A Post-Thanksgiving 2019 Mother/Daughter WDW TR * Completed 6/16 - New TR Link 7/23

Day Four - Part Four: Cape May Cafe Dinner

We headed out of Universal and saw the Seuss train wait was up to 25, much more accurate. We left around 5:50 and the temperature was around 50 degrees, chilly but still pleasant to us. It gets so much colder in Florida when the sun is down! :cold:

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Can anyone else hear this picture?

We requested an Uber as we passed through the security area and were in our Uber within four minutes. The new drop-off/pick-up section is so slick and it’s easy to find your driver with the color zones. :thumbsup2 We had a very nice driver from Venezuela, we usually talk to our drivers and have heard a lot of interesting stories.

We pulled into the Beach Club at 7:20, perfect timing! A few years ago I put in the Cape May address (rookie move) instead of BC and Google maps misled our Driver to some random spot behind Magic Kingdom and we ended up half an hour late to our reservation, back when we didn’t know our way around property very well. :worship:

Luckily no issues this time! The ride was under $20 with my nice 25% off discount, I was so happy to have that discount this trip.:woohoo:

I was so excited to see the gingerbread carousel! Our first gingerbread art of the trip, if my memory serves correctly.

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I have no idea how they put this together, but it spins around and is so neat to see.

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The different horses were different characters from Peter Pan!

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We checked into Cape May at exactly 7:30 and they took our phone number to text when our table was ready. There were quite a few people hanging around the lobby waiting, so definitely always make an ADR. It was definitely busier this trip than it was when we went the first time.

While we sat in the lobby, we checked Uber prices out of curiosity. With my discount, an Uber back to Coronado was only $5! No bus to the parks and back to the resort for us, phew! :banana:

Our table was ready about 7:40, and we are pretty sure we got the exact same table we got the first time we ate at Cape May. It’s a lovely four person booth near the buffet with some sand art behind us! So wonderful to have a full sized table instead of a table for two.

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We decided to share a Yuengling again, the waiter was nice enough to bring two frosted glasses without our asking.

The best part about Cape May is that the buffet is a square/rectangle you go around, instead of a lot of separate buffet tables. So there’s no guilt about “oh I should start at the salad buffet”, nope you just go right ahead into the good stuff! :hyper:

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The roast was yummy and perfectly medium-rare, I had to get a crab cluster in my first plate of course. I didn’t try them but my mom said the barbecue ribs were great. I tried a clam strip and thought they were mostly breading, I’ve never been a big fan of clam though so maybe don’t trust my opinion!

I didn’t take a picture of every plate, but I think I had over six crab clusters. Probably about two pounds, if we’re trying to do the math for value here. :scratchin I could probably have eaten more too, but at some point you start to question yourself on your 8th trip to the buffet...

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I thought the clam chowder was very meh, not any better than out of a can so I wouldn’t waste your time. It’s not as creamy as I would have liked but it was very full of clam.

There were some delicious and juicy peel and eat shrimp, very large! Overall everything on the buffet is okay, nothing life changing but perfectly serviceable. We love Cape May because of the AYCE crab legs, which are so delicious. The trick is to keep an eye on when they refill the crab legs, it’s probably every five minutes but you want to make sure you get the fresh stuff since it dries out quickly under the heat lamps.

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The legs are so easy to crack and full of big chunks of crab. We’ve had better crab on the gulf coast in FL, but that’s by the pound and Cape May serves very good (unlimited) crab for a decent price in our opinion, when you take into account the Disney inflation.

Our waiter was great, I always feel self-conscious eating so much crab. We must have filled half a dozen buckets of crab shells! He whisked them away quickly, I always wonder if my waiters think wow, that girl can eat! :bitelip:

There are plenty of options for people who don’t love seafood, but the smell is very strong so if that’s an issue I wouldn’t go to Cape May. I think that you get used to it inside the restaurant after a few minutes, but even being in the lobby might be too much if someone has an aversion to seafood.

I remembered not loving the desserts on our first trip, but they seemed much improved this time around. Or I’ve gotten less picky, who knows! :ssst:

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I had a mini fruit tart, chocolate mickey mousse, and worms in dirt. The fruit tart was yummy with a nice crispy but soft inside tart shell. I think the mickey mousse was actually my favorite, it was so rich and like eating fudge. The worms in dirt was terrible because the pudding tasted so artificial :crazy2:, I ate the gummy worm though of course. I went back for another fruit tart and mickey mousse! There were lots of cookies and cakes, but I didn’t have room for any of that.

We finished up around 9PM, the restaurant was definitely not as busy by then. We were so stuffed and satisfied with our meal, if you love crab (and buffets) then this is a must do! We don’t do a lot of fancy dinners and find them stuffy sometimes, so we like eating at places like Cape May. Plus, you don’t have to wait for your food!

Continued in next post.
 
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We decided to check out the Yacht Club next door, to get a few steps in before heading back to our resort.

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The Boardwalk was so beautiful at night, I don’t think we’ve actually been over there before but some day! We always have so many things we want to do but never make time for. I’d love to stay at an Epcot resort someday for a change of pace.

The train in Yacht Club was massive!

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I loved all of the details, the ski lift looks the Skyliner.

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Being at the Disney resorts during the holidays is so special. It’s my favorite time of year, and all of the decorations make it even more magical. :love:

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We requested our Uber back to CSR and got a really nice van. Automatic doors, leather seats, and our driver asked if we needed any chargers or heat. The radio was playing You’ve Got a Friend in Me, and he asked if we wanted something else on. No thanks, we love the Disney music! :hyper:

He dropped us off at Gran Destino and we felt like celebrities as the van doors automatically opened for us. :rotfl: I know automatic doors have been around for probably over a decade, but we drive a car and SUV so the novelty is still there for us. The driver’s rating was like 4.99 stars, and well-deserved! We always get such great drivers in FL, meanwhile in MN I always get drivers with only 4.75 stars and feel my life flash before my eyes...

A funny story as we got dropped off:
There was an older couple on scooters trying to get into the lobby. The wife ran into the street lamp outside the entrance twice, and her husband was like “whoa!” She snapped “don’t yell at me!” and he was like “I didn’t yell, I said whoa!” Mom and I were cracking up, Disney arguments are hilarious. :rotfl2:

We stopped in the shop in El Centro, called Panchito’s, and wandered around as we always do after a Park day. We are such window shoppers, shopping around and not buying anything is a hobby for us! ::yes:: Of course, if I'm not with my mom I tend to shop AND buy everything...

The Mickey holiday stuffed animal was so cute.

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We made it back to our room a little before 10 and started packing up our stuff. After four wonderful nights at CSR, we were moving to Animal Kingdom Lodge the next day! :woohoo:

Even though we weren’t drinking any coffee (I don’t trust hotel room coffee makers), our Mousekeeping kept stocking our k-cups. We took a few home for another day...

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Overall our day had a few glitches, but we still had fun and if anything, Universal makes us appreciate Disney even more. It’s a great park but just isn’t as fun for my mom since most of the rides involve a lot of motion. We absolutely love the Harry Potter parts though, so we 100% recommend going at least once just to see them, even if rides aren’t your thing.

We were excited to move to AKL, but we love CSR so much so it was a little bittersweet leaving. Our room in the Ranchos was so quiet, the resort was sold-out but we hardly saw anyone around. It’s a total 180 compared to our trips staying at Pop, and we liked the location a lot more than Port Orleans Riverside. I think it will be our home resort moving forward, the value is fantastic in our opinion, especially with the AP discount which puts it under $200 usually. :cool1:

The TV was being wacky again so we just turned it off and went to sleep. We were planning on sleeping in the next morning prior to checking out by 11! The early mornings are tough on us, we are a lazy pair. :laughing:

Luckily we were doing a “rest day” for our split stay transition day. I think our plan was to check out and do some Disney Springs, ride a few rides in MK, and check out the gingerbread house at the GF, before heading to AK for Boma dinner and a quiet night in at the new resort. Stay tuned to see how our plans actually went! :hyper:

22k steps for our day at Universal

Continued in Day Five - Part One: Contempo Cafe, Grand Floridian Gingerbread House
 
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It sounds like the Universal day had its ups and downs. It does seem like some of the rides have long waits even if the park isn’t really crowded.
We do love ET and try to ride several times if we can
I really liked the macarons at Toothsome but they are pricey!
I wish we had a Trader Joe’s in Duluth. My son lives in Plymouth and he has discovered a love for Trader Joe’s!
Your dinner sounds like a good one with lots of crab legs! I do like Cape May! Andi doesn’t like much there now so I am glad we went several times.
I agree CSR is a nice place to stay!
Looking forward to your AKL reviews!
The Uber/Lift discounts are so nice. I love getting those!
 
It sounds like the Universal day had its ups and downs. It does seem like some of the rides have long waits even if the park isn’t really crowded.
We do love ET and try to ride several times if we can
I really liked the macarons at Toothsome but they are pricey!
I wish we had a Trader Joe’s in Duluth. My son lives in Plymouth and he has discovered a love for Trader Joe’s!
Your dinner sounds like a good one with lots of crab legs! I do like Cape May! Andi doesn’t like much there now so I am glad we went several times.
I agree CSR is a nice place to stay!
Looking forward to your AKL reviews!
The Uber/Lift discounts are so nice. I love getting those!

I think I would have more fun at Universal if I went with a friend and had an express pass! Trader Joe's is so the best, they opened one downtown that I live close to and it's become my primary grocery store. I'm surprised it hasn't made it up to Duluth yet but I would not be surprised if it did in the next few years!
I am excited to post about AKL, we had such a great stay and hope to go back some day. I'm sure we'll never get as good of a room but it was such a dream first stay!
 


Day Five - Part One: Contempo Cafe, Grand Floridian Gingerbread House

Phew, happy Friday everyone! We made it another week! I am trying to take it one day at a time, my mom asked "if everything opened up again tomorrow, where would you go?" I said, without hesitation, shopping! :hyper: I love spending money and online just isn't the same for me! Of course I had to follow up with "Disney World!" as my less realistic answer.

Back to the TR!

We kicked off our rest day by sleeping in until around 9:30! That felt so nice and refreshing, the beds at CSR were so comfy and we could have laid in them all day long. :cloud9:

I’m not sure if this is true for all Disney resorts, but there is no pen or notepad to be found. I was writing my notes to Mousekeeping on the round paper under the glass cups, thankfully my mom always has a pen!

We called bell services at 10:22 and they were to our room by 10:36. They tagged our bags and off to AKL they went! This was our first time using the transfer service, so convenient to not have to lug our bags back to the lobby. :cool1:

We had been eyeing the giant donuts during our entire stay, and finally this was the day.

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We got the giant twist donut to share, I believe it was around $5. So overpriced, but we love a good raised glazed donut and couldn’t resist!

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It was delicious, fresh and light. We are not cake donut people, raised is the only way to go! It seemed much larger in the case, we both polished off our halves in mere seconds…:rolleyes1

I think my memory is failing me a bit, I had in my original plans that we were going to Disney Springs for lunch. I think we must have decided it would take too much time because we ended up heading to MK to check out lunch at the Contempo Cafe (quick service).

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No Tragical Express for us on this day! We were so excited about the split stay, it felt like another vacation within our vacation.

We only waited about 10 minutes for the MK bus from the main bus stop at the resort, and were on around 11:15 with plenty of room to sit. Early birds get the worm, but late risers get a seat on the bus! :hyper: We were off in no time, and it only takes 12 minutes from the El Centro bus stop to be dropped off at MK. I remember it taking like 20+ minutes from Pop and POR, this was so much faster.

We took the walkway to the Contemporary, I think they are doing some construction on it now? It took us about 10 minutes from being dropped off to entering the main building of the Contemporary.

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We passed an ambulance sitting right by the MK, I wonder if it’s just there all day to be ready quickly for any emergency…

We went through the main building and outside right away, and got some cute pictures with the silver Mickey ears. They even have a little stand you can set your phone on for self-timer. Not sure if that’s the real purpose, but that is my guess!

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It took us a bit to find our way around the main building, there weren’t a ton of signs but we took some escalators and found the Contempo Cafe.

I pointed out the beautiful Mary Blair artwork to my mom! :flower:

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We decided to mobile order even though there wasn’t really a line, I like mobile ordering because you can see all of the customizations for kids meals.

Our food actually sat around ready for a while, they never completed the order so our app just said “preparing” the entire time.

My mom got the grilled shrimp kids meal, it came with rice and green beans AND two sides of your choice, with a drink. She got apple slices, pudding, and a nesquik. This was a steal since it’s enough for an adult for only $8. The green beans are extra crispy, but we didn’t mind. Not sure a kid would like them though.

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I got the chili and a side garden salad, sadly only Ken’s dressing was available. :sad: I wish they made their own dressings, it would be so much tastier! I had to ask a CM for some sour cream, I would have asked for cheese too but didn’t want to be too much of a pain. It took her five minutes but she tracked some down for me! I was surprised, I thought it would have been a common request!

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The full-size grab and go salads looked really nice and fresh and were only $8, cheaper than at CSR. I think this is a good option for some healthier choices even when you are at MK, the walk is pretty quick and it’s way cheaper. :thumbsup2

We enjoyed our “healthy” lunch but we did NOT enjoy the water from the fountains. It was so bad, just like the water in the parks or even worse! :crazy2: The water at CSR tastes normal so maybe it’s just the water near MK that’s bad. I never buy bottled water but I considered it here!

The gingerbread at the CR is not a house, it’s just the front piece but it is still cute to look at, I wouldn’t make a special trip though.

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I think the chefs at the different resorts use different gingerbread recipes, I might be making that up though so don’t believe anything I say! :laughing:

Next up was the Grand Floridian! We decided to skip the Polynesian since we saw it on our last trip and they don’t do as much for the holidays. We had a Speedway FP that went until 2:50 so we didn’t have that much extra time!

We are horrible at the Monorail, I haven’t used it a lot and am still confused about the order and which one to take, but we managed to take the right one to the GF.

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I remember waiting a bit, it probably took us 15-20 minutes to get between the two resorts.

Continued in next post.
 
We made it to the GF, it was so nice to see the beautiful gingerbread house again! It was more roped off than the previous year so it was harder to get a picture in front of it.

They had a demonstration going on, looks like it was for their gingerbread house kits they sell.

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There is a cute shop inside the house where you can buy all the treats.

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They handed out samples of the gingerbread shingles with chocolate on one side, they were actually pretty terrible and more of a hard, bitter gingerbread. :crazy2: Nothing like the sweet gingerbread I prefer!

We meandered upstairs to get a better view, it is so magical at the GF during the holidays.

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I would absolutely recommend making a trip to visit, plus it is so easy to get to via monorail! It will be nice when the walking path is ready, that would be even more convenient since no waiting.

We took a peek around and saw the new lounge, there were plenty of people there.

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It looked nice but quite expensive. I’ve heard mixed reviews, I had never been to Mizner’s before either so I can’t give much input!

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We got a picture in front of the tree, they have a lot of photographers so there’s hardly a wait even when it’s busy.

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Last year, we thought we remembered the gingerbread being sold in multiple shops around the GF. That didn’t seem to be the case this year so we decided to wait in the gingerbread house line. It took about 15 minutes, a lot of people get up to the register and have no idea what they want even though there are multiple signs in line showing what they have! :confused3

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I got a gingerbread man, he is not made at the GF but the cookie looked sweeter than the icky shingles. I just wanted to eat gingerbread after smelling it for so long!

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It was time to head back to the monorail to go to MK for a few hours. We got in the short line for the monorail around 2PM, I love that you can go through security at the GF and then not again at the MK. Since it was a party night, I think this saved us a lot of time. We also beat the rush to the party, which I would guess starts closer to 3 since guests can get in at 4 for the party.

We were not doing the party this year since we did it last year, but we thought crowds would be lower on party days and hoped to get in a few rides before heading to AKL for the evening.

Based on the wait times at 2PM, we were feeling really good about our decision!

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Hooray, we were so excited to be heading back into a Disney park! People on the monorail were festive and clearly going to the party that evening. We felt a tiny bit of FOMO but we were so excited to see AKL that night so we didn’t really mind. :banana:

Part Two: A Quiet MK Afternoon on a MVMCP day
 
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I love traveling by monorail between the MK resorts!
A very fun time to visit the resorts when the Christmas decorations are up!
We have loved staying at GF, it is so easy to get to MK, less than 5 minutes!
 


I love traveling by monorail between the MK resorts!
A very fun time to visit the resorts when the Christmas decorations are up!
We have loved staying at GF, it is so easy to get to MK, less than 5 minutes!

I am crossing my fingers for some good discounts when this is all over! We would love to stay at GF, and Yacht Club is also high on our list!
 
Day Five - Part Two: A Quiet MK Afternoon on a MVMCP Day

I am so excited to start my solo TR, so I am extra motivated to finish this one! I can't believe it's been four and a half months since this trip, it feels like yesterday!

We were so happy to be back in the Magic Kingdom! The flowers in front of the train station were so beautiful. :flower:

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We are excited for the train to reopen again, it was such a nice way to get a break from being on your feet.

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Since the crowds were fairly low, we obviously decided to take advantage of some photo ops with no lines! I love having an AP, free photo downloads are such a great perk. We hardly get photos together on vacation except at WDW!

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Looking at wait times on the app, Space Mountain was 25 minutes and Peter Pan was only 50 minutes. Amazing! We were sure they’d start going up soon once party goers were let in at 4, so we wanted to get as much done as we could. ::yes::

Of course, we got side tracked going through the Emporium. Look at this fuzzy spirit jersey sweater!

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I thought it was cute, but no idea how you would keep it clean.

We caught the Festival of Fantasy parade, always fun to watch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the entire thing at once, but I’ve seen all of the floats over the course of multiple trips!

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We made it to the Tomorrowland Speedway at 2:35, just in time for our FP! Standby was 30 minutes. We got some laughs out of a couple where the wife was driving, and she kept slamming the pedal, her poor husband looked like he was going to be sick! :rotfl2:

Mom and I always ride together and I usually drive, and we both find the whole ride hilarious because it’s impossible to drive. There was a kid in front of us that was going so slow, it would have been more fun if we could have passed him! :car:

There were a few decorations, which I’m sure would have looked better at night when you could see the Christmas lights.

Around 3PM I got the room ready text for AKL! We got our room number and I quickly looked it up on Touring Plans to see if I could find the view. Much to our excitement, it looked like we got a partial Savannah view like we hoped for! :banana: The only room request we made was top floor via online check-in, we were too lazy to call in a request.

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Hurray, we were in such a good mood and then there was no line for the People Mover, a rare sight these days!

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We had a pleasant ride, always love this one. Look at how spread out the crowds are!

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And of course, had to get an updated shot of the Tron construction. I can’t wait for this and the Guardian’s coaster to open.

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We headed out of Tomorrowland since we didn’t have a Buzz FP that day and I think there was a bit of a line.

The Tomorrowland sign was pretty new at that point.

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I really like it, I think it fits with the vibe of Tomorrowland. I know some people hate change but I am always supportive of things that will improve the parks. :thumbsup2

Continued in next post.
 
The castle was as lovely as ever!

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I’m excited to see the new castle paint job, the pinks and golds remind me of the Sleeping Beauty castle and I think that will look very nice. :lovestruc

We saw these ducks bathing themselves, they kept dunking their heads and shaking around, it was so funny!

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Ariel’s Grotto only had a 10 minute standby wait so we hopped in line without a FP.

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We often skip this one since it’s in the back of MK but we always love a trip under the sea! We waited 17 minutes, oh well!

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Our Pooh FP was close to expiring (even with the 15 minute grace period) and we made it with five minutes to spare! :woohoo:

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I love this ride so much! Disney needs to build more dark rides like this, I’m excited for Ratatouille but I hear the screens might be too much for my mom, so sad! :worried:

This is the busiest spot in MK and not bad that afternoon, even around 4PM when party goers were allowed in!

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I thought the flowers hanging by the Tangled bathroom were so pretty, my mom said they were fake. No wonder they looked so good!

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Rapunzel’s tower, which I hear is located in a forest outside of Corona…

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MVMCP crowds were starting to descend but it was still quite pleasant. Look, we could have been practicing social distancing in the walkways!

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We had one more FP planned for that afternoon before heading out of the parks before the MVMCP crowds got too bad. Since we were not doing the party, we had to make sure to do the Jingle Cruise to get some Christmas spirit!

Continued in next post.
 
We got in line for our Jingle Cruise FPs around 4:15 and standby was already up to 65! Wait times in the app were definitely on the rise as more guests entered the park.

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Lots of fun decor in this queue! Sometimes the FP lines for rides are really boring, but Jungle/Jingle Cruise is an exception!

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Look, they even put up a nice wreath! :laughing:

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Even the non-holiday decor adds a nice touch to the theming of this ride.

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As we were loading our boat, a little girl dropped her Minnie stuffed animal in the water. The skippers were well prepared, shouting that they had to go “fishing” for Minnie! :rotfl2:

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This was so hilarious, they reassured the family they could stop by any shop and let them know what happened to get a new Minnie.

We had a very pleasant cruise, saw some sights I shall not repeat, and heard some very funny and not corny at all jokes. :rolleyes1

The AK safari has got nothing on this cruise! ;)

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We were going to head out, but I saw the Splash standby was only 5 minutes at 4:45! It was a bit chilly, maybe 50 degrees, but I had to take advantage of this opportunity!

I was on in six minutes and heading to my laughing place.

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There were a few delays mid-ride that turned it into a 20 minute ride, oops! I never get good cell service in the rides so my poor mom was wondering what was taking so long, sorry mom!

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The kid ahead of me turned his hat backwards so it wouldn’t catch on the wind and fall off after the drop...smart!

There was no music in the last scene, which made it eerie instead of fun and happy...I feel sorry for those who had never ridden before and probably thought this was how it ended! :sad2:

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I never get my ride photo from Splash, I always get random photos. I make sure to have my hands up just in case but I don’t have any proof! :sad1:

We headed out of the parks, with lots of people going the opposite direction of us down Main Street. The shop windows were so cute, it reminded me of the Dayton’s Christmas window displays if that rings a bell to anyone from MN. :santa:

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We got in line for the bus to AKL around 5:30, there were quite a few people in line already. Unfortunately we waited about 35 minutes for our bus, which was a bit of a bummer. The people ahead of us said they had already been there for 10 minutes before we got there. Brought back memories to our wait for the Disney Springs bus...

Two scooters unloaded, and then two scooters loaded, so we didn’t leave MK until 6:15. We arrived at AKL Kidani Village (the first stop, mostly DVC) at 6:32 and made it to the main building, Jambo House, at 6:40. Overall about 50 minutes from AKL to the resort which put a bit of a damper on our mood, but we were still excited to be at our new home for the next few nights. :woohoo:

I had moved back our reservation time for Boma to 6:55 while in line at MK, so we still had plenty of time to make our ADR. There were a lot of times open so if you can’t get this one ahead of time, you can definitely pick up an ADR day-of.

Continued in Part Three: Animal Kingdom Lodge Room Tour
 
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How nice to get your text with a partial Savanna view, awesome 😎
Did you have to walk far from the lobby? We had one on the same floor as the lobby but it was a long walk. We had a great Savannah view!
How nice to enjoy MK with smaller crowds! It is hard to find nowadays
You rode some of my favorites!
I used to live in Minneapolis area and we loved Dayton’s Christmas displays!
 
How nice to get your text with a partial Savanna view, awesome 😎
Did you have to walk far from the lobby? We had one on the same floor as the lobby but it was a long walk. We had a great Savannah view!
How nice to enjoy MK with smaller crowds! It is hard to find nowadays
You rode some of my favorites!
I used to live in Minneapolis area and we loved Dayton’s Christmas displays!

Coroando never sent us a room text so we were so happy to get one for AKL! We were towards the end of Kudu trail, but it wasn’t a bad walk at all, maybe 5 minutes or so! We’ll see if I timed it and have it in my notes, I can’t remember :laughing:. Looking at the map I think our room was one of the furthest from the lobby, we must be fast walkers or something...we definitely loved being able to walk inside instead of outside at night especially because it was so chilly! I think the walk to the room felt shorter because we always stopped to peek out the windows at the different Savannas, such a cool experience.

MK was so great before the parties, for our dessert party coming up in the TR soon it was a non-party night and earlier that week was a CM appreciation event where MK closed at 4:30. I think I have a few pictures of the crowds that I’ll post, it was a zoo!
 
Hope everyone is doing well! I did the math and today is my 50th day in quarantine. Time flies when every day is the same!

To hold you over before I motivate to write more of this TR, here is a picture of my copycat Mickey donut cookies from today! I made my go-to Christmas sugar cookie recipe ("The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies" from Allrecipes + some modifications) instead of shortbread and made some lovely pink royal icing frosting. They are so delicious, I am glad I only made half a dozen because otherwise I'd be eating way too many cookies.

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Here is the stencil I made if anyone is interested, I just printed and cut it out and used a paring knife to cut the dough. I made the cookies pretty big and only baked three at a time. My secret is to roll them thick enough that you can pick them up, only roll enough dough for one cookie at a time and keep the rest of the dough in the fridge, and freeze the cookies ~20 minutes before baking so they don't spread. DELICIOUS!

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We also tried the churro recipe that Disney published, which made way too much dough but was yummy and so easy. We have a little ice cream stand by us that sells Dole Whip so no need to make that recipe! I am looking forward to making the Mickey beignets as soon as I can get my hands on some yeast.

Anyways, I hope to update this TR in the next few days. Thanks for reading!
 

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Those cookies look delicious. I love reading your trip report and I am hoping things go back to normal soon.
 
Those cookies look delicious. I love reading your trip report and I am hoping things go back to normal soon.
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Thank you for joining in! They were quite delicious, we just finished the last one today. :sad1: Luckily I found a box of brownie mix that we popped in the oven to tide us over for now, ha!

I love your Mickey “donuts”, yum!
You did a really nice job on these, artistic I am not, so I really appreciate it!
Thanks Caroline! Baking has been a fun way to keep myself busy these days, not sure it is the healthiest decision since we can't pawn off the extras to anyone else but it sure is yummy. :hyper:
 
Day Five - Part Three: Animal Kingdom Lodge Room Tour

Hurrah, time for a tour of our amazing room at AKL! We were luckily able to get the AP rate for our three nights (non-weekend) and it was around $285/night including fees, so a pretty good deal in our book. Definitely more than we are used to paying but sometimes you gotta splurge on vacation! It helps that we split the cost, or maybe it hurts because we keep convincing ourselves to stay at nicer resorts? :hyper:

Our room was on Kudu trail, which is one of the long wings of Jambo House, and our room was close to the end. The main room door closes softly as do all of the cupboards/drawers, just like at Coronado. An awesome feature, no more door slamming in Disney!

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Inside the room there is a little "hallway" with the closet, bathroom, and fridge area. This is so nice compared to the values/moderates where the beds are right next to the door, it helps keep the sound out of the room.

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The paper cups and coffees are in the drawer below the counter. I’m not sure if all of the refurbs have Keurigs but both of our rooms this trip had one. (Wonder if they will take them away though, hard to sanitize...) There is also a blanket in the hall closet, which we Midwesterners appreciate. We don’t understand how people can sleep with essentially just a sheet! :sad2:

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We had a standard room that was just refurbished, I think most if not all of the bunk rooms are being removed as they do the refurbs. Someone correct me if I am wrong!


The room was nice and spacious, with two queen beds, a balcony, and a small table with two chairs. There was no light on the balcony, I suppose that would be disruptive for the animals on the savanna! :scratchin

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The decor and theming was just so beautiful, people criticize the white beds and new refurbs in general but Disney did a great job with AKL. The rooms look very clean but still have charm you wouldn’t get at a typical high end hotel.

Love the nice big TVs as part of the refurb, I don’t think this was a Smart TV like at Coronado though.

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There is a lot less counter space at AKL but the table was nice and there are so many outlets everywhere. There is a little shelf by each bed in addition to the nightstand in between the beds. Perfect to hold a cup of water and your phone! You can sort of see the little nightlight in the corner of the headboard as well

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One thing we absolutely loved was the labeled light switches between the beds.

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Disboards lowers the photo quality a lot so you can't really tell, but they are labeled "uplights, sconces, ceilings, good night."

We could be laying in bed and use "good night" to switch off all the lights in the room, truly living in the 21st century! :cloud9:

The bathroom was gorgeous as well, the entrance is in the “hallway” so you have more privacy than at values/moderates.

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My favorite part about the refurbs is the rainfall shower heads. These are so amazing, and it feels so great after a long day in the parks! I can see how the glass doors would be annoying if you’re trying to bathe kids, but I hate shower curtains and think they’re so gross, so I prefer this.

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Apparently the room above ours was a DVC savanna studio, so even though our room was “standard” I’d say it’s as close to a “savanna” room as a standard room can get!

It was dark so we couldn’t see anything, but we were excited to look for animals in the daylight. We only stayed in our room long enough to check it out, then back to the lobby for Boma dinner we went!

I don’t think I ever timed how far our room was from the lobby, but it was probably a five minute walk tops. There are big windows to view the savannas on both sides of Kudu trail, so the walk goes by fast!

Continued in Part Four: Boma Dinner
 
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Loving this Trip Report Hanna ! My mom is very similar to yours about the ride sensitivity etc ! Ive never gone to Disney during a holiday but this makes me wanna go even more ! Watching this thread now for the next update ! Stay safe !
 
Loving this Trip Report Hanna ! My mom is very similar to yours about the ride sensitivity etc ! Ive never gone to Disney during a holiday but this makes me wanna go even more ! Watching this thread now for the next update ! Stay safe !
Hi there, thanks for joining in! :dogdance: We love Disney because there are so many rides she can still ride, and of course so many shows and places to eat! Christmas time at Disney is my absolute favorite, it's just so beautiful and festive and happy!
 

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