1/11/25-1/25/25: 2 weeks, 5 people, a million “it’s cold”s: our freezing but amazing trip: COMPLETED

[disneydreamer1980]

1/13 contd

We were called into the restaurant and loaded up our plates at the buffet. The food here’s really good. Then we were visited by all the characters.



I had my first POG juice of the trip, and I was so excited but it was awful! It tasted like warm water. Yuk.


The desserts here are all so cute and taste amazing but this little pineapple tart was out of this world.


After eating, we were very full and left Tusker House.

We passed the African music band (not sure of the name) and stopped to listen a bit. Then we headed to Kilimanjaro Safari ride, my favorite ride of the park.

Continued due to pic limit

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/13 contd

We rode Safari next. Weren’t too many animals out today but was still really awesome.



When we were done our African Safari we hung in Africa a bit.




We then watched Festival of the Lion King, arriving right before it started and sitting all the way at the back. It was cool to see our MBs light up interactively with the show.

We then head to Asia so they could all ride Everest. I sat out, waiting in the shop.

While I was waiting a large group of Brazilian teens wearing matching yellow shirts all exited the ride at the same time and took off running through the shop and knocked me into the wall. These large groups were everywhere this trip and for some reason they tend to run from place to place. Anyway, after Everest we headed to Dinosaur land. The previous day was the last day Chester and Hester section was open. I took a pic of the wall, the first day it was up.



Continues next posr

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/13 continued
We headed over to Dinosaur, and rode it. Boy what a rough ride!



After Dinosaur we stopped for drinks. We all got bottled drinks and Emma got Smores Churros. She liked them. We then watched Tough to be a bug then headed to Pandora.


We rode Navi River Journey. Beautiful ride. We then shopped in Wind Traders where I looked at some plants I thought about getting and Gabe took forever to pick which glowing toy weapon he wanted. He settled on the spear that can be broken up into 2 pieces.



Then we rode Flight of Passage, after which I stopped for a Night Blossom drink from Pongu Pongu.

After this we headed out of the park. It was around 6 at this point. Right after we left and were walking to the busses Gabe started throwing up. He was fine all day up until this, it was strange. So we alerted a CM about the mess and apologized profusely then headed to the bus. He got sick again in a ziplock I had on me on the bus. We sat in the back corner away from everyone and he made it in the bag this time. We were worried he had caught a stomach bug or had food poisoning or something. We got back to the room and he laid in bed. The girls were whining they wanted to swim but we decided to wait to see how Gabe felt. We had ordered groceries and they were just delivered, so we ran down to get them from the front desk and to pick up dinner from the Roaring Fork. It was around 7:50 by this point.



The girls and I all got the same thing, grilled cheese and soup.


DH got a burger and Gabe didn’t eat because he was still vomiting frequently. I was so worried this was going to spread and ruin our trip. But it ended up not being a virus and he was fine by the next morning. We discover later in the trip what it was.

We had an After Hours this night for me and DH that we were really debating cancelling but my daughters talked us into going, promising they’d take good care of their brother (spoiler alert: they did. They played games and watched a movie with him and although he wasn’t feeling well he had a great time with them while we were gone)

Continued

 

[Sarahh1027]

Poor Gabe! So sorry he got sick but glad to hear it didn’t last after this night. I’ve gotten sick at Disney before from dehydration. It was rough.
Other than that, what a fun day at Animal Kingdom! Can’t wait to hear about After Hours

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Poor Gabe! So sorry he got sick but glad to hear it didn’t last after this night. I’ve gotten sick at Disney before from dehydration. It was rough.
Other than that, what a fun day at Animal Kingdom! Can’t wait to hear about After Hours

Yeah it’s no fun being sick on vacation, especially Disney which is so expensive and takes so much time to plan, it feels like a real waste. I was so grateful it wasn’t a virus and we weren’t all sick and confined to the room for days which is what I was thinking may happen. And yes it was a great and relaxed day, and we still got plenty done. I love Animsl Kingdom!

 

[SonnyEclipsesSpaceAngel]

View attachment 937526

When I stayed in Boulder Ridge my husband and I had room 4533

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Monday 1/13/25 (full day 2) continued

We left off with us debating on whether or not we’d go to the After Hours we had scheduled for DH and I (date night). It was rainy and chilly and Gabe was throwing up. Didn’t seem like the best night to go, but we didn’t want to waste our almost $400 we spent on the tickets and the girls said they’d be fine with Gabe, so we decided to go.

We caught the boat over to MK, checked in at the turnstiles around 9 and got our After Hours bracelets. We decided to head over to Adventureland, start there and make our way around.

Our first ride was Pirates. It’s one of our favorites. Next we were going to ride jungle cruise but the line was a little longer than we wanted to wait, so we headed over to the treehouse. We don’t do this often because the kids whine about all the steps, but I really like it.



The top levels were closed off. We asked a CM and she said they were working on it.
At this point it started to rain. We decided to head over to Adventureland and ducked into Country Bears. It was almost empty.


We liked the new show but missed the old one. It was cute and all but it’s just not as good as it was.

We saw they’d be starting the Enchantment fireworks soon but we had time for a ride first. So we headed over to fantasyland and rode Peter Pan. It was really cool going through the regular queue because we never ride this standby so we don’t get to see the cool queues.

We stopped and grabbed “free” popcorn, soda and ice cream (Mickey bar for him, sandwich for me) on the way to the castle. This was strangely the longest line we encountered all night.

We headed over to the castle just as the show was starting.


We saw this as we were walking to the front of the castle. Never seen the projections from this angle before!

We got to the front of the castle and joined the small crowd already gathered there. Was soooo strange to be able to walk right up as the shows starting and get a great, uncrowded spot.



And we were right under Tinkerbelle!!!


After the show we headed back into Fantasyland.

Continued next post-hit my pic limit

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Continued (After Hours party)

After the show we headed back into Fantasyland.

It was so empty!
We rode Small World. Always cute and I actually like the song lol.


Next we headed to the “new Fantasyland” area.




Our last ride of the night was Little Mermaid.



We were getting tired and it was cold and rainy. We were ready to leave. It was midnight by this point. We walked back through the mostly empty park to Main Street.


Main Street was a little more crowded than the rest of the park. I’m guessing with people leaving.


The Christmas decorations were pretty but it was halfway through January! It bothered me for some reason lol.

We caught the bus home. The kids were asleep. It was a truly magical night.

DH and I aren’t exactly thrill ride people (though we do ride them with the kids) so we skipped all those, and I’m sure that’s where most of the crowds were. Our longest line was Peter Pan which was about 10 minutes. Everything else was a walk on. This was our first time doing this and it won’t be the last. Next time we’ll bring the kids along and they can do all the big rides. The best part for us was just the lack of people. It was like we had the park to ourselves! I loved every minute of it. It was definitely worth the money.

Besides Gabes being sick, this was a perfect day.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

When I stayed in Boulder Ridge my husband and I had room 4533

Isn’t that the room without a balcony?

 

[SonnyEclipsesSpaceAngel]

Isn’t that the room without a balcony?

Yeah.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/14/25 Tuesday (day 3)

Since DH and I were up pretty late the previous night, we slept in til around 10 (hey, it’s vacation right?!). I drank my coffee on the balcony as usual. It was sunny and chilly.



We ate breakfast in the room and got ready for the day. Today was Epcot, so we were in no huge hurry to get there.

We were supposed to eat dinner in San Angel tonight followed by an Epcot fireworks cruise. We decided to cancel the ADR in Mexico because they’ve drained the “River” by the restaurant and they’re doing work there, and the whole reason we eat there is for the ambiance. We also decided to cancel the cruise because it was supposed to be pretty cold that evening and it just didn’t sound like fun.

Anyway, we headed to the bus stop at 12:35 and as soon as we walked up another plain “Disney Transport” Epcot bus pulled up.
We were on our way to Epcot for the first time this trip!


We took in the views near the entrance. The festival of the arts signage was up but it didn’t start til the following week. Wow, Epcot with no festival!


Our first ride was Spaceship Earth.


Afterwards the kids played some of the games they have by the exit.


After getting their fill of the games, we headed towards the Seas and The Land, stopping at the new Moana area first.

Continued next post

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Tuesday 1/14 continued
We headed to the Moana area.


It was fun and even though everyone picked the wet pathways, we stayed dry.



After playing with water we headed towards the Seas. In front of the Seas was a CM with sharks teeth, and she talked to us about sharks and their teeth and jaws. It was interesting.


After that we went to ride Nemo but it was temporarily down, so we went in the building to check out the aquarium stuff.


We have a membership to the National Aquarium near our house so the kids were kind of bored in here and the one thing I wanted to see (manatees) werent there.



Bored kids above lol.

We went into the Seas shop and the girls each got a tracker bracelet (they each pair to a real animal that you can track online-apparently they’re cool now), and they bought some candy. By this point Nemo was open again so we went on that.

Now we were off to the Land.


We rode Soarin via the lightning lane and for some reason every time we rode this on this trip the LL line wait was pretty long.


We eventually got on and encountered a really nasty CM. She screamed at the row in front of us for rocking the seats, and then kicked someone’s bag out of the way while rolling her eyes. I understand they werent supposed to rock the seats and they put their bag in the wrong place but that’s not how you deal with people. Anyway, after riding Soarin we were all getting hungry so we decided to eat at Sunshine seasons.

Continued, pic limit

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/14 continued


We ate at sunshine seasons. I ordered the kids chicken meal with rice and an Apple sauce

Isabella ordered a teriyaki chicken bowl


Emma ordered birria tacos


Gabe kids mac snd cheese with rice


And DH just got fruit and a Monster energy drink




The food was all just ok.

After eating we rode Living with the land. Love this ride but it’s not my older kids favorite.

While on the ride our Cosmic Rewind boarding group was called. It was 4:07 when we got on.





I should’ve never let them talk me into riding this. I got so nauseated and dizzy, I had to sit for 20 minutes after the ride before I could walk around again. Never again will I ride this lol. It was terrible for me but they all love this ride. It’s DHs favorite ride.

Continued due to pic limitations

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Tuesday 1/14 continued

After me sitting and feeling like death for a while and the family just hanging out taking in the scenery we decided to head to Canada.




We bought some maple chocolate truffles and moved onto the UK. We bought more candy here.
DH and I bought some fish and chips.
We sat next to the railing by the water and ate. Soooo good.

Next we headed to France. We rode Remy.



There was another large group of the yellow shirts that ran through the area, almost knocking people over. I don’t know why they’re always running.


After Ratatouille we decided we wanted some crepes.


We all sat and split 2 orders (one just butter and sugar and one Nutella). They were so good. We FaceTimed our daughters who stayed home while we ate. I wanted to stop in Les Halle’s but the line was insane, so I figured we’d stop by next time we were there.

Continued next post -pic limit is so annoying

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/14 continued

We continued around World Showcase. One of the girls favorite foods are the lamb and chicken skewers in Morocco. So we stopped there and got those as well as the bread service.



We continued around, stopping in Mitsukoshi in Japan. This is a favorite of my DDs. They both spent a lot of money here. They bought stuffed animals, candy and snacks and lots of other stuff.

We made our way to Germany where we got one of my favorite snacks- the pretzel bread pudding from Sommerhaus. Omg this is soooo good. Emma loves it too, so we each got our own.

Next we rode Frozen, our last ride of the night. It was 8:05 at this point. After wards we checked out the Norway shops.


We got candy from here too lol.

We decided to head home, we’d seen the Epcot night time show before and didn’t feel like staying for it this night. The Epcot ball was beautiful on our way out though.


We caught the bus back to Wilderness lodge. It was extremely crowded and we had to stand. The bus stopped at Fort Wilderness first than on to our resort. We got back to the resort and laid in bed watching tv a while.

All in all, a nice relaxing day.

 

[jo-jo]

I've seemed to have missed several updates. Glad I caught up.

Give those daughters a pat on the back for staying with a brother who is not just sick but throwing up. ewwwwww.

I would have loved to be at MK almost empty with Christmas decorations. We have a 3 1/2 foot tree on in the dining room AKA puzzle room all year long. Set to a timer to turn on every night. DH requested it.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I've seemed to have missed several updates. Glad I caught up.

Give those daughters a pat on the back for staying with a brother who is not just sick but throwing up. ewwwwww.

I would have loved to be at MK almost empty with Christmas decorations. We have a 3 1/2 foot tree on in the dining room AKA puzzle room all year long. Set to a timer to turn on every night. DH requested it.

Yes I was very happy with how they took care of him. We were going to stay at the resort with him but they were so sweet and they insisted we go and said they’d take care of him, and they really did. He had fun with them too. And it was beautiful in MK with the Christmas decorations, and I love Christmas (you should see my house around the holidays lol) but it just felt weird seeing it so far after Christmas and I just can’t expecting it. That’s really cute about your tree though, I’ve actually said to my DH before that it would be neat to leave a tree up year round.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Weds 1/15/25, day 4

This morning we had an ADR scheduled at Crystal Palace, but none of us felt like getting up and ready yet so we cancelled that and scheduled a brunch at Whispering canyon.


We chilled out in the room and headed down to the lobby to eat. We were hungry and it was nice we didn’t have to leave our resort to eat.

Waiting to be seated.


Emma got the avocado toast



And the rest of us all got the breakfast skillet

The food was all really good. Our waiter was great, but not too over the top (the waiters here can be crazy). Again I ordered the POG juice and again it was extremely watered down. Not sure what’s going on with the POG juice here. We all left feeling very full.

DH, Gabe and I went to the front desk to pick up the hidden Mickey scavenger papers.



We looked around the main WL building for some while the girls checked out the gift shop again.




We found a couple, including one in the rockwork of the fireplace.

See it???

After we got our fill of exploring we met the girls in the shop and we all headed over to the arcade.

Tonight was extended evening hours at MK so we weren’t going to the park til later, so we had time to kill.

Continued next post

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/15 continued

When we left off we were heading over to the arcade

We bought some game cards and spent some time playing games and having fun





The kids kept playing that “guaranteed to win a duck” game until they had amassed quite a collection of ducks.

After having some fun in the arcade, the girls headed back to the room and DH, Gabe and I decided to walk the resort grounds a bit.


This is such a beautiful resort. After walking off our big brunch meal, we headed back up to the room.

We decided to clean up around the room a bit and do some laundry. I know the housekeeping rules are different with DVC (and I know them well) but we literally never saw housekeeping once our entire 2 weeks. They never took our trash, no clean towels, nothing. We just hunted down a housekeeping cart or called down to the desk when we needed something. I think we were somehow forgotten about.

Anyway, we decided to clean up a bit before we left for the evening.

Continued next post

 

[disneydreamer1980]

1/15 continued

Our room was quite a mess and we had a growing pile of laundry to wash on the closet floor.




See what pigs I live with?! lol


So while the kids lounged around the room, I took care of all that. Some things never change, even on vacation!

That’s one thing that really sucks about the studios is the lack of in room laundry. Lugging our clothes to the first floor and hoping one of the two washers was free was not fun. But we did it and with clean laundry put away and a clean room, we headed downstairs. It was 5:30.

It was chilly out so the girls whined they didn’t want to take the boat (this would be a frequent argument as the weather gets colder) so we took the bus. It stopped at Fort Wilderness first, then we were off to MK for the evening.




As we usually do, we headed straight to Adventureland. We rode Pirates first. Gabe likes to look in the “treasure” as you exit the ride.

After that we headed to Jungke Cruise. For some reason my older kids hate this ride (sacrilege I know) but they agreed to ride it once.

After that they all wanted to ride Aladdins Carpets. I watched from the sidelines.

By now everyone was getting hungry so we decided to stop and get something to eat.

Continued