It's a Small but Magical World - a Thanksgiving 2018 Trip Report

[mustinjourney]

I always forget how short this ride is :-D It was almost 5pm after we rode. Our next FP wasn’t until 5:40 so we had some time to burn. However, we needed to be on that ride RIGHT at 5:40 to make it to our dinner reservation on time (according to Touring Plans). I checked the app for wait times and didn’t see anything near us that we wanted to ride that had less than a 30 minute wait. DD4 fell asleep in the stroller almost immediately after the carousel, so we decided we would just hang out until the next FP. We found a table just past Splash Mountain and sat to chat, check our phones and people watch. I’m usually go-go-go at the parks, but it was nice to take a moment to rest.

At 5:40 we jumped in line for our next FP… the Jingle Cruise! Pat and I missed the Jungle Cruise on our last trip, and we had never been on the Jingle Cruise before. You’ll notice the theme for our first day of this trip was doing all things we had missed the year before or had never done before.

As an FYI -- you can actually scan into your FP 5 mins BEFORE the time opens and up to 15 mins AFTER it expires. Only issue is if you have an anytime FP on your account, it will use that one if outside of the actual window.

I didn’t catch what exactly caused it, but it sounded like some kind of back-up had occurred, which was making those of us with Fast Passes wait longer than normal.

Likely issue was a few ECVs in a row. Those things will gum up the system.

We showed up at 6:30 for our 6:50 reservation, but didn’t get sat until closer to 7:00.

Not surprising. The one time we ate there (a year ago), we got there 10 mins early and didn't get seated for another 20 mins. And it was relatively empty during lunch when we went. Go figure.

This was the best picture I could get of the girls in their Thanksgiving outfits.

You had two outfits for one day?

It turned out one of the families is from the same large city as us, just a different suburb.

Which suburb were they from? And yourself?

 

[jrmint427]

As an FYI -- you can actually scan into your FP 5 mins BEFORE the time opens and up to 15 mins AFTER it expires.

We eventually figured this out later in the trip! I never tested the 15 minutes after but we did start scanning 5 min before a few times.

And it was relatively empty during lunch when we went.

I noticed a number of empty tables too! Capacity must have been based on the serving staff.

You had two outfits for one day?

Three

 

[mustinjourney]

We eventually figured this out later in the trip! I never tested the 15 minutes after but we did start scanning 5 min before a few times.



I noticed a number of empty tables too! Capacity must have been based on the serving staff.



Three

That’s a lot of luggage!

 

[jrmint427]

Thanksgiving Evening

We thought we would stay for fireworks this evening. What better way to end Thanksgiving, right? We finished eating around 8:30pm so we still had an hour and a half to keep busy.

My husband really wanted to go to the Hall of Presidents. He’s interested in the history and likes seeing the artifacts around the room you wait in before the show.



I love this bust of Walt Disney.



We got there at 8:35 for the 9:00 show. Shortly before the theater opened up, DD4 announced she had to go to the bathroom. Did you know there are no public bathrooms in Liberty Square? We had to walk back near the Country Bears to find a bathroom, and then rushed back.

The movie on the history of the presidency was better than I remembered. Even DD4 seemed really engaged and asked a lot of questions during the show.

We had a FP for It’s a Small World next. It was around 9:30pm when we got in line. I knew we had to visit this one on our first day, so I was glad we could fit it in. The girls LOVED it. I know this is a blurry picture, but you can see how happy the 4 year old was. Makes everything worth it!



I’ll spare you pictures from the ride because they didn’t come out great, but I always love going on this ride once for the nostalgia factor if nothing else. However, with a 2 and 4 year old, you won’t be surprised to hear we ended up on this one a few more times. My daughter loved seeing her name at the end of the ride!

It was about 9:50 when we got off the ride. I wanted to rush to the front of the castle to see the fireworks, but DD4 got really concerned. She did not want to see the fireworks. So sadly, we decided to head toward the exit. We didn’t want to torture her, and agreed that it might be nice to get out before the crowds so we could get home sooner. I was sad, but did get to see some fireworks from a distance since they started as we were walking out.

If you’re not staying for the fireworks, instead of walking down Main Street, they direct you down a street that runs parallel. I don’t know if this is typically considered backstage?

We continued to see some fireworks as we got on the ferry boat back to the TTC. Despite leaving the park just after 10pm, by the time we got to the TTC and took the tram to our car, it was already 10:45pm. It only took about 20 minutes to get back to the condo where we were staying, but we were already tired and had an early morning ahead of us.

Steps: 14,096
Miles: 5.0

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Next we headed to the carousel. There is a carousel at our zoo back home, but both girls were asking to ride THIS carousel. It was about a 20 minute wait, but they really wanted to ride it, so we jumped in line. It was a hit!

It's funny how fun the carousel is! It is just more magical in Disney! It was our very first ride on our first trip! So, it will always be special to us.

Despite having a FP, we waited in line almost 20 minutes.

The Jungle Cruise seems to have this issue a lot. On our last 2 trips we got fastpasses and both times I think the standby line might have been faster than the fastpass line! Not sure I will get a JC fastpass again.

The girls were in a goofy-tired mood at this point. Does anyone else have kids who get kind of hyper when they’re overtired?

STILL!!!! At 10 and 8 they still do this. It is less physical now but they will still talk endlessly to keep from falling asleep or fidget.

My MIL and I split the curried vegetable stew. I had this last year and was excited to order it again. It was just as good as I remembered! We told them we were splitting and they were very nice to bring two plates with the bread already cut in half. The picture below is a half serving, so it was the perfect size for us to split, especially after the soup appetizer.

I love when restruarants will do this for you. That does look good!

I nibbled on this too, it was really good! I think I might have even liked this better than the Kungaloosh.

Seriously, this dessert is why my girls request coming here. It is so cute! And tastes good.

We got there at 8:35 for the 9:00 show. Shortly before the theater opened up, DD4 announced she had to go to the bathroom. Did you know there are no public bathrooms in Liberty Square? We had to walk back near the Country Bears to find a bathroom, and then rushed back.

I did! Do you know why? Because there wouldn't be bathrooms in that time period. Technically the bathrooms inside of Columbia Harbor House are so far back, that they aren't in "Liberty Square" so, they could have them... Or at least that is what I read.

The movie on the history of the presidency was better than I remembered. Even DD4 seemed really engaged and asked a lot of questions during the show.

I think they re-did the movie during the refurb.

However, with a 2 and 4 year old, you won’t be surprised to hear we ended up on this one a few more times. My daughter loved seeing her name at the end of the ride!

We still love It's a small World!

 

[jrmint427]

The Jungle Cruise seems to have this issue a lot. On our last 2 trips we got fastpasses and both times I think the standby line might have been faster than the fastpass line! Not sure I will get a JC fastpass again.

That's good to know, I might skip the FP on it next time too. I definitely want to take a ride in the day time next time we go!

I did! Do you know why? Because there wouldn't be bathrooms in that time period. Technically the bathrooms inside of Columbia Harbor House are so far back, that they aren't in "Liberty Square" so, they could have them... Or at least that is what I read.

I did read about that! It came back to me as I was searching for a bathroom with DD4... and thinking to myself that it's silly to pick that one way to be true to the time period when you have little kids who can't wait long to make it to a bathroom

I think they re-did the movie during the refurb.

I was wondering if they did! It was different from what I remembered but it was also 5-6 years ago last time we saw the movie.

 

[jrmint427]

Animal Kingdom – November 23, 2018

We left the condo around 8:20am and were in the park at 9:10am. I tracked and am sharing the times because I feel like transportation around Disney World always takes longer than I expect it to, and it helps for planning future trips. We parked at 8:50am, but taking the tram and getting through security and ticketing took 20 minutes. Here was the line waiting to get into the parking lot:



Our first stop was for coffee. Creature Comforts is my absolute favorite Starbucks. We ordered food (egg sandwiches, a scone and bananas) and coffee. Despite not being on the dining plan, we all went for venti coffees because we needed the caffeine to fuel us this day. We ate quickly just outside of the Starbucks and then decided to go to the Lion King show.

This was part of my “plan” to be more flexible (yes, I have to plan for flexibility) – our first FP was at 10:00am because I didn’t want us to feel rushed in the morning, and this meant we could decide on the spot to see the Lion King, even though we had a FP for it the next week. This is one of my favorite shows of all the parks so I was glad everyone wanted to see it twice.

My MIL and I were wearing Lion King themed earrings that I made for us for the trip. She was wearing Timon and I was wearing Pumba.



We got in the standby line around 9:45. DD4 picked up this Fortnite dance from a friend at school. We think it’s called Best Mates? She cracks me up!



We got decent seats. These seats were better than where we ended up with a FP for the show! We were in the Lion section, right on the end of a row next to the Warthog section.



I love taking pictures and videos of the shows, but since I knew we would see this one again, I tried to just enjoy watching our first time around. At one point the tumbler monkeys came up in the stands and pretending to be picking at our family. I thought it was hilarious but DD4 said she didn’t want them doing that again!

We were cutting it close after the show, but we had a 10am FP to meet Mickey and Minnie. We got there 10 minutes before the end of our window and had just one family in line ahead of us in the FP line. I love that they have pictures of Mickey and Minnie’s adventures together in the room where you wait.



I had picked the girls’ dresses to go with what I thought would be Mickey and Minnie in their safari outfits. So it was a surprise to see them in their Christmas sweaters! But I loved their Christmas outfits. This Mickey and Minnie were great!



They were wonderful about trying to pull the girls out of their shells and spent a lot of time with each family. The girls didn’t want to give hugs or get pictures on their own, but they were both up for high fives!





And fist bumps!



I love this picture of Mickey playing peek-a-boo with DD2.



She might look unsure in the picture but he definitely had her smiling. Up next we headed off for a travel adventure of our own!

 

[Cloe Colton]

The girls' Thanksgiving dresses were definitely on theme! Too cute!

I still need to try out both Casey's and Skipper's Canteen. Skipper's Canteen looked so good!

Love the Timon earrings!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I did read about that! It came back to me as I was searching for a bathroom with DD4... and thinking to myself that it's silly to pick that one way to be true to the time period when you have little kids who can't wait long to make it to a bathroom

I feel that way about France in EPCOT. The bathrooms seem very far away from France...

. I tracked and am sharing the times because I feel like transportation around Disney World always takes longer than I expect it to, and it helps for planning future trips. We parked at 8:50am, but taking the tram and getting through security and ticketing took 20 minutes. Here was the line waiting to get into the parking lot:

I feel like this too! Time is all wonky in Disney. Sometimes I think something is taking forever, but then I look at our time stamps and it really wasn't that long. Or vice versa.

She might look unsure in the picture but he definitely had her smiling. Up next we headed off for a travel adventure of our own!

You can tell that Mickey is trying hard! I love it.

 

[jrmint427]

The girls' Thanksgiving dresses were definitely on theme! Too cute!

I still need to try out both Casey's and Skipper's Canteen. Skipper's Canteen looked so good!

Love the Timon earrings!

Thank you!! Yes, both Skipper's Canteen and Casey's have become favorites of ours. We're planning to go to Skipper's for a third time next year, we love it so much!

I feel like this too! Time is all wonky in Disney. Sometimes I think something is taking forever, but then I look at our time stamps and it really wasn't that long. Or vice versa.

Oh definitely! I tried to track times on this last trip to help me be more realistic about planning next year. You want to leave plenty of time for travel between places, but I also hate waking us up too much earlier than needed.

You can tell that Mickey is trying hard! I love it.

Both Mickey and Minnie made a huge effort! It looked like our Photo Pass photographer was focused on Mickey, but their effort made me love this meet so much.

 

[jrmint427]

Kilimanjaro Safaris

We had an 11:00am FP for the Safaris, so we headed there next, making a few stops on our way. The drums were calling my girls!



I also tried to take advantage of the Photo Pass photographers when we saw them.



We got our first magic shot! The photographer told us to put our “paws” in the air. I don’t remember her telling us to look down, but I love that both girls are looking down in this picture.



The safari is one of my favorites. Okay maybe I say that about almost every ride and show… but I really love it. It’s fun that no two safaris are ever the same, so you never know what you will see. One fun tidbit we learned on this safari is that ostriches can grow up to 9 feet tall. Our guide joked that you can only imagine how scary they might be if they were able to fly!





I love how close the giraffes can get to the vehicles.



Quite a few animals were close to our car on this safari, but they were all on my husband’s side of the vehicle. I passed my camera (phone) over so he could get a few pictures for me.



I don’t remember seeing wildebeest so up close before.



The flamingo section always makes the best photos. I wish I could just hang out back here! I just read on someone else's trip report that their island is Mickey-shaped. This blew my mind! She is right - look at that. How have I never noticed that before after riding so many times?



The rhinos were showing off their backsides.



I could seriously ride this on repeat all day! But, we had more exploring to do.

 

[jrmint427]

Restaurantosaurus

I knew we wanted to do mobile ordering for this one, so we paused outside the safari to place our order, and then started walking toward Dinoland. I waited for our food to be ready while the rest of my family found a table. We ended up sharing a table with another small family. While waiting for our food, I was surprised by the number of people who didn't do mobile ordering and were standing in a long line!

My girls are snackers, so at most restaurants, I only order one kid’s meal for them to share. The kid’s meals at Restaurantosaurus come with these fun buckets and shovels. I didn’t think about my mistake of ordering just one kid’s meal until after they gave me my order, but knew we'd be in for a difficult afternoon of trying to make sure the girls shared it nicely.



So you can imagine just how grateful I was when an older girl at another table came by to ask if my girls wanted her bucket and shovel! It probably seems like a small thing, but she has no idea how much easier she made our lives that day. The girls indeed did want to play with the buckets in their stroller all day. You'll see them pop up in later pictures!

Pat and my MIL ordered cheeseburgers with fries. There is a decent topping bar for the burgers here.



I really like the vegetarian burger here. It’s a black bean burger with an avocado spread. I had this last year and while it’s not the best veggie burger I’ve ever had, liked it enough to want one again this year.



It was a nice meal but that place was crowded! After we finished eating, it was time for our third Fast Pass of the day, so we headed off to Pandora.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

So you can imagine just how grateful I was when an older girl at another table came by to ask if my girls wanted her bucket and shovel!

That is so sweet! I try to get my girls to do these kinds of things as they get older. I find it so so sweet.

 

[Bama Mom]

Just now joining in. For the record, I don't like dole whips at all. I love pineapples, but just do not like the whips.

 

[jrmint427]

Na’vi River Journey

We had a 1:05pm FP for Na’vi River Journey, so we headed to Pandora after lunch.

We stopped for a Photo Pass photographer at the entrance to Pandora. There was one family ahead of us, but while we were waiting, a mom and her daughter literally just jumped in line ahead of us. I really do try to give people the benefit of the doubt that maybe they don’t realize there is a line, but this was maybe the third time someone had cut in front of us this day, so I was starting to get annoyed. When the photographer turned back around, I think he knew we had been in line next and looked surprise to see the other people, so he asked, “Um, who was here first?” The mother and daughter jumped up for their turn like they didn’t hear the question, so we told him, “It’s fine, they can go first.”

I wanted to get a picture in front of this plant since I had heard a story about it on a podcast just before our trip. Apparently this plant is helping to detox the air in Pandora so that we humans can breathe while we are there. I think the girls were getting tired by this point! And yes, DD2 had kicked off her shoes in the stroller. It was nearly impossible to keep shoes on her.



As you can see, the bucket was a big hit!



When he finished taking family pictures, the photographer asked if my husband and I wanted a picture together. He said he guessed we weren’t getting too many of those, and I appreciated that he made us pause and get a picture just the two of us.



I was excited just to see Pandora again. The floating mountains are truly amazing.



As we approached the FP line for Na’vi River Journey, I noticed it looked pretty backed up. People were milling around but the line wasn’t moving, so I walked up further to see what was going on. There were Cast Members explaining that the ride was down due to technical difficulties, and they didn’t know when it would be back up. Bummer! The CM said we would be getting an anytime FP since the ride was down. We were standing in line while deciding what to do, and people kept bailing out of the line in front of us. Eventually a free FP did pop up in my email.

When it got to be just a few people ahead of us in line, I asked a Cast Member if she had any idea whether it was worth waiting for it to be back up or if she suggested we come back later. I really didn’t want to “waste” the FP on any other rides if we might get to ride NRJ later in the day. She quietly said that if the problem was what she thought it was, it might be just a 15-20 minute wait, but to not repeat that to others because they couldn’t make any guarantees. From what I could tell, she only told this to the first few parties in the FP line, and they seemed to be discouraging others from joining the line. We decided we would wait.

We chatted with the families ahead and behind us for a little bit, and in 25-30 minutes, the ride did open again, and we were able to walk right on!

I think I appreciated this ride even more since this was our second time riding it. I still don’t think it’s worth a long wait, but it’s a nice, quiet ride. We got stuck briefly in the room with the jellyfish-like things that float around you. All I could think was that there are much worse places you could get stuck! I actually enjoyed hanging out there for a few minutes.



I was most excited to see the animatronic na’vi at the end of the ride. I remembered she was amazing and was watching out for her. So I was surprised to see this screen with a video of that same na’vi instead of the na’vi herself.



It might be hard to tell from the picture, but the video screen was set back and felt strange to me. Maybe you can tell how small it really was better in this picture.



I immediately said something to my husband. I asked him if he remembered an animatronic na’vi being in that spot last time. He said no, he thought I was remembering it wrong. I knew I wasn’t crazy (right?!) but now I was questioning my memory, so as we got off the ride, I asked a CM if there used to be an animatronic figure at the end of this ride. She goes, “Oh, you noticed? Well that might have been the ‘technical difficulty’ we were having earlier.” I was sad I missed her, but at least they got the ride up and running again quickly.

After our ride, it was time to run back to Dinoland to try to make the 3pm showing of Finding Nemo. I realized we had just come from there for lunch, and this was poor planning on my part! But - more steps for the day!

 

[jrmint427]

Just now joining in. For the record, I don't like dole whips at all. I love pineapples, but just do not like the whips.

Welcome! Happy to have you here! It sounds like I'm not alone when it comes to the dole whips. I've always felt like there was such a hype around them! I also love pineapples too. I would eat a dole whip again but it's not something I'll seek out. I do want to try the orange version next time.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

When he finished taking family pictures, the photographer asked if my husband and I wanted a picture together. He said he guessed we weren’t getting too many of those, and I appreciated that he made us pause and get a picture just the two of us.

That was nice of the CM. We always forget to take pictures jsut hte two of us as well.

I was most excited to see the animatronic na’vi at the end of the ride. I remembered she was amazing and was watching out for her. So I was surprised to see this screen with a video of that same na’vi instead of the na’vi herself.

I was going to say, Did they get rid of the aniamatronic?!?!

I knew I wasn’t crazy (right?!) but now I was questioning my memory, so as we got off the ride, I asked a CM if there used to be an animatronic figure at the end of this ride. She goes, “Oh, you noticed? Well that might have been the ‘technical difficulty’ we were having earlier.” I was sad I missed her, but at least they got the ride up and running again quickly.

Yes, there def was one! And I think it is hilarous that they said Oh you noticed... Ummm yeah...

 

[jrmint427]

That was nice of the CM. We always forget to take pictures jsut hte two of us as well.

Yes, it was! We almost never do now that we have the girls, so I was impressed that he suggested it.

Yes, there def was one! And I think it is hilarous that they said Oh you noticed... Ummm yeah...

No kidding! I almost responded, "Well she is the whole reason we do this ride!" But I decided to be nice :-D But it's interesting, I'll bet people who hadn't read about or ridden it before (do those people really exist?!) probably didn't even notice anything was different. I just got really distracted at the end because I was watching for her and then I realized that the video screen was probably a replacement.

 

[jrmint427]

Finding Nemo, Expedition Everest & Bubbles

The standby line for Finding Nemo was already moving by the time we arrived. We ended up in the very back of the theater, but I was happy we made it in time. The only row behind us was for wheel chairs, and I kept hearing Cast Members kicking people out of that row, even after the show has started. I was surprised they did that after the show had started already, but it turned out to be a good thing because a few minutes into the show, a party with a wheel chair did show up.

I’m always amazed at how good the shows are at the parks. My daughters took “Finding Nemo” very seriously and kept asking where he was!



The girls were hungry after the show, so we got a Mickey pretzel with cheese dip and a frozen lemonade to share. We all love Mickey pretzels!



We were standing nearby this sign while we ate. I was laughing at it because I felt like it summed up our Disney experience so far – don’t try to get too much sleep!



We took turns riding Expedition Everest while the girls had their snacks. We used rider swap, which meant we all had to go to the line together to set up our magic bands. I got to ride this one twice, first with my MIL and then with Pat.

PIC W/JOYCE



I can’t pick one favorite ride, but I could pick 3, and Expedition Everest is one of them (Tower of Terror and Flight of Passage are the other two). I love being pulled backward by the yeti, and just the whole story line with this roller coaster. It starts out with a tame preview and then gets wild. It’s a little bumpy though, so I was feeling it after two rides!

It was hard to believe, but the sun was already close to setting at 4:30pm. I took this picture of the floats heading out to River of Lights. They closed the pedestrian bridge while this one passed but not the others; maybe because this one was carrying fireworks or something dangerous?



The girls had spent the entire first two days BEGGING for bubble wands. My MIL had already said that bubble wands would be a gift from her, so she asked if she could go ahead and get them now. The girls were both so excited!





Our plans had gone out the window at this point because we were over an hour or two behind our schedule and had missed a few things we said we wanted to do, but the girls had been asking to play at the “park” (what they call any play space with slides), so we decided to let them burn some energy at The Boneyard before dinner.

Over a year ago, my parents let DD2 go down the slide here on her own. It was her very first slide and she wasn’t a year old yet. She loved it but the video from that time was kind of funny because she was flailing a bit! Well, she had it down now and went in circles to go down over and over again.



DD4 wanted to explore the area, so I went up in the play structure with her.



We couldn’t stay too long because it was almost time to head to our dinner reservation!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

The standby line for Finding Nemo was already moving by the time we arrived. We ended up in the very back of the theater, but I was happy we made it in time.

We sat that far back on our last trip, and I think the seats are fine. I would like to be closer one time, but I never want to waste a fast pass on it.

We took turns riding Expedition Everest while the girls had their snacks. We used rider swap, which meant we all had to go to the line together to set up our magic bands. I got to ride this one twice, first with my MIL and then with Pat.

We do this too. Gwen doesn't like the Yeti, so she doesn't like going on it. Last time, I got myself an adult beverage to enjoy while waiting. They really need some benches in that area, there are so many people waiting around. We sat on rocks! ouch.

I can’t pick one favorite ride, but I could pick 3, and Expedition Everest is one of them (Tower of Terror and Flight of Passage are the other two). I love being pulled backward by the yeti, and just the whole story line with this roller coaster. It starts out with a tame preview and then gets wild. It’s a little bumpy though, so I was feeling it after two ride

Have you done Everest at night? We finally did this last trip, AMAZING!!!! even better. Go during the Rivers of Light show, the line drops way down.

The girls had spent the entire first two days BEGGING for bubble wands. My MIL had already said that bubble wands would be a gift from her, so she asked if she could go ahead and get them now. The girls were both so excited!

Oh bubble wands.... They give so much joy to kids. It is almost silly. Bring the bubble wand back with you next time and bring refills! We do that with Gwen and she is perfectly happy. That might change if they have different ones, but for now she is happy with her ariel one.

Look at those smiles! Why are bubbles so fun for kids?