Trip Report Welcome to summer at WDW! Where it's hot hot hot and clothes don't matter

Seriously, the lack of clothing on some people was questionable

Hello! I've been back from my short and sweet trip for a few weeks and I am sooo ready to relive it through this TR! This was a nice long weekend trip that went by way too fast! I must apologize in advance for some of my pictures, they are pretty terrible. Most of them are from my iPhone and I was walkin' and snappin' away!

Saturday, July 14 : Arrival day & EPCOT!

I'm a late college attendee (like I dropped out because I was young and dumb and didn't know what I wanted to do. Boy am I paying for that now!). This summer I took 3 classes, one of which is a month long class. Of course, the first test for this month long class opened on 7/14 and closed on 7/15 . This meant I had to be up at midnight when my test window opened (I take my classes online). Anyway i'm only including this because it's the reason I only got about an hour of sleep before my alarm clock when off. Oh well!

So around 3 a.m. we headed to the airport. We found parking quickly this time and headed to security...

...to our surprise TSA wasn't even open yet!


Turns out, security at the Memphis airport does not open until 4 a.m.! WHY. WHY WHY WHY. We went and sat down to wait and watched the line grow.

(I promise you, this line looks like nothing but it was huge for Memphis! Plus you can't see all of the people waiting off to the right. It was ridiculous)

Anyway, we finally made it to our gate at 4:30 a.m. for 4:45 a.m. boarding! Once on the plane we had to wait for other people who were still stuck in the security line. Come on Memphis!! Open the line earlier!! Ugh. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:15, but it was almost 6 when we finally took off.



We've been rewatching The Office on Netflix, so that was our entertainment on the flight.


We landed around 8:30 a.m. and made our way to DME



We walked right onto a bus and 5 minutes later we were on the way to the bubble.

We're here!!!


Dropped our bags off at Bell Services, stopped by the food court for muffins and cokes (we needed our caffeine today), and bought some sunscreen at Maestro Mickey's.


Our destination for the day


We're ready!


Hello, beautiful SSE



Our first stop was Soarin'. It had about a 30 minute wait but it wasn't bad. We passed the time by playing on the new parks app.




Soarin' was great, but I still miss the original.

 

[DisneyMorgan]

On our way to Castle Couture




I had to buy my daughter the Tinkerbell dress. The Disney cruise we are going on in Oct. is a Halloween on the High Seas cruise. We plan to dress up as characters from Peter Pan, sooooo we will see how that goes. So far she is the only one with a costume lol


It was a gorgeous night



We had to stop in the Christmas store! I picked up a 2018 ornament and a new coffee mug





It was around 8pm, so we went and got a really close up spot for HEA. Of course some really obnoxious kids squeezed into a spot next to us and were super annoying. One kid didn't even have shoes on? And she had her feet all over the peoples stuff who were in front of her. Yuck!




I love HEA! Personally I like it more than Wishes!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

It was great seeing the projections this close! However we did have fireworks debris fall on us. We needed that fireworks outfit from the Epcot CM!




After the fireworks, we made a beeline towards Aloha Isle. Time for dessert round 2!


We took one last spin on Pirates, then headed out of the park. We stopped in a couple stores on the way out.




We made it on a bus and we were almost back to Music when it happened. Our bus broke down. We were thiiiiiiiiiis close (we are the blue dot)


Hi. We're tired and everyone is cranky and they won't let us off for safety reasons.


Also posted this on insta while waiting for maintenance. My very concerned MIL immediately sent me a text asking if we were ok lol


They sent busses, but Cody wanted to walk back to Music. So we walked! Then walking turned into speed walking when the thunder and lightning started off in the distance! Luckily we made it back to our room before the storm.

At least I was able to get some pics of the signs



Back in the room we showered and got ready for bed. We ended the night watching Harry Potter


Tomorrow morning, we join the great Pandora race to FOP

 

[Megbutnotmegan]

Loving your trip report! I thought of it last week when I was in Epcot and some woman walked by with the top of her areolas showing out of her tube top I spent the next few hours wondering if she knew

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Loving your trip report! I thought of it last week when I was in Epcot and some woman walked by with the top of her areolas showing out of her tube top I spent the next few hours wondering if she knew

OMG How did she not realize?! Eek!!

Thanks for reading!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Monday, July 16 - Animal Kingdom

Rise and shine, it's Animal Kingdom time! We were up and at the bus stop early this morning. Soon we were seeing this lovely sight


And then we were seeing this not so lovely sight


Happy Late Birthday, AK!


We followed the mass of people heading to Pandora. We were on FOP within 30 minutes. Not bad! And they directed us through the fp+ queue.












Coffee was MUCH needed, so I grabbed a Starbucks


We enjoyed sipping our coffee as we strolled through Africa

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Safari time! Only a 5 minute wait!




Baby Hippo!



Noooo thank you


I love the painted dogs, they are so cute!! Too bad they'll rip your face off.



My favorite, the giraffes! My home zoo just had a giraffe born a couple weeks ago. We're going to see it this weekend!




Elephants



Baby elephant!


Flamingos


I think this is the closest I've ever seen the rhinos on the safari


The cheetah was actually up and walking around


The lions weren't as exciting as they were last year

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Hello zebra


Pumba!


Rhinos again


And the ostrich


Off to Asia




We grabbed breakfast at Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe. Cody had the breakfast tacos (just like last year), and I had the English muffin breakfast sandwich (sorry I didn't unwrap my sandwich for the pic!)


Best thing to do after eating breakfast? Expedition Everest!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Grabbed a quick pic in front of EE before heading to Dinoland







Luckily, we did not ride with this tour group...


More Dinoland. We never did stick around for any of Donald's Dino-Bash. Oh well!


Our next stop was ITTBAB. While we were walking that way, I heard someone say "Morgan??"


It was @LisaBelle!! We never got a chance to meet up at MK, so I am SOOO HAPPY we got to meet in AK! Lisa, it was so great to meet you and your daughter!! I am sorry if I came off as awkward lol. I was feeling pretty shy!

Time to go watch the bugs while listening to all the children scream

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Our first fp+ was ready for Safari. We stopped for a photopass pic first!



Hooray!



And this is the only animal picture I took.


This safari was not my favorite. It was so humid and muggy (there was a storm coming), the trucks that were out kept stopping because animals were in the road, and I don't think our guide was very exciting. Oh well, I guess they can't all be great!

Towards the end of our safari, it started pouring down rain. We ran into this store to wait it out.


We grabbed snacks (dark chocolate covered pineapple for me, giant CC cookie for Cody) and sat here under the awning


Yay blue skies!


We had a fp+ for EE, but it was closed due to weather.


We decided that we were done with AK for the afternoon, so we made our way out


Stopped by the resort for a few, then decided we wanted to go to Disney Springs




I am NOT a fan of the new World of Disney. It looks so plain. Maybe i'll change my mind once it's complete, but I just don't like it.



My brother in law just got engaged in June, so I had to send this to my future sis in law. She's a big Disney fan as well!


While in WoD, it started to pour down rain. We put on our ponchos and ran to the bus stop. AKL here we come!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

Looks like you're having a blast! Great job on making the most of EMMagic!! Sorry you started feeling so bad! That's always my trick, I love being able to drink in Disney but I have to wait till the evening or just have a mimosa in the am so I don't get sick and can enjoy the day! Not that your problem was alchy-related but...
The VOL are absolutely beautiful! Glad you took time to watch it!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Japanese store! My family lived there for a few years (Japan, not the store ) and I always spend wayyyyy toooo much time and money buying presents for my family in that store!!!

Can't believe you made it on FOP in 30 minutes!! What ungodly time did you have to wake up???????? Lol! Lucky you for getting the Safari's twice! Sorry about the rain and missing out on Everest ! It's one of my favorites!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Looks like you're having a blast! Great job on making the most of EMMagic!! Sorry you started feeling so bad! That's always my trick, I love being able to drink in Disney but I have to wait till the evening or just have a mimosa in the am so I don't get sick and can enjoy the day! Not that your problem was alchy-related but...
The VOL are absolutely beautiful! Glad you took time to watch it!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Japanese store! My family lived there for a few years (Japan, not the store ) and I always spend wayyyyy toooo much time and money buying presents for my family in that store!!!

Can't believe you made it on FOP in 30 minutes!! What ungodly time did you have to wake up???????? Lol! Lucky you for getting the Safari's twice! Sorry about the rain and missing out on Everest ! It's one of my favorites!

We had a great time! I'm not a huge drinker, but I enjoy it every now and then. For me, drinks and heat don't mix very well. It makes me feel awful!

Oooh jealous of living in Japan! It is my goal to go there one day. My grandmother is from Okinawa (my mom was born there too) and I want to go there soo badly!

Well.. this got me thinking and I should clarify. It was probably about 30 minutes once we got in the actual line for the ride (not counting waiting for the park to open, walking back to Pandora, etc.). It moved quickly though! I think it went quicker this year because we didn't have to go through the regular standby line. They sent us through the fp+ line. But yeah, we were up REALLLLLL early. Worth it for sure! Rain wasn't bad, just made it super muggy (but we are used to that anyway so it wasn't a big deal). We were bummed on missing our EE fp+, but at least we got to ride it earlier that day

 

[DisneyMorgan]

I forgot to include my EE and Dinosaur photopass pics, so here they are!



Also! We went to the zoo this morning and saw the baby giraffe! (At least I THINK this is the baby. There wasn't a zoo keeper out so I couldn't ask)

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Continuing on at AKL...

We sat around this fire for a while and researched DVC pros/cons. I loved sitting here!


We ventured outside for a bit. I love AKL!




We were cutting it close to the end of our FOP fp+, so we hopped on a bus back to AK.




After another great ride of FOP, we were off to Asia for dinner!




I spy our table from last year!



Cody got the honey chicken (I think?) and I got the shrimp and chicken lo mein. Mine was good, but I can get better lo mein at home.



We also got the cream cheese wontons for dessert, but my picture seems to have disappeared! Oh well!

After a great dinner, we went by EE to use our floating fp+. I wish I had taken a picture of the fp line! It was huge!! We sat down for a bit and waited to see if line was going to go by quick. Well after about 5 minutes of sitting there and the line not moving at all, we decided we would rather leave AK for the night and go explore some resorts!

Goodbye AK! See ya real soon!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

We took the bus to WL. We checked out the DVC villas first!





And then over to the main lodge. Ugh I want to stay at WL soo badly! I love it there!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

We took a boat over to the Grand Floridian


...and took some awful pics of the Copper Creek cabins on the way haha


We saw some of HEA on the boat. It was great!




Finally at the GF. Cody had never been here before so he was excited!












The grand was, well, Grand! Loved it too! We had one more stop on our resort tour this evening

Monorail gold, take us to the Poly

 

[DisneyMorgan]

More Poly love



We stopped at Tambu Lounge for a drink


Island Sunset


More exploring


We didn't even try going into Trader Sam's. Next time!


*Swoooooooooooon*











The Poly was hands down our absolute favorite resort. We love everything about it! And just last week we received news that Disney waived their ROFR on the resale contract we put an offer on!!!!! We are in the estoppel stage right and can not WAIT until we get to go to our Poly home I'm also already planning on another points purchase hopefully within the next year or so.

We took a boat back to MK, and then grabbed a bus back to Music. We ended the night with showers and packing since we were going to have another early morning the next day!

Coming up, early EMH in Toy Story Land!

 

[LisaBelle]

It was @LisaBelle!! We never got a chance to meet up at MK, so I am SOOO HAPPY we got to meet in AK! Lisa, it was so great to meet you and your daughter!! I am sorry if I came off as awkward lol. I was feeling pretty shy!

So glad we were able to meet! No worries about feeling shy. I am typically pretty shy and when I first saw you I almost didn’t say hello. I knew I’d regret not saying anything so I had to force myself to call your name. I am sure I sounded louder and more like a weirdo than I intended!
You had a great spot for HEA. It truly is a spectacular show. I was a Wishes lover, but HEA is growing on me!
Congrats on becoming DVC owners! That is super exciting!
Looking forward to reading the rest of your report. One of these days I will finally start mine! We moved our daughter into college yesterday so I will now will have more time on my hands in the evenings.

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! DVC OWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!1 WHAT resort did you pick as your home resort? Didn't you say Beach Club? Bummer you couldn't use your extra FP on Everest but it sounds like you had a lovely evening resort hopping! I'm envious of being able to sea HEA from the boat!!! What awesome timing!!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

So glad we were able to meet! No worries about feeling shy. I am typically pretty shy and when I first saw you I almost didn’t say hello. I knew I’d regret not saying anything so I had to force myself to call your name. I am sure I sounded louder and more like a weirdo than I intended!
You had a great spot for HEA. It truly is a spectacular show. I was a Wishes lover, but HEA is growing on me!
Congrats on becoming DVC owners! That is super exciting!
Looking forward to reading the rest of your report. One of these days I will finally start mine! We moved our daughter into college yesterday so I will now will have more time on my hands in the evenings.

I'm so glad you said hello!!! You didn't sound like a weirdo at all

We did get a great spot! Love HEA!!

Thank you! Everything just happened to fall into place for us to buy it. I am so happy we did! I talked to many DVC owners while we were there and every single person told me they wish they had done it sooner. It didn't take much convincing lol!

Fall semester just started up for me and my daughter started 1st grade, so I've already been slacking on this TR. I'm going to try to get the rest of it posted Sunday night!

Awww Your daughter will have so much fun at college though! Stay strong, momma!

I can't wait to read your TR!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! DVC OWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!1 WHAT resort did you pick as your home resort? Didn't you say Beach Club? Bummer you couldn't use your extra FP on Everest but it sounds like you had a lovely evening resort hopping! I'm envious of being able to sea HEA from the boat!!! What awesome timing!!

Yep! It is exciting!! We bought a resale contract at the Polynesian I do want to stay at Beach Club one day though!

Yeah the Everest fp+ was a bummer, but we honestly had such a great time resort hopping that night! That was one of my favorite parts of our whole trip. It makes me so excited that we will be able to experience staying at these resorts one day.

HEA from the boat was awesome!

 

[LisaBelle]

I'm so glad you said hello!!! You didn't sound like a weirdo at all

We did get a great spot! Love HEA!!

Thank you! Everything just happened to fall into place for us to buy it. I am so happy we did! I talked to many DVC owners while we were there and every single person told me they wish they had done it sooner. It didn't take much convincing lol!

Fall semester just started up for me and my daughter started 1st grade, so I've already been slacking on this TR. I'm going to try to get the rest of it posted Sunday night!

Awww Your daughter will have so much fun at college though! Stay strong, momma!

I can't wait to read your TR!


Yep! It is exciting!! We bought a resale contract at the Polynesian I do want to stay at Beach Club one day though!

Yeah the Everest fp+ was a bummer, but we honestly had such a great time resort hopping that night! That was one of my favorite parts of our whole trip. It makes me so excited that we will be able to experience staying at these resorts one day.

HEA from the boat was awesome!

Glad to hear that I didn’t seem like a weirdo!
Good luck with your new semester of school. I hope your daughter loves first grade! I just moved up to teaching first after 9 years of teaching Kindergarten. First grade is a big adjustment for the kiddos and apparently for the teachers as well, lol!
My daughter called me in tears today. Of course that broke my heart and made me cry, too. She was in full on panic mode with all the new things she has to navigate! We talked for an hour and by the end she sounded more relaxed and like herself again!
Looking forward to hearing about all your DVC adventures!