Driving and Breweries and the DIS megameet ... oh my! *new Aug 3rd ... just back - a quick review*

[Princess Leia]

Great to hear things are going well. Hope Emma had a good Birthday. Hope your travels to WDW are smooth.

we are staying at Whyndham Bonnet Creek, and I am pretty excited about it.

It looks like a great resort and base for WDW. I looked to book it on our recent trip but I couldn't get the 2 week period I wanted.

Your plans look really good. I have just returned from 2 weeks in WDW and thought I would pop in to share some of my experiences that relate to your plans.

Frozen Sing-along - 10:30am show

We had a FP for the Frozen Sing-along. There was no benefit to this and all it means is you enter the general waiting area at an earlier time and have a longer wait for the show. The hosts this year were much worse than last year. We went straight from this to see Olaf with a short wait.

The wait times for Kylo Ren were much shorter than I anticipated. I work round UK school holidays and have never been able to experience Star Wars weekends so loved getting to experience everything Star Wars.

won't be able to stay the entire time as we have a 4pm ADR at the Hoop Dee Doo Review over at Pioneer Hall. I believe we can take a boat/ferry right from the Magic Kingdom - but if that is not the case, please let me know. This is something we have never done before and I am really looking forward to it. I think the kids will really get a kick out of it and Judi is looking forward to the all-you-care-to-drink sangria

The resort ferry from MK is the best way to go to Pioneer Hall. My kids loved HDDR and the silly humour and DS was happy to march round with his washboard. I found that our server wasn't overly generous with drinks so make sure you get their attention.

Plan is to get to the park before opening (which is now 8am) to see the welcome show - which we have actually never seen! (I know, bad DISer) .. by the way, that usually happens about 15 minutes before park opening, right?

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I love the Welcome Show. It should be at 7:40am on your day. Aim to get their early as it gets busy and the trip from MK parking lot always takes a bit of time and the security once you arrive.

We have a FP for the Night Time Safari @ 7:45. I've read the best time to go is right around real sunset - which should be about 8:20 that day. Then we have to skedadle over to the Jungle Book show as our dining package covers the early show which is at 9pm. Hopefully we enjoy it!

After that, the one thing we want to do is ride Expidition Everest at night ... from what I have read the lines aren't too bad right after the show - so that will be our plan. We will want to check out the Tree of Life Awakenings - not sure the best times to see this though I think right towards park closing they do a "bigger" show -

We ended up changing round things on our first AK night and went straight to the safari after our meal at Yak and Yeti at 7:20. It was a really good time as the animals are really active .. well all except the male lion of course. We had FP for the later show but ended up just walking in to the 9pm show. We really enjoyed it. AK had a lovely atmosphere at night. Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids were lovely under the moon and stars.

We will look to check out of Bonnet Creek early and then head over to EPCOT for rope drop again. This time though, not heading to a ride but to a meet and greet as the number 1 M&G request for this trip is to meet Joy and Sadness from Inside Out

I am hoping that we can hit up Joy and Sadness first and then Baymax with not too crazy of a line

We did TT straight away at rope drop then headed for Joy and Sadness. They didn't have too long a wait. We were then able to meet Baymax with only a 10 minute wait. What a difference a year makes last summer we ended up in a queue for Baymax that was over 2 hours.

Happy to answer any specific questions. Have a great time!

 

[MarieLightning]

So, at this point, I'm probably just gonna wait to see how the TR turns out since you're already well into your trip

But I still had to stop in and wish you a very belated awesome trip!

And also, I just have to comment on this...

Because it is soooo adorable!

 

[Imagineer5]

Can you let me know the shop you got this from? It's adorable! Or sell me Emma & Olivia's when they're done with them! hahaha

 

[NJlauren]

I just binged your PTR, good thing. Since you come home today! Now I'm ready for a TR!!!

Some shocking things in this PTR you have never seen the welcome show or had a fruit and Nutella waffle?!?!?!

I hope both have been rectified on this trip!

Also looking forward to your reviews on a few places/attractions skippers, frozen ever after, jungle book, etc!

Hope the trip was amazing and I will try to be a better diser and stay up to date!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Great to hear things are going well. Hope Emma had a good Birthday. Hope your travels to WDW are smooth.

It looks like a great resort and base for WDW. I looked to book it on our recent trip but I couldn't get the 2 week period I wanted.

Your plans look really good. I have just returned from 2 weeks in WDW and thought I would pop in to share some of my experiences that relate to your plans.

We had a FP for the Frozen Sing-along. There was no benefit to this and all it means is you enter the general waiting area at an earlier time and have a longer wait for the show. The hosts this year were much worse than last year. We went straight from this to see Olaf with a short wait.

The wait times for Kylo Ren were much shorter than I anticipated. I work round UK school holidays and have never been able to experience Star Wars weekends so loved getting to experience everything Star Wars.

The resort ferry from MK is the best way to go to Pioneer Hall. My kids loved HDDR and the silly humour and DS was happy to march round with his washboard. I found that our server wasn't overly generous with drinks so make sure you get their attention.

I love the Welcome Show. It should be at 7:40am on your day. Aim to get their early as it gets busy and the trip from MK parking lot always takes a bit of time and the security once you arrive.

We ended up changing round things on our first AK night and went straight to the safari after our meal at Yak and Yeti at 7:20. It was a really good time as the animals are really active .. well all except the male lion of course. We had FP for the later show but ended up just walking in to the 9pm show. We really enjoyed it. AK had a lovely atmosphere at night. Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids were lovely under the moon and stars.

We did TT straight away at rope drop then headed for Joy and Sadness. They didn't have too long a wait. We were then able to meet Baymax with only a 10 minute wait. What a difference a year makes last summer we ended up in a queue for Baymax that was over 2 hours.

Happy to answer any specific questions. Have a great time!

We are back - and survived all the driving ... glad to be done though!

The location of the resort worked out great - I'll have some more thoughts on it when I do my TR but in short ... it is a really nice resort with great pools. The rooms could probably use a bit of an update, but not bad at all! I will say the resort has a bit of its own vibe with a lot going on so it really takes you out of the "Disney bubble" when you return as so much is going on ... more so than other offsite resorts we have stayed at that. Not a bad vibe, just different.

We did take the boat over to Pioneer Hall and it worked out great. Hoop Dee Doo turned out to be one of the absolute highlights for me and all of us for the trip and definitely something we will do again!

AK at night worked out great for us and, maybe because of lowered expectations, but I really enjoyed the Jungle Book show. We didn't get on Kali at night but Everest at night was amazing!

We had a bit of a blunder that last EPCOT morning and we still got to meet Joy and Sadness (and it was great) but took longer than we expected so didn't get to meet Baymax

Thanks for all the thoughts!!!

So, at this point, I'm probably just gonna wait to see how the TR turns out since you're already well into your trip

But I still had to stop in and wish you a very belated awesome trip!

And also, I just have to comment on this...

Because it is soooo adorable!

We are back - and had an amazing trip! Did so much - and so much new stuff to us!

Thanks! We got a lot of positive comments on those dresses!

Can you let me know the shop you got this from? It's adorable! Or sell me Emma & Olivia's when they're done with them! hahaha

We got the dresses from VittoriasCollection on Etsy. Hoping we can get a few more uses out of the dresses but if they are still in good shape when we are done with them, happy to give them to you!

I just binged your PTR, good thing. Since you come home today! Now I'm ready for a TR!!!

Some shocking things in this PTR you have never seen the welcome show or had a fruit and Nutella waffle?!?!?!

I hope both have been rectified on this trip!

Also looking forward to your reviews on a few places/attractions skippers, frozen ever after, jungle book, etc!

Hope the trip was amazing and I will try to be a better diser and stay up to date!

Thanks for reading the whole thing! I definitely will do a TR - though it will take me a bit to catch back up at work and go through all the pictures and video we took from multiple devices.

Well, we did get the fruit and Nutella waffle at least .....

Definitely will cover all the new stuff in the TR but a quick summary on the specific one you mention:
- Skippers: we loved it! Had great food with good sized portions and enough antics going on to make it fun. Including a single diner who asked for 2 glasses of waters and the waitress brought ... and then another brought 1 more, and then another, etc until he had 12 glasses. Which of course attracted animals so waiters would come by with little stick figure animals coming to the "watering hole"
- Frozen Ever After: I thought it was a very good ride, really well done. and one case where my planning worked out as we had the breakfast and finished up at 8:50, got in line for the ride (about 10 people deep), the opened the ride at 8:55 and we were off by 9:02. Then went to meet Anna and Elsa and done with that by 8:20
- Jungle Book - so not sure if just because I lowered my expectations but I really enjoyed it. The film clips only loosely went with the dancing, etc. but if you took it as really a Bollywood style dancing show that happens to have some clips from the Jungle Book, I think it was good. Lots of applause afterward, etc.

 

[OKW Lover]

Hoop Dee Doo turned out to be one of the absolute highlights

Agree! This is a really fun show. Val & I saw it earlier in that week with our 13YO grandson and his mom. We hadn't been there in probably 20 years and just loved it all over again. Our grandson was laughing and really into the whole show. Food was very good too. Won't stay away that long again.

Skippers: we loved it! Had great food with good sized portions and enough antics going on to make it fun.

Good to know. We haven't yet tried this place as we're not normally in the parks for meals. It sounds like a good option for one of the days we visit once the temperatures cool off.

Frozen Ever After: I thought it was a very good ride, really well done.

Also good to hear. We were kind of "over" Malestrom. Haven't yet seen this show either but its another one on the list for when the cooler weather returns.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 17 - Quick Review​

Well, we are home. We survived the driving! Actually, it really wasn't that bad and the kids did great for the most part. A few days once we added in breaks and some traffic turned out to be a bit long, but all in all the plan worked pretty well!

In the end we hit up 10 breweries with the Wicked Weed Funkatorium being the absolute highlight. We did make it to Terrapin in Athens which was fun and Fullsteam in Durham which was cool too

Seeing old friends in NC from college was great and then Emma's birthday party turned our really well in Boca as well. Getting to the Megameeet was great - got to meet a bunch of DISers (even if briefly) and the scavenger hunt was a lot of fun

Some highlights from the trip:
- Hoop Dee Doo Review was simply great! So much fun and the food was really good too. Whole family had a great time and definitely something we would do again
- Star Wars fireworks/dessert party - this was great too. The party was a lot of fun with plenty of food and a really great spot to view the fireworks (the show is just amazing!) Definitely something I think was worth doing
- Animal Kingdom at night was really fun and riding Everest at night was amazing.
- Also did Jungle Cruise at night and had a really good skipper who was named Emma and took time to sing Happy Birthday to my Emma - definitely highlight of the trip
- Plan for Frozen Ever After worked great as we finished the breakfast at 8:50 (got to see all the princesses and kids did a parade, etc.) and got in line for the ride (about 10 people deep). They opened it up a few minutes early and we were off the ride by 9:02. Then went to meet Anna and Elsa and finished that at 9:20 ... so that was great
- One miss was the welcome show which we didn't get to. It was just hard to get there by 7:40 with having to drive over and park and then the express monorail wasn't running and they made us take the ferry which just took a while. We got to land as the characters were getting back on the train. We left our place just before 7 but still not enough time
- Tons of great food: Morimotos was great as was Skippers Canteen (some fun shenanigans as well). Spice Road Table was really good as well and watching Illuminations while drinking wine and they bring out dessert, etc. worked out great. Great food at the Brown Derby Lounge as well. Even Chef Mickey's, which I had low expectations for food wise, was pretty darn good - everything was hot and fresh tasting.
- No technology issues - magic bands always worked and FP+ was great for switching things around and added extra FP+ right on the phone, etc.
- Crowds were there but manageable and wait times were not crazy. We even were able to get a 4th FP for Toy Story MM to ride that again
- One last thing - the Cast Members were as good as they have ever been - maybe even the best of any trip we have gone on. So many were in great moods and took time to interract with my kids. And #thanksShanghai clearly hasn't impacted the sticker budget as we must have gotten 50 over the course of the trip from various cast members. Not sure what it was but just really great experiences with the CMs

I have only just started going through pictures and video - but here are a few that caught my eye so far:

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It's going to take me some time to get through everything (and catch up on work) but I will definitely do a Trip Report and will put a link here to it.

Thanks everyone!!!

TTFN

 

[ljcrochet]

Welcome home

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Welcome back!

Sounds like it was a good trip, and I can't wait for the TR!

 

[rteetz]

Glad you had a great time! I can't wait for the TR.

 

[missangelalexis]

Welcome home! Glad the driving wasn't terrible!

10 breweries- not too bad!!

Nice to hear about all your highlights. I'm glad overall everything worked out. Encouraging to hear that the early ADR and Frozen Ever After plan worked. And wow, 4th FP for TSMM?!

Awesome photos! I am really looking forward to your report, Phil!

 

[ElenaJane]

Welcome home! I love vacations but hate the work-catch-up! I hope you plow through your emails and are caught up soon!

 

[chillitsanne]

looking forward to your trip report!

 

[annie170]

Looks like it was a great trip! Looking forward to reading all about it!

 

[Princess Leia]

We did take the boat over to Pioneer Hall and it worked out great. Hoop Dee Doo turned out to be one of the absolute highlights for me and all of us for the trip and definitely something we will do again!

I am so glad you had a good time - We had such a good time a few years ago I'm almost frightened to do it again.

AK at night worked out great for us and, maybe because of lowered expectations, but I really enjoyed the Jungle Book show. We didn't get on Kali at night but Everest at night was amazing!

I'm happy to admit I liked the Jungle Book Show. AK is such a great park at night.

Thanks for all the thoughts!!!

Happy to help! It will be interesting to compare trip reports. I've only just completed Day 1 so I've a long way to go.

I have only just started going through pictures and video - but here are a few that caught my eye so far:

I know the feeling I have just spent the evening downloading Day 2 of photos from Memory Maker. Fortunately most days won't have so many photos. Love the photos you have posted so far!

Looking forward to the rest of the trip report!

 

[Li Li]

Phil, have you seen this?!

 

[Dugette]

Welcome back!

- Hoop Dee Doo Review was simply great! So much fun and the food was really good too. Whole family had a great time and definitely something we would do again

Someday we need to see this show! Glad you enjoyed it.

- Star Wars fireworks/dessert party - this was great too. The party was a lot of fun with plenty of food and a really great spot to view the fireworks (the show is just amazing!) Definitely something I think was worth doing
- Animal Kingdom at night was really fun and riding Everest at night was amazing.
- Also did Jungle Cruise at night and had a really good skipper who was named Emma and took time to sing Happy Birthday to my Emma - definitely highlight of the trip

Great to hear all of this! Very sweet about the Jungle Cruise Emma singing happy birthday to your Emma.

- Plan for Frozen Ever After worked great as we finished the breakfast at 8:50 (got to see all the princesses and kids did a parade, etc.) and got in line for the ride (about 10 people deep). They opened it up a few minutes early and we were off the ride by 9:02. Then went to meet Anna and Elsa and finished that at 9:20 ... so that was great

Woohoo, glad to hear this worked so well!

- Tons of great food: Morimotos was great as was Skippers Canteen (some fun shenanigans as well). Spice Road Table was really good as well and watching Illuminations while drinking wine and they bring out dessert, etc. worked out great. Great food at the Brown Derby Lounge as well. Even Chef Mickey's, which I had low expectations for food wise, was pretty darn good - everything was hot and fresh tasting.

Considering we have ADRs at all of these places, that is fantastic to hear!

We even were able to get a 4th FP for Toy Story MM to ride that again

Wow, impressive!

 

[Imagineer5]

- Star Wars fireworks/dessert party - this was great too. The party was a lot of fun with plenty of food and a really great spot to view the fireworks (the show is just amazing!) Definitely something I think was worth doing

Yay, aria and I did this in May and really enjoyed it too!

- Animal Kingdom at night was really fun and riding Everest at night was amazing.

So awesome!

- Plan for Frozen Ever After worked great as we finished the breakfast at 8:50 (got to see all the princesses and kids did a parade, etc.) and got in line for the ride (about 10 people deep). They opened it up a few minutes early and we were off the ride by 9:02. Then went to meet Anna and Elsa and finished that at 9:20 ... so that was great

Yay glad this worked out so well, that's our plan in December with @Dugette

- One miss was the welcome show which we didn't get to. It was just hard to get there by 7:40 with having to drive over and park and then the express monorail wasn't running and they made us take the ferry which just took a while. We got to land as the characters were getting back on the train. We left our place just before 7 but still not enough time

It's crazy how long it takes to get to the MK when you don't stay at the BLT. Even at Shades, walking to the Poly, it was hard to get there in time, and it really shouldn't be.

- Crowds were there but manageable and wait times were not crazy. We even were able to get a 4th FP for Toy Story MM to ride that again

Wow, that's awesome

Hahaha I love this pic

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Welcome home

Thank you! It was a great trip but also good to be home. Taking a while to get settled back into things but we are getting there

Welcome back!

Sounds like it was a good trip, and I can't wait for the TR!

Thank you! Definitely a good trip - well, really a great trip. Things worked out better than I expected and was one of our best Disney trips for a number of reasons. Just started the TR and will have the link below

Glad you had a great time! I can't wait for the TR.

Thanks Ryan! Just started the TR and link will be below!

Welcome home! Glad the driving wasn't terrible!

10 breweries- not too bad!!

Nice to hear about all your highlights. I'm glad overall everything worked out. Encouraging to hear that the early ADR and Frozen Ever After plan worked. And wow, 4th FP for TSMM?!

Awesome photos! I am really looking forward to your report, Phil!

Thanks Alexis! There were moments (definitely more than 5 or so hours of driving got to be a bit much for the kids on any day) but it really did go about as well as I could have expected

10 was about what I was realistically hoping for so pretty happy with it. Always could have been a few more but I got to some of the main ones I really wanted to hit and even one that I didn't think we would fit in but glad we did - turned out to be one of the most fun places

The Frozen stuff worked out even better than I imagined and yeah, seems like the third track at TSMM and third theater at Soarin' are really helping wait times

Link to TR will be below!

Welcome home! I love vacations but hate the work-catch-up! I hope you plow through your emails and are caught up soon!

Thanks! So far the catch-up hasn't been too bad but has been hard to get back into "work mode" when I still want to be in "Disney mode"

looking forward to your trip report!

Thanks! - TR link will be posted below!

Looks like it was a great trip! Looking forward to reading all about it!

It really was a great trip and one of the most positive Disney trips we have had ... just started the TR and will post the link below!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I am so glad you had a good time - We had such a good time a few years ago I'm almost frightened to do it again.

I'm happy to admit I liked the Jungle Book Show. AK is such a great park at night.

Happy to help! It will be interesting to compare trip reports. I've only just completed Day 1 so I've a long way to go.

I know the feeling I have just spent the evening downloading Day 2 of photos from Memory Maker. Fortunately most days won't have so many photos. Love the photos you have posted so far!

Looking forward to the rest of the trip report!

haha, there is that feeling of not wanting to ruin a good memory ... I had a feeling I would like Hoop Dee Doo but never thought I would like it as much as I did. Took the kids a little while to get into it but then they loved it. The good food helps too!

I just loved the vibe at AK at night - just the dance parties and all the different drinks to try and the shows and the rides at night ... just a cool attitude to the place

Definitely will be fun to compare trips!

I think I will just have to take it day-by-day with the pictures - I at least have them all broken up by days at this point. Having some challenges with photopass not wanting to save edits though, so that hasn't been fun!

Thanks!

Phil, have you seen this?!
View attachment 186410

Wow, that's awesome! Not really into collectibles like that but might have to make an exception for that one.

We have a side story during the trip related to a specific Pop figurine - or, rather, a quest for one ... so that is a little tease for that for ya!

Welcome back!

Someday we need to see this show! Glad you enjoyed it.

Great to hear all of this! Very sweet about the Jungle Cruise Emma singing happy birthday to your Emma.

Woohoo, glad to hear this worked so well!

Considering we have ADRs at all of these places, that is fantastic to hear!

Wow, impressive!

thank you!

I think you all would really like Hoop Dee Doo - one of those things you definitely just have to go with but it is so much fun - and the food was really good too! I good thing to do on a bit of a down/break day as well as it isn't in a park

Even beyond that she was a great skipper. First time (at least that I remember) doing Jungle Cruise at night and it was really fun!

To be honest all the Frozen stuff worked out even better than I could have hoped - some extra planning around it seemed to be worth it. And I didn't even really feel like we rushed through breakfast or anything (but we did ask for the check right away so that helped things)

Great - you will love those food options! If you have any specific questions about them let me know!

Thanks!

Yay, aria and I did this in May and really enjoyed it too!

So awesome!

Yay glad this worked out so well, that's our plan in December with @Dugette

It's crazy how long it takes to get to the MK when you don't stay at the BLT. Even at Shades, walking to the Poly, it was hard to get there in time, and it really shouldn't be.

Wow, that's awesome

Hahaha I love this pic

I had high expectations for the Star Wars show but just being in the middle of it really is amazing

I just loved the vibe in AK at night - really fun!

I had heard stories of them opening the gates as much at 15 minutes early or so, I was a little nervous we would be too late only leaving about 10 of 9, but it worked out great! I knew we had FP+ for it for later in the day so it was more of a "if it works out then great, if not, not the end of the world" - but it worked out even better than I could have hoped. Getting the check right away at breakfast once we were seated definitely helped things.

I knew it took a while and that we should have left more time - but with late nights for the kids it was hard enough as it was to get them up and out before 7am and then to still not make it was a bummer. If the express monorail was running I think we would have been ok or if we had made the previous ferry. But what are you going to do - still something to shoot for during the next trip!

Thanks - fun picture ... definitely got a few with Olivia making faces like that but I think overall she had a really good time (she can just be a bit overly dramatic at times

Thank you! It was a great trip but also good to be home. Taking a while to get settled back into things but we are getting there




Thank you! Definitely a good trip - well, really a great trip. Things worked out better than I expected and was one of our best Disney trips for a number of reasons. Just started the TR and will have the link below




Thanks Ryan! Just started the TR and link will be below!




Thanks Alexis! There were moments (definitely more than 5 or so hours of driving got to be a bit much for the kids on any day) but it really did go about as well as I could have expected

10 was about what I was realistically hoping for so pretty happy with it. Always could have been a few more but I got to some of the main ones I really wanted to hit and even one that I didn't think we would fit in but glad we did - turned out to be one of the most fun places

The Frozen stuff worked out even better than I imagined and yeah, seems like the third track at TSMM and third theater at Soarin' are really helping wait times

Link to TR will be below!




Thanks! So far the catch-up hasn't been too bad but has been hard to get back into "work mode" when I still want to be in "Disney mode"




Thanks! - TR link will be posted below!




It really was a great trip and one of the most positive Disney trips we have had ... just started the TR and will post the link below!