Trip Report The Redemption Tour

Good morning, everyone! It’s time for me to share another trip report

I was in Disney from 11/16-11/23 and had the best time!

A quick little refresher, my name is Jillian, I am married and have two girls, Sage is almost 15 and Aria is 10. My husband has tolerated many family Disney trips throughout the years but after our last family trip in March 2023, he decided he didn’t need to go anymore

Disney is my one true love so this was not an option for me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to take my kids alone, they have much different interests and just don’t get along that well. So I decided to take them separately.

Sage and I went last August. Overall the trip was good but Sage did not handle the heat & humidity well at all. She was overall very grouchy and whiny. We did attend the Halloween party while we were there and some of you may remember it was an absolute disaster. It down poured, thundered & lightning the entire night. So much was closed and cancelled and we were so disappointed. That was Sage’s first party experience and only my second.

My plan for 2025 was to take Aria in November so we could do the Christmas party. Unfortunately about a week before we were set to leave, we had to make a drastic decision. Aria has been having some very extreme behavior and mental health struggles lately. She’s been to many doctors, she’s been tested, she has a diagnosis but despite all our efforts, things have just been really really difficult. I did apply for DAS for her but was denied. So at the last minute, we just decided it was not a good time for her and I to travel alone together. I promised her I would take her at some point in the future when our situation had improved. My husband suggested I go alone (which I would have loved) but I ultimately decided to take Sage with me. First of all, I knew it would be easier on my husband to not be a personal Uber driver to two kids on his own. But also, I truly felt like Sage deserved another trip. She has grown up and matured quite a bit in the last year, she has a small part time job and she’s doing really well in school. I wanted her to know her actions were seen and being rewarded. And I also wanted Aria to realize that special things are a privilege and not a right.

So long story short, it was time for mom and Sage- The Redemption Tour

Here’s a picture of us from our last trip in August 2024

 

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Finally at about 8:35, the parade gets to us. I didn’t watch any videos ahead of time so I could experience it somewhat spoiler free.

I really really enjoyed it. I loved that Asha was included! My only small complaint is the dead space between floats. I wish there were more dancers or characters walking between the floats. I really liked how Tinkerbell was fluttering around interacting with the crowd. I wish there was more of that. And I wish instead of one giant princess float, there were a few smaller individual floats. Rapunzel and Flynn definitely should have had their own float with lanterns. Overall though, I’m very glad that a nighttime parade has finally returned to Magic Kingdom.

Lots of pics!

 

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I would have been fine leaving after this but of course, Sage wanted to see the fireworks. Because of the delay in the parade, I knew we wouldn’t have time to make to the hub or Main Street so I suggested we go behind the castle. I’ve seen videos where characters sometimes roam around back there during fireworks. And just looks like a unique view.
Unfortunately, the noise from them being directly overhead was too much for Sage. Even with her noise cancelling ear plugs. So we had to leave. But on the plus side, we beat the crowd to the buses

And that’s the end of our super long day This day was classic Sage- she wanted to do EVERYTHING. Girl has serious FOMO

 

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You did pack a lot into your day.

I’ve found that if you want to watch fireworks in fantasyland a good spot is near the teacups. It’s not quite as loud and there’s hardly any people there.

The amount of VIP tour groups was crazy. I hardly saw any in the summer, but that week there were so many

 

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You did pack a lot into your day.

I’ve found that if you want to watch fireworks in fantasyland a good spot is near the teacups. It’s not quite as loud and there’s hardly any people there.

The amount of VIP tour groups was crazy. I hardly saw any in the summer, but that week there were so many

That’s great to know, thanks! I’ll have to remember that for next time. Sage is very sound sensitive but usually the earplugs help.

Yeah the amount of VIP groups was insane. It became a game for us to point them out whenever we saw them.

 

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Day 5- 11/20

Finally, a day to sleep in!

This was our party day! Sage really wanted to do a late breakfast character meal like we did last year before the Halloween party. I gave her a few options- Ohana, Cape May Cafe, Chef Mickey’s or 1900 Park Fare. She chose 1900 Park Fare because she “likes the vibes at the Grand Floridian” We had been to 1900 PF once before but it was pre-covid before the character changes. We really liked it then so I was looking forward to seeing how it compared.

Sage was super excited to wear her jaunty hat from this year’s Halloween costume.

We took the bus to MK and then the boat to the GF. We had some time before we could check in so we explored the lobby. Sage was very upset there was no gingerbread house.

We went into Basin because I am obsessed with their soap and then we saw a Photopass photographer and figured, why not. She had some fun props.

 

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So overall this breakfast was… fine. The buffet was pretty standard. Not a lot of unique options. The only thing I really loved was the breakfast flatbread. The carved ham was super dry. Sage bit into a Mickey waffle and the inside was raw batter. I did tell our server so she could let the chefs know. And speaking of our server, we barely saw her. I get it’s a buffet but after saying her initial hello, the only other time we saw her was when she brought the check.

Bonus points for POG juice though

The characters were fine as well, they didn’t spend a whole lot of time with us but I get that we are adults. Or one adult and one large child. Once the characters all went through the dining room, we were just sitting, I was finishing my coffee and another cast member, I assume a manager came over to us and asked if we met all the characters. I said yes and I could tell this was our hint to vacate our table. I just felt a little rushed overall.

I honestly can’t recommend this character meal, which I don’t love admitting. I can only recommend it if someone in your party desperately wants to meet one of these characters.

 

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When we got back to AoA, I decided to walk around and check out all the other sections. It really is a very cool resort. And one thing I forgot to mention, I had read in one of my many Disney groups that you can request daily mousekeeping even if your resort doesn’t offer it. I requested it when we checked in and they came every day! Nothing beats coming back to a perfectly made bed.

 

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And now, it’s party time!

One quick note, back when I thought this trip was going to be me and Aria, I purchased us 7 day park hoppers. I knew Aria would not be able to do long marathon days so I was purposely planning for shorter days, spread out over the whole week. My plan for our party day was to arrive at about 2pm, purchase LL multipass and do a few rides before the party started. I thought having 3-5 rides done on this day would take some of the stress off of our full MK day.

So obviously I did not purchase LLs for Sage and I but I told her I still wanted to arrive around 2pm to actually use our park ticket. Well we didn’t end up arriving until about 3. So obviously the upgrade from the 6 day to the 7 day ticket wasn’t worth it but, what can you do

So prior to 4pm, I know we did the carousel and I know Sage made me ride Small World again. I don’t think we did anything else.

We then walked over to Tomorrowland and got in line to get our party bracelets. The plan was to get to the Jack & Sally meet and greet as fast as we could. Meeting them was my top priority since we weren’t able to last year at the Halloween party.

Thankfully they started the bracelet / ornament/ treat distribution at about 3:50!

We made it to Jack & Sally by 4pm and got in line. It was a posted 70 minute wait but we were pleasantly surprised when we were entering the room about 45 minutes later.

Unfortunately our joy was short lived. For some reason, only Jack was there. I asked the CM if Sally would be back and she said yes. I asked if we could wait and she said no

Sage instantly got very upset and I have to admit, I was too. Sage couldn’t understand why they would put Jack AND Sally on the sign if she wasn’t there. And she also didn’t understand why a cast member didn’t let the line know she wasn’t there so we could have chosen to exit and come back later. And honestly, I agreed.

After we met Jack, I went out to the cast member at the front of the queue and explained how disappointed we were. I very kindly and politely asked if we could come back later and meet them both without waiting in the long line.

Thankfully, he said we could

 

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While waiting for Jack and (not) Sally, I mobile ordered us dinner at Casey’s Corner. I used to watch a lot of Allears and Mammoth Club and every vlogger on those channels always raved about the corn dog nuggets. I’ve been wanting to try them for awhile and today was finally the day!

I don’t know what I was expecting but honestly they were terrible Just mini hot dogs One and done for me.
A+ frozen mint julep though

I think after that we went to the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Sage has never done it and wanted to check out. I weirdly didn’t take any pictures.

Then we made our way to the hub for the 6:15 Frozen show. The show is very cute but it still baffles me that they never even mention that it’s not their castle, that they are visiting Cinderella and/or attending a ball. Just very strange that it suddenly just belongs to them.

 

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So much like Jack and Sally were at the top of my list, meeting Eeyore was at the top of Sage’s list. We decided to get in the line right after the show ended.
We made it over to the queue at about 6:30. I was hoping once they came out at 7, the line would move quickly.
I could not have been more wrong. We didn’t make it to the front of the line until 7:50. So almost an hour of wasted party time on one character meet and greet. I wasn’t upset or mad at Sage obviously. Just really annoyed. Maybe it’s just me but when you pay that much for a special event, nothing should be a 50 minute wait.

I thought this picture was funny- Pooh got Mike Wasowski’d

We then made our way back over to Jack and Sally. On the way, we picked up our first treats of the night. I didn’t take pictures because we were eating and drinking as we were walking but this was treat #1.

Overall my 2nd favorite cookie of the night.

And then finally- Jack AND Sally!

 

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We then walked back over to Tomorrowland, picking up this cookie on the way-

I really wanted to ride the party version of Space Mountain. Sage didn’t think she could handle it so she (of course) opted for yet another spin on the People Mover.

Space Mountain was awesome! Not quite as good as the Halloween Party version but so fun.

We then took the long way behind the castle over to Adventureland to pick up our next two treats.

The gingerbread was my favorite of the 4 we tried! I would have loved to swing back through and grab another but the line was so long. It started at Sunshine Tree Terrace and snaked way past the egg roll cart.

At this point, the first half of our night was complete. We met Jack and Sally, we met Eeyore, I rode Space Mountain and we were able to sample 4 out of 6 treats.

Now it was time for the second half of the night- fireworks, the stage show and the parade. I REALLY wanted to be on Main Street for the parade to experience the snoap. Our initial plan to was the find a spot on Main Street and just camp out for all 3 events. However once we actually got there, we realized we couldn’t see the castle stage at all. So we decided we would go to the hub for the fireworks and stage show and then go back to Main Street for the parade.

We walked around the hub so many times and it was completely packed. We finally found a space to squeeze in but as you can see, our view wasn’t the best.

 

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Thankfully the hub cleared a bit after the fireworks and we had much more room to breathe.

The stage show was fine. Definitely not my favorite. I really didn’t like the whole cell phone/ texting storyline.

After the show we went back to Main Street which over course was now pretty much completely full. I was really hoping to be able to sit on the curb but we ended up being back on the sidewalk with several people in front us.
A Photopass photographer was walking around while everyone was waiting.

Our view was good though and the parade and snoap were magical!

 

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We then had time for one more thing- the Speedway. We really wanted to ride this at night so we could see the holiday lights. Sage thought it would be fun to do last.

So that’s it! That’s the end of our party night. Overall, it was super successful. We did everything that was on our list except for 2 of the treats. It really was super fun but, I still had the feeling of being rushed all night. We were literally running from one thing to the next. It wasn’t nearly as relaxing or chill as I was hoping. It was just way too crowded. I’d rank our Halloween Party disaster at a 4 out of 10 (and that’s being the generous). The Christmas Party was a solid 8 out of 10.

 

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Day 6- 11/21
We of course slept in a little after a late night at the party and before going back to Epcot, we made a stop in Disney Springs.
I’ve been wanting to try Everglazed for the longest time and today was finally the day
It lived up to the hype, amazing all around.

We shopped a bit, looked at some of the trees and then Sage says mom, I’ve always wanted to try Salt and Straw, can we get ice cream too
YOLO

Back to our room to drop off our merch and once again, beds freshly made by Mousekeeping!

 

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It was then time for Epcot day 2! There were a few pavilions we didn’t get the chance to visit on our first day.
Bumped into the cutest Penguin on the way in!

First stop, my #1 guy, Donald

I of course had to get a picture alone

I LOVE the Mexico pavilion. I love the ride, I love all the merch. It was so hard not to buy everything.

Obsessed with these plushes in their own little boat!

And this Loungefly

I did end up buying a cup- see my total merch haul for the week below

 

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Next we went over to Norway. We were never able to get a LL for the Frozen ride on our first day so we decided to wait standby. 45 minutes

I beg of you to zoom in on the little girl in the middle

Saw Snow White walking through Germany

We desperately needed real food after our lunch of donuts and ice cream so we made our way over to Les Halles. I was not impressed the last time we were here but I decided to give them another chance. Everything was good but I still don’t really get the hype.
We split the cheese plate, a baguette and ham and cheese croissant.

We continued on with our pavilion exploration, visiting most of the shops.

And we caught this lady duck just admiring the view.

 

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Continuing on with our night time Epcot tour.

I had another single pass for Guardians and Sage did single rider on Test Track.

The Moana walkthrough is so pretty at night

Sage also made me ride Spaceship Earth again.

On our way to skyliner we picked up one last snack. Maple popcorn in Canada.

OMG why have I been sleeping on this?!? Literally the best snack ever.

And that’s the end of our chill day at Epcot

 

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Day 7- 11/22

Our final day. But also, one of our best days. This was our one and only day at Hollywood Studios.
We did have multipass booked for Slinky, Mania and the new Little Mermaid show. I was planning to rope drop RnRC and ToT so I wouldn’t have to waste LLs on them later. Sage doesn’t like either of these rides. I told her the night before she could sleep in and meet me closer to 9:30 but she said she would try to just come with me.
Well after several wake up attempts, it was clear she was not going to make it so I left and told her to meet me later.

It was so quiet and peaceful in this area.

“Disappear into the night at the Tip Top Club”

I started with Rock N Roller Coaster and walked right on. Sadly the preshow was not playing. I knew this would be my last ride ever before the change.

Got my own car!

I then went over to Tower of Terror, my favorite ride in all of Disney World and again, walked right on.

Early entry was technically at 8:30 but I was done with both rides by 8:40.