Trip Report Unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings..... (8/5-8/9 2017)

...soaring, tumbling, free-wheeling through an endless flight of passage line.
Just back from a magical 5 day trip! We booked just 3 shorts weeks in advance. Who said impromptu trips were impossible?! So just to recap from my pre-trip report...
Who?
My family of 4, and we travelled with close family friends of 3 who I grew up calling aunt/uncle/cousin. I wasn't sure if they would want their picture posted so I'm going to just focus on my family. 7 of us total..how hard could planning be?!

My brother (17), my mom (21), myself (20), and my dad (21 and a half)

Where?
My parents stayed in a Garden View Room at the Contemporary and my brother and I stayed with the other family in a 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom villa at Bay Lake Tower.
I don't have any pictures of the room at the Contemporary but I snapped a few of our room.

I slept on this wonderful pull out couch.

This was our kitchen that never really got used.

I did have my own bathroom so that was great.
I don't have pictures of the other 2 rooms because there was always people sleeping in there

We had a theme park view which was awesome. I loved laying in bed at night and being able to see the monorail pass through the curtains

I'm currently in the middle of moving but I'm going to try and post everything asap while it's still fresh in my brain

Day 1 coming up next...​

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Thank you! She's a bichon.

Love your little bichon. We had one for 16 years, loved it!!!

 

[ChristyKay]

Hey y'all, sorry I haven't updated in a while. I was between leases so I was staying in a hotel and I didn't have wifi. I'm finally settled into my new place, but Hurricane Harvey is hitting us hard. My childhood home in Houston is flooded. My family is safe and I'm in my college town. We haven't had any flooding yet but my roof is leaking and maintenance can't fix it while it's still raining.
The first couple days of classes is cancelled and I don't plan on leaving the house anytime soon, so I will finish the trip report soon

 

[LowesChevy]

Being a Passholder is the bees knees....we are able to take another trip during the year

 

[Zipadeelady]

Sorry to hear about Harvey. Hope all is well.

 

[joshsprincess921]

Hey y'all, sorry I haven't updated in a while. I was between leases so I was staying in a hotel and I didn't have wifi. I'm finally settled into my new place, but Hurricane Harvey is hitting us hard. My childhood home in Houston is flooded. My family is safe and I'm in my college town. We haven't had any flooding yet but my roof is leaking and maintenance can't fix it while it's still raining.
The first couple days of classes is cancelled and I don't plan on leaving the house anytime soon, so I will finish the trip report soon

So sorry you are having to deal with this. Glad you are all safe. I'm next door in Louisiana and we had the floods last year. It's so sad to see. We are getting a lot of rain from the outer band.

 

[ChristyKay]

Day 2 Part 2!!!
After HS we got on the boat to Epcot.
After stopping at all the resorts, we stepped foot into my favorite park, Epcot!!!

Okay so I don't have any pictures from this because we were literally there for an hour so...oops.

Right when we got to the park it looked like it was about to start pouring. So what did we do? Headed for Universe of Energy! This was my first and last time riding UoE. As a first time rider, I will say I did enjoy it mostly because it was new to me. I do agree the video is pretty outdated, but it was still kind of funny since I had never seen it before. The ride vehicles are amazing and so are the dinosaur scenes. Although I enjoyed the ride, I don't think I'll miss it just because it doesn't have that nostalgia factor for me.

By the time we got out of UoE, the rain had stopped. Test Track was back open but the line was still over an hour wait so we did single rider. I have a love hate relationship with single rider lines. Obviously I love the fact that the lines are super short, but on rides like TT it's super awkward getting into a car with a family of 5 who expects to have the car to themselves. The family I got put with told me I was getting in the wrong car, and I had to explain to them I was put there because I was riding alone, awkward!

After TT my mom and I decided to head to AK for Pandora EMH. 3 parks in 1 day?! I will admit I almost threw in the towel and went back to the hotel...but I'm in Disney World!! I can sleep when I'm home. We decided to buy the express transportation. After running around trying to find it, we bought the 7 day deal and got on our own bus since no one else was heading to AK. The bus dropped us off backstage and we entered the park in the back of Africa. We loved it!! I'm so upset Disney has just continued this. Every time we used it (which was literally twice), we were alone on the bus so I can see how that wasn't very efficient but maybe they could use smaller vehicles.

The first thing I noticed when we got to AK was that the Safari was still open and it was like 8 pm. I've never seen them open that late!! This was my first trip back to AK since 2015 so I don't know when they started doing that but how do you even see?! It was pitch black. And there was still an hour wait!

We got there around 8 but decided we didn't want to head over to Pandora until 10 when EMH started. We went to EE first, and only waited 10 minutes, what!?!?!? Next we did Primeval Whirl. I know a lot of people hate on this, but it's one of my favorites. I will admit I forgot how rough it is but it's so fun. We literally walked right on so nothing beats that. We rode dinosaur, which was also a walk on.

That's my mom and I in the middle... super flattering picture, I know.
Also fun fact I just realized that I bought the same Mickey Mouse shirt that the guy int he front is wearing at Target last week because I had to dress up like an animal for a sorority thing so obviously I picked Mickey. I was too lazy to make like a legit costume so I wore that shirt and Mickey Ears and called it a day.

After Dinosaur we went to that QS place next to Dinosaur (I forget what it's called).

My mom cut off a piece of my burger before I took the pic, I promise they didn't serve it to me like that!!
We left the restaurant with my burger and walked over to Pandora...and then we realized we didn't know where Pandora is. We asked a CM and still got lost..so we just followed the mass of people.

Y'all I am not even kidding you when I tell you that I looked like a chicken with my head cut off trying to navigate through Pandora in the dark. I couldn't see anything, I was trying to eat my french fries, there were people everywhere, it was a mess.
Extra tidbit of information...ketchup looks disgusting under blacklight. Disgusting.

So finally we found NRJ. I don't remember what the posted time was, but we waited around 30-45 minutes. I was super excited for this ride (and FOP) because how often do you get to ride a ride for the very first time?! I thought the ride was really pretty, but not something I would wait in line for again.

Then it was time to brave the line for FOP..
First we stopped at that little drink stand and got those pineapple cream cheese pastry things, sorry I have no idea what they were called but it was something weird. They were good but super sweet. I'm pretty sure I took a pic but I can't find it.
The line was posted at 120 minutes and we waited just over a hour. My feet were KILLING me the entire time. Ugh it was awful. But OMG that ride was worth it. It was so awesome!! I heard so many great things about it and I'm glad it lived up to expectations. I had goosebumps the entire time and I didn't even finish the movie. Easily one of the best rides Disney has ever created.

By the time we got off it was around midnight and we went back to the hotel and we had to wake up early to go to...Animal Kingdom again!!!!

 

[blreinsel]

Hoping life is getting back to "normal" for you following Harvey. We're feeling the same way right now being displaced by Irma! Sending you lots of pixie dust!