Trip Report The Cold Never Bothered Us Anyway - December 2024

Happy New Year, WDW Magic Friends!

We have been back from our latest WDW for nearly a month, so it's high time I get started on our trip report, before I forget everything that happened.

The cast of characters:

Me, Katie - thirty-something mom, wife, and Disney trip planner extraordinaire

Jason - My husband of 11 years, fellow Disney adult, happy to be along for the ride

Lincoln - Our precocious three-year-old son, Jason's twin, lover of characters and roller coasters

Sunday, December 1st - Travel Day

I was up and at 'em shortly after 4:00 am, after a fitful nights' sleep. Between the excitement (we're going to Disney!) and the anxiety (what if all of our reservations randomly get canceled?), I can never sleep the night before a trip. I got J up around 4:30, and he and I quickly got ourselves ready to go and packed up last-minute items in our "go bag." We always get Lincoln out of bed last, hoping that he'll stay asleep while we transfer him to the car seat, but it never works out that way. The three of us were wide awake and pulling out of the driveway just after 5:00 am.

We made our first stop of the trip at Buc-ee's, where we all had a potty break and grabbed some breakfast.

I sat in the back with Lincoln for the next leg of the trip to try to keep the breakfast mess under control, and get him set up with a movie on his tablet.

Don't mind my disgusting car window - Lincoln has these little suction cup car toys that constantly fall off and get re-attached, thus the million little circle marks on the window.

We stopped again for gas and another potty break shortly after crossing over into Florida. And once we hit Gainesville, this was our view for the next hour and a half.

This was the second trip in a row that we ended up stuck in traffic for over an hour on the way down, and both times the traffic was not in Atlanta! This time around, I had considered booking a hotel room in Lake City for the night before our check-in day, so that we could drive most of the way down the night before and be on property before Noon. Plus, that would keep us from having to wake up so early to drive down. For our next trip, I'm definitely booking that hotel room for the night before.

Thankfully, Lincoln was a good sport, and kept himself entertained.

Finally, shortly after 1:30 pm, we passed through the magical gates, and all of our troubles disappeared.

Up next: Disney Springs

 

[erstwo]

Sunday, December 1st - Arrival Day - Continued

Around 5:15, we headed back to Disney Springs for our 5:50 dinner reservation at Homecomin'. We checked in right at 5:50, and were seated at an outdoor table less than 5 minutes later.

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J and I both got one of the moonshines on tap to drink - Sweet Tea Shine for J, and Strawberry Lemonade Shine for me. We also got the Bunch of Puppies appetizer - hush puppies served with a side of pepper jelly and pimento cheese. We had hoped Lincoln would enjoy the appetizer, since he normally loves hushpuppies, but he said that these were too spicy.

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For our meals, L got the kid's cheeseburger with mac and cheese and peas and carrots, J got the Fried Chicken Sandwich, and I got the Harvest Salad with fried chicken.

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We all really enjoyed our meals, and I managed to get Lincoln to eat two whole bites of veggies on a Disney vacation, so I'd say it was a success. We were on the dining plan this trip, which meant we all get dessert. We were all stuffed, so we ordered our dessert to go - L got the kids' donuts (glazed donuts from Everglazed), J got the Shine Cake, and I got the Hummingbird Cake. Lincoln ate one of his donuts when we got back to the room - I tried a bite, it was a basic glazed donut. I had a few bites of my hummingbird cake that night after L went to bed - it was very good, but veeeerrryyy sweet. I could not have finished it.

After dinner, we decided to walk through World of Disney...

I think this particular day was the most crowded we had ever seen Disney Springs - it was absolute wall-to-wall people, everywhere you looked. World of Disney is already the busiest store in Disney Springs, and can be overstimulating on a normal day, but on a day this crowded, it can be downright unpleasant. We decided to stick with and and push (not literally) through the crowds to look around.

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On this trip, Lincoln deployed a new tactic for getting us to buy him something - he would point something out and say "I don't have one of those!"

He managed to talk us into a Grogu Cuddleez plush and a Mickey baseball cap that came with sunglasses, that he has not worn one single time since then. I also snagged a t-shirt that I had been wanting for over a year. Since the checkout lines were crazy, we opted to use the Mobile Checkout feature on the MDE app, which was a huge timesaver throughout the trip. It was getting close to bedtime when we left World of Disney, so we decided we'd come back to DS another day, and headed back to Pop.

When we got back to Pop, we cruised by the main building to get our refillable mugs, and I grabbed some pics of the Christmas tree in the lobby.

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If you read our trip report from 2023, you may remember that I had bought an inflatable toddler bed and a blackout sleep tent for Lincoln to sleep in, since he had outgrown the pack-n-play, and was not used to sleeping in a full-size bed. It was a disaster in 2023, but we let Lincoln sleep with the blackout tent over his bed at home a few times over the course of the year, hoping that we would have better luck with this setup in 2024. We brought this sleep setup with us again on this trip, and set it up before heading out to dinner - L was very excited to sleep in his tent. A few hours later, now that it was bedtime, he was not having it. He said that the inflatable bed was not comfortable and it "hurt his butt."

Finally, well past 9pm, I gave up the fight and pulled down the Murphy bed for Lincoln to sleep on. I didn't want to have to wait up for someone from the front desk to bring up bedrails, so we stacked some pillows on the edges of the bed and prayed that L wouldn't roll off (he didn't, thankfully, but I was so anxious about it that I barely slept that night). Around 10:00 pm, L finally drifted off to sleep, and J and I were asleep not long after that.

Up next: Animal Kingdom Day

‘The I don’t have one of those’ and ‘hurts my butt’ are cracking me up!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Our safari in June that we did right at park opening didn't have a lot of animals either and I think part of the problem is they don't feed them out on on the savanna until a little later, so some just stay in their indoor enclosures until they start the outdoor feedings. The cold definitely could have had something with them staying inside longer too!!

 

[k8einwdw]

‘The I don’t have one of those’ and ‘hurts my butt’ are cracking me up!

Kids say the darndest things

Our safari in June that we did right at park opening didn't have a lot of animals either and I think part of the problem is they don't feed them out on on the savanna until a little later, so some just stay in their indoor enclosures until they start the outdoor feedings. The cold definitely could have had something with them staying inside longer too!!

Maybe we’ll try for a later start next time!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 2nd - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After our safari, J and I were both in need of some coffee. I had seen several people on TikTok rave about the coconut iced coffee from Kusafiri Bakery, so we decided to give it a try. I'm pleased to say we were not disappointed! While we enjoyed our coffees, L chowed on some Cheez-Its and fruit leather.

Lincoln was getting a little cranky at this point, saying he didn't want to go to Animal Kingdom anymore, and he wanted to go play in the hotel room. We decided he could use some time to run around and burn some energy, so we took him over to the Boneyard playground in Dinoland. We're really hoping they retheme/repurpose this playground, rather than getting rid of it. We've already lost our beloved Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure playground, don't take this one from us too!

Lincoln enjoyed climbing on everything and going down all of the big slides, but his favorite part of this area was the dig site. We ended up staying here for an hour, letting him run around and play, but he could have easily stayed all day!

I finally convinced him to leave the playground with the promise of another ride - TriceraTop Spin! We knew that this would be our last chance to ride, and this is one of Lincoln's favorites in AK, so it was a must-do for us. We waited about 10 minutes to ride.

After our ride, Lincoln wanted to play a couple of the carnival games (not going to miss forking out the extra money for these). He lost the water shooter game, but, with Dad's help, won the whack-a-dino game. His prize was a tiny plush Moana, who came in handy throughout the trip when L got antsy waiting for shows. Lincoln was hungry again at this point, so we grabbed refill # 1 for our popcorn bucket.

Up next: Farewell, Dinoland

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 2nd - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

While L was chowing on his popcorn, J stayed with him while I walked around to take some farewell pics of Dinoland. I'm definitely excited for the new Tropical Americas area, but there are a few things I'm going to miss from Dinoland. One of those things is Chester and Hester's Dinosaur Treasures. This has always been one of the most fun and unique shops in WDW, and in a world where World of Disney and MouseGears have both received the bland warehouse theme makeover, the theming in here was much appreciated.

I can't say I'll miss Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama - I know the little ones (including Lincoln) love TriceraTop Spin, but this area could be so much more. Hopefully the new area will have more shade - it has always felt like walking on the surface of the sun during the hot months in this spot.

RIP Donald's Dino Bash - the celebration that was supposed to take place over the summer of 2018, but has lasted for six and a half years.

Farewell, Santasaurus.

Up next: Our first character encounters of the trip

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 2nd - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

While we were over by Chester & Hester's Kevin happened to stop by - Lincoln was very excited, yelling out to her. I have shown him "Up," but I think he mostly associates Kevin with Animal Kingdom.

We also decided to try our luck with a character meet while we were in the area. L had been iffy about the characters in 2023, and he had wanted nothing to do with Santa a couple weeks prior to the trip, so we were nervous about how he would do with the characters on this trip. Turns out, we had nothing to worry about.

We are for SURE going to miss the Chipmunk-asauruses.

Up next: Wrapping up our time at Animal Kingdom

 

[k8einwdw]

It’s a snow day! A rare treat for us in Georgia.

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 2nd - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After wrapping up our time in Dinoland, we made the journey over to Asia. We had heard people rave about Mr. Kamal's seasoned fries for years, and by dern, we were finally going to try them this year. I can report that they are worth the hype! Lincoln partook in a few of the fries, but said that the sriracha mayo was too spicy (fair enough).

We were sitting in a covered pavilion with a great view of Tree of Life- I believe this is where Baloo and King Louie used to meet, but don't quote me on that. I headed down the ramp to get some pics of the Tree of Life, and someone just had to be included.

While we were in the area, we decided to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek. One of the tigers was out walking around!

After our trek, J and I had planned to take turns riding Expedition Everest via the single rider line, but the ride was down at that point in time. We were all still hungry, so we mobile-ordered some lunch from Satu'Li Canteen, and headed that direction. The park wasn't particularly crowded on this day, but it seems like everyone in the park was at Satu'Li Canteen. We ended up having to sit at an outside table - thankfully, it had warmed up a bit at this point. For lunch, I got my usual grilled chicken bowl, J got the combination beef and chicken bowl, and L got the cheeseburger pod kids meal.

Everyone enjoyed their lunch, and we had done just about everything we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom, so we decided to start slowly making our way out of the park. First, we popped back into Dinoland to get Lincoln a pressed penny, since it would likely be our last chance for a Dinoland penny. It was at this point that we learned that all of the pressed penny machines, which had accepted only quarters or credit card in 2023, had been converted to accept only dollar bills or credit card. We had brought $20 in quarters, graciously provided by the grandparents. Thankfully, I had exactly (1) $1 bill on me, but we would have to figure something out for the rest of the trip.

After getting our Dinoland penny, we walked back through the main shops on Discovery Island. Lincoln conned us into getting him a tiny Simba plush - "I don't have one of these!" On our way out, we saw the Merry Menagerie, which L LOVED!

We exited the park shortly after 2:30 pm, stopping to take some pics of the Christmas tree on our way out - this is my favorite tree in the parks!

Up next: A Magic Kingdom evening

 

[erstwo]

Where do we Venmo you for ‘all the things Lincoln doesn’t have yet’ fund?
It’s just too cute!

 

[belledream]

I was up and at 'em shortly after 4:00 am, after a fitful nights' sleep. Between the excitement (we're going to Disney!) and the anxiety (what if all of our reservations randomly get canceled?), I can never sleep the night before a trip.

I felt this in my soul.

One of those things is Chester and Hester's Dinosaur Treasures. This has always been one of the most fun and unique shops in WDW, and in a world where World of Disney and MouseGears have both received the bland warehouse theme makeover, the theming in here was much appreciated.

And this. Thank you for taking these pictures! I feel the exact same way about this shop and the ship has sailed.

Can’t wait to read more!