From a walk in the wilderness to a stroll on the boardwalk in August updated 09-07

[KGmomoftwins]

Gosh Epcot is my favorite park hands down. The rides, the seas, the land, and the food I love it but it’s. Exhausting! 8.7 miles walked yesterday and I slept till 8am! I never do this but the bed is so comfortable. I knew based on past experiences scheduling a rest day after Epcot was imperative to a successful trip. The girls and DH were still sleeping. This is where I wished that in the bedroom they had 2 queen beds so I could have a full kitchen and living room. I made coffee and sat on the balcony. I also had a little fruit and I realized I did not get enough to last the week or really in mom math I did get enough but it was the week that everyone ate strawberries and bananas. Girls and DH got up at 9. We had reservations at 10:10 at Topolinos. Yesterday had been a lot for DH. He was on a big hurt this morning. He also did not feel like eating the menu at Topolinos. It’s though there for a type 1 diabetic. I made him an egg and some of his yogurt. I also got on the app and was able to make him a 12:30 spa appointment at GF! He would be getting an 80 min hot stone massage. This would also give him access to the wet room there which is similar to the rainforest room on DCL. Both spas are run by senses. He was very excited and packed his bathing suit.

The girls and I took a Lyft to the Rivera. 6 bucks. FYI we were stopped at security and I had to give my name and he had to find my reservation. They will not let you get dropped off without a reservation. I guess people were doing this and taking the skyliner. DH had the same thing at GF asked his name and reservation number. We were 10mins early they did not give us an hard time that DH was on the reservation but did not come. We were seated right away.

We had a lovely seat by the window. First up was Daisy


We all got POG juice. Our server was great but was so busy! We were given out pastries and DD2 was given special dairy free ones.



We also got the cutest postcard with signatures on it. We also got one at Artist Point and garden grill.

My favorites. Theserver also let me order steak and eggs plus aside of waffle.

So good although steak was over cooked under cooked yesterday over cooked today lol. The best was garden grill!!! That waffle was the fall version with apples and let me tell you it was Fire as the girls say. Both girls ordered from the kid menu the dippers.


The characters were great the food was really good. Nice atmosphere but it’s loud. The real magic came when I got the bill they charged the girls as children!!! They did get kids portions so maybe that’s why. I hope no one got into trouble. We went out on the terrace and then went downstairs to inquire about the dvc tour. The girls love it here not sure why I’m not a fan. However the tour requires a 60min presentation first followed by a tour and they would only give me a 100dollar gift card. We decline and I asked if they wanted to ride the skyliner and I got a big call a Lyft lol. We were back at the boardwalk by 11:20.

We came back to a character party. Goofy, Donald, and Pluto


There was a photo pass photographer too.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

Ok I need to pick up the pace back to school Tuesday! DH had already left to go to GF for his spa appointment the girls and I headed to the pool. I wish they had put on coverups because there was a photo pass taking pictures outside on the village green and with the water slide in the background but girls didn’t want to do a photo shoot in swim suits I get it.

I was able to find 1 table and chairs with an umbrella to sit at. It was so crowded which is weird since all week we had not seen anyone in our hallway on the way to our villa and we had a long walk! We also never shared an elevator or had to wait for one either and being on the 5th floor we rode it a lot. I really wish the pool gates were locked here. At WL boulder ridge pool was locked I just don’t get why they all aren’t. There was a long line for the slide. The girls went down a bunch but I did not this year I’m sad I should have. We hung here for an hour and then girls were done and wanted to go to the dvc quiet pool. We had so much fun playing ping pong and swimming. The pool temp was perfect. I was able to get a lounger 1 in the shade and 1 in the sun to switch back and forth. There were some older folks you could tell long term DVC owners who were friendly to the girls. They played with a beach ball and some noodles. There was also a server taking orders I did not inquire but the other folks did order and looked like they got sandwiches, chips, and drinks. Luckily I packed our soft sided cooler with drinks, snacks, and sandwiches. I was really full still but girls had some stuff. As I was watching girls swim I received a call from WDW resorts and I was like that’s weird. It was house keeping asking if I wanted the room serviced. Apparently DH had put the sign up and forgot to take it down. I said yes please and the serviced the room. Very nice.

After a little over an hour here they wanted to check out the third pool. We actually had to get to it buy walking over to the inn side through the main lobby. The girls loved this walk and they want to stay in the little garden cottages. I explained they only have 1 bed and dd2 goes for my honeymoon. I’m raising Disney adults. I prefer the community pool but the girls loved this pool they had it to themselves. Well there was a mother daughter duo tanning and they could care less what the girls were doing in the pool. At one point I think there were 40 noodles in the pool. They did get jealous though because the uber eats chick fil a to the pool. Well they had to go get it from the lobby. They really wanted to put I was like look at all our snacks in our cooler. We then headed into the lobby and found goofy which is apart of the cool kids summer.


Sorry had to crop pic girls were in suits. You could get a boardwalk specific button but they did not want to. Next up it was 3:30 so they wanted to do beads on the lawn. They both did bracelets and with tax was 21.00. They had so much fun. They gave them a cute bag to put the finished product in. The best was the CMs tied the ends and put a clasp on it for them. Then it was back to the big poo. DH had just gotten back and he had an amazing time. He watched the girls go down the waterslide but he was really hungry. He actually suggested the cake bake since on his scoot back from Epcot last night he stopped and checked it out and was like we need to take the girls there ok you don’t have to ask me twice. We got ready and walked up around 4:30ish I asked if they had a table and at first they were like you don’t have a reservation.I thought oh no! The seated us in the garden room. Naomi was our server she was wonderful! Her favorite cake is lemon blueberry. The restaurant was beautifully decorated for fall. I loved it!

Since it was between lunch and dinner we actually ordered from the both menus! I feel bad both girls ordered the Pink princess and I felt so bad they thought they were getting the souvenir cup they did not realize it was an up charge. Man was there a lot of glitter in that cup. Both girls got French onion soup 1 with cheese 1 without. Then they order salmon sliders and burger sliders from the kids menu. All this food was fantastic.


Fresh hot and yummy.


These fries were the best.
I got the chicken piccata from the dinner menu this was the best dinner I’ve had in a long time. The flavors! These fries Crispy chicken! It was really really good and HUGE portion. I ate maybe half of it and took the rest back.

DH got a cup of the gumbo loved it and loved that they put hot sauce on the side in a cup he poured it all in. He then got the shrimp po boy off the lunch menu.

He said it was great but so much food! Our server was so sweet she brought more drinks no extra charge I wound up drinking one of them since the girls were barely finished with their first ones.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

We were so full but you need to order dessert! We asked if we could do it to go and of course we could. We also had mentioned the girls were turning 13 on Friday and she was so sweet she came out with pixie glitter and the made a wish and blew the pixie dust on the cake as they blew out the candle. Since they had just started fall 3 days before they had new cake and still had the summer flavors available.


We got a red velvet and Pixie Fetti. I wish I had gotten the Raspberry or chocolate one to try.

I took the candles home and used them when we had family over to celebrate 13.

They also bagged up our leftovers in really nice reusable bag.


This was a really great meal and the atmosphere was perfect. We thought the price point was fine for the food. Maybe the cake was a little over priced. However, that red velvet was the best I’ve ever had. The cream cheese filing and yes it was a bit much on the icing but it was really good. The Pixie cake had the perfect almond flavor. DH also got the fall flavored honey walnut bar and a little jump ahead I needed to make a stop Saturday morning before we left for the airport to make him happy!

It also had rained while we were eating. We looked around the gallery and marveled in all the very expensive pieces. Then DD 2 decided to do some flips on the village green since she was missing gymnastics tonight. The girls had gotten a lot of sun today so we decided to head up and showered and got jammies on. We watched the animal kingdoms show on Disney plus in the living room it was really easy to login into Disney plus just follow directions on the tv. We at our cake bake treats and watched Epcot fireworks. This was honestly a great Disney day and I will forever do a rest day like this again. Even DH said it was a great day.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

We all slept great. It was Thursday August 21 and we were headed to animal kingdom. This was the day I think we were most looking forward to. I made breakfast and we got ready. Side note the frying pan is not no stick.I left it to soak in the sink and every morning I loaded the dishwasher and let it run while we were away. I packed the cooler with waters and snacks. DH also had his camelback and never had a problem brining it in. I did purchase multi pass and single pass for FOP total for all 4 was144.88. This is what it looked like

9-10- Everest
10-11- Rapids
10:45-11:45- Safari
1:30-2:30- FOP

I knew there was no way we would make rope drop. We took a handicap minnie van to animal kingdom with tip it was 40.00. I did this because I could not get the bus times to load in the app and the bus is shared with Yacht and Beach club. We got stopped at security and the womb was talking to DH forever she saw he was a type 1 and got a map and circled where first aid was and if he needed anything even just to cool off go there they will take care of you. It was very kind of her.

I took this picture at 9:43am not bad for us!

I loved this ride!!!! It was not what I expected at all. The yeti!!!! After we tapped in I was able to get Navi river for 1:30. We then immediately headed to rapids and DH was like nope I will tap in but I’m not riding. I don’t want soggy butt. The family in front of 1 of there boys was having a meltdown well stickers to the rescue! We rode with them it was so much fun. DH stood on a bridge and got an awesome video of us. He said that was fun for him. Somehow the 3 of us did not get wet! We then did the tiger trail and let me tell you today was the hottest day!!!! Then a photo pass this was awesome no line and she took some close up then had us look at the corner of a building and took this.


Then it was time for the safari. Let me tell AK was packed! The safari was a 70min wait. We got right on. We got the best row the LAST row. What an amazing viewpoint. You could see a lot more than any other seat.


I do a lesson on the importance of termites to elephants and I plan on incorporating this photo.


The new baby.

Another baby! I also managed to book us into the 12 showing of lion king. We made it to the lion king and since DH was in the scooter we got premium seating we probably did not need the LL. We were front row DH stayed in the scooter. I love this show so much. Both girls actually went on the floor at the end they are very into musical theater so this was a huge deal for them!


Girls were starving so they had the sandwiches I packed and cashed in their snacks. Both got popcorn and I got this beauty.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

We then took the train to conservation station. It was worth it because we saw the rhino and we like the train. However, DH said this was so much better when they were little and Rafaki and DocMcStuffins was back here. We used the bathroom walked around and headed back.

Only a biologist would appreciate this. Next up was FOP. This ride blew me out of the water. Why Why have we waited 8 years to come back to AK?! The girls loved it and we considered waiting 45mins to ride it again but ultimately we were fading and there were some characters that we wanted to meet it a bit. We rode Navi. Took some photos and DH was low and we needed something. I thought about the quick service here but no one was crazy we did not want to spend big on tiffins and then I remembered Nomad from a video I watched. I joined the walk up in the app. By the time we walked there our table was ready thankfully in the ac!


Our sever was not real friendly all business and we felt a bit rushed. Neither DH and I drink anymore so I really love how on the menu they had so many mocktails spelled out with what they are. I got the Annapurna zing mocktail. It was perfect and refreshing since I was melting. You have to be a fan of ginger and mint.


We got an order of chicken wings, bread service, and 2 orders of churros. The wings were out of this world! The girls said fire.

They were so crispy!!! We actually put in an order for another order since we were not sure we would like them and it only came with 5 wings. The bread service was good but overhyped for the price you pay. I wish you got a bit more. Thank goodness we only got 2 orders of churros you get a ton! 5 each order and they are big and by far the best churros ever don’t get them anywhere else!


Refreshed DH wanted to hang in here a bit in the ac do some work emails while we went and saw the 2 characters the girls requested.I would 100% come here again! Or I would like to try tiffins. We used the restroom before we left which was very nice.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

We left Nomad and headed to meet Pocahontas who started at 3:20. We were in line and she asked by us. There was one family in front of us. When the family was done Pocahontas pulled the CM aside and whispered something it turned out the family in front of us had lost a band aid on her rug she meets on. This CM was great she got a napkin and picked it up so we could meet her. There was a photo pass here.


I asked the CM how to get to Moana her line ended at 3:45 and it was currently 3:33 the CM did not seem confident we would make it in time. Poor DD1 was exhausted and had a cramp but darn it all we made it with 2 minutes to spare! Got in line 3:43 one family behind us. The sad thing was DH was meeting us here and they would not let him in line.
Moana was great! Her conversation was age appropriate for the girls and we had so much fun. I’m so sad DH missed it.



The skies were looking angry so we said goodbye to AK. I called a mini van and there was no wait we headed out at 4:22.

Back to the Boardwalk DH wanted some Aluminum foil or parchment paper to reheat dinner on. The store had nothing but they sent me to the bakery. The bakery gave me a ton of sheets for free shout out to the CMs! Back to the room where the stuffies were watching cartoons.



They had even scrubbed the pan I left soaking! I felt terrible I was going to do it tonight. Girls wanted to swim but the pool was closed. That was nice about having a pool view room last year you could see when it reopened from your room. I had to walk down the hall and look out the windows by the elevator. I wish they could send a notification in the app about when it’s closed or open.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

We had our leftovers from cake bake and Le Cellier and it was really good. We ate the leftover cake and DH had his walnut bar. We just hung out and relaxed.
View at 8pm

We went to bed early because tomorrow was a big day!!!

 

[KGmomoftwins]

Well here I am 2 weeks after returning from an amazing trip. We all survived out first week in school and dd2 had her first every XC meet yesterday in the cold rain. She did great and what an awesome vibe XC is! We had fun even if the weather was bad.

Now back to the tr! We woke up Friday morning to 2 teenagers!!! Happy 13th birthday girls! When planning this day they really wanted to go to MK and I warned them it was a party day and to get the most out of it we would need to be there at 7:30. We had breakfast in the villa and I got on the Lyft app to call for a handicap mini van luckily there was one right there. WE hustled down to the lobby and Gary was our driver. Fun fact he brought us to MK last year! He’s a great guy and what all Disney employees should be. After a great ride to MK. Fun fact about Minnie vans as we left the BW it was playing boardwalk themed music and that music changed as we got closer to MK same with when we went to AK the day before.

When they say there is no one at MK rope drop on a party day believe it. We breezed right into the park. Sashayed down Main Street. Biggest disappointment since it was 7:30 there were no photo pass photographers I made a mental note we needed a family photo later. I should have just asked someone to do it on my phone but always feel weird. The other things that’s annoying about this early entry is we needed to walk all the way through tomorrow land even though our goal was fantasy land.

We headed to fantasy land and dd1 was a bit of grump it was early she was having some other issues and I was really worried how the day would go but then we say these 2!

Sorry for the edits trying to respect the girls and being on social medias. This was at 7:37 and if you have read any of my other TRs DD1 is a huge Rapunzel and Flynn fan.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

Rapunzel and Flynn spent so much time with us it was very nice and the perfect birthday treat. Going into the day I did book MP and SP for 7 dwarfs and Tron. Cost for 4 of us was 251.40. The plans were

8:15-Pooh
10- Pirates
11- Tianas

I had big plans for this day to keep us from criss crossing the park multiple times. Let’s see how that works out lol. The best laid plans. We then ran into these royal couple.

I seriously loved the characters roaming! I wish DIsney had done this when the girls were small. Tiana and Prince Naveen spent time with us and we got photos too. Hook and Smee were out. We then rode Peter Pan it was a walk on. We have not rode it since they were 4 as they were scared of it and have never wanted to go back lol. The cue was so adorable I loved the shadow. I don’t think we have ever seen this. Them we walked on the carousel because why not. Then we did the tea cups. Tapped into Pooh and I was able to get Jungle cruise for 9. My Plan was working or so I thought. Then we walked on speedway my kids love this ride I secretly hate it.

Then we decided to do the barnstormer the girls were so funny they go I remember that being a bigger better roller coaster. I said well it was when you were 5. Then we did dumbo so sad we were all in our own elephants. How cute are those dumbo pumpkin decorations. We then used the bathrooms here which are really nice. I asked if anyone wanted a snack everyone was good. We then tapped into jungle cruise our favorite. I got an immediate LL for haunted mansion. We got off jungle and somewhere this trip DH had gotten into pin trading. Which this trip was the best we’ve ever seen pretty much every CM had a pouch with pins on it. So we get off the ride and there are CMs with a board and he was specifically getting/looking for the safety pins with characters on it. Well lo and behold this board had a Pinocchio one! Well lo and behold we forgot our pins in the villa! DH asked where the closest place was to buy pins and this lovely CM was like no worries Happy Birthday girls and gave it to DH! SO very Sweet.

We then headed to HM skipping the stretch room. We came out and I was like oh dear it looks really rough weather wise. We headed back towards pirates and rode the magic carpets. Then it was 10:30 and Dole whip was open! The CM here had pins in a pineapple to trade loved it!!!!

I know this is not the OG but in my opinion it is sooooo much better. The coconut and POG juice plus that cake pop chefs kiss. DD 2 got just a cup of vanilla pineapple twist it is dairy free. DD1 and DH split this yummy cake and dole. Both wished they had gotten their own.


I know people complain about Disney prices but to be fair this cost the same as if we were to go to our local ice cream place and honestly it was better. Now here is where the day started to derail!

 

[KGmomoftwins]

I forgot to mention in the previous post these plans as well.

11:30 SP for seven dwarfs
12:35 lunch CRT
3 SP Tron
Also after we tapped into HM I was able to snag a space mountain for 3pm. I left off we were enjoying our dole treats under the exit of the tiki room where there are seats under cover thank goodness because it was torrential down pouring.

Back in 2017 I had bought ponchos at Walmart and we have NEVER had to use them. DH took them out and was worried as some were adult sized and some kid sized. They were perfect fits mine went to my calf and girls to their knees. I have brought them with us every trip and never needed them. Also big shoutout to DD1 as we were leaving the car at the airport I handed her my little tote umbrella and she carried it with her the entire trip. It came in handy today and Epcot.Our time was almost up for pirate and DH said let’s go the rain had lightened up. We mad the dash! I forgot if you are on an ECV pirates does not let you bring it in line. Luckily there was one spot left under cover. He took the key and just in case covered in with the rain cover from the scooter rental place. They did ask DH if he wanted a wheel chair but he walked. It was not to far. I love pirates mostly because of my childhood memories with my parents. One of these times I’m going to look up where the camera is! Our picture is always hysterical. After we tapped into I got an immediate return for small world much to my families dismay.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

After pirates we retrieved DH ECV. The girls tried to talk us into some fun pirate merch but we stayed strong. We headed in a sprinkle to small world DH said he could not do it. He veered off to hall of presidents. We tapped in and there was nothing else we could get except for the little mermaid ride so I grabbed that for 3:30. Small world was having some loading issues so we chatted with a CM and she gave us some really cool facts about the ride. Every 6 months different charity organizations come in and clean out the water of all the coins. I asked if they drained the water she said no they wear waders and the water here and at pirates is the SAME water from when the park opened. Ewwwww she said CMs flat out refuse to touch the water. The girls were laughing hysterically because when I went with my family my brother got in trouble for dipping his hand in the water and they’ve heard that story a bunch of times.

We finally got on and I always forget how long this ride is. This ride, Pooh, and pirates were the only rides my mom would ever go on and this is her favorite I snapped a few pics and sent them to her. One of these times I will get my parents to come.

We got out just as DH was scooting up. We used the tangle restrooms. We had about 30 mins before lunch and the weather still had not cleared up. We went to the store across from CRT and even though they are too old for BBB you are never too old for pixie dust.



She was the sweetest. DH also saw her pin pouch and him and the girls picked out some pins and bought them. He tried to give her one for her pouch explaining what had happened and she told him to hang onto them just in case another safety pin was found. We had to park DH Scooter out in the open I covered it with ponchos and the cover provided. Off to lunch.