It Only Gets Better From Here...Right?! WDW TR July 2025 update 9/15

[kclark9830]

 

[kclark9830]

Disney Springs Day

Ok, we're back! Or...I'm back, . Am I two people now?

Our day 2 was our Disney Springs day. It started off pretty well, and it did end HOT, lol, but it was all good!

We woke up and decided to take our time, with a goal of getting to the buses at around 10. We had to wait a few minutes for a bus but not too bad.

The bus was mostly full, surprisingly!

Does anyone else find Springs hard to navigate? I felt like we were always getting turned around.

Our first stop was the Lego Store. This was unfortunate for us, because we ended up buying a LOT and carrying it all day.







The line at this time of day was pretty short, so that was a plus . We did have fun browsing and considering. We thought about making the personalized Lego figures but decided against it.

After that, Ashlyn wanted to find the Crocs store, which we soon discovered wasn't there! We browsed the World of Disney and got some ideas for future home decor. Also, I looked at some Pandora charms...but I held off and got the necklace at Magic Kingdom a couple days later!



We checked out Pin Traders, Goofy's Candy Co, and several other shops. Then my sister called and said she was en route to Springs.








We had a plan to take the boat to Old Key West to eat at Olivia's. We were meeting my parents and my uncle and aunt, who love in Florida and had driven up for the day.

It was a hot boat ride! But Olivia's was delightful and filling. Not too heavy! And our server was so nice!





Spending time with my uncle and aunt was nice! We didn't take any pics though, I am now realizing.

Now we had a plan to go to my parents resort, Riverside, to swim. We didn't think through our plan though . We had to take the boat back to Springs then take the boat again to Riverside!

We jumped through those hoops, got to Riverside, changed into swim wear, got in the pool...and the lifeguard blew the whistle. Lightning in the area .

Well, at this point we said our goodbyes and hopped on a bus to Epcot then caught a bus to Sports. We could have Ubered, and probably should have! But it all worked out.

We ended up finishing our night out at the arcade . It was fun, and overall a good day!

We took this right outside our room at Sports. We were right by the surfs up section!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in!
How terrifying at the water park, yikes glad it worked out!
We have never done the water parks even with the free perk, Andi hates pools
She blames me, haha as a nurse I am a little of a germ aphobe and she is now as well!
DS has less of an appeal to me now for some reason, always very crowded! I mainly like the lounges and restaurants there not the shopping!

 

[kclark9830]

Joining in!
How terrifying at the water park, yikes glad it worked out!
We have never done the water parks even with the free perk, Andi hates pools
She blames me, haha as a nurse I am a little of a germ aphobe and she is now as well!
DS has less of an appeal to me now for some reason, always very crowded! I mainly like the lounges and restaurants there not the shopping!

Thanks for joining in! Yes, Disney Springs isn't my favorite either. It IS crowded.

 

[kclark9830]

Epcot Part #1

Epcot is my favorite, y'all!!! I was very excited for our Epcot day. Even still, we did NOT make this a rope drop day. We had rope dropped Animal Kingdom on Monday and then Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, and we'd done the fireworks dessert party Tuesday night. We got back to our resort Tuesday night around midnight, so...

We slept in on Wednesday just a tad and decided to head into Epcot around 10. I started the morning early as usual, though. I just can't help it .

I grabbed our refillable mugs and headed to the food court for coffee and hot chocolate. Nothing says Orlando in July like hot chocolate .

My family woke slowly, but we were all ready to go by around 9:40. On this morning, we did have to wait a bit for a bus. Maybe like 15 minutes? And it was already hot, so we pulled out the UV umbrella while we waited in line.

Finally, the bus pulled up. It was about half full, and we sat in the very back. While we drove, I glanced over at Ashlyn and just got all choked up with emotion. It hit me how grown she looked, and I realized how short my time left with her at home might be.

I nudged Micheal, and he snapped these pics for me.






At Epcot, we once again had Miles carry the umbrella through security. He was holding NOTHING else, only the umbrella, and he held it straight out in front of him.

Well, they called him over to the bag check line, along with 9,999 of our closest friends. We realized they were training new security staff, and they were sending almost everyone into the security check.

Well, that was super annoying to...everyone in line.

Even at that, it didn't take TOO terribly long, I guess.

Stop for a photo!




We had LL's for Soarin' and Living with the Land, so we headed straight for the Land Pavilion. Ashlyn wanted to ride LwtL first, so that's what we did. Next up, Soarin'! This is actually my favorite ride in ALL of WDW.

Even with LL's, the line was a bit of a wait. Miles loved occupying his time in line with the filters in the MDE app. Some of them were super funny.








As we finished up here, we got a call that the rest of our family had arrived. They were going to ride Soarin', so we went to eat at Sunshine Seasons.

It was pretty busy, but we did manage to find a table. Getting our food was hectic, but we had a great experience here.

In the flatbread/pizza area, I asked if we could get a custom made pizza for Ashlyn. She can't eat sauce, as she has really terrible acid reflux.

They called a chef out, and he didn't bat an eye, just assured me he'd make it happen. He did, and then they gave it to us for half price. He even walked us over to the CM at the check out just to make sure they rang it up the way he said!

I sent him a cast compliment. It really was a great experience!

We got a pistachio macaron, too, and oh my! It was so yummy!


(Not my photo...)


I will leave it there for now. When I come back, I'll jump back in to the next part of our Epcot day! We met Mickey, did the new Test Track, and also did Guardians! Stay tuned!!!

 

[rdkeim]

Enjoying your TR! Seems like despite the heat and crowds you're having a great trip!

 

[cassidy57]

I am looking forward to the next installment of your trip. Thanks for sharing!!!!

 

[kclark9830]

Enjoying your TR! Seems like despite the heat and crowds you're having a great trip!

Yes, we did! The heat was sweltering, but it didn't keep us down .

I am looking forward to the next installment of your trip. Thanks for sharing!!!!

Good to have you here!!!

 

[kclark9830]

Epcot Part 2

Picking up where we left off...we finished our lunch at Sunshine Seasons then headed out of the Land Pavilion because we had individual LL's for Guardians of the Galaxy, and multi pass LL's for Test Track.

But, not all of us wanted to ride Guardians, so most of our group headed that way and the rest of us headed toward Communicore Hall to meet Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto!

This was the first time we'd been in Epcot without walls in YEARS, and it sure was nice! Getting around was a breeze, LOL.

The line for meeting the characters was short. We waited for around 15 min in the outdoor que, then we were let inside and from there it was boom, boom, boom.



Meeting these characters was a great experience! Pluto was super fun, and "told" us through his CM how someone had been digging holes in his yard, but he didn't know who.

Miles was laughing up a storm, and it was really fun.



Then we moved on to Minnie, and she told me Mom how she liked her dress, and as silly as it sounds, that just made my mom beam. It was cute .



In the meantime, the rest of the group was zooming through the Galaxy in September...



Once we'd met the characters, we did some pin trading just outside. Miles was on a mission to find Marvel pins. I think he was unsuccessful here.

We made our way across Future World...or whatever it's called now . We ended up at the gift shop to wait for the rest of our group at Guardians. I actually think Miles DID find a pin to trade here.

Soon enough, our group came out. Micheal declared it the best ride ever (this was his first time riding it!). I, on the other hand, hate it and was glad I hadn't ridden it .

Next up was out MP LL for Test Track. It was a super short wait, and before we knew it we were loading up as a big family group into 2 ride cars.

I really like the updates...but I don't remember it being so jerky. It was kind of painful on the neck. Or maybe I'm getting old? No, can't be that. Haha!




At this point, my niece who is 14 was feeling dizzy and sick, after doing Guardians then TT right after. We gave her some Gatorade and bonine, and then we made the decision to split our group.

Me and my family were heading into World Showcase, and everyone else was staying in Future World...World Discovery? Is that what it's called. #toolazytogoogle

I will leave it there for now and leave you with a couple more of Miles's MDE filter selfies at Guardians.

 

[kclark9830]

Epcot Part 3

I'm back! Sorry for the long hiatus. School has started and it has been busy. I'm guessing many of you can relate.


But, I am happy to get back to reliving our trip! We last left off with our large family group splitting into separate ways. My family decided to head toward World Showcase. First up? Mexico!


We took the "back" path from Test Track and quickly made it to the pyramid. Just inside, Miles stopped to play with the interactive Coco game on the wall.



I'm not entirely sure what the point of that game was. When we got to the end, it told him to smile...but then it took screenshots rather than pictures. ???


Anyway, he enjoyed it.


We headed into the pyramid and took a ride with the Three Caballeros, then we browsed the shop and considered what to do next. It was nice to be in the air.


We decided we wanted to hang out until our Remy LL at 8:15PM, and it was only around 1PM. So, we had a lot of time to kill.


We headed to the Norway Pavilion next, where we stopped in the Little chapel thing with the Thor and Odin and Loki information. We'd never stopped in there before. Funny enough, Miles enjoyed reading all the info the most.


We had LL's for Frozen Ever After, so it was a short line.




It was a nice ride (I actually have always loved this ride ). Unfortunately, there was a sweet little family behind us that did not stop talking and reassuring their small children for the ENTIRE ride. I do understand. It was just kind of annoying, to be honest.


It didn't ruin the ride...but .


Anyway, when we came out and browsed the gift shop, Micheal declared that our next vacation was going to be an Alaskan cruise. That's yet to be decided, and I don't really know why he said it (well, the gift shop has waterproof jackets and stuff, so maybe that's why), but I'm all for that!

My kids went crazy when they saw the troll and had to have their pics with it, then they insisted we text the pic to their cousins.




Apparently, when we were eating at Olivia's Cafe earlier in the week, they saw pictures of this troll and all wondered where it was. (We've seen this troll lots of times, but I guess they'd forgotten ).


Next up was the China Pavilion. We first went to see the Reflections of China film, which we had somehow managed to never do before. I think we had hoped there would be seats, which I knew there weren't, but it was wishful thinking. There was air conditioning, though! And that was good.


Next up was browsing the shops, which is always fun in the China Pavilion. Our kids got nun chucks. Because of course they did.




We kind of breezed through the Germany Pavilion and then we got gelato in Italy. Y'all, this is probably not that interesting. But by this point is was SO HOT. We had cooling towels and we were downing ice water like crazy, but it was miserable.







After Italy, we also breezed through Japan and finally ended up at the American pavilion. We got more ice water, did some pin trading, then sat to watch Mariachi Cobre.


They were so good! I took a video...but I don't know how to share that .


We ended up inside the American Adventure for about an hour just for some A.C., and then we watched the show. It had been a couple of years, and our kids had never seen it. It was a big hit.


We wanted to check out France and the UK, then we grabbed some supper from Yorkshire County Fish Shop. It was yummy, as always.




Continued in next post because picture limit...

 

[kclark9830]

Continued from last post ...





At this point, we were less than an hour from our Remy LL's. We decided to find a shaded bench over in France and wait it out.


It was a pleasant wait. We watched the Skyliner go by, and we people watched.



At last, it was time .


Our LL's got us through quickly, but the ride ended up being...not so enjoyable. They loaded the four of us in a car, and Miles and Ashlyn wanted to sit together. Micheal and I sat behind them.


Then, at the last second, they sent to people from the single rider line to join us. We were already all locked in. They had to have the CM raise the bars in our rows.


Well, the two single riders were two individual full grown men. Ashlyn was super uncomfortable. So, I sat in her row, and the 2 random men sat with Micheal. It was weird and awkward all around, because of the switcheroo. Why did they wait until the last second like that to send single riders? If we had been lined up together we could have avoided all of that. But besides that, as if I want my teen daughter being sat beside some random grown man. I cannot deny that I think that is a terrible plan, Disney.


Besides that, the ride glitched constantly throughout our ride. It felt like a strange and disappointing letdown at the end of a very hot day.




We left World Showcase and decided to stop in and ride Spaceship Earth to get the bad taste out of our mouths. It was a good plan.




Our Epcot day had come to an end. Tomorrow would be our final park day, and it was Hollywood Studios. Stay tuned! And thank you to those of you who have read along!