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 15th-17th, and had this crazy idea to bring Tammy with me and we would tack a couple of days on at the end. Our original plans for this trip were to hang around Tampa and try Busch Gardens out for a day or two. However…I started looking into things a bit more, and realized Tampa is only about an hour drive from Orlando, so our plans changed to Disney instead. Once we decided on Disney we then had to decide what we were going to do there. I noticed there was a waterpark season’s pass that Disney was offering, so we decided waterparks only this trip…or so we thought (but more on that later).



April 15th – April 17th

I won’t spend too much time on these days. I was on a course that was held at the Tampa Convention centre. I’d go to the course during the day, and Tammy would hang around the pool at the hotel, and then we’d meet up in the evenings for dinner. Tampa was OK. The riverwalk was nice, but I didn’t really love the area we were in.

One small problem came up with our plans though… I logged on the morning of the 17th to buy the waterpark seasons pass…Only to be met with “this ticket offer is no longer available”. I guess I missed the part of the offer that said they were going to only be sold up to the 16th. BAH. However, there is a DVC deal for waterparks, so we decided to get 1 day of waterpark passes for the 18th, and then decided after that what we wanted to do on the 19th.



April 17th – PM

The course wrapped up around noon on the 17th, and it was vacation time. I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Tammy, then we took an Uber back to the airport to pick up our rental car (I tried to rent something closer to the hotel, but I couldn’t match up the return times of the car to any of the locations nearby, so the airport was the easiest way (and we were flying out of there at the end of our trip anyways). A short trip to the airport, and soon we were in our rental and heading…back to Tampa

So I’m a big hockey fan. Scratch that. I’m a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan. What were the chances that the Leafs would be playing in Tampa at the exact time I’m in Tampa (and if you know anything about Toronto pricing for hockey games, I would have been cheaper to fly down to Tampa, go see the game, then fly home again than it would have been to see a game in Toronto). It was the last game of the season for both teams, and Austin Matthews (the top scorer in the NHL this season) was at 69 goals, and had one game left to try and get the Leafs record for goals scored in the regular season (70)….so of course we had to go to the game.



The area around the Arena was quite nice.

Tammy and I put on our Leaf’s jerseys and joined the fray of Tampa Bay fans heading into the Amalie arena.

The game was fun even though the Leafs lost, and Austin Matthews didn’t get his 70th goal (one kind of funny thing that could have turned inappropriate really quick almost happened. There were some young kids behind us who were “chirping” the Leafs all game (i.e. chanting anti-Leafs things)). As the game was winding down I heard one of the kids say to the other “let’s chant “69” at Austin Matthews”. Fortunately their Mom quickly shot that idea down (and now the kids are probably wondering why Mom jumped to his defense) LOL).

The game ended at around 10:30, and we made our way out of Tampa and about an hour later we finally saw the sign

to be continued

 

[gwhb75]

Are there items on the dinner buffet at Boma for picky eaters? I want to go in November for my birthday but my kids are extremely picky. They're not huge eaters so don't need a lot of choices so I'm hoping there's at least something for them.

Yes, there's a kids area with the traditional kids stuff (mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, pizza, etc)

 

[gwhb75]

I love the look of those lazy river “seats” - I bet they make floating even more relaxing than it already is.

Those seats are 100% better than the traditional tubes with no back.

 

[gwhb75]

You are so full of surprises on this report!!! Thanks for taking the time, and glad you had the opportunity to experience Tampa - but you definitely made the right choice to head to Disney!

Agreed. I'm sure Tampa would have been nice, but Disney is definitely the better option IMO.

 

[gwhb75]

Excited to see you started up this trip report!

Thanks for following along

 

[gwhb75]

Great that you got back to Disney! Though we are, for better or worse, Buffalo Sabres fans, it must have been great to catch that Maple Leafs game in Tampa!

Congrats on being the 1st one in... unfortunately I don't have a prize for you

 

[gwhb75]

Excited to see more. Glad you got to go to a hockey game with your favorite team. This past spring I missed seeing my team (Wild) play in Anaheim & LA by a week, that would have been fun to see them play.

It was fun getting to see a game in Florida.

 

[gwhb75]

100%

 

[joshsprincess921]

I need to get back to AKL. I haven't been since my honeymoon in 2017, but I agree the lobby is amazing.

 

[Tiki Traveler]

Congrats on being the 1st one in... unfortunately I don't have a prize for you

That’s okay

 

[gwhb75]

April 19th - Animal Kingdom

So the day started earlier than we had originally thought it would when we were planning waterpark days. Tammy and I are usually early risers at home (usually around 5am), so it’s not that hard for us to get up early (and when I’m at the parks I’m a rope-drop guy). I got up and put on the coffee (of course) and we got ready to go.

One change I appreciate that Disney made is including parking at the parks if you’re staying on site. I love the Disney busses from a nostalgia POV, but I prefer the convenience of having my own vehicle.

We made it to the front gates just as they stared letting people in.

Our plan was to knock out the rides that normally have long standby lines (no Genie+ for this day) so we were going to do Flight of Passage first then the safari after that. We scanned in through the front gates and made our way to Pandora. I guess they had started letting people in a bit earlier than I thought they had, because the line for FoP was all the way to the entrance to Africa (that new entrance by the Lion King theatre).

The ride hadn’t officially opened yet, so they weren’t letting anyone into the standby line, thus the line stretching so far. We joined the line and a few minutes later we were moving.

Before long we were inside and “um”, riding on the back of a banshee

This is such a good ride

To be continued...

 

[gwhb75]

April 19th continued

After FoP we headed to Africa for the safari. The thing I love about the safari is that you get a different experience every time you ride, no matter how many times you ride. On this ride there was a new baby elephant that was just learning how to “elephant”, and we “interrupted” the lions (if you know what I mean LOL).

Next up was my favourite ride in all the parks (although I haven’t ridden Guradians yet)…Expedition Everest.

I just absolutely love this ride. Tammy will tolerate it and will ride it once with me. I could ride it all day (well… I would like to ride it all day. My 49 year old inner-ear won’t let me ride it more than 3-4 times before I start feeling nauseous (man getting old sucks)). We had a good ride.


to be continued...

 

[gwhb75]

April 19th continued
After Everest we continued our loop past the Finding Nemo Theatre to Dinorama.

I’m happy that they will be doing something with this area (the footprint left by Primeval Whirl’s removal really needed something on it, and the construction walls don’t really scream great theming). We decided we’d hit up Dinosaur first in case it was busy (it wasn’t…basically a walk-on).

The ride was good, but it’s definitely showing it’s age and lack of maintenance. Everything seemed darker and some of the effects weren’t working. I guess I see not wanting to spend anymore money on it if it’s closing, but it’s not a great show. Even when you exit the ride, there are boards over the screens where you used to be able to see the on-ride photos. It was nice to get to ride it for possibly the last time (although maybe not…more on that in a minute).

After Dinosaur we headed back to Dinorama (with a quick detour though the store there where Tammy picked up a Dumbo clip for her bag (she’s a big fan of Dumbo – she really liked the live action remake)).

There really isn’t much to do in Dinorama except for Triceratops Spin. We’re not really into spinners, but decided we better ride it one last time.

One thing I don’t get is how hard it is for people to follow simple line-up instructions. If you haven’t been on this before, when you get in line they assign you a number in the line, which corresponds to a number on the ground, which also corresponds to your ride vehicle. You are supposed to go to the ride vehicle that corresponds to your line number. Apparently this is far too complicated for people to follow. Once the gates opened to let you into the ride it was like a free-for all. We went to our vehicle to find someone already in it, so we had to pick another one (which then caused issues for other people who did try to follow the instructions and came to their ride vehicle to find us in it, and so – on). Minor pet peeve of mine. The ride was OK.

After our spin we left Dinorama for possibly the last time (although we are talking Disney, so this could still be open in April 2025).

It was now after 12, and we were thinking lunch would be a good idea. We decided to do Space Chipotle (i.e. Satu’li Canteen). I was going to do the mobile order thing, but we decided since we were already there and it wasn’t overly busy we’d just do the traditional order method of actually talking to someone (LOL…I’m actually a big fan of tech).

We ordered two bowls and a cheesecake mousse thing. The bowls were amazing, and I find they’re a good deal in terms of theme-park pricing. The dessert was good too.


To be continued...

 

[fractal]

"space chipotle"

 

[gwhb75]

April 19th continued
With full stomachs we headed back into the Florida heat. We thought it would be a good idea to take it easy to let the food digest, so decided to take in a few shows. First up was Finding Nemo. We made our way over to the theatre (and ran into Kevin on the way) to find out that the show has just started.

We really didn’t have much else we wanted to do in the area, and didn’t want to walk all the way back to the Lion King show, so we decided to just wait for the next one. This turned out to be a good idea. While standing there in front of one of the fans in line (because it is so hot today), one of the CMs (his name was Josh) came over and started chatting with us (I took a picture of his tag so I could fill out a cast compliment (which I later found out you can now do through the app)).

We mentioned we had decided to come to AK to ride Dinosaur one last time since we wouldn’t be back until September. He mentioned there was a rumour that Dinosaur would remain open a bit longer while Disney worked on Dinorama, so there is a chance that we may be riding it again in September. We had a nice chat with him for a few minutes, then he headed back to the entrance area. However…He then stopped and said “you know what…since you’re willing to wait this long, why don’t we do something for you”. End result…we were moved from the regular line to the “VIP” line, with reserved seating at the front of the stage. That was unexpected, but it was nice to be so close to the show. The show was great.

Next we decided to go check out the Lion King Show, but not before I did the single rider line on Everest on more time (I can only pass the ride entrance so many times before I have to ride again - and, bonus, I got the back row).

It was great.

We got to the Lion King Theatre just as they had finished letting people in.

BAH, what are the chances of this happening for two shows in a row. However, we waited and group-by-group they started letting people in to fill-in empty spaces. Being a party of two was beneficial as we did get in just before the show started.

Another great show. Disney really does put on great shows in their parks.

To be continued...

 

[gwhb75]

April 19th continued
The last thing we wanted to do this trip was to see It’s Tough to Be a Bug as this is another show that will be changing, and may not be around when we are back in September.

I really love the details in the line. It’s crazy how much work went into the carvings on the Tree of Life.

The show was good (and was also pretty empty, so I guess it is time for a refresh).

We were kind of done with Park things after this. We did go get a froze Chai Tea latte from the Royal Anandapur Tea Company.

After that we decided to bid Adieu to Animal Kingdom. It was great being back again.

After exiting the park we made the decision to go to Disney Springs. Two goals with this:

• Dinner
• Pick up new Magic Bands for Steph and Calvin.

One of the downsides of living in Canada is that you can’t pre-order MagicBands with a resort reservation. You used to be able to pre-order them and have them sent to the resort and you could pick them up when you check-in, but that is no longer an option. Steph and Calvin wanted new Magic Bands for our September trip, and you get a pretty good discount with the resort pre-order that we can’t do anymore, but we do still get the 20% DVC discount in store, so they asked us to pick them up for them. After parking the car we headed over to World of Disney.

After sending pictures of every Magic Band we could find, they decided on Calvin getting the Nemo “Hangry” Magic Band

and Steph getting the Winnie the Pooh Magic Band (and I checked out using the Mobile app just so you don’t think I’m technologically averse).

The last order of business was dinner. Tammy and I had wanted to try the Polite Pig, so we headed over there.

It was pretty busy, but the place is pretty efficiently run. We ordered the Butcher Board for two then found some seats (the way seating works here is you have to place your order first, and then find a table afterwards (they enforce this). Not long after sitting, our food arrived. It was definitely enough for the two of us, and was pretty good.

There isn’t really much else interesting that happened the rest of the night. We just wandered around Disney Springs a bit, and then headed back to the room for the night.

When we got back to the room we started talking about what we wanted do to tomorrow. We fly out of Tampa in the evening, so we had most of the day to do what we wanted. We decided to do something that we had talked about doing in past trips that we had never really done, which was to go see Celebration (for those that don’t know, Celebration is a Disney-planned community that was built during the Michael Eisner era that is about 15 minutes from the Disney property), and then probably stop by Disney Springs for lunch before heading back to Tampa.

That’s it for today. One more day to go...

End of April 19th

 

[cgersic]

Animal Kingdom is truly a favorite for me, so thank you for all of the great photos and the shows! I still haven't seen the new Nemo show, so I guess I'll put that on my list for next time. The dinner at Polite Pig looks delicious!

 

[gwhb75]

I need to get back to AKL. I haven't been since my honeymoon in 2017, but I agree the lobby is amazing.

Definitely my favourite one on property

 

[gwhb75]

Animal Kingdom is truly a favorite for me, so thank you for all of the great photos and the shows! I still haven't seen the new Nemo show, so I guess I'll put that on my list for next time. The dinner at Polite Pig looks delicious!

Animal Kingdom is amazing. Polite Pig was pretty good (we'd probably go again)

 

[gwhb75]

Saturday – Celebration, Springs, then home

This day started like any other Disney day….coffee. We weren’t in a massive rush this morning so we took our time finishing packing, etc. It was a nice start to the day weather wise.

Once we finished our coffees, we bid a final farewell to room 7436 then hauled our cases down to the car. As mentioned, our plan was to go see Celebration. I plugged the destination into Google Maps (yes, I’m an android guy), and about 20 minutes later we were there.

Celebration is a beautiful town. You can see the Disney influence in how everything is laid out. I said to Tammy that it’s exactly what I thought a Disney planned town would look like.

We didn’t really have a plan for our visit here so we just parked the car and started walking. There is a small waterfront area (or a large pond, depending on how you want to look at it), with a walking trail around it, so we headed that way first.

It was really a great walk. The pond had a lot of turtles in it (we love animals).

to be continued

 

[gwhb75]

April 20th continued

We continue our walk around the pond, and noticed a lot of people out walking their dogs which we thought was nice….until…. Tammy suddenly stops walking. She was staring intently and a patch of weeds/bullrushes, etc.

“Is that a gator”?

I know she likes trying to see gators, but is also afraid of them (and we hear stories about dogs getting grabbed by them, which is why we had some concerns about so many dogs walking around the pond).

“Doubt it” I said…

I was wrong.

Yup, that’s a gator.

We just stood there for a minute watching it (at a safe distance). They really don’t move at all. Well that was interesting. There was also a lot of less dangerous wildlife around too (although it’s pretty obvious the squirrels are being fed by humans because they were very friendly and not the least bit afraid).

We continued our walk around the pond, and noticed there were little boardwalks going into the wooded areas that surrounded the pond.

We kept walking and came to a bike rental place on the trail. The woman who was working there was very friendly, and gave us some interesting facts about Celebration (she had lived there her whole life):

• Celebration was built during the Michael Eisner era at Disney and was originally owned by Disney, but they divested themselves of it once it was complete. It was kind of an extension of Walt’s EPCOT idea.
• Celebration is designed around villages, with each village being themed to a region of the US (e.g. Midwest, West coast, etc).
• Those little boardwalks we saw lead to other villages and walking paths (Celebration is know for it’s walking trails)
• There are very strict rules around what you can or can’t do with your property (kind of like an extreme version of a HOA). For example, there is an area of really expensive homes that back on to one of the ponds, and the rule is that all the homes in that area have to have a water feature in their backyard.

We stood there and talked to her for about 20 minutes (it was a quiet day for her). We mentioned we had seen a gator and she asked “which one”? LOL. She said there are two in the pond right now, there is a smaller one, and there is a big 6 foot one that they are going to remove soon. She then points to the pond and says “there he is”.

Yup, off in the distance you could see this big thing moving across the pond. She was saying there was a day last summer when she was sitting on a log on the edge of the woods eating a sandwich when a gator walked up behind her from the woods. I guess this doesn’t really faze Floridians?

We wrapped up our chat and continued exploring. It is actually a very nice town. There is a hotel (that looks suspiciously like the Boardwalk hotel) that we went in to.

The price wasn’t terrible (around $250/night). We explored a bit more and the decided to call it a day for Celebration.

to be continued