce the actual timeline so we weren’t sure if this was farewell or not!

See those clouds?...

We rode Dinosaur with our LL first.

We were laughing at the ride photo. Dad’s pose was perfect considering he was being taken out by the asteroid.

 

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It was raining when we walked out. We grabbed a couple more photos in Dinoland. RIP.

We still had a LL for Everest, but let it go in favor of ITTBAG. This was the last time I saw this before the closure. Not a personal favorite, in fact, when I was a kid I HATED it. I’m excited to see what the Zootopia thing is all about.

It was POURING on our way out of AK, but thankfully I purchased us new raincoat/ponchos before the trip. They buttoned up and went down to our knees and actually were fantastic on this trip and used several times. Much easier than a traditional poncho, and more dry than my normal raincoat.

We waited a long time for a bus, but soon we were off to the Contemporary.

(He wasn't thrilled about the wait or the rain )

And soon after that, I had my favorite Riesling.

And, onion rings!

And, cheeseburger!

I love you, Steakhouse 71. Always a 10/10.

 

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Bellies full and rain finally stopped, we walked over to MK for both of our first shows at the new Country Bears and Dad’s first ride on Tiana’s.

The Halloween decor was adorable! This might be my favorite time of year in MK.

Straight to the Bears we went. We both were big fans of the old show, and are now big fans of the new one.

 

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We were about 6 hours late for our BG at Tiana’s, but I wasn’t concerned about being denied. We were let through and walked right on the ride. I think the rain had scared people away. Dad had fun pointing out all of the malfunctioning AA’s along our ride. LOL. To this day, I still don’t think I have ridden this ride with all things fully functional.

Tired from our travel day and ready to watch some Saturday Football, we left MK and headed back to AKL.

We explored the resort a bit, grabbed some dinner at The Mara (chicken tenders for me and a flatbread for Dad) and retired to our room for football and rest.

We had a great first day! Full Disclosure, unless it was a killer of a deal, I wouldn't stay at AKL again. The theming is beautiful, yes, but the distance between it and the parks is just not worth it to me. If I am going to stay deluxe, I want to be close to the parks.

Up Next… Switching Resorts to POFQ, HS, MK, Pool Time, & Scat Cat’s, Oh My!

 

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Day 2:

We were up and ready before 8:00, with the goal of hitting Rise in EE. The process of transferring our luggage to POFQ was very easy and Bell Services at AKL was excellent. I went down looking for a cart and a CM ended up coming back with me and did everything for us. I know sometimes people wonder how easy a split stay is, and I’m here to say in my experience, very easy and stress-free.

We walked up and the HS bus was waiting on us so we were here by 8:15. We made our way back with the masses to Rise, only to find it down. Shocking, I know.

Instead, we pivoted and walked right on to Smuggler’s. Then, we also walked right on to Swirling Saucers.

Slinky had also been down during EE, but we walked up to find it had just opened and the wait was posted at 35 minutes. We decided to hop in line and see how accurate that was.

Turns out, the ride went down again while we were waiting so it was MUCH longer. We were soclose to the front though so we stuck it out and waited. We could see what was going on, and it seemed like it wasn’t the actual ride causing issues, but rather the little gates in the load area.

Eventually, we did get to ride but we were now in desperate need of a snack (or a 10:30 AM beer, in Dad’s case).

These cream cheese pretzels are the BEST.

 

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We did ToT with a LL next, then RnRc Single Rider, and MMRR with a LL all in quick rapid fire.

I was looking for all the hidden Mickeys in the pre-show today. There are TONS.

I collect ears in the same way others collect stamps, or rocks, so when I saw that HS had the DIY plush ears, I had to indulge. After my shopping, we grabbed a bus to the Poly, so that we could take a monorail to MK. Why didn’t we just walk to the MK station? It was significantly further away. Ha.

 

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We made it into MK for our lunch ADR at Tony’s. It was our first time here in a WHILE. We got the bread appetizer and each got a pasta dish. ALL of it was fantastic. I have been to Tony’s twice since then and it has consistently been great.

When we walked out, it was perfect timing for the 2:00 FoF Parade. There were big open spaces to watch right in front of Tony’s.

We didn’t have plans to stay long because our room was now ready at FQ, but we took a quick spin on the Liberty Belle (RIP) before we headed out.

We arrived at FQ and were thrilled to find that we were in a renovated room. At this time, only 2 buildings were complete. We were also excited to learn that we were the FIRST people to stay in our room, because the Bell Services CM told us that the building had re-opened TODAY!

 

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These rooms are beautiful. FQ is now easily my favorite resort on property! (And spoiler, I have stayed there twice since this trip and have another booked there for this fall!)

After we got settled in the room, we headed down for some pool time.

 

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We freshened up and decided to see what Scat Cat’s was all about, for a late dinner snack. We got lucky and came on one of the nights with live Jazz music. It was so nice! I had another Riesling and pimento cheese fritters, and Dad had a beer and the beignet sandwich (which is no longer available as of June 2025). We enjoyed everything. Those fritters are one of my favorite things now!

We stayed a while and then headed out to get some sleep in our brand-new room. Day 2? Fantastic!

 

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Enjoying this October portion of your report!
I never know how trip report-ers can remember trips so far back- I can hardly remember what I did last week! lol But I’m thankful!