Cheerful Goodbye to 2020 and Optimistic Hello to 2021! Video Trip Report - Updated July 26th 2021

Chapter 11: Closing Out Animal Kingdom

After our Splashtastic time on Kali Rive Rapids, we stopped to get some of our favorite beverages at Animal Kingdom - frozen cokes with captain Morgan, yummmmmy! While we were drinking those yummy drinks, we saw quite a few different character calvacades!! This was our first ones we have seen and they were just so so exciting!! We were screaming and dancing and waving our hands off. We wanted to go ride the Navi River Journey since we haven't rode that ride yet however, it was a huuuuuge line and I know how slow that ride boards so the 80 minutes just didn't seem worth it like usual. We checked out the line for Flight of Passage and it seemed shorter than this morning shockingly so we decided why not - the ride is totally worth it! We waited around an hour again just like in the morning so it wasn't bad yet again. Then we got some more drinks and got the rum blossom drinks to really feel like we were in Pandora :)

After these drinks some of the crew was starting to feel the day on their feet and their legs so we were starting to drag quite a bit. We weren't quite done with Animal Kingdom but the time was creeping in on us. We could definitely tell the crowds were here and building, every ride seemed to have over an hour wait and we just weren't feeling waiting in the lines anymore. We tried to go back to Dinosaur for one last blast to the past; however, the line was wrapping all around dinoland - definitely not what we wanted to see or wait in. We decided to check out Everest just one more time to see how the line was and it was actually VERY short, even with the posted 50 minute wait. We decided to do this ride just one more time and then head out of Animal Kingdom to enjoy the evening at Disney Springs.

 
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Chapter 12: Disney Springs!

So after a fun filled day at Animal Kingdom, we decided to take the Saratoga Springs bus to be able to walk over to Disney Springs since they don't have the buses to Disney Springs from the parks and we knew about the walk over there from Saratoga Springs. We had so people on the bus who definitely enjoyed their adult beverages at Animal Kingdom and were quite interesting on the bus lol! I wish I was on their level!

Once we got to Disney Springs the first thing we all noticed was how busy it was and how it seemed like lines were everywhere. We obviously wanted to hit up World of Disney to shop around and look around so we headed over that way. The line was really far backed up and they told us it would be quicker to just get in the Virtual Queue so we could walk around and not have to just stand in line. There were 46 parties ahead of us so we didn't think it would take too long and it didn't - only about 10 minutes! The one thing I noticed about this trip is the souvenirs didn't seem to be as robust as usual, probably due to the pandemic which is totally understandable, just something I noticed.

For dinner, we split up just a little bit. Brenae and Chris headed to Polite Pig while the other 4 of us headed to Blaze Pizza so Jake could have the choices to make his own pizza and have something different than burgers. All of our food was absolutely delicious and we really loved it all! Blaze is always delicious but it had been so long since I had eaten it so it was even better than I remember.

After food, we decided to just walk around a little bit longer. The place was super crowded and some people in my party was crashing really hard - understandable since we had to wake up before the sun rose and were on the go go go all day. We got some yummy desserts and then headed back to the hotel. I wanted some drinks from the Boardwalk Bakery since we had the cups, I thought might as well. WELL when I got back, I put it in the fridge to keep it cold and something terrible happened - it spilt EVERYWHERE. I am honestly not sure what happened but we spent so long cleaning it up and definitely wasn't the best way to end the night but hey, I would rather clean up tea at Disney than at my own house :)

 
Chapter 13: Magic Kingdom, Hooray!!

The day is finally HERE! We are going to my favorite place in the whole world, the place where I feel the most happy - Magic Kingdom! It was really weird to me this trip to not go to Magic Kingdom first as that has been a personal tradition I have done every trip ever; however, I am just so glad we finally are going and that it is open pretty late, compared to the other parks. We tried to get up as early as possible but due to the previous two early mornings, most of us were a little sluggish and tired. Have no fear though! We still were on the bus ready to roll and ready to take on our day of magic.

We got to the park before park opening but people had been allowed to enter for quite a while now. We were going to head over to Seven Dwarves as we figured it couldn't be that long right?? WRONG! It was all the way wrapped around the mountain and almost back towards the entrance, so we decided to knock out some family favorites.

We headed over to Tomorrowland to start the day off with a little Space Mountain (a family favorite) and boy did it wake all of us up! We had Clint sit in the front since he has never rode before and wouldn't know what to expect at all. He LOVED it! He isn't a very "emotional" person but he did express great love for the ride. We also walked all the way on pretty much, no line that was memorable at least :).

We then decided to get some competition out of the way with Buzz Lightyear. Needless to say I won by a large margin - one of my hidden talents is being great at that ride LOL. Another ride with barely a line and another ride that was loved by all, even the sore losers.

By this point we had been up for a while and people were already starting to crash a bit since energy was running on fumes. We made a quick stop at the Outpost across from Pecos Bills to get people some coffee to wake them up and lift spirits as high as we could. This definitely helped as many people's energy skyrocketed and were finally ready for the full day!

And now, the moment I have been waiting for since we stepped foot inside the Magic Kingdom, Splash Mountain time!! This is my all time favorite ride and I LOVE the hill that is in the complete dark, it seriously makes me so happy and I could ride it just for that hill alone. We did get pretty wet which was another lovely burst of energy for the crowd.

 


Chapter 14: Rides and Magic at the Magic Kingdom

We continued our incredible morning at the Magic Kingdom now that everyone has their energy restored in them. We head to the wildest ride in the wilderness. The line looked super long however we didn't wait more than 30 minutes for this ride which is super great for mid morning. We love love love that ride and with that ride done we can say we successfully rode all 3 mountains before noon!

After Big Thunder we went ahead and headed over towards the Haunted Mansion to try to get all the classic rides done for Clint! And the Haunted Mansion definitely rates the highest on my list of classics. With our ride of classics we continue on with Pirates of the Caribbean.

All rides were super long so we went ahead and just decided to wait in line for Pirates. It was about 40 minutes and was honestly totally worth it. However, while we were in line we had a great idea to go ahead and place an order for about 30 minutes from that moment in time as that is when we thought we would be done with Pirates. We wanted everyone to enjoy Pecos Bills as that is Brenae and I's favorite place to eat within the Magic Kingdom! Since that was the only day we all would be together we wanted them to have the best time and best lunch ever. It definitely did not disappoint at all!

 
I am LOVING your videos! It looks like you all had so much fun! This Canadian girl is dying to get back to Disney and you have given me a bit of a Disney fix. :worship: Also, love the Disney face masks! ❤
 


LLM said:
I am LOVING your videos! It looks like you all had so much fun! This Canadian girl is dying to get back to Disney and you have given me a bit of a Disney fix. :worship: Also, love the Disney face masks! ❤
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Thank you so much!!! These words are so kind and I really appreciate them <3 I hope you get to get back to Disney soon so you can enjoy the magic as well!
 
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Chapter 15: A Busy Afternoon in Magic Kingdom

We really start to notice the crowds pick up this afternoon so we just start picking rides and going for them. We start out with the Voyage of the Little Mermaid where we start to become OBSESSED with Hidden Mickeys. I have known about them forever but it seems that my family wasn't as aware of just how many there are within the parks. So we turn it into a game to try to find as many as we can without really looking them up until we have to confirm if it is one or not. This really helped the lines move along even quicker. We waited about 20 minutes for the Little Mermaid which went by in the blink of an eye and is always a crowd favorite.

After the Little Mermaid, I just had to ride the Barn Stormer. I just think this ride is so fun for some reason and makes me giggle and smile the whole time; however, the line was brutal for almost everyone in the party. Everyone was crashing and the line was moving at a snails pace since only a few people could board at once. We did get to see the Tron construction which was super cool and I got to enjoy the Barn Stormer even if everyone else was not as impressed or thrilled, especially with the 45 minute wait.

Now that the crowds were really here we just decided to stick out 7 Dwarfs as we couldn't really see that line getting any shorter and this would give us sometime to just cool down and relax a bit. The line started around the mountain so we had a lot of time outside the line to get some snacks and take in some sights. It was a posted 105 minutes, YIKES but we just crossed our fingers that it really wasn't going to be that long. While in line, we got to try LeFou's Brew for the first time and it was super delicious, especially once it was stirred up and mixed together. Brenae and Chris also got some snack nuts and a Mickey bar as well. Mom was feeling left out so she went to go get a Mickey bar and got it for free since it was her birthday!

We waited a full 90 minutes for 7 dwarfs and it was honestly so worth it! The line moved extremely fast and we never felt that we were just standing still for too long and then once we got into the main line we had all the fun stuff to look at as well. After that wait though, I definitely am hoping that fastpass+ comes back after things get back to a sense of normalcy. I loved using fastpass+ and was really good at getting those fast passes for any ride at any time.

 
Chapter 15: Our Magic Day Continues

We are still having an incredible time at the Magic Kingdom trying to soak up every last minute we have here.The family loves just walking around and taking it all in, we also are delirious at this point due to lack of sleep so we probably looked like zombies walking around lol! We also finally got to see the Santa Calvacade which was so AWESOME! We definitely missed the parades this trip so these little pop up parades were just everything we needed and more.

After walking around just a bit, we noticed that the Speedway had a super short line and we hadn't done that yet so we decided why not?! I always try to treat this ride like a real speedway but never get the fast car unfortunately so I just use my voice to make it seem like I am more of a threat than I really am lol

Next up was the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh since it was a short line as well and we were trying to hit up the shortest rides we could find because we had some doozies this day with waits. This was about 10/15 minutes and we decided to cram all 6 of us into one honey pot and people thought we were inSANE but we just love being together and making things and cramped as possible.

After a very full day, our bellies were definitely rumbling and grumbling so we decided that it was definitely time for food. Since Jake is a vegan, we decided to split up so he could get a pizza and the rest of us wanted to try the Holiday Spicy Sandwich so we went our separate ways and then would meet up after we got our food so we could still eat together. Little did we know that Jake and mom would run into our first less than stellar cast member at Pinocchios and cause a bit of a kerfluffle with the pizza ordering. Basically, Jake was asking if he could add veggies to his pizza and the cast member said no modifications if it wasn't on the menu; however, people were walking around with cheese fries (not on the menu) and other flatbreads that were not on the menu as well. It was late and the cast member was probably just having a rough day so I totally get it and Jake eventually got over it (it was just pizza after all lol)

 
Chapter 17: A Truly Magical Evening

After our lovely meal, we still have quite a few hours to enjoy the Magic Kingdom. We first had to start off by showing Clint and Chris one of the best parts about Magic Kingdom - the Tangled Toilets! We are just as obsessed with these toilets as we are with most rides, we totally make everyone new check these toilets out lol!

After that amazing stop, we head over to Frontierland to check how the lines actually were (the MDE app was saying that they were outrageous) and we were very happy to see that it was even shorter than we waited that morning, which wasn't long as all. We continued our hunt for Hidden Mickeys as well and honestly this became such a highlight for our last day, we absolutely LOVED pretending everything was a Hidden Mickey. We only waited around 20 minutes for Big Thunder Mountain which was posted for about an hour and we just knew it wouldn't be an hour.

After Big Thunder we try to knockout as MANY rides as we can with the last few hours going by faster than we can imagine! We hit up Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, caught some fireworks at the castle and then finished out the night just as we started the day, with Space Mountain :). This night was so special to me and I love thinking about how much fun we had, how not crowded the park really was and just the joy we all had hanging out with each other.

After Space Mountain, we headed to the hub to hang out just a bit and say goodbye to the castle, getting a little sad since Nae, Jake and Chris were leaving the next morning to head back to the real world. Leaving the park was definitely a bit congested and we tried out hardest to stay as far away from people as possible but it didn't bother us too much!

Back at the hotel, they had the NYE activities out for us to see what were going to go on the next night since it was New Years Eve! And then of course we had to round out the day with the favorite part of the day question from everyone :)

 
MrsSLF said:
I just wanted to tell you that I look forward to your updates because your WDW crew looks like the most fun. It's making me itch for our summer return even more.
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Oh wow, thank you so much for your kind words! I truly appreciate them :) We definitely have a blast at WDW and we outwardly express it most times haha! I hope you have so much fun this summer, we definitely loved it still even with all the changes/differences
 
Love reading and WATCHING you guys! We were there around the same time and the crowds did get wild and we also got super tired, ha! But it was so great to be back.
 
NotZacHoward said:
Chapter 3: Boarding Groups and Rope Dropping Toy Story Land

Our first park day of this trip and boy did it start out stressful! This will be my first time trying to get a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance and I hadn’t done ANY research. After the stress of that and getting some breakfast, we head over to our first park of the trip - Hollywood Studios! We get there to tope drop toy story land, a whole hour before park even technically opened! This Covid trip definitely was different, but it had its perks 🤗
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Hey there! Okay, so we're staying at the Boardwalk in June. I'm going to be with 2 Star Wars fans who definitely want to go on Rise Of The Resistance! Do you personally have any have tips or advice for getting one?? Is it ok if only one of us tries for one (for the 3 of us?) I'm the only one with the My Disney Experience app at the moment. Any words of advice would be appreciated, thanks so much!!!
 
ambula603 said:
Love reading and WATCHING you guys! We were there around the same time and the crowds did get wild and we also got super tired, ha! But it was so great to be back.
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Thank you so so much!! I definitely agree, the crowds were a bit crazy at times but just being back was total worth it! And it being NYE we anticipated the larger crowds so we were ready :)

AliceNDinah said:
Hey there! Okay, so we're staying at the Boardwalk in June. I'm going to be with 2 Star Wars fans who definitely want to go on Rise Of The Resistance! Do you personally have any have tips or advice for getting one?? Is it ok if only one of us tries for one (for the 3 of us?) I'm the only one with the My Disney Experience app at the moment. Any words of advice would be appreciated, thanks so much!!!
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So, we had two people with the MDE app trying at the same time but definitely wasn't needed - basically we had the "official" clock pulled up on a computer (https://www.time.gov/) and right before it hit 7 we started refreshing the page and then once that join button is there we just hit "Join", "Join" and confirm without even looking at the screens. If someone is in your party that was connected at the time of joining a boarding group, dont even worry or think about it! Guest services can pair you all together at the park. Really its just about hitting the buttons as fast as possible and dont second guess the pages or review them at all! Hope that helps :)
 
Chapter 18: Sad Goodbyes But Happy Hellos

We wake up a little later than the rest of the days that preceded this one and had to have an emotional goodbye to Nae, Chris and Jake :( They had to get back to the real world and work while the rest of us three got to stay for a few more days in the Disney Magic!

This day was New Years Eve and we were sooo excited to ring in 2021 and say GOOODBYE to 2020, as I am sure most of the world was ready to get out of 2020. We got to walk to EPCOT since the Boardwalk is just so close and so convenient not having to have to wait for the busses. We got to EPCOT right as they started letting people into the park so we wanted to try to get on the big rides as soon as possible.

We stopped and picked up our Festival of the Holidays passport before heading over to Future World to see how long Test Track was this early in the morning. We got to explore the World Showcase a bit as we walked to Test Track which was nice to see all the decorations for the holidays still up and the kitchens being put out. We came across the Test Track line and it looked like it was going to be a long wait because of where the line started but they didn't have all the lines weaving in and out yet so it went by super quickly (about 40 minutes for us, which was a lot better than the posted 120 minutes!)

Then we saw our FIRST character calvacade of the day going through the World Showcase and I just love it so so so much! The characters just really made everything seem so much special. We headed over to Frozen Ever After and it was wayyy past the entrance to the China pavilion, but we knew it was going to be long waits everywhere since it was a holiday.

 
NotZacHoward said:
Oh wow, thank you so much for your kind words! I truly appreciate them :) We definitely have a blast at WDW and we outwardly express it most times haha! I hope you have so much fun this summer, we definitely loved it still even with all the changes/differences
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I have to echo that your crew looks really fun!! Can you run over everyone's names and who they are in relation to you? I want to go with you guys so bad, ha ha.
 
AliceNDinah said:
I just am loving your videos, you make everything look so fun :)
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AliceNDinah said:
I have to echo that your crew looks really fun!! Can you run over everyone's names and who they are in relation to you? I want to go with you guys so bad, ha ha.
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Thank you for your kind words and for watching/following along! Really means a lot :) We love enjoying every second of life, especially at Disney World!

There is me (Zac), my boothang (Clint), my sister (Brenae/Nae), her boothang (Chris), my brother (Jake), and my mom (Karen) :)
 
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